10 Things You Didn't Know About Orgasm:

Gyroscopes on the ISS:

What Not To Do With Xenon:

Where We've Been:

Took a little break to fly out to Kauai, so we've been away for the past week. Should be back to a normal schedule, shortly.

Wolfram Alpha:

Looks like they've opened up the engine a little early. Monday is official launch day, but looks like you can head on over and try it out now...

Wolfram Alpha

Wiki

Meet the New Head of NASA?

NASA Watch (along with many others) has reported the likely selection of Major General Charles F. Bolden, Jr. as the new NASA administrator. Why you ask, are we still waiting for someone to put a head on NASA? Why, indeed, was Obama able to select the first dog long before selecting his NASA administrator? Priorities, friends, priorities....

Another Year Gone:

Another year has gone by here at the 'Dump, and over the next day or so, I'll be trying to put together the second edition of our annual "Greatest Hits" series. Stay tooned.

The 'Dump Recommends: Star Trek

First off, let me just say that the movie is fan-bloody-tastic. Everybody seems to love it, and so did I.

Without saying too much, there's one big problem the writers of the film had to deal with: how to revitalize the series while getting back to its roots. How much creative license can you take, after all? I have to say, the way they've gone about doing these things is very clever. Again, I don't want to spoil anything for anybody, but one thing you'll find in this movie is a set of references to "cheating" to get the right result (the infamous Kobayashi Maru scenario features in the film, for example). It's clearly a metaphor (all bad connotations aside) for the way the writers approached this movie, and the results are predictable; some (few) will think they cheated while others will think it's laudable and very clever. Let me tell, you, IT IS very clever. And entertaining.

There are, of course, plenty of nods to the grand days of old. However, the one consequence of all this cleverness is that they have finally, and completely, killed what was MY Star Trek. It's gone. And in a kind of finality that will never go away. A good thing? Probably. A little like cutting the heart out of a lot of fond childhood memories? Absolutely. That one hurts. And deep.

I have one criticism, and it's a big one. There's a final closing voice-over that features Leonard Nimoy reciting a staple from the series. You've already heard it if you saw some of the original teasers for the movie way back when. This voice-over should have been done by William Shatner and for this reason: a big part of the film is based on the dynamic between Kirk and Spock, and here (with the movie) you've basically got an extended physical act of recapturing that old cameraderie that really drove the original series and films. Of all the things that are in place to tie the original crew to this new animal (and there are quite few, some not so subtle), that final little touch would have really iced the cake for me. It would've really tied it all together and everything would've come full circle. And they missed it. Fuck.

But anyway, go see the movie. It's fucking fantastic. Eric Bana is great. Spock is really great. The designs, action, and feel of this new Trek really... well, feels good.

(But one last thing: I'm pretty sure the film's score sucks. There was some really great music in those original movies....)

Oxygen, A Short Film:

Oxygen from Christopher Hendryx on Vimeo.

Pretty cool, cute, and educational, too! Comes via The Awesomer.

How To: Basic Soldering

WTF? Star Wars Day?

Just another Hallmark holiday.... I loathe George on so many levels and for so many reasons. But I'm obviously only posting this video because it has Mr. Shatner in it, God love him.

Star Wars Day? Really?

Top 10 Star Trek Movie Moments:

With the new movie coming out this week, how about some memorable moments from movies past? Don't be a double-dumbass and miss out on the Top 10 Star Trek Movie Moments.

Point/Counterpoint:

Laurie Garrett on avian H5N1 from a couple of years ago.



Obama on swine H1N1 today.

The problem is that Garrett is talking about apples and Obama is dealing with what looks like an orange. The relative mildness of swine H1N1 at this point (despite its steadily increasing infection count) may ultimately serve to validate the insufficient pandemic provisions in place at this time as well as the federal response (whatever that ultimately turns out to be). That is, of course, assuming that the virus doesn't get out of hand, which is still very much debatable.