Common cleaning sponge found to release trillions of microplastic fibers

Our gas and electricity are independent and both are very reliable. The gas range can be ignited without electricity. And I have a propane BBQ on the deck outside the kitchen. It has a nice view too.

Microwaves are good for thawing leftovers. We don't actually cook anything in the microwave.

John Larkin Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center Lunatic Fringe Electronics

Is the gas in the UK real natural gas? Do they still make that dreadful coal gas? In the old murder mysteries, people would turn on the gas lights, or stick pretty ladies' heads in unlighted ovens, to kill them from the CO.

Ours burns very clean, nice blue flame. I can wipe down the walls and see no soot.

Our main wall crud is a few spider webs. We have a puffy thing on a long stick to get those every few months. Since they catch and eat other bugs, we don't kill the spiders themselves.

John Larkin Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center Lunatic Fringe Electronics

We have gas too, for heating. It used to be here in the ground,. Digging the gas caused earthquakes that damaged homes and people started crying for compensation. So most of the gas fields here are now closed Europe could get cheap gas from Russia via the Northstream2 pipeline But US CIA clowns like 'lensky blew that pipeline up so we had to buy US shipped gas.

Important point with gas central heating is that you ALSO need electricity for the system to work, pumps etc. This house is now equipped with double insulated walls. You can leave the gas heating off for large parts of the year, still need it for hot water when showering. Many years ago as a kid we hat an electric hot water tank that always had the right temperature and a big oil tank buried in the garden for heating. Even longer ago we had coal, even a big coal heater in the classrooms in primary school in Amsterdam.

I have 2 microwave ovens, one a big Whirlpool (make name) with electric oven and grill and all sorts of programs using it all the time.

On the other hand just recently (likely due to all the world tension about fuel) digging for more gas in the Northsea just a few miles away seems to have been given the go-ahead here if I understood the news right.

I also use it to heat up pizzas and other stuff stored in the deepfreeze

I do have a fire-starter and plenty of burnable stuff in the garden if all else fails :-) Was just working in the garden this afternoon... Removing stuff and planting nice new plants. Few more month and the grapes are ready again. Weather is nice.

So making a lot of profit by for example robbing banks is moral? Somebody robs your store or abuses your patents? Or like tramp does: abduct a president and steal Venezuela's oil for profit? Blow up Northstream2 so you can make more profit selling you own natural gas? Trying to grab Iran's oil? Making wars everywhere so you can sell more weapons?

Better put the [homeless] people to work fixing your infrastructure, give them some housing, THAT will increase the living standard and gain respect! Now US is just a bunch of thieves and robbers and killers. Disgusting!!!!

It makes pizza soggy!

Nice here too. We got a bit of rain, which is unusual this time of year and welcome in what is legally a desert.

Things are so green now that it hurts your eyes.

but it won't rain much more until November so things will dry out.

John Larkin Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center Lunatic Fringe Electronics

I remember the bumper sticker in Louisiana:

LET THE BASTARDS FREEZE IN THE DARK

The Ukranians are assumed to have blown up the pipeline. Well, Russia attacked them first.

Our water heater doesn't need electric power. The control is powered by a thermocouple.

We do need power for the fan on the gas central heat, but it doesn't get very cold here.

Europe had better ease off on the greenie thing.

John Larkin Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center Lunatic Fringe Electronics

Neither is profit. Just theft.

Profit is being more productive than what it costs to make things. Profit is why we have clothes and shoes and houses and schools and computers.

Next time the Russians invade europe, don't ask us for help.

Two world wars and one cold war was enough.

John Larkin Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center Lunatic Fringe Electronics

Coal gas in the UK was phased out in the '60s following the development of north sea oil and gas. It is referred to as natural gas or North Sea Gas.

Gas burning appliances had to be modified as the gas to air needs for methane (which is the main constituent of Natural Gas) are different from the mixture contained in coal gas.

kw

If that were done wrong, or just not done, it could make soot.

I have bought a couple of Weber propane BBQs that made really wimpy flames. I drilled out the jets.

John Larkin Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center Lunatic Fringe Electronics

The Russians haven't actually invaded Europe yet. They occupied quite a lot of it after they defeated Germany (with some help from their allies).

The US was slow to help Europe in both the wars against Germany, and only got involved when it became obvious that letting German win would put the US at a serious commercial disadvantage.

All of which you did very nicely out of, when you finally decided to buy in.

Does it not use a pump for the heated water and a normal electronic thermostat in the living room? Mine does, and it shows temperature and setpoint on an LCD.

I agree with that, leave it to the greens and we will all live in tents and caves and burn wood, or just freeze.

I usually buy some frozen Dr Oetker pizzas and put those in the deepfreeze.

Make my own toppings, usually bake some mushrooms with butter, chili peppers, garlic, salt, onions, white pepper powder in a pan, put it on top of the Dr Oetker pizzas... add some apricots, olives, sometimes salad, some ketchup,

Nice, work to do!

Sounds bad.. plenty of rain here, just a few miles from the sea this week will be sunny and dry, but later with wind from the sea likely more rain. Groundwater is not ver deep here Road here is lined with apple trees, hundreds laying about in summer !

It never rains in California...?

I really wish there were a system wherby votes were cast *against* candidates and the one who had the fewest objectors was declared the winner. It would be a much more honest system because much of the voting is not determined by which candidate you like most, but by which one you dislike least.

Another major difference is the rate of propagation of the flame front. Even if the mixture is correct, methane burns so slowly that the flames lift off the burner and could only be kept alight by slowing down the rate of flow of the mixture.

As that would give insufficient heat, the burner is designed with small pilot flames at the base of the main jets. The mixture is fed slowly to the pilot flames through narrowed passages, so they don't lift off - they then continually ignite the main flames at their roots. The flow in the main flames can then be much faster than the flame front velocity, allowing more gas consumption and greater heat output for a given burner size.

Not in this town. Not even fireplaces.

RL

The Canyon Market down the hill sells bags of freshly made pizza dough. We like their sourdough.

We roll that out and add a bit of Mo's tomato sauce, which she makes from cherry tomatoes; my job is to whup it up with my hand blender. We add good cheese and red onions and garlic and some green stuff. I like sausage on my half.

It bakes for 12 minutes at 450F, until a couple bits around the edge bubble up black.

I opened a design office down in the village, so I can hike to work and not drive the dreadful freeway and park downtown.

I walk mostly on lanes, little mid-block dirt roads like in the pic. Penny Lane, Poppy Lane, Ohlone Way, and the canyon greenbelt.

It's a bunch of vertical feet, good exercize after clicking a mouse all day.

We have a policy that if you get suck on something, take a walk.

Here's our conference room:

Gosh, those were the days.

Around here, it usually doesn't rain between April and November. It rains more up north, and east in the Sierras.

Some of the plants survive by absorbing the fog through their leaves.

We almost never get ESD zaps here. Or lightning.

John Larkin Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center Lunatic Fringe Electronics

The single transferable vote system is used that way - I regularly make sure that my least-favoured candidate is at the bottom of my list.

It is now.

The conversion started in 1968 and was completed in 1976. I moved to England in 1971, but never lived anywhere where the conversion hadn't already been done.

The UK is keen on draft-proofing. The air-circulation through UK kitchens may be slower.