Persistent, Niggling Questions

[Nate the Great]

Awhile back I asked for which five non-animated, pre-2000, non-Star Wars movies you'd like to see in a theater again. Well, I'm going to ask again, but with a few changes.


PNQ: If you could see any ten theatrical movies in a theater again, which ones?


You can ask for Star Wars or animated now.

[Nate the Great]

In a Reddit post someone brought up the fact that in A Muppet Family Christmas the Swedish Chef wanted to eat the turkey and Big Bird even though they were sentient. This made me ponder...


PNQ1: In the world of the Muppets, is "Muppet" considered a separate type of species from the ordinary ones? That is, are human-type Muppets considered a different species from ordinary humans?
PNQ2: In most fictional worlds talking animals are considered to have the same rights as people. Is this the case in the world of the Muppets, or does the same hierarchy exist as in the real world (i.e. humans can eat animals whether or not they can talk)?

[Nate the Great]

Today's SF Debris updated review is "Coming of Age" and the following occurs to me...


PNQ: We know that the conspiracy was eventually revealed to be the bluegills, but what if it was Section 31 being sloppy and Starfleet's response was equally sloppy because they didn't have experience in such things?


Think about it for a second. The Sherman's Planet plot was only foiled because the tribbles were there, sheer luck. The Chang plot was only foiled because of Valeris' sloppiness, sheer luck. The E-D's mission was supposed to represent a new era of peace and exploration following the Kllingon treaty, but they still weren't really ready, as Q neatly showed.



Frankly the bluegill stuff should've been returned to after Gene died.

[Nate the Great]

So I'm watching a review of "Civil Defense" and see the scene where Dukat wants to establish a Cardassian presence on the station...


PNQ: Why didn't the Cardassians insist on having an ambassador on the station?


Of course there wouldn't be one at the start. After all they were giving up Bajor as being not worth the fight since there wasn't enough resources left. No wormhole, no center of commerce, just a small Starfleet contingent and a few runabouts helping Bajor rebuild.


But then the wormhole is discovered. DS9 is now much more important. So why no ambassador? They were going to introduce a Romulan recurring character and they would've had much less to do.

[NAHTMMM]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

Awhile back I asked for which five non-animated, pre-2000, non-Star Wars movies you'd like to see in a theater again. Well, I'm going to ask again, but with a few changes.


PNQ: If you could see any ten theatrical movies in a theater again, which ones?


You can ask for Star Wars or animated now.

I don't know, but I saw Close Encounters since then and it was worth it. The detail on the mothership on a big screen . . . mmm.

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

Today's SF Debris updated review is "Coming of Age" and the following occurs to me...


PNQ: We know that the conspiracy was eventually revealed to be the bluegills, but what if it was Section 31 being sloppy and Starfleet's response was equally sloppy because they didn't have experience in such things?


Think about it for a second. The Sherman's Planet plot was only foiled because the tribbles were there, sheer luck. The Chang plot was only foiled because of Valeris' sloppiness, sheer luck. The E-D's mission was supposed to represent a new era of peace and exploration following the Kllingon treaty, but they still weren't really ready, as Q neatly showed.



Frankly the bluegill stuff should've been returned to after Gene died.

Starfleet is never competent nor is it incompetent. It is precisely as sloppy as it needs to be.

[Nate the Great]

So I'm watching a YouTube video involving physics and once again g is approximated as 10 m/s^2...


PNQ: Suppose the science community upon discovering g=9.8 m/s^2 wanted to recalibrate either m or s to make g=10 m/s^2, do you think it would've made more sense to alter m or s? That is, shorten the length of a meter or make a second a bit longer?



We're going to ignore the original origin of a meter as 1/10,000,000 of the distance from a pole to the equator. This presupposes that the circumference of the earth can be measured that precisely to begin with, which is absurd.



As for a second being 1/86,400 of a day, we have to specify which "day" we mean because there are several (sidereal and solar just to name two). Plus the Earth's rotation is slowing down making any such measurement arbitrary anyway.

[Nate the Great]

Worf and O'Brien make a wager with their favorite beverages as the stakes.


PNQ: If you were in a similar situation, what beverage would be your desired wager?


Since I don't drink alcohol my options for "rare and expensive" beverages are rather limited. Probably something like Jones Soda, or maybe a high-class root beer.

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: If they had kept the design of the Monster Maroons but colored them like the TOS uniforms, would you have preferred that?


Sample image