io9 – Most major religions, going back thousands of years, tell stories about the End of the World. And post-apocalyptic fiction is perennially popular. So why, in the last twenty years, has the apocalypse ceased to matter?

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io9 – What’s the secret connection between Quentin Tarantino and Felix Gaeta? What relationship between Bear McCreary (in person) and Starbuck did we almost see? We’ve got the exclusive answers, from Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion Season Four.

Thanks to Titan Books for sending us these exclusive extracts from the BSG season 4 companion book, out now to coincide with the release of the direct-to-DVD “The Plan.” No, they won’t explain that whole “Opera House” thing, but they are pretty fascinating.

So here are five things you never knew about Battlestar’s final season: Click to Read More

Filmdrunk – “Twilight has doomed us all” was the caption to this screencap over at The Daily What. It’s not wrong, but let’s be honest, this represents at least 10 reasons why we’re doomed before Twilight even enters the picture. For instance, the number two goal behind vampire is model. And apparently, being a pharmacist is far more popular than being a doctor. I don’t even know what a pharmacist does other than make you wait 20 minutes for stuff. Additionally, it seems a lot of people are really curious about becoming anorexic. Relax, fatty, there’s no entrance exam.

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The Examiner – This is the first part of a three-part series. Check back here tomorrow for part 2, and Thursday for part 3.

I don’t know if you heard this or not, but something kind of major happened yesterday. One of the largest media companies in the world announced the acquisition of the largest comic book company in North America. Maybe you read about it.

Yesterday I posted a “Breaking the Internet in half” column discussing some of the knee-jerk comments that popped up after the announcement. I’m revisiting the issue because the comments haven’t gotten any better in the past 24 hours. Some folks have taken a step back to really start thinking about the long-term ramifications of the acquisition, but there are others that are like this, which I just read, and responded to, from Newsarama:

“This is all just terrible. Disney is a souless company that eats up younger more vibrant creative companies… This merger is just terrible. It will come back to bite Marvel, and the industry, over the next few years.”

“This was a money decision. And a bad one. Probably the worst. Marvel has had the best few years of it’s [sic] life.”

Today and tomorrow, I’d like to examine in more detail both extremes of the comments, and inject a little common sense. On Thursday, I’m going to go into more detail into an aspect of the story that isn’t getting enough examination, and one that may end up being the most important.

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Gawker – They like sci-fi! They wear costumes! They play with light sabers! They saw The X-Files movie in the theater! Yes, every year people freak out when they found out that Comic-Con is full of freaks.

Well, it wouldn’t be the same without them. Here are some of our favorite pictures from the first two days. Strangely, most of them are of women. Like everyone else, the photographer is probably too scared of girls to actually talk to them, so he just snaps away.

Click picture for more.