Term Life Insurance -- yes, this infographic was sponsored by the insurance industry -- put together a chart illustrating the relative difficulty, powers, and motivations of ten prominent evil bosses from video games. Pictured above is one selection of the larger infographic, which is available at the link.

I've noticed that a lot of pop culture infographics these days are sponsored by companies that you'd never think would have an interest in the subject. Perhaps it's successful advertising.

http://www.termlifeinsurance.org/videogame-bosses/ via Digg

Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church cult are protesting Comic-Con in San Diego. I guess that God Hates Geeks or something. Anyway, geeks in attendance have staged a large counter-protect. Urlesque has a roundup of some of the funniest signs and costumes used.

Link

(YouTube Link)

This bit of weirdness from Japan shows a group of vegetables bravely killing themselves in order to create a stew. The potato, to set a worthy example for the younger vegetables, peels himself first.

It's apparently from an anime production called Dai Mahou Touge.

via WTF, Japan, Seriously!?

Reg Turnill, with the assistance of the famous author's family, runs an annual short story writing competition in honor of H.G. Wells. This year, due to what Turnill saw as a slew of inferior submissions, he added strict requirements for participants. Submitted stories could not be about science fiction, and they had to be written in longhand. The result? No one entered the contest:

The 94-year-old said: “I wanted people to write the stories by hand as a condition of entry to address the low standard of literacy and handwriting these days.

“It’s an important art in itself and many of our most famous authors find that’s the best way to do creative writing.

“I also wanted the stories to reflect life in 2010 so they would interest readers in 2110, in the way that Wells’ stories do.

“My aim in offering the £1,000 prize was to get people to mimic what Wells did in the 1900s.”

Mr Turnill said last year’s HG Wells competition entries consisted mostly of sci-fi, so he wanted to be more specific in what this year’s should contain.

“Last year there were plenty of entries because the competition was open to writers of all ages and stories could include science fiction, depicting ghastly invasions of our everyday lives by all sorts of nameless horrors,” he said.

http://www.kentnews.co.uk/kent-news/No-entries-for-%C2%A31,000-HG-Wells-story-competition-newsinkent37805.aspx via blastr | Photo: Yale University

Humorist Matthew Latkiewicz has devised an entire yoga exercise routine from Star Wars. He photographs a couple positions in each blog post, so just click on the link and keep scrolling to see the full program.

http://www.youwillnotbelieve.us/pursuits/category/star-wars-yoga via reddit | Photo: Matthew Latkiewicz

I've always thought that Princess Leia's hairbuns in Episode IV were adorable. But Jen Myers of Skepchick argues that this style and several others that Leia wears are physically impossible to duplicate:

There’s no visible means of support and considering this hairstyle lasts through being captured by Imperial forces, imprisoned, ineptly rescued (sorry, it’s the truth) and almost being crushed by a garbage compactor, we’re forced to conclude she could have only kept it in place with super glue. Which I hear is not all that great for hair.

Link via blastr | Image: Lucasfilm

(YouTube Link)

YouTube user BrianRimmer compiled every opening theme for Doctor Who in chronological order. At the video link, you can get the details.

I watched a little bit of the Fourth Doctor in the early 90s, but found the show very difficult to understand. Certainly after 43 years on air, it'd be hard to gain a familiarity with the series.

If a person who has never seen Doctor Who were to watch only one episode, which should it be?

via Nerdcore | Previously: A Song about That Secret Shame: "I Have Never Watched a Single Episode of Doctor Who in My Life"

(YouTube Link)

Eric Power, who previously brought us a papercraft version of The Legend of Zelda, is an Austin-based animator. He made this video of Mortal Combat fatalities.

Link via Kotaku

It's about time that someone took some legal action. Vader was taken into custody by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They always get their man.

Yes, this is real, not a photoshop.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/07/19/14760471.html via reddit

(YouTube Link)

Remember the dog that was trained to say "Batman"? That video was remixed with the opening music to the 1960s Batman.

via Geekstir

Olly Moss made a pair of commemorative posters for the classic Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles". They depict Spock and Uhura getting buried in tribbles. Note that the bottom of the posters inaccurately represents the respective heights of the characters.

By the way: David Gerrold, the author of that episode, wrote the awesomest ever time travel novel.

Link | Artist's Website

Previously on Neatorama:
Olly Moss Pwns Shepard Fairey's Obey Giant
Know Your Enemies' Weaknesses

deviantART user Nina Matusmoto correctly labels the Transformerized Bender as a Decepticon:

I was watching the original Transformers cartoon, and I decided the only robot who could be more of a jerk to Megatron than Starscream is Bender.

Link via Great White Snark

What would Tetris be like if blocks fell like normal objects, instead of the clean lines and patterns of the classic game? Facepunch user Maurice created a frustrating version of the game called "Not Tetris" that does precisely that.

Link via Albotas

(YouTube Link)

Kate Mulgrew, who played Kathryn Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager, was not the first pick for that role. In fact, Mulgrew only got it after another actress quit midway through the filming of the first episode. Here's a scene from that episode with that actress, Genevieve Bujold.

Do you think that she would have made a good Janeway?

I found this video at list of fourteen facts about Star Trek that you might not know, which you can view at the link.

http://blog.koldcast.tv/2010/koldcast-news/14-things-you-didnt-know-about-star-trek/ via blastr

LikeMe has a list of ten science fiction movies that perhaps don't get as much respect as they should. I certainly agree with one of the selections -- Gattaca (1997). It was a well-written, well-acted, and well-directed dystopia. Sadly, it earned back only a third of its budget at the box office.

Which science fiction movie do you think is under-appreciated?

Link via Digg | Photo: Columbia Pictures