Category / Momentary CIDU

by zbicyclist

Another Vocabulary Lesson

Noosignatures were proposed to fill the gap between biosignatures (chemical signs of life) and technosignatures (detectable advanced technology like radio signals). They indicate intelligent activity that is not necessarily technological. Examples include:

  • Stone tools (e.g., Acheulean hand axes) 
  • Architecture or carvings
  • Undeciphered writing systems (e.g., Indus Valley script) 
  • Complex cultural products such as bread, used as a thought experiment for measurable complexity 

Chemical signs of possible life go back billions of years on earth. Production of radio waves, a bit over a hundred. Noosignatures on earth would go back maybe 3 million years or so. Exactly how you could detect these from earth is unclear.

by zbicyclist

Chewing Twice

Mitch4 sends this in: “I figured it must be an idiomatic expression, and a lookup confirmed it. But I had never before run across it in the wild.”

Your editor hasn’t heard this one, either. Mayor McGuffey’s name doesn’t sound German, so I guess we can’t call him a sour kraut.

There’s a suggestion here that this is a combination of two sayings: “I don’t chew my cabbage twice – Response when someone asks you to repeat what you just said. This phrase is probably a combination of: I don’t chew my baccer (tobacco) twice and I don’t boil my cabbage twice.“

I have no doubt that chewing tobacco twice would be unpleasant. Chewing tobacco at all sounds unpleasant. But what about boiling cabbage twice?

What Happens if You Boil Cabbage Twice

Boiling cabbage twice — or overboiling it — can significantly affect its texture, flavor, and nutritional value.

Texture and flavor changes
The first boiling softens cabbage, but a second boiling (or extended cooking) makes it mushy, limp, and less appetizing. Overcooked cabbage can also develop an unpleasant odor and lose its natural sweetness and crunch voyoeats.com+1.

Nutrient loss
Cabbage contains heat- and water-soluble vitamins like vitamin C and B vitamins, which are sensitive to prolonged cooking. Boiling it for more than 5–7 minutes can deplete up to 75% of vitamin C and reduce sulforaphane precursors by over 50% thelivinglook.com. A second boiling compounds this loss, reducing the health benefits.

Health considerations
Overboiling can also break down compounds that may interfere with thyroid function, especially in people with hypothyroidism eatandgeek.com. While this is more relevant to raw cabbage, repeated boiling increases exposure to these compounds.

How to avoid the problem

  • Limit cooking time: For shredded cabbage, 5 minutes; for wedges, up to 10 minutes
by zbicyclist

My Wife

Warning: you may find some of the references here offensive — because they are!

A momentary CIDU, because it’s explained in the mouseover text: ” Borat came out twenty years ago this year–closer to the breakup of the Soviet Union than to today–but it honestly feels like it’s been even longer, somehow.”

But, before mousing over, I was reminded of Henny Youngman: “Take my wife … please.”

And then “My wife, I think I’ll keep her”, a Geritol ad from long ago.

That Borat reference:

by zbicyclist

Captcha

Dan Thompson‘s Brevity usually involves a pun. In this one, we have someone sweating because of the Captcha. But the man isn’t a Frankenstein’s monster. Tyrell Property is a British real estate company, but Dan Thompson is an American cartoonist living in North Carolina. The two words seem to be Epslo and vector. EPSLO stands for “End of Program Student Learning Outcomes.” It refers to the specific competencies and skills that students are expected to achieve upon completing an educational program, particularly in fields like nursing. These outcomes guide the curriculum and assessment of students to ensure they are prepared for entry-level practice.

That’s a hint at the joke: Epslo would ordinarily be assessed at the end of a program, but here they are being asked for it in order to enter the program.

Can the joke really be this convoluted and obscure?

Update, courtesy of commenter Tstyle7B on GoComics: “The Tyrell Corporation is a famous fictional high-tech firm from the Blade Runner universe, founded by Eldon Tyrell and based in Los Angeles. It is known for designing and manufacturing humanoid, genetically engineered androids called “replicants” for use as slaves and soldiers in Off-world colonies.”

So, after all this, it’s not a CIDU for me anymore. But maybe it will be for others, or maybe having spent this much time on this post, I’m going to post it, regardless. [not “irregardless”]

That still leaves us with the unanswered question: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?