The feedback unit has recently released some "games" to help the public understand how it works.

Besides being inane, boring and pointless, I was particularly peeved by "Feedback Pursuit". Sacrificing some of my time to play this hilarious (in the bad sense) game and putting up with a banal 2-minute long soundtrack from the 80s put on loop, I bring you these findings:


1) You can lose points on penalty squares. Sample penalties:

- "Complain endlessly without any constructive suggestion" (the alternatives, of course, being either to provide on an unpaid basis suggestions to people who are paid handsomely to think up solutions, or to keep silent and pretend that everyone is happy and that no problem exists) [Addendum: Someone - "Aw, gee. If I were the majority shareholder of a company and I complained to the CEO about the lack of profits, or the shitty reputation it has, and the CEO asked me for an alternative, I'd have him sacked."]
- "Decline invitation to participate in dialogue session" (because the results of and treatment of feedback is unclear)
- "Disregard national issues" (thanks, no doubt, to decades of depoliticisation)
- "The government will take care of everything" ("We decide what is right, never mind what the people think. That's another problem"; the Faustian bargain is being amended - now citizens are expected to do their part, with no commensurate compensation)


2) There are "Reward" squares with items like:

- "Write to Forum page" (no doubt "complain[ing] endlessly without any constructive suggestion" or worse: coming up with a moronic one like governmental regulation of blogs, and concluding with "May the relevant authorities please look into this and/or reply")
- "Your feedback helped make a difference"

- "Participate in social survey"
Considering Section 20 of the Census Act reads:

"Any person who refuses to answer, to the best of his knowledge and belief, any question asked of him by a census officer which is necessary to obtain any information required for the purposes of a census... shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,600 ($1,000) or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month or to both"
(http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/non_version/cgi-bin/cgi_getdata.pl?actno=1973-REVED-\35),

it's no surprise that people feel compelled to participate in social surveys.

Some may point out that refusing to answer the census is a crime in the UK and US as well, but not only is that besides the point, offenders there do not have to go to jail.


3) They spelled "revitalise" with a Z. Tsk tsk.


All in all, this typifies the top-down mindset that locates citizens on a lower level whose sole conduit in attaining political self-actualization is by participating in feedback exercises and
writing in to the relevant authorites with constructive suggestions, and delegitimises other potential conduits, including those typically found in modern democracies.

Following this mindset, instead of using Critical Thinking skills so important to the New Economy in writing their Op-Eds, Catherine Lim and Cherian George should have gone to more tea sessions and participated in more feedback dialogues and written more letters to the Straits Times Forum with suggestions to the relevant authorities, resulting in their feedback being filtered and attenuated through an impersonal apparatus, with unknown results.

Also, given that the Feedback Unit is part of the Civil Service, it is exceedingly odd for the people to engage with it, rather than with the political process proper by voicing their opinions to their elected representatives; the Civil Service deals with implementation of policies, while the political process formulates them - thus, working through the civil service would presumably only tweak the implementation of said policies, rather than resulting in substantive change.


If anyone wants to torment themselves with bad music: http://fbu.snazza.com/

"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination." - Thomas De Quincey

***

"Choose Your Own Adventure" Books That Never Quite Made It - "You're the star of the story! Choose from 20 tragic endings. DON'T BOTHER. You die in most of the endings anyway."

Buridan's Ass - "The passing of Buridan's ass theory is a tragic shame, primarily because this theory is the best possible way to understand most romance novels, especially those of Brenda Honnefleur. The heroine in each novel is torn between two equally suitable mates and often resigns herself to life alone instead of selecting one... Buriden's ass theory can be applied to more than just relationships. Douglas Coupland's novel Paradise by the Refrigerator Light concerns Ellie McDaniel, a graphic design student and poet who cannot decide whether to major in art or English. Instead of pursuing a double major, she simply drops out of school, smokes tons of marijuana, and eats tremendous amounts of microwavable tater tots.."

YouTube - Tits for Tots - "There are millions of girls out there who are learning as they enter their teens that they're gonna be flat chested for the rest of their lives. This means no good-looking boyfriends, no immediate hiring in meaningful job interviews, no quick access to the VIP section at exclusive clubs and Hollywood premiere parties. They will instead have to learn how to dance, and flirt, and have actual engaging conversations with hundreds of overweight, overbearing, nerdy or just plain moronic men. But we can stop this wretched madness right now."

Japan massage - "Girls hitting dudes in the nuts. Beacuse the dude pays for it"
Damn Japs.

Real Life Simpsons Intro - "Someone went through a lot of trouble to very accurately depict the Simpsons intro with real life actors."

Doonesbury@Slate - "Situational science is about respecting both sides of a scientific argument, not just the one supported by facts! That's why I ALWAYS teach the controversy! Like the Evolution controversy, or the Global Warming controversy... Not to mention the Tobacco controversy, the Mercury controversy, the Pesticides controversy, the Coal Slurry controversy, the Dioxin controversy, the Everglades controversy and the Acid Rain controversy."

Hey,Dudette! - "The tendency towards unisex names is useless in this regard if everyone needs to quickly identify a person's sex and thenceforth refer to them with sex-based pronouns. Living in a patriarchy we simply cannot imagine a circumstance in which knowledge of a person's sex might be irrelevant or unnecessary. But let us pretend for a moment that such a circumstance is possible... traditionally inclusive terms like he and him can also be used inclusively without regard to sex. In the event that there is a bona fide reason to communicate another person's genital status, it is as simple to say that "Same is female," or "He is female, as it is to say that "The surgeon is female," or The attorney is female." Having once established a person's sex, it is no more necessary to refer to them in terms of their sex, than it is in Hofstadter's satire, to refer to people continuously in terms of their race."
What is this woman smoking?!

I shall post this, part of a scan of the cover of an issue of the Hikaru no go manga, whenever stupid Americans get upset over someone's use of the abbreviation "Jap".

***

Hitler has only got one ball / Adolf Hitler / Heil Hitler / NSDAP

England 1939-1940

Hitler, he only had one ball,
Goering, he had two but very small,
Himmler had something simmler,
But poor old Goebbels had no balls at all.
Whistle Chorus:

Frankfurt has only one beer hall,
Stuttgart, die München all on call,
Munich, vee lift our tunich,
To show vee 'Cherman' have no balls at all.
Whistle Chorus:

Hans Otto is very short, not tall,
And blotto, for drinking Singhai and Skol.
A 'Cherman', unlike Bruce Erwin,
Because Hans Otto has no balls at all.

Whistle Chorus:

Hitler has only got one ball,
The other is in the Albert Hall.
His mother, the dirty bugger,
Cut it off when he was small.
Whistle Chorus:

***

Someone: macs are awful machines
there's no rightclick button

Me: hehe
the mac whores will claim you don't need one
and anyway there's the $60 mighty mouse
whee

Someone: the mac whores don't realise that you can rightclick ANYWHERE on the desktop to bring up a context menu that has multiple options (new XYZ program file, especially)
the only good thing about macs is the rotating wallpaper thing

i felt like i was using win3.11, with the annoying frequently with which i had to go to the top window to click on options

Me: they will claim you can Cmd + Click to bring up a context menu

Someone: the context menu is part of mac, but only limited to mac
programs don't have mac-integrated shells that allow you to add stuff to that context menu

Me: I'm sure you can go hack the Unix code
but that's besides the point, once again

Someone: in windows, you rightclick on desktop, any folder, you get arrange icons, refresh, {new}. that new is quite important
to go from tab to tab in firefox, you need to press 3 keys: command, mac, and arrow key
rubbishy... since in windows you just need 2: control-tab

Me: wah that sucks
you know, fundies and mac whores share a lot in common
heh

Someone: and look. minimum specs for winxp is 400MHz pentium2
minimum specs for the latest macosX is a 400MHz G4
difference being that mac G4 is just 2 years old
rate of os obsoleting hardware is phenomenal in mac machines, in other words

itunes 7 cannot be installed on a first-gen imac
os and software obselete hardware by refusing to be installed on 'slower' machines

machines get obsolete if new software or OS cannot be installed on them
the 400MHz p2 came out 1998 *(at least i bought mine then)
winXP came out x year. hence 400MHz machine got obsolete in y years

no matter which version of winXP, you are guaranteed that if your machine could run winXP original, your machine will be able to run sp2, sp3, sp4, etc
mac: 10.3.x cannot be installed in the first generation imacs

Me: ah
so it's a built in thing
the Apple tax is levied in another insidious way
this is contrived obsolescence

Someone: quicktime. i can't watch anything on my workplace mac, since the quicktime5+ cannot be installed on the firstgen imac
i got so annoyed i started to use mac's notepad equivalent to write my stuff instead of office

the latest adobe suite requires G5 to install, not just G4 chips
so my boss was complaining: his harddisk is bigger than the minimum, he has twice the recommended ram, but he can't install the latest adobe

i pity the macheads

Me: false consciousness :)

On Wednesday, we finally got some proper snow which blanketed the ground, rather than the sleet ('frozen raindrops that bounce on impact with the ground') of a week or three ago and the very sporadic snow that we'd been getting on and off. The ground was then blanketed in a sheet of white. Of course, as someone noted, snow is only fun for the first 30 minutes. Then it begins to melt, get dirty and turn into slush.


Snowscape, from the window outside my room

Venturing further afield, I located another Aldi along Groeneweg, and this one was much larger than the first one I'd gone to (though not within walking distance of the Central Station). They had most of the stuff I need, except for fresh meat and Coke. Beside it was a Nettorama, a discount supermarket, which did have them, and stuff found in normal supermarkets. Meat seems cheaper at the market, and if I looked hard enough, most fresh produce might be as well, but the trouble with the market (besides it being 3/4 open on Wednesday, half open on Friday and fully open only on Saturday) is that it's inconsistent, heterogeneous and prices are not always clearly displayed (if they are marked in the first place), and one has to spend some time visiting all the individual stalls to find the best bargain. Unlike most females, I do not incur negative search costs (ie They enjoy the process of looking for low prices itself), so I will probably opt for the satisficing option of doing most of my non-meat shopping at Aldi and Nettorama (and going for Euroshopper brand products like €0.29/kg spaghetti and the Bonus [sale] items at Albert Heijn).


View of Vredenburg, where the market is

Nettorama even had Made-In-Belgium Garnier Fructis, and at a lower price (€2.49 per bottle) than the market too - the power of economies of scale trumps that of cross-border arbitrage. I noticed that the Nettorama had a price guarantee, but oddly stocked none of the brands that Aldi had; Aldi almost surely stocks funny brands you don't find elsewhere for this reason, especially since in this case they were right next to each other - even if Aldi had lower prices for pasta sauce than Nettorama, it's for another brand so the price guarantee would not apply.


Ditto




The birds seemed strangely unperturbed


Then they took wing




I like snow-covered trees. This from just outside my housing.




Interestingly, here they call peanut butter pindakaas, which translates as "peanut cheese".


Quotes:

[On a model] We decided to, or I decided to extend it.

[On the Solow model being insufficient to explain growth] This is good news, or the course would end here and you'd be bored for the next 10 weeks.

[On education and human capital] In the end, this is the reason you came here this afternoon - to learn something so you can make more money.

[On Malthus] This model, which brings tears to your eyes because it's so terrible... People will make kids until you run out of food, then they'll die. It's terrible.

Those are things we can build into the model, but it's too much work and it makes me very tired.

[On health correlating to income and vice versa] Proof that these are true. Even if you believe, the proofs are quite fun, so let's have a look.

[On food and height] The body responds, 'This is not very good. I better not grow so much'. I have no idea what I'm talking about - this is biology... it takes up too much energy [to be tall].

[On conscription] They measure your weight, they measure your height. They even try to measure your intelligence - it's very funny.

[On an Italian minister] 'I will not enter parliament because it would decrease my human capital'... he went back to Florence to become an Economics Professor.

By going here, you have increased your future wages by a certain amount. I'll reveal it later - it's a secret. (coming)

[On human capital wearing out] If you don't practise the Solow model everyday, you'll forget it.

People who go to College are not a random ability sample... Now I'm flattering you. People who go to College are smarter. This is twice as so for the teacher.

In formulas - it always looks more impressive if you say these things in formulas.

I give you this data because it has the Netherlands in it. Your textbook does not. Very wrong.

[On finding productivity] In your homework, there's an exercise with data for the USA and Netherlands from 2000. It shows you, if you do it correctly, that you can manipulate the numbers to say pretty much anything you want.

[On productivity being a catch-all term] It is indeed a collection of garbage.

Now is when we start doing mathematical gymnastics.

[On the dot above a variable indicating its rate of change] This notation, by the way, was invented by Isaac Newton, because he was writing a large book, and he got very tired.

"I write down everything I want to remember. That way, instead of spending a lot of time trying to remember what it is I wrote down, I spend the time looking for the paper I wrote it down on." - Beryl Pfizer

***

Me: heard of ***?

Someone: nope
what's that?

Me: http://www.atsui.org/media/non/***.jpg

Someone: who the hell is that?
why does he have blue geisha eyes?

Me: I've a friend who's crazy over It

Someone: It?

Me: why does he look like a girl
and not a normal girl like that
I'd be less freaked out if he looked like a jap AV [Adult Video] star

Someone: he doesn't look like a girl lar!

Me: he looks like a freak
damn japs

Someone: well he has quite nice hair

Me: he looks like some chaos magic got into him when he was in the womb

can you come up with anything else to describe the horror and revulsion I feel when gazing upon that twisted visage?


Someone: my dad say he will vote for opposition if ur father is a opposition party politician
haha

Me: wth
what does that have to do with my father

Someone: dunno la
any relatives whatsoever

***

A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain: APPENDIX D The Awful German Language

"Every noun has a gender, and there is no sense or system in the distribution; so the gender of each must be learned separately and by heart. There is no other way. To do this one has to have a memory like a memorandum-book. In German, a young lady has no sex, while a turnip has. Think what overwrought reverence that shows for the turnip, and what callous disrespect for the girl. See how it looks in print--I translate this from a conversation in one of the best of the German Sunday-school books:

"Gretchen. Wilhelm, where is the turnip?

"Wilhelm. She has gone to the kitchen.

"Gretchen. Where is the accomplished and beautiful English maiden?

Wilhelm. It has gone to the opera."

To continue with the German genders: a tree is male, its buds are female, its leaves are neuter; horses are sexless, dogs are male, cats are female--tomcats included, of course; a person`s mouth, neck, bosom, elbows, fingers, nails, feet, and body are of the male sex, and his head is male or neuter according to the word selected to signify it, and NOT according to the sex of the individual who wears it--for in Germany all the women either male heads or sexless ones; a person`s nose, lips, shoulders, breast, hands, and toes are of the female sex; and his hair, ears, eyes, chin, legs, knees, heart, and conscience haven`t any sex at all. The inventor of the language probably got what he knew about a conscience from hearsay.

Now, by the above dissection, the reader will see that in Germany a man may THINK he is a man, but when he comes to look into the matter closely, he is bound to have his doubts; he finds that in sober truth he is a most ridiculous mixture; and if he ends by trying to comfort himself with the thought that he can at least depend on a third of this mess as being manly and masculine, the humiliating second thought will quickly remind him that in this respect he is no better off than any woman or cow in the land."

***

The Frikadel: an obsession investigated - "One website, which says the Frikadel was invented 50 years ago in Brabant, suggests that the worst also contains pork and chicken offal. But in reality, it says a Frikadel is primarily made of horse flesh. Other sources have suggested brain as a distinct ingredient."
I had one and it was just a sausage battered and fried. Nothing special. I prefer a kroket, or even a bamiblok.

The world of Dutch fast food - "If that's too heavy for you, you can always try a salad. But don't expect a feast of healthy and crunchy greens if you order a huzarensalade or an eiersalade. The occasional vegetable particles hide well from the inhospitable climate of the Netherlands under a thick cover of mayonnaise. This is a cold and wet country, your body needs fat and calories, and the Dutch snack supplies them."
I love this magazine. No wonder these people cycle so much.

A Four-Letter Word - ""Slut" is for liking it. "Slut" is for wanting it. "Slut" is for going after it. Men hunt, women gather; men chase, women wait. Look it up, slut."
The misandry is palpable and repellent. [Addendum: "misandry - Hatred of men."]

Being informed that Tuesday was the last day of the Carnival in Maastricht and other southern cities, and occasionally seeing costumed revelers on the bus on Sunday and Monday, I decided to pop down then to have a look at this interesting annual phenomenon; for three whole days the cities involved shut down and hold a kind of Mardi Gras.


St Martinuskerk in Wyck (St Martin's Church)


Ditto

When I reached Maastricht at noon, I found that it was still very cold - how they would party in the chill, I did not know. Not seeing many people around and afraid that I'd already missed all the action, I asked someone where the carnival was, and he said it'd start at 2-3 pm. I guess after 2 days of hard drinking and partying, everyone was tired and wasted, and so had to wake up late. Probably also they were running out of ways to celebrate.


Monument erected in 1952 to St Servatius, St Monulphus and friends

Entering a McDonalds to use the toilet, I was dismayed to see a sign: "Gebruik toiletten €0.30". Maybe it was levied to pay for the Dove Cream Wash in the toilet. Luckily, no one was watching so I managed to sneak in and out. There's something to be said for localising global franchises, but this is ridiculous.


Marching band clad in yellow
Many of the Carnival-goers were formed into marching bands with themed costumes. I was wondering why the music all sounded the same (though I heard one trying to play "Va pensiero" from Nabucco) - music for marching bands all sounds the same, but what I heard went beyond the normal commonalities; it seems each year there's a new Carnival song. I saw many entering pubs and playing - I bet they got free drinks. Later they congregated in the town square for a competition, and this guy on stage sang along.

I saw a cafe which proudly proclaimed: 'Cafe van het jaar 2002'. And I thought proclaiming you were founded in the 90s was bad enough.


Onze Lievevrouwebasiliek


Ditto


Ditto


Ruined wall along Faliezusterspark, opposite Openbare Basisschool Binnenstad


Tafelstraat Alley


Papier Mache figures in front of St Jan's. Note also all the confetti on the ground after 2 days of partying


St Jan's


Ditto

I'd been dying for a Gyros ever since seeing that there were Greek snack bars around (though sadly they're vastly outnumbered by the Turkish ones). However, most of them open at around 4pm, and somehow I'd never passed by one both when it was open and I was hungry. In Maastricht, I finally got to have my Gyros, and found it far superior to the few shoarmas (essentially, the Turkish equivalent) I've had so far. It was not only the varkensvlees (pork), which additionally was seared far more lovingly than the shoarmas' meats - the pita was also thicker and toasted more lovingly, and somehow the sauce inside was tastier. Maybe it was the tzisiki in the Gyros.


At first, I wasn't sure if this was what I thought it was. Later, it turned out to be exactly that.


Town Hall


Statue of Johannes Petrus Minckelers (Jean-Pierre Minckelers) - a pioneer in gas lighting, which explains the burning torch, presumably maintained at the city's expense.


Band


Sailors' Band
One advantage of taking pictures of marching bands is that they are too busy playing to come up to you and shout that they are not public property.


I was wondering why I was kicking so many broken glasses on the streets. After seeing so many people with glasses in their hands, many of them walking about, I knew. Coupled with the confetti it must be hell for the cleaners.


The band competition


Zooming in on the band competition


"Het mooswief" - the "mascot" (as the people at the VVV [tourist office] described her) of the Carnival - an old woman with a basket of vegetables (underwhelming, I know)


Even the mannikins are celebrating Carnival!

2 people dressed up as policemen (with fake moustaches and droopy noses) and then walked up to the real police in a car to talk to them. Hurr hurr.


Medieval dressup

They sold what must be the most expensive patat met (mayonnaise) in the Netherlands at the Carnival - €3 for one cone.


Men in fur


Freaky guy


Fish family


Assorted people


I call this picture: "Orientalism"

At 330 there was a brief hail storm, though the hailstones were only slightly bigger than bean bag stuffing. My feet hurt, I was getting a bit bored and my thighs were chafing due to dryness, so I headed back. Just before reaching the station I briefly reconsidered and asked someone when the closing ceremony was. He said it was at midnight - in 8 hours' time. I sure as hell wasn't going to stay that long, especially as I figured all that would happen was that they'd drink till midnight, and I wouldn't see anything new, so I decided to return to Utrecht (besides which, the last train was at 10+pm). In any case, I wasn't the only one who decided to leave early - I saw some costumed revelers on the train.


Isildur guards the bridge across the river Maas


Condom dispenser
This is the first time I've seen a condom dispenser in the street. Putting them in toilets, I understand. Putting them in bars or clubs, I also understand. But in the street?!


I saw this African restaurant which had on its menu "N'golo" soup from Congo. The indication was that it was to be eaten with the hands. Wth?!

As an adjunct to the earlier point about multilingualism: this French girl was saying that Spanish was easier for her to learn than Dutch is, since the 2 languages are quite similar.

I had to pay €76.50 at the train station (€55 for the off-peak 40% discount card and €21.50 for a discounted ticket to Maastricht) but they refused to accept my €100 bill, so I had to pay €1 to break it at the moneychanger's next door. !@#$

There're dustbins at each pair of seats in the train. How convenient.


Quotes:

[On the Dutch adopting the next hour as a point of reference after a quarter past] Why is it like that? [Teacher: Don't ask me] It's so stupid. [Teacher: Thank you.]

What time did you get up?... Twelve o'clock? That's nice. I already had 3 lessons to teach.

[On a conversation] He doesn't understand Dutch, but he's speaking Nederlands. [Teacher: The basics] *sotto voce* "*something* vrouw" is not basic.

Stupid girls
I saw this group of teenage girls who stripped down to their innermost layer of clothing (on top at least) and took a picture. It was only 4 degrees, the air was calm and it was sunny to boot. I dare them to try this when it's -2 degrees and snowing heavily! That'd be a sight to see. Furthermore, I thought only guys did this sort of stupid (but fun) thing. And this isn't the country which gave us "Girls Gone Wild"!

I finally got down to climbing the Dom tower. The international students got to do this during Orientation, but since I missed it, coming a few days late, I had to do it myself, paying €6.50 for the privilege of doing so.


The largest of the 7 bells, which dates from 1505. The 7 new ones are from ~1982.


Inside another of the 16th century bells

The guided climb made stops at 25m, 50m and 70m but I went on to the 95m mark myself - I'd done St Paul's 5 years ago, and both structures are 112m tall, though I suspect I climbed somewhat higher this time, since it looks like the highest point you can climb to in the Dom tower is higher than the comparable point in St Paul's:




View from 70m. Amsterdam is in the distance.


View of the main part of the Dom from 70m


The bells for daily use mounted at 70m


View of the town


Carvings at 70m

Pity about the graffiti at 95m (since the guide doesn't follow visitors to that level). Maybe they'll figure out a way to wire a CCTV camera up there.


View of the 112m point from 95m


More carvings


View from 95m


Ditto


Ditto


Me at 95m


Going up and down staircases like this gives one vertigo


Ceci n'est pas une église - how the Dom looked like before the hurricane


I've always liked vaulting


A lot of fast food places have niches in the wall where you can insert coins and buy snacks. When the niches are empty, they can refill them from their side. Good idea, but unfortunately the machines don't give change - I was overcharged for my bamiblok by €0.10

People here are so helpful. This old man was jogging to chase his bus, and people at the bus stop waved to the driver to wait.

Someone bought pre-made pork lasagna. I didn't know they made that.

The cheapest Vla I've found so far has the colour, texture and viscosity of mayonnaise. Yet, it's also the best tasting - the vanilla flavouring tastes the least artificial. It also comes in a tetrapak and so needs no refrigeration!

I'm wondering if I should pay €7.50 to watch Waiting for Godot on 24/3 at the Theater Kikker. I'm told it's boring, and it sounds stupid ("in the classical tradition of French playwriting" is all I need to know).

I was trying to figure out how a Dobben kroket differs from a Kwekkeboom kroket. It seems they're both krokets, but just made by different companies. The Dutch take their krokets very seriously.

I paid €2.50 for a satekroket broodje (satay croquette sandwich) and was expecting something decent. In the end I only got the kroket in a bun - not even a leaf of lettuce. I was very pissed off, especially since a satekroket alone goes for only €1-€1.20.



Red wine stew: pork cubes, minced garlic, onions, potatoes, broccoli, carrots, red pepper, with a sprinkle of sugar to offset the sourness of the wine
I used pasta sauce instead of canned chopped tomatoes for this, since I didn't have any of the latter. Besides, the former already has herbs inside, saving me the trouble of adding my own. I added too much vegetables, and so had to put in more red wine and pasta sauce (from a different brand no less, but it turned out alright). The final product was good, except that there was too little meat and too much vegetables. For some reason when food is in the pan or pot it tastes less salty than when it's on the plate, so I end up sprinkling a touch too much salt. I have to remember to compensate for this curious effect next time.