The Star Wars saga takes place “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” which should put it completely out of the reach of human interference. But fandoms don't work like that, particularly one as large as the Star Wars fandom. Geeks gonna geek, and now Georgetown University assistant physics professor Dr. Patrick Johnson is speculating about the "when" of "A long time ago." In his new book The Physics of Star Wars, Johnson creates a timeline from the beginning of the universe.

The first galaxies were formed around a billion years after the big bang, so that cuts out a billion years. The films depict many star systems with mature planets and intelligent life. It took the solar system about 500 million years to form, and it formed 4.6 billion years ago, so it’s reasonable to assume that Star Wars is about 5 billion years after the formation of the first galaxy1. There are also fully formed multicellular creatures of many different shapes and kinds. It took about 2 billion years for single-celled organisms to evolve into multicellular organisms, and another billion years before those took the form of life that we could recognize as creatures.

Although it took billions of years for life to evolve on Earth, that does not mean the process would always take billions of years. The first eukaryotic cell is thought to have formed from a bacterium entering a prokaryotic cell and living symbiotically rather than being destroyed by its host cell. This was a random fluke that took millions of years to happen. If that event had happened on the first day of prokaryotic life, it could have shaved off a significant chunk of time for evolution.

That pegs the Star Wars story at least at big bang plus nine billion years, but Johnson is just getting started. Read more about the possibilities of the Star Wars timeline in a book excerpt at Wired. -via Uproxx

Stuart Malina was conducting the Florida Orchestra through "In the Hall of the Mountain King" at a Coffee Concert in St. Petersburg when principle percussionist John Shaw went a little wild with the triangle.

(YouTube link)

The rest of the orchestra was shocked. They didn't know the stunt was planned as a reference to the Geico ad featuring a triangle player taking a solo. Malina took the opportunity to advertise subscription memberships to the orchestra. -via Tastefully Offensive 

Actor Christopher Walken is tops in employing a deadpan, inscrutable facial expression that's difficult for other characters to read. This makes him either a generic everyman, or else an eerie stranger, depending on what the role calls for. And that set up makes it all the more devastating when he loses it.     

Every role he seems to have that quiet calm until the right moment when he needs to snap, and then you tend to sit back out of habit since it’s so in your face awesome that you kind of have to take a quick second to readjust and get used to it. And then, like I said, he goes back to being quiet.

That’s what makes him so awesome.

Filmmakers know Walken's strengths and use it to ultimate effect in movie after movie. Watch Walken go completely bonkers in video clips from five movies you know and love at TVOM.

A Scottish dermatologist with 30 years of experience reveals a list of things that skin doctors would like the public to know. They take care of a myriad of conditions affecting the largest organ in our bodies, and they are very busy because there aren't enough dermatologists. First off, he lets you in on what a dermatologist's life is like.

1. Please stop asking us to take a "quick look" at your lumps, bumps, blemishes, and moles.

Our friends, acquaintances, and Tinder dates just can't seem to resist the urge to drop their pants in front of us to show us a "weird skin thing". Please don't, especially when we're not working and we're just trying to have a nice time. Make an appointment with us instead, and get your weird thing seen to properly.

4. Yes, we are "real doctors".

We can't count the number of times we've been asked if all we do is pop pimples and rub in lotion for a living. Nope. In actual fact, medical dermatologists treat serious medical conditions and perform operations on skin cancers including melanoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and basal cell carcinomas. It's heavy going.

Then the list goes into specific advice about taking care of your skin. The post contains some images that may be difficult for the squeamish, but you'll likely learn something important for your health, like how to prevent cancer and not go broke treating acne. See all 24 brutally honest confessions of dermatologists at Buzzfeed.

Screen Junkies does an Honest Trailer for the Netflix series Stranger Things. I've learned more from this trailer than from all the fan tributes I've seen -and I've seen a lot of them.

(YouTube link)

Many movie and TV critiques focus on implausibility as a problem, but Stranger Things treats implausibility as an asset, or even the main point. The show is an opportunity to wallow in childhood nostalgia and confront a scary and inexplicable world at the same time. So while this Honest Trailer has plenty of gags, it really likes the show.   

LEGO sculptor Ochre Jelly (Iain Heath) is a fan of the Netflix show Stranger Things. While so many other people were dressing up as Eleven for Halloween or telling stories about the Demogorgan, he was busy recreating the scene in which Barb is sitting on a diving board in the dark.

My latest LEGO creation. The pool effect was created using rare transparent baseplace pieces, covered in transparent blue tiles, and lit from below using the flashlight from my smartphone!

It's a great likeness, isn't it?

(Image credit: Iain Heath)

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.

I Love Lucy would probably correctly be identified as being the most popular and beloved television series of all-time. And since it's debut on October 15, 1951, it is probably also the most watched.

Pre-production on the new sitcom wasn't really overly complex. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were set to play the show's main couple, Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, and there were only two others in the show's regular cast. These two being Lucy and Ricky's best friends and landlords, Fred and Ethel Mertz.

Okay, let's start at the top- why the names? Where did the monikers Fred and Ethel Mertz come from? The name "Fred" comes from Lucille ball's brother, Fred. The "Ethel" was in honor of Lucy's longtime pal, the famed broadway and Hollywood star, Ethel Merman.

When the show's writers were trying to come up with an appropriate surname for the pair, they started batting around very silly names- like "Throttlebottom." It was writer Madelyn Pugh who came up with "Mertz," a name taken in honor of a doctor who lived down the block from her in her youth in Indianapolis.

The Aberdeen Bestiary was written in England around 1200 AD. Bestiaries were manuscripts listing animals along with morality lessons. Most were not illustrated, and color illustrations were even more rare. The Aberdeen Bestiary was illustrated in full color, and is a treasure of the medieval era. It's been in the possession Aberdeen University for almost 400 years. The university began uploading images from the book in 1996, but those were photographs. They debuted a new catalog of hi-resolution scanned images from the Aberdeen Bestiary last month. Yes, the entire book is online, although it was never completely finished.   

According to university professor Jane Geddes, marks and annotations previously indiscernible to the naked eye suggest that the book ended up in the king’s library as a treasure handpicked by his scouts, who rummaged through dissolved monastic libraries for valuables. Although the book is ornate, it was never fully finished. Now clearly visible imperfections indicate that it was created in a scriptorium by many hands. The bookmaking team would have consisted of prickers, a scribe, draftsmen, and painters, and pages reveal instructions left by craftsmen for one another. Notes in the margins also relay edits to the inked script, from corrections to spelling errors to more pronounced mistakes related to the narrative (e.g. “The swallow is not attacked by other birds”).

Read more about the Aberdeen Bestiary at Hyperallergic, and view the manuscript at its website. -via Boing Boing

Is this mashup "perfect" or just "stranger"? Wisconsin native Larry (Mark Linn-Baker) and his immigrant cousin Balki (Bronson Pinchot) welcome a new roommate to their Chicago apartment: the Demogorgon!

(YouTube link)

The original cast from both Perfect Strangers and Stranger Things made an appearance on last night's Jimmy Kimmel Live! to give us this perfectly strange sitcom preview. -via Metafilter

Hollywood doesn't make Westerns the way they used to. In fact, they don't make many Westerns at all in the 21st century. They are expensive, unfamiliar to younger audiences, and require a certain suspension of disbelief about history. Yet we have hundreds, if not thousands, of old Westerns we can select to watch in our leisure time. Which ones are worth the effort? You might want to check out a list of 25 movies at The Art of Manliness called The Best Western Movies Ever Made, with a description of each one. I bet you haven't seen them all!  -Thanks, Tim!

An animal rescue group feeding stray cats in South Korea noticed one who was a little different. She eagerly took cat food that was packaged, but tended to leave loose food alone. When presented with a choice of wrapped or unwrapped food, she selected the wrapped food and took off. You can probably guess that she was sharing it.

(YouTube link)

There's a moment of real tension in this short story, but it has a happy ending. -via reddit

While spending their 91 days in Hanoi, Mike Powell and Jürgen Horn visited the Sunday market in Tam Sơn, Vietnam. They took a ton of pictures and some video, and told us a little about the experience. So I am going to do what I've been told not to.  

Don’t quote us on this, but we figured there must have been well over a dozen ethnic minorities represented at the market, just based on the different outfits we saw. Members of a particular group seemed to stick together, whether sitting down for lunch or joining forces for haggling. Our guide, Chu Chu, pointed out the guys asking for rice wine samples. We saw them go from stand to stand, asking for a taste at each. Later in the day, we saw these same guys stumbling around, blissfully drunk.

When someone says, "Don’t quote us on this," it's less of a challenge and more of "I'm not exactly sure." But you can judge for yourself as you take part in the Sunday market at Tam Sơn by visiting Hanoi For 91 Days.

The rich are different from you and I. They know a hint of turquoise, no matter how subtle, adds a immeasurable value to an object, even an object that the rest of us just toss out with the garbage. In case you happen to have more money than sense, you can now buy a tin can from Tiffany's. For a thousand dollars. The description of this can goes:

The Everyday Objects collection transforms utilitarian items into handcrafted works of art. A classic tin can is upgraded in sterling silver and shining vermeil.

    Sterling silver and vermeil with Tiffany Blue® enamel accent
    4.5" high
    Instantly recognizable, the signature Tiffany Blue® hue of this design’s enamel accent has been as iconic as the brand itself since its founding in 1837

if you're not planning on getting me this tin can from tiffany's for christmas, please don't get me anything at all. pic.twitter.com/NIPBQvjQcT

— Gabrielle (@gbabyslims) November 3, 2017

However, if you already have a tin can, the other items in their Everyday Objects collection include a $9,000 ball of yarn, a $175 golf tee, and a $350 crazy straw, among other items. -via Uproxx 

This scene grabs you right here, and then it yanks you quickly in another direction. Yeah, it would be traumatic to encounter someone who honestly doesn't believe in death -so traumatic that you might not even know it's all BS for a minute. This comic from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal was written by Zach Weinersmith and illustrated by Abby Howard of Junior Scientist Power Hour.

The title of this video wouldn't make sense if it were about any other subject. But the question really is: who first wrote about time travel? The idea could have existed before it was written about, but we would never know. This video looks at what we know about the evolution of time travel as an concept from the writings we have.

(YouTube link)

Evan Puschak from The Nerdwriter explains that science fiction isn't that old. Literary time travel existed beforehand, even before the technology we associate with time travel, but it was different from what we are used to now. -via Laughing Squid