Some legal experts have called it a crime to summarily kill civilians.

James was a composer. Before he died he wrote a cycle of songs about living with cancer, called "The Lavender Fields". Here's the first one. youtu.be/Dmvbd9uMA90?...

My brother died six years ago today. It was a Sunday, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. I've been thinking of him a lot as I rewatch Star Trek TNG. When it was airing he watched it with me or before me. A lot of the episodes come with facts in my head in his voice.

I can read faster than you can talk, and I can skip to the part I care about, go back and reread anything I didn't understand or want to reconsider... reading is just so much better and easier than videos.

I do not want the video. I will never watch the video. I usually won’t even give the video the effort of complaint. I just want to read the news story. Give me the text. This would be my Ted Talk but that would be text too.

TNG rewatch 302 - The Ensigns of Command Now this at last feels like the TNG I remember! I really like this episode. Data has to convince a colony to relocate. They don't want to, but if they don't they will all die when the Sheliak invade.

Age yourself with a film you saw in cinema as a kid.

It is so strange and disconcerting to watch the United States.

TNG rewatch 301 - Evolution It's season three! This is a very season two feeling episode of season three, but what are you going to do?

TNG rewatch: Season Two postmortem. "Grow the beard" is the opposite of "jump the shark" as a pop-culture phrase that means a show suddenly gets good. And season two is definitely better than season one, but we still really only see hints of a good show here.

TNG rewatch 222 - Shades of Gray This is widely considered the worst ever episode of TNG, but it's not as bad as its reputation suggests. I mean, it's bad, don't get me wrong.

A short story of mine was published! www.agnesandtrue.com/as-the-heart...

TNG rewatch 221 - Peak Performance Not a great episode, but a good one. Fun enough. The Federation are doing war games to prepare for the Borg, so there's a mock-battle between Riker and Picard. Fun.

In honour of the latest rapture that didn't happen.

TNG rewatch 220 - The Emissary I really enjoyed this episode. A Klingon emissary comes to the Enterprise to help deal with a Klingon sleeper ship. Suzie Plakson plays K’Ehleyr, who knows Worf from way back, and she's completely charming.

End of the World a poem by Paul Moffett We have all always lived in the end times all that has ever been behind us before us nothing we can see how strange to remember that we all walk blind with so much confidence and nothing guiding us but faulty memory how strange to remember how strange

TNG rewatch 219 - Manhunt I am not a Lwaxana Troi hater, but I found this episode pretty dull.

TNG rewatch 218 - Up the Long Ladder Yikes. This is famously one of the worst episodes of Star Trek, and definitely in the running for worst episode of season 2.

TNG rewatch 217 - Samaritan Snare I think this episode is fun! Picard needs a heart transplant, and I really liked his bonding with Wesley on the shuttle ride. Meanwhile Riker is outsmarted by stupid aliens.

Reminder that if Air Canada cancel your flight out of the UK and say they can't rebook it same day, you can ring them and say: "You are obliged to check sister carriers." Then they will magically remember to do so. This post brought to you by me now flying BA to Toronto, 5hrs later than planned.

It's rejection season and all the writing I submitted for publication has fully ripened into a fresh harvest of new rejections.

TNG rewatch 216 - Q-Who? Q is back! And he introduces us to the Borg! This episode is great!

D by like, a mile

Even for humans, I remember being like 20 years old and realizing the enormous power of just admitting I didn't know. It felt like a superpower.

TNG rewatch 215 - Pen Pals This isn't a great episode, but there's a lot to like here! It has good ingredients!

Our car won't start and when we take it to a garage they're always like "Ooo that sounds like the engine. Me: Yeah I didn't think it was the seats! Isn't fixing engines your thing? I do. Not. Get it. It's not like I brought it to Burger King!

THIS IS NOT A DRILL

TNG rewatch 214 - The Icarus Factor This episode isn't bad but it's not great either. Riker is offered his own ship and we spend the whole episode pretending he might leave the show halfway through season two. I guess after Yar's death it might have seemed possible at the time?

Does that look like an omelette?

TNG rewatch 213 - Time Squared THE OMELETTES! RIKER MAKES OMELETTES THAT AREN'T OMELETTES! They are CLEARLY scrambled eggs! Ahem. If you know me you know this is a bit of a fixation for me. Anyway.

Had a lot of fun teaching reading of sentences and paragraphs today. I threw "Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" at them.

This is my year.

TNG rewatch 212 - The Royale This is a famously bad episode of TNG but I love it.

The Connections today was mean.

TNG rewatch 211 - Contagion I had no memory of this episode and expected it to be kind of boring, but in fact I really liked it! It's not a standout great episode, but it's solidly good.

I watched Unknown Number and I keep thinking about it.

Almost every one of these opinions is correct, except for the one about pencils.

There are so many stupid things said by pro ai dummies, but one of the stupidest is about "teaching students how to use" ai. Surely if it isn't easy to use it's useless by your own standards. The learning curve has to be very very shallow for this technology to have any point at all.

The guy next to me on this plane is scrolling through Tiktok ALOUD on his phone. No headphones or anything.

Seven day trip to the Netherlands with my father involved: 3 hotels 5 cities 1 windmill 4 museums 4 gothic churches 11 km on a bicycle 1 romanesque church 4 ice creams 18 train rides 16 beers 112 m up a tower 2 hrs in a kayak 4 breakfast buffets 2 stroopwafels 1 opera 1 unintended swim in a canal

I'm in an airport! Ask me anything.

Teenage boy behind me, to his friend: "That one's hella nice. I fuck with that one."

I call this "Man with the Phone with the Girl with the Pearl Earing"

I'm in an airport! AMA.

TNG rewatch 211 - Contagion I had no memory of this episode and expected it to be kind of boring, but in fact I really liked it! It's not a standout great episode, but it's solidly good.

Putting the finishing touches on an essay course I'm teaching in September and trying to decide what to have them read for the very last day. I have been trying to think of an essay that is just like ... really good. That's the only criteria.

TNG rewatch 210 - The Dauphin Another "only one person can negotiate peace" episode. I vaguely remember watching this episode when it was new, and not really following the story. Wesley likes a cute girl and then it turns out she's Chewbacca? It's not bad.

TNG rewatch 209 - The Measure of a Man This is a genuinely great episode of The Next Generation. Whether this is the best episode of TNG is obviously up for debate, but certainly this is TNG at its best.