FanFare

When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.
posted by gauche on May 25, 2022 - 27 comments

n his New York Times bestseller, Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind, renowned paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson told the incredible story of his discovery of a partial female skeleton that revolutionized the study of human origins. Lucy literally changed our understanding of our world and who we come from. Since that dramatic find in 1974, there has been heated debate and–most important–more groundbreaking discoveries that have further transformed our understanding of when and how humans evolved. In Lucy’s Legacy, Johanson takes readers on a fascinating tour of the last three decades of study–the most exciting period of paleoanthropologic investigation thus far. In that time, Johanson and his colleagues have uncovered a total of 363 specimens of Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy’s species, a transitional creature between apes and humans), spanning 400,000 years. As a result, we now have a unique fossil record of one branch of our family tree–that family being humanity–a tree that is believed to date back a staggering 7 million years. [more inside]
posted by Homo neanderthalensis on Dec 14, 2019 - 1 comment

Humans and their immediate ancestors were successful hunter-gatherers for hundreds of thousands of years, but in the last fifteen thousand years humans have gone from finding food to farming it, from seasonal camps to sprawling cities, from a few people to hordes. Drawing on her own fieldwork in the Mediterranean, Africa, Asia, and beyond, archeologist Brenna Hassett explores the long history of urbanization through revolutionary changes written into the bones of the people who lived it. For every major new lifestyle, another way of dying appeared. From the "cradle of civilization" in the ancient Near East to the dawn of agriculture on the American plains, skeletal remains and fossils show evidence of shorter lives, rotten teeth, and growth interrupted. The scarring on human skeletons reveals that getting too close to animals had some terrible consequences, but so did getting too close to too many other people. Each chapter of Built on Bones moves forward in time, discussing in depth humanity's great urban experiment. Hassett explains the diseases, plagues, epidemics, and physical dangers we have unwittingly unleashed upon ourselves throughout the urban past--and, as the world becomes increasingly urbanized, what the future holds for us. In a time when "Paleo" lifestyles are trendy and so many of us feel the pain of the city daily grind, this book asks the critical question: Was it worth it?
posted by Homo neanderthalensis on Oct 30, 2019 - 3 comments

A criminal crime happened in front of a breathless nation, and we're just supposed to sit back and just like, celebrate a weak horse? This will not stand. We will not stand for it. Suggested talking point: A Robbery on the Racetrack, Darth Navarro, Batilda, Big Awesome Bones, Wet and International Hamburgers, Susan Office, A Thrifty Snip
posted by bleep on May 8, 2019 - 6 comments

Come on, we're getting the band back together! (Oh sorry, wrong movie...) An alien cloud nears Earth, and only Kirk and the Enterprise can stop it. Shatner chews the scenery somewhat less than usual, and the cast spends a lot of time staring at impressive special effects. [more inside]
posted by computech_apolloniajames on Dec 16, 2015 - 35 comments

While transporting an arrogant, demanding princess for a political marriage, Captain Kirk must cope both with her biochemical ability to force him to love her and sabotage on his ship. [more inside]
posted by Benway on Nov 15, 2015 - 2 comments

When Ichabod's nemesis returns from the dead, he and Abbie turn to Temperance Brennan and Seeley Booth for forensic help unlocking 18th-century secrets (Part 2 of Bones/Sleepy Hollow crossover)
posted by oh yeah! on Oct 29, 2015 - 3 comments

While investigating a case involving a headless corpse, Brennan and Booth encounter Ichabod Crane and Abbie Mills searching for answers of their own; Brennan and Booth come up with Halloween pranks. (Part 1 of Bones/Sleepy Hollow crossover)
posted by oh yeah! on Oct 29, 2015 - 8 comments

The Enterprise travels to Beta III to learn the fate of the U.S.S. Archon, gone missing a century earlier. One member of the landing party disappears, and one returns in a strangely blissful state. Kirk beams down with another landing party; amidst the chaos of "Festival" their hosts asks if they are "Archons." To learn more, Kirk must convince Betan citizens to disobey Landru, the man who has ruled them for 6,000 years - or find those who already resist. But with the Lawgivers everywhere, that task is going to be difficult... [more inside]
posted by Benway on Dec 13, 2014 - 3 comments

Captain Kirk's career is at stake when he is put on trial for the loss of a crewman during an ion storm. [more inside]
posted by Benway on Dec 6, 2014 - 6 comments

For bringing hostility into their solar system, a superior alien race pits Captain Kirk in single combat against the murderous reptilian captain of an alien ship he was pursuing. [more inside]
posted by Benway on Nov 22, 2014 - 7 comments