io9: "After making a mere $84 million at the U.S. box office,
Star Trek Into Darkness is considered by some to be a disappointment. Perhaps the problem is that it was a touch confusing. To help our readers better understand it, we've compiled and answered
these Frequently Asked Questions about the movie."
(Maximum Possible Spoiler Warning)
posted by davidjmcgee
on May 21, 2013 -
9 comments
Performers who project relatability but have nothing elusive about them do better as network-television stars, or maybe morning-show anchormen. (Exception: Hanks.) On the other hand, if all you're capable of projecting is mystery and you're a quart low on relatability, you are probably a douchebag. (Exception: Fassbender.)
Just in time for the Oscars, GQ ruminates on
what makes a leading man today.
posted by psoas
on Feb 24, 2013 -
82 comments
STAR WARS DETOURS™ Trailer [SLYT] "Star Wars Detours™ is an animated comedy that explores what daily life is like in a galaxy far, far away. There are no Empires striking back or attacking clones here. Instead, Star Wars Detours focuses on the universe's regular folks and their everyday problems... which, to be fair, do frequently involve famous bounty hunters, crazed Ewoks, and even a Dark Lord of the Sith."
posted by Fizz
on Aug 25, 2012 -
85 comments
"Blood and Fire" is an episode written by David Gerrold for possible use on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The script was commissioned and written, but never actually filmed because certain studio executives had a negative reaction to its positive depiction of an openly gay couple. It was eventually adapted by Gerrold into a
standalone novel.
With Gerrold's permission, Carlos Pedraza rewrote Blood and Fire for the fan series
Star Trek: New Voyages. Gerrold did a final draft polish and also directed the episode.
The entire two part episode is available on You Tube:
Part 1,
Part 2 [more inside]
posted by wittgenstein
on Jun 11, 2012 -
10 comments
Ever wonder how many variants of jumpsuits there can be? Do mock turtlenecks belong in space? Why is brown the color of respecting alien cultures?
Fashion It So takes on the couture of the 24th century one Next Generation episode at a time.
posted by The Whelk
on Jul 3, 2011 -
32 comments
Is Chillwave the Next Big Music Trend? -
Wiki: Chillwave is a debated genre of music where artists are often characterized by their heavy use of effects processing, synthesizers, looping, sampling, and heavily filtered vocals with simple melodic lines. Its musical predecessors are diverse and include the synthpop of the 1980s, shoegaze, ambient, musique concrète and various types of music outside of the Western World. In this case, nostalgia of 80s synthpop is filtered through a distorted lens, re-envisioning the era in a more vague and lo-fi sense. Just don't
call them that. You can always check in at the
Hipster Runoff (the birthplace of the term) for news about the vaguely new subgenre.
[more inside]
posted by Christ, what an asshole
on Dec 9, 2010 -
103 comments
Preserved in the cave excavations of
Mogao and listing 1,339 stars the
Dunhuang Star Chart is the
oldest graphical star atlas known to exist. Dated to between 649 and 684 AD, it features two sections. The first consists of 26 diagrams of asterisms (including a recognizable Big Dipper and Orion) and the second contains 12 star maps each showing a 30 degree east-west section of sky in cylindrical projection plus an azimuthal projection circumpolar map. Star positions are accurate to within 1.5 degrees and it includes some stars in the southern sky.
[more inside]
posted by Mitheral
on Jun 28, 2009 -
10 comments
"Some people hustle pool; some people hustle cars. Then there's that man you've heard about, the one who hustles stars!" Greetings, greetings, fellow stargazers! Looking toward your computer screen today, you'll find
Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer, a five-minute show that has been in weekly production for over thirty years, airing in-betweensies on many PBS stations. Contrary to the
cheeky bio on
Jack's website, it wasn't always easy for Jack to "keep looking up!"
This 9/19/1982 Miami Herald article reveals that he grew up as a sickly boy, eventually meandering to Florida to stumble into his avocation and vocation as Director of the
Miami Space Transit Planetarium, only to watch his life's work almost crumble due to a PR nightmare. Since then, however, things have been much better:
Star Gazer (
originally called Star Hustler, then changed in 1997 due to internet search engines leading people to Hustler Magazine's website) has been nationally syndicated since 1985 (and internationally since 1989), chalking up over 1500 episodes. A
book of his
monthly cartoons has been published. The Astronomical League sponsors
The Jack Horkheimer Award for Exceptional Service by a Young Astronomer. (2008's winner.) So whether you find Jack
avuncular or
creepy, Jack Horkheimer is, to many, the face of popular backyard astronomy.
[more inside]
posted by not_on_display
on Dec 16, 2008 -
37 comments
