The Internet is an idea engine, hooking hundreds of thousands of brains together in parallel, and then discovering that most of them have nothing better to do. The result is a font of creative insanity which can keep you busy forever, an eternal distraction engine, or a huge repository of information. You have the ability learn about jet engines or get an online accounting degree and educate yourself about almost anything.

But what if you accidentally crossed the streams and tried to do both? If you combine memes with higher education, there’s no accounting for what kind of degree you might end up with.

My Little Pony

Advanced Brony – Friendship is (Networking) Magic

My Little Pony is one of the latest and most unexpected internet success stories, with vast fellowships more likely to be seen shouting about Transformers or GI Joe declaring themselves “Bronies” and declaring that friendship is magic. This certainly works for online degrees, or any social media scene, where networking has become an essential, business strategy, and success story all in one. The more connections you have, the more likely you are to succeed, especially if you call it friendship instead of synergizing your crowd-web potentiality.

Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage

Comic books are a beautiful thing. They’re colourful and amusing and are a gateway into a life of reading, which everyone knows is good for the brain but is something no one really wants to do. Flipping through the pages of The Fantastic Four or Captain America really gives the reader a rush as they witness acts of superhuman abilities, both mental and physical, and dream of a world where they can fly and lift cars. When the world of video games began expanding and evolving, alongside comic books and their fan base, nerds around the world hoped for a glimpse of being able to play as their favorite hero and, for once, fly around the city instead of just witnessing it happening beyond their control. Both gaming and comic books have come a long way since the early days of Captain America’s Hitler hunts and pixelated pong games, and the two have combined into something really special. Many superhero action games are sadly made horribly because with the comic book world being a major supplier of modern movies, game developers know they can sell a half-assed game simply on the name alone and that’s just plain wrong.

If you’re a fan of Minecraft, you’re well aware of the infinite building possibilities one can create with enough time and blocks. With a little planning and imagination, one could replicate virtually anything.

On the GE Show, the Edison Memorial Tower was replicated by some intrepid builders. Using Google Maps for reference and a program called SketchUp for layout, a surprisingly accurate replica of the tower was built in Minecraft, stretching all the way into the 3D block-clouds.

Check out the construction process, sped up for the sake of brevity and sanity and set to groovy music:

As comic books become a larger part of our culture, they have also gained quite a bit of respect from those who previously dismissed them as childish. Many now view comics as legitimate pieces of art. This includes universities, who have created more and more comic book related classes sure to interest any fan of the medium.

Comics and their offshoots have become a huge business. It seems like every other movie that comes out was based on a graphic novel these days. Colleges have taken notice of the popularity and shaped courses that will help people break into the world of comics, or just entertain while teaching you new and interesting things. Here are 5 online college courses for comic book fans.

X-ray technology has come a long way from the early days of standing in front of a device that may give you cancer while your doctor checks to see if you had any in the first place. The devices that radiologists use to check for growths in the shape of famous people are now easy to transport. This way, medical personnel can actually check for serious problems in the field before having to drag them into a cold room and help them discover they have claustrophobia on top of whatever else they are suffering from. And the best part is that doctors  aren’t the only people using this miniature see-through technology in their respective field (no, Hustler hasn’t pick one up, yet).

image source

The Star Wars is galaxy not only far, far away but it is also full of characters with names that never existed outside of the Star Wars universe. When it comes down to your pop culture skills to relate offbeat characters to an initial in their name, do you know who’s who?

We’ve made this not-so-small chart to test your skill and knowledge of the Star Wars universe’s finest heroes and villains,  liberally using titles, first and last names and the occasional starfighter. We also wanted to test your ability to comment on our not so great Photoshoping skills.

See the Star Wars alphabet chart after the jump, and may the Star Wars references be with you:

One does not just fly into meme-dom (by jetpack). Unless that one is Techno Kitten Adventure, a top-rated and top-downloaded Xbox Indies game getting a new version today for the iPhone and Xbox.

TKA is a sidescrolling game with antiquated gif-esque graphics in which the player must guide a flying cat past deadly objects and visually assaulting diversions. Obstacles include giant pieces of bacon, Mario-esque haunted mansions a barrage of hyperactive, flashing Internet references. If you loved the nightmarish Nyan-Nyan cat, Techno Viking and Geocities, you will feel right at home playing this game.

The game now has new levels, achievements, updated leaderboards, and an array of new characters. The one thing that has remained the same is the ability to play TKA without thumbs; only one button is used during gameplay.

Photo via DigitallyBlonde

We all remember when Pokemon first rolled out in 1996 and we frantically tried to catch em all on our Nintendo Gameboy. Since then the Pokemon franchise has developed into a long line of new games, TV series, and movies. Sure, there were times when we had forgotten all about the little creatures that brought smiles, and frustration (read: A wild Zubat has appeared!) to our gaming lives.

If we had to choose to seek out a character on the show to do a cosplay post on, we feel all the DIY Pikachu costumes wouldn’t have been quite enough, so we opted to find the cutest girls dressed as Misty.

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.