Part of the beauty and awe I get whenever I reread that famous excerpt from Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot is the sense of how ephemeral and delicate our existence, and even the very human concept of "existence", is. We are infinitesimally small and yet, through no fault of our own, our days, how we fill them, and the people we know hold some measure of importance to us. And it will all be gone - eventually. It's a very somber note yet it makes me feel a certain sense of peace.
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."
On one hand I'm glad the blackouts made a noticeable dent and moved reddit (the site) into a response of some sort.
On the other hand, reddit (the site) is not going to back down because they already revealed their hand and they're motivated by $$$ which is a strong-ass motivator.
On the third hand, the majority of reddit (the users) are back and still using it, which proves that reddit (the site) was correct in staying on their course. Those users now have a negative outlook on both the corporate leadership AND the mods that run the subreddits, yet they still log in, contributing to the wealth of discussion and information stored in that place.
Not a lawyer, but that's defamation, isn't it? Mr. CEO's saying Christian is this and that bad thing, when Christian has proof otherwise. Mr. CEO repeats this lie about Christian, damaging his reputation. In Christian's own words, it's a "potentially career-ending lie".
In the Philippines, it's Juan and Maria dela Cruz, although those have fallen out of use due to the popularity of Western (aka US) culture. Interesting reading about every country's own names for their everyman.
In the 1880s, pointillism was developed by 2 French artists, and used it to paint the landscapes and scenes of their time.
Almost 100 years later, another Frenchman created an image using arguably the same technique, and the object of that image is practically (and I think theoretically?) timeless.
This is all just gently blowing my mind right now.
I'll be honest I was kinda waiting for r/CyberpunkGame to do this, given the lean of the game (even if you went with the most Corpo-ish ending, it was still kinda anti-Corpo). Good on them for taking a stand.
Yes, really. I was fortunate enough to be able to access the internet during the 90s. Was exposed to Geocities, webrings, and IRC mainly (the heyday of BBSes were juuust before I had access). Before Google, it was a real magical time when you never knew what lay in store as you surfed the information superhighway's hyperlinks. The "Old Internet" ruled.
In my opinion, the Fediverse is both like that, and unlike that. The idea of federation is really close to the unsiloed feel of the before times, yet we know much more about connectivity now than ever before. There's definitely magic in having something for the first time which you cannot 100% replicate even with something innovative.
But I have to admit the Fediverse does have that Brave New World feel (the concept, not the novel).
I'd been smoking cigarettes for 11 years and just switched to vaping 2 months ago. My lungs feel much, much better. I can walk up multiple flights of stairs/longer distances without getting winded. My mouth also no longer has that eternal burnt paper taste, especially when I wake up in the mornings.
So for the purposes of what I switched to vaping for - to ease back on destroying my lungs - vaping/e-cigs work. I used to smoke 2 packs in about a week and a half. I'd say the amount I vape now is the equivalent of 1 pack every month (I don't constantly hit it throughout the day).
I have no doubt that inhaling vapor with that density is still not good, but it's better than what I was doing previously.
As for helping to quit the habit entirely, I think that's the opposite of their goal. All these fruity flavors they keep coming out with seem like they're designed to be popped like candy.
I try to keep an open mind, especially because I'm immigrant who has other concerns outside the US sociopolitical sphere, but this is exactly one of the things I immediately saw happening given the demographic of people paying for Twitter Blue.
Others used RIF and Apollo, but I was firmly Team BaconReader from the moment I downloaded it a decade ago. I had deleted the application off my phone a few weeks back to help curb the habit, but seeing this now really hammered the nail into the coffin. At least it now has its own send off of sorts with one last update to the Play Store.
On the off chance that they see this, thank you BaconReader devs for 12 years of service!!
Filipino here. Rice is a staple of our diet, and traditionally we've mostly eaten Dinorado or Sinandomeng rice. I'd say in the past 20-30 years though Jasmine and Basmati rice have also gained popularity in our dishes. I've always been taught this method:
In a pot, rinse the rice 2-3 times, draining the water each time. Rinse just enough that most of the cloudiness of the water is gone, but some still remains. You'll want that starch.
Fill the pot with enough water to cover the rice. Use enough so that if you dip your middle finger to touch the rice underneath, the water line hits the second joint on your finger (I believe the anatomical term is proximal interphalangeal joint lol). It'll be enough water for whatever amount of rice you have - everytime.
Cover the pot, put it on the flame, let it boil. Once it's boiling, turn the heat down and let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes, until the water evaporates.