Thought for the day (Dec 13)

Subject: Thought for the day (Dec 13)
From: Peter T.
Date: 13 Dec 99 - 09:08 AM

(Dec 13) The ice filagrees the black water, and the shoreside grasses make their last flickers of movement through the hardening ice before December grips them tight. It is icy cold this morning, and prompts thoughts of cold.

The history of humanity until the early 20th century was the history of the harnessing of heat, its tapping, its storing , its channelling. But the harnessing of cold is an important element of the history of our time. Industrial cold storage has revolutionized food production -- most food through history, except that stored in root cellars and other rudimentary storage areas, went bad, and went bad quickly. Now it is shipped all over the world, held in warehouses, sent out in trucks and trains.

Thoreau remarks in Walden on the new industrial invention of carved ice blocks being shipped around the world from his beloved pond, (an innovation of the 1830s); to be followed later by the ice box, and more recently the refrigerator. The air conditioner has transformed the movement and habitations of populations in North America and around the world. We are now sheltered from nature in the summer as well as the winter, and electrical power generation peaks in summertime, not at Christmas. Two of the global environmental threats of our time, the ozone hole and global climate warming, owe a lot to cooling. And the exploration of the depths of the realm of cold, as the new book Absolute Zero discusses, has just begun.
Meanwhile, it is getting cold sitting here exploring cold, so it is time to be up and going to work.

Subject: RE: Thought for the day (Dec 13)
From: Allan C.
Date: 13 Dec 99 - 09:34 AM

I am reminded of some folks who lived north of the Arctic circle where the temperature was often more than fifty degrees below zero. They delighted in sloshing cups of water out of the front door just to hear the loud popping noise as the water instantly froze while still in mid air.

Subject: RE: Thought for the day (Dec 13)
From: catspaw49
Date: 13 Dec 99 - 09:39 AM

Why not just turn up the heat?

Great post....Always educational Peter T.... I didn't know that ponds were an innovation of the 1830's. Thanks!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the day (Dec 13)
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 13 Dec 99 - 09:56 AM

I feel greatful for the warmth from the cold,
Not everyone has this luxury I'm told.
There are many people this time of year,
Who can not afford heating and live in fear.
Others curl up around heat vents to keep warm,
At this time of year, I feel personally torn.
So I go through my stuff to see what I can spare,
A warm winter jacket, or a blanket I could share.
Then I take my bundle down to a shelter or two,
My God I say to myself, there must be something more I can do.

Little Neo

Subject: RE: Thought for the day (Dec 13)
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Dec 99 - 10:00 AM

My dad tells a story about an old engineer up in Alaska. Dad came upon him in that 50 below weather. The fellow was under a truck, fixing it, and singing at the top of his lungs, happy as a polar bear.

When dad asked his friend about him, he was told that was old so and so, from up on the North Slope. Seems he was a pretty tough fellow. One time they sent him two young engineers, fresh out of university. Well, the old boy and my dad's friend didn't care for them, they made work twice as hard and kept getting in the way. Finally, my dad's friend said that he went to the old engineer and asked how in the world they were going to get rid of those kids so they could get their work done. The old boy said, "Don't worry about it; just follow me and do everything I do."

The next morning, early, the old guy jumped out of bed, stripped off his clothes, and ran out to a snowbank, jumped in and started rolling around in the snow, yelling at his friend and the youngsters to come on and take a snowbath, it was good for you. Well, the fella telling my dad this story said he couldn't do anything but follow suit. It worked. The young engineers packed up and left that day. When they got to HQ they told the powers that be they'd better get those old boys down from the Slope as they were definitely getting "bushy".

katlaughing

Subject: RE: Thought for the day (Dec 13)
From: Peter T.
Date: 13 Dec 99 - 10:22 AM

Thanks CP -- the old "floating descriptors" problem.... Not to mention Pond's cold cream (another modern innovation). yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Thought for the day (Dec 13)
From: Bert
Date: 13 Dec 99 - 10:47 AM

If warmth is a word, why isn't there a word coolth?

Subject: RE: Thought for the day (Dec 13)
From: InOBU
Date: 13 Dec 99 - 10:56 AM

There is, when it is too cold one says Coolth th th th thought, ba ba ba ba Burt
Larry