And just like that, 2013 is nearly
over. Seriously? Wow. Not only is it surreal to think that it's already been almost
a year since the GIR and I went on our Pacific sojourn to get married, but the
countdown clock to PAX East 2014 presently stands at a mere 102 days. Gah! The
costume for PAX is about 35% finished and will make its formal debut on the
blog in the next two-ish weeks. It feels absolutely incredible to be actively
making costumes again, but more on that later. Today's post will be the last of
the year and next week will feature a round-up of things to look forward to in
2014. So, let's get down to the last This Week in Geekdom of 2013!
We'll kick things off with this
much-anticipated sequel to 2008's An Engineer's Guide to Cats.
Science/Technology
2013 was rife with novel science.
Just reading about some of the incredible breakthroughs made during the year
was fascinating in itself, but the Smithsonian has gone a step further and created
this compendium of the year in science as a series of gifs.
One of the subjects that appeared
on the Week in Geekdom time and again in 2013 was 3D printing. Well, it's no
surprise that this will almost certainly continue into next year, but the items
slated for artificial genesis in 2014 may surprise you. San Diego-based
'bio-printing' company Organovo will attempt to make history in the new year by offering the first 3D printed human liver tissue.
Ever wondered if shelling out a
premium for an Apple product versus the PC equivalent was a legit expense? The
guys at BGR set out to see if the 'Apple Tax' is commensurate compensation for a product, or just the price paid for a brand name.
Volcanic lightening is many
things: dramatic, powerful, and, until this week, infamous elusive for the
purposes of formal study. That is, until a pair of vulcanologists accidentally
re-created the phenomenon with their artificial volcano. Check out the video here.
What do sharks, honeybees, and
humans all have in common? Turns out, we all travel the same way.
There have been many criticisms
of The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug,
but this intrepid physicist was determined to see if the film's climactic scene was at all scientifically feasible. (Warning: 'spoilers')
The baleful effects of consuming gluten have been at the
forefront of nutritional research for the past several years and is now the
basis of the title sitting at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. What does this all potentially mean
for you? Read here to find out.
The rise and fall of Jesse Willms, the so-called Dark Lord of the Internet.
 |
| Because nothing says 'dandy' like an Elvis-style bouffant |
TV
The creator of both Samurai
Champloo and Cowboy Beebop has
developed a series specifically for US audiences. The new show, Space Dandy, will debut on Cartoon
Network's Toonami on January 4th.
Games
Fans of the Homeworld franchise were given a bit of a Christmas present by
Gearbox Software. The developer, who acquired the title back in April in the
wake of the dissolution of THQ, appears to be moving forward with the
re-releases of both Homeworld and Homeworld 2 and solicited direct input from some of the series' biggest fans.
That repository for all things
awesome, the Archive, has released these fully playable, completely free mods of five classic 70s/80s console games. Oh the nostalgia!
General Awesomeness
English is a notoriously inconsistent language, but could
you imagine what it would look like with the inclusion of these 12 letters?
2013 has given us some very impressive fan films, and it
seems that there's at least one remaining before the calendars all roll over. I
leave you all with this devotional to everyone's favorite lady archeologist:
