The Korean War by Indy Neidell
Published 24 Dec 2024UN forces commander Douglas MacArthur continues to insist more troops are needed to fight the Chinese Communists. They aren’t coming anytime soon. But UN troops in the North do at least pull off a miraculous evacuation from Hungnam and arrive in South Korea and begin defensive preparations, as Eighth Army commander Walton Walker embarks on an ill-fated trip north of Seoul…
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December 24, 2024
The Korean War 027 – The US General Dies! – December 24, 1950
Did I RUIN this woodworking antique?
Rex Krueger
Published 23 Dec 2024Whoever made this plane certainly had their head in the stars.
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David Friedman on elegant solutions to problems
Sometimes the solution to a problem is obvious … at least once someone else has pointed it out:
Recently, when writing a check, it occurred to me that requiring the amount to be given separately in both words and number was a simple and ingenious solution to the problem of reducing error. It is possible, if your handwriting is as sloppy as mine, to write a letter or number that can be misread as a different letter or number. If redundancy consisted of writing the amount of the check twice as numbers or twice as words the same error could appear in both versions. It is a great deal less likely to make two errors, one in letters and one in numbers, that happen to produce the same mistaken result. It reduces the risk of fraud as well, for a similar reason.
That is one example of a simple and elegant solution to a problem, so simple that until today it had never occurred to me to wonder why checks were written that way. Another example of the same pattern is a nurse or pharmacist checking both your name and date of birth to confirm your identity.1
That started me thinking about other examples:
The design of rubber spatulas, one bottom corner a right angle, the other a quarter circle. One of the uses of the device is to scrape up the contents of containers, jars and bowls and such. Some containers have curved bottoms, some flat bottoms at a right angle to the wall. The standard design fits both.
Manhole covers are round because it is the one simple shape such that there is no way of turning it that lets it fall through the hole it fits over.
Consider an analog meter with a needle and a scale behind it. If you read it at a slight angle you get the reading a little high or low. Add a section of mirror behind the needle and line up the image behind the needle. Problem solved.
If you try to turn a small screw with a large screwdriver it doesn’t fit into the slot. Turning a large screw with a small screwdriver isn’t always impossible but if the screw is at all tight you are likely to damage the screwdriver doing it. The solution is the Phillips screwdriver. The tip of a large Phillips screwdriver is identical to a smaller one so can be used on a range of screw sizes.2
Ziplock bags have been around since the sixties. Inventing them was not simple but a new application is: packaging that consists of a sealed plastic bag with a Ziplock below the seal. After you cut open the bag you can use the ziplock to keep the contents from spilling or drying. I do not know how recent an innovation it is but I cannot recall an example from more than a decade ago.
1. This one and some of the others were suggested by posters on the web forum Data Secrets Lox.
2. I am told that the solution is not perfect, doesn’t work for very small screws, which require a smaller size of driver.
Victorian Mincemeat With Actual Meat
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 14 Dec 2021Mincemeat pies from back when there was still meat in the filling
City/Region: England
Time Period: 1845CORRECTION: I said/wrote “1 heaping cup of sugar” but it should be a heaping 1/2 cup. Though more sugar won’t be a bad thing.
Medieval mincemeat pies were about 90% meat and only about 10% fruit. These original mincemeat pies were a way to preserve meat for the winter, but as time went on, the amount of meat went down and the amount of fruit went up until we get a full-fledged dessert with no meat like you usually find today.
This Victorian recipe strikes a nice balance by having some meat, but certainly not the 90% of ye olden days. These pies are so much better than the ones you get at the store. The spices are warm and remind me of Christmas and the lemon brightens it up. Everything is soft, but the pieces stay individual, not all one gloopy mass. At the very end, you get a bit of meatiness, but it’s still sweet and very much a dessert.
Mincemeat
(Author’s Receipt)
To one pound of an unsalted ox-tongue, or inside of roasted sirloin, … add two pounds of fine stoned raisins, two of beef kidney-suet, two pounds and a half of currants, … two of good apples, two and a half of fine Lisbon sugar, from half to a whole pound of candied peel, … the grated rinds of two large lemons, and two more boiled quite tender, and chopped up entirely, with the exception of the pips, two small nutmegs, half an ounce of salt, a large teaspoonful of pounded mace, rather more of ginger in powder, half a pint of brandy, and as much good sherry or Madeira. Mince these ingredients separately, and mix the others all well before the brandy and the wine are added …— Modern Cookery for Private Families by Eliza Acton, 1845
QotD: The real hero of It’s A Wonderful Life
@BillyJingo
I get the feeling you’re the kind of guy who secretly rooted for Mr Potter.@Iowahawkblog
George Bailey: whines for a public bailout of his grossly mismanaged financial institutionMr Potter: reinvigorates boring small town by developing exciting nightlife district
David Burge (@Iowahawkblog), Twitter, 2022-11-16.
