Interesting Links for 17-07-2024

[andrewducker]

1. No, this isn't the wettest British summer ever

(tags:UK weather )

2. Married Men Are Revealing The Hardest Parts Of Marriage

(tags:men relationships marriage )

3. Elon Musk to move SpaceX and X HQ over gender-identity law

(tags:ElonMusk bigotry transgender children California USA )

4. Why Return-to-Office Mandates Aren't Worth the Risks

(tags:office work jobs )

5. Five big problems the government has to fix

(tags:uk politics problems )

6. Fats from thin air: Making butter using CO2 and water

(tags:food co2 water butter )

Comments

[armiphlage]

Coal was used to make butter in the early 20th century:

https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=EVE19460906-01.2.29&e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA--------0------


The Eagle Valley Enterprise, Volume 46, Number 46, September 6, 194

Butter Is Made by Germans From Coal

Product Is Tasty and Does Not Need Refrigeration. WITTEN, GERMANY. A factory that makes butter from coal was one of the prizes discovered by the British in their zone of Germany, says the Associated Press. “It is excellent butter and I doubt that anyone ever would guess it was synthetic,’’ said one British offftial who sampled it. The factory, Imhausen & Co., located in this Ruhr city, has not made butter since the end of the war but its management hopes to resume operations in about a month Dr. Karl Imhausen, young manager, said the plant normally could produce 600 tons a month at a cost less than that of natural butter. The synthetic butter can be kept without refrigeration. Coal is converted into butter like this: Coal is made into coke, coke into' gas, the gas into paraffin. By a blowing process, the most difficult part of the operation, 80 to 82 tons of fatty acid can be drawn from 100 tons of paraffin. The fats are further separated by distillation under a high vacuum. Some are edible, some are not. From there on the recipe is: Add to the pure, synthetic edible fat 20 per cent water. Add carrot extract for vitamins and coloring. Add salt. Finally, inject something called diacetyl to give the odor of butter. This mixture is whipped up in a machine and comes out the other end like a long sausage about eight Inches in diameter. That goes into another machine from which pounds of butter come out, neatly wrapped, on a conveyor belt. Most of the fats that don’t go into butter are made into soap by an affiliate, also operated by Dr. Imhausen. The residue, unsuitable either for butter or soap, is manufactured into a basic product for plhstics, a softening material for rubber, an ingredient for vamish and into alcohol.

[andrewducker]

Oooh, that's fascinating. I wonder why it never caught on.

[calimac]

My offhand guess: the expense.

[channelpenguin]

that was also my immediate thought!!! thanks for the link!

[gingicat]

4. Their recommendation is what we do.

[calimac]

2) Very few of these have even the remotest application to my marriage.

3) Ah, at last one thing I agree with Musk about: pronoun customs are an aesthetic nightmare. But there are lots of nightmares we have to live with, many far more substantive than this.

[jducoeur]

2 - a good deal there that matches my experience (although also a good deal that doesn't).

In particular, the messages up at the top are crucial IME:

• A healthy marriage requires serious communication, every day.
• Marriage is work, and you need to be prepared to put in that effort every day. A good marriage doesn't just happen, you have to decide to have it, and back that decision up with actions.

None of that is specific to men, or for that matter specific to marriage -- those are the basics of any solid relationship. It's just easier to phone it in when you're married, and that leads to slow decay...

4. RTO

[snippy]

My company, which is a mix of required-in-office, hybrid, and permanent remote (me!) just signed a new lease for 43% less space than the previous lease.

Re: 4. RTO

[andrewducker]

Sensible!