This Week in Geekdom

Happy weekend everyone! Can you believe we have just much left in 2014? Even as this year winds down, Elder Gias, the GIR, and I are already gearing up to bring you guys new and (hopefully) fun content for 2015. But ok, enough about the forthcoming year; let's get down to the Week in Geekdom!

TV/Movies

The Batman vs Superman movie hasn't even started filming yet and we're already learning that major characters are being killed off.

Sony and Marvel were, at one point, close to working out a plan that would have allowed Spider-Man to cross over into the realm of the Avengers. 

Other characters that won't be crossing over to get screen time with one another: the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers (if director James Gunn has his way). 

We have official confirmation of a Boba Fett spin off film.

Oh Syfy, you just can't get enough prequels can you? The network has confirmed that they will be making a new series, titled Krypton, that focuses on Superman's grandfather and the House of El.

Disney's long-lost first Christmas film found not so far from the North Pole.

Fans of the Flash will be getting a special treat in the form of Mark Hamill reprising his role as the Trickster.

The names of the characters in Episode VII are being released in a very retro way: you have to buy their trading cards.

While we're on the Episode VII train, here's the teaser trailer re-cut with footage from the original trilogy:
Games

Do you love Sim City, but don't want to deal with any of the nonsense that's plagued the newest incarnations of the franchise? Well, now you can download Sim City 2000 for free.

This is what happens when a parent conditions their child to play video games by forcing the child to play through the parent's gaming library in chronological order.

Science/Technology

Biodiversity is a subject that is often cited (usually as a symptom of climate change or other ecosystem shifts) but, as the latest issue of Nature details, it's one of the most difficult concepts for researchers to properly quantify.

Picking out the ripest, choicest produce is often part skill and part gut feeling. That process may soon become more science than art as the latest edition of Applied Optics gives us a peek into the research being done that will allow lasers to help determine when a fruit or vegetable is at its tastiest.

The current scientific consensus leans heavily towards the impact of the Chicxulub Space Rock being the culprit behind the extinction of the dinosaurs. However, a new study published in this month's Science Express posits that massive lava flows may have caused the mass die-off.

Speaking of long-held consensus stemming from encounters with space debris (because when else would you get to use that segue?), it turns out that the scientific community's hypothesis concerning the origin of water on Earth, that it originated with comets, may not be true after all.

Researchers at the Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry in Prague are attempting to re-create the conditions that may have resulted in life on Earth.

The human immune system, and the bacteria that assaults it, have long been engaged in an evolutionary arms race. It turns out that this milennia-old battle is over control of the element iron.
Yarr! It be iron piracy!
Earlier this week Spain enacted a new copyright law that would have forced Google to pay a tax to the periodicals it featured on Google News. Google responded by shuttering its news service in the entire country of Spain. Spanish periodicals are about as panicked as you'd imagine them to be.

General Awesomeness/Feats of Nerdery

Unfortunately (or fortunately, as the case may be), we don't co-exist with dragons, but here is a thorough and interesting breakdown of humanity's long, storied relationship with the scaly beasts.

Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2014 Darwin Awards.

Someone put a LOT of time and thought into studying the characters that recur on XKCD.

I'll leave you guys with one more bit of Star Wars goodness: a Family Guy parody of the Episode VII trailer. As always, best wishes for an excellent week ahead!

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