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SCIENCE!MAGIC!KUNGFU!

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Jurassic Live: A live parody of Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park, perhaps one of the greatest movies ever made, is the subject of Old Murder House Theatre's latest parody: Jurassic Live Action Dino Show. In 2011 the company produced a live theatrical version of the sci-fi classic Aliens on ice! The tour runs until July 3rd in the States, and dates can be found on their site. Now, can someone get me a plane ticket so I can go watch? Pretty please...

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$70 to be chased by the Walking Dead!

A couple of weeks ago we had zombies in Florida (turns out it was just a lot of bad drugs), now 15,000 people have the opportunity to experience the zombie apocalypse first hand in "Walking Dead Escape: San Diego". The event which is being run at Comic-Con pits entrants through a course in Pecto Park stadium where entrants have the option of dodging the living dead as a survivor, or joining the ranks of the infected as a Walker.

This isn't a timed race mind; the survivor team are to make their way to the finish line, or "decontamination" however they choose, where they will be inspected for any signs of infection. As well there is an option to be a spectator at the event, avoiding the physical effort and psychological trauma of evading the zombie horde, or being covered in make-up. Admission for the event is $70 and may seem steep, but who can put a price on preparedness? 

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The Zombie Apocalypse: It's Already Begun!

Well folks, time to stock up. Get your shotgun, get some ammo, buy a baseball bat or a cricket bat, or a shovel, whatever takes your fancy because the zombie apocalypse has begun. At least it has in Miami.

Over the weekend officers of the Miami P.D. were forced to shoot a naked man on the MacArthur Causeway after he ignored instructions to stop eating the face of another naked man. The police responded after a 911 call reporting the sighting of two men fighting on the cycle path of the Causeway. Upon arriving on the scene officers found the naked man dining on his nude companion's nose and eyeballs.

Armando Aguilar, the head of the local Fraternal Order of Police, after speaking to the officer at the scene reports that the naked man "growled at the officer, and then returned to his meal."

As if that's not bad enough, the gunshot apparently had "no effect" on the man. Officers were forced to continue firing until the man was dead. Everyone knows you've got to hit them in the head!

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English actor, comedian, writer, the voice of Darth Maul, Peter Serafinowicz announced his first comic book project, Nelson, at the Kapow! Comic Convention in London yesterday.

The project is set place in an alternate timeline in which a superhuman Nelson keeps London free from crime with a zero-tolerance policy. 

Nelson will be pencilled by UK artist Jock who worked on "Losers" and recently "Batman".

A crime-fighting, superhuman Lord Admiral Nelson? This is the kind of crazy I can get behind!

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Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut

I have just finished Mass Effect 3. I have been a huge fan of the series since the original breathed fresh air into not only the RPG genre, but also to action games and to sci-fi as a whole. That sleek "Star-Trek" feel of the space ships, weapons and gadgets, combined with the gritty slug-fest of the chest-high cover shooter that became a la mode thanks to "Gears of War" and was married perfectly against the backdrop of a galactic-wide emergency that puts the Death Star, Galactus and Unicron to shame.

However, like most fans of the series I found the ending unsatisfactory. I won't go into spoileriffic details, but let's say that I was playing "Hero Shepard" and thus chose the appropriate self-sacrificing end. And the good guys won, and there was much rejoicing. 

Hang on, BioWare. Are you seriously telling me that after I have dedicated an accumulative total of a week's straight play time (including re-plays and DLC) you're going to reward me with this? What about all those relationships I spent three games building, the subtle changes to the galaxy I knew would occur, which is why I tried to Paragon as hard as I could? For naught?

Well my disappointment may be saved as BioWare have announced plans for "Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut". This DLC, BioWare state, will not retcon the ending, but will try to clear up some confusion in it. Voice actors Tricia Helfer and Lance Henriksen have confirmed that they have recorded their lines for the Mass Effect 3 DLC.

No news yet how BioWare intend to clear up the confusion, but I hope that they make the ending more satisfactory. I spent a lot of time cultivating my Shepard.

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The tumblr of the cutest Timepuppet ever, Doctor Puppet as he travels with his companion Alisa (who also takes his picture). Check it out, it will fill your hearts with squee.

As an aside, is there anywhere I can get a Doctor Puppet of my own?

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In case you were hiding in the darkest depths of Mordor, or somewhere similar, you couldn't fail to notice that after twelve agonising years, Diablo 3 was finally released. And in the last 48 hours or so it has been torn apart by the critics and fans, mainly concerning problems with Blizzard's battle.net servers and their inability to deal with the influx of players, including the single player campaign (wait, what? Hosting single player on a remote server? That's insane!).

The above is a short video that sums up the fruition of 12 years of waiting. The promise of sleek, twisting dungeons to crawl; the lure of bountiful loot, drawing you ever from the mundane world. And the disappointing reality...

(NOTE: I don't care, I've been waiting 12 years, I'm getting this game!)

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Claire Lomas is the first person ever to complete the London Marathon using a bionic suit. Claire, who has been paralysed from the chest down since a horse riding accident in 2007 completed the course in 16 days with the aid of a ReWalk exoskeleton developed by Argo Medical Technologies. 

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Hold everything! Karen Gillan, the universe's favourite red-head, wants to be in Community! In the interview above with BBC America, she discusses her love for the show (Community) and the Doctor Who parody "Inspector Space-Time". This cannot happen soon enough! For more on this look for #AmyMeetsAbed

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This is Debs and Errol. A Toronto-based, ukulele-armed geek music duo. This charming song is entitled "AT-ATs in the Snow" (pew pew pew). You can find out more about Debs and Errol, their album "Songs in the Key of Geek", along with their webcomic here.

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In Star Trek lore, the first Starship Enterprise will be built by the year 2245. But today, an engineer has proposed — and outlined in meticulous detail – building a full-sized, ion-powered version of the Enterprise complete with 1G of gravity on board, and says it could be done with current technology, within 20 years. “We have the technological reach to build the first generation of the spaceship known as the USS Enterprise – so let’s do it,”

phys.org quoting "BTE Dan", an engineer who believes that within the next 20 years we could have a fully functional (but not Warp equipped) Starship Enterprise NCC-1701.

Of course in order to achieve this goal, "BTE Dan" needs three 1.5 GW nuclear reactors, and significant financial backing from the US Government (but don't worry folks, he has a plan for raising that cash!). The main difficulties from a physics point of view have been solved, in theory. "BTE Dan" seems to have figured out a way to solve the problem of constant acceleration (using an ion engine powered by one of the three nuclear reactors) and creating artificial gravity (using the outer rim of the saucer as a magnetically suspended gravity wheel).

Although the project would not allow us to 'boldly go where no man has gone before', the vessel would be able to travel our solar system. It's an ambitious thought, no doubts there, and potentially a step in the right direction for space travel.

For more information from "BTE Dan" visit the website: Build The Enterprise (note: when I tried to access this site it was temporarily unavailable).

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This is ZeroN, a magnetic levitation system created by MIT Centre for Bits and Atoms research assistants Jinha Lee and Rehmi Post. In this video, Lee explains and demonstrates ZeroN's incredible properties. My mind is blown right now, I need a lie down.

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Mass Effect: Paragon Lost

James Vega, the tanned muscle bound beefcake with a dumbass haircut who turns up at the start of Bioware's Mass Effect 3. Upon meeting Shepherd for the first time, Vega is all like "SUP BRO, check out how ripped I am! Later on I'm gonna punch you in the head and call you Loco!" At the this point Shepherd should say something along the lines of "Ahem, I'm the first human spectre, I saved the galaxy twice, killed a frakking reaper and banged a load of space chicks! On top of that, I got killed and then resurrected, yes I'm bigger than Jesus, who the fuck are you!?", and that's my point, who the fuck is James Vega? All of your previous squad mates who have been in your party are for there for very specific reasons, you seek them out and they serve a purpose, yet Vega rocks up out of the blue and is suddenly an integral part of the ME story. Sure, you soon learn that he's pretty handy with an assault rifle and that he's been through some tough shit but I think it's safe to say that he's not the only Alliance Marine that fits that bill, so why him? Bioware have teamed up with anime studio FUNimation in order to tell us just why James Vega has been propelled into the epicentre of the ME story. Set during the period between the events of ME and ME2, Mass Effect: Paragon Lost will give us a direct insight into Vega, who he is, where he came from, what he has done, what has happened to him and what has brought him into the ME3 story above any other soldier with a gun. Personally I think these are all aspects that should have been included in the game, perhaps then I wouldn't think he's such a douche, I guess the jury's still out on that but I very much look forward to Bioware trying to change my mind. If it means more Mass Effect, I'm happy.

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By Tesla's Coil!

This is author and self-professed "mad scientist" Rob Flickenger. He looks pretty happy, wouldn't you agree? And why does he look so happy? He looks so happy because that in his hands is a lightning gun capable of producing around 100,000 volts of electricity over 24 inches!

The gun itself was made out of an aluminium cast NERF gun, with a porcelain high-voltage switch, and let's not forget lots of coils. Flickenger is no stranger to a bit of the old DIY, but for this project he enlisted the help of several hacker collectives, as well as taking crash courses in casting metal and porcelain. 

The Mad scientist will be taking his lightning gun to the Seattle Mini Maker Faire. Tesla would be proud. 

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"You frakking Toaster!" - these could be the words out of your mouth whilst playing Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game. This semi co-operative game pits you against your fellow players (who may, or may not be Cylons) as you attempt to lead your rag tag band of fugitives through catastrophe after calamity to that mystic planet called "Kobol". Available in good games stockists; retails for around $50 (thinkgeek) or £34 if you're in the UK (Amazon).

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Starting with this, for all you Browncoats (or people with discerning taste).

A 1:1 replica of Mal Reynold's sidearm from everyone's favourite sci-fi Western Firefly. Available at thinkgeek.com, costs $79.99. I want one so bad my pancreas hurts. 

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Sunday Geek

With 2/3 of the Geekfu team out of action I thought I'd spend the day bringing you some of the best geek products the internet has to offer!