That is, indeed, A name game, it's true.

IT'S TIME FOR THE NAME GAME!

Damn.  We're bridging hostilities with understanding and open-mindedness.

Problem is, to Changelings, male and female are just concepts, man… so yes, but no, depending on what gender the Changeling in question is being at the time.

Considering where The Onion started, that tagline is almost uncannily apt!

Space Mango Extract.  Comes in these tiny bottles, enough to last six months.  Applied with a sonic hand unit.  Works wonders.

If you prick us, do we not… leak?

I know it from a lengthy discussion and sometime meme on the TNG boards.  Or was it early DS9?  No… no, TNG.

NO ONE is as Harry Kim as Harry Kim.

See "The Time-Traveler's Wife."

It is communication, and complete sharing of thought and emotion.  So it's how they talk, AND sex, AND lots of other things that we can't even comprehend, being limited solids.  All at the same time.  It's just what they do, man.

If I ever have a reason to do so, I'm totally stealing that.  And then I'll buy you dinner.

It's not engineering if he eliminates flaws or tinkers to expand variation.  That's survival, not improvement.

That's the thing; for the first few decades, you'll have a super-genius doctor who can do things like tinker with genetics to help spread the genes around a little more (or eliminate genetic flaws, which is the real danger of inbreeding, anyway).

The fact that we, as amateurs (for the most part), can have these conversations about philosophy or physics or economics is one of the things that makes this commenting group so excellent.  You go right on using whatever imprecise language you may have used (I'm no expert either, so I was following you, regardless).

I hate temporal mechanics.

Actually, this reminds me of the old days, when all the amateur copyeditors would come down and see Zack's TNG reviews and you'd have a dozen people suggesting the same two edits.

Oooh, burn… or wait…

And I hear Bashir's been able to do some wonderful things for Ensign Stella's groove.

Ponygirl, we have anonymous web accounts so that we can complain about wanting to have made different choices without having to be identified.  The future is a wonderful place!