Saltsale

Stand in the middle of Salar de Uyuni , the world’s greatest salt desert, and the first word that springs to mind is ­nothing. As far as the eye can see, ­nothing. Not a shrub or tree, not a hill or valley, just an endless expanse of white.

This salt flat in Bolivia, the landlocked heart of South America, is a harsh and eerie landscape, perhaps the closest thing nature has to a void. From the Incas to the present day, humanity has made little impression here.

But that may be about to change. Dig down and you find brine – water saturated with salt – rich in deposits of lithium, the lightest metal.

As the invention of the pneumatic tyre turned rubber into a precious commodity in the 19th century, the world’s tilt towards greener energy is expected to do the same for lithium in the 21st. For years, tiny amounts have been used in laptops, BlackBerrys and other devices, but now its main use is expected to be in batteries for electric cars, which campaigners, manufacturers and governments say will – or should – replace petrol and diesel vehicles.

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The annual salt festival In Grand Saline, Texas is on this week.

For more than a century, production of salt from one of the largest salt deposits in the US has been the lifeblood of this town that even bears the product’s name. In downtown sits the Salt Palace Museum , which is made of pure rock salt. The museum displays information on the history of Grand Saline and salt mining memorabilia and shows a film on mining operations.

Check it here

Salt on a table, vibrating at different frequencies produces a visual representation of the harmonic nodes.

Warning: watch in low volume only

Sodium chloride is the spice of life. It’s the one common condiment in everyday use across cultures, cuisines and continents. Yet it can be harmful if you have too much. Then again, it’s an essential nutrient, and too little of it can be dangerous too.

Salt’s humble image has undergone a sea change since the days of the Dandi march . Now it comes in an assortment of amped-up “healthier” variants. Iodized or not, low-sodium or normal…the confusion this simple and essential (even this is now being debated) food ingredient seems to churn up is bewildering, to say the least. So what’s the truth? Is salt good or bad for you? The truth, as is often the case, lies somewhere in between.

Full article here