Posts Tagged: ‘Star Trek’
How to build your own automatic Star Trek door for your home
by Marshall Brain | December 7, 2010
Arguably one of the coolest features of the Star Trek universe is the automatic doors that open and close automatically. The doors also had a manual feature, as shown in this short clip from the series: What if you would like to add doors like these to your home? Here is one quick demonstration of [...]
WHO study suggests link between cell phones and tumors – “Preliminary results of an International investigation by the World Health Organization (WHO) suggest there may be a “significantly increased risk” of some types of brain tumors after use of mobile phones for a decade or more…” The $10 Phone Bill – “The $116 billion business [...]
Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner: Seen any good movies lately?
by Tracy V. Wilson | September 4, 2009
When I saw that the William Shatner/Leonard Nimoy panel at Dragon*Con was scheduled for 10 a.m. on Friday, I suspected that it was, at least in part, about crowd control. Even so, when I walked out onto the catwalk more then an hour before start time, the three ballrooms that had been combined to hold the panel were almost full. By 10, the room was packed.
I spent a couple of years early in my career writing about food safety, so whenever anybody says the word “parasite,” my thoughts usually leap to food-borne critters that can spawn all manner of digestive discomfort. But if you pair “parasite” with “fiction,” I go straight to the big ones — like vampires or mynocks. There are plenty of littler life forms that can take over human hosts and wreak all kinds of havoc in science fiction and fantasy, though. I called on the office’s sci-fi brain trust, and we hashed out a list of our five favorites.
Editor Chanel Lee passed me a fascinating article yesterday — Danielle C. Belton’s “Blacks in Space: If sci-fi is the future, why is it so white?” First off, I agree with Belton’s basic premise — in general, onscreen science fiction (and fantasy, for that matter) doesn’t match up to the real world’s racial balance. Also, at times the portrayals that do exist aren’t very robust, relegating characers to supporting roles and stereotypes.
So while I agree with Belton’s basic point, I disagree with some of the examples she uses to support her argument.
Trekmovie.com reported yesterday that jewelry manufacturer Genki Wear is releasing three Star Trek colognes and perfumes based on the original TV series. Genki Wear is known for selling officially licensed sci-fi replica jewelry — think “Buffy” necklaces and the like. The scent venture is no doubt an attempt to capitalize on press generated by the soon-to-be released Trek “prequel” from director J.J. Abrams.
The fragrances are named for various facets of the Trek universe — “Tiberius” “Red Shirt” and “Ponn Farr.” Genki Wear calls the Tiberius scent “difficult to define” which sounds like a great marketing tag if you ask me. Red Shirt is named for the countless Enterprise crew members that were introduced only to quickly be killed away. (Apparently they were known for wearing red shirts.) Ponn Farr is named for a “Vulcan mating ritual” — another great tag.
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