StillPaisleyCat

It’s been difficult to get a sense of what the various sides’ positions in this strike are, and some factual context.

This is a fairly helpful roundup of background information.

Bruce Horak, who plays/ed Hemmer, is a visual artist as well as an an actor.

It seems his Save Star Trek Prodigy drawing isn’t the only Hemmer@home with little gorn(s) that are up on his Instagram.

Enjoy!

5 zebras are enjoying their enclosed-environment originally designed for caribou, with special Coop-manufactured feed (naturally) to supplement the usual hay. Questions remain as Sask wildlife investigators continue their work.

This one is irresistible. If anyone has a local media story link, please add.

Some reflections on the Australian experience and what they might mean for Canada.

After Google’s move on Thursday, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez sent a written statement calling the companies’ moves “deeply irresponsible and out of touch … especially when they make billions of dollars off of Canadian users” with advertising.

Australia’s regulatory experiment – the first of its kind in the world – also got off to a rocky start, but it has since seen tech companies, news publishers and the government reach a middle ground.

As Janeway would have it, temporal mechanics can make our heads hurt.

Several of us here are still wrapping our minds around the implications of SNW 2 x 3 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow for the Prime Universe timeline. The Romulan agent confirmed that key events in history have been resilient to temporal incursions, but their exact dates may change as time heals itself.

While this appears to warrant some deep dives on c/Daystrom Institute once we’ve had a bit of time to process this onscreen confirmation a bit more, I thought to look back to see what astrophysicist and Star Trek science consultant Dr Erin MacDonald has said previously on this point.

At the main link above, there is an episode of MacDonald’s Astrometric Episode Club where she reviews the temporal science of Voyager Relativity and DS9 Children of Time that appears on point.

There’s a few passing references to other time travel incidents along the way. These touch on the resilience of time, not least the causality loop in First Contact where the Borg incursion into the 21st century causes Enterprise to return and get Cochrane into space when needed even though the events weren’t quite as they were originally. The timeline is preserved in this essential key event no matter the details.

There’s also a report on Time Travel on StarTrek.com about an STLV 2019 presentation by Dr Erin MacDonald. (The piece itself was written by a professor of physics and astronomy.)

Reporting and tracking tick-borne diseases is increasing.

It’s not just Lyme disease that’s a risk.

Ontario's top doctor expects to see a growing number of cases of three types of tick-borne illness in the province, in addition to Lyme disease -- a spread he says is directly linked to climate change. A new regulation that takes effect this weekend requires health-care providers in Ontario to report cases of anaplasmosis, babesiosis and Powassan virus to their local medical officers of health.

These sound grim.

Anaplasmosis is caused by bacteria that gets into a person's bloodstream through a tick bite. It causes fever and chills, but can also suppress bone marrow and the creation of white and red blood cells, as well as platelets, Moore said. Babesiosis, on the other hand, presents similarly to malaria, he said. Ticks transmit intracellular parasites, which get inside a person's red blood cells and burst them, so people can present with anemia, along with having fever and chills. Most infections of Powassan virus are asymptomatic, but people might have fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, weakness, or aches and pains. But after an acute phase and a period of remission, an infected person may experience confusion, loss of co-ordination, difficulty speaking, paralysis, seizures or coma,

If the strategy was to get mainstream profile for SNW by including Jim Kirk as a recurring character, it seems to be working. Esquire has an interesting take on Wesley’s Kirk as a kind of ‘best of’ everyman captain.

Wesley’s version of Jim Kirk is a microcosm of the entire series. He is Kirk, sometimes from a different timeline, sometimes found just a few years before taking over the Enterprise, but don’t worry about it too much. He’s the guy you trust, because he believes in people when no one else will, and he’ll always do the right thing, even if nobody notices or remembers.

Personally, I’m coming round to Wesley’s Kirk (still a name combination I’d never expected to be using). Not sure I buy that “his performance reminds us that all of us could be Kirk if we wanted to be. Kirk isn’t a legend—he’s just a guy. A very competent and cool guy, but someone you’d want to hang out with all the same.” YMMV

Gizmodo’s James Whitbrook has yet more to vent on Paramount+‘s cancelation and erasure of Prodigy.

I hadn’t considered the cancelation from the perspective of systemic misogyny, which Whitbrook effectively is carating.

However, given that Janeway was surely chosen as the legacy captain for Prodigy because Voyager had proven itself to be an effective gateway for younger and new viewers on Netflix, Whitbrook’s inference Paramount views her less important to the franchise than Picard is biting.

Paramount wouldn’t dare treat what it’s done for Patrick Stewart and Jean-Luc Picard as a tax break. Casting aside everything that Prodigy stood for, and in the process doing the same to Mulgrew and Janeway’s legacy, is a cruel twist on what is already a cruel fate for the show.

Despite the impact of the WGA strike on promotional activities, and the lack of the boost of a major sports event trailer release, SNW placed well against other original streaming shows in the week ending June 16th. Opening in sixth place in the top ten with 33.4 times average demand is promising.

Hopefully way Prodigy’s cancelation and removal dominated the media and social media after the second week will not adversely impact SNW’s run too much.

Prodigy won the hearts and loyalty of a significant slice of adult Trek fandom.

But how about its target market of preteens?

It’s good to have some perspective.

My spouse felt commemoratively inspired and asked me to post.

(It’s the Eaglemoss Kelvin D-7. The peony petals just did their own thing.)

Bruce Horak, who is a legally blind visual artist, in addition to accomplished thespian, has shown his support for Prodigy on Twitter with a drawing.