johnb
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Posts posted by johnb
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19 hours ago, DonRocks said:
I will ask (my guess is no, but I can see what you mean by looking at your avatar, and will use that as an example).
There are many others. For example, go up several posts in this thread (sorry I can't cite the post number
-- it's 11 back) and look at DrXmus' avatar -- same issue.
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3 minutes ago, DonRocks said:
This is a really good point, and I don't like that either. I suspect they *are* numbered (in fact, I *know* they're numbered); the question is: Can those numbers be displayed? I will ask Invision on Monday if there's a way to do it.
The "unread content" issue is probably a personal setting - I can look for you, but I suspect each member can set their own preferences there (and if I can't find out, I will ask on Monday).
Bart, I saw your comment about Mark and Katelin, and I hope to hear from them - there might be one certain "pattern" of avatars that isn't showing up, and it would be helpful to establish that pattern.
While we're at it, one additional thing. Some of us have words in our avatars. They displayed fine when they were shown as squares. But since the board went to the circle display, the words get partially cut off and no longer make sense (maybe they never did, but I digress). Is it possible to go back to the old square display?
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I have noticed that the replies are no longer numbered, or at least it's not displaying for me. That sometimes used to help when referring to an older post. Could it be brought back? Also, when I hit "unread content" to see what's new I'd like to see all recent topics including those I happened to have already read, because then I know there's nothing new and I don't have to go searching for it to be sure. That requires a change in the "read status" from "unread" to "everything" every time. Can that default be changed permanently?
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5 hours ago, DonRocks said:
I got this email from my MIL last night. I wonder how many Americans don't even know what Brexit is.
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Coucou Don,
Nous avons traduit ce texte au cours. Intéressant non?---
And the text was this: brexit.pdf
It's shocking just how little coverage Brexit is getting in the Western media, and *why*? This is *big news*, and we're hardly reading anything about it - are we that ethnocentric of a country where we can't hear news even about *Europe*? Goodness knows if something similar was happening in Asia, Africa, South America, Central America, or Australia.
"Brexit Would Hit House Prices, Says Osborne" on bbc.com
"U.S., Japan FX Row Overshadows G7 Meeting; Leaders Eye Brexit Threat" by Leika Kihara and Stanley White on reuters.com
"G7 United Against Brexit, But Can Only Hope For An 'In' Vote" by Stanley White and Megumi Lim on reuters.com
While it's probably true that near-useless news media like CNN have not paid much attention, serious media have. Here is an article about brexit from just yesterday's NYT, one of many that have run recently. At the end there are links to several previous articles over the last few months (non-NYT subscribers can read several for free). I don't regularly follow the Washington Post, but a quick Google search of "washington post brexit" yielded more than two pages of recent WashPo articles on the subject.
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On 5/17/2016 at 3:01 PM, DonRocks said:
Folks, there's really only one all-purpose glass you need for all of your drinking requirements - it is *the* perfect vessel, and should be a staple in everyone's cabinet.
And it's even available at Crate & Barrel for under $10 - enjoy!
Cheers,
RocksThe item, which is a C&B exclusive, is named after a character on Mad Men. There is another similar item named after another Mad Men character. I have it on good authority (I can not say more) that it will continue to be offered by C&B but may in the future be sold under a different name. So if anyone wants to buy one/some with the current name sticker, don't delay (I'm talking to you Don).
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We've had this discussion before.
The human tongue has only 5 (maybe a few more -- not proven yet) types of taste receptors; as an aside, they are all scattered all over the tongue. They are so few and so limited that there's no way they could tell you much about any wine you are drinking. Meanwhile the human nose has hundreds (?? I have seen the number and it is very large) of different aroma detectors. What you think you are tasting when you "taste" wine or most anything else is actually smelling. Your brain assembles all the sensory inputs (and many other inputs too) and comes up with what you experience as "taste." Where wine hits your tongue has little to do with the outcome. The vast preponderance of taste is based on aromas which are detected in our noses, not on our tongues.
Most importantly, your pre-conceptions, and other inputs such as your surroundings, your experience, and many other factors have a large impact on what your brain comes up with. For example, you could give two samples of wine or just about anything to people, saying sample one is high quality and expensive and sample two is crap, and most people will say the first is much better, even if they were both from the same bottle. But here's the point -- they would be right -- the first really and truly did taste better to them. Why? Because their brains took all the information, the back story along with the sensory information, weighed and processed it, and came up with a better result for the first one. That's how our brains work, and sometimes send us off the rails.
You could say that fine wine will always taste better than plonk, even if it doesn't.
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While there, stop in the first Foodland you see (local grocery chain) and belly up to the poke counter. Buy a variety -- there are usually tables outside the store or nearby where you can chow down. True Hawaiian bliss. Foodland's poke is pretty much equal to, if not better than, any you'll find anywhere else.
"Best Poke: Foodland" by Quincy Greenheck on kaleo.org
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5 hours ago, curls said:
Can the system be setup to take you to the first unread post instead of always starting at the top of the page? I think it used to work like this before the upgrade. Then if you left the number of posts per page at 100, we wouldn't have to scroll so much to get to the last thing we read.
It would appear if you click on the "X hours ago" (or whatever the time since the last post has been) thingee in the lower left corner, instead of the thread title, it does take you to the most recent post, which is probably fairly close to your first unread one most of the time???
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In Florida where I am now, my tiny little local Asian market is offering Canadian hothouse tomatoes in the clear tray, 1.5 lb. for $2.99. They are mostly cherry or grape tomato size, a few bigger, and multi-colored (some purple and orange). They are the sweetest and most delicious tomatoes I can ever remember, and that goes back to my dad's fresh garden tomatoes when I was a kid back in the 50's. I have no intention to deny myself.
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Aug 30, 2013 - "The Pampered World of Congressional Air Travel" by Joshua Green on bloomberg.com
Congress was really pathetic in how they tried to minimize public perception of the real purpose of that parking lot at DCA. I don't know how it is done nowadays, but IIRC the signs used to say it was for Supreme Court Justices, ambassadors, and (oh, just an afterthought) members of Congress. I wonder how many of the cars parked there were owned by SCOTUS types and ambassadors. Hah!
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Latest development (or non-development??) in the saga of the federal government mandating airline seat dimensions:
"Senate Declines to Delve into Airline Legroom" by Bart Jansen on usatoday.com
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Oh, is Nashville Hot Chicken supposed to be some kind of Scoville Tolerance Test like vindaloo?
Basically, yes. But it's genuine, that is, the folks who eat it are doing so because they really like it for what it is. It's not like what goes on at those super hot wing places with eating contests that appeal to over-testosteroned college dudes who are trying to show everybody how manly they are.
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I am still heartbroken about my one visit to Nashville, about ten years ago. I drove directly from the airport to Prince's to be there when it opened at noon (this was a saturday)....a crowd formed....and it never opened.
And it was closed on Sundays. I used to drive through Nashville frequently and nearly always went by Prince's in hopes of getting some chicken. I probably succeeded one time in three (hint --don't bother to try to call ahead-they don't answer their phone). Long wait. Great chicken. I also tried Bolton's once -- also good but not as good.
Prince's is now a James Beard American Classics award winner. No longer undiscovered. Now that the dish is known there are many more places offering it. Don't know how good any of them is. Caveat emptor.
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Old bay will overpower the sweet flavor of maryland crab if not used very judiciously. I would apply it afterwards. I use panko crumbs and cook the cakes in a cast iron skillet with a little butter. They also should be chilled for at least two hours before cooking.
This is equally true, IMHO, when having crabs the usual way. I know this is fightin' words around the Mid-Atlantic, but I think Old Bay should never be used anywhere around crabs. It overpowers the flavor of the meat, and renders them little more than an excuse to drink excessive quantities of beer. To continue, the traditional "never boil crabs" admonition is equally bunk. The best way to have crabs is exactly the same as the best way to have lobster. Boil gently in salted water, and dip in melted salted butter. The butter can have a bit of hot sauce if desired.
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I'm delighted to hear you ate at one of my distant cousin's places, and especially pleased that you found it to be good. I'll have to try to get to Phoenix one of these days and do the same.
Not too surprised the food in Sedona and at the GC was so-so. That is consistent with my recollection from many years ago. I recall that, on the way to the GC from Las Vegas, we discovered that In-N-Out had recently opened a location in Kingman. It was the culinary highlight of the entire three day trip out to the canyon.
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Teapot or tea kettle? My inner Brit is horrified that anyone would wash a teapot. Or are we really just rinsing? As to a tea kettle, why would anyone wash one of those? Does the latest technology require new procedures? Apparently I'm behind the times. Nothing new there, as it were.
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Here is a web site that might help one find a more comfortable seat when selecting flights. It requires a little practice to get up to speed:
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My mistake - I thought it was 10 in a row without an aisle.
Actually, if I understand correctly, in some cases at least United is going from 2-5-2 to 3-4-3, which if true would be an improvement for that poor sap in the dead middle seat, at least as far getting out is concerned. I don't know for sure however, though I am pretty sure there are 2-5-2's flying around up there somewhere.
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And as long as you don't need to get up for any reason, or order anything to eat or drink when other passengers are sleeping.
3-3-3 or 3-4-3, either way you still have one person and one only to climb over to get to the aisle from a middle seat. It will happen to 33% more people of course.
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"United Confirms 10-Abreast Seating on Some of its 777s" by Ben Mutzabaugh on usatoday.com
Like Michelle Duggar's vagina, airplanes are becoming clown cars.
In a 777, 10 abreast yields seat widths of 17". That is the standard seat width on a 737, e.g. on Southwest which everybody seems to love. So relatively speaking it's not really a big deal provided we're talking about domestic trip times (I don't know about Hawaii from the east coast). Hawaii is a notorious low-fare competitive route, which certainly factors in to these decisions. I wouldn't want to fly one to China, but they aren't flying them to China anyway. Watch for the seat pitch; that will be more critical.
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Oops.
"Gun Rights Advocate Accidentally Shot In The Back By Her 4-Year-Old Son" by Megan Specia on mashable.com
Reading stories like that gets me "all jacked up" about how stupid people can be, and how far up on the stupidity scale many gun nuts are. Talk about getting your comeuppance. Sad and unfortunate of course, especially for the kid who will now wind up having to carry the knowledge of this event through his life, but still....... JMHO of course.
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Good response, thoughtful.
I'll reply number-by-number:
1) Yes, I realize this.
2) The key word is "economist." From an economic perspective, these airlines will do even better if they load passengers horizontally - I don't care if the airlines make ten billion dollars *as long as* the public's welfare is addressed.
3) Yes, I agree - fares will be raised (unless they're subsidized, in which case they'll be raised in the form of higher taxes).
4) My argument is rooted in the medical, convenience, *and* physical comfort aspect. It's clear that you're a free-market capitalist - so am I, *until* the free market fails, and it is failing (read on about whether or not this is an actual "free market"). Also, while this is a "food board" by birth, it is growing into something much more substantial than that, and yes, by all means let's have a discussion about Bloomberg's policies. Regarding your final sentence in 4), I refer you to this tweet of mine - this is a perfect example of that "middle category" in that the public gets told what it should want *all the time* (notice I said "it" and not "they"), and it obeys very obediently, too.
John, I respect you, and it's obvious how intelligent and educated you are, but you're addressing this issue from the stance of a pure Libertarian (if you're not, please tell me how you're not). There's nothing *wrong* with being a Libertarian, even just economically (as an example of how one person can be "different things," one can be a social Libertarian and an economic Communist). We're not as different as this conversation may make us sound, except that (and I admit that I'm attempting to read your mind here) when the public welfare is put into peril, the gummint must step in and keep the free market in check. Teddy Roosevelt's Trust busting is but one obvious example that everyone uses. The airline industry is hardly a free market to begin with, as you well know - who knows: perhaps if it was from day one, none of these problems would be happening; however, as it stands, consumers don't have a choice but to participate in this monopolistic system with its quasi-oligopolistic companies, other than, of course, opting out altogether.
Enjoy your trip to Chile, and don't worry about replying until you're back and have some free time on your hands - this thread will be waiting for you, and as always, I'll look forward to reading your reply in earnest,
Cheers,
Rocks
Not to worry. I have time for this conversation. We're mostly killing time and seeing old Chilean friends before getting on a ship next Sunday.
No I am most assuredly not a Libertarian, a philosophy that I find silly if not repugnant, because government (I used "gummint" before sardonically) definitely has an important role in society, making some choices and enforcing rules. Just to clear things up, I'm a strong Democrat/Progressive (but with certain exceptions from my fellow Progressives where the science doesn't support their progressivism and I feel they've gone astray). For example, I always watch MSNBC never Faux. I support Hillary -- Bernie is fine but a bit unidimensional and unfortunately insists on calling himself something that will hurt him in the general election, and I definitely don't want to see Trump, or worse Cruz, win because of bad optics coming from the Democrat. There comes a point where you must cater to the foolishness of crowds.
The problem is how far should government making choices for us go. Roosevelt did the right thing (my branch of economics is actually anti-trust more than anything). Setting aside land for National Parks was definitely the right thing. Establishing social security and Medicare was the right thing. Obamacare, for all its faults, was a big step in the right direction if not the optimal solution. Most of what the EPA does is the right thing (and they have great people working for them). Etc. However, whether that extends to choosing seat pitch for travelers is less clear, particularly when it means that nobody will have the choice and everybody will pay more. It's pretty far for the government to drill down into people's economic choices/behavior. If you can make a case that this is really crucial from a medical standpoint, I have no problem, as I already said. Then again, when I have read about DVT from airline seats it seems the person didn't even stand up for hours. I would think you can get DVT from sitting in a chair at home for several hours. It's true that many non-frequent flyers don't know what they're buying, but again how far should government go in protecting people from not informing themselves of what they're buying?
The beat goes on.
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Here is another article which is of interest. You may want to be sitting down before you begin to read it:
"Bottom Of The Class: American Airlines Is Introducing A Class Below Economy" on economist.com
John, the more that time goes by, and the more I think about this conversation, the less I agree with you: *The public did not ask for this*.
I'm ready for a higher degree of government regulation, and I cannot believe I'm saying this.
You can argue that "the public" is "asking for this" by voting with their pocketbooks, but I don't buy it - the airlines are preying on human beings' perfectly reasonable instinct to want to spend less money. Saying "the public asked for this" is something Ayn Rand would have said.
What's next, less-expensive surgery without anesthesia? Guess what? Some people would probably opt into it - it shouldn't be a legal option. and the current airline seating arrangements - coupled with mounting obesity in this country (due in part, I will add, to shitty, industrial food) is making being an airline passenger medically dangerous. I don't believe for a second that orthopedic injuries, or even blot clots, haven't occurred because of current seating layouts.
The free market has failed.
Couple of things:
1. These new fare classes being instituted by the legacy carriers (American, United, Delta) involve no change in seat comfort or legroom. The main thing is if you choose that supercheap fare you cannot select a seat in advance or change your travel plans. I talked about this earlier -- see the last paragraph of reply #25 from Dec. 16.
2. The final paragraph in the economist article you cited says exactly what I have said above -- these fare classes are what the public is demanding, and the low fare carriers (e.g. Spirit) that started it are doing extremely well financially, offering the public less seat room. Note that the legacies are not reducing seat room with their new competitive fares. All the legacy carriers have now instituted competitive fares because they have to in order to, well, compete with Spirit and Frontier and others that would surely come into the market. This is a pretty clear case of the public showing what they want with their choices (cheap ticket) and forcing competitive moves by other market players.
3. If you want government-imposed minimum seat pitch regulations, I personally have no problem with that since it would apply to all airlines equally (although it's not as simple to implement as one might think due to different cabin dimensions in different aircraft flying different routes). But it would have the effect of raising average fares.
4. Your argument is rooted in the medical aspect, combined with an assumption that buyers don't understand what they are buying. That's fine, but since this is a food board, why not argue for gummint regulations about the maximum calories, salt, etc. in any dish served at any restaurant. Or that everybody must buy expensive organic local non-GMO groceries. Bloomberg is famous for trying that type of thing, and he got nothing but blowback from the public. To me, the bottom line is it's presumptuous at best and dangerous at worst to get in the business of telling the general public what they should want.
Full disclosure: I'm in Santiago Chile right now and flew down here in a coach seat on a LAN 787 with 34" pitch. Not bad, and it was a cheap ticket.
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Given your traveling companions I'm not sure whether much fine dining is on your radar, but if it is (or someone else in the future sees this thread) and you're in the Phoenix area, specifically the north suburb of Cave Creek, you might take a shot at my very distant relative Kevin Binkley's eponymous restaurant "Binkley's". Kevin has been nominated for James Beard awards several years running. I have not yet made it there, but from what I've read it seems to be top notch (I have had lunch with his Dad). He also has two more bistro-like places, Cafe Bink which is near the mother restaurant and Bink's Midtown which is not far from the airport, either of which might be a better bet with the kids and both of which are open for lunch.
-- it's 11 back) and look at DrXmus' avatar -- same issue.
Brexit - The UK's Potential Withdrawal from the European Union
in Current Events
Posted
Here is a recent Onion comment pertinent to this thread. Even though it didn't literally happen, I judge it closer to truth than to satire. "Facebook Clarifies Site Not Intended To Be Users’ Primary Information Source."
I admit I'm a news junkie. I spend a good deal of time reading the NYT (I subscribe to the internet edition), The Economist (ditto), watching political commentary on TV that is based on what I believe to be facts not emotions and opinions, not to mention forays into the Daily Beast, HuffPost, New Yorker Daily, and others. This is JMHO, but I believe that if one seeks to be informed then one needs to take deliberate steps to be informed, not rely on just happening into it. The internet is predominantly a wasteland of puffery, flim-flam, ephemera, and non-information;* digging out the worthwhile nuggets doesn't just happen but takes planning and effort, and a skeptical mindset.
* Present website excluded of course