hydropticIt definitely *was* a good idea though
Someone give me some context
Alfred Nobel invented dynamite, for mining, by doing what the meme says (I don’t know what “fossilized algae” refers to, but it makes the nitro not go boom, when it really wants to boom).
After seeing what it was eventually used for (bombs. Lots and lots of bombs) he regretted ever making it.
He set up the Nobel Peace Prize as a result, to try and even the scales a bit, so to speak
bogduggI don’t know what “fossilized algae” refers to
Looked it up:
Nobel found that when nitroglycerin was incorporated in an absorbent inert substance like kieselguhr (diatomaceous earth) it became safer and more convenient to handle, and this mixture he patented in 1867 as “dynamite”.
Diatomaceous earth consists of the fossilized remains of diatoms, a type of hard-shelled microalgae.
Ooh. Diatomaceous earth is also the best safest healthiest most humane method of fending off bed bugs.
I’m all for being humane but I would stab a bed bug with a pin and yell “die, fucker”. Same goes for mosquitos, ticks and fleas.
Isn’t diotemacious earth cancer causing if you breath it in?
Fortunately, diacontagious (or however you spell it) earth is not very “humane”. It cuts their wax layer as they crawl through it, leaving just enough of a gap that they can’t contain moisture, and they dehydrate / mummify to death.
This fun fact brought me much comfort while I lied in bed, slapping every itch and wincing at every breeze.
DE is abrasive, and that does help, but the main reason it works is because it is a desiccant, so like a silica packet it dehydrates the insect.