AAA: Ask America Anything

Worldly and otherworldly topics
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ashi
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Re: AAA: Ask America Anything

Post by ashi » Tue Oct 19, 2021 6:35 am

Utisz wrote:
Tue Oct 19, 2021 3:33 am
Does your food and soft drinks and stuff taste different because of high fructose corn syrup? I understand that Coca Cola used to be sugar-based in the U.S. and is still sugar-based (sucrose-based) in many other countries. I guess I'm wondering if you can taste the difference or not.
Yes, and it is miserable unless (presumably) you allow yourself to acclimate to it. EVERYTHING is obnoxiously sweet here and it is disgusting. Just before I moved here I started drinking Barq's, which is a root beer from coca-cola that almost tastes like real root beer (which is, essentially, boiled roots and rocks) but in the US tastes like dusty syrup. Utterly vile.

"Mexican Coke", coke made with sugar and put in a glass bottle, is weirdly fetishised here and from what I hear is only made in Mexico for export to the US. This is just such an endlessly and exhaustingly dumb place.

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Senseye
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Re: AAA: Ask America Anything

Post by Senseye » Tue Oct 19, 2021 6:50 pm

ashi wrote:
Tue Oct 19, 2021 6:35 am
"Mexican Coke", coke made with sugar and put in a glass bottle, is weirdly fetishised here and from what I hear is only made in Mexico for export to the US. This is just such an endlessly and exhaustingly dumb place.
I can recall really noticing the difference when the switch happened (the same thing happened in Canada). Now it has been so long since I've had a real sugar Coke I can't recall what it should taste like. I'll have to remind myself to look for one of those Mexican exports although I have never seen it up north.

You'd think the sharp pencils at Coca-Cola would make a "premium" Coke with real sugar (and even charge more) as I feel it would find a market. Perhaps they are worried about exposing the whole corn-syrup fiasco, but I think that is just the accepted norm these days.

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Roger Mexico
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Re: AAA: Ask America Anything

Post by Roger Mexico » Tue Oct 19, 2021 10:14 pm

Utisz wrote:
Fri Oct 15, 2021 11:18 pm
Is it true that about 2/3 of Americans are not protected by the Fourth Amendment?
How is this allowed if it's unconstitutional?
No, everyone's protected by it, but there are contextual exceptions to when it applies.

(Which some activist groups like ACLU object to, IMO rightly.)


CBP/ICE agents have special authority to conduct warrantless searches if they suspect they've caught someone smuggling illegal immigrants anywhere within 100 miles of an international border.

Apparently 2/3 of the US population live within 100 miles of an international border.


Other law enforcement agencies still have to follow the normal 4A-based due process rules when conducting other types of investigations, though.


There's also the other issue of non-police, military/intelligence agencies like the NSA apparently just being allowed to do whatever the fuck they want with no constitutional constraints whatsoever, but that power is not geographically limited, either.


Our courts are generally not allowed to unilaterally initiate their own hearings on constitutional issues, so questions about the ultimate legality of any of this have to wait for someone to file a lawsuit, and even if someone does the effect on national policy tends to be minimal unless the judicial system decides to let a resulting appeal proceed all the way to the national Supreme Court.

Limitations of this system have been exposed recently by the Supreme Court's decision to just not hold a ruling on a probably-unconstitutional state law in Texas banning abortion, for example.

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starjots
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Re: AAA: Ask America Anything

Post by starjots » Wed Oct 20, 2021 2:08 am

Utisz wrote:
Tue Oct 19, 2021 3:33 am
Does your food and soft drinks and stuff taste different because of high fructose corn syrup? I understand that Coca Cola used to be sugar-based in the U.S. and is still sugar-based (sucrose-based) in many other countries. I guess I'm wondering if you can taste the difference or not.
This happened decades ago, but the mighty Coca Cola company used slight of hand to pull this off. First they announced 'New Coke' and got rid of the 'old Coke'. People drank this 'New Coke' shit for quite a while as I recall, a year? and complained the entire time. Then Coca Cola announced that due to popular demand, they would bring back the old Coke. What they didn't widely advertise was sugar being replaced by high fructose corn syrup. Since nobody had drank a sugar sweetened coke in quite a while, and the old coke with HFCS tasted better than New Coke (what did they put in that, spiders?), the transition was fairly smooth.

Over time, the economics of the situation made most all the other soft drink makers follow suit. I guess HFCS must be cheaper than dirt.

I don't drink soda much anymore since I have to watch my glucose levels. But Mountain Dew Throwback, which you could buy a few years ago made with sugar, was MUCH better than Mountain Dew with HFCS.

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jyng1
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Re: AAA: Ask America Anything

Post by jyng1 » Fri Oct 22, 2021 2:35 am

I'd have to do a taste test as HFCS is pretty much identical to sucrose chemically and should only be a bit sweeter due to fructose being much sweeter than glucose...

I don't know how much stuff has HFCS here, probably not much as corn isn't a big thing and I imagine there's plenty of sugar cane coming out of Fiji and Oztrailer.

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Utisz
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Re: AAA: Ask America Anything

Post by Utisz » Sat Oct 23, 2021 12:32 am

ashi wrote:
Tue Oct 19, 2021 6:35 am
Utisz wrote:
Tue Oct 19, 2021 3:33 am
Does your food and soft drinks and stuff taste different because of high fructose corn syrup? I understand that Coca Cola used to be sugar-based in the U.S. and is still sugar-based (sucrose-based) in many other countries. I guess I'm wondering if you can taste the difference or not.
Yes, and it is miserable unless (presumably) you allow yourself to acclimate to it. EVERYTHING is obnoxiously sweet here and it is disgusting. Just before I moved here I started drinking Barq's, which is a root beer from coca-cola that almost tastes like real root beer (which is, essentially, boiled roots and rocks) but in the US tastes like dusty syrup. Utterly vile.

"Mexican Coke", coke made with sugar and put in a glass bottle, is weirdly fetishised here and from what I hear is only made in Mexico for export to the US. This is just such an endlessly and exhaustingly dumb place.
Senseye wrote:
Tue Oct 19, 2021 6:50 pm
ashi wrote:
Tue Oct 19, 2021 6:35 am
"Mexican Coke", coke made with sugar and put in a glass bottle, is weirdly fetishised here and from what I hear is only made in Mexico for export to the US. This is just such an endlessly and exhaustingly dumb place.
I can recall really noticing the difference when the switch happened (the same thing happened in Canada). Now it has been so long since I've had a real sugar Coke I can't recall what it should taste like. I'll have to remind myself to look for one of those Mexican exports although I have never seen it up north.

You'd think the sharp pencils at Coca-Cola would make a "premium" Coke with real sugar (and even charge more) as I feel it would find a market. Perhaps they are worried about exposing the whole corn-syrup fiasco, but I think that is just the accepted norm these days.
I personally cannot abide any sort of artificial sweeteners, and "Diet" sodas give me the hibby-jibbies.

I am really curious now to try a corn-syrup and real sugar Coke side-by-side. There must be a way that can be organised somewhere along the border of Mexico. I guess though the conversation with the border agent would need to be carefully worded.
starjots wrote:
Wed Oct 20, 2021 2:08 am
This happened decades ago, but the mighty Coca Cola company used slight of hand to pull this off. First they announced 'New Coke' and got rid of the 'old Coke'. People drank this 'New Coke' shit for quite a while as I recall, a year? and complained the entire time. Then Coca Cola announced that due to popular demand, they would bring back the old Coke. What they didn't widely advertise was sugar being replaced by high fructose corn syrup. Since nobody had drank a sugar sweetened coke in quite a while, and the old coke with HFCS tasted better than New Coke (what did they put in that, spiders?), the transition was fairly smooth.
That's interesting! I heard the conspiracy theory many times that the New/Old Coke was a marketing ploy, where, after they discontinued New Coke, the demand for Old Coke sky-rocketed, kind of like creating an artificial scarcity. I did not know that corn-syrup was wrapped up in all of this.

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Utisz
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Re: AAA: Ask America Anything

Post by Utisz » Sat Oct 23, 2021 12:47 am

How common is it for folks up yonder to eat or drink produce while walking around a supermarket and then pay for it with the wrapper?

Is this considered acceptable, civilised behaviour?

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DJ Drug Problem
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Re: AAA: Ask America Anything

Post by DJ Drug Problem » Sat Oct 23, 2021 1:34 am

Utisz wrote:
Sat Oct 23, 2021 12:47 am
How common is it for folks up yonder to eat or drink produce while walking around a supermarket and then pay for it with the wrapper?

Is this considered acceptable, civilised behaviour?
You haven't really expressed your true civilization until you casually hide the wrapper behind some stuff on the shelf while walking by and looking straight ahead

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HighlyIrregular
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Re: AAA: Ask America Anything

Post by HighlyIrregular » Sat Oct 23, 2021 1:41 am

Utisz wrote:
Sat Oct 23, 2021 12:47 am
How common is it for folks up yonder to eat or drink produce while walking around a supermarket and then pay for it with the wrapper?

Is this considered acceptable, civilised behaviour?
I haven't seen it much. I saw it at least once and I did it with a drink once but I didn't start drinking until I was on line.

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HighlyIrregular
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Re: AAA: Ask America Anything

Post by HighlyIrregular » Sat Oct 23, 2021 2:07 am

I also did it with a box of tissues at a National Wholesale Liquidators when there was a long line and I had a leaky nose.

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