Best friends.
I haven’t posted a lot of TAZ art over the years, barring my Refuge piece, but the moment Griffin described Carey’s wedding dress in the finale this design crystallized in my brain, fully-formed. Had to commit it to paper. ❤️
someone asked me what the back of the dress looks like and I’m like well OBVIOUSLY
The most lasting contribution that the Star Trek animated series gave Star Trek was the concept of the holodeck, first seen in the animated show.
There were plans to feature something like the holodeck in the original series, but there was simply no budget for this idea. The holodeck is one of those things, like emergency saucer separation, that people associate with the next generation, but the original series could do it too.
There’s a lot of discussion on how Star Trek was a team effort by a lot of different writers (notably Gene L. Coon, creator of Starfleet, the Klingons, and the Prime Directive), but the holodeck was purely Gene Roddenberry’s idea. In the series bible from 1966, he wrote that “entertainment in the Star Trek era is three dimensional and like a film, except it happens all around you and is interactive.”
I’m old enough, I watched these first run. I thought the ‘rec room’ was a logical, but awesome, thing to be in the 23rd century. And saucer separation was one of those things I always considered canon because of Franz Jospeh and Steven Cole. I can’t remember if they ever did in in TAS.
In “The Apple,” when the god-computer Vaal held the Enterprise in stasis and unable to leave orbit, Kirk and Scotty considered a risky plan: they wanted to separate the main section (the saucer) from the engineering section and the engines to escape. From the reactions and the context of the conversation, this was considered an incredibly risky plan of last resort, and the term “jettison” was used to describe this process…meaning that it is reasonable to assume that the original series Enterprise could perform a saucer separation maneuver, but it was an emergency escape move, and it was very unlikely it could reconnect afterward.
By the time we reach Star Trek: the Motion Picture, a big part of the film was going to be focused on an Emergency Saucer Separation at a dramatic moment. This sequence was scrapped, but Andrew Probert actually did concept art for it, and since Probert designed the movie Enterprise, he built lines and cracks for this maneuver into the design of the ship.
Augh, just, every episode of Discovery is just SO MUCH and then the last one is just, like,
**sound of deflating balloon**
The Bachelor, Herpes, & You
Another day, another salacious story about STDs. But — silver lining — it’s also another chance to talk about STDs using FACTS and COMPASSION. Imagine that!
Okay, so. According to an excerpt from a behind-the-scenes book about The Bachelor, the main reason contestants are rejected from America’s #1 super-prestigious matchmaking franchise is because they test positive for an STD. Specifically…herpes (*DUN DUN DUNNNNN*).
Sigh.
Of course, this li’l tidbit is whipping its way around the web because it appeals to our culture’s totally unhealthy obsession with stigmatizing sex and STDs, and various Internet Persons are acting like it’s a completely wild and scandalous revelation. But it really shouldn’t be…because a metric f*kton of people have herpes.
The fact that an overwhelming number of Bachelor hopefuls test positive for herpes should be the least surprising news ever. It’s an incredibly common skin condition! According to the WHO an estimated 67% of people under 50 worldwide have HSV-1, the virus that usually causes oral herpes (aka cold sores) but can also infect genitals. And the CDC estimates that more than 24 million people in the US are living with HSV-2, the virus that usually causes genital herpes. For comparison, that’s more than 4 times the number of people who watched the season premier of The Bachelor (5.45 million people). So, it’s almost like genital herpes is way more popular than reality TV. Hey man, that’s just math.
It also makes perfect sense that a lot of Bachelor contestants apparently didn’t realize they had herpes — most people who have herpes don’t know it. Many don’t get or notice sores or any other symptoms. And according to the CDC, around 87% of people with HSV-2 haven’t been diagnosed by a doctor.
It’s pretty bananas that a few herpes diagnoses in the production of a reality TV show can make headline news, when the majority of the world’s population is living with oral or genital herpes. It’s just a skin condition, but then again, our culture has an unfortunate habit of stigmatizing certain relatively harmless infections just because you can get them from sex.
The reality is, herpes happens. A lot. Anybody who’s ever been smooched or had any kind of sexual contact can get herpes — that’s almost all y’all. And honestly? It’s usually not that big a deal. Really, it isn’t. While the virus technically stays in your body for life, herpes isn’t deadly, it rarely causes serious health problems, and it’s totally treatable. Many people with herpes never get sores, and others only have one or a couple outbreaks over the course of their lifetimes. People who do get outbreaks more frequently can manage them with medicine. And medicine can help prevent someone from giving herpes to their partners. People with herpes can have sex, be in relationships and live totally normal lives. In fact, most say the worst part of having herpes is dealing with other people’s judgment and misconceptions. (And, I guess, not getting to be on The Bachelor.)
Shame and stigma aren’t effective prevention methods. They’re actively harmful to people already living with STDs. And they actually make it harder for people to get tested, insist on using protection, and talk honestly with their partners — you know, the things that will actually help prevent infections. So the next time you hear someone getting all frothed up about STDs, or using herpes as a totally clever and original punchline, consider joining the Team Public Health Anti-Stigma Task Force (not the most catchy name but we wear capes!). Let them know the real facts about herpes — billions of people have it (including ones you probably know and love), it’s not the end of the world, and making cruel jokes about people with herpes is super uncool.
To learn more about herpes, check out plannedparenthood.org.
-Kendall at Planned Parenthood
elim ‘takes a brief respite from being in mortal danger to be extremely gay’ garak
elim ‘takes a brief respite from being extremely gay to murder somebody’ garak
I did not care for the final ep of Disco, but the closing credits saved it.
at what point in history do you think americans stopped having british accents
Actually, Americans still have the original British accent. We kept it over time and Britain didn’t. What we currently coin as a British accent developed in England during the 19th century among the upper class as a symbol of status. Historians often claim that Shakespeare sounds better in an American accent.
whAT THE FUCK
I’m too tired for this
Always add in the video that according to linguists, Native southern drawl is a slowed down British.
T’ be or not t’be, y’all.
Fun fact: Same thing happened with the French accent. French Canadians still have the original French accent from the 15th century.
Êt’e ou n’pô zêt’e, vous z’auts.
I’ve been trying to find this post for months. I’m freakishly obsessed with this and want the truth of what early colonists sounded like.
winterfireice