The Care and Feeding of Nerds: comics

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This Week in Geekdom

Posted by Kel

Hi everyone. Woo boy. We're all still a bit worn out from PAX East 2016, but there's plenty of content to help push us through that post-con fatigue. No worries, you'll get all the goodness from PAX in the very near future! In the meantime, let's get down to the Week in Geekdom.

Comics

DC has fired Shelly Bond, executive editor of Vertigo, and announces a not-yet-detailed 'restructuring of the label.

Games

Blizzard comes clean about their cancelled successor to World of Warcraft.

Video games are estimated to garner nearly $100 billion USD this year.

Meet Project Nova, the first-person shooter by CCP that's trying to establish a solid foundation for itself. Oh, and, by the way, it's an Eve game.

Sony hasn't come right out and said as much, but it has dropped some strong hints that the PS4 may be the last console it ever produces.

The Xbox 360 received its official death notice from Microsoft this past Thursday.

Kerbal Space Program gets 'Turbo Charged' in the first large-scale update since the game's release.

Red Dead 2 seems as though it is a very, very real (eventually playable) possibility.

Movies/TV

Somewhere on this planet there exists 39 episodes of a Star Wars-based animated series that we may never get to see.

The showrunners have confirmed that they are approaching the end of the narrative for Game of Thrones.

The latest companion for Doctor Who has been revealed.

Science/Technology

Is it possible that the entirety of the known and unknown universe is actually just an elaborate computer simulation? Neil deGrasse Tyson and some of the other brightest minds in science concede that there's a chance this could be the case.

On a similar note: is it possible for scientists to prove that a multiverse exists?

The potential physical states of water are some of the best known in science, but, given the results of this study in the latest edition of Physical Review Letters, there may be a whole lot more to the molecule than previously believed.

While we're on the subject of water and the amazing things that we're just discovering it can do, researchers at Kyoto University have managed to isolate a dimer of the substance using a technique called molecular surgery.

Image credit

A robot monk? China's Longquan Temple now counts a mechanical member among its monastical ranks.

Vulcanologists are adopting a new type of statistical analysis in their studies, one typically employed by economists.

Need a few moments of beauty? NASA has you covered with these videos of the Aurora Borealis as seen from space.

Obi-Wan may have believed them to be an elegant weapon, but lightsabers would actually be far more dangerous in real life than their cinematic depiction would have you believe them to be.

Researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory are producing AI Squared: an AI protocol capable of stopping cyberattacks.

As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!

This Week in Geekdom

Posted by Kel

Happy Sunday everyone. Yep, I'm right back in the studying swing of things, but even the specter of another exam won't overshadow PAX East next weekend. Unsurprisingly, PAX crept up faster than I'd have preferred given everything else that's been going on this year, so it's not likely that there'll be any cosplaying from me this time around (unless I can whip one of my old costumes into shape in the next week or so). As this will be my only opportunity to cosplay in 2016 (more on this in a future post), it'd be great if I can make it happen. In the meantime, let's get down to the Week in Geekdom!

Comics

It was explicitly pointed out to us during the course of Episode VII, but we will learn exactly why C-3PO's arm was red in the film thanks to a new comic: Star Wars Special: C-3PO #1.

Image credit

Games

If you are a fan of both My Little Pony and Kerbal Space Program, you now have a new cause to rejoice.

The World of Tanks finals at this year's WGL Grand were mind-bogglingly dramatic.

Behold, the new world record speed run of Super Mario Bros.

Movies/TV

Netflix has confirmed that it will offer its services in ultra-high-definition 4K resolution to its premium subscribers.

We're more more than a year and a half away from Episode VIII, but the rampant speculation concerning the plot of the next installment of Star Wars abounds, thanks in part to J.J. Abrams himself.

The promotional buildup for the forthcoming live-action release of Ghost in the Shell is off to an...ehm...less than excellent start.

We will officially Fear the Walking Dead for a third season.

Deadpool 2 will feature the exact same cast and creative team as its predecessor. It's almost like they saw how successful the first film was and wanted to replicate it. Their common sense is tingling!

February 10, 2017 will bring us John Wick 2.

Thank goodness DC can occasionally possess a lick of wherewithal. Batman: The Killing Joke, slated to make its debut at San Diego Comic Con in a few months, will be rated R.

Ben Affleck can't get enough Batman. He's now slated to both star in and direct a standalone film about the caped crusader.

Science/Technology

Google is pushing forward with its crusade to bring self-driving cars to a road near you after filing these patents that will allow its autonomous autos to detect the turn signals of other vehicles.

How do you go about repairing a critical chip or component while travelling through space? Well, if NASA has anything to say about it, the solution may involve bugs that have been engineered to both eat and excrete metal.

We've gotten somewhat adept at discovering planets that exist beyond the reaches of our solar system but that's apparently to be expected given that we've been doing so for nearly a century.

Feats of Nerdery/General Awesomeness

We've been big proponents of 3D printing these four years past, so it's only natural that we get a bit excited about the latest possibilities the technology presents: printable food.

Speaking of 3D printing, yes, your cat does need 3D printed battle armor.

This is the arguably most love a medical frigate has gotten since The Empire Strikes Back.

As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!

This Week in Geekdom

Posted by Kel

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!

Upcoming Awesomeness in 2016!

Posted by Kel

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that 2016 is already treating you well and that the year is off to a great start. Composing this post has become a fun tradition in itself both because it elicits a little nostalgia when I look over similar posts from previous years (speaking of, here are the entries for 2015, 2014, and 2013) and looking ahead to all the forthcoming awesome is always fun. So let's get to it, shall we?

New Site Stuff in 2016

It's no secret that the pacing of new posts has slowed in the past few months and that's something I think we can all agree isn't the best. The goal is to change that, but, not gonna lie guys, that's going to be tough to do in 2016. A good chunk of this upcoming year is going to be devoted to studying for (and taking) a handful of professional certification exams. If all goes well and I pass all the exams on the first try then this will be the only year that gets consumed in this not-so-fun way. Fingers crossed!

That's not to say that the Care and Feeding of Nerds is going on ice. Not at all! There will definitely be plenty of novel content and, hopefully, a few contests coming your way. It's just that there will likely be a bit less of both in 2016 when compared to previous years.

But there will be goodness! We'll be bringing you coverage from at least two conventions: PAX East 2016 and the Boston Festival of Indie Games. There's a very good chance that we may add a few conventions that have never been covered on the site before, which we're really excited about.

Comics

The past two years have seen some pretty massive upheavals in the comics world, but 2016 is shaping up to be a bit more tranquil as most major publishers appear to want to enjoy their new status quo. Here are 5 upcoming titles that we can look forward to in the very near future and a whole heap more spanning the comic, manga, and graphic novel realms.

January/February are often rife with mid-season premieres and introductions of fun new programs. Here's what we can add to our viewing queues in the next few weeks (premiere dates and times may vary based on your location and cable provider). Ahhhh...X-Files....Venture Bros!!

The Shannara Chronicles: (MTV) January 5th

Colony: (USA) January 14th

The Flash: (The CW) January 19th

Agent Carter: (ABC) January 19th

Arrow: (The CW) January 20th

Supernatural: (The CW) January 20th

DC's Legends of Tomorrow: (The CW) January 21st

The X-Files: (FOX) January 24th

The Venture Bros: (Cartoon Network) February 7th

The Walking Dead: (AMC) February 14th

Movies

As with most recent years, the trend in 2016 will be lots of reboots and sequels, with a bit of novel content tossed in here and there.

January	The 5th Wave - The Earth is devastated by successive waves of alien attacks. One girl asserts herself and bands with fellow survivors to reclaim the planet. Ip Man 3 - Donnie Yen returns to the title role and takes a stand against a band of crooked property managers and cruel gangsters. Synchronicity - A physicist invents a time machine only to have his work fall into the hands of a femme fatale.
February	Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - The film treatment of the wildly popular adaptation of the Jane Austen classic. Deadpool - The Merc with a Mouth gets to incite havoc on the big screen.
March	Allegiant - The cinematic version of the Divergent young adult novel series continues with this third installment. The content of the book bearing the name of the movie will be divided into two films, akin to what we saw with the Hunger Games. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice - The Man of Steel and Gotham's Knight square off first against one another, then against a novel Earth-threatening foe.
April	Gods of Egypt - An ordinary thief finds himself drawn into a divine conflict. The Jungle Book - The classic Rudyard Kipling tale will be the latest of Disney's animated films to get the live-action treatment. The Huntsman Winter's War - Chris Hemsworth returns to the role of the Huntsman and faces the wrath of not one, but two evil sorceress queens. Ratchet and Clank - The beloved title characters leap from the console to the big screen as they race to save the galaxy.
May	Captain America: Civil War - The tension wrought from the developments seen in Age of Ultron boils over into open conflict and threatens to tear the Avengers apart. X-Men: Apocalypse - The world's first mutant, Apocalypse, intends to obliterate all life on Earth; the X-Men band together an an attempt to stop him.
June	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows - The heroes on a half shell are back to defend New York City from a new threat. Warcraft - The monolithic video game franchise expands to a new medium. Independence Day: Resurgence - The extraterrestrials that first threatened humanity 20 years ago have spent the past two decades preparing for and plotting for their shot at vengeance.
July	The BFG - Roald Dahl's beloved tale is brought once more to the big screen. Ghostbusters - This revisiting of the 80s franchise features a mostly female cast. Star Trek Beyond - The next installment of the rebooted movie series has JJ Abrams' thumbprint all over it.
August	Suicide Squad - Some of Gotham's most notorious criminals are recruited to undertake black ops-esque missions in exchange for clemency. Pete's Dragon - A remake of the 1977 original in which an orphan flees from his abusive adoptive parents to the company of his pet dragon. Spectral - Supernatural beings have taken over New York City and a very special team of operatives are brought in to restore order.
September	Patient Zero - After humanity is decimated by a horrific pandemic that renders most of humanity into violent rage monsters, a lone survivor finds he's able to communicate with them.
October	Gambit - Not to be outdone by Deadpool, the Ragin' Cajun will get his own movie.
November	Doctor Strange - Benedict Cumberbatch assumes the title role as a ruined surgeon whose life is forever changed after encountering a sorcerer. Moana - The only daughter of a chief of a South Seas tribe sets off to explore the wilds of the Pacific.
December	Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - The first of the Star Wars spinoff films focuses on a group of Rebels seeking to steal the structural plans of the Death Star. Passengers - A spacecraft careens through the depths of space on a journey to distant planet when one of its stasis chambers malfunctions, causing a passenger to wake 60 years too early. Assassin's Creed - Michael Fassbender stars in this movie adaptation of the wildly popular video game series.

Board Games/RPGs

As mentioned in a couple of our round-up posts, most board game developers, even the largest ones, operate on a quarterly schedule for their forecasts and releases with the latter generally coinciding with major conventions. However, if all goes well we should see several of the games we got a chance to try during Gen Con 2015. Also, the always-excellent folks at BoardGameGeek have put together this compendium of what's slated to hit our tables in 2016.

Video Games

Video game releases tend to be a bit more precise than their tabletop brethren in terms of their release scheduling, but the volume of titles that will be available for PCs and consoles is gargantuan. Game Informer did a commendable job of gathering up all those dates into this comprehensive list.

It's already shaping up to be an excellent year! Here's to a very happy and healthy 2016!

This Week in Geekdom

Posted by Kel

Holy December Batman. Seriously, how are you here already? Apparent distortions in the space-time continuum notwithstanding, I hope you're all having great weekends and wonderful holiday seasons thus far. Before we all dive back into our respective yuletide preparations let's get down to the Week in Geekdom.

Comics

Neil Gaiman's landmark graphic novel, the Sandman, turned 27 on November 29th. Here is why said work remains in a class all its own nearly three decades after its publication.

The city of Cleveland has some concrete, or potentially Kryptonite, plans to honor the Man of Steel.

Games

Behold the first trailer for the Final Fantasy VII remake!

Movies/TV

We gave this announcement plenty of love over on our social media pages, but it's definitely worth revisiting. 2016 will see the return of Samurai Jack!

Speaking of returns in 2016, DC would like to remind us that Batman vs Superman will be coming our way in the not-so-distant future.

Science/Technology

Check out these incredible images/videos of Italy's Mt. Etna, which erupted in spectacular fashion earlier this week.

It's been a few weeks since we had some new images of Pluto from New Horizons. Well, if you're a fan of the dwarf planet it was worth the wait, as the latest batch of pictures are the sharpest we've seen yet.

When you think of commonly occurring elements in the known universe, you may think of Hydrogen and Helium, but would you correctly guess that this is the element that would come next in that sequence?

While we're...sort of...on the subject of helium, the ultralight element is proving to be the key ingredient in next-generation high-capacity storage drives.

We talked last week about the burgeoning 'war' of privatized space exploration, but here's a far less bellicose facet of the Blue Origins side of things guaranteed to make you smile: the reactions of the 400 scientists and researchers that worked on their firm's reusable rocket.

We've talked a bit over the past few weeks about the centennial of the publication of Einstein's Theory of Relativity but, if we get right down to it, what is spacetime...really?

For decades researchers have been stymied by the concept of cosmic microwave background radiation, as it has proven incredibly difficult to detect by direct means. The latest edition of Nature presents what may be the solution to this mystery.

Potentially commercially viable synthetic diamonds. Bonus: they glow in the dark.

Turns out that your appendix may not be a useless evolutionary vestige after all.

General Awesomeness/Real Life Superheros

In honor of 'Giving Tuesday' Jason Gidman, the host of 'DC All Access', launched a campaign to send 10,000 comic books overseas to provide some much-needed escapism and entertainment for actively serving military personnel. Want in? Here's how you can get involved.

Ever wonder just how much either of the Death Stars cost or just would have happened to the Galactic economy following the destruction of said superweapons? The School of Engineering and Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis gave their best crack at coming up with a comprehensive response.

Mattel has brought back the Viewmaster in time for the holiday gift-giving season and the latest incarnation of this classic toy is a bit different than what you may remember.

This Lego-based kinetic sculpture of Sisyphus is both stunningly realistic and somehow very soothing to watch.

As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!

This Week in Geekdom

Posted by Kel

Hey guys; hope you're all having a great weekend thus far. We've been busy gearing up for Thanksgiving (lots grinding away in the office, but the premise of pie looms large in the immediate future). Mmmmm, pie. With a bit of vacation time incoming, I'm hoping to put in some serious hours in Fallout 4 and start putting together the 2016 cosplay lineup. In the meantime though, let's get down to the Week in Geekdom.

Comics

Happy 30th birthday to Calvin and Hobbes!

Games

On Friday Valve announced the dates for both its Fall and Winter Sales as well as a planned makeover for both daily and flash sales.

Fans of the Starfox series may have to wait until 1Q16 to do their next barrel roll, but we can at least get a glimpse of what's inbound.

Are you the owner of a PS4 with a jones for solid indie titles? This list can point you in the right gaming direction.

Despite the prevalence and potential functionality of the bluntly direct "just attack your target" methodology inherent in so many games, there's a lot that can be said of taking a stealthy tack. Here are some of the best examples of the latter.

Movies/TV

It's Mark Hamill's first official interview about some movie that's coming out next month or something.

Speaking of said franchise, if you could change one thing about any of the Star Wars movies what would it be?

Science/Technology

It's a healthy baby...planet? The latest edition of Nature contains these observations from the Universities of Arizona and Sydney that may be the first-ever images of a planet being 'born'.

LG did not have the best of weeks. After only six days on the market the Watch Urbane (Second Edition) was cancelled due to an unspecified hardware issue.

In a less market-value-crushing move, Microsoft ended both the production of its music player Zune and the service that provided said player with tunes.

What if your cell phone could hold a battery charge for over a week at a time? Thanks to new research at the University of Glasgow, we may be very close to that possibility.

In what is likely another step towards the Singularity, AI developed by the National Institute of Informatics (Japan) was able to pass the infamously difficult exam associated with admission into Japan's universities.

It's one of the most enduring and analyzed quandaries that we, as a species, grapple with: why do we exist? According to one Harvard cosmologist, the answer may be dark matter.

We all share this ability, but why? We're are uncannily adept at sensing when another human is looking at us. Here comes the science.

The most recent version of Optics includes this research out of Stanford that details a microscope calibrating technique that allows individual molecules to be observed in real time and in three dimensions.

General Awesomeness/Feats of Nerdery

Do you love model-making? Are you a Star Wars fan? Do you have two or so years to dedicate to a single project? If you answered yes to all of those then this soon-to-be-released model kit may be the perfect holiday gift for you.

Pffft. Who wants a scaled down model of a Star Wars craft when you can sit in a full-sized version?

Ever wonder who is behind Albert Einstein's Twitter/Facebook/Instagram accounts? Meet Anthony Illiokostas.

As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!

This Week in Geekdom

Posted by Kel

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.

Image credit: NASA

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!

This Week in Geekdom

Posted by Kel

Holy October Batman. I suppose that means that any costuming plans for Halloween need to be kicked into high gear. Quick, on to the crafting! If all goes well, there may be a fun new tutorial that comes from this year's costume (here's a hint: somehow I'm not completely burnt out on anything wing related).

Comics

Betty of Archie Comics fame has a real-life counterpart.

Games

Good gravy. As if Mario turning 30 this year wasn't enough to make you feel old, this past Monday the Nintendo Game Boy hit the quarter-century mark.

Speaking of Nintendo, the Wii U would like us to know that it still exists and there are at least 10 promising games that are forthcoming for the console.

We all know the kinds of angst that video games can instill in us, but is it possible for a game to teach us to manage or cope with stress? One intrepid developer believes that the answer to that question is a resounding yes.

Movies/TV

The good news: there will be entire 'lands' in Disneyland dedicated to Star Wars. The bad news: the current Star Wars themed rides and attractions will be shut down in the near future to make way for the construction.

Speaking of theme park attractions, California's Great America will be getting a Mass Effect-themed ride beginning next year.

Science/Technology

Arguably the biggest science story of the week came courtesy of NASA with this announcement that the agency was able to confirm that liquid water is currently flowing on and in the surface of Mars.

There's (liquid, briny) water in them thar hills

Are you ready for your weekly dose of incredible pictures from New Horizons? Check out these images of Pluto's moon, Charon.

In case you missed last weekend's lunar eclipse (or if you just want another glimpse), here's all the time-lapse picturesque goodness.

IBM to Moore's Law: pfft, sucks to your intrinsic limits; we can replace our silicon semiconductors with carbon nanotube transistors.

Google is upgrading its quantum computer (D-Wave). Why does that matter? This upgrade could have far-reaching implications for energy consumption and quantum computing as a field.

Crowdfundables for Your Consideration

Ever wanted to be a vengeful Earth spirit able to show that pesky upstart humanity who's boss? Spirit Island allows you and up to three friends to do just that. This cooperative area-control board game pits players (and the elemental powers that they are armed with) against invading colonists. There are twelve days remaining to get in on this beautifully executed Kickstarter.

8 Kingdoms gives you not one, not two, but four distinct card-based games. All of the games boast a lightening-fast set up time and can be modified to accommodate between two and eight players. Bonus: magical strawberries! The campaign for this mini-library will run until October 23rd.

As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!

This Week in Geekdom

Posted by Kel

I'm so incredibly excited guys. Yesterday was the 2015 Boston Festival of Indie Games, one of our all-time favorite conventions. It'll take us a couple of days to go through all our notes and draft a full round-up of the event but, in the meantime, you can relive some of the best parts of BFIG via our Instagram postings. What, you say you need more distractions until the round-up is finished? Well then, let's get down to the Week in Geekdom!

Games

Happy 30th birthday to one of the most iconic characters in gaming: Mario.

Movies/TV

We have a few potential contenders for the role of Captain Marvel in the Marvel cinematic universe.

Once Captain Marvel is cast, however, you won't be seeing her in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (nor will you get a glimpse of the Hulk there).

Science/Technology

Researchers at the University of Arizona believe they have located an enormous slab of ice resting just below the surface of Mars, further hinting that there may have once been life on the red planet (and raising the possibility for its future habitability by humans).

Also out of the University of Arizona is this research indicating that Jupiter's most volatile moon, Io, may consist of underground oceans of raging magma.

New Horizons has sent us back a new set of images from Pluto and they are some of the clearest, most vivid pictures of the dwarf planet that we've seen to date.

Have we been going about our search for extraterrestrial life all wrong?

We may currently take for granted the ubiquity of Starbucks and other coffee shops, but, it turns out, our addiction to caffeine may be even more long-standing than we previously supposed.

Check out this comic from 2012 that predicted Microsoft's invention of the Surface (and Apple stealing the credit for it).

Engineers at Deltares Research Institute in the Netherlands are now capable of creating the largest artificial waves on Earth.

General Awesomeness

Are you a fan of Star Trek? The Smithsonian needs your help!

Anthony Bourdain commissioned a cooking knife to be crafted from a chunk of melted meteorite. Here are some of the images from that incredible process.

Stormtrooper-themed Dodge Chargers. That is all.

This is possibly the greatest air show in the history of ever.

As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!

This Week in Geekdom

Posted by Kel

It's September? Seriously? Whew. It's entirely possible that I'll just never catch up with this year. We're in the process of gearing up for our last convention of 2015: the Boston Festival of Indie Games, which promises to be bigger and better than ever before. It's one of our favorite days of gaming and we'll be giddily bringing you all the highlights live from the campus of MIT via our social media pages. As always, we'll also bring you a full recap of all the fun in the week or so following the convention. In the meantime, let's get down to the Week in Geekdom.

Comics

We're going to get a brand-new incarnation of the Hulk this coming December (it'll be a big first for Marvel!). Here's a sneak peek of what you can expect.

Movies/TV

The season premiere for the fourth season of Arrow is almost exactly a month away, but producers are taking pity on patient fans of the show by releasing images of John Diggles' new costume.

The International Federation of Film Critics agree with our collective assessment of Mad Max: Fury Road.

That collective excited gasp you may have heard this past Wednesday likely stemmed from fans of Doctor Who as they learned that River Song will be making an appearance in this year's Christmas Special.

Marvel has made it clear to Chris Evans that they would like for him to continue playing Captain America into Phase Three. Chris Evans would like Marvel to know that he's more than ok with that.

We will definitely see Captain America in the upcoming film Civil War, but we won't be seeing any of Mark Ruffalo's the Hulk.

Science/Technology

It sounds like something a Bond villain would unleash upon the seas: a poison-injecting submarine. Turns out this fiendish-sounding vehicle is not only real, but is a mechanical ally to coral reefs.

What would happen if we were to spontaneously 'grow' a fourth spatial dimension?

We've already talked a bit about Japan's preparations for the 2020 Olympic Games (holy artificial meteor shower Batman!). Now we have a few more details concerning these efforts. The Japanese Fire and Disaster Management Agency is working to create a speedy and accurate translator app that will assist medical crews if they have to attend to any emergencies during the Games.

Who knew light was so squeeze-able? The latest edition of Nature includes this research from St. John's College at the University of Cambridge that indicates individual particles of light can be 'squeezed', or brought to the lowest possible level of active electromagnetic activity.

'Heart in a Box', this device that keeps donated hearts alive and beating after they've been removed from their donor, but before they can be transplanted into a new patient, may just revolutionize organ transplantation as we know it.

At first glance, these pieces seem like they may just be computer-simulated images. They are, however, completely real works made entirely of glass. Bonus: they were 3D printed in glass using hybrid printing/glass blowing technology developed by researchers at Harvard and MIT.

Not a screensaver; an actual work of glass

General Awesomeness/Feats of Nerdery

Yes, we are eventually going to get a feature film starring Boba Fett, but a fan may already deliver that bounty hunter fix you're after with this film trailer.

The Nerdist talks bluntly with Sir Patrick Stewart in this excellent podcast.

It's one of the most enduring questions in sci-fi (or cinema for that matter): why are Imperial Stormtroopers just so terrible at firing their blasters? Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame feels he may have an answer for us.

Behold this faithfully recreated Soviet-era arcade.

It took only a handful of seconds for a certain round orange robot to capture the hearts of Star Wars fans around the world. Want to know more about BB-8? Here come the details.

Not enough adorable droid for you? Here's the commercial for the way in which you can own your own BB-8.

The world's tallest arcade game will make you, the player, feel positively child-like.

As always, best wishes for an amazing week ahead!

This Week in Geekdom

Posted by Kel

Hey there everyone! Hope you're all having great weekends thus far, especially if you're one of the lucky nerds attending PAX Prime (if you're befuddled by our conflating 'lucky' and any incarnation of PAX, check out our stance on that particular family of conventions here). If you are at PAX Prime, pleasepleaseplease take one of these and tell us what it's like. In any case, let's get down to the Week in Geekdom, shall we?

Books

The Shepherd's Crown, the 41st and final installment of Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld series was released in the UK this past Wednesday. It will be available in the US on September 1st.

Comics

Who's up for some vintage DC goodness? You can now view the entirety of the 1982 official DC style guide online.

Movies/TV

Amazon will be taking up the movie-to-TV-series trend with their episodic spin on Galaxy Quest.

Vin Diesel is officially confirmed to return as the voice of Groot for Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2. The film is slated to hit theaters in May of 2017.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D will be getting the Lash treatment.

The minds behind Adventure Time are working on an animated series based on Castlevania III.

Are you planning on following along with Fear the Walking Dead? If so, you may want to keep an eye on AMC's website. The network is planning to develop a half-hour special covering the infamous zombie outbreak as it unfolds on a plane. This zombies on a plane bit will introduce new characters and content that will factor into the rest of Fear the Walking Dead. This content will air only online and AMC has not specified a release date, so keep an eye out.

Science/Technology

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's...wait. It's really an FAA-approved paper airplane?

It's officially been over a month now since Microsoft released Windows 10 upon the PC-using populace. How have things been going since then? Here are the results so far.

Ever wonder why the Earth doesn't feature nifty rings around it like some of our solar-system siblings have? Here comes the science.

Earlier this week, the Hubble telescope brought us these images of a 'butterfly effect' within the Twin Jets Nebula and the results are absolutely stunning.

It's a public health issue that plagues researchers every year: selecting the strains of the flu virus that will be the most likely to crop up during the winter and using those strains to create the annual flu vaccine. On Monday, immunologists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced that they are considerably closer to the proverbial holy grail: a universal flu vaccine.

On Friday, NASA launched what will be its longest isolation simulation for those individuals who are aiming to be the first humans on Mars.

Believe it or not, this is Hawaii

Does a single Earth day cause ripples in the fabric of space-time?

We tend to lend a heaping helping of love to those individuals developing applications for virtual reality devices and today's going to be no exception. Meet James Blaha. If he has his way, he'll give us a way to use the Oculus Rift headset as a way to correct certain vision problems.

As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!