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My suspicion is they're benign and that this is a well-known phenomena, or rare, but it upsets people concerned about the idea of "un-natural" or "synthetic" things making their way in their food source.

Actually it seems this has been an area of study for a few years now:

http://system.suny.edu/system-...
Microplastics affect different aspects of the environment. They can affect fish, birds and other wildlife who may ingest the plastics, causing internal blockage, dehydration and death in these species.

Microplastics can also transport other pollutants. They absorb pollutants already in the water, such as DDT, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). When ingested by wildlife or humans (either directly or indirectly), these plastics contain high concentrations of these dangerous toxins which can become even more concentrated and dangerous as they bioaccumulate in the food chain.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...
Public health impact of plastics: An overview
2011 Sep-Dec

I guess microplastic fibers are different than microplastic beads, and maybe definitive, specific studies haven't been published yet. But, logic would say they probably have the same ill effects. I do agree I'd wait for the studies before passing laws. But nothing wrong with have a product ready to solve the problem.

Serious question.. How? What about small plastic fibers is a problem as they go though my digestive tract?

http://system.suny.edu/system-...
Microplastics affect different aspects of the environment. They can affect fish, birds and other wildlife who may ingest the plastics, causing internal blockage, dehydration and death in these species.

Microplastics can also transport other pollutants. They absorb pollutants already in the water, such as DDT, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). When ingested by wildlife or humans (either directly or indirectly), these plastics contain high concentrations of these dangerous toxins which can become even more concentrated and dangerous as they bioaccumulate in the food chain.

http://digitalcommons.salve.ed...
Some consequences of micro plastic ingestion that have been found in fish include reduced reproductive ability,
decreased feeding ability, abnormal behavior and death.25

Still possible to work your way through school in NYS... source.

We may have some of the highest taxes in the country but things like this is what it goes towards. There's also the Tuition Assistance Program (additional financial aid) and things like the Education Opportunity Program for students of low income households.

It can be made even cheaper by living at home (subtract room and board cost). Hopefully home is near a city (not necessarily *the* city, there's SUNYs everywhere). If not, that's simply the tradeoff of living in the middle of nowhere.

If you're not living at home, the "keeping gas in the tank" argument disappears - who says you need a car? That's several thousand a year going to what, exactly? You're not living at home so no excuse - you can select your state school and residence based on public transit requirements. Minimum wage jobs tend to also line public transit corridors. Many state schools offer public transit discounts for the regions they are in (or even flat out free transit).

Basically, if you are a resident of NY and cannot afford to go to college, it's most likely your own fault - do some research and be willing to adjust your lifestyle habits. If your home state is a lot less helpful, well, that's your lower tax rate in action.

Dont know where you get your numbers from.

USA Today: In 2009-10, average published tuition and fees for in-state students at public flagship universities in the U.S. are $8,353, compared to $7,797 at all public doctorate-granting universities and $7,020 at all public four-year institutions:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-10-20-college-costs_N.htm

Annual in-state commuter student tuition at state schools in my area

Delaware - about 11,500. http://www.udel.edu/admissions/finance/
NJ Rutgers - $12,755. http://admissions.rutgers.edu/Costs/TuitionAndFees.aspx
NY SUNY - $14,750. http://www.suny.edu/student/paying_tuition.cfm
Pennsylvania - 15,000 - 17,500. http://tuition.psu.edu/tuitiondynamic/rates.aspx?location=up

Oh, kids these days just don't troll like they used to. How about we get some facts in here, instead?

There is no standard directory separator:

/ is UNIX and derivative OSes since the beginning of subdirectories
: was the separator on MacOS from the 1980s until MacOS/X
\ is DOS and Windows, from the 1980s
VMS was this massive mess: http://www.itec.suny.edu/scsys/vms/ovmsdoc073/V73/6489/6489pro_010.html
(Were there others?)

Also, if you lose your Registry... wow. Never seen that happen in 16 years of working in IT. I think the last time I heard of that was when someone's hard drive started going bad, and they were running Windows 95, and had never backed up anything in their lives. Why wouldn't anyone back up their hard drive regularly, anyway? Some people must like the pain of reinstalling everything and starting from scratch... Mac / UN*X users are not exempt from this requirement either.

This is just a passing thought:

If you blocked the light of the sun, but had a way to filter it by frequencies, then perhaps you could allow in light on the wavelengths that plants like, but block out other wavelengths. After all, the wavelengths for photosynthesis happen at ~400-500nm then at 600-700nm. You can block out 500-600, plus 700. You might even be able to tighten that up a bit.

Details on photosynthesis:
http://faculty.clintoncc.suny.edu/faculty/Michael. Gregory/files/Bio%20101/Bio%20101%20Lectures/Photo synthesis/photosyn.htm

Let's go back to biology, shall we?

Photosynthesis varies relative to visible wavelengths. In general though, it takes a nose dive around 650 nm (wavelength). Heat though doesn't come from the visible spectrum, it's in the infrared. That's between 750 and 1000 nm.

I was 100% serious about FIT. I have a degree from FIT. They're the only school where, for example, the libray has a Mac-equipped computer lab with more Macintoshes than PCs.

Let me guess! You go to the Fashion Institute of Technology? That's the only school I've ever seen where all the guys carry Macs!

Actually, I seem to recall that the way that hypotheses operate is by being proven wrong. Empirical evidence can stack up for years in favor of a hypothesis, but a single test that shows it doesn't work under one of the given conditions disproves it.

I will refer you to this site, which has a handy breakdown of the scientific method for you. Note in particular the bit that says "Experiments are useful in disproving hypotheses. Hypotheses cannot be proved."

The God argument is a problem for scientists *precisely* because it's not disprovable. (Note that that does not mean it's true by default, it means that there is no way to test whether or not it is true.)