this.

it's a convenient delivery method, and the design allows cheaper components to reach higher pressures, thus giving a better crema.

sealing them off this way also keeps the coffee fresh longer, and the doses are measured and calibrated for the machine in question - it's idiot proof, at least until the machine fails.

the only thing making it "not great" is the coffee used, and there's plenty to choose from.

snobs will be snobs, but the pod system has clear advantages. overpackaging is a problem.

me, i roast my own because i like getting chaff all over the house, and i like the eerily "cinema foyer from the 80s" smell you get. but i can't say the results are perfect, or even approaching consistent. i do it because i want to get good at it. if i just want good coffee i get it elsewhere.

(of course, food that's insufficiently sterilized stands a good chance of spoiling on you... it's never good to find that 50kg bag of spices is now so completely mouldy that it's unfit for consumption... and also infected with an exotic mould that's a possible biosecurity hazard, so you have to burn it all).

you jest, but a lot of food that is traded internationally gets a good dose of gamma rays in order to clear quarantine.

though i'm not completely against this, it is enough to disqualify a food from being "organic", and hence reduces it's possible retail value.

only steam is good enough for organic foods - at least they've somewhat made it into the industrial age :)

foreveralone.jpg

duality be damned!

their cryptic crossword is a bastard though.

would my 1970s vintage 50mm prime lens count as smuggling radioactive material? i've taken it overseas, and there's a wee bit of thorium in the glass.

never seen one, except maybe that nuclear boy scout's tinfoil-and-smoke-detector reactor would qualify.

told you the NSA was watching everything. no piddling slashdot comment is hidden from their omnipresent gaze.

FTL travel?

a decent OS that pleases everybody?

is that you, Mr. Cruise?

CBT is a wonderful advance in psychology.

but most honest practitioners of it will concede that a short course of (the correct) meds will make CBT a lot more effective.

how do you tell someone to calm down when they can't hear you above their own screaming? sometimes people get into a state where they're simply not going to be receptive of any talk-based therapy. if this happens to somebody in your life, you'll be glad that drugs exist, and in enough variety that one of them is quite likely to be just the ticket.

an analogy i've heard is that the patient is like someone walking through snow wearing nothing but underwear. giving them meds is like handing them a coat and scarf. it'll work, but eventually that person has to get themselves out of the snow because it's pretty damn cold.

i hope you don't drive on Melbourne roads.

i'm a technical user and OSX is a pain in my arse.

"it's just like linux - it has a proper terminal" i thought when i got my mac.

yeah... still punching at it to get it halfway as usable as apt-get install.

attempt the same in any linux distro...
"too many arguments"