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Public posts from @etp@indieweb.social
IWC BER 2025
It’s too nice an afternoon to spend indoors finishing up tomorrow’s Eat This Newsletter, but someone has to examine a case in which US food safety regulation is more stringent than the EU’s.
Sign up at https://buttondown.com/jeremycherfas/ to get it.
At the opening of a friend’s show, and her painting of a crow spoke to me.
Aliwagwag?????
https://mastodon.green/@plazi_species/115587631952025949
@Documentally Re your local speciality of noodles, chips and curry sauce, a couple of bits of vegetable and you might have an evolved spice bag.
This post, and especially the final paragraph, deserves to be hoisted from my own archive 18 years on.
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005140.html
Paradiolia on the streets of Venice
@czarbucks wanted to see one of my recent projects, so here it is. A Möbius strip neck thingy, accidentally added a whole twist too many, but it still works and looks OK, at least to me.
Photo Mechanic going end of life on the current version is a major downer. They do, to their credit, offer a one-off fee and a subscription option, but $150 a year for the standard option, which does not search across multiple folders, is a bit steep for me. What do people use?
Latest episode: A Fresh Look at Domestication
A new book turns the current story of the invention of agriculture on its head. It wasn’t human selection that turned grass into wheat, or wolves into dogs. Robert Spengler says the traits of domestication are simply a response to changes in the environment, changes humans promoted , but with no idea of being able to select better crops or livestock. Domestication just happened.
More, from Marion Nestle, on the ByHeart baby botulism problem.
https://www.foodpolitics.com/2025/11/not-something-i-wanted-to-see-botulism-in-infant-formula/
Seeing the company wriggle and say that the Clostridium found in a sample could have come from elsewhere tells me all I need to know.
There's greenwashing, and then there's GREENWASHING. In this issue, an example of the former that unites Italy and Japan, and two examples of the latter that beggar belief.
Oh, and ... another food safety problem for the United States.
https://buttondown.com/jeremycherfas/archive/etn-287-cynical/
Eat This Newsletter 287: Cynical
Some stories that on the surface seem like all good news, although I can’t help feeling that there’s not much below the surface.
https://buttondown.com/jeremycherfas/archive/etn-287-cynical/
Patience is its own reward, or some such tosh.
https://mas.to/@meganL/115508893193957149
My report of the first day of last weekend’s IndieWeb Camp in Berlin.
https://www.jeremycherfas.net/blog/indieweb-camp-berlin-2025
New episode: Revolutions are Born in Breadlines
Famine in the Volga Region in the early 1920s was a humanitarian disaster, but it began about a decade of agricultural cooperation between the Soviet Union and the United States. Anti-communists sent food and medical assistance. Communist sympathisers sent tractors. Experts from each country visited the other to teach and to learn.
Maria Fedorova documents this impact of the famine in her new book.
Final leg, Verona Rome, with a 6€ upgrade to 1st class.
Never noticed before that the jiggling of a train ride is enough to persuade my Apple watch that I have been standing up.
Controlled by Italian police at Brenner. Not sure why they picked on me as the only person to check in this carriage. Maybe it was my kefiyah #CrossBorderRail
Leaving Munich for stage two through Austria to Italy. #CrossBorderRail
The bit that really made me sit up and take notice in Peter Molnar's account of his new listening set up was the 2TB micro-SD card. For less than $200. Truly, the future has arrived.
And we’re off on another day long trip. Berlin Rome. #CrossBorderRail
One guy bent down, glanced my way and moved on, trailed by two others. End of story, for me. #CrossBorderRail
This whole thread is worth reading and understanding. It ought to be a blog post (and perhaps it is, somewhere).
https://bsky.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:gslrbg7et2wxhlhrkqtwlm22/post/3m4ggvyhdyv2w
Leaving Salzburg and I have been told to keep my pod door open and my documents handy for a check by the German polizei. We shall see. #CrossBorderRail
Off we go. Nightjet from Bologna to Munich, so two border crossings, for which I sincerely hope they don’t wake me. The mini cabin is not claustrophobic but I’m a bit worried about the facilities. I’m sure it will be ok. #CrossBorderRail
Eat This Newsletter 286: Cravings
Cruising the internet highway seeking nutritious alternatives to slop.
This week, unaffordable healthy diets, undesirable healthy diets, truck stops, forest gardens, and a not guilty verdict on gluten -- at least some of the time.
https://buttondown.com/jeremycherfas/archive/etn-286-cravings/
Rabbit Quest Geohashing 20251027-W-AY68OD
* On foot
* 41.8811, 12.4673
* 27 October 2025
* 425.11 ppm CO2
* [OpenStreetMap](https://rabbit-rabbit.quest/#mode=walkable&map=41.87943/12.46577/16)
I’m glad Rabbit Quest was there to prompt me to get out of the house today, even if it was a very familiar urban circuit. I needed that. Interesting discrepancy in localisation. The image suggests I was between the tram tracks. I was not. I was on the side of the road looking at the marked spot.
Eat This Newsletter 286: Cravings
The people who need a healthy diet most can’t afford one, while the people who can easily afford it don’t seem to want it.
https://buttondown.com/jeremycherfas/archive/etn-286-cravings/
Rats! Almost home after a nice, relaxed ride with a friend when I heard a loud bang. Was't even sure it was me, but the rear tyre deflated instantly. Uh-oh. Turned out to be a hole the likes of which I have never seen before, Mended with a self-adhesive patch that held for the couple of km home. Pumped it up to pressure when I got home and will hope that it holds tomorrow. Looks like the tyre is pertty worn too.
Caught this via a link HN link here, and I am full of admiration, both for the geeky side of things and for the adventurous fermentation. Some good things to remember: “Your job isn't to prevent change, it's to make sure it happens in the right direction at roughly the right speed.”
https://drobinin.com/posts/designing-software-for-things-that-rot/
Edited to correct my terrible memory.
