Requires an acid catalyst for the reaction to actually proceed, but yeah, could definitely ruin your day - although a lungful of chlorine gas is nothing to sneeze at either.

According to the story I heard as to the origin of the “no liquids over X amount” rule, years ago there was a terrorist that tried to smuggle hydrogen peroxide and acetone - which can be used to rather easily synthesize triacetone triperoxide (TATP, a highly sensitive explosive) - onto a plane in plastic toiletry bottles. They got caught and foiled somehow, and then the TSA started restricting liquids on planes. This was in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, if I recall correctly.

And I happen to know, from a reliable source, of someone who accidentally made TATP in a rotary evaporator in an academic lab. So it seems plausible.

Not that the rule is actually effective prevention against similar attacks, nor that the TSA even knows what the reason is behind what they do at this point, haha. I just thought it was an interesting story.

No postage needed in California, nor Massachusetts if I recall correctly. Does your state really make you find a stamp to vote in 2024? That sucks, sorry to hear that.

Dumb. Acting like the good cop to Trump’s bad cop routine is turning tons of people off. “You’d better cooperate with me now or I’ll have to bring my associate in here, and he won’t be so nice!”

Supposedly Harris told a representative of the uncommitted voting bloc from the Dem primaries that she was down to meet to discuss an arms embargo on Israel, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. She needs to be more forthright about her stance, because the subtextual indications of being flexible on this and her hypothetical empathy for Palestinians I keep hearing about (but not really seeing in any meaningful way) are not cutting it anymore.

I would also like to see a similar graph for mid-term elections. Do the winners even get 10% of the eligible votes?

Let’s go! When the workers can’t even afford an apartment, much less a day at Disneyland for them and their families, you know they’re in a bad spot. I hope they do strike and hold Disney accountable for this ridiculous exploitation.

(Slight) hyperbole aside, it seems like a week doesn’t go by without reading about another brown child or teenager being aged up when the capitalist owned media wants to run cover for wanton government violence against them. This is from the same rotten root that leads to black, indigenous, and immigrant children in the US getting long prison sentences (and in the past, executed) after being tried as adults for crimes that, if they were white, would much more likely see them tried in juvenile court.

Sorry for veering off topic, I happened to recently read a paper on disparities in the US judicial process by race for juvenile defendants, and needed to vent.

Good for her, well done! Not as pretty of a tattoo as a well-drawn organic molecule, IMO, but publishing is hard and worthy of celebration when you succeed.

I have an Astell & Kern SR25 MKII DAP (digital audio player) and I use it quite frequently. The sound quality far surpasses what my phone can produce when connected to any of my speakers or headphones.

It plays FLAC files and any other audio file type you can think of. And it acts as an offline music library when needed (64 GB of memory plus a 1TB microSD).

The better the headphones/speakers I use, the more it outshines anything coming out of my other electronic devices. I use it almost every day.

Miserable Old Bigots?

I was thrilled with it too! The threads really came together in a satisfying way. And it was nice to get a solid (but not too complete) win for our heroes. Rafe knew just what we needed to feel satiated (he wrote this episode with another person, whose name eludes me).

When they played this live last year it was incredible. It’s a real crowd energizer.

“Yeah, but they use those profits to make more jobs!” - corporate media

Sure, they’re in the business of creating as many wage slaves as possible AND squeezing (then stealing) as much value as possible out of each one of us. More opportunity for exploitation born from past exploitation. The fact that some people defend and worship these capitalist pigs is disgusting and shameful.

If a ‘Wheel of Time diehard’ includes someone in the middle of their 6th reread, then I guess I contradict your assumption. I thoroughly enjoyed the 1st season, even with its minor flaws, and predict the 2nd season will be even better. I generally enjoyed the plot deviations and saw them as improvements.

If anything, a WoT fan that is honest with themselves should a) be able to overlook minor flaws, since the books have plenty, especially book 1 and b) realize that plot deviations are a must because an at most 8 season series cannot follow all of Jordan’s arcs and details faithfully - combine, rearrange, and cut is absolutely required.

To me, the heart of the story is there, the characters are well-acted, and the music is great. Sets and writing were good in season 1 with some room for improvement, IMO.

I am actually pleased that you think the world-building “borrowed bits and pieces of different Earth cultures and threw them in a blender.” That’s completely intentional and follows from the metaphysics and history (e.g., the Age of Legends and subsequent breaking of the world) in the books. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea though, sure.

Finally, with a small sample size of friends and family I am having a much easier time getting them into WoT than I did GoT (the last fantasy show I really got into). Reasons (I am paraphrasing their words) include:

More accessible color pallette and atmosphere

Less gratuitous violence (especially towards women)

More magic and “fantasy” feel

Refreshingly not a standard medieval setting

Being able to share it with more people in my circle has obviously enhanced my enjoyment. They are all super pumped after seeing the season 2 trailer.

In addition to the great suggestions others have already provided, check out Emma Goldman’s writings if you haven’t already. They might appeal to you and she has some interesting takes.

Here’s a good starting point: http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/goldman/GoldmanCW.html

"Drivers have long raised the insufferable heat they can face when out for a day of deliveries, especially in the hotter parts of the country. The fleet of UPS trucks doesn’t have any air conditioning to keep the drivers safe and comfortable during their long hours on the job. During the summer months, package cars can reach upwards of 130 F. This has led to far too many UPS drivers suffering from heat stroke on the job, and some have even died due to the excessive heat. With worsening global warming, these issues will only become more severe. "

This is why we need unions and direct action more than ever, and can’t rely on government entities (ultimately beholden to capitalist interests) to protect our health and safety while we’re on the job. What the fuck good is OSHA if it is allowing heat illness and heat stroke deaths to happen without holding UPS accountable? They should have had their operations shut down until they outfit every truck with AC, and be fined into oblivion until they do so. Instead, OSHA does squat. Health & safety regulations are written in blood but OSHA’s bloody hands refuse to even touch the paper.

You are saying that sucralose (or a metabolite thereof) could alkylate DNA - and theoretically proteins too - correct? Like what sulfur mustard gas does?

I did a quick search and couldn’t find any papers demonstrating a mechanism of action for that, although I skimmed a few that postulated that a dichlorinated hydrolysis product might be the true carcinogenic agent. Do you know of any studies that demonstrate that the alkylation can happen, either in vitro or (ideally) in vivo? Or maybe some better search terms to use, that could be my issue…

I am truly curious about this, I never knew the chemical structure of sucralose until I read your comment and subsequently looked it up.

Nickel or iron would be a lot cheaper and could get the job done with some tweaking, good suggestion. I’ve done aromatizations of cyclohexene derivatives with sulfur in the past that have been pretty high yielding too (which is why I mentioned it), and bubbled the hydrogen sulfide gas through bleach and other aqueous oxidants to prevent stench. Sulfur is dirt cheap, but it was used stoichiometrically.

As you say though, the biggest step forward was already done by this group - switching feedstock to biomass. I hope to see more and more of this type of research to deliver on the promise of ‘green chemistry’, which in my past experience has been used as a label somewhat dubiously just to make a journal submission stand out.

Aww, lovely cat! I bet that white chest and belly fur is just the softest stuff ever!

Thank you, I just finished the whole thing. It was a great read, and now I need to go and wipe my eyes from all these onions I’ve been chopping. :)