Oil over $100

Oil is back near $100. Some pundits are saying it's because capital is being diverted from the various collapsing funds into commodities, which I can well believe. However, we all know what the overall trend is.

Here's a good recent summary of the situation.

Garden Diary, 21 February 2008

Starting to harvest a fair amount now: spuds, cucumbers, peppers, garlic. The summer has been very dry, but we had a lot of rain a couple of weeks back which definitely helped. More notes on the photos.

Making Yoghurt

Just made some yoghurt and thought I'd share my recipe, gleaned from various others on the net, that seems to work quite well:

• Heat a quantity of milk (whatever will fit in your thermos flask) to 80 deg C (176F). This apparently changes the character of the milk slightly, breaking down proteins or something.
• Let the milk cool down to 40-42 deg C (104F). Yoghurt bacteria like it at this temperature.
• Mix in some yoghurt you have already got (bought or used from the last batch)
• Put the milk / yoghurt mixture into a thermos flask - the absolutely best and easiest way to keep it at a consistent temperature for the 6 - 12 hours you need to turn it all into yoghurt.
• After it's all cultured (probably the same consistency as the yoghurt you put in, roughly), transfer to a container and put in the fridge - keeps for at least a week, maybe two, I've never made enough to find out :-)

I've had it all turn in about 6 hours but you can leave it for 12 hours with no ill effects. Mine's going to culture overnight. I find that if you put it in a wide container and gradually drain off the whey (I presume) it gets lovely and thick.

A great way to get some culture ! :-)

Rubbish Free Year

Just thought I'd put in a plug for Robyn and Waveney and their Rubbish Free Year. Well worth checking out their Rubbish-Free Guide for tips on how to reduce waste.

Financial Market "Failure"

I saw a lovely quote today, typical of many similar comments in the media recently, with respect to the housing collapse in the US:

Government intervention may be needed, too, if the free market system doesn't work quick enough

There seems to be this feeling out there that when the market is increasing peoples wealth it is "working", but when wealth is collapsing the market is NOT working. With my very limited understanding of free markets as being the sum total of the collective actions of individuals acting in their own interests, isn't this all perfectly normal ? This market, i.e., the people collectively acting out of self-interest, created this situation - blaming the problem on corporations that were spawned from your own desire for wealth is childish to say the least. This is the downside of the risk you took - if you believed them when they told you that there was no risk, it's your own silly fault.

Surely to try to rescue this situation with government intervention is to say that free markets are a bad thing. If left to it's own devices, there will be pain, yes, but the market will eventually stabilise and life will go on. Regardless, it doesn't look like any rescue plan is going to fix this one, so there may be no alternative other than waiting it out.