Worst thing about Star Trek

Worst thing about Star Trek

The link above is to a poll about the worst things Star Trek bought to the sci-fi genre.

The holodeck.
Klingons in cowboy hats have somehow led
to a rash of dumb holographic characters in other scifi
entertainments.

Aliens with really bad forehead acne.
Suddenly every
science fiction show, and some movies, started using the latex craniums as a
shortcut to "alien".

The reset button.
Whenever the shit hits the Shat, we
know we can undo everything with a temporal flip-flop.

Technobabble
If we can just generate a triple-tachyon
swizzle inversion field, it'll all make sense in the end.

Godlike beings.
Q, Trelaine, Apollo, that wiggy
widower, etc. etc.

Nothing.
The only bad thing about Star Trek is that the
lack of a TV show or movies for the past 6 years.

This is a great list. As pointed out in the article, Star Trek probably wasn't the first to do these, but just the show to make them popular. I know I have complained about all those before. The aliens ones, I think the weakest, because I think alien design is difficult and because the nature of most sci-fi, we want human-like aliens. Technobabble is a good way for plot devices in sci-fi, and I can give them a pass.

Holodeck, Godlike beings, and Reset Switch. Man, that's a tough call. Holodeck is cool concept, but has lead to a lot of bad episode that try to set up a situations that shocked you with how they went, and then turned out to be only a holodeck program. It's kindof like the Reset Switch, every time travel episode that has shocking or drastic events can be reset to "everything is fine". The Q on Star Trek, are portayed as a god-like beings, but really never act like it.

I would have to come down on the Reset Switch as the worst thing that Sci-fi does that pisses me off. They kill of characters, the bad guy wins, but at the end, whoops... no harm no foul, eveything is back to normal and fine. What bullshit.

Which one would you choose?

More bejeweled action

Nice. I always knew my bejeweled experience would someday save the world.

-Spider Simon.

Fear of internet predators shows how we are bad at judging risks.

Fear of Internet Predators Largely Unfounded

If my criminological studies taught me one thing, it was that people are tremendously bad at predicting their own risks. I would think the media has a hand in this one, touting the myspace predator and online hook-ups. The problem is, however, is that worrying about the unlikely or improbable risks blinds a lot of parents to the real risks.

As mention in the article, you have parents restricting online access for kids in order to protect them. However, these same parents probably don't check out the families of their kids friends, or will leave them unattended in the mall, which actually places the kids at higher risk.

Are humans designed this way? It seems pretty common. People worry more about big and unlikely negatives than small and probable negatives.

New style for the bible, an old christian tradtion continues.

Check out the Manga Bible website or this herald tribute article.

Wow, bet you did not think that the bible would make a great Manga. Well, you would be wrong. Nothing says action like Jesus walking into some moneychangers and kicking some major ass. Don't worry, the boring bits, like the sermon on the mound, because that has been cut. None of that peace-loving Jesus (which is an older modified version of Jesus, as well). No, this is Jesus, hardcore.

I think it is very funny that the author of the bible talks about he is trying to use the manga - action heavy style to portay the bible. For the bits I have read in the bible, action heavy is not how I would describe it. They are trying to reshape Jesus Christ into an action super-star, so that young rebelious american youths can relate to him.

Well, it is a very old tradition, almost every generation of christian has interpreted Christ differently, shifting the focus, outlook, and perception of Jesus to match what they want him to be. Different cultures, from early judo-christians, to romans, to middle-ages europe, to new world, to victorian era, to modern day has always re-interpreted Christ into what they wanted him to be. The historical jesus is interesting topic of study, to be sure, but seperate from that is christology, the study of the nature, deeds, and person of the christ and the interpretion of those things.

I think it reflects more on our times that the youth have no problem viewing Jesus Christ as an action hero, fighting against an opperessive Roman government for the Glory of God. We american love our vigilantes, who buck authority and laws to enforce doubious morals in black and white terms. The Hippies saw him as a peace-lover. South American communist saw him a liberator and a socilaist. Some people view him as a feminist, some as Gnostic. Some nascar racers view him as wearing baby.

What does this tells about about ourselves? What does this tell about Jesus? About Christ?

That is a question worth pondering.

Simon

P.S. Jesus was an extraterrestrial reptilian shape-shifter whose purpose was to get us to warm up the planet with global warming so that his race can take over the earth. Thank you, David Ike.