I do like the idea of her being some kind of traveler better than being sacrificed as a fixed point guardian.
But then that commitment to be frozen as a perpetual guardian what makes her sacrifice meaningful.
My problem is that the episode was written from Pike’s perspective rather than Batel’s so that we heard her telling Pike what she was going to to and why rather than seeing that process of acceptance and noble sacrifice from her side.
I find that I need to do some other activity while listening to podcasts. Often it’s a puzzle game or other phone activity that doesn’t require unbroken concentration.
But the quality of the sound and voiceovers or voice acting is really crucial to holding my attention.
In this case, it’s really unfortunate that Sonja Cassidy was cast as Dr. Lear. Or, perhaps it’s just unfortunate that she was asked to use an American accent. While some actors can maintain the quality of their performances in another accent, there are British actors who end up with muddy enunciation or less credible performances even if the accent is fine.
Cassidy’s performance as Dr. Lear sounds more like reading than acting for much of the opening minutes. Alternately, her expression, when it does happen, seems artificial. The unpolished performance is all the more noticeable in contrast to the excellent performances by George Takei as Sulu, Tim Russ as Tuvok and Wrenn Schmidt as Marla McGiver, and even the brief interjections of chair of the review committee are more compelling.
Given how many lines she’s given in the opening minutes as the framing story sets the stage, it’s truly unfortunate.
Perhaps all Flint needed was to surround himself with a lot of genuine Earth artifacts (not replicated) to ensure that he had the necessary isotopes or quantum signatures or whatever that Lanthanites need to retain their longevity.
Actually, most campaigns send out a collection team in the day after election day to take down the big sign as well as signs put up on public property. They also typically pick them up from lawns as requested.
Some will wait a day or two to celebrate the win but sign pickup
Most candidates keep the signs from one campaign to another. It takes a while for new signs to be printed at the beginning of a campaign. So, using old signs means getting signs up in the early days before your opponents and saving costs.
The production values are sufficiently high that it makes me think it might actually be from an episode to come.
Perhaps because there’s a big dose of misogyny intertwined with the critique of American Exceptionalism.
Think about how the song would play with genders reversed.
Also, you don’t want to be looking to log into dodgy wifi when travelling with a burner phone to another country.
Physical guides are more secure and don’t require downloading to a burner device.
I believe one or two of the new senators have joined Mastodon as well but haven’t seen much from them yet.
Parksville is likely far more commercial and developed than you recall.
But the beaches remain.
Here are some suggestions with a kids lens:
Vancouver Island
get mid Island then over to the west coast
Parksville - large sandy beaches to dig in
ferry to Denman Island and then to Hornsby Island - fossils! https://hornbynaturalhistory.com/category/fossils/
Qualicum Beach - gravelly and lots of seniors, but a great place to see bald eagles picking up clams and oysters, dropping them to break them open and diving to eat.
Cathedral grove on Hwy to Port Alberni, accessible old growth forest
Alberni - old forestry interpretation site with a logging train in the Cherry Creek area
Drive to Tofino - an adventure in itself
Long Beach
whale watching
If you go to Vancouver, many of the classic stops are worth it
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Mapping and confirming the existence of a system larger than the world renowned Castleguard Cave system is the story here.
Did I miss the actual Protostar announcement?
Well, there was something of the kind of CANZUK sharing earlier. But that included SA and India in a kind of outer layer with less complete access.
There’s absolutely no incentive to log in to YouTube now that subscriptions and bells do nothing to control your feed. End stage enshittification.
I do know about the latter. Knew some folks that taught there.
Few courses are taught by tenured faculty at the Ivies. Junior faculty have to justify final grades, PhD students and sessional have to justify any grades lower than B- on any assignment.
Coupling that with the ‘legacy admissions’ where children of alumni have a lower bar to admission, anyone with a B- average has a questionable degree.
No matter how good their programs are, for the lowers tier of students, they’re just institutions of transmitted privilege. Which is why the complaints about DEI mechanisms to balance that are so suspect.
I wasn’t aware whether UPenn was on the same system but it’s a huge thing for private universities reliant on tuition fees and big alumni donations.
It’s interesting how California is shutting down the practice of legacy admissions, and Stanford and USC are feeling the sting.
But Trump was able to graduate?
Is Wharton one of those US schools (like Harvard) where anyone lower than a tenured professor has to write justifications to file anytime they give a student less than a B-?
Both Trump and Musk have degrees from the supposedly reputable Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
If these two are evidence of their quality of graduates, it really raises questions about whether it was another US institution where ‘legacy’ and money buy admissions and it’s impossible not to graduate.
You can join communities on other instances too if you have specific interests.
Discovery is fine overall.
It may not be everyone’s favourite Trek but NO SINGLE SHOW IS EVERYONE’S FAVOURITE.
I’m stooping to yelling because, looking at it as someone who saw TOS in first run, it really can’t be stressed enough that there needs to be new Trek for every generation.
I didn’t expect that our GenZ kids would like Voyager best of the older shows.
And yes, for one of our GenZs, Discovery season one is ‘the best season of Trek’ ever. They have rewatched all the seasons of the show more than I have.
Discovery season 5 was fine in my view. I wasn’t fond of the series tacked on to the finale.
Season 4 of Discovery has a better premise and structure than Picard season 2 but both seem to suffer terribly from being shot under COVID restrictions. Other shows managed to write around the limitations without such stilted and drawn own scenes. I don’t know what Paramount instructed its writers teams be it’s boggling to see these seasons against the rest now.