Latest news with #StarTrek's'
New York Post
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
William Shatner makes planetary plea to Trump, Elon Musk: Make Pluto great again
To boldly go where we were not too long ago. Legendary actor William Shatner wants President Trump to restore Pluto to greatness as scientists claim to have found a 'new' ninth planet. 'So there's a 10th planet that was found in our solar system?' 'Star Trek's' Captain Kirk, 94, wrote on X. 'I suggest that we get Trump to name it and while he is at it; restore Pluto as a planet and put an end to the union's tyranny of the cosmos,' wrote the two-time Emmy Award winner. The 'Boston Legal' star then suggested his fans recruit X owner Elon Musk to 'get the President to sign one of those Executive thingies to make Pluto a planet again.' 5 The 'Star Trek' star implored X owner Elon Musk to 'get the President to sign one of those Executive thingies to make Pluto a planet again.' Getty Images for One Drop 5 William Shatner/X Some repliers expressed doubt that the President of the United States had jurisdiction in matters of the stars — but Shatner suggested the final frontier of Trump's authority has yet to be explored. 'Says who? He renamed a Gulf and the Astronomer who discovered Pluto was American. Seems like America has jurisdiction on things outside its borders,' Shatner wrote, adding the expressionless emoji. The 'Rocket Man' singer was riled by a new study that claimed to have discovered a far-off and entirely theoretical celestial body that some believe qualifies as the 'ninth' planet in our dear solar system. 5 President Donald Trump changed 'The Gulf of Mexico' to 'The Gulf of America' earlier this year. REUTERS 5 A detailed view of Pluto, constructed from multiple NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken from 2002 to 2003 and released in 2010. REUTERS He slammed the 'corrupt nerds on a power trip' at the International Astronomical Union who were exercising a 'tyranny of the cosmos' — portending to name any new planet discovered by scientists and voting to demote Pluto in 2006. Shatner believes they have no basis for their authority and could be trumped by the president. 'BTW why do they need a union?' Shatner asked in one in his X threads. 'It's not like anyone would care if they went on strike. Maybe it's to prevent bullying?' 5 Space-X CEO Elon Musk was recruited by the original Captain James T. Kirk to bend Trump's ear toward Pluto. Getty Images The now-dwarf planet was first discovered in 1930 by Clyde W. Tombaugh, an Illinois native, at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Outside of his extensive travels through the cosmos as captain of the USS Enterprise, Shatner has more recent space experience — taking the inaugural trip on billionaire Jeff Bezos' 'Blue Origin' in 2021. 'The covering of blue, this blanket, this comforter of blue we have around us. We think, 'Oh, that's blue sky,' and all of a sudden you shoot through it and you whip the sheet off you and you're looking into blackness, into black nothingness,' Shatner told reporters outside the craft.
Observer
15-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Observer
Thanks... Shelley, Frankenstein and Barnard
Our fascination with the human form and its possibilities has been with us for all time, but more especially so since Charles Darwin challenged mankind's religious origins, in his 'Origin of Species,' in 1859. With much more innocence, we innocently wondered as children, about 'Captain Hook's' hook felt, in 'Peter Pan?' Or what about one-eyed, wooden-legged, 'Long John Silver,' from 'Treasure Island?' Later, 'Star Trek's' Jean-Luc Picard had a new heart, 'Star War's' hero Luke Skywalker and villain Darth Vader both had prosthetic appendages. What about Steve Austin, the 'Six Million Dollar Man,' of whom they said, "Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. Better... stronger... faster." Or Tony Stark, the Iron Man; Captain America's 'Bucky' Barnes; GOT's Jamie Lannister; Even 'Mad Eye' Moody, from 'Harry Potter,' were they all just complete and utter fantasy? Who among us was not simultaneously haunted and fascinated by Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein,' when a young scientist creates a grotesque living 'thing' from human body parts sourced from dissection laboratories and mortuaries. Going on to create murder and mayhem, Victor Frankenstein's monstrous creation has been brought to the cinema screen several times since Boris Karloff brought it to life so dramatically in 1931. The very idea that you could fit 'spare parts' into the human body though, remained little more than tales... stories of what could have been. Until, on December 3, 1967, South African surgeon Christian Barnard successfully transplanted the heart of a human donor into Louis Washkansky, at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. Although, he passed away 18 days later, Barnard's work had inspired hundreds of others and during the following year over 100 successful heart transplants would prove even more successful, and today, they are commonplace. By the 1970s heart transplants were virtually commonplace, and the medical fraternity sought wider applications for transplants and enhancements, many of which may not have been essential to longevity but inspired by the 'quality of life' needs of a burgeoning consumerist society. Among these, total (tkr) and partial (pkr), knee and hip replacements are today commonly sought by those with leg joint ailments, most frequently through osteoarthritis, a degenerative disease of the joints that causes swelling, stiffness and significant pain. Late last year, I sought medical help for this very condition, and met with a nearby consultant Christian Nita, and after an initial consultation he agreed a way forward and following X-Rays and MRI scans it was agreed that my left knee was an appropriate candidate for surgery, with all my options laid out and a total knee replacement chosen. This requires the bottom of the upper leg and the top of the lower leg to be removed and new titanium femur (upper), and tibia (lower) leg components and a plastic patellar spacer between the two, to replace the ailing joint. Surgery day, a couple of months later, was a final flurry of documentation, vital signs measurements, questions and final discussions with the surgeon and anaesthetist, then I was wheeled down to the operating theatre. A shunt was inserted in the back of my left hand, a prickle in the back of my right and then I was sat up to have the local (spinal) injection. 'This will numb you from the chest down so you will just feel a cold spray (which I did) and we'll give you a sedative to keep you relaxed for the next couple of hours,' said the anaesthetist, and a screen was hung up so I couldn't see what was happening and the work started... I can't say it was blissful, but there's something Shelly'ish, about knowing I was being cut, sawn, pushed, pulled, hammered and well, whatever else, just a couple of feet away, and I just... didn't... care... Yes, it did play with my head a wee bit later, but that has still been the most amazing element of this entire process... It just shows how far medicine has come. My quality of life will be improved and I must thank a quality surgical team, and among a host of others, Frankenstein... I guess?
