Latest Posts by starfleet-xenobotanist - Page 6

lol look at the shape of this mirror in garak's shop. fuckin. cardassian union themed???

Meet the seven new frog species we just named after iconic Star Trek captains!

Artwork by A. Petzold, CC BY-ND 4.0

At the right time of year along rushing streams in the humid rainforests that stretch the length of Madagascar's eastern and northern mountain ridges, otherworldly trills of piercing whistles can be heard.

Are they birds? Insects? Communicator beeps? Tricorder noises?

No, they're little treefrogs!

Boophis janewayae. Photo by M. Vences, CC BY-SA 4.0

Until recently, we thought all of the populations of these little brown frogs across the island were one widespread species, Boophis marojezensis, described in 1994. But genetics in the early 2000s and 2010s showed that there were several species here, not just one.

Now my colleagues and I have shown that they are in fact eight separate species, each with unique calls!

These whistling sounds reminded us so much of Star Trek sound effects that we decided to name the seven new species after Star Trek captains: Boophis kirki, B. picardi, B. janewayae, B. siskoi, B. pikei, B. archeri, and B. burnhamae.

Photos of all new species described by Vences et al. 2024. CC BY-SA 4.0

I subtly and not-so-subtly built some Star Trek references into the paper, but probably the best one is this one:

'Finding these frogs sometimes requires considerable trekking; pursuing strange new calls, to seek out new frogs in new forests; boldly going where no herpetologist has gone before.'

— Vences et al. 2024

There’s a real sense of scientific discovery and exploration here, which we think is in the spirit of Star Trek.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that there are at least two Trekkies amongst the authors (including yours truly). As fans of Star Trek, we are also just pleased to dedicate these new species to the characters who have inspired and entertained us over the decades.

On a personal note, this marks a milestone for me, as it means I have now described over 100 frog species! I am very pleased that the 100th is Captain Janeway's Bright-eyed Frog, Boophis janewayae (if you count them in order of appearance in the paper)—she is probably my favourite captain, and I really love Star Trek: Voyager.

You can read more about the discovery of these new species on my website! You can also read the Open Access paper published in Vertebrate Zoology here.

Dukat: daddy dom

Damar: dad bod

Gara: daddy issues

Okay guys we need to forget favs and be scientific, this is very important.

No-nuance Garashir head-to-head poll 😈

Well would you look at that!!

shibari figurines by constant heaven

An interesting thing about Garak’s speech that I’ve observed-

Andrew Robinson has said that he played Garak’s speech pattern as though he had very recently learned to speak Federation Standard (maybe about a month before the show starts, while the Federation was on Terok Nor making the withdrawal negotiations).

Now, for the most part, Andrew uses close to his own natural American accent. But sometimes, Garak pronounces words like Julian does, as in with an English accent. 

Since Julian is the person Garak talks with the most, and he very recently started learning Fed Standard when they meet, Garak is picking up some of Julian’s speech patterns.

I find this a subtle and interesting connection between them.

(While on the topic, Julian and Garak pronounce each other’s names differently from how everyone else seems to).

Trektober Day 2 - Monsters & Magic. I think Worf would enjoy D&D but be a bit of a nightmare player.

cant stop thinking abt this bit from a psa about activated charcoal flushing your medications from your system

hmmmm want to write something about the way Julian's really tactile but also incredibly uncomfortable around touch. because I'm certain the Bashirs would have hated it if Jules was touch-averse and refused their hugs and so that would be another thing to fix on Adigeon. but while Adigeon changed lots of things it didn't make him less uncomfortable, just better at masking...

but then like with friends? with people who he likes and who have sent his trust? he discovers touch can actually be a comforting and good sensation so long as he feels like he can back away from it at any time and the other person will actually let him?

idk there's something incredibly manipulative and possessive about the way that Amsha is constantly reaching out for him and holding him in DBIP and in the aftermath of all that? I just see a Julian who is desperate for comfort from his friends but whose skin recoils at the thought of being touched for a good while after his parents have left the station and maybe he can't even quite put his finger on why. and he's just completely torn between wanting a hug but being entirely unable to accept one.

Some examples of Cardassian civilian clothing from the It’s A Wrap! auction archive. I decided to only include the costumes of one-off characters and extras that it can be hard to find good pictures of. Although these photos are quite bright, they capture the cuts and fabrics fairly well. I have included the lot numbers to make it possible to look up the corresponding entries on the website. 

I love garashir because it's a "I love every part of you despite myself" type of situation. It's a "I know I shouldn't but you've carved a hole in my heart and made it a home" type of longing. It's about loving and hating yourself for it and finding yourself a little more whole despite yourself and healing from the childhood trauma you couldn't even bring yourself to recognise at the time because someone had the gaul to say you deserved better without even opening their mouth

For @artofanervousperson 😉

Garak dressed in nothing but a fur coat.

HBD LUCA @garaks-padded-bra

posting this late as hell but thats ok. slowly but surely filling out my repertoire of star trek alien men in maid outfits.one day i will collect them all. mark my wirds....

u guys were so nice about my last Bashir + Obrien post, heres more! lads day out tennis & a pint wheeeey

2/2

The words for sloppy and slutty are the same in German (Schlampig). So you can imagine how fast my head snapped to look at my computer screen when I was absentmindedly watching Improbable Cause in German for the first time and i genuinely believed for half a second Garak had just called the Tal Shiar sluts and not sloppy

my take on inter arma enim silent leges

Night at Quarks ✧

uh

I know in my heart of hearts that Amsha Bashir is the Star Trek equivalent of one of those social media autism moms who was posting shit like "the autism won today :(" through Julian's entire childhood

Peak sexy in the future is wearing upholstery and there's nothing you can do about it

the Star Trek fandom always acts like either Riker or Kirk is the god of rizz in the Star Trek universe, and it's bullshit, when Quark exists right there.

he was literally pulling klingon widowers, cardassian enemies of state, trans ferengi, vulcan terrorists, amorphous he/they shape shifters. he constantly had men chasing after him too.

Kirk's womanizing ways were vastly overstated by people whose memories are clouded by age, and Riker's repertoire was the most generic humanoid hotties out there, whose personalities were basically omg i'd love to have sex with you do you like my skimpy outfit.

Quark was pulling much harder just by virtue of the fact that all of his pulls were people who had a good reason to not get involved with him at all, but couldn't resist in the end.

seriously. cardassian political scientist that hates him, ferocious klingon warrior who just wants to use him for political reasons, a trans ferengi who doesn't want to be outed, a Vulcan terrorist who REALLY shouldn't be helping him but does, and a cop.

he has that much rizz, mk?

trust me. I'm a scientist.

I have the qualitative data to back this up.

the Star Trek fandom always acts like either Riker or Kirk is the god of rizz in the Star Trek universe, and it's bullshit, when Quark exists right there.

he was literally pulling klingon widowers, cardassian enemies of state, trans ferengi, vulcan terrorists, amorphous he/they shape shifters. he constantly had men chasing after him too.

Kirk's womanizing ways were vastly overstated by people whose memories are clouded by age, and Riker's repertoire was the most generic humanoid hotties out there, whose personalities were basically omg i'd love to have sex with you do you like my skimpy outfit.

Quark was pulling much harder just by virtue of the fact that all of his pulls were people who had a good reason to not get involved with him at all, but couldn't resist in the end.

seriously. cardassian political scientist that hates him, ferocious klingon warrior who just wants to use him for political reasons, a trans ferengi who doesn't want to be outed, a Vulcan terrorist who REALLY shouldn't be helping him but does, and a cop.

he has that much rizz, mk?

trust me. I'm a scientist.

I have the qualitative data to back this up.

I cannot over-emphasize the degree to which ive been preparing my entire life for this moment @jone-slugger

I apretiate people who try to back up their head canons for vulcans by saying "well it's very logical" but my siblings in christ vulcans are as logical as sigma males. As traditionalists who say that we've being doing things a certain way for ages and we will continue doing it no matter how harmful it is.

They never were quiet logical and never will be because the core of their culture "purging emotions" is already dumb as fuck. Literally this idea sounds as "we were using our hands to slap each other, well to eliminate violence let's cut our hands!" bro, for real???? Their whole purge of emotions looks like teenage boys screaming no homo after doing even the slightest good thing or touch their male friend. "You're being emotional!!! - Oh no, well, you see, it's actually pretty logical you're just dumb to understand it"

And it leads to the same old prejudices and stagnant traditionalist culture. Do you really want to look me in the eyes and say that "well yeah instead of founding the way to suppress pon farr or at least make it less dangerous let's continue with this fucked up tradition where women are essentially a sex object that we will be fighting for to death!!!!". Or that being bigoted towards people that show emotions is logical? Or letting kids bully a biracial kid because of course he's lesser than us is logical ?????????

Vulcans have a perverted sense of logic, always had, and to me saying that "of course they will do it because it's logical" is to fall for their propoganda and not to see that they're dumb af most of the times