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Cake day: September 14th, 2024

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  • exasperation@lemm.eetoComic Strips@lemmy.worldSheep eating
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    8 days ago

    This reminds me of the boy who cried wolf. Eventually the boy cries wolf too many times, townspeople stop listening to the boy, and stop responding to the cries.

    The way we tell it, though, is that the boy is falsely crying wolf each time. And the townspeople eventually learn their lesson and stop responding.

    One hypothetical that I always think about is what if the boy is correct each time, and there really is a wolf every time? Well, I think the townspeople would eventually grow numb to the cries and stop responding anyway, and kinda leave the boy to fend for himself because they’re sick of helping him. We’d see the same result even if the boy did nothing wrong.





  • pulled right from the fuckin court documents

    The “court documents” are filings by the parties. You’re summarizing litigation documents filed by Twitter, in a motion to dismiss, which is a phase of litigation before either side comes forward with any evidence.

    The court hasn’t ruled on anything, so you’re just repeating statements that one side has claimed. I’m pointing out that the other side is claiming the opposite.

    The suing company isn’t going off anything but fucking assumptions.

    They’re not required to come forward with evidence (and litigation procedure doesn’t even give them much of an opportunity to come forward with evidence at this stage). What they have come forward with is literally sealed by the court, so unless you’re leaking confidential court documents you don’t have any idea of what they’re claiming. Take a look at the docket.

    If you’re going to be aggressive in this comment section, at least learn the very basics of the thing you’re being aggressive about. It’s clear you don’t know the basics of this type of litigation, so it might help if you show some intellectual humility, take a step back, and let the knowledgeable people actually weigh in, to be able to evaluate the publicly filed documents in an informed way. Whatever it is you’re doing instead, looks pretty bad.



  • Partially. I think it’s a good drop in replacement for:

    • Anything technology oriented, from software to hardware to what different open source projects are up to, to what tech corporations are doing, and various discussions around ecosystems (the internet itself, specific services like Discord or Reddit or LinkedIn, app stores, social networking, etc.)
    • Funny memes or other humor

    It’s got pretty good coverage of certain topics:

    • Politics, at least on specific sub topics
    • Science and specific scientific disciplines

    It has a few pockets that work for very specific things:

    • Specific TV show or movie franchises (looking at you, Star Trek)
    • ADHD or neurodivergent support/advice
    • Noncredible Defense is actually here. Love it.

    And it’s just missing a bunch of things I loved on Reddit:

    • Sports, especially the unique culture of the NBA subreddit
    • Other specific interests in television, film, music, or other cultural interests.
    • Local things in specific cities
    • Finance and economics stuff
    • Lots of specific interests/hobbies are missing, or just aren’t as active.
    • Advice/support for career/work life, especially specific careers (in my case, the legal industry and life as a lawyer)
    • Advice/support relating to personal relationships, from parenting to dating to very specific support forums for things like divorce or cancer. Even what does exist here is disproportionately neurodivergent, so the topics of focus seem to be pretty different than what would be discussed in other places.

  • You’re comparing animals with fat throughout the muscle to birds that don’t.

    No, I’m comparing the same species of animal. We’ve gone from 100+ day old birds weighing 2.5 lbs to 47 day old birds weighing 6.5 lbs in the last century. That seems comparable to the difference between old roosters for coq au vin or old dairy cattle for vaca vieja and their respective supermarket counterparts.

    Also, the connective tissue only starts to break down once getting to about 192f and needs to hang out for a good while between there and 210 to slowly break down.

    No, collagen starts to break down slowly as low as 130°F, but the breakdown speeds up as the temperature rises. There are ways to play around with this with different techniques, where doneness is more than just getting the meat to temperature. It’s why poaching chicken used to be more common than it is today. It’s why chicken wings taste best when double fried. It’s why confit works so well for duck legs.

    Also, steak was best 200 years ago as it is now.

    Ok, again, if you’ve ever had to work through cooking something like vaca vieja, you’ll notice that it doesn’t cook the same way as a steak that’s been dry aged, or a regular steak at Costco, or a lean grass-fed steak. If your steak technique is the exact same for all of them, you’re probably missing out.

    And I’m guessing the NY Times wasn’t exactly building this conclusion based on only steak recipes. 150 years is gonna have a lot of non-steak recipes in the mix.

    Methods changed because we got better at cooking.

    That’s part of it. But also, trends come and go. I’d rather have a 1950s cheeseburger than a 1990s cheeseburger, and much of the post 2010 scene has been re-implementing some old techniques that fell out of favor (smashing patties, simpler bread for buns, fewer toppings) and a backlash at some of those things that got out of control. Cocktails went through something similar too, with old classics coming back (either as is or with a new variation).

    I’m sure any comprehensive catalog of recipes over decades is going to include some fads that fizzled out, like low fat stuff in the 90’s, etc. It’s not some kind of inexorable march of progress.


  • I’m betting chicken always could have cooked faster.

    Chicken can be cooked to temperature quickly, but that alone likely wasn’t enough. We know this for plenty of cuts of pork and beef that the connective tissue needs time to break down, not just a pure cook to temperature (see braising, smoking, and sous vide techniques).

    Something like coq au vin, which was developed for cooking older, tougher roosters, traditionally calls for a low and slow cook to break down the tougher animal.

    You can also see the difference when buying cuts like vaca vieja (old dairy cattle slaughtered for meat), which calls for different preparation based on the tougher meat.

    So no, I can believe the meat itself is very different today, and the recipes adjusted to the change in ingredient characteristics. We’ve documented that the manner of raising animals is totally different, so why would you be skeptical that the meat is different?


  • Interesting that egg sizing labels aren’t that universal. In the U.S. most big stores primarily stock Large (minimum weight 56.7g) and Extra Large (63.8g), while Jumbo (70.9g) is still probably more common than Medium (49.6g).

    (My methodology for getting weights was that I used the government labeling requirements for minimum weight per dozen, converted ounces to grams, divided by 12).


  • Or are you just speaking about cash reserves?

    Yes. Cash reserves are like unused RAM to me: I have it, so I might as well put it to work. If it turns out I need it somewhere else, I can always go rearrange things to make that possible.

    Realistically, I think I’m rich because my wife and I both have strong ability to command high salaries, switch jobs, etc., even in a pretty severe downturn. The main things that might tank the value of that expected future cash flow are disability or death, and we at least insure against those.

    We also only need one of our two incomes to support our lifestyle, so we have a certain resilience that just comes from having that buffer. At our current ages, we also already have substantial retirement savings, so we have some resilience there, too.


  • exasperation@lemm.eetoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.worldHow are you doing financially?
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    1 month ago

    What’s your relationship or philosophy with money?

    A life-changing shift to my approach has been to worry about absolute amounts rather than percentages. Saving $10 on a $20 item feels great but ultimately is the same thing as saving $10 on a $500 item (which feels like nothing).

    I grew up lower middle class: never had to worry about not having a roof over my head, but there were times we were somewhat food insecure, and spending money on leisure/entertainment or anything unnecessary for survival was a foreign concept until I got to high school and some my parents’ career moves paid off and put us in upper middle class. It took them a good 10+ years before they could relax a little bit and feel secure with their money, though, and that was as much driven by the fact that their kids were adults who had moved out.

    So life has been about deciding which of my parents’ frugal attitudes and approaches to money to keep and which to discard.

    Things I decided not to adopt:

    • I slowly learned to stop caring as much about wasted food. Food is just cheaper now compared to when I was growing up (even if the last 5 years has shown an uptick), and as a society we have more issues with obesity than hunger, so cleaning off a plate seems like it doesn’t actually do that much good.
    • My time is worth something to me. I will gladly pay the few dollars here and there for convenience.
    • I’m glad I ignored my parents advice to buy a home as soon as I could and build equity or whatever. I rented and it worked out great for me, giving me the flexibility to make changes at different stages of my life.

    Things I kept:

    • Life is uncertain. Always be prepared with whatever you can accumulate for financial resilience: cash, other property, lines of credit, marketable job skills, literal insurance policies, etc. Don’t underestimate the importance of personal relationships, whether it’s “credit” from friends and family who can help you out of a bind, colleagues who can refer work to you, bosses who will fight for your career, etc.
    • Develop your career. Education and credentials are important early on, and up-to-date skills and a good understanding of the landscape in your field (both in the type of job and the type of industry you work in), plus solid relationships with people, can help you know when switching jobs is right for you.

    Things I had to learn on my own:

    • Life is unfair. Many types of unfairness are systematic. So why not position yourself to where the unfairness works in your favor, if available?
    • Higher income makes it easier to survive mistakes on the spending side. To flip around Ben Franklin’s quote, a penny earned is a penny saved.
    • Know yourself and your own laziness. Set up automatic functions wherever possible: automatic bill pay, automatic savings, automatic investments, etc. Steer away from any strategy that requires active management, and towards strategies that tend towards a set it and forget it philosophy.

    I’ve also made a shitload of mistakes, some of them pretty costly, especially back in my 20’s:

    • Paid probably thousands in credit card interest in my early 20’s chasing lifestyle bullshit.
    • Paid thousands in unnecessary car loan interest in my mid 20’s by getting suckered by a dealer.
    • Paid hundreds, maybe thousands, in late fees and interest from forgetting deadlines to pay shit I actually already had the money on hand for.

    I’m rich now, most of it from luck (especially timing), much of it from personal relationships (good family, good marriage, good friends), some of it from actual effort (good grades from a good law school), and some of it from conscious decisions to steer towards my strengths and away from my weaknesses (lazy but smart, prototypical “gifted” slacker with undiagnosed ADHD).

    It took a while to get here, though, and I was financially insecure well into my 30’s. Sorta figured shit out then, and then married someone who complements me pretty well on these things, and covers my blind spots.

    For the extra brave ones: how much savings do you have, and what are you planning to do with them?

    I have some savings, and it’s an emergency fund. It’s representing 1-2 months of typical spending, that could be stretched to 3-4 months if I needed to stop the frivolous spending. But I have credit beyond that, and less liquid assets I’d be able to tap into if I were facing a longer term issue.

    But I’m not saving for any particular thing other than retirement. If things accumulate and grow, great. I’ll make a judgment call on when to retire based on how I feel and how much I have and what I want to do. I anticipate my wife and I will probably want to retire in our early 60’s, based on our anticipated career trajectories and the ages of our children.


  • exasperation@lemm.eetoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.worldHow are you doing financially?
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    1 month ago

    I read that half of Americans couldn’t cover an unexpected $1,000 expense.

    Without borrowing or selling property, yeah. Not a lot of people have that much liquid cash laying around.

    But I wouldn’t assume that this would be some kind of economic devastation. Our whole system revolves around easy credit.

    If the unexpected expense is something that can be paid for on a credit card, that 20% interest isn’t exactly ideal but for many people it can be a simple task of buying now and paying it off over 2 or 3 months. For them, $1000 isn’t a lifestyle changing expense.

    For others, $1000 might be devastating. It might be the difference between making rent or not, and ultimately lead to eviction and maybe even homelessness.

    So liquidity is a different question from financial health or resilience, even if they’re somewhat correlated. There are other metrics out there more directly measuring financial stability or vulnerability.



  • exasperation@lemm.eetomemes@lemmy.worldMore beans better
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    2 months ago

    Beans are a starch

    Beans are more than that. Beans/legumes/pulses are, as the children’s song suggests, magical (even if they are not fruit).

    They can take the place of meat or other proteins, like in a stew/chili/curry, a proteiny topping on rice/pasta, slabs of tofu, or even as a sandwich stuffing (falafel in pita, black bean burger in bun, peanut butter in a sandwich, filling in a burrito).

    They can take the place of starch, as in a bean porridge or baked beans in some circumstances.

    They can act as a green vegetable, as green beans or edamame or peas.

    They can be a handy ready-to-eat snack, like peanuts or wasabi peas.

    They’re a sweet filling for desserts, like peanut butter or peanut brittle or whole peanuts in chocolate bars, or Chinese red bean paste, or all sorts of Vietnamese and Thai dishes.

    Even on the non-food side of things they’re excellent high protein feed for livestock, green “manure” for nitrogen fixation in soil, and useful for production of various industrial chemicals and materials.