Basically, market research for japanese bakeries determined that a) they sell more breads and pastries the more different varieties they have, and b) japanese bakery customers prefer items which are not wrapped, because individually wrapped things give the impression of being like, preserved or something instead of fresh and good I guess? So the obvious solution is to sell as many different kinds of unwrapped breads and pastries as you can.
But! In actual practice, that’s a nightmare. No packaging means no barcodes to scan, so the cashier needs to know all like 200 different (often very similar) items by heart and add them up manually, which means training new employees is a slow and painful process and customer service in general suffers badly. And having a person handle all those un-packaged foodstuffs to count them or examine them, in addition to being slow and clumsy, is unsanitary as fuck.
So one bakery chain owner approached this computer guy in 2007 asking for a system to automate the checkout process. It took five years and the company barely survived a financial crisis in the middle, but long story short they developed a highly specialized AI that will look at the pile of bread a customer picked out and automatically identify everything, tally it up, and charge them correctly, while the live cashier is free to make small talk or help people out or whatever. The whole process is simple, fast, sanitary, and pleasant for customers and employees alike, and to an outsider it looks like fucking magical bullshit.
But then in 2017 a doctor saw an ad for this bakery scanning system and it occurred to him that cells under a microscope don’t look all that different from weird loaves of bread. And it turns out that yeah, you can use almost all of the same code to analyze a tissue sample and pick out any potentially cancerous cells in it. Other people have started buying the same program for everything from analyzing the readout from big physics experiments to labeling charms and amulets for sale at shrines to detecting problems in the wiring on jet engines.
It makes me so happy to think that maybe Din Djarin is a legend in the Outer Rim. This silver-armoured cryptid that will occasionally emerge from nowhere to save your village or fist-fight a TIE fighter.
Mostly because of what that means for the Darksaber and his connection to Famous Luke Skywalker.
It’s like. What if King Arthur reappeared with Excalibur in hand, but actually he’s Mothman, and at some point he started co-parenting a secret elf baby with Taylor Swift.
What does galactic society even DO with someone like that?
1. The most important clues may be in the background!
In the Rider Waite Smith deck, many cards show a figure with a number of significant items behind his or her back. What happens behind one’s back is, for oneself, something unseen, shadowy, something to which one has no conscious access. This could point to the idea that the figure in the foreground is unaware of the nature or scope of their issues. You can’t grasp what you cannot see, and that can reveal a lot about the nature of the card’s meaning.
2. The color of the sky reveals a lot!
Again referencing the Rider Waite Smith deck, the color of the sky on a given card often leads to a simple but important clue for its interpretation.
3. Pay close attention to proportions!
In the image of the Four of Wands, the figures are depicted much smaller than is the case in other images; they fall short. Or perhaps they are of normal height and are painted so small in order to emphasize the comparatively huge size of the wands. This sort of thing can be found in many other cards.
4. Court cards represent developed personalities or facets of oneself!
The Queen: impulsive, an initiator, an investigator (water type)
The King: thorough, intensive, consolidating (fire type)
The Knight: magnifying, expanding, a drawer of consequences (air type)
The Page: makes something tangible out of or with the element in question (earth type)
4. Pay attention to numbers!
Numerology can play a big role in your interpretations of the cards, especially in the Minor Arcana:
Ones (Aces): Something new with vast potential is indicated when you have many aces in your readings. They are pure energy without form - and it depends on you to shape it and bring the opportunities that they represent into fruition. Because they are raw, they are also unstable, and can very quickly overwhelm if not taking care.
Twos: Coming together in pairs is the theme of the twos, and all the complexities that this union represents. We leave the individuality of the ones, and the twos are a taste of union.
Threes: Group dynamics rule the threes in the tarot, and they depict different outcomes that can occur when a group comes together - whether they are groups of individuals, or groups of ideas. Because it is also symbolically thought of as completion (the first polygon, the holy trinity, etc) it also indicates an initial completion of a first phase of some sort.
Fours: The fours usually indicate that some foundation has been created and is ready to grow and evolve. To grow and evolve is the key here, because though the foundation is created, there is some disappointment indicated sometimes because things may not have progressed entirely as hoped for - thus, the fours are also the universe’s way of pushing us to grow and move forward.
Fives: Change, fluctuations and conflict are represented by the fives. After the fours, the fives are amplifications of that same energy. When that energy explodes, the fives ask us to look within ourselves for a deeper reason of why to progress. To move forward and beyond these instabilities, we have to push forward.
Sixes: While the fives represent conflict, the sixes represent the movement away from that conflict into a solution, whether they are internal or external, whether that means reconciliation or letting go. They are the cards of overcoming suffering, light after the dark.
Sevens: When seeing many sevens in a reading it usually indicates that it is a time to step back and introspect. The sevens ask us to assess, and reevaluate whether the path that you are taking is what is best for you. Sometimes this is a lonely pursuit, but this period is needed to go forward with your authentic desires.
Eights: A completion of a second phase is indicated with the eights, and usually corresponds to some sort of achievement, whether in the worldly sense, or in an emotional sense. Growth either way is indicated here, and sometimes it can take place in a form where we least expected it.
Nines: Nearing completion is indicated by the nines, and this can take the form of entering a plateau of some sort. What looks like the finish line, may actually be just a transitory stage. While the feeling of completion is here, it is usually just a pause before the final part of the cycle comes.
Tens: In the tens, we see the actual completion of the cycle, that something has come to a full circle - it indicates that from this point forward, we can move towards a new beginning.
✨🔮✨
Sources: Biddytarot, The Ultimate Guide to the Rider Waite Tarot by Johannes Fiebig and Evelin Burger, Understanding Tarot by Liz Dean
Batman’s reasons for not killing the Joker, rated by someone who’s never read a Batman comic
“Because it would make him just as evil”
Bad. Flawed logic. Stopping a serial killer who refuses to be rehabilitated from continuing to kill means that fewer people die in the long run. Killing one (1) Joker > letting the Joker kill many (∞) innocent people. 2/10
“Because he’s too weak”
Even worse! Having read none of the comics nor seen any of the adaptations I can’t prove this, but I’m willing to bet that at some point in the comics Batman has had the Joker on the edge and it’s only his stubbornness that stopped the dude from dying. Batman’s choice has to be a choice to be interesting, you know? 0/10
“Because it’s a slippery slope of death”
I see this, and I’m ambivalent. Batman surrounds himself with people who keep him morally in check (the Robins, the Justice League), and if he started killing criminals indiscriminately I’m pretty sure someone would say something. An intervention would be held. Probably Alfred would bake something. 4/10
“Because it’s what the Joker wants him to do”
Now we’re getting somewhere! The Joker attempting to use Batman’s violence to make a point about the inherently corrupt nature of humanity is a plot worth pursuing! Batman’s stalwart decency & self-control is his true superpower! It could be sexier, but I’ll jive with it! 7/10
“Because it would be the easy way out”
WEAK. This is worse than all the other bad reasons put together. Not even worth dignifying with an explanation of why it sucks. See Reason #1.-10/10
“Because Batman insists on honoring the justice system instead of appointing himself sole arbiter & executor of justice”
Now THIS is a motivation I can get behind. A complex Lawful Good vigilante hero? Yes, please. Even though Gotham’s criminal justice system is probably corrupt—and at the very least, blatantly ineffective—Batman refuses to undermine its citizens’ right to self-governance just to make his job simpler. I’ve heard he also donates a ton of money to help cure Gotham’s corruption from the ground up? That’s rad!!! Yeah, he’s a filthy capitalist, but at least he’s not taking the death penalty into his own hands. 10/10
“Because it would put Batman out of business”
This one has no grounds in canon but I’m including it because I think it’s fun! Batman is a business-savvy fellow, he knows how supply and demand work. Maybe he just really likes cosplaying as a big ol’ bat! 8/10
firebending or waterbending? airbending or earthbending? avatar roku or avatar kyoshi? boomerang or space sword? ba sing se or omashu? mai or ty lee? be a kyoshi warrior or be a bender? comics and lok or atla purist? appa or momo? was jet right or wrong? fire nation army or the dai li? haru or teo? “my first girlfriend turned into the moon” or “that’s rough buddy”?
in my humble opinion, the most beautiful thing abt love is the effort. like the one that doesn’t even feel like effort, just deliberate action motivated by pure love and desire to make another person happy. making conscious choices in favour of that person, taking your time to create special moments and rituals, distance nor time notwithstanding
