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[scrdest]

Recently, my father has taken up bread-making. A technique he's picked up is mixing in "water roux", a sort of paste used to make the bread moister, which he refers to as "tangzhong". He claims it was invented in Japan in the early 2000s.

This does not sound right to me, on two accounts:

- "Tangzhong", to my understanding, is not a Japanese word. The closest you can get would be something like "tanguzongu". Even Chinese loanwords get either vowels or an "n" on the end.
- It's basically water and flour mixed together in a different ratio than the bread, which is then mixed in. There is no way something that simple is less than 20 years old.

I searched for it, but all I could find were bloggers more concerned about the preparation and eating of the bread than its origin and forum posts parroting third-hand knowledge, which could never agree on an origin--some said Japan, some said Taiwan, I think I saw a Korea claim or two. The most reliable-sounding thing I found was a New York Times article claiming it was "traditionally used in China," which sounds about right; the article is a recipe for a Japanese bread apparently from the 20th century, but I still can't find a rough date for the roux itself. Does anyone know where this stuff was invented and when?

There's a common claim that it has surfaced due to some Yvonne Chen and a book of hers called The Bread Doctor, but the details of her nationality (China vs. Taiwan - possibly accounted for by the... politically charged nature of this distinction) and the years the book was released seems to vary a bit between 90s and 00s (although this may depend on the country).

It seems legit, from a food-sciency point of view - it's essentially a trick for having the overall structure of the bread supported by gluten as in most bread, but with the inside being supported by starches only. It's not just a different ratio mixin, the liquid is nuked thoroughly in the process, denaturing the flour proteins.

You probably could achieve similar effects by baking a decently hydrated gluten-free/low-gluten dough inside a thin layer of fairly gluten-rich dough.

[redwallzyl]

Thought experiment. Should (non violent) resisting arrest, escaping prison, excreta be a crime? I know at first glance it seems odd but think about it. It would in the case of prisons perhaps lead to people be more willing to give themselves up as they wouldn't fear retribution. In the case of arrest it would stop the rampant abuse for resisting arrest as an excuse for police brutality and take an unfair expectation off the civilian of conforming to unknown standards under high stress and confusion, possibly intoxication.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's no experiment, at least in Germany. A court there ruled that the natural human desire for freedom made escaping prison non-criminal, as nobody would pass up the chance if it presented itself

"Resisting arrest" is a slap charge with no connection to anything than having enough clout to get it dismissed, so yeah, trash that.

[Rolan7]

How would the status of resisting arrest, as a crime, affect police brutality?  The fact that resisting is a crime doesn't excuse brutality.  If it wasn't a crime, they'd still need to physically apprehend fleeing suspects, and I don't see why the amount of brutality would be any less.

And obviously a lot more people would attempt escape, with the legal penalty removed.  Might require a lot more direct force to stop, since they would have no other reason to comply.

Prisons are a different story, I've seen arguments that people should have a right to attempt nonviolent escape.  I don't really have an opinion.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Resisting arrest and enhanced penalties for assault on an officer give cops an out to do as they please: Their word is generally the sole evidence of the resisting charge, and they can attack first to charge people for defending themselves. Even the slightest degree of corruption entices them to take advantage of this sort of thing, such as seen in scenarios where a person's only charge is resisting arrest. Being arrested for resisting arrest and prosecuted on a single person's biased testimony does not justice make.

[Helgoland]

That's an issue with the justice system though, not an issue with the law. The solution to the judicial system being untrustworty is not to regress to some sort of natural state, where the police is just an enemy, but rather reforming the judicial system.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

The law is the source of the incentive for police be corrupt, in this particular instance. The justice system almost doesn't play into it at all, since they can have the police cooperating with them or acting against them, and obviously they're going to seek the former lest everything fall apart. There isn't a judicial reform that can handle an incident where the only witnesses to the "crime" are the accused and the arresting officer. You side with one or the other, inevitably.

Not sure where you're getting "regress to a natural state".

[Shook]

Ok so, i wasn't entirely sure where to put this, but i happened upon this song recently (which is an awesome one, if you ask me), and it struck me that the short section at 1:07 sounds VERY similar to a song i heard (and actually enjoyed) in the radio when i was a school kid. So my question is: Does anyone remember what the fuck that song is called? It might have been by Black Eyed Peas or some similar group, but i'm not sure. I'm at a complete loss for what to actually search for to locate it myself; the most i remember (besides the music itself) is that the music video had the female lead singer climbing up the side of a building via... Braids, i think? Don't know if that helps.

Edit: Oop, found it! The Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani. Who'd have thunk? :V

[redwallzyl]

Does anyone know anything about WW2 duffle bags? I'm trying to figure out how to fix the broken strap on one but I don't know what its supposed to look like.

Edit: I think I figured it out but it would be nice to know the model.

[wierd]

There were many militaries involved in the second world war. Which government, and which branch of the armed forces is this bag from?

[smjjames]

I'm gonna assume American at least.

Since you want to repair it historically accurately, I'd probably look for a military historian or a local museum or some sort of reputable company that restores WWII things.

[TD1]

My left ear has been rather blocked for a few months. It was mildly annoying, now exceedingly so. Any way of solving it without a trip to get syringed?

[Frumple]

See if you can get some wax removal stuff? There's over the counter options floating about, least in the U.S.

Most of my life the general recommendation by non-doctors has boiled down to "Q-tip", though. Last handful of years I've actually talked to a doc on the subject, and it turns out that's not a very good idea for anything particularly involving the ear canal itself. Not good of the "you might hospitalize yourself or cause lifelong damage" variety.

During one unwise period I found hydrogen peroxide works really well when it comes to clearing the ear out. Put a bit (like, less than a cap's worth) in your ear, hold your head so it gets in good, and then wait until the noises mostly stop. I was just later informed by an actual doctor it also comes with a non-zero chance of permanent inner ear damage, so, uh. Probably a poor idea, just heading that off at the pass.

... any case, as near as I can remember the general answer that doesn't come with caveats noting odds of permanent damage is just go to the doc and let them handle it if it's ended up stuffed up enough to be a problem.

Turns out the ear in general and particularly the bits not easily visible from the outside are kinda' delicate, as well as fairly infection prone, and you probably want someone else (very much preferably that actually knows what the hell they're doing) to be fiddling with it if you're having issues of one sort or another.

Basically there's a lot of other ways to solve it besides a doc visit, it's just they're pretty much unilaterally worse ways that may cause varyingly permanent problems. So... yeah.

[TD1]

Agh, damnation. Well, guess I'll have to do that then.

Though, as far as I remember my granny used hydrogen peroxide semi-regularly, but I was somewhat hesitant about it.

[Frumple]

Didn't use it for ears, but for a general disinfectant sure, for my lot. Been less than a decade since I actually looked into it and it turned out it is a fairly good disinfectant, just one you generally don't want to use on flesh. Mechanism it uses to do its thing can actually impair healing and whatnot, or something along those lines. Does disinfect, but makes the whatever take longer to fix itself back up. Good for cleaning tables or sterilizing tools or whatev', though.

In the case of the ear, it works pretty damn well but iirc the specific effect is it sorta' eats into your inner ear membrane or somethin' like that (on top of cleaning things out), and I want to say while the damage is generally pretty minor for any particular application, it's also more or less permanent, so prolonged usage can cause... issues.

Any case, yeah, if stoppage is enough to be causing problems, doctor's probably your best bet, so far as I've been able to tell, so far. Wouldn't hurt to ask 'em if there's methods they're aware of to deal with the concern that don't involve undermining the structural integrity of your hearing bitsies, though. Maybe whoever you see'll be aware of something the folks I've talked with weren't.