The enterprise c did have a battle bridge that they used mostly for saucer separations, but there were times when they used it saucer in place and there are some ships which have more protected configurations.

Disregarding the IRL reasons of that’s just where it always goes, I believe the in universe reason is that starfleet at its core does not like to identify as a true military organization. It’s why the enterprise C is built like a cruise ship and why despite being a swift science vessel voyager is also very spacious and sleek and elegant on the inside. They do make plenty of starships that are top in class and capable of holding their own against anything else out there, but starfleet is not in the business of making warships. They overtly mention this in DS9 when it is mentioned that the Defiant is officially an “escort vessel” even though it is a very no frills combat vessel.

Of course they can get away with this concession because generally the shields do most of the work when it comes to absorbing hits anyway. Once shields are down if another vessel wants to go for the kill it wont take long for it to tear through the hull. In theory the centralized location also means that the bridge can get additional protection by tilting the saucer away from the enemy(sorry lower decks).

This is absolutely horrifying. Humans are already bad enough at identifying targets and minimizing collateral damage and civilian casualties.

How does one program a drone that can identify targets independently, while also not easy being fooled by someone disguised as a noncombatant and child? I guess in theory the drones could be more expendable than manned targets and therefore have an even more strict policy on firing on potential noncombatants(even if that is easily exploited) but I get the feeling they wont do that.

China has been militarizing and between the gender gap, the soon decline in population, and recent global attitudes towards them shifting , theyre going to be in for a world of economic hurt. A large population of unattached young men with poor economic outcomes doesnt bode well for peace in that region.

Likewise the US policy of “surely embracing capitalism will lead to a liberal democracy” gave way to mild hostility towards china when it didnt happen. Especially with a president for 4 years who kept saying those quiet things other presidents didnt outright say because they knew it would be poking the bear for no reason.

God help us all if this actually happens because it would lead to a world war centered on Asia and china, and I hope that what will happen with the age gap and decline in china will mirror more japan, but we do live in uncertain times.

Well according to the third movie judgment day is inevitable, talk to the hand. So maybe they just figured they might as well be the ones to do it.

THEY DO HAVE THEM! Every once in a while a trek will show seatbelts and then proceed to forget about them later.

When you consider that the bridge is on the top and center of the saucer section and a very enticing target the constant explosions make a bit of sense. It’s not that the enterprise got shot in the ass and it sent a current up to the computer that monitors shift rotations, no the high powered energy weaponry is aimed right on the other side of the wall. Structural integrity fields, shields, ablative armor, and other technobabble keep the the whole bridge from popping like a balloon when something bad happens.

It’s like if your tv is plugged into a house with breakers and safely on a surge protector it’s not going to keep your tv from getting fried if zeus decides to target that outlet specifically and strike it.

You can absolutely get sick from ingesting your own waste. There’s plenty of flora and pathogens that exist and live in your gut that can cause problems if you ingest it orally.

After all we all have e coli and breakouts do still happen.

Trees and their leaves smother life underneath them in forests. The leaves do eventually biodegrade and fertilize the soil and in the spring before the leaves grow back the forest floor is full of lots of fast moving, fast living greenery, but then the leaves grow back and usually whats left is stuff that gets sunbeams from breaks in the trees and some hardier species and saplings waiting for their moment to take over. Trees move in slow motion, but they are actually quite active and competitive creatures. Even once their grown their branches smack into each other as the wind blows and they grow competing for sunlight. Some small trees will just give you a little coverage and yeah you can ignore it and it will be broken up and blow away on it’s own, but if you have a big tree your hard will get blanketed.

A yard and garden are not a natural forest theyre artifically curated. Letting a yard be smothered by leaves might be good for starting the cycle that slowly turns empty ground into forest in my parts, but most people keep that yard space for activities, or for kids to run around, or for putting a garden in or something.

That said a few leaves wont kill you and you dont have to immediately run for a leaf blower or rake as soon as a single leaf falls on the yard to keep your grass perfect.

Yeah its probably a prank or nonsense, but Im still taking the stairs.

Internet culture is a weird thing. There are people who will point to civil golden ages of the internet when things were nicer before modern social media like facebook and twitter, but even the message board days were loaded with trolls.

I think some of the problem is that trolling is ingrained in the culture of the internet. I think it comes down to a few things:

1.A lot of trolls are edgelords who are just trying to get a rise out of people because they think its funny. Theyre pranking a community. Sometimes it’s harmless like getting a rise out of nintendo fanboys, sometimes admittedly it can be funny if its over something stupid, but a lot of trolls will get desperate and try anything to get a rise out of people and not care about what lines they cross.

2.Theres a phenomenon caused by anonymity or even perceived anonymity that can cause people to be a little more unfiltered and nasty than they otherwise would be. Its a phenomenon noticed prominently in drivers. Normally reasonable nice people can turn into road raging foul mouthed idiots because theyre in a big metal box and despite the many windows it feels like a private space. Obviously anonymous message boards encourage behavior, but even when your name and face is plastered on something the person posting is likely replying from their bedroom or even the toilet so there is an air of privacy even when they are in fact airing something in a public forum.

3. There is an encouragement from social media to engage even if you shouldnt. If you dont like or care for something and it’s harmless you can and should just scroll by. The world isnt waiting for you to come down from the heavens and give your opinion on how the thing they like sucks, and we sure as hell dont need you to be a jerk about it on top of that. A lot of social media encourages engagement though.

4.Internet users are young. Less so these days than it was in the 90s and 00s, but even so who do you think has all this free time to be terminally online? I mean yeah plenty of adults do, but its largely a lot of teens and college students. People who are more likely to find the edgy bullshit funny and get into trouble. People who are likely to get really opinionated on stupid stuff that doesnt matter, and people who’s personalities arent yet fully formed(granted I dont think we ever finish growing and changing and maturing but its definitely more rapid 14-24 vs 30-40). Theyre also likely to be influenced by the nasty internet culture thats been a norm for decades.

I think years of all this together have just encouraged a nasty place to be. Trolls feeding trolls, feeding outrage , feeding normal people who are empowered by being faceless, feeding people who could just not participate and save themselves and everyone else a big headache and it distills into something mean.

I have family members that have owned poorly trained dogs, and have been around places with aggressive dogs. Ive also met many people with “oh dont worry he’s friendly” dogs who then are not friendly.

I love dogs, but I always have a respect and caution around dogs I dont know.

As an aside there was one time I was walking around a walking path in a park when around the bend comes a fairly large dog trotting down off leash at a reasonable clip. I was initially agitated that the owner would let their dog off leash especially at the pace this dog was moving and kept waiting for the owner to also cross the bend. They never did and as my eyes focused I began to come to terms with the fact that this was a coyote and we got off the path to let it scoot by and it paid us no mind.

A few years ago this happened in a row to my roommate, myself, and my significant other. I bought one of those portable battery chargers, tested it to make sure it worked, and then kept it in my car for just in case.

It came in handy once or twice but I was already home so it just was slightly more convenient than cables. I like to think it will be useful and save my bacon one day, but I also have a dread feeling that it will just be dead or no longer functional on the day I finally need it and am away from home.

Ah that makes a lot of sense. I was wondering how the Adirondacks in NY and northern Vermont are “Urban Commercial housing” and north eastern tip of Ohio is maple syrup.

It’s possible to remove DRM from books using software like calibre and thats not even getting into how easy it is to pirate due to the small filesize if you ever need to recover a lost book. Then you can back it up and copy onto other storage devices and the cloud which in some ways makes the digital copy more long lasting than a physical book.

This is the same for me. I love the tactile feeling of books, I love the smell, the weight, the aesthetic and the idea.

They take up so much space though and that can make them a hassle to access. I also like to read in bed which means I need something that can make it’s own light, and I like the versatility digital books have in font size and in the case. Especially as a comic reader where you have weekly and monthly issues or chunky volumes it adds up quickly.

Eh I understand the long term apathy and eventual giving up.

They cant keep winning votes by just not being republicans. They will always not be republicans and eventually people are going to want more out of them.

It depends what you’re using it for. If you want to old school mid to late 00s twitter that was just random anonymous people microblogging random thoughts and sharing links and pics then you’ll be happy to be back home.

If you followed twitter because it was a way to get direct contact and access to industry professionals, celebrities, reporters, breaking news, specific niche communities that just dont exist or barely do on mastodon, then you will be unhappy with it. Mastodon will get you uh, George Takei, Zach Weiner, and the technologyconnections guy.

For example of the difference and why many people just dont care for jumping into mastodon I’ll use My wrestling feed as an example. On mastodon it is mostly one guy who’s enthusiastic about womens wrestling(seriously if he stopped my feed would die), one news reposting site(which honestly isnt a bad thing cause wrestling news is awful), and a handful of other people. Twitter has lots of memes and clips from the fans after episodes air, lots of links to primary sources and news sites, and the actual wrestlers interacting cutting kayfabe online promos, promoting themselves, and interacting with fans.

This applies to a number of niches, hobbies, and fan interests on twitter. Bigger isnt necessarily better but the size and adoption of twitter is a huge strength.

It’s actually caused by scattering of the light in the atmosphere not refraction. Refraction is what makes rainbows tho.

Ah this makes more sense! I was wondering how OP was using tiktok for a todo list

HDR availability is huge