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4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin

the-berliner.com

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Re: 4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin

#101

Post by [deleted] »

bigbluesax wrote: post #82
olieidel wrote: post #64

Berlin is a great place to observe policies with good intentions, yet negative second-order effects. Distributing free potatoes will likely cause waste somewhere else, as e.g. people will buy less potatoes in supermarkets. The waste just becomes less visible as supermarkets dispose of food every day. Another current exhibit is the prohibition of using salt for removing snow and ice from the pavements because it's "ba…

Is the concept of someone who usually doesn't eat potatoes getting a bag and spending the next week making some potato dishes really that inconceivable? I don't doubt that this will lead to some waste - I've thrown out more half empty potato bags than I would like to admit - but that's a very negative outlook. Also how do you choose between negative second order effects? Salting roads creates negative effects for gro…

[deleted]

Re: 4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin

#102

Post by olieidel »

marc_g wrote: post #96
olieidel wrote: post #64

Berlin is a great place to observe policies with good intentions, yet negative second-order effects. Distributing free potatoes will likely cause waste somewhere else, as e.g. people will buy less potatoes in supermarkets. The waste just becomes less visible as supermarkets dispose of food every day. Another current exhibit is the prohibition of using salt for removing snow and ice from the pavements because it's "ba…

As someone who just went outside to buy groceries in Berlin and watched them salt the road on my way to Kaufland, I am confused. Is it just for sidewalks?

Roads are salted, everything else is not.

Re: 4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin

#103

Post by JumpCrisscross »

bddbbd wrote: post #86
literalAardvark wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could always just clean the snow instead of salting it. It's not rocket science.

[flagged]

> are you suggesting to use a mop when it rains to clean the water before it freezes

Wyoming here. We don't generally salt our roads. Instead, a combination of ploughs (to clear it) and gravel (to increase traction) are used.

More broadly: if you're "astonished with some people not having a grasp," consider that astonishment signals encountering something new.

Re: 4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin

#104

Post by mindslight »

bddbbd wrote: post #86
literalAardvark wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could always just clean the snow instead of salting it. It's not rocket science.

[flagged]

The gall to complain about "not having a grasp on reality" while writing hypersimplistic reactionary comments. The evidence for Dead Internet Theory grows by the day.

With properly graded streets and sidewalks, liquid water runs off. When the bulk of snow is cleared, the small bits that remain melt, flow off, and/or evaporate during melting days. I can't comment on the specific climate of Berlin, but it certainly doesn't seem poised to be an arctic encampment.

Re: 4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin

#105

Post by blell »

olieidel wrote: post #64

Berlin is a great place to observe policies with good intentions, yet negative second-order effects. Distributing free potatoes will likely cause waste somewhere else, as e.g. people will buy less potatoes in supermarkets. The waste just becomes less visible as supermarkets dispose of food every day. Another current exhibit is the prohibition of using salt for removing snow and ice from the pavements because it's "ba…

>How many trees have to be saved to make it worthwhile for more people breaking their bones?

The **** is a death cult. They are very very happy to see you become an invalid if it avoids the death of a sapling. I know that this sounds hyperbolic to the point of being derisive, but it's the observable truth.

Re: 4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin

#106

Post by barbegal »

tomaytotomato wrote: post #85

That could be a big potato battery bank? According to google a 200g potato give off about half a volt (0.5v) and 0.2mah 4000 tonnes = 4,000,000 kg = 4,000,000,000 g num potatoes = 4,000,000,000 / 200 = 20,000,000 potatoes volts = 20,000,000 x 0.5v = 10,000,000 volts (10megavolts) current would stay the same at 0.2mah I am not an electrical engineer, what could we do with this?

The energy comes from the metal electrodes not the potato. Potato is just an electrolyte carrying current between the cathode and anode.

Re: 4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin

#107

Post by Xylakant »

palmotea wrote: post #70
olieidel wrote: post #64

Berlin is a great place to observe policies with good intentions, yet negative second-order effects. Distributing free potatoes will likely cause waste somewhere else, as e.g. people will buy less potatoes in supermarkets. The waste just becomes less visible as supermarkets dispose of food every day. Another current exhibit is the prohibition of using salt for removing snow and ice from the pavements because it's "ba…

> Another current exhibit is the prohibition of using salt for removing snow and ice from the pavements because it's "bad for plants and the ground water". While that is true to some degree, the Berlin policy conveniently ignores all second-order effects: Sidewalks are more slippery, more people get hurt. Rigorously considering second-order (and greater) effects is a massive undertaking, though. Like: how do you even…

The problem is not salting or not - the problem is that the house owners are liable for cleaning the sidewalk and they all outsourced it to the same companies. And the companies unsurprisingly all fail to deliver on their obligations because they take on way more customers they could possibly handle. The result is as expected - nothing gets done. A shovel and broom, maybe some grit would have been enough.

But there’s no shred of enforcement and instead of calling for enforcement, politicians now call for relaxing the rules on salting.

Re: 4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin

#109

Post by meindnoch »

nemomarx wrote: post #60
buckle8017 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only way to profit was too have a large storage tank.

did it not come with the barrels? I figured you'd just need a warehouse and a truck. (which is a pretty big ask, of course, and maybe free labor to pick it up up and move it into the truck...(

Lol, no. When you buy "barrels" of oil on a commodity market, the barrel is a unit of volume (42 US gallons).

Re: 4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin

#110

Post by mindslight »

mathieuh wrote: post #20
waldarbeiter wrote: post #8

"4,000 tons is almost four million kilograms"

Maybe targeted at Americans and using US customary short tons (which is 907 kg)

As an American, I'm going to need this as a volume, either in terms of Olympic-sized swimming pools or the height of a pile in an [American] football stadium. Maybe I'd accept weight as a quantity of Ford F-150s, but you'd be pushing it.
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