In the 2001 John Singleton movie "Baby Boy", Ving Rhames character (Melvin) discusses the concept of mans possessions being broken in to two categories; "Guns & Butter". Guns represent real estate, stocks and bonds; items that appreciate in value. Butter symbolizes depreciating assets such as cars, clothes jewelry, etc. E020 expands on this concept, and uses "thermometers" as a metaphor for essentially speaking the truth, and "thermostats" as an idea for creating the environment one wishes to live in.