Mild, Damp Winter Behind Collapse Of Swedes' Traditional Gingerbread Houses - AFP

[hatrack]

Now here's a global warming problem I'll bet none of you had considered! :hi:

Sweet-toothed Swedes who have spent hours constructing edible Christmas gingerbread houses are seeing their creations collapse in the Scandinavian country's unusually damp winter, suppliers said on Monday. "The damp weather spells immediate devastation for gingerbread houses. The problem is the mild winter," spokesman at Sweden's leading gingerbread wholesaler Anna's, Aake Mattsson, told Swedish news agency TT.

Gingerbread houses are a popular Christmas tradition in Sweden and across the Nordic countries, with many people buying slabs of pre-baked gingerbread from stores which they decorate and stick together using icing sugar and brightly coloured confectionery.

While much of Sweden is usually gripped by freezing temperatures and heavy snow in December, southern parts of the country have recorded their mildest start to the month for decades.

In recent days Anna's has received some 40 complaints from angry customers whose carefully crafted gingerbread houses have collapsed.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Gingerbread_Houses_Latest_Victim_Of_Global_Warming_999.html

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. And in further news, the Witch in the Woods has been forced to move...

"First it was annoying youngsters eating me out of house and home," said "Witch" Hazel Anderson, former resident of the Gingerbread House. "Now it is global warming. My only choice now is to either move father north and rebuild from scratch, or just give up on the traditions of my foremothers and buy a brick condominium in Oslo."

[Porcupine]

2. It also means a longer season for termites/beetles

and other wood damaging insects to do their dirty work. I suspect there are going to be buildings that will be needing repairs that are very unusual for the region very soon.

The visible symptom is not always the worst part of the problem.

[NickB79]

3. LOL, this reads like an Onion headline

"Collapsing gingerbread homes leave thousands of gingerbread men and women homeless"

[hatrack]

4. They'd best run, run, as fast as they can!

:hi:

[amandabeech]

5. I never realized that gingerbread houses were Scandinavian.

My Swedish grandmother made the cookies only. My guess is that the gingerbread men and women now resemble gumbies more than cardboard cut-outs.

NNadir, I'd like your opinion on a totally different topic.

A few days ago, an article appeared touting improved efficiency of a solar cell that could produce hydrogen from water. The poster of the article here discussed the benefits of using the hydrogen in fuel cells for both electrical generation, space heating and vehicle propulsion.

I commented that hydrogen is very hard to transport and store, and might require a whole new infrastructure. I suggested that the hydrogen could be used in upgrading heavy hydrocarbons and in desulphuring petroleum products. The article itself discussed using the hydrogen to make methanol from the CO and CO2 created by burning hydrocarbons.

I know that you are a big fan of DME, and I seem to recall that the DME could be made using CO/CO2 from burning hydrocarbons. Assuming that such a solar cell could be made to work reasonably well and in a significantly large array with a positive EROEI, would it be possible to make methane or propane from the CO/CO2? It seems to me that making these two products would allow us to use the embedded energy and former emissions used in manufacturing our relatively new heating, chemical processing, electrical generating, transport and storage equipment set up for methane and propane until such time as their useful life comes to a close or until they are clearly obsolete.

Also, can DME and methanol be used, transported and stored using the same in-place equipment that we use for methane, propane and similar very light hydrocarbons?

[eppur_se_muova]

7. Methanol is a liquid, but much more volatile than gasoline (or ethanol).

DME is only slightly higher-boiling than propane, but is water soluble. There might be some problem in keeping it thoroughly dry, which could mean corrosion problems. My guess would be that brass fittings (copper alloys are nonsparking) would be fine, though. So DME could benefit a lot from propane and other LNG infrastructure.

Wikipedia has only a stub for DME, but there is a fair amount of info there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethyl_ether
Also: http://www.vs.ag/ida/index_dmefact.htm

Making either methanol or methane from H2/CO2 is well-established technology.

[NNadir]

6. Bummer.