4 ms·
The magic ingredient in concrete is cement and the magic ingredient in cement is limestone, so our cities are literally built out of bones. Sleep tight.
by 13of40 2y ago
The magic ingredient in concrete is cement and the magic ingredient in cement is limestone, so our cities are literally built out of bones. Sleep tight.
- outworlder 2y agoInteresting. Cities are built on death and suffering, literally and figuratively.
- dwaltrip 2y agoMuch (most?) of the entire biosphere of earth comes from billions of years of life forms killing and eating other life forms. The universe is a rough place. Beautiful in many ways, but quite gnarly.
- dotancohen 2y ago> The universe is a rough place. Beautiful in many ways, but quite gnarly. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid.
- vkou 2y agoUnless you're a primary producer (photosynthesize your own food, or something of the sort), all life is built on death and suffering. We eat what we kill.
- kragen 2y agoexcept, hooray for parasites and scavengers!
- abeppu 2y ago... in fairness, there's not really any particular reason to believe that the organisms which contributed to limestone suffered any more than their peers who didn't. And insofar as all the elements that are components of life exist in finite quantities which get recycled on earth, all life is built on death.
- kragen 2y agothis is a mistake i made for many years, so hopefully i can save someone else: bones and teeth are calcium phosphate, while corals and seashells and eggshells and limestone are calcium carbonate. that's why you can't dissolve teeth or chicken bones in vinegar. cement is made by calcining calcium carbonate (with silicates), not calcium phosphate mineral calcium phosphate (apatite) is broken down for fertilizer with sulfuric acid. it is not used for cement to my knowledge the phosphate and carbonate of calcium are not especially similar, not any more than the hydroxide and sulfate of sodium, or the sulfide and hydroxide of iron in summary, your cities are not literally built out of bones
- 13of40 2y agoValid point, but let's tease that apart: We're talking about seashells and coral, not the sort of bones you'd find in a mammal, but still the skeletal structures of animals. So maybe "skeletons" not "bones". Same difference.
- kragen 2y agotrue, your cities are literally built out of skeletons
- liuesnvica 2y ago[flagged]
- mr_toad 2y ago> so our cities are literally built out of bones. Sleep tight. They moved the cemetery but they left the bodies!