Weekly Authority Edition #163 – Android Authority

The original Captain Kirk, actor William Shatner, will become the oldest person to fly into space on October 12th.

• It will fly with Blue Origin at 9.30 a.m. EDT (1.30 p.m. GMT) from launch site one in West Texas.
• Shatner will break the record held by 82-year-old Wally Funk, who flew on Blue Origin’s debut flight in July.
• He will travel with Audrey Powers, Vice President of Mission and Aviation Operations for Blue Origin, Chris Boshuizen, Co-Founder of Planet, and Glen de Vries, Co-Founder of Medidata Solutions (who is also a private pilot).

We all hope that he will say his iconic line: “To bravely go where no one has gone before.” But Captain Kirk has many wise words for all of us. Here are just a few of his most famous speeches and moments in Star Trek: The Original Series.

Go bravely

Finally, a few more facts you (probably) never knew about William Shatner:

• He made his acting debut in 1951 in The Butler’s Night Off in the role of “A Cook”.
• His father disapproved of his son’s acting career and instead wanted him to get into the men’s clothing industry.
• He was working with George Lucas in 1965 when he appeared in the short film The Soldier. Lucas worked as a camera assistant on set while studying at the University of Southern California.
• His birthday is March 22, 1931.
• He often stole Leonard Nimoy’s (Spock) bike from the Star Trek set and is known as a bit of a joker.
• In the 1970s he appeared as Captain Kirk, the idea behind the sketch was that Kirk thought himself a comedian but was deliberately telling uncomfortable jokes. The meta-humor unfortunately got over the heads of the audience.

We can’t wait to see Captain Kirk really fly into space, the final frontier, this time around.

Watch the live coverage of the launch at T-90 minutes, with the launch scheduled for 8:30 a.m. CDT / 1:30 p.m. UTC.

A little something in addition:

If it’s gray and cold there, check out this lovely Sunday afternoon in Paris, captured (colored) by the Lumiere brothers in 1900.

• 12th of October: Back 4 Blood release date (PS4, PS5, Xbox One, XSX, PC).
• October 13th: OnePlus 9RT and Buds Z2 start.
• October 19: Pixel 6 released date at 1:00 p.m. ET.
• October 19 or 26: Apple event? Possibly new MacBook Pros, Mac Mini, AirPods 3?
• October 21: Huawei event in Vienna, possibly launch of the P50 series.
• October 22nd: Dune lands in US theaters and on HBO Max.
• 27.-28. October: Android developer summit 2021.

Tech tweet of the week

People who joke about the failure of Facebook services make me sick. Anyone who was using an Oculus headset at this point is currently trapped in VR, and if they die there, they will die in real life.

Have an alien week!

Paula Beaton, text editor