Cirince

Last month everyone’s favorite Christmas movie (if it’s not at least in your Top Five, I don’t think we can be friends anymore) celebrated its tenth anniversary. And it turns out, the gloriously convoluted story of Londoners in love packs some serious geeky street cred. Before and after Love Actually, several members of the cast made their mark in some pretty big movies and TV shows. Here’s a catalog of their greatest hits (and this isn’t even including the various guest appearances on Doctor Who).

1. Andrew Lincoln

All Love Actually photos © Universal Studios, 2003.

Let’s start with an obvious one. Lovesick Mark, with his cue cards and unrequited love, went on to become:

Photo © AMC.

Sheriff Rick Grimes, the often-infuriating hero of The Walking Dead.

2. Alan Rickman

Snape. Snape. Severus Snape.

Photo © Warner Bothers Studios.

3. Martin Freeman

Jack the naked stand-in went on to do all kinds of things. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Sherlock, The Hobbit. Martin Freeman is basically a geek god.

Sherlock © BBC, The Hobbit © MGM and New Line Cinema, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy © Touchstone Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment.

4. Bill Nighy

It’s hard to imagine a finer Bill Nighy performance than that of rock and roll legend Billy Mack. It’s the role that made him famous in the United States. That same year he played Viktor in Underworld, and after that he added the Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter series to his resume.

Pirates of the Caribbean © Disney, Underworld © Lakeshore Entertainment, Harry Potter © Warner Brothers.

5. Liam Neeson

Liam Neeson has got the movie franchise thing down, before and after he played heartbroken widower Daniel. Star Wars, Batman, The Chronicles of Narnia. Not a bad resume at all.

Star Wars © Lucasfilm and Disney, Batman Begins © Warner Bros., The Chronicles of Narnia © Disney.

6. Thomas Sangster

Lovesick Sam was so adorable and precocious in 2003. And now he plays these two:

Game of Thrones © HBO, Phineas and Ferb © Disney.

7. Chiwetel Ejiofer

He played newlywed Peter. And then he tried to hunt down Mal and the gang in Serenity.

Serenity © Universal Pictures.

8. Emma Thompson

Put upon Karen. Put upon Professor Trelawny.

Photo © Warner Bothers Studios.

9. Keira Knightley

Keira Knightley played newlywed Juliet the same year that the Pirates of the Caribbean series launched. And she also took some time to satisfy the lit geek in all of us when she played Elizabeth Bennet.

Pirates of the Caribbean © Disney, Pride & Prejudice © Focus Features and Universal Pictures.

10. January Jones

Sweet, sweet Jeannie from Wisconsin. Deadly Emma Frost in X-Men: First Class. Plus that Betty Draper role we hear so much about.

X-Men: First Class © Twentieth Century Fox.

11. Colin Firth

You might now point out that Colin Firth hasn’t really made a name for himself in sci-fi or fantasy. But he was Mr. Darcy, the original Mr. Darcy. That is all he needs to be to get on this list.

Pride and Prejudice © BBC.

12. Rowan Atkinson

Blackadder, blackadder! He rides a pitch black steed. Blackadder, blackadder! He’s very bad indeed. (Also, Mr. Bean).

Photo © BBC.

13. Olivia Olson

The little girl who blew our minds with her version of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” now does the voices of Vanessa Doofenshmirtz on Phineas and Ferb and Marceline the Vampire Queen on Adventure Time.

Phineas and Ferb © Disney, Adventure Time © Cartoon Network.

14. Elisha Cuthbert

She played Carol-Anne from Wisconsin. She was also on 24 for nine seasons.

Photo © Twentieth Century Fox.

15. Sienna Guillory

Remember Jamie’s sick, cheating girlfriend in the opening scenes? She also plays Jill Valentine in the Resident Evil series.

Photo © Constantin Film International and Capcom.

16. Rodrigo Santoro

Poor Karl and Sarah’s romance was doomed. Just like that whole Nikki and Paolo thing on Lost.

Photo © ABC.

The post 16 Actors Who Make Love Actually One of the Geekiest Casts Ever Assembled appeared first on GeekMom.

Someone was bored at work.

I guess I should’ve made everyone click through and pay something before divulging the secret huh? Oh well. Cat’s out of the bag.

There’s a project to make a life-sized elephant origami. Details here.

Exactly.

Hello there! We made an awesome map of fictional places which you can view on our new and revised site Wondernode. We hope you like it as much as we enjoyed making it!

I-ran? I-rack? I-tal-yun? Ee-ron. Ee-rock. Ih-tal-yun. I know, I know, part of it is cultural norms, part of it is our silly brain. Comment here.

Android screenshot by Ruth Suehle

If you haven’t played with the voice commands on your Android phone yet, you’re missing out on a) looking like a total nerd (so what?) and b) some really fun answers.

Drag up your Google Now interface. You can start voice control with, “OK, Google…” per the phone’s instructions, but a “Listen, Google,” or a, “Hey, Google,” will do as well. If you haven’t gone full Google fangirl, you can go with, “OK, computer.” But to turn the nerdtasticness up to 11, say, “OK, JARVIS,” and pretend you’re a lady Tony Stark in control of the digital world. (To be fair, you can say just about anything that even vaguely resembles “OK, Google,” and it will pick it up.)

Of course, now you have to issue a command or two to JARVIS/computer/Google Now. Here are a few you can try that will get it to talk back to you. Note that not all of these always work depending on your handset, Android version, and particular accent. They also may result in different answers if you try them a second time. Try them all, and enjoy the geeky fun!

• Beam me up, Scotty!
• Make me a sandwich!
• sudo make me a sandwich (This one is particularly difficult to pronounce such that Google hears “sudo.” Try saying it like “pseudo.”)
• up up down down left right left right
• Who are you?
• When am I?
• When does the narwhal bacon?
• What is your favorite color?
• Bacon number [insert actor name]
• What’s the best smartphone?
• What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?
• What is the nature of the universe?
• How can entropy be reversed?
• What is recursion?
• What is the loneliest number?
• Who’s on first?
• What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
• Do a barrel roll.
• Tilt.
• How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

And if you change your phone’s language in Android settings to “English (United Kingdom),” you can try, “Tea. Earl Grey, hot.” Unfortunately it won’t actually make a cup for you.

Finally, you can sing “Magic Dance” from Labyrinth with your phone. You start, then continue to tap voice control and say each line back:

You: You remind me of the babe.
Google: What babe?
You: The babe with the power.
Google: What power?
You: The power of voodoo.
Google: Who do?
You: You do!
Google: Do what?
You: You remind me of the babe!

And now you’re stuck in a loop talking to your phone. Congratulations!

The post Your Android Phone Has Geeky Answers To These 22 Requests appeared first on GeekMom.

Photo: NASA

The Houston Chronicle has a nice profile of recently returned ISS astronaut Karen Nyberg and her family. They’re a bit unusual since Nyberg and her husband Doug Hurley are both astronauts, and their son Jack is three. Hurley was in quarantine for a shuttle mission when they learned Nyberg was pregnant in 2010. She started training for her six month stay on the International Space Station when Jack was only a few months old.

Needless to say, things are a little different when you’re the child of a NASA astronaut:

Nyberg was selected in July 2010 for the space station flight. Beginning a few months after Jack’s birth, she was on the road for two to six weeks at a time. Sometimes she took Jack to Russia—when Doug was in final preparations for the last shuttle flight—and sometimes he stayed home.

“Literally from the time Jack was old enough to comprehend things, he was either going to Russia or Skyping with mommy. That’s just the way it was,” Hurley said.

And it turns out that NASA got Jack a special iPad so that the family could video chat at least once a week.

Photo: NASA

Fundamentally, this is no different than what thousands of military families go through every day; it just feels more exotic because Dr. Nyberg went to space instead of Iraq or Afghanistan.

The article does a nice job of addressing the fact that it feels different for a mom to go into space instead of a dad (many NASA astronauts have had small children), but also highlighting the fundamental adaptability of children. The cutest photo in the whole piece is the cardboard space station that Jack and his mom built together. It’s also got some great pictures of some of the sewing and other craft projects that Dr. Nyberg created on the station.

Let’s hear it for moms in space!

The post Astronauts Are Moms Too appeared first on GeekMom.

Acceptable selfie.

French photographer Renaud Marion has created this amazing set of images titled ‘Air Drive’. The series shows how the photographer imagined the 2000′s in his childhood. In his mind he neglected the gravity forces by imagining new air propellers that could make the retro cars levitate. The pictures are in an intermediate world of retro and futuristic at the same time and the vintage vehicles appear to float in space. Among the models there are XK120 Jaguar, Cadillac DeVille, Chevrolet El Camino, Camaro, Mercedes-Benz SL and 300 Roadster. Unfortunately the advanced technology hasn’t invented cars yet, which can float over the earth. Until it’s done, let’s admire this amazing pictures of some.

All images © Renaud Marion

Oh, Gogh. Source

Christopher McKenney is a Wilkes-Barre, Pensylvania, based photographer whose photo subjects range from burning people to self-made ‘ghosts’. After finding himself in the woods one day in 2012 with nothing but a sheet, chair, and a frame, he started taking photos. He put the sheet over his head and photoshopped his body out. ‘I like taking away identity when photographing and to leave people thinking. I only make the photos I do to express myself and what other people see or think is up to them, as long as I make them feel anything I’m ok with that.’ he explains.

All images © Christopher McKenney

Fun With Statues

Mind blown.