How Black Pepper Won Europe From a Tastier Pepper - "long pepper is almost entirely forgotten today, even though it set the stage for black pepper to win a centuries-long takeover of spice cabinets. Why did black pepper go mainstream, while long pepper, spicier and more complex, faded into obscurity? It’s a story of geography, of supply and demand, and of quantity winning out over quality... black pepper was the more aggressive spice, announcing itself loudly before fading into a sharp tingle. Long pepper staged a more quiet takeover of my mouth, but once it had arrived, it lingered and grew in power. It had a pleasantness to it that made it tolerable for longer; black pepper’s assertive bite got kind of tiresome. Long pepper also had an acrid mellowness to it—its spice hit, but over a more floral note, rather than black pepper’s bitterness... Today, long pepper’s still commonly used in cooking from the places where it grows: it’s an ingredient in Indian cooking and in southeast Asian dishes."
What is White Pepper, Anyway? - "When you think about the ubiquity of black pepper—always in a shaker next to the salt—it’s funny that white pepper feels somewhat elusive, especially considering that it’s common in East Asian and some European cooking. It’s a traditional seasoning for congee, it's the source of heat in hot and sour soup, and it camouflages into pommes purée and béchamel. White peppercorns and black peppercorns both begin as the same berry on the same pepper plant... Black peppercorns are dried as soon as they’re picked... White peppercorns, on the other hand, are soaked before they’re dried so that that outer layer comes off. The surface underneath is smooth and, yes, white. “The taste is brighter and sharper and more herbaceous than black pepper,” says chef, author, and spice expert Lior Lev Sercarz. “Some varieties even have a little bit of a piney, resin-y aroma.”"
Meme - "How leftists think "triggering" works
Here's a really stupid opinion and/or demonsrably false statement
Uh, that's wrong you idiot
Lol are you triggered snowflake?"
The Origin of the Word “Chope” - "The Singlish word ‘chope’ (Slang for reserving a seat) was derived from chop; to leave a mark. The word ‘chop’ was originally from the Malay word cap, which is from the Hindi word छाप ćhāp (stamp). ‘Chop’ and ‘chope’ are sometimes sounded the same because of the blending of the vowel sounds... The use of the word ‘chop’ to mean ‘stamp’ is unique to this part of the world, so please be careful, business people in the West will be quite confused."
Plasmanode 🪐 on Twitter - ""if you've ever messed up, at least you're not the Cisco design engineer who caused an entire product line recall by placing the mode button (which resets the switch if held) directly above an RJ45 port." - gsuberland@chaos.social"
Cisco restores evidence of its funniest FAIL – ethernet cable presses switch's reset button - "Cisco watchers may recall that the company is infamous for two particularly odd bug reports. One attributes networking glitches to “cosmic radiation” or “Terrestrial high energy cosmic particles, neutrons, protons, pions and muons.” The other points out that “Certain types of snagless Ethernet cables have protective boots that extend too far forward and above the plastic latching tab.” Which is a problem because: “When this type of cable is installed in Port 1 of any 48-port model of the Cisco Catalyst C3650 or C3850 Series switches, the boot might press and hold the Mode button, which invokes Express Setup and reboots the system.”"
Meme - "Man defends himself expertly from woman who keeps trying to hit him"
Human Freedom Index: 2021 | Cato Institute - "The countries that took the top 10 places, in order, were Switzerland, New Zealand, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Canada and Finland (tied at 6), Australia, Sweden, and Luxembourg"
Weird. The libertarians keep telling us that government is the problem
Meme - "The psychic damage I receive every-time I open TikTok
how I budget $15k/month allowance as a 19 y.o. Ivy League student
NYC"
Meme - "Xmas tip: Put your boyfriend at the side of your family incase you need to remove him later."
The NY Times Thinks If We Let Boys Be Boys, They Will Murder Their Fathers And Have Sex With Their Mothers. I Disagree.
Protip: stop reading Freud
Russian man 'trapped' on Chinese reality TV show finally voted out after three months - "A Russian man who joined a boyband competition show on Chinese TV on a whim but quickly regretted his decision has finally been released from his ordeal after making it all the way to the final. Vladislav Ivanov, a 27-year-old part-time model from Vladivostok, was working on the show Produce Camp 2021 as a translator when producers reportedly noticed his good looks and asked him to sign up as a contestant. Ivanov told the programme he had been asked “if I’d like to try a new life” and agreed, but quickly came to regret the decision. Unable to leave on his own without breaching his contract and paying a fine, he instead begged viewers to send him home and deliberately performed poorly in the hope of being voted off... A fanbase which had taken to his grumpy, anti-celebrity persona, or were perhaps driven by schadenfreude, urged each other to vote for him and “let him 996!” in reference to China’s digital industry culture of chronic overwork - 9am to 9pm, six days a week. Others called him “the most miserable wage slave”, and celebrated him as an icon of “Sang culture”, a Chinese millennial concept of having a defeatist attitude toward life."
Keywords: Aka Vlad Ivanov / Lelush
How the (Much Maligned) Mongol Horde Helped Create Russian Civilization
Male models strike pose in court after coke bust - "Quest agency model Christopher Wetmore, 25, who has appeared in GQ Style magazine and modeled for brands like Rocawear and Diesel, was busted Thursday night at his 121 East 23rd St. pad, police sources said... His blue-eyed blond pal Joseph DeNormandie, 20, also a Quest model, was busted for selling acid and $2,500 worth of cocaine to an undercover cop, according to court papers. The daughter of a former Brooklyn prosecutor, Julia Arcia, 17, turned herself in to the Manhattan DA’s Office Friday morning. She allegedly sold blow and $700 worth of LSD to an undercover officer, prosecutors said."
Zoolander!
Environmental Aspects of Ethical Animal Production - "Livestock and poultry producers face a number of challenges including pressure from the public to be good environmental stewards and adopt welfare-friendly practices. In response, producers often implement practices beyond those required for regulatory compliance to meet consumer demands. However, environmental stewardship and animal welfare may have conflicting objectives. Examples include pasture-based dairy and beef cattle production where high-fiber diets increase methane emissions compared with grain feeding practices in confinement. Grazing systems can contribute to nitrate contamination of surface and groundwater in some areas of the world where grazing is the predominant land use. Similarly, hoop housing for sows, an alternative to indoor gestation crates, can increase the risk of nutrient leaching into soil and groundwater. Direct air emissions may also increase with unconfined animal production as a result of less opportunity to trap and treat emissions, as well as the result of increased cage space and greater surface area per mass of excreta. Coupling welfare-friendly and organic production practices may require greater nutrient inputs to reach the same production end point, resulting in less efficient nutrient use and greater losses to the environment. Dual systems might additionally increase environmental contamination by pathogens. When swine are housed in welfare-friendly huts, Salmonella may cycle more freely between swine and their environment; however, population numbers of pathogenic bacteria may not be different between the indoor and outdoor systems evaluated. Alternatively, these dual purpose systems may reduce antibiotic and hormonal releases to the environment. Finally, intensity of resource use may be different under welfare-friendly and organic practices. In most situations, welfare-friendly production will require more land area per animal or per unit of product. Energy inputs into such systems, from feed production to rearing to product distribution, may also differ from prevalent industrial production practices. Clearly, consumers and producers considering the benefits and costs of ethical animal production practices need to understand the system-wide environmental impacts of these approaches to meeting demand for animal products."
Those who keep going on about "animal cruelty" should be careful what they wish for (though they're often vegans hijacking the concept)
Janine 🌺 Flora on Twitter - "my $5000 oscilloscope can't connect to the network because a wifi-enabled lightbulb stole its fixed IP address. the future is fucking stupid"
Chris Scott on Twitter - "Mariah Carey beginning with “I don’t want a lot for Christmas” and then revealing she wants “you” is such a good burn"
Laura Martínez 🥑 on Twitter - "Being in a relationship means solving problems together... Problems you wouldn’t have if you were single"
Secondary school discipline master admits taking more than 100 upskirt videos of teachers and students - "He took 12 upskirt videos of at least seven female students using modus operandi such as inviting them into the discipline room. On one occasion, he confiscated the phone of a student who had filmed upskirt videos of a teacher and used his own phone to record the videos for himself... He would invite them to his work station for data entry purposes and would place his handphone under the victim's skirt while the victim was keying in data at his desk. He invited female colleagues wearing skirts or dresses but not those wearing pants, and seldom invited male teachers to his work station for data entry... the accused was suffering from major depressive disorder at the time, after losing his mother in 2015. His wife also underwent surgery for medical ailments in 2016, after which their frequency of sexual intimacy "drastically diminished"."
23 years’ jail for man who raped, sexually assaulted daughter after feng shui master’s prediction - "A feng shui master had told him to have sex with a virgin by the end of 2018 to prevent a life-threatening mishap. So when his wife and older daughter were not home, the man sexually abused his younger daughter and told the 11-year-old to keep mum about it... he had been advised by a feng shui master in Malaysia in September 2018 to have sex with a virgin by the end of 2018. The master also offered to help him procure said sex in order to avoid tragedy from befalling him, but he could not afford 2,000 ringgit so he decided to have sex with the victim instead"
Dad who raped daughter, forced teen son to rape drunk mother jailed 29 years, given 24 cane strokes - "A father who raped his daughter and forced his teenage son to have sex with the mother when she was drunk was sentenced on Monday (Oct 4) to 29 years' jail and 24 strokes of the cane. The father, now aged 41, had committed many sexual acts against his daughter for six years, starting from when she was nine years old... The man then told his son, who was around 15 or 16 years old and playing console games at the time, to follow him into the bedroom. They had moved to a flat in Woodlands at the time. When the son entered, he saw his mother on the bed, lying half-naked from the waist down. The man told the son to have sex with her but the son refused. Afraid of getting beat up by his hot-tempered father, who would often punch or kick him, the son eventually complied after the father got angry and raised his voice. The son closed his eyes and tried to obey his father's instructions. At one point, his father even physically assisted the act with his own hand."
How healthy and mentally resilient are Singaporeans compared to other Asian neighbours? - "we scored lower than the Asian average on our wellness report card. In the overall rankings, Singapore came second to last with a score of 69, just beating out Hong Kong's 67. Indonesia ranked first with 79 followed by Thailand with 77... only 55 per cent of Singaporeans have enough energy to carry them through the day and noted that perhaps “external barriers such as lack of time stop them from living a healthier lifestyle”. The lack of sleep could be another source of the power shortage: Only 36 per cent have enough sleep each night, and about a third wake up feeling refreshed. By comparison, the Asia average is almost 50 per cent for those two attributes. For a country that prides itself on its culinary repertoire, we are not eating well. We don’t mean dining at Michelin-starred restaurants but the quality of the food we eat. In fact, the survey found that Singapore has the poorest eating habits among the six. For starters, only about half say they eat more whole foods than processed ones, while nearly half eat a balanced diet. But when it comes to hydration, the majority of us are chugging enough water throughout the day... Compared to the other countries, Singapore scored lower in terms of being proactive in our personal development. When it comes to mental resilience, we have a more negative outlook and a sense that we’re not in control of our lives... nearly 30 per cent of Singaporeans feel stressed, compared to the 24 per cent in other countries. Perhaps it’s time we had a chat with our elders on stress management; baby boomers (above age 55) on the whole were found to be better at handling stress than Gen Z... Only 66 per cent set goals compared to the Asia average of 75 per cent. We are also less organised than the rest. Like our Asia compatriots, we enjoy spending time with people who can help us grow. But when it comes to seeking out opportunities and ways to improve ourselves, we don’t fare as well. We are also more likely to feel unfulfilled and not have enough time in the day... While more than 70 per cent of Singaporeans describe themselves as positive, more than 30 per cent are not happy with their lives. We are also rather reclusive; more than a third do not enjoy meeting new people"
Why investors are selling off tech stocks and what’s next - "Amid an uncertain environment and concerns about their profitability, shares of once buzzy technology firms have been in freefall this year, with some plummeting as much as 70 per cent. Tech stocks that benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic have suffered especially, such as streaming service Netflix, which has seen its share price plunge around 60 per cent since January. Canadian e-commerce firm Shopify, which received a fillip from the pandemic-induced online shopping boom over the past two years, has seen its shares fall around 70 per cent year to date. Singapore-headquartered tech groups have not been spared from the rout. Shares of Grab, which made a much-anticipated debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange in December 2021, last traded at US$3.73 on Monday (Aug 15). This marked a nearly 48 per cent decline since January and a loss of almost three-quarters in value since its listing."
Manacled Mormon case - Wikipedia - "The Manacled Mormon case, also known as the Mormon sex in chains case, was a case of reputed sexual assault and kidnap by an American woman, Joyce McKinney, of a young American Mormon missionary, Kirk Anderson, in England in 1977. Because McKinney and her accomplice skipped bail and fled to the United States before the case could be tried and were not extradited, they were never tried for these specific crimes. According to Anderson, he had been abducted by McKinney from the steps of a church meetinghouse, chained to a bed and raped by her.
Joyce McKinney: from Mormon manacling to dog cloning - "the owner of the world's first commercially cloned dogs is a former cheerleader and beauty queen who scandalised Britain 30 years ago after kidnapping a Mormon missionary at gunpoint and manacling him to a bed for sex. When Bernann McKinney hit the headlines earlier this week upon receiving five pitbull puppies from the South Korean laboratory that cloned her beloved dead pet, Booger, some cruelly noted that the dogs bore more than a passing resemblance to their owner... It's left to a pulp fiction blog to remind us of the seriousness of the charges McKinney faced before she jumped bail and fled the country with co-accused Keith May, with the pair disguised as mime artists."
THEFT RAP DUE ON HORSE’S-ASS PIT-BULL CLONE GAL - "when her three-legged horse was down in the dumps, she stole cash for a prosthetic. Nutjob Joyce McKinney, who had been on the lam for 31 years until she paid for five clones of her late dog, now stands accused of burglary and corrupting a child in an effort to procure a limb for her three-legged horse. In 2004, McKinney allegedly got a 15-year-old boy to break into a house in Tennessee so that she could raise enough money to buy a prosthetic leg for her horse"
living morganism 🌱 on Twitter - "when you just wanna do your zoom call but your cat wants to start an onlyfans"
Here are the jobs with best work-life balance - "What do the rich and the poor have in common? They work long hours. It is the middle-income workers that enjoy the most modest working hours. The claim that folks simply need to work harder to progress in life truly is a slap in the face to full-time employed workers putting in 50 hours per week for little pay... Government jobs have their pros and cons. A big fat pro is working hours. If you really want to prioritise your work-life balance, get a job in local government. Throughout the whole life-cycle, employees in local government work fewer hours than people in state or federal government (and much fewer than folks in the private sector)... For long working hours (51 hours per weed), join the family business as a contributing family member. Nobody works you harder than your own family... The craziest hours are worked by people who tend to work in bursts. Our 15 full-time trekking guides in Australia can’t possibly work all year long at a rate of 86 hours per week... The most easy-going working hours are had by people working in libraries (librarians, archivists, and their assistants)."
Damn lazy poor people!
Interestingly, sex workers work the 7th most number of hours - 63.6 (and the only non-manual labour profession in the top 13; though I have a hard time believing there're only 275 full-time sex workers or escorts in Oz). The 14th most hardworking - MPs
Aerial view of 'anatomically correct' Newmarket Health Centre sparks jokes worldwide - "A satellite image of the Newmarket Health Centre is being shared across the Internet due to its uncanny resemblance to a naked man. From the air, the health centre located at 465 Eagle St., west of Yonge Street, appears to be shaped like a spread-eagled man, complete with male genitals."
What’s the funniest way to answer a scammer’s call? : AskReddit - "In a forum online, a girl answered a call with a Caller ID that came up as fraud. She answered breathlessly, "Can you hold on? I'm having sex." She clicked on porn and set the phone next to the computer's speaker. The guy listened for half an hour."
Thailand’s king seeks to bring back absolute monarchy | The Economist - "The world knows Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn as a playboy who has churned through four wives, lives among lots of women in a German hotel and relishes skimpy crop tops that reveal elaborate temporary tattoos. For Thais, his four-year-old reign has been more sinister. The king makes elderly advisers crawl before him, shaves the heads of courtiers who displease him and has disowned several of his children. Worse, he has steadily amassed power, taking personal control of “crown property”, assuming direct command of troops and ordering changes to the constitution. He makes no secret of his hankering for the days of absolute monarchy (hence the disappearing monuments)... Aristocratic types fretted because the crown prince, as Vajiralongkorn was previously known, caused so many scandals. Even his mother likened him to Don Juan. After leaving his first wife, a princess in her own right, he disowned four of his five children with his second wife, an actress, who eventually fled Thailand. When the relationship ended with his third wife—once filmed almost naked and crouching before her husband with birthday cake—several of her family members went to prison. The prince spent lavishly and indulged in eccentricity, elevating his beloved poodle, Foo Foo, to the rank of “air chief marshal”. Still, King Vajiralongkorn took over unimpeded after his father’s death. Whereas the father was publicly loved, the son is privately loathed. His coronation last year attracted tiny crowds compared with those at the late king’s funeral rites. Despite his co-operation with army regimes, millions of Thais felt King Bhumibol displayed the virtues expected of a Buddhist monarch. King Vajiralongkorn does not even live in Thailand. He rules a country of 70m people from more than 5,000 miles away in Germany. One insider bluntly appraises his activities there: “Bike, fuck, eat. He does only those three things.”... The king’s militaristic harem inspires embarrassing headlines around the world. Just months after his fourth marriage to a former air stewardess last year, he elevated one concubine, a former nurse, to the status of “royal noble consort”. She is the first woman to hold this title since Thailand became a constitutional monarchy. Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi fell from grace soon after her elevation. She disappeared from view. Then, in September, she was reinstated and declared “untainted”. Chinese netizens have likened Ms Sineenat to a crafty concubine from a popular television series, “Empresses in the Palace”. In March 2012 permission from the Justice Department was published in the Royal Gazette for a temporary prison. A spartan map appears to show its location as possibly within the grounds of a palace owned by Vajiralongkorn. His bad books are a miserable place to be. Pictures allegedly of Srirasmi Suwadee, once his third wife, appeared in a German newspaper last year. Head shaved and tearful, she was reported as being under house arrest. Airing such dirty linen in public in Thailand, however, is perilous. The country’s lèse-majesté law allows between three and 15 years in prison for insulting “the King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent”. King Vajiralongkorn has instructed the government not to use the law. But this hardly reflects newfound tolerance. Critics instead risk charges for sedition or computer crime, among others. In July one man was sent to a psychiatric hospital for wearing a T-shirt that stated: “I have lost all faith in the institution of monarchy”. Playboy antics distract from the more sinister feats of the monarch since he came to power. In political, financial and military matters King Vajiralongkorn has gained powers never possessed by his father. His interventions appear part of a larger strategy to push Thailand closer to absolute monarchy once more. Take his finances. In 2017 he gained full control of the Crown Property Bureau (CPB), which manages royal investments (it was previously run by the ministry of finance). Its holdings are estimated to be worth $40bn. In 2018 the CPB declared that its assets would be considered the king’s personal property. As a result the monarch has stakes in some of Thailand’s corporate titans... the Thai state showers the royal family with funds. For the 2021 fiscal year government agencies have drawn up budgets which allocate more than 37bn baht—over $1.1bn—to the monarchy. The Royal Office will receive 9bn baht of that directly. Much of the rest goes to government agencies, the police and the defence ministry for security and for development projects. By comparison, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth cost her taxpayers the equivalent of $87m last year. Precise details on where the money goes are elusive. Huge sums go to pay for royal transport alone (there are many planes and helicopters to maintain)... after a referendum in 2016, in which campaigners were banned from opposing the constitution put forward for approval, the monarch demanded changes to the charter. He altered it specifically to make ruling from afar easier. He meddled even more audaciously ahead of last year’s parliamentary election. Mr Thaksin persuaded the king’s older sister to run as a putative prime ministerial candidate for a party with links to him. But the crown in effect came to the rescue of Mr Thaksin’s military foes. The monarch declared his sister’s ambitions “unconstitutional”. He also stated that royals should stay out of politics—yet the night before the election, he urged Thais to vote for “good people”, which was taken as an endorsement of Mr Prayuth and his allies... Why has the army permitted such manoeuvres? Defence of the monarchy is one of its central reasons for existing... Whereas the middle and upper classes of many countries contain democratic champions, those of Thailand “have never needed mass support to advance or protect their interests”... King Vajiralongkorn’s clout has come at a price: open criticism of the monarchy. “The ghost is out of the bottle and you won’t get it back again,” reckons one diplomat in Bangkok. The more brazen the king’s moves towards a more absolute form of rule, the more forceful the criticism"
Where is the Thai King? | South China Morning Post - "The 68-year-old’s improbable choice for a life shrouded in secrecy in Germany was long just a staple of reports that appeared in the curiosity sections of tabloid newspapers and on lifestyle TV programmes here. Those occasional reports of an eccentric monarch were nourished by at-time bizarre public sightings – such as wearing a tightfitting crop top over a bare torso on a shopping excursion and otherwise behaving strangely... "it does not correspond with the views of the German government that guests of our country are conducting business in their home countries. We would clearly not stand for that. We have made it clear that policies concerning Thailand should not be conducted on German soil.”"
Thai king under scrutiny in Germany - "Photos of him scantily-clad have spread on social media, and some of the photos were taken of him while in Germany and elsewhere in Europe... "He simply rather stays in Germany; that's his personal liking," Pavin explained. "He can still travel as much as he wishes, and he has been in and out of Germany. Sometimes, he has just done a one-day visit to Bangkok and then returned to Germany."... German media outlets reported on King Vajiralongkorn purchasing a new luxury $375 million (€332 million) aircraft, and Germany will reportedly be the destination for the maiden flight. Late last year, German tabloid Bild speculated that the king has sent many of his most prized and valuable possessions to Germany for safekeeping... "We assume that no decisions will be made on German soil by their representatives that contradict the German legal system, international law, or internationally guaranteed human rights."... It is believed that local investigators are now looking into the monarch's tax affairs on his second-home in Tutzing, which he reportedly purchased for €10 million several years ago. There are also questions over whether he should have paid inheritance tax in Germany following the death of his father, the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej."
Coronavirus: Thai king self-isolates in Alpine hotel with harem of 20 women amid pandemic - "Guesthouses and hotels in the region were ordered to close due to the coronavirus crisis, but a spokesperson for the local district council said the Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl was an exception because “the guests are a single, homogenous group of people with no fluctuation”."
Thailand backs down on threat to ban Facebook - "Thailand has backed down on its threat to ban Facebook after embarrassing footage of the country's king wearing a crop top emerged on the social networking giant. Authorities threatened action against Facebook over the footage of King Maha Vajiralongkorn sporting 'fake' tattoos and strolling around a shopping centre with a woman in Munich, Germany... In 2001 he wed his third wife Srirasmi Suwadee, describing her as a 'modest and patient' woman who 'never says bad things towards anyone' and like his previous relationships there were to be a number of controversies in their time together. In 2007, footage published online showed the couple throwing a party for his pet poodle - who held the rank of Air Chief Marshall - at the Royal Palace in Bangkok. Princess Srirasmi, a former waitress, who sang happy birthday to the dog topless, also got on her knees and ate from a dog bowl in the same video... Despite holding a number of military titles, including Knight of the Ancient and Auspicious Order of the Nine Gems, the prince admitted to an interviewer he was unable to tie his own shoe laces aged 12 because courtiers had always done it for him... 'He [King Bhumibol] thought his son would be a poor king but he was a conservative man and thought a man should succeed him. There was no alternative,' biographer Andrew MacGregor Marshall"
From 2017
Oregon counties are voting to succeed from their state - "Call it a cultural gap, partisan divide or the classic red versus blue, but a growing number of Oregonians from the eastern and central part of the state are looking for redder pastures in Idaho. Two counties in Oregon voted to secede from their state and join Idaho this week, in a movement called “Greater Idaho.”... Many feel that Idaho is a gem, and it’s the fastest growing state in the U.S. The answer as to why these Oregonians want to move to Idaho without actually moving to Idaho is mostly a financial one: lower taxes, a cheaper cost of living, similar politics and a more conservative lifestyle... Moving state borders isn’t unheard of, but usually done on a smaller scale. In this proposal, 63% of Oregon’s land would become Idaho."
