Just Liked This...

Occasionally Keith Cowing pulls out some good stuff.

Random Links for a Weekend

Need wine? This site is a cousin of Shirt.Woot.

And do you feel the need to translate yourself into a Star Trek character? Try this.

From Tina: Another look at the cap-and-trade bill. Bottom line here is as expected: if you raise the price of energy, you raise the price of everything else, because you need energy to do everything. This needs to be stopped in the Senate, or a LOT more people will be hurting and unemployed. You can find contact for your senator here.

Potpourri XLIII

I'll talk about what things might be done to make a better future later in the week (true "survival with style"), but I am not done with surviving the somewhat darker future yet. Bear with me, I'm not a complete pessimist, but I do believe in being prepared. Thus, today's dose of guns, gold, and groceries:

• The local gun shop here is Madison Guns & Ammo, which also sells "pink tasers and pepper sprays" for the ladies. I kid you not.
• Another article from Scott, this one on the logic behind buying gold and silver.
• A site I heard advertised on the local talk radio station today for people interested in growing a "crisis garden" was selling seeds that are not genetically altered. Why does this matter? Well, as I've heard it told, you can get record crops with genetically altered plants (e.g. corn/maize), but they're only fertile for a season, then they die out. This, apparently, ensures that you buy from that seed producer next year. Apparently "victory gardens" are making a comeback.
• I also plan a separate blog on "books to preserve in the event of the end of civilization." No, I'm not kidding, and yes, I will talk about happier things in a bit. Just sayin', as we say on Facebook.

A link from Martin, asking, "True?" he offers this link on a Creedence Clearwater Revival song and some of the stories behind it. Yes, it is true that Agnew supported NASA's plans for Mars exploration. The rest I cannot confirm off the top of my head. Amateur historians welcome.

My buddy Mike Mealling (from Masten Aerospace) has an interesting take on the future direction of NASA.

And if you're wondering how I maintain good humor in the midst of a bad economy, here are a couple of ways:

• Today I bought the full four-glass set of Star Trek drinking glasses from Burger King.
• Once or twice a year, I buy myself food from Chicago. This includes pizza, Italian beef, cheesecake, etc. Tastes of Chicago might be one of the few places I can get a decent pizza "delivered" to my home.
• Another is Featured Foods, which delivers Gino's East thick-crust, "Chicago style" pizza.
• Yet another, if you're interested in properly seasons thin-crust pizza, is Home Run Inn.

Potpourri XXXV

You know there used to be this old-fashioned concept called "class." Class is a state of mind, more than anything else. It's the sort of attitude that says you're a person of standards, of some standing. It's the unspoken thing that tells you not to tell particular jokes in mixed company or not make a professional or political fight personal. Why? Because it's just the sort of thing that a gentleman or lady would not do. Never mind, we're a classless society now--in more ways than one--which is how a reporter can make a crack about hoping Rush Limbaugh's kidneys fail, and President Obama laughs! Really now, Mr. Obama. We expected better of you.

The Times of London has an interview with King Abdullah of Jordan. Among other bits of good news: he expects Israel to negotiate with all 57 states of the Arab League, and if there aren't negotiations, then there is going to be another Arab-Israeli next year. On the plus side, the Pope's visit is going well. Thank Heaven for small favors.

Also from the UK: The Daily Mail is reporting on the upcoming Shuttle mission as its "most dangerous" to Hubble.

Star Trek is looking at a $75 million weekend. Not a record-breaker, but it's been a long time since a Trek film made that kind of money on opening weekend. Another thought on why I liked the new movie: the lack of condescension. Some of the Next Generation movies suffered from that. Want an example? Here's Jean-Luc Picard talking to a 21st-century primitive about his (liberal) future superiority:

"No money? You mean you don't get paid?"
"Acquisition of wealth is no longer a driving force in our lives. We wish to better ourselves & the rest of humanity."

Barf. Anyhow, I hold with Malcolm Reynolds in Serenity:

"Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that."

The reason I like the cast and acting of the new Star Trek is that they're recognizably human. The "We're better in the future" attitude is gone. They're still people, and I can relate to them. Just sayin'.

Jerry Pournelle always has interesting things to say about politics, and his take on the departure of Arlen Specter from the Republican Party deserves consideration if conservatives hope for their party to gain a governing majority again.

Also from Pournelle...recommend reading: The Lays of Rome, including Horatius at the Gate. Once considered part of our normal education, 60-odd years ago.

Just off the wall, but funny: The Onion has a story on Touchstone Pictures threatening to make a sequel to Coyote Ugly if box office receipts don't improve. Memorable (bowlderized) quote: "We are dead serious, you a$$#oles," Zaiff said. "You're going to like what we tell you to like, end-of-f@#$ing-story. Now fill up those seats, or so help me God, it's Coyote Ugly II: Get Uglier."

Joanne Manaster is conducting an online poll on which celebrity she looks like. She is then going to up the ante by having a computer analyze her facial features and compare them with said celebrities and see if "the wisdom of crowds" actually matches reality. My vote still goes to Lynda Carter. We'll see what the computer says.

Jeff Foust has some good stuff "from the archives" on Norm Augustine, who is chairing President Obama's panel/review of the Constellation Program and has had numerous dealings with NASA before this.

A fellow space blogger, Douglas Mallette, has some good thoughts on extending Shuttle. One must, indeed, wonder what the future of America's human space flight program is to be. I'd like to think that Augustine and his panel would keep things moving on plan, but while I do have a dog in that fight (writing for Ares), it's not my place to tell the judge that a friend's dog is better than someone else's...or do I? Here's one of those situations where Dar's hopes for a collaborative Office of Technology Assessment might come in handy.

The War is Boring blog on the U.S. Navy's concerns about China's new "carrier-killer" missiles.

I suppose I should quit there. Monday is bound to be a busy news day, and I'll be under the radar, watching it all. Peace.

Movie Review: Star Trek

I could have also subtitled this

The Franchise Reloaded

or

Portrait of a Starship Captain as a Young Man

or simply

Wow!

The new Star Trek is a really great movie. If you like action-adventure science fiction movies with a touch of humor and maybe a little romance thrown in, you can safely like this film without ever having been a "Trekker" or "Trekkie." This movie will make Star Trek fandom socially acceptable.

I am, unsurprisingly, a full-blown Trekker--not someone so far gone as to wear Vulcan ears to the premiere, but someone who has watched enough of the series to catch three "continuity" errors in the very first trailer--that is, technical details that didn't match the official Star Trek history (or, as some might call it, the catechism). There are all sorts of things for the nitpicking fan to go after, if they so chose. The starship Enterprise is both more and less "modern" than the 1960s TV show ship. The characters, costumes, and situations both are and are not of Gene Roddenberry's "world." And yes, there are some serious time-travel issues here that will drive purists nuts.

None of it bothered me. I just loved this movie.

Here's why I liked it, as a fan and a writer: I finally understood the character of James T. Kirk, the take-charge, womanizing, @$$-whupping ball of testosterone who commanded his crew of well-mannered, multicultural misfits. It took a good actor to bring it all together for me, the new-to-me actor Chris Pine. What Pine does is make you understand how Kirk became the "living legend." He's brash, he's fearless, he's not above taking a cheap shot at some guy or making a pass at some girl. He goes after what he wants, and you believe him.

Don't misunderstand me, I've enjoyed William Shatner's Kirk, but the mensch never quite seemed real to me because Shatner tried to do it all at once--the tough guy stuff I've already mentioned--but also be the officer and gentleman with a hint of easy charm about him. Pine isn't like that. He's brash top to bottom, with the uniform barely containing the wild spirit that drives him to be a leader of men. He reminds me of some of my military buddies. They're all kind of wild, and the service never quite tamed them. And what makes Pine's Jim Kirk so cool is that you can almost understand why he got to be captain: it's got to be hell to be the smartest, toughest, most impressive guy in the room, and know it. It's that undeniable sense of confident ego that makes you see what propels him. The little continuity changes they make to Kirk's "official history" bothered me not at all.

Next we might turn to Zachary Quinto, a near dead-ringer for the young Leonard Nimoy, in face and stance, if not voice. Quinto has a bit of edge to him as well. The human half of this Vulcan-human hybrid is not nearly so well contained as it was in the old show. But, again, I believed him. As with Kirk's reimagined past, the movie gives a brief glimpse into Spock's childhood and youth, and how he turned his back on logic and the Vulcan way to become a Starfleet officer. Winona Ryder takes a turn as a middle-aged Amanda Grayson and is somehow prettier than she's been in some of her more glamorous, youthful roles.

And lastly I'll touch on Karl Urban as Leonard "Bones" McCoy," who doesn't get nearly enough screen time, in my humble estimation. DeForest Kelley, the charming, middle-aged country doctor, had moments of irascibility, but that couldn't quite cover the obvious decency beneath. The curmudgeonly comments seemed more like a pose. Urban's McCoy is more of a pessimist. He's got Kelley's soft drawl nailed, and throws in a little extra helping of complaining snarkiness to animate his McCoy in a way Kelley never did. You can feel the edge and the hurt in the man's voice, and you can understand what drives him.

Perhaps it's that edge again, which the old series often lacked. Roddenberry was trying to show humanity as better in the future, more capable, and still likeable and believable. It's a restrained, rather square kind of believable, though, which can prevent some viewers from understanding why these otherwise mild-mannered people would dare go out into space with each other. Urban's McCoy, along with the reimagined Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Chekov, Sulu, Scotty, and even Captain Christopher Pike, all have a certain restlessness about them, a little impatience and desire for action that makes you believe that they're adventurers. As Kirk said in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, "Galloping around the cosmos is a game for the young, Doctor." This is an awful lot of character analysis for a two-hour-plus film, but the acting really got to me, probably because I was ready to accept a re-interpreted Star Trek. These are not stiff-upper-lip, officers-and-gentlemen sorts of characters, but more like (original) Star Wars heroes: balls and bravado, high-energy players.

What about the story? Well, it's actually pretty standard Star Trek fare: a little time travel, a villain hell-bent on destruction, a lot of danger, and more than a few nods to previous incarnations of the series. The movie does a lot, including give most of the major characters their own small moments to shine, and still manages to tell a science fiction story with a minimum of "technobabble," a recurring sin of the later Star Trek franchises. The point of this review isn't to slice and dice the story, though it moves forward well enough, making sure not to leave too many unsolved mysteries or dangling plotlines. Given my commentary to this point, it should be no great surprise that I highly recommend this movie. There are many reasons to like it, even--no, especially--if you're a fan of the original series.

Finally, Some News That's Worth Publishing!

Winona Ryder joins the cast of the next Star Trek movie:

http://movies.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=283451&GT1=7701&silentchk=1&&

However, I also noticed this error (bear with me, non-Trekkers):

Paramount Pictures and director JJ Abrams have set Ryder
to play the Vulcan mother of a young Spock

I don't consider myself an expert on the show, I'm only a semi-geek--a true believer has watched every single episode at least once, which I have not--but I have seen all the movies. It's either an error on the reporter's part or the writers of the new movie, but Spock's mother in Star Trek IV was human, and portrayed by Jane Wyatt. Unless they have plural marriage on Vulcan?

/b