Blog Review

Star Trek: TNG – Devil’s Due

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , , , 873 Comments

I have a new post up at Minnesota Skeptics about a particularly skeptical episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation! Here’s an excerpt:

Upon the away team’s arrival on the surface, Ardra herself appears to the crew and the Ventaxian leader to claim “her planet”. Ardra is able to instantaneously change her appearance, to cause tremors to start and stop at her command, and she even makes the entire Enterprise starship disappear!  But Captain Picard smells a phony. He describes Ardra as being a flim flam artist to his crew, and accuses her of being a fake in front of the Ventaxians.

To read the rest of my article, please go here to the Minnesota Skeptics blog.

Oh, oh! But I also have to share a fabulous website that I found while looking for images of Ardra. It’s called Fashion It So, and it’s written by two people who are watching Star Trek: The Next Generation for the clothes. Well, I’m guessing they’re watching it because they geek on Star Trek: TNG, but the blog is all about the fashion.

They make off-hand horrifyingly blasphemous (to TNG fans) remarks such as the following in bold:

“We never see these aliens not on their ship (they had a name but I realized I don’t care and neither should you) so getting a great look at their outfits is pretty tricky, but I think we can all agree there’s nothing to see here.”

But since they were discussing the Pakleds, you have to agree with the fashion assessment. And really that’s all the writers are making claims about, so why stick it to them on nerd details? And I get the feeling that these guys do have some geek/nerd cred. I spotted one reference to X-Files, they make some horribly punny jokes, and the most recent entry (yesterday) is a repost of three TNG action figures filmed in stop-action to Beyonce Knowles’s Single Ladies.

As an aside, my favorite description of Ardra’s outfit was

“OF COURSE bitch looks amazing. She’s the devil! So she rolls up in a fucking LEATHER JUMPSUIT with some goddamn CHIFFON attached to just the back of her pant legs, like she couldn’t decide if she was racing dirtbikes or going to the ballet.”

Go. Visit their website. Enjoy.

Star Trek: TNG – Devil’s Due
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Star Trek: TNG – Devil's Due

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , , , 800 Comments

I have a new post up at Minnesota Skeptics about a particularly skeptical episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation! Here’s an excerpt:

Upon the away team’s arrival on the surface, Ardra herself appears to the crew and the Ventaxian leader to claim “her planet”. Ardra is able to instantaneously change her appearance, to cause tremors to start and stop at her command, and she even makes the entire Enterprise starship disappear!  But Captain Picard smells a phony. He describes Ardra as being a flim flam artist to his crew, and accuses her of being a fake in front of the Ventaxians.

To read the rest of my article, please go here to the Minnesota Skeptics blog.

Oh, oh! But I also have to share a fabulous website that I found while looking for images of Ardra. It’s called Fashion It So, and it’s written by two people who are watching Star Trek: The Next Generation for the clothes. Well, I’m guessing they’re watching it because they geek on Star Trek: TNG, but the blog is all about the fashion.

They make off-hand horrifyingly blasphemous (to TNG fans) remarks such as the following in bold:

“We never see these aliens not on their ship (they had a name but I realized I don’t care and neither should you) so getting a great look at their outfits is pretty tricky, but I think we can all agree there’s nothing to see here.”

But since they were discussing the Pakleds, you have to agree with the fashion assessment. And really that’s all the writers are making claims about, so why stick it to them on nerd details? And I get the feeling that these guys do have some geek/nerd cred. I spotted one reference to X-Files, they make some horribly punny jokes, and the most recent entry (yesterday) is a repost of three TNG action figures filmed in stop-action to Beyonce Knowles’s Single Ladies.

As an aside, my favorite description of Ardra’s outfit was

“OF COURSE bitch looks amazing. She’s the devil! So she rolls up in a fucking LEATHER JUMPSUIT with some goddamn CHIFFON attached to just the back of her pant legs, like she couldn’t decide if she was racing dirtbikes or going to the ballet.”

Go. Visit their website. Enjoy.

Star Trek: TNG – Devil's Due

Live Scorpion Christmas Ornament

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , , 1,066 Comments

Via 22 Words – So cool!

22 Words has given me quite a few laughs over the past couple of days, and I’ve wanted to repost just about EVERYTHING that he has had up lately.  But instead of doing that, I’d thought I’d post the link to his website. 

Click here to visit

22 Words

He has a lot of thought-provoking short videos and stories, amusing pictures, AND he’s in Minneapolis, so he posts local (for me, anyway) interest stories and pics.  Popular topics seem to be arts and entertainment, poking fun at the human race, talking about his family and language/vocabulary.

Live Scorpion Christmas Ornament

Biodorks…We’re multiplying.

Brianne Bilyeu, 822 Comments

Look – there’s another biodork!  Only she’s BioDork, so you don’t get us confused.

I found this BioDork blog on tumblr because I have a Google Alert set for “biodork”.  One day, there she was – thanks Google Alerts!  She’s a biology student and her blog is brand new, but already she’s got some really cool links to science new stories, science art, video and quotes.

Of her recent links, I think one of my favorites is this carbon cycle shirt.  Do want!

 

Biodorks…We’re multiplying.

Biodorks…We're multiplying.

Brianne Bilyeu, 1,629 Comments

Look – there’s another biodork!  Only she’s BioDork, so you don’t get us confused.

I found this BioDork blog on tumblr because I have a Google Alert set for “biodork”.  One day, there she was – thanks Google Alerts!  She’s a biology student and her blog is brand new, but already she’s got some really cool links to science new stories, science art, video and quotes.

Of her recent links, I think one of my favorites is this carbon cycle shirt.  Do want!

 

Biodorks…We're multiplying.

Weather ~ Links ~ ACES Tragedy

Brianne Bilyeu, , , 732 Comments

I don’t know about the rest of the country or world, but here in Minnesota Fall just came along and placed a major smackdown on Summer.  I can’t believe I wore a long-sleeve button-up shirt and a coat to work this morning.  It’s a pretty bizarre time of year because the trees and grass are still green and lush, but I step outside expecting 80°F and it’s only 55-60°F. 

~~~~~

I’ve added two blogs to my blogroll sections to the right:

AmeobaMike – I followed this blog home after it’s owner left a comment on one of my posts yesterday.  AmeobaMike is about science and science education.  Dude has ATP and Golgi in his popular tags section AND he’s got a cartoon for his blog avatar AND he makes science cards.  Silly and science always work well for me.   

Richard Wiseman’s Blog – I follow Richard Wiseman on twitter and always end up following his links back to his blog, so I decided to finally skip the middleman and get him up here on The List.

~~~~~

Have you heard about the tragedy at the crocodile sanctuary in Belize?  Two children who had been out selling limes went missing and they haven’t yet been found.

It gets worse.

Villagers received information from a local psychic that the children had been kidnapped and fed to crocodiles at the American Crocodile Education Sanctuary.  They went to the police and demanded action.  

When the police didn’t act fast enough for the villagers, they took the law into their own hands based on the “evidence”: The psychic’s tale and the fact that they saw limes in the kitchen when they peeked through the windows (remember that the missing children had been selling limes at the time of their disappearance).  The villagers stormed the sanctuary and burned it to the ground.  No humans were physically harmed, but it has been claimed that at least two crocodiles were slaughtered and over a million dollars of property destroyed.  Animal Policy Examiner has written up an account of the events leading up to the incident.

CNN also covered the story:

[cnnvideo url=’http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/09/08/romo.belize.croc.sanctuary.cnn’ inline=’true’]

Now according to ambergriscaye.com the psychic is being charged with “psychic pretense”.  None of those from the mob have yet been charged with any crime, and a public meeting to discuss the incident with the town is scheduled for Sunday.

This ain’t going to end well for anyone, is it?

Weather ~ Links ~ ACES Tragedy

I’m going places, baby.

Brianne Bilyeu1,369 Comments

Thank you to Alannah, owner of Here Be Dragons, for my first ever blog award 🙂 She has bequeathed unto me the “You’re Going Places, Baby” award.

Per her site, the rules for passing on this chain letter, errr…award, are as follows:

1) Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.
2) Share 7 things about yourself.
3) Pass the award along to 5 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason!
4) Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award.

So:

Thank you, Alannah, from Here Be Dragons.  I’m glad that you enjoy reading my blog – I enjoy your visits and commenter participation!

Seven things about myself:  I like comics, waterparks, kayaking, hiking, reading, watching movies, traveling to Italy.  For more info, please refer to biodork blog. 

Five bloggers I’ve recently discovered and who I think fantastic for whatever reason.  Recently discovered?  Hmmm… I’ve recently discovered several new blogs, but there are only two that I really would like to rave about right now.

1) MostlyGrocery – I have enjoyed the regular postings of PK Wynn describing his trials, tribulations and occasional triumphs as a grocery store clerk.  His stories are always good for a laugh, a groan or a grumble.

2) A Flash of Inspiration – What happens when found art meets creativity, hangs out at storytelling and then runs headlong into a blog?  Why, it’s Dennis Finocchiaro’s site, A Flash of Inspiration.  Every day Dennis’s readers are treated to new prose or short (like, one-sentence) stories inspired by old photographs and other wisps of ephemera.

And while I’m on the topic of blog adverts, I’m also excited by a couple of blogs that I’ve only really, really recently started watching:

Feministe:  This blog is made of up several contributors and claims to be “one of the oldest feminist blogs online designed by and run by women from the ground up.”  Oops, I missed it.  But I found it now!

Geek Feminism: I’m really, geekily excited by this one.  This is another group of women writing together, and the topics look fabulous – science fiction, gaming, science and technology, politics and all things feminism. 

So, that’s it.  Thanks again, Alannah – and you guys check out the awesome blogs listed above.  You know, because it’s summer and beautiful outside, and who’d want to be out doing active summer activities when you could spend more time inside staring at a computer screen?

I’m going places, baby.

I'm going places, baby.

Brianne Bilyeu444 Comments

Thank you to Alannah, owner of Here Be Dragons, for my first ever blog award 🙂 She has bequeathed unto me the “You’re Going Places, Baby” award.

Per her site, the rules for passing on this chain letter, errr…award, are as follows:

1) Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.
2) Share 7 things about yourself.
3) Pass the award along to 5 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason!
4) Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award.

So:

Thank you, Alannah, from Here Be Dragons.  I’m glad that you enjoy reading my blog – I enjoy your visits and commenter participation!

Seven things about myself:  I like comics, waterparks, kayaking, hiking, reading, watching movies, traveling to Italy.  For more info, please refer to biodork blog. 

Five bloggers I’ve recently discovered and who I think fantastic for whatever reason.  Recently discovered?  Hmmm… I’ve recently discovered several new blogs, but there are only two that I really would like to rave about right now.

1) MostlyGrocery – I have enjoyed the regular postings of PK Wynn describing his trials, tribulations and occasional triumphs as a grocery store clerk.  His stories are always good for a laugh, a groan or a grumble.

2) A Flash of Inspiration – What happens when found art meets creativity, hangs out at storytelling and then runs headlong into a blog?  Why, it’s Dennis Finocchiaro’s site, A Flash of Inspiration.  Every day Dennis’s readers are treated to new prose or short (like, one-sentence) stories inspired by old photographs and other wisps of ephemera.

And while I’m on the topic of blog adverts, I’m also excited by a couple of blogs that I’ve only really, really recently started watching:

Feministe:  This blog is made of up several contributors and claims to be “one of the oldest feminist blogs online designed by and run by women from the ground up.”  Oops, I missed it.  But I found it now!

Geek Feminism: I’m really, geekily excited by this one.  This is another group of women writing together, and the topics look fabulous – science fiction, gaming, science and technology, politics and all things feminism. 

So, that’s it.  Thanks again, Alannah – and you guys check out the awesome blogs listed above.  You know, because it’s summer and beautiful outside, and who’d want to be out doing active summer activities when you could spend more time inside staring at a computer screen?

I'm going places, baby.

Link Happy

Brianne Bilyeu1,225 Comments

I keep track of the blogs and websites I follow by adding them to my blogroll. I have them split up into categories, and I noticed that I’ve been adding quite a few links in the past two weeks. So I thought today I would highlight some of my new happy places.

Blogs I Like
These are blogs that interest me and that have owners who update them on a regular basis, that is, on average once a day or more.  Some are personal blogs, others are more professional, and they deal with a wide range of topics.

Newest Additions:
L-I-V-E:  This is a personal blog by Jana.  She posts recipes, observations about life and the world around her.
NCBI ROFL: This blog presents the newest serious research in amusing and often hilarious ways.
Skepticblog: Group blog by a bunch of smartypants dealing with subject across the skeptical spectrum – paranormal, alternative medicine, legal and political woo, etc.

Blogs I’m Trying Out
These are either blogs that I like but that aren’t updated regularly, or they may be blogs that I think I like, but I want to watch them for a while before promoting them up to “Blogs I Like”.  Again, some are personal blogs, others are more professional, and they deal with a wide range of topics.

Newest Additions:
A Flash of Inspiration – Brand spanking new addition.  I found this blog through one of his comments on a wordpress Freshly Pressed article.  The artwork caught my eye first, and then the stories.
Here Be Dragons – A charming, quirky personal blog with one of my all-time favorite “About Me” sections.
Mostly Grocery – A unique blog about the daily challenges of a grocery clerk.
Prattlenog – An personal blog that deals with education, ponderings, musings and thoughts.
War for Science – A young Malaysian scientist, skeptic and atheist’s view of the world.

Entertaining and Fun
Nice Ride MN – This public transportation program just opened in the Twin Cities.  This is the bike rental’s official website.  Neat idea, I hope it’s here to stay!
thxthxthx – Cute and sweet.  It’s become as much a part of my daily online routine as lolcats and loldogs and failblog.org

Family and Friends
Leonine POV – My friend D’s personal blog – Lots of stuff about The Tudors TV show, Marilyn Monroe and pop culture.
Musings – My cousin C’s personal blog.  She just started it and she’s a super busy student, but I hope she sticks with it!
Temple of Conflict – My friend B’s personal blog.  Current affairs, gaming, and other stuff that’s on his mind.

GLBTA
Marry Me Minnesota – A legal campaign suing the state of MN for the right of three gay couples to marry.

Use Your Noggin
These are websites (not necessarily blogs, although some of the groups/sites do have associated blogs), of groups that I admire and from which I am excited to learn.  They may be science-focused, political, silly or intriguing for some of other reason.
TED Talks – Go watch ’em.  All of them.  Geeky, fun, intellectual.

Link Happy