This Week in Geekdom

Hi guys, hope you're all having a great weekend so far. It's been a pretty big week on both the science front and the convention front, as we talked about a few days ago. I still can't get over the reality that is the Philae lander successfully touching down on comet 67P. It's arguably up there in the Literal Definitions of Mindblowing events. While we bask in the awe of humans pushing the envelope of technological possibility, we can also get down to the Week in Geekdom!

TV/Movies

Neil DeGrasse Tyson is many things, but he has fashioned a highly visible role for himself with his Twitter-centric breakdowns of scientific accuracy (or inaccuracy) of various movies. Earlier this week he provided a less character-bound version of this as it pertained to the new Chris Nolan movie, Interstellar.

So George Lucas, what have you been up to now that Star Wars is in the creative purview of others? Animated Shakespeare you say?

The Suicide Squad movie is still well over a year away, but we at least have a good idea of who will be playing Harley Quinn.

In the realm of movies-that-are-still-years-away, Daniel Bruhl has signed on to play an as-yet-unnamed character in Captain America: Civil War.

Games

One of the biggest stories to come out of last week's BlizzCon was Blizzard's confirmation that, after 17 years, they would be releasing a title that wasn't tied to either StarCraft or WarCraft. So what is Overwatch exactly? Let's find out.

Unfortunately for Blizzard, it could not rest on its convention laurels for very long. On Friday, its release of the much-anticipated World of Warcraft expansion, Warlords of Draenor, was marred by a DDoS attack.

Nintendo had a much less turbulent week, announcing that pre-orders for Super Smash Bros. set company records. 

How Xbox hackers stole $100 million USD worth of proprietary technology and earned themselves the wrath of both Microsoft and the US Army.

Why are video games released to the market on Tuesdays? Turns out the answer has a lot to do with Sonic the Hedgehog.

Science/Technology

While the Philae landing prompted the press to make all sorts of comparisons to the movie Armageddon, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory underscored that the phenomenon of space matter entering our atmosphere is not an uncommon occurrence. Check out this map charting the strikes of some of the most dramatic space-to-Earth's-surface events (also called bollide events) in the past decade.  

While we have Philae in mind, this is the 'song' of comet 67P as captured by the Rosetta spacecraft.

Google has confirmed that Google Wallet is on the way out (while uttering curses at PayPal and Apple Pay).

Why does it seem like individuals who actively work to appear contrarian end up looking like one another? Turns out the answer may be hardwired into our brains.

We've talked a bit about autonomous cars and the progress that various companies have made in terms of bringing that concept to mass market reality. While there's no question that such an invention would have a considerable impact on how we think of driving, will it also change the way we consider car ownership in general?

If it's technically possible to write flawless software, why don't we do so?

DRM has been a contentious addition to many games, but, if you own a Keurig, prepare for a dose of it along with your morning coffee.

Unsettling or awesome: a pair of industrial robots that have been programmed to fight one another with katanas?

General Awesomeness/Cosplay/Feats of Nerdery

Archaeologists are in the process of unearthing what may be the largest tomb ever discovered in Greece. While the identity of the tomb's tenet remains unknown, there is the possibility that it could, in fact, be Alexander the Great.

These are some stunning fan-made posters for movie sequels that were never made.

How do you beat Super Mario 64 without jumping once? A lot of practice and detailed notation.

I'll leave you guys with this extremely impressive tutorial/procedural of possibly the most realistic Professor Farnsworth cosplay to grace the interwebs. As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!