Il mort di Spock 28 May 2009 Star trek as it should be done? [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xga_wchTpW8&hl=en&fs=1] Hat tip to Susan Silberstein. Humor
Biology The evolution of sex solved 4 May 2010 The reason for sexual reproduction has long been debated. Now at last, the solution: Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity Good news, and bad news… 17 Apr 2008 First, the good news. The inestimable John van Whye has added, with the help of his team of course, 90,000 scanned images of Darwin’s journals, manuscripts and letters. Now the bad news. The Utrecht Herbarium is closing, and no plans have been made to store and make available its collection… Read More
Epistemology Sausages, and science 6 Dec 2009 One should not see, goes the old saw, laws or sausages being made. This is also true of science, for a reason. Before something is published, scientists argue, insult each other, discuss things in casual ways and use unclear jargon and terminology that looks like, to an outsider who is… Read More
Why not? Star Trek was always good with the classics. The death of logic. But they skipped Khan’s best line: “From Hell’s heart I stab at thee; For hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.” Apparently Melville is still going strong in the 23rd century (and maybe Shakespeare as well, but I can’t remember those lines). I would hope the tradition is being upheld with the new movie, but somehow I doubt it.
If only Bill Shatner was able to sing that well. Oh dear. My ears are bleeding just from the thought of Shatner and Nimoy singing that final duet together.
PHILISTINES! They seemed to have a thing for Melville, though. Who can forget Captain Picard in First Contact misquoting lines from Moby Dick: “And he piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the rage and hate felt by his whole race. If his chest had been a cannon, he would have shot his heart upon it.” The funniest was in The Final Frontier” where Dr McCoy attributes: “All I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by” to Melville only to be told by Spock it was John Masefield.