Stuff you just don't get.

[Noclevername]

Schrodinger's Angel: Tanya Roberts dead and alive.

Former Charlie's Angels actress Tanya Roberts was reported dead in several news outlets a couple of days ago yesterday, having collapsed in her home. It's been since confirmed that she survived the collapse and is hospitalized, though not doing well.

Apparently her significant other jumped the gun due to a miscommunication of some sort and told the media she was already gone. Entertainment news and Wikipedia all had to retract, rescind and correct their articles.

[Extravoice]

I don’t get that minor skin injuries itch while healing. This makes it more likely you’ll “reopen the wound” and take longer to heal.

I’d heard this is a side effect of the skin repair process, but seems a bit counter productive.

[Noclevername]

I don’t get that minor skin injuries itch while healing. This makes it more likely you’ll “reopen the wound” and take longer to heal.

I’d heard this is a side effect of the skin repair process, but seems a bit counter productive.

We're a design by committee. Much about our bodies' gross structures could use some efficiency tweaking by a good engineering team.

Still, we work. The level of function we have purely through mutation and natural selection, is remarkable. Life accidentally hit on vastly complex molecular mechanics that not only survive and make more of themselves, but have been successfully doing so for billions of years.

[Jens]

I don’t get that minor skin injuries itch while healing. This makes it more likely you’ll “reopen the wound” and take longer to heal.

I’d heard this is a side effect of the skin repair process, but seems a bit counter productive.

It's an interesting point, actually. I wonder if there might be some evolutionary value to having the itchiness, though I can't think of anything obvious. Maybe it keeps us aware that we are injured, or something like that.

According to an article I found at the Washington University Review of Health, "Evolution suggests that we evolved the itch mechanism to rid ourselves of disease causing insects and plant matter." I'm not sure if it's true, but it sounds plausible.

[grant hutchison]

I don’t get that minor skin injuries itch while healing. This makes it more likely you’ll “reopen the wound” and take longer to heal.

I’d heard this is a side effect of the skin repair process, but seems a bit counter productive.

Yes, it's a bug, rather than a feature. The nerves that mediate itch are caught up in the healing process and are firing off spontaneously. Our bodies are full of mechanisms that evolved to do useful things when we're in a normal, healthy state, which can end up doing counterproductive things when we're in a diseased state--think "cytokine storm" in Covid, for instance.
In the case of itch, as Jens points out, the useful thing for which itch evolved is the removal of irritants from the skin. In modern society we're less exposed to biting insects, but in the natural world they create a huge physiological burden, because they're vectors of all sorts of nasty diseases--so any mechanism that allows an animal to detect an insect alighting or moving across the skin, and which triggers a vigorous scraping motion at that location, has huge evolutionary benefits. Those benefits, in wild animals, presumably outweigh the adverse effects from wound scratching.

Grant Hutchison

[Solfe]

We're a design by committee. Much about our bodies' gross structures could use some efficiency tweaking by a good engineering team.

Still, we work. The level of function we have purely through mutation and natural selection, is remarkable. Life accidentally hit on vastly complex molecular mechanics that not only survive and make more of themselves, but have been successfully doing so for billions of years.

The committee on eyes should have been better vetted.

[Noclevername]

The committee on eyes should have been better vetted.

I can think of many improvements. We all can. But sadly, the customers were not consulted on the matter. It's poor planning and poor marketing!

I'm definitely filing a complaint, if I can ever get through to customer services.

[Gillianren]

Childbirth could definitely stand improvement.

[Swift]

I can think of many improvements. We all can. But sadly, the customers were not consulted on the matter. It's poor planning and poor marketing!

I'm definitely filing a complaint, if I can ever get through to customer services.

Well with the cuts to the development budget and the time pressure on the release date (only had six days for the entire project), they were forced to go with the beta version.

[Swift]

Evolution is a lot like capitalism. You don't have to be the best, you just have to be better than your competitors.

[Noclevername]

Evolution is a lot like capitalism. You don't have to be the best, you just have to be better than your competitors.

Even if it's only barely better, in the long run. "Eh, it'll do" is always good enough.

Which is also my motto in life.

[schlaugh]

Well with the cuts to the development budget and the time pressure on the release date (only had six days for the entire project), they were forced to go with the beta version.

Thank goodness we weren't developed in an Agile model. You'd be missing an eye, an ear, at least one nostril, some toes and 6 feet of intestines.

[Noclevername]

Thank goodness we weren't developed in an Agile model. You'd be missing an eye, an ear, at least one nostril, some toes and 6 feet of intestines.

There's an "after my last divorce" joke in there somewhere.

[jamesabrown]

Even if it's only barely better, in the long run. "Eh, it'll do" is always good enough.

Which is also my motto in life.

"Good enough for government work" is my go-to phrase for human design.

[profloater]

Evolution is a lot like capitalism. You don't have to be the best, you just have to be better than your competitors.

Err, that would be the best, then?

[grant hutchison]

Err, that would be the best, then?

Not necessarily. As in the old joke about how to outrun a polar bear: "You can't outrun a polar bear, but you don't need to. You just need to outrun at least one other member of your party."

Grant Hutchison

[Noclevername]

Err, that would be the best, then?

The Best in that context, as I interpret it, means "very good". Evolution settles for the merely adequate.

[profloater]

Not necessarily. As in the old joke about how to outrun a polar bear: "You can't outrun a polar bear, but you don't need to. You just need to outrun at least one other member of your party."

Grant Hutchison

True, so context matters and fortune or luck comes into it too. You can be at the back when the polar bear surprises the leader.
I do like the epithet attributed to Churchill, least worst. It packs so much into two words.

[Noclevername]

"Good enough for government work" is my go-to phrase for human design.

A low bar indeed.

[Trebuchet]

I saw some ads for a food delivery service the other day. It's called "Imperfect Foods". Maybe the website will explain why; I haven't looked yet.

[geonuc]

I saw some ads for a food delivery service the other day. It's called "Imperfect Foods". Maybe the website will explain why; I haven't looked yet.

They offer groceries that are imperfect in some way, making them unsuitable for mainstream grocery stores and which would otherwise be thrown away or used as animal feed. Misshapen carrots and the like. Plus other stuff. I know a few people that use the service and they like it.

[Gillianren]

My best friend gets produce from them and is very happy with them.

[Trebuchet]

They offer groceries that are imperfect in some way, making them unsuitable for mainstream grocery stores and which would otherwise be thrown away or used as animal feed. Misshapen carrots and the like. Plus other stuff. I know a few people that use the service and they like it.

My best friend gets produce from them and is very happy with them.

Cool! Today's learning experience!

[Solfe]

Ok, here is something I plainy don't understand.

My neighbor shovels the snow on her lawn. It seems to me that she has divided the lawn into segments and every day for an hour or two, she evenly distributes the snow in one area. She does this every day and has been doing it for years.

Right now, we have hardly any snow at all. Only the icy drifts left over from shoveling, the piles in lees of buildings or in shadows where the sun doesn't hit for too long. She throws the snow around and it seems like it does not accelerate melting. In fact, she has more snow on her lawn that I do by a large margin.

The question is, why? I have no idea why you'd do this. If you wanted it gone, you'd throw it in the street or the driveway to melt on the black surface. She isn't doing that.

The closest I have come up to is it's exercise. I have a push mower that I use to mow the lawn everyday (in summer, I'm not that much of a nut), so I get that concept. The lawn doesn't need mowing everyday, but I need to get out and walk around for a while. Plus, I don't have to remember to mow the lawn.

Is there another reason to move snow around on the lawn?

[grant hutchison]

Is there another reason to move snow around on the lawn?

Why not just ask her?

Grant Hutchison

[Trebuchet]

So, I just watched this YouTube video by some guy in Florida who taste-tests old and new military rations. This one was of a 2013 British 24 Hr Cold Weather Ration. Stuff I don't get:
1. Why do I enjoy these so much? I did NOT enjoy my time in the US Military?
2. The main thing I don't get: This video had something in common with pretty much all the "cold-weather" rations he tests: The designer apparently assumes the user will have ample access to both water and heat. Everything is either freeze dried or a drink that needs water added. Mostly hot water. Ok, you're out on the arctic tundra in the winter. There's snow on the ground. How are you going to melt it, let alone boil it?

Stuff that amuses me: I only had to eat C-rations a few times in basic training. In 1971, they included cigarrettes. I could trade those to the addicts for pretty much anything!

[grant hutchison]

Ok, you're out on the arctic tundra in the winter. There's snow on the ground. How are you going to melt it, let alone boil it?

For the British Army, a folding Ration Heater Stove and some fuel blocks.

Grant Hutchison

[Van Rijn]

So, I just watched this YouTube video by some guy in Florida who taste-tests old and new military rations. This one was of a 2013 British 24 Hr Cold Weather Ration.

His videos came up in my recommendation list some time ago, and I occasionally watch them. He talks positively about almost everything he eats, but I suspect I wouldn’t enjoy the food as much as he does. Also, he sometimes eats some really old stuff that I wouldn’t try. But I think his pleasant/positive approach helps make his videos more popular.

By the way, before Covid-19, I was looking into buying some long shelf life food, more for convenience than anything, but also if there was a bad earthquake temporarily disrupting services. For instance, there is a company that sells canned ground beef that is supposed to be fine for tacos or sloppy joes, and not too costly, but I waited too long and now it is almost impossible to find, or at a ridiculous premium. Commercial MREs are the same way, or at least were last time I looked.

[Torsten]

... My neighbor shovels the snow on her lawn. It seems to me that she has divided the lawn into segments and every day for an hour or two, she evenly distributes the snow in one area. She does this every day and has been doing it for years ... In fact, she has more snow on her lawn that I do by a large margin.

Maybe she's trying to get it to stay longer??

If you wanted it gone, you'd throw it in the street or the driveway to melt on the black surface. She isn't doing that.

That brought back childhood memories. It snowed a lot in my hometown. Sometimes the residential streets looked like snow canyons, with the banks 3-4m tall. To a kid it seemed like endless shoveling to keep the driveway cleared, and at times it was just about impossible to throw the snow high enough so it wouldn't come sliding right back onto the driveway. But as soon as it got warm again, and we knew that it was going to stay that way, everyone attacked those banks and threw the snow back onto the street.

[Noclevername]

That brought back childhood memories. It snowed a lot in my hometown. Sometimes the residential streets looked like snow canyons, with the banks 3-4m tall. To a kid it seemed like endless shoveling to keep the driveway cleared, and at times it was just about impossible to throw the snow high enough so it wouldn't come sliding right back onto the driveway. But as soon as it got warm again, and we knew that it was going to stay that way, everyone attacked those banks and threw the snow back onto the street.

Where I grew up (mostly Connecticut and Rhode Island) piles of plowed snow were collected in huge burial mounds at the sides of empty parking lots, where they remained standing until well into spring.

Or, of course, across the end of my driveway.