This Week in Geekdom

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.

Chinese Xbox One users rejoice: the console is now officially region-free for you.

EA may be the biggest name in sports games, but it's far from the only name (and is arguably doing more harm than good to the genre). Here's a breakdown of some of the best indie sports games out there.

Are you a YouTuber who derives any income from streams or video reviews of games? Well, Nintendo would like 40% of that revenue. Kthxbye.

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.

We may all soon be doing the Time Warp again.

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.

We will no longer get the Simpsons on DVD.

Marvel and ABC are working together to create a spinoff series based on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D

Science/Technology

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.
Photo credit: Tu Wien

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).

Bad news for the fun-sized among us. New research out of the University of Leicester indicates that an increased risk of heart disease may be linked to the same genes that give us our height.

Enjoy them while you can; solar eclipses are slowly but surely becoming a thing of the past.

What if dark matter didn't exist after all?

General Awesomeness

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.

Feats of Nerdery

This kid has a future in paleontology. Five-year-old Wylie Brys got quite a thrill this week when scientists from SMU helped him and his dad excavate a Jurassic-era fossil he discovered behind a shopping mall. 

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!

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