Are you Larry David?

American Giant. Expensive, but they have a great warranty and the craftsmanship is top notch.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

I haven’t see any measurable proof of one, or any experiment proposed that would render the idea of a soul falsifiable or not. Honestly, the current debate in philosophy/neuroscience on the existence (or non-existence) of free-will seems like a more important question, that if answered in the negative would have major implications on even the definition of the word ‘soul’.

Fun question though, I’ve enjoyed reading the diversity of thought on the matter in this thread. :)

Seems like I read this same headline a few times each year. Soon, rampant heat illness/stroke is going to make the recent pandemic look like a tiny blip when it comes to human mortality data.