Heh. Yeah, I can’t really hold up a country backsliding on trans rights as an example of an effective constitutional monarchy.

I think taking a broad view, there are quite a lot of constitutional monarchies that are really great places to live (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, New Zealand, Canada, the Bahamas, Japan, to name a few). There are also quite a lot of republics that can claim the same. So, from a sort of human development POV, I don’t think it really matters very much.

[EDIT: Should’ve added that there are also plenty of republics and monarchies that are disasters, too. My point is that there’s no consistent pattern of one works and the other doesn’t.]

Sure, monarchies are a bit daft but I think ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ is quite a good rule. Especially since spending time on fixing things that ain’t broke is time you could be spending on fixing things that are broke. I live in the UK and we have a lot of major problems that need our attention. It’s better to focus on those than have a big argument about the King when, as we can see from international comparisons, the King isn’t really the issue.

Good question.

Yes, very useful for subtle distinctions like this!

Yes, it’s metonymy, as people have said. You also get it in similar contexts where people will name a building such as ‘the White House’ or ‘[10] Downing Street’ to refer to the governments of the US or the UK.

Any MBA?

I have this whole system where I alternate between poetry/non-fiction/fiction and contemporary/classic, so I always have about fifty books on my shelf and there’s always an obvious next one to read. Like right now I’m reading some classic prose fiction so my next read is contemporary poetry.

/s indeed, but you did remind me of a cool image, above: the Earth (and the Moon) not only from space, but from the orbit of Mars!

And, below, the Earth as seen from Mars’ surface:

It’s the the tiny white dot, just left and up from centre.

Wind up music boxes. I don’t know why, but regardless of the melody they play, I find them super creepy.

Love the idea that the Enterprise just flies about blasting its own theme tune on every subspace channel.

The Marxists Internet Archive has a huge amount of left/communist non-fiction. It’s very broad in its scope, so there’s Stalin and Mao on there alongside William Morris and HG Wells. You could also check out Timothy Snyder and Rebecca Solnit, who both had interesting books about resisting fascism from a more contemporary viewpoint.

In fiction, there’s The Man in the High Castle, by Phillip K. Dick, which has a similar alt history concept as Roth’s The Plot Against America. And of course there’s George Orwell’s writing, both fiction and non-fiction, much of which explores the nature of fascism. I’d also recommend Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits, if you like magical realism.

I don’t speak it super well, but I can get by.

Totally understandable. I hate a particular type of architecture because of a job I had in a building of that style.

I don’t know, we already have open source 3D printers and they really haven’t brought about the industrial revolution some people hoped. Not quite the same as replicators, granted!

I agree, that logic has been used to justify atrocities throughout history, including right now. It’s exactly what Israel says about Palestine, China about the Uyghurs, Trump about Mexican immigrants. And it’s completely antithetical to Star Trek’s values.

You found the one reviewer who liked it. I bet they like season 1 of TNG, too.

Den of Geek: Star Trek: Section 31 Review: Badly Goes Where Everyone Has Gone Before.

London Bridge now has cycle lanes, too, but they’re not properly connected at either end. Still, a bit of an improvement, makes it easy to admire the view as you cross!

The ship flying out of the rift reminds me of the XCV-330 Enteprise from the 22nd Century, first seen as part of the Enterprise lineage of ships in a painting in TMP. The ring structure might be a coleopteric warp drive which the XCV-330 used, also used by Vulcan starships.

I think a similar ring design was also an early concept for the Enterprise, before they settled on the familiar saucer + nacelles look.

I’d like my corpse to be used to frame someone for murder. Obviously I can’t name names, because that would undermine the plot, but I trust my loved ones to frame up someone who has it coming.