Stranger things

[old3bob]

10 hours ago, Gerard said:

I had no idea about GUTTER OIL

Thanks Nungali. I wonder if I have eaten food containing that poison when I lived in Taiwan. 
 

You are right OldBob. But I regularly buy jars containing Chinese pickles imported from China which I use as congee rice toppings. They are delicious. I hope "gutter oil" is not added to them.

 

No idea about what comes from Mexico. All I know is Mexican cuisine and from what I know is really nice but in Mexico. 

 

I hope your pickles are ok!   And unholy crap ON THAT GUTTER OIL!!!  (some places in Mexico may have their own version of gutter oil?   On a side note they do have super peppers that may kill certain unhealthy stuff in food but I don't know?)  If I remember right hydrogenated oil has been used in the US for many decades, which is bad stuff!  (like in margarine)  A study said something about such oil or fat as being 14 times worse than straight butter as an  unhealthy oil/fat which our bodies can not use correctly!!  Could be an indirect way to kill us off before we get old enough to collect social security?  Who knows what the powers that be are doing which may sound crazy so I reserve the right to be wrong...

Edited August 15 by old3bob

[Nungali]

18 hours ago, Gerard said:

I had no idea about GUTTER OIL

Thanks Nungali. I wonder if I have eaten food containing that poison when I lived in Taiwan. 
 

You are right OldBob. But I regularly buy jars containing Chinese pickles imported from China which I use as congee rice toppings. They are delicious. I hope "gutter oil" is not added to them.

 

No idea about what comes from Mexico. All I know is Mexican cuisine and from what I know is really nice but in Mexico. 

 

 

No no no .... for congee toppings I suggest making your own  your pickles , its easy . or a selection of ;  Some chopped up  chicken breast (or tofu cubes soaked in umoboshi vinegar if vego ) ,  chopped bean sprouts ,  crispy  fried shallots ,  chopped fresh shallots , chopped coriander leaf ,  small prawns , chopped dried mushrooms ,   a bowl of sliced chili marinated in rice vinegar , fish sauce , soy sauce....  and at least 6 different types of chili sauce  ....

Chinese guy ; " Where is chili sauce ? "

Me; " Right there !  Five different types ! "

"No no ..... one with rooster on it ! "

( I used to make a congee table every morning for about  60 people     )

Edited August 16 by Nungali

[old3bob]

some folks like to have contests on who can handle/eat the hottest peppers,  not me I'll take the sweet peppers.

[Taomeow]

29 minutes ago, old3bob said:

some folks like to have contests on who can handle/eat the hottest peppers,  not me I'll take the sweet peppers.

 

Stranger thing, they have competitions rubbing the hottest peppers into their eyes.  The world champion, at the last one the internet made me aware of, was a woman from India who rubbed the hottest peppers in existence into her eyeballs for the longest time.   

 

I can handle hot peppers and hot sauces -- in fact I rather like them -- but carefully, without overdoing it.  But if god forbid I've been handling hot peppers and then wash my hands with soap and water very thoroughly and then accidentally touch my eyes...  ouch.  Some of the bite gets transferred to the fingertips, and washing doesn't entirely remove it.

 

I make some Georgian (from Georgia the country, not the US state) sauces on occasion, those are my favorite, and some of them are very mild, some, medium, and some, killer.  The killer ones go very well with things like shish kabob (or rather shashlik)...    

[Gerard]

You ought to be very careful with some of those chilies. Can't remember whether it was a bird's eye or a habanero. But I missed the warning of not chopping them up without using cooking gloves. Big mistake, I have no idea how but a bit of the chili landed in my nose. I'll never forget that. I can't possibly imagine about the capsaicin entering the eyes. It would be a nightmare for me as a "Fire Horse."

 

I prefer to buy the milder varieties anytime I have to cook a curry dish. No need to take the extra precautions. 

 

 

[Taomeow]

2 hours ago, Gerard said:

You ought to be very careful with some of those chilies. Can't remember whether it was a bird's eye or a habanero. But I missed the warning of not chopping them up without using cooking gloves. Big mistake, I have no idea how but a bit of the chili landed in my nose. I'll never forget that. I can't possibly imagine about the capsaicin entering the eyes. It would be a nightmare for me as a "Fire Horse."

 

I prefer to buy the milder varieties anytime I have to cook a curry dish. No need to take the extra precautions. 

 

 

 

Wearing gloves normally solves this problem, but I occasionally forget.  The most treacherous peppers are serranos, you get both very mild and extremely hot specimens within one batch, and you never know which is which!  At least with chiles, jalapenos etc.  you know what you're dealing with (they do differ in hotness batch to batch, but not within the same batch!)   

 

I do keep a little jar of Carolina Reaper among my spices ( 2.2 million Scoville Heat Units), the hottest pepper in existence until 2023 (selectionists have now created Pepper X which is 2.7) and, since it's ground, I don't have to touch it with my hands -- but it's not a bad idea to wear a respirator when you shake it out of the jar, and not just in the kitchen.  When it was very freshly bought, one could feel the impact of even one molecule in the air in the living-room too, and if god forbid you give the jar a careless shake, in the bedrooms behind closed doors!  But it's fun to handle provided you approach it with every precaution as hazardous material, and it can do amazing thing to chicken.

 

     

[old3bob]

11 hours ago, Taomeow said:

 

Stranger thing, they have competitions rubbing the hottest peppers into their eyes.  The world champion, at the last one the internet made me aware of, was a woman from India who rubbed the hottest peppers in existence into her eyeballs for the longest time.   

 

I can handle hot peppers and hot sauces -- in fact I rather like them -- but carefully, without overdoing it.  But if god forbid I've been handling hot peppers and then wash my hands with soap and water very thoroughly and then accidentally touch my eyes...  ouch.  Some of the bite gets transferred to the fingertips, and washing doesn't entirely remove it.

 

I make some Georgian (from Georgia the country, not the US state) sauces on occasion, those are my favorite, and some of them are very mild, some, medium, and some, killer.  The killer ones go very well with things like shish kabob (or rather shashlik)...    

 

that woman must have had some kind of pepper power!!

[Taomeow]

18 minutes ago, old3bob said:

 

that woman must have had some kind of pepper power!!

 

Yeah, I'd like to look at her bazi chart...  probably Fire in all pillars, maybe Wood in one stem or branch...  so handling Fire, to her, is like handling Water for a fish  

  

[Gerard]

Crazy stuff. No wonder that particular chili is sold ground.

 

Do you prepare curry with it or as a small ingredient in whatever dish you are cooking?

 

I settled with the jalapeño ones whenever I need them. They'll go pretty hot when turning red but I have no issues with them. They are lovely mild peppers that suit my cooking.

 

[Nungali]

12 hours ago, Gerard said:

You ought to be very careful with some of those chilies. Can't remember whether it was a bird's eye or a habanero. But I missed the warning of not chopping them up without using cooking gloves. Big mistake, I have no idea how but a bit of the chili landed in my nose. I'll never forget that. I can't possibly imagine about the capsaicin entering the eyes. It would be a nightmare for me as a "Fire Horse."

 

I prefer to buy the milder varieties anytime I have to cook a curry dish. No need to take the extra precautions. 

 

 

 

I had similar experience ... similar in that it wasnt my nose .... I went for a piss .

 

 

here is another one , now I ALWAYS de-seed . Once I got a hell toothache, really bad, " is this an abscess ?"  Oh shit ! dentist, $$$$$ extraction ?   But 'something'  made me   sense   something wrong 'in there'  - for some reason I started fishing around down between my gum and tooth , down the bottom,inside, with a toothpick . seemed crazy but I kept going , The I could feel a movement or a flappy thing which I thought was part of  the tooth flaking  off . Instead of going to dentist , I levered it 'off' and out . It was flat chili seed that had it worked its way down there inside my gum next to my tooth .

[Nungali]

here is a sorta strange thing ;

 

 

Stonehenge altar stone ....  now thought to have been bought from north Scotland  ....   6 tons .

 

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2443879-stonehenges-altar-stone-was-brought-all-the-way-from-scotland/

[Taomeow]

2 hours ago, Gerard said:

Crazy stuff. No wonder that particular chili is sold ground.

 

Do you prepare curry with it or as a small ingredient in whatever dish you are cooking?

 

 

Not curry, it's even hotter when used in liquidy stuff, hard to predict the outcome.  As a small ingredient, either by itself (specifically for fried chicken) or in a mix of spices, which I usually grind myself (except for this one) and mix together in varying proportions.  The Reaper came into my kitchen when someone in the family tried some chicken that incorporates it somewhere, maybe in Nashville, maybe in Chicago, don't remember exactly, and then couldn't stop raving about it.  So I decided to replicate the recipe as described to me.  

[Gerard]

Truly yang beasties is what they really are.

Interesting to read your experiences with them. 

[Taomeow]

My worst one was with something else.  We didn't have any Japanese restaurants where I'm from, so the day after our arrival in the US, our relatives here took us out to a Japanese place, and it was absolutely the first exposure, I didn't know what sushi was, or anything else.  So, they ordered assorted sushi platters for us and showed the chopsticks technique and explained stuff and then started eating, leading by example so to speak.  For starters I zeroed in on something shaped like the rest of the pieces but smaller, which I figured might be easier to pick up with chopsticks, plus it was green so I thought it was some vegetable, let's start there.  And put the whole damn chunk of wasabi in my mouth.  I survived, but barely -- it was very fresh, good quality, I'll give it that.  Once I was done crying and breathing fire like a dragon, I decided that I really liked the stuff.  Always ask for extra wasabi ever since.             

[Gerard]

Hahahaha. I thought for a minute it was going to be related to fugu sashimi but then you wouldn't be here with us. Maybe the green with your Wood Snake sign caused excess Wood movement hence you had a reaction with it. 
 

 

Edited August 17 by Gerard

[Nungali]

 

 

More big rocks :

 

Ggantija Comlpex  , Gozo Island ,  Malta

 

  Megalithic , pre Stonehenge and Pyramids ;  5,500ya.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 17 by Nungali

[old3bob]

.

Edited August 19 by old3bob

[Mark Foote]

On 8/14/2024 at 7:10 PM, Nungali said:

 

 the guys that spray their dope crops with poison ...'Oh man, its my only income , if I loose that  to caterpillars .... "

 

LA Times has the state of California scrambling now:
 

Contraband Chinese pesticides present a new challenge for California cannabis regulators as they struggle to keep harmful chemicals out of licensed products. Some of the poisons are so unfamiliar that few chemical analysis labs in the state would be equipped to test for them if California required it.

 

A Los Angeles Times investigation based on confidential state records, public files, online sales and social networks found that in the last three years, the use of contraband Chinese pesticides on cannabis farms has spread across California.

 

Yet officials have not issued warnings to alert those working on cannabis farms about the dangers of these chemicals, or mandated that cannabis products sold to the public be tested for them.

 

But their presence has prompted multiple warnings to law enforcement personnel, including by the state Department of Pesticide Regulation, the California National Guard and the state Environmental Protection Agency.

Advertisement

 

(https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-06-14/a-new-threat-to-cannabis-safety-smuggled-pesticides)

 

 

[Sanity Check]

On 8/14/2024 at 3:11 AM, Taomeow said:

 

It's very true that academic standards and intelligence are absolutely not the same thing, but schools don't teach intelligence.  In the best case scenario they educate, and in the worst case scenario they brainwash.  In the current scenario they fail to educate and excel at brainwashing.   

 

AI is not intelligent.  It's a machine for processing and plagiarizing data.  A GIGO* machine, as a programmer might put it. 

Its pattern recognition is mercifully still paltry (that's why you are given those "I am not a robot" patterns to recognize when you want to sign up for this or that online -- you recognize them, the machine doesn't.  And those are simple visual patterns a 2-year-old has no problem with.  About complex ones, neither machines nor people with this skill deficient even know they exist, and fail to notice them on a lifelong basis.)  

 

Our current environment is all about dumbing people down.  And I don't see anyone being "harder to fool now" -- what I see is the opposite.  

 

*GIGO -- one of the basic principles of programming: "garbage in, garbage out."   Meaning, the machine is unable to obtain its own judgment, and whatever data you feed it will form the basis of its quasi-thinking process.  The data that is corrupted, untrue, biased, one-sided, distorted, fake, etc., will be processed toward conclusions that are corrupted, untrue, biased, one-sided, distorted, fake.  A machine is not capable of critical thinking, and its quasi-thinking will consist of garbage if people who program it supply garbage input.  But then we have to deal with garbage output this process produces that is, at the next step, fed to other machines as input.  So the process becomes exponential, and the pile of garbage masquerading as information grows at every step of it.  The same is true of people too, except those capable of critical thinking (the "intelligent" in the real sense of the word) might escape this process and avoid turning their brain into a dumpster for "trends" overfilling faster and faster.            

      

 

 

Educational standards & curriculum and like software - Windows, Photoshop, Internet Explorer.

 

Intelligence level of organisms & machines is hardware based and generalized in terms of data processing capability

 

The amount of content and data modern people process has increased.

 

Advances in AI are driven by moore's law and hardware becoming better equipped to process larger data sets.

 

It is possible similar trends could happen with people.

 

As we become better accustomed to processing larger quantities of data through becoming better adapted to our data elevated environment.

 

Our intelligence level might increase in the way we've observed AI becoming more capable over time.

 

If you want I can respond to dumbing down trends and other things you've said.

 

But as things stand, I would prefer not to.

 

 

 

[Sanity Check]

On 8/16/2024 at 4:09 AM, old3bob said:

 

that woman must have had some kind of pepper power!!

 

 

I read somewhere that special forces, police & military sometimes train to build up an immunity to peppers.

 

Which coincides with them having higher resistance to pepper spray self defense products.

 

Interesting hobby to have, I would guess.

Edited August 18 by Sanity Check

[Taomeow]

As they like to say, it's a free country.  While an absurd statement in most contexts, in terms of answering or not to a TDB post it's still true.

 

I, in the meantime, will answer to this part: 

 

3 hours ago, Sanity Check said:

The amount of content and data modern people process has increased.

 

Advances in AI are driven by moore's law and hardware becoming better equipped to process larger data sets.

 

It is possible similar trends could happen with people.

 

 

I've seen it happen in real life.  What it rapidly leads to varies -- from "burnout"  to "numbing out" to "nervous breakdown" and worse.  Human "hardware" is not upgradable mechanically, and overwhelming it with "software" results in an infestation with "computer bugs"  of assorted sizes and maliciousness, not to increased intelligence. 

 

[Sanity Check]

1 hour ago, Taomeow said:

 

I've seen it happen in real life.  What it rapidly leads to varies -- from "burnout"  to "numbing out" to "nervous breakdown" and worse.  Human "hardware" is not upgradable mechanically, and overwhelming it with "software" results in an infestation with "computer bugs"  of assorted sizes and maliciousness, not to increased intelligence. 

 

 

 

Persistent multi tasking can lead to decrease in intelligence. The way driving while looking at a phone has a negative impact on reaction time. In cases like those denser streams of data impair cognitive performance. Its definitely not all positives. 

 

My basic theory goes like this.

 

People adapt to circumstances & conditions 

 

1.  If they find themselves in a weight room lifting heavy objects, they adapt to it via muscles growing larger

2.  In doing lots of cardio activity, they adapt to the condition by their heart and cardiovascular system becoming more efficient 

3.  Living in a high data environment, people adapt over the short term. Positive or negative. Improve at processing greater quantities of data or become more skilled at blocking & ignoring data to avoid dealing with it.

 

Its uncertain whether there are significant short term adaptations.

 

Over the long term however...

 

We can look at eskimos with their short limbs and compact bodies which are well adapted to conserving body heat in cold environments.

 

Contrast that with the long limbs of africans who are well adapted to losing body heat in hot climates to keep themselves cool.

 

And perhaps people of the future who have been exposed to higher volumes of data for longer periods of time might have something as significant to show for it. Maybe portions of the brain associated with data processing will be significantly larger. Or there will be something else that emerges as a result of the rise of electronic devices & humans constantly interfacing with them.

 

If such is the case, then predicting a future where people become more intelligent as a result of being able to process & analyze greater amounts of information could represent a safe bet.

 

 

Edited August 18 by Sanity Check

[liminal_luke]

I´m not sure I want to become proficient at processing huge amounts of data.  I´d rather get better at processing a small amount of data.  Quality over quantity.

[Taomeow]

The thing is, the amount of data to process is always, at all times, infinite.  It's a matter of how vital a particular type of data is for the species' surviving and thriving.  Ignoring (and forgetting, let's not forget) what's irrelevant is part of intelligence, as well as learning to discern meaningful data within huge amounts of random "information" and differentiate it from irrelevant "white noise."  

 

27 minutes ago, Sanity Check said:

We can look at eskimos 

 

who have over 50 words for "snow" of different types -- they now assert that "200 words" 19th century explorers offered is a myth, but over 50 have indeed been documented today, and whether those explorers lied or the other 150 words have been lost since it was true is debatable.  I have reasons to believe it's the latter.  In any event, over 50 is still plenty and it means treating "snow of different types" as information when it becomes necessary.  In Russian, there's 107 words for things "snow and ice," of which I personally could probably name about two dozen or more off the top of my head.  But this is not vital information for me since I'm not a a reindeer herder surviving an extremely harsh environment due to, among other things, treating various types of snow and ice as vital and meaningful data to process.  And I doubt a native of SoCal would name nearly as many in English unless they're a linguist with a special interest in the subject -- though I also doubt there are as many words for "snow and ice" in English.  

 

My point is, the whole world, the whole existence, is data, is information -- and a huge chunk of intelligence is not "the more the merrier" approach to it but, rather, the opposite.  Pick and choose what is and what isn't worth processing out of your environment and its events and patterns, "make it your own," build it into the very neural net of your brain and the physiology of your body -- and hey presto, you're intelligent. 

Unfortunately, an onslaught of modern devices, phone centered childhoods especially, keep shrinking this ability in humans.  Information addiction is like any other -- little ratlings who were given sugar water growing up become addicted to sugar and their whole lives become about access to sugar.  But they fail all intelligence tests against controls who weren't given this addiction.

[Sanity Check]

9 hours ago, Taomeow said:

The thing is, the amount of data to process is always, at all times, infinite.  It's a matter of how vital a particular type of data is for the species' surviving and thriving.  Ignoring (and forgetting, let's not forget) what's irrelevant is part of intelligence, as well as learning to discern meaningful data within huge amounts of random "information" and differentiate it from irrelevant "white noise."  

 

 

who have over 50 words for "snow" of different types -- they now assert that "200 words" 19th century explorers offered is a myth, but over 50 have indeed been documented today, and whether those explorers lied or the other 150 words have been lost since it was true is debatable.  I have reasons to believe it's the latter.  In any event, over 50 is still plenty and it means treating "snow of different types" as information when it becomes necessary.  In Russian, there's 107 words for things "snow and ice," of which I personally could probably name about two dozen or more off the top of my head.  But this is not vital information for me since I'm not a a reindeer herder surviving an extremely harsh environment due to, among other things, treating various types of snow and ice as vital and meaningful data to process.  And I doubt a native of SoCal would name nearly as many in English unless they're a linguist with a special interest in the subject -- though I also doubt there are as many words for "snow and ice" in English.  

 

My point is, the whole world, the whole existence, is data, is information -- and a huge chunk of intelligence is not "the more the merrier" approach to it but, rather, the opposite.  Pick and choose what is and what isn't worth processing out of your environment and its events and patterns, "make it your own," build it into the very neural net of your brain and the physiology of your body -- and hey presto, you're intelligent. 

Unfortunately, an onslaught of modern devices, phone centered childhoods especially, keep shrinking this ability in humans.  Information addiction is like any other -- little ratlings who were given sugar water growing up become addicted to sugar and their whole lives become about access to sugar.  But they fail all intelligence tests against controls who weren't given this addiction.

 

 

 

Those of past eras appear knowledgeable & enlightened for having 50 words for snow.

 

Can we guess what their lifestyle was from photographs of the era?

 

They didn't know what germs or bacteria were. They often dug cesspools for outhouses in places where it would contaminate the local water table, causing them to live in states of perpetual illness. Many did not wash eating utensils after using them or bathe regularly.

 

They often lacked access to books or libraries. Lacked opportunities and potential for networking. Had little or no travel options. 

 

Many lived their entire lives in small confined spaces, seeing the same people, hearing the same stories, menial work being their only career option. There was no inflow of data. There were no new ideas. No new books to read (if they were literate or owned books). No new stories.

 

Those of today tend to not recognize how drastically life changes over eras of history.