In 1983, Leonard Nimoy produced a low-budget TV special called Leonard Nimoy: Star Trek Memories. In the hour-long special, he recalled the original series and talked about the first two Trek movies, as Star Trek III: The Search for Spock wouldn’t be out until mid-1984. The special was taped in Boston at Channel 56, which was the main station showing syndicated Trek episodes in the Boston market at the time.

More than a decade later, William Shatner came along with his own direct-to-video package, William Shatner’s Star Trek Memories.

But let’s step back and revel in 1983’s quiet hour spent with Nimoy, as he walks us through, quite literally, his memories of the show and movies. He talks about how he got the part, how the show worked, and gives just a hint of what might come next. (Keep in mind that at this point in the movies’ continuity, Spock’s fate was, at best, unclear.)

The special is broken into four parts on YouTube. Enjoy:

The waters of California’s San Joaquin River Delta are currently suffering from an alien invasion. Fortunately, the creatures don’t come from outer space, although looks can be deceiving. Over the past several weeks, local boaters and beach-goers have been finding gelatinous brown blobs known as magnificent bryozoans (Pectinatella magnifica)—although people also call them moss animals or dragon’s boogers.

The bryozoans, which are actually colonies of tiny organisms called zooids joined together, aren’t supposed to be west of the Mississippi, as the Stockton Record reports. It’s not clear how long the alien species has been in California, or exactly how they got there. However, in 2012 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also noted an increase in magnificent byrozoans in the Pacific Northwest, perhaps because of climate change. (Magnificent bryozoans need waters over 60 °F to survive.)

What IS this thing discovered in the Delta? Answer soon @Recordnet pic.twitter.com/xhkg7smHiM

— Alex Breitler (@alexbreitler) September 20, 2016

Locals residents and boaters have been alarmed by the creatures, which cling to docks and weeds throughout the Delta. But while their appearance might be disgusting, they won’t actually harm you. At least, not immediately. Since the bryozoans are an invasive species, as CBS Sacramento notes, they may be disrupting habitat for other creatures. Only time will tell what kind of effect they’ll have, but for now, at least we know they’re not from Mars.

You can learn more—and see the “dragon boogers” up-close—in the CBS video below:

[h/t: Stockton Record]

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Halloween is still more than a month away, but an upcoming party in New York City wants to give you an excuse to break out your Catwoman costume a little early. On Wednesday, September 28, TIME reports that ailurophiles can attend the city’s “first annual purrrty for cat lovers,” hosted by local artist SuZen in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.

SuZen is perhaps most famous for her iconic photo of the Empire State Building’s silhouette, as glimpsed through shutters, which was transformed into a Times Square mural in 1984. But she’s nearly equally well known for her love of cats. The artist released a photo book of her two Siamese kitties, Sushi and Sashimi, in 1990, and is currently raising funds on Indiegogo to create the “JacCAT,” a jacket emblazoned with her recently deceased cat Ari’s silhouette. Now, SuZen is celebrating her passion for all things feline (and promoting the JacCAT) by throwing a giant soiree.

SuZen’s “Cat Purrrty” will be held in the community space of Westbeth Artists Housing, a nonprofit housing and commercial complex for artists and arts organizations in Greenwich Village. (SuZen, herself, is a longtime resident.) According to DNAinfo, attendees will be provided with cat ears, and they’ll dance to “cat-themed music”—think “The Siamese Cat Song” from Lady and the Tramp (1955), or the soundtrack to the Broadway musical CATS. A face-painter will paint noses and whiskers, and partygoers can try on and purchase the JacCAT. (A portion of sales proceeds will be donated to cat rescue groups.)

The “Cat Purrrty” runs from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., and is open to all members of the public. Tickets are available online. The event is free, but donations to cover overhead costs and support cat rescue groups are welcome.

[h/t Time]

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Earlier this year, France passed a law banning disposable plastic bags. Now, Quartz reports, France has announced it’s working towards eradicating all plastic cups, plates, and utensils by 2020. It is the first nation to announce a total ban on all plastic tableware.

The law, which is part of the country’s Energy Transition for Green Growth Act, will make it illegal to manufacture or sell plastic tableware in France, though biodegradable disposable tableware will be permitted. New regulations will require that any disposable tableware be made of 50 percent biologically sourced materials that consumers can compost at home.

The Washington Post explains that the law is the result of a conference in Paris last year on strategies for combating global warming. French lawmakers hope that by banning plastics, they will improve waste management strategies by creating a “circular economy” of waste disposal, and contribute to a greener planet. According to French president François Hollande, the plastic ban is part of France’s mission to become “an exemplary nation in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, diversifying its energy model and increasing the deployment of renewable energy sources.”

[h/t Quartz]

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Joan of Arc was a force to be reckoned with, but she probably would have been far less intimidating without her famous sword. According to the Associated Press, National Park officials announced earlier this week that a bronze statue of the French heroine in Washington, D.C.’s Meridian Hill Park is missing its weapon.

D.C.’s Joan of Arc is a replica of a statue at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Reims, France, created by sculptor Paul DuBois in 1889. It was dedicated in 1922, and was a gift from Le Lyceum Société des Femmes de France, a French women’s society, to the women of the United States. Normally, the work depicts the warrior astride a horse, brandishing a sword. But someone vandalized the statue, and officials say its blade appears to have been broken off.

Nobody knows quite when the sword went missing, but the National Park Service thinks the theft occurred on Tuesday, September 20. A similar act of vandalism occurred in the 1970s, and the statue didn’t receive a replacement weapon until 2011. But this time around, local art lovers won’t have to wait four decades to see Joan of Arc get fixed: Park authorities are already arranging for her to receive a new blade.

[h/t Associated Press]

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When Paramount’s television division decided they needed an action hero that was both family- and advertiser-friendly, writer Lee David Zlotoff had the answer: MacGyver, an adventure series about a freelance Samaritan who uses unlikely tools (paper clips, gum, chocolate) to get out of everywhere from a locked room to the Middle East.

The series, which ran for seven seasons, turned Richard Dean Anderson into America’s favorite science geek. Here’s a look back at the show, its production, and why MacGyver wasn’t allowed to have a girlfriend.

1. THERE’S A “REAL” MACGYVER. (KIND OF.)

After Lee David Zlotoff decided his protagonist would be armed with little more than a Swiss Army knife and a formidable intellect, he stumbled upon a gemologist at Caltech named John Koivula, who seemed to have experience in everything from physics to chemistry. When MacGyver was ordered by ABC, Koivula became the show’s scientific consultant. Writers would think of a logistical problem, then call Koivula, who would come up with the “MacGyverism,” or solution. Anything deemed harmful usually omitted a step or two so that people who attempted to recreate the experiments at home wouldn’t blow themselves up.

2. HIS FIRST NAME WAS ORIGINALLY STACEY.

The seventh (and final) season of MacGyver satisfied fan curiosity by revealing the character’s first name: Angus. (In a not-very-Dickens move, Richard Dean Anderson suggested it because he saw it on a banner in Vancouver.) But prior to the show’s premiere, Paramount publicity circulated a flyer that credited Anderson as playing “Stacey MacGyver.” The name was thought to be taken from an early version of the pilot script.

3. HIS LAST NAME WAS INSPIRED BY MCDONALD’S.

Zlotoff wanted a masculine-sounding name for the character and had intended to simply call him “Guy,” but friends convinced him that it didn’t sound too compelling. Instead, Zlotoff picked up on the fact that the popularity of McDonald’s was prompting people to facetiously add a “Mc” or “Mac” in front of words. “So I suggested we call our hero MacGuy,” Zlotoff recalled. “But everyone thought it really needed to have three syllables … and we finally got MacGyver and agreed that was the one.”

4. THE PILOT WAS SO BAD THE DIRECTOR HAD HIS NAME REMOVED.

Executive producer John Rich told the Archive of American Television that the pilot for MacGyver came in at a running time of 90 minutes—and it was awful. “It was dreary,” Rich said. “It was no good … it was an hour and a half of dreadful.” Over an Easter holiday, Rich re-cut the episode, removing 30 minutes. As a result of the perceived meddling, director Jerrold Freedman wanted his name taken off. The generic pseudonym “Alan Smithee” appears in the credits.  

5. VIEWERS THOUGHT THE SHOW KILLED A RHINO.

For an episode in which MacGyver confronts poachers, the show’s effects team spent $40,000 crafting a fake rhinoceros for a key scene in which the animal is destroyed. The money made for an effective moment, but it also prompted viewers to call in condemning the producers for victimizing a helpless creature. (In fact, only Richard Dean Anderson was harmed during filming: he accidentally stepped into a ditch and injured his back in the first season, causing a nagging injury that needed surgery two years later.)   

6. POOR MAC COULDN’T HAVE A GIRLFRIEND. 

While the show was popular for its clever approach to science, it didn’t hurt that Anderson was a former soap opera star and a frequent target of affection for swooning viewers. As a consequence, MacGyver getting romantically involved with a woman in the series was usually met with indignation. When a love interest was introduced for several episodes in the third season, the show’s fans voiced their displeasure over the potential of the show turning into Moonlighting.  

7. THE SHOW PAID FANS TO COME UP WITH “MACGYVERISMS.”

Getting MacGyver out of hairy situations using a variety of items within arm’s reach was a clever conceit—and one that got increasingly difficult to orchestrate as the series continued. At one point, John Rich offered viewers a cash reward if they could submit a scenario for use on the show. While all incoming letters were read, very few had plausible ideas: one successful entry described a way in which MacGyver could fix a leaking cooling system in a vehicle by cracking an egg into the radiator. As it heated and hardened, it would seal the hole.

8. MAC DID USE A GUN—TWICE. 

Among the character’s many distinctive traits, his disdain for firearms was possibly the most defining: because MacGyver couldn’t rely on weapons, he was forced to improvise alternative solutions. But in the pilot episode, Anderson (who didn’t like guns, either) is seen shooting an automatic weapon. In a later season, MacGyver used a gun, smashed out the barrel, and used the remaining piece as a makeshift hand wrench.

9. NOT EVERYONE WAS A FAN OF HIS NO-BAZOOKA POLICY.

When an episode aired in 1988 that depicted the origins of MacGyver’s aversion to guns—it turns out that a boyhood friend was killed by one accidentally—the National Rifle Association went nuclear. “Since that time, we have been on their hit list,” co-executive producer Steve Downing told the Los Angeles Times. “They have been encouraging people not to watch us and boycott our sponsors. We try to do a decent job of really saying why a gun is dangerous and they choose to boycott us and put us on their hit list.”

10. HIS FLOATING HOME ENDED UP ON CRAIGSLIST.

For most of the show’s run, MacGyver lived on a pretty cool floating home that was docked in a Vancouver boat yard. When Paramount was done using it, it was sold off, remodeled, and resold in 2012. Since then, it has apparently suffered damage due to the whole foundation-of-water thing. In late 2014, it sold for under $40,000 on Craigslist, far below the original $200,000 valuation.

11. YOUNG MACGYVER NEVER MADE IT TO AIR. 

Cool and hip are not exactly trademarks of the MacGyver franchise, but the WB still gave it a swing: in 2003, they commissioned a pilot that starred Jared Padalecki (Supernatural) as MacGyver’s equally resourceful nephew, Clay. A tepid network reception resulted in the series never getting a full order.

Now, CBS is trying again with its own MacGyver reboot, which premieres tonight.

12. FURIOUS 7‘S DIRECTOR WAS SET FOR A MACGYVER FEATURE.

James Wan directed the most recent installment of the Fast and Furious franchise, and it was obviously a wise career decision: that film made over $1 billion globally. But before he committed, Wan was deliberating over tackling a MacGyver feature film adaptation. “My initial concept was I wanted to do a young college MacGyver who went to Boston, one of the great universities, who’s really brilliant, right?” Wan told CraveOnline. “He gets blamed for something that he had designed, something really big that’s something everyone wanted, and now someone has weaponized it and everyone’s coming after him.” 

13. RICHARD DEAN ANDERSON BOTCHED HIS OWN MACGYVER MOMENT.

When Anderson was once locked out of his house, he found a way inside: The actor had gone to a cast and crew holiday party during the first season, but wasn’t having much fun. So he and a friend moved over to a gathering for Cheers instead; when Anderson made it home, he couldn’t get in. Relating the story to a TV Guide reporter, Anderson thought the most efficient solution was to pick up a nearby bench and throw it through the front window. A friend later sent him a new bench: it had the Swiss Army symbol on it.

The latest complaint Uber users have with the ride-sharing app sounds like the set-up to a horror movie: After a ride request is accepted, some passengers in China have been greeted with the profile of a “ghost driver” en route to pick them up. According to The Guardian, the spooky images are part of a new scheme used by drivers in China to score cancellation fees.

Drivers taking part in the deception will upload a picture manipulated to look like a ghost, zombie, or vampire to an otherwise normal profile. The intention is to frighten passengers into canceling their ride for a small fee the drivers then get to keep. Each cancellation amounts to 4.20 yuan, or about $.60.

That’s small enough that many would-be passengers won’t bother reporting the incident: Meanwhile, ghost drivers can spend the day scaring away customers and watch the fees add up. When brave passengers do decide to wait around for the ride, some ghost drivers will take the scam even further and accept a rider on the app as if they’ve entered the car without picking them up. The stood-up customer will eventually cancel and the driver still gets the fee.

Uber employees have plagued the ride-sharing service with scams in the past, from following unnecessary routes to charging customers for vomiting in the car when they never did. The company says they’re refunding any customers who were involved in the latest scam and introducing facial-recognition technology to crack down on further driver fraud.

The interesting story of China’s ghost Uber drivers: users scared = they cancel, driver gets cancel fee. https://t.co/fmESwT9PWa pic.twitter.com/3GyTpGOnUe

— Martyn Kelly (@martynkelly) September 21, 2016

#Uberweird#Uber #China driver scams: Ghost drivers freaking out passengers and scamming Uber for money — Quartz https://t.co/LTWloXzuba pic.twitter.com/P9V1gnf0kz

— Dave Aron (@davearon) September 22, 2016

where do u think this ghost Uber driver would take u https://t.co/OZfpP0XDki pic.twitter.com/0dL31OZ7uU

— Mary Childs (@mdc) September 22, 2016

[h/t The Guardian]

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George Washington had a thing for trees—legendary trees, that is. Remember when he cut his dad’s cherry tree down, then refused to tell a lie about his deed? The tale was a legend created by one of Washington’s first biographers, but the cherry tree has forevermore been associated with the first president’s honesty. However, it turns out that Washington consorted with another legendary tree, too: He supposedly took command of the Continental Army beneath an elm tree in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The elm itself wasn’t fake: It was one of six elm trees that lined Garden Street near Cambridge Commons. But the story that surrounded it almost certainly was. It went like this: Inspired by patriotism and inflamed by the anger of a crowd, Washington sat on a horse beneath an elm tree, pulled out his sword, and made himself an army.

Just about everything in the legend appears to be false, as Harvard arborist John George Jack noted in 1931 [PDF]. “To clinch the effect of [the legend] …” he complained, “the artists have allowed their historical imaginations to run amuck. Prancing steeds, dipping colors, dear little drummer boys, long rows of troops aligned to a hair’s breadth, gorgeously uniformed, and presenting glittering arms with fixed bayonets, thrill every youthful heart, while smack in the middle of the front rank stands the Elm, with just room for Washington, flourishing his sword, to ride between it and the immaculate warriors.”

Washington did take command of his troops in Cambridge, but the event is thought to have been anything but glamorous. His men didn’t have uniforms or enough to eat. It wasn’t even a real army: It was a random assortment of state militias with no authority of any kind. Once he took control, Washington found that his troops were dirty and unruly and had really bad manners. For the future president, assuming control of the motley mob was taking an almost laughable gamble—one that he famously won.

The legend of what became known as “the Washington Elm” may have taken root because of other famous Revolutionary War-era trees. Boston’s Liberty Tree was an elm tree where people hung their favorite effigies and met to conspire against King George. Eventually, places all over the new nation planted their own “liberty trees,” and elms became known for their Revolutionary War connotations.

By the time the 100th anniversary of Washington’s army takeover came around, the tree where he supposedly did the deed was in terrible shape. “It is not pleasant to view the decay of one of these Titans of primeval growth,” wrote one observer, who noted that its branches had been mutilated and fallen until only a bandage-swathed monster remained.

Perhaps guessing that the end was near, a group of savvy businesspeople took some of the detritus of the dying tree and had it carved into commemorative books, like the one you see above. Housed in the collection of Harvard University’s Houghton Library, the book shows scenes of the tree itself and glimpses of Revolutionary War-era soldiers doing their thing.

In 1923, the last mangy portions of the rotted Washington Elm fell down. The government of Cambridge had to rescue what remained from souvenir hunters eager to get their hands on a piece of the tree. But its legacy didn’t end there: Not only were the remnants made into gavels and sent all around the country, but other portions of the rotten wood were divvied up and sent to various notable people and everyday applicants. The tree even got its own postage stamp in 1925.

Today, descendants of the tree can be found throughout the country. But don’t confuse them with other so-called Washington Elms the president supposedly planted or chilled out under in Washington, D.C. They’re probably legends, too—although the memorabilia generated by the first president’s association with elms shows that Washington fans were anything but fake.