Yeah, the jedi were wrong, but the facts really point to "they were wrong to be so lenient". Sure, if they'd let him become a master he might have had a bit more loyalty. But anakin was already too enslaved to his emotions, and even if they made him a master and condoned his relationship with padme, something else would be the spark that sideous used to turn him.

Absolutely this. I can only speak for myself, and I know that some folks are so starved for representation that they are happy with anything and that's fine, but for me poor representation is just as bad as none at all.

I'm a guy married to a guy, and I do like to see queer characters and same sex romance options. But playing DA: Origin and crushing on Alastair, only to have the option of Zevran... It kinda feels like the games is telling me "gay men are campy and promiscuous, a sensitive and strong guy like Alistair is clearly heterosexual". It didn't make me feel included or represented, quite the opposite.

Obviously, times change, and sometimes these clumsy first steps are how we get to somewhere better. But as well as disappointing me, I understand why awkward 'woke' representation rubs people the wrong way. If I as a queer man find the gay character tokenistic, underdeveloped and kinda annoying then it doesn't surprise me that other folks would too. And being willing to say "this is good representation, but that is shallow box ticking" would help us all get to better place.

People in my area of the English speaking world have the horrible habit of saying things like "let's meet at the bar back of 8" or "I'll call you back of 6". I have never got a satisfactory answer if this is "just before ópm" or "just past 6pm", or even "near the end of 6, so almost 7pm" Every person seems to interpret it differently, it's wild. And profoundly unhelpful.

Nah, an English muffin is basically a bread product - you shape them and leave to rise, but a crumpet is more like a fancy pancake - it's a batter poured into a ring on a hot pan, and has baking powder as well yeast (which gives it the trademark holes). But maybe that's just in Britain? Maybe you chaps have different crumpets?

I'm British, and if you offered most British people "a muffin" they would assume you meant the American style sugar and oil affair. Some people do enjoy an "English muffin" but they're not very popular, much less loved than crumpets, which themselves are probably below scones. The main use I see of them is as the base of Eggs Benedict, which works because they are basic and go well with butter. A white chocolate & blueberry muffin is a much more controversial paring for poached eggs and hollandaise.

Talking about the ocean is odd, but there are towns in the UK (and most countries I'd assume?) where the natural level of fluoride is higher than the concentration they aim for when adding fluoride. I think that's a pretty good argument for it being safe - the people of Hartlepool have been drinking fluoride rich water for 13 centuries and don't have any noticeable issues compared to the rest OF County Durham.

If we're imaging a world where corporations and governments would agree to this level of accountability, wouldn't it be eaiser to just make certain financial transactions into public records?

Currently we consider some things public records (registering a company y, the voting roll) and other things private (income and taxes, bank transactions). If there was the will to chnage things we could just make the financial records of all elected government officials and corporations with government contracts automatically publically accessible. This doesn't need block chain, a law could be passed deeming these "in the public interest" such that banks would have no grounds to refuse a request from journalists or any citizens to access them.

This would be a lot simpler and cheaper than block chain. But its unlikely to happen for the same reason that block chain won't be used for this either.

As the other commentors have said, this isn't a problem with email services, it's a problem with email users. If you put all the addresses in the "To:" or "CC:" boxes, its because you want someone to Reply All. If you want to prevent that, put all the recipients in the BCC box.

Its a good idea, but fortunately someone already solved it a good while back. Now we just need a PSA to teach people to stop cramming everyone in the wrong box.

Lots of folks seem to have hobbies or put themselves through challenges that from the outside seem pretty masochistic. They generally claim they like the challenge, want to prove themselves or some other thing, but people who run the Marathon de Sable or swallow a Cessna light aircraft sure seem to gain pleasure from putting themselves through pain...

I'm mot sure I understand what kind of answer you are looking for. What did the Whig historiography achieve? Or the Great Man theory? Isn't Critical Theory an academic approach that allows people in the humanities a different theoretical framework to approach the problems of culture, history, literature, etc? It's been pretty successful in that, and while I believe that academic scholarship has some influence on world affairs, it's generally the political zetgeist exerts more pressure on academic thinking than the other way around...

The Queen apparently watched the amazing 80s Flash Gordon movie every Christmas. And it's about overthrowing a tyrannical monarch....

I get the sense from your wording that you might be in the younger end of the spectrum. Although the world can feel pretty shitty and messed up, it's often worth remembering "this too shall pass". Obviously no one wants the world to be awful, and living through hard times isn't desirable, but just like the good stuff never lasts, the bad stuff changes too. The Great Depression lasted a decade, the Nazis ran Germany for just a bit longer.

Those were presumably fucking dreadful times to live through. But the decades that followed were comparatively prosperous for the countries. What's happening in the US is depressing as all hell, but it'll change, and all you can do is the best you can to make it less dreadful, for yourself and the people around you.

I've used (and loved) Sleep as Android for yeeears. It's a great app and the developer is always adding extra things, new wearable integration and stuff. So, I really don't mean to bitch because I think it's a solid app with solid support. But I recommended it to a friend the other day and they pointed out the unlock is now €69.99!! I~~ think it was a fiver when ~~just checked my email, it was €1.99 in 2013 when I unlocked it.

Defintely recommend, and I think the free version is still pretty amazing. But wow, even with extra features, that's some inflation.

Thia is exactly the video I was thinking of. I only came across his channel recently, and it is an absolute pleasure.

Totally agree. Seeing how "Internet like" communication existed before the Internet is always fascinating to me. Whether it's fanclubs, wargaming zines or Enlightened era correspondence, people have had written interactions with effective strangers for centuries. But it was incredibly different before.

The very act of sitting down to write, paying some money and effort to literally post it probably had a huge calming effect on idle bad faith takes. And I imagine that getting a letter with someone telling me names for thinking McCoy is better than Spock would probably make me feel derisively sorry for the poor nerd who went to the effort.

My take is that written communication is hard, unless a) you know each other really well, e.g. messaging friends, or b) you write carefully and with enough detail to help the other person understand fully your position, and they bother reading with the same care.

When you read an essay or article it of often begins by setting out the problem, giving some context and even defining their priorities and approach, before they make a claim or argument. They spend time addressing the obvious criticisms of their argument, and ideally admiting weak spots, and maybe even empathising with why someone might reject their position. This means that when you read an article like that, even if argues against something important to you, you don't feel attacked. It's calm, general reasoning, and obviously not a personal a attack on you as an individual.

But if you post an picture of the secondhand car you've saved for two years to afford, and the first comment is "fuck cars, they're killing the planet" it's easy to feel like it's a personal and it's aggressive. Or if you write a pretty reasonable but contraversial opinion, people might not have the time or will to break it down and explain why it's wrong, but they don't want other people to read it and think it's okay, so they down vote and comment a quick "what is this shit ?"

I'm not sure I really understand the question. 'this' and 'that' are both used to tlsk about something when it's obvious from context what you're referring to.

Situation - in a bakery "i want that" (pointing at the cake on the shelf) "I want this too" (pointing at the bread by the counter) Next customer "i want the same"

Situation - you're on a date in fancy restaurant, you're date has just finished explaining she wants to have lots of children "I want that" (the children she's been discussing) "but I want this too" (gesturing around at the adult single life you're enjoying " " I want this too" she reassures you

I don't think there's much variation between the main English dialects / varities. This and that are key grammatical words.

As a non American, Thomas Jefferson is pretty famous as historical figures go.

Morris is defintely a first name in Britain. I went to school with a Morris Morrison.

That's interesting. I'm not a film guy at all, and it certainly never occurred to me that it pioneered some of the key stuff in modern movies (although that totally makes sense). But I remember enjoying it! The pacing felt quite good, there were some mysteries and character drama. Not a top movie for me personally, but pretty watchable for a B&W movie.