Totally Amazing Mass Effect Cosplay [Picture Gallery]

Another round of astounding photos from BGZ Studios, this time featuring some very talented Mass Effect costumers!

[Photographer - BGZ Studios; Miranda - Lindze a la Mode; Commander Shepard - Steven Massey; Tali - Jennifer Barclay]

Monday Morning Links Serving: The January 9th Edition

-Top 10 Ways to Break Into and Out of Almost Anything
Whether you’re stuck inside and need to break out or you’ve found locked outside and need to get in, having the key or password is rarely your only option.

-Here’s What $100 Worth of Wondertablet Looks Like: OLPC XO 3.0 First Pictures
Just hours ago we reported that the One Laptop Per Child project was going to unveil their $100 tablet at CES. And now we have some of the first official photos of the highly affordable, yet extremely durable device.

-10 Awesome Geeky Cooking Hacks
We recently featured a microwave that was hacked to play YouTube videos while it cooked food, but for those who want their kitchen hacks to play a direct role in their food preparation, here are ten ideas to get your food-related geek-juices flowing.

-Cosplay Photoshopping Makes Me Sad
We feature a lot of cosplay on this site, and I believe even this exact picture once or twice, so it sort of makes me sad to discover it’s a fake.

-15 Incredible Images of Prehistoric Creatures Trapped in Amber
Over a hundred million years ago, tree resin dripped from the trees in a forest. As it dripped and fell to the ground, it covered some insects as they went about their daily life [...]

Darth Vader Got Tazed and Pepper Sprayed

And he was drunk, too.  Sigh.

Michael Cole, 28, of Orlando, was arrested on felony charges of resisting arrest and battery on an officer.

According to the FHP, a construction worker informed the trooper around 2:45 a.m. of an intoxicated man wearing a Darth Vader mask who was walking in the middle of a road near Summerlin Avenue and Anderson Street.

The trooper approached the masked man, later identified as Cole, and repeatedly asked him to get out of the road, the FHP said.  Cole instead cursed at the trooper and laid in the roadway, authorities said.

The trooper then told Cole to get up, but he attemtped to punch and kick the trooper, who deployed his Taser, according to the FHP.  Officials said Cole’s thick jacket prevented the Taser from working, so the trooper used pepper spray to subdue him.

[Via FilmDrunk]

Happy Birthday, Stephen Hawking!

While people all over the world are marking the 77th anniversary of the birth of Elvis Presley, we would like to give props to a treasure who is still with us -University of Cambridge professor emeritus Stephen Hawking, who turns 70 years old today.

Born on the 300th anniversary of Galileo’s death, Hawking is a theoretical physicist who retired from Cambridge only last fall. He has published numerous papers and books on the nature and origin of the universe, the best known being A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. Hawking also had a miniseries on PBS in 1997, Stephen Hawking’s Universe, as well as a long list of TV and movie appearances. He is renowned for making difficult concepts comprehensible to the average reader or viewer.

Hawking has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, which has taken his ability to move or speak under his own power. He uses a speech synthesizer to communicate. Still, Hawking has been heard singing at least three times, in A Glorious Dawn, The World is Just Awesome, and in this lecture.

Among Hawking’s degrees, honors, and other accomplishments is the awesome fact that he is the only person ever to play himself in any Star Trek film or series.

Happy Birthday, Professor Hawking!

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Spiders Bite Dance Moves, Too

A team of biologists has discovered that male spiders spy on their rivals during courtship ceremonies, so they can mimic and pinch their most successful dance moves.

The researchers put male wolf spiders (Schizocosa ocreata) in front of tiny television sets and made them watch videos of other males perform a sexy, leg-tapping mating dance. The test spiders copied the on-screen males, adjusting the rate of leg-tapping to match and even outperform their rivals.

The next Step Up or You Got Served type movie should be about anthropomorphic spiders.  I can see the poster: “One Beat. One Shot. Eight Legs.”  You’re welcome,  Hollywood.

via Wired