Bright_Thorn

This piece is called Neon American Anthem bu indigenous artist Nicholas Galanin “to mourn the loss of lives, freedoms, and safety for people and lands subjected to American violence, and to protest continuing oppression.”

Text below the line to make it easier to read!

The white man does not understand. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a wanderer who comes in the night and borrows from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has won the struggle, he moves on. He leaves his fathers' graves behind, and he does not care. He kidnaps the earth from his children. And he does not care. The father's graves and the children's birthright are forgotten by the white man, who treats his mother and the earth and his brother the sky as things to be bought, plundered, and sold, like sheep, bread, or bright beads. In this way, the dogs of appetite will devour the rich earth and leave only a desert.

Scientists in China have developed a more efficient form of solar desalination that uses 47.4% less energy than alternatives. After the first year of testing, the scientists believe that at scale it would be able to desalinate water more cheaply than producing bottled water.

The pairs are randomized for the same purpose. We randomized these but then got them wrong, so they were randomized twice.

Feel free to suggest next tournament themes in the asks.

Our first tournament focused on our contenders' shitposting abilities and proclivities. The second one is dedicated to cats.

admin: @marroniere

Most Likely to Adopt a Tooka?

We had two themes that got the most votes: Most Likely to Become a Meme (Derogatory) and Most Likely to Adopt a Tooka.

To avoid making two Holonet-related tournaments in a row, we would like to focus on something fluffy and purring this time. Let's save the memes for the third tournament!

First Place: Orson Krennic

Second Place: Saw Gerrera

Third Place: Perrin Fertha

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS

"The hat is customizable," he said, struggling with the velcro patch on the front. "If I need it, I have an ICE one too. I pick based off the business i walk into."

"Customizable is an important hat descriptor," I said. "what can I get you?"

"You wouldn't believe how offended people get these days," he said. "And I'm supposed to do something about it if you're offended? You chose to be offended!"

"We all have hundreds of thousands of decisions everyday," I said. I thickened my accent. "That's what my stepdad always said. But I can make one easier - we have a delicious Ethiopian roast available."

"Like if I told you you have a bull ring," he said, "because bulls have rings in their noses. Is that offensive?"

I laughed. "I've heard that before."

"It's a joke, but people get offended. Maybe you're offended."

I looked at him. I smiled. "You aren't trying to offend me though, right?"

Of course he was. I was being friendly and the friendlier I was, the faster he switched topics. He was saying anything inflammatory he could think of to see if I'd take the bait. After about 20 minutes of my redirecting and deescalating, he settled into a more normal interaction. He took up too much of my time showing me a product I'd feigned mild interest in to get him to stop talking about getting accused of inappropriate behavior at work. When we finally disengaged, he spent 10 minutes trying to catch my eye again. When he failed, he left.

There's this new breed of customer who insists on trying to incite political conversation through their clothing and, when that doesnt work, their snide little comments. If I owned my own business, maybe I would have given the guy the fight he wanted. But I work for a corporation and I love paying my bills so I deescalated.