How is it June already? Seriously, where has this year gone? We'll be getting back to Lorenz transformation territory if this pace keeps up. No complaints here though, as this phenomenon brings Gen Con 2014 much closer. Can't wait. In the meantime, let's get down to the Week in Geekdom!
Comics
Gaiman v MacFarlane was one of the single most followed comic book legal battles to date. This week, the transcripts of this epic courtroom struggle were released to the public.
The top 10 DC/Marvel villainesses of all time. Do you agree?
Games
Nintendo has had a rough go of things lately and this week was no exception. Ubisoft announced that it had no plans to create games for Nintendo's maligned Wii U console for next month's E3 convention, essentially confirming that third party game developers as a whole would not be embracing the Wii U.
The Ubisoft announcement detracted a fair bit of attention away from the fact that on Friday Nintendo released what is, by all reports, an excellent game in Mario Kart 8. While the game is getting favorable reviews, the guys over at Digital Spy put together this psuedo-nostalgic look back at the top 10 Mario Kart tracks you loved to hate.
Valve also had a setback this week, albeit not at the same disastrous level as that suffered by Nintendo, when it announced that its highly anticipated Steam Machine PC gaming controller would not be hitting the marketplace this year as originally forecast. The updated release schedule is disconcertingly amorphous, with Valve providing only the year 2015 as guidance.
Are you eagerly awaiting the next installment of Call of Duty? Sledgehammer Games has these tidbits on hand to help tide you over until November 4.
The stereotype of the stoner-gamer has persisted for decades, but few have attempted to parse out the reality from the fiction until, well, this 'study'.
Science/Technology
The single biggest story of the week came out of the latest edition of the journal Science, in which Dutch scientists provided the details of their experiments which indicate that they may have achieved quantum teleportation.
Speaking of quantum goodness, this week brought us a new theory of reality that melds classical and quantum principles into a single paradigm.
It has been 40 years since Soviet researcher Vitaly Efimov attempted to use quantum equations to explain the behavior of atomic particles, but his work has finally been proven to be true.
Our favorite real-life Tony Stark, Elon Musk, keenly captured headlines on Thursday with this press release detailing the new Dragon V2 reusable space capsule. If you missed out on the live announcement, you can view the full video here.
The US military, not to be outdone in the realm of near-future Stark Industries-esque technology, announced that it will be testing its 'Iron Man' suit as early as this summer.
Apple, in the unfamiliar position of playing catch up, appears to be building this entry into the burgeoning smart watch market. If all goes according to estimates, the watch will be available for purchase in the third quarter of this year.
We have smart phones and smart watches, but smart bikes? A 20-year-old Canadian entrepreneur has set his sights on bringing two-wheeled transit into the information age.
Bringing us closer to universal, real-time translation is...Skype? Microsoft debuted this future feature on Wednesday and the potential applications are pretty astounding.
How many stars are there in the universe? Astronomer David Kornreich offers this response. (spoiler alert: many zeros ahead)
Sunsets, gorgeous cyclical atmospheric display or valuable source of data? Well, when the celestial body experiencing said sunset is Titan, the answer might be both.
NASA has become increasingly adept at re-establishing contact with decades-old orbital devices. The latest entry on their list of recovered hardware is the ISEE-3, which came back into the proverbial fold on Thursday.
The concept of a black hole has featured in both science fiction and viable research for decades, but these galaxial maws may only be half the story. Meet its sibling, the white hole.
Feats of Nerdery/General Awesomeness
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| Droids who can speak binary sold separately |
Moisture farming is now no longer just a feature of the Tatooinian economy but, thanks to this invention, is a pragmatic way for denizens of remote locales to draw clean drinking water from the air.
Is that gentleman riding a suitcase? For one devoted farmer from China's Hunan province, the answer is yes. The motorized scooter/suitcase hybrid is the result of 10 years of trial and error by the farmer.
File this under Epic Replicas: this full scale version of the ED-209 from Robocop.
As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!
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