At the time of publishing, the Memorial Service is set for Sunday, January 4, 2009 at 10:00 AM. Although it has been requested that people register their wish to attend and arrive by 9:30 AM.

GSA Sector One

GSA Sector Two

GSA Sector Three

GSA Sector Four

U Khen - Alan Gunhouse:  2007, He continues his employment in the field of recycling, including the shredding of Government documents and is active in playing the online game 'City of Heroes'. In this game, the last we heard, he had advanced a character to level 30. He was also elected to GM a super heroes game set during WWII.

He took out a loan and consolidated all of his debt. This being done, he then procured some new furnishings for his abode. During the fall, the area he resides in, suffered some major flooding and he missed some work due to the high waters. At last check, he was still involved in the Star trek Challenger game online and was still actively searching for his soul mate.

GSA Sector Five

U Volar - Chris Gable:  2007, With the purchase of a new house, He and his mate began to make it a home. This included decorating the inside, fencing in the yard and putting plants into the ground.He is still active in online games, including 'City of Heroes/Villains'. They added a new addition to the family in the form of a puppy they named 'En'Kidu', bringing their puppy population to 3.

Chris applied for and was accepted to a masters program, of which he began classes in the fall. Not only did he return to class, but he also gained new employment which has allowed him more time for the KSF.

U SamwI & Kanara - 2007, Michael & Bed Stanley:  Deb suffered some medical issues during the first 2 quarters of the year, and lost some weight due to the illnesses. Michael procured new employment and ended his probationary period (with a raise in pay) in May. He's begun a new project known as 'Klingon Omnibus'.

U Kohn - Phillip Mostyn (GSB Australia):  2007, He joined an online Klingon Kommunity called "The Empire" http://www.klingon-empire.org/ changed his line name to Kohn MoStin and celebrated the big 4-0. He's began an online journal @ http://kohn.livejournal.com/ and last we heard was looking for new employment.

GSD

U TA K'Lay & VA. K'Obol ('Da Abbot) - Margie & Doug Welsh:  2007, Due to open windows, some water pipes froze resulting in a flooded apartment. Their losses included KSF materials as well as Star Trek materials. They became grandparents with the arrival of Michael Emelio (Doug's first) Doug also suffered a trip to the dentist for a tooth extraction and due to a specific diet lost some weight. Margie gratefully accepted a reduction in work hours and together, they visited family in California. While there, they attended a family reunion and spent some time visiting with Azel (Adrienne Paradis). Later in the year, Margie dealt with a lot of OT and with her company moving it's office to another building..

During the California wildfires, Margie's daughter and brother were evacuated and Margie watch from the TV as her hometown area smoldered and burned to ruin. She also attended work on casual day, dressed as a Klingon, which Made the local news. Shortly thereafter, a tropical storm made landfall in Nova Scotia, leaving Doug and Margie in the dark once again.

For the Christmas holidays, Doug and Margie traveled to Texas to visit with family and warmer temperatures.

U Klogh - Mike Wager (British Columbia, Canada): 2007, Began the year with his car being stolen. By the fall, things had been turned around, including a new job, a new girlfriend and a new tattoo.

GSE

U qe'San be'rawn - Jonathan Brown: 2007, 

U Korek - Gary Ormond:  2007, With the beginning of the year, Gary was attempting to build up his entourage of students for guitar. He put a lot of effort into writing and creating for the KSF in the forms of the rpg and artwork. One personal project included a Starship design proposal. His household suffered bouts of illness in the fall and his computer suffered a malfunction which required a total reboot, resulting in many lost files.

U lt koi kai drocklon - Alberto (Netherlands): 2007, He began the year suffering through eye lens replacement other wise known as cataract surgery and dental appointments. He also attended some Sci-fi conventions in his area. He is considering the change to Vista for his computer, but at last report was sticking to XP for awhile.

U  Ke'Reth Makura: No post reports as such but several pieces of artwork including the cover have been provided by Ke'reth shown here at the desk of his Embassy.

Shatner To Emcee Space Camp Banquet
submitted by Borg QI'mpeq

Monday - January 1, 2007

The U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and William Shatner, known as Capt. Kirk to legions of "Star Trek" fans, is planning to attend the party. 

Shatner has agreed to be the emcee for the Space Camp Hall of Fame induction banquet in June, said Larry Capps, CEO of the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. The inaugural Hall of Fame event will honor 10 people who either attended Space Camp or have been major supporters of the Space Camp and Space Center, he said. A committee is establishing criteria for selecting the first inductees. The exact date and location of the banquet will be announced later, he said.

SOURCE : AP - ENTERTAINMENT Information from: The Huntsville Times

March 19 2007
Submitted By K'Lay K'Onor-Chang

HELSINKI (Reuters) - A Finnish member of parliament is aiming for re-election by campaigning with a translation of his Web site into Klingon, used in the TV series "Star Trek." "Some have thought it is blasphemy to mix politics and Klingon," said Jyrki Kasvi, an ardent Trekkie. "Others say it is good if politicians can laugh at themselves." 

He said his politics posed some translation difficulties, since Klingon does not have words for matters such as tolerance, or for many colors, including green -- the party under whose banner he is running in the national elections on March 18. 

Non-warriors can also access the site, http://www.kasvi.org/index.php?kli, in English, Swedish and Finnish.

Beaming up Scotty

Beaming up Scotty ... and Gordo 
Posted: Thursday, March 29, 2007 3:15 PM by Alan Boyle 

Celebrities from TV's classic "Star Trek" and America's space program are due to take a posthumous trip to the final frontier and back on April 28, when an UP Aerospace suborbital rocket carries the cremated remains of "Star Trek" actor James "Scotty" Doohan, NASA astronaut Gordon "Gordo" Cooper and more than 200 others on a memorial spaceflight.

The flight - organized by Celestis Corp., a subsidiary of Houston-based Space Services Inc. - has been in the planning stage for more than a year. Here's how it works: Ashes from the dearly departed are placed in metal capsules about the size of lipstick tubes, then put aboard the rocket for launch from New Mexico's Spaceport America to an altitude of about 70 miles, just beyond the internationally accepted boundary of space. The payload then falls back to earth for recovery. "We will take those capsules, and we'll mount them on beautiful plaques, and they will be a keepsake for the families," Susan Schonfeld, a spokeswoman for Space Services, told me today. 

A memorial ceremony will be conducted on the eve of the flight at Alamogordo's New Mexico Museum of Space History, Schonfeld said. Doohan and Cooper are the best-known names on the flight list: Cooper orbited Earth 22 times during his Mercury 9 flight in 1963, becoming the last American to fly alone in space until SpaceShipOne's private-sector astronauts did it in 2004. Cooper was also the command pilot for Gemini 5 in 1965. He died in 2004 at the age of 77. 

Doohan played Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott on the classic "Star Trek" TV show in the 1960s, and reprised that role in several "Trek" movies. His portrayal of "Scotty" was the highlight of a TV and film career that spanned more than 50 years. He died in 2005 at the age of 85. Among those attending the launch will be Doohan's widow, Wende C. Doohan. "While 'Scotty' lived this, Jimmy lived for this," she said in a Space Services news release. "I will be there, to see the launch, knowing that Jimmy is participating in an industry which he loved so very much."

If this flight is successful, it would mark the first true space foray for Connecticut-based UP Aerospace. The venture's maiden launch ended in failure last September, but the company says it has resolved the aerodynamic problems that prevented the earlier Spaceloft XL rocket from getting up to space. It would also mark the first real space mission for Spaceport America, which is seeking support from local taxpayers in an April 3 ballot. That vote could well determine how quickly the New Mexico spaceport moves ahead with its plans for a $198 million suborbital space tourism complex.

This week, the spaceport authority announced agreement on the terms of a future lease with billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic - and on Friday, the spaceport is planning a spacecraft integration ceremony for the UP Aerospace flight. All this activity seems aimed at raising the spaceport's visibility in advance of next week's vote.

"We're all breaking new ground," Rick Homans, chairman of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority and cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Economic Development Department, was quoted as saying in Space Services' release. "We're in this for the long term, developing new businesses and new technologies." Celestis offers space-themed memorial packages ranging from $499 (for a suborbital-and-back flight) to $12,500 or more (for a one-way trip beyond Earth orbit).

Space remains the domain of the few, the dream of many, Charles Chafer, chief executive officer for Celestis and Space Services, said in the release. With Celestis, the dream of spaceflight, and the desire to take part in the opening of the space frontier, can be realized - and is available to everyone." Next month's flight won't necessarily mark the final trip to the final frontier for Doohan and Cooper: Samples of their ashes are also due to fly as part of Celestis' secondary payload aboard SpaceX's next Falcon 1 flight, Chafer told me last week. That launch is scheduled for September.

Star Trek shields will protect Man in space 
Mark Henderson, Science Editor 
For Captain Kirk and his crew, the starship Enterprise's force fields were all that stood in the way of oblivion from Klingon lasers. Now scientists are seeking to build Star Trek-style shields for real, to protect astronauts on their way to Mars.

Though a manned mission to the Red Planet could probably expect to avoid any unpleasant alien encounters, researchers believe that magnetic fields could be crucial to shelter its crew from deadly radiation. Cosmic rays and solar flares are one of the chief hazards faced by astronauts venturing into space, and the need to protect crews against them is one of the biggest obstacles to long missions.

On the surface of the Earth, the magnetic field that envelops our planet deflects most of this radiation, and even in the low orbits used by the space shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS) it offers a measure of protection.

Beyond this magnetic field, however, astronauts would be exposed to constant low levels of radiation that would raise their risk of cancers. Solar flares are eruptions of charged gas or plasma from the Sun and pose an even greater danger, as they would kill anyone unshielded in their path. 

Neil Armstrong and the other Apollo astronauts spent only ten days in space on their trips to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s and were lucky in that no solar flare came their way while they were in space. On the ISS, astronauts protect themselves against flares by moving into a special thick-walled room, but such barrier shielding would be impractical for a mission to Mars.

Now scientists at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire are proposing a Star Trek solution: to protect the spacecraft with a magnetic field like the Earths. A team led by Ruth Bamford, who will present details today at the Royal Astronomical Society's annual meeting in Preston, has been awarded a £30,000 grant by the Science and Technology Facilities Council to start developing such a scheme. It will use technology originally developed for experimental nuclear fusion reactors to wrap a model spacecraft in a magnetic cocoon, so that harmful plasma bounces off. It's no accident that Star Trek featured this sort of technology, as it had advisers who work for Nasa and its feasible, Dr Bamford said. The shields seem to be some sort of invisible barrier, which energy bounces off, and that sort of deflector shield is exactly what we're talking about. Magnetic field generators, she said, could be critical to Nasa's plans to establish a permanent manned base on the Moon by 2024, and to send astronauts to Mars around 2030. 

Now there's the will to send astronauts back into space, we need to be able to do it safely. That means protecting astronauts from radiation. Artificially generated magnetic fields are already used in experimental fusion reactors to keep superheated plasma from touching its walls, which would otherwise melt. What we want to do is the opposite, Dr Bamford said. Fusion, the aim is to keep the plasma in. We want to keep it out. The team is currently setting up an experiment at Manchester University, where it will use magnets to try to deflect a one-metre beam of plasma. We have already tried with a little magnet, but while that deflects it a bit it doesn't keep the plasma off, Dr Bamford said. All the components that we need for this already exist. It is a matter of design and engineering to put them together.

Science fact:

Ion engines Nasa's Deep Space 1 comet chaser, and the European Space Agency's Smart1 probe, have ion engines. Charged atoms are fired into space at about 1,000mph (1,600km/h), building up to propel the craft at up to 36,000mph Artificial eyes Scientists at the University of Southern California have created an ebionic eye that has already been fitted to six blind patients Cloaking devices Scientists at Imperial College London have shown that it is theoretically possible to create materials that bend light so that they appear invisible 
Source: Times database

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP)

Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking floated free in zero gravity Thursday, becoming the first person with a disability to have the experience.

The zero-gravity flight in a modified jet creates the experience of microgravity during 25-second plunges -- called parabolas -- over the Atlantic Ocean.

"It was amazing," Hawking, paralyzed by a progressive neurological disorder, said afterward through an electronic device. "The zero-G part was wonderful and the full-G part was no problem. I could have gone on and on. Space, here I come." Hawking, a mathematics professor at the University of Cambridge who has done groundbreaking work on black holes and the origins of the universe, has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He cannot speak or move.

He is one of the best-known theoretical physicists of his generation and also wrote the book "A Brief History of Time." A doctor and three nurses monitored Hawking throughout the Zero Gravity Corp. flight. The scientist floated in the air, free of his wheelchair and electronic communication gear for the first time in 40 years. 

The jet's interior is padded to protect the weightless fliers and is equipped with cameras to record their adventure. Normally, the plane conducts 10 to 15 plunges for its passengers who pay $3,750 for the ride, although that fee was waived for Hawking.

After the jet reached its proper altitude, Hawking's assistants lifted him out of his seat and laid him on his back in the front of the cabin for the first plunge.

"We consider ... having him weightless for 25 seconds is a successful mission," Peter Diamandis, chairman and CEO of Zero Gravity, said before the flight. "If we do more than one, fantastic." Urged on by Hawking's smiles after the first parabola, they did seven more, Diamandis said afterward.

"He was doing gold-medalist gymnastics in zero G," Diamandis said. Hawking has an ulterior motive for going on the flight other than the personal thrill of weightlessness -- he believes in the importance of private space ventures and the need to reduce the cost of space tourism so that it is accessible to more people. 

"Many people have asked me why I am taking this flight. I am doing it for many reasons," he said before the flight. "First of all, I believe that life on Earth is at an ever increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or other dangers. I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space. I therefore want to encourage public interest in space." 

Diamandis put it more poetically afterward: "Professor Hawking reached for the sky and touched the heavens today."

Astronaut Walter Schirra Dies At 84
By THOMAS WATKINS,
Associated Press Writer
May 2007

Walter M. "Wally" Schirra Jr., who as one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts combined the Right Stuff — textbook-perfect flying ability and steely nerves — with a pronounced rebellious streak, died Thursday at 84.

He was the only astronaut to fly in all three of NASA's original manned spaceflight programs: Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Although he never walked on the moon, Schirra laid some of the groundwork that made the lunar landings possible and won the space race for the United States.

Schirra died of a heart attack at Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla, said Ruth Chandler Varonfakis, a family friend and spokeswoman for the San Diego Aerospace Museum.

In 1962, the former Navy test pilot became the fifth American in space — behind Alan Shepard, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, John Glenn and Scott Carpenter — and the third American to orbit the Earth, circling the globe six times in a flight that lasted more than nine hours.

Schirra returned to space in 1965 as commander of Gemini 6. Some 185 miles above Earth, he guided his two-man capsule to within a few feet of Gemini 7 in the first rendezvous of two spacecraft in orbit.

On his third and final flight, aboard Apollo 7 in 1968, he helped set the stage for the landing of men on moon during the summer of 1969.

An inveterate prankster, he could be grumpy and recalcitrant in space, most famously during his Apollo mission.

But "on Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, he flew all three and did not make a mistake," said Christopher Kraft, who was Schirra's Mercury and Gemini flight director and later head of NASA's Johnson Space Center. "He was a consummate test pilot. The job he did on all three was superb."

Of the Mercury Seven, only Glenn and Carpenter are still alive.

Schirra was named one of the Mercury Seven in 1959. Supremely confident, he sailed through rigorous astronaut training with what one reporter called "the ease of preparing for a family picnic."

"He was a practical joker, but he was a fine fellow and a fine aviator," Carpenter recalled Thursday. "He will be sorely missed in our group."

Roger Launius, a space historian at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, said Schirra "had a personality that was fun and effervescent. He had the gift of gab. He was able to take complex engineering and scientific ideas and translate that to something that was understandable."

Launius recalled that Schirra smuggled a corned beef sandwich onto his Gemini flight. During the mid-December 1965 flight, he and his Gemini crewmate, Thomas Stafford, unnerved Mission Control when they reported, slowly and in deadpan fashion, seeing some kind of UFO consisting of "a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit" — Santa Claus.

When Schirra and Stafford played "Jingle Bells" on a tiny, smuggled-aboard harmonica and a set of sleigh bells.

"At times he gave us a hard time during his flight; technically what he did was superb," Kraft said.

Schirra blasted off from Cape Canaveral on Oct. 3, 1962, aboard the Sigma 7 Mercury spacecraft. "I'm having a ball up here drifting," Schirra said from space before making a perfect splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

His Gemini mission represented a major step forward in the nation's space race with the Soviet Union, proving that two ships could dock in space.

Kraft said Schirra showed great poise during his Gemini flight when a problem on the launch pad cropped up. Schirra would have been warranted in triggering a launch ejection, but instead, he held steady, and the launch went off OK, Kraft said.

Schirra's Apollo mission in October 1968 restored the nation's confidence in the space program, which had been shaken a year earlier when three astronauts, including Grissom, were killed in a fire on the launch pad.

The Apollo 7 crew shot into space atop a Saturn rocket, a version of which would later carry men to the moon. But Schirra and his two fellow crewmembers were grumpy for most of the 11-day trip. All three developed bad colds that proved to be a major nuisance in zero gravity.

The following year, Schirra left NASA and retired from the Navy with the rank of captain, having logged more than 295 hours in space. He became a commentator with CBS.

"Mostly it's lousy out there," Schirra said in 1981 on the occasion of the first space shuttle flight. "It's a hostile environment, and it's trying to kill you. The outside temperature goes from a minus 450 degrees to a plus 300 degrees. You sit in a flying Thermos bottle."

Born in Hackensack, N.J., Schirra was practically born to fly. His father was a fighter pilot during World War I and later barnstormed at county fairs with Schirra's mother, who sometimes stood on the wing of a biplane during flights.

Schirra took his first flight with his father at age 13 and already knew how to fly when he left home for the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

Schirra flew 90 combat missions during the Korean War. He was credited with shooting down one Soviet MiG and possibly a second. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross and two Air Medals.

In 1984, he moved to the San Diego suburb of Rancho Santa Fe, serving on corporate boards and as an independent consultant. His favorite craft became the Windchime, a 36-foot sailboat.

In one of his last interviews, last month with The Associated Press, Schirra said he was struck by the fragility of Earth and the lack of borders.

"I left Earth three times. I found no place else to go. Please take care of Spaceship Earth," he said.

Survivors include his wife, Josephine, daughter Suzanne and son Walter Schirra III.

__

Associated Press writers Mike Schneider in Orlando, Fla., Seth Borenstein in Washington and Rasha Madkour in Houston contributed to this report.

Gene Roddenberry inducted into the Hall of Fame

June 2007

This past weekend, the late Gene Roddenberry was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame "honors the lives, work and ongoing legacies of science fiction's greatest creators," according to a press release.

The induction ceremony was held on Saturday, June 16 at the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum (EMP/SFM) at the base of the Space Needle. As part of the induction, a display featuring personal artifacts and video footage from Gene was added to the existing Hall of Fame exhibit. Gene Roddenberry's face is now visible as a laser-etched image on the translucent, glowing Hall of Fame display.

Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry was in attendance to accept the award on behalf of his father. Part one of his experience at the Sci-Fi Hall of Fame can now be seen in our _Captain's V-Log_ (http://www.roddenberry.com/) . Join Rod as he shows you the laser-etched image of his father on the Hall of Fame display. Tune in to part 2 of the Captain's V-Log next week to catch an incredible conversation between Rod and Will Wheaton, and see what Will presents to Rod as a token of his appreciation.

http://www.roddenberry.com/

contributed by K'Stor Chi'Kosa

A Survival Imperative for Space Colonization

An interesting article about colonization of space and the future of mankind. 

 - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/science/17tier.html 

Contributed by Borg QI'mpeq

Group Renames Asteroid For George Takei
By SAMANTHA GROSS, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday - October 2, 2007

A piece of outer space named for George Takei is in kind of a rough neighborhood for somebody who steers a starship: an asteroid belt.

An asteroid between Mars and Jupiter has been renamed 7307 TAKEI in honor of the actor, best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu in the original "Star Trek" series and movies.

"I am now a heavenly body," Takei, 70, said Tuesday, laughing. "I found out about it yesterday. ... I was blown away. It came out of the clear, blue sky — just like an asteroid."

The celestial rock, discovered by two Japanese astronomers in 1994, was formerly known as 1994 GT9. It joins the 4659 RODDENBERRY (named for the show's creator, Gene Roddenberry) and the 68410 NICHOLS (for co-star Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura). Other main-belt asteroids have been named for science fiction luminaries Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov.

The renaming of 7307 TAKEI was approved by the International Astronomical Union's Committee on Small Body Nomenclature. About 14,000 asteroid names have been approved by the panel, while about 165,000 asteroids have been identified and numbered, union spokesman Lars Lindberg Christensen said.

Unlike the myriad Web sites that offer to sell naming rights to stars, the IAU committee-approved names are actually used by astronomers, said Tom Burbine, the Mount Holyoke College astronomy professor who proposed the name swap.

"This is the name that will be used for all eternity," he said.

Burbine said he suggested Takei's name in part out of appreciation for his work with the Japanese American Citizens League and with the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign. Takei, a spokesman for HRC's Coming Out Project, was cultural affairs chairman of the JACL, and he was appointed to the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission by former President Clinton.

Takei has appeared on NBC's "Heroes" and appears regularly on Howard Stern's satellite radio show.

Under the committee's policies, whoever discovers an asteroid has 10 years in which to propose a name. After that, the panel considers other suggestions, although it warns would-be namers to avoid anything "in questionable taste" and any names honoring political or military figures sooner than 100 years after their deaths.

NASA asteroid database browser: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi(pound)top

SOURCE : AP - SCIENCE

MAJEL BARRETT RODDENBERRY 
December 18, 2008, at 12:27 AM

"Majel Barrett Roddenberry passed away this morning, December 18, 2008, at 12:27 AM in her Bel Air home. She died peacefully, in her sleep, and was surrounded by family and loved ones. 

"My mother truly acknowledged and appreciated the fact that Star Trek fans played a vital role in keeping the Roddenberry dream alive for the past 42 years. It was her love for the fans, and their love in return, that kept her going for so long after my father passed away." - Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry, Jr. 
http://www.roddenberry.com/  

Majel played not only Nurse Chapel but the voice of the computer, and Lwaxana Troi. Trek will not be the same without her. 
May she Fly free with the great bird of the galaxy! 

Condolences can be sent via email to share@roddenberry.com or by mail to: 

Roddenberry Productions
4400 Coldwater Canyon Avenue, Suite 100
Studio City, CA 91604

The family thanks you very much for your thoughts and sentiments. In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family requests that a donation in Majel's name be made to one of the two following organizations, who share Majel's love for animals and dedication to animal rescue.

Additional Information:

OFFICIAL FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENT
Click here to share your memories in the Posting Forum.
Click here to access Majel Barrett Roddenberry's Biography.

Contributed by qe'San

Obama to boldly go where no geek has gone before
2008-12-24 11:12:41 on AOL News by By Seth Borenstein, AP
http://news.aol.com/article/obama-to-boldly-go-where-no-geek-has/286984

WASHINGTON -Get ready for the geek-in-chief.
President-elect Barack Obama used to collect comic books, can't part with his BlackBerry, and once flashed Leonard "Mr. Spock" Nimoy the Vulcan "Live Long and Prosper" sign.
That and other evidence has convinced some of Obama's nerdier fans that he'll be the first American president to show distinct signs of geekiness. And that's got them as excited as a Tribble around a Klingon.

Obama is good at "repressing his inner geek, but you can tell it's there," especially when he goes into nuanced explanations of technical matters, said Benjamin Nugent, author of the book "American Nerd: The Story of My People."

"One imagines a terrifying rally of 'Star Trek' people shouting, 'One of us!'" Nugent said, in an interview conducted by e-mail, of course.

Others see only some geek qualities, qualifying the president-elect as merely "nerd-adjacent." After all, he's an athlete and kind of cool, some experts demur. Still, there's enough there for geeks to celebrate.

Psychology professor Larry Welkowitz of Keene State College in New Hampshire hopefully speculated that there's a shift in what's cool and that "smart can be in. Maybe that started with the computer programmers of the '90s. The Bill Gateses of the world are OK."

The Obama transition team would not comment on the president-elect's geek qualities, even when it was suggested those could be positive. And his old college friends give the geek idea a split vote. While Margot Mifflin, now a journalism professor in New York, said she saw no geeky signs in Obama as a freshman at Occidental College in California, Amiekoleh Kimbrew Usafi recalled it differently, despite the lack of technology back in 1979.

"He's a geek because he was smart," Usafi said, noting that Occidental was a geeky school to start with, billing itself as the Yale of the West. "I remember he would be hitting his books. I would see him in the library. ... There were a lot of girls that liked him because he was cute, but he kept his head in the direction he was going in. I would see him studying all the time."

Wired magazine first crowed about Obama the geek, complete with five reasons in its GeekDad blog. A lot depends on definition of geek, which to Wired is more a compliment than insult.

GeekDad contributor Matt Blum, a software engineer in Reston, Va., defines geeks as having high intellects, embracing technology, "getting excited about things in the future especially, particularly fiction," having a science viewpoint and being steeped in the geek culture of science fiction and fantasy.

Geeks know and use references from "Star Trek," "Dungeons and Dragons" and comic books. And, he added, they are nit-picky, unafraid to correct mixed science fiction metaphors, such as confusing Star Trek's Andorians with "Star Wars" Iridonians.
So a quick geek cultural check for Obama:

_Technology. Click that icon. He's the candidate who tried to announce his vice presidential pick by text message and embraced Facebook as a campaign tool. He's seldom seen without a BlackBerry and talks of a chief technology officer for the nation.

_Comic books. As a youngster, Obama collected Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comic books. His Senate Web site used to have a photo of him posing in front of a Superman statue, and in October at New York's Alfred Smith dinner he joked: "I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father Jor-El to save the planet Earth." Jor-El was the father of Superman, born on the planet Krypton.

_"Star Trek," the long-running TV show. According to the actor Leonard Nimoy, who played Mr. Spock in the series, Obama flashed him the split four-fingered Vulcan salute when the two crossed paths last year. In May in Des Moines, Newsweek caught Obama teasing wife Michelle about her belt buckle, saying it was studded with Star Trek-powering dilithium crystals and adding, "Beam me up, Scotty!" As he laughed at his own joke, Michelle Obama rolled her eyes, as geek wives often do.

Yes, geeks have wives. That's one of the things that separates them from nerds and dorks.

"A geek is someone who has the knowledge of the geeky type stuff and has social graces," Blum said. "A nerd is someone who has the knowledge but not the social graces and a dork is someone who has neither."

By that definition Obama is a geek, not a nerd or dork, Blum said. Nerds are the type who live in their parents' basements until they're 45, whereas geeks are more normal, he said.

"I'm a geek because I'm a dad," Blum said. "I managed to find a woman who wished to marry me and have children with me."

Blum said Obama qualifies as the first geek-in-chief because George W. Bush was too much a cheerleader and Bill Clinton too wonky and not technological enough. The other presidents came of age before geek culture did, so don't qualify.

But don't discount John Quincy Adams as a geeky guy who steeped himself in government as a teenager, contends author Nugent (who just by adding that historical reference reinforces his geek expertise).

In some ways, though, experts say Obama is just too cool, too athletic, too normal to wear the geek cape. Obama did use drugs and was a high school athlete, missing out on two prime nerd qualities, Nugent said.

Dan Sarewitz, a professor of science and society at Arizona State University, said calling Obama a geek is unfair both to the president-elect and geeks.

"He's too cool to be a geek; he's a decent basketball player; he knows how to dance; he dresses well," Sarewitz said. "It's too high a standard for geeks to possibly live up to."

All the nerds at home can at least try, though, courtesy of a heavily muscled "beach blanket Obama" action figure for $29.95.

So is Obama a geek?

In the words of Alan Leshner, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which had two past leaders appointed by Obama to high posts: "I hope so."

-  KLINGON POETRY  -
by Lt.Ccmdr Lusciouslips sutai Juriss-chang

Encounters

She stood surveying the motley crew
so of her courage they'd get a better view,
'We are Klingons!
tlhIngan maH!'
was what they steadfastly said
in her eye's bore afire
before she was finished
they might just wish they were dead!
Their Captain bowed low
and asked if she needed their help
to this she giggled
she really couldn't help herself!
In space, all warriors are cold warriors.
loghDaq Suvrupbogh SuvwI'pu' chaH Hoch SuvwI'pu'' e'
does your blood run hot or cold Klingon..
They stood and eyed this lone half human, half cat
tail curled around her leg
thinking on her words
this is what their Captain said,
"A warrior does not complain about physical discomfort.
loQ 'oy'DI' SuvwI' bepbe'
are you cold my dear?"
She looked him in the eye
on the caitian wind it carried a sigh,
"Brute strength is not the most important asset in a fight"!
Suvlu'taHvIS yapbe' HoS neH!
The klingon Captain eyed the 'assets'
and bowed deeply as he had to agree,
so was this friendship found on a mutual respect
the klingon Captain and the lone caitian..

LoDnal Prayer

Warrior of my heart
you bring much honor to our table
Kahless himself bows before you
I beseech thee
keep thyself safe..for me.
loDnal-my husband
father of my children
keeper of my soul.

We fight to enrich the spirit.
qa' wIje'meH maSuv
your spirit has been blessed by your courage
the stars are bright tonight my loDnal
they keep the memory of you alive
may Kortar pilot your enemies upon his barge
may the kos'karii deliver them to their sorrow.
If Sto'vo'kor should beckon you my warrior
I will remember your name in the stars.

A leader is judged not by the length of his reign
but by the decisions he makes- choose well my lord,
Great deeds, great songs
ta'mey Dun, bommey DunListen to the voice of your heart.
'IwlIj ghogh yIQoy.
for it is me by your side,
for my klin-my loDnal
you are my tai
my epetai-zana.

O honored loDnal
I have jilek (visions) of your glorious battle
I drink a jurkim in your honor
Kahlesste kaase himself would be proud of your House
Klinzhai bows to your courage
for thy spirit walks with the God's
and thy heart walks beside mine.
Your deeds will be writton in your enemies blood
nu Kishai'in-the book of war honors thy name.

My I never hear the sweet music of your dying
my sweet loDnal
my lover
my brave Warrior
I await thy return
Borath bows before your glory
I stand alone until your return.

The Klingon Soul Dance
By Lord Borg Epetai QI'mpeq
Dedicated To: Lady B'Etera Zantai K'Tral-K'Mpec 

A Klingon Warrior Sensing A Calling, 
From So Far Away, 
Seeing A Face Of A Klingon Female, 
But Not Very Clear. 

Feeling A Warmth But Is Air, 
Knowing A Smile Not Really Seen. 

Cherishing The Time You Are Spending With me, 
Hearing A Name Called Out In The Darkness. 

Seeking A Presence So Strongly Felt, 
Needing A Joining Through The Distance. 

Visioning Two Flames Meeting Together, 
Taking With Them On Their Journey. 

Through Life A Piece Of the Other Forever, 
Remembering The Pure Essences Of The 
Klingon Soul Dance 

Lord Borg Epetai K'Mpec
Lady B'Etera Zantai K'Tral-K'Mpec

E E E E E E E E E

-  HOW DID I GET HOME?  -
by Borg QI'mpeq

How many times have you woken up in the morning after a hard night of drinking and thought 'How did I get home?

As hard as you try, you cannot piece together your return journey from the bar to your home. The answer to this puzzle is that you used a Klingon BloodWine Scooter.

The Klingon BloodWine Scooter is a mythical form of transport, owned and leased out to the Klingon drunk by Brackhus the Klingon God Of BloodWine.

Brackhus has branched out since the decrease in the worship of the Klingon pantheon and bought a large batch of these magical devices. The Klingon BloodWine Scooter works in the following fashion: The Klingon passenger reaches a certain level of drunkenness and the slurring gland begins to give off a pheromone.

Brackhus or one of his many subcontractors detects the pheromone and sends down a winged Klingon BloodWine Scooter. The scooter scoops up the Klingon passenger and deposits them in their bedroom via a trans-dimensional portal.

It is not cheap to run a Klingon BloodWine Scooter franchise, so a large portion of the Klingon passenger's in-pocket darseks is taken as payment. This generates the second question after a night out; "How did I spend so much darsek?".

Klingon BloodWine Scooters have a poor safety record and are thought to be responsible for 90% of all UKDI (Unidentified Klingon Drinking Injuries).

Independent Klingon studies have also shown that Klingon BloodWine Goggles cause the scooter's navigation system to malfunction thus sending the Klingon passenger to the wrong bedroom... often with interesting consequences.

Now... all Klingons know...

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