In this case, two photos of the day: the Cold War Unicorns Play Set.

O.K., I finally saw the film. Spoiler time.

First off, the new USS Enterprise (the main character) really is that ugly (externally - see image in above post). The interior looks O.K., but the exterior looks like it's been pimped out. I could've sworn I saw the rims spinning in one scene. The Romulan ship is even uglier, but being a mining ship (like the USG Ishimura in Dead Space), it has an excuse. The original design of the Enterprise is beautiful. There's no need to keep tampering with it.

Regarding less important aspects of the film...

If you're looking for Star Trek, look elsewhere. In no way did this feel like Star Trek to me, nor did I ever buy that these new guys were Kirk, Spock, etc., although the actors did have some chemistry. Unless Shatner and Nimoy are cloned (or completely digitized), my strong bias in favor of the original series won't let me accept any new stories with a young Kirk and Spock. The old Star Trek gave me things to think and dream about. This new one just gave me pretty lights to stare at for a while.

On the other hand, if you're looking for an enjoyable two-hour action film with lots of excitement, fights, and explosions, this is about as good as anything that comes out of Hollywood... actually, a little better than average, in that regard. Some of it was pretty to look at (but not the ships), and the acting wasn't bad, but the story wasn't very good. The Star Trek franchise should leave time travel to the Dr. Who franchise. Still, non-fans who enjoy Hollywood action films should enjoy it.

I will say that this new film is better than anything else the franchise has offered since the original cast days. That's not saying much, though. I give the 2009 film 2.5/5 stars for shiny new entertainment, but there's not much in the way of depth or rewatchability.

***************************

Fortunately, the Blu-ray set of Season 1 of the original Star Trek series is incredible! Everything has been restored, and there are lots of cool special features. It's even better than the Blade Runner, Godfather, Matrix, and Dirty Harry Blu-ray sets, all of which are great. I highly recommend it.

RE: 'Star Trek': An exclusive first look at the Enterprise

The City Paper, Monday, April 6, 2009:
But a building boom might not be the cure all. Even if everything lines up perfectly — if the right type of funding materializes in the next few months and workers at the sites spend enough of their incomes — the building projects may not be a part of our recession-beating recipe. Simply put, we might have missed our window.

Nashville has several private and public "planned projects" that can't seem to get going, thanks to the current state of the economy. Even when things improve, I doubt that Signature Tower will ever be built, and if it does happen, it likely won't reach the 1,030 feet height that was initially projected. It's a shame. I was looking forward to the improved skyline. The West End Summit project actually did break ground, but construction has been suspended, so now we have a huge pit at 1600 West End Avenue, for no telling how long. At least Music City Central (MTA Downtown Station) was completed. That block looks so much better now.

Signature Tower, (Wikipedia)
West End Summit, (Wikipedia)
Music City Center, (Wikipedia)
Nashville Post: "New federal courthouse disappears from stimulus package"

"Not too little, but too late?" - Nashville's Building Projects

Transportation officials in Texas are scrambling to prevent hackers from changing messages on digital road signs after one sign in Austin was altered to read, "Zombies Ahead."

ADDCO Chief Operating Officer Brian Nicholson told FOXNews.com that the company is sending out notices to customers on the potentially dangerous security flaw.

In the meantime, if you're driving in Austin, you can rest assured: There are no zombies ahead.

Hackers Crack Into Texas Road Sign, Warn of Zombies Ahead

No sir, I don't like it. In fact, I've never liked any of the redesigns. The original Enterprise was perfect. The new bridge looks nice, though.

'Star Trek': An exclusive first look at the Enterprise

I thought this issue had been put to rest, but Osmanagic keeps going...

Osmanagic is aware that such projects will by default come with controversy. He is very much familiar with the controversy surrounding the tomb of Tutankhamen and how Howard Carter, for several years, found nothing, until one day, he struck – literally – gold. Osmanagic feels that in the past three seasons of excavations, he has done much more and much better than Carter, and that with a little bit more time, the archaeologists will be able to find evidence that will sway even the fiercest of critics.

To provide an overview of the current state of research, between November 14 and November 22, Osmanagich is touring the UK. His tour starts in Bury St. Edmunds at the Stars and Stones Winter Forum on November 15 and will finish at the Histories & Mysteries Conference in Edinburgh, on November 22.

Bosnian Pyramid Controversy Rises Again

Here's the video "The Great Office War," which features the Nerf Vulcan. :)

RE: NO THROWING CHAIRS OFF THE ROOF! | dc0de's notes...

In what is slowly turning into a endless loop of hacktivism activities, Bill O’Reilly’s BillOreilly.com has been compromised during the weekend, with personal details including passwords in plain text for 205 of the site’s members already leaking across Internet forums, as a response to his remarks regarding Wikileaks as a “one of those despicable, slimy, scummy websites” which recently published private information of Sarah Palin’s private email.

The bottom line - good time to point out why you shouldn’t use the same password on different web services, and that the big picture having to do with Wikileak’s vision of a little less secrecy, and a little bit more transparency, ultimately better serves the world and gives power to the people whose collective consciousness, if not brainwashed, is supposed to be shaping the way we live.

Bill O’Reilly’s web site hacked, attackers release personal details of users

There was no immediate reaction from the library, which had claimed at trial that transgender people are not covered under federal anti-discrimination laws.

Unfortunately, that's been the historical interpretation: that "sex" (with regard to anti-discrimination laws) refers only to being male or female, and does not include the concepts of one's sex/gender identity and the presentation thereof, transsexualism, transgenderism, androgyny, etc. (see Ulane v. Eastern Airlines and Etsitty v. Utah Transit Authority). That's why explicit language (such as "sexual orientation," "gender identity") is considered necessary in such laws, even though "sex" should cover all of the above (as far as I'm concerned). It's refreshing to see this type of logical interpretation from U.S. District Court Judge James Robinson, especially when the decision points out the "legislating from the bench" of past decisions, which set bad precedent.

Excerpts from the court document:

Sex vs. Sexuality...

Schroer’s second legal theory is that, because gender identity is a component of sex, discrimination on the basis of gender identity is sex discrimination. In support of this contention, Schroer adduced the testimony of Dr. Walter Bockting, a tenured associate professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School who specializes in gender identity disorders. Dr. Bockting testified that it has long been accepted in the relevant scientific community that there are nine factors that constitute a person’s sex. One of these factors is gender identity, which Dr. Bockting defined as one’s personal sense of being male or female.7 Tr. at 210.

The Library adduced the testimony of Dr. Chester Schmidt, a professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and also an expert in gender identity disorders. Dr. Schmidt disagreed with Dr. Bockting’s view of the prevailing scientific consensus and testified that he and his colleagues regard gender identity as a component of “sexuality” rather than “sex.” According to Dr. Schmidt, “sex” is made up of a number of facets, each of which has a determined biologic etiology. Dr. Schmidt does not believe that gender identity has a single, fixed etiology. Tr. at 372, 400-04.

To be fair, this is still being debated today, but based on my research over the years, the current majority opinion seems to be with Dr. Bockting. However, I don't necessarily consider the two explanations to be mutually exclusive. Transgenderism is a broad concept, and I think there are various reasons why some individuals don't neatly fit into the categories of male and female.

Here's the key aspect (for me) of Robinson's reasoning...

Imagine that an empl... [ Read More (0.4k in body) ]

RE: Transsexual wins lawsuit against Library of Congress

From Muppet Wikki:

Sesamestreet.org is an official Sesame Street website, featuring video clips, games, playlists, and more. Although the site was scheduled for debut on August 11, 2008, it was on the web as early as August 5, 2008. Clips can be found by grouping by character, theme, educational topic, classic clips, or songs.

This is great! This new site has just about every muppet sketch I can remember from childhood. Most of the muppets are listed, but for whatever reason, they chose not to list Lefty (a.k.a. The Salesman) in the character search list, but he's pretty easy to find. Sure, you can find most of these on YouTube, but the quality is hit-and-miss.

"The Air Salesman" (click image) featuring Ernie and Lefty was always one of my favorites. Ernie finally gets the better of Lefty in "The Ice Cream Salesman," though.

Also, Johnny Cash sings "Nasty Dan" for Oscar and "Five Feet High And Rising" for Biff. Classic stuff!

Sesame Street Videos