Welcome to the (exactly) 50 curious souls š» who decided they needed more SPAM in their lives. šš
Actuallyā¦ š¤
Let me interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to share with you some things I learnt about this, erm, delicacy, very recently.
So yes, today the šš³ comes first.
š³ Random Rabbit Hole
Things I bet most of you didnāt know1 about SPAMĀ®:
The name is a portmanteau for spiced ham.
People in the US islands of Hawaii and Guam are MAD FOR IT!2
In Hawaii they make Spam Musubi, a type of onigiri, out of it. In Guam they have the āSpam Gamesā, where locals sample and honour the best original recipes. And in both places itās served in McDonaldās. š
Itās also very popular in Southeast Asia (esp. the Philippines), where a Spam brand gift pack would be considered an appropriate wedding gift.
The main ingredients are pork shoulder and hamā¦ and pork shoulder is also known as āBoston Buttā (ā)ā¦ which has nothing to do with the actual butt, which is ham. š
In 1998, Spam product packaging was donated to the Smithsonian.
Spam is made by Hormel Foods Corp. which was founded by George A. Hormel in 1891. In 1921, George's son Jay returned from service and discovered that an assistant controller had embezzled $1,187,000 (ā $21M in todayās money) from the company over 10 years! The scandal gave George additional incentive to professionalise his companyā¦ which led to the creation of their mantra of āOriginate, don't imitate".
Most importantly, āSpamā is a famous sketch in the 25th episode (also named āSpamā) of Monty Pythonās Flying Circus in which every dish in a cafĆ© contains Spam, whether the diner wants it or not.
At one point the group of Vikings start singing about Spam, drowning out all other conversationā¦ THIS is the inspiration behind the name3 for the unwanted mass emails!! š®š¤©
š” Critical Thinking
More examples
In the previous issue we introduced the Question of Evidence to determine the relative strength of a piece of evidence for a given theory. Here it is again:
"How much more likely am I to encounter this evidence
if my theory is true than if itās false?"
Letās look at another example:
Say weāre studying for a big maths4 test and believe that doing lots of small practice tests will increase our chance of getting a high grade on the actual test (theory). And letās say weād gotten 60/100 on our first proper mock test.
After doing many small practice tests, we take another full mock test (evidence).
If our score on the second mock test has jumped up a lot, like to 80/100, then we can correctly reason that this is evidence that strongly supports our theory. The Question of Evidence here would be:
How much more likely am I to encounter this evidence (a big improvement in mock test results) if my theory is true (lots of small practice tests help) than if itās false (lots of small practice tests donāt help)?
If our score had only jumped a little, like to 65, then weād only be slightly more likely to encounter this evidence if our theory were true, and so we could only say it weakly supports the theory.
If our score barely changed, then the evidence is neutral and would be equally likely to occur regardless of whether our theory was true or false; so it shouldn't affect our pre-existing confidence in the theory.
And of course, if our score went down, then the evidence is contradicting the theory.
š¶šØ Art & Music
One for the Kenny Loggins, Top Gun and Tom Cruise/Maverick fans.
Itās the last post I made on my now-decrepit calligraphy IG page.
ā ļø Danger Zone ā ļø
I do want to restart it again, but ā the risk of ink jars breaking in my suitcase aside ā I most likely wonāt have time this year with all the travelling Iāll be doing š¶ Which actually brings me to this next pointā¦
ā Random Question
Iāve been booking a lot of flights and airbnbs recently, and a question popped into my head about what % of people book refundable vs non-refundable.
I myself nearly always book an accommodation as refundable (as the price increase is negligible) but flights always non-refundable (since itās usually almost double).
There wasnāt much to go on google (and honestly I didnāt care that much), but it seems that ā Covid era aside ā about 60% of people prefer to book non-refundable accommodation. And I think itās safe to say that for flights itās much higher.
What about you? How do you usually book things?
š Devilās Word of the Week
Pig, n. ā An animal (Porcus omnivorus) closely allied to the human race by the splendor and vivacity of its appetite, which, however, is inferior in scope, for it sticks at pig.
Again, a big THANKS to everyone whoās joined in 2024 and a bigger one to those who emailed and started a conversation. š And if you havenāt yet, donāt forget to watch that video on why, like SPAM š, you need more pessimism in your life too.
Let me know what you found interesting today, or other things youād like me to write aboutā¦ like why pork shoulder is known as Boston butt šš
Till next week!
Prince š¦
If this wasnāt your cup of tea but know a friend who likes this kind of, erm, tea(?), please consider sharing :)
Iām leaving out facts such as its global popularity growth due to WW2, that you probably already know.
Northern English slang (Manchester / North West) meaning extreme eagerness. Pretty much the same as being crazy for something.
From the Python programming language to emails, the legendary British comedy troupe has had more influence on the IT world than they ever couldāve imagined. But then again, they were always so ahead of their time that it actually makes a lot of sense!
This āsā itself will be the subject of next weekās rabbit hole.
If the price difference is less than 10%, I go for refundable.
My general ethos is that everything is refundable with enough persuasion. That said, truly depends on my flexibility needs. That said I try to book with chains/etc. where if I need a refund if something goes wrong I can at least get credit I can use.