As you no doubt already guessed, League Of Legends – All About That Ace is a parody of Meghan Trainor’s great “All About That Bass” song. This is yet another silly track from the folks at The Warp Zone, who just keep cranking out some great geek oriented music.
There doesn’t seem to be any science fiction or fantasy this week in either TV or Movies, but there is a show based on a science project; Manhattan: Season One. It uses the Manhattan Project as its backdrop, but doesn’t really use any of the historical figures, most of the characters in the show are fictional.
In Anime, .hack//Legend Of The Twilight: Complete Series brings another dozen episodes and a new story line from inside The World, the massive gaming system. Getting this weeks Longest Title award is Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion, continuing the battle of the magical girls to escape their fate. Durarara!! Complete Series puts all 26 stories about the headless motor cycle vigilante into a single box set for the first time in North America, but it is a bit pricey. I tend to recommend waiting until you can catch it on sale. One Piece: Season 6 Part 4 contains the final 11 episodes of the sixth year of the show, as Luffy continues his fight to become King of the Pirates.
I think they have only mapped out around 50 cities in North America, although it could be even a smaller number than that. But if you ever wanted to play real live PacMan on the streets of Washington, DC, now is your chance, using this link:
If you want to play in one of the other available major cities, go to: Google Maps, and look for the PacMan icon in the lower left corner of the browser window. If you see it, click it, and play the game on the streets of your preferred city. I suspect this is yet another Google implementation that could evaporate as soon it is no longer Aprils Fools Day, but I intend to play it for all it is worth until it expires!
There are a lot of good choices this week, starting with The Imitation Game, the story of how Alan Turing was at the heart of defeating the Nazis during WWII by figuring out how to build a machine that could imitate the German Enigma Engine. Turing also invented the Turing Test which would help you recognize when a computing system became self aware, and the Universal Turing Machine which could simulate the computer a given program was to run on based on the program input. That last little 1936 invention was because of a function that became digital computer storage when they built it in the 1940s.
Also out in Films this week is Interstellar, part 1 of the movie version of the story of humanities escape to a new world, and I really hope they go ahead and build part 2. Outcast is the story of an Imperial fight for the throne in China and the part a couple of European Crusaders take in it, and why would I be surprised if Nick Cage goes a little over the top in a movie? Not to be confused with the Game of the Same Name.
In TV, we might get Silicon Valley: The Complete First Season, which I would find exciting. This series is funny and brutal and real, at least from my perspective.
In Anime, Gingitsune Complete Collection tells of Makoto, who sees and speaks with spirits and gods that others can not perceive. It is when they speak back that things often become interesting. Harlock: Space Pirate is the 2013 CGI animated feature film based on the multiple TV series the name of Space Pirate Captain Harlock. Sankarea: Undying Love comes out as an uncut complete series. This Zombie Romantic Comedy is a bit unusual, and quite entertaining. One Piece: Collection Treasure Chest Box Three brings episodes 206 (or possibly 209) through 299 or so in a single box set. Finally Magi: The Kingdom of Magic follows the continuing adventures of Aladdin, Alibaba, Morgiana, Scheherazade, and other Magi as they collect their power and prepare to protect their kingdoms. This contains the first 13 episodes of the new series.
Yes, this one certainly looks like silly fun, and continues the 8 Bit Silly Theme we began yesterday. The Pixels Movie assumes some aliens intercepted Voyager, got the data off the disc included with the ship, and got upset. The result was an invasion of 8 Bit video games out to exterminate mankind.
Play a game to save lives; what an excellent approach. This was a solution put together by the Cancer Research UK team, after their exposure to GameJam, a project based on the concept of using games to translate/process data. Figuring out what kind of game would draw people in, to make them want to play, was not that difficult. Figuring out how to map that game space to the data set in a meaningful way, that would present the data to the players as game challenges, and collect their responses as statistically significant paths through the data to the best solutions, was noticeably more difficult. The brainstorming must have been intense, and the results are amazing; thanks to Scientific American for the heads up on this one!