Himal Kotelawala

Writer. Former Deputy Editor at @EconomyNext, Senior Assistant Editor @himalistan. Bylines: @nytimes @TIME @NewStatesman @FT_SriLanka @Roarlk & @TimesOnlineLK

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

Paint me like one of your French toasts.

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

I can't imagine there'll be an audience for this, but then I see the millions of views AI slop gets on a daily basis.

[Bloomberg @business]

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s streaming platform JioStar is planning a slate of series that would be written, animated, voiced and edited entirely by AI. They're also planning to hire 80 AI specialists and engineers for the push. https://t.co/JVch69YhYq

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

Star Wars always had a scale problem. I've always ignored it but never did like how small the galaxy feels. Entire planets feel no bigger than a big city or sometimes a small town. Most, if not all, planets are single-climate. Worst of all, everybody knows each other.

[Everything Price Sufferer (but especially eggs) @agraybee]

Give me your best Star Wars nitpicks. No reasonable criticisms or analysis, I'm talking real pedantic here.

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

So many questions.

Why are they being commended for doing their job?
Who is doing the commending?
Why is this news?

[NewsWire 🇱🇰 @NewsWireLK]

Two police officers attached to the Bentota Police Station have been commended for returning a mobile phone worth approximately Rs. 150,000 to its rightful owner after finding it on the Bentota Bridge.

D: https://t.co/LduekV6DAR

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

And the award for the dumbest robbery of all time goes to...

[DailyMirror @Dailymirror_SL]

Three suspects arrested following shocking robbery of PickMe driver
Read More - https://t.co/OMa6TyTyyN

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

Every time I think I'm finally done with Star Wars, they reel me right back in. Ten solid episodes of excellent writing, breathtaking animation and darker, more mature themes that elevate the animated galaxy to a level almost on par with Andor. 9/10

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

I can't explain it -- and I'm about 90% sure this isn't nostalgia or romanticising the past -- but Vesak used to feel much more grand, and larger in scale in the late '90s. Something changed towards the end of CBK's first term. Not anything her government did. Just organically.

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

No power in Boralesgamuwa for nearly two hours now. What's going on?

[eranga tennakoon @erangatennakoon]

In Pannipitiya, we don't have power now.

Where else?

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

We need to once for all dispense with the myth of the "Colombo liberal". There is no such thing. Talk to them for half an hour and you'll find that so many of the so-called Colombo elite hold some of the most illiberal views known to man.

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

There is no legal, moral, ethical or even spiritual justification for child ordination. A person that's too young for the vote is too young for the robe.

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

බෞද්ධ (හෝ ක්‍රිස්තියානි, හෝ ඉස්ලාමි, හෝ හින්දු) විරෝධී කියන්නෙ එකක්, ආගම් විරෝධී කියන්නෙ තව එකක්, ආගමික සංස්ථාවට එරෙහිවීම කියන්නෙ තවත් එකක්. ගොඩක් ආගමික උදවිය මේ තුන පටල ගන්නවා.

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

This government may be the most incompetent in recent memory, but you should be in no rush to send them home. You can quickly convince yourself of this if you spend 20 minutes watching opposition-aligned news.

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

Something unsettling about ending up an extra in a stranger's selfie. Your entire existence reduced to a pixelated blur as you move through a frame that contains someone else's moment.

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

There is nothing that I can say about this book that will do it justice, except perhaps that it is the closest thing I have read to a perfect novel. The easiest five stars I have ever had to give.

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

The govt can try and weasel out of this one of two ways: 1) spin the narrative that they've facilitated institutional independence and are simply letting law enforcement do its job, and 2) resort to the tried-and-tested whatboutism tactic and demand why the opposition is quiet.

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

සිවුරට බයේ වෙව්ලන මහ ලොකු ප්‍රගතිශීලි ආණ්ඩුව.

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

My politics is whatever my tuk guy's is.

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

Help keep the dollar in check by not spending data and electricity to go online and complain about the dollar.

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

What would actually happen if two sitting heads of state were to fall in love? Legal marriage is probably impossible, but have international law experts ever entertained the possibility of a romance? What about an affair? Sexting, etc. What would be the geopolitical implications?

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

Iceman is a decent album; Janice STFU is a banger. People are missing out on good music because of a dumb beef.

[Himal Kotelawala @himalkk]

For a lot of middle class people in the south who aren't disabled veterans or immediate family members of the fallen, May 18 is just an excuse to perform patriotism and assuage a certain guilt that they sat idly by as their leaders fed underprivileged youth to the war machine.