yunnansourcing.com is the real plug for puerh tea

AND their garbage trucks play a cute song! ours just makes loud diesel noises and reversing beeps outside my window at 7AM

he's got many cool hats

No, if you can say "What?" "No!" "Maybe?" and "Uhhhh" with typical expressive enunciation in English, you can say chinese tones

learn chinese so you can read dumb memes and commentary on 哔哩哔哩. my favorite so far was someone reposting one of those videos of MAGA chuds pointing pistols at their junk for some reason, retitled "人类根除计划“ which is like "humankind extinction project". oh also lots of chinese g*mers to hang out with if you're into that, i played a ton of GTA Online with a homie from 辽宁省, although this was before I knew any Chinese whatsoever.

The dems are entirely integrated with a professional class of advisers, marketers, analysts and "activists" who work for think tanks or boutique consultancies. These ppl align themselves with the dem party through professional networks and branding but have zero incentive to actually lead the party to any kind of success. They get paid regardless and any perceived crisis only increases the demand for their "expertise." This industry has an unlife of its own, decoupled from any ideology or political goals. In perpetuating itself, it churns out perplexing artifacts like Big Structural Bailey or Pete Buttigeig that only serve to further alienate citizens from the dem party while reaffirming the superficial values of the in-group by displaying their symbols of authenticity or competency.

Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. Should scratch that worldbuilding itch.

for those who don't know, Taiwan is probably the most progressive place in Asia in regards to LGBTQ issues. for example, they legalized same-sex marriage in 2019, and they have a very high profile "Digital Minister" named Audrey Tang who is openly transgender/non-binary. so for your friends the difference is probably especially notable coming from TW.

judee sill

i got a bachelors degree in the sciences but instead of pursuing research and grad school i immediately left that field after graduation for working in the arts. my reasoning was actually pretty similar to what you describe here. i went through a "skeptic"/new atheist/rationalist phase, tried to go deep into understanding the epistimological biases of my particular field of study, and eventually felt like the issues were more cultural than knowledge/fact-based. that's not to say we don't need a huge revamp of how we teach critical thinking and the scientific method in the USA- we definitely do! but after i graduated i felt I could have more impact in changing circumstances via fostering the creative imagination in the cultural sphere rather than siloed into some extremely specific research within an institution.

10ish years later, the jury is still out on whether that was a sound decision (lol). if I had stayed in that field I would probably be either a highly paid data scientist or an extremely low paid academic researcher. i've done a lot of cool things since within arts/culture but there's maybe even larger issues in promoting creative pedagogy/thinking in the USA compared to scientific literacy.

i thought o7 was an eve online thing, now i'm hearing its a chapo thing???

HINTERLANDS!

The radical filmmaking group Ogawa Productions made a series of eight films from 1968 through the 70s on the Sanrizuka protests (earlier than the video linked above). They're incredible pieces of filmmaking, both from a documentary and artistic standpoint. I would strongly recommend at least the first film in the series Summer in Sanrizuka as well as Markus Nornes' book about Ogawa productions Forest of Pressure to anyone interested in these protests, leftist filmmaking or the culture of the 1960s Japanese protest movement. The Sanrizuka films are also incredibly interesting from a tactical and organizational standpoint, and provide examples of how groups with major cultural and demographic differences (rural farmers and college-educated leftist radicals) were able to work together to stage resistance.

Ogawa Productions was a really interesting group as well. They emerged from radical leftist organizing in 1960s Japan and were active for decades making documentaries while deeply embedded with their subjects. During the making of the Sanrizuka series, members of Ogawa productions worked very closely with with the rural smallholding farmers that had become involved in the protests. These farmers play a huge role in these films. Following completion of the Sanrizuka series, Ogawa productions screened these films widely to rural and urban audiences. During one of these screenings in rural Yamagata, they were basically challenged by a group of farmers to deepen their understanding and engagement with their culture and struggles, as the farmers still believed the films only superficially depicted farmers. This resulted in Ogawa productions uprooting from Tokyo and moving to a remote village called Magino where, over 10+ years they made another series of films about village life and farming. Also highly recommended films. However, Ogawa productions had a lot of deeply flawed elements. They began with a strong ideological commitment to collective film-making, but the head of the group, Shinsuke Ogawa, acted like a cult leader at times and was abusive to other members. The culture of the group was apparently highly patriarchal as well. There is a film by Barbara Hammer called Devotion that talks about these aspects of the group and they are also discussed in the Nornes book mentioned above.

is your class metalworking for scuba divers? look up "diver down flag." just giving you a hard time, looks cool

it's for sure not a "western centric" mentality. anyone who has played against Chinese players in pubg or any other competitive game knows they love overkill as well, often to the point of using aimbots or other hacks. its just that gamer brain transcending national borders.

If you like this, check out Koji Wakamatsu's United Red Army from 2007 ( trailer )

i've seen CNC machines still used in factories that require floppy disks to transfer programs or restore backups. the past (tech) is never really past.

i want it but i'm too soft from using PyCharm

by Filip Jandourek, winner of the "Nature, science and environment" category of the 2017 Czech Press Photo contest

the media and school administrations will amplify stories about frat parties and irresponsible students in order to deflect blame. this will be used to justify not refunding tuition/fees as it will become "conventional wisdom" that it's those dumb young kids' own fault, not the fault of the government refusing to keep schools closed or administrators implementing ineffective distancing/remote learning plans. fuck !!!!