Today's Star Trek Advent Calendar entry is a couple stickers, one of which is of the thirteen-star TOS Federation flag. I still wish they had decided what the thirteen members were.

Cracked published an article about Wah Chang today.


Of course you all know about Wah Chang.



Thanks to Inside Star Trek I already knew that he designed the classic phaser, tricorder, and communicator, but going through Memory Alpha let's look at his full contributions...


* The "Cage" laser pistol
* Romulan Bird-of-Prey (the "Balance of Terror" version, also called Vas Hatham class in the Expanded Universe)
* The original tribbles
* The salt vampire (I just can't call it the M-113 creature)
* The flying parasites from "Operation: Annihilate" (sometimes called blastoneurons).



Wah Chang's full involvement in TOS was suppressed for the longest time because he wasn't a member of the propmaker's union.

Comic Book Resources' Kellie Lacey wrote about the live-action Cowboy Bebop petition:

Cowboy Bebop Fans Launch Petition to Save the Cancelled Netflix Series

Your daily dose of weirdness is the 1967 Wonder Woman screen test.


I certainly wasn't expecting the same narrator as Batman 1966. Or the costume to be so pathetic.

And today's entry in the category of "songs I didn't think they could metalize" is My Heart Will Go On Meets Metal.


My Heart Will Go On was a radio staple for years, I heard it more than enough times to get sick of it. And I've never even watched Titanic.


If you don't care for the Jonathan Young version above (I don't either), you can listen to 331Erock's version here.



Celine Dion's Christmas Album:
O Holy Night
Blue Christmas
Oh Come All Ye Faithful
Chesnuts Roasting on an Open Fire (I will never call this "The Christmas Song")


Listening to so much Dion makes me wonder what her accent is. It turns out that she's Canadian and fluent in French.



And of course we can't talk about Celine Dion without mentioning "The Prayer" from Quest for Camelot.

Cliff Stoll strikes again.


Just in case you have a hard time visualizing conic sections, he's made a conical loaf of bread and sliced it to demonstrate for you.

What better way to celebrate the holiday than to recap everything we know about World War III?

Today I Found Out tackles Hill vs. Mountain and Lake vs. Sea.


The latter I consider pretty obvious: lakes are freshwater and seas are seawater. There are exceptions of course, but in general it's a good rule.



The former is a tougher question, and I'm glad that they bring up The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down a Mountain.


My personal definition is thus:



The soil and plants of a hill aren't noticeably different from the surrounding areas. A hill is just a higher version of the area around it.



A mountain is more or less bare rock with isolated patches of dirt. The plants are distinct from the surrounding area, adapted to grow with less dirt, less water, higher wind, colder temperatures, etc.

What if Peanuts had a game on the Sega Genesis? What would the theme sound like?


Well...


I'm not sure how to feel about this one. Clearly a lot of work went into it.



I don't have much nostalgia for the 16-bit era. As I've noted before, I went from NES to N64.

You all remember the scene in Toy Story 2 where Woody gets restored, right?


Well, someone actually made the tool chest from that movie. Complete with toy-sized barber's chair.

For complicated reasons I got on a Winnie the Pooh kick today...


A cover of a medley of music from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Pogo presents "Boy and Bear"


Zooey Deschanel's cover of the theme for the 2011 movie. I'm surprised that it took this long to get Tigger included in the cast rundown.


Instrumental medley from the original film created for Critter Country


Theme from the New Adventures. This cartoon was a part of my childhood, but nothing later. Don't speak to me of Darby or Lumpy, they don't exist.



Carly Simon cover that was packaged with one of the first DVD releases of Many Adventures (and the VHS equivalent, which I had).


I'm Just A Little Black Rain Cloud. I still believe that none of the later voice actors can compare with Sterling Holloway, the original and best Pooh.

Someone tries to explain the physics of the arc reactor.


Of course this is totally off the mark, the arc reactor works because it's a plot device, nothing more. I don't recall anyone ever saying that the thing is a miniature fusion reactor.

Odin makes a human-sized Lego Space Radio


What a shock, I'm a fan of the older LEGO themes that didn't have oodles of custom parts.



In fact, I remember when "licensed LEGO" wasn't even a thing. Castle, Pirate, Town, Space, those were the themes. Technic and Duplo were peripheral to these. And that was it.

Epic Rap Battles of History presents Christopher Columbus vs. Captain Kirk


The Kirk actor really overdoes the Shatnerian pauses. I get that hyperbole is a valid form of comedy, but (ironically) you can overdo it.

Can you fit a whole game into a QR code?


Yes, you can. Sure, it's only graphing calculator-quality Snake, but it still works.

Trailer for the new Moon Knight series.


While Moon Knight is not one of my favorite Marvel heroes, I know a lot more about him than most people. And I'm just not sure that this guy would work as a show unless you really changed him. Deadpool sort of used up the audience's appetite for insane superheroes, and Batman knockoffs are a dime a dozen these days.

apparently you can watch all of 2007's kid nation on youtube?

Kid Nation Episode 1 Part 1 - I'm Trying to be a Leader Here!

An analysis of the history of Starfleet uniforms during the Lost Era between STVI and TNG.



I find this stuff interesting. And of course a Voyager scene set during this era messed the continuity up.



Followup video


The green wraparound tunic is pointed out. I really do DESPISE that ugly thing. More discussion of the mission-specific uniform variants here.



To nobody's surprise, Gene hated the Monster Maroons (too militaristic) and rejected all such elements for TNG. More proof that Gene had the unfortunate habit of focusing too much on the little things and not enough on the big things.

Norm from Tested creates a diorama for the Wonder Woman Golden Armor figure.


I get the reference to the work of Alex Ross, but I never liked the golden eagle armor. One of the key principles of Wonder Woman is that she's agile, and I just don't see how you can be agile in bulky armor like that.


That being said, using the LED string for a lit-up Lasso of Truth is pretty cool.


As for Wonder Woman vs. Iron Man, Wonder Woman wins. She could crush sections of the armor just like Thor did, and she's fast enough to deflect or dodge any of Iron Man's weapons.

A roundup of fictional games within the Trek universe.



I had forgotten how vaguely defined kaltoh and kadiskot in Voyager were.

The Soundcarriers have a new album!

The Soundcarriers - Wilds (2022) [Full Album]

"Commissioner of the year: "Please draw my fursona in hospital being treated for black mold poisoning." thank you . thank you"

slimgiltsoul

Odin makes giant LEGO pieces that combine into a LEGO Star Wars blaster


I have a soft spot for these classic LEGO Space pieces, and making large versions of pieces that can combine is great.


I made one post about him a couple weeks ago, but let's have a proper Odin Makes roundup:


Millennium Puzzle
Power Rangers Power Sword

Darkwing Duck Gas Blaster
TOS and TNG Phasers

Eye of Agamotto
He-Man Power Sword
Matrix of Leadership

Monster Bash HD


When it comes to classic '90s PC gaming far too many people online focus so much on the Dooms and Quakes and LucasArts games. They forget the smaller studios that also put out good games. Apogee (later called 3DRealms) was one of them. It's nice to see a revival of the DOS era, especially when it's done with faithfulness to the original.



Crystal Caves HD


I'm glad that all these guys are doing is buffing up the sprites and adding background music (although I admit that this music feels more suitable for Secret Agent than Crystal Caves).



Secret Agent HD


You know, with how good Apogee was at DOS platforming, I really wish Nintendo had licensed Mario to them back in the day. Oh, look, another excuse to link to Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement!

What a coincidence that I mentioned Dangerous Dave yesterday, as today I discovered this...


What is the maximum score in Dangerous Dave if you collect all items, and how many extra lives would you need?


Awesome DOS Games by Pixelmusement has been a favorite of mine for years. I miss the DOS games of the late '80s and early '90s.

Pawn Stars features a TOS cast photo covered in forged cast signatures.


What a bummer, it would be great if that thing was real...

How many universal joints can you chain with LEGO axles before you can't spin them anymore?


Get ready for some spine-shivering grinding sounds. I guess despite LEGO's best efforts, precision manufacturing just isn't possible past a certain level.

Teaser Trailer for the new Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers show on Disney Plus.


It's for moments like this that TV Tropes invented the trope Flat What.


I was ready to do a whole screed, but you don't want to read it. Lets just say that I am appalled.

And your daily dose of randomness is someone superimposing machine guns into Maria's hands during her iconic twirl at the start of The Sound of Music.


The BBC and the John Wilson Orchestra present new performances of the soundtrack


A bunch of dancers invade a Belgium train station with a hip-hop version of the soundtrack, complete with dubstep remixes of the original soundtrack


Carrie Underwood covers Do Re Mi


The original Broadway cast of the children appear on What's My Line


Of course someone would do a horror movie recut trailer. It's a shame that you can never top the Mary Poppins version.



A high school production.

Pilot episode of the 2020 Digimon Adventure remake on Crunchyroll


I'll have to watch this one. I was a huge Digimon freak twenty years ago, at least up to Frontier. I'm glad that they're not using the overly-floppy animation from the movies. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

Commissioned a friend to draw borg whales:

johannesviii

Today's dose of randomness is another tomosteen stop motion video. A bunch of animal pencil holders dance.



The concept is confusing to me. Small animal statues...okay. Animal statues holding their arms up so you can lay a pencil across them...weird. Who has the time to do that every time they put their pencil down?

Chuckdrawsthings (@charlubby) drew Jones the cyborg dolphin from the 1995 movie Johnny Mnemonic!

latest patreon requests!

Today is my 40th birthday. It's a bummer. Time for a Trek birthday roundup! Not including "Distant Voices", of course. That episode is still depressing.



Kirk's birthday, McCoy edition
Kirk's birthday, Spock edition
Worf's birthday
Tuvok's birthday.
There's an error here as Janeway thinks that he's not 100 yet, when we all know that he's 112. He was born in 2264, and "Fury" is 2376. Remember that he was a fresh Ensign in "Flashback", which is 2293. If Janeway was right and Tuvok is around 99, that would mean he was born in 2277, making him 16 at the time of "Flashback". No dice, he was born in 2264 and was 29 during "Flashback", which you have to admit seems a little old for any ensign not named Harry Kim. Memory Alpha reconciles this by stating that he started at the Academy in 2289 at the age of 25 and was a fresh graduate for "Flashback".

Matt Parker strikes again, with jigsaw puzzles this time.


How do you relate the puzzle proportion, piece proportion, and number of pieces in a jigsaw puzzle to get a pleasing puzzle piece shape AND a pleasing total number of pieces?


I went through a jigsaw puzzle phase in my youth, I even had a bunch in one of those puzzle keepers for awhile waiting to be framed before I gave up on it. As it turns out, custom picture frames are really expensive, I only did it for my All I Really Need to Know I Learned In Kindergarden poster.


So now I only do jigsaw puzzles on screens.

A discussion of the transporter and the perennial question: does this thing just kill and then clone you at the destination?


An interesting idea presented is that you're not really being deconstructed to your component atoms, you're transferred to another dimension and then transferred back to our dimension at the destination.



One annoying component of the whole debate is that people are always bringing up the Ship of Theseus. And the thing is that the Ship of Theseus doesn't equate to the transporter as well. The whole point is that the sailors ON the ship can take raw materials and convert it into replacement parts for the ship. Just like we can eat food and convert it into replacement cells. The transporter is NOT the ship of Theseus, everything happening to the transport subject is done by an external force.



So yeah, the transporter is a suicide box. Furthermore, it spits in the face of the concept of a "soul". Unless you're going to tell me that God is willing to transfer your soul into your transporter clone every time. Highly doubtful.



The last question is about the subject's awareness during transport. We've seen that from the subject's perspective it's just a bit of blue sparkles for a second before arriving at the destination. What are the odds that this other dimension that you're temporarily shifted to looks exactly like the annular confinement beam? Unless you're going to argue that the blue sparkles are the other dimension bleeding through. Which means that Federation transporters tap into a blue dimension, and Klingon transporters tap into a different orange dimension, etc.