Thank you! It's been super disheartening to see people get excited about Harry Potter all over again, just as it was to see friends buy the video game a few years back. Many people who want to ostensibly call themselves allies are more than happy to engage in Nostalgia over Solidarity.

I read the Harry Potter books as a child. I enjoyed them a normal amount. I think I dressed up as HP for Halloween one year. But then I grew older and I "graduated" to other fantasy, as I would generally expect someone to do.

Now when I think about Harry Potter, I always think of Ursula K Le Guin's comments:

Q: Nicholas Lezard has written ‘Rowling can type, but Le Guin can write.’ What do you make of this comment in the light of the phenomenal success of the Potter books? I’d like to hear your opinion of JK Rowling’s writing style

UKL: I have no great opinion of it. When so many adult critics were carrying on about the “incredible originality” of the first Harry Potter book, I read it to find out what the fuss was about, and remained somewhat puzzled; it seemed a lively kid’s fantasy crossed with a “school novel”, good fare for its age group, but stylistically ordinary, imaginatively derivative, and ethically rather mean-spirited.

Hey Karim, super cool to have you here. I love what you've done with your character so far and I'm hoping for continued success on SFA.

1. What's the energy like on set? Are there any particularly strong jokesters? Tim Russ on Voyager was noted for cracking a lot of jokes, for example, and I think Michael Dorn and Brent Spiner had a similar reputation on the set of TNG.
2. Are you into science fiction generally? If so, what's your favorite book, movie, or tv series?
3. What do you wish people knew about SFA (or you!) that they don't seem to?

I couldn't take the suspense and I had to look it up.

Musk also told the crowd that he didn’t like the ideas he was presented with early in the week. “I was a bit worried at the beginning there,” he said, “because frankly nothing was funny.”

He then went on to reveal his idea of funny, describing one pitch in particular that did not go over well.

“One of the things that everyone’s been wondering this whole time is: Is Saturday Night Live actually live… or do they have a delay just in case there’s a wardrobe malfunction or something like that?,” Musk said to set up the pitch. “But there’s a way to test this.” (SNL does, in fact, air without a tape delay.)

In Musk’s vision, he’d tell the audience he was going to put this to the test by taking “his cock out.”

“So I’m going to reach down into my pants… and then I pull out a baby rooster,” Musk explained. “Like, ‘This is my tiny cock.’”

Unfortunately, the joke didn’t end there.

“And then Kate McKinnon walks out,” added Jason Calacanis, co-host of the All-In Podcast, who was also present in the pitch meeting. “And she says, ‘Elon, I expected you would have a bigger cock.’”

McKinnon, meanwhile, would have been holding a cat.

“You can see where this is going,” Musk told the crowd

Article

Congratulations, me too. Systemic problems don't affect every individual in the system in the same way.

This aligns well with Clarence Thomas seeking to get rid of his wife by setting the stage for interracial marriage to become illegal.

How does this make them look even mildly competent? They disclosed war plans to an unknown third party by using unsanctioned communication tools. They got lucky it was a reporter who thought he was being baited rather than a more malicious and intentioned actor.

All the tired puns or jokes about Nazis/Hitler. "Anne Frankly, I did Nazi that coming!" "You gotta hand it to Hitler, at least he killed Hitler." Etc.

It's the kind of thing you might chuckle at once, but so many comment threads end up piled with the same brain rot nonsense as people trip over themselves to parrot their quirky internet catchphrases.

Callous reaction to what is a clear overstep on behalf of US CBP. Denying entry would have been a more efficient move than detainment, unless the cruelty is the point.

Begone, propagandist. Peace is elusive because the Russian government has engineered the situation to be so. That you think they were "likely" to drop an obvious showstopper clause means absolutely nothing; the actual parties to the negotiation clearly did not feel that to be true.

For others who want more insight on how the 2022 talks unfolded: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/06/15/world/europe/ukraine-russia-ceasefire-deal.html

You're probably being down voted because of the presumption that we're not doing things. Protests, calling representatives, boycotts, mutual aid networks, etc. Some of us work directly in politics or directly in government, and do what we can in those spaces, too.

It's kind of irritating to get a finger-wagging admonition when you're exploring all options short of outright assassination. And if the suggestion is to just start shooting, well, I think it's asking more than you think for someone to choose to become a killer.

Weird how actual slavery was "no big deal" but paying taxes is the worst thing ever because it's tantamount to slavery and theft.

I knew about this but it's never made sense to me. If I was a billionaire I'd never drive myself anywhere, particularly not if I was going to be intoxicated.