This week's links include a hilarious Avengers\Friends mashup trailer, a cool Mystique wallpaper, an award for medical blogging and motivational words from Spock.



In the film Star Wars, the name of the planet-destroying space station, Death Star, was actually a nickname. What was the real name of the Death Star?
(Answer at the end of the post)


The second recipient of our "Weird Science" Excellence In Science Blogging Award. We're giving it to a blog that consistently makes science and scientific topics accessible and interesting. This week, we're giving it to Lydia Kang for her fascinating and informative Medical Mondays posts.

She describes herself as a "mom, wife, part-time doc, writer, sister, daughter, and blogger trying to squeeze an extra 25th hour into my day."  Her YA sci-fi novel, THE FOUNTAIN, will be out with Dial/Penguin in the summer of 2013.

Here are the rules of the award. On your blog, you have to list three men and women of science that inspire you. Then, pass this on to three blogs that you find makes science interesting.

Congratulations Lydia! Make sure you visit her site today and every Monday for great medical posts!
http://lydiakang.blogspot.com

Also, you can follow Medical Mondays on Twitter! #MedMonday


Weird Science Award Recipients

• M. Pax
• Lydia Kang

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." - Spock The Wrath of Khan

• Great Avengers \ Friends mashup trailer on Cultural Compulsive Disorder

• In an interview on Comic Book Movie Stan Lee calls out Superman for being unscientific. Really Stan? How does Spider-Man stick to walls again?
• Wallpaper of Mystique Joins X-Force from All Things X
  
• Wired says Hawkeye is a terrible archer if the publicity shots and trailer are any indication
• Star Trek - Sci Fi Blog was awarded a 2012 EAE Star Trek award. Congratulations Spacerguy!
• Comic Book Resources compiled a bunch of Comic Book Characters/Star Wars Character mash-ups.
• On IN TIME and suspending disbelief from Science Fiction and Other ODDysseys asks some really good questions about the movie.
  
• For some reason Empire says a New Garbage Pail Kids Movie Planned.  Are people really clamoring for a remake of that film?

• Alex J Cavanaugh has a review of John Carter (2012): "One word – awesome!" He's got good taste in movies, so I'm gonna go with it.
• A Peanuts\ X-Men mash-up called "Good Ole Charlie Xavier" from The Galaxy Junkyard.
• A great gallery of Chinese Movie Poster Rip-Offs from /Film
  
• Clone Wars Adventures Hits 10 Million Players from TheForce.Net
• /Film summarizes the new Battleship trailer with ‘Battleship’ Trailer – Who Needs Character Development When You Have Explosions?
• M-Pax has an update on two books she's working on:  The Backworlds and Tumbas

 

The real name of the Death Star was the DS-1 Orbital Battle Station. I'm assuming this was made up after the fact since D.S. probably stands for "Death Star."

Bonus trivia question (+15 points): What was Luke's call sign during the Battle of Yavin (attack on the first Death Star)?

Want to congratulate Lydia? What do you think of this week's news?