Talk about niche market! There's a dating site for Star Trek fans!

I thought this was a joke, but it's for real.

C'mon, admit it! You know you've all wanted to have that special Borg Queen in your life. And for those of you with pon farr fever, you won't have to wait seven years to line up your mating ritual..or maybe you will...

Personally, I've always had a thing for Yvonne Craig as that turquoise alien..

Lt. Uhura: NASA recruiter

Well, if she's what's waiting in outer space, sign me up!

From the late 1970's until the late 1980's, NASA employed Nichelle Nichols to recruit new astronaut candidates. Many of her new recruits were women or members of racial and ethnic minorities, including Guion Bluford (the first African-American astronaut), Sally Ride (the first female American astronaut), Judith Resnik (one of the original set of female astronauts, who perished during the launch of the Challenger on January 28, 1986), and Ronald McNair (the second African-American astronaut, and another victim of the Challenger accident).

Plus, it's a well-known story, but worth repeating - how Martin Luther King convinced Nichelle Nichols to stay on Star Trek

Breaking Bad's Star Trek scene, animated

To boldly go where no pie has gone before..



h/t George Takei

Blackberry inventor to attempt to build Star Trek Tricorder

Mike Lazaridis, inventor of the BlackBerry smartphone, is starting a $100 million quantum technology fund that’s aiming to turn devices like the medical tricorder from “Star Trek” into reality.  

Apparently, in the future, doctors with cool devices will be
accorded the respect they deserve

More Star Trek medical devices can be seen here

Star Trek style 'tractor beam' created by scientists

A real-life "tractor beam", which uses light to attract objects, has been developed by scientists.

It is hoped it could have medical applications by targeting and attracting individual cells.

The research, published in Nature Photonics and led by the University of St Andrews, is limited to moving microscopic particles.

In science fiction programmes such as Star Trek, tractor beams are used to move much more massive objects.

It is not the first time science has aimed to replicate the feat - albeit at smaller scales.

In 2011, researchers from China and Hong Kong showed how it might be done with laser beams of a specific shape - and the US space agency Nasa has even funded a studyto examine how the technique might help with manipulating samples in space.

The new study's lead researcher Dr Tomas Cizmar, research fellow in the School of Medicine at the University of St Andrews, said while the technique is very new, it had huge potential.

more at BBC News

And in show biz..

Some upcoming movies you may not have heard about:

There's going to be a Wikileaks movie. James McAvoy was originally going to be Julian Assange, but becuase of a scheduling conflict he will be replaced by Inglorious Basterds'  Daniel Bruhl.

And..there's going to be a Kick Ass 2. (Kick Ass was one of the best comic book movies to come along in a long time, but it remains to be seen whether it can work without Nick Cage's character, who was killed off in the first installment. However the addition of Jim Carrey as Colonel Stars is promising.)



Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim is creating a lot of buzz and there's a new Star Trek movie in the works too..

Google Doodle celebrates 46th anniversary of Star Trek

Today's google doodle is plenty of fun!

It takes you through a few silly Star Trek sounds and vignettes.

Here's more info on it!

Star Trek: Captain Worf - coming to a small screen near you?

Michael Dorn, who played the lovable Klingon Worf on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has confirmed he is working on developing a spin-off series tentatively titled Star Trek: Captain Worf.

I'd watch at least the first couple of episodes!

Warp factor four, Mr. Sulu - Star Trek anticipated scientific discovery 35 years before scientists

Einstein's theory postulated that nothing could travel faster than the speed of light.

Star Trek's warps were multiples of that speed which was an aspect of the science fiction show that bothered physicists.

Until last Thursday, when the CERN accelerator in Switzerland observed neutrinos, a sub-atomic particle, travel faster than Einstein's speed limit.

It's O.K. to be Takei!

Tennessee has a proposed Bill that would make it illegal to talk about homosexuality or say "Gay" in that context in the classroom

So the original and greatest Mr. Sulu, George Takei, is lending his name to the cause to fight this silly bias. Instead of saying "Gay" in Tennessee, they can substitute it by saying "Takei" as in, "I support Takei marriage" or "I'm going to City Hall on Tuesday to oppose funding for the Takei Pride Festival if they allow participation by the odious Queers Against Israeli Apartheid"

I met George Takei at a Star Trek convention when I was a geeky 14 year old (yes, the only thing that's changed is that I'm not 14 any more). He was incredibly nice, friendly and took a lot of time to talk and make this awkward (then) kid feel appreciated, so I remain a big fan and as far as I'm concerned, it not only OK, it's great to be Takei!

And there's a whole line of "It's OK to be Takei" products that you can buy from George's website. I guess the rhyming is good, but I think I like the sound of "Sulu pride" better.




h/t rabble.ca

The anniversary of TV's first interracial kiss

Like much great science fiction, Star Trek was often also social allegory. It predicted science and influenced  generations of scientists, in effect becoming self-fulfilling prophesy.

In 1968, television networks were afraid to depict interracial relationships. The very first time a kiss between a white and black person happened on a TV show was on Star Trek, who in this case certainly did boldly go where no TV show had gone before. In the episode in question, Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura were compelled to kiss by the telekinetic powers of aliens.

Today is the anniversary of the day that kiss was broadcast.

Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura, was incredibly hot back then. If I were Captain Kirk, I would have sent a thank you note to the aliens.