The Frying Pan

4:59 AM

Greetings all, anyone here try/buy the IBM BBQ sauce? ibmblr.tumblr.com/post/87933225530/…

5:41 AM

Or if not, anyone have any other favorites?

@TomW That's an interesting recipe - oddly enough it calls for grams and millileters - how do you measure those if you don't have scientific instruments handy?

ElendilTheTall

8:09 AM

@NoBugs oh my. you don't need scientific instruments, just scales and a measuring jug with metric (read: usefully accurate) measurements :)

You can get them even in the US of States!

amazon.com/Ozeri-Digital-Kitchen-Capacity-Elegant/dp/B002IR6OP8/…

amazon.com/Pyrex-Prepware-1-Quart-Measuring-Measurements/dp/…

Jolenealaska

8:23 AM

@ElendilTheTall LOL Of course I have exactly that measuring cup, everyone has that cup. What's funny is that that is my scale.

I highly recommend it. It is spookily accurate :)

ElendilTheTall

:)

I know, I can see it on your counter

erm, I mean, lucky guess!

it was just the first one on amazon

Jolenealaska

I read all kinds of reviews before I bought mine. That one seemed like the best value. It was a very good choice.

ElendilTheTall

Jolenealaska

The only difference is that mine is black.

2

A: How accurate are kitchen scales?

Mine gets it right to the nearest gram. It's easy enough to test the accuracy of your scale using water. For tiny increments, you can use coins. A US quarter weighs 5.67 grams, a nickel weighs 5.0 grams, a dime weighs 2.268 grams. I'm pleased with mine. It doesn't do fractions of a gram, but whe...

ElendilTheTall

poor you, only 1g tolerance

;)

Jolenealaska

8:34 AM

I also have a scale the goes to hundredths of a gram, so I'm pretty well covered.

ElendilTheTall

I know, just teasing

Jolenealaska

I know!

ElendilTheTall

How long has it been since you've heard this?

►

total classic

Jolenealaska

I've always loved that song, it has a great sound.

ElendilTheTall

great harmonies

Jolenealaska

8:42 AM

I read the lyrics as I played it because I've always kind of assumed that I that I had some wrong...

since they don't completely make sense to me.

Nope, I heard them right.

back in a bit...once again I'm making dinner after midnight.

ElendilTheTall

ok

ElendilTheTall

9:21 AM

do bee do bee do

Tom W

Wow, did someone really ask that question?

Jolenealaska

I haven't told you how I woke up this morning!

Tom W

% of USians that know they're the only ones who use imperial measurements anymore?

Jolenealaska

Isn't that crazy?

When I was a kid, we were told in school that we had to prepare for the big metric conversion.

I really, really wish it had happened.

ElendilTheTall

ha

Civil War II if it ever did

"I'll be damned before some damn commie is gonna make me use any dang kee-lo-grams!"

Tom W

9:30 AM

although I do remember the measurements for a victoria sponge only in old money

ElendilTheTall

we Brits, as in many other things, have the best of both worlds

:D

Tom W

Yeah, taking our pints would be like...well, taking our pints

Jolenealaska

nydailynews.com/news/national/…

ElendilTheTall

ha, you can have 'em AFAIC

Tom W

@Jolenealaska was that what you felt yesterday?

Jolenealaska

9:32 AM

That's what woke me up.

Tom W

Jolenealaska

HA!

That pretty well sums up a 6.2 :)

ElendilTheTall

WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHAIRS?!

Jolenealaska

30 seconds after the shaking stopped, my phone rang. It was my neighbor making sure I was alright. Really?

Tom W

Well, that's nice of the neighbour

Jolenealaska

9:42 AM

The glass of water by my bed tippled over.

ElendilTheTall

Probably checking if it was safe to come a-lootin'

Jolenealaska

10:02 AM

One of these days I'm going to make that BBQ sauce.

The review linked to on the recipe page makes it sound like something I might like to try.

fastcodesign.com/3027687/…

Maybe I'll convert the recipe for NoBugs, just to be nice.

Tom W

that is bonkers

did Watson design the label too?

Jolenealaska

Which is bonkers? The recipe, what designed it, or my thought to convert it?

Tom W

that Watson designed it

presumably by scanning the ingredients of all other sauces

Jolenealaska

It is interesting. Once upon a time no one thought a computer would ever beat a Chess Grand Master.

Tom W

I think those people had not understood that it was possible to write algorithms that could outperform human intuition

Jolenealaska

10:16 AM

Looking closer at the recipe, I'm not going to convert it. None of the measurements are going to teaspoons, tablespoon or cups. They would all work out to be odd fractions.

Tom W

It's nothing to do with the power of the computer, as people could probably have predicted that computers would vastly increase in power. It was more to do with the belief that it was a problem that couldn't be brute-forced, so it's more of an assertion about mathematics

went to a museum that had an original framed copy of a paper that first suggested computers could be used to play games, like chess

Jolenealaska

If the computer could see all flavors as values of sweet, salty, bitter etc...

and could see those ingredients in sauces

it follows that it could then duplicate flavor values with different ingredients.

Tom W

Yeah, what I'd be interested in is how much special programming it took to get it to understand what it was being asked to do

the Jeopardy thing took quite a lot of preparation IIRC

ElendilTheTall

10:46 AM

@Jolenealaska get your own question to answer, damn it

mine wins for concise perspicacity!

Jolenealaska

I was already almost done when yours popped up! :)

There's a 3rd answer now. It's more in depth than either of ours.

ElendilTheTall

meh

Mine doesn't molly coddle with unnecessary explanation

these fruits have stuff that breaks down protein, gelatin is a protein, you do the math

Jolenealaska

:)

ElendilTheTall

I suppose yours strikes a good balance between brevity and detail

but i'm biased

a passionless, entirely objective observer (the most common type found online) will naturally find mine to be superior

¬_¬

Jolenealaska

The other answerer is brand new. He has 2 answers and 1 question on UX, and this is is first answer here.

ElendilTheTall

10:59 AM

all got to start somewhere

in this case, he's going to start with gratuitous downvotes! die!

(i jest)

Jolenealaska

The way he spells personalize (with an S) and his hours suggest that he might be from your neck of the woods.

ElendilTheTall

you mean the way he spells personalise

ie correctly

;)

Jolenealaska

He may have a nice link in his answer, but HA, he doesn't know that a pawpaw is a papaya!

Papayas ARE mentioned in the linked article.

@ElendilTheTall I've got a history of religion question for you.

ElendilTheTall

@Jolenealaska ok

shoot

Jolenealaska

11:15 AM

Did King Henry VIII cause any particular upsurge in skepticism by divorcing (so to speak, HA) from the Catholic church?

ElendilTheTall

scepticism towards religion in general?

Jolenealaska

or at least Christianity.

ElendilTheTall

I don't think so - there was already a general trend towards anti-Papacy, but there was no general movement towards atheism or secularism until the Enlightenment IIRC

those were still the days where you could be executed for apostasy

naturally you can still be executed for apostasy in certain places where people still live in the 1500s....

Jolenealaska

Yes...

But if I was a Catholic, living in a monarchy, and believed the king was divinely chosen

Tom W

@Jolenealaska well he must be, clearly. Otherwise how could he have gotten to be King? :P

Jolenealaska

11:21 AM

And the king just said screw it and made up a whole new church because he wanted to do something not allowed by the old church...

the whole idea of "church" would lose a whole boatload of credibility.

@TomW Clearly!

Tom W

You can just tell them that the Pope is corrupt and propped up by, I dunno, the French, because they want to start their own religion

Jolenealaska

What got me thinking about it is that terrible statistic we talked about the other day.

Tom W

This church is actually the real one as it was intended and not the deviant one the Pope is running. So there.

ElendilTheTall

@Jolenealaska perhaps. the threat of burning at the stake for heresy is quite persuasive however

Jolenealaska

@TomW So say WE! :)

That would really be a crappy way to go.

ElendilTheTall

11:26 AM

@Jolenealaska breathe deep and suffocate on the smoke before the flames get too close is the way to play it, apparently

I'm not planning on testing that hypothesis

Jolenealaska

No...You know I love a good experiment, but I'll pass on that one.

ElendilTheTall

lightweight

Jolenealaska

@ElendilTheTall So fast-forward to modern times. Do you think the Henry thing could be part of why the UK is so much less Christian than the US?

Tom W

@Jolenealaska aha, so here's the point you were making. I know you didn't ask me, but I don't think so. There's been a lot of intervening time between then and now and people were a lot more religious even within living memory

ElendilTheTall

@Jolenealaska I wouldn't say so, no. 53% of Americans are Protestant

I put it down to gullibility

;)

Jolenealaska

11:37 AM

Yes, there is that.

@TomW I may have asked Tall, but I totally welcome your input too. :)

Tom W

CofE is pretty laid-back, I can't imagine anyone getting scorned or shunned for not showing up anymore or disagreeing with something that's said in church

ElendilTheTall

perhaps it has to do with the Socialist implementation of multi-culturalism

Tom W

maybe the absence of penalty for not bothering is something to do with it

ElendilTheTall

a huge influx of Muslim Pakistanis and Hindu and Sikh Indians from the ex-colonies

Tom W

I wouldn't say 'massive'

oh, hmm. A lot of urban areas got bombed to rubble in the war, the new estates they replaced them with probably didn't have as many churches as there used to be

ElendilTheTall

11:42 AM

@TomW neither would I

Tom W

although churches almost always made of stone tend to be more resilient and where they got damaged they were rebuilt, so...I dunno

Jolenealaska

Yes, religious people other than Christian or Jewish are even more rare here than non-believers, I think.

Tom W

@ElendilTheTall sorry, I imagined a word there

huge ~ massive

ElendilTheTall

@TomW no problem

Jolenealaska

Are you hungry, Tall?

ElendilTheTall

11:45 AM

@Jolenealaska no, for I have just ingested sustenance

why do you ask?

Tom W

So my theory is that the disruption during the war broke up local church communities and they never re-established as well

ElendilTheTall

interesting

it's also interesting to note that there is a much stricter separation of church and state in the US

no prayer in schools or anything

Jolenealaska

Just curious, 'cause pancake to problem seems an odd edit.

ElendilTheTall

here, even nominally non-religious school sing hymns in assembly

Tom W

That's actually a legal requirement, IIRC

ElendilTheTall

11:47 AM

@Jolenealaska I was taking the piss out of Tom - imagining words

@TomW in the US? yes. Yet they are so much more religious

Tom W

the rules are vague, but there's meant to be some time set aside specifically for...I forget the exact term they use but it's something generic like 'spiritual contemplation'

@ElendilTheTall no, hymns in assembly

ElendilTheTall

@TomW really? I haven't heard that

Jolenealaska

Yet, the Pledge of Allegiance contains "under god" and our money says "in God we trust"

ElendilTheTall

@Jolenealaska added in the 50s

Tom W

> The most recent legal statement of the requirements for collective worship (as distinct from assembly) are contained in the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. These build on similar requirements in Section 346 of the Education Act 1996, the Education Reform Act 1988, and Section 25 of the 1944 Education Act, where the law on compulsory collective worship began.

> Section 70 of the 1998 Act states that, subject to the parental right of excusal or other special arrangements, “…each pupil in attendance at a community, foundation or voluntary school shall on each school day take part in an act of collective worship.”

ok, it's more specific than I thought. Yep, mandatory school religion everybody.

ElendilTheTall

11:50 AM

well, I never

how daft

Tom W

it gets better

> In community schools the head teacher is responsible for collective worship provision, in consultation with the governors. The majority of acts of collective worship in any given school term should still be “wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character”.

Jolenealaska

wow

Tom W

This is the British Humanist Association, but they're quoting legislation, so the scope for bias is limited

humanism.org.uk/education/parents/…

ElendilTheTall

it is ridiculous in this day and age

personally I think the strictures that many church schools put on gaining a place is terrible

you have to go to church for a certain amount of time etc

if it's a state school, I shouldn't have to listen to a bloke in a dress drone on every sunday just to get my children a decent education - that's what I pay my income tax for

Jolenealaska

@ElendilTheTall how the hell did you know that about "under God"? I didn't even know that, and I recited it every weekday for 12 years!

ElendilTheTall

12:00 PM

@Jolenealaska I am a veritable font of knowledge

Jolenealaska

quick...what president??

ElendilTheTall

what do you mean?

who was president at the time?

erm.... Eisenhower?

pledge of allegiance change was 54 I think (56?), Eisenhower was president from 53 - 61 iirc

Jolenealaska

Yep...he was the one that asked congress to make the addition. It was a communist scourge thing.

ElendilTheTall

so yeah, I'm going with eisenhower

sweet

Jolenealaska

final answer, Pat.

ElendilTheTall

12:04 PM

Chris

:)

Jolenealaska

You should play this:

screengrabber.deadspin.com/1639401680

Interesting bit on our upcoming pot vote:

washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/24/…

ElendilTheTall

12:20 PM

Would A Just Man Make A Jolly But Harshly Treated President

@Jolenealaska AFAICS you need all the help you can get to endure the winter

and the summer

Jolenealaska

Ugh...It's past my bedtime. I'm going to try to sleep. I may be back if I'm unsuccessful.

ElendilTheTall

ok hon

sleep tight if you can

Jolenealaska

1:45 PM

Ugh

@ElendilTheTall I'll try again in a bit.

In the meantime...

ElendilTheTall

@Jolenealaska tut

tut I say

@Jolenealaska yeeeessss.....?

Jolenealaska

I stole a 2006 National Geographic from my physical therapy office just so I could show this to you:

(try not to think of this photo while your wife is giving birth)

ElendilTheTall

ye gods, you're making me an accessory to theft!

Jolenealaska

ElendilTheTall

away with you

oooook

what's your point?

Jolenealaska

1:50 PM

That looks painful!

ElendilTheTall

well, yes

were you not aware that childbirth is a painful process? :P

Jolenealaska

That photo just really drives it home.

The article looks very worth reading too. Reading in bed sometimes helps me fall asleep, so I'll bring the magazine with me.

"The agility and brainpower we've gained since our ancestors stood up on two feet haven't come without evolutionary trade-offs: a plethora of aches and pains that make it hard to be human."

ElendilTheTall

@Jolenealaska yup

sinus infections

knee problems

lower back problems

childbirth problems

Jolenealaska

"It's definitely not the type of system you would invent if you were designing it. But evolution is clearly a tinkerer, not an engineer."

ElendilTheTall

the recurrent laryngeal nerve springs gaily to mind

Jolenealaska

2:03 PM

what vestigial parts do we have (other than the appendix)?

ElendilTheTall

tail

webbing between thumb and finger

the remains of a nictitating membrane (third eyelid)

Jolenealaska

ear muscles

ElendilTheTall

incidentally, the appendix is not useless, it stores beneficial gut flora

people without one are 4 times more likely to have recurrent C. difficile infections

Jolenealaska

hmm...I didn't know that.

ElendilTheTall

you're welcome

Jolenealaska

2:07 PM

I pulled up the Wiki on vestigiality (that almost sounds pornographic)

Goose bumps :) Of course, now that I think of it..

ElendilTheTall

have you ever seen comparative photos of embryos from different species at different stages?

Jolenealaska

Yeah...hard to tell 'em apart

ElendilTheTall

eyes start out on the side

palate forms from proto-gills

it's freaky

do you happen to know why men are more susceptible to hernias?

Jolenealaska

Nope

ElendilTheTall

in fish, the gonads are up in the 'chest'

in humans, the testes have to be outside for temperature management purposes, as you know

this means they have to descend and push through the muscles lining the abdomen

weak points are created where they push through

boom - hernias (or rather the susceptibility to them)

Jolenealaska

2:15 PM

And soooo many people believe in intelligent design.

ElendilTheTall

pfff

Jolenealaska

headshaking, really

Tom W

The best argument against that is knees, imho

ElendilTheTall

like I said, the recurrent laryngeal nerve is a doozy

down from the brain, through the neck, into the chest, wraps around the aorta, and back up into the neck

Jolenealaska

What about knees, Tom?

ElendilTheTall

2:16 PM

in giraffes that's a diversion of about 12 feet

Tom W

knees are buggy, if you use them for their intended purpose, they break

more often than not

'break' = cause pain, stiffness etc

almost anyone who does any athletic activity at all complains about their knees

ElendilTheTall

plus anyone with Morton's Toe

Tom W

now allegedly the reason for that is that they take up too much tension when the muscles around them aren't strong enough, and those muscles get their best workout with a stair-climbing sort of motion, which on rugged terrain we'd get a lot of, but we tend to terraform our way around climbable obstacles these days

take the stairs, people

ElendilTheTall

@TomW I always do

my knee still aches

where is your science now?!

Tom W

Ha

> How about the State of Islam in al-Sham and Iraq.
SISI would surely be a less macho name, less likely to attract UK jihadi terror-tourists.

ElendilTheTall

2:23 PM

ha

Jolenealaska

I can't wrap my brain around the westerners that have joined them. Can you imagine being a parent to one of those idiots??

Tom W

Apparently in the UK there's a bunch of disaffected youth who rebel by getting into fanatical Islam

they're a lot more fundamentalist than their parents, oftentimes

also the justification seems to be that Muslims abroad are getting killed (e.g. by Assad) and the government isn't doing anything about it, so we'll have to

obviously that's not all that IS is

Jolenealaska

thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/28/…

ElendilTheTall

pfff, don't give them the time of day

this is much more interesting! carnegiescience.edu/news/earth%E2%80%99s_water_older_sun

Jolenealaska

2:43 PM

wow

@logophobe I'm going to make a Jack-o-Lantern this year like your new avatar.

ElendilTheTall

3:00 PM

@Jolenealaska what's more... bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29368984

i reckon that TNG episode where it's discovered that advanced aliens seeded the galaxy with life is probably true, actually

i'm convinced, anyway

Jolenealaska

It's more likely than the 6 day fairy tale.

by a huge margin, even

ElendilTheTall

jebus, don't dignify it with the word 'theory'

'fairy story' is more appropriate

Tom W

I bought a gadget! amazon.co.uk/Garlic-Zoom-Original-Colours-Vary/dp/B00138N62W

Jolenealaska

There, edited with nanoseconds to spare.

ElendilTheTall

@TomW to piss on your chips or not to piss on your chips...

Jolenealaska

3:10 PM

that looks kind of cool!

Tom W

I am reliably informed it's really good

ElendilTheTall

it's good at getting garlic all stuck up inside it

i firmly believe in two kinds of cutting implements: knives, and mandolines (or a variant thereof)

everything else is a gimmick you use once then chuck in the back of the drawer

but I hope you prove me wrong

Tom W

I do usually smash garlic with the flat of a big knife, then chop it like that

fiddly though

anyway, that's what kitchen drawers are for

Jolenealaska

The top negative review on the page says exactly that
(it's good at getting garlic all stuck up inside it), but overall, the reviews are very good.

ElendilTheTall

One five star reviews says "Its really simple to remove all the garlic using the handle of a teaspoon."

what the actual fuck?

that's grounds for one star off if nothing else!

'It's not a bug, it's a feature'

"It's really easy to make two fiddly bits of washing up rather than just one easy one" is what that says

I put the official Numenorean Seal of Disapproval upon it

Jolenealaska

3:20 PM

It's quite a bit cheaper here:

amazon.com/dp/B00MQ3L36Y/…

ElendilTheTall

> This small but mighty gadget allows you to mince garlic to your desired texture without dirtying cutting boards or knives with sticky garlic juice.

instead, you can dirty the impossible to clean properly insides of this kerjigger!

Tom W

I like the German translation

> knoblauchacker

bless you

Jolenealaska

:)

ElendilTheTall

that sounds like some kind of anti-infantry weapon

"Deploy der knoblauhacker! Cut zem down!"

perhaps I've just seen too many war films...

Jolenealaska

That reminds me. CN really pissed me off the other day. He sneezed, I said, "bless you". Aha!! See you're not an atheist! At first, I thought he was joking. He wasn't.

ElendilTheTall

3:30 PM

ha, he sounds like a dick

Say "secular wishes for your good health" next time

Jolenealaska

He is. And I've told him so, repeatedly.

ElendilTheTall

yet still you fraternise with him

Jolenealaska

More because of the car and to not be a bitch than any good reason.

ElendilTheTall

I just read this question from rumi - "What conditions make xanthan thicken?"

I read thicken as chicken and my brain fell over for a second

some kind of Chinese dish I've never heard of? Some weird ultra-vegan meat substitute?

Jolenealaska

like tofu, but even grosser!

ElendilTheTall

3:35 PM

Jolenealaska

HA!!

And on that note, I am going to try again to sleep.

G'night!

ElendilTheTall

night jo

Jolenealaska

Last thing...something just occurred to me

CN are his initials!

ElendilTheTall

@Jolenealaska go on

ha

what a coinkydink

i'm sure he'll be thrilled you shared his real name to complete strangers

Jolenealaska

well I'll delete it now :)

ElendilTheTall

3:42 PM

too late, I've already opened a file on him

wow, he has some nasty furniture

Jolenealaska

HA! Be my guest!

G'night again.

ElendilTheTall

g'night

Preston Fitzgerald

7:17 PM

What are you guys cooking today? I think I might make some kind of kielbasa stir fry.

Jolenealaska

I was just contemplating cooking.

hmmm

Jolenealaska

7:40 PM

I've pulled a 9 oz piece of beef tenderloin (that must have been on super saver special) and 2 chicken thighs out of the freezer.

ElendilTheTall

Pizza, of course

Friday is pizza night

Jolly nice it was too

Jolenealaska

What did you put on it?

Preston Fitzgerald

@Jolenealaska I put on my apron and chef's hat.

Jolenealaska

That's something I don't have, and I need. An apron.

I can do without the hat, but I have ruined some of my favorite shirts by cooking without an apron.

Kielbasa can make a pretty good jambalaya. Is that the direction you're going?

Preston Fitzgerald

Maybe. Not sure. I have a lot of peppers and onions sitting around. I think I have some kind of spanish rice stuff.

Haven't really put much thought into it at the moment.

Jolenealaska

7:51 PM

Spanish rice in a box? Pre-seasoned?

Preston Fitzgerald

Haha yeah. Something I didn't buy but looks promising.

Jolenealaska

that, peppers and onions, and some creole type seasoning would make a meal!

Preston Fitzgerald

totally

ElendilTheTall

@jolenealaska pepperoni for me, my patented sweet balsamic peppers and red onions for the ol ball and chain

Jolenealaska

sweet balsamic peppers???

ElendilTheTall

7:53 PM

And red onions

Jolenealaska

@PrestonFitzgerald Just be careful with salt!

Preston Fitzgerald

For sure

Jolenealaska

I want to know more about the peppers!

ElendilTheTall

Just bell peppers and red onions, sliced, sautéed gently, then crank the heat up and throw in some balsamic and a teaspoon of sugar. The moisture boils away and you end up with balsamic glazed peppers and onions.

Can add some chilli flakes if you want a kick

Jolenealaska

@PrestonFitzgerald if you've got Cajun or Creole seasoning, check the label. I had some that was given to me that turns out to be almost all salt. What a rip-off.

1

Q: How can I accurately adjust for salt when using a "seasoning blend" or other ingredient that contains salt?

I'm making fried chicken. I'm sort of following a recipe that adds 1 TBS salt and other seasonings to buttermilk to brine the chicken, and then adds 1 tsp salt and other seasonings to the flour dredge. I'm disinclined to get fussy and my spice cabinet is pretty bare. Thanks to a well meaning fri...

That and pre-seasoned rice would make for a very salty Jambalaya.

Preston Fitzgerald

7:58 PM

@Jolenealaska I had an interested related problem recently with a creole seasoning that was chiefly black pepper. To the point where it mostly just tasted like pepper.

Though it was definitely more useful than a salt-heavy alternative

Jolenealaska

Weird. I don't even think of black pepper when I think of creole.

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