More Jenny Matrix! More The Law! More Games Dean! More of everyone! Season 2 starts 25 July! Check out the trailer and catch up with season one here!
VGHS Season 2 Trailer
Porcelain: A Gothic Fairy Tale is finally hitting the shelves!
I’ve been raving about this comic for a while; if you want to learn more about it, you can read my review here and hopefully you’ll get interested enough to go out and buy it because (drum-roll, please) it’s finally going to be available for purchase. While the first few pages of it have been made available online by its creators -just enough for us to get a taste for it- the whole book is only now ready for purchase.
Those in the UK, where Improper Books is based, will get to enjoy the tale of Child and of her adventures in Uncle’s care a week sooner than their American cousins, with Porcelain being released next week, on the 17th of July, only to be followed, one week later by a North American release on the 24th.
I’m going to borrow a small quote from Improper Books’s own announcement, just to point out why this comic book is not only amazing from a visual and story-line point of view, but also because it paves the way for other artists to try and do their thing even when they don’t have a huge company to back them up in their work:
[quote]Written by Benjamin Read and illustrated by Chris Wildgoose, with colours by André May and lettering by Jim Campbell, Porcelain: A Gothic Fairy Tale is our first title from Improper Books, and Ben and Chris’ first creator-owned graphic novel.[/quote]
While all of the people involved are known for their previous work, with them being involved in other projects, such as Super 8 or True Grit, this comic book seems to be everyone’s baby. The amount of care that went into building the characters and into creating the perfect atmosphere is obvious and I assure you none of you will be disappointed.
Keep these dates in mind:
UK release: 17th July
North American release: 24th July
The rest of the world will have to wait a bit longer until selling options will be made available for them as well, but given the positive response the comic book already got from critics and fans alike, I think it won’t be that long of a wait. Stay tuned and we’ll bring you the latest news about it, as soon as possible.
Adam Jay needs your help for epic cosplay endeavour Project:LEX
Adam Jay of Superhero Creations needs your help for his latest endeavour, Project: LEX.
Project Lex is a dream project inspired by the opening cinematic for The DC Universe Online.
This will manifest as a cosplay shoot of a scale not yet seen featuring several characters including Lex Luthor, Superman, Batman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Cyborg & The Joker.
Other characters including Black Adam, Green Arrow, Deathstroke, Catwoman & Harley Quinn may also be featured if the funds are there.
The funds raised for Project:LEX will go towards costume builds (including Lex Luthor’s War Armour), shipping fees, location costs, transport, food, accommodation for actors/models and rewards.
In return for your support you can get rewards ranging from a postcard featuring the character of your choice to actually featuring in the shoot being taken out by Lex Luthor or saved by Wonder Woman (reward does not include flight/travel).
For more details visit Project:LEX
Will the new Doctor be revealed tonight?
Rumour has it that tonight, at the BBC Doctor Who proms, the new Doctor will be revealed!!
According to SFcrowsnest, author Stephen Hunt has contacted them and confirmed that during the rehearsals last night, the staff were briefed on a section of the proms where the identity of our new Doctor will be revealed. It is further rumoured that this may actually be a live reveal with the actor walking out on the stage.
The same reporter is refusing to say who it is, as he doesn’t want to spoil the surprise for the audience. However, if this information is true then we don’t have long to wait. The broadcast will begin on BBC Radio 3 at 7:30pm finishing around 9:45pm, but available on iplayer for the next seven days, you know, for those of us out enjoying the lovely weather.
Finger’s crossed this rumour is right but even if we don’t get this most anticipated geek news, at least you can enjoy the Whovian goodness the BBC proms has to offer.
[Source: SFcrowsnest.org.uk]
Dr Ian Turner and the Science of Superheroes!
By night a superhero in training, but by day Dr. Ian Turner works at the University of Derby as a senior lecturer in Biology and Forensic Science and teaches genetics, molecular biology, science communication and all aspects of forensic investigation. But he isn’t just a science geek – he has Star Wars Lego and Marvel Potato Heads in his office! I caught up with him recently and asked him a couple of questions about his work, his interest in comic books and why he chose to lecture on the science of superheroes.
How long have you been a comic book fan and what are your favourite characters?
I have been a comic book fan ever since I was little, I grew up in the 80’s which was a great time for comic book style cartoons such as He-Man, Thundercats, Dungeons and Dragons and the show that kick started my love of comics Spiderman and His Amazing Friends. The show featured Spidey, FireStar (Angelica Jones) and Iceman (Bobby Drake) and I remember clearly running round my house shooting imaginary ice from my fingers to make Iceman-style platforms to travel around on.
After this I started reading comics mostly Spiderman, I distinctly remember reading Spiderman and His Amazing Friends and The Complete Spiderman. I have stuck with comics most of my life but am not an avid collector! My favourite character is still Spiderman! I am also fond of the X-men but I will read anything that someone recommends to me as worth reading!
You have previously lectured on the science behind some of the comic book world’s best loved characters. How did you get into science and teaching and what made you want to combine your love of science with your interest in comics?
I got into science the traditional way, fell in love with Biology at school and chose Biological Sciences as an undergraduate. The rest, as they say, is history!
I guess the inspiration to lecture on the science of superheroes came from my subject (genetics) and the strong links in comic books between mutation/DNA alteration and superpowers and a desire to pass on my passion for science to the public. In my spare time I work for a charity called the British Science Association that aims to ‘engage the general public in science’ and I was working with a charity called AimHigher that worked at promoting science in schools that had a low number of students attending University. I wanted to come up with a talk that made science fun and used a medium that all children could relate to, that’s where Superheroes came in!
Bruce Banner becomes the Hulk when he is hit with Gamma rays. Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider and becomes Spiderman. Barry Allen turns into the Flash after being struck by lightning in a chemistry lab. The Fantastic Four gain their powers from cosmic rays and Dr Manhattan is born when Jon Osterman goes back to retrieve his pocket watch from an Intrinsic Field Generator chamber and gets locked in. Are any of these viable ways we can get superpowers?
Some interesting examples here! Many of them are focused on radiation, the sad truth is that none of these events would create the superheroes that we know. Radiation can be classified into ionizing (IZ) and non-ionizing (NZ). IZ is the really dangerous radiation; essentially it can ionize atoms which means it can damage the DNA we find in every cell of our body and ultimately cause cancer. X-Rays are the ‘weakest’ form of NZ radiation, then gamma radiation and finally cosmic radiation. Patients are sometimes exposed to X-Rays but in very small doses for specific medical processes, but you cannot have too many over a discrete time period as the effects of x-rays are cumulative (they build up) I am sure you have noticed that x-ray operators sit behind a thick wall with some lead somewhere between them and the x-ray source.
The Fantastic Four are bombarded with cosmic radiation (rays is an incorrect term allocated by scientists who initially thought they were rays!) but the Earth’s atmosphere shields us from the worst of their damage. Interestingly, the effects are worse the higher you are in the Earth’s atmosphere and airline crews are exposed to higher levels than a normal traveller.
I realise this puts a bit of a dampener on anyone trying to get superpowers! But this is where science can help us to achieve our dreams! We can all increase our muscle mass using traditional means of exercise, we could even take artificial substances such as anabolic steroids (a drug that is similar to the sex hormone testosterone that stimulates new muscle growth and allows shorter rest periods between exercise) but these have some very nasty long term side effects such as liver damage.
One alternative can be found in the field of nanotechnology. Dr Ray Baughman and his team at the NanoTech Institute, University of Texas in Dallas, have developed artificial muscles 100 times stronger than our own, powered by alcohol and hydrogen. These muscles are made of incredibly small fibres only a nanometer wide (a nanometer is a billinonth of a meter) that when combined are extremely tough.
For example; the current world record for weight lifting is a 266 kg (586 lbs) held by Leonid Taranenko,. If Taranenko’s natural muscles were replaced with Dr. Baughman’s nanotechnology muscles, he could lift 26,600 kg, or about 30 tons. The difficult bit is actually weaving the fibres into a human body – which, today, would be complicated and messy, not to mention probably illegal! Interestingly these new fibres would form a sort of natural armour and may even be able to provide protection against bullets, very Hulk like!
A lot of Superheroes started out as scientists, or science plays a major part in granting them super powers. Is this the real reason you chose a career in science?
No that’s not the real reason! But a large number of Superheroes have scientific origins; Spiderman, The Hulk, The Flash, Dr. Manhattan and other such as Susan Storm and Reed Richards, Captain America and many others were created by scientists. The same applies to the villains, Dr. Octopus and the Lizard to name but a few… it’s really interesting that science fiction and comic book fiction take a root in science to add to the plausibility of the hero!
If you could have superpowers what would they be?
I would go for teleportation! I’d save so much time travelling between places, straight from work to home, from home to a nice hot beach somewhere sounds awesome!
PCWorld Magazine Going Digital
In 1983, the world saw the fattest first edition published magazine. PCWorld Magazine. What started as BYTE Magazine in 1975, was easily recognized by computer nerds as, “The best PC magazine in existence.”
It was recently announced that PCWorld Magazine is going digital. This comes as no surprise and is quite frankly long overdue. The internet has hurt print companies so badly, that most magazines about gadgets and fun geeky stuff, have been forced to go to online.
In the dawn of home computer, PC magazines were at the top of the “hot list,” but with time comes change. We still read PC World, that is a fact proven by sales records, however, those numbers have gone down dramatically since the birth of online reading.
For those of us who waited patiently for Monday to arrive, bringing us the latest edition of PCWorld to announce what had happened in the technology world the week before. Those days seem to be gone.
With this announcement comes mixed feelings from employees and readers. Some are extremely excited about this new adventure the magazine, while others are throwing fits about jobs and “people who don’t know how to use the internet.” Why anyone who reads PCWorld can’t use the internet is beyond my levels of reasoning, but apparently it’s true.
So today we say “goodbye” to an iconic print magazine that dominated the print world for decades. In return though, we say “hello beautiful” to every issue being right at our fingertips, online.
Welcome to the internet PCWorld, we’ve been waiting for you.
For those of you wanting to access online, here is the link to this iconic magazines website.
http://pc-world.com-sub.biz/?gclid=COu46LiLqLgCFYZ_QgodbggA-g
Fan-Made Music Videos Inspired by Game of Thrones
I don’t need to tell you how popular the Game of Thrones TV show is and some of you are probably still hurting from the shocking events in Episode 9 of Season 3; I certainly am. While browsing through You Tube, I found an abundance of fan-made music video based on the show and the books. Raps parodying the series are the most common and quite a few are hilarious; there are also a fair amount of re-mixed versions of theme song with alternative music styles, including metal and techno. You may have seen some of these before as GP has posted a couple of them in the past but I thought I’d include them anyway. So help yourself get over your post-Red Wedding blues, by checking out these fantastic songs of ice and fire. Enjoy!
WARNING: SOME OF THESE VIDEOS CONTAIN PLOT SPOILERS (AVOID IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED SEASONS 1-3 OF THE TV SHOW)
http://youtu.be/cRw-WMwnzX4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hplyu6JTJA8
Boondock Saints make the news!
Okay, that title sounds a lot more interesting than: “People flail over the possible return of the vigilante saints to the big screen.“ Actually that sounds good too. Now that my excitement has been (moderately) contained here goes nothing.
A lot of you (hopefully) are aware of the existence of a movie called The Boondock Saints. It came out over a decade ago, faired badly in movie theatres, but became a cult hit, with people passing the DVDs around, the fanbase growing slowly but surely. Now there are events, super special screenings of the movies, secret hand-shakes, tattoos, the works. The point is it grew and it changed, becoming the movie of the masses, mostly because it speaks to that person inside us that rants at the TV screen, shouting out how the world would be a better place if we could pick up a gun and deal our own brand of justice. It might sound like a bad message to send out, but we all know none of us has been exempt from feeling like this, at least once.
The movie was followed by a sequel, that came almost ten years later, still starring Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flannery as the two Irish brothers that picked up on God’s call to vanquish evil by beating it at it’s own game. Guns blazing, humour, Julie Benz to replace Willem Dafoe (who made a very attractive woman in the first movie), Clifton Collins Jr. and many bad guys made for an entertaining film, even though it lacked that certain something that made the first one special. It also needed a little more character development, ten years had passed after all, Troy Duffy! Still All Saints Day was worth the watch. And now! Drum-roll please!
Troy Duffy, the mastermind behind this project, supposedly announced for wegotthiscovered.com that a third movie is in the works, one that hopefully won’t come out when both Sean and Norman are old, grey and walking with the aid of a pretty nurse named Frank. Supposedly the script is half-way done and we can expect a TV series to follow, featuring The Saints (although it’s unknown if Connor and Murphy will be the leads or if Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flannery will even be involved). So far it’s just hear-say, but one can only hope at least one of this two projects will be turned into a reality, because I could do with having the Saints on my screen on a weekly basis, not to mention my Boondock Saints DVDs have been complaining that the promised trilogy isn’t complete.
For those of you that have lived under rocks or other places without DVD players, movie theatres or internet access, get your butt into gear and watch the first two movies. You’ll definitely love them (the first one more than the second one, in most cases, I’m not going to lie about that) and then you’ll be fully prepared for the experience of a third movie. Check out the trailer for the first movie below and be sure to stick around Geek Pride, we’ll do our best to bring you the freshly out of the oven news about it.
Zoom. Reinvented. Nokia Lumia 1020 arrives.
Today, Nokia established a new benchmark in smartphone imaging with the arrival of the Nokia Lumia 1020, boasting a second generation 41-megapixel sensor. Unlike any smartphone in the market today the Nokia Lumia 1020 reinvents zoom, enabling people to discover more detail than the eye can see. With Nokia’s innovative PureView technology, including optical image stabilization, the device is able to produce some of the sharpest images possible by any digital camera.
This is made possible by leading hardware technology combined with a new application called Nokia Pro Camera, which makes it easy for anyone to take professional quality images. Either before a picture is taken or after it has been shot, the zoom capability enables people to discover and then rediscover the personal stories each image can tell. With a beautiful interface that visually demonstrates how settings will affect the final photo or video, Nokia Pro Camera makes it easier than ever to capture, edit and share photos and videos with unrivaled clarity.
Using a new feature called dual capture, the Nokia Lumia 1020 simultaneously takes a high resolution 38-megapixel image for endless editing opportunities, and creates a 5-megapixel picture that is easy to share to social networks with Windows Phone 8.
The Nokia Lumia 1020’s 41-megapixel sensor features leading ZEISS optics with six physical lenses, plus optical image stabilization, delivering crystal clear pictures even in low light conditions. It also captures blur free videos with stereo sound even at the loudest concerts thanks to Nokia Rich Recording, which handles sound pressure levels six times louder than conventional smartphone microphones.
“We want to take people on a journey from capturing pictures to recording and sharing their lives,” said Stephen Elop, President and CEO, Nokia. “The Nokia Lumia 1020 will bring new meaning to pictures and continues to strengthen Nokia’s leadership in imaging.”
Nokia also released a new imaging software development kit (SDK) that provides key image editing features of the Nokia Lumia 1020 to developers. The SDK is available today at developer.nokia.com with a number of developers including Vyclone, Yelp and CNN integrating these features into future releases.
Hipstamatic showcased Oggl PRO, an exclusive application for the Nokia Lumia 1020 offering the most advanced smartphone camera controls for their creative community. It was also announced that popular applications Path and Flipboard will soon be available on Windows Phone.
Adding further professional capabilities and additional battery life, Nokia announced the new Nokia Camera Grip. This is an accessory that complements device features usually reserved for stand-alone cameras, like the Nokia Lumia 1020’s built-in xenon flash and mechanical shutter. The Nokia Camera Grip also has a tripod mount, and is expected to be available this month for an estimated retail price of USD 79.
The personal nature of Windows Phone makes it the perfect platform for the Nokia Lumia 1020, showcasing live images on the Start screen with the Photos tile, quick sharing to social networks, and easy access to files across a number of devices with SkyDrive. With the dedicated camera button, Windows Phone is designed with imaging in mind.
http://youtu.be/vUMNm9-dgJ0
To help people see what’s around them and discover new places to take photos, the latest developments in LiveSight will available in HERE Maps soon. The Nokia Lumia 1020 also comes with ad and subscription free Nokia Music streaming.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 will arrive first on U.S. shores exclusively with AT&T, with sales expected to start on July 26 at a price of USD 299.99 on a two-year contract.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is then expected to arrive in China and key European markets this quarter. Nokia plans to ship an exclusive variant of the device with Telefonica to select European and Latin American markets. The Nokia Lumia 1020 will be available in yellow, white and black.
| Nokia Lumia 1020 | |
| Operating system | Windows Phone 8 |
| HERE location services | Free global HERE Maps and HERE Drive+;Free HERE Transit available in the Store |
| Display | 4.5” AMOLED WXGA (1280×768), 2.5 D sculpted Corning Gorilla Glass 3, PureMotion HD+, ClearBlack, high brightness mode, sunlight readability, super sensitive touch, Nokia Glance Screen |
| Battery | 2000 mAh battery, wireless charging supported via cover |
| Processor | 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 |
| Main camera | PureView 41 MP with optical image stabilization, Resolution: 7712 x 5360. Includes Nokia Pro Camera. Xenon flash for still images, LED flash for video |
| Front facing camera | HD 1.2 MP wide angle |
| Memory | 2 GB RAM, 32 GB internal memory; 7 GB free SkyDrive cloud storage |
Mobile Gaming, Candy Crush Saga and the Heisenberg Problem.
Mobile gaming has come along way since Tetris and Snake in the 90’s, but generally speaking the same template is still used by today’s developers. A successful game has to be simple, enjoyable and give an instant sense of achievement. Recently however there’s been a new twist to this formula, which I refer to as the ‘Heisenberg Problem’. It is a corruption of what gaming should be and sets a disturbing precedent for the future of gaming.
One of the biggest examples of this problem is King.com’s Candy Crush Saga.
Candy Crush Saga is a variation on the ‘match three’ game where players have to match up three similarly coloured ‘candies’ by switching the positions of two candies on the gaming grid, causing them to disappear to be replaced by other candies which drop down from the top of the gaming grid.
Players must complete objectives before running out of moves, lives or time.
Candy Crush Saga is phenomenally popular. Starting out as a Facebook game with over 45 million players before being adapted for smartphones soon after, it’s so popular that chances are if you’re reading these words then you’ve heard of it, played it, or at the very least you’ve seen an announcement relating to it on your Facebook feed.
So what is the ‘Heisenberg Problem’?
Candy Crush Saga is free to play, so how do King.com make money? It’s well known that they make lots and lots of money. To be more specific… $200 million or around $600,000 a day.
The ‘Heisenberg Problem’ is the core of what makes King.com (and developers of other mobile games) so much money. Candy Crush Saga, much like its ancestors Tetris and Snake, is simple and enjoyable, well presented, it gives players a sense of achievement and most importantly is incredibly addictive and compulsive in the ‘sat staring at your phone at 1am trying to finish ‘that level’ even though you’re supposed to be up for work in 5 hours’ way.
It’s this addictive nature that makes money in the same way that Walter White aka Heisenberg of AMC’s Breaking Bad makes money off addiction.
An important factor of this is the nature of mobile gaming… unlike your console which is sat in your living room waiting unloved at home whilst you’re at work, Candy Crush Saga is there wherever you go. Whenever there’s a spare few minutes it’s there calling out like a siren.
This corrosively addictive impulse is accompanied by fiendish difficulty spikes which will have players replaying levels repeatedly, with some spending several days if not weeks trying to complete a specific level. When this frustration reaches its peak point, players can always get a Charm of Life, one of numerous in-app purchases which can be made (in this case for $16.99). The other element of this problem is the games connectivity to social media… who hasn’t seen numerous notifications from friends saying they’ve passed a level, or been bombarded with requests to join in with the craze?
King.com says “Most people who complete all the levels in the game have not purchased any charms“, and even though there’s little in the way of evidence for this, when you’re one of the most popular games in mobile gaming even as little as 5% of your player base making app purchases is going to rake in an impressive sum. Not to mention that there’s a fundamental difference between in-app purchases and downloadable content for console games, in that DLC is optional and considerably better value for money – with whole games being available for the price of a single Charm.
Freemium games are an insidious affront to the nature of gaming, replacing the initial fun with desperation and a potential for dire financial consequence.
