Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

It’s an age of marvels

blog.plover.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 425 posts

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#281

Post by derefr »

hansvm wrote: post #251
rmccue wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who’s not American, I’m unclear; is going to a butcher not an option? Have they been competed out of the market by supermarkets?

I don't have many butchers within 30 miles, and their selection is almost always a subset of what I can get at the larger grocers.

The selection they have pre-cut and on display is a subset.

But unlike a supermarket, you can just ask a local butcher to save you some of whatever off-cut the next time they're trimming it. Normally they'd just throw it away.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#282

Post by toss1 »

brightball wrote: post #264
autokad wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Although, Yeltsin was already a liberalizing reformer. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was playing it up a bit. I don't think so. People don't realize how bad it was in the Soviet Union. There's a story of two hockey players that came to the NHL. One went to the grocery store, he was completely taken back by how much was there, especially meat. He thought it was a mistake and didn't want to miss the opportunity so he…

People used to tell stories of visiting Russia and having people try to buy their blue jeans off of them while walking down the street.

Yes, can confirm. I personally know multiple people who have had that exact experience; one just mentioned it last weekend. If they knew in advance they traveled with an extra suitcase full of jeans to sell, not so much for the money, but to make/help friends.

It was also not uncommon for Soviet residents to queue up for whatever anyone was selling when it became available — Size 14 galoshes that will not even close to fit you? Get in line, buy as many as they'll sell you. You can sell/trade them later for something else.

I've also been in situations with live hyperinflation, like 10% per week. The strategies people came up with to deal with that were also amazing.

In the modern western societies, most people have literally zero idea of how far (or fast) things can go off the rails, or what that looks like.

It is a great privilege to live in such profound blissful ignorance, and it is not appreciated.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#283

Post by nsguy »

ertgbnm wrote: post #23

More than anything else, I think the modern American super market would blow the minds of anyone born before 1900 more than any other marvel that exists. You have blueberries for sale in January??? A variety box of tea from 7 different countries? A wall of spices? Pineapples? Packaging made from aluminum that is just thrown away? The bread isn't full of sand and grit? And it's sliced!!! All relatively affordable and…

Sliced bread is a step in the wrong direction though ;)

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#284

Post by jandrewrogers »

mtalantikite wrote: post #248
lotsofpulp wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Food just tastes better in other countries. This should be corrected to fruit and vegetables taste better in regions where they are grown. Which is obvious, because picking them before they are ripe and transporting them thousands of kilometers for days or weeks is going to yield a less tasty fruit or vegetable. Also, plants bred for longevity of their fruit will obviously not be optimizing for taste.

Sure, maybe! Although I've generally found that the overall quality of ingredients tends to be better in the places I've traveled compared to the US. That's not to say I haven't picked up great figs at a bodega in the mission, or don't get good berries at the farmers markets near me in NYC. But if I walk into the produce aisle in most grocery stores in the US these days there is abundance, yet a lack of quality. Pers…

As a general rule, fruits and vegetables are much better quality on the US west coast because so much of it is produced locally. The difference in produce quality is quite noticeable. In the parts of Europe where I've spent a lot of time, the average vegetable quality and selection is noticeably worse than e.g. Seattle, but that mostly reflects the Pacific Northwest being a major high-quality producer of surprisingly diverse fruit and vegetables.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#285

Post by afpx »

nicklecompte wrote: post #227

Minor nitpick: > A past what-the-fuck was that we know exactly how many cells there are (959) in a particular little worm, C. elegans, and how each of those cells arises from the division of previous cells, as the grows from a fertilized egg, and we know what each cell does and how they are connected, and we know that 302 of those cells are nerve cells, and how the nerve cells are connected together. (There are 6,720…

"What I cannot create, I do not understand." - Richard Feynman

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#286

Post by [deleted] »

brightball wrote: post #264
autokad wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Although, Yeltsin was already a liberalizing reformer. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was playing it up a bit. I don't think so. People don't realize how bad it was in the Soviet Union. There's a story of two hockey players that came to the NHL. One went to the grocery store, he was completely taken back by how much was there, especially meat. He thought it was a mistake and didn't want to miss the opportunity so he…

People used to tell stories of visiting Russia and having people try to buy their blue jeans off of them while walking down the street.

[deleted]

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#287

Post by [deleted] »

brightball wrote: post #264
autokad wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Although, Yeltsin was already a liberalizing reformer. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was playing it up a bit. I don't think so. People don't realize how bad it was in the Soviet Union. There's a story of two hockey players that came to the NHL. One went to the grocery store, he was completely taken back by how much was there, especially meat. He thought it was a mistake and didn't want to miss the opportunity so he…

People used to tell stories of visiting Russia and having people try to buy their blue jeans off of them while walking down the street.

[deleted]

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#288

Post by [deleted] »

toss1 wrote: post #282
brightball wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People used to tell stories of visiting Russia and having people try to buy their blue jeans off of them while walking down the street.

Yes, can confirm. I personally know multiple people who have had that exact experience; one just mentioned it last weekend. If they knew in advance they traveled with an extra suitcase full of jeans to sell, not so much for the money, but to make/help friends. It was also not uncommon for Soviet residents to queue up for whatever anyone was selling when it became available — Size 14 galoshes that will not even close…

[deleted]

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#289

Post by Tuna-Fish »

autokad wrote: post #215
bee_rider wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although, Yeltsin was already a liberalizing reformer. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was playing it up a bit.

> Although, Yeltsin was already a liberalizing reformer. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was playing it up a bit. I don't think so. People don't realize how bad it was in the Soviet Union. There's a story of two hockey players that came to the NHL. One went to the grocery store, he was completely taken back by how much was there, especially meat. He thought it was a mistake and didn't want to miss the opportunity so he…

The meat thing was not an isolated incident.

Finland had close enough relationship with the USSR that for the duration of the cold war, there were constantly some Soviet students and research scientists doing exchange programs in Finnish universities. When they first arrived in Finland, they were assigned a translator/guide whose job was, among other things, taking them grocery shopping. Because if they did that alone, a lot of them would end up buying their fridge full of meat. Because "meat days", meaning the day the local store happens to have meat, just were a normal thing that everyone adjusted to in the USSR.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#290

Post by yesbabyyes »

cheeseomlit wrote: post #51
yesbabyyes wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's ahistorical. I'd say Martin Luther King seemed like a fairly decent fellow. Also Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, Harry Belafonte, J Waties Waring, Andrew Goodman and so on.

But those people are all from the 20th century, historically speaking still quite recent and relatable. I think you'd be hard-pressed to pluck anyone from a truly different time/place (relative to the modern west) and have their moral standards hold up to modern scrutiny, and if you could they'd be a notable exception and not the rule

Well, you have Richelieu's famous quote about six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men and whatnot, but let's just say I think you're wrong.

You're simultaneously underestimating the people who were here before us and our ability to adequately scrutinize their moral fiber. Of course, if by "people", "person" or "anyone", you mean the powerful, wealthy elite of the US, it's another thing entirely.

Post reply on HN