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Nerd Values And Jordan’s Star Trek Theme Park

Well, this is kind of nifty. The Star Trek theme park that’s opening up in Jordan is apparently going to incorporate a bunch of renewable technologies. Given Jordan’s reliance on oil imports, this actually makes a great deal of sense on a practical level, and it’s cool that the park’s going to have exhibits about various environmental issues, taking the show’s social messages seriously on both a design and programmatic level.

Unless King Abdullah starts inviting his fellow Gulf States monarchs over for all-night debates about the campy awesomeness of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (I can’t resist the idea that Spock was in Students for a Democratic Society) and the viability of producing dilithium crystals, the impact of the park will probably be more international than regional. Of course, it remains to be seen whether this is a viable tourist attraction at all: folks’ll make pilgrimages to San Diego, but Jordan’s a slightly more expensive plane ticket, even when you book a year in advance.

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