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    1. Are there any good tools for "one-off" file encryption?

      Sorry if this is a silly question, but I keep running into situations where a small CLI or GUI tool that could be handed a single file and hand me back an encrypted version would be useful. I've...

      Sorry if this is a silly question, but I keep running into situations where a small CLI or GUI tool that could be handed a single file and hand me back an encrypted version would be useful. I've done some googling, but all I typically turn up is blogspam about random Windows-only tools that seem to be of dubious quality.

      Anyone know of a good tool for this type of thing?

      9 votes
    2. What are some examples of "unrelated siblings"?

      This question isn't about people so much as it is about anything else. It's hard to explain outright, so I'll use an example: A few months ago I read Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven. I just...

      This question isn't about people so much as it is about anything else. It's hard to explain outright, so I'll use an example:

      A few months ago I read Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven. I just finished with Ling Ma's Severance. The two books are completely unrelated but feel very, very close to one another. There are a lot of topical similarities: both portray a global pandemic, a lead female character, and narrative shifts between pre- and post-societal collapse, etc. However, more than that, both feel very tonally similar. I couldn't read Severance without constantly thinking of and comparing it to Station Eleven, and I think I liked both books better together than I did either of them on their own. Even though they're clearly different and written by different people, they very much feel like they come from the same family -- like they're unrelated siblings.

      I'm curious as to what other examples people can come up with, in whatever category you consider: media, historical events, languages, etc. Anything goes as long as they have a familial resemblance.

      9 votes
    3. Daily thread for news/updates/discussion of George Floyd protests - June 14

      This thread is posted daily - please try to post relevant content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Especially significant updates may warrant a separate topic, but most...

      This thread is posted daily - please try to post relevant content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Especially significant updates may warrant a separate topic, but most should be posted here.

      12 votes
    4. Helping or harming? The effect of trigger warnings on individuals with trauma histories.

      Publication: Helping or Harming? The Effect of Trigger Warnings on Individuals with Trauma Histories. Pre-print version (for people, like me, who don't have access to the published version):...

      Publication: Helping or Harming? The Effect of Trigger Warnings on Individuals with Trauma Histories.

      Pre-print version (for people, like me, who don't have access to the published version): https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334380654_Helping_or_Harming_The_Effect_of_Trigger_Warnings_on_Individuals_with_Trauma_Histories

      11 votes
    5. How to keep my cake from getting crumbly

      The month of May brings my birthday and wedding anniversary, so we usually end up making a cake or two. We don't usually do anything fancy. Usually a store-made cake. But this year with the...

      The month of May brings my birthday and wedding anniversary, so we usually end up making a cake or two. We don't usually do anything fancy. Usually a store-made cake. But this year with the pandemic, we ended up just getting some boxed cakes - Betty Crocker, Duncan Hines. Those sorts of things.

      The problem is that they call for eggs and I'm allergic to egg yolks. (Not egg whites, oddly enough - just egg yolks.) So I've found some egg substitute. It works pretty well considering there's no egg in it. But I've found that when I use it in cakes, sometimes they turn out just fine, and other times they end up falling apart.

      I know that eggs can be used for flavor, as a rising agent, as a binder, etc. but it's not clear to me how to tell which thing it's being used for in a given recipe. So my question is, in the case of a cake, are there other things I could substitute for egg yolks? The stuff I'm using has potato starch, baking powder, and psyllium husks. I guess the baking powder handles the rising aspect and the psyllium husks are probably like a binder? Are there other things I could be using?

      6 votes
    6. Daily thread for news/updates/discussion of George Floyd protests - June 13

      This thread is posted daily - please try to post relevant content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Especially significant updates may warrant a separate topic, but most...

      This thread is posted daily - please try to post relevant content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Especially significant updates may warrant a separate topic, but most should be posted here.

      13 votes
    7. Poetry analysis/appreciation request - Morning, by Frank O'Hara

      I'm an undoubted pleb when it comes to just about everything artistic (with the exception of music, in which I have impeccable taste). A while back, I suggested I'd be interested in seeing some...

      I'm an undoubted pleb when it comes to just about everything artistic (with the exception of music, in which I have impeccable taste). A while back, I suggested I'd be interested in seeing some critique or general discussion of already-known or published poetry, if only so I could get others' opinions on things that usually go over my head. This is an effort to get the ball rolling, with a poem that is one of my favorites.

      Also, I'm not sure if this belongs here or in ~arts, please classify as appropriate.


      Morning - Frank O'Hara

      I've got to tell you
      how I love you always
      I think of it on grey
      mornings with death

      in my mouth the tea
      is never hot enough
      then and the cigarette
      dry the maroon robe

      chills me I need you
      and look out the window
      at the noiseless snow

      At night on the dock
      the buses glow like
      clouds and I am lonely
      thinking of flutes

      I miss you always
      when I go to the beach
      the sand is wet with
      tears that seem mine

      although I never weep
      and hold you in my
      heart with a very real
      humor you'd be proud of

      the parking lot is
      crowded and I stand
      rattling my keys the car
      is empty as a bicycle

      what are you doing now
      where did you eat your
      lunch and were there
      lots of anchovies it

      is difficult to think
      of you without me in
      the sentence you depress
      me when you are alone

      Last night the stars
      were numerous and today
      snow is their calling
      card I'll not be cordial

      there is nothing that
      distracts me music is
      only a crossword puzzle
      do you know how it is

      when you are the only
      passenger if there is a
      place further from me
      I beg you do not go

      7 votes