This Week In Geekdom

Happy weekend everyone. Despite having an hour less of weekend to work with, the past few days have, thankfully, been extra productive on the costume front. It's always exciting to reach that point at which the costume stops looking like heaps of raw material and begins to take the shape that, until that point, existed largely in your mind. Speaking of positive developments, the GIR and I were finally able to procure reasonably priced housing for Gen Con which, as you may remember, was a bit tricky to do this year. Copious thanks go out to Asmadi Games, who made this arrangement possible. Also, as a related aside, registration for vendors was apparently just as horrific and chaotic as it was for normal badge-holders, despite having an extra month to work out issues with the routing site. Go figure.

But ok, enough of that and more of This Week in Geekdom!

Comics

Archie Comics is getting a new chief creative officer and this is just one of many changes in store for the classic publisher.

Justice League, coming to a supermarket near you(?) DC Comics has teamed up with General Mills to offer four limited edition collectable comics inside specially marked boxes of breakfast cereal. Each of the comics is half of a two-part story, the conclusion of which can be read on the companion website.

The rise and fall of Marvel's Ultimate comics line.

TV

Arrow returns to the small screen with all new episodes Wednesday nights. Check out the extended trailer below. Green Arrow and Deathstroke! Squee!

 

Science/Technology

Space-bound objects pass by our planet on a regular basis, but this past Wednesday we had a closer-than-expected brush with an asteroid. Just how close? See for yourself.

For those of you paleontology buffs who bristle at the inclusion of a T. Rex in the Jurassic Park films, you can now mentally superimpose this recently discovered super predator as a chronologically appropriate substitute.

We all know that our solar system is colossal, but this interactive display gives you a very clear idea of how far removed we are from our celestial neighbors. 

Having One Ring to Rule Them All may not be entirely far-fetched after all.

When the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) first became operational, detractors screamed that the experiments conducted within would produce black holes that would unmake existence as we knew it. After a few years of activity, the researchers that staff the LHC have concluded that no, they have produced no black holes.

Working in 4 or more dimensions is common practice for quantum physics, but what about working in zero dimensions? Turns out that, not only is this possible, but the potential applications of zero dimensions are astounding.

What happens when an galaxy cluster assaults a galaxy proper? These incredibly beautiful images.

Thank you Hubble telescope

 

NASA is setting its sights on a mission to Europa. Here are the very preliminary details of this future venture to Jupiter's super fluid moon.

We are <that> much closer to having real-life power lifting suits thanks to the engineers at Italy's Perceptual Robotics Laboratory. Check out video of their mechanical "body extender" in action here.

Hyundai is on the cusp of rolling out the first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell car.

Games

As if we needed another reason to work ourselves up over the development of the Oculus Rift. Now developer Ubiquitron has an active beta of classic, NES-style Legend of Zelda for the forthcoming virtual reality platform. Bonus: video of the beta!

Speaking of NES, it's no secret that Nintendo has been falling further and further behind its major console-producing competitors over the course of the past few years. One of the many reasons behind this downward trend is Nintendo's refusal to create ports to allow its games to migrate to mobile platforms. Nintendo veteran Kensuke Tanabe offered this explanation as to why you won't be seeing Mario or Zelda on your tablet or smartphone anytime soon.

Can playing Tetris actually be good for you? This study found that playing the classic spatial awareness game significantly reduced players' cravings for food and alcohol. Next step, the Tetris diet?

Do you love Sim City, but find the current experience...lacking. That's certainly understandable for a whole host of reasons. If city-building is your goal, take a look at Shining Rock's Banished. This indie-produced simulator was developed by a single programmer and allows players to create medieval era hamlets and carefully balance the resources and conditions that influence this minute bastion of humanity.  

Movies

Filming for the still-untitled Batman vs. Superman movie is just about to begin, but already fans of the comic foundation of the film are up in arms. While some of this is to be expected, given our reputation for nigh-instantaneous outrage, much of the controversy stems from director Zack Snyder and his intent to 'explode' existing canon.

General Awesomeness

Legos; is there anything they can't fix? Now we have another reason to love our favorite feat of Danish engineering. Ian Moore, a member of Lego's corporate team, built this diorama of an MRI, then donated the scene to Royal Berkshire Hospital in the United Kingdom to be used as teaching tool to alleviate anxiety in children about to undergo an MRI.

I leave you guys with this recreation of the opening sequence of the movie Skyfall as rendered in Grand Theft Auto V. As always, best wishes for an awesome week ahead!