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I recently got a rather pristine copy of They Might Be Giants' 1996 single S-E-X-X-Y, mostly for a few bonus tracks unavailable on streaming. Like, it was in shrink wrap with hype sticker, albeit shrink wrap on its last legs - good enough that the rest of it was still in near mint condition, but too damaged for it to be worth keeping on, so I took a 2400 DPI scan of the hype sticker and removed it. Don't worry - I kept the hype sticker.

I want to keep it very fresh - I ripped the CD to my PC and plan on never taking it out of the case again. For now, I have put a zip lock around the case to prevent it gathering dust or getting fingerprints from handling.

However, since it's an FLP case, I am more worried about the case being crushed than a typical jewel case. While I don't plan on getting too ruff with it, I want something a bit harder.

Thus, I was wondering if any of you guys have any particular strategy for this case?

I've looked into CD display cases, but am otherwise having trouble finding results that aren't just CD jewel cases. I was thinking maybe something like the anti-theft containers retailers keep video games in, if they ever made a CD-sized version.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/22464055

I'm usually not one to beat a dead ~~Reman~~ ~~horse~~ being, but I had to point this one out.

As it turns out, besides also playing background characters in every episode Quimp appeared in, Tom Kenny also played Mariner's ex Malvus in "An Embarrassment of Dooplers", D'Onni in "We'll Always Have Tom Paris", the Ferengi antagonists of "Mugato Gumato", and several background characters in each of those episodes.

I'm usually not one to beat a dead ~~Reman~~ ~~horse~~ being, but I had to point this one out.

As it turns out, besides also playing background characters in every episode Quimp appeared in, Tom Kenny also played Mariner's ex Malvus in "An Embarrassment of Dooplers", D'Onni in "We'll Always Have Tom Paris", the Ferengi antagonists of "Mugato Gumato", and several background characters in each of those episodes.

In LD S3 E8 "Crisis Point: Paradoxus", the holographic version of Dr. T'Ana was able to recognize they were in late 20th century Earth, seemingly by a single sniff.

I am assuming this is a reflection of T'Ana's actually ability rather than mere cinematic indulgence, for two reasons:

• We do see T'Ana has enhanced olfactory senses in S2 E10 "First First Contact", as it implies she is able to track Tendi by scent, as well as in S4 E5 "Empathalogical Fallacies" when she hunts the Betazoids.
• Considering that Crisis Point was built off private logs, while the plot points may be ridiculous, crew abilities and limitations tend to be mostly accurate. We see this in the original Crisis Point, for instance, when Rutherford has to do the magic transport instead of Billups - simulated Cerritos crew members won't do what the real them would thing is impossible.

Anyhow, it makes me wonder if Starfleet Academy has some sort of sensory training courses for species with certain stronger senses. For instance, T'Ana might have had the option to take a course working with smell samples that they are likely to encounter in their Starfleet Career with other species that have enhanced senses.

In Prodigy, Nova Squadron has been revived by the mid-2380s.

This feels like a very terrible idea for a multitude of reasons. Besides the initial incident, I would think Starfleet would hesitate against elite cadet groups even further after both the attempted Red Squad coup and the USS Valiant incident.

Also, I have two takeaways from the LD Nova Fleet incident. One, Locarno feeling the need to “revive” Nova Squadron suggests that it didn’t still exist in 2381, meaning the revival must have been relatively close to 2384. Second, I feel like the coming back of a former “elite” cadet to bite them would further make Starfleet wary of establishing an elite cadet group again.

Overall, it just seems every time the Academy does this, they just produce a group of arrogant cadets very susceptible to manipulation and/or recklessness. Even 2384 squadron seems this way - we see their elitist attitude towards the former Protostar crew matching that of Red Squad and such.

So why did they do it again?

Perhaps Nova Squadron is a long-held academy tradition, and despite the initial fallout of the 2368 incident, that’s overshadowed by its long history of outstanding cadets, a legacy the academy didn’t want to suddenly erase.

Still, I feel like they could have turned Nova Squadron into an honors society that recognizes students without the special treatment rather than resurrect what seems to be the original format.

Honestly, I hope (big emphasis on hope) the new SFA show elaborates on this and overall fleshes out the Academy as an institution, at least before, as I predict will happen, our “cadets” will be starship officers in all but name by the end of the season and will barely get a proper academy experience.

I kind of wish we had an academy show either early 24th century (lost era Monster Maroon) or a chill (post-PIC) 25th or 26th century setting that just followed a normal group of cadets without weird stuff like an early commissioning.

Edit: When I say "Center Right" I also mean relative to Ferengi society.

A small addition to my post, Gender and Sexual Orientation in FERENGI society from a few months back.

I caught this frame in the background of LD S4 E6 Parth's Ferengi Heart Place, depicting an unclothed Ferengi woman.

This provides an interesting insight into the Ferengi social/political landscape of the Nagus Rom era. It suggests a center right that is fine with women traveling in public to some extent (maybe with limits, like it can only be with husband or father or out of necessity), but not them being clothed. This doesn't seem to be that common, as most Ferengi women we see in this episode (including on the television in Boimler's apartment) are clothed, but it seems to be a position that exists.

Honestly, I'd be interested in a novel (perhaps written from the perspective of an autobiography) or something about how Nagus Rom and Leeta survived leading Ferenginar the first few years and adjusted to such a different role from his engineering days. We could learn a lot about the Ferengi political system.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/21461844

From LD S4 E4 "Something Borrowed, Something Green".

In response to a meme I saw comparing Nog and Wesley.

I've uploaded the source SVG: https://gitlab.com/dexcube/random-assets/-/raw/main/wesley_meme.svg

From LD S4 E4 "Something Borrowed, Something Green".

In response to a meme I saw comparing Nog and Wesley.

I've uploaded the source SVG: https://gitlab.com/dexcube/random-assets/-/raw/main/wesley_meme.svg

In case anyone is using Debian Testing/Unstable and experiencing audio issues, I thought I'd share this.

Until the bugs get fixed, there are two workarounds:

1. Uninstall FluidSynth
2. Add systemctl --user restart pipewire to your session startup; this eliminates the problem.

As I want FluidSynth, I went with the latter.

In the pilot, they depict Mojave, California as being very terraformed from a desert to a lush parkland.

However, I find this a bit antiquated... this seems to be very much rooted in an atomic age scientific idealism that thought of how we could make the world work for us and bring it to more western standards of natural beauty.

I think this is in conflict with the TNG solar punk aesthetic and the general respect for nature implied by the Prime Directive - notice how there's no desert bushes in sight as if they wiped them out. This seems to be insane damage to the ecosystem.

I wonder if they'll ever revisit Mojavo on-screen, and whether they'll retcon this so that Mojave is a gorgeous desert town where they solved the problems of drought and extreme heat plaguing the southwestern US while working in tandem with and even boosting the local wildlife, rather than just razing everything and plastering grass and non-native trees over it.

I'd bet we probably only have 3 seasons for it to happen, considering that 5 seasons has tended to be the length of most recent Trek shows (except poor old Prodigy). The only thing giving me hope is that SNW seems to be a decently successful series.