I haven’t felt so seen and appreciated as a gay nerd as I did with this week’s Lower Decks. (Variety)
First crossing paths when Andrew Robinson guest starred in the “Deep Space Nine” Season 1 episode “Past Prologue” back in 1993, the bright-eyed young Doctor and jaded “simple tailor” Garak first won fans over with their instant chemistry and easy banter, turning Robinson’s initial one-off role into a recurring character.
“Trek” prides itself on “boldly going,” but the idea of an on-screen same-sex couple (a man and a lizard, no less) didn’t quite fly in the 1990s. Bashir and Garak never moved beyond close friends, even as fans clamored for a romantic storyline. […]
Long after “DS9” went off the air, Robinson and Siddig continued to champion the Garak/Bashir relationship. That included campaigning for them at conventions in the ’90s to recording an audiobook and performing fan-written works over Zoom. As a result, the duo also had a hand in stoking interest in the relationship between their characters.
This has been so long coming. I felt like time stopped when they showed their animated characters kissing. Kissing! Holding hands!
Most importantly, they were written exactly like themselves: catty, arguing little bitches. We love them.
TSFKA Tor dot com also has a good review.
I’m complete.
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America looks quite a bit like an oligarchy from where I’m standing.
Sam Altman joins Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos in donating $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund (Quartz)
You’ve heard the truism “follow the money” and it applies to all the goings-on in modern America. Whatever they do, no matter how obfuscated in identity politics, is ultimately about increasing profits for people who are already very wealthy.
It’s upsetting, but it also is kinda like…it seems like there is functionally very simple solutions to this? There’s no political willpower for separating money from politics, but that’s “all” it would take. It would be simple but not easy, is what I’m saying.
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Apparently we’re getting a remake of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, one of my favorite childhood movies. (Variety) Good luck trying to be halfway as creepy as the original.
We’re also getting three more episodes of Malcolm in the Middle (tsfka Twitter), which I’m more optimistic about. I’m just excited to see Hal again.
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You know how the last few Cheerios like to cluster up in your bowl of cereal?
Basically, the mass of the Cheerios is insufficient to break the milk’s surface tension. But it’s enough to put a tiny dent in the surface of the milk in the bowl, such that if two Cheerios are sufficiently close, the curved surface in the liquid (meniscus) will cause them to naturally drift toward each other. The “dents” merge and the “O”s clump together. Add another Cheerio into the mix, and it, too, will follow the curvature in the milk to drift toward its fellow “O”s.
(Ars Technica)
Well, scientists are looking at using this effect to move little robots around. I don’t know what it is about this that I find to be the cutest thing ever. But it’s the cutest thing ever.
