Giant Freakin Robot

With Doctor Who celebrating a 50th anniversary next year, fans are eager to see how the show will mark the occasion, and many are wondering if current Doctor Matt Smith might catch us all off guard with a surprise regeneration. After all, it’s been three years since the much-beloved David Tennant handed his TARDIS keys over to Smith, so while there’s certainly nothing concrete to suggest Smith might wrap up his run next year, it also wouldn’t surprise us terribly. Regardless, whenever Smith does pass the role on to whoever comes next, he’ll be hard pressed to make it a more emotional departure than that of David Tennant. You remember, don’t you? “I don’t want to go.” You’re starting to cry a little at that aren’t you? No, wait, that’s me.

Since all of us have had three years to work out our residual issues from “The End of Time” with our therapist, Tennant spent some time reflecting on his iconic run as the Doctor, and more specifically on the final line that split our poor little hearts right clean in half. Talking with The Big Issue, Tennant recalled his time as the Doctor fondly, saying that he has nothing but good memories of his time spent playing the Time Lord. He also addressed that line…

Even though we keep hearing more and more news about the upcoming Pitch Black / Chronicles of Riddick sequel film, Riddick, it’s still hard to believe it is really happening. After all, it’s been eight years, twice the distance between Chronicles and Riddick as there were between the first two films. Moreover, Chronicles of Riddick alienated a chunk of the fanbase — myself included — who felt that the sprawling, epic storyline seemed an uncomfortable fit for the anti-hero at its center. Now we finally know when we’ll get to find out if Riddick was worth the wait. Universal Pictures has announced that Riddick will be opening in theaters and IMAX on September 6, 2013.

Along with the release date announcement, the movie’s official Facebook page posted this snazzy shot of Vin Diesel as Riddick, alongside writer/director David Twohy.

A few days ago, director George Miller could finally utter the words many of us thought he’d never get to say: “Mad Max 4 is finally finished shooting.” The film still doesn’t have a release date, so it might be a while yet before we can see if the 28-year-long wait between movies was worth it. For now, we can check out a new image that has popped up online, purportedly of Tom Hardy in the role of “Mad” Max Rockatansky.

One would think after well over a century of scientific advancements in learning the inner workings of our brain, finding out how smart someone is by making them take a not-quite-standardized IQ test would be comparable to testing someone for cancer by putting their hand over their face to see which one is bigger. One can judge a person’s relative intelligence based on how well or badly they did on either test, but it’s nearly impossible to measure one’s combination of intelligences as a single score. As someone who has regularly tested in the 140+ range since youth, I have watched the world around me get smarter than I could ever hope to be in so many ways, all while I retained my same level of smarts, which are confined to areas of language and remembering that my car keys are still in my work pants.

Western University’s Brain and Mind Institute in London, Ontario, Adrian M. Owen and Adam Hampshire, along with Roger Highfield from London England’s Science Museum Group, have presented a massive study for the journal Neuron concerning the antiquated use of current IQ tests. More than 100,000 people responded to an online study comprised of 12 cognitive tests, covering memory, reasoning, planning abilities, and attention spans. When combined with the background details gathered about the participants and their lifestyle, the researchers found themselves with an unexpected wealth of information. Owen, the senior investigator and Canada Excellence Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging, said, “We expected a few hundred responses, but thousands and thousands of people took part, including people of all ages, cultures, and creeds from every corner of the world.” Considering it’s an online survey, it’s comforting to know the people were smart enough to use the Internet, but I shudder to think of what some of these people weren’t mentally capable of.