Just read a great Reddit thread: "What is a life hack that seems fake, but is a true lifesaver?"
Some gold ones 🧵
1/ "If your ring gets stuck on your finger, windex will slide it right off...you can also reduce the the size of your finger but chilling it in cold water."
2/ "You can do the Heimlich maneuver on yourself. Use a chair or countertop, press yourself against it (right under your rib cage), and press down hard. Should force air up and dislodge blockage."
3/ "Rubbing alcohol removes chewing gum and gets paint off of clothes"
4/ What to do if you're ever attacked by a dog...(also works for cats)
5/ "Put your onion in the freezer for 10 minutes before chopping it. It freezes the juices just enough to slow down the process of it turning into gas...gives you a few minutes to chop without tears."
6/ "Use shaving cream as anti-fog. I use it on the inside of my motorcycle visor. Smear it on, let it dry and then rinse it off. You can also use it on a bathroom mirror or car window."
(SIDE USE: A nursing home employee says shaving cream removes the smell of urine)
7/ "Vinegar in a plastic bag with rubber band ties around any faucet will make the faucet like-new. I'm talking decade old rust and stuff gone...and water flows like the first day."
(Also works on shower heads, just unscrew it)
8/ "Rubbing vegetable oil (or any cooking oil) on your hands after you cut up jalapenos or other hot peppers.
It gets rid of the awfulness that would normally be left on your hands from the peppers. I can remove my eye contacts after doing this!"
9/ "The cheapest, most effective and safest insecticide against roaches is a spray bottle of mostly water with just a little liquid dish soap in it.
Shake it a little bit to get a little foamy. The soap film suffocates them faster than any chemical."
11/ “If a man is in an accident (car, ladder fall), and he gets an erection, don’t move him. He has a spinal injury. It’s called a priapism and is associated with a mid-to-low back injury.”
[No image needed]
12/ "During pollen season, rinse your hair before bed. Otherwise you're just depositing pollen on your pillowcase every night and then rolling your face in it all night."
13 / "Crayons are flammable and will provide about an hour of light as a candle if you light the top."
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The invention of bánh mì is a combination of climate, trade and urban layout of Saigon in late-19th century designed by French colonist.
When the French captured the area in 1859, most economic activity in the region took place along the Saigon river.
The population built makeshift homes tightly bundled by the river banks. Outgrowth from this eventually lead to narrow alleyways between many buildings that is trademark of the city (the Khmer named the region Prey Nokor then French renamed it Saigon and then it was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City in 1976 after end of Vietnam War).
Over decades, the French created European street grids and built wide Paris-type boulevards in the city to funnel commerce to larger markets (also make the city easier to administer).
It was at these markets that French baguettes were introduced and traded.
Bánh mì bread is known for being flaky and crispy on the outside while fluffier on inside (so god damn good).
Two features of Saigon helped create this texture:
▫️Climate: The heat and humidity in Southeast Asia leads dough to ferment faster, which creates air pockets in bread (light and fluffy).
▫️Ingredient: Wide availability of rice meant locals added rice flour to wheat flour imports (which were quite expensive). Rice flour is more resistant to moisture and creates a drier, crispier crust.
Fast forward to the 1930s: the French-designed street layout is largely complete. Now, the city centre has wide boulevards intersected by countless narrow alleyways.
The design was ideal for street vendor carts. These businesses were inspired by shophosue of colonial architecture to sell all types of goods as chaotic traffic rushed by.
Vietnam has some of the most slapping rice and soup dishes, but many people on the move in the mornings wanted something more portable and edible by hand.
Bánh mì was traditionally upper class fare but it met the need for on-the-go food.
Just fill the bread with some Vietnamese ingredients (braised pork, pickled vegetable, Vietnamese coriander, chilies) along with French goodies (pate).
Pair it with cà phê sữa đá (aka coffee with condensed milk aka caffeinated crack) and you’re laughing.
Haven’t lived in Saigon for 10+ years but ate a banh mi every other day when I did.
While there, I also sold a comedy script to Fox (pitch: “The Fugitive meets Harold & Kumar set in Southeast Asia”).
reminder that no “asian guy and stripper” story will ever top Enron Lou Pai’s “asian guy and stripper” story
Totally forgot Lou Pai got the stripper pregnant.
If this story was transplanted to 2020s, Pai would probably have been a whale on OnlyFans and gotten got…anyways, I wrote about the economics of OF here: readtrung.com/p/onlyfans-sti…
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) trained an AI slideshow maker called “Decker” on 900 templates and apparently gotten so popular that “some of its consultants are fretting about job security.”
Sorry, called “Deckster”. That excerpt was from this BI piece that also looked at McKinsey and Deloitte AI uses: businessinsider.com/consulting-ai-…
The Mckinsey chatbot is used by 70% of firm but same anonymous job board said it’s "functional enough" and best for "very low stakes issues." x.com/bearlyai/statu…
Here’s a r/consulting thread based on Computer World last year. Deckster was launched internally March 2024…some think it’s BS…some think it helps with cold start (B- quality): reddit.com/r/consulting/s…