Will Deleting Emails Save Water? Let’s Do the Math

Much of Britain was suffering drought conditions last spring. So were other parts of the world. The UK’s National Drought Group, after noting the extensive and increasing use of water by data centers, asked the British public to delete old photos and emails from their personal computers. Will this help the drought situation?

We can think about this by doing a little math.

Data centers typically use water to cool the rooms in which their chips operate. Using GPT-4 to create one 100-word email uses about 0.5 liter (500 milliliters) of water.

Storing one 75 KB email message for a month uses about 0.001 milliliter of water. A simple division problem shows that you would be required to delete 500 emails to make up for creating one!

Perhaps there are wiser ways to save water.

What about those leaky toilets? Leak rates range from about 110 to over 15,000 liters each day. At the lowest leak rate, you would need to delete over 5 million emails a day to keep up with the water lost to the leak!

It’s probably wiser to fix the toilet leak. That will save a LOT more water than deleting old emails. 

Wear Red in February

February is Heart Month. Not just because of Valentine Day, but also it’s a good time to raise awareness about cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death worldwide. Cardiovascular diseases cause about 18 million deaths annually, making it a major global health burden. The number of cases is increasing due to the growth and aging of the population.

Cardiovascular disease includes many conditions of the heart and blood vessels. Heart problems include heart attack, stroke, heart failure, arrhythmia, and heart valve problems.

Blood vessel conditions include atherosclerosis, peripheralarterial disease, aortic aneurysm, cerebral vascular disease, varicose veins, and deep vein thrombosis.

About 80% of cardiovascular disease is caused by knownmodifiable risk factors. These include high systolic blood pressure, poor diet, high LDL cholesterol, smoking, and sedentary lifestyles. The worldwide increases in obesity and diabetes are major contributors to the growth of this health problem.

To learn ways to take proper care of your cardiovascular system and how to prevent or deal with specific heart conditions, please visit this month’s Healthinfo Island poster sets.

https://blog.virtualability.org/2026/02/displays-and-exhibits-for-healthinfo.html

 

Spots? Dots? Measles!

Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus. It is recognized by its characteristic rash that starts on the face and spreads down the body. Like many viral diseases, there is no treatment. Complications, although rare, can be severe, such as pneumonia, neurologic damage, blindness, even death.

Measles used to be a common childhood disease. Almost everyone caught it before the end of the teen years. Each year, about 48,000 people were hospitalized in the US for measles complications, and there were 400-500 measles deaths annually. Once you’d survived measles, you were thought to be immune for the rest of your life.

With the creation of an effective, safe vaccine, themeasles story changed for the better. The measles vaccine is administered in a combination injection along with vaccines against mumps and rubella, termed MMR. Two spaced doses of the MMR vaccine provide 97% protection against measles. Measles is now considered a preventable disease.

The World Health Organization (WHO) will declare acountry or world region to be measles-free when there is no sustained, endemic transmission for at least 12 months. (Cases may still occur due to international travel). The US was declared measles-free in 2000, thanks to widespread childhood vaccination. Maintaining this status requires both a 95% vaccination rate and vigilance to quarantine new cases.

Vaccination programs worldwide are saving the lives of children everywhere. The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has helped other countries strengthen vaccination programs and surveillance systems to detect outbreaks.

In 2025 in the US and around the world, the number of measles cases increased alarmingly. There were linked outbreaks of measles in Texas, Arizona, and South Carolina. The final US yearly count for 2025 was 2,267 confirmed cases. In 2024, the annual count was 285 cases.

By February 5, 2026, the CDC confirmed 773 US measles cases. That’s probably an undercount. As of January 30, the CDC had reported 467 confirmed cases in South Carolina, but state officials reported 847 cases. The trend is alarming.

Will the US lose its measles-elimination designation? Canada lost theirs in November 2025. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Regional Monitoring and Re-Verification Commission for Measles, Rubella, and Congenital Rubella Syndrome (RVC) will conduct areview on April 13th this year.

To learn more about measles, please check out the Measles poster set on Healthinfo Island during February. Here is the SLURL: 

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/195/158/22

How to Advocate for Yourself at Healthcare Appointments

YOU are in charge of your own health! It is important that you speak up, advocate for yourself and your needs. Here are some ways to do a better job of self-advocacy.

• Think of your healthcare provider’s role as an educator. They are responsible for providing information for you and making suggestions about actions you could take to achieve your goals. You DO have clear goals about your health, don’t you?
• Healthcare providers have limited time. Prioritize your goals and concerns. You may only have time to deal with your top two or three at any appointment.
• Share your values. Are you a bold risk-taker, or more conservative in your thoughts about potential treatments? This information will help your healthcare provider offer the most pertinent information.
• Be prepared to ask questions. You already know some of the questions you want to ask Write them down so you won’t forget to ask them. If the nurse or doctor says something you don’t understand, ask! It is not impolite to ask them to write down words you don’t know how to spell, so you can look up more information after you get home.
• Ask a family member or close friend to accompany you to the appointment. Their main role is to take notes on what the healthcare professional tells you. With your permission, they may be able to provide additional information about your health status to the nurse or doctor.