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The Pacific Ocean Is Polluted With Coffee

An anonymous reader writes in with this excerpt from Inhabitat:"People aren't the only ones getting a jolt from caffeine these days; in a new study published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, scientists found elevated concentrations of caffeine in the Pacific Ocean in areas off the coast of Oregon. With all those coffee drinkers in the Pacific Northwest, it should be no surprise that human waste containing caffeine would ultimately make its way through municipal water systems and out to sea – but how will the presence of caffeine in our oceans affect human health and natural ecosystems?"

294 comments

  1. Bet Ya by hardburlyboogerman · · Score: 2

    if you check closelyy enough,most other waterways are,too

    --
    Geek Hillbilly
    1. Re:Bet Ya by msauve · · Score: 5, Funny

      Caffeine in the water? This should be a wake up call!

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    2. Re:Bet Ya by klingers48 · · Score: 4, Funny

      The worst we'll probably see is mackerel that can outrun fishing trawlers.

      Good for them I say.

    3. Re:Bet Ya by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i don't think that brown color in the water is coffee... smell and have another guess

    4. Re:Bet Ya by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah there is so much piss in the pasific that there is hardly any water left.

    5. Re:Bet Ya by AchilleTalon · · Score: 4, Funny

      Imagine now, how nervous are these sharks with lasers.

      --
      Achille Talon
      Hop!
    6. Re:Bet Ya by f3rret · · Score: 4, Funny

      Imagine now, how nervous are these sharks with lasers.

      Stop it. Now.

      --
      Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
    7. Re:Bet Ya by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Caffeine in the water? This should be a wake up call!

      I don't know, sounds like a joe-job to me.

    8. Re:Bet Ya by jheywood · · Score: 1

      Frickin' LASERS!

      --
      Madness takes its toll... ...Please have exact change ready...
  2. Caffeinated Fish by Mawen · · Score: 2

    The fishies will be swimming stupidly faster with more energy!

    1. Re:Caffeinated Fish by MrKevvy · · Score: 1

      "School of fish" is no longer just a collective noun.

      --
      -- Insert witty one-liner here. --
    2. Re:Caffeinated Fish by camperslo · · Score: 5, Funny

      So that's why the dolphins are talking so fast. I can't even understand them.

      Maybe the caffeine is getting some extra kick from some Japanese cesium.

    3. Re:Caffeinated Fish by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, now the schools of fish will be able to properly cram for mid-terms.

  3. polluted is a bad word by deodiaus2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    More like "engergized"?
    What do you think we caffeine drinkers should call ourselves?

    1. Re:polluted is a bad word by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Junkies.

    2. Re:polluted is a bad word by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really - this is like saying "The Pacific Ocean is Polluted with Salt". Of course, if called pollution, the implication is that, it must be "man-made" ocean salting!

    3. Re:polluted is a bad word by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      More like "engergized"?

      It's got what fish crave.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    4. Re:polluted is a bad word by f3rret · · Score: 1

      Junkies.

      Pretty much spot on. I loves me some caffeine.

      --
      Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
    5. Re:polluted is a bad word by Wansu · · Score: 1

      Gotta have more of that caffiene
      Sweet little nectar from the coffee bean

      --
      Wansu, th' chinese sailor
    6. Re:polluted is a bad word by Quakeulf · · Score: 1

      Who cares, they'll just keep going... going... going...

  4. Mmmmmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Caffeinated sushi. *drool*

    1. Re:Mmmmmmm by Penurious+Penguin · · Score: 0

      Yeah, I'd spend a mod-point on that. pretty damned funny

      --
      Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
    2. Re:Mmmmmmm by Ramin_HAL9001 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Caffeinated bacon?
      Baconated grapefruit?
      "Admiral" Crunch?

    3. Re:Mmmmmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Caffeinated bacon.

    4. Re:Mmmmmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I knew him when he was still Master Chief Petty Officer Crunch.

    5. Re:Mmmmmmm by jamstar7 · · Score: 1

      Now if we can just genetically modify the fish to impart a slight bacon taste...

      --
      Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
  5. Amounts by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Neither the summary nor the linked article said the amounts, but they are listed in the original paper. In the ocean, they found 44.7 ng/L. "Caffeine concentrations in rivers and estuaries draining to the coast measured up to 152.2 ng/L." For those who like their numbers in ppm, I believe that's .0447 ppm and .1522 ppm, respectively. Sometimes I fail at math, though.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:Amounts by NFN_NLN · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In the ocean, they found 44.7 ng/L. "Caffeine concentrations in rivers and estuaries draining to the coast measured up to 152.2 ng/L." For those who like their numbers in ppm, I believe that's .0447 ppm and .1522 ppm, respectively. Sometimes I fail at math, though.

      Serious question: Caffeine is a naturally occurring substance... were they expecting 0g / L?
      What is the natural amount of ocean water caffeine; otherwise it is hard to judge the extent of the impact.

    2. Re:Amounts by Namarrgon · · Score: 4, Informative

      By comparison, an average cup of coffee contains roughly 100mg, or a concentration of 400,000,000 ng/L.

      --
      Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
    3. Re:Amounts by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Good question, I couldn't find the answer in the abstract. Maybe you'd like to purchase the full paper and let us know? :)

      The water coming out of the rivers is significantly higher in caffeine levels though, which would indicate that something on the land is adding caffeine to the ocean. This study didn't estimate the amount that was coming from various sources, that requires further study.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    4. Re:Amounts by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Also, someone should mention, in answer to the question, "how will the presence of caffeine in our oceans affect human health and natural ecosystems?" It won't, caffeine levels at .1522ppm are unlikely to affect the ecosystem in any way, it is such a small concentration. Betteridge's law still stands.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    5. Re:Amounts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm afraid you do fail at the math - you forgot to take into account that there are 1000g in 1L of water.

      It is actually 44.7 and 152 ppt (parts per trillion), or 0.0000447 and 0.000152 ppm.

      These days you can detect absurdly small traces of things, so you can find anything in anything.

    6. Re:Amounts by NixieBunny · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I believe that you're off by a factor of a thousand. A liter is a kilogram of water, so a nanogram per liter is one part per trillion, or million million as the Brits like to say.

      One hundred parts per trillion is rather difficult to measure, but these folks have found a way to do it.

      The question is: will a concentration that low have any effect on sea life?

      --
      The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
    7. Re:Amounts by sFurbo · · Score: 2
      From TFA:

      Caffeine concentrations in nanopure water (blank) were 2.5 ng/L (SD = 2.0 ng/L). The reporting limit for caffeine was adjusted to account for blank detection. The adjusted reporting limit was determined by adding three times the standard deviation to the mean blank caffeine concentration (8.5 ng/L)[...]Coastal ocean samples from Coos Bay/North Bend and Astoria/Warrenton, two of the most populated areas on the Oregon Coast, both had caffeine concentrations below the reporting limit.

      So they did find ocean water with a concentration below the limit of detection.

    8. Re:Amounts by buchner.johannes · · Score: 2

      Article says it's 2 ng/L in the North Sea. Where is the North Sea? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea

      Highlights: Caffeine was detected in Oregon coastal ocean waters measuring up to 44.7 ng/L. Caffeine concentration did not correspond with human population density and pollution sources. Caffeine concentrations corresponded with storm event occurrence. Caffeine concentrations in rivers and estuaries draining to the coast measured up to 152.2 ng/L.

      --
      NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
    9. Re:Amounts by sFurbo · · Score: 2

      Argh, I forgot: You never find 0 in analytical chemistry. You determine your limit of detection (the mean value in the blanks plus three times the standard deviation of the value in the blanks), which is the signal where you can confidently state the the compound is present.

    10. Re:Amounts by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

      Please reframe your numbers using some useful metric - something like Filet-O-Fish/day.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    11. Re:Amounts by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 1

      So in fact the summary is completely nonsensical?

      How could this happen on /. of all places?

    12. Re:Amounts by jkflying · · Score: 5, Informative

      The paper lists the North Sea as having between 2 and 16 ng/L. Mediterranean was below 5, Hawaii below 10. Guanabara Bay (Rio) was between 137 and 147. Halifax, Pictou, and Cocagne watersheds (Canada) was between 0 and 1400. Jamaica Bay, NY ranged from 0 - 5000 ng/L. So this is actually pretty low compared to what has been measured in other places, but obviously higher than than plain, untouched seawater.

      --
      Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
    13. Re:Amounts by Namarrgon · · Score: 5, Funny

      That would be equivalent to 0.00277 fully-loaded 747s per Olympic swimming pool.

      --
      Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
    14. Re:Amounts by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      The paper lists the North Sea as having between 2 and 16 ng/L.

      Really? Are you sure? Because the abstract reports 8.5 ng/L as the lowest concentration they can detect.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    15. Re:Amounts by Havenwar · · Score: 1

      Of course the idea is that most of this actually doesn't get pissed away... Otherwise we wouldn't have a reason to drink it in the first place.

      Good to know though, my daily dose of painkillers brings me to three average cups of coffee, in addition to the zero I usually drink. The next time my doctor asks me if I drink coffee I'll have to consider my answer.

      Which is also a good reminder that coffee is far from the only source of caffeine these days. Energy drinks, tea, painkillers, hell some kids even eat caffeine pills to help with studying.

    16. Re:Amounts by jkflying · · Score: 5, Informative

      Hey, I'm just quoting the paper. These amounts are referenced from other papers, which may have been using different techniques for measuring the concentrations.
      Here's the North Sea one: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021967301005295
      Here's the Mediterranean: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es020125z
      Here's Hawaii: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X10001839

      --
      Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
    17. Re:Amounts by Lord+Maud'Dib · · Score: 1

      Yes, and Limit of Quantification (LOQ) is 10 times SD. In the range quoted they'd have RSD's on the order of 20-30% (according to Horwitz Horn).

    18. Re:Amounts by jkflying · · Score: 3, Informative

      Sorry, there were 2 North Sea references from the same research group, that was the earlier one, here is the later one:
      http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969702000645

      --
      Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
    19. Re:Amounts by Ocker3 · · Score: 1

      now There's a useful metric!

    20. Re:Amounts by sFurbo · · Score: 1

      Shouldn't limit of quantification be the blank + 10*SD(lowest standard)? It is relating to the quantification, not the detection, so the SD of the blank should not be important.

    21. Re:Amounts by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

      Topical too, especially if the SAMs on the highrise blocks miss.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    22. Re:Amounts by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 2

      It is actually 44.7 and 152 ppt (parts per trillion), or 0.0000447 and 0.000152 ppm.

      These days you can detect absurdly small traces of things, so you can find anything in anything.

       
      I really wonder how accurate is the result - ppm and ppb I can accept, but ppt ?

      How in the world can you calibrate the tool in the first place?
       

      --
      Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    23. Re:Amounts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By comparison, an average cup of coffee contains roughly 100mg, or a concentration of 400,000,000 ng/L.

      And how many fishies do you expect in an average cup of coffee?

    24. Re:Amounts by N3Roaster · · Score: 1

      Note that in a lot of cases the caffeine in pain killers come from coffee. Depending on how a coffee is decaffeinated, the caffeine can be removed from the binding agent, sold to pharmaceutical companies, and added to your pain killers. I wouldn't be surprised if that's a common source of caffeine for drinks with caffeine added. Tea, of course, produces its own caffeine as do several other plants.

      I'd say keep telling your doctor you don't drink coffee (or take up coffee drinking) but mention the pain killers separately.

      --
      Remember RFC 873!
    25. Re:Amounts by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 1

      All those fricking articles about the Pirate Bay and Sealand a while back, and you didn't know where the North Sea is?

      Especially since, with a name like Johannes Buchner, which sounds German, you should know that the North Sea is Germany's northwest border......

      --
      "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
    26. Re:Amounts by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      For those who like their numbers in ppm, I believe that's .0447 ppm and .1522 ppm, respectively. Sometimes I fail at math, though.

      Looks like you did this time too.

      0.0000447 ppm and 0.0001552 ppm.

      Hint: a liter of water is 1 kg, not 1g.

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    27. Re:Amounts by qu33ksilver · · Score: 1

      Okay I might be ignorant, but is caffeine a polluting substance somehow ? Suppose somehow, caffeine concentration has increased, now what ?

      And if you are so hell bent on caffeine, why not check other substances like vinegar or soya sauce for that matter ?

    28. Re:Amounts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dissolve 10mg caffeine in 1l water.
      Dilute 1ml of that solution to 1l with water.
      Dilute 1ml of that solution to 1l with water.
      Dilute 1ml of that solution to 1l with water.
      You now have a 10ng/l standard.

      (OK, it's a simplification -- but why do you think calibration should be particularly hard, by analytical chemistry standards?)

    29. Re:Amounts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not according to Holistics...

    30. Re:Amounts by IcyHando'Death · · Score: 2

      This is one of those times where you fail.

      1 liter has a mass of 10^3 g
      1ng = 10^-9 g
      Therefore 44.7ng/L has a concentration of 44.7 * 10^-9 / 10^3
      = 44.7 * 10^-6 / 10^6
      = .0000447 ppm

      Similarly, 152.2 ng/L is equivalent to .0001522 ppm.

    31. Re:Amounts by Pope · · Score: 1

      Vinegar and soya sauce aren't drugs that affect the CNS?

      --
      It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
    32. Re:Amounts by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      I have no idea, not having much of a clue when it comes to chemistry etc, but should it not be possible to evaporate off a large amount of seawater and get a comparatively concentrated reading? Once you get that, you're just some maths away from the original level.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    33. Re:Amounts by qu33ksilver · · Score: 1

      My point is how does that make it a polluting substance ?

    34. Re:Amounts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmmm, ok...

      So if we had 1,000 Olympic swimming pools, that'd be almost three fully loaded 747s.

      Are we talking about filling the gas tanks with coffee, or would the 747s be specially outfitted as tankers to carry coffee in the cabin sections too? (you know, like those fire fighting airplanes that dump water/flame retardant chemicals on forest fires)

    35. Re:Amounts by sFurbo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They used solid phase extraction, a common technique in analytical chemistry: The water was passed through an adsorbent which trapped caffeine and not water or salt. The sorbent was then washed with dichloromethane to release the caffeine in a much smaller volume, and thus higher concentration. The adsorbent has a limited capacity, so other stuff in sea water could wash out the caffeine. By evaporating, you also concentrate these, so you cannot trap any more caffeine. Besides, the boiling point of caffeine is not that high, so due to the low molecular mass of water, you will lose quite a lot of caffeine by evaporation.

    36. Re:Amounts by nedlohs · · Score: 1

      Are we talking about filling the gas tanks with coffee, or would the 747s be specially outfitted as tankers to carry coffee in the cabin sections too? (you know, like those airplanes that dump the mind control chemtrials)

      FTFY.

    37. Re:Amounts by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Oh, good find, thanks.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    38. Re:Amounts by 3dr · · Score: 1

      Exactly. What the article reports is that they detected various concentrations of caffeine in the ocean at various locations. No surprise there. Plastic bits are also in various concentrations about the world's oceans. The number of "sea beans" also varies along the eastern S. American coast (where many sea beans originate), up along the Gulf of Mexico and eastern US coast.

      Since we're talking about caffeine, which is a stimulant for our bodies and IIRC many other mammals, what effect does caffeine have in aquatic creatures? At what concentrations do these effects begin? How can caffeine be reduced in the ocean? No answers here. But according to the article, the presence of caffeine is more of an indicator of the increased presence of other pollutants, such as prescription medicines, hormones, etc., which may indicate that water treatment practices are lacking.

    39. Re:Amounts by avandesande · · Score: 1

      A nanogram is 1 billionth of a gram, or 1PPB. Since a liter of water is 1000 grams that works out to 44 parts per trillion.
      That is a very small amount.....

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    40. Re:Amounts by rossdee · · Score: 1

      How much coffee is in a fully loaded 747 ? Wouldn't it vary by the airline? (British Airways probably has more Tea in the galley than coffee...

      Or do you mean a 747 freighter filled with cans of the stuff. (No wonder coffee is so expensive if they ship it by air...)

    41. Re:Amounts by DriedClexler · · Score: 1

      With those numbers in mind, it almost seems like a better question is whether it's possible to have notably *lower* concentrations of caffeine without significant energy input?

      Also, how recently were we even able to detect such tiny traces?

      And do modern wastewater filter systems reduce this level?

      --
      Information theory is life. The rest is just the KL divergence.
    42. Re:Amounts by KhabaLox · · Score: 1

      Serious question: Caffeine is a naturally occurring substance... were they expecting 0g / L?
      What is the natural amount of ocean water caffeine; otherwise it is hard to judge the extent of the impact.

      Well, I don't think there are any plants in the Pacific Northwest that contain caffeine, so I would expect higher concentrations around cacao and coffee countries in the tropics.

      --
      Ceci n'est pas un sig.
    43. Re:Amounts by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      Good to know though, my daily dose of painkillers brings me to three average cups of coffee, in addition to the zero I usually drink.

      If there's caffeine in your pain killers, you're probably paying too much for them; buying name-brand rather than generic. Caffiene has no analgesic properties and there's really no reason to put it in them, except that someone may have a headache for caffiene withdrawal and in that case, it would help the headache, but wouldn't do you any good. I use generic Naproxin Sodium for my arthritis, it's exactly the same as Alieve but 1/4 the price.

    44. Re:Amounts by Havenwar · · Score: 1

      I buy generic brand painkillers (which is a fairly new thing around here - I'm not american) that has caffeine in them. I've tried ones that doesn't have the caffeine as well, and they weren't as effective for me. I discussed this with my doctor and was referred to several double-blind studies showing that the type of painkiller that works best for me (Aspirin, basically, although by another name) has been shown to work better at lower doses if given with caffeine.

      So, it works for me, and apparently science says it works in general - for that particular branch of analgesics.

    45. Re:Amounts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It works by the power of homeopathy. The more dilute it gets, the stronger the signal.

    46. Re:Amounts by LunaticTippy · · Score: 1

      There are hundreds of generic painkillers with caffeine. Caffeine is a well documented potentiator for numerous NSAIDs such as aspirin. Caffeine is added to analgesics in order to make them more effective.

      --
      Man, you really need that seminar!
    47. Re:Amounts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not true. You'll never find a woman in my bedroom, not even an absurdly small one. Especially not the absurdly small one.

    48. Re:Amounts by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      That's news to me, thanks for the info. Aspirin is probably the cheapest drug on the market, less than a penny per pill. It's always worked well for me, but then I'm a coffee drinker. I've found that Naproxin, althought quite a bit more expensive, works better and lasts twice as long. It may be that Naproxin is also helped by caffiene since they are similar to aspirin, I don't know.

    49. Re:Amounts by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Plenty of vegetables in the pacific northwest full of caffeine.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  6. Now I know why ..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fishermen bounce their lures up and down. Jittery fish!

    1. Re:Now I know why ..... by Dunbal · · Score: 3, Funny

      Nah just dangle a few stale pastries, a couple mac books/ipads/iphones and a wifi access point over the side, and the fish will be leaping into your boat.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    2. Re:Now I know why ..... by Sulphur · · Score: 1

      Nah just dangle a few stale pastries, a couple mac books/ipads/iphones and a wifi access point over the side, and the fish will be leaping into your boat.

      Put a decal on the bottom that says $10,000 boat, and they will give themselves up for sure.

      --

      Someone claimed that tuna can do 100 miles/hour. Was that with caffeine?

  7. I have a hard time believing by rolfwind · · Score: 4, Insightful

    that human coffe/tea consumption and pee will have an effect on the world's oceans.

    Other human activities, yes, definitely. But not this.

    1. Re:I have a hard time believing by icebike · · Score: 2

      Exactly.

      A liter of espresso may contain as much as 2254 milligrams of caffeine. But when filtered through a human gut 5 to 10 milligrams/liter in urine is the usual norm for a three cup a day coffee drinker.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    2. Re:I have a hard time believing by Penurious+Penguin · · Score: 2

      Think of the effect it'll have on Schneier's Friday squid blogging!

      --
      Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
    3. Re:I have a hard time believing by Grayhand · · Score: 1

      that human coffe/tea consumption and pee will have an effect on the world's oceans.

      Other human activities, yes, definitely. But not this.

      It's a positive affect. Caffeine addiction with fish comes in handy. Just pour a shot of expresso in the water and it's like chumming for sharks. I've heard just waving a Starbucks label over the water will make the fish go bananas. I'd be careful about making them go cold turkey. The fish could get pretty surly.

    4. Re:I have a hard time believing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Except its not just the human gut filtered coffee being dumped. Its also the used coffee grounds.

    5. Re:I have a hard time believing by osu-neko · · Score: 2

      A liter of espresso may contain as much as 2254 milligrams of caffeine. But when filtered through a human gut 5 to 10 milligrams/liter in urine is the usual norm for a three cup a day coffee drinker.

      And do you filter your left-over coffee grounds through your gut, too?

      --
      "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
    6. Re:I have a hard time believing by NFN_NLN · · Score: 5, Funny

      that human coffe/tea consumption and pee will have an effect on the world's oceans.

      Q: Why did the hipster burn his lips drinking his coffee/tea?

      A: He wanted to drink it before it was cool...

    7. Re:I have a hard time believing by Tarlus · · Score: 4, Funny

      You mean, you don't?

      --
      /* No Comment */
    8. Re:I have a hard time believing by styrotech · · Score: 2

      The fish could get pretty surly.

      As long as they don't get ill-tempered everything should be ok.

    9. Re:I have a hard time believing by fermion · · Score: 1

      It is unclear how much the chemicals we ingest effect the enviroment. For a while there was concern that the amount of vitamins Americans consume effect the waterways. Much of these chemicals are not metabolized but flow through the body and end up as waste. It is said that many Americans have the most expensive urine in the world. Then there is the high levels of estrogen detectable in the waterways. This could be from humans, but is probably more related to agriculture and industrial waste. Beef and dairy cattle are given estrogen, and they are the likely cause of the vaste majority of the estrogen, as such waste have a much more direct path to the waterways than human waste. My thoughts about coffee is that many coffee houses will promote the coffee grounds as fertilizer. Clearly these grounds still contain some caffeine, and used as fertilizer this caffeine will go directly to waterways.I have no idea how widespread the use of the grounds are, but I were researching this issue that is where I would start.

      --
      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    10. Re:I have a hard time believing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For a while there was concern that the amount of vitamins Americans consume effect the waterways.

      Vitamins cannot dig canals.

    11. Re:I have a hard time believing by Firethorn · · Score: 1

      Those aren't typically dumped down the sink.

      Now, old undrunk coffee; that is dumped into the drains all the time, and still has it's caffeine intact.

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
    12. Re:I have a hard time believing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have a hard time believing.

      Argument from ignorance.

    13. Re:I have a hard time believing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not real coffee without the grounds...

    14. Re:I have a hard time believing by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 1

      That's the way (crunch-crunch-crunch) I liiiike it!

      --
      "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
    15. Re:I have a hard time believing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Turkish coffee, just grind it fine enough, yes I drink all the little bits at the bottom, it's like extra fiber in lieu of vegetables.

    16. Re:I have a hard time believing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lol, cute, you think we dont dump our garbage in the ocean.

    17. Re:I have a hard time believing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Homeopathy. All the world's oceans are roughly a 40C dilution of Adolf Hitler's piss.

      AC

    18. Re:I have a hard time believing by icebike · · Score: 1

      But the ocean and river caffeine concentration is not coincident with population centers according to the first linked article. The fluctuations are coincident with storms.

      Further no caffeine pollution is reported in New York. I doubt they drink less coffee there.

      These facts point to a natural source rather than to human coffee use.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  8. Oh Noes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can only hope it is not as catastrophic as global warming has been on our ecosystem... Hahaha! /me puts
    more styrofoam on the fire to combat the observed cooling trends.

    Decidious

  9. Synthetic Drugs? by bdabautcb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While this is not surprising and questionably news, I am a little more worried about the years and years of synthetic, biologically active drugs in the water. Birth control hormones don't exactly just disappear after you swallow them, and I know that they and other classes of petroleum based drugs have shown hormonal activity not only in mammals, but amphibians, fish, and birds. Though a world with huge breasted marine mammals would be cool, I am more concerned about the chemicals other than coffee that are following the same pathways and reaching the entire world. Miles deep into the ocean, thousands of miles through the atmosphere, there is really no where on the planet that has not been affected in at least a minor way by the expansion of human industry.

    --
    Koalas. They're telepathic. Plus, they control the weather. -Margaret
    1. Re:Synthetic Drugs? by polar+red · · Score: 1

      Birth control hormones

      Influence on fishes has already been measured. http://articles.nydailynews.com/2009-09-15/news/17931386_1_river-basins-intersex-fish-male-fish

      --
      Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
    2. Re:Synthetic Drugs? by Havenwar · · Score: 1

      From what I've heard this (birth control hormones getting into nature) has already been linked to declining fertility rates in the civilized world. Note that this is hearsay, it might just be a "theory" so far, but I've heard of it from several sources so... It might be something to worry about.

      If you value your fertility, that is. Some of us are more than happy never to add people to this clusterfuck we call earth. :)

    3. Re:Synthetic Drugs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you thought the fish in the north pacific were edgy, the italian river fish are much worse. Plus they talk such rubbish!

      http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/12/world/europe/12iht-cocaine.html

    4. Re:Synthetic Drugs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From what I've heard this (birth control hormones getting into nature) has already been linked to declining fertility rates in the civilized world. Note that this is hearsay, it might just be a "theory" so far, but I've heard of it from several sources so... It might be something to worry about.

      If you value your fertility, that is. Some of us are more than happy never to add people to this clusterfuck we call earth. :)

      Actually, birth control hormones have drastically limited fertility - by design. It is their intended purpose.

      An ever so slight extra effect from hormone pollution won't change society. Not so fun for the victims, but society as a whole can easily make up for the loss by taking slightly fewer pills...

    5. Re:Synthetic Drugs? by Havenwar · · Score: 1

      Yes, it is their intended purpose to do so, reversibly, in women. However the effect they are seeing is irreversible, and in men. The danger here being that it won't be a "slight extra effect" but rather at some point a total effect - i.e. that all men will eventually become sterile due to too high intake of synthetic female hormones through the diet. Of course this could just be alarmist shit, as so much is, but like I said I've seen a few sources for it now, so it's starting to look like a legitimate problem.

    6. Re:Synthetic Drugs? by bdabautcb · · Score: 1

      My original post meant to address the gender-changing affects seen in amphibians and how crazy that is. I am not concerned so much about frogs changing genders (until that Aussie guy builds Jurassic Park), but the cancerous effects of fucking with hormonal systems in mammals. Thank you for a good reply, it certainly is a legitimate problem. PS: gender changing in fish is also a huge issue. They aren't affected by the same mechanism as mammals, but the feminization of certain fish species leaves them infertile.

      --
      Koalas. They're telepathic. Plus, they control the weather. -Margaret
    7. Re:Synthetic Drugs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Though a world with huge breasted marine mammals would be cool

      Mermaids !!!

  10. Metabolites and half lifes by icebike · · Score: 4, Informative

    Wiki says

    Caffeine is metabolized in the liver by the cytochrome P450 oxidase enzyme system (to be specific, the 1A2 isozyme) into three metabolic dimethylxanthines. Further, In healthy adults, caffeine's half-life has been measured with a range of results. Some measures get 4.9 hours, and others are at around 6 hours.

    Therefore, it seems unlikely that the source of caffeine in the ocean is from human waste, since the time spent in the gut exceeds the half-life of caffeine, and when metabolized, its no longer caffeine. There is of course still some small remaining un-metabolized caffeine in urine. A liter of espresso may contain as much as 2254 milligrams of caffeine. But when filtered through a human gut 5 to 10 milligrams/liter in urine is unusual, and 15mg/l gets you bounced from most sports programs as a sign of abuse.

    It seems far more likely that the coffee poured out by restaurants, offices, and households, and the disposed of grounds being used for compost and gardening are a larger source than what comes out in the urine stream. Also the water Decaffeination processes is the source of the excess caffeine in city sewage, even though caffeine thus recovered can be marketed into the soft drink business, not all small operations bother with that.

    Quoting the first linked source:

    Caffeine occurrence and concentrations in seawater did not correspond with pollution threats from population density and point and non-point sources, but did correspond with storm event occurrence.

    So it seems to me that the caffeine is just as likely entirely natural, perhaps produced in very low quantities by some naturally occurring plants in the predominantly coniferous temperate rain forests of the area, rather than by any human activity or byproduct. Such a low production would leach out into streams and rivers during storms, but not from municipal sewers, and hence would not correspond to population density.

    --
    Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    1. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by icebike · · Score: 4, Informative

      Sorry, wiki only says the bit about:

      Caffeine is metabolized in the liver by the cytochrome P450 oxidase enzyme system (to be specific, the 1A2 isozyme) into three metabolic dimethylxanthines. Further, In healthy adults, caffeine's half-life has been measured with a range of results. Some measures get 4.9 hours, and others are at around 6 hours

      The rest was my posting error.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    2. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by idontusenumbers · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't you piss out what isn't metabolized? People pee usually before the 6 hour half-life is up, which would leave around half the caffeine left, no?

    3. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by Penurious+Penguin · · Score: 1

      A refreshing voice of sanity in the vast [be]wilderness of conniving tea-drinkers and corrupted decaf peddlers!

      --
      Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
    4. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by camperdave · · Score: 2

      What you pee isn't what you drink. There would be more caffeine in the feces than in the urine. Besides, both would pale in comparison to the quantity of undrunk coffee that gets poured down drains, the grounds that get used as fertilizer, and the coffee that falls overboard in shipping containers during maritime accidents.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    5. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by phantomfive · · Score: 0

      There would be more caffeine in the feces than in the urine. Besides, both would pale in comparison to the quantity of undrunk coffee that gets poured down drains, the grounds that get used as fertilizer, and the coffee that falls overboard in shipping containers during maritime accidents.

      I'm really wondering when you get these numbers. Did you really just make them up?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    6. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by Vegan+Cyclist · · Score: 1

      I'm guessing the pollution is not from urine, but all the coffee (and other caffeinated products) that are poured down the sink...?

    7. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by umghhh · · Score: 1

      this is of course ot but must say this: I am shocked - a post that is written with brains and calm seemingly based on real information and actual thinking. Not a common feat on /. and in general population!!!

    8. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by Havenwar · · Score: 2

      I'm really wondering which of those words you think was numbers.

    9. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by Dunbal · · Score: 3, Informative

      Er you missed the part where caffeine is hydrosoluble. Since Wikipedia is no substitute for say, pharmacology classes in medical school, most of your assertions are irrelevant. While caffeine is metabolized by the liver like almost everything else: all small, hydrosoluble molecules are filtered out at the glomerulus and form part of the ultrafiltrate. Water soluble molecules are then not re-absorbed. Therefore while caffeine is metabolized in the liver, it and its metabolites are excreted via the urine. How much caffeine is metabolized and how much is excreted "as is" depends very much on dose, the patient's ability to metabolize it, and any exogenous factors (medication, etc) that could affect the rate at which the liver can break it down.

      The liver takes time to metabolize things and like any enzyme dependent process, it can be saturated. The filtration from the kidney however is a physical process. So long as blood flows through it that has caffeine in it, some of that caffeine is going to get filtered out. And because the kidney is pretty good at keeping water-soluble molecules out (you know, things like urea), once it's filtered it stays filtered. Lipid soluble molecules can always find a way to sneak back in on their own, but the other stuff (like say, glucose) ain't getting back in unless there's an active transport system to pull it back in.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    10. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      But when filtered through a human gut 5 to 10 milligrams/liter in urine is unusual

      Urine in your gut? That's pretty unusual by itself.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    11. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by hazem · · Score: 1

      I was surprised to read that even some glucose gets filtered out in the kidneys. Is this a significant amount? I wonder if this could account for how some people eat a lot and never seem to gain weight. They're ingesting the calories, but then expelling some of them as waste?

    12. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by Dunbal · · Score: 2, Informative

      ALL glucose is filtered out by the kidneys. 100% of it. It is then reabsorbed via active transport (actually sodium-glucose cotransport). The reason diabetics urinate glucose is because their blood glucose levels are so high, leading to such a high concentration of glucose in urine, that this saturates the active transport mechanisms. That is why you automatically know that a patient with any glucose in the urine at all has at LEAST a 180mg/dL blood glucose level, as that's the saturation point of the enzyme based transport mechanism.

      Very important to remember in biochemistry that you are dealing with living, falliable systems. There are not many concrete reactions like in a test tube since there are so many variables, and also almost all reactions are subject to having their rate limited by enzyme saturation at one point or another.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    13. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      when you start saying greater or less than, you have numbers: it's only a question of precision. And if you haven't measured, then you are wrong, no matter how good your intuition is.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    14. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by Havenwar · · Score: 1

      Saying there is more caffeine in undrunk coffee than in waste products is hardly "intuition" - caffeine is metabolised, so clearly any caffeine laden product that is poured directly out contains orders of magnitude more than feces or urine. The part where he claims there is more caffeine in feces than in urine seems to be based on his assertion that urine is not what we drink. This is of course true - urine is excess fluids from everything we ingest, and is extracted from the system in the bowels. Thus again it's not a question of intuition, but rather about what he knows about caffeine... is it a solid or a fluid, or does it bind to such, or whatever mechanism chooses its pathway. I personally know that caffeine is a solid, but not how it is sorted by the body, so I'll give him the benefit of a doubt. You can choose not to, since you seem the type, but it's still got nothing to do with the numbers.... just the quantitative differences.

      If I see rain falling on a roof with a small hole in it, it doesn't take any intuition to say that most rain will run down the gutters, a smaller amount will enter the hole, and of course globally most of the rain wont even hit the roof. Making an assumption based on clearly obvious facts (small hole, big roof, bigger world) does not require actual measurements to be correct - unless of course there is some magic unknown factor to caffeine... In fact measuring exactly is usually how we find these unknown factors. Caffeine however is for some strange (addictive) reason rather well studied, so we have nothing to worry about there. It obeys the laws of physics and biology and logic and all that, as expected.

    15. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Oh, I thought you knew something interesting about the number of coffee containers falling over the edges of boats during maritime accidents.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    16. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

      Just to be completely pedantic (and to emphasize that we're not as all knowing on biochem as we ofttimes pretend to be), pregnant women can spill glucose without having elevated serum levels. Don't recall the mechanism.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    17. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by Havenwar · · Score: 1

      I do actually!

      Green potatoes and flysoup.

    18. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Fascinating and relevant.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    19. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by hazem · · Score: 1

      That's interesting. I was under the impression that pretty much any cell in your body can take up glucose as an energy source.

      Does this mean that before your body can use glucose that your kidneys have to process it first?

    20. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      I was under the impression that pretty much any cell in your body can take up glucose as an energy source.

      Yeah. What does that have to do with anything? Glucose cannot move across cell mebranes by diffusion, that's what cell membranes are for - to provide a barrier so that a cell can try to maintain an orderly, controlled internal environment. Lipid soluble stuff can move across, because the membrane is a phospholipid bi-layer. Tiny molecules can move across - water, ions and the like. Ion gradients are actively maintained by the cell as it uses energy to pump unwanted ions (usually Na+) out and wanted ions (K+) in. Water soluble stuff like glucose cannot cross the membrane. Glucose gets into cells because it is actively transported into cells. Feel free to google for glucose transport mechanisms.

      Does this mean that before your body can use glucose that your kidneys have to process it first?

      Why would you say that? The kidneys receive approximately 20% of your body's blood flow. So out of those 5 glucose molecule that your liver just created by gluconeogenesis (as an example - there's lots of places glucose comes from), one of them probably passed through your kidneys, was filtered and then re-absorbed. The other 4 molecules, however, probably went from A to B without the kidney being involved at all. Think of the body as a dynamic, imperfect system. The chemical reactions are always happening, but the body is not a laboratory setting where you take substance A and mix it with substance B, and all of it is consumed to give you substance C. In the body you might start with A, and end up with some B, C and X, and the best bit is that C makes A turn into B faster, but X actually prevents A from being turned into anything at all. And all the time a little bit of all these substances are leaving the body - through the lungs, skin, urine and feces, and more of these substances are entering the body every time you breathe, drink or eat. Understanding biochemistry is understanding that life is dependent on a temporary equilibrium of equilibriums. When they get a little out of whack we call that "disease", and when they get really out of whack we call it "death".

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    21. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by Dunbal · · Score: 2

      Eh no, pregnant women can develop diabetes while they are pregnant, and this gestational diabetes "disappears" after the pregnancy is resolved. However the mechanism is the same. Also these women are more likely to develop type II diabetes 5 years or so after the pregnancy.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    22. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by hazem · · Score: 1

      I'm sorry. When you wrote, "ALL glucose is filtered out by the kidneys. 100% of it.", I thought you meant that all glucose in the entire digestion process gets filtered by the kidneys, and I inferred that you were saying that the kidneys were needed to enable the cells in the body to consume glucose.

      However, that didn't fit a all with the little I know about the digestive processes.

      So based on what you've said, is it right that any cell in the body can take in glucose, per the transport mechanism? But that any glucose that happens to make it to the kidneys will be completely filtered out and no longer be available to the body?

    23. Re:Metabolites and half lifes by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      ALL glucose is filtered out by the kidneys. 100% of it.

      You're right. I should have said "of all the glucose that arrives at the glomerulus, an amount equiproportional to its concentration in blood is filtered to form part of the ultrafiltrate"... but hey I was writing a fast post on slashdot, not answering a question on a nephrology exam. Sorry if this was misleading.

      is it right that any cell in the body can take in glucose, per the transport mechanism?

      Yes all healthy cells are equipped to absorb glucose one way or another. What varies is the type of transport protein they use to do the absorbing. Some of these proteins require the presence of insulin in order to work properly. Some don't.

      But that any glucose that happens to make it to the kidneys will be completely filtered out and no longer be available to the body?

      No I think this is the part you're missing: it's filtered out but immediately re-absorbed. So if you measure the concentration of glucose in the renal artery (that takes blood TO the kidney) and compare it to the glucose concentration in the renal vein (that takes blood FROM the kidney AFTER processing), it will be about the same. Actually that's not true because the kidney itself (and the blood vessls and the living cells in the blood itself) consumes a great deal of glucose in order to stay alive and do its job, but glucose IN is roughly equal to glucose OUT + glucose used by kidney. This in a healthy person.

      In a diabetic, or someone for some reason with abnormally high glucose levels (ie, someone taking glucocorticoids), some glucose finds its way into the urine. Why? Because the re-absorbtion of glucose by the kidney has a maximum rate. So up to that "magic" number of (about - it varies from person to person but roughly) 180mg/dL, the kidney has no trouble re-absorbing 100% of the glucose it filters. As a simple example, if the concentration in blood is 300mg/dL, the concentration in the renal vein will be 180mg/dL because that's the magic number, no more than this can be absorbed. It's not strictly true for a lot of different reasons I won't bore you with, but it's illustratively true. What happens to the rest of the glucose? It stays in the urine, because the kidney can't re- absorb it fast enough. There is simply too much of it.

      So to answer your question - no, any glucose that happens to make it to the kidney very likely will be filtered out of the blood, re-absorbed into the blood via active transport, and sent right back to you. Unless you're diabetic and have far too much glucose, in which case some of that glucose will be "lost" via the urine. But a diabetic has far, far too much glucose anyway. While glucosuria (peeing glucose) has its own important set of heath problems and risks, it's one of the least of a diabetic's worries. Increased blood viscosity, acid-base and electrolyte disturbances are some of the more serious immediate problems of having too much glucose in the blood, and then there's the long-term effects of all that glucose reacting with proteins it shouldn't be reacting with that cause the slow, crippling death spiral of the un-treated diabetic, assuming he survives long enough.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  11. I blame Starbucks by gmhowell · · Score: 0, Troll

    Everybody wants to appear cool on the coast, so they buy coffee from Starbucks. Then they take a sip and find out that 'burnt' is not a pleasant flavor. The remainder gets pitched and winds up...

    In the ocean.

    The cup then gets refilled with something more to the American coffee drinker's palate, like McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts, or 7-11.

    --
    Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
    1. Re:I blame Starbucks by mortonda · · Score: 0

      This. Well, there's even better coffee than your examples, but Starbucks is by far the worst coffee ever.

    2. Re:I blame Starbucks by mister2au · · Score: 1

      Poor trolling or advanced irony ... I'm not sure ???

      Seattle has a good reputation for coffee - right up there with cities like Rome, Vienna, Buenos Aires and my home town of Melbourne.

      We closed 16 of our Starbucks that couldn't turn a profit and you'd have to be insane to drink coffee from McDonalds, DD or 7-11 given the other choices. I'd assume the same in Seattle and Pacific NW in general.

      So trolling Starbucks or being ironic about the others ... not sure !

    3. Re:I blame Starbucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seattle has tons of Starbucks locations, but we also have tons of other proper coffee shops as well. Not to mention the new tea houses that have been opening up lately. Starbucks is hardly the greatest coffee ever, but it's nowhere near as bad as the GP seems to think.

      If you want terrible coffee, I'd suggest the instant stuff that you get at the 7-11 or AM-PM that's "made" by the machine or drip coffee that's been sitting out all day. Starbucks is expensive, but the coffee is alright.

    4. Re:I blame Starbucks by Neil+Boekend · · Score: 1

      I have a feeling that is a lie. Most cups don't get reused. I don't believe many would fill a Starbucks cup at McD.

      --
      Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
    5. Re:I blame Starbucks by hazem · · Score: 2

      >We closed 16 of our Starbucks that couldn't turn a profit and you'd have to be insane to drink coffee from McDonalds, DD or 7-11 given the other choices.

      Insane? Or maybe just not care about having a "premium coffee experience". A lot of people are happy with the coffee at say McDonalds... it's fast, hot, and quite a bit cheaper than coffee from a coffee house. Is it gourmet? No... Is it good? To them it is.

      It's just like how many people like Coors Light... they sell a ton of it! Now I personally prefer one of the many fine microbrews in the Pacific Northwest. However my best friend really prefers Coors Light and given the choice between that something locally crafted, she orders a Coors Light (and she's tried a lot of others). I don't like it much myself, but who am I to tell her that she's wrong or insane to like it? Isn't it enough that she likes what she likes and I like something different?

    6. Re:I blame Starbucks by mister2au · · Score: 1

      Fair points ...

      Seems like $2 coffee is strange when quality coffee is $3.50 and premium is $4-$4.20 (in my part of the world and I'd assume similar elsewhere) .... but your beer analogy is a very good one

    7. Re:I blame Starbucks by gmhowell · · Score: 1

      I'm not saying one coffee is 'better' than another. Individual tastes and whatnot. But side by side blind taste testing shows that most Americans prefer one of the brands I mentioned not named 'Starbucks'. It's like various studies showing that Bud or Coors or whatever tastes better than some microbrew. I'd never think that, but most consumers disagree.

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
    8. Re:I blame Starbucks by gmhowell · · Score: 1

      Come to my workplace. It happens.

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
    9. Re:I blame Starbucks by gmhowell · · Score: 1

      Or poor reading comprehension on your part.

      Bavaria has a good reputation for beer. (Ironically, so does Seattle). Doesn't keep American mass brewed junk from being the most popular beer in those locales.

      Interesting that even though I'm the troll according to the mods, you are the one making value judgements and slandering people based on their preferred beverage.

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
    10. Re:I blame Starbucks by gmhowell · · Score: 1

      Isn't it enough that she likes what she likes and I like something different?

      Not on slashdot. If you don't believe me, wait until and Android or iOS article next shows up. Your value as a human being is determined largely based on arbitrary personal preferences.

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
    11. Re:I blame Starbucks by mister2au · · Score: 1

      Doesn't keep American mass brewed junk from being the most popular beer in those locales.

      Interesting that even though I'm the troll according to the mods, you are the one making value judgements and slandering people based on their preferred beverage.

      Love you work ... that is classic

    12. Re:I blame Starbucks by gmhowell · · Score: 1

      Doesn't keep American mass brewed junk from being the most popular beer in those locales.

      Interesting that even though I'm the troll according to the mods, you are the one making value judgements and slandering people based on their preferred beverage.

      Love you work ... that is classic

      Thank you. I've had a lot of practice.

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
  12. Oh fsck'n no! by Penurious+Penguin · · Score: 1

    You know, I thought things were going too far when I began seeing Starbucks on every street corner, and now I hear they're in the Pacific Ocean too! Fucking progress! Maybe some of the plastic islands and BP oil-globs will absorb the coffee and save the whales from the jitters. I must confess though, I'd like to see a porpoise after a few dozen shots of espresso.

    ~ Comment copy & pasted from original "anonymous" submission

    --
    Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
  13. WE'RE VERY AWAKE DOWN HERE GUYS! VERY!!! by Chas · · Score: 4, Funny

    *TWITCH!*TWITCH*

    I'd like to swim upstream and spawn, but the last time I tried it, I wound up in Lake Erie! Eww! And MAN is the wind cold at supersonic speeds!

    It took me almost a week to swim home! It would have happened faster, but I ran out of caffeine two-days from home. Hawaii was nice though.

    Now where was I?

    Oh yeah.

    WE'RE VERY AWAKE DOWN HERE GUYS!

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  14. This made me laugh by Omnifarious · · Score: 1

    I could only read it and helplessly chuckle to myself thinking "Why, of course it is!".

  15. Re:Starbucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think there's a better chance of you being modded "What the fuck are you talking about?"

  16. Re:Starbucks by RightwingNutjob · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know it has a few health benefits, but it's just too bitter.

    One benefit is making you think "bitter" is tasty. The second, and more important one, is the prevention of lack-of-coffee headaches.

  17. What about the rest? by dimethylxanthine · · Score: 0

    how will the presence of caffeine in our oceans affect human health

    Apparently quite positively:
    http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-coffee-consumption-inversely-common-skin.html
    What's more disturbing is the presence of all the other chemicals - antibiotics, illegal drugs, mood stabilizers and sex hormones.

  18. Re:Starbucks by arkane1234 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Translation:

    I know I'll probably get modded troll for this but good luck separating [people I'm the opposite of, and hold distain for] in [state below the states being written about] from [place I heard is attached to the object in the issue].

    Personally I've never [insert way of using the object in question]. I know it has [something obvious about nearly everything], but [insert something only vaguely related to the object in question].

    --
    -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
  19. Uh by ShooterNeo · · Score: 1

    It won't. Poison is all about the dosage. There's a LOT of water, and not much caffeine compared to that much water. Also, caffeine only works because it interfaces with specific receptors in our brains. It probably affects other mammals, but is not going to affect random fish or other aquatic life.

    1. Re:Uh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's a LOT of water, and not much caffeine compared to that much water.

      Translation: "guys, come on, hurry up, we have to do better... need to piss more caffeine for that much water"

    2. Re:Uh by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      It probably affects other mammals, but is not going to affect random fish or other aquatic life.

      Incorrect. Caffeine is a classic mutagen. Effects DNA based life from archea on up. Not sure about politicians. I think you have to use alcohol on them.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    3. Re:Uh by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Affect, Effect, God damn and blast Slashcode for not having an edit function.

      Even Edlin had an edit function.

      COME ON GUYS!

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  20. BS by jbolden · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Not buying it.

    An 8 oz cup of coffee is 236.5 ml and has 49mg of caffeine. Assume the entire thing was thrown away undrunk at all. The population of portland is about 600k. If we assume that everyone in portland throws away one full cup of coffee every day for 100 years and that every drop ends up in the ocean, that's 21.9b cups of coffee or approx 1 billion grams of caffeine.

    100 years is plenty of time to diffuse. Its also plenty of times for caffeine to break down but less assume this were magic caffeine and so lasted the 100 years perfectly intact. Since they say the pacific ocean lets say none of it leaves the pacific for the other oceans. The pacific ocean is 7.721473366 × 10^21 liters. So cross multiplying (7.721473366 × 10^21× ) x (.049 g) / (.2365 l) us that that we are 1.6x10^20 grams so your billion grams falls 1.6x10^11 short. OK well lets assume that in addition to not breaking down it also doesn't diffuse. The Pacific is 361.1m kilometers in area. So lets assume that all the coffee hangs out for the entire century in the 2 kilometers nearest Portland, we still are short by 3 full orders of magnitude.

    There is no way a bunch of 600k humans use enough coffee for the ocean to notice.

    1. Re:BS by lister+king+of+smeg · · Score: 1

      while i agree with your calculations i have to say tea would be better for Portland it being the home of stash tea, and tazo. If your going to name a Pacific Northwest city known for coffee it should have been Seattle they are the home of Starbucks, Seatles Best, and Tully's coffee.

      --
      ---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
    2. Re:BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not buying it.

      An 8 oz cup of coffee is 236.5 ml and has 49mg of caffeine. Assume the entire thing was thrown away undrunk at all.

      Where do you think they threw the grounds?

    3. Re:BS by darthdavid · · Score: 1

      Where do you think they threw the grounds?

      Either A) a compost heap or B) a landfill, neither one of which should see anything going into the ocean unless something's gone very wrong with the whole process. Assuming you dump your coffee grounds into a garbage disposal or flush them down your toilet or whatever asinine thing that still shouldn't lead to much of anything making it into the ocean unless we're dumping raw sewage into the Pacific now...

    4. Re:BS by jbolden · · Score: 1

      During brewing most of the caffeine is extracted. The strongest grounds are 150mg of caffeine per tbsp. Generally it is 1 tbsp per 8 oz of water. But again I'll be generous and assume they all use the strongest grounds and 2x as much grounds as they should. OK that gets them up to 6x my numbers. Now what?

    5. Re:BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Bear in mind that this is "in waters off Oregon". That does NOT mean that the caffeine level measured there is representative of a uniform distribution throughout the entire ocean volume. While there is diffusion, it's not that fast. What's being seen is localized concentrations of caffeine, and that's a marker for other kinds of pollutants which are associated with it....pesticides, drug residues, etc. It's entirely plausible that you'd see such measurements in estuaries, river mouths and locations near population centers.

    6. Re:BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Okay, let me correct your calculation.

      1 billion grams of caffeine on 7.7*10^21 liters of water
      = 10^9 grams of caffeine on 7.7*10^21 liters of water
      = 10^18 nanograms of caffeine on 7.7 * 10^21 liters of water
      = 10^-3 nanograms of caffeine on 7.7 liters of water
      = 1.3 * 10^-4 nanograms of caffeine on 1 liter of water

      The article mentions something like 70 nanograms of caffeine per liter of water. This means the calculation is off by approximately a factor of 50,000. Although this is still quite large, if we add in that we shouldn't consider the volume of the whole Pacific ocean, and the amount of caffeine dumped may be larger than expected (e.g., dumped by coffee-related industries near Portland), a factor of 50,000 may not be that off.

      Actually, your calculation of 1.6x10^20 grams of caffeine would be the amount of caffeine if the whole Pacific ocean is coffee.

    7. Re:BS by polar+red · · Score: 1

      A) a compost heap or B) a landfill, neither one of which should see anything going into the ocean

      errr ... ANYTHING thrown on the ground ends up in the sea/food chain.

      --
      Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
    8. Re:BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      600,000 people * 49 mg/day is 29 kg/day. 29 kg/45 ng/L is 650 gL or 650M m^3/ Portland Bay is about 10m deep, so one day's flow would fill 65M m^2 (16,000 acres) to the reported caffeine concentration. I'd say 45 ng/L is a credible local concentration: diffusion over kilometer distances takes a surprisingly long time.

    9. Re:BS by jbolden · · Score: 1

      Rivers are a different situation, the volumes of water are much lower. Pesticides I could imagine, at very low concentrations, because again diffusion by volume.

    10. Re:BS by jbolden · · Score: 1

      The article mentions something like 70 nanograms of caffeine per liter of water

      Which I wouldn't consider pollution, at that concentration.

    11. Re:BS by turkeyfeathers · · Score: 1

      Your calculation implies that only Oregonians drink coffee? Many Seattleites are hipsters too...

    12. Re:BS by jbolden · · Score: 1

      Well the final part is the shore of Portland. So I'm assuming that Seattleites throws there's out a bit to the north.

  21. Re:Starbucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well done. Now you just have to create a version that applies to just about anything and you'll see how retarded left vs right/liberals vs conservatives politics are.

    [insert description of some problem here]. It's all the fault of those [people I'm opposite of, and hold disdain for]! They always ruin everything!

  22. Re:Starbucks by bdabautcb · · Score: 1

    If I had mod points, I would mod you +1 Thank You for modding somebody "What the fuck are you talking about?"

    --
    Koalas. They're telepathic. Plus, they control the weather. -Margaret
  23. HA by seansobes · · Score: 0

    All the unemployed people drink a lot of coffee because they can't afford to eat. I know because I live this type of life.

    1. Re:HA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Isn't that like burning a hole into your stomach?

    2. Re:HA by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      You can afford coffee but you can't afford food?

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    3. Re:HA by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Without chemicals, life would not be possible.

      Priorities, man. Priorities.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    4. Re:HA by seansobes · · Score: 0

      Yeah. A $10 thing of coffee can last days or weeks depending. I drink it for "false" sustenance when food is scarce. Something I doubt most of the people on this site understand.

  24. Great! Now the sharks really won't ever sleep. by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 2

    Let's hope nobody dumps a bunch of frickin' lasers in the ocean too.

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
  25. Oblig. by srussia · · Score: 1

    Ill-Tempered Sea Bass!

    --
    Set your phasers on "funky"!
  26. Unlikely by guttentag · · Score: 1

    It's more likely that Starbucks set up a Spy-Who-Loved-Me-esque secret under-sea base that serves as a combination processing plant where Jaws grinds beans for less than minimum wage and Amazon chief Jeff Bezos resides in a luxury suite off-shore tax haven.

    TFA goes on to note that high levels of caffeine have been detected in Boston Harbor, but they're not suggesting any link between the levels and the tea party.The whole article is dubious, given that it consists of four whopping paragraphs and two stock photos (one of some plastic bags underwater someplace that sure doesn't look like the Oregon coast to me, and the other a closeup of someone's coffee) that take up more of the page than the actual body of the "article," which has no journalistic merit whatsoever. The actual paper that this all comes from is behind a paywall that wants $40. Nothing to see here... move along...

  27. Sixty million tons of caffeine by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 0

    In the ocean, they found 44.7 ng/L.

    The ocean contains about 1.3e9 km^3 or 1.3e21 liters. So 44.7e-9 * 1.3e21 = 5.8e13. That is about sixty million tons of pure caffeine. I don't believe it.

    1. Re:Sixty million tons of caffeine by neyla · · Score: 4, Insightful

      First, you're off by a factor of thousand, so it'd really be sixty thousand tons, not sixty million tons.

      Second -- this was the higherst concentration they found, in one small area of the ocean -- they are *not* saying the entire ocean has that much coffeine in it, indeed they sampled other places and found nothing (i.e. the concentration was below their limit of detection)

  28. So long, and thanks for by billstewart · · Score: 1

    all the Caffeinated Fish!

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  29. Fish are much more sensitive to some things by billstewart · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are chemicals that can kill fish at 3 parts per billion. There are other things like salt that don't bother them as much, but it's really variable.

    However, as other people have pointed out, there are lots of other chemicals getting dumped into the water system, including things like cocaine and prozac that have been processed through humans first. With caffeine, humans metabolize it so you wouldn't get much left, but there's all the caffeine in coffee grounds and waste coffee and soda.

    And it is Portland.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
    1. Re:Fish are much more sensitive to some things by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      There are chemicals that can kill fish at 3 parts per billion.

      OK, some people have corrected my math, the correct number is 152 parts per trillion at the maximum measured, so those fish are safe.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  30. ah, now I get it by Tumbleweed · · Score: 1

    This explains Dory from Finding Nemo.

  31. What plants. by neoshroom · · Score: 1

    This got me curious.

    Apparently, according to different sources 50-100 plants produce caffeine in varying amounts, which makes sense as caffeine is an effective herbicide if you aren't trying to ward off primates with an inflated sense of self-importance.

    Narrowing to California, the first species I found that California clearly has was the leaves and flowers of orange trees, though the only exact number I could find was "caffeine is found at concentration levels of 11-17. 5 milligrams per liter, mostly in citrus flowers.” California is a big orange-growing state though.

    The other option I found was holly. Southeastern US varieties of holly are quite potent caffeine producers. Indeed, apparently ancient people's used to drink them like we drink coffee. I've seen these caffeine-rich recommended to Californians to use as hedges on some sites and while the zone map for the plant includes California I couldn't find out any info on how widespread the plant is in that region.

    I wonder what other plants are rich in caffeine and also if normal plant leaf decomposition could get that caffeine into the water supply?

    --
    Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
    1. Re:What plants. by icebike · · Score: 1

      Holly grows in the wild in Washington State, and I suspect, Oregon. But it is never plentiful or concentrated. I rather suspect it's some unassuming ground plant that nobody pays any attention to.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  32. Oh great, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    another case of /. going fucking berserk over a horribly-written, patently false claim disguised as science. Read the article, better yet do a bit of research as some folks already have (read some other posts here), and see the steaming pile of crap that this 'story' is.

    I know the /. gods will smite me down for seeming like a troll, but I'm tired of being quiet just because somebody doesn't like my opinion. Oh well.

  33. Weed-Head Obama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, given Obama's well known addiction love of cannabis a detection of cannabis compounds in Potomac River water would surely explain his bizarre behavior as President.

    LOL

     

    1. Re:Weed-Head Obama by TapeCutter · · Score: 2

      I don't know, passing the bong around congress would probably improve things dramatically.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    2. Re:Weed-Head Obama by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Better yet, a tray of 'organic' brownies.

      C-Span for the win!

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  34. obligatory by petsounds · · Score: 1

    sharks with frickin' lasers...after a quad-shot of espresso

  35. Surely the elevated levels of caffeine by Chrisq · · Score: 2

    Surely the elevated levels of caffeine in the ocean .... must be a wake-up call!

  36. I'm still confused by B1oodAnge1 · · Score: 1

    How many libraries of congress is that, exactly?

    --
    RUGBYRUGBYRUGBY
    1. Re:I'm still confused by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

      Dunno; how much coffee do they usually drink in the LoC?

      --
      Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
    2. Re:I'm still confused by Havenwar · · Score: 2

      Depends on how early in the day they run out of whiskey.

  37. How come the water don't smell like coffee? by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 0

    If the title is true, that the Pacific Ocean is polluted with coffee, why don't the Pacific Ocean smell like a super giant pot of coffee ?
     
    Remember, Caffeine doesn't only come from Coffee, tea - oh yes, TEA has caffeine, as well as Jolt Cola
     

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    1. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by LordSnooty · · Score: 3, Interesting

      They say tea contains caffeine and yet I can drink one before bed and not feel any effects of insomnia. The reverse is true if i drink coffee. Are there different types of caffeine or is there a lower concentration in tea?

    2. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Tea contains tanin, which blocks the absorption of caffeine. This typically means that you get an immediate caffeine kick from coffee, which then wears off, while tea gives you a slower release of a smaller amount over a period of a few hours. Add to that, after regular consumption you build up a tolerance for caffeine and so won't experience any effects (other than withdrawal if you stop having any), but if you regularly drink tea then you won't be used to the sudden jump in caffeine levels. Oh, and much of the effect of caffeine is psychological. A study a few years ago found that people who unknowingly drink decaf also exhibit the symptoms that they expect from coffee, right up until the point that withdrawal kicks in (and, in some people, the withdrawal is so mild that they don't notice).

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    3. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by cmdr_tofu · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Green tea has less caffeine than black tea, but arguably is much healthier (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/coffee-vs-tea/). Green tea is less processed than black tea, but white tea which is even less processed has less caffeine and may have the most health promoting properties. I've swapped out my daily pot of joe with a daily pot of green/white mix and do feel a lot better! Even with a few chocolate espresso beans now and then, no insomnia :)

    4. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by holysin · · Score: 4, Interesting

      While tea does contain tanin so does coffee. A more common reason as to why you can do this is either you're drinking a fruit /mint tea that has little to no caffeine, or more likely, your body is conditioned for coffee so that when you smell coffee and taste it your brain behaves as though it's just waking up even if there's not a lot of caffine in the cup. An example of this was a study (in england around 2011 if my memory serves) that had people drink regular coffee and decaf and then tested focus and reaction time. The people drinking decaf who were told they were drinking caffeine actually did better than the caffeinated people on (I think just on) reaction time. The brain is an annoyingly inconvenient trickster sometimes.

    5. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by lvxferre · · Score: 1

      Depends on the tea, but most of them have less caffeine than coffee. Drink mate, on the other hand, and you won't sleep for two days. Except if you're used to it.

      --
      Nerdy news for your nerdy needs? http://www.soylentnews.org Soylent News is people!
    6. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by tomhath · · Score: 3, Interesting

      For many people withdrawal from caffeine means a migraine headache. I've told several coworkers who complained of severe headaches on Mondays that they need to drink the same amount on weekends as they do in the office.

    7. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      It does for me. Apparently there's a bell curve, with some outliers experiencing symptoms not far off heroin withdrawal (thankfully I'm not that bad) and others experiencing nothing. Most people just experience mild lethargy for a bit.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    8. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Headache/bad headache != migraine headache. I wish people would really stop saying they get migraine headaches all the time. A migraine head ache is one that is at least 3 days long. Unless your headache was at least that long, it was not a migraine. Also usually migraine sufferers have other issues like not seeing too well, super sensitivity to light, sound, or smell. Could be taste but I never met anyone who had that. They also can vomit or have diarrhea or both at the same time from a migraine. I watched a family member have migraines for years. The many trips to the hospital, and that little pill that messed her up as much as the migraine. When you have a headache where the world is vibrating due to your eye sight being affected from the headache for 3-4 weeks, we'll talk. The one day migraine is BS. That is a headache, not a migraine headache.

      Caffeine increases the blood flow. Increase blood flow helps with regular headaches. Not migraines. The doctors had me pumped full of caffeine during one test. I was talking 2-3 times as fast. That tape was funny. Did nothing for the headache I had at the time. For other headaches, caffeine works well. Why do you think Excedrin works well for regular headaches.

      Another observation: If you actually do get migraines often, see if something near the head or neck is out of alignment or pinched. Most of the heavy migraine sufferers I know had a pinched nerve, out of alignment neck or jaw. Getting those fixed helped slow the frequency of migraines dramatically. Mine issue was my jaw. A tooth came in that hit my lower jaw. That made my jaw not line up correctly. It was off by just a little. Had the tooth taken out. Now I have a few headaches a year instead of a few weeks of no headaches a year.

    9. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by AngryDeuce · · Score: 1

      I have the same problem, not from lack of coffee (which I drink a half-pot of every morning, and have since I was 14), but from lack of soda. I've tried to ween myself off of goddamned Diet Coke many times over the last couple years and I just can't, because by day three I always have a pounding headache. As someone that quit smoking cold turkey, after smoking a pack a day (Newport, no less, no piddly shit Marlboro Lights) the fact that I can't break myself of my Diet Coke habit drives me mad.

      One would think I would be getting my caffeine fix from the java, but I'm definitely having withdrawal symptoms from something in the soda that is not present in the coffee. If not caffeine, what else can it be? The cola itself? Perhaps. All I know is within a couple days without my head feels like it's in a vice. I've gone similar amounts of time without coffee and suffered no ill effects, outside of being a fucking zombie for half the morning, of course. That's the other weird thing I've noticed: the caffeine in soda doesn't seem to have the kick for waking me up like coffee does. I lived down in Georgia for a time and the people down there drink Coke with their breakfast, but that was never sufficient for me to jump start my day for whatever reason.

      It probably is all psychosomatic (well, not the headaches from the caffeine withdrawal, but the need for it to function like a normal human being before 10 AM) but regardless, the headaches are miserable so I'm stuck on the Diet Coke until I find a more healthy substitute.

    10. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by thomasw_lrd · · Score: 1

      If they are like my coworkers their Monday headaches are caused by drinking too much on the weekend.

    11. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 2

      They say tea contains caffeine and yet I can drink one before bed and not feel any effects of insomnia. The reverse is true if i drink coffee. Are there different types of caffeine or is there a lower concentration in tea?

      Depends on the tea. Some can have higher concentrations, some lower - in the same way that concentration in coffee will vary based on the bean, how it's ground, etc.

      Personally - after chugging far too many 2 liter bottles of 'dew in my youth - I find that none of the above particularly effects me. I can drink tea/coffee/jolt/whatever and go to sleep afterwards.

      Maybe I should switch to cocaine.

    12. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by lga · · Score: 1

      Headache/bad headache != migraine headache. I wish people would really stop saying they get migraine headaches all the time. A migraine head ache is one that is at least 3 days long. Unless your headache was at least that long, it was not a migraine.

      Umm... wrong. Anything from 4 to 72 hours. See http://cep.sagepub.com/content/24/1_suppl/23

    13. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by mcgrew · · Score: 2

      I've seen news of reports on studies lately that show coffee is good for you. Is the green tea thing simply Asian folklore, or have there been scientific studies? The video you linked is suspect; it's a VIDEO. Do you have a link for those of us who can actually read, preferably from an .edu domain rather than a .org?

    14. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by Gilmoure · · Score: 1

      The brain was created by Loki?

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    15. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by nighthawk243 · · Score: 1

      There are various migraines. I for example used to get a ton of "Complicated" migraine headaches where the symptoms were very difficult to distinguish from that of a stroke. Slurred speech, no coordination, tunnel vision, numbness on one side...etc. First time I had one, I was taken by Ambulance from the local hospital to UPMC where they then determined (after 6 hours and 3 neurologists later) that I only had a horrible migraine.

    16. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by DCFusor · · Score: 1

      Decaf isn't - it still has some caffeine, just not as much, but still more than a cuppa lipton does.

      --
      Why guess when you can know? Measure!
    17. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A migraine head ache is one that is at least 3 days long. Unless your headache was at least that long, it was not a migraine.

      There is no length of time requirement for a headache to be considered a migrane. A migrane is defined by the characteristics that you listed, not time. What worked/works for you is not always what works for someone else so your blanket statements are not true. Why do you think the doctors tried caffine on you? Not because they were bored, it works with some people.

      My wife had them with regular frequency for years. Slowly over time, they just stopped happening on their own. It's been 15 years since she last had one.

    18. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can predict when I am about to get a migrane. About 2-3 hours before, my mouth and sinus get very dry and I get a craving for very salty and then very sugary things. When I do drink water, it does not "taste" good and I have to force myself to drink it. Cold water is worse and the temperature differce seems to make my cold sweats seem worse. I usually get a little nauseous after driking it. My sensitivity to light, sound, and smell goes way up as it approaches. The actual headaches I eventually get are not bad at all relative to what some people experience and they usually only last 4-6 hours. I can usually handle it with some sleep. Here's the weird part. On my next trip to the bathroom after one of these instances, I have a very specific type of crap. It is usually very dark in color, and made up of smaller pieces. I know that is way TMI but just pointing that out. I've never got an official diagnosis done because like i stated, the overall headache is usually not that bad comparitively speaking. The few times I've gone to the hospital was when i was vomiting, a shot in the ass usually makes it go away.

    19. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bob is that you?

    20. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by budgenator · · Score: 2

      Type of Size* Caffeine**
      Black tea 8 oz. (240 mL) 14-61 mg
      Black tea, decaffeinated 8 oz. (240 mL) 0-12 mg
      Green tea 8 oz. (240 mL) 24-40 mg
      AriZona Iced Tea, lemon-flavored 8 oz. (240 mL) 11 mg
      Generic brewed Coffee 8 oz. (240 mL) 95-200 mg
      Espresso, restaurant-style 1 oz. (30 mL) 40-75 mg
      Monster 8 oz. (240 mL) 80 mg
      5-Hour Energy 2 oz. (60 mL) 207 mg
      Caffeine content for coffee, tea, soda and more

      Caffeine is a delicate organic compound, the more you heat the tea or coffee the more you destroy the caffine, such as the green tea having 1.5 - 2 times as much caffeine as the more heavily process green tea; an Espresso has almost the same to half a regular coffee, despite being made from the near same amount of coffee grounds.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    21. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by KhabaLox · · Score: 1

      When I was on vacation last winter, the people we were staying with didn't tell me they only drank decaf. I normally drink 2-4 cups a day, often starting with 20oz of Starbucks. About two days into it, I got so sick I stayed in bed. I thought I was coming down with the flu. When we put it together the it could be the caffeine withdrawal, we made a trip to the pharmacy to get some instant coffee and I was better in no time.

      --
      Ceci n'est pas un sig.
    22. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If people have withdrawal symptoms they don't notice - and by definition symptoms are events one notices such as fatigue, as opposed to physical signs such as tachycardia, how do they know these people are having a mild withdrawal? Are symptoms "read" by fMRI?

    23. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by sjames · · Score: 1

      The effect is still there with black tea. Given the same amount of caffeine, blood levels will spike higher then fall faster if you get it from coffee.

    24. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      Remember, Caffeine doesn't only come from Coffee, tea - oh yes, TEA has caffeine, as well as Jolt Cola

      Now we know it: It's the tea party's fault! :-)

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    25. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No. Tea is an agricultural product used to make a beverage. White, green, oolong, black, etc., tea is made of leaves from Camellia sinensis. Tea is tea.

      Plant variety, cultivation, growing season, etc., determines caffeine content. Green tea and white tea is "less processed" than black only in that the leaves are "fired" or "steamed" after little or no oxidation. "White tea" is just another plant variety.

    26. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by lonecrow · · Score: 1

      Green tea is less processed

      I think you mean fermented not processed.
      All tea is from the same plant, everything else are "infusions" eg. "Mint tea is not Tea"

      I think it goes like this:

      • White tea, not fermented
      • Green tea, very slightly fermented
      • Oolong, semi-fermented

      • Black tea, most fermented

      White having the least caffine and black having the most

    27. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by uninformedLuddite · · Score: 1

      Maybe I should switch to cocaine.

      You will reach the point where you will still go to sleep afterwards eventually

      --
      The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.
    28. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by nobodie · · Score: 1

      to describe (Chinese) green tea as "processed" is... well the process for (as an example) LongJingCha is to heat a large (1 meter diameter) cast iron wok to a medium temperature (say about 200F, just below boiling in other words) and dump a pile of leaves in the wok. Then take your hands and spread them around the wok, using your hands you keep them moving until the are all dry and you dump them out into a bag to cool and repeat with a new pile. That's the process.
      some other, fancier, green teas involve warming the leaves and rolling them into little balls with flowers inside (called a "flower tea", surprisingly) or without. Sometimes the tea is processed just by spreading it on a cloth in the sun

      --
      Subversion of spatial scale luxury decoration ideas.
    29. Re:How come the water don't smell like coffee? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Caffeine Database

      Coffee (Brewed): 13.4 MG of caffeine/Fluid Ounce

      Tea (Brewed): 5.9 of caffeine/Fluid Ounce

  38. This is merely viral marketing by fragMasterFlash · · Score: 1

    Next thing you know mermaids will be serving coffee on every street corner.

  39. Re:WE'RE VERY AWAKE DOWN HERE GUYS! VERY!!! by Mjlner · · Score: 2

    WE'RE VERY AWAKE DOWN HERE GUYS!

    Just watch out for the sharks with frickin' lasers ON FRICKIN' CAFFEINE!!!

    --
    Lemon curry???
  40. Re:Starbucks by Krneki · · Score: 1

    Ms. Slashdot, add a custom mod option where we enter what we wont.

    --
    Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
  41. Re:Starbucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I am wont to correct your grammar!

  42. Blend by dimethylxanthine · · Score: 0

    Add some Fukushima Daichi, trace steroids and hormone and you have the ultimate power drink, complete with salts and other minerals. Coming soon to a Starbucks near you! (to match the taste).

  43. Re:Starbucks by Anubis+IV · · Score: 2

    If it's too bitter, then you really haven't had decent coffee yet. You can make strong, flavorful coffee without it having to be bitter. If the coffee you're drinking is bitter, there's a good chance that the preparation methods are at fault, since the bitter flavors tend to get extracted from the grounds as a result of over-extraction (the good flavors are extracted first, with the bitter ones coming later).

    For instance, if it's being made in a percolator or a standard drip coffee maker, you need to find something else. Both of those cause some of the grounds to be over-extracted of their flavors, resulting in excessive bitterness. Proper coffee preparation involves water being evenly distributed among the grounds, enabling them to be uniformly extracted of their flavors in exactly the proper amount, then not a moment more. That's why you see a lot of the good coffee preparation methods involving either pressure (so as to force the water through the grounds) or stirring the grounds into the water (so as to uniformly disperse the grounds), sometimes in combination with one another.

    Some basic tips:
    1) Avoid coffee from a percolator or typical drip coffee maker.
    2) Avoid coffee that's been on a burner for awhile.
    3) Avoid coffee that was made with boiling water.
    4) Avoid coffee made from grounds that came ground already.

    In the end though, find whatever works for you, and if it's not coffee, that's fine. Just give it a fair chance by finding some actual decent stuff. There are plenty of other tips out there, but this will at least get you started. And I'm sure some actual coffee aficionado can point out 10 things I said that were incorrect or that I could have said better.

  44. Why is coffee getting the blame? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With all the drinks out there loaded with caffeine why is it coffee get's put under the spot light?

    1. Re:Why is coffee getting the blame? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      With all the drinks out there loaded with caffeine why is it coffee get's put under the spot light?

      Because coffee has become an emblem of ridiculous, preening consumer capitalist conspicuous consumption?

      Three quid for a cup of coffee with some fucking squirty cream in?

      You're having a giraffe.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    2. Re:Why is coffee getting the blame? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Three quid for a cup of coffee with some fucking squirty cream in?

      You're having a giraffe.

      You forgot to mention that's only if they serve it in a tall narrow cup. In some parts of the country they use a short wide cup and call it a hippopotamus.

  45. A problem for mafia... by phagstrom · · Score: 1

    ...because now they can't get anyone to sleep with the fishes.

  46. Sharks that never sleep by flyingfsck · · Score: 1

    So now we have caffeine hopped sharks that never sleep. They won't need lasers on their heads.

    --
    Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
  47. No more sleeping sharks by kawabago · · Score: 1

    When they aren't sleeping, they're feeding.

  48. Science: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Scientist A: Fish never sleep!

    Scientist B: ...mystery solved.

    Thanks, I'll be here all day. Try the veal.

  49. Re:Starbucks by renegadesx · · Score: 1

    Man, I forgot Starbucks was still in business over in the US. You poor bastards.

    --
    Make SELinux enforcing again!
  50. Who is really to blame? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I blame J J Thompson. He was the British physicist who invented the mass spectrometer. Now that we can measure chemical concentrations to one atom in a swimming pool anybody can claim that there is POLLUTION (tm) EVERYWHERE....

    Actually, none of this would matter if scientists weren't funded by the state, and needed to keep 'finding out things' to justify their funding. In the days of amateur scientists people had a much better understanding of balancing the importance of discoveries.

    1. Re:Who is really to blame? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Actually, none of this would matter if scientists weren't funded by the state, and needed to keep 'finding out things' to justify their funding. In the days of amateur scientists people had a much better understanding of balancing the importance of discoveries.

      Yes let's go back to the Eighteenth century model of Gentlemen Amateurs doing all the science, sport and arts. It's all wasted on the plebs anyway.

      Personally, I blame the French Revolution. All that liberty, fraternity, equality nonsense has just ruined things for Us Toffs.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  51. AHA! by sjames · · Score: 1

    So that's why fish don't blink!

    1. Re:AHA! by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      haha, the salmon are going to start building their own damn ladders.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    2. Re:AHA! by sjames · · Score: 1

      I keep picturing a salmon skipping the ladder entirely.

  52. If it's detectable, it doesn't have any effect by Rogerborg · · Score: 1
    --
    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  53. But, It's okay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it's decaf.

  54. Coffee? I wish that would have been all! by sageres · · Score: 1
    1. Re:Coffee? I wish that would have been all! by sageres · · Score: 1
  55. On the other hand... by sageres · · Score: 1

    This is a very good thing! After all, a very definition of programmer is the bio-organic mechanism tasked with converting coffee to code. We will become the world of programmers!

  56. PACIFIC OCEAN FINISHED by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    what you are trying to say is the Pacific Ocean is fucking toast.
    From teh fsckin plastic ta duh fuku radiation en duh tune-a-fishies

  57. Re:Starbucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Translation:

    I know I'll probably get modded troll for this but good luck separating [people I'm the opposite of, and hold distain for] in [state below the states being written about] from [place I heard is attached to the object in the issue].

    Personally I've never [insert way of using the object in question]. I know it has [something obvious about nearly everything], but [insert something only vaguely related to the object in question].

    God damned liberals with their moral equivalence.

  58. Re:WE'RE VERY AWAKE DOWN HERE GUYS! VERY!!! by Neil+Boekend · · Score: 1

    Hmm, isn't Chtulu sleeping at the bottom of the ocean?

    --
    Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
  59. Re:Starbucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've personally acquired a taste for toddy. It takes some time to make, but it's pretty much the least bitter coffee you'll ever have. Plus, you can always add it to hot water to get hot coffee or mix it with milk or ice cream for a cold drink.

    Takes about 13 hours start to finish, but it's totally worth it.

  60. Betteridge's Law? by Gothmolly · · Score: 0

    From Wikipedia:

    Betteridge's Law of Headlines is an adage that states, "Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word 'no'".

    You guys are editors - not content regurgitators or approval-bots. EDIT. Stop sucking!

    --
    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
  61. Those poor fish! by Provocateur · · Score: 1

    We should dump cream AND sugar as well so they have choices!

    --
    WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
  62. Re:Starbucks by Larryish · · Score: 1

    My morning coffee:

    Heat water in a tea kettle.

    Use Columbian beans, 1 heaping teaspoon per breakfast cup of water.

    Grind the beans into a fine powder (I like a little mud in the cup)
      in an electric grinder.

    Dump the coffee grounds into a French press.

    Pour in the water when it is just off the boil.

    The process of pouring the water will stir the grounds, there is no need to use a spoon.

    Let the French press sit for 1 minute, and then put the lid on and slowly press the plunger.

    Pour my cup almost full and then top it off with milk.

    It beats the hell out of pre-ground coffee and paper filters, mostly because it doesn't taste like you are drinking newspaper.

  63. Other things by Dunge · · Score: 0

    I'm pretty sure there are more dangerous other things than coffee out there

  64. This problem will solve itself by turkeyfeathers · · Score: 1

    Caffeine is a diuretic, so it makes fish pee more. Fish urine makes coffee taste terrible, so Oregonians will drink less coffee. It's a perfect example of a negative feedback cycle... that's the beauty of Mother Nature. Take note, Global Warming believers.

  65. Red Fish by s2r · · Score: 0

    It gives you fins!

  66. Canadian. by drainbramage · · Score: 1

    Maybe he lives in Victoria.

    --
    No brain, no pain.
  67. Not all waste is processed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Victoria, British Columbia still dumps raw sewage DIRECTLY into the ocean and has a thriving tea-party/creationist/anti-AGW style movement fighting any and every effort to fix it.

  68. How is this possible? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My US "coffee" experience (last sample 15 years ago) tells me, that the increase in caffeine in sea water cannot come from the US, as they normally carry a pea around the pot or shot it through. very similar to what the British call coffee. However, the cannot be blamed, they normally produce tea and their coffee is very similar. Therefore, the caffeine source must come from somewhere else. Maybe from Mexico.

    But seriously, this means that caffeine passes the clarification plant just as many other drugs. And they can be much more dangerous to the environment. Maybe we should upgrade our plants to fix that.

  69. Does anything break down the caffeine? by JSBiff · · Score: 1

    So, most organic compounds break down over time in the environment. Won't caffeine also break down? At what sort of rate does it break down?

    The only way I'd really be worried about caffeine in the water is if it's going to keep accumulating forever, or at such a high rate that it reaches meaningful concentrations.

  70. No evidence it's antropogenic by ScienceMan · · Score: 1

    From teh article: "it remains unclear whether caffeine is a ubiquitous contaminant of marine systems and if there is any trend in the distribution of caffeine relative to anthropogenic sources of caffeine contamination." There could be natural sources of caffeine washed into bays and coastal waters. Making the leap from caffeine to coffee contamination is, according to the authors, not justified.

  71. Sorry by jjp9999 · · Score: 1

    That was probably me. Sorry, everyone...

  72. Re:Starbucks by nedlohs · · Score: 1

    It was going so well, until you decided to kill it with milk.

  73. The Fish will now... by rotenberry · · Score: 1

    The fish will now have the opportunity to turn the caffeine into theorems.

    (With apologies to Alfred Renyi.)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfr%C3%A9d_R%C3%A9nyi

  74. Re:Starbucks by AlphaWolf_HK · · Score: 1

    Well it's hard to be considered opposite when I support many things that some people consider "left" such as complete legalization of drugs, and I also believe that what people do in the bedroom is their own business. Because of that, the right says I am a liberal. At the same time, I believe in lower taxes, less government spending, less regulation of businesses, and the right to bear arms. Because of that, the left says I am a conservative.

    The right vs left game you put faith in is just stupid. The only reason I brought up the word "liberals" is because that's what starbucks (the company) identify themselves as.

    (And before somebody calls me a libertarian, I don't really fit that definition either. Most libertarians are anti-war. I on the other hand am rather hawkish; I believe that if there is one thing Obama is doing right, that is the war on terror. I think Bush did a good job there too.)

    --
    Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
  75. Re:Starbucks by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

    Coffee should ONLY be brewed in clean, ceramic crucibles.

    Anything else will dissolve in the face of properly brewed coffee.

    That's where you get all the bitter stuff, bits of spoon, filter, carafe....

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  76. Re:Starbucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    4) Avoid coffee made from grounds that came ground already.

    This can not be overstated. Every cup of coffee I've made from pre-ground coffee tastes like mildew. It's so ubiquitous, I didn't even realize it wasn't part of coffee flavor until I had some fresh-ground.

  77. XTra Caffeinated Ocean Water! by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 1

    The Thirst Mutilator!

    --
    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
  78. How many parts per billion is "polluted"? by Freddybear · · Score: 1

    From the article: 44.7 nanograms of caffeine per liter of seawater.
    That's the equivalent of one Red Bull in 1.7 million liters of water.

  79. Re:Starbucks by smisle · · Score: 1

    I've started making my coffee in a single serving cone filter. It tastes pretty good, and takes less effort than a french press. Stick in a filter, dump in some coffee grounds (I grind about once a week) and add hot water from my teapot. Sure, it doesn't compare to the flavor of a perfect cup, but it's pretty good for the amount of effort it takes me.

    --
    I'm not a bird, I'm a super-advanced flying stealth dinosaur!
  80. Planet $tarbuck$ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's see how "environmentally responsible" $tarbuck$ is when you tell them that their business activities are damaging mother earth. Somehow, despite all of their touted care for people and the environment, I'd bet they would rather increase their share price than decrease the Pacific's caffeine concentration.

    And more importantly, where will all the special-snowflake, iCrap-toting hipsters drink their coffee when they realize the green aprons are actually the emperor's new clothes...

  81. Sounds like a dream come true by canadiannomad · · Score: 1

    I can't count how many times I've wanted something like Aeroshot to inhale my caffeine so it could go straight to my blood stream, and here these fish are getting it for free! I wonder if they are breaking any patents? Sue the fish!

    --
    Hmm, the humour and sarcasm seem to have been be lost on you.
  82. Oblig by coolmoose25 · · Score: 1

    Caffeine! It's what fish crave!

    --
    Brawndo: It's what plants crave!
  83. Chem 101 by proslack · · Score: 1

    Dilution is the solution.

    --


    Floating in the black seas of infinity without a paddle.
  84. Finally, they'll get serious about desalinization by whitroth · · Score: 1

    ...but the first products won't be water, they'll be "energy drinks"....

                mark "Ocean Bull has a real kick!"

  85. I was the main research assistant for this study by Vertigo+Acid · · Score: 2

    I realize this isn't reddit, but, AMA.
    I wasn't involved much in the study design in terms of the sampling methods themselves, but I did the site selection for the portion of our study that ended up published. It's been a few years but I still know it like the back of my hand.
    I did all of the sampling itself and a large portion of processing the samples including the GC-MS portion. I was not involved much in the analysis except as a sounding board.

    To address some of the concerns brought up thus far:
    1) There are no known natural sources of caffeine in Oregon. There exists some coral in the indian ocean that secretes caffeine but nothing here locally, off-shore or terrestrial. Caffeine is not the best example, but, the idea is that it is a marker of human impact. We focused on waste water here because it's the most likely source.

    2) Yes, you can accurately measure levels of ng/L. Yes, it's a pain. We actually did about a year of sampling, modifying our procedures, and tests before we were able to confidently prevent and rule out source of contamination. This even included not consuming caffeine in proximity to samples or before doing work with them.

    3) I've not yet read the final paper (no uni access any more) but the other portion of the study we did was dosing pacific mussels with caffeine in a controlled environment. We looked at stress proteins, which are formed in response to environmental stressors, most notably heat. We did not observe an effect at the levels we measured in nature.

    4) Excretion rate from humans is about 5%. Depending on the wastewater treatment regimen, primarily based on tertiary treatment like carbon filtering (very rare) and residence time, anywhere from 0% to 100% of caffeine can be removed. Further study here is necessary.

    5) The half-life of caffeine in the environment is primarily heat related. Based on other studies we referenced, it's much longer in seawater. Off the top of my head the magnitude was on the order of 200 days in seawater vs 60-90 in fresh water. You should read the paper/references for exact numbers. This is far longer than the transit time from excretion to the ocean for most wastewater treatment. It does not bio-accumulate.

    --
    Beta is bad enough to make me go edit settings like this sig that haven't been touched since I joined
  86. Re:Starbucks by hedpe2003 · · Score: 1

    Translation:

    I know I'll probably get modded troll for this but good luck separating [people I'm the opposite of, and hold distain for] in [state below the states being written about] from [place I heard is attached to the object in the issue].

    Personally I've never [insert way of using the object in question]. I know it has [something obvious about nearly everything], but [insert something only vaguely related to the object in question].

    I know I'll probably get modded troll for this, but good luck separating people who know more than me in Slashdot* from the commenting system*.

    Personally I've never used generic templates for writing Slashdot comments. I know it sometimes has its place, but they rarely seem to always be applicable in every circumstance always.

    *I think we need to broaden the template instructions.

    --
    Comprehensive solutions via a competition of ideas like no other.
  87. Re:Starbucks by becker · · Score: 1

    Milk is a reasonable component of a tasty coffee drink.

    The fats in the milk bind with the bitter acids, changing the nature and taste of both. People that add regular milk or cream often prefer a stronger and therefore more bitter brew because the bitterness is mellowed while the tastes they prefer remain strong.

    This effect is well known with wine. Red wines heavy on tannic acid are paired with fatty foods, especially fatty meat and cheese. But the "in" thing in the coffee world is to have a very strong brew with nothing added.

    Don't assume that your biases or tastes are correct, or will even remain the same. My wife used to complain about how I was ruining the coffee by adding milk. After she became pregnant her taste changed to prefer milk and eventually cream in her coffee.

  88. Re:Easy Fix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow, down to "0 Troll"!

      For criticizing the government, no less! The same government OWS screams about. Yet OWS is staunchly defended in /.

    Schizophrenic, much?

  89. Re:Starbucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One benefit is making you think "bitter" is tasty

    Hey, at least give it the credit it deserves ... once your taste for bitter is honed you can at least finally appreciate a real beer.

  90. "engergized" by deodiaus2 · · Score: 1

    My fingers always tremble when I have had too much caffeine!

  91. Mellow Crabs by agrisea · · Score: 1

    Josh Gellers writes: "The study showing abnormal levels of caffeine in the waters off the Oregon coast also suggested that the contaminants were predominantly coming from small-scale waste treatment systems such as household septic tanks, as opposed to large-scale wastewater treatment plants, which are regulated with much greater scrutiny. Such massive facilities are well-equipped to process the waste originating from cities in Oregon, which are comparatively smaller than major metropolitan hubs that have much more waste to contend with. For example, in Massachusetts, high levels of caffeine have been detected in Boston Harbor, likely the result of significantly greater quantities of wastewater that require treatment than those present in Oregon." Gee, I wonder why there is tea detected in Boston Harbor?!?! As to the coffee off Oregon's coast, well, we have crabs and they are very mellow, now. Yet another example of bad reporting. What the study actually said was: Caffeine was detected in Oregon coastal ocean waters measuring up to 44.7 ng/L. Caffeine occurrence and concentrations in seawater did not correspond with pollution threats from population density and point and non-point sources, but did correspond with storm event occurrence. Caffeine concentrations in rivers and estuaries draining to the coast ranged from below the reporting limit to 152.2 ng/L. So, figure out where those rivers dumping in to the Pacific were getting all that caffeine from should be what people are doing.

    --
    Agrisea Tsunami - Epyc Servers... https://agrisea.net/products
  92. Catching Fish by billd10 · · Score: 1

    Maybe all this caffeine in the water column will cause fish to be more alert and harder to catch. And if you do eat one, the caffeine jolt is already built in, making for an even healthier meal.

  93. Re:Starbucks by nedlohs · · Score: 1

    Surely it was obvious that I was making a subjective claim about a preference and not a universal claim about anything?

    More obviously my tastes are correct, they are my tastes after all. That they might change doesn't make them less correct.

  94. Check for B vitamin deficiency as a migraine cause by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As a lifelong clinically-diagnosed migraine sufferer, I dealt with the classic symptoms of unbearable pain, aura, nausea, and diarhea up to 5 times a month. I discovered at the age of 56 that my 5+ decades of misery was caused by a B-vitamin deficiency--in partucular, B12, B6, and B3 (niacin). After years of taking Imitrex and other powerful natural triptans (which don't prevent, but do help migraines after the fact), I discovered that a few bottles of inexpensive nutrients from the dollar store absolutely prevented my headaches from occurring int the first place.

    I feel like the bonds of slavery have been lifted. Vitamin deficiencies seem to be the last thing considered by neurologists and other specialists. There is a lot more money to be made with Imitrex, because my insurance was paying over $200 for nine tablets.

  95. caffeine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe tea? Coke Cola? Medicine like some cold pills?
    caffeine