Oh geez, how in the name of Zod is this month rocketing along at this pace? As you guys can probably guess, work has, once again, been absconding away with just about all of my free time as of late. Fortunately there was a enough of a break in the proverbial clouds this past weekend to take in a showing of Civil War, but it seems that such nerdery will likely continue to be of the guerrilla variety for the majority of this year. We'll get into the nitty-gritty of that in a future post but, for now, let's get down to the Week in Geekdom!

Games

On nothing less than Star Wars day Respawn Entertainment, makers of Titanfall, announced that they are in the midst of working on a (as yet untitled) third-person ARPG set in a galaxy far, far away.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare isn't even approaching mass release yet and already gamers are seething at Activision's forthcoming offering.

Escapist would have us believe that these are the 8 most influential RPGs of all time. Do you agree?

While we're in a listicle frame of mind, these are 7 recent turn-based titles that are worth giving a go.

Fallout 4 now has Oculus Rift support.

Science/Technology

It's a technology at the heart of the vast majority of science fiction, but here's why we won't ever see faster-than-light travel in reality.

Say you're a miniaturized superhero. Could you, say, safely travel on a human-launched projectile while in your insectile state? (Warning: link contains Civil War spoilers)

Think you can program in a quantum environment? IBM has just the place for you to try your hand.

Another day, another revving of the Large Hadron Collider, another potential discovery of a new particle.

Feats of Geekdom/General Awesomess

Meet the Finnish 10-year-old who discovered a colossal bug in Instagram.

All Nippon Airways put together this very detailed and highly appropriate tribute for Star Wars Day:


As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!

Hey guys. It's been a while, I know, and for that I sincerely apologize. I'm about a month out from taking the first of the professional designation exams that are slated for this year, so the past few weeks have been all about the studying. Conversely, that means only four more weeks and we can get back to our regularly scheduled Care and Feeding of Nerds! In the meantime, let's get down to the Week in Geekdom. 

Comics

Here's the lowdown on DC's forthcoming Rebirth and why they really want you to think of it as being akin to the new Star Wars trilogy.

Games

If you've been visiting here for a while, you won't be at all surprised when you hear that I'm...ehm...something of a fan of the Civilization series so it's a bit special to partake in the 25th anniversary celebrations of that most excellent franchise.

Did you know that the software library of the Internet Archive contains over 2,500 entirely free, wholly playable classic MS-DOS games?  

If you were among the legions of horror fans that were grief stricken following the cancellation of the reboot of Silent Hills you now have cause to rejoice: the reboot is back on.

Lead Mass Effect writer Chris Schlef is leaving Bioware to join the ranks of Bungie.

If you're still gleefully exploring the vast post-apocalyptic landscape of Fallout 4 you'll soon be in for even more of the same. The next three months will feature as many new DLC releases.

Movies/TV

This is a nifty little visual sample of the original negative of Episode IV contrasted with what a team of specialists have been able to coax from that fragile bit of film:

Science/Technology

Just how fast is the D-Wave quantum computer relative to, say your average everyday PC? This fast. 

Speaking of quantum computing, a team of theoretical physicists from MIT have developed a novel method for error correction on a quantum level. 

It's been a security flaw that's existed since 2008, but we're just now realizing the potential impact on everything derived from the GNU C Library.

Next month will begin the effective last scientific call for the discovery of WIMPs. What are WIMPs and why are they potentially so important? Read here.

She's made a career of studying 'zombie stars' and now Victoria Kaspi, Ph.D., is the first female recipient of Canada's Herzberg Medal. 

The JPL mastermind behind the 'seven minutes of terror' that delivered Curiosity to the surface of Mars has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. 

Solar eclipses have been regarded by humanity as alternately fascinating and terrifying, but imagine a planetary configuration in which such eclipses lasted three and a half years.

Jupiter's moon, Europa, hosts possibly the best conditions for life to exist on a non-terrestrial segment of our solar system, so why is it so hard to get out there to confirm that?

Image credit

As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!

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.

Carrie Fisher has also been giving quite a few interviews, though hers tend to be  a bit more...colorful than those proffered by Daniels.

If you've been harboring even the tiniest bit of doubt, you put your fears to rest: The Force Awakens will not feature any Jar Jar Binks.

On a very not-Star Wars note, we have the first trailer for the sequel to the epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

And, while we're at it, the trailer for X-Men: Apocalypse:

Science/Technology

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.

Books

The World Fantasy award trophy will no longer feature the likeness of H.P. Lovecraft.

Gaming

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 has long been the stuff of myth, but the Nintendo Playstation is entirely real (and fully functional!).

Movies/TV

The Walking Dead will have its Negan and he will be portrayed by Mr. Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

Science/Technology

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.

What do you do when you accidentally launch two satellites into the wrong orbit? Why, you use them to test the predictions made by the Theory of Relativity, of course.

Image Credit

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.

Poor Phobos. Mars' oft-overlooked moon is being slowly dismantled by its celestial anchor.

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.

It took Ian Martin the better part of a year to complete, but he successfully crafted this fully functional holochess board from Star Wars.

And while we're talking about Star Wars superfans, here's the handiwork of one California dad who constructed a replica Death Star on the roof of his own house.

As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!

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.

Comics

Did Snoopy ruin the Peanuts?

Games

Need a little post-apocalyptic pick-me-up to get you through to the release of Fallout 4? You got it.

Movies/TV

It's official: Star Trek is coming back to the small screen in January of 2017. Caveat: everything subsequent to the pilot episode may be tough to come by.

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.

Every James Bond gadget ever.

Peter Capaldi is NOT happy about the way that the current incarnation of Doctor Who has played out on the BBC.

In happier BBC news, the network has greenlit an 8-part series based on Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials.

Oh hi there World of Warcraft trailer

Science/Technology

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. 

That same edition of Science also contains this research from the University of Toronto that may upend everything we thought we knew about how blood is made and maintained in the human body.

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.

Here is the brief, spirally history of the Strypi-type rocket. 

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 15th birthday to the International Space Station!

If you think the Hubble is the be-all and end-all of telescopic prowess in the universe, check out what gravity itself is capable of.

General Awesomeness/Feats of Nerdery

These two 17-year-olds, communicating only through Facebook and Gchat, may have just paved the way for interstellar travel.

As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!

Why hello there Halloween. I didn't expect to see you quite so...soon? If faster-than-light travel were possible, I'd be inclined to say we've superseded Lorenz Transformations territory and gone straight to warp speed at the rate the second half of 2015 has gone. Just crazy. Anyhow, enough of my time-travelling ramblings and on to the Week in Geekdom!

Games

We're only a few weeks away from the release of Fallout 4. If you aren't psyched yet, perhaps this trailer will get you in the post-apocalyptic mood.


Want a challenge? Try to name all 52 of these classic video games from individual screenshots.

Movies/TV

Venturoos, we have a date for the premiere of Season 6! We'll finally be able to lay our eyes on fresh Venture Bros goodness on January 24, 2016! Can't wait that long? Perhaps the latest trailer will help tide us over.


Speaking of long-awaited trailers, we finally have a look at the upcoming season of Jessica Jones.

Science/Technology

Who's ready for this week's awesome images from around the galaxy? Check out the most complete photograph of the Milky Way that we, as a species, have been able to take to date.

And take comfort in the fact that we have images like that one, as it turns out that some of the largest structures in the universe don't...um...actually exist?

While we're on the subject of existence, a cadre of researchers believe they've come up with a viable response to Fermi's Paradox: up to 92% of all planets (and, by extension, the life on said structures) haven't actually been formed yet.

Are you a Windows user who has been patiently (or not-so-patiently) waiting for Firefox to release a 64-bit version of the browser? Well that long sojourn will come to an end on November 3rd.

The most recent printing of Physical Review Letters includes these details as to how a group of physicists were able to experimentally realize something that had only existed in the theoretical realm: a quantum Hilbert hotel.

Image source

When vocaloids and dancing around in the privacy of your living room just aren't scratching your idol itch anymore, Japanese robot-maker DMM will allow you to program your very own partner-in-fanaticism. 

File this under: What Can't 3D Printing Do? Researchers at the University of Groningen (Netherlands) have created a printable human tooth that destroys bacteria on contact with its surface, eliminating the accumulation of plaque and preventing the formation of cavities. 

Are you planning on paying a visit to a coral reef in the near future? The latest edition of Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology details why you should skip the sunscreen.

The just-discovered-three-weeks-ago Asteroid 2015 TB145 will be scoping out Earth this Halloween (presumably to observe the practice of trick-or-treating in action).

Is it possible to create your own time zone? Sort of. Read here for the story of two friends who set out to do exactly that.

General Awesomeness

The newly elected Prime Minister of Canada also happens to be a member of the Rebel Alliance.

Harry Potter will be getting the Broadway treatment next year when it becomes a two-part play debuting in London's West End.

Have an extra 60,000 GBP lying around? Perhaps you'd be interested in purchasing this newly-discovered map of Middle Earth fully annotated by J.R.R. Tolkien himself.

As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!

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.

Comics

IDW Publishing will be making a readable reality of a combination that you may have only acted out with your action figures: Batman and the Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Games

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 may be a perfect example of A Realization Too Late, Sega's president admits that the quality of individual games may be a thing of reasonable importance.

Movies/TV

Once Upon a Time has cast its Merlin and Guienevere. 

Are you in full-on Walking Dead withdrawal? Well here's the season 6 trailer.

Star Wars: Episode IX will be directed by the man who gave us Jurassic World.

Speaking of Star Wars, here's what SDCC-ers got to partake in regarding Episode VII.

Here's our first look at Nathan Fillion's forthcoming web series, Con Man. That is all.

Ben Affleck's take on Batman was that the Caped Crusader is a bit of a burnout. Also, Affleck will be directing the next Batman film.

Science/Technology

Despite SpaceX's recent troubles, NASA is moving forward with plans for the first manned commercial mission to space and selected four astronauts to fly these initial missions.

NASA had themselves a busy week, as they also released the first images from New Horizons showing the surface of Pluto's moon, Charon.

11 years of Opportunity's journeys around the surface of Mars condensed into an 8-minute video.

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.

How to survive in the coldest place on Earth.

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.

Researchers at Yale believe they have discovered a black hole so massive that it's outgrown its galaxy.

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.

General Awesomeness/Feats of Nerdery

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.

Comics

This week Marvel undid one of its most controversial decisions and Spider-Man may never be the same.


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.

Turbine confirmed on Tuesday that it will be shutting down the free DC-centered MOBA Infinite Crisis. The game will go dark on August 14th.

The first peek we'll get of the Episode VII universe will come from Star Wars: Uprising, a mobile game.

Movies/TV

Big Trouble in Little China will be the subject of a remake and the Rock will be in the starring role.

Mega Man is already prepping for his 30th birthday celebrations. The diminutive Capcom icon will be getting a 26-episode animated series airing in 2017.

George R.R. Martin gives us 5 characters from a Song of Ice and Fire that he wishes weren't missing from Game of Thrones.

Science/Technology

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).

Physicians in Brazil have pushed the boundaries of what's possible with 3D printers after implanting a portion of a human skull printed in pure titanium.

What would you see if you were to fall into a black hole?

At first glance, it may seem like ordinary black paint but this substance may be the key to harnessing solar energy like never before.

The latest edition of Science includes details concerning this test that can reveal every virus you've ever contracted.

We may have already developed pharmacological weapons against the Ebola virus and just didn't know it.

If you're one of the millions of people for whom sleep doesn't come easy, MIT would like you to try on this hat.

Beginning this past Wednesday, the Large Hadron Collider ran (and will continue to run) at full power.

A group of British doctors have released data indicating that dual-faceted treatment with a pair of drugs is immensely effective against melanoma.

Feats of Nerdery/General Awesomeness

Meet Boyan Slat, the Dutch 20-year-old whose ambitious plan may be humanity's best hope to rid our oceans of man made debris.

ASUS, Republic of Gamers, and In Win have combined their powers to create this gobsmacking 'transforming' PC tower.

After years of a decidedly antagonistic relationship, Godzilla and Tokyo have officially buried the hatchet as the former was made a citizen and ambassador of the latter.

I'll leave you guys with this video footage of a remote-controlled R2-D2 fridge! As always,  best wishes for an excellent week ahead.