Much as I like Avery Brooks, he never got a handle on the Sisko character until he shaved and went back to being Hawk but with a son. They should have let him do that from the beginning.

Holy crap. I have Tidal on my phone and Plex at home. I didnt know I could connect them. Thank you!

Lower Decks is stuffed full of funny references to other Treks and specific episodes. Being an incurable Star Trek geek I get all or most of them and it’s part of the fun. That said, all of those references are treated as throwaway lines and aren’t important to the story, so I think it’d still be a good show if you miss those. It might even be more fun when you later watch that one TNG episode and go, “oh that’s what they were talking about”. Either way I recommend Lower Decks. It manages to be silly and fun while not mistreating Trek or its characters.

I might have been in a bad mood when I read it, but I just remember it as not as good as the originals. I think it was just rushed out.

Of course. And if the parents dress them in that and keep them isolated the kids will pass that on to the next generation. If the kids go to school and see there are other options, maybe they’ll choose to be different when they’re independent or raise their kids differently. This is why cults always seek to isolate their members – exposure to diversity breaks the cycle.

He’s the male Gwyneth Paltrow selling brain pills instead of Goop. He promotes alt-right and far-right conspiracies. He told people not to get the COVID vaccine. If he just interviewed people – even people from all sides – I’d be fine with it. Problem is he promotes dangerous conspiracies and usually ignores fact checking. He’s using his influence and authority to do harm. And worst of all, I think he just does it for the ratings.

I don’t know the law in France, but I’d worry it’ll cause religious parents to just keep their kids out of state school and do some form of private religious education, causing a greater divide. The best counter to these attitudes is exposure to diversity and other viewpoints. Maybe the kids going to school and seeing that there are other ways is better.

Yeah I didn’t hate the premise, it just felt rushed and incomplete. It’s kind of like I went to a lunch place where I’ve had a lot of good meals but today I got a basket of cold fries with too little salt.

Although they did meet one race more advanced.

Yeah it’s not great writing but it’s fun so I’m cool with it. Fourth book should not have happened though.

Sure, but on a per delivery basis that should be like $1.00? And yes, they need to make a profit, so the fee should be $1.10?

Yep. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Magnificent_Ferengi_(episode)

As an aside, Iggy Pop as a Vorta was freaking great. He just looked so done and irritated with everyone the whole time. Great example of having the one straight man in the middle of a comedy.

The idea of donating alternative posters has already been tried and that particular school board just ignored the issue: https://www.npr.org/2022/08/31/1120239381/texas-in-god-we-trust-arabic-signs-chaz-stevens I’m sure they’d treat a donation of 100s of posters the same way.

And as I (not a lawyer) read the law it only says that a poster has to be displayed in each building and has to be donated or purchased with donated funds: https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/billtext/html/SB00797I.htm so I don’t think you as an administrator would get away with plastering up hundreds of posters around your school, but let’s say you did. The parents will complain to you AND the school board (i.e. your boss). They’ll say you’re making fun of their religion, you’re a communist, etc. Even if they law was unambiguously on your side, they’ll only see what they want to see. You’ll find your chances of promotion to be zero, or you’ll just be managed out. Even if the Board somehow agreed with you, you made a stink.

I have friends who are teachers and administrators, not in Texas, who have left or been kicked over lesser issues. The rest are looking forward to retirement.

These bozos passing these laws don’t understand irony. They just want misdirection, conformity, and compliant kids. We just need to directly tell them to fuck off at this point.

I’m sorry for my continued Very Seriousness.

Yeah, I don’t read it as “must display every poster”. It says it has to be displayed in a prominent place in each building and that it has to be donated or purchased with donated funds. https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/billtext/html/SB00797I.htm

No. They’re not interested in playing fair or being consistent. They’ll simply warp the rules to fit their outcome and declare these posters noncomplaint. You can’t out-maneuver people who simply cheat.

The assholes on that side of things are a mixture of those who actually believe and want the US to be a religious state, and those who simply are using religion as a method of control. That second group is happy to see religious conflict because a) it distracts from real problems while they consolidate money and power, 2) they can use the fervor to further solidify their support form that religious base.

This is absolutely not new and has happened before in history. It’s just sad to see the US going down this path.

You’re about a decade off. It was started in the 80s and ended under Clinton. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative

I have created several variants of StopMakingMeCreateAccountsToInstallWindows@outlook.com and then change to a local account after install.

In defense of Zuckerberg – and there’s something I never thought I’d say – they changed the name of the company so that they could introduce new brands. They were not dumb enough to rebrand the successful products. It’s just now Facebook by Meta.

Humans are good decision makers, we’re just not good at paying attention for long periods of time. Which is why I think self-driving cars will eventually be better, but they aren’t yet. And those are expert systems (I refuse to call them AI) trained on a well-curated and limited set of data for a limited and specific purpose. Which is an important difference over the generalized generative models. More data does not make systems, especially more unsorted data.

But here’s another important difference: I can grab the wheel at any time and take over. If we are going to give these systems decision making authority there needs to be an obvious and intuitive override.