Stuff you just don't get.

[grant hutchison]

I was mincing some garlic for aioli yesterday. Why is it so dang STICKY?

It's the mercaptans, supposedly.
I use a garlic press that comes with a little tool that clears all the holes in one go, once you've extruded the garlic. It's a source of unreasonable joy to me.

Grant Hutchison

[schlaugh]

It's the mercaptans, supposedly.
I use a garlic press that comes with a little tool that clears all the holes in one go, once you've extruded the garlic. It's a source of unreasonable joy to me.

Grant Hutchison

I probably have that same garlic press. What amazes me is that I haven't lost the little tool down the drain.

[Trebuchet]

It's the mercaptans, supposedly.
I use a garlic press that comes with a little tool that clears all the holes in one go, once you've extruded the garlic. It's a source of unreasonable joy to me.

Grant Hutchison

I probably have that same garlic press. What amazes me is that I haven't lost the little tool down the drain.

I should get one of those! Making aioli is a new thing at Chez Trebuchet; we had my niece visit a couple of months ago and she made some for her hamburger. My wife tried it and now has to have it every time. This evening she had it on a fish sandwich.

[Jens]

A couple of things that I've never quite exactly gotten:

-When it says "99% fat free" on some food, does that mean that it is 1% fat? Or for example, when soap says "99% pure," what does that mean? Pure what?
-When it says that the chance of rain from 14:00-15:00 is 30%, does that mean that there is only a 30% chance that it will rain during that hour, or that it will rain 30% of the time during that hour? I guess the first.

[grant hutchison]

These always annoy me, with the result I've looked up what they mean at various times.
99% fat free means that one percent of the weight of the food is fat. I'd guess that's not dry weight.
99% pure soap means that 99% of the dry weight of the bar of soap contains chemicals deemed to be essential for its function--fatty acids, alkali, surfactant, maybe even perfume. So the remainder is made of various contaminants from the manufacturing process. I don't think I've ever seen it in the UK--I only know about it because I watched a documentary recently about Cronenberg's film Rabid, which featured Marilyn Chambers, and there was some discussion of her early role in an Ivory soap commercial.
30% chance of rain means that there is a 30% probability that more than some minimum total amount of rain will fall during the forecast period. In the UK, that's 0.1mm over a one-hour period.

Grant Hutchison

[Jens]

These always annoy me, with the result I've looked up what they mean at various times.
99% fat free means that one percent of the weight of the food is fat. I'd guess that's not dry weight.
99% pure soap means that 99% of the dry weight of the bar of soap contains chemicals deemed to be essential for its function--fatty acids, alkali, surfactant, maybe even perfume. So the remainder is made of various contaminants from the manufacturing process. I don't think I've ever seen it in the UK--I only know about it because I watched a documentary recently about Cronenberg's film Rabid, which featured Marilyn Chambers, and there was some discussion of her early role in an Ivory soap commercial.
30% chance of rain means that there is a 30% probability that more than some minimum total amount of rain will fall during the forecast period. In the UK, that's 0.1mm over a one-hour period.

Grant, thanks a lot as usual. I'm happy that I'm not the only one who gets annoyed by these things.

[Jens]

30% chance of rain means that there is a 30% probability that more than some minimum total amount of rain will fall during the forecast period. In the UK, that's 0.1mm over a one-hour period.

That's interesting to hear, and it really makes sense. What is kind of interesting to think about it, how many people actually understand that? So what are people in general thinking about when they see that 30% mark on the TV? I guess in general people think, well if there is a rain mark I'd better take my umbrella.

[grant hutchison]

That's interesting to hear, and it really makes sense. What is kind of interesting to think about it, how many people actually understand that? So what are people in general thinking about when they see that 30% mark on the TV? I guess in general people think, well if there is a rain mark I'd better take my umbrella.

I don't really find these probabilities very useful, as bare data. It depends on the weather, too. If you have widely spaced, slow-moving cumulus coming through, then a small chance of rain brings with it a small chance of being completely drenched if you're not near shelter. Whereas the arrival of a warm front means you've got plenty of time to get indoors if the rain starts to weep down a little early. So I tend to look at the synoptic charts and the sky more than I pay attention to the rain forecast. That's maybe a product of living in a temperate maritime climate, though.

Grant Hutchison

[Van Rijn]

On my weather app, I never see “Chance of rain” go below 10%, but in the summer here I think it should usually be more like .01%. We usually just have the occasional clouds in the summer, not even that many. It is rarely overcast. Occasionally we will get light rain in June and September, but the weather is fairly obvious when that happens. In July and August the only times I’ve felt sprinkles is when a tropical storm came from off coast from the south.

I don’t know if that is just an issue with the app being limited to that or really coming from a weather service.

[Swift]

These always annoy me, with the result I've looked up what they mean at various times.
99% fat free means that one percent of the weight of the food is fat. I'd guess that's not dry weight.

I've made the joke for years that one could market a mixture of 50% lard (fat) and 50% flour as "50% fat free".

[Gillianren]

We live maybe a mile (as the crow flies; driving there is farther) from a part of the railroad line where the road dips under the railroad. There are very prominent signs for at least half a mile on either side announcing that it is a twelve-foot clearance, and that if your vehicle is taller than twelve feet, you should be taking an alternate route; the alternate routes are posted very clearly. The signs closest to the bridge have flashing lights on them.

Yesterday afternoon, I was chatting online with a friend when I heard a very loud crash. "That's not Fort Lewis," I said. (The local army base has been doing a lot of artillery practice this summer.) "I think someone just drove into the bridge again. Last night, I mentioned it to Graham. And he confirmed that, yes, that was exactly what had happened; he'd driven past the mess on his way home. Apparently, the truck had a clearing of 12'3", and the driver figured that was close enough. The thing that got us was that it has to be at least the second, possibly the third or fourth, time it's happened while we've lived in this house. We moved here in March.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

It's not 12 feet 2 inches, it is not 12 feet 1 inch, it is 12 feet. There is a very famous, well in skeptical circles musician who while working the SGU got a van stuck in the basement parking lot of a hotel, and almost took out the water supply, not naming names at all.

[grant hutchison]

Someone I once worked with acquired a monstrous SUV truck during a midlife crisis, and attempted to park it in an underground car park he'd used for years. Hanging in the entrance to the car park was a sign, announcing the maximum clearance within. When he realized he couldn't get his SUV under the hanging signboard he got out and flipped it up and over, to rest on the bar it was hanging from. Then he drove under it--and jammed his SUV very firmly under the first concrete cross-beam in the parking area. Yes, the signboard had been positioned at the maximum clearance height.

Grant Hutchison

[Trebuchet]

Someone I once worked with acquired a monstrous SUV truck during a midlife crisis, and attempted to park it in an underground car park he'd used for years. Hanging in the entrance to the car park was a sign, announcing the maximum clearance within. When he realized he couldn't get his SUV under the hanging signboard he got out and flipped it up and over, to rest on the bar it was hanging from. Then he drove under it--and jammed his SUV very firmly under the first concrete cross-beam in the parking area. Yes, the signboard had been positioned at the maximum clearance height.

Grant Hutchison

I dont get why people think they need those vehicles!

[PetersCreek]

Not everything is about ‘need’.

[Noclevername]

I dont get why people think they need those vehicles!

Because homo sapiens are born without peacock feathers?

[Extravoice]

There is a fairly well known website that highlighted videos of vehicles crashing into an 11’ 8” bridge.
Engineers have somehow added another 8 inches of headroom, but there continue to be crashes.

http://11foot8.com/about/the-documentary/


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[Van Rijn]

Wow, I wasted er, spent a bit of time watching the documentary and then some of the specific videos. I’m sort of picturing the Ryder truck rental place staff telling the drivers “Whatever you do, don’t go under this bridge . . .” and the drivers forgetting all about it.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

There is bridge like on the highway between here and Fredericton that should have more accidents and there is no real why around it. Plus we have a number of covered bridges that a bad hit by a truck would ruin them.

[DonM435]

Of course, if the officials lie about the bridge clearance to provide some margin (say, post 11'10" instead of 12'0"), the drivers would adjust incorrectly in no time at all.

"Ah, they always allow extra inches, so my just-a-bit-over 12 foot truck will breeze on through."

[Gillianren]

According to my best friend, so many people crash into this particular bridge that a scanner she follows on Facebook runs a countdown every year until the first bridge crash of the year.

[Trebuchet]

Note: Not aimed at any specific politician!

The TV just said the President of the USA is on his way to California to be briefed on the wildfire situation. This is standard procedure; every time there's a major disaster the President is expected to go to the area. All Presidents, always.

What's the point? Is he going to learn anything he couldn't over the phone, or by watching TV? Instead he has to go to an area where emergency services are already severely overloaded and add to their workload to provide security for him and take their leaders away from doing their jobs by talking to him. It's not just pointless, it's counterproductive.

Again: Not just this POTUS, they've all been doing it for decades and I've been annoyed by it just as long.

[Noclevername]

Note: Not aimed at any specific politician!

The TV just said the President of the USA is on his way to California to be briefed on the wildfire situation. This is standard procedure; every time there's a major disaster the President is expected to go to the area. All Presidents, always.

What's the point? Is he going to learn anything he couldn't over the phone, or by watching TV? Instead he has to go to an area where emergency services are already severely overloaded and add to their workload to provide security for him and take their leaders away from doing their jobs by talking to him. It's not just pointless, it's counterproductive.

Again: Not just this POTUS, they've all been doing it for decades and I've been annoyed by it just as long.

It's supposed to show concern. I suppose. I only know that not doing it provokes a public backlash, so now they're locked into doing it.

[Extravoice]

Agreed. They have to go to avoid a public relations problem that has no basis in reality.

Now if someone could explain reporters standing outside the White House to report on presidential activities, even when he is overseas.


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[schlaugh]

Agreed. They have to go to avoid a public relations problem that has no basis in reality.

Now if someone could explain reporters standing outside the White House to report on presidential activities, even when he is overseas.


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Backdrop and window dressing.

[grant hutchison]

Backdrop and window dressing.

Sarah Smith, the Scotland Editor for the BBC, wrote an amusing article about that during lockdown, when most TV journalists were filing their reports by Zoom from a corner of their living rooms (usually with a carefully positioned bookshelf in the background). She described how lockdown hadn't changed her day much at all--she still spent almost all of it using a phone and various electronic messaging systems--apart from the bits where she'd usually have to stop work and drive across Edinburgh for thirty minutes so that she could stand outside the Scottish Parliament to file her reports.

Grant Hutchison

[Swift]

Agreed. They have to go to avoid a public relations problem that has no basis in reality.

Now if someone could explain reporters standing outside the White House to report on presidential activities, even when he is overseas.


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It is also the reason weather forecasters will stand outside in blizzards and hurricanes when reporting on those events.

[Trebuchet]

The internet. The cable guy has been here for an hour and can't figure out why.

[Gillianren]

Yesterday, I bought a bottle of salted caramel coffee creamer to make a baked French toast casserole with. Except it turns out it was salted caramel mocha--including the chocolate and coffee flavours. Why would you want coffee flavouring in your coffee creamer?

[Van Rijn]

Yesterday, I bought a bottle of salted caramel coffee creamer to make a baked French toast casserole with. Except it turns out it was salted caramel mocha--including the chocolate and coffee flavours. Why would you want coffee flavouring in your coffee creamer?

Heck, it never occurred to me to have salted caramel flavor in coffee creamer. I didn’t even realize that was a thing. I don’t drink coffee often, and then I use regular creamer to mellow out the bitterness. I’m usually not that big on added flavorings in tea or coffee.