So, Brent Spiner has a Ricky Gervais-style online series where he plays “himself” as a struggling actor trying to salvage his career. I dunno, I have a deep abiding affection for former TNG cast members and all (well, except Beverly) but the concept’s been done. That said, the series has managed to deliver at least one totally brilliant thing — they had Data play Spock.

Hit the jump to check it out (skip right to around 2:30 for the good stuff. The set-up is kind of dull)…

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For our new readers, the ones without the physics PhDs and the rock-hard sexually magnetic physiques, quantum entanglement is the phenomenon where two particles are put in the same state, and then separated. The neat part is, once you change the state of one particle, the other changes instantaneously.

Scientifically speaking, we think it’s because of elves.

Either way, quantum entanglement is actually extremely important to communications because they’re highly secure: there’s literally nothing in quantum communications to intercept. So they can be used to pass on information in a way that basically nobody except the recipient can read. Needless to say, governments are intensely interested in this technology.

Anyway, the big problem is that so far, we’ve only been able to send these entangled particles 16 kilometers or so away. Fortunately, a team in China has worked out how to send them nearly 100 kilometers.

Next step? Sending entangled particles to satellites, and picking up the bitrate; currently you can only send five qubits or so a second. Also punching out an anti-Shepard reporter.

image courtesy Bioware

Good afternoon you princes of Maine, you kings of New England, you stalkers of The Avengers. Here are all the mashup and parody videos I didn’t get a chance to cover, thrown in your face like you’re Jodie Foster working for the FBI.

In the offing for today:

1. The Avengers and Queen combine perfectly in this music video [@RossPeacock via /film]
2. This is Wes Anderson’s Battleship. Sort of. It’s a nice try, but there are too many close-ups, too few overhead and slow-mo shots, the set isn’t yellow-toned enough, and the music/clothing isn’t nearly as twee as it should be. *slaps elbow patches on corduroy blazer together, spitefully* [via Buzzfeed]
3. Sonic 3 is Rolling In The Deep. [via EpicPonyz]
4. Here’s the third trailer for The Dark Knight Rises recut with footage from “Batman: The Animated Series”. [via ThePlaylist]
5. Banner picture: John P. Glynn shows what happens when The Avengers go on a shawarma run in Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks. [via]
6. Inset picture: “The Birth of Black Widow” by Julian Totino Tedesco. [via]

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Poor IGN. They’re trying, they really are. They conducted a survey that shows seven in ten of gamers (well, gamers that respond to IGN surveys) have no problem with gay relationships being an option in video games.

All well and good. Unfortunately, they made the mistake of posting it on the Internet and letting people comment on it.

Normally, I complain a lot about how everybody thinks the hobby that I love is chock full of ignorant bigoted morons. And then something like this comes along, and demonstrates that, oh wait, there really are plenty of gamers who happen to be ignorant bigoted morons.  And even more people who think pretending to be an ignorant bigoted moron is funny.  And even more of them who are apparently just completely clueless, whether they mean well or not.

And then we all get lumped in with the ignorant bigoted morons. So thanks, guys. Thanks a lot.

Well, except for the troll pretending to be a virgin who does nothing but play PS3. That dude’s just funny. He is trolling, right?

A few of our “favorite” comments, under the cut.
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It’s been a while since we’ve heard or seen much from Sony and Naughty Dog’s The Road The Last of Us, but late yesterday they finally gave us another trailer. No gameplay footage yet, but according to Sony the trailer was executed using the game’s engine, so yeah, this game is going to look pretty damn amazing.

Check out the trailer and some new hi-res screenshots after the jump…

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Male Black Widow even nailed the sexy three-point landing. [via]

It’s that time of the week where we post a mixed bag of intriguing costumes we spotted recently. Some of it’s new; some of it isn’t; all of it is worth highlighting.

Are you a cosplayer or cosplay photographer who would like to be featured on Gamma Squad? Upload your photos to our Flickr group to be considered.

Onward to the gallery:

(Click pictures to enlarge.)

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