Here in The Netherlands, the disaster warning sirens are tested at midday on the first Monday of every month. In the event of a real disaster striking, we’re all supposed to go indoors, shut all doors and windows, and tune into local radio for more information. Since the disaster may involve loss of electricity, the advice is to have a battery-powered radio on hand.

 

Japan is another country where they have a disaster warning system in place, because of earthquakes. Now those nice people at Seiko have come out with a handy-dandy portmanteau device combining a battery-operated radio, clock and torch (flashlight to you speakers of American). Hey, Seiko, perhaps there’s another market for this here in The Netherlands… Mind you, the best sort of design for a device like this is to have it powered by clockwork with a winding crank. Batteries run down…

CW, over at the Ruminations blog, posts an illustration of how different cultural norms can clash. It’s the sand in the global machine.

Another post about graveyards – but for ships this time. Geoff Manaugh posts some striking photos by Edward Burtynsky over at BLDBLOG and ponders the fate of ships and cathedrals – and the human worker ants who toil in their recycling.

There’s an article by Claire Rayner in The Observer today about the choices open to her about her burial.  It’s got me thinking. Like her, I had assumed that cremation would be my obvious choice. But she does have a point about the waste of fossil fuel and the greenhouse gases. And like her, I certainly don’t want to end up in a religious cemetery. 

 

Perhaps the answer is freeze-drying and being turned into compost – as I reported a couple of months ago. But I’m sure the freezing process is not particularly energy efficient.

 

Claire mentions natural burial as the green alternative – and I’ve discovered there is a natural burial ground in The Netherlands in the Bergerbos near Sint Odilienberg.  The Bergerbos looks to be a beautiful area, and I certainly wouldn’t object to being buried there. Just so long as there’s not a piece of the ghastly public art that the Dutch seem to go in for in the near vicinity. Such as that awful butterfly in the 13th photo on the web site. The woods themselves are all I would wish for.