Bull Moose Rally

Not a sight to see when you Rally around a forested corner. I'd punch it - but that's always my reaction. It might be wiser in this situation to come to full stop, and pray to whatever God it is you pretend to worship.

Klingon Smorgasbord

Klingon is not just an unrealistic alien species, but also a language. A real language, with grammar rules and gerunds and all that shit. "Tah Pagh Tahbe'" translates to "To Be or Not To Be". Oh look, Shakespeare in the original Klingon:

An actual production of Hamlet, in Klingon. Odd, is it not? Consider the utter luxury of it! That we (as a species, as a society) have such spare time as to learn a real language from a fictional universe and make a play of it. Or performance art:

It's decadent, really. And completely wonderful. This is how a species advances - by exploring all kinds of weird shit. Who knows what will turn up? Or who will be inspired by what. For example:

Imagine ballin' down Main Street in this Bird of Prey! You'd get pulled over and hassled eventually, for sure, but even then, it'd be pretty sweet. I'd just start cold blastin' everything in my path, Klingon style.

Klingon style. Kahless bless them.

A Mid Life Nerd Crisis

The Chrysler Turbine Car, 55 of which were manufactured in Detroit in 1963. The car could run on almost any fuel, including, as I have just learned, tequila. Read here. As you'll also read in the Wiki, the car was shown at the awesome 1964 World's Fair.

My theory, based on nothing but my own speculation with no research: The CTC was the direct inspiration for this most awesome of cars:

Now, of course, the Batmobile (1966) is waaaaaay cooler. But you can see the resemblance in the rear, in the fins, and of course the gas turbine engine.

If'n I were one of them rich as Croesus Dot.Com UberNerds I'd take a stab at buying the Batmobile right about now, or at least building a replica. Then I'd be happy, for sure. Cuz everyone knows once you have the coolest car, you win. Game over, man.

If I also owned the "Han Frozen in Carbonite" sculpture I could truly proclaim myself KING OF THE NERDS.

But of course, that wouldn't be enough, would it? There'd always be some other ironic yet awesome collectible out there to obtain, or stop someone else from obtaining, because that's all this life really is, right? A neverending game? You'll never know the rules or the score or even the team colors, but you'll play all the same. What choice do you have? It's that or "Price is Right" Loser Music as you exit, stage left. And we shan't have that, amirite?

Less than 12 parsecs

So, if you're a true nerd, you no doubt are aware of the long running controversy regarding Han Solo's claim to have done the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs. If you're a normal person, or even someone with just a "touch of nerd", you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. But this post is not for you, cool dude!


First, there's the whole debate about measuring things in parsecs. A parsec is a unit of spatial measurement (1 Parsec =3.08568025 x 10 to the 16th meters), not time, so how does the phrase "Made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs" even make sense?


Glad you asked! When we get to distances in space, things are so big that our normal units of spatial measure become unwieldy - too many numbers! So other, far bigger units are used. You've heard of a "light year", right? For example, its about 4 light years from our Sun to the nearest star. But think about what this term actually is saying - the distance light travels in one year. So, in essence, it's a measurement of time, not space. But Space and Time are the same, according to general relativity (spacetime!), and thus, a light year.


A parsec has nothing to do with any of that, but I thought it would be fun to mention. In the Star Wars universe, they travel faster than light by a sci fi term called "hyperspace", which is just like "warp" in Star Trek.  Each involves an actual folding of space. And so, Han's boast of making the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs implies it's usually longer (like 18 parsecs), but due to his daring, he took a shorter, more dangerous route. In Star Wars, they have "Hyperspace Lanes" that most ships travel, in order to avoid dangers like black holes or massive stars. And thus, Han's claim is founded in Star Wars logic.


And now you know. Go forth, and spread this knowledge.


Also too:

Oh yeah! Your hyperspace throttle is jammed into the deflector array. That's gonna cost ya.

Baby on board

Whee! I'm sure the kid is digging it; wonder what the po-lice might say?

I'm still waiting for my Segway future, by the way. Alas, given the nature of our infrastructure, and the ever more obtuse dimensions of the average American citizen, we need enclosed Segways with four wheels, and Ottomans, with mini-fridges, blinking lights, subwoofers, and somewhere to affix bumper stickers. Throw in an LCD TV and now were talking the new future of transportation. Till then, only Yuppies need apply.

Also, Dean Kamen (inventor of the Segway and many other cool things) has a super sweet island off the coast of Long Island and IF there is ever a zombie apocalypse, it's one of my goto destinations. If I happen to be in the area during the zombie uprising. Wouldn't work for the robots, though - need something different for them.

Also Also: One of those "random" things: Just a co-incidence I posted about Segways when the owner of the Segway Corp (not Dean Kamen) just died by driving his Segway off a cliff. Jungian!

'Bout Time!

I've come to realize that I will never have a flying car, as so often promised to me in the 1970's;

I've come to accept this, and I'm OK with it.

However, in lieu of this flying car, AND my serene acceptance of lack of said flying car, I would like a rocket pack, similar to but not necessarily the same as, this one.

Thanks in advance!

Redshirt