Felicia Day just did something the internet desperately needed: she brought back The Guild. Not a reboot, not a remake, not a soulless streaming-service cash-grab. A fan-funded reunion movie, titled The Guild: Ren Faire’d, crowdfunded on Kickstarter, and it hit $2.7 million in pledges before anyone had time to dust off their old WoW subscription. The full original cast is back: Codex, Zaboo, Vork, Tink, Clara, Bladezz (the Knights of Good, for those of you who were living under a rock between 2007 and 2013), and the adventure this time drops them directly into a Renaissance Faire. A RENAISSANCE FAIRE. As if those people needed an excuse to wear more elaborate cosplay and argue about historically accurate mead.

The campaign closes August 21, and the reward tiers include a TTRPG supplement for D&D 5.5E (the Dragonor Campaign Setting, written by cast member Vince Caso and published by Hit Point Press, featuring monsters, subclasses, carnivorous outhouses, and a pirate named Cheesybeard). The Omega7Red Formulae has been waiting years for someone to apply it to a Ren Faire and actually get the budget to do it right. Felicia Day figured it out first. High-5, Codex. The campaign is live now at the link below, and the movie is set to debut in 2027, right on the 20th anniversary. Nothing can beat old age and betrayal, but apparently crowdfunding comes close.

Via: The Guild: Ren Faire’d on Kickstarter

And call it Steampunk…

Via: Reginald Pikedevant

The next apocalypse is scheduled for March 14, 2015, 9:26:53am. This event is known as “The Pi Apocalypse” because the date aligns to the value of Pi perfectly, 3.141592653. On that day, our planet will explode and we will all DIE, as represented by the Pi equation and predicted by Albert Einstein.

“Pi Day” (3/14) is celebrated every year by the Cult of Pi. However, the upcoming Pi Day in 2015 is mathematically accurate to 10 to the 13th digits as calculated by a super-computer algorithm in 2011. Albert Einstein’s birthday is also on 3/14 (Pi Day), and he predicted this terminal event in his “quantized atomic vibrations” theory. Einstein never directly said it, but he hinted that harmonic oscillations between atoms are continuously creating sympathetic vibrations that generate molecular heat at an exponential rate (which explains Global Warming). As the heat grows, the Earth will contain the increasing pressure until it pops like a balloon. Knowing the rate of heat growth, and how much pressure the Earth can hold, precise mathematics produces a result of the given date.

Others have argued that the Earth will not blow up like the Death Star.  Rather, they expect that molten lava and heavy volcanic activity will cover most landmasses and that ash will block out the sun, except Antarctica.   Personally, I think this is just wishful thinking to give people hope that they could survive the apocalypse as a mere extinction-level event.

There will also be a pie-eating contest.

Somebody with too much time on their hands went through the effort of creating this image.  I too, having too much time on my hands, shall analyze said image:

• The Book of Faces– Facebook
• XML Engines – Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form, used in modern programming and leveraged heavily in web development.
• Machine Code – What people used to call the code of a program after it was compiled.
• Piston ++ – C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language.  C# (pronounced “sea sharp”) is better.
• The Web that Encompassed the Earth – World Wide Web, or WWW, which is the early name for the Internet.  Sounds like a 1950’s horror movie.
• The Internet – Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Internet is.  They must be shown.
• Steam for Dummies – I Googled “Steampunk for Dummies” and Omega7Red was listed #1.  What??
• B3TA Manuel – Probably a reference to the B3TA newsletter, which does have some funny stuff.
• Victorian Twitterings – Twitter 

Google is paying tribute to Jules Verne’s 183rd birthday by creating an interactive Google Doodle based on
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.

If you missed it, you can check it out in Google’s Doodle History.  If you have an iOS device such as an iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch, you can move your device to change the angle of the viewpoint in the Doodle.  Traditional browser users can use the joystick to change the view.

On the morning of 7 December, 1941, the Japanese attacked the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, prompting the United States to declare war the next day. The Marine Corps honors Pearl Harbor Day with words from the USS Arizona Memorial, which commemorates the attack: “To the memory of the gallant men here entombed and their shipmates who gave their lives in action on December 7, 1941…”

Via: USMC on Facebook

Perfect for those close-quarters defense situations where only one shot is required and your opponent is standing perfectly still while you shoot them in the neck.

You’re looking at the Watt Industries Time Machine which sells for a mere $100,000.  The seller is serious about the price and even has the brass to charge an extra $10 for shipping.

Gather round to witness the latest creation from the Watts Industries’ labs. Watch in awe as the power of the hand held device for traversing the chrono scape transports our ‘willing’ volunteer through time itself. Feuled by raw liquid ether held in the containment vessel at the bottom, the user has only to wind the clockwork mechanism at the top the desired number of times to initiate chronoporting.

disclaimer: Watts Industries Accepts no responsibility for chronofreeze, ingestion by theropods, Vexatious encounters with robots and infantication. If raw liquid ether is ingested seek medical attention yesterday.

Seriously, for $100,000 I better get a DeLorean that can hit 1955, and I insist that it have the Mr. Fusion, Plutonium, hover conversion, the works.  In other words, a REAL time machine, not just some groovy lamp.  Granted, the lamp is cool, just not 100-Grand cool…

Via: DVICE

When I look at the flag of the former USSR with its hammer and sickle flowing under the star of the Communist party, I think of gentler times when the kind hands of Lenin and Stalin brought together the farmers and industrial workers to stand as a proud people and against American imperialism.

Unfortunately, the Soviet Union fell, and in the wake of that great civilization came skinheads, rap music, McDonald’s, and now TorrentReactor.  Vicious rumors that TorrentReactor has purchased the village of Gar in Russia and renamed it to Реактор словоизвержения (Torrent Reactor) are apparently true.  There is still a small chance that this is all some kind of elaborate hoax.  What’s more disturbing is that Gar TorrentReactor is not that far from the Seversk nuclear reactor.  Why?  I’ll tell you why.

I’ve seen a LOT of SteamPunk interpretations of Star Wars.  This is by far the best Darth Vader I’ve seen done.  It seems that Greg Peltz has real talent.

In fact, if you look at Peltz’s blog, you’ll see he’s quite the artist.  There are other Star Wars renderings as well as a varied collection of other works.  Too bad he uses Blogspot (terrible); he should be using WordPress, like ME.