Your weekly crème de la crème of the Internet is here!
\n07.11.2023 (read in browser)\n\nIntro
\nWhatever is on my mind this week.
Things I enjoyed reading
\nTen-ish articles I found worth reading.
Things I didn't know last Tuesday
\nTen-ish facts I didn't know when I wrote the previous edition.
Book of the week
\nSome thoughts on the latest book I've read.
I didn't have much time to cook this week, and mostly spent my days looking at pictures of mold, because the sausages that I started to dry age decided to bloom. I will save you appetite by not posting any pictures, although it's worth mentioning that so far I rescued the majority of salami to be and lost only ~1.5 kg of landjager and ~300 g of duck prosciutto.
\nI did however make a roast beef with normal (not-fermented) beef:
\n\nAnd even managed to take out a deli slicer to make those beautiful slices for a sandwich.
\n\nThere are no pictures of sandwiches though, but there is a photo of this makgeolli can. I wrote about makgeolli half a year ago but didn't try it before: it's the oldest Korean alcoholic beverage made with wine and nuruk (something between koji and yeast).
\n\nIt somewhat reminds me of amazake, but it's hard to tell for sure given this one is of a flavoured variety. I do like it more than amazake though, so maybe I should make nuruk next time instead.
\nHere the author questions how his current life is the function of him being single, as otherwise he'd focus on completely different things and it's quite an interesting perspective:
\n\n\nThe man has only a few friends and probably had them for a long time. He’s not a socializer; he rarely goes out or participates in community activities. When he’s not working, he enjoys solitude in the comfort of his four walls with a book or a practical hobby; he likes to tinker with stuff. However, he’s also married or at least in a long-term relationship. He might even be a father.
\nFor their spouse, he’s a good partner. He might not be overly social and outgoing, but he has an intriguing inner life that only a few people share, and she’s one of them. He’s also unlikely to cheat or leave her because his lifestyle doesn’t provide good opportunities to meet someone else. If both partners are “married introverts”, their relationship becomes their comfort zone, and they mostly go through life as a couple with few other people involved except maybe a small group of friends. They probably started dating in high school or their first year of university and had no or few previous partners. If the spouse is more extroverted, she might organize the social life for them both to the extent the man is comfortable with.
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I thought these few paragraphs sum up my life quite well but then paused to think if my hobbies are practical enough to count. They probably are, at least the ones that turn into meals.
\nI also don't think introverted people are loyal because of their lifestyle. Being commited to a relationship has nothing with the amount of social activities in your life – it's about choices.
\nThis is a great advice (and post overall) on being more efficient with your goals:
\n\n\nAnd just to spell it out: the point here isn't \"stop multitasking and focus on one thing, and you're a bad person if you don't!\" Rather, it's that (with a few technical exceptions) you never actually are multitasking to begin with. Instead, you're just anxiously switching your attention rapidly between things – because you're not sure which one's more urgent, and/or because you think you'll get them done quicker that way, which is almost never true.
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I often feel like I'd like to do something else but there are things I need to take care of first, and I can confirm that dealing with those things first is more efficient in long term than constantly switch focus and context.
\nMembers of the House of Lords can't give up their seats, so are not able to move to Commons (and as the result, can't become a prime minister). But what if they really want to? Apparently it has happened a few times in the past:
\n\n\nOn 23 October, at the height of the by-election campaign, Douglas-Home disclaimed his seat in the House of Lords. So old and prestigious was his family’s claim to a place in the upper house that he in fact had to disclaim six seemingly similar, but distinct, peerages: the Earldom of Home and the Lordships of Dunglass, Home and Hume, all in the peerage of Scotland; the Barony of Hume in the peerage of England; and the barony of Douglas in the peerage of the United Kingdom. For the next fortnight, the prime minister would be a member of neither house, but he was now eligible for election to the Commons.
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Elected British MPs can't give up their seats either (I wrote about that before), so if the need to resign there is a hilariously bureaucratic procedure that makes them an employee of a crown which disqualifies them from being an MP and triggers a by-election.
\nI've learnt about lava lamps at a Cloudlare office some time ago, but never heard of people collecting them for personal use, and yet here is someone's story:
\n\n\nMy partner wanted me to stop buying lava lamps. It was an expensive hobby, and we were running out of room in our apartment. But like the web encryptors at Cloudflare, I cared about the differences between each lava lamp: the way some produce slow, luminous pillars while others look like bottled weather. Governed by heat and by fluid dynamics, no lamp will flow the same way twice. Every detail matters: the temperature of the room, the balance of chemicals and wax. Despite its simple design, a lava lamp’s contents are as permutable as an alphabet. Together, a group of lamps felt like a series of symbols written in wax that I could never quite read: blue column, crimson circle, yellow ribbon. I kept buying lava lamps because I wanted to build a kind of language with them.
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I remember one in my parent's bedroom: it used to be quite mesmerizing until it broke, maybe it's time I get one myself. It should fit nicely on my desk.
\nFirst I came across someone building a clone of Angry Birds using AI to both create images and write code, but this project looks way cooler:
\n\n\nThe game couldn’t reasonably run above 1 FPS because our input mechanism (double-clicking a file) only had second-level precision - if Flappy Dird ran at 2 FPS you’d only be able to jump every other frame. So I needed a new way to accept input. At this point I figured that AppleScript was all-powerful and could tell me whether an item in Finder was selected. I checked and it totally could! I reworked the code to accept selection of any file in the window as a jump.
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I didn't really know that Finder is so powerful though, but I guess anything could Turing-complete if you're brave enough.
\nThis is written as a historical lesson of some kind, but I grew up writing in Pascal for five or six years slightly more than a decade ago, so it still feels like yesterday.
\n\n\nSo, while Pascal might not be popular as it once was, it’s impact on the computing landscape was profound. It enjoyed over twenty years of success before it’s decline, and still has modern implementations that run on computers today. I hope this has piqued your interest in taking a deeper dive into Pascal. In fact that is what we will do in our article for next week so stayed tuned!
\n
Which reminds me that it's been ten years since I graduated from high school. I don't remember names of half of my classmates (I probably would if pressed though), but I do remember two dozens of reserved words in Pascal, so you could easily guess what I've used more often.
\nIt's been a while since I looked at AI performance after the initial excitement worn off, but I really like a semi-interactive style of this article:
\n\n\nLM agents are unreliable right now: we cherry-picked the above demonstration as an example of a success. But as LMs and the scaffolding around them improve they may get much better at dangerous real-world tasks like hacking. They may be able to execute long-term plans: for example by making money, copying themselves onto new servers, and hiring humans to do tasks in the physical world.
\n
There are also a few really detailed example of what might go wrong if those chatbots decide to go rogue, but for that I've already read Pelevin's latest book.
\nI occasionally attempt (and quickly give up) switching to a split keyboard, and one day would love to learn Dvorak, but as I spend lots of times with the laptop on my lap, it doesn't sound feasable any time soon. Seeing other people pulling this off is exciting though:
\n\n\nFirst an important note: changing the layout because you want to type faster will probably not work out. Chances are you’ve been using QWERTY for many years and the amount of practice you need to catch up to and surpass your QWERTY speed will be staggering. Most will burn out long before reaching that point (including me).
\nThe biggest benefit I see with an alternative layout is comfort. If you’re worried about RSI, and you foresee yourself spending a few decades more in front of the computer, then switching layout might be a good idea.
\n
However I doubt building a layout from scratch is a good idea in the modern world as so many people analized so many parameters in all possible keyboard layout out there already.
\nIf you ever searched for a pronounciation of a word, then the chances are you've seen this guy's video. I didn't know he isn't British though:
\n\n\nWhen he saw how popular his early wine videos were, he ramped up his output and branched out to the many other phrases we massacre or struggle with, from Qatar and hygge to Chopin and General Tso (as in the popular Chinese American dish). Now, Miquel said, the videos generate more than half of his income.
\nHe has produced more than 40,000 of the brief, visually spare clips, including some 12,000 this year. One recent day, he cranked out 31, for words such as submariner, distraught and bas-relief.
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I also wonder if he actually remembers all those pronounciations and sticks to the rules when talking on day-to-day basis.
\nI think the title is a bit misleading, and most things listed are not necessarily habits but rather traits. Nonetheless, I do agree with most of them, but if I were to choose one, it would be it:
\n\n\nI will be honest: great developers aren't just skilled or knowledgeable; they're passionate. They're eyes light up at the mention of a new programming language. They spend hours diving deep into a challenging problem not just because they have to but because they want to. They're driven by an insatiable curiosity, a hunger to know more, do more, and be more.
\n
It's important to see the difference between someone passionate about codings vs someone passionate about their code. People guilty of the latter tend to take any feedback in their PRs quite aggressively, and almost never rewrite or delete things.
\nI think developers need to be dispassionate about their code instead, and strive to replace it with a better one as soon as possible.
\nSurprisingly I've never heard of this drink before, even though it seems to be quite straightforward to make:
\n\n\nColada Morada is a drink that is part of Ecuador's gastronomic culture along with t'anta wawa. It is a purple and thick liquid that is prepared with typical fruits of Ecuador, spices and corn flour.
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This drink is traditionally consumed on November 2, souls' day or \"days of the dead\", along with the so-called t'anta wawa (bread usually of non-ordinary flavor and various fillings that has the shape of a doll, hence the name ) which are representations of the dead wrapped in a blanket.
\n\nIt's usually served warm, so the texture must be similar to a hot chocolate thickened with corn flour, but this one should be very berry-forward.
\nI shared my thoughts about Stanley Tucci's memoirs a few years ago, and frankly didn't enjoy the book much, but I've also completely overlooked his family recipe of this signature Italian dish:
\n\n\n\nTimballo is an Italian baked dish consisting of pasta, rice, or potatoes, with one or more other ingredients (cheese, meat, fish, vegetables, or fruit) included.
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Apparently Stanley was so in love with the recipe, he even filmed it in Big Night, and now you have to watch this short clip to understand what's it all about.
\nDespite straightaway attempting dry-curing salami, I've also read a lot about different cured meats, and this one is something I've never heard of before:
\n\n\n\nIt is not a true sausage, but a meatball made of smoked meats. The recipe was probably based on the impromptu need to preserve game. The preparation method did not require specialized equipment making it available to all homes, even the most isolated mountain huts.
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I am not sure how people could reliably make these as the lack of protection and lots of exposed surface just sound dangerous, but I guess everyone else just has perfect conditions for meat aging. Maybe I will get there one day too.
\nWe've been to an asian shop recently, and seems like here in Scotland the selection of foreign ingredients is as good as in London's Chinatown. Sasha was looking up recipes for one of the things we picked up there and came across this soup:
\n\n\nThis Six Combination Soup popularly known as Lok Mei Tong or Luck Bee Th’ng has six Chinese dried herbs in it. The combination of herbs may vary slightly and sometimes one or two more herbs are added.
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I very rarely enjoy soups, so can't really get excited about the recipe as much as its author, but I do appreciate the complexity of flavours those few herbs and roots give.
\nAnd speaking about roots, apparently some countries dust turmeric with lead to make them more yellow, which obviously leads to lead poisoning.
\n\n\nTo heighten their colour, the rhizomes from which the spice is extracted are routinely dusted with lead chromate, a neurotoxin. The practice helps explain why South Asia has the highest rates of lead poisoning in the world.
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Probably I'll stick to locally grown turmeric from now on just in case.
\nAnother incident with adding toxic stuff to food has happened in Austria years ago:
\n\n\nThe 1985 Austrian diethylene glycol wine scandal was an incident in which several Austrian wineries illegally adulterated their wines using the toxic substance diethylene glycol (a minor ingredient in some brands of antifreeze) to make the wines appear sweeter and more full-bodied in the style of late harvest wines.
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That caused the country to disappear from the wine market for decades, and also made pretty much all local wineries to pivot into making dry wines.
\nIn some parts of the world there is a day when the sun reaches the perfect zenith and objects stop dropping shadows.
\n\n\n\nLāhainā Noon is a semi-annual tropical solar phenomenon when the Sun culminates at the zenith at solar noon, passing directly overhead (above the subsolar point).
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I also appreciate that someone made a picture of a level to illustrate the phenomenon.
\nLeaf blowers are somewhat rare here in the UK but I often see them in movies, and seems like there is a reason for their scarcity nowadays.
\n\n\nFrom small West Coast cities like Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, to East Coast metros like Washington, DC, a consensus has formed: Leaf blowers are dangerously loud and unhealthy, and life is more peaceful without them.
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I didn't know though that they seem to be the most efficient way to remove leaves.
\nWhile I've spent enough time in the UK to get used to the town called Sandwich, I didn't know that there is such street there:
\n\n\nMaybe the street is too short to even deserve a name, yet this is by far one of the most popular streets in the lovely town of Sandwich, which is just a short drive from the gorgeous city of Canterbury.
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Seems like it's quite small though, but even then there is at least one deli shop that used the opportunity to feature the street's name.
\nMint is an often guest in cocktails, but either as a garnish, or as a violently coloured green liqueur in certain drinks, but seems like more and more bars try to get more creative with it:
\n\n\n“The essential mint leaf oils are quite delicate and easily turn into ‘wet dog’ notes,” warns Altenburg, and the key to avoiding that is quickly introducing alcohol to the herbs after extracting their oils. The first infusion starts with an oleo saccharum made with superfine sugar, mint stems and mint leaves muddled together and refrigerated overnight. It continues with a “rum wash,” where unaged rum combines with the mix and rests in the freezer for another 24 hours.
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Which makes total sense, especially given how widely available mint is comparing to many other fruits and herbs.
\nI came across Stuart Maconie's Pies and Prejudice in a charity shop and sadly didn't buy it, so had to resort to a digital version, but that's one of the most hilarious books I've read about English people. The author comes from the North of the country, and the book is dedicated to his attempts to reunite with his spiritual ancestry, but ends up covering the majority of the island in a very enjoyable way.
\nI had a hard time picking out a quote, as pretty much everything from the first paragraph is as brilliant as it gets, but these few sentences here reminded me of something I've seen myself, and would probably like to forget.
\n\n\nThe Bigg Market is Newcastle's party quarter, its Reeperbahn, its Golden Mile, its Sunset Strip. It's not much more than a street really and quite pretty in the day but by night and at weekends a gladiatorial arena devoted to orgiastic alcoholic consumption, moral licentiousness and sexual excess. I counted seventeen pubs so you can have a truly brain-scrambling pub crawl without walking more than a hundred yards. On Friday and Saturday, this nondescript little street is awash with premium lagers, Breezers, Archers and Aftershocks as well as blood, urine, vomit and other nameless fluids.
\nThe Rough Guide to England describes the place as 'the largest cattle market in Western Europe'. That seems harsh to me and more than a little insulting to its clientele, however bovine. But I find it hard to get partisan about the Bigg Market. I feel about it a bit like I feel about that other rambunctiously northern playground, Blackpool. I'll defend it to London trendies, whose idea of a good night out is drinking a small bottle of wheat beer in a basement bar modelled ironically on a seventies living room, but I wouldn't want to spend my free time there. Neither does a great deal of Newcastle, preferring to hang out on the Quayside or neighbouring Collingwood Street. But if an unpretentious piss-up – and possibly a fight and a knee-trembler behind SupaSnaps is what you're after – make haste there.
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I've been to this street a few times, and even stayed in a hotel just around the corner, but it's what it is and I am definitely not coming back on any Friday or Saturday night.
\nThe book is not about Newcastle though: it's about childhood, life choices, pies of all shapes and forms, and also a strong sense of both community and nostalgia.
\nA word of advice though: there are multiple books with the same name, so do make sure you pick the right author. The one I skimmed through first felt like an adult-rated fanfiction to Pride and Prejudice.
\nThank you for your support and subscribing to the weekly edition.
\nIf you have any questions, or want to suggest a link for the next newsletter, please drop me a message on Twitter or reply to this email.
\nCheers! 🍸
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","recentPosts":[{"id":7961510,"title":"Tuesday Triage #237","slug":"tuesday-triage-237","status":"published","readingTime":24,"campaignCompletedAt":"2025-01-28T22:49:30.000Z","publishedAt":"2025-01-28T22:49:30.000Z","orderByDate":"2025-01-28T22:49:30.000Z","timeAgo":"2 months","thumbnailUrl":"https://drobinin.com/assets/newsletter/jan2025_4.jpg","thumbnailAlt":"","path":"posts/tuesday-triage-237","url":"https://tuesdaytriage.com/posts/tuesday-triage-237","isPaid":null,"introContent":"TUESDAY TRIAGE #237 by Vadim Drobinin Your weekly crème de la crème of the Internet is here! 28.01.2024 (read in browser) On taking a break For years now, the end of the year and subsequently January were spent in a rush: first, the rush of wrapping things up in late December, and then the rush of coming up with the new things to focus on before the new year properly settles in. The season I tried to do things differently: I've started my new 2025 project (that is, shooting and eventually...","campaignId":18129988,"publicationId":14682208,"metaDescription":""},{"id":7619431,"title":"Tuesday Triage #232","slug":"tuesday-triage-232","status":"published","readingTime":19,"campaignCompletedAt":"2024-12-24T08:05:10.000Z","publishedAt":"2024-12-24T08:05:10.000Z","orderByDate":"2024-12-24T08:05:10.000Z","timeAgo":"3 months","thumbnailUrl":"https://drobinin.com/assets/newsletter/lost_shore_2.jpg","thumbnailAlt":"","path":"posts/tuesday-triage-232","url":"https://tuesdaytriage.com/posts/tuesday-triage-232","isPaid":null,"introContent":"TUESDAY TRIAGE #232 by Vadim Drobinin Your weekly crème de la crème of the Internet is here! 24.12.2024 (read in browser) This is the free monthly edition of the newsletter. If you want to receive every weekly edition, plus access the full archive of both free and paid newsletters, subscribe here. In case you missed it, the last three paid editions included: #229, which didn't happen because I was en route to Iceland. #230 on Iceland, where I travel to the land of geysers and back, eat raw...","campaignId":17725242,"publicationId":14271866,"metaDescription":""},{"id":7612930,"title":"Tuesday Triage #231","slug":"tuesday-triage-231","status":"published","readingTime":25,"campaignCompletedAt":"2024-12-21T15:49:41.000Z","publishedAt":"2024-12-21T15:49:41.000Z","orderByDate":"2024-12-21T15:49:41.000Z","timeAgo":"3 months","thumbnailUrl":"https://drobinin.com/assets/newsletter/decaf_1.jpg","thumbnailAlt":"","path":"posts/tuesday-triage-231","url":"https://tuesdaytriage.com/posts/tuesday-triage-231","isPaid":true,"introContent":"TUESDAY TRIAGE #231 by Vadim Drobinin Your weekly crème de la crème of the Internet is here! 17.12.2024 (read in browser) Intro Whatever is on my mind this week. Things I enjoyed reading Ten-ish articles I found worth reading. Things I didn't know last Tuesday Ten-ish facts I didn't know when I wrote the previous edition. Book of the week Some thoughts on the latest book I've read. On too much coffee My coffee journey was long and thorny – I went from instant coffee with copious amounts of...","campaignId":17717492,"publicationId":14264006,"metaDescription":""}],"newsletter":{"formId":3349991,"productId":47093,"productUrl":"https://tuesdaytriage.com/products/tuesday-triage-weekly","featuredPostId":5583281,"subscribersOnly":false},"isPaidSubscriber":false,"isSubscriber":false,"originUrl":"https://tuesdaytriage.com/posts/tuesday-triage-173","creatorProfileName":"Tuesday Triage ","creatorProfileId":54086}This post is only available to premium subscribers.
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