Persistent, Niggling Questions

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: How could you turn metaphasic shields into a weapon?


Not a nit, just a chance for speculation. One possibility that immediately comes to mind is equipping a torpedo with them. Surely a ship near a star wouldn't be able to detect the torpedo coming at them through the "noise" of the star. A situational weapon to be sure, but definitely a dangerous one.


Another possibility is modifying the energy profile of the phasers to a sort of "anti-metaphasic" one. That is, while a ship's shields can easily handle ordinary stellar output, they really aren't designed to handle higher intensities or focused versions of it. It stands to reason that a ship with metaphasic shields would be in a position to examine stellar output more closely, enough to duplicate it.

[Flying Gremlin]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

PNQ: How could you turn metaphasic shields into a weapon?

If I remember my Treknobabble right, metaphasic shields are self-regenerating shields in the face of intense radiation from star-like bodies.

In theory, you could project a metaphasic shield around an enemy, possibly with a limpet-style mine, which would lock the ship and crew in itself. Then redirect the ship into the corona of a star using a thruster pack. They deactivate the mine, they die. They do nothing, they bleed off their power reserves until they die. And even if they are able to get out of it for whatever reason, you've still taken the ship out of the fight for enough time to do whatever you need to.

[Nate the Great]

Like I said years ago, it was time to change my avatar...


PNQ: Z, can you update my title to reflect the change?


I miss classic Yu-gi-oh...

[Nate the Great]

There are episodes that I choose not to revisit not because they're "bad", per se, but because they're just so depressing. "Course: Oblivion" is one of them, and I just made the mistake of watching it again after many many years. Toss in "Remember Me", every single DS9 Mirror Universe episode, "Before and After", and so forth.


PNQ: What are episodes like that for you?

[Flying Gremlin]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

PNQ: What are episodes like that for you?

Lately, "Far Beyond The Stars".

[Nate the Great]

Oh yeah, totally forgot about that one. Also "The Seige of AR-whatever."

[Flying Gremlin]

Because of how episodic and positive it all is you could make an argument that most series outside of DS9 don't have that problem, although I guess for some Spock's death in The Wrath of Khan might count, or when they blow up the Enterprise in The Search for Spock. And sometimes I have problems with watching the crewman begging for Picard to help him in First Contact.

Surprisingly, I can't think of a part of Discovery or Picard that I would include on this list either.

[Nate the Great]

I may have posted the Real Lawyer reacts to "Measure of a Man" video already, but another bit interested me that totally flies over the guy's head.


MADDOX: Let me put it another way. Would you permit the computer of the Enterprise to refuse a refit?
PHILLIPA: That's an interesting point. But the Enterprise computer is property.



The Enterprise computer wouldn't refuse a refit because it doesn't have the capacity to. And we're not just talking about refusing the refit, we're talking about making a choice that can't be based on solid evidence. It's not sentient. Data IS sentient, so he can refuse a refit.



If you asked the computer if it would object to a refit that might alter its personality, you wouldn't get a yes or no, you'd get the computer asking you to restate the question into one that it can answer based on the logic within it.

[Nate the Great]

Regarding Garak being sentenced to six months in a holding cell at the end of "Broken Link"...


PNQ: Given his claustrophobia, would this be considered cruel and inhuman punishment?
PNQ2: How long can someone really be kept in a holding cell (i.e. just a bed with a built-in bathroom and food on trays, no PADD for diversion) without it being considered cruel and inhumane? Tie this into Tom's punishment in "Thirty Days." Wouldn't relegating him to grunt work doing the equivalent of changing fuses be a greater punishment?

PNQ3: Would shipping him off to a penal colony on Bajor be cruel? Would he be mistreated there?
PNQ4: Suppose he was sent to a Federation penal colony, would Garak see this as a punishment? Is one reason he stays on DS9 the ability to stay near his people and hear the latest news?

[Nate the Great]

So I'm reading Around the World in 80 Days again, and I thought the French speakers in the audience could help with this one...


PNQ: If you're speaking with a French accent, how do you pronounce "Passepartout"?


I doubt it's just "passport out" as is implied in the novel. But is it "pass e par two" or "pah say par two" or what?

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: If you had to be reborn in the 24th century as a race other than human, what would you choose?

[Nate the Great]

MovieBob covers Big Bad Beetleborgs


PNQ: If you were a Power Rangers fan, what other tokusatsu/sentai shows did you enjoy or not enjoy?


I never really watched Beetleborgs. I was a devout Power Rangers fan and enjoyed Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad, VR Troopers, and Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog (although MKTNN isn't technically tokusatsu, but merely a copy in that style).


Masked Rider never connected with me, Ultraman was before my time, and I was past my Ninja Turtles phase when The Next Mutation came along. Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills I believe I was ignorant of until after it had aired.

[Nate the Great]

So Harry Potter would turn 40 tomorrow if he actually existed.


PNQ: What's your history with Harry Potter?


I chose to do a book report on Sorceror's Stone back in school. There were a number of options, and I admit that I chose one of the easier ones. I followed up with books 2-4, they were the only ones out at that time. After Goblet of Fire I never really had the desire to read anymore, the number of possible plot points and characters that may or may not have importance later just kept piling up until I lost interest. I think I watched the movies up to Order of the Phoenix, by then I could see that it was even worse than the books in terms of keeping a coherent narrative. Entire plotlines were ignored from movie to movie, but they still kept trying to stuff details in just in case they paid off in future movies.



When they eventually reboot the films, I hope having the entire series to start with yields a more coherent storyline. That is, irrelevant sideplots can be ignored and irrelevant details can be downplayed.

[Nate the Great]

Food Theory tackles a perennial question...


PNQ: Is a hot dog a sandwich?


To me, no.



I had to erase a rant again.



Precise definitions of "sandwich" vary, but can we at least agree that the mechanics of holding and eating a sandwich and a hotdog are different?

[NAHTMMM]

Technically, a cross-section of a hot dog is the cross-section of a sandwich, but a hot dog is not a "sandwich" any more than a burger is. Unless the Supreme Court rules otherwise.

[Nate the Great]

Why isn't a burger a sandwich? If you tried to limit "sandwich" to "stuff between two slices of bread" I'd think you'd get a lot of complaints.



A cross-section of a hot dog is not the cross-section of a sandwich. Rotate a hot dog 180 degrees and you get an empty bun and a sausage on the floor. Rotate a sandwich 180 degrees and you get a sandwich with a unusual filling arrangement.

[NAHTMMM]

Top to bottom, a hot dog has bread, filling, bread. The fact that the bread connects on one side is trivial to address by cutting through the hinge.

Psychologically a burger is not a sandwich. If I asked for a sandwich and someone brought me a burger, or vice versa, I would feel they did not fulfill my request properly.

[Nate the Great]

When holding a hot dog in the usual way how often is there bread above the sausage?


Today's pile of junk mail included a toy store ad. One item is a set of headphones, including a 3.5 mm-to-0.25 in converter.


PNQ: When's the last time you used such a thing?


I have a number of them kicking around just in case, remnants of my parents and older siblings coming from the pre-3.5 mm era. Of course 0.25 inch plugs still exist, but I thought they were reserved for serious audio/music users and creators. Even then, I thought they would be more likely to use 0.25 inch plugs with 0.25 inch inputs, not mix and match.



PNQ2: Would it be worthwhile to stick cheapo 3.5 mm headphones into a serious stereo system that only has 0.25 inch outputs anyway?

[Nate the Great]

Regarding "Way of the Warrior"...


PNQ: Would it have been possible to program the replicator autophaser from "Civil Defense" to only target Klingons?

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: Could the human body adjust to the 26-hour Bajoran clock? Would our heroes just need to sleep an extra hour each day?