Mildly interesting
-
So there I was, eating Cheetos out of the bag and otherwise expanding my mind through valuable Internet insights when it occurred to me to wonder how Cheetos are made. Here's what Wired said:
"Making Cheetos: It Ain't Easy Being Cheesy.
"Gritty cornmeal stored in a silo is pumped about 100 yards through a pneumatic tube into a Cheetos manufacturing plant. (Frito-Lay has 14 fried-Cheeto plants in 11 states.) The cornmeal then enters a giant hopper , where it awaits its rapid transformation into one of America's most beloved snacks.
"Gobs of cornmeal are fed into an extruder , which rubs the meal between two metal plates. The friction melts the starch in the corn and causes the moisture to heat up. When it passes its boiling point, the meal "pops," creating the Cheetos shape. The craggy bits are then spit out of the extruder, flying 3 feet at high velocity before hitting a safety cage and dropping onto a conveyor belt.
"The Cheetos move through a piping-hot pan of vegetable oil, much like an amusement-park log flume. The oil not only imparts a fatty flavor but also fries the snack's moisture content down below 2 percent—a key to crunchiness. Once suitably cooked, the pieces go back on a conveyor belt
"The puffs hit a tumble drum, where strategically located nozzles spray a mixture of oil and powdered cheese onto the Cheetos from all sides. The cheese, which Frito-Lay buys pre-spiced in 50-pound sacks (the company won't say from whom), looks like the stuff used in boxed macaroni-and-cheese products.
The pieces are dropped onto a last conveyor belt, where any remaining moisture steams off as they cool to room temperature. The finished Cheetos are then moved toward the packaging area, to be bagged, boxed, and shipped.
"Every half hour, an in-house lab analyzes the chemical composition of samples pulled from the cooking line to verify that the Cheetos have the right density and nutritional content. Then, every four hours, a four-person panel convenes to inspect and taste the snacks, comparing them to perfect reference Cheetos sent from Frito-Lay headquarters."
There you have it. From now through the rest of your life, whenever somebody asks you if you know how Cheetos are made, there you'll be, reddy as Freddy with the whole story.
NNTTM.
For moar plus pix: https://www.wired.com/2010/05/process-cheetos/#:~:text=Gobs of cornmeal are fed,%2C" creating the Cheetos shape.
@Catseye3 not quite as disgusting as I'd imagined.
I'd always assumed they were the dried excrement of an exotic animal that was battery-farmed and fed nothing but cheese all day.
-
My favorite part is the non-zero threshold of mouse bits that get through in the processed cornmeal.
Too much mouse = rejected batch.
-
Sorry, this looks dangerous...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_mounted_shooting
Mounted shooting requires competitors to use single-action revolvers, lever-action rifles chambered in pistol calibers, and side-by-side double-barreled shotguns. Single action semi-automatic firearms, also known as self-cocking firearms, are also allowed in special military cavalry and Wild Bunch events (named after the 1969 Western movie of the same name that used more modern firearms). In general, firearm designs and the modern replicas used in the sport are of the pre-1900 American West and Military eras.
Mounted shooting requires skill in both horsemanship and shooting that is measured in the form of competitive events and is one of the fastest-growing equestrian sports in the nation. The object of the sport is to shoot ten balloon targets while riding through a variety of challenging courses using specially loaded blank cartridges fired from Old West-style single-action revolvers. It is a high-speed, timed spectator sport in which the competitor who rides the fastest with the fewest missed targets wins.[9]
The typical event requires two single-action revolvers, each loaded with five BLANK cartridges. Ten targets are arranged in a horseback riding arena. When the competitor is given a go-signal, indicating the arena is clear of people and hazards, the rider guides his horse across a timer line and engages the ten targets. When all ten targets are engaged, the rider returns across the timer line and his score is determined and recorded. The raw time of the rider is computed and penalties are added for missed targets or failure to follow the specified course or procedure, or knocking over barrels or target stands.
Ah, blanks.
Still....
-
Education is extremely important.
-
@Horace said in Mildly interesting:
Link to video
As much as I dislike the injection of woke ideology into D&D, this was not better.
-
@Horace said in Mildly interesting:
Link to video
As much as I dislike the injection of woke ideology into D&D, this was not better.
@Aqua-Letifer said in Mildly interesting:
@Horace said in Mildly interesting:
Link to video
As much as I dislike the injection of woke ideology into D&D, this was not better.
It doesn’t offend me. Just a cartoonish evil race. I have no problem with that. I suppose the present day lore fashion drow as complicated and ambiguous rather than cartoonishly evil. Where’s the fun in that?
Education is extremely important.
-
@Aqua-Letifer said in Mildly interesting:
@Horace said in Mildly interesting:
Link to video
As much as I dislike the injection of woke ideology into D&D, this was not better.
It doesn’t offend me. Just a cartoonish evil race. I have no problem with that. I suppose the present day lore fashion drow as complicated and ambiguous rather than cartoonishly evil. Where’s the fun in that?
@Horace said in Mildly interesting:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Mildly interesting:
@Horace said in Mildly interesting:
Link to video
As much as I dislike the injection of woke ideology into D&D, this was not better.
It doesn’t offend me. Just a cartoonish evil race. I have no problem with that. I suppose the present day lore fashion drow as complicated and ambiguous rather than cartoonishly evil. Where’s the fun in that?
The stupidity of the idea offends me. It's cool the drow are an example of toxic femininity in general, but fuck me that was a stupid-ass expression of that idea in particular.
-
@Aqua-Letifer said in Mildly interesting:
@Horace said in Mildly interesting:
Link to video
As much as I dislike the injection of woke ideology into D&D, this was not better.
It doesn’t offend me. Just a cartoonish evil race. I have no problem with that. I suppose the present day lore fashion drow as complicated and ambiguous rather than cartoonishly evil. Where’s the fun in that?
@Horace said in Mildly interesting:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Mildly interesting:
@Horace said in Mildly interesting:
Link to video
As much as I dislike the injection of woke ideology into D&D, this was not better.
It doesn’t offend me. Just a cartoonish evil race. I have no problem with that. I suppose the present day lore fashion drow as complicated and ambiguous rather than cartoonishly evil. Where’s the fun in that?
I wouldn’t have called them cartoonishly evil. But overall, the society worshipped an evil goddess. The majority of the race is going to be pretty frigging evil… That’s part of what made the exception of Drizz’t (Lawful Good) and even the lesser exception of Jarlaxle (Chaotic Neutral?). Now? A lot less so…
-
Churchill needed a prescription for his wine and brandy while recuperating from the car accident in NY.
Prohibition, remember.
-
Churchill is an inspiration to alcoholics everywhere. He's our Martin Luther King. It is time to end institutionalized sober supremacy. Systemic bigotry against stumbling drunks must end. I have a hallucinatory dream, like the kind you get in the final few hours of sleep after a day in bed, coming down from a five day bender.
-
In Japan, there is a large group of carpenters (15,000 members) called Kezurou-kai that demonstrate the traditional Japanese hand tools and techniques that were used to built the pagodas and temple structures that are the world’s oldest standing wooden structures.
Every year the Kezurou-kai have a planing competition to see who amongst them can shave the thinnest piece of wood with a hand planer. The winners are typically between 4-5 microns. A human hair is typically 50 microns… A red blood cell is 8 microns… And these measurements of the shaving are taken at their THICKEST point…
Link to videoThe Brad
-
@George-K so the instrument is a sex machine! I knew it!
@Doctor-Phibes said in Mildly interesting:
@George-K so the instrument is a sex machine! I knew it!
Well, you did get screwed when you bought it.
-
In Japan, there is a large group of carpenters (15,000 members) called Kezurou-kai that demonstrate the traditional Japanese hand tools and techniques that were used to built the pagodas and temple structures that are the world’s oldest standing wooden structures.
Every year the Kezurou-kai have a planing competition to see who amongst them can shave the thinnest piece of wood with a hand planer. The winners are typically between 4-5 microns. A human hair is typically 50 microns… A red blood cell is 8 microns… And these measurements of the shaving are taken at their THICKEST point…
Link to videoThat’s thinner than George used to plane wood, back when he had a wood shop.
Well, it is….
-
If you watch nothing else, go to 7:50 or so. Amazing.
Many Japanese tools cut on the pull-stroke. Because of that, it requires less effort to guide it through the wood.
That's particularly true in the case of saws. Because you're pulling, the blade needs no support, allowing it to be thinner and require less work to cut through wood.
In contrast, look at a Western backsaw. Such a saw is used to cut dovetails, for example. It's called a backsaw because it needs stabilization on the blade to keep it from buckling when you're pushing it through stock. A Japanese saw is totally different.
Some Japanese saws do have the metal backing, but the blades are always thinner and much easier to use.
-
When we think of excellence in woodworking and craftsmanship we tend to think about the Amish or European traditions. When we think of Japan we think of electronics, robotics, and high tech… But the fact remains that the oldest wooden buildings still in use were built over 1100 years ago (one building in the temple grounds was started in 607 AD) in Japan. That craftsmanship still exists today.
