This week marked the 60th anniversary of Star Trek (it was Tuesday, actually, but alas! I was distracted by the whole “return to work” thing). And the show almost didn’t make it at all.
“The Cage” – a complicated story about alien mind-control – was an ambitious pilot. When Roddenberry presented it to NBC, the programming executives were blown away. But the sales and marketing department wasn’t convinced. Not enough action, they thought. It would be hard to promote. Pass.
“Star Trek,” it seemed, was dead.
Fortunately, there’s more to that story, and the show not only got off the ground but became the entertainment juggernaut it is today.
I wasn’t a Trek fan growing up, in large part, I think, because my parents had made the conscious decision not to have a television. Now that I’m all grown up and have a TV of my own, though, I appreciate the ideals and more behind the sometimes campy but always fun franchise. So inspiring, and not just for everyday fans.
When it premiered in 1966, no one could have predicted that it would lead to more than a dozen spinoff shows, more than a dozen movies and one of the most enduring fandoms in popular culture.
“Star Trek” is also unusual for its close connections to NASA, both in its storylines and in the real world. Decades of “Star Trek” adventures have ignited a love of spaceflight across generations, inspiring many who now work as space professionals.
Let’s hear it for the real-world powers of fiction. And now, in life and the imagination, go boldly!
Books are just one of the many ways to interpret and record history. The 11th-century Bayeux tapestry is going on display to the public today in the UK. The tapestry has more than 220 feet of embroidery detailing the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England in 1066. And the public is loving it.
Inside the exhibition on Thursday morning, the first visitors made their way along the tapestry, snapping photos as they went. They were all quiet until one — Cheryl Prax, 71, a retired property manager — spotted some of the nude figures in the tapestry’s borders and laughed loudly. “I love quirky historical things like that,” Prax said afterward.
Why write? It’s a question writers get asked a lot. There are a lot of challenges to writing, both internal and external, and overcoming them can take persistence and focus and a good handle on what and why. So I periodically ask myself just that: why write?
Jamie Coomarasamy speaks to Patricia Cornwell, one of the world’s best-selling crime writers, whose books have sold more than 120 million copies worldwide… Her imagination became a refuge during difficult years, shaping the stories and characters she would later create.
Ann Patchett’s The Getaway Car is another interesting look into the author’s development as a writer, but everyone’s answer is different.
My version of why tends to revolve around an essential truth: I want to be part of the worlds I’ve loved since I was a child. I want to be a book in the library of life.
“Because nerds like us are allowed to be unironically enthusiastic about stuff… Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-can’t-control-yourself love it. Hank, when people call people nerds, mostly what they’re saying is ‘you like stuff.’ Which is just not a good insult at all. Like, ‘you are too enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousness’.” ― John Green
It’s a beautiful day here, all blue fall skies and fluffy white clouds, and birds singing in the back yard. What, one might wonder, did the landscape sound like in eons past? Before technology? Even before humans?
There are still a lot of questions to answer, particularly about dinosaurs and other creatures with soft tissue that has not traveled to us through time, but insects? That, we now have a better handle on.
Scientists spent over a decade reconstructing the calls of nine species of ancient insects to create the first accurate Jurassic soundscape.
Something to think about if you are a writer building a soundscape for your world. And having spent much of the weekend with mosquitoes buzzing in my ears, I can only say that insects certainly can make an impression!
Like many people, I sometimes flash back to mistakes I’ve made in writing or elsewhere. It’s annoying, how they pop up unbidden, their lessons knocking gently (or otherwise) as if I’d forgotten.
I’ve come to the conclusion that it may be easier to move on from those moments if, instead of trying to ignore them, I respond with “yes, and…” It’s a classic technique in improv comedy, of course, but it can also help mitigate the sting of past negatives by acknowledging them while also making space for the positive. Balance out the scales.
“Yes, that thing that’s been swirling around in my head for a week was kind of a silly thing to do, and remember when I also did that other thing that was awesome?”
The team started by building a homebrew AI-powered facial recognition program called CapuchinAI. They then installed it on a computer outfitted with a camera and touchscreen, loaded it in a protective DIY box, and included a dispenser to dole out dried forest banana slices. When CapuchinAI detects a monkey’s face, the touchscreen turns on. If the monkey triggers it, the machine dispenses a tasty banana slice. Simple as that.
It’s end-of-summer, change-of-season, back-to-school time, and for me that means taking a moment for a little reflection and reassessment. I also like to use this time as an opportunity to clear the decks.
I don’t know about you, but I tend to accumulate mental notes to myself, project plans, ideas that have persisted over the course of the year. Now is a great time to cross those items off my list. Maybe an idea is so small that it seems not worth doing, but it’s been taking up space in my mind. Time to get it done. Maybe it’s so big that I’ve been avoiding it. Time to decide if it’s worth tackling or if it should be deliberately shelved in favor of other projects. Either way, I get it off my list and out of my head.
And once the decks are cleared? I can look forward to a new season and new ideas.
I’ve been doing some new things over the break, and one of those things was buying an ice cream maker. I’ve always thought it would be fun to have one, enjoyed my earlieradventures in frozen desserts, and it was on sale, hooray.
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