Raiders and Last Crusade.

Other jokes aside, it’s got a good Buck Rodgers/Flash Gordon vibe right now, though blunting the nose a touch might be prudent. What did you end deciding on joining the fins?

I see you’re flaring the end.

Smart.

Maybe still blunt the tip a wee bit.

They were free because they expired three and a half years ago.

Partial really is “kinda neat.” The light level noticeably reduces a bit, like a very big cloud, and all the little dapples on the ground turn crescent shaped. More eerie than mind-blowing though. We got a minute of totality in 2024, which was very, very cool.

1. Pretty typical ignorant Dallas Karen energy
2. I’m more concerned about the 76 thumbs-up
3. Just FYI, this was the 2017 eclipse and in Dallas it was kinda neat but nowhere near totality.

And in case you thought the circle of empathy couldn’t get any smaller, the ex-wife here is the daughter of a sitting Republican Senator.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he was issuing the demand for war reparations in response to Iranian negotiators making similar claims for damages for the five-month war that has killed thousands and devastated Iran’s military and economy.

I almost get it. The Iranian regime really are a bunch of bastards. This is not, however, the response of a measured diplomat and statesman, or even a realpolitik operator. It’s the response of an arrogant, petulant, ignorant baby-man who’s determined to take the bait every time and cede the moral high ground to an utterly inhumane regime that makes his kiddie-pool fascism look quaint. Not doing that is a big part of why the former administrations in both parties never did something as stupid as kick off open military conflict with Iran.

Mark Zuckerberg has faced questions over why a small cruise ship in south-east Alaska rescued a stranded skiff and its crew when his 387ft superyacht had been closer.

The Silicon Valley billionaire’s yacht, worth a reported $300m, is said to have “repeatedly” declined to assist when a nearby boat called for help last week.

Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms, was not onboard at the time, a spokesperson told Forbes.

So, basically, it starts to look like they have standing orders to be selfish and anti-social to point of pushing up against maritime law.

I was kind of torn on that one, which sort of struck me as the one trying hardest to look and feel like a TOS episode, but it still leaves us with three out of the first four with an identifiable “gimmick,” and the muppet epsiode to come. In fact, it seems like they’ve intentionally leaned into it:

“There’s a cadence between kind of classic ‘TOS’ sci-fi thriller and then the thing that actually makes us ‘Strange New Worlds’…which is our worlds are genres,” Goldsman said. “Those are our strange new worlds. It’s the lens that allows us to tell stories in a way that typically, or at least consistently, hasn’t been done in ‘Star Trek’ before.”

I’m not even entirely sure I hate it, but it’s not adding a fun factor on its own anymore, so if an episode is weak, like the last one, there is nothing particularly refreshing about the fact that they cast Dave Foley and tried to make it funny.

Also, there’s too much Kirk.

When every episode is a “special” genre homage, none of them are special.

I appreciate that there’s an almost palpable march towards TOS camp, and TOS had its share of backlot-leveraging genre scripts, but TOS also had its share of episodes done as straighter sci-fi, sometimes building off really solid and thought-provoking story ideas (leaving Shatner and the production designers to add the camp factor on their own).

While I agree i general, Disney specifically might have to literally execute Jimmy Kimmel on live TV to get a major merger approved by these asshats.

Now as to whether they would… depends on the RoI I guess.

I did not really like Episode 1 that much. It felt bought and paid for by the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, I didn’t like how they basically made the entire population of KC act like Ted, I hate Michelle as a character so I don’t want to see her in London with them, and I though there was nowhere near enough table-setting needed for the run-time. Also, that jet, a Bombardier Challenger as I understand it, would only have needed a stop or two, but it almost seems like it would have been worse than flying first-class commercial.

LOL, you came with receipts. Fair enough. :-)

Sapkowski seems totally fine with their adaptation.

I’m pretty sympathetic to the general point here, and I’ll even say that a lot of pretty shit (or at least slim) source material is getting adapted these days and I don’t fault TV writers one bit for not sticking to it (cough halo cough).

That said, IIRC Sapkowski sold the game rights for a very small one time payment and remains salty about it, so it’s maybe not surprising that he’s publicly favoring the Netflix adaptation.

Yup. The “Thirty Mile Zone” is used in union contracts to define local shoots versus location shoots. Basically, if you stay in the TMZ everybody has to drive to work and buy their own food.

“All reviews and investigations continue to support the facts — we have been compliant with all laws,” the statement read. “To be clear — we are settling to protect our resources from endless and costly litigation … We stand proud knowing we will always put our purpose over politics and that we have and will continue to follow the law.”

I hope I’m reading between the lines properly here and this is the subtle “Fuck You” that I think it is.

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/education/2025/11/07/535471/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-sues-galveston-isd-for-failing-to-display-ten-commandments/

Just feed in the resulting image as part of the refinement process. Eventually you’ll get a horse…shoe crab.