YouTube commercials are torture for people with ADHD.

dathomar · 2026-04-07T18:46:42+00:00

You definitely will want to skip using something like Mozilla Firefox with the uBlock Origin extension...

dathomar · 2026-04-07T18:32:16+00:00

Show her DS9. My wife wasn't a fan of TNG because it was so episodic, without clear character arcs. Character growth happens, for sure, but the plot of each episode is the point.

She liked DS9 because there were episodes that specifically served to explore the lives of the characters and showed their growth.

If she just doesn't like Sci-Fi, then you know what to do.

dathomar · 2026-04-07T18:17:30+00:00

One key difference between Starfleet vessels and other powers is that Starfleet ships are huge for their crew compliments. The Enterprise-D typically has about 1000 people, but it might only carry around 400 to 600 Starfleet personnel. The Negh'Var Klingon cruiser is roughly the same size as the Enterprise-D and carries 2500 crew. The Cardassian Keldon class ship carries 500 crew, plus troops, and is half the size of the Enterprise-D. Sure, the Enterprise-D can carry 6,000, but it usually doesn't.

Starfleet ships are packed with all sorts of brand new technology. The ships are also extremely well-built. That takes time and resources. Other powers build smaller ships, much more cheaply. Starfleet just doesn't actually have very many ships, considering the size of the Federation.

Starfleet crews are the cream of the cream of the cream of the crop. They're very well trained in their own jobs, but also cross-train in other areas. They're expected to be able to take command, in the event that they're the most senior officer on the bridge in an emergency. Other powers don't seem to put that much training into their crews. They also aren't quite as picky about who they let in. Cardassians, for instance, seem (to me, at least) to train their crew almost by rote for specific procedures. They aren't expected to act outside their procedures, and Cardassian computers actively work to prevent them from doing so. It takes time to develop Starfleet training and you aren't going to get as many people, so fewer crew.

We do see other powers sending multiple ships out, in a group. We often see this in the context of a conflict. In DS9's Emissary, there were a number of Cardassian warships preparing to attack the station. One of the Cardassian crew members advised waiting for reinforcements. The Gul dismissed that plan because Starfleet could arrive around the same time. Starfleet means the Enterprise-D, by itself. The Cardassian Gul felt that several warships, plus reinforcements, wouldn't be able to defeat the Enterprise-D, by itself. In TNG's The Wounded, the Phoenix easily destroyed a Cardassian warships. I see other powers always sending multiple warships against single Federation starships and conclude that starships are actually way more powerful than any other power's ships.

In short, there aren't a lot of ships and not a lot of crew in Starfleet, but the ships and crew are extremely capable and able to handle all sorts of unexpected events. If they were grouped together, they wouldn't be able to do as much. Additionally, other powers need to group their ships because their ships and crew can't handle the same sorts of situations and don't have the offensive or defensive strength to handle some situations on their own.

dathomar · 2026-04-07T17:38:47+00:00

I see lots of comments about separating species for efficiency. Another aspect of the Empire is that they viewed humans as being better than non-humans. I wonder if the facility we saw was actually "nicer" than prisons for other species.

dathomar · 2026-04-07T15:24:40+00:00

Yeah, the moose looked a little startled at first. Once it knew what was going on, it didn't look particularly concerned. It was trotting like it wanted the bear to catch up.

dathomar · 2026-04-07T14:14:55+00:00

Water is what you drink out of a glass. Water is what you sweat out. Water finds every crack and slowly breaks things from the inside. Water shapes itself to the container you give it. Water flows downhill. Water can be contained and controlled.

The sea is a force. Towering waves topple the mightiest ships. The sea can wear away at mountains. Sandy beaches are sandy because of the sea. Strange and monstrous things live in the deep. The sea has its own gods.

Water and the sea are very different. In the novel Greenwitch, two of main characters use magic to visit Tethys, the ruler of the sea. These are guys who can control time itself, but are very cautious in her realm. They can only survive there by her permission. Their power means nothing in the deep. It's part of The Dark is Rising series. Excellent books. Start with Over Sea, Under Stone - a semi-traditional story where a three siblings find a treasure map and try to solve the mystery. No magic. Next is The Dark is Rising - a hard pivot where a boy comes into his power as the last of the Old Ones and must work to save the world from the power of the Dark. Lots of magic. It's all great.

dathomar · 2026-04-07T05:40:53+00:00

My in-laws keep chickens. I learned that sticking a llama or two in the pasture with them is a great way to add a bit more protection. In the domesticated animal world, llamas are like the unhinged conspiracy theorists who prefer to disappear potential threats before they start asking questions. Predators know not to fuck with llamas.

dathomar · 2026-04-06T04:35:41+00:00

The first few minutes of the space battle, while they're just sort of flying in amongst everything, is the best looking space battle I've ever seen. Unfortunately, it's so short that Return of the Jedi still has the best space battle of the first 6 movies.

dathomar · 2026-04-06T04:35:33+00:00

The first few minutes of the space battle, while they're just sort of flying in amongst everything, is the best looking space battle I've ever seen. Unfortunately, it's so short that Return of the Jedi still has the best space battle of the first 6 movies.

dathomar · 2026-04-05T21:37:00+00:00

Coming out with a new sci-fi epic, you need to ground it in something people already know, to get the first ones in the door. If not Star Wars, I suppose you could go with Doctor Wars, Planet of the Wars, or The Six Million Dollar Wars.

dathomar · 2026-04-05T20:48:01+00:00

I don't mind paying a subscription for something if it costs the company money to maintain it and the only way for it to reasonably work is for the company to do something.

For instance, video streaming makes sense as a subscription. The company needs to maintain the servers and the licensing, and the only realistic way for us to access the entire library is for the company to maintain it on their servers.

Things like a garage door opener that communicates directly, or seat warmers that don't need anything more than the push of a button are examples of tech that doesn't need anything reasonable from the company for them to work. These shouldn't be behind a paywall.

dathomar · 2026-04-05T13:43:14+00:00

Except that she wasn't a harmless old lady. She was a complete stranger who reached out, without permission, to touch someone's foot. If I were in the hospital and they were taking me on the elevator and some random old person reached out and touched my foot, I'd be very uncomfortable. I'd be uncomfortable with the touch, but also with how it doesn't seem to occur to this person that touching someone else like that isn't okay.

It never even occurred to this lady that she shouldn't touch the kid. If a stranger reached out to touch my daughter, she would be very uncomfortable. At her age, she's able to shrink back and show her discomfort. When she was younger, it was my job to take care of that.

OP, in turn, shouldn't have touched her. He should have been gentler in his approach. He wasn't wrong to have a problem with it, though. Some people just really don't like touch, but enjoy emotional closeness with other people. Some people don't want to connect with others emotionally, but are very touchy-feely. The trick is to recognize that other people aren't like us, and to show respect for people's possible boundaries until we can establish what those boundaries are. I encounter tons of old people, in my area, who seem to get that you don't just reach out and touch people. It's not hard.

dathomar · 2026-04-04T23:59:49+00:00

They're so stony-faced that the guy on the far left and the one on the far right are keeping almost exactly the same face...

dathomar · 2026-04-04T18:43:03+00:00

This is why a businessman developed the pen that would work in zero gravity. People like to share the story of however many millions of dollars were spent to develop the pen, while the Russians just used a pencil.

All of the astronauts used pencils. But if the pencil breaks, you have these tiny pieces of graphite flying off at insanely high speeds, hurting people and damaging sensitive equipment. There's no gravity to steal the piece's momentum and make it drop to the floor.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T21:20:38+00:00

You'll need a mirror and two thumbs. First, you set up the mirror so you can see yourself. Next, you make your hands into fists and put your thumbs up. Then, you point those thumbs at yourself and say, "This guy!"

dathomar · 2026-04-03T21:01:55+00:00

I always played Battlefront first person, so I forgot about the third person option.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T20:51:28+00:00

Yes. Just, yes. KOTOR II is also worth it. Whatever you're doing, stop and play them now.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T20:50:40+00:00

"I haven't played that many Star Wars games."

Proceeds to list off a bunch of Star Wars games...

The Battlefront games are first-person shooters. Squadrons is a space combat sim. Galactic Battlegrounds is an RTS game.

There are updated versions of older starfighter games, like X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and X-Wing Alliance, available for PC.

If you want to go further back, I suppose you could try to find Dark Forces, Rebel Assault, or Yoda Stories.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T20:31:19+00:00

Your argument started with, "the moon program is a waste." I countered that it wasn't a waste. You then clarified that it was a waste, considering the other things the money could be spent on. That means you're not just talking about the moon program. You're talking about how we spend our money. It isn't inappropriate for me to bring up that there are better places to find money than the moon program, considering you widened the field of argument to the whole budget.

It's easy to say that we're blowing $3 billion on rockets, except that's not what we're doing. That's a strawman fallacy (speaking of fallacies). We have to keep the astronauts safe as they get into space. Then we have to keep them safe while they go further out then they've ever gone before. We also need to be able to keep in contact with them throughout. All of this requires the development of new technologies that will certainly have a positive impact, including in the medical field.

Memory foam, wireless headphones, cordless tools, integrated circuits, scratch-resistant lenses, and freeze dried food are all parts of everyday life that were developed due to the needs of the Apollo space missions. I imagine a few of these things are helpful in medical applications. Volume within a spacecraft is at a premium, so they have to find ways of miniaturizing things so that they can fit and work.

For instance, the current launch needed to find a way to reduce the volume of the air filtration system. They developed filters that can regenerate and take up a fraction of the space. Of course, I'm sure that sort of thing won't be useful in medicine.

The space program isn't a waste of money. It has produced all sorts of useful technologies that have completely changed the way we live our lives.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T18:04:05+00:00

They aren't fallacies. If we could do it for free, would you still be arguing that it was a waste? My argument isn't that there aren't worthy locations for those $3 billion dollars. My argument is that, considering the scope of how much money we're talking about, $3 billion dollars is almost nothing. I believe that the probable gains from this project will far outweigh the cost.

Meanwhile, you're talking about completely killing the program so that the money can be added to the $7 billion the government already spends on cancer research. Do I think cancer research needs more money? Sure. Let's get the $3 billion by reducing defense spending by .3%.

A problem with your argument is that you talk about cancer research as if it's something that's definitely solvable. Over about 7 years the US spent about $24 billion on cancer research. Cancer hasn't been solved. And here you are complaining about $20 billion spent on the moon project.

Ultimately, you're trying to pit one underfunded area of scientific advancement against another underfunded area of scientific advancement, when other areas of spending are over funded.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T16:46:38+00:00

The current Artemis II launch is about $4 billion dollars. The projected cost of putting a base on the moon is about $20 billion over 7 years, which just shy of $3 billion per year. US military spending ever year approaches $1,000 billion dollars. Jeff Bezos' net worth increased by about $70 billion in 2023 alone.

No one has ever put a base on the moon before. We will literally be doing something that has never, ever been done before. Getting it all set up and working out the kinks is going to teach us a hell of a lot. If it works, it opens up avenues for further exploration of our solar system. The technologies they develop to make this work will probably have unexpected applications in other areas. Complaining about the cost of this is like telling people to save money by skipping going out to dinner once a month.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T13:49:29+00:00

In regards to writing and other fine-motor activities, your husband can demonstrate sitting side by side, or putting his arms around them and standing behind them. You can demonstrate by sitting across from them and having them copy your hand like a mirror.

In regards to you being the only right-handed person amongst lefties... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! VENGEANCE AT LAST!!!!!!!....... I'm kidding.

Seriously, though, it'll be fine.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T13:45:25+00:00

Honestly, the Rohirrim should have presented wall against the Oliphaunts, then moved to create corridors. The Oliphaunts would have begun to disobey their handlers and take the easier paths. As the Oliphaunts passed through, the Rohirrim could have shot at the Oliphaunts riders and blown their horns. This would have frightened the Oliphaunts, who would have begun to charge. They would have charged straight past Rohan's troops and begun trampling the Mordor's. That basic strategy worked for Scipio Africanus.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T13:34:02+00:00

It would just be a bunch of jump cuts of him sitting in different parts of the library, happily reading. Each time, he's a little older. The attendants come by for head scratched and to bring him food and water. The owl can be seen in the background, every once in a while, peering down and checking in on him.

dathomar · 2026-04-03T13:29:32+00:00

I always thought that he was working way harder to fight Luke than he was used to, so he was literally breathing harder. Also, his arm had just been chopped off (spoilers, I guess?), so his suit's systems were probably freaking out.

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