A new essay and some new stories about diet optimization.

A Computer Scientist on Why Diet Optimization Culture Is Destined to Fail

With so much uncertainty, Stigler thought it was inappropriate for the government to recommend what people should eat at all. He warned that these recommendations, with their appeals to scientific expertise, might be mistaken for rules. The United States was home to people with different preferences, practices, and beliefs, and a uniform recommendation couldn’t satisfy all of them. Indeed, recent fights over the food pyramid show that government recommendations of what to eat remain fraught.

via: https://www.argmin.net/p/dietary-shapes

What do America’s earliest restaurant menus teach us about America?

happy make a terrible comic day. i decided to try making a comic using an inkwell pen for the first time with no sketch on a subject that’s boring to everyone except me

How to make iced coffee correctly. Crazy good given that it was completely free-handed.

Eating out is dead LOL.

We have some difficult news to share: Clover will be closing our doors this week. Thursday, May 28th will be our final day of restaurant service and meal box delivery.

RIP, Aaliyah. RIP…

via: https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2026/03/30/links-for-march-2026/

see: https://microwavecookingforone.com/

Bro… I hate war, I hate checkoffs, I hate lobbying, I hate buybacks, I hate Obama,I hate Trump, I hate non-profits. Ugh. Lactose intolerants, rise up.

Hypothesis:

Zoning and food safety laws add up to outlaw tiny restaurants operated by one or two staff.

Thus making prices go up by forcing teams to scale up their operations and take up more space. The United States is capable of restaurants where quantity of sales, rather than quality, makes a business profitable—see the automat and the diner—but this kind of business has faded away in recent years.

South Park S18E02.

Are we in hell yet?

see: https://realfood.gov/

The Coca Cola secret formula is one of the best kept secrets in recent history…and I hate secrets. So, naturally, I deciphered it with the help of mass spectrometry and created a chemically-identical replica!

Based.

let’s talk about the assimil-asians

I am sensing a powerful synergy.

In 2026, I hope to enjoy a functioning body, not measure it. That would be plenty.

over the years, meat-based dishes like jerk chicken and curry goat have become synonymous with Jamaica and a beloved part of its national menu. In more recent years, with global fast food chains serving fried chicken and burgers populating Jamaica’s cities, ital eating has been pushed further to the fringes. In spite of this, many Jamaicans still choose to shun animal products, deeming meat to have been introduced by imperial powers and with no place in a traditional Jamaican diet. For others, the negative health impacts of meat have prompted them them to turn back to Rastafari food preachings.

This is a very practical kind of veganism. Go black diaspora!

Like, ohmigosh, you really gotta work hard to meet people where they are and get them on your side.

Anyone who’s the target of punishment will see what is happening. They don’t want to feel anxious all the time, and they especially don’t want to feel anxious about doing what to them are normal, everyday things. If you try to change their behavior in this way, they will find you annoying and do their best to avoid you, so you can’t create so much conflict inside them. Imagine how much less effective this strategy is, compared to finding a method of convincing that people don’t avoid, or that they might even actively seek out.

Graph me like one of your French creams

via: https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2025/08/31/links-for-august-2025/

via: https://kevinlynagh.com/newsletter/2025_07_flatpack/

I generally find the numbers printed on pasta boxes for cooking time far too high: I’ll set the timer for a minute below their low-end “al dente” time, and when I taste one it’s already getting too mushy. I decided to run a small experiment to get a better sense of how cooked I like pasta.

A classic client-siss hack.

original: http://www.ifc0nfig.com/dominos-pizza-and-payments/

A fun promo designed to provide people with a free pizza after an order became a nightmare for employees