Kobayashi Maru

[Victor Steinbok]

A couple of clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z49bBPf7b4g
An abridged version of the original

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6Gp2Ir7n9M
Full version, you can stand the advertising

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JMLB_ZJkXM
The version from Star Trek (2009) NSFW--partially deleted scene

And text:

http://goo.gl/TQc5K
Kobayashi Maru- Obama style
> So how does the President face his no-win scenario, his Kobayashi Maru?

http://goo.gl/p8Dze
Cam's Kobayashi Maru and Canada's 3rd best place to live!
> According to Mayor Cam Jackson, he called the editors & asked why
> Burlington didn't have its own rank when several similar sized cities
> did. Presto in 2008, Burlington had its own #8 ranking. Jackson then
> pulled his "Kobayashi Maru" move straight out of Star Trek and took
> advantage of how the rankings are developed to plot Burlington's ascent.

http://goo.gl/2oWtj
> /*Summary:*/ Danzo is known as an obsessed war hawk, who wants to
> change Konoha into militaristic superpower. But even he, as cold and
> heartless as he is, had his own Kobayashi Maru, his own total defeat…

http://goo.gl/aBbDS
> No, I don’t have that luxury. I have to be the grown up. I stuff the
> anger back inside. I feel a tad nauseous. I always feel that way when
> I can’t express anger. There’s nothing I can do. I can’t seat the man
> where he wants and I can’t tell him to fuck off.
> This is what I call a customer service Kobayashi Maru. The dreaded “no
> win” scenario.
> ...
> This whole mess would have been avoided if Moustache had just planted
> his ass in a chair and ordered. After some good food and wine he’d
> have relaxed and started to enjoy himself. But in the restaurant
> business you quickly discover there are customers who’ll never be
> happy. Waiters face their own personal Kobayashi Maru moments
> everyday. But, as Captain Kirk proved, it’s all in how you handle it.


VS-)


On 2/7/2012 12:44 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
> Another follow-up on an old thread. A while ago we had several posts
> on terms that entered everyday language from science fiction. One item
> that had been left off the list is Kobayashi Maru which I've read or
> heard in different contexts at least five times over the past two
> weeks. Interestingly enough, there were sightly different shades of
> meaning in different instances, but I have not kept track of them in
> enough detail to reproduce them. Twice Kobayashi Maru was mentioned on
> Top Chef (I'm watching 9:10 on Verizon On-Demand right now, although
> this is from a bit over a month ago). I've also seen it on a number of
> blogs, including two bloggers referring to the Nevada caucuses as Newt
> Gingrich's Kobayashi Maru--an unwinnable scenario that is used to
> evaluate how a person behaves in a losing situation. On Star
> Trek--specifically, in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan--Kobayashi Maru
> is an unwinnable scenario that Kirk beats by simply changing the
> problem. So Kobayashi Maru stands for both an unwinnable scenario
> (particularly when the objective is to observe the behavior of the
> person who cannot win) and thinking outside the box. With respect to
> the election writing, it's always been the former (in my experience),
> but on Top Chef it's been used as the latter. Also, one of the chefs,
> oddly, referred to it as "Kobarashi Maru". For more references, see
> Wiki. I'm just putting this out there so that people are on the
> lookout for occurrences.
>
> UD also has an entry. OED has it in one quote from the novel The Wrath
> of Khan.
>
> Mayday, int. and n.2
> A. int.
>> 1982 V. N. McIntyre /Wrath of Khan/ 8 Mayday, mayday. /Kobayashi
>> Maru/ twelve parsecs out of Altair Vi.
>
> Kobayashi Maru is also the name of the ship that carries the Maltese
> Falcon in the eponymous film. Although it predates Star Trek by
> decades, it might have served as an inspiration for Star Trek writers
> as a doomed voyage.
>
> VS-)
>

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