Happy weekend everyone! With the holidays (and Episode VII!) on our doorstep, it seems like the days just evaporate. The goal for the next week or so is to figure out when, exactly we'll get to the movies (and avoiding any and all spoilers until that point). While we wait, let's get down to a special Star Wars-themed Week in Geekdom.
Movies/TV
Anthony Daniels is the only actor to have appeared in every one of the Star Wars films. This in-depth interview details Daniels' interactions with J.J. Abrams and his tireless desire to own every part of his most famous role.
The latest edition of Nature Materials includes this research from MIT that, after combining microRNA strands into a triple helix, may be the foundation for a new type of cancer treatment.
Are you ready for your weekly dose of awesome photos from New Horizons? Well, wait no more.
Ok, we couldn't get through this section without at least one Star Wars reference. What's a realistic way to build a to-scale Death Star? The guys at JPL have a potential answer.
Feats of Nerdery/General Awesomeness
Check out this fully armed and operational Death Star replica
As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!
Happy weekend everyone! Hope you're all staying fed and hydrated among all the video game releases of this past week. If you're just now taking a break from your questing, here's the lowdown on the Week in Geekdom.
Extra Life may have been last weekend, but the charitable gaming continues! Watch here for the live stream of Desert Bus for Hope!
On Thursday fans of The Binding of Issac found that the latest bit of DLC for their beloved game was also the jump off point for an insane ARG. If you missed out on all the gaming goodness, PC Gamer covered the entire thing.
Nintendo announced its release schedule for the first and second quarter of 2016. Among the new titles was the introduction of Linkle, who will feature in Hyrule Warriors Legends on the 3DS.
It seems contradictory, but the latest research from a joint venture between China's ASIPP and the United States' General Atomics revealed that lowering the distance between pre-fusion plasma and the walls of the chamber said matter is confined in actually increasing the stability of the potential energy-producing system.
Canadian neurosurgeon Dr. Todd Mainprize has done what modern medicine has attempted to do for decades: penetrated the blood-brain barrier.
Computer scientist Laszlo Babai has allegedly developed an algorithm that allows the user to determine if two networks are the same, regardless of their respective complexity.
In the latest installation of What Can't 3D Printing Do is this art installation that features a printed ear derived from the DNA of Vincent Van Gogh. Extra eyebrow-raising is the fact that the ear can 'listen' to sound waves emitted into it.
The latest edition of Nature Communications contains this research from the Imperial College London that may introduce the world to a brand new, super efficient type of laser.
On the subject of gravitational dismantling, have you ever wondered if it's possible to see the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy? Here's how you could.
General Awesomeness/Feats of Nerdery
It's just a tad more luxurious than Vault 111. Welcome to the Oppidum, the world's largest 'billionaire bunker' for all your apocalypse-surviving needs.
Speaking of things that might be fun to own if you have all the monies, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is being converted into luxury condos.
Happy weekend everyone and sweet dreams to everyone who's finishing Extra Life 2015. This year's gaming marathon has raised nearly $6.4 million USD and counting! So many kudos to everyone who participated this year, now go get some much-deserved rest. And rest is definitely needed, as this upcoming week is chock-full of much-anticipated releases. For those of you still conscious, let's get down to the week in geekdom.
We're approaching the t-minus one month mark in the countdown to Episode VII. If a month is still too much to bear, Den of Geek has put together this massive compilation of all the posters, trailers, and assorted images that have been released to the public.
A team of researchers comprised of participants from UC San Francisco, the University of Michigan, and Washington University at St. Louis have identified a compound that, when applied as an eye drop, may clear up cataracts in humans. Their findings can be found in the latest edition of Science.
There are myriad examples in film and, increasingly, in real life wherein humans show more than a bit of disdain for AI programmed to be 'friendly' or otherwise helpful. As this sort of technology becomes more integrated into our lives, how will our behavior impact the way we relate to other humans?
NASA's JPL and the University of Texas at Austin have been working together to use satellites in order to observe patterns in the Earth's ocean currents. What they've found so far does not bode well in terms of the potential impacts of climate change.
This past Wednesday marked the exact centennial of Albert Einstein's historic, gravity-redefining lectures at the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Here's the story of how none of this would likely have come to pass were it not for the school of thought/obsession with a fictional planet.
How is it that supermassive black holes are capable of of flaring? Thanks to NASA's Explorer mission Swift and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, we may be closer than ever to answering that question.
We've been following the development of a potential EM drive as best we can and, allegedly, there have been a few new details released into the interwebs concerning this physics-defying device.
Happy weekend everyone! We're in the very last stages of preparations for Gen Con 2015, which itself is a little surreal. The countdown now somehow stands at single digits, costume pieces need to be shipped, and bags will soon need to be packed. At this point next week Steampunk Hawkgirl will be 100% complete and, hopefully, on her way out to Indianapolis. In the interim, there will be at least one or two more posts that speak to the making of that costume and probably one other post describing where you can find the GIR and I if you're going to be joining us out at Gen Con. In the meantime though, let's get down to the week in Geekdom.
Books
Star Wars: Aftermath, one of the first new canon novels in the Star Wars universe, depicts the tragic fallout after the destruction of the second Death Star. The book will be available on September 4th.
The saga of Dr. Doom's struggle to break into the Marvel cinematic universe.
Science/Technology
One of the biggest science stories of the week was undoubtedly the first images of Pluto that were sent back to us from the New Horizons probe. Here are some of the incredible pictures from our most distant neighbor in this solar system.
Speaking of NASA-originated awesomeness, these are the ideas being bandied about for a post-Hubble deep space telescope.
The other headline-grabbing bit of science news we were treated to this week was this discovery out of CERN that researchers have discovered a new subatomic particle: pentaquarks.
Buckyballs, not just a fun desk toy that's been pulled off the US market, but a tool that is still helping researchers unravel long-standing mysteries concerning interstellar space.
The latest edition of Nature Communications includes this bit of research about a novel type of ceramic developed at the University of Tokyo that holds onto heat until the release of such is purposefully triggered.
We talk a lot on here about the sometimes-unsettling advances in the field of robotics. Well, researchers at the University of Hertfordshire are trying to allay our fears a bit with their efforts to teach robots to play soccer.
Hi everyone! Hope you're having a wonderful weekend, especially if you're one of those nerds lucky enough to be at San Diego Comic Con right now. This week's entry is going to be a bit on the short side as I'm elbow deep in costuming still and the other, non-cosplay preparations for Gen Con are now in full swing. We're almost two weeks out! But ok, enough convention talk for the moment; let's get down to the week in Geekdom.
On Friday, Beandog announced that they will be releasing a 25-hour expansion to Baldur's Gate titled Siege of Dragonspear. There is no release date attached to the title yet, but Beandog confirmed that the expansion will be available on PC, Mac, and Linux.
In what is surely a fabulous idea and won't play at all into the forthcoming overthrow of humanity by robot-kind, a team of Harvard researchers has taken to giving soft, skin-like coatings to their robo-creations.
If the Earth is rapidly heating up, where is all of these ambient heat going? According to a new study by JPL the answer is into the oceans.
Aside from potentially untangling the thorny issue of computing in quantum states, IBM is also making ultradense computing chips that boast a maximum capacity some four times larger than today's most powerful chips.
One nifty benefit of the ongoing drought in California is that researchers can now readily access the wreckage of a B-29 superfortress that crashed into Lake Mead in 1948.
It's Sunday again? Seriously? Well alright then. Now that we're 30 days out from Gen Con 2015 my days have pretty much been all costuming all the time. You guys will get to see the fruits of those labors and get the details of how everything has come together in the very near future, I promise. However, for now, let's get down to the Week in Geekdom.
Can't wait until November to get your fix of Avalanche's Mad Max game? They were kind enough to give us this trailer to help tide us over.
Take one part SpaceChem and one part absurdity, then add a heaping helping of felines and you've got The Cat Machine.
Apparently Rocksteady learned nothing from the experiences of Ubisoft as the former has temporarily suspended sales of Batman: Arkham Knight to address the myriad of issues that have been plaguing the much-anticipated PC version of the title.
Researchers now feel that vaccines made in the 1960s made those who received said inoculations more susceptible to getting chlamydia. Now they believe they've solved the mystery as to why that was the case and what it could mean for the development of future medications.
Two years ago a Dutch artist was charged with coming up with a way to dampen ambient noise levels surrounding Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. This is the solution he came up with.
General Awesomeness
Do you love Disney princesses? Did you see Jurassic World and now you can't get enough dinosaurs? Behold, the Velociprincesses.
Happy weekend guys. Hope you've all had a great week and a suitably excellent weekend (and that you're not broke as a result of the Steam Summer Sale). There are a few hours left to get in on our Street Fighter IV giveaway too! Ok, you got your entry in? Let's get down to the week in geekdom!
Books
The onslaught of all things Star Wars ahead of the release of Episode VII is building to a crescendo. Disney and Lucasfilm will be adding to this on September 22nd, at which time they will release three new novels retelling the original trilogy from new viewpoints. You can get a sneak peek of this forthcoming goodness by reading this excerpt.
Are your dice balanced? The following video will show you how to determine if you've got a fair die or if your complaints that said die was cursed and plotting against you were true all along.
This was a week of awesome new movie trailers. We now have a look at Hunger Games: Catching Fire Part 2 and the Martian.
Science/Technology
The Large Hadron Collider has been successfully running at full capacity for a bit now (and already giving us astounding data). Given that we haven't been plunged into the depths of a black hole as a direct result, maybe we can take some time to discuss the philosophy underpinning this lancet into scientific discovery.
It's been 39 years since Carl Sagan proposed the concept of a solar sail, but this week that musing became a reality (and Bill Nye is psyched about it).
I'll leave you guys with this footage from YouTuber styropyro and his latest creation: a functional 40W laser shotgun. As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead.
Hi guys. Hope you're all having a great weekend thus far. The past few days have been a nice respite from the hustle and bustle of the past few weeks (and the torrent of amazing gaming news coming out ahead of E3). It's giving me a chance to push ahead with Steampunk Hawkgirl and for all of us to tackle the last few entrants to the Playtesting Lab before we put the latter into Gen Con hiatus (the Lab will open again on August 11th). Gah, Gen Con is so soon! But ok, let's get back to the Week in Geekdom.
Not content with just that change, Marvel is on the cusp of launching the reboot of its entire roster. We got a glimpse of what the new incarnations of our favorite characters will look like earlier this week.
The horrified gasps you may have heard (or uttered yourself) earlier this week were doubtless from readers of the new Marvel Star Wars comic line. Star Wars #6 gave us the first real taste of what life will be like in the new Expanded Universe (warning: link contains spoilers).
Action Comics #41 gives us this look at the newest incarnation of Superman.
Games
The past week has been chock-full of gaming news, not least of which was 2K's enormous announcement that XCOM 2 is not only very real, but will be coming our way later this year. We got a few more details about humanity's struggle with the alien invaders. And, if you missed it, take a gander at the announcement trailer.
We also got our first look at Fallout 4. As the Care and Feeding of Nerds is based in Boston, we were particularly fascinated by how Bethesda depicts our fair city post nuclear apocalypse.
Just in time for the forthcoming Summer Sale, Steam put forth a new refund policy that's sure to make our wallets weep just a bit less.
The policy was only one bit of big Steam news this week. Valve also released long-awaited details concerning its controller and Link system. Both items are now available for pre-order and will allegedly ship in October.
We've been following the upcoming release of Windows 10 for a bit now, but this week we got an official release date. You'll be able to upgrade beginning on July 29th (and can put in your 'order' for the free upgrade right now if you're running a Windows OS by clicking on the little icon in the lower right-hand corner of your UI).
Hi everyone. Hope you're all having a great weekend thus far. The GIR and I are still a bit giddy after our first foray into 5th Edition D&D yesterday. It felt so incredibly good to be back at a table again. We've done a handful of online-based games, but there's definitely something to be said about gathering friends around a screen and physically rolling our dice. But enough reminiscing; let's get down to the Week in Geekdom.
Comics
The big buzz this week centered primarily around the release of Age of Ultron. If you or your friends were inspired by the movie and want to dive into the source comics, this is an exeellent primer to help you do so.
The PC version of Grand Theft Auto V may be only days off the proverbial release block, but Rockstar Games has allegedly already put the kibosh on the development and use of mods.
One of the most fun and enjoyable scenes in Age of Ultron is the fight between the Hulk and Tony Stark wearing the Hulkbuster version of his Iron Man armor. If the trailer or the movie has you wondering just how hard Tony had to hit the Hulk in that scene, this is your answer.
News out of Dimension Jump Convention included this confirmation that the classic sci-fi series Red Dwarfwill be making a comeback. Not one, but two new incarnations of the show will be appearing on the UK's Dave network in 2016 and 2017 repectively.
40 years ago NASA scientists began gathering satellite images of the Earth. These are some of the time-lapse videos that came out of that collecting and they provide us with some stunning video clips illustrating the footprint that we've created on Earth's surface.
Artist's rendition of MESSENGER's last moments
Speaking of NASA, earler this week they bid farewell to MESSENGER, their Mercury orbiter, after the latter ran out of fuel and smashed onto the surface of the diminutive planet.
As the agency turned its eyes away from the center of our solar system and looked out to the farthest reaches of the latter they were met with what appears to be a polar ice cap on the most controversial of the dwarf planets.
They're also allegedly working on an ideal way to get from point A to point B by edging closer to making a functional warp drive.
Happy weekend everyone and best wishes for a happy remainder of your con to all those attending Celebration right now. I'm not jealous at all...ok, who am I kidding? I so wish I could be in Anaheim right now. Sigh. Since we can't be in California right now, let's distract ourselves with Steam key giveaways and This Week in Geekdom!
Comics
Marvel executive editor Mike Marts has left the powerhouse label to join forces with writer (and fellow Marvel alum) Joe Pruett to begin their own comics label: AfterShock Comics.
It's one of the all-time young adult classics, and this week we got a 3-page snippet of A Wrinkle In Time that had been cut from the final edit of the book.
Games
There are plenty of video game titles that have a celebrity's name attached to them, but here are nine of the weirdest times that a game got a celebrity cameo.
F1 2015 is still a work in progress, but it's already gaining quite a bit of acclaim as a well executed and fundamentally fun racing simulator.
And, of course, we have the brand new trailer for Star Wars: Battlefront.Battlefront will be available on November 17th on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
This week was the week of all the new trailers. Below are the teasers for Episode VII, Star Wars: Rebels, and Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Science/Technology
On Thursday Central Japan Railway announced that the newest incarnation of their line of maglev trains reached a speed of 366 mph (590 kph) during a test run. If these tests continue to turn out well, this new shinkansen will be taking passengers as soon as 2027.
We all know that space is mind-bogglingly vast, but here are some helpful infographics to help us wrap our heads around just how much space is out there in space.
You may know of someone who treats their dog as though the canine were their child (this someone may even be you), but it turns out that there's a growing body of scientific evidence that indicates this attachment isn't complete hyperbole.
On Tuesday SpaceX came this close to successfully landing their reusable Falcon 9 rocket. The company then provided this breakdown of exactly what went wrong (and right).
Could this Vulcan rocket give the Falcon 9 a run for its money?
While SpaceX was coming a hair's breadth away from success, Boeing and Lockheed Martin (with a little help from Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin) released these images of their forthcoming potential rival to the Falcon 9: the Vulcan rocket.
Meanwhile, the New Horizons probe sent color images of Pluto back to Earth. Here are said shots along with a breakdown of just what it takes to send the pictures from 2.9 billion miles away.
2015 marks the 100th anniversary of Einstein's introduction of the General Theory of Relativity. Here is a thorough and interesting accounting of why the Theory is so important and how it continues to have a massive impact on theoretical physics a century later.
Just one more reason to fear your future robot overlords: they now know how to use swords (with bonus robot swordfighting video goodness!)
Chauvet Cave contains some of the most detailed and astounding examples of Paleolithic art known to humankind. It's also one of the most tightly guarded places in all of France. One Smithsonian reporter was among the few individuals given access to the Cave and this was his experience.
As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!
Holy moly, we're already coming up on the midpoint for April. Fortunately, it's finally started to feel like mid-April around here (no snow, woot!). The improving weather serves as a good reminder that Gen Con is only a few months away. There will be plenty of updates regarding our preparations for the Best Four Days in Gaming but, for now, let's get down to the Week in Geekdom!
Books
The top slots on Amazon.com's bestseller's list are occupied by coloring books that are targeted towards adults. Here's why the book world is shifting its assumptions regarding what defines 'age appropriate'.
Games
Sorry Crimean Warcraft fans. This week Blizzard joined the ranks of Apple, Google, and PayPal in suspending its services to the conflicted peninsula.
If you're one of those gamers eagerly awaiting the release of Grand Theft Auto V on PC, you may want to take a look at this list of the errors you may see when you install and try to start up the game.
On Wednesday Square Enix gave us this trailer for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. There is no official release date yet, but the game will be available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Movies/TV
In this nifty Star Wars featurette we learn where the Millennium Falcon got its distinct shape and what exactly the asteroids were made of.
IMAX theaters have gone from relative rarity to fairly commonplace in only a few years. One of the consequences of this cinematic proliferation? An increased demand for technicians who can handle the complexities of an IMAX projector. Check out this video of the elaborate process involved in just changing an IMAX light bulb.
On Friday we got the debut of the Daredevil TV series, but some people are already displeased. Turns out the show about the famously blind superhero isn't actually configured for blind viewers.
It's no secret that this past winter in the U.S. was more than a bit on the weird side. It turns out that this was due in no small part to a warm 'blob' in the heart of the Pacific Ocean.
Hundreds of researchers have spent untold hours trying to definitively prove the root cause of the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. The latest edition of Science introduces a new theory: that volcanic eruptions caused the Earth's oceans to acidify to the point that very little life could be sustained.
Speaking of dinosaurs, one of the biggest science stories of the week were the findings out of the new University of Lisbon in Portugal that appear to have proven that, contrary to years of being told that Apatosaurus was the only correct name for a type of long-necked herbivore, Brontosaurus was very real and entirely distinct species of dinosaur.
A team of researchers from the Vienna University of Technology have captured light in a bottle...er...a glass fiber. Their research, published on the University's website, details how the team was able to bring light to a halt in their customized fiber.
Scientists out of Stanford University are also keen to push the boundaries of existing technology with their work on creating batteries powered by aluminium-ions (as opposed to the more common lead or lithium-ion).
Octopi have become famous for everything from hosting their own internal raves to predicting winners of the FIFA World Cup. Now meet Rambo, the world's first octopus photographer.
Woo comic-related infographics! Here are the 50 suits of armor that have depicted in all media incarnations of Iron Man over the years.
It's one of the more recognizable images permeating the internets, but it's also incredibly lucrative. Here's the story of 'Trollface' and how its creator is laughing all the way to the bank.
As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!
