The week started with the Ides of March and just got more interesting:

• You have a unique bacterial signature - did you even want to know that?
• 116 year old wisteria vine is world’s largest flowering plant
• When Star Trek geeks get time and fancy equipment you end up with the world’s smallest Enterprise
• The odd finds of Google Streetview… odder that people have time to find this stuff

Maybe it’s all in the astrological timing, but have you noticed that this year’s Star Trek movie is generating more tangential quirky stuff?  Or maybe it’s all just escaped from the conventions that most of us aren’t brave enough to visit.  In any event, there’s more out there now than ever and I think you will no longer be labeled as a die-hard Trekkie for indulging. I haven’t seen anyone address the feng shui in space issue but maybe that’s in the works.

In Las Vegas, there’s a city-wide exhibit (similar to Pigs/Clowns/Bears about town) with artists rendering their vision of a new Enterprise.  My favorite is the UPS ship complete with package shoot and waiting delivery trucks although I would question why they wouldn’t use the transporter.

ThinkGeek.com has a classic red shirt with the added label “Expendable” across the front just in case you were in doubt.  I’m not entirely sure who would wear it, but it would make a great office back-handed office gift for the person you would most like to see reorged to another group.

People are checking off the invention to-do list. Aside from the warp drive and actually meeting some aliens some might say we’re almost done – now what?

CSI did a great take-off on the original (the first) Star Trek series and managed to make the set look just as cheesy and full of Styrofoam; not as easy as you might think.