The 501st Legion Project is a program that invites artists to creatively modify life-sized stormtrooper helmets. This was one response by Denise Vasquez. You can view profile shots at the link.

Link via Geekologie | Photo: Denise Vasquez

This is a simply amazing crafting project. That's really only evident at the link when you can see the process photos of what went into its creation. Stargate Information Archive forum member mango and his father planned the project in AutoCad and made the rings so that the inner one actually spins, just like on the show. Outstanding job, guys!

Link via Sci Fi Wire

The wife of redditor maggoty made this amazingly detailed cross-stitch inspired by Sonic the Hedgehog. She estimates that she spent about 300 to 400 hours over 2 to 3 years on the project. The completed work measures 58 cm by 40 cm.

Link via Geekosystem

That's the thesis of otaku Michael Pinto, who argues that the simple mistake of shrink-wrapping new manga in bookstores is preventing potential customers from discovering new artists:

Many social media from Facebook to Flickr live and die by discoverability. It’s the idea that from a casual glance you may find something that you weren’t looking for that engages your attention. Part of what killed the music business was that outlets like radio and MTV stopped playing their product. When this occurred most people stopped discovering new artists — and the result is that the while a Lady Gaga may occur occasionally break out, for the most part you have a stagnant business in sharp decline. And what happened to music CDs is now happening to manga.

Now many folks in Japan read their manga via weekly publications, but for those who aren’t that means that there’s no reason to buy a volume of manga. So an entire market for casual readers will die out over time. Many of the artists published in the self contained volumes of manga are the best of the best, but if a few years go by their series may not be running in a weekly publication anymore. The result is that a kid discovering an older artist for the first time will be stopped dead in their tracks at the shrink-wrap. Add to that fact that Japan is graying so there are less kids to buy the older back titles in the first place. And just so you know many of the titles that were shrink-wrapped were aimed at non-otakus like kids titles and romantic girly girl manga.

Link | Image: Kodansha

Beware the jackass side of the Force. Once you journey down its path, forever will it dominate your destiny.

Link via Popped Culture | Image: Kalafioro

Last Wednesday, I posted six geeky love songs. Thanks to some excellent suggestions by readers, I've added six more. Enjoy!

The theme music from The Legend of Zelda, written by video game musical composer Koji Kondo in 1986, has captivated gamers as a musical score of enduring quality. Here's a roundup of variations on that music.

(Image: Qinni)


(YouTube Link)

George Randy performed the theme on a Moog Etherwave Theremin.


(YouTube Link)

YouTube user DrGusto and his friends formed a quartet consisting of a trumpet, two trombones, and a tuba.


(YouTube Link)

This past May, YouTube user JapanJens got married in Linkoping, Sweden and used the Zelda theme as a wedding march. The organist switches from Wagner's Bridal Chorus to Zelda at 1:40.


(YouTube Link)

Diwa de Leon vocalized four parts and accompanied himself on a violin in this arrangement.


(YouTube Link)

This demonstration of Tesla coil music was given at DucKon 18 last year in Chicago.


(YouTube Link)

There's an app that turns an iPhone into a functional ocarina. This is, of course, a reference to the LOZ game The Ocarina of Time.


(YouTube Link)

No amateurs here -- this is the actual Boston Symphony Orchestra performing the Zelda theme.


(YouTube Link)

I Fight Dragons, a Chicago-based band that drinks deep from the well of the Nintendo tradition, offered this glorious version. The voice balloons by band member Laura were a nice touch. (via Nerd Bastards)

Remember those spooky scenes from Star Trek when Borg drones would attack -- and the first sign of them was their laser eyepieces peering through the mist? Instructables user lemonie was inspired by them to create his own functional laser eyepiece. It's functional in the sense that the lens is from a set of binoculars. Scroll down for a video of the gadget in action.

Link via technabob | Lemonie's Website | Photo: lemonie


(YouTube Link)

(YouTube Link)

This video is in Russian, so I can only guess about the conversation between Logan and the manicurist. But she clearly doesn't take it very well.

Thanks to commenter themidnight, we now have a subtitled video. Anyway, I think that this is a fake. The real Wolverine has claws about two or three inches longer than this guy.

via Bits & Pieces

(YouTube Link)

Mattheiu S. of Buzzfeed compiled ten different versions of the Imperial March from Star Wars, some of which we've already covered here. But this one is new to our humble blog: a performance by the official band of the Buckingham Palace guards.

Link via Ace of Spades HQ

Etsy user Undead made this simply adorable zombie Snorlax. Makes you just want to hug him to pieces, right?

Well, maybe that's just me. Anyway: notice that someone has been shooting him in the belly. Bad, bad, bad. Aim for the head, folks.

The whole Etsy store is pretty interesting, especially the sociopathic Care Bears.

Link via Albotas | Previously: Snorlax Dress

This image, by an artist unknown to me, is spot on. I've never had a game master that insisted on using encumbrance rules, so as long no one tried to put a horse in a fanny pack. Most video games that I've played had a limited number of inventory spots or mutually-exclusive pieces of equipment (e.g. you can't wear two flack vests at the same time). That's probably a good compromise.

via Geekstir

Confession time: I haven't played a role-playing game since 2004. I haven't had the time, what with school, work, and kids. And most importantly, blogging. It'd be really hard to get back into it, not only because of the 3-5 hours spent in a typical gaming session, but the enormous amount of time necessary to get up to speed and be prepared for a game.

That's why I'm interested in a new development by Wizards of the Coast, which hopes to lure back busy, older people like me. They've come up with a simplified version of Dungeons & Dragons.

The new "D&D Encounters" provides all the materials needed to run a D&D game, but in a relatively short period of time. The goal, said brand director Liz Schuh, is to get those former gamers rolling the dice again.

"We wanted to try and create experiences to fit in their current time frames," Schuh said. "It is also an opportunity to learn the new rules system."

"Encounters" has premade characters and a premade adventure provided to the game's referee and storyteller, the Dungeon Master. Maps, tokens, game pieces and player aids, such as bonus cards, are all included.

The adventure is spread out over 12 weeks, but it only takes about two hours to play each week's encounter. Mark Watkins, a Dungeon Master for the "Encounters" game at Ravens Nest store in Marietta, Georgia, said the new version is simple and timely.

"It is very easy to DM. They give you everything," Watkins said. "This is really good for people to drop in and play."

Link via Nerd Bastards | Official Website | Photo by flickr user House of Sims used under Creative Commons license

Scott Edelman of Sci Fi Wire compiled a gallery of eighteen great Star Wars-themed sand sculptures. Sand seems like a good medium of Jabba, wouldn't you say? I do not know, but I suspect that this one was made by the Sand Sculpture Company.

http://scifiwire.com/2010/06/gallery-xx-amazing-star-w.php

Stupid scientist, ruining my dreams:

The first snag you run into is that battery. "Although real-life battery technology is coming along great," Gluesenkamp writes, "we are a long way off from creating handheld batteries with capacities like that the ones found in the lightsaber's diatium power cell." In Star Wars, Jedi didn't have to worry about that because "diatium" is a convenient bit of fiction and are attuned to the Force, so, really, they could do anything.[...]

There's another problem in getting a focused, powerful blade of plasma with an exact length and shape, which is where the concept of a lightsaber gets "really convoluted," according to Gluesenkamp.

"There are also no crystals that can 'direct' a plasma," Gluesenkamp writes, noting that today we use magnetic fields are used, but are limited as the machinery involved has to enclose the plasma. "In fact, a plasma 'being directed' by a crystal lens doesn't make any physical sense anyway. A plasma is really just an ionized gas — a gas in which the electrons have been stripped from their atomic nuclei."

Well, yeah, he has "facts" and "science" on his side. But we look really cool when we hang out at the mall in our Jedi robes. So we have that going for us.

Link | Image: Lucasfilms