If you haven’t already, consider donating to the California Sea Otter Fund on your California state tax return. You’ll be supporting research and recovery efforts for this threatened species. Just look for line 410 under “Voluntary Contributions” on your California income tax form 540. It’s labeled “California Sea Otter Fund.” Learn more here.
Garak and Kira only ever get to have the weirdest bonding experiences on Cardassia where they’re both forcibly reminded that they were both child soldiers
After three years in a labour camp, Kelas Parmak is released, but he is not free. He is remanded into the custody of his sister, and the incarceration has left him scarred. Still his belief that the Cardassian state needs to be overthrown is as strong as it was before he was apprehended. As he tries to recuperate, his views threatens to disrupt his family’s lives, and his very presence changes how others see that which once was beyond reproach.
Kelas and his sister have a talk – about the past, the future and the State.
“Transformative work is about repairing the deficiencies of canon” no, transformative works is about using canon as raw material. Sometimes that means fixing the canon. Sometimes it means making the canon worse. Sometimes it means slapping a pair of Groucho glasses and a silly hat on the canon and hoping nobody notices what’s really going on.
You can do all three at once if you put the effort in.
I could make him better. I could make him worse. I could Speedrun the entire relationship with the “disguise” feature from LEGO Star Wars on.
It would be funny if nuclear waste warning messages become an attraction for future historical linguists.
I mean look at this thing:
A parallel text in 7 languages, with 4 different scripts between them! And pictograms! All designed to be preserved intact!
maybe nothing of value to you is here
That is legitimately a massive problem that the nuclear waste warning projects are aware of and trying desperately to counteract.
Like, every post about them on tumblr going “lmao let’s be real, if I saw this shit I would stop at nothing to explore it” is highlighting the central conceit of the yucca mountain project.
The project is VERY aware of humanity’s tendency to explore, and the people involved are tormented constantly by the fact that ANYTHING they do to indicate “this specific place is extremely deadly and there’s nothing valuable here, GO AWAY” is going to become a fucking MAGNET for treasure hunters, explorers, adventurers, mystery enthusiasts, conspiracy theorists…like, the MOMENT it’s discovered, people will flood that place.
That’s what makes the project so fascinatingly difficult! There’s so much they have to convey, but at the same time, they have to do so without making the site itself interesting in any way, and without making it significant. Many possible warnings don’t incorporate a message at all, focusing instead on simply making the site as ugly, inconvenient, and unimportant-looking as possible so that it’s just never disturbed because nobody is interested in getting close. (It’s why seemingly crazy ideas like the color-changing cat priesthood are actually more viable than the seemingly “practical” example above, which still depends on written warnings guaranteed to be extremely interesting to future humans AND depends on the idea that those future humans will be able to decipher any of our languages. The most viable ideas focus on exploiting superstition and the subconscious, rather than LITERALLY trying to communicate “This place is not a place of honor” etc in as many words. Those are general ideas to be gotten across, not a script.)
The impossible catch-22 of the nuclear waste warning projects is that they absolutely MUST communicate the level of danger and the importance of keeping your distance…while also being acutely aware that warnings on the walls of ancient burial sites about the horrible curses that would afflict anyone who disturbed them did jack-fuck all to dissuade archaeologists.
Anything we do to make the warning seem important will guarantee it’s disregarded, but if we fail to make the warning unmistakable enough, we’re responsible for whatever happens to the humans ten thousand years in the future who suffer from our mistakes.
This is why the Onkalo solution may be the best approach. Find the most boring place with no valuable natural resources, drill down super far, seal the stuff away properly and then leave it. Don’t mark it in any way - just let it be forgotten.
Cecil. She/her. During the day I sit in libraries staring at books. During the night I write queer fanfiction with a historical slant.
Some not-so-random facts: Gay space lizards are the best lizards. Star Trek is my life. I have too many DS9 ships. Classic Who and the Eighth Doctor Adventures make me grin stupidly. Kelas Parmak is the best. I will defend historically accurate portrayals of Alan Turing to the last drop of blood. Likes and asks end up in the name of @apolesens-otheraccount, because Tumblr doesn't have a way of changing which blog is your primary one. Nothing happens over there - this is the one to follow.
ALT
