(Image: CBS)

I grew up watching Star Trek from about the age of 6 or 7. It's existed in some form throughout my life and is the most prominent narrative lens for me. So I found myself nodding often as I read Charlie Jane Anders's arguments for the greatness of the Star Trek story.

Although Star Trek doesn't get a lot of respect from some science fiction purists, Anders argues that it is superior to many other major science fiction franchises. For example, the Star Trek universe is enormous. It's filled with countless worlds, species, and characters that have been fleshed out in detail:

Everybody’s doing shared universes nowadays, and to a large extent this is an attempt to imitate what Marvel and DC accomplished in their comics, decades ago. But on television and in the movies, Star Trek was one of the first series to create a universe in which different ships, and different crews, felt like they all belonged to the same basic setting without being just “spin-offs.” Add in the book-only series like New Frontier, Corps of Engineers, Vanguard, Seekers and so on, and you’ve got a capacious galaxy. Star Wars always comes back to being about the Skywalkers and their friends, in the main media series, but Star Trek is just about Starfleet, and any Starfleet officer could star in a Star Trek show or movie.

Only a few Star Trek episodes are truly brilliant. But there are 727 episodes of the various series and 12 feature films. With Star Trek, you can enjoy a steady diet of good storytelling for a very long time.

Yelp has become a great way to discover a new venue without going there and getting disappointed first, and people love to add their own colorful details so their reviews really stand out.

But if you've read one bad burrito review or panning of a theme restaurant you've read them all, and for many the romance has gone out of the reviewing process on Yelp.

So what is a hopeless romantic to do when they need to find a good place to take a date based on someone's past dating experience at that venue?

They should look to the reviews left by Natalie Walker and see what her dates were like at these locations.

Miss Walker's reviews don't help people find a fine meal or score tickets to the perfect spot for sweethearts, but they definitely paint a colorful picture of Natalie's past!

See more of Natalie's rom-com style Yelp reviews here

Echo 12, a pilot of the Rebellion, crashed and is left for dead on the ice planet Hoth. He’s not entirely alone there, which makes the situation quite dangerous. Even worse, it will be dark soon.  

(YouTube link)

Rebel Scum is a Star Wars fan film by Blood Brother Cinema Co.

Rebel Scum pays homage to the original Star Wars trilogy; nearly all visual effects were created without the use of CGI, using time honored methods such a stop-motion animation. Shot on location in -30°C (-22°F) at Columbia Icefield in Alberta Canada.

There is a moment where it might have helped to have a lightbulb go off over the character's head. Read more about this production at its website. -via Geeks Are Sexy

If you’ve never watched the YouTube series Thug Notes, you’re missing one of the gems of the internet. The host, Sparky Sweets, PhD, breaks down great works of literature in plain street language (only slightly NSFW). In the latest episode, he reviews The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

(YouTube link)

Sweets manages to describe and explain the classic in a straightforward way that I’ve always struggled with. The most I can ever really tell someone about the book is that it’s deeply absurd and absurdly deep at the same time and they really should read it. Sometimes that works, but this is better. -via Tastefully Offensive

It's natural for conspiracy theories to come crawling out of the woodwork and start skittering across the internet when a beloved celebrity we worshipped like a god dies.

David Bowie was definitely one of those gods among men, and devoted fans are still struggling to make sense of the loss, especially since Bowie was so secretive about his imminent death.

But could he have been leaving a clue for his fans via the last person he followed on Twitter?

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Probably not, but people with a Jareth (Thin White Duke? Ziggy Stardust?) shaped hole in their heart don't want to believe he's passed on. To them I say this- forget the God Tweets and look to Lazarus for answers...

(YouTube Link)

-Via The Daily What

You’ve probably heard discussions about how the latest movie in the Star Wars series, The Force Awakens, has some things in common with the first movie, which is known to youngsters as A New Hope. The resemblance is there in some ways, but there are quite a few key differences. Differences that Jhall and Tristan Cooper of Dorkly are only happy to highlight for you in a most amusing way. The comic contains spoilers, just in case you haven’t seen The Force Awakens yet, so I only posted the first panel here. Still,  this one panel shows a crucial improvement in the newer movie: a female hero who not only kicks ass, but doesn’t whine the way young Luke Skywalker did. But Luke really wasn’t so bad -compared to young Anakin Skywalker.

We should not have to apologize for loving GIFs, because those little animated loops of awesomeness that bring joy into our lives a few seconds at a time are an art form all their own.

But some people feel GIFs are played out, because the internet is inundated with TV show and movie clips in GIF form, and to those fed up folks I say don't give up on GIFs just yet!

Check out the works created by artists who have chosen the GIF as their medium like Andrey Smirny, who sees the few second format as just the right amount of time to drive us wild.

Andrey's quest to bring a bit more animated eye candy into the world is taking that little looping file to a place where it can be accepted as a work of digital art, a neat little animated nugget for your eyeballs to devour.

-Via Beautiful/Decay

In Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, the lovable rogue Han Solo is a dad. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I imagine that Han probably rags on his son Kylo Ren in an affectionate way. That's how dads build good relationships with their kids.

Ben, guess why your mother always picks where the rebels hide out Because she knows how to Leia low! Your mother is a treasure

— Dad Joke Han Solo (@dadjokehansolo) January 12, 2016

The movie has inspired Peter Chiykowski, the artist for the webcomic Rock, Paper, Cynic, to create a Twitter feed filled with Han Solo's lame dad jokes.

Gimli, son of Glóin and member of the Fellowship of the Ring, was a simple dwarf of simple tastes and so preferred a simple long-stemmed pipe. But Instagram member SV Pipes Design in Tirana, Albania has more refined desires and the skills to match. He carved this ornate design that looks like the great hero of The Lord of the Rings.

-via Technabob

The mere mention of "dangerous experiments" makes those interested in scientific inquiry drool with delight, because while dangerous isn't always fun to do on your own it's always fun to watch!

Large and powerful magnets, like the neodymium, are inherently dangerous because they can wreak havoc on electronics including pacemakers and other implanted medical devices, so experiment at your own risk.

(YouTube Link)

Or you can simply sit back and let a guy named Brian, aka Brainiac, play with his massive neodymium magnets on video, destroying his own stuff for your science-lovin' amusement!

(YouTube Link)

Brainiac has lots to see on his YouTube channel, including informative videos comparing the magnets in his collection and showing how they're delivered to his doorstep, so we can learn more about the mysteries of magnetism.

See Crazy Dangerous Experiments With Super Powerful Magnets here

No, not that kind of spoiler, yet the image is strangely appropriate for this post.  

We mentioned earlier that there should be some sort of statute of limitations on movie spoilers, particularly for a Star Wars film that fans are dying to discuss online and around the water cooler. Yet there’s a line real fans wouldn’t cross, and that line has been crossed big time by a Jeep owner. We don’t know where this was spotted, but he/she/they had the biggest spoiler of the entire movie The Force Awakens plastered across the back window of the vehicle. Don’t look if you don’t want to know.

Yeah, it’s one thing to talk about the movie in a group of friends or co-workers who can speak up, or even on the internet, where people can avoid reading about the movie if they choose. It’s completely different to drive around in public with a billboard attached. What is this person trying to accomplish? Internet fame? Buddy, it’s not worth it. -via Gamma Squad

(Image credit: Mayokopp)

Cosplay photographer David Ngo spotted this inventive costume at Dragon Con in Atlanta last year. The young lady in the picture remixes the colors and cutie mark of Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony with Princess Leia's iconic slave costume from Return of the Jedi.

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When you watch Netflix through your web browser you see titles sorted into obvious categories like Action, Comedy or Television Shows, with a web address that looks like this- http://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/10757

The number at the end indicates the genre, in this case "British Movies", and by changing that number you can discover all kinds of super specific categories you wouldn't see otherwise.

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You can see a full list of the extremely specific "streaming by type" categories on Netflix here, such as Action & Adventure based on real life from the 1980s (1051), Gritty Chinese Action & Adventure from the 1980s (208) or Violent Cult Movies from the 1980s (3539).

Some of the links on the list don't work, which isn't surprising given Netflix's ever changing selection, but those that do may turn you on to some new movies you may not have stumbled upon otherwise.

-Via Gizmodo

Hardcore gamers know how important a game can become to their lives, and once you've set out on a virtual journey to decide your character's fate that journey must be completed or sanity points will be lost IRL.

This is especially true when the game is an epic RPG that you've already sunk dozens, if not hundreds, of hours into playing, like the awesome new lifewaster game Fallout 4.

Imgur user malcolm10 left home for a day to seek adventure in the outside world, thinking of nothing but his beloved the entire time, but when he got home he found that his wicked wife had hidden his precious game disc.

Malcolm10 (real name Ryan) felt betrayed by this act of cruelty against his beloved game, and yet the quest to find the disc proved intriguing so he journeyed onward.

Ryan would not allow his jealous wife to take away the virtual love of his life, nor would he rest until he could once again plant his butt and play the game, so the search continued until...

-Via Cheezburger

Luggage theft is incredibly easy these days as criminals just have to wait for a black rolling bag to pass by on the luggage carousel and snag it. If someone actually stops them, they just have to say "oops, it looks just like mine" and people will believe it.

You'll never need to worry about that problem with this amazing monster luggage from Etsy seller WaywardLeatherDesign. Sure it doesn't roll like you're generic black suitcase, but no one will "accidentally" grab your luggage ever again -at least not without worrying that your luggage might bite them.

Via Geek Girls