Wooster

It was nice to see a somewhat T’Ana centered story. Assuming she appears at all, she’s either making out with Shaxs or doing cat things.

Surprised it took so long to meet Levy. It played out as one might expect.

Glad we got some quality time with Delta Shift. We’ve had a few episodes featuring them, but they’re mostly off screen or limited to short exchanges.

As a whole package, I don’t think this episode worked as well as Veritas. There wasn’t a central story tying the four tales together. You could probably cut the hub tale, and possibly Tendi’s turbo lift tale, and not lose anything of value.

Each season we get some key art that mimics the movie posters for the original movies. Season 1’s was a homage to the Motion Picture, 2 the Wrath of Kahn etc… the connections are extremely loose and rarely impact the plot in any meaningful way, but they’re there. (For instance, in S4 we have the whale probe in the opening sequence)

Considering V was a quest to meet God, and the Koala is the closest thing LD has to that, baring Q or Trelane and the like, I think it’s safe point of conjecture.

But, for realsies, the only things we currently know about S5 is that it’s in production, T’Lyn is sticking around, and we’re visiting Orion again.

I mean, to be fair, we got a LARGE info dump with the first ascension. The secrets of the universe, omniscience, the meaning of life… what more is there?

That said, Lower Decks extremely loosely follows along the original movies… considering V is up next, we may get the answer to “What does a Koala need with a spaceship?” and all it entails.

I really like the on-going gag that Starfleet/The Federation is actually as idealistic as it attests to be. It would be far too easy to leave Daystrom as Star Trek's version of Arkham Asylum. But while the methods of rehabilitation may have been played for laughs, letting Peanut Hamper, Agimus, and Tyrannikillicus walk the path to re-enter society was honestly really appreciated.

If this has been DS9, Picard, or Discovery… I probably would've expected an Arkham Asylum angle… where the inmates are all in varying stages of vowing revenge. And, it's easy to imagine the more Megalomaniacal inmmates may indeed be as such… I still appreciate that Daystrom's shown in the light that they can be reformed.

Yeah, I think I remember reading that when paying cash the areas of the brain that register pain are activated in ways that paying with ‘convenient’ methods don’t.

Personally, I pay via credit card, and pay that off weekly—so I’m never caught off guard with how much I owe. Probably not the greatest thing in the world regarding a credit score, but it keeps me on top of my finances.

The rebate is only as good as my taxes… so it helps, but not enough to make it a financially wise decision at this time. Similar story with the state incentives.

Not sure if this counts, per se, but Solar Panels. Specifically, via a loan.

My electric bill is insane, thanks to the powers of capitalism and monopoly. So I figured installing solar panels would be a good investment. Sure it takes ten years to break even, but I’d rather be paying my way through that than paying my electric utility.

Well, the problem I ran into was that the interest on a loan would effectively negate any headway I was hoping to make per month.

I still plan on doing solar, but not before either interest rates at least quarter themselves or I save up enough to practically pay for it up front.

Maybe, maybe not.

The Klingon’s might share the results of their investigation with Starfleet… but the Orions, Romulans, and Ferengi probably wouldn’t.

Really, Starfleet’s only awareness seems to stem from intelligence rather than any hands on investigation.

We only just now learned that it’s a ruse via the Bynars, which are Federation.

Hmm… looks vaguely like the chin of a Blue Whale.

Not sure what to make of this, since I still strongly feel like the Bynar ship looks like something ripped from an action figure, but a robo whale probably wouldn’t have use for some legs.

Well, still a shot in the dark.

They’re still in the process of genetically engineering the bacteria, so their efficiency is still a work in progress.

There’s also the issue that economies of scale tip heavily in plastics direction,

It’s not a carbon neutral process. There’s significant both heating and cooling involved.

And, it doesn’t really solve the issue of retiring plastics.

The last update I read on the bacteria, prior to the genetic engineering, mentioned that the bacteria didn’t actually like the plastic and would only really break it down for want of something more practical. Presumably that has been solved, but I didn’t see it brought up in the article.

The article explains that they use the bacteria to basically break down the plastic into two solutions, which they ultimately recombine into plastic—seemingly out of lack of any other practical use for the results.

I’m not a scientist, I don’t know what could be a better use for the results of the bacteria doing their job. And seemingly, neither do the scientists, but it’s still a very young project in the grand scheme of things.

Since 2021, a French company named Carbios has been running an operation that uses a bacterial enzyme to process about 250kg of PET plastic waste every day, breaking it down into its precursor molecules, which can then be made directly into new plastic. It’s not quite composting it back into the earth itself, but Carbios has achieved the holy grail of plastic recycling, bringing it much closer to an infinitely recyclable material like glass or aluminium.

That’s a significant step forward from when the last time I read up on the plastic eating bacteria. Granted, I’d prefer it if it was recycled into something other than more plastic… but I’ll still take it.