@widdershins She’s the late great Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, the first lady of Trek, as Lwaxana Troi. I love the character, as well as Majel, RIP.
She gave so much to the franchise from the very beginning. The nurse wasn’t that important or great a character in the original, but TNG was always my favorite, and among the characters, Lwaxana and Q really stood out. The openness and genuine nature of her character was simply beautiful. Q was unrestrained because he was untouchable. Lwaxana was untouchable because she was unrestrained. And, of course, she was the computer voice in (almost?) every episode.
Star Trek: Picard is supposed to be out within a few months. Can’t wait for that. Try as I might I just couldn’t get into the soap opera that was DS9, the shit show that was Voyager or, especially, the snooze fest that was Enterprise. Nor am I particularly enjoying the magic show of Discovery. In TNG they actually did a bit on why Klingons looked different than they used to in the original series. It was light hearted and piqued my interest. I was very disappointing when the “Magic Schoolbus” of Federation vessels just made them weirder instead of exploring that.
But I am WAY off topic here.
Yes, we can always start a topic about this subject (Majel, Star Trek, Picard) in the Entertainment and Pop Culture area of the forum. 
I’d enjoy a discussion on such topics there.
@kilo54 While not all moderation notes just within this thread alone, have been in blue, there have been several violations, just within this thread alone. Your wall of comments- I’m not sure if they are copy and paste jobs, but even that is an issue which has been pointed out to you. Not only that, your language, specifically the French (not a pun), is also in violation of the rules and not at all work safe (some people do peek at the forum while at work or on break at work). Please see rules #3e, 3f, 4a, and 4b. If there is another violation of the rules you will banned. If you have any issues with this, please refer to rule #6. Thank you.
Mark W., you wrote “It takes a special blend of hubris, juvenility, and dishonesty to portray yourself as a victim when you are really the bully.” That quote fits the current POTUS. (That jumped out at me.) It could also fit you in this thread to some degree. I noticed that you think you are smarter than everyone who doesn’t agree with you. If you were really smart, I think you would be able to make cogent points that we (who don’t share your purported hidden genius) could understand. (Everyone participating in this thread is average IQ or above.)
And what is the point of cutting and pasting all that stuff about people who are sexually offensive? Are you suggesting that most people who don’t agree with you are like that?
As far as progress for human life, fossil fuels have met the point of diminishing returns. They pollute the air that we breathe. They contribute to AGW and climate change. And they cost too damn much. T rump has some of our troops protecting oil fields in Syria. That is pretty costly but it doesn’t figure in to the cost of oil. We have subsidized fossil fuels for far too long.
That fire in California. They keep getting worse, it seems, almost every year. The one burning right now has level 2 hurricane force winds. That’s a good bit of carbon going in to the atmosphere fast, really fast.
Well, I had to go to some adult sites to figure out Indiana’s French. (Not that I’m complaining.) It seems to mean something like “perform cunnilingus on me”, but that doesn’t make sense unless Indiana is Trans, and a biological female.
Anyway, Mark, please stick to your native tongue. It’s difficult as it is to make sense of much of what you say.
In some places, yes, the number of trees are growing. But the world still has fewer trees than at any point in human history. And we are gaining some in tree cover, but losing big parts of forests and their unique biosystems. We are currently losing species of organisms in the rainforest that is burning that we have not and will now, NEVER discover. A lot of the new tree cover just relates to human conservation practices. But it is true that some trees are now growing in previously warmer climes, due to global warming.
Now. To answer the 1st lying point that the fossil fuel think tanks, and their lackees make:
1. The Medieval Warm Period warmer than today and a time of great prosperity. Why should a bit of warming today be ANY different?
Answer: ttps://skepticalscience.com/medieval-warm-period-intermediate.htm
Seriously, Mark. You should come work in the T rump administration. Your mendacity would be an asset there.
There are several papers showing LESS storms in latter half of 20th century than first half. Gotit? As for fires, far less today than the 30s which some years lost 50m acres to fire. Today anywhere from 366,000 to 8m depending on source.
And, CO2 is logarithmic so even doubling its levels would do nothing. Sorry if that is difficult to understand.
As for ‘plotte’, it is Joual, Canadian old French that has more than one meaning…Today, horse is Cheval not Joual. Most Quebec swearing is religious, "Tabernac. Hostie. Maudite. Cul. " Nasty French, am I allowed to give an example? “N-que ta mere!” “Faire le pipe.”
You have to be careful in France - “Kiss me”, “Baisse moi!” is the same as “F-ck me!” Spent 2 weeks living on the most expensive street in Paris, Avenue Foch, at 17bis; next door to the richest guy in France, Baron Phillipe Rothchild; his place the only mansion with its own garden. 2 armed men at the gate. Flics. Very pleasant chaps, getting to know us quickly. His mansion used in a James Bond movie where the bad guy was cheating by changing the net heigh tin a tennis match! Ha, ha.
Got the French prize in my $50,000/year school… we copied keys in the metalwork shop, and got access to the Cadets armoury - 303s and Bren machine guns, just like in the movie “If”. (is on YouTube); stole cigs and booze from the master’s storeroom - never taking TOO much and they never noticed…one guy fertilised a Spanish maid - they tried to select the ugly ones, but on slipped thru.
The Bois de Boulonge at the foot of Avenue Foch (Dodi Fayed lived there, and Maria Callas) is strange at night…left turn signal on, “looking of a female date.”, right signal, “Male date.”, BOTH, “3 some.” full of expensive “Sporting Clubs.”
Not supposed to be doing this site at work. Plotte has several meanings. Not used in France. The French very subtle, saying, “La chatte noire”
…my Grandad in WW1 joined the Royal Army Medical Corps - every day they marched into town until they were sent to France…his regiment wrote a book after, and my Grandad wrote one chapter. “Every day an old woman came out on her balcony and showed us her old black cat!” Nobody got it, till me!
He also wrote, “We marched up to the line and were given a meal. There were body parts everywhere. Nobody seemed concerned. We, young chaps could not eat a thing. It was THEN we realised what we had go ourselves into.” Later, he was one of the first into Damascus and climbed onto a roof to get a Turkish flag. snipers shot at him, but he got the flag which we still have.
My other Grandad was captured and forced to crawl into no man’s land to bring back a wounded German. He did, “There’s more out there. I’ ll go and get them if you like.” He did. The German Commander was so impressed he wrote a letter asking for good treatment in the PW camp. Had the letter for years but now gone.
Indiana, I may have found another opportunity for you in your twilight years. Venus called. They heard of your love for CO2 and want you to be their marketing person to the Universe for their vast resources of atmospheric CO2. I hear it’s a really hot commodity.
Can you imagine how hot Venus would be if you were wrong about your rallying cry of more CO2 making no big whoop? But they’re doing fine at a balmy 864 degrees ave. temperature, unless, of course you are made of lead, in which case, you melt.
(I believe your Indiana Jones exploits – all very exciting.)
Seriously, You love CO2. That’s ok. CO2 is full of yummy goodness for all of us. I am personally full of CO2, right now. Oh wait, I just exhaled, so not so much. But the thing is CO2 has a nasty little characteristic of being one of the greenhouse gases. Other than that it’s quite wonderful unless you go overboard and breathe in too much at once (too much of a good thing eh?).
How about methane? Do you love methane also? A wee bit more AGW and the methane in the permafrost will be released. Then you can have a menage a trois (wow I know some French) – you, CO2, and methane. (It’s ok. I am accepting of alternative relationships.)
More salmon in the Pacific since 1905, the Russians catching 500K tons this year. 85% of the planet stlil unexplored. USA now the biggest producer of oil/gas - who would have thought that 20 years ago. In BC, 40m pinks just a couple of years ago, the biggest since 1900.
Where do you get the idea the air is polluted? As pointed out SEVERAL times, now, London air, today 15 counts; 1950 200 counts; 1900 600. Vancouver, just 5. Beijing/Delhi 600!! Our power 98% from Hydro - clean, renewable; cheap. Also making MORE money by playing the market.
Canada, Brazil, Russia, Australia, Congo and others not part of any supposed CO2 problem. We absorb 4 times the amount we emit; we have 100 times more land/capita than UK - miles of trees and lakes, and oceans and marshes. SINCE the trees are growing, ergo they are retaining CO2. No?
I have about an IQ of 130 ish. They do not like to tell you, but after doing my first test, placed in over achievers Upper class meaning I would go to Uni at 16, but not allowed till 18 in UK. It is not that I think myself clever, but that, though you lot SAY you are clever, you are not ACTING in a clever fashion, but instead use every dishonest tactic in the book. Refusal to answer shows you CANNOT.
In my 4 day Permanent Commission selection, we were given an impossible task and 20 minutes for a solution - as a scientist being used to doing rough calculations, I could quickly see that the ship would sink before the helicopters could make a return trip, thus drowning half the passengers. So what to do? Throw up your hands? I placed myself as Commander, and ordered the helis to be filled with extra liferafts and SAR techs - “Fly out in ground effect to save fuel. Half way, drop liferafts and SAR techs. Continue to ship, and pick up half passengers, then drop them at half way point…etc”
The other 19 candidates gave up and were gone next day. 16 year minimum contract; in Reserve till 65; $2+m to train us. I served 47 years…like the crack regiments, Lifeguards, Blues and Royals (The Queen’s personal bodyguard! Need to be a Royal, like Harry Windsor, or aristocracy), we could do what we wanted. Smashing up the Mess; driving on the runway with no lights, one time crashing a car into the bloody guardhouse!! Staggered out, laughing. All gone in the morning and nothing said…mess games in our $3,000 barathea mess kits - British bulldogs; high cockolorum; Are you there Moriarty? Major fun times. At 18 had my own servant, my batman. Brought me tea in the morning. (Had 5 servants in Africa including dhobi boy who did the washing.)…
We were family friends of the first Politician to become a Saint, Julius Nyerere. Not canonised YET, but half way - he is a “Servant of God” has at ;east one miracle and you can pray to him. (Fat lot of good!!)…My Mother had helped him get started on his career and in 1955 he made her, a white woman, Godmother to his, a black Nationalist’s child to thank her for her help. An honest decent man.
Posting on other sites, so my apologies if any repetition.
In 1958, he said, “We, the people of Tanganyika are going to place a lighted candle on top of Kilimanjaro. Its light will shine beyond our borders, giving Love where there was Hate; hope where there was despair; dignity where before there was only humiliation…”
Sadly he did nothing about the population, now 50m cf. 15m in 1962!!! “Nenda kwa Mungu, rafiki!” “Go to God, friend.”
I have about an IQ of 130 ish.
Who cares? A lot of us around here have such IQs so it’s nothing to brag about in this group. You were warned about the wall of words and you are bordering on being banned.
Posting on other sites, so my apologies if any repetition.Is it possible you have the two sites mixed up? Most of your content is either irrelevant to the topic or is on topic but false.
Neither of those are good, but if you continue posting I’ll take more of the former and less of the latter, please.
A lot of us around here have such IQs so it’s nothing to brag about in this group.How does anyone even find out their IQ? I've heard there are websites that give you a test and a score, but I can't imagine they're accurate (as Mark's score most likely demonstrates.)
I don’t know that I want to know mine. I’m already not much to look at and out of shape, so in the interest of not completely destroying my self-esteem by knowing every negative thing about myself, I should probably let it remain a mystery.
130 eh? Not bad. Really pretty smart but not SO smart as to, typically, lose a sense of empathic connection with most regular humans. I guess there are exceptions to the rule.
I suggest listening to this theme song before reading Mark’s posts. It may make them more palatable.
@3point14rat Your school or a psychologist or a career counselor didn’t test you? I wouldn’t go to a website. I’d go to a professional and ask them to be tested if you really want to know.
Funky stuff like that doesn’t exist out in small country schools. I don’t know a single person who’s had a legitimate IQ test.
I used to think I’d like to take an IQ test. But the more I read about the amount of stuff they don’t say about a person, the less value they seem to have. They’re too limited and irrelevant to everyday life for me to invest much time, money and effort into it.
Maybe if I lived in a city and they were free to take.
Legitimate IQ test generally come from a school psychologist or a mental health worker of some sort and to be honest, IQ tests do have biases, such as cultural, socio-economic, and others. U.S. ones are bias towards those who grew up in the U.S. France ones are bias to those in France. Also, the socio-economic bias are ones that make a child from a low income family living in a poverty stricken neighbourhood seem less intelligent those who grew up in a higher income and a well to do neighbourhood. Other biases include a lower score for kids with dyslexia, ADHD, and/or other issues. If one has other intellectual talents- such as kinetic or what have you, it can also be biased. Intelligence isn’t all mental, so it can fail those in which their intellectual talents lie elsewhere. But we are digressing off topic with another subject that would be good for another thread.