Also, smaller niche communities just haven’t taken off like news and memes have.

Yeah, the US once has a half penny. Adjusted for inflation, it is worth more than a nickel is today when it was eliminated.

But I don’t think that will give us a 9 cent discount.

This has been studied. The US uses a higher quality paper that lasts an average of 7 years. So it is actually cheaper than minting coins. In other countries that switched to coins, singles only lasted a year or two.

There is nothing stopping people from using coins now. People just don’t like them.

Ecuadorians are very touchy about the condition of their paper bills. I tried to pay for a Panama hat with some cash that included a slightly torn but fully in tact $10, and the shop owner refused. As such, more durable dollar coins, which were minted by the US but never really caught on, are quite popular.

Interestingly they do mint their own coins, with Ecuadorian half dollar, quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuadorian_centavo_coins

The smaller communities just aren’t here yet. Lemmy scratch’s the itch for news, politics, and memes, but does not cover many niche interests.

It’s one of the few advantages the defense gets. They only have to worry about 5 potential pass catchers, and also those 5 ineligible receivers are not allowed to block downfield before a completion.

I have read variations on this theory before, and I get how it makes sense. I also don’t doubt Cochrane may have made some innovations. But I doubt that is why he was considered the inventor.

The NX-01 was the first Warp 5 starship from earth, and the Vulcans and Andorrans at least have already surpassed Warp 5. If earth developed the superior technology, is it likely that Vulcan developed at first?

No, I think the explanation is that Zephram Cochrane makes a better story. One man developing the technology mostly himself out of the ashes of a global nuclear war is far better than dozens (or more) Vulcan scientists contributing incrementally from the comfortable confines of the Vulcan science academy. Perhaps his idea also makes the best framework for explaining to new students the basics of warp fields.

Also, Earth is the impetus for forming the Federation, even if the Vulcans, Andorrians, and Tellerites were also founding members. Given how they hated each other, they never would have joined without Earth. So in that way, Earth’s origin is essentially the Federation’s.

It was night and day when he came in. The show went from mediocre and not what I wanted out of Trek prequel show to just outright bad with the Xindi arc, but then came back to be exactly the prequel I wanted. It even fixed earlier seasons with its 3 episode Kir’shara arc that explained why Enterprise Vulcans seemingly became antagonists that eschewed things like mind melds and other familiar aspects of their culture.

Then when they canceled it, they got rid of him and gave us a truly awful finalie that crapped on the show and everything Manno Coto built.

Purely from an in-universe perspective, he really seems to do it less once he learns that his people are the Founders of the Dominion. Perhaps he shapeshifts less to differentiate himself from their fascist rule, or so that few recognize him as a founder. We also see he is uncomfortable with the Vorta and Jem’hadar seeing him as a god.

95% of the people or groups I would want to follow are not on Mastodon.

And frankly, the Fediverse isn’t as user-friendly. It is a but tougher when you have to choose an instance, as well as learn how to follow from other instances.