Today will be all about the colourful food cubes/fruit (slices) seen on #StarTrekTOS. I've finally finished doing all the research on that topic. Can't believe I first started writing about food and beverages on #TOS more than 4 1/2 months ago! Well, today you'll learn everything there is to know about those dyed fruit cubes.😊

Copying a little rant I made over on Bluesky yesterday, prompted by the attached Edna Mode "No pylons!" meme: https://bsky.app/profile/michaelhans.com/post/3mdvfjk3rgk2u

Honestly, this has been bugging me ever since Discovery jumped forward. To me, it's exemplary of the "designed to look cool" mindset rather than the "designed to make some amount of (even science-fictional) sense" mindset.

Has anyone done a treknobabble deep-dive into how these designs function?

It just reminds me of how Matt Jeffries originally put a lot of thought and drew upon his aviation background to create a design that made logical sense even when depending upon technologies that didn't exist yet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(NCC-1701)#Concept_and_initial_design

It was one of the things that really drew me into Trek when I was a kid (as evidenced by the various blueprints and technical manuals still on my bookshelves). There was a believable, logical solidity to the designs. Yes, they looked cool, but they also made sense.

These new designs with nacelles just floating near the ship don't do the same thing for me. They don't look like something that makes _sense_, they look like something that looks _neat_. It moves Star Trek away from science fiction and into the realm of the science fantasy of Star Wars.

Are there still engineering sections? Is there a centralized warp core containing and distributing the power from the dilithium crystals? We know those are still necessary for warp flight, after all, so they must be powered and managed in some way. If so, how does that power get to those nacelles?

What benefits are there to the floating nacelle design? How are they serviced, especially in emergency situations? What if the transporter isn't working (a long-standing Trek tradition, after all)? Having critical ship's infrastructure physically disconnected seems like a big potential liability.

And speaking of the transporter, that also seems to have crossed over into "magic" territory. People just blip in and out, and there doesn't even seem to be anything triggering it in most situations. I can go with the system being smart enough not to beam someone into an otherwise occupied space, but it sure seems like it would be startling to have people suddenly popping into existence at any random point and time. If I was doing something critical, I'm not sure I'd want to have a sudden *pwoof* startling me just because someone beamed in unexpectedly.

Picard's open "transporter doorways" really bugged me. There were people walking in and out of them from both directions, and yet nobody ever collided. People would constantly be bouncing off someone just coming out of or heading towards one of those portals! Those were entirely nonsensical.

I want a universe I can believe in. Things can even look cool; I'm not opposed to that! But even a far-future science fictional universe has to have some underlying logic and thought to make it believable, otherwise it's just magic without boundaries or limitations.

So, Star Trek tech geeks: What's the underlying logic and technobabble that makes these designs functionally believable? What makes them science fiction and not science fantasy?

#StarTrek #DIS #TOS #PIC #SNW #SFA #ScienceFiction #SciFi #ScienceFantasy

Copying a little rant I made over on Bluesky yesterday, prompted by the attached Edna Mode "No pylons!" meme: https://bsky.app/profile/michaelhans.com/post/3mdvfjk3rgk2u

Honestly, this has been bugging me ever since Discovery jumped forward. To me, it's exemplary of the "designed to look cool" mindset rather than the "designed to make some amount of (even science-fictional) sense" mindset.

Has anyone done a treknobabble deep-dive into how these designs function?

It just reminds me of how Matt Jeffries originally put a lot of thought and drew upon his aviation background to create a design that made logical sense even when depending upon technologies that didn't exist yet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(NCC-1701)#Concept_and_initial_design

It was one of the things that really drew me into Trek when I was a kid (as evidenced by the various blueprints and technical manuals still on my bookshelves). There was a believable, logical solidity to the designs. Yes, they looked cool, but they also made sense.

These new designs with nacelles just floating near the ship don't do the same thing for me. They don't look like something that makes _sense_, they look like something that looks _neat_. It moves Star Trek away from science fiction and into the realm of the science fantasy of Star Wars.

Are there still engineering sections? Is there a centralized warp core containing and distributing the power from the dilithium crystals? We know those are still necessary for warp flight, after all, so they must be powered and managed in some way. If so, how does that power get to those nacelles?

What benefits are there to the floating nacelle design? How are they serviced, especially in emergency situations? What if the transporter isn't working (a long-standing Trek tradition, after all)? Having critical ship's infrastructure physically disconnected seems like a big potential liability.

And speaking of the transporter, that also seems to have crossed over into "magic" territory. People just blip in and out, and there doesn't even seem to be anything triggering it in most situations. I can go with the system being smart enough not to beam someone into an otherwise occupied space, but it sure seems like it would be startling to have people suddenly popping into existence at any random point and time. If I was doing something critical, I'm not sure I'd want to have a sudden *pwoof* startling me just because someone beamed in unexpectedly.

Picard's open "transporter doorways" really bugged me. There were people walking in and out of them from both directions, and yet nobody ever collided. People would constantly be bouncing off someone just coming out of or heading towards one of those portals! Those were entirely nonsensical.

I want a universe I can believe in. Things can even look cool; I'm not opposed to that! But even a far-future science fictional universe has to have some underlying logic and thought to make it believable, otherwise it's just magic without boundaries or limitations.

So, Star Trek tech geeks: What's the underlying logic and technobabble that makes these designs functionally believable? What makes them science fiction and not science fantasy?

#StarTrek #DIS #TOS #PIC #SNW #SFA #ScienceFiction #SciFi #ScienceFantasy

Remember always: "The god you create is the god you deserve."

People wonder how they got to be billionaires. The answer is always, 100%, by fucking everyone over by any means possible.

#socialmedia #xitter #TOS #artistsgetfucked #everyonegetsfucked #billionairetoys #broligarchy #WTFareyouusingxitter #fuckthem #silenceisacceptance #comply #begoodcattle

You will be visited by three spirits

#threeSpirits #starTrek #TOS

You will be visited by three spirits

#threeSpirits #starTrek #TOS

@infobeautiful And 1701 the number of the Enterprise is also funny.

#startrek #enterprise #picard #kirk #tos #tng

@Rob_T_Firefly @gilahava704

Question: when did #TNG stop using dinky #TOS-style plain backdrops for alien planet sets?

I recall seeing them a lot in the first and maybe second seasons, but not much after that.

The never-ending "We changed our Terms of Service" emails are so tiring.

Imagine those corporations being honest…

"We've changed our Terms of Service once again, and added more conditions that are beneficial to us and unfavorable to you, but as usual they're carefully hidden in the 500 pages of lawyer language."

#tech #technology #business #corporations #BigTech #TOS #enshittification

The never-ending "We changed our Terms of Service" emails are so tiring.

Imagine those corporations being honest…

"We've changed our Terms of Service once again, and added more conditions that are beneficial to us and unfavorable to you, but as usual they're carefully hidden in the 500 pages of lawyer language."

#tech #technology #business #corporations #BigTech #TOS #enshittification

It's seen in Dr. Korby's underground living quarters on Exo III in #StarTrekTOS' "What Are Little Girls Made Of?". Unlike the skull, which is just of a similar making, this is the actual prop that appeared both on #TOS in 1966 and in #Columbo in 1971. Another mystery solved. 😄 2/2

"#Bluesky's #ToS contain a "binding arbitration" waiver that forces users to surrender the right to sue Bluesky no matter how the company harms them. This is so pro-enshittificatory, it's like a landing strip for the sole use of Enshittification Airlines, which can land a 747 full of enshittfying nonsense on Bluesky's users every 10 minutes, around the clock, without worrying about any legal repercussions."

https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/15/dogs-breakfast/

"#Bluesky's #ToS contain a "binding arbitration" waiver that forces users to surrender the right to sue Bluesky no matter how the company harms them. This is so pro-enshittificatory, it's like a landing strip for the sole use of Enshittification Airlines, which can land a 747 full of enshittfying nonsense on Bluesky's users every 10 minutes, around the clock, without worrying about any legal repercussions."

https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/15/dogs-breakfast/

Why the reliably wonderful @pluralistic thinks that although #Bluesky improves in many important ways over legacy social media, he won't be joining the service.

TLDR: It's Bluesky's "very bad" #ToS.

https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/15/dogs-breakfast/#by-clicking-this-you-agree-on-behalf-of-your-employer-to-release-me-from-all-obligations-and-waivers-arising-from-any-and-all-NON-NEGOTIATED-agreements

Why the reliably wonderful @pluralistic thinks that although #Bluesky improves in many important ways over legacy social media, he won't be joining the service.

TLDR: It's Bluesky's "very bad" #ToS.

https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/15/dogs-breakfast/#by-clicking-this-you-agree-on-behalf-of-your-employer-to-release-me-from-all-obligations-and-waivers-arising-from-any-and-all-NON-NEGOTIATED-agreements

• After all, it is neither illegal nor bannable per law to use "competitors' services and products" and even worst-case this qualifies as "cleanroom engineering" to improve #compatibility, which is desireable for both @libreoffice / #LibreOffice and #MicrosoftOffice...

#Microsoft pulling such an #AssholeMove is inexcuseable *unless they actually evidence a serious #ToS violation they could not have resolved otherwise and that banning said user was the only possible recourse to secure their own systems and/or customers' data from a malicious actor.

Y’all. Mastodon has a new Terms of Service that’s problematic. I’m hoping and cautiously optimistic that they’ll sort it out. But for now it’s not good.

@mcc wrote one of the best GitHub issues I’ve ever seen. It explains everything in great detail. Check it out if you want a full picture on the situation.

https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/35086

🧵 1/2

(UPDATE: our crowd-sourced concern has them pausing on this. https://mastodon.social/@Mastodon/114709820512537821)

#Mastodon #TOS #IP #IntellectualProperty

Y’all. Mastodon has a new Terms of Service that’s problematic. I’m hoping and cautiously optimistic that they’ll sort it out. But for now it’s not good.

@mcc wrote one of the best GitHub issues I’ve ever seen. It explains everything in great detail. Check it out if you want a full picture on the situation.

https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/35086

🧵 1/2

(UPDATE: our crowd-sourced concern has them pausing on this. https://mastodon.social/@Mastodon/114709820512537821)

#Mastodon #TOS #IP #IntellectualProperty

How my Firefox became a LibreWolf

New blog-post: https://www.davidrevoy.com/article1065/how-my-firefox-became-a-librewolf

#firefox #librewolf #tos #webcomic