Werthead

I haven't actually seen the latest Picard episode yet, but it does sound like the single most utterly insane dollop of fanservice of anything ever. Not that's necessarily a bad thing. Having been enjoying a lot of the starship pr0n being posted after the visit to the Fleet Museum. I don't think they have a full readout of all the ships but what they do have is impressive: Original Spacedock from Earth (how you fly that to another star system I don't know, but still), last seen in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered County USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A (Constitution-class refit), last seen in Star Trek VI USS Excelsior NCC-2000 (Excelsior-class), also last seen in Star Trek VI Kronos One (K'Tinga-class battlecruiser), last seen etc HMS Bounty (Klingon Bird of Prey), last seen in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Enterprise NX-01 (NX-class, refit), last seen in Enterprise: These Are the Voyages... (notably, this is the NX-01 refit that adds a mini secondary hull) USS Stargazer NCC-2893 (Constellation-class), last seen in TNG: The Battle USS Voyager NCC-74656 (Intrepid-class), last seen in Voyager: Endgame USS New Jersey NCC-1975 (Constitution class, OG), an original ship created for this episode because all the other named OG Constitutions' fates are accounted for USS Pioneer NCC-1500 (Pioneer-class), from Star Trek Online Unidentified Nebula-class ship (possibly the Lexington, Phoenix or Sutherland) USS Leondegrance NCC-2176 (Lancelot-class), original design from Season 2 of Picard USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D (Galaxy-class), saucer section only, recovered from Veridian III and stored at the museum as per a Season 2 data file unconfirmed: USS Bozeman NCC-1941 (Soyuz-class), last seen in TNG: Cause and Effect (aka Frasier's ship) unconfirmed: USS Thunderchild NCC-63549 (Akira-class), last seen in Prodigy: Supernova, Part 2 unconfirmed: USS Yeager NCC-61947 (Saber-class), last seen in Star Trek: First Contact (its CG model appeared in DS9 but unclear if it was the same ship) The unconfirmed ships I think are pretty likely, since there's definitely an Akira and a Saber present, and what looks like a Miranda without the rollbar.

He's British, and may not be a member of the WGA (the Screen Writers Guild hasn't been a thing since the 1950s, I believe). During the 2007-08 strike, some US productions got around the strike by hiring British writers instead, although there was some unease about that (in particular if they could expect to then join the WGA if they moved to the US to work there later on). But certainly it's possible.

I've seen some speculation that this is more about the writers covering their arses for the writer's strike, which is almost certain to go ahead in just a few weeks, and not be caught on the hop mid-project.

I thought they were Naboo, the ship certainly looked like one of theirs. As for why they're living on the planet, I'm guessing it's like a Klingon thing (and the Mandalorians are almost consciously Klingons with jetpacks and flamethrowers instead of swords), they like being near monsters that want to eat them as a rite of passage kind of thing.

There were also other IFV tactics being used, like them being used to shoot out the tanks' treads and disable them, then someone would come over later with a Javelin or NLAWS to finish them off (by which time the tank crew, if they were sane, had long since scarpered). Or a Ukrainian farmer would show up with a tractor. Or the tank would run out of fuel 10 miles from the nearest help and the crew would leg it.

Based on the fact that Yaddle spoke normally in Tales of the Jedi, I'm hoping he'll just talk normally here. Or he'll have like a Cockney accent for literally no reason and it is never explained.

IIRC, the IFVs Ukraine has already did extremely well against even T-72s and T-80s in and around Mariupol. There was footage of at least one T-72 being disabled by IFV fire at close range straight into its rear.

Using depleted uranium rounds on T-55s is going to be interesting. Line them up in a row and see how many tanks one shell can obliterate (three I think it reasonable, four not impossible). In more WTFery, Roscosmos has begun constructing a new space launch facility in eastern Siberia to replace the Baikonur Spacedrome in Kazakhstan, reportedly because Putin is irritated at Kazakhstan's annual $100 million fee to use the facility. Roscosmos has started moving their stuff from Baikonur to the new facility, which is fine, but then some of their workers from a subsidiary decided it would be a splendid idea to start tearing up infrastructure belonging to the Kazakh government from the area and ship it out as well (i.e., stealing it). The Kazakh government said fuck that noise and has seized the assets from the subsidiary and effectively nationalised it. In response Medvedev has said this is apparently evidence that the Kazakh government is about to start ethnic cleansing of the Russian-speaking minority in the border area and urged a special military operation to resolve the problem (presumably conjured out of the ether). If the situation isn't resolved, then Roscosmos might not be able to use the Baikonur facility any more, which means no more Russian space programme launches until 2025 when the Siberia facility is supposed to come online (but probably won't). I suspect Putin will be on the phone for a quasi-apology of sorts to try to resolve the situation shortly.

I think the new episode answered my rhetorical question pretty well. I guess they have to leave the helmets on but everything else is fair game. This episode was reasonably solid, although a bit cheesy that Jedi Best just happened to take Grogu through the exact same locations on Coruscant that they had to build for last week's episode. Frugal, though. Also, I appreciated the fact that they acknowledged the Mandalorian jetpacks are short-range things as they don't have massive fuel tanks, so they needed to find other ways to catch up to the monster (using the ropes, mostly). I get the impression they are building up to Grogu speaking for the first time. Not sure what his first words are going to be (he's already mangled, "This is the Way,").

Russia apparently "unhappy" with the British decision to send depleted uranium shells to Ukraine, citing their potential environmental damage (!). Britain apparently unmoved since depleted uranium is not as hazardous to the environment and people as, say, novichok or polonium.

Completed the MechWarrior 5 expansions. It remains a solid game (although a touch too fast-paced and arcadey, I recall MechWarrior 2 being slower and more tactical, even in realtime), but the DLC missions are all over the place in difficulty to the point where it doesn't feel very coherent, but a couple of the really big battles were satisfyingly epic. Also did a bunch of stand-alone missions added in the DLC and I'm quite impressed by the amount of bespoke audio they recorded with the actors for these tons of minor missions. I also fired up Two Point Campus. I did love Two Point Hospital and this is both similar enough to be easy to get to grips with but different enough in the details that you can't just rinse-repeat the same strategies there. Managing dormitories, courses and finances is pretty straightforward, with a few interesting curveballs, and it nails that wonderful 1990s Bullfrog feeling superbly. It does make me wonder where they'll go next in the franchise, though.

Ciaran Hinds elevates everything he is in, but given the cast is pretty huge as it is, I can't imagine he'll have tons of screentime. So looking forwards to seeing more of him but I'm not sure the new cast can improve what we have now. They'd really need to start again from scratch for that and that is not happening.

More to the point, how do they make little baby Mandalorians of the Watch without removing their helmets? Or do they just leave them on and remove everything else? Or do they just use science and exowombs? Or is that a rabbit hole we don't want to go down?

Interesting analysis from Rob Lee today that there has been disagreement in Ukraine about the value of holding Bakhmut. He thinks there was much stronger agreement about holding Vuledahr and the value of doing that with high kill ratios in Ukraine's favour. But Bakhmut has been a different story, and he thinks Ukrainian casualties there have been higher than officially claimed. The kill ratio is still in Ukraine's favour but it's not been as massively lopsided. There's also been indications that some of the later cohorts of Ukrainian mobilised reserves might have been sent to Bakhmut without sufficient training, as Ukraine has instead redirected experienced and veteran units to prepare for the spring counter-offensive: a brutal and perhaps logical decision, but also something of a demoralising one. The current situation is that Russia has taken the high ground around most of the city and almost brought the main retreat route under fire, so if the Ukrainians want to pull out, they have to really go imminently. One big problem with Bakhmut's flanks is that the suburban areas around the town are lacking heavily fortified cellars, which Ukraine has used to superb defensive use almost everywhere else, so fire control points can be easily identified and destroyed, whilst in other areas destroying a building doesn't necessarily damage the cellars and allows infantry to keep fighting. There were some successes last night: a major Ukrainian UAV attack on Crimea damaged the Dzhankoy Airbase and blew up the rail tracks leading from the Kerch Straits Bridge towards Sevastopol. Reportedly they hit a train mid-transit that was carrying a load of Kalibr cruise missiles for the Black Sea Fleet. The EU has agreed to send 1 million artillery rounds to Ukraine in the next few months and the UK is to send depleted uranium tank rounds.

To an international audience, Kinnear I think is best-known for appearing in four James Bond movies in a row, albeit in a very minor role. Having Kinnear and Hinds in a project is good. Hinds looks outstanding for 70.