Year: 2017
Nine Lives
Cool Cat
The Best Star Trek Models, Props and Toys
Scratch that collector itch and buy yourself some branded and licensed plastic lifestyle Star Trek accouterments.
1:350 Scale Enterprise Model
If you’re a modeler, this is the replica kit to get. The completed USS Starship Enterprise is over 32 inches long, but more impressive than the size is the incredible detail. There’s even an optional lighting kit that will set the portholes aglow. Also makes a great holiday dinner centerpiece. $140
DST Communicator & Phaser
If you are wandering in the outskirts of space, you are going to need these bad boys. Talk with fellow shipmates via the Communicator and stun your enemies with the Phaser. Diamond Select Toys is known for its excellent replicas, and this $75 two-pack is essential TOS hardware.
Bat’Leth
A 1:1 replica of the most choice Klingon battle weapon, crafted of aluminum and finished with real leather. Phasers? Earthling nonsense. Hand-to-hand blade combat to the death is what really makes a warrior. $500
Tribble
These tiny, hairy creatures are totally adorable. Buy 50 of them, throw them on your bed, jump into their furriness, then curse their existence. Fun! $10 each.
Custom Uniform Shirt
Meet eBay user Murraymousie. Send in your measurements, and 10 days later you’ll be sent a custom-sewn velour replica uniform shirt or dress, complete with rank and insignia. Pick gold for Kirk, a red shirt for Scotty, or a red dress for Uhura. $100 and up.
DST Retro Cloth Figures
The vintage 8-inch action figures from Mego are highly collectible, and Kirk and Spock go for about $50 each on eBay. But the plastic on these 40-year-old toys is disintegrating, so get yourself some modern-day redos from Diamond Select Toys. Pick from any number of characters. $160 for two.
The Klingon Dictionary
If you’re going to demand that an enemy “Surrender or die,” then you’d better get your pronunciation right. $11.33
TR-590 MK 9 Science Tricorder
This $500 replica prop is not only stunningly accurate, but it also lights up and makes the appropriate sound effects. No more walking around with your iPhone going “bloop beep weee-ooh” when it’s time to play doctor.
Gorn Action Figure
All of the ReAction figures are pretty cool, but we’ve got a soft spot for Gorn. $19
Hot Wheels Klingon Bird of Prey
Never mind the little cars. Hot Wheels makes some pretty decent Trek stuff, and this Klingon BOP ($39) is a good example. The wings fold just like the real thing, but the cloaking device will cost you a whole lot extra.
Playmates Klingon Disruptor
You’ll have to go to eBay for this vintage toy from the 1990s, but the cool sounds it makes are worth the hassle of all the hunting, bidding and sniping.
Enterprise Bridge Playset
The ultimatest ultimate. This replica of the original Mego set from the ’70s works with any figure built to the scale of the originals, as most of the current “retro” toys are. $60
Tri-D Chess Set
This recreation of the original Franklin Mint Tri-D chess set from the 1990s will set you back $275. But that’s real silver and gold on there. And whoo boy is this thing extra nerdy or what? How do you play it? Who cares!?
A Walk through Winnipeg on a Great Spring Day
Union Station
Upper Fort Garry Park
The big fence has flickering lights embedded in it.
Interesting Bridges Built and Being Built
Norway
Central America
San Francisco
Germany
China
Malaysia
New York
Scotland
India
The Biggest and Wildest Movie Sets Ever Built
Metropolis Set 1927
Horses, Cattle and Hogs in Canada
Cattle Population
A Really Cool Hotdog Car
“Wienermobile” is a series of automobiles shaped like a hot dog on a bun which are used to promote and advertise Oscar Mayer products in the United States. The first version was created in 1936 by Oscar Mayer’s nephew, Carl G. Mayer, and variants are still used by the Oscar Mayer company today. Drivers of the Wienermobiles are known as Hotdoggers and often hand out toy whistles shaped as replicas of the Wienermobile, known as Wienerwhistles.
The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile has evolved from Carl Mayer’s original 1936 vehicle[1] to the vehicles seen on the road today. Although fuel rationing kept the Wienermobile off the road during World War II, in the 1950s Oscar Mayer and the Gerstenslager Company created several new vehicles using a Dodge chassis or a Willys Jeep chassis. One of these models is on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. These Wienermobiles were piloted by “Little Oscar” (portrayed by George Molchan) who would visit stores, schools, orphanages, and children’s hospitals and participate in parades and festivals.
In 1969, new Wienermobiles were built on a Chevrolet motor home chassis and featured Ford Thunderbird taillights. The 1969 vehicle was the first Wienermobile to travel outside the United States. In 1976 Plastic Products, Inc., built a fiberglass and styrofoam model, again on a Chevrolet motor home chassis.
In 1988, Oscar Mayer launched its Hotdogger program, where recent college graduates were hired to drive the Wienermobile through various parts of the nation and abroad. Using a converted Chevrolet van chassis, Stevens Automotive Corporation and noted industrial designer Brooks Stevens built a fleet of six Wienermobiles for the new team of Hotdoggers.
With the 1995 version, the Wienermobile grew in size to 27 feet long and 11 feet high.[2] The 2004 version of the Wienermobile includes a voice-activated GPS navigation device, an audio center with a wireless microphone, a horn that plays the Wiener Jingle in 21 different genres from Cajun to Rap to Bossa Nova, according to American Eats, and sports fourth generation Pontiac Firebird taillights.
There are currently eight active Wienermobiles, six of which are the full-sized familiar models (the other two are the Mini and the food truck versions) with each assigned a part of the country. The “hotdogger” position of driving the Wienermobile is open to U.S. citizens, and the job lasts from the first of June until the following first of June. Only college seniors who are about to graduate are eligible. Both current hotdoggers and Oscar Mayer recruiters visit college campuses across the country in search of the next round of hotdoggers. Candidates are screened from an average of 2000 applicants. Every March, a pool of thirty final-round candidates are brought to Kraft Foods and Oscar Mayer headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, for interviews. Each vehicle can hold two hotdoggers, and twelve people are chosen. Currently there are about 300 hotdogger alumni.
Amazing Fractal Images
A fractal is a mathematical set that exhibits a repeating pattern displayed at every scale. It is also known as expanding symmetry or evolving symmetry. If the replication is exactly the same at every scale, it is called a self-similar pattern. Fractals can also be nearly the same at different levels. This latter pattern is illustrated in small magnifications of the Mandelbrot set. Fractals also include the idea of a detailed pattern that repeats itself.
Fractals are different from other geometric figures because of the way in which they scale. Doubling the edge lengths of a polygon multiplies its area by four, which is two (the ratio of the new to the old side length) raised to the power of two (the dimension of the space the polygon resides in). Likewise, if the radius of a sphere is doubled, its volume scales by eight, which is two (the ratio of the new to the old radius) to the power of three (the dimension that the sphere resides in). But if a fractal’s one-dimensional lengths are all doubled, the spatial content of the fractal scales by a power that is not necessarily an integer. This power is called the fractal dimension of the fractal, and it usually exceeds the fractal’s topological dimension.
I’m not exactly sure what the paragraph above means. But they sure are nice to look at.
Mandelbrot above
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