Text 12737, 108 rader
Skriven 2014-04-29 12:47:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av JIM WELLER
Ärende: economic 566
====================
 ML> the endless corporate splits and recombinations. It all appears
 ML> so futile.
 JW> I laugh whenever the PR people talk about synergy in mergers and
 JW> acquisitions, knowing that a couple of years later they will proudly
 JW> announce divestiture and returning to their core business as if both
 JW> activities were a good thing.

It's sort of comical. Who does the business forecasts that
these events are based on, anyway, and who gets hired to
do the spin thing before and after?

 JW> A general rule of thumb: always sell on the announcement of a merger
 JW> or acquisition and ignore the financial news completely for at least
 JW> 18 months. Then see if the company has dipped and is poised to recover
 JW> and perhaps buy back in eventually.

That's just a tiny bit cynical, isn't it. I can't gainsay
the concept, though.

 JW> There's a huge difference between the inflation rates for the
 JW> necessities of life that the poor care about and a lot of luxury
 JW> items. ...
 ML> I don't know the factors in our Consumer Price Index but was
 ML> of the impression that it was fairly properly weighted.
 JW> It's probably a pretty reasonable measurement for the middle class.

It may be a cruel thing to say, but the poor are too
manipulable to produce appropriate data for such metrics as
a CPI. Their consumer input is insignificant or cancellable.
I am Marxist enough to admit that they may be significant
to production statistics, but we're not talking about that.

 JW> "The overall inflation rate, was 1.5 per cent in March, higher than
 JW> a year ago, although fresh fruit was 8.8 per cent higher, fresh
 JW> vegetables cost 5.3 per cent more and meat was up 3.4 per cent.
 ML> Seasonality perhaps plays a factor here?
 JW> Nope. They were comparing prices in March 2014 compared to March
 JW> 2013.

Okay. March might be an expensive time anyway, with the
spring and summer months maintaining a cheaper trend.
There's a reason why April is the cruellest month - that's
when you have to pay the bills for March.

=

 JW> You recently mentioned a Chinese dish with something like pita
 JW> bread in it, which got me googling and I learned about ...
 JW> Title: About Bing (Chinese Flat Breads)
 JW> Bing is a wheat flour-based Chinese food with a flattened or
 JW> disk-like shape, similar to the French concept of a galette. These
 JW> foods may resemble the flatbreads, pancakes, unleavened dough foods
 JW> of non-Chinese and western cuisines.

Most galettes I can think of are a bit more substantial
than the bings I know.

 Many of them are similar to the
 JW> Indian roti, French crepes, or Mexican tortilla, while others are
 JW> more similar to Western cakes and cookies.

So as a concept bing is sort of useless! Or rather rather
catchall, like "meat" or "baked goods."

 JW> Bo bing (literally "thin pancakes") refers to a thin circular
 JW> crepe-like wrapper or "skin" wrapping various fillings. This is
 JW> sometimes called "Mandarin pancake" or "moo shu pancake"  in
 JW> American Chinese food contexts.

Elsewhere in this same article these are referred to as "bao
bing." We used to transliterate it as "pao ping." I thought
that it had something to do with the wrapping function, but
I'll defer here.

Can anyone find out what a "rou bing" is, and what the
etymology of that term is? There's no wheat flour in
that one.

 JW> From Wikipedia
 JW> (Being Wiki there may be errors.)

 Lies, exaggerations, misunderstandings, and hearsay make up
 perhaps more than half of all that is said and written in
 the world. - C.S. Lewis, Miracles

---------- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.00

      Title: Chapatis (roti)
 Categories: Breads, Indian
      Yield: 10 servings

    1/2 c  Whole wheat flour                 1/2 c  Water approximately
    2/3 c  Unbleached all purpose flour      1/4 ts Salt (optional)

  Make up the dough approximately 1/2-hour before you need it. Allow the
  dough to rest about 10 minutes. Pinch off portion of dough to form a ball
  about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.  Roll ball flat on lightly floured surface.
  Pat back and forth between hands until thin. (Patting makes the chapati
  puff when baked.)

  Cook on top of the stove on ungreased griddle until browned and puffed. Use
  medium heat so the griddle does not get too hot. Source unknown

-----

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