phf: hmm, bayesian thinking is sort of like if you walk looking at the ground and all you see are tiny twigs and then gradually all you see are tiny rocks and you don't have an ability to pull away and notice that you were walking through forest first and then you're at a base of a mountain. it sometimes "works", becase you've been taught that the two classifications exist so you call first forest and the second mountain, but of course

phf: huh, not the first time somebody joins during a thread to demonstrate thread's point

phf: i'm saying it's decidedly not burns, but event planner organized concerts, that have burn like activities also planned. morning yoga, games, camps all done by professionals. but "like you stay in a tent, and it's like nature" hence roughing it

phf: i think it's starting to happen, i've heard from a few new york socialites now, that they've been going to carefully crafted versions of burning man like events. sort of coachella or edc, but smaller, with a pretense to roughing it, and with more psychedelics

phf: that's a safe bet

phf: i recently talked to a 15 year old, who told me that 2015 was more culturally significant then all the years since 1970 combined, he then proceeded to name things that happened in 2015 that i've never heard of. i said "excuse me" and walked away, but i still can't grok it.

phf: i once saw a rope suspension of a rather large lady done by a dedicated kinbaku student, instead of pretending like she's not fat, he worked with the material with honesty, and the result was so grotesque that the image got stuck in my head. that's what "milking their girlfriends" brings up in my head, a bunch of docile, suspended cows being

phf: my redneck friends took me to a state fair once, probably best "american" food i've had around DC area. icecream reminds me of the soviet one, that doesn't exist anymore. rich, fatty, none of them "substitutes", they were probably milking cows straight into the icecream mixer

phf: i'm not surprised that that's a thing, but that sounds awesome

phf: so fully depends on how smokeless that charcoal actually is, and those that i saw used for grilling tend to produce a nasty chemical miasma

phf: hmm, that's actually worth a try. you still need to heat up the teapot though, so it goes on top of samovar, which means that whatever you burn is going to change the flavor of tea

phf: well wood samovars are out for home use, electric ones i think are mostly gimmicks, i mean i might as well have a trained bear at home

phf: it's mostly the variety and availability. i can combine various kettles/teapots and get a decent result

phf: i have a wood samovar, but i only use it on camping trings. no, i use iranian method, put a porcelain teapot on top of the kettle

phf: i go through 3-4 kg of tea a year

phf: i've noticed that arab lipton yellow label is much better then lipton you get at a general store in u.s. i've made turkish tea for myself with arab lipton in a pinch, but twice i was in a situation where i was brewing tea for random people, so i bought drug store lipton and no matter what i tried doing with it, it just was not drinkable.