(YouTube Link)

YouTube user daniscool99 made this a cappella version of the Pokémon theme song. I was a bit skeptical that it was truly without accompaniment, but he insists:

*ALL SOUNDS ON THIS RECORDING WERE MADE VOCALLY*

-The drum shots were transcribed and recorded shot for shot

A lot of different effects have been used on this recording. Pitch correction, yes pitch correction, was used on lots of the backup tracks - although none on the lead vocals. While I didn't necessarily care to "correct wrong pitches", I used to create a continuity and consistency of sound because I was imitating instruments. The guitar sounds have distortion and tape delays and everything has significant EQ's as well... The drums are a prime example. Also some use of pitch shifting.. no I can't sing that low lol.

In that case, this was very impressive work.

via Albotas

Tightrope walkers crossed the Han River in Korea without assistance. Get it? This appeared in an issue of The Washington Post. Very clever of the headline editor.

Link via Sci Fi Wire

Goofus and Gallant is an educational comic that has appeared in Highlights for Children since 1948. It contrasts two boys, Goofus and Gallant. Gallant has good social skills and Goofus poor.

This spoof presents Captain America as Gallant and the anti-social Deadpool as Goofus. There are three more panels at the link. I don't know who the artist is. Do you?

Link via reddit

Ben Michaels (6) has amblyopia in one eye -- a severe lazy eye. To strengthen the ailing eye, his doctor prescribed two hours of video games a day:

Ben, from Billericay, Essex, spends two hours a day playing Mario Kart on a Nintendo DS with his twin Jake. Ben wears a patch over his good eye to make his lazy one work harder.

The twins' mother, Maxine, 36, said that from being 'nearly blind' in the eye, Ben's vision had 'improved 250 per cent' in the first week.

She said: 'When he started he could not identify our faces with his weak eye. Now he can read with it although he is still a way off where he ought to be.

And they say that video games discourage exercise. (*snort*)

Now that you know how good video games can be for you, what are you going to do to make sure that your eyes remain strong?

Link via Digg | Photo: Barry Phillips

Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool imagined what DC Comics heroes would be like if they were portrayed by Mark Millar, the creator of Kick-Ass. Superman is pretty much a typical teenager. Click on the link to view panels with Batman and Watchmen.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/06/27/what-if-mark-millar-wrote-for-dc-comics-again/ via Geekosystem | Image: Bleeding Cool

(YouTube Link)

AT-AT Day Afternoon is a short film by Patrick Biovin which imagines the AT-AT Walker as a family pet. Biovin writes, "When I was a kid, there are two things I wanted badly and never got... A real dog and a Kenner AT-AT Walker."

We've previously featured another one of Biovin's short films: Iron Baby.

via reddit

Neatorama and reddit are how hosting an Internet talent contest. Do you have some weird, amusing, or useless ability? Then click here for a chance to win an iPad!

Pictured above is a screenshot from our first entry by YouTube user squidkidd, who can ride a unicycle while playing the opening music from Star Wars on the bagpipes!

(Video Link)

In this sweet video, a man tells about how he captured the heart of the woman who would become his wife. It involves touching and romantic Cthulhu references, of course. You'd have to roll save vs. insanity not to fall for such a gesture.

via Nerdcore

Previously:
Geeky Love Songs
Cthulhu-Themed Love Song

Okay, I've got a cunning idea....

Two days ago, over at our sister blog NeatoBambino, Alex posted about three unusual sperm banks. One's called "Beautiful People", and it's for only very physically attractive people. Another has a feature called "Donor Look-A-Likes", which provides donors who resemble celebrities. And finally, there's one that accepts donations from only Nobel Prize winners. If you want your kid to be a genius, this might give him or her a leg up on the competition.

So Jill's post got me thinking about a business scheme: a geek sperm bank. You know, for women who want to be impregnated by Wil Wheaton, Jonathan Coulton, Ted Raimi, Stan Lee, etc.

I mean, there's got to be a market for this sort of thing, right? What do you think?

Image: NIH

Redditor TheBishopsBane has a friend who has never watched Star Trek, but is willing to try out one episode from each series in order to be persuaded of the franchise's greatness. He asks commenters to suggest the best episodes for the task:

I have a friend who is a science fiction/fantasy fan but has never seen a single Trek episode or movie. He has become quite stubborn about it, but has agreed to watch a single episode from each series to give it a chance.

I'm looking for episodes which don't involve too much of the Trek universe's politics, don't require any prior knowledge of the characters or setting, and are just good, old fashioned story telling.

Here's my list:
The Original Series: City on the Edge of Forever
The Next Generation: Darmok
Deep Space Nine: Hard Time
Voyager: Blink of an Eye

These, I think, tell a fairly complete story and don't require as much background knowledge as other top episodes. I haven't watched past the first season of Enterprise, so I'll withhold a recommendation. And I think that The Animated Series is best forgotten, even though Memory Alpha regards it as canonical.

Which episodes would you suggest?

Link | Image: Paramount

(YouTube Link)

A sketch by the comedy troupe Big Dog Eat Child. The Ninja Turtles are growing up and starting to move on with their lives. But Michelangelo still thinks that he's a teenager.

via Albotas | Official Website

(YouTube Link)

YouTube user Ultraboy94fsr made a WAD modification to Doom so that he could use a vuvuzela as a weapon. At the video link, he provides a link to the file so that you can download it.

I promise that this might be my last vuvuzela post.

via Nerdcore

Here's one section of a huge Futurama diorama that Pepa Quin made out of LEGOs:

This layout is the culmination of a work in progress for over two years. I started with the Planet Express and major characters back in February 2008. In December 2009 I expanded the building to include the sub pen, and built up a portion of the surrounding area. In late April through June 2010, I worked overtime to build an 80"x60" layout, ready in time for Brickworld 2010 on June 17th.

At the link, you can view the whole Flickr set.

The revived Futurama will debut tonight on Comedy Central. Do you plan to watch it?

Link via Sci Fi Wire

(YouTube Link)

io9 has footage of the recently-released pilot for a 1975 science fiction television show called Strange New World. It was based on ideas by Gene Roddenberry, and as you can see from just the first few seconds of the video, it borrowed heavily from the library of Star Trek sound effects. io9 has information about the pilot as well as additional video:

In Strange New World, three astronauts are sent up to a space station for an experiment into suspended animation. Why do they have to be in space to be put into suspended animation? It's never entirely clear. But while they're asleep, meteors threaten to make the planet all but uninabitable. So NASA decides to extend their sleep remotely, to 180 years. (There's nobody on their space station who's not in suspended animation, because why would you do that?)

So our heroes wake up 180 years later to find an Earth that's been reduced to ruins. We find all this out in a three-minute prologue that feels like an extended opening credits. And then our heroes ride their shuttlecrafts down to Earth, where they have two adventures. We'll call them "Plato's Stepchildren with Clones," and "The Omega Glory with Tigers." In the first one, our heroes are dressed up in togas for no particular reason, and trapped in a perfect society, which has one evil secret — involving clones!! In the second one, two tribes are fighting a centuries-old conflict as they descend into barbarism — and one tribe has tigers!

Link

deviantART user DDRzukamori photographed this cosplayer at Anime Central 2010. It's of the character Norman Jayden, a FBI profiler from the film noir video game Heavy Rain. Just click on the function that you want to activate.

Link via Albotas