Vonda McIntyre was an early writer of Star Trek novels, such as The Entropy Effect and Enterprise: The First Adventure. In an article at io9, she described how she got the job. One interesting bit is how she named Lt. Sulu:

The only potential glitch in the Star Trek books came about because I couldn't figure out how to write a love scene where the protagonists called each other by their surnames. So I gave Mr. Sulu a first name, "Hikaru," which is from The Tale of Genji. I was blissfully unaware of the glitch till long after the fact; someone at Paramount objected to the idea of the character's having a given name, for reasons unclear to me. David had the good idea of asking Gene Roddenberry and George Takei their opinion, and both of them said "Go for it" or words to that effect. And so Mr. Sulu has a first name.

I've long that the practice of some science fiction franchises not giving first names to characters (e.g. classic Battlestar Galactica) asinine. It's good that Star Trek was able to avoid this small, but irritating problem.

Link | Image: Paramount

Cartoonist William Levin explains how kids are actually programmed to behave on long car trips.

Link via Popped Culture, who says "Robot kids, can't shut them off, can't reboot them."

deviantART user Edward M. Ryan made an armored suit from Halo. In fact, from his gallery, it looks like he's made several and is seriously into cosplay. About this picture, he writes:

Beautiful day in the neighborhood a beautiful day for a neighbor that goes "wtf, is that kid in armor?!"

Thought I would put the Armor on to see how the sun would effect me within.

Link via Geekosystem | Previously: Huge, Animatronic Elite (Halo) Costume

(YouTube Link)

This cute song is a parody of "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry. A sample of the lyrics:

I kissed a nerd and I liked it
The taste of his acne-chapped lips
I kissed a nerd, can't describe it
I told my boyfriend to hike it
Taped-glasses on
Plaid pants so tight
I think I'm in love tonight
I kissed a nerd and I liked it
I liked it

via reddit | Band Website

Previously: Geeky Love Songs

This actually makes a lot of sense. Instead of using David Prowse as the body and James Earl Jones as the voice of Darth Vader, George Lucas could have saved a lot of money by using only one actor. And of course that actor must be Steve Buscemi.

Link via Great White Snark | Photo: Ugliest Tattoos

This animated .gif was allegedly made in MS Paint. It tells the entire story of "A New Hope" in about ninety seconds. At the link, you can watch a larger version.

http://www.swtorstrategies.com/2010/07/may-schwartz-be-with-you-entire-star.html via reddit

Now that Wonder Woman has a new costume, Comics Alliance looked back at alternative costumes for Diana. They were featured in a 2007 contest called Project: Rooftop, and include some influenced by anime and ancient Greece. I really like this one by Maris Wicks. The invisible horse is a nice touch.

Do you like the new Wonder Woman design?

Link | Artist's Website

Batman is on Twitter, and Sci Fi Wire has culled 34 of his best tweets.

Please, someone photoshop this bat gadget.

Link via Sci Fi Wire

(Video Link)

This funny stop-motion animated short shows a frustrated Lt. Worf trying to relax and pamper himself after a hard day of work. It was created by Joshua and Nathan Flynn and won 'Best Stop Motion' award category of the 2009 University of Glamorgan Glammies Awards.

via Awesomesauce

The humorists at Something Awful created a parody of the major anime and gaming blog Kotaku.

I'd love to see a parody of Neatorama.

Link via Geekosystem

This is unspeakably awesome. In two cross stitch (?) pieces by Jude Buffum, Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake, Teddy Ruxpin, and a Care Bear fight to the death.

http://www.theautumnsociety.com/2009/05/rainbow-bloodbath-care-bear-carnage.html via Great White Snark | Previously by this artist: Housewives Tarot

(YouTube Link)

Patrick Biovin's "AT-AT Day Afternoon", about an AT-AT that behaves like a dog, was a viral hit. YouTube user flippycheese recreated the short film with an actual dog dressed in an AT-AT.

via Geekologie

In April, Roger Ebert declared that video games are not only not a form of art, but can never be art. This caused quite a stir among gamers, and Ebert has partially retracted his position. Among other issues, he thinks that he should never have declared that games could not be an art form in theory and that he shouldn't have made such a blanket statement without playing more video games:

My error in the first place was to think I could make a convincing argument on purely theoretical grounds. What I was saying is that video games could not in principle be Art. That was a foolish position to take, particularly as it seemed to apply to the entire unseen future of games. This was pointed out to me maybe hundreds of times. How could I disagree? It is quite possible a game could someday be great Art.

Link via Kotaku | Photo: Taylor Evans/Chicago Sun-Times

Apparently there's an emerging series of publicly-performed plays about Star Trek. Awesome! The next one is taken from the episode "Space Seed":

A perfectly preserved, genetically enhanced warrior from the 20th century, Khan, is revived by the crew of the USS Enterprise upon discovering his adrift ship. They deduce Khan was the kind of 20th century leader who could have conquered the Earth in his time. However, not everyone is suspicious of Khan’s intentions, one such person is Lt. Marla McGivers, the ship’s historian. She is so moved by Khan’s glorious ambition, she assists him in hijacking the Enterprise to finish the conquest Khan Noonian Singh started 200 years ago. Will this be the last generation for the crew of the USS Enterprise?

Portland actors accompanied with live music and effects bring this classic piece of television to life!

Link (Facebook) via Geek Crafts | Image: Trek in the Park

Since Wonder Woman has a new costume, maybe Aquaman can use hers to look more menacing. These images are by comic book artist Chris Samnee.

Link via Comics Alliance