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07:00 - 20:0020:00 - 22:00

7:39 AM
@Catija cool! So he's obviously thriving. Well done!
 
 
1 hour later…
9:05 AM
o/
 
Hey baby
Fun fact:
 
>Liechtenstein is a very small country. During its last military engagement, in 1886, they sent out 80 soldiers and came back with 81. Apparently they made a friend in Italy.
 
haha yes
i first read that in Bill Bryson's Neither Here Nor There
It has more registered companies than people and its chief export is false teeth
 
I had Dragon transcribe that line from YouTube. LOL! :D
I only had to do one correction.
 
9:13 AM
the future is now
 
@ElendilTheTall new or used?
 
Singapore is the third most densely populated city on earth.
 
Sometimes I think we're working on being number 1 ;p
 
Alaska has one person per square mile.
 
@JourneymanGeek haha, new I imagine
 
9:15 AM
Oh
I got a medal today ;p
 
o/
 
Oh yeah!?
 
REMF of the Month?
:D
 
5 year good service.
 
@Stephie o/
 
9:16 AM
Which is odd. I coulda sworn I did 4.
 
@JourneymanGeek don't argue ;-)
 
@Stephie I didn't
 
You got a bonus year for REMFing with distinction.
 
I figure if they messed up they could try it again next year.
 
maybe you were part of a secret government experiment that made you lose a year of memories
can you see through walls or leap tall buildings in a single bound?
 
9:18 AM
No?
 
hmmm
peel potatoes at higher than normal rates?
 
Unexplained scars?
 
I think they included the time I got charged with disobeying a lawful order.
 
highly trained self defence reflexes a la Jason Bourne
?
 
er... no? ;p
 
9:19 AM
not that you know of...
quick, someone try and punch @JourneymanGeek
@Jolenealaska you're nearest
 
I warn you. Chances are it would hurt me more than it hurts you.
 
You would be overqualified as REMF.
 
Amusingly, my training in the army was actually useful this time
 
How so?
 
We did the thing I was trained to do ;p
 
9:26 AM
Well that makes you a bit of a rarity!
 
We also had a bunch of people who used to maintain the things that we were doing ;p
So we were all "pfft" and getting shit done fast
 
I thought the idea was to do stuff at just the right rate that you don't get given something else to do
maybe that's just me
:)
 
@ElendilTheTall ah! We did stuff at the right rate that they ran out of stuff for us to do
then we napped
 
war is hell eh
:D
 
I know right?
 
9:42 AM
When I got to Ft Meade, I didn't have the ridiculous security clearance I needed to do my job at NSA. So, I volunteered to be company clerk until my clearance came through. That was 1990. I was a bit of a computer guru back then (I know, I know, my how times change). I spent three months automating every damn thing, and then three months goofing off.
 
Though. Takes an hour and half to get out of camp.
 
Damn war ruined my beauty sleep.
 
I have been reading a book called The Silk Roads
overarching theme is basically how much the east shaped world history far more than the west
I have just reached the bit where Britain, France, and then the US realised that oil was fkn important and so started interfering in the Middle East
what a giant historical fuck up that was
 
10
A: What is the origin of fish sauce in asia?

JolenealaskaIt was called garum, and indeed the ancient Romans used it, as did the ancient Greeks: Garum was prepared from the intestines of small fishes through the process of bacterial fermentation. Fishermen would lay out their catch according to the type and part of the fish, allowing makers to pick...

I have had my car now for five months. Guess how many miles I have put on it?
 
9:57 AM
Somewhat more than that, but only because I have been to Wasilla twice. I am right at 400.
I have been to the gas station exactly twice.
I spent more on alternator belts every month in my last car, than I spend on gas with this car.
 
imagine what you'd spend if you had an economical one :D
so apparently Trump doesn't think there's enough potential for apocalyptic nuclear war
what a guy
 
What you make of the assassination of Kim Jong-Un's half-brother?
 
oh, the Norks made a big mistake
especially doing it in malaysia
they currently have a major scandal they'd LOVE to divert attention from
They got it
 
apparently it was VX nerve agent
jee-zus
 
I find that very scary
 
10:06 AM
I do think they planned this out, though I'm pretty sure the 'suspects' were told it was a kidnap.
 
The two women seem to be extraordinary patsies.
 
The indonesian one? Pretty certain she's clueless.
The vietnamese one? ehh.
 
There's also one from Vietnam
Yeah
There was also somebody else tangentially related to the whole thing that gave me pause.
 
The Korean they picked up seems shifty too.
 
A North Korean national, in a very minor official job, who held a "green card" in (Malaysia?).
 
10:12 AM
minor, and entirely false.
yup
 
10:30 AM
We have got to be close to some kind of tipping point with North Korea. The rest of the world has been smuggling information to the population.
Do they really believe that their fearless leader scored 18 holes in one in his first golf game?
 
I think it dosen't matter to most people
 
Shortly after daddy's death, a video of the mourners went pretty viral.
 
China has stopped importing their coal
and China is the only thing really stopping anyone doing anything about NK
 
I would like to understand why China is even still supporting them tokenly.
 
11:14 AM
Initially? Socialist Solidarity
Now? They have no clue how to deal with them
 
Because if the regime changes and the country collapses they don't want millions of refugees streaming over their southern border
 
Do any of us?
 
The timing of my last comment was probably a bit ambiguous.
Do any of us know how to deal with them?
 
;p
Not really
North Korea isn't east germany
 
11:17 AM
And do any of us want them crossing our borders en mass?
 
Not really our problem
The solution would be gradual regime change, and rebuilding the nork economy first
But gradual regime change is hard with "communist" feudal states
 
That's hard as long as he is deified.
 
or alive
 
That too
 
You'd need to quietly replace someone who essentially has an iron grip over power
 
11:35 AM
sounds like @JourneymanGeek has a plan
:D
 
Actually....
 
That makes one of us?
 
You'd need the chinese to knock off kim, put the dead kim's kid in power on a VERY short leash, while resisting the urge to take over, then have him step away (and who would), and putting in a group of apparatichicks in power
Then basically do the same path the chinese took.
 
11:49 AM
UGH I should just stop looking at YouTube.
Did your parents have any children that lived??
Build that wall!
 
12:25 PM
Anyone here?
Well I'm going to bury my nose in a book for a while. I may pop in in an hour or so. Otherwise, goodnight all.
 
1:27 PM
goodnight
 
 
1 hour later…
2:46 PM
Marco?
 
Hi you! What time is it there?
 
almost 11
 
Wow, I would not have guessed that.
 
Ah!
This makes more sense
they take my conscript time into consideration
(That's the medal I got)
 
2:58 PM
In the US Army, that is called the Good Conduct Medal, given every three years you show up without getting into major trouble.
 
ah
lol
"Oh they won't... wait what?"
"Ok.. next 20% award. Fiiiine"
"They won't call me for a"
"Wait what?"
Also, I have no clue why there's two different sizes or a ribbon ;p
 
Reserve vs active duty?
 
naw
there's a big medal
and a little medal
 
Well, the same medal may be different sizes based on the class of uniform. Could that be it?
 
ah!
I'm doubtful I'll need to wear a no1 or no3
no4 is kinda the combat/utility uniform
 
3:08 PM
I still resent female class A uniforms.
cruel and unusual
 
that's the 'office' uniform or the "big deal" parade uniform?
 
Yep, different sizes for different uniforms. The big one is a bit big for its britches.
 
lol
and the bit of ribbon I suppose goes into a bar for number 1s
 
Well... Combat conditions?
 
Who the hell wears medals in combat 0_0
Heck, I don't think I've seen officiers wear em either ;p
 
3:17 PM
REMFs without a compass.
 
SAF combat uniforms are pretty much entirely designed for utility
I do miss the old cotton/non digicams tho
 
I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I ever wore a uniform other than BDUs. I was supposed to wear class A or Bs at NSA, but I kept losing the memo.
(BDU = Battle Dress Uniform)
 
yup. That's essentially what we mostly wear.
though as a REMF
I'm usually in a military issue T shirt and uniform bottoms
Well a non clerical REMF
 
In Korea, I worked under a half mile of hemp protected rock. Stateside, I worked in a place of business second probably only to the White House as far as security. I was very well-trained with weapons, but I was probably further than anyone in the Army from having to use one.
 
lol
so far as a reservist...
I've delivered coffee (by the thermos load), visited musiums, and done stock checks
I got to shoot last year ;p
 
3:30 PM
At least if you are delivering coffee, you can sleep that night realizing that you had done something.
My job was all about hiding and watching for the things that never came.
When training rescue dogs for natural disasters, it sometimes becomes necessary to act as if you are being rescued. It kind of sucks for the dog to only find dead people.
It's kind of like that in MI.
 
@Jolenealaska eh. I sleep very well. Most of the day in fact ;p
 
I was hit hard by 9/11, 10 years after leaving the military. I just wanted to smack everybody upside the head! WTF are we paying you for?
 
ah
Well, in situations like this...
the traditional playbook failed
and they essentially were in a wierd place post cold war
 
We had been spying on our own citizens for over a decade at that point. I'm fairly ambivalent about that, but the fact remains.
 
Which is kinda... eh.
 
3:39 PM
Yes
 
and tbh, I feel the way the world has handled this has been silly
so much security theature and such
 
It's not easy to pick apart these things. I don't think anybody has ever gotten it right.
 
Yeah, but the response has mostly felt like empire building
 
Imagine you wake up one day in September... A bright clear day. Then, not one, not two, not three, but four commercial airliners attack your nation. 3000 dead in one morning - a sucker punch from out of the blue.
 
start new TLAs new agencies...
@Jolenealaska yup
but it won't happen again, not cause of the TSA
cause passengers will beat the next guy who tries it to a pulp
 
3:46 PM
It won't happen again with box cutters
It will just be something else
 
like the mumbai attacks
Eventually though
People need to feel safe, not caged.
 
Funny thing about the Mumbai attacks...
I called home because I was hurting.
Nobody had any idea what I was talking about
By the time they turned CNN on, they had moved on to other stories.
I found myself actually trying to tell my family that I wasn't making it up
 
I have a cousin who is afraid of fireworks after the bomb attacks in coimbature in.. I think 98
she and her dog used to hide in a closet together.
(no one remembers that one)
@Jolenealaska if it isn't nearby... no one really pays attention
 
And things that are nearby seem overly significant.
OH crap - it's nearly 7 AM. Good night!
 
4:41 PM
@Stephie
:D
 
4:54 PM
@ElendilTheTall can't see it, am in the office atm.
(And my mobile is low on battery.)
 
> No fun in Germany
> Go back to work!
It's on a mug
Fun facts about Germany
From what I have seen in my time here, the US deserves that stereotype more than any other country.
 
Lol! I'm just catching up here. I spent two days in hospital with minor 1.
And it was a mostly a waste of time.
 
How is he?
 
Still unchanged.
 
So no answers?
 
5:02 PM
Nope.
Unless you count "low blood pressure" as a major finding. No surprise to us, we all have it.
 
I can very much relate to the frustration of not getting an answer.
 
I was at my doctor's today and they measured ine at 120:80. No wonder I have a headache from hell, that's waaaaay to high for me.
Have to back to work, see you all later. Didn't you say "good night" a minute ago?
 
When you reach the point that doctors are looking at you like you're nuts for suggesting that there are actual symptoms, kick them once in the nuts for me.
I always say good night frequently.
On that note
Good night
 
Hi all awake.. @jefromi here?
OK, having a smoke... BRB
 
5:46 PM
@Fabby if you have been smoking all this time I am afraid you might have given yourself nicotine poisoning!
 
:D
 
Haven't seen you here in ages! How are you doing?
 
@Fabby am now
but a bit busy, so... my stab at the problem:
there are two main cases, reach equilibrium and not
 
@Stephie: New job. Lots of work!!!
 
if equilibrium, I think you don't reach saturation of either, because the salt and msg that you're extracting are basically already dissolved in water in the anchovies, so what happens is what's described in my comment.
if not equilibrium, then the solubility doesn't tell you how fast things go, so who knows
 
5:54 PM
I agree: i'm not talking about speed, just that soaking in water will remove twice as much taste as salt.
(maybe a little bit more salt in the beginning as the umami is more on the inside) but after an hour or so...
 
so you're saying it reaches equilibrium?
 
No!
That depends on the amount of water
 
ok, in that case, you're talking about rate of dissolution, and solubility doesn't tell you that, so I don't know where the twice as much comes from
 
I know, that's where the "too long ago" comes from
Can't remember if they're proportional....
 
pretty sure they're not in general, since it's a dynamic problem
 
5:57 PM
Hey, I studied to be a chemist and have never worked as a chemist after... I'm rusty!
(not only my brain at my age!)
:D :D :D
But what I'm trying to say is:
If you soak anchovies in water,
they will lose taste around twice as fast as salt.
(if given enough water and time)
 
I know that's what you're saying, but you seem to be basing it on the solubility, and my point is that that's not what solubility tells you here.
if short of equilibrium, you need to know rates (which are probably not proportional to solubility) and if approaching equilibrium, then solubility only matters if you're near saturation (which I don't think you are)
 
From experience only: Soaked anchovies almost aren't worth it.
 
And what I'm saying is the same as Jolene...
Need to split!
FOOD!
 
well, from experience is a good answer here too
 
But my answer is not worth deleting so far, we'll have to continue our research and have to calculate the exact rate!!!
 
6:00 PM
I was merely trying to avoid us making overly specific claims that sound scientific but actually don't have a solid basis.
 
:D :D :D
What's your background???
 
cooks are not always terribly good judges of whether such things are valid
the relevant bit here is math/physics I suppose, with a decent bit of paying attention to science in general
 
@Fabby Do you really want to know? :) Such questions are pretty meaningless here.
 
What are you working as and what did you study?
:) :) :)
 
I assume it was just curiosity, not trying to see who was qualified to judge
 
6:03 PM
Curiosity!!!
It's not because I have a B.Sc. in Chemistry that I know more than you as:
I know that I know nothing!
 
studied art, math, physics/astrophysics, working as a software engineer
 
Need to split!!!!
:D
Technical IT Project Manager
 
see you
 
Ciao!!!
 
I can't even estimate the number of times I have swallowed a great retort to stuff like that.
 
6:12 PM
to which?
 
Take a guess
 
 
1 hour later…
7:35 PM
@Jolenealaska Remarkable! Was it empty?
 
7:45 PM
@Cerberus I try so hard
 
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