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.

Lemmy? Celebrating a “vibe coder”? On April 1?