- Feature Articles
- CodeSOD
- Error'd
- Forums
-
Other Articles
- Random Article
- Other Series
- Alex's Soapbox
- Announcements
- Best of…
- Best of Email
- Best of the Sidebar
- Bring Your Own Code
- Coded Smorgasbord
- Mandatory Fun Day
- Off Topic
- Representative Line
- News Roundup
- Editor's Soapbox
- Software on the Rocks
- Souvenir Potpourri
- Sponsor Post
- Tales from the Interview
- The Daily WTF: Live
- Virtudyne
Admin
We are the only Imperial Power. Our measurements say so. Loudly, because they're nonsensical and therefore have to should.
May I insert a Klingon quote here?
Admin
You forgot that some people add Fibre x 2 to the formula. Apparently the logic is as follows:
fibre + gut bacteria -> alcohol -> approx 30% absorption -> 2 x fibre
Admin
the maruchan yakisoba teriyaki noodles are the bomb! i could eat those every day.
Admin
A metric cup is 250 mL. They're quite a common unit in recipies in this part of the world (New Zealand) and, yes, you do get measuring cups from cookery stores (where they have a 250 mL cup, 125 mL half-cup etc). My New Zealand cookbook details that one cup does, indeed, mean 250 mL and yes, a recipie will ask for 1 and a half cups of flour.
Anyway, that's the other problem with using cups - who's definition? For something with a multinational viewpoint, a cup is ambigious as in the US, a cup is about 237 mL and a traditional UK cup was 284 mL. A metric one is 1/4 L.
(A metric teaspoon holds 5mL, a dessertspoon holds 10mL and a tablespoon holds 15mL.)
Admin
Of course! You don't?
Admin
Look I know may think "The metric system is the tool of the devil. My car gets fourty rods to the hogs head and that's the way I likes it" but 350ml is easy:
Optional steps for non-metric countries:
Admin
good luck guys, hope you catch up to the rest of the world soon :)
captcha: letatio is that like fellatio?
Admin
What is this site coming to? Food reviews now!? I'm out of here!
O God! Some dirty great knife just fell down and chopped my left hand off while I typed that!
Nothing like that has ever happened to me before.
I think I need to go and clean up my kitchen.
Admin
There is no such thing as a USB powered water boiler. USB allows for a maximum of 2.5W of power. Even if you were heating a perfectly insulated cup of 250ml of water, to bring it from 20 degrees celsius to 100 degrees would take over 9 hours.
Admin
Excellent. I don't know why, but this article really had me chuckling.
I would like to point out though that measuring cups sold in every country that uses metric, which is just about everywhere that isn't the U.S., always have markings in ml on the side; so crazy imperial measuring systems are the real WTF.
Admin
Admin
Catch up? We're ahead of you. When America gets the sniffles, Europe gets pneumonia.
Admin
From the look of your cooked 'meal', I think you have skipped step 3 on the instruction steps. Chow Mien is supposed to be served dry without soup; after you closed the lid to cook the strings of flour (or what they call noodles), you should drain the noodles by pouring the soup away from the little holes at the corner of the lid. If you're brave enough to try it again, that's what you should do...
Admin
It even has nutritious, nutritious silicon dioxide!
Admin
The first twelve cans don't stay long enough in reading distance and after that it doesn't matter.
Admin
[quote user="JimM"][quote user="Gowerly"]That nutritional information is British, by the look of it, and we've gone to measuring things in ml.[/quote]Only because the EU got snotty about us using our own measurements. The amusing thing is the fact that you can now buy things by the 568ml!
< .. snip ... >
Getting you Brits away from your medieval measuring units is a holy quest for the rest of the EU.
Admin
Good Idea. Let's petition Alex to make it a regular installment feature about once a week. That way we all get insure that there will be no MFD relapses.
Admin
In the german army we used to call chicken "rubber eagle".
Addendum (2008-05-17 01:53): And pizza is gets to be called "mafia cake".
Admin
Step Three And a Half: Throw away disgusting slop. Step Three And Three Quarters: Get something delicious. Step Three And Seven Eighths: Eat. Step Three And Fifteen Sixteenths: Stop using fractional step numbers. Step Five: Profit!!!
Admin
Step Three And a Half: Throw away disgusting slop. Step Three And Three Quarters: Get something delicious. Step Three And Seven Eighths: Eat. Step Three And Fifteen Sixteenths: Stop using fractional step numbers. Step Five: Profit!!!
Admin
"As for the tasting… the Quick Meal delivered a somewhat unpolished, slightly immature nose with hints of broiled sirloin, poached egg, and cellar-dried carrots, though somewhat overpowered by brine. Its palate offered a lively medley of complex flavors from roasted sesame to buttered shallot, all influneced by a hint of smokeyness. The finish was warming, with a touch of bitternes that was quickly replaced by a subtle yet influential balance of spices."
Have you been writing for a foody magazine again? Naughty WTF. Bad WTF. Or did Jilly Gordon teach you all she knows about wine ("A hint of freshly mown grass" was one memorable quote).
Be prepared to receive lunch donations through the post, to fuel your blogging fingers.
WTF
Admin
Don't worry about your dollar, not only is it already metric, but it was one of the first metric money systems.
Speed limits are easy, 60mph converts across to 100kph very easily, and 50mph is 80kph, and 30mph is 50kph. As a added bonus, this actually lets you drive slightly faster. But replacing all the signs is a hassle. Britain never got around to changing them, but my country (New Zealand) is quite small so we just set a date. Everything before that date was imperial, and everything after it was metric.
Studs might be a bit harder, but nothing is stopping you putting them 406.4 mm apart, but for engineering with more precise measurements, metric is way easier, infact NASA has already gone metric.
Admin
a few thoughts:
As a person slowly trying to remove the accumulated mass of SEVERAL people -> That's a 1200 calorie meal for LUNCH... My gods....
Also, why was someone making a cheap, badly misrepresented 23 cent package of noodle soup such a compelling read? I suddenly fear for the future.
Oh, and as for the 3 freeze dried peas... Have you every tried to get freeze dried peas? My god, they must keep those things in a vault next to the gold in fort knox -> They are a bugger of a thing to find for sale... if anyone happens to know where I could buy some, I would be very interested.
And freeze dried scrambled eggs for less than 100$ an ounce... (mmmmmm freeze dried scrambled eggs!!!!)
Admin
Hey, guys for any typical European person it easy to measure 350 ml. And there is nothing strange in it, at least for us.
Admin
Gonna make two "That is America's own fault" here:
First, because US residents tend to sue anything that they dislike. Lost a pair of trousers anyone? Dog in a microwave perhaps? If it's not on the package, and you get burned, it's the manufacturers fault, right? Wrong. It's ignorance that got you burned.
Second, there are entire continents that totally understand 350 milliliters. A quick peek at weight/volume conversion lists will keep you entertained for a day or two. (http://www.onlineconversion.com/volume.htm). And it might come in handy in the future.
Admin
The real WTF is that imperial measurements are still actually being used iRL(TM)....
Admin
Admin
Where the heck do you live?
I gotcher freeze-dried peas and scrambled eggs right here. $98/oz. Place your order now, as many as you want. Free shipping.
Admin
Ow come on.
If a single cup is 250 mL, then how many cups is 350 mL? It really doesn't take Einstein to figure out it's one and a half to within 10% precision.
No wonder you Americans have trouble grasping the metric system...
Admin
Americans still can't use metric.
Admin
There are some things that keep amazing me while reading this article:
American calories are 1000x more energetic than the calories the rest of the worlds uses (eg this 1200 cal meal would have to display its nutritional value as 1200 kcal in the rest of the world).
Some people think that the metric system also applies to money: it doesn't. The metric system are those units of physical measurement (eg meter, liter, gram etc) that are defined by the SI (Le Système International d'Unités, International System of Units, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systeme_International)
Admin
Yeah, because you just need that much precision, you can't just use one cup and a half. THAT WOULD BE CRAZY!
Admin
Well that's amazingly ignorant.
Measuring cups here in the USA are marked in both standard American and metric.
Dumbass.
Admin
shrug
Why bother? We have a system. It works. Most people here have no interest in changing it.
Admin
I hope this site doesn't turn into another CodingHorrors. Blogs suck. This site is a valuable resource - laughing at crap code - learning better ways of solving problems from people who've had to fix it. I don't want to know about your poor diet. We know a lot of nerds have a poor diet. It's sort of a WTF, I guess, and I know there haven't been a lot of genuine WTFs here lately, but I can sit it out until they turn up.
Admin
Ah yes - but it does. It says to remove the pack, but it doesn't say to remove the noodles (which presumably were already in the right place). Subtle, these Chinese are.
MadCow
What the heck is "facilisis"?
Admin
Facepalm.jpg
SI are the units of all natural and physical sciences.
For a country sending all of it's manufacturing capacity overseas, a failure to embrace all things science is economic suicide.
On the bright side, those of us who got a chance to go to college before it became too expensive will have an opportunity to join the "haves" at the top of the food chain. The "have nots" at the bottom will be your children, unless you want to join the "have nots" to give them an opportunity to go to college.
But hey, why bother changing anything. It works, right?
Admin
I'm vegan as well (admittedly I only became one because my body reacts badly to animal protein and fat), and by a) studying the ingredients list and b) actually trying them, I learned two great facts about Ramen noodles. First: I can safely eat them. Second: I do not have to.
Seriously, instant noodles can be an appropriate addition to an Asian-style soup, but the "spices" in Ramen are like 45% salt, 45% MSG and 10% flavors obtained from mold or rotting tree bark or whatever raw material they use for that purpose.
There are simply more nutritious and more delicious ways of satisfying a vegan's daily requirements of sodium and glutamate. :-) Miso, for example (I know it has been mentioned before). For the uninitiated, miso is a traditional Japanese condiment made from fermented cooked soybeans and salt. (It's not like natto!) There are different varieties - I prefer organic hatcho miso which is dark and firm and lasts pretty long. It's not cheap, but you need only a little at a time. One quick meal involving miso is miso soup. Put some hatcho miso into a cup and add approximately the same amount of boiling water. Thoroughly knead it with a spoon until all the water has been absorbed. This is so it will be easier to dissolve later on. Pour into a soup bowl and add some more boiling water. That's all. Well, of course you will want to add some additional ingredients. Here are some suggestions: A small amount of instant noodles, some fresh tofu, cut into cubes, spinach, a diced small shallot, wakame (sea weed), etc.
Another quick miso meal is baked tofu. In Japan they have more sophisticated methods, but I'm more interested in the quickest way since I also like a quick treat during work hours. Cut fresh tofu into slices (about 0.8cm, I'm sorry, half a finger thick) and thinly cover the top side with hatcho miso. You can also blend the miso with SOME water (not too much, though!) if it's too firm. Put into an oven and bake for approx. 10 minutes. It's that simple. Baked tofu with miso is a fine addition to microwaved vegetables, instead of plain salt.
By the way, did anyone mention that the freeze-dried, authentic Chinese vegetables contain no vitamin A or C at all?
Admin
On the ingredients for the powder packet, one of the ingredients is Silicon Dioxide. Silicon Dioxide, in layman terms, is SAND. Is it only me that feels a little worried by this "Chow Mein"?
Admin
You have two systems. The idea is that you change it to one to prevent the many, expensive and dangerous problems that arise, such as this:
http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/technology/05/17/0517samsung.html
Admin
You convinced me.
We should abandon the metric system.
Admin
A lot of people throw the "spice packet" away. Personally I used the noodles with chopped/diced/sauted vegetables & meat and Pacific brand broth.
Sorry? You were complaining about the amount of salt in the spice packet but you're using miso? Isn't miso loaded with salt? Like 2,200 mg per tablespoon? It's worse than soy sauce.
Good lord! Isn't that version even higher in salt than regular miso?
A lot of people do that along with the ramen noodles.
...
I'm not a crazed fan of ramen noodles. But a lot of people cook them and use them without ever using the spice packet.
Admin
I can't believe you ate that! That last ingredient, Silicon Dioxide, is glass. I think if you can't afford the time to prepare food and you like the good old 2 minute noodles you should at least buy them in bulk so they cost less than $1 per packet and then supplement the ingredients with other things that take about 2 minutes to cook (frozen vegies, eggs, baked beans).
There must be a market for artificial beef in vegetarians and Hindu believers. Amazing.
Admin
As Homer said in "Virtual Springfield": "No one really wins in a butter-eating contest!"
Admin
Quick search found "Artificial Beef Flavor; PC-0125 is the most palatable base ever developed for chewable tablets and granules for dogs and cats." at http://www.pharma-chemie.com/flavor_base/ I wonder if that's the product they're using. ;->
Admin
Even then in different parts of the world has different "standard" stud spacing: In Australia it is 450 mm.
Admin
omg bunn milo bogers house monk waffles pumers goren skull benson babity
Admin
As an overseas Chinese, I consume this kind of noodles regularly. The noodles Alex's got indeed count as Chow Mein - "Chow Mein" is literally "fried noodles" in Cantonese. There is no guaranteed what kind of noodles they actually are. Don't be deceived by the multiplex of Chinese restaurants in the Western world.
From the pictures in the article, I wish to challenge that Alex didn't cook the noodles properly - too much water is left behind after draining. This dilutes the taste and was apparently the reason that Alex's noodles tasted like brine.
The correct (from my, and my friends' experience) way to cook the noodles is:
If in doubt, ask a Chinese friend to teach you how to do it, as for every other kind of (seemingly) Chinese food.
Admin
Dude, that's cold. I feel like I've been rick-rolled, and I didn't even click on a link.
GPa.
Admin
I was planning to nitpick about this, too. So what we call kilobytes over here are called bytes in the US? Granted, calorie isn't an SI unit and the definition is a bit confusing, but an error of a magnitude of a thousand-fold in what probably is a mandatory government-enforced information label is a bit suprising.