Analysis On Being A "Red Shirt"

If you've got a few minutes to kill and want to read something funny, I suggest you take a look at this analyis of the "Red-Shirt Phenomenom".


It's an interesting subject, given that a lot of people (not just Trekkies... or Trekkers) are familiar with the phrase "Red Shirt".

For example:
The basic stats:
The Enterprise has a crew of 430 (startrek.com) in its five-year mission. (Now, I know that the show was only on the air for 3 years, but bear with me. 80 episodes were produced, which gives us the data to build from.) 59 crewmembers were killed during the mission, which comes out to 13.7% of the crew. So, that will be our overall conversion rate, 13.7%.
Data Segmentation:
However, we need to segment the overall mortality (conversion) rate in order to gain the specific information that we need:

• Yellow-shirt crewperson deaths: 6 (10%)
• Blue-Shirt crewperson deaths: 5 (8 %)
• Engineering smock crewperson deaths: 4
• Red-Shirt crewperson deaths: 43 (73%)

He goes on from there breaking it down into nice little statistics, but that ought to give you enough to want to read further.

In the meantime, please enjoy this...




(Red-Shirt analysis found via the Presurfer)

Room With A View

Who wouldn't love to look out and see Batman standing guard over Gotham City?

Well, probably not criminals.

But I'm sure the regular law-abiding citizens wouldn't have a problem with him keeping an eye on them and keeping things safe for everyone.

You know... if he were real.

But you can almost have the next best thing by plastering a wall in one of your rooms with an image of the Dark Knight keeping vigil 24/7.

A company called Room Mates is selling quite a few wall murals with comic-related themes for uber-geeks to choose from.

You could have Superman flying over Metropolis. Spider-man webswinging.

Maybe you can't decide on any particular hero and would want to decorate your wall with a myriad of classic comic book covers. Well now you can do that too.

Or maybe, just maybe you want to go all out and proclaim your geektitude to the world (or whoever happens to visit your home).

You could decorate the walls with the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise:

But don't stop there.

You'll want an official replica of Capt. Kirk's chair to go with it.

And while you're at it, pick up a wall mural of the Carina Nebula to really set the mood and make the "experience" complete.

If all that is a little too much for your wallet, you could just change a few switchplates in your house for a more "subtle" nerd effect.

Happy decorating!

Star Trek vs. Star Wars

On Wired.com there's a funny article about which is better, Star Trek or Star Wars.

I won't repeat the whole article, but the writer is a fan of both and makes a good case for either franchise, eventually giving one of them the edge overall.

I feel the same way, but not sure I can really pick a "winner" in this case.
Afterall, one the one hand you do have green alien chicks in Star Trek. But in Star Wars, you have slave Leia.
*SIGH* It's a tough call for sure.

Maybe this will help:


... or maybe not.

Star Trek

While many are anxiously awaiting the Wolverine movie in a few weeks, it is the week after that I can't wait for! JJ Abrams Star Trek relaunch opens! I can hardly contain my excitement!

In a bit of marketing fun, Paramount has sent out models of the new Enterprise for people to do redesigns on. Number 23 is a Jim Lee Enterprise but number 2 is, sadly, what the future of space travel will most likely be.

Enterprise Project

Ricardo Montalban (1920-2009)

(Cross-posted from "Untitled.")

The override. Where's the override?!?

Rest in Peace, Mr. Montalban.

May Heaven be covered in Rich Corinthian Leather and may all your Fantasies be granted.

I have no other words. It's a dark day.

The New A-Team

Oh, what some people come up with when they have too much time on their hands....

Mr. and Mr. Sulu

Takei's getting hitched!

Here's hoping we get an invite. Congrats to George and Brad!