"Star Trek" Reborn in Online Episode

“In what will surely be regarded as one of the best science-fiction ‘fan film’ projects of all time, a pair of ‘Star Trek’ fanatics have created a new episode in exacting 1960s style using their own actors, sets and props.” Julio Ojeda-Zapata —“Star Trek” Reborn in Online EpisodePioneer Press) Sigh. I am such a Trek…

Feeling Blue? This Robot Knows It.

“By processing information sent from physiological sensors the human counterpart wears, the Vanderbilt robot can detect when its master is having a bad day and approach with the query: ‘I sense that you are anxious. Is there anything I can do to help?’” —Feeling Blue? This Robot Knows It.Wired) The story includes an amusing opposing…

Star Trek Haiku

Charley XWell-punished laughter,Token of a child’s longing:Beehive disappoints. —Star Trek HaikuWeasel Breweries) This page presents every episode of classic Star Trek, reduced to a single haiku. Thanks for the link, Rosemary. Hey… there’s no haiku for “Turnabout Intruder”. I’ll fix that… His gold-tunic’d bodEnraptures Dr. JaniceShe swaps hers for his Similar:The Ascent #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch…

Turkish Star Trek Rip-Off… Or Something

“For the first hour, all the opening doors on the Enterprise are accompanied by a nice door-opening sound effect stolen from Star Trek. But by this point in the movie, the Turkish audio engineers have lost interest. Now whenever someone walks into a room, somebody off camera makes the sound ‘swwwsh!’ with their mouth two…

The Captain Kirk Principle

“This psychological battle between intellect and intuition was played out in almost every episode of Star Trek in the characters of the ultrarational Mr. Spock and the hyperemotional Dr. McCoy, with Captain Kirk as the near perfect synthesis of both. Thus, I call this balance the Captain Kirk Principle: intellect is driven by intuition, intuition…

Danger Will Robinson! Jonathan Harris Dies!

“Jonathan Harris, the flamboyantly fussy actor who portrayed the dastardly, cowardly antagonist Dr. Zachary Smith on the 1960’s sci-fi show ‘Lost in Space,’ has died. He was 87.” —Danger Will Robinson! Jonathan Harris Dies!CNN) Similar:The Ascent #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 9) Odo and Quark bicker their way up …Things Past #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch…

R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots)

“Virtually every encyclopedia or textbook etymology of the word ‘robot’ mentions the play R.U.R. Although the immediate worldwide success of the play immediately popularized the word (supplanting the earlier ‘automaton’), it was actually not Karel Capek but his brother Josef, also a respected Czech writer, who coined the word. The Czech word robota means ‘drudgery’…

The Coming Air Age [of 1952]

“Now you hear a low hum, and over the horizon appears a flying machine. You press the button of a box near by and a radio signal flashes to the machine. The aircraft, looking oddly like a horizontal electric fan, drones toward you. When the pilot is directly overhead, all forward movement of the machine…

David Brin’s Attack of the Clones Critique

David Brin knows how George Lucas can save the muddle that the Star Wars franchise has become. His suggestion is brilliant, and at the same time obvious. “Why else would Obi-Wan ‘hide’ Vader’s son in Vader’s home town? Their final ‘deathfight’ distracts the guards to let Luke/Han/Leia get away. How else do you explain that…

First Commercial Moon Landing Gets Go-ahead

“The US State Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have granted TransOrbital, Inc. of La Jolla, California, permission to send its TrailBlazer probe to map the surface of the Moon and photograph Earth.” —First Commercial Moon Landing Gets Go-aheadNature) “He was a junkman with an extraordinary dream…to salvage the junk left on the…

War of the Worlds

“Science fiction has often featured ‘evil empires’ against which are set utopian ideas whose survival must be fought for against the odds by a small but resourceful band of men. Such empires often turn out to be amazingly fragile when faced by intelligent idealists.” —War of the WorldsGuardian) The argument that Osama Bin Laden was…

Moon Seen as Nuclear Waste Repository

“One by one, the [waste-bearing] casks smack into the Moon. The soft deep lunar regolith in the impact area should ensure proper waste burial. Plowing into the lunar surface at high speed, the waste would be buried under several feet of glassified regolith…” —Moon Seen as Nuclear Waste Repository (Space.com) Space:1999. Moonbase Alpha… Nuclear Waste…

Portal: A Dataspace Retrieval

With a popcorn plot engineered to appeal to sci-fi fans, Portal is an “interactive novel” published in 1986, and now available online as freeware. Rob Swiggart —Portal: A Dataspace Retrieval Similar:The Ascent #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 9) Odo and Quark bicker their way up …Things Past #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 8)…

James Doohan comatose? Ill?

Geek website Slashdot was reporting, as of about 20 minutes ago (6:20 EST), that the actor best known for his role as Chief Engineer Mongomery “Scotty” Scott from the original Star Trek series, was in a coma and not expected to recover.  In the time it took for me to post this message, Slashdot posted…

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

>open curtains As you part the curtains, you see that it’s a bright morning, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, the meadows are blooming, and a large yellow bulldozer is advancing on your home. —The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (DouglasAdams.com) Similar:The Ascent #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 9) Odo and Quark…