I’m not a cannibal requesting volunteers. (We have a full supply of missionaries in the fridge, thanks.)
Actually, I’m writing a journal article. I need a metaphor. I need to draw an analogy with a devise which both filters and enhances—something that removes unwanted gunk from its input while adding something else before the output stage. Something simple and familar would be ideal but if you only have high-tech examples they will do fine.
I’m sure I’m probably overlooking something blindingly obvious in my garage or kitchen, but I’m a bit of a technological ignoramus. I’ll be very grateful for any suggestions.
The only one I can think of is dreadfully pedestrian: a municipal water treatment system that filters water to take out nasty sediment and then adds fluoride (and/or chlorine).
Oboy, as a metaphor, that’s about as poetic as tooth decay. _Boooor_ing…Don’t worry; better ones will be along soon.
“Every day, your kidneys process about 200 quarts of blood to sift out about 2 quarts of waste products and extra water. The waste and extra water become urine.”
“The actual filtering occurs in tiny units inside your kidneys called nephrons. Every kidney has about a million nephrons. In the nephron, a glomerulus—which is a tiny blood vessel, or capillary—intertwines with a tiny urine-collecting tube called a tubule. A complicated chemical exchange takes place, as waste materials and water leave your blood and enter your urinary system.”
“At first, the tubules receive a combination of waste materials and chemicals that your body can still use. Your kidneys measure out chemicals like sodium, phosphorus, and potassium and release them back to the blood to return to the body. In this way, your kidneys regulate the body’s level of these substances.”
Our tap water filter has two stages.
The first filters the water to remove impurities.
The second creates separate streams using an ionizing chamber to alkalise and acidify the water.
The alkaline water is for drinking and the acidic water is supposed to be good for the skin and cleaning.
They both filter incoming electricity to reduce interference, voltage spikes, and voltage drops, and modulate the form of the electricity into a form that the equipment needs. This usually involves reducing the voltage, and may also involve changing the frequency of AC, or changing AC to DC, or a combination of both.
A Sausage machine. Removes the parts of the pig you don’t want to know about, adds breadcrumbs, herbs and spices, and seals it all in a handy edible membrane. Yum.
People at work regularly pose the question “Can I pick your brains?”.
My stock reply is “You are welcome to anything you find.”
Sounds like the process of “reducing” something, as in cooking, would work. Sort of. Like, you cook it down, and the excess water goes away, and the taste is super intense. I guess?
I hate to be the one to spoil a lovely dream, but I’m afraid sausage mostly is the parts of the pig you don’t want to know about. And as to the edible membrane…
Mystery meat crammed into a loop of bowel. Yum!
My apologies to anyone who might be eating breakfast right now.
I’m perfectly well aware of the “reclaimed meat products” which go into sausages. I’m a vegetarian. I don’t eat them. It’s okay for YOU to be offensive to meat-eaters, since you are one, but it would be inappropriate for me to make the same comment. I thought it would be kinder to keep the dream alive.
Sausages, Santa Claus, Relig …okay, I’ll stop there.
