#petroleum

To cause the face to appear in a mass of flame make use of the following: mix together thoroughly petroleum, lard, mutton tallow and quick lime. Distill this over a charcoal fire, and the liquid which results can be burned on the face without harm. ↗

— Harry Houdini

#burned #cause #charcoal #distill #face

Petroleum is a more likely cause of international conflict than wheat. ↗

— Simone Weil

#conflict #international #likely #more #petroleum

The use of refined petroleum as fuel, which began in the 1850s, freed hundreds of millions of people from the toil of centuries, gave hundreds of millions more a life of ease and plenty, and, by allowing great cities to feed themselves from every corner of the world, multiplied the population of the earth fivefold. ↗

— James Buchan

#began #centuries #cities #corner #earth

So this is what commodity corn can do to a cow: industrialize the miracle of nature that is a ruminant, taking this sunlight- and prairie grass-powered organism and turning it into the last thing we need: another fossil fuel machine. This one, however, is able to suffer. ↗

— Michael Pollan

#corn #cows #factory-farms #food #industry