Oh no! Sonic has been murdered! Can you find the killer in the this free PC game available on Steam for April 1st! Overwhelmingly positive reviews, of course!
The post Free Game on Steam: The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog appeared first on Indie Game Bundles.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Elon Musk has pledged to remove all verification for accounts that refuse to pay $8 per month for Twitter Blue. The Onion asked verified Twitter users how they felt about losing their coveted blue checks, and this is what they said.
EDMONTON – Following recent revelations, observers have determined that Danielle Smith’s official calendar of duties as Alberta’s Premier consists entirely of 90% inappropriately communicating with justice officials for leniency in COVID-related prosecutions, and 10% cowboy hat wearing photos ops. The insight into Premier Smith’s lopsided schedule comes after revelations that she made “almost weekly” calls […]
The post Danielle Smith’s work as premier revealed to be 90% interfering in COVID prosecutions, 10% cowboy hat photo ops appeared first on The Beaverton.
EL PASO – Recently indicted steak salesman Donald J Trump attempted to flee to Mexico early this evening in order to escape charges awaiting him in NYC, but found it impossible to make it to the other side of the border due to the presence of a large wall. “I just… I just can’t clear […]
The post Fugitive Trump’s attempt to flee to Mexico thwarted by big wall appeared first on The Beaverton.
Hovertext:
Also, in this model, everything is flat and it's the same everywhere and eventually all the stars are dead!
FLORENCE, ITALY—After a Tallahassee parent complained that pictures of Michelangelo’s David shown to a sixth-grade art class were “pornographic,” causing a principal to lose her job, officials from Italy’s Galleria dell’Accademia invited Florida students to come see some real porn Thursday. “If you thought David was…
Police are suing the rapper Afroman for invasion of privacy after the artist used home security footage in his music videos of officers raiding his home on unfounded suspicions of drug trafficking and kidnapping. What do you think?
The board members picked by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to oversee development around Walt Disney World announced on Tuesday that they didn't quite have the power they thought they had.
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
A federal judge in Texas who previously ruled to dismantle the Affordable Care Act struck down a key part of the law. Opponents say the ruling jeopardizes preventive care for millions of Americans.
(Image credit: Alex Brandon/AP)
One of my friends worked for a company that develops technology to help farmers manage their crops. The software component runs on an iPad that is mounted on the dashboard of the farm equipment (think tractor or combine), and it uses GPS and other sensors to track the tractor’s precise location, determine the location of each plant, and then calculate and deliver the optimum amount of farm stuff to farmify each plant, in order to minimize costs while maximizing farmness, while reporting back to the operator on the amount of farmitude and provide guidance on the best path to take.
She told me that the software pushes the iPad to its limits, and the slightest hiccup would result in suboptimal farmization because the correct amount of farm stuff was not delivered in time.
(You can tell that I’m an expert on farming.)
The farmers would often complain that when they returned from the field, the system would report a ton of errors. “Why am I paying all this money for your flaky system?”
The software team studied the data coming in from the field and found that the software was failing to meet its real-time targets due to CPU starvation. They added additional code to identify what was sucking away the CPU time, and quickly they found their culprit.
They told the farmers, “The system would work much better if you stopped using it to watch baseball games.”
Today is Opening Day of Major League Baseball, the top level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada. If you want to watch games on your tractor, please use your own iPad.
The post If you want to watch games on your tractor, please use your own iPad appeared first on The Old New Thing.
Good morning. After an almost chilly day on Wednesday, when temperatures remained in the low- to mid-60s, Houston will warm up again for awhile. Some things we’re watching for are rather warm temperatures this weekend and into next week, and the potential for widespread and potentially heavy rainfall late next week. Whether this spills into Easter Sunday is something we’ll have to wait and see.
Scattered, light showers will be possible later today as moisture streams onshore from the Gulf of Mexico. Overall chances are probably 20 or 30 percent. Skies, otherwise, will be mostly cloudy with temperatures in the upper 70s to 80 degrees. Winds will be fairly strong, at 10 to 15 mph from the east, with higher gusts. Lows tonight won’t drop far, perhaps only into the lower 70s, with the warmer flow. Some additional light showers are possible overnight.
Skies will again be partly to mostly cloudy on Friday, and as a warmer southerly flow persists we should see temperatures increase into the mid-80s. This will be another windy day, with gusts perhaps as high as 30 mph. Rain chances will be fairly low, only about 10 percent. A cold front will approach the area later on Friday, and this may drive the development of some thunderstorms well to the north of our area. I don’t expect much, if any, activity in Houston. It will be another warm night for the region.
Drier air from the front will start pushing into the region after midnight, and the front itself should reach the coast by mid-morning on Saturday. This will be one of those touch-and-go fronts in the sense that it will drop down to the coast, stall, and then probably start lifting back on Saturday afternoon or evening. So how much dry air you see Saturday will depend on how far inland you live. In any case, I expect partly to mostly sunny skies, with highs in the mid- to upper-80s with the dry air warming quickly. Lows on Saturday night may drop into the mid-60s.
Humidity returns, and clouds along with it. This should limit highs to the lower 80s, with a decent chance of some light rain during the afternoon or evening hours. Accumulations will be light.
The first half of next week looks warm, with high temperatures in the upper 80s. It will not surprise me if some inland areas record their first 90-degree days of the year. Fun, I know, for early April. After that we turn into a period of more uncertainty, but it looks like a front will move into the area and serve as a focal point for a few days of April showers. As a result we could see a few days in the 70s, with some decent rainfall accumulations of 2 to 4 inches. For now that is fairly speculative, however.
What about the holiday weekend? I think it’s more likely than not that we’ll see some sort of shower activity lingering into Saturday, and possibly Sunday. The only thing that seems particularly clear at this point is that, whereas the first half of next week is going to be rather warm, the weekend should be cooler. So we’re not looking at a 90-degree Easter Sunday. The question is really how much cooler it will be, and whether rainfall will be a factor.
Glasstire counts down the top five art events in Texas.
For last week’s picks, please go here.
Tammie Rubin, “Blue Headdresses and North Star,” 2023, stoneware, underglaze, house paint.
1. Tammie Rubin: I am my best when I’m escaping
Big Medium (Austin)
March 17 – April 29, 2023
From Big Medium:
“Big Medium proudly presents I am at my best when I’m escaping by Tammie Rubin, our 2022 Tito’s Prize Recipient.
In this exhibition, the artist transforms the gallery space into a portal for escape and delves into her fascination with power objects, coded symbols, migration, rituals, and faith. Rubin employs ceramic conical forms, raised maps, and murals to create metaphysical, physical, and spiritual escape and relocation spaces. Using imagery and objects of the familiar, she contemplates ideas of authenticity and inherited meanings while inviting new considerations that open dream-like spaces of unexpected associations and dislocations.”
Matt Manalo, “No Partaking,” 2019, embroidery on handmade vintage placemat from the Philippines, 10 x 64 inches. Photo by the artist.
2. Philippine-Made: The Work of Matt Manalo
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft
February 11 – May 13, 2023
From the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft:
“Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) presents Philippine-Made: The Work of Matt Manalo, an exhibition of self-reflective sculptures made from air-dry clay, bamboo, and plant materials with cultural ties to Matt Manalo’s home country of the Philippines. Born in Manila, Manalo has spent half his life in America, an experience that has served as a pivotal point of inflection for the artist. The exhibition encapsulates his time living in the United States after immigrating with his family to Houston.”
Veronica Castillo, “Diosa del Maguey,” 2023, clay and Policomado, 22 inches.
3. Veronica Castillo: Tierra y Mujer
An Arte Gallery (San Antonio)
March 9 – April 2, 2023
From AnArte Gallery:
“AnArte Gallery is honored to present Veronica Castillo’s solo exhibition Tierra y Mujer, a contemporary art exhibition of clay sculptures depicting the relationship of women to the earth and all her elements. Through a deeply contemplative artistic practice, Castillo creates images of women and earth intertwined as allegorical representations of rebirth, regeneration, and regrowth. By focusing on literal, metaphorical and symbolic representations of women engaged in daily activities, such as planting and harvesting food, grinding corn, talking to birds, climbing trees, she hopes to expand how we understand procreation. While women are traditionally depicted as mothers, Castillo wants to honor women as life affirming radical matriarchs, caretakers of the earth, that also birth ideas and dreams.”
Gretchen Marie Schaefer, detail from “Inclined Fold From Above,” 2021, digital video, 2.33 minutes.
4. Betting on the Sun
Texas Tech University Landmark Arts Gallery
February 16 – April 16, 2023
From Texas Tech University’s Landmark Arts Gallery:
“The artists and collaborative teams selected for this exhibition acknowledge and utilize facets of the historically bounded category of sculpture yet are not easily classified. Their work suggests an infinite malleability – a demonstration of elasticity and heterogeneity described by Rosalind Krauss in the seminal ‘Sculpture in the Expanded Field’ – while signaling a new era of logic rooted in survival.”
5. (De)compose: Sara Dotterer, Ian Grieve
Southern Methodist University Pollock Gallery (Dallas)
March 25 – April 15, 2023
From the Pollock Gallery:
“(De)Compose is an interdisciplinary show with works that span painting, sculpture, virtual reality, and projection. Conceptually, the exhibition displays an exploration of the processes that allow decomposition or erasure to be a part of the work’s composition, emphasizing the power of cyclical ways of working.”
The post Top Five: March 30, 2023 appeared first on Glasstire.
PITTSBURGH—Grasping at the walls for balance as he made his way to a public restroom, local blackout drunk man Charlie Hull was desperately searching Thursday for a toilet to fall asleep on, according to sources familiar with the situation. “Get outta my way! I need to find an empty stall where I can sit down on the…
Update March 31, 2023: On Friday, the board of the Texas Democracy Foundation, the Texas Observer’s parent nonprofit, saw six resignations while voting to add three new members, according to Interim Board President Lize Burr. The board makeup, Burr said, will now consist of: Burr, Peter Ravella, Carlton Carl, Carrie James, Lizette Resendez, Terri Burke, Kathleen McElroy, and Skye Perryman.
In response to the news, senior Texas Observer staff sent the following letter:
To the Texas Democracy Foundation board,
We thank you for your decision to reverse course on layoffs this week and for your heartfelt statement to the Texas Observer community. We thank board members past and present for their service. We know you’ve given generously—time or money, sweat or tears—to this place that could have died so many times over the last 70 years.
We stand ready to work hand-in-hand with the board to build the long-term future the Observer deserves. In our view, this week’s events have shown that we have even more support out there in the world than we knew, that all of our work has been worth it and will continue to be. We know you share our belief that Texas needs an Observer. Y’all, let’s make it happen.
Sincerely,
Senior Staff of the Texas Observer
The board of the Texas Democracy Foundation, the nonprofit parent organization of the Texas Observer, on Wednesday voted unanimously to rescind its earlier plan to lay off the 68-year-old magazine’s entire staff and cease publication.
“This is wonderful news,” said Editor-in-Chief Gabriel Arana. “The Observer is indispensable to Texas and to democracy.”
The board issued a statement saying they have secured short-term pledges to bridge an immediate budget shortfall, “thanks to the extraordinary success of the staff’s fundraising this week.” A GoFundMe effort begun on Monday had raised more than $275,000 on Wednesday from more than 3,000 supporters.
The board had formally announced the layoffs and shutdown to the staff on Monday, at a contentious meeting at which they sought to answer no questions. However, most staffers had found out about the decision the previous evening, via a story in another publication.
The statement, addressed to the “Texas Observer Community” included an apology to the staff “for the abruptness of the layoff vote” and said the board “deeply regret[s]” the way the staff found out. The board also apologized to major donors Lynne Dobson and Greg Wooldridge of the Tejemos Foundation and to “our community of contributors, readers and supporters.” The foundation had made a major donation to the Observer last year, but the board said the nature of that gift was misunderstood by the Observer organization.
The change of plan came in the wake of an outpouring of public support for the Observer. In addition to the GoFundMe effort, readers, former staffers and former board members, and prominent journalists from around the country reached out to Observer journalists and allies to express their solidarity with the campaign to keep the magazine afloat.
“I just got chills,” said Gayle Reaves, the Observer’s editor-at-large, when news reached staffers. “I can’t tell you how proud I am of our incredible supporters and my colleagues and the board members who helped us.”
The post We Did It, Y’all! Texas Observer Will Remain Open! appeared first on The Texas Observer.
To our Texas Observer Community,
This afternoon, the Texas Democracy Foundation has unanimously voted to rescind previous votes for layoffs. We have secured near-term pledges to bridge our immediate budget shortfall and feel confident that there is time for the Texas Observer to determine its future, thanks to the extraordinary success of the staff’s fundraising this week.
We apologize to the staff for the abruptness of the layoff vote and deeply regret that they found out via another media outlet and the uncertainty and stress of this week. We look forward to working with them as we build a sustainable path for the magazine.
We apologize to our major donors Lynne Dobson and Greg Wooldridge of the Tejemos Foundation. The Observer organization as a whole misunderstood the nature and schedule of their gift, which was always designated as a matching gift. It was mischaracterized in press coverage. As journalists and activists themselves, Lynne and Greg have been long-time Observer supporters, committed to progressive causes. We appreciate their enduring support.
Finally, we apologize to our community of contributors, readers and supporters for how long it has taken us to provide clarity on our situation. Thank you for the extraordinary ways you have supported the Observer—in this moment, in the past and, we hope, in the future.
The Observer’s future demands that we work collectively to get through the immediate future—and find a sustainable model to ensure the longevity of our beloved magazine.
Our hope is to move toward a new version of the Observer, one that delivers on the mission of our founders …
We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of humankind as the foundation of democracy. We will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit.
… and reflects the media landscape of today. The Observer’s exceptional journalism should have the readership and relevance it’s worthy of, supported by a revenue model that can ensure that it thrives. Texas needs progressive investigative journalism more than ever, and we hope the Observer can be reimagined for the next generation.
Sincerely,
The Texas Democracy Foundation Board
The post To our Texas Observer Community appeared first on The Texas Observer.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. Interviewer asked about my religion, then sent me a defensive email when I complained
I have been a nonprofit executive for many years. After the pandemic, I stepped back for a little while to focus on my family while we grieved some significant losses that occurred in 2020. Recently, I have been wanting to jump back into the nonprofit leadership world, but have opted for jobs with smaller organizations. I was recently a finalist for an executive director position at a very small organization that does wonderful work in the community. I had already been through five interviews and was having my last discussion with the committee. During this discussion, an integral member of the organization asked me to clarify whether I was a certain religion that many people often associate with my ethnicity. I was nervous and after saying, “I don’t think you’re allowed to ask me that,” I answered the question and told them my religion. Their follow-up was to inquire whether I was comfortable working with a certain other religious community that many folks (wrongly) assume would be an issue due to historic trauma between the two.
After the interview, I felt terrible. The questions seemed biased and made me feel othered by them in a way that didn’t sit well. I decided that it would be difficult for me to work for them so withdrew my candidacy. When the recruiter learned of this and what happened, she asked if she could share my reason with the committee. I gave her my permission, hoping that it would result in dialogue and growth for them around DEI.
What I got in return, however, was an email from the person who asked the question apologizing that I was offended but claiming that the question was never asked. There was a lot in there about how I misunderstood what they were saying, they would never ask such a question, and they may not know all the PC terms, but they meant well. I’m at a loss regarding how to respond. The nonprofit community is a small one and I purposely don’t make a lot of waves around identity issues because I know firsthand how it can prevent me from getting work. I do, however, feel like I need to say something.
Forward the response to the recruiter and ask that they share it with the rest of the hiring committee (who presumably will know full well that the question was asked, and should see what this person is sending out). You might point out that you’d given your permission to share your concerns in the hopes it would result in changes in their practices, but this response — which you hadn’t invited — only deepens the concerns you left the interview with. You might need to include something like, “Your dialogue on this needs to be an internal one so I’d like to leave my involvement here, but I hope seeing this will be useful to you.” (You could also send this to the hiring committee yourself, cc’ing the recruiter, if you want to make sure they definitely see it.)
2. People I meet socially hassle me for work-related favors when I’m off-duty
I’ve worked in media for over 30 years. I enjoy my job and most of my colleagues are great. The problem is that an unfortunate number of people I meet socially or through volunteering don’t realize that when I’m off the clock, I don’t want to hear complaints about my organization’s product or be asked to perform work-related duties, especially when the stuff they’re haranguing me about (free publicity, ticket giveaways, ads, etc.) is literally someone else’s job! Even if I politely say, “I can do that, but please reach out via my work address,” “here’s the work email of the person you need to contact,” “management decides what’s appropriate for air, not me,” or even “I will get in a lot of trouble if I do that as it’s against our policies,” some people seem to think they can wear me down if they send enough emails or PMs.
Back in the day, folks could only do this in person as we’ve always had very good work-life balance (no giving out colleagues’ contact info without their consent, for example) but these days, with everyone wanting to connect on social media and using personal emails for volunteer work, I get messages asking me to work for free on weekends, in the evenings, and even on holidays or vacations — and I’m a big pic-poster, so it’s pretty obvious when I’m out of the office. When I politely remind them that we have a website and social media at work, give them my work email, or try to direct them to the person who might be able to solve their issue, most get offended. Some double down and lecture me. I’ve had to block people over this, which is something I hate to do, but yeesh, we all need personal time. Some of my colleagues are frustrated by this sort of behavior as well, and surprise, surprise, men deal with it much less than women. Is there a better way to handle this?
This is super rude! It’s one thing for people to make the request initially (not realizing how many you get in your off hours) but pushing even after you set a clear boundary or redirect them to the right place is beyond obnoxious.
Given that the problem is so widespread, you might be better off not responding to these messages during non-work hours at all, not even to explain that you can’t help.
You also don’t need to respond to all of them even once you’re back at work. People you barely know writing to complain about your organization aren’t entitled to a response, and anyone who’s particularly demanding is asking for any response they do get to be slow-tracked (which might mean you write back a week later saying, “Sorry I didn’t reply in time, I don’t look at work stuff on my personal accounts at all”).
3. I don’t want my staff to use their cell phones at work
How do you handle personal phones in the workplace? Especially food service (coffee shop). It is something I could get written up for by the health department, phones are dirty, and I don’t want to pay them to chat with their boyfriend. But when I enforce it by having a shelf for their phones, there is pushback — “you can’t take away my personal property” and “what if it’s an emergency and I miss a text?”
If it’s a health code violation, then that’s the only reason you need: “It’s against health code regulations and the business can get in trouble.” The rest of the reasons are secondary and will just distract from the main point if you get into them.
But you should make the rule clear when you’re hiring people so no one is blindsided by it after they start — “because of health code regulations, we’re not permitted to have personal phones behind the counter. You’re welcome to keep one in your car or a locker in the break room, but they can’t be in the area where we serve customers” — and then enforce that like you would any other policy.
This isn’t about taking away anyone’s personal property; you’d be explaining a rule based on legal requirements, giving them an option that lets them have a phone accessible to check on breaks if they want to (that’s why something like lockers would be a good idea), and letting people decide if they want the job under those conditions or not.
4. Asking for a raise when we had recent cost-of-living adjustments
For the past two years, I’ve been working as a data analyst attached to a research project at a large government agency. I’m responsible for organizing and archiving all project data, maintaining multiple databases, and managing all of the project’s online presence, which includes multiple websites. The workload is intense — my boss has openly admitted that this is a job for several people, but they only had funding for one — but I’ve successfully kept up with it, and my performance reviews have been stellar.
In the past couple of months, I’ve had to deal with a major crisis that occurred through no fault of mine, and multiple coworkers, including my boss, have complimented me on how well I handled it. Overall, I feel like I’m in a good position to ask for a raise when my next performance review comes up in April. The only reason I’m hesitating is that last summer, the agency gave a cost of living raise to everyone on the staff, including me. Would it look bad to ask for another raise less than a year after I got one? I’ve never asked for a raise before, and am not sure how to proceed without looking entitled or greedy.
Nope. A cost-of-living raise is different than a merit raise. A cost-of-living raise is typically awarded to everyone and is meant to keep your salary on pace with inflation. What you’d be asking for is a merit raise because you’ve earned a higher salary through your work, and you can do that independently of last summer’s cost-of-living adjustment.
Also, let’s get rid of this idea that it’s ever entitled or greedy to ask for a raise when your work merits it. It’s not entitled or greedy to ask to be paid fairly for your work or to expect your compensation to reflect that you’re contributing at a higher level than when your salary was last set.
5. Is it too late for an informational interview once a job is posted?
I am job searching and came upon an internal posting that interests me and seems like a good match for my skills and experience. It’s a newly created role in a different department where I have some contacts at the same level as this role and who report to the same manager this job will. I reached out to one of them to get some additional insight and his perspective on whether I’d be considered a good candidate. He responded positively and suggested setting up an informational interview with the hiring manager (who is his boss) to get additional insight into her expectations. It’s a nice idea in theory, but I worry that it could take weeks to get time on her calendar and by then she’ll have already gotten plenty of other applications and maybe even started interviewing.
I’m inclined to just submit my application with a tailored cover letter … but I’d be forgoing the potential opportunity he has in mind for a “pre-chat” that could in itself help my application stand out. I’m anxious about making the wrong decision and not giving myself the best shot at getting an interview. If it matters, I have been in a few large meetings where I have presented in the past and she has been among the senior leadership attendees, so she would probably at least recognize my name when she sees it, but we’ve never spoken one on one. What do you advise?
Go ahead and apply now. You’re right that otherwise you risk missing the window to be included as she’s selecting people to interview.
However, you could also email to say that Joe Warbleworth suggested you contact her about an informational interview and then say, “Because the position is already open and you’re reviewing applications, I realize it might not make sense to talk outside of that process at this stage, so I’ve submitted my application meanwhile. Either way, I hope to hear from you.”
Because you’re an internal candidate and you’re being sort of referred by one of her direct reports, this wouldn’t be overstepping to do.
Mifepristone, more commonly known as the abortion pill, is a prescription drug that can end a pregnancy at 10 weeks or less. The Onion asked politicians why they are fighting to ban the drug, and this is what they said.
Panera Bread will be testing Amazon One, a payment service that allows customers to pay and collect membership rewards by scanning their palms. What do you think?
ONTARIO, CA—Muttering “Shit, where is it, shit” while frustratedly pulling out miscellaneous objects, local woman Alice Wallen asked the person attacking her Thursday for 30 more seconds so she could dig the pepper spray out of her bag. “Hold on, sorry, I know you really want to steal my phone, purse, and wallet, but…
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has three segments. Here are bits of each of them:
In the last episode of "Star Trek: Picard," called "The Bounty," it was finally revealed what object the malevolent Changelings had stolen from Daystrom Station, a mystery that was being investigated by Raffi (Michelle Hurd) and Worf (Michael Dorn). It seems that when Admiral Picard (Patrick Stewart) had his consciousness shunted into an android golem at the end of the show's first season, someone thought to gather up his old corpse and store it in a Federation archive. The Changelings stole Picard's dead body and plan to use it for as yet unrevealed nefarious purposes.
It was implied, however, that there was something in Picard's brain that had been assumed to be a disease. Trekkies will recall from "All Good Things...," the final episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," that Picard had been diagnosed with a rare brain ailment called Irumodic syndrome. This syndrome was namechecked in the first season of "Picard," so it seems that he still carried it, even though the events of "All Good Things..." may have been a fantasy. The new episode of "Picard," however — called "Dominion" — says that the Irumodic syndrome may have actually been something akin to an X-Men superpower.
This theory plays itself out in Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers), Picard's son, who seems to have developed comic book psychic abilities. He can read minds now, which is not so unusual in itself for "Star Trek" — Betazoids like Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) are psychic — but he can also project his consciousness into people's bodies and take control of them.
If "The Bounty" skewed a little too hard into nostalgia with its dreamy shots of old "Star Trek" ships and trinkets, implying that Picard is an evolutionary catalyst dips way too hard into fandom-based hero worship.
"Picard" hasn't yet gone full-bore into "Space Jesus" territory yet, but it seems distressingly poised for an inglorious plunge into fan service. "Picard" seems to be saying that its title character's brain is so unique, it could possibly lead to an age of psychic humans, positioning Picard as some sort of evolutionary fulcrum. While this sort of tale is grist for great sci-fi, it's a little gauche when applied to a character that Trekkies have known for years.
This is exactly what George Lucas did with Darth Vader in his three "Star Wars" prequel films. Darth Vader wasn't merely a scary Imperial general in a mask, but the result of a virgin birth and the fulfillment of some vague prophecy. All three prequel films were about how the galaxy arranged itself to assure a Darth Vader was brought into existence. Lucas reworked Darth Vader's backstory, of course, because the character was important to audiences. It was not necessarily because he was initially important to the "Star Wars" universe.
The same seems to be happening with Jean-Luc Picard. While many of the characters on "Star Trek" become celebrities, they're not all necessarily vital to the continuation of galactic life. To imply that Picard is some kind of Space Jesus is to place undue importance on the character. I understand the series is called "Star Trek: Picard," but I have preferred the character when he was kept on the ground, given relatable trials, and was even consistently proven fallible. "Star Trek" is a humanist show ostensibly set in a humanist utopia. It doesn't need a messiah.
All that said, it's curious how much of the latest season of "Star Trek: Picard" hasn't directly featured Picard. "Dominion" is the beginning of the season's climax, and will feature a lot of action and revelations. The wicked Changeling Vadic (Amanda Plummer) will infiltrate the U.S.S. Titan, as Jack Crusher and Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) will fight off Vadic's goons in the hallways. Briefly, Jack will read Sidney's mind and take control of her body so she can fight better.
Meanwhile, Geordi (LeVar Burton) and Alandra (Mica Burton) will find out that the Data-like android they salvaged contains about 50/50 Data and Lore (all Brent Spiner) sharing its one positronic brain. Lore, Data's evil twin, has such a powerful mind and no compunction about killing, however, so activating him allows him to delete Data's brain and take over. When Vadic invades, they wire Datalore into the Titan's computers, hoping his calculation skills can save them. Lore immediately takes over and lets Vadic succeed. He doesn't give a care. This wasn't the most organic way to incorporate the dead Lore and the twice-dead Data back into the show, but it will do. Spiner, it seems, hasn't missed a step, playing both roles recognizably and effectively.
The major revelation of "Dominion," however, is Vadic's backstory. When she infiltrates the Titan, she is briefly captured in a force field by Picard and Beverly (Gates McFadden). She explains that the reason she and other liquid Changelings have become so much better at imitating other life forms (she uses the word "solid" as a derogatory term). It turns out that she and several of her kind, after the Dominion War on "Deep Space Nine," were experimented on by a mad Federation doctor who sought their weaknesses.
It was a little odd to see a "Star Trek" character using modern-day tasers, bone saws, and hypodermic needles in the flashback sequences, but the visual shorthand is fine; a needle or a saw are scarier than a hypospray or a laser scalpel. Vadic killed her torturer and took her face. The new Changelings evolved because this wicked Federation doctor forced them to against their will. The idea that there will be fallout after a conflict is a very "Star Trek" idea. Thanks to Lore's mental tinkering elsewhere on the ship, Vadic will escape and take over the ship.
Overall, however, "Dominion" is more of a "communicate and setup" episode than one full of vital information. Given this season's skilled pacing, a straightforward, event-heavy episode will be required every once in a while. This is fine, as it means "Picard" is considering all of its moments and spending more time with its characters. It's also nice that the action never leaves the Titan, as starship life is a vital part of making "Star Trek" feel like "Star Trek."
There is one fun moment of fan service — free of Space Jesus vibes — right at the head of "Dominion." In order to get information on the kidnapped Capt. Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) contacts her old Voyager crewmate Tuvok (Tim Russ), who now appears to be a starship captain. Tuvok was last seen on an episode of "Star Trek: Lower Decks," and was still a part of Starfleet Security. In the last 18 to 20 years, he seems to have swapped careers. But no matter, it was a pleasing cameo for its brevity.
Read this next: 11 Reasons Why The Next Generation Is The Best Star Trek Show
The post Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Episode 7 Review: Just a Few More Details appeared first on /Film.
Board members picked to oversee the governance of Disney World said their predecessors pulled a fast one on them by passing restrictive covenants that strip the new board of many of its powers.
(Image credit: Ted Shaffrey/AP)
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/9d8a91ab51707380f9d75e21baf737b8/Library%20File%20JV%20TT%2006.jpg)
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/3c7322f64f976e22230d609d41a6be3c/Doctors%20Office%20Clinic%20Medical%2002.jpg)