Interesting Links for 15-02-2020

[andrewducker]

A couple of clicks in a bank's spreadsheet caused the biggest fluctuation in Britain's trade figures in modern history.

(tags:gold UK trade weird )

What's going on with geothermal wells?

(tags:electricity energy earth heat )

An Inflammation of Place (the historical diagnosis of NewYorkitis)

(tags:newyork disease cities stress )

Don't aim for passion, be *curious*

(tags:advice passion )

Moving home can affect your children's health and education

(tags:homes children mentalhealth Education )

Some tips on writing British characters

(tags:UK society behaviour )

Flow-Charts of Programming Language Constructs

(tags:programming visualisation )

Dentists threatened by face-mask shortage because of coronavirus

(tags:teeth virus disease Doom )

There and Snack Again: How to eat everything in Lord of the Rings

(tags:lotr food )

How real is "grade inflation"?

(tags:education uk )

Comments

[calimac]

Now that's interesting, because I once went into a small counter-service hot-food shop that had two likely things on the posted menu, a "lamb kebab" and a "lamb doner". I made the mistake of saying, "I know what a kebab is, what's a doner?" and despite my repeated attempts at rephrasing, the staff embarked more and more desperately to explain to me what lamb was, even to the extent of running around waggling their fingers over their heads and going, "baa! baa!"

I eventually gave up and left without buying anything. This was about five years ago in Bournemouth or some such miserable place.

Just to be clear, I should emphasize that a pita-bread sandwich is anything in a pita-bread pocket, not specifically what the UK calls a kebab. I suppose if it were served that way, the menu would list the contents as it would for a shawarma plate, and add something like "served to-go [American for takeaway] in pita-bread." Normally, though, it'd be up to the diner whether they'd want to stuff the meal inside the pita-bread that comes with. Shawarma plates often come with rice, and that probably wouldn't fit, and would fall out if you tried.

[ninetydegrees]

To add to the confusion, we call a fast-food-like döner kebab with meat shavings, French fries, sauce and accompaniments stuffed in a pita "a greek" in France... Don't know if it's because of the pita. To most people this is a synonym for "a kebab". Meat on skewers usually isn't called a kebab because we use "brochette" instead, but it may be used in proper restaurants serving all types of kebabs.

[andrewducker]

That makes sense. Sadly in the UK such things have mostly become a low-end takeaway food, rather than something you'd sit in to eat, and changing that reputation would be tricky.

(A lot of foreign food types are now changing in the UK, as more authentic versions are being sold, rather than the original bastardised version produced for 70s British taste buds.)