Fun fact because I’ve lived in that region for a while: Count Alexander zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn ist still alive and inherited the family’s castle, which he successfully renovated. It had been a ruin after WW2. He also has a Harvard Business degree. The castle is an event location now and one of very few castles in Germany that are still owned by the original aristocratic family. There is also a butterfly house next to the castles.
My guess is a bit of both. As a woman who’s spent some time working in IT, there are still more than enough men who are pissed at having to include women and would jump at the opportunity to get them out of the door or degrade them as soon as possible. Give them an opportunity like “Oh no, now we have to take those women-related things down. Just in case, gotta keep our funding. Too bad, so sad.” and they’ll jump on it.
There was a student in my elementary school class in the early 90s, whose single mother worked as a cleaning lady at the school and supported both of them with that money. They had a small apartment, a car and while she was considered poor, she always had enough clothes, school supplies etc.
“Just do it” is helpful in some cases, but mostly not. E.g. you think that a hobby is cool but you don’t feel like you could start it? Just do it, take a course, try it out. It becomes unhelpful quickly when the realities of your life are just different. Telling in unemployed person with debt who is fascinated with flying to “just get a pilot license” ignores their reality. But telling a business analyst who’s interested in manga but feels like this hobby would destroy his image, to “just do it and buy some mangas” is totally valid.
I have been struggling financially for most of my life and have received way too often the unhelpful advice to “just do it. Live a little.” Just book that 100€ flight to Italy and see Rome. Just get a smartphone, everyone has one now! (That was when smartphoneplans were very expensive here and I couldn’t justify such a high monthly cost. Yes I’m older.)
There is way too much “just do it” advise by people that live in their nice little bubble of a well-off, supportive family system and never realize that the only reason they can “just do it” is because they never had to eat rice with tomato sauce for 3 days in a row because there were only 10€ on the bank account by the 26th.
On a similar note, “just get a job, just learn something more profitable/in an industry with high wages” is also an often unhelpful advice. Not everyone can be good at everything. And not everyone can just uproot their lives and go back to school for a few years. Yes, some people can do amazing things like get a masters degree while working full-time and having kids. But this advise, too, ignores the reality of many people. If you have no support system or if you simply aren’t cut out for the currently profitable jobs, you can’t just magically switch careers. And even if you do: things change so quickly and there is no guarantee, that the currently well-paid job will still be like that in 5-10 years.
That’s a cool concept, hadn’t heard of it. Nanotech might also be an option for this. You have a bunch of nanobots in your brain and when you encounter a new language, some AI will decipher it and rewire your brain to understand it.
The Webshifter Series might be a good start (Book 1 is Beholder’s eye). The main character is a shape shifter, so we get to see the world from the point of view of someone who can change her form between different alien races. The book has a lot of interesting descriptions about her changing senses, e.g. suddenly being able to perceive different colors or having an organ to feel the magnetic field etc.
Star Trek has a common language in the federation or not? It would be cool if they encountered a new species and get out their communicators, record for a bit and have an AI figure out the new language. Wouldn’t take up a lot of screen time and explain the communication.
That’s a good point. Or even poorer parts of the population not being able to afford the newest tech.
I like that. They had a ton of cameras on all Star Trek ships - but then a scandal involving sex tapes and an illegal porn trade between Star Fleet officers happened and cameras in Star Fleet ships were completely outlawed.
Exploding anything I would say, though this seems to be a general TV problem. Your device got shaken up a tiny bit? EXPLOSION!
I get what you mean, but on the other hand I want to be able to out myself into the story and relate to the characters. If the characters are behaving in a dumb way or the problems they face are too unrealistic, that takes away from the enjoyment. Let me put it like that: I can suspend my disbelieve to accept that an allien artifact can create a wormhole to another planet or that intelligent parasitic life forms exist. I find it hard to believe the US military would send poeple to alien planets without cautioning them about eating the local food. Because to me it is inconsistent with the premise: A military operation would at least address this problem in some form. As I said, it’s just a minor annoyance to me, not a big plot hole or anything. But I find it hard to enjoy media where part of the storytelling is based on the premise “let’s just assume this advanced human/alien civilisation hasn’t thought about an easy solution that we have been using for decades”.
I’ve been listening to the audiobook of Dirk Van den Boem “Sternkreuzer Proxima” (“Starcruiser Proxima”, couldn’t find the actual English titel on a quick search). He has some very good descriptions of the gruelingly long times any maneuver in space takes. Also being cramped in a small space ship with no fresh air, tasteless food rations and not knowing what is going to happen, while your ship and the enemy ship spend the next 50 hours getting in position for their attack.
That’s true. I already mentioned Julie E. Czerneda, her books have female main characters that are pretty well written. I’d recommend looking into her books.
Even if the system isn’t completely rigged by then, it’s been proven time and time again that the average voter has the attention span of a toddler on sugar. I’m afraid what happens now, three and a half years away from the elections, will have no influence on the elections.