Food Inflation

[huw]

gutted...thought you would have suggested lighting the tail of a dried rat or something.

How to light and maintain a wood fire

I normally use the two parallel logs method, but now I've seen the top-down method I'm going to try that.

Edited July 19, 2009 by huw

[porca misèria]

Food starts out distributed around the country; the centrally-cooked model requires it to be collected, cooked, and then re-distributed. Food grown and cooked locally cuts out distribution at both ends.

I agree about enjoying roasts while we can. Thinking about fridges, they really ought to dump their waste heat, via a pre-heating stage, into the hot water system. This would make both the fridge and the water heater cheaper to run. Would require joined-up thinking between fridge makers and heating engineers though.

Much the same principle as advocated in http://bahumbug.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/p...ing-waste-heat/

As regards your idea, fridge/freezer lives in kitchen. Cooker also lives in kitchen. Lots of people like immensely inefficient Aga/Rayburn style cookers. Think it through

[porca misèria]

I'm not so sure, I thought I'd seen them rise in price like rice and pasta has.

Um, nope.

Neither have rice or pasta this year. The big rises there were 1-2 years ago and have fallen out of year-on-year inflation figures.

[Bloo Loo]

How to light and maintain a wood fire

I normally use the two parallel logs method, but now I've seen the top-down method I'm going to try that.

Im feeling like an expert already. many thanks.

[Guest happy?]

Im feeling like an expert already. many thanks.

You can test to see whether a chimney draws ok by burning newspaper - if it's blocked you can put the fire out easily.

Anyone who's witnessed a chimney fire will tell you it's worth getting a chimney swept before lighting a fire for the first time. A registered sweep will also carry-out a survey to check whether it's ok to use.

[council dweller]

Im feeling like an expert already. many thanks.

Of course there's nothing like having a good old shag in the light of an open fire, maybe it's the danger element.

A shag by gas heater light is just not the same. Not to mention radiators.

[Guest happy?]

Of course there's nothing like having a good old shag in the light of an open fire, maybe it's the danger element.

A shag by gas heater light is just not the same. Not to mention radiators.

You're forgetting the romance of the economy 7 unit - always a sight to set a girl's heart racing.

[Cinnamon]

I see, the future of the UK is to be a tree-free desert if the rest of the UK starts copying Karl and friends ;-)

[Kurt Barlow]

I see, the future of the UK is to be a tree-free desert if the rest of the UK starts copying Karl and friends ;-)

In the meantime my use of waste wood (which would either rot or go to landfill) simply offsets the use of gas which makes it available to someone else

Edited July 19, 2009 by Kurt Barlow

[porca misèria]

n the meantime my use of waste wood (which would either rot or go to landfill) simply offsets the use of gas which makes it available to someone else

I think he was making the point that use of wood becomes unsustainable as soon as you try to scale it.

The dirtiest power station becomes a (relatively) green option if it's the only alternative to the peasants chopping down all the trees.

[Kurt Barlow]

I think he was making the point that use of wood becomes unsustainable as soon as you try to scale it.

The dirtiest power station becomes a (relatively) green option if it's the only alternative to the peasants chopping down all the trees.

I dont dispute that point. Our future energy problems will have a mulitude of different solutions. There is no silver bullet - nuclear, wind, imported gas, solar, efficiency in isolation can't do it

I recall working out that waste wood that goes to landfill / rots could sustainable provide heating and hot water for about 1 million households in the UK

Edited July 19, 2009 by Kurt Barlow

[huw]

I think he was making the point that use of wood becomes unsustainable as soon as you try to scale it.

The dirtiest power station becomes a (relatively) green option if it's the only alternative to the peasants chopping down all the trees.

It's not scalable in any case IMO ... the logistics of transporting the required amount of wood into our cities would be mind-boggling.

[huw]

I dont dispute that point. Our future energy problems will have a mulitude of different solutions. There is no silver bullet - nuclear, wind, imported gas, solar, efficiency in isolation can't do it

I recall working out that waste wood that goes to landfill / rots could sustainable provide heating and hot water for about 1 million households in the UK

That's interesting, though much pallet wood is only there because of (credit and oil driven) trade.

[Cinnamon]

I dont dispute that point. Our future energy problems will have a mulitude of different solutions. There is no silver bullet - nuclear, wind, imported gas, solar, efficiency in isolation can't do it

I recall working out that waste wood that goes to landfill / rots could sustainable provide heating and hot water for about 1 million households in the UK

I think you find that those mythical solutions will not materialise and that there will be shantytowns and a lot of dead frozen people if this much announced global warming isn't gonna start soon in earnest.

All the toys that are being peddled don't work or are more expensive to produce than the value they generate.

And your waste wood only exists because right now, people can still afford to buy the goods that create the pile of waste wood. Freezing paupers however aren't going to shop...

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/06/20/hist...ttle-vs-carbon/ had a great analogy comparing the west to the way the Xhosa committed economical suicide by destroying their own basis for their livelyhood out of an irrational belief:

Death of a Civilization

by David Deming

A memorial is situated near Bisho in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It commemorates the mass killing of cattle in the Eastern Cape that took place in the 1850s . A Xhosa prophetess had delivered a message from the ancestors saying that the Xhosa must slaughter their cattle (wealth) so that they could rise again anew after defeats by the British colonialsts and mass deaths of their cattle from a lung disease. Following the massacre, some 40000 Xhosa died of starvation. The inscription reads "HERE REST MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN - INNOCENT VICTIMS OF THE 1856/7 CATASTROPHIC CATTLE KILLING".

Over the past several years we have learned that small groups of people can engage in mass suicide. In 1978, 918 members of the Peoples’ Temple led by Jim Jones perished after drinking poisoned koolaid. In 1997, 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult died after drugging themselves and tieing plastic bags around their heads. Unfortunately, history also demonstrates that it is possible for an entire civilization to commit suicide by intentionally destroying the means of its subsistence.

In the early nineteenth century, the British colonized Southeast Africa. The native Xhosa resisted, but suffered repeated and humiliating defeats at the hands of British military forces. The Xhosa lost their independence and their native land became an English colony. The British adopted a policy of westernizing the Xhosa. They were to be converted to Christianity, and their native culture and religion was to be wiped out. Under the stress of being confronted by a superior and irresistible technology, the Xhosa developed feelings of inadequacy and inferiority. In this climate, a prophet appeared.

In April of 1856, a fifteen-year-old girl named Nongqawuse heard a voice telling her that the Xhosa must kill all their cattle, stop cultivating their fields, and destroy their stores of grain and food. The voice insisted that the Xhosa must also get rid of their hoes, cooking pots, and every utensil necessary for the maintenance of life. Once these things were accomplished, a new day would magically dawn. Everything necessary for life would spring spontaneously from the earth. The dead would be resurrected. The blind would see and the old would have their youth restored. New food and livestock would appear in abundance, spontaneously sprouting from the earth. The British would be swept into the sea, and the Xhosa would be restored to their former glory. What was promised was nothing less than the establishment of paradise on earth.

Nongqawuse told this story to her guardian and uncle, Mhlakaza. At first, the uncle was skeptical. But he became a believer after accompanying his niece to the spot where she heard the voices. Although Mhlakaza heard nothing, he became convinced that Nongqawuse was hearing the voice of her dead father, and that the instructions must be obeyed. Mhlakaza became the chief prophet and leader of the cattle-killing movement.

News of the prophecy spread rapidly, and within a few weeks the Xhosa king, Sarhili, became a convert. He ordered the Xhosa to slaughter their cattle and, in a symbolic act, killed his favorite ox. As the hysteria widened, other Xhosa began to have visions. Some saw shadows of the resurrected dead arising from the sea, standing in rushes on the river bank, or even floating in the air. Everywhere that people looked, they found evidence to support what they desperately wanted to be true.

The believers began their work in earnest. Vast amounts of grain were taken out of storage and scattered on the ground to rot. Cattle were killed so quickly and on such an immense scale that vultures could not entirely devour the rotting flesh. The ultimate number of cattle that the Xhosa slaughtered was 400,000. After killing their livestock, the Xhosa built new, larger kraals to hold the marvelous new beasts that they anticipated would rise out of the earth. The impetus of the movement became irresistible.

The resurrection of the dead was predicted to occur on the full moon of June, 1856. Nothing happened. The chief prophet of the cattle-killing movement, Mhlakaza, moved the date to the full moon of August. But again the prophecy was not fulfilled.

The cattle-killing movement now began to enter a final, deadly phase, which its own internal logic dictated as inevitable. The failure of the prophecies was blamed on the fact that the cattle-killing had not been completed. Most believers had retained a few cattle, chiefly consisting of milk cows that provided an immediate and continuous food supply. Worse yet, there was a minority community of skeptical non-believers who refused to kill their livestock.

The fall planting season came and went. Believers threw their spades into the rivers and did not sow a single seed in the ground. By December of 1856, the Xhosa began to feel the pangs of hunger. They scoured the fields and woods for berries and roots, and attempted to eat bark stripped from trees. Mhlakaza set a new date of December 11 for the fulfillment of the prophecy. When the anticipated event did not occur, unbelievers were blamed.

The resurrection was rescheduled yet again for February 16, 1857, but the believers were again disappointed. Even this late, the average believer still had three or four head of livestock alive. The repeated failure of the prophecies could only mean that the Xhosa had failed to fulfill the necessary requirement of killing every last head of cattle. Now, they finally began to complete the killing process. Not only cattle were slaughtered, but also chickens and goats. Any viable means of sustenance had to be destroyed. Any cattle that might have escaped earlier killing were now slaughtered for food.

Serious famine began in late spring of 1857. All the food was gone. The starving population broke into stables and ate horse food. They gathered bones that had lay bleaching in the sun for years and tried to make soup. They ate grass. Maddened by hunger, some resorted to cannibalism. Weakened by starvation, family members often had to lay and watch dogs devour the corpses of their spouses and children. Those who did not die directly from hunger fell prey to disease. To the end, true believers never renounced their faith. They simply starved to death, blaming the failure of the prophecy on the doubts of non-believers.

By the end of 1858, the Xhosa population had dropped from 105,000 to 26,000. Forty to fifty-thousand people starved to death, and the rest migrated. With Xhosa civilization destroyed, the land was cleared for white settlement. The British found that those Xhosa who survived proved to be docile and useful servants. What the British Empire had been unable to accomplish in more than fifty years of aggressive colonialism, the Xhosa did to themselves in less than two years.

[Kurt Barlow]

I think you find that those mythical solutions will not materialise and that there will be shantytowns and a lot of dead frozen people if this much announced global warming isn't gonna start soon in earnest.

All the toys that are being peddled don't work or are more expensive to produce than the value they generate.

And your waste wood only exists because right now, people can still afford to buy the goods that create the pile of waste wood. Freezing paupers however aren't going to shop...

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/06/20/hist...ttle-vs-carbon/ had a great analogy comparing the west to the way the Xhosa committed economical suicide by destroying their own basis for their livelyhood out of an irrational belief:

Do you have any positive news?

[Guest happy?]

I think you find that those mythical solutions will not materialise and that there will be shantytowns and a lot of dead frozen people if this much announced global warming isn't gonna start soon in earnest.

All the toys that are being peddled don't work or are more expensive to produce than the value they generate.

And your waste wood only exists because right now, people can still afford to buy the goods that create the pile of waste wood. Freezing paupers however aren't going to shop...

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/06/20/hist...ttle-vs-carbon/ had a great analogy comparing the west to the way the Xhosa committed economical suicide by destroying their own basis for their livelyhood out of an irrational belief:

Remind me again, why are the climate-change deniers being compared to Xhosa?

[Cinnamon]

Remind me again, why are the climate-change deniers being compared to Xhosa?

Erm they are not. Just pointing out that we're cutting our electricity off with dire results to come, we're about to repeat what the Xhosa inflicted on themselves. It's the believers in global warming who are doing the self-sabotage here -- look at the intended CO2 reduction figures for the EU, because what that really means is that consumption is going to get limited severely as power stations get decommisioned due to old age and replacements are not planned.

I don't like it one little bit at all, but well, this will be the shape of things to come when those power stations get switched off and masses of people get priced out of power. Feel free to show me an alternative scenario, I'd love to be wrong here. But as I said, none of the alternatives scale or are even reliable and nuclear power is off the menu too. So, off will unfortunately mean 'off' in about 2 year's time -- and that means for many people: no fridges, no cookers, no phones, no computers, no hot water, no washing machines, instant 3rd world, but without the least know-how how to deal with things.

And I'm sorry Karl, I really wish that I had good news, but I can't see how the land can support millions of people living without power in the winter, and over time I also can't see how even intermittent supply can be offered to the many who won't be able to pay 5k+ a year. And to top it all up, our houses often don't even have chimneys anymore and if you don't heat 'em, they'll rot within a few years.

As they say: hope is the last thing to die, but it always does so in a gruesome, brutal way.

[Kurt Barlow]

Erm they are not. Just pointing out that we're cutting our electricity off with dire results to come, we're about to repeat what the Xhosa inflicted on themselves. It's the believers in global warming who are doing the self-sabotage here -- look at the intended CO2 reduction figures for the EU, because what that really means is that consumption is going to get limited severely as power stations get decommisioned due to old age and replacements are not planned.

I don't like it one little bit at all, but well, this will be the shape of things to come when those power stations get switched off and masses of people get priced out of power. Feel free to show me an alternative scenario, I'd love to be wrong here. But as I said, none of the alternatives scale or are even reliable and nuclear power is off the menu too. So, off will unfortunately mean 'off' in about 2 year's time -- and that means for many people: no fridges, no cookers, no phones, no computers, no hot water, no washing machines, instant 3rd world, but without the least know-how how to deal with things.

And I'm sorry Karl, I really wish that I had good news, but I can't see how the land can support millions of people living without power in the winter, and over time I also can't see how even intermittent supply can be offered to the many who won't be able to pay 5k+ a year. And to top it all up, our houses often don't even have chimneys anymore and if you don't heat 'em, they'll rot within a few years.

As they say: hope is the last thing to die, but it always does so in a gruesome, brutal way.

Blimey - your outlook is worse than Steve Cook's

Best invest in some kilner jars and a shotgun

[migratory_bird]

I check the nutritional labels regularly on my food and noticed that they have been getting less and less calores in them.

Oh goodie I thought to myself, thinking they had improved the recipe. No such luck. They are slowly but surely making the contents smaller and smaller, but not reducing the price. Rip-off Britain stikes again.

[porca misèria]

I check the nutritional labels regularly on my food and noticed that they have been getting less and less calores in them.

Oh goodie I thought to myself, thinking they had improved the recipe. No such luck. They are slowly but surely making the contents smaller and smaller, but not reducing the price. Rip-off Britain stikes again.

Erm ... my mother pointed that out to me when I was a young child. That'll be 40 years ago, give or take ...