Reminds me of a passage from Richard Powers's novel "Gain" where the process by which a disposable camera is manufactured, packaged, distributed, ad sold serves to explain everything that is at once miraculous and broken about our world.
What Coke Contains
61–70 of 142 posts
Re: What Coke Contains
#62Ok, bit of a bragging moment here: my grandpa, with two other gentlemen, created the process for machining seamless cans that is described here. Before them, cans had a lead seam in them. They discovered that you could draw down the aluminum and stretch it to form cans in one piece. He also invented the process for creating the bottom of soda cans, and his friend invented the modern tab on the top of soda cans.
There's a (perhaps surprising) amount of engineering happening in the tabs to soda cans.
(http://www.enotes.com/aluminum-beverage-can-reference/alumin...)
(http://www.engineerguy.com/videos/video-pop-can.htm)
Also, Pinjarra is doing the teal-orange thing too (https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Pinjarra,+Western+Australia...)
Re: What Coke Contains
#63> The number of individual nations that could produce a can of Coke is zero
While I understand what the author is trying to say, I don't think that is true at all. I'm pretty sure that if they had a good reason, any number of advanced economies could get it together enough to produce the cans themselves. Seems like the main hard part is the aluminium.
While I'm nit-picking, I believe natural cryolite has not been used in aluminium processing for decades.
Thought-provoking article, though; I typed this with a can of Diet Coke on my desk.
Re: What Coke Contains
#64An obvious omission: salt.
Well, salt being common (now, not historically) is probably sourced close to production to reduce its transportation costs. There is a large salt mine within 35 miles of my house, and they are located all along the gulf coast in salt domes, a by product of oil exploration.
Re: What Coke Contains
#65>>The top of the can is then added. This is carefully engineered: it is made from aluminum, but it has to be thicker and stronger to withstand the pressure of the carbon dioxide gas. Eh? The pressure is greater at the top of the can?
Thicker and stronger is about the pull-tab.
Smaller is about cost. They save a bit (say $3 per 1,000 as per link I posted elsewhere) by making the top 1/4 inch smaller.
Over 70 million cans a day that's some cash.
Re: What Coke Contains
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's pretty damn awesome. Behind everything we take for granted, there's someone who slaved over it and brought it into fruition. Thanks for sharing!
I think about this occasionally. Everything that you see that isn't "nature" was explicitly designed by somebody (and most likely a large team of somebodies). Its truly mind-boggling.
I like to think about that too. Like I notice that there's a groove in the latch for a bathroom stall; an engineer decided to put that there, but for what reason?
Re: What Coke Contains
#67By contrast, you can make wine from a single ingredient. And it's an awful lot better than coke.
A good spot to learn precisely how and why you are wrong: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/
Re: What Coke Contains
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
This time of year you can buy "Passover Coke." It's made with cane sugar. It has no corn syrup in it whatsoever, while Mexican Coke actually has a ≈70/30 cane/corn mix. You can tell it apart from regular Coke by its yellow cap printed with a circle U (kosher symbol). It's much cheaper than Mexican Coke (same price as regular 2 liter Coke), although it doesn't come in a glass bottle. And it's delicious! I actually sto…
You should consider making your own cola. It's easy, and very rewarding. Recipe mentioned in my other comment [1]. Incidentally, there are some very good "alternative" colas. My favourite is Fentimans' Curiosity Cola [2], which NY Times once described as "the world's best cola", and which is made with a small amount of fermented ginger (fermented juices is their thing). I also really like Boylan's Cane Cola [3]. [1]…
Fentimans' sounds awesome. I've had a lot of other cane sodas like Boylan's. My kids and I used to raid Bevmo's soda aisle once a week to try new things. That gets expensive though. Passover Coke is nice and cheap by comparison. I never thought about making my own. Maybe I'll give it a try.
Re: What Coke Contains
#69By contrast, you can make wine from a single ingredient. And it's an awful lot better than coke.
The glass bottle, cork, label, etc do not grow on the vine.
Re: What Coke Contains
#70eh, I just don't feel like the writer understands or cares to explain how that whole process is actually detrimental to the world despite the fact that it "unites" it. Coke is just addictive sugar water that does nothing for anyone. When has coke given you something other than diabetes? Kevin Ashton fails at pointing out the impact of this collaboration. Couldn't all of these talented people that made such a sophisti…
You are, of course, absolutely correct.
What is needed to redirect efforts in useful directions is a manner of decision-making and reward within our society that trumps economic rationalism based upon paper-profits and a complete disregard for other factors (human rights, environmental protection, etc.).
How we are going to get there is a question worth working on. I posted yesterday on my perceptions of how we are, albeit slowly, marching towards achieving this. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5308525