Lots of very diverse food stories in consumer blog news this week: borderline-inedible British wartime food, delicious LA food truck food--and pet food, which is probably tastier than the aforementioned British wartime food. Also: red-light cameras, a great free file-sharing method and a gold bullion-dispensing ATM.
Consumerist: Recession Driving Brits To Cheap, Inedible Foods - England isn't regarded by most Americans as anything remotely close to a gastronomic paradise, and this disturbing trend amongst our poorly-toothed cousins certainly won't help their reputation. Demonstrating the damage a decade and a half of food rationing can do to a country's collective palate, the Brits are busy frugalizing their diets by sampling "wartime tastes" such as powdered custard (consumption up 117% since 2008), powdered milk (up 36%), jarred fish paste (up 18%) and tinned corned beef (up 16%). One particular delicacy, Shippam's bloater paste, has seen its popularity climb 77% in the past two years. And what are bloaters, pray tell? "Herrings that have been smoked whole, with [their] innards intact." Mmmmm, sounds like a flavour to savour! I spent my semester abroad in London subsisting on Pizza Hut and Burger King because I couldn't afford anything else, but I suppose I should be relieved that my cash didn't dwindle into bloater paste territory.

WalletPop: Inside L.A.'s Food Truck Phenomenon - There are thousands of things I can't stand about The City of Demons, but its glorious glut of gourmet food trucks definitely earns this urban hellscape a checkmark in the win column. It's a perfect example of mutualism: the food trucks save tons of money not having to lease a bricks-and-mortar location or hire a giant restaurant staff, and us lazy office workers don't have to get in our cars and endure horrible surface street traffic at lunchtime, because lunch comes to us! If you're a fellow LA food truck fanatic, check out this awesomely comprehensive Twitter list of LA food trucks compiled by our very own WiscoVixen.

MainStreet: The War Over Traffic Cameras - "Few things inspire such polarized feelings as red-light cameras," according to this post. By "polarized feelings," I'm pretty sure they meant "unanimous contempt," unless you're a police officer or city worker that directly benefits from the free cash printed by these robotic sentinels of injustice. I'm forced to make a left turn through a controlled intersection every day after work, but since making a left turn in Los Angeles inherently involves running a red light (and since I've never seen the flash go off), I think the cameras there were built more to scare people and haunt them with nightmares of $450 tickets than anything else.

LA Times Daily Travel & Deal Blog: Go For The Gold From New ATM Machine At Abu Dhabi Hotel - If you're planning to detonate a nuclear device inside Fort Knox, or even if you're just an iced-out henchman who doesn't trust banks, a German luxury company has built your dream vending machine and set it up in the Emirates Palace Hotel, right in the heart of black gold country. I know what you're thinking, but don't even bother, because the GOLD To Go® ATM weighs a ton (literally), is mounted to either a reinforced wall or the floor and features molybdenum steel armoring (sounds strong). I don't know about you, but I'm trading in my next paycheck for one of these babies.

LifeHacker: How To Share Your Own Files Using BitTorrent - If you're looking for a free and LEGAL way to share gigantic files (or thousands of little files), you can actually use your favorite torrenting client to create your own torrents and share data with friends and family. I didn't even know you could do this on your own, but apparently if you make your torrent and set the tracker to your own IP address with an open port (e.g.; http://###.###.###.###:#####/announce), your buddy should have no trouble leeching your data straight from you. Lately my friends and I have relied on the awesomeness of Dropbox for our personal file-sharing needs (you can get up to 5GB of free space by referring people to join the service), but I'm definitely going to look into this custom torrenting method as well.

BusinessWeek: Inflation Gnaws At Pet Food Companies - Well, this is great timing for a pet food price hike:  my family just adopted an 8-week-old gray tabby kitten last weekend (so far her favorite hobbies include chewing on power cords, knocking picture frames off tables, and watching hockey on TV). She only weighs 2 lbs. 1 oz. (and sleeps in a size 8 shoebox with plenty of room to spare), but has already put quite a dent in her first 8 lb. bag of Iams ProActive Health for Kittens. Luckily, her toys are pretty much free; she goes nuts over her collection of empty bags, tissue paper and jingle balls. The absolute best way to save money on your kitten, though, is to ADOPT! Our healthy little Madeline was only $125 from the Helen Woodward Animal Shelter in San Diego, plus $35 for her microchip.

To the Class of 2010: have a ridiculous graduation weekend, and enjoy the next six decades of wishing you had never left college!