I hope that, beyond the title, I don't need to explain why this picture by artist Jeff Zugale is so eyeball-burstingly good.

But it gets better: Wheaton and Scalzi are hosting a fan-fiction contest to benefit victims of lupus.

You write a 400 to 2,000 word fanfic about the picture above. Come at it from any angle you like to explain, illuminate or otherwise bring to life what's going on in the picture above. Our only request is NO slash fanfic (please). But other than that, knock yourself out.[...]

If your fanfic of the picture is chosen by our Jury of Awesomeness, your story will appear in a special electronic chapbook about the picture, with other stories written by me, by Wil, by Norton Award winner and Best Novel Hugo Award nominee Catherynne Valente and by Patrick Rothfuss, best selling author of The Name of the Wind. You will be paid for your story at the rate of ten cents a word (twice the SFWA minimum professional rate), and you'll receive a special prize pack of books from Subterranean Press, which will publish the electronic chapbook later in the year.

Link via io9 | Image: Jeff Zugale

The ominous "He Will Find You" was inspired by "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", an episode of The Twilight Zone. And, of course, the awesomeness that is Batman. deviantART user bandit-art promises that the sequel will make it clear that Batman knows exactly where Carmen Sandiego is.

Link via Popped Culture

(YouTube Link)

Blame Society Productions, the comedy studio responsible for the Chad Vader series, made a video of comic Brad Knight doing impressions of monsters from 1st edition Dungeons & Dragons.

via Nerdcore | Official Website

(YouTube Link)

Gavin Kelly made this short film entitled Avatar Days. It is an exploration of the relationship between World of Warcraft players and their avatars. Kelly digitally superimposed the avatars over the players as they walked around the streets of Dublin, worked in their cubicles, or spent time at home.

via Geekosystem

On her Facebook page, Theresa Coleman poses an interesting question: what would be the correct academic dress for Dumbledore, headmaster at Hogwart's?

Academic regalia varies throughout the West, but it primarily consists of a robe, a cap, and a hood. Differences within systems of regalia reflect the type of highest degree earned by the person, the subject matter of that degree, and the school at which that degree was earned. Additional adornments may reflect special affiliations or honors earned by the recipient.

In my own limited experience, the most significant indicators are the found in the hood, which is short for a master's degree or long for a doctorate. The outer color represents the discipline, such as orange for engineering or pink for music. The inner two colors are the school colors of the university which granted that degree.

So Theresa wonders which disciplinary color Dumbledore would wear as a professor of magic. She proposes scarlet for theology. I think that one could argue for the dark blue of philosophy. Alternatively, Dumbledore might actually have his doctorate (if any) in higher education administration, as many school administrators do. In this case, his hood would be light blue.

Image: Warner Bros., Wikimedia Commons, respectively

(YouTube Link)

Luke and Han thought that they were going to a briefing to prepare them to destroy the Death Star. Instead, they're getting a sales pitch for the iPad. They're unimpressed. Video by Adam Buxton. Content warning: foul language.

via Nerdcore | Adam Buxton

Redditor unnamed_player found or created an org chart for a university staffed by video game characters. Pictured above is one piece of it. Leisure Suit Larry as a women's studies professor? Sure.

Link via reddit

(YouTube Link)

This video by YouTube user weareactualsize mashes up a Thanksgiving episode of Friends with The Superfriends. Robin does a very good Phoebe. Also, Superman is a pothead.

via reddit

On his Twitter feed, Leonard Nimoy posted a picture of himself with his son on the set of the original Star Trek. He writes:

The makeup folks put ears on my son Adam to surprise me. A precious moment while shooting the original series.

Link via Digg

The humorists at Mauvais Oeil have a great and very lengthy presentation of Darth Vader's Facebook page, including selections from the episodes 1-3. Yes, the Star Wars Facebook thing has been done before. But not this well. Content warning: some foul language.

Link via reddit

At least, that's what Cyriaque Lamar of io9 argues. He makes a pretty good case. Here's a selection:

4.) The totemic power of shoes. The thing that made it absolutely clear that Sex and the City 2 was a science fiction movie was the scene in which Carrie bought shoes at the souk. In the Sex and the City mythos, plots involving Carrie's shoe are rife with danger and intrigue. Remember the episode in which Carrie's Manolos were stolen at that party? Or when she was mugged for her Manolos in Tribeca? Shoes are the medium with which The City keeps tabs on Carrie - they are The City's harbinger, The City's familiar, and Carrie's tormentor.

Case in point — in Sex and the City 2, Carrie goes to the souk to purchase what appears to be genie shoes (I'm serious). At this point, Carrie's old flame, Aiden Shaw, suddenly appears. Do you know how difficult it is to run into people you know in NYC, let alone in the UAE? Aiden's appearance wasn't just a lazy, ludicrously improbable sop to longtime SATC fans. No, it was The City's machinations keeping Carrie in check. The shoes conspired against her. Ooooh.

When viewed as a rom-com, Sex and the City 2 is terrible and crappy and a horrific inversion of everything the show once was. But when viewed as a science fiction film, SATC2 is subversive, stylish and chilling.

I haven't seen the movie, but I did watch enough of the TV show to decide that I never wanted to date a woman who was a fan of it.

Link | Image: HBO

I remember, about ten years ago, seeing a band of LARPers (live action role-players) doing a combat sequence in the main library of the Ohio State University. It kind of freaked out the librarians, who didn't understand what was happening.

They could have learned a lot from a set of cartoons by Livejournal user Team Dynamite. These explain the purpose, appeal, and basic etiquette of live action role-playing.

I've never LARPed. Have you? Is it fun?

Link via Nerdcore

(YouTube Link)

The latest installment of Michael Agrusso and Brina's satirical videos about DC and Marvel productions is a musical. Iron Man argues that DC can't top Marvel's narrative continuity. Do you agree?

via Comics Alliance

(YouTube Link)

A start-up called Feng-GUI has rigged together a crude but functional flight simulator -- and not like a plane, but an Iron Man suit. The user hangs from a hang gliding harness and looks through virtual reality goggles at a computer rendering of a flight path while wind is blown in his face. You can view more pictures of the simulator at the link.

Link via Make

Jesse Starr is an artist who has a knack for using the ordinary ballpoint pen. Above is his amazing portrait of Optimus Prime that was composed with only that instrument.

Link via Geekologie