Look, the reason Star Trek aliens are just humans with funny foreheads isn’t because they’re lazy, it’s because Star Trek as a franchise pre-dates both CGI and The Muppet Show, and by the time the technology existed to routinely depict non-humanoid aliens on a TV show budget, it was too late – forehead aliens had already been established as part of Star Trek’s defining aesthetic.
People don’t understand how expensive this shit is.
We look at Spock and that looks like the bare minimum… But at the time, his ear prosthetics were insanely expensive. Episodes with multiple Romulans ended up with romulans wearing helmets because that many ear prosthetics were prohibitively expensive for their miniscule budget.
Their budget was so tight that they accidentally broke the Romulan Bird of Prey model, and couldn’t afford to replace it.
But on their tiny budget, they tried very hard to do things that were truly alien and imaginative. And these are the very aliens everyone uses to make fun of Trek.
(The “Salt Vampire,” Tholians, Horta, and Gorn).
Meanwhile, they also occasionally pushed the prosthetics aliens as far as they could
(Andorians, tellerite, talosian)
You got to admit, that talosian is amazing work, especially for the 1960s.
Budget continues to be the limiting factor up to and including Discovery and Picard. While those two have access to make up techniques and SFX tools that didn’t exist yet even as recently as went Enterprise went off the air, they’re still very much limited by budget and how much suffering the actors can handle.
And these actors absolutely do suffer:
This is a Hirogen. When they were created they were to be Trek’s answer to The Predator. They were to be huge. Beyond human limitations, into special effects huge. They cast actors who were already pushibg sasquatch size, bulked them up, then used perspective tricks to make them look ten feet tall. They made two sets- one normal sized with normal sized props for the hirogen actors, and one that was oversized, with oversized props for Tuvok and Seven.
These suits were giant solid pieces of rubber. Tim Russ said that every second they weren’t filming, Tiny Ron (one of the hirogen actors in this episode, better known as The Grand Nagus’ body guard) needed to be sitting so he wouldn’t die. Russ said that sweat would flowing down his gloves because that was the only escape from the suit. It would be pulling in his boots and pants.
Everything about the Hirogen was untenable. The costumes were made easier, and their size was reduced back to normal human. The cost was too high, both on the budget, and on the actors.
Voyager also tried a completely CGI aliens:
Species 8472, who came from outside the universe. The result was a mixed bag. Great in concept, but realistically was beyond the abilities of a television budget from the late nineties/early two thousands. They didn’t age as well as other aspects of that era of Trek.
Now into Modern Trek, we have Saru. He goes a step beyond most prosthetic aliens, but imagine what Doug Jones goes through to bring him to life? Not just how many hours in the make-up chair, but also his suit, hands, shoes. Imagine how sore he must be at the end of each day!
Behind every “forehead alien” in Trek is an actor who’s had to indure many many hours in the make-up chair, and tens of thousands of dollars to make those prosthetics. And it’s only been extremely recently that the technology has been affordably practical enough that they won’t get made fun of for trying non-humanoid aliens.
he took a bath 3 times
his name is Organic Spinach
the cleanest frog in Michigan
if i had some kind of deal as a kid where a frog was at the bottom of bags of spinach i would have easily eaten five times as much spinach
THIS^^^
And if you do get paid for your ideas/writing during the strike, that is considered scabbing and you will be barred from the WGA for life, as per this email from the Blacklist:
And, because a lot of people don't understand this bit, this is about you selling your ideas or writing to US-based TV studios or movie studios who are part of the AMPTP. There is no strike against book publishers. Nor audiobooks, graphic novels, or poetry publishing. Or just writing.
Read the above from the WGA.
We are normal and can be trusted with large amounts of money
ITS NOT DEMONS GUYS I PROMISE
Hey, everybody! I have a new book out today! It’s a fantasy novella called THORNHEDGE and you can pick it up wherever you get your books!*
It is very sweet and only has a few dead bodies in it and the heroine is a very anxious little were-toad.
This has been your shameless promotion for the day and I will now go back to reposting memes and interesting bug photos.
*unless, like, you only read books that are dropped in your lap by crows or slipped under your pillow by ragged claw-like hands in the night. I don’t have a distribution contract with those guys.
uh so i never do this but maui is quite literally on fire and there isn't nearly enough care or consideration for. you know. Native Hawaiians who live here being displaced and the land (and cultural relevance) that's being eaten up by the fire. so if ya'll wanna help, here's some links:
maui food bank: https://mauifoodbank.org/
maui humane society: https://www.mauihumanesociety.org/
center for native hawaiian advancement: https://www.memberplanet.com/campaign/cnhamembers/kakoomaui
hawai'i red cross: https://www.redcross.org/local/hawaii/ways-to-donate.html
please reblog and spread the word if you can't donate.
Just learning about this (!), and reblogging for visibility.
Also sending worried love to all my friends and all the people I don't know in Maui.
On Saturday I hung out with my 84-year-old ecologist great uncle and he stopped in mid-conversation (abt the return of the whooping crane) and very seriously told me that "you can go one of two ways, as a naturalist"; either you keep sight of the hopeful possibilities, or you don't. I'm one of nature's wretched little pessimists but when an old ecologist literally holds your hands in his and tells you, "don't despair," you have to try, I feel.
I'm immune to a lot of the "hopepunk" narratives about ecology but...
The Karner Blue butterfly was extirpated from Canada the year before I was born. He donated to one of the projects to bring it back for years, and even though the project he was working on fizzled out, I told him about the branch in Toronto, still going strong. They save every lupine seed they can harvest and germinate them carefully so that in 20, 30, 40 years we might have enough habitat to bring the Blues back. He was part of the first wave of that effort.
Fuck!!!! What do you do with that kind of care? You have to at least try to believe that better things are possible!
Were the "Moms for Liberty" prosecuted for theft?
as a huge lover of birds, 90% of the concern against wind turbines being used for energy is literally just pro fossil fuel propaganda. birds ARE at a risk however there is a lot of strategies even as simple as painting one of the blades that reduces a lot of accidental deaths. additionally renewable energy sources will do more in favor of the environment that would positively impact birds (and all of us). one study found over one million bird deaths from wind turbines. while that is a shockingly high number and we should work to drastically shrink it, at least 1.3 billion birds die to outdoor cats on a yearly basis. it was never about caring about birds
KOKOBOT - The Airbnb-Owned Tech Startup - Data Mining Tumblr Users' Mental Health Crises for "Content"
I got this message from a bot, and honestly? If I was a bit younger and not such a jaded bitch with a career in tech, I might have given it an honest try. I spent plenty of time in a tough situation without access to any mental health resources as a teen, and would have been sucked right in.
Chatting right from your phone, and being connected with people who can help you? Sounds nice. Especially if you believe the testimonials they spam you with (tw suicide / self harm mention in below images)
But I was getting a weird feeling, so I went to read the legalese.
I couldn't even get through the fine-print it asked me to read and agree to, without it spamming the hell out of me. Almost like they expect people to just hit Yes? But I'm glad I stopped to read, because:
- What you say on there won't be confidential. (And for context, I tried it out and the things people were looking for help with? I didn't even feel comfortable sharing here as examples, it was all so deeply personal and painful)
- Also, what you say on there? Is now...
- Koko's intellectual property - giving them the right to use it in any way they see fit, including
- Publicly performing or displaying your "content" (also known as your mental health crisis) in any media format and in any media channel without limitation
- Do this indefinitely after you end your account with them
- Sell / share this "content" with other businesses
- Any harm you come to using Koko? That's on you.
- And Koko won't take responsibility for anything someone says to you on there (which is bleak when people are using it to spread Christianity to people in crisis)
I was curious about their business model. They're a venture-capitol based tech startup, owned by Airbnb, the famous mental health professionals with a focus on ethical business practices./s They're also begging for donations despite having already been given 2.5 million dollars in research funding. (If you want a deep dive on why people throw crazy money at tech startups, see my other post here)
They also use the data they gather from users to conduct research and publish papers. I didn't find them too interesting - other than as a good case study of "People tend to find what they are financially incentivized to find". Predictably, Koko found that Kokobot was beneficial to its users.
So yeah, being a dumbass with too much curiosity, I decided to use the Airbnb-owned Data-Mining Mental Health Chatline anyway. And if you thought it was dangerous sounding from the disclaimers? Somehow it got worse.
(trigger warning / discussions of child abuse / sexual abuse / suicide / violence below the cut - please don't read if you're not in a good place to hear about negligence around pretty horrific topics.)
Kokobot is incredibly predatory and exploitative. I wrote a post about how it exploits minors' empathy and gamifies "giving mental health advice", resulting in an unregulated mess that can only do harm to teens' mental health in the long run.
There are young people on tumblr that actively seek support from KokoBot right now, if you check the tag for recent posts. Those people did not get paid to promote it, so do not harrass them. If you can, direct them towards resources about Kokobot (like this post) that are more transparent about what this company is up to.
This... is DEEPLY DISTURBING.
SIGNAL. BOOST.
it’s crazy how much diversity there can be in one species…these are all pictures of the same bird species (red-tailed hawk)
what they all have in common:
it’s crazy how much diversity there can be in one species…these are all pictures of the same bird species (red-tailed hawk)
what they all have in common:
we are in a media literacy crisis
friendly reminder that characters don't need to be saints to be entertaining. and telling a story does not mean endorsement. art does not need to be all about morally good people.
IDK if this was meant as hyperbole but it's literally true:
We are genuinely in a crisis of media literacy, with ever fewer genuinely factual resources available in the style and language used by contemporary audiences.
It may sound condescending, but we genuinely need to remind people, or worse, explain to them for the first time that art is not evidence of real world behaviour.
So, thank you, for this reminder. Genuinely.
You're correct:
Art does not need to feature exclusively morally pure characters. Art is not proof of the creator's secret, violent desires.
ETA; Yes, the links are US American; no your country is not immune to propaganda. Be POLITE in asking, and I will help you find the data for your own country as well.
This looks like a shitpost but it’s actually solid advice, like, if you want to achieve a goal you have to pace yourself and be patient instead of expecting too much too soon and then giving up
just a reminder - do NOT boycott streaming services or not watch new things. the unions have not called for one for a reason. for one, it affects residual payments, which as minimal as those currently are, actors are still getting them during this time, and for two, studios will use lack of viewership as an excuse to cancel shows because you are showing them there is no demand. it deeply affects the industry the writers and actors stand to come back to once the strike is over
Also: going to these places puts pressure and demand on the company. Demand they can't meet without actors and writers. That puts stress on them, and stress is good.
^^^^ive been looking for a rb with this addition because YES. if a customer wants a burger and there is no cook to make it, that puts pressure on the owner to pay the cook what they want so the customer will still give them money. if there is no customer, the owner has no reason for the cook to make burgers
Stop watching IF AND ONLY IF the unions call for a boycott. For the time being since they haven't, streaming the shows actually helps. You're not crossing a picket line to watch because that picket line does not exist unless a boycott is called for.
