Author: Nigel G Mitchell

Dr. Ayanna Howard (Credit: Maxwell Guberman/NSF i-Corps) As part of the promotion for the action/sci-fi movie, CHAPPiE, I got to interview Doctor Ayanna MacCalla Howard. Dr. Howard is an American roboticist and the Motorola Foundation Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She’s been working in the field for decades, The first thing that strikes you about Dr. Howard is that she’s an African American woman in a field where both are rare. Women aren’t often found in robotics labs, and African Americans are rare as well, so to have an African…

They said it couldn’t be done…and by “they,” I mean “we”…but here’s episode two of “The Geek Twins Podcast.” We couldn’t coordinate a group podcast, so Nigel is recording this week’s episode alone. But we also have our first guest, Dr. Ayanna Howard, a roboticist who discusses whether robot police like in CHAPPiE would be good or bad. Also listen to thoughts on the death of Leonard Nimoy, a review of the Robocop reboot, and a game of “Would You Rather.” What do you think of robot police? How did you feel about Nimoy’s death? How would you answer “Would…

Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Paramount The geek community is mourning the death of Leonard Nimoy today, and we’re no exception. Nimoy was an accomplished actor, director, writer and photographer, but he’s best known for his legendary role as the human/Vulcan Starfleet officer Spock on the Star Trek franchise. He died today of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the age of 83. With his loss fresh in our minds, we thought it was time to review some of the greatest moments Nimoy brought us as Spock. 10. Evil Spock in “Mirror, Mirror” (TOS) In a parallel universe, Spock is as evil…

Stephen Colbert: (YouTube/Comedy Central) The new trailer for Star Wars VII threw fans for a loop when we saw a glimpse of a new lightsaber, one with two smaller lightsabers at the base to form a crossguard. Some people ridiculed the idea, but one fan is defending it: Stephen Colbert, TV show host and self-described ultimate Star Wars fan. On The Colbert Report, he explained why he was a fan of Star Wars before almost anyone else, and why the crossguard makes perfect sense. Check it out on Hulu: [Via Yahoo] What do you think of the crossguard lightsaber? If…

Source: YouTube Without a doubt, two of the most influential science fiction movies of the eighties were TRON and Back to the Future. After seeing this video, it makes me wonder why no one ever thought to combine them before. Created by Florian Renner, “Retrowave” is a short film without much of a plot, but amazing visuals. It’s a DeLorean driving through a neon-lit city resembling the MCP’s Grid. It has a splash of Automan and Miami Vice and who knows what else. This is almost the entire decade of the eighties science fiction in one video. It’s…beautiful. [Via SPLOID via Vimeo] What…

The Daleks are the most popular and iconic villains of the Doctor Who TV series, but how much would they cost in real life? Of course, no sane person would want to build a Dalek (unless they wanted to EXTERMINATE all life), but let’s say you did. How much does the Dalek empire spend on building its soldiers? What’s the overhead? This infographic by Neomam Studios in collaboration with the UK’s Horror Channel does the numbers. Hosted by IMGUR [Via Geeks Are Sexy] You Also Might Enjoy: 6 Hilarious Dalek Impressions 6 Scariest Doctor Who Villains The Dalek Relaxation Tape…

Jerome (Cameron Monaghan); Source: Gotham/FOX [The following has spoilers for a recent episode of Gotham] The TV show Gotham has introduced a lot of pre-Batman versions of classic villains like the Riddler and Catwoman, but one villain has been notably missing: the Joker. There’s been a lot of speculation on when or if the Joker would appear. The show has introduced a number of characters that people thought might be the clown prince of crime, like a stand-up comedian in the first episode, but nothing solid emerged. The showrunner Bruno Heller always said the Joker would be appearing in Season 1,…

Source: YouTube/Kaipotainment If the Internet has taught us one thing, it’s that everything’s better with cats, and the X-Men are no exception. Kaipotainment created a series called X-Cats, where ordinary house cats are gifted with the powers of the Marvel mutants. As you can imagine, the results are not exactly desirable. Cyclops Wolverine Professor X Magneto What other powers would be better with cats? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter | Facebook

We’ve been working really hard behind-the-scenes, and the moment has finally arrived. The Geek Twins Podcast is now live! We’ve actually been working on this for months, and even recorded a few podcasts that you’ll probably never hear, but we thought this one was finally ready for airing. It’s a little rough, and we plan to improve the quality and content down the road as we learn more about this whole podcasting thing, but figured it was time to pull the trigger. In this first episode, we’ll be discussing Spiderman in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the announcement of Spaceballs…

Source: Marvel Well, here we are on a Tuesday evening, usually pretty slow. Guess it’s time to take a quick look at the state of geek entertainment. We see a story about Patrick Stewart wanting to be in the next Wolverine movie, that’s interesting, J.J. Abrams wants to move up the release date for Star Wars: Episode 7, awesome, oh and… SPIDERMAN IS COMING TO THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE! OMG OMG OMG!!! Now that we’ve calmed down a little bit, let’s take a look at why this could be the biggest thing to happen to geek entertainment since Batman v…

Once again, this week’s The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore brought its unique perspective to a serious topic, and made it funny. This week, among other things, Larry tackled the “Hitler-y” subject of “designer babies.” Will the technology create a new upper class of wealthy genetically perfect children? Or will it allow hipsters to have “organic” babies? Check out his hilarious monologue, courtesy of Hulu. To watch more from The Nightly Show, be sure to check out Comedy Central. Do you think genetically engineered babies could be a good thing? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to…

After months of teasing, we finally have our first real look at the Netflix series, Marvel’s Daredevil. Daredevil will be the first of four Marvel TV series on Netflix, leading up to a mini-series, The Defenders, so this is a pretty big deal. We’re huge fans of Daredevil (yes, including the Ben Affleck movie version), so we’re especially pumped to see this one. Let’s watch the teaser trailer. Let’s break it down: 1. The Priest Since Frank Miller’s iconic interpretation of Daredevil, Murdock’s Catholicism has always been a big part of the character. It looks like that’s going to carry over into…

Source: Sony Pictures Director Neill Blomkamp has brought us a new vision of science fiction with his movies District 9 and Elysium. Now he’s set to return with a new movie, Chappie. The movie reminds me of Short Circuit meets Robocop with a South African accent. Here’s the second action-packed and still cute trailer. Here’s the summary: After being kidnapped by two criminals during birth, Chappie becomes the adopted son in a strange and dysfunctional family. Chappie is preternaturally gifted, one of a kind, a prodigy. He also happens to be a robot. Starring Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver, Chappie…

Larry Wilmore’s The Nightly Show has quickly set itself apart, not only by featuring an African American host, but also with its unique and hilarious take on the days’ news. Last week, Wilmore made headlines with his take on Bill Cosby. This week, the outbreak of measles at Disneyland allowed the show to tackle the subject of “anti-vaxxers,” parents who choose not to get their children immunized. And basically, how incredibly stupid and ill-informed the opposition movement to vaccines is. Click to watch. What do you think of the anti-vax movement? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons…

We’re huge fans of Storm, one of the few minority superheroes to cross over into the mainstream (#savestorm), so we were pumped to hear about Alexandra Shipp being cast as a younger Storm for X-Men: Apocalypse. But when we did the research for an article on her, it didn’t take long to uncover a lot of anger from the black community about her casting. And a lot of the anger was centered around her skin color. Here are a few choice selections from Twitter: keeping up the tradition of casting storm badly. Smh WHAT THE F***. STORM IS A DARKSKIN…

Alexandra Shipp as Storm; Fan art by Boss Logic On January 23, Bryan Singer revealed that the roles of Cyclops, Storm, and Jean Grey are going to be recast for X-Men: Apocalypse. X:A is going to be set in the eighties, so it will feature younger versions of these iconic characters: Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, and Alexandra Shipp as Storm. We’re most excited about the recasting of the role of Storm. Here are nine facts about this rising star. 1. Shipp was born on July 16, 1991 in Phoenix, Arizona. 2. Shipp is mixed race.…

Source: Comedy Central When aliens invade Earth and take on human form, how can we identify them? Anyone who’s seen enough scifi movies and TV shows knows the answer: by the mistakes aliens make trying to pass as human. In this sketch by Comedy Central’s Key and Peele, two African American survivors of an alien invasion come up with a way to tell whether someone is really human. When aliens attack Earth, who knew racism could help us out? [Note: This sketch contains some violent images, so slightly NSFW] What did you think of the sketch? If you enjoyed this, then…

Harrison Ellenshaw painting Slave-1 for The Empire Strikes BackSource: Lucasfilm The special effects in the original Star Wars trilogy broke new ground, and ushered in a new age of movie making. The model makers got a lot of publicity for their work on spaceships and sets, but another group of unseen heroes were the matte painters. You may be surprised how many of the most dazzling scenes were made, not by miniatures, actors, and construction crews, but with panes of glass, paint, and hard work. Here are some of the matte paintings used in The Empire Strikes Back and Return…

Source: LucasFilm Did you ever notice what the user interfaces were like in Star Wars? I’m guessing, probably not. You were probably more interested in the lightsabers and spaceships and aliens flying around. But one person was really focused on the UI: Dino Ignacio. Ignacio is a legendary designer of UI for videogames, including Dead Space, Dante’s Inferno, Dead Space 2, and Dead Space 3. He’s currently the User Experience Director of Visceral Games at Electronic Arts, so he’s very interested in how people interact with machines. In an interview, he said: I was interested in UI even before I…

How was the character of Venom created? Spider-Man’s archenemy Venom is one of the most popular supervillains in comics, so popular that he eventually got his own comic, and Sony is rumored to be planning a solo movie based on the character. The psychotic doppelganger of Spiderman has been around for decades, and made appearances on the animated series, and Spider-Man 3. While many know the origin of the black symbiote and the evil Eddie Brock who bonds with the symbiote, most probably don’t know the stuff behind the scenes that led to the creation of Venom. NerdSync Productions created…

Chadwick Boseman/Black Panther, Source: Getty Images, Marvel Comics What major role will Black Panther play in Captain America: Civil War? Let’s break down the reasons why we believe the African hero will be a major part of the third installment of the franchise. First, let’s review what Civil War will be about. The short version: Civil War was a major crossover event in the Marvel comics, where the US government passed a law requiring all superheroes to be registered. The superhero community was split between two factions; those who opposed the law, led by Captain America, and those who supported it,…

Avengers 2: Age of Ultron (2015) – Ultron (James Spader) Hot off the Internet, here’s the new trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron and time for one of our ridiculously detailed shot-by-shot breakdown of the trailer. We did one for the first Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer, so let’s do it again. First, here’s the trailer: A lot of it seems like alternate shots from scenes we saw in the last trailer, but let’s do a breakdown of some new moments and what they mean. Just so you know this won’t be a chronological breakdown of the trailer. It’s cut…

If you ever wondered what would happen if you aimed the Death Star at a single stormtrooper, you’re about to find out. In 1998, LucasArts released an interactive CD-ROM called Star Wars: Behind the Magic. It was sort of an encyclopedia of the original trilogy, and also previewed some elements of the upcoming Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. The best part was it had some great bonus features, and one of my favorites was the “weapons test.” You could choose from one of five weapons (an Ewok rock, blaster, lightsaber, thermal detonator, and the Death Star’s superlaser) and watch…

Source: Screenaddict According to numerous sources, George Lucas was inspired by the classic 1958 Japanese film, The Hidden Fortress. Much of the structure of A New Hope, including two comedic characters helping a kidnapped princess, a ruthless general, sword fights, and a seemingly unstoppable fortress were all translated into science fiction terms. Even the screen wipes were taken from Fortress. This mashup is a good way to quickly review how elements and even camera angles were adapted in Star Wars. It was edited by Eugene Baldovino for a class at the Academy of Art University in 1997. What do you think? If…

Natalie Portman/Lucasfilm Most people know Natalie Portman from her iconic role as Padme Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, so you might be surprised that the role almost ruined her career. While Padme made Portman a household name in homes around the country, it made her a pariah in Hollywood. Natalie revealed in a New York Magazine interview why: Star Wars [Episode One] had come out around the time of [my role in Anton Chevhov’s play] Seagull, and everyone thought I was a horrible actress. I was in the biggest-grossing movie of the decade, and no director wanted to work with me.…

Publicity photo of Star Trek: The Next Generation (Credit: Paramount) Well, 2014 is wrapping up, and we’ve had another great year entertaining you. We thought we’d end with an overview of the most popular posts we’ve run on the Geek Twins blog this year. Here are the posts you, the readers, loved the most. 10. 30 Surprising Facts About Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan You Didn’t Know – We love movie trivia, and apparently you do, too. This overview on the trials and tribulations of filming the most popular Star Trek movie was a big hit. A Ceti Eel plush…

River Song (Alex Kingston)/BBC River Song is one of the most complex characters that the TV show Doctor Who has ever introduced. She’s also the most convoluted in terms of time. For example, the first time the Doctor met her was also the last, because she died. But at that point, she had a long history with the Doctor that she refused to disclose. The Doctor continued to encounter her again and again at different points in her life until she finally revealed the truth. Even if you’ve seen the series, you might be having a little trouble keeping it all…

Source: Wikicommons A suburb of ​Minneapolis, Minnesota called Minnetonka is going on the map as having the fastest Internet access in the world. The average Internet speed in the USA is 10 MBps (Megabits Per Second). South Korea is known for having the world’s fastest Internet at 21 MBps. Well, a company called US Internet has announced that in December 2014, their fiber optic network will provide speeds of 10GBps per second in Minnetonka. That would make Minnetonka the community with the fastest Net in the world. It will go for $339 a month, but if that’s too much, you…

Source: NASA Langley Research Center Hello, what have we here? NASA researchers at the Langley Research Center made a proposal to create a real cloud city above Venus. Venus has one of the most inhospitable surfaces of any planet in the solar system. It has an average mean temperature of 863 degrees Fahrenheit (hot enough to melt lead), atmospheric pressure equal to diving a mile underwater, and clouds made of sulphuric acid. All the probes we’ve ever sent to Venus have been destroyed within two hours. Not exactly a place we can send an astronaut to live. But NASA has…

It’s time for another Honest Trailer from CinemaSins, this time taking on Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. I know, easy target. Check out the epic chin-stroking, weak dialogue, sitting and talking, and a whole lot of wipe transitions. What did you think of Clones? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter | Facebook