Interestingly, the calorie counts on food packaging are derived from the Atwater system (and later modifications) that estimate digestible calories from the amount of fat, protein and carbohydrates in each food item. These numbers are based on experimental research on food substitution and weight loss/gain done in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The calorie counts for alcohol are similarly based on the measurable amount of alcohol in each drink, except that the number used (7 kcal per g) was just a complete guess on Atwater’s part since they couldn’t do equivalent substitution experiments involving booze.

I had a friend in college whose parents were big into world government and had founded an organization to promote that. Talking to them was a weird experience because 1) they felt every problem facing the world could be solved by a one-world government, and 2) they actually felt achieving that world government was a realistic possibility. And it wasn’t like they thought the solution was just the USA taking over everything; they were very critical of everything about this country.

I don’t know if this is irony or not, but that friend is now worth $34 million after her parents’ company went public. She doesn’t say anything about world government any more.

It’s more like chicken garlic.

My “real” job had a schedule from about 4 AM to 11 AM because I was managing a team of coders in India and this allowed me to overlap with them somewhat. I would then ride 25-50 miles in the afternoon and hit the gym in the evening before going to bed around 10 PM. I had less time for sleep and fucking around but otherwise it was similar. Towards the end of that job my company was bought by a west coast tech giant and then I had nothing at all to do for six months, so exercising was obviously even easier.

I thought Imagine Dragons was a band I’d never heard until I checked out some of their songs and realized I’ve actually heard them a million times … always in grocery stores shopping at night.

That’s what I said now

10 cloves garlic

Fuckin’ righteous

“Whos this?”

“Ken Shabby.”

My dad tried to prevent me from hanging out with my best friend after he picked me up at the friend’s house and happened to see a “disturbing” video playing on MTV. It was “Cuts Like a Knife” by Bryan Adams. It’s possible my father was the only human being on earth to ever be disturbed by a fucking Bryan Adams song.

I flirted with a waitress once and asked her for her phone number in a rare spasm of ballsiness and she gave it to me. I called and got her dad who said “I don’t know who this is but my daughter is 16” – apparently she gave out her home phone a lot. I was in my mid-30s at the time. I figured she was in her mid-20s but I was way off. I never went back to that restaurant, which was a shame because they had the best sushi in town.

For most of the last 5 years I’ve been cycling 2 or 3 hours a day and spending about 45 minutes a day at the gym and I still have plenty of time for fun and socializing and whatnot while also getting 8 hours a day of sleep. This is possible for two reasons: 1) I semi-retired from my job as a programmer and I’m now a school bus driver, which takes about 4.5 hours a day (it helps that I live a half-mile from the bus lot, otherwise the job involves twice as much commuting as a normal job); and 2) I don’t watch movies or television. For my money, #2 is the biggie – spending hours a day watching movies and TV shows is such a massive time sink. I’m not judging people who do it since I just stopped enjoying it years ago, not because I’m consciously avoiding something I like in order to free up time.

Unfortunately, two months ago my parents’ health took a nosedive and my father died and now I’m a nearly full-time caregiver for my mother. I haven’t ridden my bike or been to the gym during this entire stretch. So if it makes anyone feel better, I’m no longer in the category of insanely fit older dude myself. But it is possible, at least.

I know it doesn’t mean what I think it means.

Spatulas are so last year; I’m getting nerdy about my glass tupperware stuff

Talk to me when you’re ready for wood plates.

I think the government should be like jury duty. Just pick people at random to fill the various positions. It would be truly democratic and it can’t possibly be any worse than the current arrangement.

in fact you did in your comment

Whoosh

Vibe coding.

No, they all have Masters degrees in Anthropology.

I notice they always have their shoelaces tied, too.

Do LLMs always omit the period on their last sentence? Seems like that would be a dead giveaway

a. i. cummings