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Limbo meets Tron meets Ikaruga: Outland is beautiful

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Saw this demoed at PAX last year, looks awesome!

It's one thing to own your influences, but it's quite another when your game is made from parts of other games that have been strapped and stapled together into a kind of Frankenstein monster. In this case, it's a very good-looking Frankenstein monster.

Sometimes all the pieces of Outland don't quite come together as smoothly as developer Housemarque (Super Stardust HD) would have liked, but the few uneven sections are offset by the game's gorgeous art direction and well-tuned platforming.

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A Beautiful Glimpse of the Milky Way From Spain’s Tallest Mountain [Video]

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Certainly, Norwegian photographer Terje Sorgjerd has a talent for capturing the awe-inspiring. Taken on El Teide in the Canary Islands, this time lapse captures the Milky Way galaxy overhead as sand wafts across the landscape as gold clouds. [The Awesomer] More »

The Only Superpowers Chart You’ll Ever Need

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I just got done watching X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Dark Knight for the nth time. As is usually the case with mutant and superhero movies, I found myself reading up and thinking about superpowers – what I would want to have, why, and so on. You know how the mind wanders…

Then I saw this jaw-dropping poster about all the superpowers that have ever been in existence. When I say jaw-dropping, I mean jaw-dropping. This is no ordinary chart. It contains more than 100 powers and abilities – some of which you might have thought existed only in your wildest dreams. Not only that, but you will also see the names of more than 200 superheroes – and villains – to give you something to relate the powers to. Awesome? Definitely.

Still don’t get it? Click on the image to see the entire thing and to be able to decipher those squiggly lines.

The group who worked so hard to give us this chart is Pop Chart Lab¹, in cooperation with Bergen Street Comics. Yup, these guys know what they are talking about, and they made sure that the info in the poster are accurate. The posters are selling for $25 each. With the amount – and significance – of information contained in the poster, that is a small price to pay. You have to be quick, though, as there are only 500 of these posters – each signed by the artists and numbered. They are coming out with future editions, and even better, they are asking people for suggestions. You know, just in case they missed something/someone. If you have a suggestion, send a tweet their way @popchartlab. If your suggestion is used, you get a $10 gift card.

1. Pop Chart Lab

Retro Video Games Mouse Pads and Ref Magnets

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Last week, while I was combing the bazaars of Kuala Lumpur for little trinkets to take home as gifts, I came across tons of stuff that I suppose will delight many of our ForeverGeek readers. From Domo-kun plushies and shirts to Angry Birds key chains¹ to Superman/Batman belts to geek-themed mouse pads – they were all over the place. I remember the last group of items particularly because I remember thinking to myself “Who uses mouse pads these days?” I’ve been wrong before, and I am probably wrong now. If DesignNoy’s Etsy Shop² is any indication, people still do use mouse pads. What’s more, people pay for the mouse pads, too!

Here are some of the coolest mouse pads you’ll see this week. Heck, maybe this month. I know for sure they’re way better than the knockoffs I saw at the bazaars. ³

Minecraft Mouse Pad

Perfect for use when playing Minecraft or what?

Zelda Mouse Pad

The tag line says it all!

Pac-Man Mouse Pad

We can’t have mouse pads without a Pac-Man-inspired one, can we?

Mario Bros Mouse Pads

That scene is ever so familiar to anyone who has played Mario. It’s even more familiar for those who have to keep going back to the start.

Here’s another Mario-inspired mouse pad if World 1-1 is not your thing.

All the mouse pads are cloth-topped with a non-slip, non-marking rubber base. They measure in at approximately 9-1/4″ x 7-3/4″ and are 1/4 of an inch thick. If you don’t feel like using a mouse pad – or you have no need of them – you’ll always have some space on your fridge door.

Space Invaders Magnets

This set of Space Invaders Magnets will do the trick to liven up your kitchen.

Pac-Man Magnets

Need I say more?

Via Frankylicious

1. Yup, I gave in and got two.
2. DesignNoy
3. Thought to ponder: Can we consider Etsy creations knockoffs?

YouTube – Four Hands Guitar

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Portal 2: Ars shares the correct way to do science

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Portal 2 is out right now. That means you can go to the store and buy a copy. You can unlock your copy on Steam. This is not a joke—the game is out, right now! When you get home from work you can hug your kids, grab a nice beverage, and then go do some science. You monster.

Our copy came a little later than we had hoped, but I've been pouring hours into the single-player game and I have some advice for how to do things once you finally have the game in your hand and begin to play. Don't worry, this will only hurt one of both of us.

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Post Office Uses Wrong Statue of Liberty for Stamp [Oops]

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In an admirable effort to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Staute of Liberty, the U.S. Post Office has issued a commemorative first-class stamp! Of the wrong Statue of Liberty. More »

Feature: The incredible shrinking game: the truth of game length in the modern industry

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When will gamers finally have way too much of not enough? The tension between game prices and the length of the experience is only becoming more apparent as big-budget, long-hyped releases can be finished in the span of an afternoon. Most recently, Medal of Honor, Vanquish, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 were chastised by critics and consumers alike for being incredibly brief—all take about five hours to complete.

Games are getting shorter, but not many in the industry readily want to admit it. Setting up interviews for this article proved a Sisyphean task: no one wanted to say their games were too short, and those who created longer games were loath to criticize their peers.

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10 Stunning Photos of a Piece of Black Paper [Photography]

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You've probably taken a photo before where the sunset looked beautiful, but the landscape was too dark. By placing a black card over part of your lens, and taking a slow exposure shot, you can take photos like these: More »

Cooking up piezo crystals at home

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[Collin] loves piezos – and why not?

According to him, they are about as close to magic as you can find in the world. We can’t really disagree on that one – there’s something oddly enchanting about piezoelectric materials.

Most commercially used piezoelectric devices that you find today are constructed out of man-made ceramic materials such as Lead zirconate titanate, and can be found in grill starters, gas-powered water heaters, etc. While they are common, it’s not exactly easy to synthesize these sorts of ceramic materials at home.

You can however, create piezoelectric crystals in your kitchen, using just a few simple ingredients. In his video, [Collin] shows us how to create Rochelle Salt, one of the first known materials found to exhibit piezoelectricity. The recipe calls for three ingredients, cream of tartar, sodium carbonate (soda ash), and water – that’s it. The procedure is quite simple, requiring you to heat a solution of water and cream of tartar, adding the soda ash a little at a time once it reaches the proper temperature. The solution is filtered after it turns clear and then left to sit overnight while the crystals form.

Take a look at the video embedded below to see how his Rochelle Crystals turned out, and be sure to try this out with your kids if they are interested in electronics. Making crystals that generate electricity when tapped is far cooler than making rock candy any day, trust us on this.

Filed under: chemistry hacks, misc hacks