Love Food Hate Waste

My new favourite site: Love Food Hate Waste

Around a third of all the food we buy ends up being thrown away and most of this could have been eaten – it's not just peelings, cores and bones.

90% of us just don't realise how much good food we throw out, yet in the UK we throw away 6.7 million tonnes of food each year.

It's not just an issue of good food going to waste, or that this costs us as consumers a significant amount of money, but that there are serious environmental implications.
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The amount of food we throw away is a waste of resources. Just think about all the energy, water and packaging used in food production, transportation and storage. This all goes to waste when we throw away perfectly good food.

I really hate wasting food, and I can't compost at the moment, living in an apartment not yet serviced by the city's green bin collection. I try to eat everything I buy. I freeze leftovers if I know I won't be able to finish them before they go bad. I make stock out of vegetable scraps (keep a bag in the freezer until it is full, then pop it in my crockpot with some water and herbs overnight... mmm). I make muffins out of overripe bananas and not-so-fresh yogurt. But sometimes I just don't know what to DO with my leftover food.

This site has all kinds of great tips. They have a portion planner for those who never know how much to cook, ideas on how to make food stay fresh longer, and all kinds of recipes to help you use up those odds and ends in the fridge.

Bigotry: it's not just for adults anymore

New! "God Hates Fags" T-shirts, now in toddler sizes.

You know what they say: if you want 'em to grow up without a shred of care or compassion for fellow human beings - start 'em early. If you want 'em to become hate-filled, rage-filled, closed-minded, we suggest you work on 'em while they're still malleable. Start with these tees, so the message burns itself into their soft, innocent hearts. Ah, the next generation of little Pat Buchanans:

These kids are going to need some serious deprogramming later in life.

Statistically speaking, some of the kids whose parents dress them in these shirts are going to be gay themselves.

Reminds me of the fact that many (some even say most) victims of homophobic violence (bullying, gay-bashing, etc) are not even gay - but are usually those who others mistakenly think are gay. This is just one reason (you know, aside from the morality aspect) that even straight folk should be concerned about homophobia. Gay bashing is about more than just punishing homosexuality; it is also a method of enforcing social conformity. Boys are punished by their peers for stretching the strictures of masculinist behaviour. Of course, those who do the enforcing don't come up with the idea on their own, but pick it up from heterosexist society, communities, churches, and parents - especially those parents who buy their kids "God Hates Fags" t-shirts.

In case you weren't aware, godhatesfags.com is a website run by Fred Phelps, leader of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. They're the ones who have anti-gay protests around the U.S., including at some points showing up at the funerals of gay men, and have moved on to a general "God hates America" theme, due to all our depravity. He makes Jeremiah Wright (Obama's pastor) look like a teddy bear–at least he was just saying God ought to damn America.

From the fantastic site: Sociological Images

(05.08.08) Recommends:

Blogging Your Way To Work/Proving Your Critics Wrong.

So after yesterday's post, we received no less than two messages challenging the assertion that we actually take the metro to work. We've long suspected that the readers of this blog are primarily ne'r-do-wells; however, we did not anticipate that they were also faithless.

We figured the only way to prove the nay-sayers wrong is to turn our morning commute into a Bloggable Event.

We like to call this first pic the Pre-6AM Hollywood Blackout Blues. LA -- we're not being fair here, this is pretty much applicable to California as a whole -- doesn't really get started until 10:30am, 9:30am tops. Which is great for us, as we grew up waking to the crowing of roosters and whirling of blow dryers at 4:00am every morning, so we can get started with our work without having to, you know, like, interact with people and stuff.



This next pic doesn't really do this building justice. But it's built in this weird castle-inspired architecture that is oddly prevalent throughout Los Angeles (was castle-inspired architecture big in, like, the 50s? Is this some residual Disney effect? Is this an elaborate joke we're not in on? If anybody has any info on LA's obsession with castle-based architecture, we'd love to know).



Franklin Ave. and Beachwood Dr.



Sushi Ike. Perhaps our favorite sushi in LA. Another peculiar California-ism is they put really excellent restaurants in totally sketchy strip malls. This has taken us years to get used to.



See what we mean? We remember the first time we (hurriedly) walked by this sign and thought rather than Al Wazir Chicken it said Al Jeezera Chicken. We figured that explained the existence, in the same strip mall, of a store called Security Training (which, no doubt, is a Department of Homeland Security it's-so-unsubtle-it-becomes-subtle front). However, upon noting our error, we're now pretty sure it's Thai Massage that the feds may or may not be monitoring.



We go to LA music venues all the time. We walk by the Henry Fonda every day. But we've never seen a show here.



Looking westward on Hollywood Blvd. The streets of where I'm from are paved with hearts instead of gold...


Our red line station.



The Alice in Wonderland decent.



The Metro is well-known for its use of alliteration.



Our g ride.


Our exit.



The view from the 7th Street Metro stop.



The view outside our office.



The view inside our office.