Monday, December 23, 2024
How slab countertops are made
White powder, artificial veining, compression under heat, cooling, sanding.
Saturday, December 21, 2024
2 razors
Hanlon's Razor is a mental shortcut which teaches us, in the words of Robert J. Hanlon to "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." In other words, rather than questioning people's intentions, question their competence.
It reminds me of Occam's razor - "The simplest explanation is usually the best one." Also known as the principle of parsimony, it is the problem-solving principle that recommends searching for explanations constructed with the smallest possible set of elements.
Friday, December 20, 2024
Scurvy facts
"The knowledge that consuming foods containing vitamin C is a cure for scurvy has been repeatedly forgotten and rediscovered into the early-20th century...February 1601, Captain James Lancaster... conducted an experiment...One ship's crew received routine doses of lemon juice while the other three ships did not... the non-treated ships started to contract scurvy, with many dying as a result."
"It has been estimated by researchers that during the Age of Exploration (between 1500 and 1800), scurvy killed at least two million sailors...During the 18th century, scurvy killed more British sailors than wartime enemy action."
"1747... James Lind formally demonstrated that scurvy could be treated by supplementing the diet with citrus fruit, in one of the first controlled clinical experiments reported in the history of medicine...However, the experiment and its results occupied only a few paragraphs in a work that was long and complex and had little impact..."
"1795, it was reported that the Suffolk had arrived in India after a four-month voyage without a trace of scurvy...The effect was immediate. Fleet commanders clamoured also to be supplied with lemon juice...This led to a remarkable health improvement among the sailors and consequently played a critical role in gaining the advantage in naval battles"
"Lauchlin Rose patented a method used to preserve citrus juice without alcohol in 1867, creating a concentrated drink known as Rose's lime juice...provide a daily "lime or lemon juice"... to sailors to prevent scurvy... hence the term "limey"...for British sailors"
Having long-term storage of vitamin C will resurface in the future of space exploration. It would seem that vitamin C pills degrade very slowly and are much easier to transport than other sources of vitamin C. https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/54559/are-there-any-long-term-storable-sources-of-vitamin-c
Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Friday, December 13, 2024
"Arabs tend to draw from a rather smaller, commonly used pool of names"
"In the Arab world, children are sometimes named after their grandfathers, to keep the spirit of their ancestors alive...
"Mohammed. Ahmed and Mahmood... all mean "praiseworthy"...
[From] "the Quran...Ibrahim (Abraham) and Dawood (David)...Yousif, Yahya, Zakariya, Nooh and Ismail"
"Common names for boys include the names of Prophet Mohammed's cousin Ali (meaning lofty or sublime) and grandsons Hassan and Hussain (both of which are derived from the Arabic word hasuna, which means "to be good")."
"Fatima meaning "to abstain"...Zahra "blooming flower", Zainab "fragrant flowering plant...Hameed (thankful) and its [female] counterpart Hameeda; Jalil (important) and Jalila; Nabil (noble) and Nabila; Nader (rare) and Nadera; Jamil (handsome) and Jamila (beautiful); Tahir (virtuous, chaste or pure) and Tahira; Wahid (peerless or unique) and Wahida; Adel (just) and Adela and even Samir (companion in evening talk) and Samira.
"Khalid (eternal), after the army leader Khalid bin Al Waleed. Khulood (immortality) is its feminine derivative..."
"Names given to boys are more masculine and show their status and standing in life. They include Khalifa (successor); Naser (helper); Rashid (rightly guided); Khalil (friend); Emad (support or pillar); Husam (sword); Ihsan (charity) and Mansour (victorious)."
Monday, December 9, 2024
Callard and Bowsers nougat!
Discontinued in 2003 after a corporate takeover... Ooh! Someone reinvented Callard and Bowsers nougat. Now I know what I want for birthday next year.
Here's the thread where I found out about it.
Thursday, December 5, 2024
History of tipping
3:11 tipping gained traction in the US when businesses wanted to pay emancipated slaves nothing, and have them live off tips alone.
4:04 it even went so far as charging workers for the privilege of working for tips.
6:14 some 43 states have a "tipped minimum wage," or "subminimum wage" that remains unchanged since the 1990's at $2.13 an hour.
7:12 black women get tipped less than white males working the same shift in the same area of the same restaurant
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