Is the H intended to kinda look like a silhouette of a llama? Because if so, I like it.

When I learned how to drive, manual transmissions were higher performance and better fuel efficiency: side by side comparisons of the exact same model of car would show better 0-60 and quarter mile times, while having slightly better EPA fuel efficiency ratings, for the manual transmission.

At some point, though, the sheer number of gears in an automatic transmission surpassed those in the typical manual gearbox, and the average automatic today has 6 gears, up to 9 in some Mercedes and 10 in certain Ford and GM models. So they could start selecting gear ratios for better fuel efficiency, without “wasting” a valuable gear slot. There was a generation of Corvettes that was notorious for having a 6th gear that was worthless for actual performance but helped the car sneak by with a better highway fuel mileage rating.

And the automatics became much faster at shifting gears, with even the ultra high performance supercars shifting to paddle shifters where the driver could still control the gear, but with the shifting mechanism automated. Ferrari’s paddle shifter models started outperforming the traditional stick shift models in the early 2000’s, if I remember correctly. As those gear shifting technologies migrated over to regular automatics, the performance gap shrunk and then ended up going the other way.

At this point there’s not enough reason for a true manual stickshift transmission. It’s no longer faster or more economic, so it’s just a pure fun. Which is fine, but does make it hard to actually design one for any given model of car.

There are some steep stop sign intersections in San Francisco that I’ve had to use the e brake for.

I love Chinese food so much. I’ve visited twice, and always make room for food.

My favorite street food is probably sheng jian bao, the pan fried buns with soupy pork filling sealed in.

In terms of a single standalone dish, it’s hard to say. I like noodle dishes, like Taipei style beef noodle soup. Or Wuhan style re gan mian.

And for the type of meal where there’s a lot of dishes on the table to be shared, my favorite dish in that setting is probably Mapo tofu. I did a food tour of Chengdu once and just everything Sichuan is so good, but Mapo tofu is just all my favorite Sichuan things in a single dish.

The average added sugar consumption for American adults is about 70g per day, which works out to be 25.6 kg (56.2 lbs) per year. People can shift their source of sweetener and consume a dramatically higher amount of honey without necessarily having a diet that is all that different from the national average.

Y’all are focusing too much on the single brand here. Yes, Brown Forman owns Jack Daniels, and yes, JD is not very good (and far worse than other American whiskeys in the same price range, whether we’re talking the black label or their fancier offerings).

But Brown Forman also owns Woodford Reserve and Old Forester, which have good bourbons in their respective lineups. And, it should be noted, they also own the Scotch Whisky brands Glendronach, Benriach, and Glenglassaugh.

And what non-Canadians might not realize is that the Liquor Control Board of Ontario pretty much has a monopoly on spirits sold in Ontario, whose 15 million people account for about 40% of the Canadian population. If LCBO chooses not to purchase American spirits, that means it will basically be impossible to legally buy American spirits in Ontario, whether in a retail store, a bar, or a restaurant.

And as additional context, the American bourbon industry is facing down a bit of a contraction/recession/downturn in the coming years. Demand is softening up for most whiskeys, especially high end bourbons, compared to where they were a few years ago. Expect to see layoffs, fire sales, and bankruptcies.

You talking about coca cola or the other coke?

Wait then what was My Chemical Romance’s “Black Parade” all about?

Among Gen Z and Millennial Americans (especially the educated straight white middle class) there’s been a divergence in political affiliations between men and women. But people still couple up, so hetero couples are seeing a lot more combinations of politically engaged progressive women who are in relationships with politically apathetic men (who also tend to be somewhat sexist and racist).

This comic points out that juxtaposition.

I plan on going abroad in the coming year

See world. Oceans. Fish. Jump. China.

Yes, exactly.

I guess I’m not seeing a reduction in the number of people doing these things for themselves: drawing because they like to draw, taking photographs because they like the craft, lifting weights because they want to get stronger, baking sourdough because they want to reconnect with old traditions, foraging mushrooms because they find it interesting. Yes, some of these things happen on social media, which also may influence what hobbies or pastimes or projects people take on, but if that’s what you mean by commodification, then that has been part of the human condition for as long as people have been social and have had free time.

I don’t think that’s right. What portion of these activities actually is for sale, though?

I sing songs with my kids, and maybe to pass the time alone in a car, but nobody would ever be able to pay me enough to want to do that in public. Nor should anyone want to pay to see my mediocrity on display.

I played different sports when I was younger, mostly playing in unorganized pickup games with no formal teams or uniforms or referees or schedules. I still run and bike, and I still lift weights, but have no desire to enter any formal competitions with any of those activities. But I still work on the skills and the progressions on those activities, and track my performance in my notes/logs.

None of this is commodified. It’s not for sale, and someone else’s experience doing these things can’t be traded for what I get out of doing them myself. Even if there are people who do all of these things professionally, full time, the “commoditized” product has basically nothing to do with what I’m doing. Nor does the fact that people do those things professionally somehow detract from the enjoyment I get out of doing those things myself.

One of the most fundamental human experiences, of cooking food for people to eat, is actually a full time job I’ve had in the past. But the fact that I have cooked many meals for strangers for money doesn’t actually detract from my ability to still cook meals at home for my family, or host dinner parties where I cook for my friends. The value of that activity is more than what can simply be purchased with money, even if I personally have done it for money in the past.

Human experience is for experiencing, and nobody can take that away from me.

Gauging with pasta: angel hair, thin spaghetti, spaghetti, thick spaghetti, bucatini, penne, rigatoni, all the way up through big-ass cannelloni.

Most starches gelatinize between 60°C to 80°C. Including rice, which has starches that gelatinize between 59°C and 72°C.

Not sure where you’re getting the idea that rice needs to cook above 100°C, which is just plainly inconsistent with how most cultures have cooked rice for thousands of years.

Most rice noodles are formed from pre-gelatinized starches, too, in order to form the dough necessary for forming into noodle shapes to begin with. So those just need to be hydrated, and perhaps heated for personal taste preferences.

5% salinity is inedibly salty. You will ruin your pasta or rice, flavor wise. The health effects are not relevant because nobody will actually finish eating an entire serving.

You might be overcooking it. Once the cell walls rupture too much, the sulfur compounds spread out and start to overpower the rest of the vegetable. It should still be somewhat firm/crisp when you bite into it.

You might also be using broccoli that’s had too many of the cell walls ruptured from processing before cooking. If you’re cutting with a dull knife, especially into small pieces, or smashing it somehow before cooking, those smells will leak out a bit faster.

Or, if you’re cooking from frozen, the ice crystals might have mushed up the vegetable.

Here’s the two main ways I cook broccoli:

Blanched: cut broccoli into big florets, big enough to constitute two big bites. Boil a lot of water, salted to about 2% salinity. Once it’s a rolling boil, put the broccoli in, and set a timer for 4 minutes. As soon as the timer goes off, dump the broccoli into a strainer and run cold water over it, or dunk it in ice water, to stop the cooking process. Serve and eat.

Roasted: cut broccoli into big florets. Toss in oil, and season with salt and pepper. Preheat oven with a sheet pan in it, to 450°F. Once preheated, take the broccoli and place it in a single layer on the sheet pan. It should sizzle. Roast for about 15-20 minutes, optionally flipping once (better char if you don’t flip it, but it’s only on one side).

Optional seasonings: garlic, pepper, red pepper flakes, lemon juice, honey, bread crumbs, pine nuts, any combination of the above. Works with either blanched or roasted.

The phone only draws a charge while you’re watching ads, so you’ll need to watch an hour per day to recharge.

I did one of those mail in DNA test and found out I’m like over 50% data breach

Dietary cholesterol has very little to do with health effects, but you swing too far in the other direction by claiming it’s “almost all genetics.” Plenty of environmental factors that can affect blood cholesterol (or more relevant to health, VLDL and LDL cholesterol), including diet.

A big motivator behind the banning or restriction of trans fats in most countries is the clear link between trans fat consumption and cardiovascular disease, including a direct causal link to raising LDL (aka “bad cholesterol” and lowering HDL (aka “good cholesterol”).

Some moderate physical activity has also been shown to significantly improve things like blood lipid profiles, at least compared to totally sedentary lifestyles.

And genetics can affect how much of an effect these environmental or lifestyle factors actually change blood lipids, and in turn how much those stats correlate or cause actual cardiovascular disease, but diet and exercise are still important for almost everyone regardless of genetics.