Bagged Milk in Canada

Posted Tue 2nd Oct 2007 at 5:50 pm by sooty

Bag of milk and ewerThe problems with the type of containers used for packaging gallons of milk in the U.S. was a subject of discussion, recently. The main one being the disposal of emptied containers. Another was the best way to decant milk from a gallon container. The foremost problem for those who recycle is temporary storage space.

If you’ve ever saved recyclable plastics for delivery to recycling drop points you’ve probably experienced the problem of accumulating plastic gallon milk containers in a limited space. They have this annoying tendency to take up quite a lot of space in a short space of time.

Go north!

It turns out that, in Canada, people get their milk in plastic bags rather than in the containers made of plastic suitable for guitar picks that Americans find in their local High St moo juice shoppes. It’s very counter-intuitive, to be sure, if you consider the implications for shipping and handling, not to mention, end-use. Well, people in Canada have managed quite well with this type of milk packaging for years, thank you very much.

Bagged milk comes in a 3 litre size as opposed to the 1 gallon size Americans are accustomed to. You see, Canada is a more advanced society than America. They use the metric system, for one thing. People in America, albeit less anglophilic, prefer the barbaric, English units of measurement (length, weight, volume). So, straightaway, they are going to need a way to understand how much 3 litres yield in terms of English units. A litre is about a quart. So, a bag of milk is about 3/4 of a gallon at sea level.

Now if you’re going to measure the milk at sea level to verify that my estimate is indeed correct, be careful not to allow the bag to take on marine salt water and other possibly equally unsavory things, as that would undoubtedly have a qualitatively negative effect on the taste and bouquet of the milk. Instead of going to so much trouble, you might just take my word for it, unless you happen to live in a seaside villa, in which case, knock yourself out!

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Inventor of Floo Powder

Posted Tue 4th Oct 2005 at 9:14 am by sooty

Where there’s floo there’s fire

This blog and its domain are dedicated to Ignatia Wildsmith, a character from the wizarding world of J.K. Rowling’s remarkable series of Harry Potter books. According to the HP-Lexicon, she invented floo powder in the 1200s:

This silvery powder…when thrown in the fire, allows magical travel and magical communication between fireplaces connected to the Floo Network. The powder is thrown into the flames, which burst up emerald green. To travel, a witch or wizard steps into the flames and states her or his destination (another fireplace on the network). To communicate, the witch or wizard throws the powder into the flames and inserts only her or his head, again stating ther fireplace to which a connection is desired.

It is managed by the Dept. of Magical Transportation in the Ministry of Magic.

Floo networking is a rather hair-raising method of travel and communication, not to mention the possibilities it holds for getting singed, but it is a proven system that has been adopted here for purposes of travel on the Internetsâ„¢.

Although there is little known about the inventor and she only figures as one of the wizard cards that comes with each chocolate frog, her singular contribution to modes of travel has been enormous. We raise our glasses of Madam Rosmerta’s butterbeer in her honor: To Ignatia Wildsmith, who gave us an alternative way to travel great distances in the shortest amount of time without risk of falling from a great height or being splinched. Cheers!

Incidentally, the likeness of Ignatia was lifted from Jo Rowling’s own website and modified without permission.