gotocake

Of course it may not matter in the sense that cronyism could ensure the burdens are placed on one group, and the benefits concentrated in another. I don’t know enough about China though, to say more.

Let’s look at the other end of the scale, Denmark. Average summer day is 68F, which is terrific for a bike ride. The average winter high is 32F, which is freezing, but not terrible. Denmark’s wettest month is June with an average of 80mm of rain, contrasted with Malta which has three drenching month’s averaging between 97mm and 108mm.

Although it is understandable to see how it could be naturally assumed a vapor cone (as the singularity is also known)...

This is incorrect. The P-G Singularity is a hypothesized pressure singularity in flow leading to a true sound barrier that couldn’t be passed. It was based on faulty assumptions and doesn’t hold.

The Prandtl–Glauert singularity is a theoretical construct in flow physics, often incorrectly used to explain vapor cones in transonic flows. It is the prediction by the Prandtl–Glauert transformation that infinite pressures would be experienced by an aircraft as it approaches the speed of sound. Because it is invalid to apply the transformation at these speeds, the predicted singularity does not emerge. The incorrect association is related to the early-20th-century misconception of the impenetrability of the sound barrier.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prandtl–Glauert_singularity

Twitter seems to be a rage factory and amplifier, a shitty blogging format, and very occasionally a way to twist the arm of recalcitrant customer service.

Smoking in the United States and other developed nations is declining, but it’s rising worldwide. Tobacco companies simply shifted their focus to poorer, less educated nations and they’re taking in the money.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_cigaret...

While smoking rates have leveled off or declined in developed nations, especially among men, in developing nations tobacco consumption continues to rise.

Nationwide, you’re more than twice as likely to die while riding a bike than riding in a car, per trip, according to a 2007 study led by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention epidemiologist Laurie Beck. Bike riding is also about 500 times more fatal than riding in a bus. Though Beck didn’t run numbers on subway and commuter rail systems, they may be the safest form of transportation of all. Despite a series of well-publicized accidents and maintenance issues, Metrorail and Metrobus reported just two injuries per million riders in 2015.

The corollary is that the people pushing for vertical building and high density housing, while dressing the issue up as being about the homeless, are also looking out for their best interests. They want a better place to live, where they want to live, where they can make 6-figure salaries in the sun. It’s important to realize that this isn’t a matter of chickens and foxes, and there’s a reason why the focus is inevitably in areas where they can earn the most and where they would like to live.

The truth is that every aspect of this debate is shrouded in hypocrisy, because otherwise it boils down to people wanting massive new infrastructure to support their desires, or people supporting a deeply imperfect status quo because they’re already winners in it. One side justifies their desire for a slice of the pie by looking to trickle-down economics for housing, clsiming that they care about the less fortunate. The claims that the techies making their property even more valuable through demand are a plague of locust ruining their fair cities. Both are more or less full of it.

Stability, slippage, being exposed to freezing cold and wet, the lack of an engine assist, no heat, two fewer wheels, and did I mention cold?

Just throw in the same effort that you do to keep car lanes open, and you’ll be fine.

Open for a car and open for a bike are different. You can drive through some snow, slush and ice, but I hate biking on ice and slush. In addition to the safety factor, it a miserable experience. It’s also not unheard of for roads to get too bad for cars, never mind bikes.

All in all I’m sort of disappointed that the reaction to raising obvious drawbacks is weapons-grade denial. Trying to sell people on a less safe, less comfortable, less reliable, means of transportation by throwing infrastructure projects at it is a problem, and why so many people are sick and tired of bike evangelists. Never mind the fact that a lot of people have disabilities that prevent that kind of hard work, have families and long commutes (please don’t throw another infrastructure project at that), are too old or infirm to bike through a Colorado summer, never mind winter, and so on.

It’s really a form of quiet elitism dressed up as environmentalism and social consciousness at worst, and a lack of understanding of just how huge the US is at best. Bikes probably do make more sense if a majority of your population lives in one or two cities, otherwise it just doesn’t.

Well that’s untrue.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reported_Road_Casualties_Gre...

As you can see road casualties have been dropping for quite a while, and for the last 5+ years the rate is around 1,700. Deaths per year haven’t been near 4500 since the 90’s. This also reflects another reality you ignore, which is that road fatalities are not evenly distributed. Being drunk, driving tired, owning an unsafe or poorly maintained car, driving too fast, all contribute to risk, and all are avoidable.

You also picked the UK, which has an extensive rail system.

That’s really not the whole country, no matter how much a minority of SV’ers want it to be. Parts of the country are really spread out, parts are brutally cold, windy, and rainy, and yes some parts are lovely and sunny and packed to the gills. The problem is that evangelists for Bike Jesus never seem to accept that, and there’s always one or two who claim to live in Antarctica with a family of 6, and all while only riding a bike.

It could make for a great solar shower lining though...

So wtf? Errr... I mean, wtf “kooloo limpah”.

The biggest mistake we make with food and drink is to “want the best” instead of wanting the best for us. There is subsitute for trying lots of different types of food and drink and choosing what you like the taste of most, not what’s most applauded by experts or in vogue.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/atheism

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/atheism

You also seem to be strafing your dictionary claim and then ignoring anyone who shows that you’re incorrect. That’s a poor way to debate.

Still vanillin is artificial, but hardly a terrible thing in its own right. As you said there are recipes where the flatter note of vanillin works better than the more subtle and complex floral notes of true vanilla. I’d argue however that truffle oil is always disgusting, and the issue of it being somehow fake or fraudulent is secondary to how nasty it is.

Still, in an application like ice cream real vanilla in generous amounts is so much nicer than artificial. Of course ice cream producers figured out that most people aren’t able to tell the difference, lacking experience with a reference point. They realized that black flecks in the mix were what people really looked for, so a market emerged. After vanilla extract is made the bean is totally devoid of flavor, but it’s now ground into flecks and sold as an additive and can be legally listed as “vanilla bean” in the ingredients.

On a semi-related note a friend recently told me that “most cinnamon is fake!” It turns out he learned that a lot of cinnamon used is cassia cinnamon, not Ceylon cinnamon. I had to explain to him that they’re both cinnamon, and both great in different applications. If you want bright, spicy cinnamon then cassia is the way to go. If you want floral cinnamon then cinnamomum verum is the way, and if you want something in between with a natural sweetness, Vietnamese cinnamon is it.

Before that it was the same way in radio. I still have old recordings of The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and it would open with a guy from Petri Wine or Blue Coal “meeting” Dr. Watson. I can still remember their latter, “Petri took time to bring you good wine.” “Blue Coal, the finest anthracite money can buy.” They’d have an ad break midway and Watson would chat with the company man about the merits of the brand, and maybe exhort people to buy War or Victory Bonds.

This isn’t new, advertising has had its hand up our collective bungs for longer than any of us have been alive. We should fight it all the harder now that for the first time we can block their poison without blocking content.

facepalm

Just... eat less bacon, and don’t kid yourself that it somehow matters how the nitrates got there.

MSG though? Love the stuff. It actually makes it easier to use less fat, sugar, and other things you want in moderation because it, as you say, makes stuff good.

I’d love to see some actual evidence of that, which isn’t in the form of online anecdotes and testimonials on sites dedicated to the concept, or weird-as-hell “incel” sites. Something peer reviewed, in a respected journal would be a stsrt, even if the results haven’t been replicated yet.

Because it sounds like complete nonsense, and looking at the sites discussing it only reinforces my belief that it’s crap. I’ve spent some time searching for even a scrap of what someone with a hint of skepticism would consider compelling evidence and found nothing. I did find some communities I never knew existed, and wish I could now forget. Suffice it to say that “incels” are a truly strange bunch, and gullible at that.

I can easily see why this became mainstream, because it’s easy to do, and a sucker is born every minute. I am however, surprised to see this bunk here. Although, I’ve noticed that on health topics this forum is at its worst. Endless testimonials about vitamin D, magnesium, LSD, FSD diets and more seem paradoxically popular here, and I’m unsure why that is. Maybe the California connection?

It seems sad to think people need social pressure to be against it, but I’m not sure how else to reconcile people who condemn the spread of one, but defend the other.