Centrist, progressive, radical optimist. Geophysicist, R&D, Planetary Scientist and general nerd in Winnipeg, Canada.

troyunrau.ca (personal)

lithogen.ca (business)

  • 11 Posts
  • 360 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • Personal anecdote. I run a small business with a business partner (co-owner) and we have no employees. We need an employee. I’m personally a huge fan of employee-owned companies.

    But from a hiring perspective, it is mind bogglingly risky for us to hire someone and just automatically stake them. Like, what if it’s the wrong person? How do we claw back control? Do we risk dilution sending the company in another direction?

    It’s just so much easier just to pay someone and not have to deal with the complexity. And therein lies the rub.


  • Hot take. But put it in the context of the year it was aired, not today. Star Trek (and sci fi in general) was suffering from being perceived as “blue babes and laser guns”.

    This episode was thoughtful if taken as standalone. And TNG really was about taking the episodes more or less independently. The season long story arcs and such didn’t exist. People weren’t binge watching. So the world building was less important than the specific hypothetical moral quandary of the week. Like, they are almost like Asimov short stories with a shared cast.

    It wasn’t until a few years later that serialized TV even really became a thing – Twin Peaks probably was the first here, but Babylon 5 would have a good claim (and DS9, Buffy, and others were coming together then too). So the style of storytelling on TNG S2 is different.

    Divorce the story from Star Trek and the setting and evaluate it as a sci fi ethical quandary. And in that framework, it is a remarkable episode.

    Also, Brent Spiner played it well :)








  • Depends on the city. And who you are. I’m a big white dude with a geophysics degree so the circles I run in tend to be coloured by that.

    I lived in Edmonton a decade ago, and it was great as a young professional. However, because the city is full of oil money, you really have to work hard to impress anyone with your career there. They’re all like “yeah, whatever, everyone at this bar is throwing down $100s and you’re just one of them assholes”, so you have to be pretty self-aware to date there. But going to a “drink and draw” event at an art gallery will work wonders ;)

    Currently in Winnipeg. The arts scene here is great. Met my long term partner here (online dating during COVID, even – “do you want to go on a socially distant walk in the park together?”). She is more hipster than I so I basically ride her coattails now in the art scene. We went “power couple” for our first two years – two houses because that’s how affordable it is.

    I have lived, worked, or studied in seven provinces and three territories now. I joke with my friends from elsewhere that when I moved to Winnipeg, I bought a garage and it came with a free house. My quite decent three bedroom, finished basement, double garage was $286k.

    Well, it’s cold in winter and very flat topographically, but whatever – I lived in Yellowknife so this is nothing ;)

    Photo just outside Winnipeg on the frozen lake – hiking to find cool ice ridges. Just gotta lean into winter :)









  • Hey, maybe it is true and they’ve been using this location as their central reserve equivalent. Announcing this is clearly intended for the locals, to encourage them to storm the place so Israel doesn’t have to, regardless of whether it is true. Combined with their announcement that they won’t target it, it seems like they’re encouraging people to go there. But instead it was evacuated. If it is a safe spot with no gold, why would they evacuate it? Anyway, the mind games are interesting…