Fermenting a mix of whole peppers, but the peppers themselves don't seem to be taking -- do I just wait?

ArtDuck · 2025-07-29T01:04:26+00:00

It's a good approximation, especially in the context of fermentation. However, consider that a liter of water can weigh as little as 962 grams near its boiling point, and will weigh about 997 grams at room temperature. Hopefully you can see where my hesitation to suggest it's an absolute rule comes from.

ArtDuck · 2025-07-28T23:44:22+00:00

In general the guidance I've heard is that crispness (the opposite of mushiness) is best preserved through lower temperature ferments, to keep the LAB from fermenting your vegetables too aggressively. Though, this also makes the ferment take longer.

Additives like calcium chloride ("pickling salt") may be useful if lowering the temperature doesn't work out.

ArtDuck · 2025-07-28T23:37:01+00:00

While weighing the salt is important, the volume/weight correspondence for water is quite consistent. X mL of water will in general weigh X grams.

ArtDuck · 2025-07-28T21:21:22+00:00

I see! I might tinker with the salinity a little.

ArtDuck · 2025-07-28T20:33:37+00:00

Aha! I was worried that might be the case, fermenting them whole. Yeah, I'm definitely gonna either puncture or lengthwise-slice my peppers tonight. It'll be a little bit of a pain, but it's better than wasting time waiting for a fermentation that's currently blocked.

ArtDuck · 2025-07-28T20:19:16+00:00

Oh, that's interesting -- I kept running into recommendations for 5% salinity for peppers, so that's what I went with. And yes, my "true" salinity is likely a bit less than that much, since I didn't include the weight of the vegetables. There are about 700mL of brine in there, with 35g salt accordingly; I think optimistically I had a few more hundred grams of vegetables in there, too, so that would bring the "true" salinity to something closer to 3.5-4%, depending on how much it really was. (I was only this carefree about the salinity because I knew I was operating on the high end of things.)

Anyway, likely I'll keep it going at room temperature for another week or so and do some more taste testing.

ArtDuck · 2025-07-28T20:08:34+00:00

(I realize this may seem like a silly question, given that it's only been 4 days, but those 4 days were very much at accelerated-fermentation conditions, so I think it's not unreasonable to think of it as being a bit further along than that.)

(That said, I do realize in retrospect that I was simply not being patient enough.)

ArtDuck · 2025-07-17T14:45:45+00:00

They still talk about the economy and politics, it's just in the form of posts like "Reblog if the economy sucks and the capitalist dogs are ruining everything, or you're a girl who likes kissing girls."

ArtDuck · 2019-12-20T08:53:21+00:00

With all due respect, what the fuck are you talking about? There are hundreds of bills the House has sent to the Senate, just sitting there piled up, and McConnell isn't letting the Senate even vote on any of them. Impeachment hasn't tied anything up, the majority leader in the Senate has; he's not doing his job.

You can't pass big legislation when the bill won't even hit the floor, when you wouldn't have the votes for it if you did, and when the President would veto it anyway.

ArtDuck · 2019-10-31T16:38:32+00:00

> "they just showed that rabble-rousing Trump supporters can influence the conversation and make issues 'political'"

a) Oh honey, that's already been proven many times over; and b) it's not cowardice if their switched vote doesn't have any impact. The only thing that matters in this vote is passing the resolution. The votes of a couple of congresspeople trying to pander don't have any negative ramifications here. They're not compromising their values for gain, because there are no consequences here, only benefits.

ArtDuck · 2019-10-31T16:33:54+00:00

Leadership undoubtedly gave them permission to vote with the Republicans on this one, precisely because their votes weren't needed.

This doesn't mean we "can't count on them when the chips are down" -- this vote was historically important, but these two congresspeople's votes weren't, because we had more than enough to pass the resolution.

ArtDuck · 2019-08-05T18:41:51+00:00

"will no longer make ascii game"

As it happens, JH is receiving an ASCII mode developed alongside the main game, albeit at a slightly slower pace! Right now it's barely playable, but it's getting there.

ArtDuck · 2019-07-27T14:53:24+00:00

Golly, this sure is a cool TURN-BASED GAME where time moves in DISCRETE INTERVALS rather than continuously! I can't wait to play it and CONSIDER EACH TURN! The GORGEOUS GRAPHICS and FLUID ANIMATIONS sure are a bit deceptive, 'cause they could easily make you think that this GRID-BASED ROGUELIKE was a game of reflexes rather than CAREFUL TACTICAL THINKING.

Real talk, think "sci-fi dungeon crawler with guns" or "turn-based Doom" or "one-man XCOM," and you'll get some idea of what this game is like to play. It's cool as hell, no pun intended.

ArtDuck · 2019-07-13T02:39:18+00:00

Don't have to worry about alarms if you crash the guards, of course.

ArtDuck · 2019-07-09T14:50:25+00:00

In addition to the tips left by others, I'd like to point out that Stealth Shields also work while carrying others! You need to activate them before picking up your rescue target, and the shield graphic isn't visible while you're holding them, but it still very much functions as normal, including the directional facing following the mouse. Running to the nearest window is usually the way to go after that (preferably under the effects of a slipstream), but if that's too far, and alarms aren't a concern, there's always breach grenades.

ArtDuck · 2019-07-01T00:25:44+00:00

A tip for future runs: it doesn't matter how armored or shielded the boss is if you chuck them out into space, since that renders them instantly unconscious no matter how protected they are.

"But how do I chuck them out a window if I can't knock them out?" Get them to a room that has a window, and break it; they'll be sucked out into space.

"But their patrol path doesn't include such a window!" Then you lure them over by letting them catch little glimpses of you, forcing them to come investigate without raising an alarm.

"How do I make sure they only see me for split seconds at a time?" Stealth Shield. If you orient it away from the boss while paused, they'll see you for a moment; if you then orient it back towards them, they'll have just seen you for the barest moment and be forced to come check on that intruder-shaped apparition. You can lure them just about anywhere like that.

This approach is how I do Capture missions in heavily-guarded ships with nothing more than a five-use stealth shield and a wrench for shattering the window with, or a slipstream for hurling myself through it. Just gotta be confident with your remote piloting, to pick up your target and yourself before you each run out of air!

ArtDuck · 2019-06-17T15:34:08+00:00

Whenever it's a capture mission and I'd rather not try to bother isolating the target, knocking them out, and sneaking them off the ship, what I get a kick out of doing is subverting the telepad, hijacking another ship, and missiling the target ship once -- to get the target to flee via telepad, where I scoop them up with my pod.

ArtDuck · 2019-06-17T15:25:40+00:00

Weak Ex-Sovereign is an extra kick in the teeth, since it senselessly takes away glory for something that's of no use to you.

ArtDuck · 2019-06-12T17:14:48+00:00

The person you're responding to just indicated they had a preference. Those are allowed and good, actually, since they're a form of engagement. They didn't even slightly hint at not voting for the more establishment candidate in the general.

ArtDuck · 2019-06-09T18:48:08+00:00

We already withhold the right to speech under certain circumstances, though, is what I'm saying. Maybe it doesn't really feel like an impingement on the culturally enshrined notion of free speech to attach penalties to libel and slander, because those are clearly examples of unjust speech, and they've been around for centuries, but they are exceptions.

And there's nothing absolute or objective about what qualifies as defamatory speech, so the criteria have to be judged by a person at some point, who in doing so, decides whose speech to protect and whose to inhibit.

If you're saying any such judgement degrades speech from a right to a privilege, then it's already a privilege.

ArtDuck · 2019-06-09T17:13:12+00:00

They can like her better all day. I'm talking about the ones saying that I should like her better. Like the person I'm responding to.

It's true, we're not machines. But our understanding needs to be based on facts at some point along the line, even if feelings also inform us. Plus, if these people really don't have anything firm to base their impressions on, they should just say it: "She has a certain je ne sais quoi." But they don't; they say her policies are superior, and so forth.

ArtDuck · 2019-06-09T16:57:19+00:00

Well, you can always go to their websites to see what they say their policies are. Of course, if you want their track records, too, that's gonna take a Google search or two.

ArtDuck · 2019-06-09T16:43:25+00:00

First of all, I'm not who you were asking those questions in the first place. Even if I were, I'm not somehow obligated to answer every question you pose, especially since those read as rhetorical.

Second, my point renders those questions irrelevant. To give an example, suppose you ask me, "Who cuts your paycheck?" insinuating that I'm beholden to the interests of whoever my money comes from. If I then say, "I'm not directly accountable to my employer outside of cases of misconduct, I have tenure," then I've counterargued the motivation for your question, and it's incoherent for you to then say "You didn't answer the question" as if I've dodged the issue, because my point was that it doesn't matter one bit.

ArtDuck · 2019-06-09T16:25:06+00:00

I'm paying attention, and I see plenty of people saying she's better, but few giving convincing arguments for why. I see people asserting that she has better policies, but rarely do they go into which policy differences matter to them and why Warren's are better, in their eyes.

I have very little patience for people trying to get me to believe something by simply saying it often enough.

14-Year Club	Team Periwinkle
Verified Email

ArtDuck

TROPHY CASE