There are fig wasps, of course. And other species, yes, that aren’t quite as good as bees at pollinating, but neither are butterflies, but no one has a problem with labeling them as pollinators. Plus there are the wasps that eradicate pests. The year I had a paper wasp family move in near my garden was a bumper year for my brassicas, because they absolutely annihilated the cabbage white caterpillar population. Basically, wasps aren’t just useless enemies.

Yes (but maybe you shouldn’t). See: https://lemmy.world/post/45251643/23076623

You can (very, very carefully!) pet the top of their thorax when they’re not flying, such as when preoccupied with feeding at a flower, although as TheTechnician27 outlined, it’s probably not good for them. Better is if you can find one that’s struggling to fly (semi-common this time of year, when things are still warming up) and then you can warm the little guy in your hands if they’re cold or chauffeur them from flower to flower if they’re hungry. Often this will help them regain the strength to keep flying, but sometimes they never do; I assume in these cases they’re dying, but at least I gave them some hospice care. It’s very strange to deposit a struggling bee on a flower, watch it feed, and then see it wiggle its little feet in the air like it’s calling the magic carpet back for another lift.

Asia, where they belong (and stay there!)

Edit: oops, still had wasps on the mind from another comment and was thinking of “killer hornets” (aka the Asian giant hornet), which thankfully has not naturalized in the Americas despite recent attempts. Killer bees, yeah, they here.

Wasps are pollinators too 🥺

Human life spans do increase substantially (although not to 300) in the Star Trek universe. From Memory Alpha:

The average Human life span had gradually increased during their history. The average life spans during the 22nd century was about one hundred years. (ENT: “Observer Effect”) This average age was still roughly the same during the 2250, but had risen to 120 by the mid-24th century. (citation needed • edit) However, at some point in history the average life span for Humans was only 35, and by 1999 it had become higher than a millennium earlier. (ENT: “Similitude”; VOY: “11:59”) Leonard McCoy had by 2364 reached the age of 137. (TNG: “Encounter at Farpoint”)

Nearly every isekai I’ve watched/read has involved a lot of brushes with death and/or having to repeatedly pull yourself out of near-impossible situations. Not sure it’s worth the magic and elf-girl harems…

Conundrum: STNG overlaps in time with DS9 (even if they didn’t, they’re both part of the same “universe” as posed by the question), so by selecting the universe of STNG, does that mean having to live through the Dominion war? Not sure that makes it a deal breaker either way but definitely takes some of the utopian edge off.

Interesting, did not know it was a bank holiday. (Schools and such are still open.)

For as much as the US acts like a Christian theocracy, somehow Easter is just a regular weekend for us.

*Jimmies rustled (not “Jimmy’s”)

Says the AI slop…

How would one go about successfully burning down a building with a sprinkler system?

To be 100% clear, this question has nothing to do with the linked news story, I was just spontaneously reminded of a plot hole I’m trying to work out in a story I’m writing (in Minecraft).

This literally just happened. How is it already compressed to early-2000s levels of jpg?

The allegations are literally the only reason I had any idea that the band is still ongoing (and that all the members has swapped out, several times apparently).

Newsboys, a major Christian rock band founded in 1985. All original members have been replaced.

For chillwave/synthwave ambient music, I absolutely love:

https://youtube.com/@OdysseusOfficial

and

https://youtube.com/@INEXED

I feel like I gave it enough of a try to know that this isn’t an “at first” issue, and as a grown-ass adult I’m not going to throw an unknown number of hours at practicing something I don’t know if I’ll ever get the hang of enough to properly play the game.

This is an accessibility issue; many games include “cheat” modes so as to allow a much larger audience that may otherwise be physically or otherwise incapable of playing the standard mode to still enjoy it. As far as I know, this game has provided nothing of the sort. Given that OW is marketed as an adventure/exploration game rather than a technical game, I don’t know why they refused to provide this, but regardless this is a gate-kept game, which is fine, not every game has to be easy or accessible, but please don’t pretend otherwise.

I got a recommendation for the Canadian show North of North here on Lemmy, and while not the best show ever, it was quite enjoyable, and IMO a great example of the importance of DEI (sounds like a lot of support went into making the show happen at all, but precisely because it wasn’t the typical concept/setting to get greenlit it felt really fresh).

The first season was pretty good, a bit too goofy at times (clearly aimed at a somewhat younger audience), but it had potential. The second season definitely dropped the ball.