The Darth Plagueis novel also added a ton of context to The Phantom Menace for me. It’s a long history of Palpatine and Plagueis that goes all the way up to the Battle of Naboo, so it really feels like you can see clearly Plagueis’ influence on Palpatine and his scheming. If I remember correctly, Luceno even does a couple of the scenes from the movie, with way more detail. I rewatched it after finishing the book and got a lot more out of it.

Heh I will remember that! Thanks!

I’m sure I won’t find a fresh one, but I remember seeing something that looked like that at one of the local Asian supermarkets I spend way too much money at.

It has definitely become more obvious lately, but this isn’t new. Anti-Zionism has been conflated with Antisemitism for as long as I can remember. I remember being called a “self-hating Jew” more than 20 years ago, for probing the myth that the IDF was the “most precise and humane army in the world.” That was a common trope in the 90s and 00s, but has always been utter bullshit.

I was told I couldn’t be Jewish and called an “Arab-lover” for talking about my countless positive experiences being friends with Arabs, Palestinians, and Muslims in general. That they thought this was an insult just exposed their bigotry.

Terminology changes, but there is rarely logic to raw hatred.

If you have a general interest channel that includes most/much or your company on slack or something similar, you could post links to articles that explain the problems with relying on chatbots or best-practices for using them in a professional setting, and hope the person in question sees it. That way you don’t have to call them out personally, and the whole company can benefit from a reality check on how these things should or shouldn’t be used.

No, I don’t think I’ve tried durian. I don’t recognize the name, but the fruit itself looks familiar, so I’ve definitely seen them around. I’ll pick one up the next time I see it!

Yeah, I never thought fruit could taste this good.

I have trouble remembering the names of the specific hybrids, but I believe that variety is called "Dapple Dandy" or “Dinosaur Eggs.” When I was was trying to find the name, I came across this photo of some of the varieties of hybrids. It's wild how different they can be.

This is really well said. Throughout history, you can reliably find people on both sides of moral and humanitarian issues like this. There were Roman elite who spoke out against slavery in antiquity, there were Brits who mocked the American Colonies for owning slaves while founding a country based on freedom, there have always been men who believed in equal treatment and rights for women. Right and wrong is usually pretty clear, and in general regular people throughout the ages have been able to recognize which is which. Our values haven’t changed much, but our systems of power and accountability have.

That said, I also believe a good amount of the right wing backlash against the internment camps was performative. Because up until relatively recently, many racists themselves understood that their beliefs were terrible, so they at least tried to hide their true feelings and spoke out against obvious atrocities like this in public. But that was only so they could be accepted by the wider culture, and so they could continue to participate in left-coded spaces. They don’t need to hide how awful they are anymore because the president is leading by example.

It’s almost stone fruit season in California!! My local farmers market was selling the very first batch of peaches last weekend, which means they’re coooming!

Can’t explain how excited this gets me. If you haven’t tasted a fresh pluot or some of the huge variety of hybrid stone fruit, you’re missing out on one of life’s greatest pleasures. They’re colorful, they’re sweet, they’re subtly sour, they’re juicy, and they have the most satisfying crunch. There’s so much variety, and some amazing genetic combos. You ever had a peach that looks like a green apple on the outside and is the color of a beet on the inside? Well that’s my most favorite goddamn fruit on the planet. Fuuck I’m getting too excited…

At the peak of stone fruit season, sometimes I’ll just chop up a bunch of different kinds of pluots and that’s my meal for the day. Not kidding. When I first moved here, this shit changed my life. Best fruit I’ve ever tasted.

I was thinking the same thing. Not to belittle OPs comment, because it does sound like a super annoying problem, but I’ve literally been unable to calm down or relax for the last few days, because the lease on my apartment expires tomorrow, and I haven’t been able to reach my landlord to get his approval to go month-to-month. I’m genuinely terrified I’m going to have to spend the next solid month looking for a new place to live (much easier said than done here), but all of that could turn on a dime if my landlord decides to take a second and call me back.

I’m so sick of the constant stress and uncertainty of renting and not knowing if this place I’ve poured all my money into might just not get renewed, I’d love to have the problem of trying to find a handyman or contractor. Oh and I know if my landlord finally does let me stay beyond the initial lease, he’ll raise the rent, because he can.

Nothing Rowling has said should even be remotely controversial.

What an obvious flat out lie. I snorted when I reached that line. I can’t understand how the author could include bullshit like that. Doesn’t pass even the most casual smell-test.

Here’s an article that Vox keeps having to update to ensure everybody can track Rowling’s detailed history of transphobia. Rowling is transphobic, that’s a fact.

Your whisky preference is indeed correct.

Yeah, I wouldn’t say he’s a pressing problem, but he’s also not part of any active solutions or any meaningful movements so it’s time for him to go.

I totally agree that term limits would solve many of these issues.

It’s about damn time. This guy is one of the least compelling Democratic senators and has been way too comfortable with his incumbency. It’s a good sign that he finally sees the writing on the wall. I hope more of the geriatric ruling class is able to recognize reality like this, and step aside before being primaried by younger more competent candidates who are actually willing to fight.

In the early aughts, I asked my high school history teacher where he thought was the likeliest place for a global conflict to start. His answer was Kashmir.

I’m all for contraception, especially for men since women have had to shoulder much of this responsibility for some reason, but can we please stop naming products like this after people? It’s confusing, adds a strange biblical vibe in this case (it’s not as clever as they think), and is just not a creative way to name a consumer product or drug.

Same goes for tech products like Alexa, Claude etc. Those are already peoples’ names, come up with your own names ffs. I knew someone named Alexa a while back, and she absolutely hated that shit. She felt like her name wasn’t her own anymore.

Yeah that’s very true…

Culturally? I’m not positive. Personally? Damn straight that’s a burrito.

When I make burritos at home, they’re almost exclusively made with leftovers.

Hell yeah! That’s a great looking burrito. Love cabbage salad. What’s the question?

This is state-sponsored terrorism. Absolutely despicably evil that anyone would wake up one day and think to themself “what should I do today….oh I know, let’s go traumatize some Palestinian kids by kidnapping and torturing them.” What the fuck.

What sets this government apart is the level of support and encouragement it provides to settlers, whether through supplying them with weapons or funding the creation of new outposts. This backing has enabled and emboldened settlers to carry out attacks on Palestinians, with the aim of displacing communities and annexing their land.