So, Myspace is back. With a massive overhaul of content and a huge advertising campaign, plus backing from lots of "cool" people like Pharrell and Jimmy Kimmel, Myspace has relaunched and is trying to get back in the social networking game. What Myspace is not doing, thankfully, is trying to be another Facebook, which is something the world does not need. Rather, Myspace is going back to its "roots," as it has been screaming from the hilltops, and is promoting itself as a creative vessel rather than a medium for you to dump your daily grievances, excessive pictures of your ugly children and all the food you ate this week.

Wait, so what is Myspace good for then?

Myspace's first order of business is that of a music and photo sharing "mixtape" if you will. The new site, which launched this week, is quite sleek, albeit a bit too Windows 8 looking for me, but easy enough to use for its most prominent function. Users can create playlists and share them with others. Toss in a few photos for visual aesthetics and you've got yourself a snazzier version of Spotify. But, as of now, much of the content is being pushed out by artists (or their publicity people) and as I am not friends with Justin Timberlake on Spotify, listening to his "History of Rap III" playlist is something I suppose I can only get on Myspace (despite him having "Bust a Move" on there twice; I'll give it to him because it's a good song). Similar to Spotify, once you are in someone else's playlist you can share songs with your friends, put items in your own playlist and let people know how cool you are for listening to a specific track. Yeah, this really doesn't tell us all that much.

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Sony President Jack Tretton wears the smile of a man who knows he just curbstomped the competition.

Monday was a big day in the world of video games, one that may go down in history depending on how the next few months play out. It was the start of E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo) and the eyes of the video game world were all looking to see what the two superpowers of the Console Wars would do.

This is the year that Microsoft and Sony release their new video game consoles. While each company announced its new device weeks before, Monday was the official coming out party for the Xbox One and PS4. It was the day we'd see what new games were on the horizon, and how each company planned on winning the next front of the war.

Understand, however, that there's nothing particularly interesting about this. Every year both companies hold big events at E3 to fire up the fans and give video game journalists something to blog about, but rarely does anything interesting actually happen. Until Monday.

On Monday Sony launched the single most devastating attack in the history of the Console Wars.

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No, unfortunately that's not an official LEGO set or even art from an upcoming LEGO video game set in the world of BioShock. What it is is another build by Imagine Rigney, who wowed us some time back by creating the massive undersea metropolis from the first two BioShock games, Rapture. Rigney has shown time and time again that his abilities as a LEGO craftsman are simply amazing, and this latest attempt certainly holds up.

This sculptor shows the massive Songbird, the biomechanical guardian of Elizabeth in BioShock Infinite. Rigney will be debuting the piece at Brickworld in Chicago this weekend. Songbird was the third game's answer to the Big Daddies of Rapture, but is more than twice the size and contains the power of flight as well. He attacks using only his enormous weight and strength.

The diorama is merely a prototype for Rigney, who will be using the template to begin crafting a huge version of the flying city of Columbia as he did with Rapture. He expects to spend the next six to eight months on the project. Like the video game city itself, each section will be interlocking so that districts can disconnect and reconnect just as they do in play.

Rigney also recently completed a Reaper from Mass Effect that has to be seen to be believed. After the jump are more pictures of Songbird in action!

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All photos by Jef With One F

The Hates' Christian Kidd and his wife Alexis were also at Comicpalooza

Gentle readers, and commenters, I have made a dedicated effort in this year's coverage to not make my reports exclusively Doctor Who related because lots of amazing stuff from all across the realms of fandom happens at the ever-more impressive Comicpalooza. That being said, even on a day when I tried real hard to find other stuff, The Doctor found me at every turn and made it clear that Doctor Who probably represents mainstream geekery more than any other brand.

Of course, some of that may have been because today The Wife With One F was able to break from her nursing studies and busted out her Rose Tyler costume.

When we arrived at the convention hall we were just in time to see Ian McNeice and Frazer Hines begin their panel on performing in Doctor Who. Hines had the longest tenure of any companion on Doctor Who, sticking with Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor throughout all but one episode of his run. McNeice has appeared twice in the new series, both times playing a long-time ally of The Doctor, Winston Churchill.

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Yesterday was all about trying to learn new and exciting things in the world of geekdom and even a little bit of science here and there. I kept it scholarly. On Saturday, I decided to try a different tactic. It was time to get physical.

This started with a brisk four-block walk to the George R. Brown in an effort not to be surprised with another $21.95 parking voucher. It's not nearly as hot as it was last year at this time, and it helps that I was humming the Rocky theme in my head the whole time.

Because this year, after spending two years mentioning it in print, I was going to enter battle thanks to Dagohir. You've probably seen them in the open fields along Richmond in Montrose where the Mustache Ride is installed. Using foam weapons and elaborate costumes, they stage huge wars that look like the greatest fun ever.

Usually I just watch the fights, and this time I was treated to what my new barbarian friend Agohim called a midget melee as little kids took after each other with bloody abandon. Once they'd tired of fighting, it was finally my turn.

I used to be a pretty in-shape guy, a professional wrestler, even though that was many moons and bad decisions ago. Surely I could hold my own in a play sword fight.

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All photos by Jef With One F

This is my third year covering the Comicpalooza convention, and each year it's gotten better and bigger. 2013 seems absolutely massive with pockets of all kinds of geekdom spread out all over the entire George R. Brown Convention Center. Every time you think you've seen it all you stumble across a literally stadium-sized room full of things you didn't even know about.

You also get lost a lot if you're like me and a decade of homing beacons in video games has destroyed your ability to follow a map or find a location without a helpful pointing arrow in front of you. Damnit, BioShock, I used to be smarter than this!

If there is anything I can say I really love about Comicpalooza it's that there are so many people here that are keen on expanding not just fandom, but knowledge in general. We now live in a world where cutting edge science and discoveries can reach almost anyone in the developed world in seconds. What are we doing with that access?

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Since the Daughter With One F turned three, I figure I've watched approximately infinity hours of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. While I'm pretty sure I would never sit through another episode that I wasn't being forced to by my little Rainbow Dash fan, I can freely admit it's not a bad show at all. Lauren Faust is a brilliant creator, the art is excellent and the writing is surprisingly good.

Along with the intended demographic of my daughter and her father with an incredibly low threshold for entertainment, another kind of fan has arisen to declare his love for My Little Pony -- the grown men who call themselves Bronies.

Now let's be clear, I am not here to make fun of Bronies. I swore an oath to never again do so after I found out how much they piss off neo-Nazis. I spent ten years wearing women's underwear onstage and another five singing a song about how awesome David Arquette is. I have no room to judge anyone.

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World Wide War

Since the soft launch of Facebook's "Graph" search engine, there is more and more speculation about what this tool may or may not do. The Facebook Graph Search allows users to look up their individual friends to see what they are up to, what they like, what pictures of food they have posted for no reason and their latest uneducated diatribe about the new immigration proposals. It's having the ability to find out the most detailed minutia of your 500 closest friends at your fingertips.

Its usefulness is two-fold. For one, you can find out about things or businesses that your friends have discussed. Maybe you are on the hunt for a good pizza place, you can "graph" all of the places your friends have been talking about and find yourself a new spot to eat. The second, more likely use for this tool, is stalking, naturally.

But that's not why Facebook got in the search game; they got in to compete with Google in the two companies' never ending fight for world domination. What's funny is that Facebook Graph comes from the mind of a previous Google employee, Lars Rasmussen. Rasmussen, according to a Newsweek interview, along with his brother, was the mind behind Google Maps and the eventual lemon Google Wave. Rasmussen jumped ship and went to work with Zuckerberg and Facebook and now has the social media company moving into the search game.

Obviously, if you are Facebook having a Google employee puts you at an advantage. Are there secrets that came along for the ride?

There are two end results that I see from Facebook trying to horn in on Google's search territory. 1. World Wide War or 2. Joining forces in the dark side.

If Google and Facebook join forces, we are all going to be very, very sorry.

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Gone but not forgotten

When I read the other day that the Playstation 2 was being taken off the market after a decade-plus long run I had mixed emotions. I had a horribly, unbelievably long relationship with a PS2 fanatic and upon hearing the news, a flood of old memories came rushing back to me. I spent many years hating my significant other and blaming it on the fact that his preferred companion was his PS2. He loved that damn Playstation, much much more than he ever loved me.

The funny part of this tale is that I was the one who bought it for him. And if I knew then what I know now, I would do it all over again.

For my boyfriend's (at the time) 22nd birthday, he gave me an ultimatum - buy me a Playstation 2 or else. "Or else" referred to something that I'd rather not discuss at this time, but you can strain that dirty part of your brain and fill in the blank. A Playstation 2 it was! Despite the fact that we lived in a one room, not one bedroom, studio apartment and I paid all of our bills, my decision was very clear.

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crazy-frankenstein.com

Editor's note: First published on December 11, 2011, we return this reader favorite.

If there is any one aspect of being a parent we have been avidly preparing for for years, it's how to explain the concept of Santa Claus to our child. The world of science and pop culture offers so many helpful devices and skills that we are fully confident of our ability to assuage any doubt for many years to come. So that you won't be left out, here are some popular children's questions about the Claus and our answers.

How can Santa visit everywhere in the world in one night?

Santa's sleigh contains an Improbability Drive. When in use, it is simultaneously everywhere in the entire universe at once due to a quirk of quantum physics theory that states that there is a very small chance of a subatomic particle being very far from the nucleus of an atom. All you have to do is create a field of infinite improbability and off you go. Fun fact: An unexpected mis-ignition of the Improbability Drive and its reality-warping effects turned the sleigh's engine into eight reindeer, and Santa liked them so much he never bothered to attempt to turn them back. They remain a living part of Santa's sleigh.

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