OT: Is the old way better?

[Excalibur]

Its not where they’re grown. Over the last few decades tomatoes have been engineered for looks, shelf life and durability during transport. In the process many of the traits producing good flavor (sugar content and various aromatic compounds) got removed.

Go to your local farm stand, grow them yourself, and they still don’t taste like they used to.

The main driver was the push for yield after WWII. There are still seed varieties that produce old style flavors to grow on your own, you just have to be willing to do trial and error. When you find one that works, make sure to save the seeds for the next year. And there have been studies done on this phenomenon and some seed developers are trying to engineer fruit with the correct balance of sugars and acid components (see the link).

My father has been saving recycling his own seeds for almost 50 years. I don't notice a difference between his and mine.

Out of flavour: why tomatoes have lost their taste

After exhaustive studies, an international team of scientists has worked out why tomatoes don’t taste like they used to

www.theguardian.com

 

[CL82]

To me it goes back to a lack of education on how to to assess and evaluate information sources. I'm all for flooding people with info.

And it's only going to get worse Chin. Just like the calculator severely degraded people's ability to do math in their heads, AI is going to degrade people's ability to rationally think and evaluate. They'll ask their preferred AI source and accept whatever the answer it proffers.

Ask AI a question to which you already know the answer, and you may be surprised to find out the answer it gives you will be incomplete, misleading, and sometimes just flat out wrong. Overtime, though, I strongly suspect that people's ability to critically assess the information they're given will atrophy. Never underestimate the impact of people's inherent laziness.

 

[boog204]

Baseball was much better before the introduction of interleague play. With it, the All-Star Game has no juice, and the World Series has no mystery. As a youngin', it was exciting to wonder how Donnie Baseball would fare against Gooden or Ryan or...

Really, baseball was just better on a thousand different levels when I was a kid.

 

[HCCForever]

So what’s better ?

Smoke free bars, airplanes, movie theaters etc. Probably have to be older to appreciate how widespread smoking was, and how you and your clothes absolutely reeked after spending a night in a bar.

I was in the hospital over thirty years ago. The worst part was that one of the patients in the four bed room was a smoking maniac. There was oxygen in the room for another patient but this idiot insisted on smoking whenever he wished. I was a smoker at the time but his actions freaked me out.

I knew one smoker who used to complain about the smoking stench on his clothes. He never saw the irony either. I believe that smoking percentages nowadays are around 14% down from 40% in USA.

 

[boog204]

I was in the hospital over thirty years ago. The worst part was that one of the patients in the four bed room was a smoking maniac. There was oxygen in the room for another patient but this idiot insisted on smoking whenever he wished. I was a smoker at the time but his actions freaked me out.

I knew one smoker who used to complain about the smoking stench on his clothes. He never saw the irony either. I believe that smoking percentages nowadays are around 20% but that percentage of smokers in USA used to be much higher.

It's insane to me that patients were able to smoke in a hospital. That's next level.

I mean, you could get a note from a parent to smoke in the courtyard at my high school in the late 90s, there was a smoker's area at the UConn library when I got there, and when I started my career, one of our "duties" was to police the bathroom for kids smoking in the bathrooms. 20ish years later, it's the vaping battle. If you bring up cigarettes or that you were a smoker, the students (ironically) are so disturbed that people could have put a substance like that in their bodies.

 

[superjohn]

It's insane to me that patients were able to smoke in a hospital. That's next level.

I mean, you could get a note from a parent to smoke in the courtyard at my high school in the late 90s, there was a smoker's area at the UConn library when I got there, and when I started my career, one of our "duties" was to police the bathroom for kids smoking in the bathrooms. 20ish years later, it's the vaping battle. If you bring up cigarettes or that you were a smoker, the students (ironically) are so disturbed that people could have put a substance like that in their bodies.

I was a smoker up until about 7 years ago, never a pack a day. Usually just a few a day and could go close to a pack on a night out drinking. I vape now, smoking is a million times worse for you. In the UK doctors have prescribed vapes to smokers for years now.

I'm pretty thankful vaping came along.

 

[Deepster]

Car engines are as reliable as ever. It's all the ancillary stuff that fails.

As for streaming, I think it's wrong to lump in Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad etc. Breaking Bad concluded around the same time Netflix produced their first house show. Sopranos was done 7 years before that. For a short period after the streaming services started producing their own show, the content was great, but there is now nothing that comes close to approaching any of Sopranos/Breaking Bad/Mad Men/early GoT/Wire. The model now seems to be pay big $$ for star power and skimp on writing. The result is mass-produced junk with big names. More options/quantity, less quality.

I guess I think of "streaming" as anything not on network TV where you could take a season (or seasons) to tell a story, as opposed to episodic TV (Law and Order, 1/2 hour sitcoms, etc). When TV became something where a director could take an idea and really build out the characters and plot over time.

Even if you think that's watered down now on actual "streaming" services, try watching some of garbage on NBC or CBS today.

 

[storrsroars]

Its not where they’re grown. Over the last few decades tomatoes have been engineered for looks, shelf life and durability during transport. In the process many of the traits producing good flavor (sugar content and various aromatic compounds) got removed.

Go to your local farm stand, grow them yourself, and they still don’t taste like they used to.

You must have crappy farms and/or buy the wrong seeds because we get delicious tomatoes out here. The 6-8 weeks of BLT season is something I really look forward to. And yes, I read the link to the story. I do not agree.

We used to successfully grow 3-4 heirloom varieties on our own but past three years animals/bugs are getting to them before we are. Even with "rabbit proof" fencing.

 

[Devland]

I hate that the younger generations prefer texting over voice. I prefer to talk to people. It's almost as if they want use the texts as a buffer in case the conversation gets confrontational. I believe this is why the younger generation has no conflict resolution skills.

 

[mussels]

You must have crappy farms and/or buy the wrong seeds because we get delicious tomatoes out here. The 6-8 weeks of BLT season is something I really look forward to. And yes, I read the link to the story. I do not agree.

We used to successfully grow 3-4 heirloom varieties on our own but past three years animals/bugs are getting to them before we are. Even with "rabbit proof" fencing.

Have you considered the possibility that either your memory or your tastebuds are shot?😊

 

[Excalibur]

You must have crappy farms and/or buy the wrong seeds because we get delicious tomatoes out here. The 6-8 weeks of BLT season is something I really look forward to. And yes, I read the link to the story. I do not agree.

We used to successfully grow 3-4 heirloom varieties on our own but past three years animals/bugs are getting to them before we are. Even with "rabbit proof" fencing.

If you're growing your own from decent seeds, the flavor is likely not much different than it was. But you won't get a ton of yield, and blight is a much bigger problem.

 

[storrsroars]

Have you considered the possibility that either your memory or your tastebuds are shot?😊

Given I've actually had my palate trained for professional coffee tasting, didn't really enter my mind.

 

[Waquoit]

Remember when real hate existed in baseball and this Yankees Red Sox

That was back when the Red Sox were still trying to win World Series championships

 

[bendm]

Charles Bediako gets TRO for Alabama return in NCAA lawsuit

Charles Bediako, a former Alabama standout who entered the NBA draft in 2023, has been granted a temporary restraining order to return to the team, a judge ruled Wednesday.

www.espn.com

The old way was def better when it comes to this crap. Where’s the line? It doesn’t matter if a player got drafted or not or signed a contract or not. As long as they aren’t currently under contract and didn’t exhaust their eligibility before leaving college they can come back? Can we we bring back Sanogo next year?

 

[ctchamps]

Started out with 0 mens championships. 6 > 0 so present is better.
Started out with 0 women's championships. 12 > 0 so present is better.

Started out listening to bb games on radio with signal going in and out. Very few games were broadcasted for tv.
Now can stream every game for both men and women and watch live or recorded on tvs that are in color and 55 inches or greater.

When I started driving I hated having to crank windows open to use hand singles for turns. At least I started after the period where you had to get out of the car to crank the engine.
Survived a black ice head on collision because of safety features not available when I first started driving.
Miss the days when I payed 31 cents a gallon for gasoline and someone pumped it for you, checked your oil and cleaned your windows.

Love the option of texting because certain people I communicate with can't stop talking and texting allows me to decide when and how much I read. Which is a lot more polite than hanging up on them.

Love the ability to make playlists, play entire albums or shuffle my playlists. Easier to search my options than looking throw a cabinet of records.

 

[JohnFSilver]

The portion of the yard over age 35 (myself included) often shows their age when we fall into pleading for things to go back to the way the were. But sometimes we may be justified. Im thinking sports first, but there may be other areas of life where the new is just not as good (i.e. vacuum cleaners)

Was college bball better before NIL?
NFL better before the rule changes ( qb/wr protection)?
NBA better before 3 point revolution?
Golf better before LIV?

Music consumption better before streaming?
TV better before streaming?
Movies better before CGI?


Where are the old timers justified?
Is the new era better?

College hoops quality is better now that it was 15 years ago and certainly 10 years ago.

 

[Chin Diesel]

It's really astonishing how accurate this song was.

Or this one.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Yesterday I replaced the power button ($16) on my fairly expensive Braun S9 shaver and thought of this thread.

Something that is absolutely better now is the ability to (a) buy damn near any kind of component parts on Amazon or EBay and (b) learn how to fix or repair almost anything on YouTube or the web. I can’t tell you how often YouTube has enabled me to do things myself that might have required professional help in the past. It’s truly a game changer.

 

[Jaydumo20]

Yesterday I replaced the power button ($16) on my fairly expensive Braun S9 shaver and thought of this thread.

Something that is absolutely better now is the ability to (a) buy damn near any kind of component parts on Amazon or EBay and (b) learn how to fix or repair almost anything on YouTube or the web. I can’t tell you how often YouTube has enabled me to do things myself that might have required professional help in the past. It’s truly a game changer.

So true. But i also feel that process is made possible by the cheap way things are made. Everything breaks now.... my Sicilian grandmother had the same panzer tank toaster-oven through two world wars and the era when Prince was just a symbol.

 

[dennismenace]

This could be like 8 different threads.

1) College sports was dying. Players needed some form of compensation. That said, there was something about getting a freshman and watching him 4 years that you rarely ever get anymore.

2) Football was way better. But not healthy so some rules changed there. And when the money got so big, you needed to protect the investments.

3) The 3 pointer has killed the sport of basketball.

4) This is the one I'll sound like a boomer on. Getting your paycheck or allowance, riding your bike to a record store, looking through the stacks, coming home and listening to a classic album start to finish, reading the liner notes. That's something kids will never experience.

5) TV was definitely NOT better before streaming. Streaming, non-network services have given us Breaking Bad, Sopranos, Game of Thrones, etc. Nothing before streaming compares to that level of product.

Digitalized recording was a great improvement. I remember the first time I heard CD recordings that had been digitally remastered. Clarity was incredible. I have music from all eras. There is a You tube channel called Wings of Pegasus where the musician/podcaster (PHIL) goes through some remarkable electronic displays of songs from a lot of eras. He comments on the musical aptitude of the artists and it gives you a great appreciation how truly great were many of the voices from past and present. He has a lot of artists so you might find one or more of your favorites there.

 

[dennismenace]

I agree about UConn sports and air travel. I have watching UConn sports for 50 years but the 90!’s brought them much success.

Back in the mid 80’s a buddy and I took pictures with two flight attendants in the cockpit on a trip to Florida. Stuff like that impossible after 9-11. I also miss the inflight meals.

But back then we didn’t have wheels on our luggage and had to carry them around. Of course, I don’t remember so many people cramming the overhead bins.

LOL my parents once took a connecting flight in the 70's from Tweed on a propeller driven or prop jet. When they were getting on the plane they just had like a shower curtain barrier between the passengers and pilot/copilot. When they opened the "curtain" at one point my mother said they had two young guys in their early twenties and they were throwing/ catching popcorn with their mouths. She always took a valium for a flight and when she saw this I think it set her back ten years.

 

[husky8273]

before cell phones you could do stupid things without worrying about someone posting it online