This packet of crisps proudly advertises that it's made from natural salt.
Now I'm wondering. Wtf other kind of salt is there ?!?????
This packet of crisps proudly advertises that it's made from natural salt.
Now I'm wondering. Wtf other kind of salt is there ?!?????
(delivered by Mad Scientist in British cod-German movie accent):
"Vell, ve haf zis spare particle accelerator from ze Wendelstein-8X aneutronic fusion reactor program, zo ve are looking for ze commerzial applications …"
@cstross
Spoken like a real CSU apparatchik! Now can I please have my flying taxi, Transrapid and H2-powered everything?
@quixoticgeek
@quixoticgeek@social.v.st I'd be more worried by them specifying natural potatoes. Unnatural potato crisps sound like something from, well, a @cstross@wandering.shop novel.
@mavnn @quixoticgeek Actually, unnatural crisps were invented by Gene Wolfe. True story! https://www.foodandwine.com/gene-wolfe-pringles-11729598
@cstross @mavnn @quixoticgeek Wasn't Margaret Thatcher responsible for cans of spray cream?
And, IIRC, E. E. "Doc" Smith worked on getting icing sugar to stick to doughnuts.
@quixoticgeek @cstross @mavnn reminded of the story that Thomas Pynchon had been a technical writer for Boeing before publishing novels, with the implication that somewhere there is a 3,000 page avionics manual written like one of his novels. A Difficult Middle period.
@quixoticgeek @cstross @mavnn @dubiousblur that explains so much. Boeing technical folks starting in on the manual and then giving up four or five chapters in but telling everyone they've read it.
@quixoticgeek @cstross @mavnn @dubiousblur There are several. Look up the documentary episode about an Airbus that crashed due to the autopilot being in go-around mode before landing. They read the actual instruction manual on the sequence for disengaging an accidentally-set go-around mode. The instructions are clear as neutronium.
@tknarr @quixoticgeek @mavnn @dubiousblur Back when I was taking a uni course on software engineering, a factoid that stuck in my head was that about 5% of peacetime fatalities in the US military were caused by documentation errors.
@tknarr @quixoticgeek @mavnn @cstross that’s a yikes from me
@dubiousblur @quixoticgeek @cstross @mavnn having tried and failed to read _Gravity's Rainbow_ years ago I'm not sure reading a Boeing manual would be significantly worse.