The White House’s response to the Death Star petition hit over the weekend. If you missed it, go read it. It includes this line:
Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?
If you missed it when @the_nerdery tweeted it this morning, this video of the Ohio State University paying tribute to classic video games really is a wonder to behold. If you’re the impatient type, fast forward to six minutes and just watch the running horse bit. It’s amazing.
Kicking off the recap is 50 years of The Jetsons and why the show still matters a deliciously nerdy bit of wonderfulness that includes a small style guide at the end to talk about why Orbity will not be talked about in the recap series.
“But it’s just a cartoon, right? So what if today’s political and social elite saw ”The Jetsons” a lot? Thanks in large part to the Jetsons, there’s a sense of betrayal that is pervasive in American culture today about the future that never arrived. We’re all familiar with the rallying cries of the angry retrofuturist: Where’s my jetpack!?! Where’s my flying car!?! Where’s my robot maid?!? “The Jetsons” and everything they represented were seen by so many not as a possible future, but a promise of one.”
Really, what else there to say today except Mars, Mars, Mars, Mars, MARS!
Also, nice work Oreo.
Four physics students in the UK had a paper called ‘Trajectory of a Falling Batman’ published in the University of Leicester Journal of Special Physics Topics where they proved that there’s no way Batman could casually glide from building to building to ground with just his cape. Now before you get all “No, duh” about the fact that of course Batman couldn’t, you’ve got to hand it to the kids for coming up with such a creative topic. You know who else deserves kudos, the headline writers at Gawker who came up with this gem: Nerds Ruin Batman for a Different Group of Nerds.
The Nerdery today became a Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD) of Facebook® Apps. Facebook established its PMD program to represent the various technologies in the Facebook ecosystem and to recognize companies that develop holistic solutions. To qualify, The Nerdery included examples of its development work on the Facebook platform in its application, including apps created – some with ad agency partners – for EA Sports, Kraft, Norton, Purina, and Tampico.
As part of the rites to passage in becoming a Preferred Marketing Developer, Nerdery software development manager Dan Krueger attended an invitation-only developer conference at Facebook’s Menlo Park, CA campus. Find The Nerdery’s Facebook PMD profile by searching companies in the Preferred Marking Developers Directory.
The Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer program recognizes companies that have developed technologies in one or more of the following specialty areas: Page management solutions, ads management solutions, services and platforms for building socially enabled integrations, and/or tools for Page Insights analysis.
“The application process was highly selective so we compliment you on your success,” wrote a Facebook representative to selected companies on the competitive climate among applicants for the Preferred Marketing Developer program, whose mission is to help developers build products that make social marketing easier and more effective. The Nerdery is among 141 new companies added to Facebook’s PMD program, which has 232 interactive firms from 35 countries overall.
As a Preferred Marketing Developer, The Nerdery is deemed sufficiently Nerdy to create Facebook apps with features such as:
Said Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in a recent letter to investors, “We have a saying: ‘Move fast and break things.’ The idea is that if you never break anything, you’re probably not moving fast enough.” The Nerdery endeavors to be a good steward within the development community regarding keep current on Facebook platform changes – and equally diligent about keeping clients and partners informed about how platform changes may affect apps/business, including these communiques:
Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc. For that matter, The Nerdery is a servicemark of The Nerdery.
It’s ten minutes long and guaranteed to make you smile, Caine’s Arcade.
This video is offered without comment because mere words would fail to describe its glory. The only thing that could do it justice, perhaps, is interpretive dance.
Suddenly the LEGO Death Star at $399.99 seems like a pittance. Students at Lehigh University set out to estimate how much it would cost to make a Death Star. You can read all about it. It’s a lot. Now, before you get that Kickstarter kicking you should know this:
“But, before you go off to start building your apocalyptic weapon, do bear in mind two things. Firstly, the two billion death stars is mostly from the Earth’s core which we would all really rather you didn’t remove. And secondly, at today’s rate of steel production (1.3 billion tonnes annually), it would take 833,315 years to produce enough steel to begin work. So once someone notices what you’re up to, you have to fend them off for 800 millennia before you have a chance to fight back.
That LEGO Death Star keeps looking better and better.
