Got it.

I generally think of the vertical market niche as under 25, not a large slice of the fediverse.

I don’t see though how vertical pagination is much different than social media on phones, which we’re all fairly accustomed to.

I don’t think this is targeted to our age group at all.

The vertical format is grown in anime and Asian dramas as well.

China is starting to be competitive with vertical short dramas specifically produced for the US market.

This is interesting.

The vertical manga/manha/manhua format is where new GenZ audiences can be found.

As with other wild populations, the animals’ health, ecological sustainability and whether they are reservoirs of infectious disease would be the paramount concern.

Not sure that the current provincial government has the credibility in evidence-based decision making to be able to sustain any interventions.

As Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Carignan is a General not a Lieutenant General.

It’s really unfortunate when a basic error doesn’t get caught in the vetting of an article as it undermines the rest of the story.

https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/corporate/organizational-structure/chief-defence-staff/cds-bio.html

In the 1980s, MIT flagged that the US was losing the productivity/quality race to Japan and South Korea.

Despite a great deal of national handwringing on this point, no systematic improvement was made.

He’s the head of state of more than just the UK.

It would be nice if 10 Downing Street remembered that when using the King for their interests.

I’m down for this one.

The link has just gone to my partner for upcoming gift occasions 😉.

Getting into the panels / speaker sessions was always my top priority.

Sometimes they have sessions with production or other behind the scenes creatives. Those are always amazing.

The vendor hall is always worth checking out and it’s fun to mill about and see the cosplayers.

Depending on whether you like that sort of thing or not, paying to meet and get a photo with a cast member or to get an autograph (usually two separate things) is a popular activity.

While I won’t be travelling to the US anytime soon, I think it’s great that Creation is getting back into regional cons.

I used to attend them in the late 80s and early 90s and they were a great entry point for newer fans and those who didn’t want the mass experience of something like STLV.

I think that they do more to build a franchise for the long haul than the megacons.

That makes sense!

Definitely there was local control over availability. I recall shopping for gifts and seeing walls of SW toys but no Trek in Ottawa.

Even in Canada, I don’t recall that they had wide distribution. They were also marked up quite a bit from the US price (well beyond the exchange rate). I saw them mainly in specialty stores, not Toys R US and department stores.

That was a very time limited counter example, and were largely unavailable outside the US.

And it may be a really important factor in explaining the loyalty of millennial guys in the US to the franchise vs other demographics and countries.

Class sizes are up and supports are down.

Now attendance requirements for grades are being instituted.

It doesn’t occur to the government to enquire about why students are avoiding or refusing school attendance.

It looks like a 1970s toy. . . Which makes sense given who their target market is.

I would take it as another sign that the franchise has aged out were it not for the fact that it’s always had awful merchandising and licensing.

Let’s be frank that it was a male-gaze titillation to sell the show much like the frequency of ripped tunics and visible muscles were intended for women viewers. Both were introduced after the ‘more cerebral’ pilot of ‘The Cage.’

In any case, mini skirts were a fashion trend that constrained women and girls as much as ‘liberated’ them — Especially, as garters and stockings rather than pantyhose were the norm at the time. Looking at TOS now, I wonder if the show had to order specially made pantyhose or ultra fine tights.

While it was good for women and girls to be out of the 1950s tight-waisted skirts with crinolines so profound that they had to increase the spacing between lab benches and cooking class units (as was explained to me when I hit junior high), mini skirts meant that women and girls were constantly monitoring their exposure.

It’s no surprise that ‘pantsuits’ became an acceptable fashion option by 1970 and pantyhose rapidly replaced stockings.

There are industrial/cargo transporter platforms as well as industrial fabricator/replicators.

Perhaps only the ones in humanoid transport pads are set with the highest level defaults?

The averaging is the difference between a replicator and the absolute precision of a transporter.

The transporter has the level of precision and memory capacity to perfectly replicate real food.

The replicator is just a close approximation. It’s controlled for food safety and nutrition but the sense of smell and taste may be able to distinguish the food from a precise duplication.

Sadness is definitely why I’m feeling too.

Roddenberry had a vision of an international show in TOS, and his creation of an ethnically French captain for TNG.

Unfortunately, the franchise owners have never appreciated that and their focus on marketing first to the US market has kept the show and the movies from the global success they should have had.

With the Ellisons in charge, the franchise is likely to be all the more focused on the US without even the double-edged (often alienating) transparent American exceptionalism that has dogged the franchise.

Nice to see representation, if belatedly, of the newer shows.

That reworking of the 1968 model has a definite TAS vibe even if it was intended to be for the original series. I might be persuaded…