let's order strange things from NIST! first up is this jar of reference peanut butter. it's only $881 per jar!

but it's no ordinary peanut butter. it's got a MSDS! and a datasheet!
ok technically it is only $881 per *three* jars.
but why would you want this peanut butter? it comes with certified amounts of particular substances in it, so it's good for calibrating equipment used in the food industry to measure regular ol' grocery store peanut butter.
but NIST has a lot more than just peanut butter. oh my. you won't believe the goodies i've seen!
here, have some breakfast cereal! it comes in a pill bottle.
it'll go well with your...uhhh...whale blubber
no, what we need is some milk. you can pick fortified or unfortified milk but sorry, it's contaminated. oh also, it's human.
all right, that's not very appetizing. let's have some meat homogenate instead. actually that's probably just wet cat food 😂
couldn't find a photo of it, but maybe we should just eat "typical diet"
after eating all of that reference material i really... uhh... 💩
yes, this is powdered sewage.
there's other urban waste products too, like this Urban Dust.
or how about some THC? yes, from marijuana. however, it's been peed out by someone and is freeze dried. how'd they collect this stuff anyway?
perhaps they have a Reference Joint, similar to this standard cigarette.
some of these substances are a bit cruder than others.
huh, it's a standard bullet and a standard shell casing
you can also buy dirt.
huh, this must be the "health food" section of the NIST store. it's only slightly more expensive than Whole Foods
anyway, feel free to browse the store yourself. https://t.co/iwmINX6RTQ
their "news and updates" section also has some amusing headlines.
https://t.co/ZU0IoxKzhZ
i just love the generic packaging. reminds me of this stuff.
oh no

You May Also Like

I'm going to do two history threads on Ethiopia, one on its ancient history, one on its modern story (1800 to today). 🇪🇹

I'll begin with the ancient history ... and it goes way back. Because modern humans - and before that, the ancestors of humans - almost certainly originated in Ethiopia. 🇪🇹 (sub-thread):


The first likely historical reference to Ethiopia is ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to the "Land of Punt" in search of gold, ebony, ivory, incense, and wild animals, starting in c 2500 BC 🇪🇹


Ethiopians themselves believe that the Queen of Sheba, who visited Israel's King Solomon in the Bible (c 950 BC), came from Ethiopia (not Yemen, as others believe). Here she is meeting Solomon in a stain-glassed window in Addis Ababa's Holy Trinity Church. 🇪🇹


References to the Queen of Sheba are everywhere in Ethiopia. The national airline's frequent flier miles are even called "ShebaMiles". 🇪🇹
This is NONSENSE. The people who take photos with their books on instagram are known to be voracious readers who graciously take time to review books and recommend them to their followers. Part of their medium is to take elaborate, beautiful photos of books. Die mad, Guardian.


THEY DO READ THEM, YOU JUDGY, RACOON-PICKED TRASH BIN


If you come for Bookstagram, i will fight you.

In appreciation, here are some of my favourite bookstagrams of my books: (photos by lit_nerd37, mybookacademy, bookswrotemystory, and scorpio_books)