Wishing you a Merry Christmas from those of us here at Therefore I Geek. We hope you are enjoying this wonderful holiday wherever you are and that you are doing your best to spread some geeky holiday cheer. Now seriously, get off the internet and go talk to grandma… it’s Christmas for crying out loud.
Filed under Geek Life
Recently DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) held a robot Olympics in sunny Miami. At stake is not only pride, but also one million dollars in additional research funding for any team that makes it through this first round. The winning team after the second round will earn another two million. The robots are competing in several events which mimic tasks that humans might have to do in emergency situations, such as climbing ladders or turning valves. During the accident at Fukushima several valves could have been operated to significantly reduce the severity of the accident. Unfortunately, due to radiation levels, human operators couldn’t reach them. It’s hoped that these robots, or ones similar to them will be able to perform tasks where and when humans are unable to, preventing or at least reducing potential disasters.
It might be here to save my life, but this one looks way too much like Godzilla for my personal comfort.
Today is the 45th anniversary of the beautiful earthrise photo taken by the astronauts on Apollo 8. To commemorate this event, NASA’s Goddard Space Center has put together a computer generated recreation using photographs from the command module, the audio record of mission, as well as new data provided by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). It’s very interesting to listen to these events unfold (and more than a little humorous listen to Jim Lovell trying to find color film) and to hear the wonder in the voices of the astronauts.
I always like it when NASA takes the time to remember these cool little moments in the history of space exploration.
Yesterday Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the infamous AK-47 assault rifle died at the age of 94. No matter what your thoughts may be about guns and warfare, it is an undisputed fact that the AK-47 has been one of the most influential pieces of technology of the second half of the 20th century. The AK-47 has become synonymous with rebellions and insurgencies, cementing it’s place in the American collective memory during the Vietnam War. While the gun itself was more of a group effort and a conglomeration of several designs, Kalashnikov was likely chosen by Stalin because he best fit the image that the Soviets wanted to project. Regardless of how much of the design actually came from him, Kalashnikov became almost as much of a symbol as the rifle which carries his name.
Kalashnikov with his creation (kind of).
Driving home the point of the rifle’s influence, the flags of Mozambique and Hezbollah and the coat of arms for Zimbabwe and East Timor all feature the AK-47
Filed under Winning Science
For today’s mobile game review, I went to the Google Play Store’s holiday sale. There I found a plethora of games and at that point the hard part was choosing just one. I found a holiday game called Nun Attack: Run & Gun which looked interesting and had a controversial name—double win, in my opinion. This is just running game with the gun element added for some fun.
It’s funny because nuns are usually pacifist
First off, this game is cute and fun. The graphics are a little edgy, but it works in the setting. Players get to choose a nun, which is Rosy, a tall, leggy young lady with an eye patch and a semiautomatic rifle, by default at first. Other nuns can be unlocked later in the game.
The object of the game is to run and gather coins (much like the oh-so-boring Temple Run), but is made more interesting by the addition of skeletons, werewolves, and zombies, which all want a piece of nun.
I wonder how Rosy lost her eye.
The controls are fairly easy, considering the lack of physical buttons to work with. Up and down buttons on the left allow Rosy to jump or slide to gather coins and avoid spinning skill saw blades and other deadly objects. The button on the right allows Rosy to fire her rifle at the evil creatures who wish to prevent her holy work.
As with most mobile games, this game relies on in-game purchases for revenue. Fortunately, it appears that jewels/diamonds are only used for free revivals (pun intended) for the nuns. Unlike many games where jewels are required for leveling up, it would appear that it is unnecessary to spend money in this game to fully enjoy it. Most upgrades to weaponry, etc, are purchased with coins, which are earned in gameplay. That’s a huge plus for someone like me. It’s also nice that these coins are generously distributed. From time to time, the nun will run into a portal, which will take her through a strange rip in the space-time continuum which for whatever reason has been filled with coins.
There are a few things that do get in the way of a perfectly smooth playing experience. The nuns do not seem to have a very long life span. I would have preferred that my character could survive a few attacks before she fell on her face and literally bit the dust.
Another big problem for me is that just as the nun starts her run, a popup screen listing the available power-ups appears and stays there until it is manually closed. This requires me to move my hands away from the important buttons at the bottom of the screen, which is very scary.
Go away! I’m trying to run.
Lastly, it is both distracting and difficult to find out what the objectives are for each level. They appear in small black bars at the bottom of the screen during actual gameplay and are not listed anywhere else in the game. I can either ignore them completely and hope to accidentally achieve them; or I can stare at the bottom of the screen and wait for them to appear, and potentially allow my nun to run into something deadly.
This is really just a run and shoot game—not that the astute player would gather anything different from its name. I enjoyed playing it, and it gave me a nice chance to take out my anger from my seasonal retail job (Yell at me because you don’t have a coupon for your purchase, will you? Take that, skeletons!!!!). The game is available in the Google Play Store and in the iTunes App Store. All things considered, I give it four out of five death stars.
Filed under Editorial, Game Reviews, Gaming
Science fiction is, of course, a staple of geek culture and always has been, as has comic books. While these two have had a long and intertwined history, up until recently there had been a rather significant lack in quality science fiction comics. Thankfully in the last two years there has been a considerable resurgence in science fiction comics. Given all of these new choices, I’ve decided to go over a few of my personal favorites and some of the newest additions to my weekly pull.
Saga – Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
I’ve decided to start with Saga because every week it comes out, it’s the first book I read. Saga is an amazing space epic, but unlike most epics, it is character driven instead of focused on the events that happen around the characters. It’s a sort of modern Romeo and Juliet, with two star-crossed lovers from opposite sides of a generations long war; only they don’t commit suicide, they kick ass instead. I honestly have absolutely no idea where the book is going, both on the large scale and from issue to issue, and I don’t care. I am along for the ride, no matter where it takes me. Vaughan’s writing is fantastic and when paired with art by Staples it becomes something truly unbelievable.
Manhattan Projects – Johnathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra
Imagine that the super-secret Manhattan Project was itself a cover for an even more super-secret science program. That’s the basic plot of Manhattan Projects, but there is far more to it than that. Anyone who is familiar with the real life Manhattan Project will recognize the cast of characters including Robert Oppenheimer, General Leslie Groves, Richard Feynman, and Enrico Fermi among others. That’s about where the similarities end though and Hickman takes characters and events to ever increasingly insane places. There is a lot of fantastic character work and a wonderful subtlety to the art that gives this book an unexpected depth.
East of West – Johnathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta
Where Manhattan Projects is crazy and filled with very weird characters, East of West is much more cerebral, in similar fashion to his current work on Avengers/New Avengers and his previous creator owned work. East of West is set in a near future, alternate reality where the United States has splintered into several different countries with competing ideologies. The political systems only provide a back drop for the larger story, one of the Biblical Four Horseman, Death, has abandoned the other three and now they have begun to hurt him down, to unknown ends. I like this book because it is similar enough to the work Hickman has done in the past, yet the plot remains novel. There have been several interesting plot twists that have made the month between issues seem very long indeed. Dragotta’s art is very clean with some hints of manga influence.
Star Wars – Brian Wood and Carlos D’Anda
I love Star Wars, especially the original trilogy, and this book hits my Star Wars sweet spot. Set between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back readers follow all of the familiar heroes as they search for a new home for the Rebel Alliance. Brian Wood has a great sense of who Han, Luke, and Leia are, and it feels like a perfect continuation of the films—only with better dialogue. D’Anda’s art is perfect for this book. Not only is he capable of clear and exciting action sequences, but he also makes the heroes look just enough like their actors that you know precisely who is whom, but not so much that it looks like he just traced pictures of them.
The Star Wars – Johnathan Rinzler and Mike Mayhew
Yes, this is a different book than Star Wars. This book is based on George Lucas’ original draft of Star Wars and it has been quite a treat. The Star Wars is full of familiar names and places, but they all apply to different things. It’s like the entire Star Wars universe has been turned on its head and shaken around a bit. Now to be honest, I don’t want this book to last forever and I’m looking forward to seeing the conclusion to the story (though I sense it is still a ways off). What makes this book great is that I never know what part of the Star Wars I know and love is going to show up somewhere unexpected. It’s also pretty crazy to think that this is where Star Wars started.
Black Science – Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera
This is the newest addition to my pull list and truth be told I’m not 100% sold on it yet. Only being on issue two however, I’m not rushing to judgment just yet. I am huge fan of Fear Agent, so I’m willing to give Remender the benefit of the doubt and stick this out at least through the first story arc. Black Science follows a group of scientists who have broken through reality into the chaos that lies beyond. Of course what they find there isn’t very nice, and just like black magic in fantasy, this black science makes things go awry. The art is strong with the exception that at times it was difficult to tell female characters apart, though once I get to know them better I suspect that problem will fade. Stay tuned for the inevitable update.
So these are the sci-fi books that I’m currently reading. They are not all the books I read with sci-fi elements and it is certainly not every book that exists (I just don’t have the money…/sad face), but they are the ones I consider pure science fiction. But enough about me, we want to hear about you. What books are you reading? Tell us about your favorites and maybe those that you’re not so fond of and of course, why.
Filed under Andrew Hales, Comics
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