All the Bardcore covers by Hildegard Von Blingin are amazing.

This is a fun thought experiment. If I’m understanding correctly, you’re writing a story where the character has a flash drive with important information. They have to remove the end to prevent the bad guys from getting access to it, then later replace the end to access the information themselves. Here’s my pitch (disclaimer: don’t actually try to do this. It would probably work, but if you have actual important files on a flash drive, this isn’t by any means how you should be trying to get at them)

For removing the end, soldering would be safe if they have access to a soldering iron. If it’s an emergency scenario, then I’d say just snap the plug off. It’s a bit risky depending on how the drive is made, but if it’s done deliberately by someone who knows what they’re doing, then I would say they could plausibly take off the USB connector without permanently damaging any of the guts.

For connecting the drive later, find a spare usb cable and cut it in half. It shouldn’t be hard to find one in an office. Even cutting the plug off a wired mouse or keyboard would work. Use a pocket knife or pair of scisors to strip the outer insulation off the cut end. This exposes four small wires. Strip the ends of those as well. Now, you just need a way of attaching each wire to the correct spot on the circuit board in the flash drive. Soldering would be best, but in a pinch, I’d look around the office for some of that sticky clay stuff they use to hang up posters. Pre-chewed gum might also work. Lay the stripped end of each wire over the correct spot on the board, then put a blob of the sticky stuff on top to hold it in place. Plug the other end into a computer, and you should be good to go.

I like the way they solved this for the global reference time standard. In English it’s called Cordinated Universal Time (CUT) but in French it’s called Temps Universel Coordonné (TUC).

Apparently, both sides wanted to use their preferred acronym globally and wouldn’t budge. The problem was only solved by eventual agreement to use UTC, which doesn’t make sense in either language, but I guess at least it’s fair that way.

Oh no! It’s a _{1 2 3 4 5 6 …………………} ICOSAHEDRON!

Every episode seems to have one joke that really gets me. In this one it was Mariner stopping mid exclamation to make sure she correctly named the platonic solid that’s about to eat her.

I agree that Mariner’s role in the episode was nothing but a running gag, but I have to point out what an exceptionally well written running gag it was, both in terms of her character and her character development over the course of the series.

Mariner’s behavior in this episode tells us two things about her. First, she’s the type of person who can get stabbed three times in a single day and (mostly) shrug it off. This isn’t really a surprise. She’s has always been both tough and resourceful, but she’s also impulsive and emotional which too often results in her messing things up. Not this time though, and that’s the second thing the episode tells us. Mariner is maturing. In past seasons a knife in her shoulder would have resulted in either a fight or a great deal of grandstanding about what a badass she is for not caring that she got stabbed, but not this time. This time Mariner knows that she’s only here to support her friend.

Mariner is the running gag in this episode because now, perhaps for the first time, she can handle being the running gag. She knows that this adventure is about Tendi, and she’s not going to derail it over a little thing like getting stabbed three times.

The SCP wiki is always a fun place to lose a couple of hours. Here’s how they describe themselves:

The SCP Wiki is a collaborative speculative fiction website about the SCP Foundation, a secretive organization that contains anomalous or supernatural items and entities away from the eyes of the public.

And here’s an example page about a moth with mind control powers