To add onto your already excellent answer, another reason that going vegan for purely health reasons doesn’t make sense is that, as you said, veganism isn’t a diet. Or more specifically, the ethical stance that is veganism includes more considerations than just food. Someone that eats plant based foods only may not care about things like leather or other animal products that they may use on a daily basis that aren’t part of their diet. That person wouldn’t be vegan, but rather simply eating a plant based diet. I don’t mean to be pedantic but that is the distinction between being vegan and eating a plant based diet and there is no reason to be entirely vegan for health reasons alone unless you want to take it to the extreme and say that you don’t use animal products like leather because the animal agriculture industry creates pandemics and contributes significantly towards global warming. Despite those being perfectly valid (and important) reasons to be vegan I think that it’s a bit of a stretch to call those personal health reasons.

I’d also just like to add that nutritional yeast is a great source of vitamin B12 and is naturally vegan.

https://youtu.be/zHbv2YQ6yF4

Good video covering the incident in detail

Thank you. That’s about what I suspected. And an email may not technically be a paywall but imo if they’re going to sell it or even just use it to spam me with shit that’s just another form of payment. I could make a fake email address or something but honestly I’m not going to go through all of that for what seems like a clearly shitty article from that parts that I can see.

Paywall link + no context given as to what actually occurred other than someone claiming that they are being silenced. That very well may be true but without more context I can’t make that determination. It may also well be true that the claims by the DoJ are true and that the narrator of this article is an unreliable narrator.

If you want me to think or feel a particular way then don’t lock the article behind a paywall and give actual context so that I can come to my own conclusions.

That is one of the most disgusting websites I’ve ever seen. If you’re reading this please don’t click the link.

What you’re referring to are legal classifications that prevent discrimination in very specific circumstances such as when applying for a job. When someone decides to make fun of vegans they absolutely DO NOT think to themselves “is that a legally protected class? No? Okay, I’m in the clear.” This reasoning is blatantly incorrect.

If this were the actual reason then why do people also discriminate against groups that are protected classes like women? The answer is because we aren’t in a court. We are talking about social values, not legal ones. Despite how much of a fucking asshole it would make someone to be misogynistic in their daily life there is nothing preventing them from doing so other than the fear of being outcast by their peers. It only becomes illegal in very specific circumstances.

I can’t speak for the people that made the community but I don’t think that places like this are necessarily made by vegans for vegans as you describe. Personally I can attest that it’s just extremely frustrating to be made to feel like an out group in the ONE community where you shouldn’t be made to feel like that. I personally welcome nonvegans to participate in discussion so long as they come with the understanding that they are a guest in our community and should respect the community as such which does include taking care to not come across as tone deaf. I’m not religious and in fact actively oppose religion but if I found myself at a church for whatever reason I’m not going to go in there and start a bunch of arguments and whatnot. I would be respectful because I understand that going to their place of worship and causing a commotion is uncalled for and doesn’t benefit anyone. To be clear, I’m not trying to say that veganism is a religion because it is not and it is not viewed in the same way as religion is by its followers. I am merely using the analogy to illustrate how you should act when going into a community that you are not a part of.

If someone is going to browse all then they should be aware that they are entering different communities and be respectful of those communities. If they are disrespectful, whether it is a result of being unaware or just not caring, in my opinion that should warrant an immediate ban pending a demonstration of understanding and admission that what they did was wrong. Unfortunately even that might not make a noticeable difference since many of the disrespectful people are probably not repeat posters. Beyond that the only thing that I’m aware of that could really be done is making the community private which is obviously not ideal. Perhaps there could exist some middle ground of a community not being private but also not appearing on all but I’m unaware of if that’s possible or if it would even be any better in practice.

In my experience it is not NEARLY as prevalent as when someone learns that you are vegan or finds out about vegan communities and whatnot. People make countless memes about vegans for example, but when was the last time you saw a meme about someone choosing to eat Halal? Because to my knowledge there is no scientific study on the different experiences of these groups it is impossible to talk about this topic in any way that isn’t anecdotal but for what it’s worth I have been all over the US and the anecdotal experience that I have had is so overwhelming that I refuse to believe someone is arguing in good faith if they are claiming that, for example, someone eating Halal has even a remotely similar experience to that of vegans.

My guess is that this is because people tend to associate other dietary or lifestyle decisions as being just a different way to live. Like oh, that person is Muslim or Jewish and that influences their diet. And they don’t take that as a personal judgement anymore than they do when they learn that that person is Muslim or Jewish to begin with. But with veganism it is usually not something that a person is raised into. It is a decision that that person has made after learning more about the animal agriculture industry and it is usually for ethical reasons primarily. Not because a religious book told them to. Therefore they hear that someone is vegan and are instantly defensive in a way that isn’t true with halal, kosher, etc.

“The researchers found that Sky was also reminiscent of other Hollywood stars, including Anne Hathaway and Keri Russell. The analysis of Sky often rated Hathaway and Russell as being even more similar to the AI than Johansson.”

Did you block it before or after taking the time out of your day to post this useless comment? And can you show me on the doll where it hurts?

I agree that those people need to understand her point the most and that they likely won’t even if they did hear it unedited but even the people who are already on her side like myself still need to hear it. Not because we don’t already understand what she’s saying but because it shows that we haven’t given up yet.

(Not who you replied to) I think they might be more concerned about the possibility of Trump being in power than the litigation being shelved as a result.

I don’t think she’s really talking to them or expecting them to suddenly admit what they are doing and change their actions. I feel like she’s moreso talking to the American people. I know personally it at least gives me a modicum of hope to see that there are still people who will stand up for what’s right and call them out on the floor of Congress. It’s certainly better than living in a world where no one challenges them anyway.

There are tons of great content creators in the coffee world. One of the one’s that I felt I learned a lot from in the beginning especially was Lance Hedrick. Here’s a shorter overview sort of video that will help a lot to get started (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohzsOjkYf5M). And a slightly longer more in depth guide that he’s made as well (https://youtu.be/kVEvII6YalE?si=1VZG48hkWNszD-kN). Emilee Bryant is another great content creator that makes similar videos.

As far as what equipment you need goes, it sounds like you probably have everything you need to get started. I don’t know what the milk jug looks like that comes with that machine or if it even does or if you’re using it, but I will say that I think that having a quality milk pitcher can make your life easier. That’s not to say that you can’t use what you have because you almost certainly can. But if you’re looking for cheap ways to improve your setup that might be where I would start but again, it is almost certainly unnecessary to see improvement. Ultimately, making latte art is just something that you have to practice. Where the videos and advice from other people comes into play is knowing how to practice. But you’re still going to have to put in the work.

Some general advice that I can give: latte art is a result of many small variables all being controlled at once. Some of the variables have a smaller impact on the final product and others are much more crucial to focus on, especially in the beginning. Knowing what went wrong and how to fix it is a skill all on it’s own, but in order to get to that point, first you have to even be aware of what those variables are. Some of the big ones off of the top of my head that I think would be good to focus on as a beginner

-Milk texture: If you don’t have good milk texture it will be much harder or potentially impossible to make art. There are plenty of videos talking about how to steam milk and what good texture looks like for latte art. I would recommend looking that up if you are interested in learning more about that. In fact, as a beginner I would say that you should really put most of your effort into working on this before anything else. Here’s a video on the topic to get you started (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTC3dJvwgUI)

-Spout proximity: When you are adding your initial milk to the espresso before you start your art you want the pitcher to be high up so that the milk builds up speed from the fall and sinks below the surface and incorporates with the espresso to make your drink. When you start your art you want the pitcher to be very close (think approximately 1 cm) to the surface of the drink so that you can gently “place” the foam on top and it doesn’t have time to pick up speed and fall through. I see many beginners try to make art with the spout of their pitcher way too high and no design appears as a result. In fact, if you place a blob of foam down first and then intentionally lift your pitcher up, you can actually sink that blob of foam.

-Flow rate: the velocity of the milk coming out of the pitcher at various stages of the pour is an important factor in your art. I won’t go into how and when and why you should be pouring faster or slower since it’s honestly really not the thing to focus on now and there are plenty of videos that could do a better job anyway. Just be aware of flow rate as a concept and notice how flow rate affects the way the milk behaves in different situations.

-Timing: This is a bit of a broad category, but generally speaking, there are several critical moments when pouring latte art that we should be thinking about. First of all, when you let milk sit in the pitcher the foam will start to separate from the more dense liquid. We don’t want that. So as a general rule of thumb, once you’ve steamed your milk you should be trying to keep it moving by swirling it in the pitcher to prevent that separation. What you described as “a blob circle of foam that pours into the cup at the very end” could very well be caused by letting it separate before pouring. What happens when you do that is the liquid all comes out first and only at the end does the foam come out. It could also be a milk texture issue or spout proximity issue though. Once you’ve actually started pouring, knowing when to stop incorporating milk and to start your art is very important too. If you do it too soon, you won’t have added much foam in the cup yet and the design will flow across the surface of the mug like water and hit the far wall. If you do it too late the foam will be stiff and you won’t have much room left in the cup meaning you will have a hard time getting any momentum at all, causing a small design.

Anyway… I’m done rambling now I suppose, lol. Apologies for the wall of text. To summarize, you don’t need any more equipment to see improvement. I would focus on milk texture as a pretty high priority, but also at least start thinking about these other things as you’re pouring even if you can’t control every variable at first (hint: you won’t be able to and that’s okay). At least that way you have something to actually think about and ask yourself afterwards, “was the milk too foamy? did it separate too much? how was my spout proximity? did I start my art too early/late?” etc.

Good luck!

I’d also add that I wish Spotify paid the musicians better. Even relative to other platforms Spotify is pretty bad about that. Of course if you want to support the musician it’s always better to buy merch and music and stuff directly from them, but that isn’t really an excuse for streaming platforms to pay them so poorly. And I’m not suggesting that Spotify should just give the musician everything of course. They should get their cut too. But perhaps something even slightly more reasonable would be appreciated.

I don’t even want to win any fight anymore. I don’t want to use Reddit regardless of what they do with the API anymore. The API changes and the way that they have reacted to the backlash is just the straw that broke the camel’s back. And even if they revert all of the changes it’s too late to take back the way they’ve acted.

Same. Just did it today. I’ve also been on reddit since the beginning and I’m done.