Excellent video illustrating the evolution of the Star Trek warp jump as seen in every Star Trek movie since 1979 via Gizmodo. For my money, the coolest is the jump from KHAAAAN! Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), depicted above.

Story time! The best Renaissance fair costumes I’ve ever heard of was a bunch of people who showed up to a Ren fair dressed as an away team from Star Trek. According to the person who told me this, the fair’s performers played right along with the Federation crew members fervently trying to adhere to the Prime Directive.

Thank you for participating in this particular story time. Click below to watch How It Should Have Ended’s take on the 2009 Star Trek movie.

“Don’t be ugly by accident” (OKCupid)

How Star Trek imagined the iPad 23 years ago (Ars)

Hot professors on the plight of being a hot professor (Chronicle)

Washington Post covers 4chan, LOIC imminent (Washington Post)

Voice cast for Fallout: New Vegas announced (Rawls!) (Bethesda)

25 worst pimped rides (Auto Mechanics’ School)

Augmented Reality cookies (GammaSquad)

Bonus video: The Avengers as a ’50s sci-fi flick:

Valve’s Free Game Releases Tomorrow (Joystiq)

Worst. Inception. Screening. Ever. (Movie Line)

Mega Man Universe Stop-Motion Trailer (That Videogame Blog)

Robot Butterfly In a Jar (Japan Trends)

Bluewater’s Next Bio Comic is Justin Bieber (Comic Book Resources)

Star Trek Saves Lives (Geeks Are Sexy)

The NYT Talks About Memes (The New York Times)

Paul the psychic octopus, everyone’s favorite animal oracle who’s guessed the outcomes of Germany’s 2010 World Cup matches with 100% accuracy, has made his selection for the winner: While his owner has cautioned that Paul’s expertise is in German matches, Paul has come to the conclusion that Spain will ultimately beat the Netherlands.

With a perfect record so far, there might just be something to this tentacled teller of fortunes. And that’s why we’ve decided to ask Paul five more pressing questions that need an official answer. Which choices will Paul ooze his way into? Only Paul knows. And with some of the world’s most important debates presented before him, Paul will have to summon the full power of the cosmos. Or however the flip he does it.

New Wonder Woman Meets Tim Gunn’s Approval (Newsarama)

Goodbye HDMI? (Digital Trends)

Diaspora* the Facebook Killer Makes Its One MonthCheck-in (Diaspora*)

Author Accidentally Gets 700,000 Facebook Fans (Urlesque)

Lt. Cdr. Worf as You’ve Never Seen Him Before (Joshua Flynn)

Turns Out You Also Wouldn’t Like Him When He’s Drunk (Twitter)

Steampunk Ghostbusters. That Is All. (LeagueOfSTEAM)

(image via Super Punch.)

It was revealed yesterday in the New York Times, and now we’ve gotten the official word from The Source: Wonder Woman #600 releases today, with a new costume and a new backstory.

Well, it’s a new backstory in the same sense that Star Trek was a restart.  Literally.

Great mockups for future World Cup stadiums (designboom)

Master Chief: Steampunk edition (Hawty McBloggy)

Gizmodo feature on possible anti-quorum sensing antibiotics in Belizean jungles (Gizmodo)

The inevitable Star Trek-Tik Tok mashup (io9)

Female condom with teeth deputs at World Cup (NY Daily News)

Neat profile of Elon Musk (NYT)

Do not try teaching science to Juggalos (Slashdot)

(title image via Agent M Loves Tacos)

How to Make Your iPad Work on Verizon (DishTV)

Koman Coulibaly, we contemn thee (SportsGrid)

The 15 cruelest deaths in Star Trek history (Topless Robot)

Google introduces command line tool (Google)

Twinkies as art (RetroThing)

Famous icings throughout history, bro (Windowless Van)

Nicolas Cage wants cake (Urlesque)

(title image via TurtleFeed)

The filthy p’tahks over at Wikipedia have made an unforgivable error. With the visual update of the site has come a new logo. A new logo…

That is missing its Klingon character.

Gather your bat’leths, my brethren, as I illustrate:

Read on...

Right now, you could argue that we’re in a new age in filmic storytelling, and that science fiction has been brought into the limelight in way that it hasn’t enjoyed in years. One of the people who brought that shift toward mainstream is J.J. Abrams. A director who took on Star Trek in 2009, effectively retconned it, and made it a good movie with widespread appeal.

Well, it looks like Abrams might be up to something new and with a little help. Sources are telling New York Magazine’s Vulture blog that Abrams is currently working on a project that will, in some way, shape, or form, involve a certain Steven Spielberg and pay homage to his early work.

In an interview with The Toronto Sun, Leonard Nimoy has announced his retirement from acting. Though the actor legendary among the sci-fi community for his role in Star Trek, the occasional voice acting credit, and odd affection for the works of J.R.R. Tolkien has taken several breaks from active duty before, he seems sincere that this is a lasting proposition.

“I want to get off the stage. Also, I don’t think it would be fair to Zachary Quinto,” he says, referring to the actor who portrayed a youthful Spock in last summer’s smash Star Trek relaunch. “He’s a terrific actor, he looks the part, and it’s time to give him some space. And I’m very flattered the character will continue.”

Read on...

In case you somehow neglected to mark your calendar, today is William Shakespeare’s birthday. His 446th birthday, to be specific. Shakespeare has been far better eulogized and analyzed than on some geek blog — we recommend A Clockwork Orange author Anthony Burgess‘ amazing biography of Shakespeare and Harold C. Goddard’s insightful essays for that — but suffice it to say, Shakespeare is a towering influence over all of literature and entertainment.

Though Shakespeare’s influence tends to be thought of in the context of academics and books, he’s also had a steady influence on geekdom. After the jump, five geeky ways you can bring in the Bard’s birthday:

1. Wikipedia as a printed book.

Wouldn’t it be great to own the complete, printed Wikipedia? In reality, not so much.

You see, this bound beauty represents just 0.01% of everything on Wikipedia (as of June 2009..). But it also reminds me of different times, when knowledge was nicely bound in finite volumes from A-Z, like snapshots of an era. If you still own encyclopedias, never throw them away! I would hate to lose that record of what Brittanica was thinking about the the World back in 1987.

2. The Complete Bound Ferengi 285 Rules of Acquisition:

Feeling the doldrums because your tax refund is significantly lower than the price of a 64gb iPad?  Me too!  Don’t worry–it’s just a sign from Steve that he wants the impulsive early adopters to work out all the kinks before you swoop in for the iPad 2.0.  Until then, you can do your part to micro-fund the economy by picking up your very own Romulan Corkscrew.

This badass uncorking device costs $19.99 at ThinkGeek, and is modeled after a Romulan Bird of Prey, complete with a twisted disruptor up front that should effectively decimate any cork in sight.  In case your local intergalactic grocer doesn’t carry any legendarily potent, iconically blue Romulan Ale, here’s a recipe for you to try at home: