[unknowable]

so, in other words,

tags via @procrastinatorproject

So while it’s true that the Enterprise is not as big as people think, that goes double for the Falcon!

A good way of thinking about the relative size is by using a bridge comparison:

The Enterprise bridge has space for 11 people to work, as well as a significant amount of space between stations to move around comfortably:

[Bridge illustration by Tobias Weinmann via here]

And the whole thing fits in the nipple thing up on top of the saucer:

Meanwhile the Falcon (beloved weed bus) has a cockpit that seats 4, with only 2 main operational stations, and zero floor space:

And since Serenity was mentioned too…

Serenity has a bridge more comparable to La Sirena - with 2 stations at the front and quite a bit of floor space.

And for those interested in a visual comparison:

(Boeing 747 for scale as well as the Delta Flyer because Why Not)

To which every other civillisation immediately calls bullshit, because “Yo, what the fuck bro, your ‘lightly armed science vessel’ can go to toe-to-toe with our top of the line warships!”

The largest dam removal in U.S. history. So successful that the salmon that haven’t run freely in the river for literally over a century came back the next year. Not steady progress over a decade as expected, the very next salmon run they came home. No one alive saw salmon in that river outside the hatcheries kept by native’s tribes and the Department of Fish And Wildlife scientists desperately trying to save them. One of the activists who helped bring the suit spoke of their dying grandmother making them promise to bring the fish home, and they didn’t know how that was possible, but they spent decades doing it.

The legal basis for successfully suing the power company who owned the dams was Indigenous treaty rights to eat the fish. Eating the fish was the one thing in a century that succeeded in being a clear and legally binding right that superseded the desires of white capital and industry. I have been going to the public interest environmental law conference off and on for 20 years where a lot of organizing for Undam The Klamath happened. I’ve heard updates about every legal tact they tried as they happened, and they tried everything.

There are healthy, thriving salmon, trout, and lamprey in a rewilding and recovering Klamath River right now as a direct result of Indigenous people eating them. Of their legally binding right to eat them. They sure as fuck care more about those fish than any white vegan ever could. They are salmon people that the Creator sent Salmon to feed, while charging the People with protecting and stewarding them. It’s not possible to learn about salmon and trout in the Pacific Northwest without learning this, and it’s unambiguously racist to dismiss this symbiotic relationship.

The white vegans are trying to get all hunting and fishing banned in Oregon, and that’s quite possibly the single most catastrophic thing that could be done to the animals here because we killed off all the major predators of creatures like deer and without anything hunting them their numbers will explode, eat all the vegetation, destroy the ecosystem, and then die along with everything else in that failing ecosystem. Controlled hunting of deer is vitally necessary for the deer to survive. This is something Native people know, but patronizing racist savior-complex white people refuse to listen to.

I have a whole collection of Oregon’s Public Broadcasting’s documentaries about Klamath River or the larger story of fish and people in the region. If you watch nothing else, watch Klamath Dams Are Coming Out, First Salmon Ceremony, After The Dams, and First Decent (Native made). It could not be clearer that the salmon are being protected and nourished by the people who eat them, and that stewardship is a massive part of their creation myths. But it contradicts political vegan dogma so they don’t listen.

Vermont Conversation: Surviving and escaping the Twelve Tribes cult - VTDigger https://share.google/LSdBGNLYzhWtnwu8p

They play lots of Israeli music, and the main guy working there sings along loudly in Hebrew.

There are lots of local restaurants that have similar dishes on their menus: Palestinian, Lebanese, Turkish, even Greek. No one has a monopoly on hummus, pita, or falafel. Each culture approaches these foods a little differently, which is where the magic really lies. All of these food traditions can and must coexist, and one culture doesn't negate any other.

The existence of an Israeli food culture doesn't negate the Palestinian one, and vice versa. For those of us who still believe there could be a peaceful future for Israelis and Palestinians (and in the region as a whole), keeping both cultures alive and celebrated is so important. Because one culture subsuming the other is what the extremists want. And we don't capitulate to extremists.

I bought two new wigs last week that I really like, the new scarves I ordered for the fall chagim from Israel are coming in the mail, I joined a new shul that I like, and I made a new long distance friend in Israel via Reddit just by asking for help with learning all the prayers that the Reform movement doesn't use in their services in a convert's group online.

(The rest of this essay about holocaust education based on dara horn’s people love dead jews under the cut because it is loooooong)

not a single LGBTQIA+ news outlet has called this shit out that i can find. if you find anything, send it to me.

i am queer and imma say it: the GREATER community is rotted. absolutely fucking rotted. i said what i said and i’ll say it again. are there normal individuals? of course duh. are there some normal groups left? maybe a couple.

but the general broader community? bigger communal spaces and events? when many fellow LGBTQIA+ people fucking get in groups now? rotted. brainwashed. idiotic. there have always been supremacist and extremist LGBTQIA+ people btw, esp in drag circles, but they were smaller in number. now they’re way too common and ACCEPTED because their brand of bigotry is a trend now.

same goes with other communities: they have been hijacked by fuckery in large numbers. the idiots are no longer the ignored minority. a big example is say, both sides of the american political spectrum.

but yeah you can screenshot me lmao: ROTTED!!!! gone so ridiculous that david duke will probably start marching in pride next year in some cities with no backlash. because guess what? antizionism IS antisemitism and jew hate has hijacked the LGBTQIA+ community for over 10 years now.

im making a fun thing rn and its set in this universe where everything is a set of connected pocket and sub dimensions and stuff like that and theres some cool lore going on there but its going to be entirely sidelined for the way more cool "jews would totally make their own pocket dimension for themselves in this universe" and just showing a thriving small jewish community with people from all different types of dimensions that fled there and stuff and also im not going to lie im heavy focusing on making my characters kiss, like in level of priority its

• MCs drawn out relationship where they go from buddies to eventual lovers but its not like agonizing ykwim its just they were friends for a bit then dated and the story wont force you to wait cuz dating wont be the focus, friendship or something else will be ykwim. like its not a will they wont they. its blorbos who eventually will.

• jews and jewish community and jewmaxxing

• the fun universe i created in my mind for years

uhm the village has not many people but most are unrelated, no real generations of folk have started yet, the place is named Bayit and i plan to name every street after random jews in history. like yea yea schneerson ave can exist but i wanna find the most random, inconsequential historical jews and just. name streets after them. for fun:)

Bugger (American: fuck/fucker)

Flat (American: apartment, “my place”)

Bloke (American: guy, asshole, dude)

Queue (American: line, checkout line)

Cuppa (American: cup of tea, hot tea)

Shite (American: bullshit, shit, crap)

Bin (maybe sommme Americans use it? But mostly trashcan, garbage)

Lift (American: elevator)

What this is flagging is that the words you are using—in dialogue or narration from an American POV—don’t fit what we use here. and if that’s something that concerns you, or if you want your readers not to get hung up on (to steal an example from the comments) “Why is Midwesterner Dean Winchester talking about a torch??”, these are the words we actually use.

And still some would give options.

That's a more natural and normal thing many ask of their friends or guests in their home.

If it's in an effort to calm some people down: It's always Water offered.

"Hey, you want something to drink? I've got water, coffee, tea, orange juice and I think there's some Coke left."

On which note, there is a battle over whether it's soda, pop, or Coke (and then you have contrarians like me who say soda pop). If you're in the South, "would you like a Coke?" "Yeah, Sprite if you have it" is a completely normal and not contradictory statement.

ALSO-ALSO

Lemonade = drink made from fresh lemon juice, water, and a shitload of sugar. Some people add strawberries and then it's strawberry lemonade or pink lemonade. I have met Aussies and Brits in real life who've tried to compensate by using "lemon-lime." That will not work here. At best you'll get a glass of water with a wedge each of lemon and lime. What you want is Sprite. You may be told that what's available is Starry (in pre-2023 fics, Sierra Mist) or, rarely (except in MUCH older fics, like early 90s and before), 7-Up. It's the same drink you've got across the pond as lemonade, but it only goes by brand name over here.

I've also been told that the prevalence of using brand names for items in the US is somewhat bizarre--other places do it, but not to the extent we do. So:

Paper tissue to blow your nose on -> kleenex

Skip -> dumpster

Copy machine or copies made by machine -> 1990s only, Xerox (also a verb: can you xerox that?).

Go to the grocery store -> run to [local supermarket name]. Your best bet here is going to be to look up "grocery store [state name]." In much of the Deep South it'll be Piggly-Wiggly and just about everywhere you can look for "Kroger" and "Albertsons" and there will be a regional chain under their corporate umbrella. PLEASE NOTE YOU CAN'T MIX AND MATCH THESE. If you say "King Sooper" in my state, only someone who has family in Washington will have any idea what you're talking about.

Cotton swabs you use in your ears or to apply makeup -> Q-tips

Plasters = bandaids

The calcium stuff you can chew for heartburn and indigestion -> Tums or Rolaids

Bleach -> can absolutely be called bleach, but if it's before the 2000s you can add some authenticity by calling it Clorox

Any round chocolate cookie sandwich with cream filling -> Oreos

Toaster pastries -> Pop-Tarts

Energy drink -> Monster or Rockstar. There are other brands available (most predominantly Red Bull) but you'll want to ask for them by name. Flavors are usually identified by colors. You don't want the no-carb Rockstar, you want the blue one.

Beer -> you will always order this by name, and if you're getting Budweiser, it's a Bud. The one exception is if you're looking for local brews, and then you'll ask for it by type: "what do you have for IPAs/dark beer/light beer?" (In some places you can say ale or lager. Those places are not going to be your neighborhood dive bar.) If you're here in the Southwest and order a Corona it may come with a lime stuck in the neck of the bottle. Push it in.

Other alcohols -> the exception to this rule. You ask for it by type and then name your brand if you have a preference. If you have no preference, you can just say "house brand" (this will usually be a common decent-but-cheap brand like Jose Cuervo, Jack Daniels, or Smirnoff). Mixed drinks are more common than plain alcohol and are usually just referred to as "a drink" in general and by name in particular ("let's get a drink," "I'd like a Long Island iced tea"). A whiskey-Coke is a Jack and Coke. Plain alcohols are ordered by shots ("a shot of vodka").

Collards (aka boiled collards or collard greens) are huge in the south, particularly poor communities (or, more recently, gentrified communities a la avacado toast) but not eeally elsewhere. They put in a ham hock for salty fatty richness and boil for a long time.