A blogger who goes by the moniker Grumpy Frenchman celebrated his birthday with a dinner party that presented food from different science fiction franchises. He created dishes inspired by Firefly, Star Trek, Star Wars, Dune, Futurama, Soylent Green, The Lord of the Rings, and Alien. Pictured above is a roasted chestburster:

Voila! Roasted Chestburster ‘a la Coloniale’! Big hit with the crowd for the disgusting aspect, the uber-nerdness of the idea, and the fact that it was basically a nice bit of roasted meat, when all’s said and done. Yum!

Bit of a close up on the jaw. Pictures aren’t perfect because Kim declined to photograph that one (Her exact words were something like: “OhGodUrgh…”), and the man who stepped forward to do it for her had already sampled the blue milk quite a bit!

More pictures at the link.

Link via Nerdcore

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This Japanese-language clip shows a live-action version of Super Mario Bros. It's an impressive demonstration of coordination, timing, and puppetry. There are no special effects -- just really skilled directing.

via Nerd Bastards

Bōsōzoku is an artistic style from Japan modeled after that country's motorcycle gangs -- or at least the aesthetic norms associated with them. It's found in many different media, from clothing to graphic design. The classic anime movie Akira can be considered a reflection of bōsōzoku.

The style is particularly prominent among car mod hobbyists. Pink Tentacle has a gallery of cars that express the beauty of bōsōzoku.

Link

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This awesomely bizarre clip is from (presumably) a Japanese movie. The Ultraman-like hero battles Hitler and his troops. Except that Hitler is part human, part starfish. Also, he can throw pieces of himself at the hero, which are themselves vicious starfish.

via io9

Papa Delta Bravo says that mechs will never actually appear on future battlefields. That's not because it will be impossible to build them, but because it would be an inefficient use of resources:

Ground pressure is the killing word to the armored war walker. Consider getting off the couch, strapping on a 100 pound backpack and going for a run. Now imagine you’re running through a patch of ankle deep sticky clay mud. Now imagine stopping or turning. DO NOT ACTUALLY ATTEMPT THIS, because you will BREAK A LEG OR POP A KNEE, fall face down in the mud, drown and die. This is what life will be like for a 20+ ton walker, every day, on all terrain.

The ground pressure that a 10t IFV exerts is less than a fully loaded infantry grunt.

Even if you imagine some spectacular future miracle technology or material that will remove some of the above problems, you’re still left with sky high ground pressure and I will use that same unobtanium to make better tanks and tank killing flyers that will make tin foil out of your walker.

Engineering is not about finding ways to make cool things work. It’s about solving problems at a lower fiscal, materials, logistical and manpower cost than current solutions. The purpose of a mechanized army is to take and hold territory by killing people and breaking their things. A force of armored walkers make this task harder, not easier.

This is pretty much my (uneducated) view, too. Another issue that PDB doesn't mention is that a mech has greater surface area than a tank, so armor of equivalent thickness would weigh more.

Link | Image: deviantART user flyingdebris

I like the way that Luke Gallagher introduces this rap:

You consider yourself a pretty well informed nerd, right? You’ve watched just about every geektastic movie and television show, and played every game there is. You have a certain level of pride in the time you spent earning your nerd cred. The things you do to attain your authoritative-ness demands respect. However, the embarrassment of being the last guy to the party is enough to shatter your world. It’s a situation we’ve all be in. Friends being all chatty cathy about something that you haven’t quite got into yet. They’re all really into it and your not. Damn friends making you feel all ashamed.

Adam WarRock sympathizes because he's never watched a single episode of Doctor Who. And now he must face the ostracism of his friends. Click on the link to share his ordeal.

Link via Nerd Bastards | Image: BBC

Vonda McIntyre was an early writer of Star Trek novels, such as The Entropy Effect and Enterprise: The First Adventure. In an article at io9, she described how she got the job. One interesting bit is how she named Lt. Sulu:

The only potential glitch in the Star Trek books came about because I couldn't figure out how to write a love scene where the protagonists called each other by their surnames. So I gave Mr. Sulu a first name, "Hikaru," which is from The Tale of Genji. I was blissfully unaware of the glitch till long after the fact; someone at Paramount objected to the idea of the character's having a given name, for reasons unclear to me. David had the good idea of asking Gene Roddenberry and George Takei their opinion, and both of them said "Go for it" or words to that effect. And so Mr. Sulu has a first name.

I've long that the practice of some science fiction franchises not giving first names to characters (e.g. classic Battlestar Galactica) asinine. It's good that Star Trek was able to avoid this small, but irritating problem.

Link | Image: Paramount

Cartoonist William Levin explains how kids are actually programmed to behave on long car trips.

Link via Popped Culture, who says "Robot kids, can't shut them off, can't reboot them."

deviantART user Edward M. Ryan made an armored suit from Halo. In fact, from his gallery, it looks like he's made several and is seriously into cosplay. About this picture, he writes:

Beautiful day in the neighborhood a beautiful day for a neighbor that goes "wtf, is that kid in armor?!"

Thought I would put the Armor on to see how the sun would effect me within.

Link via Geekosystem | Previously: Huge, Animatronic Elite (Halo) Costume

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This cute song is a parody of "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry. A sample of the lyrics:

I kissed a nerd and I liked it
The taste of his acne-chapped lips
I kissed a nerd, can't describe it
I told my boyfriend to hike it
Taped-glasses on
Plaid pants so tight
I think I'm in love tonight
I kissed a nerd and I liked it
I liked it

via reddit | Band Website

Previously: Geeky Love Songs

This actually makes a lot of sense. Instead of using David Prowse as the body and James Earl Jones as the voice of Darth Vader, George Lucas could have saved a lot of money by using only one actor. And of course that actor must be Steve Buscemi.

Link via Great White Snark | Photo: Ugliest Tattoos

This animated .gif was allegedly made in MS Paint. It tells the entire story of "A New Hope" in about ninety seconds. At the link, you can watch a larger version.

http://www.swtorstrategies.com/2010/07/may-schwartz-be-with-you-entire-star.html via reddit

Now that Wonder Woman has a new costume, Comics Alliance looked back at alternative costumes for Diana. They were featured in a 2007 contest called Project: Rooftop, and include some influenced by anime and ancient Greece. I really like this one by Maris Wicks. The invisible horse is a nice touch.

Do you like the new Wonder Woman design?

Link | Artist's Website

Batman is on Twitter, and Sci Fi Wire has culled 34 of his best tweets.

Please, someone photoshop this bat gadget.

Link via Sci Fi Wire

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This funny stop-motion animated short shows a frustrated Lt. Worf trying to relax and pamper himself after a hard day of work. It was created by Joshua and Nathan Flynn and won 'Best Stop Motion' award category of the 2009 University of Glamorgan Glammies Awards.

via Awesomesauce