Finally! The Science of the Mushroom Kingdom Explained!

Who doesn't love psuedo-science explaining the bizarre fantasies of our youth? One intrepid Kotaku reader (and Carnegie Mellon University student) decided to tackle one of the most scientifically absurd mythos' (mythoses? mythi? can that be made plural) in video game history: the wondrous and mysterious mushroom kingdom! Ooooh. Though only a few chapters of what is certainly to be a mighty tome of bizarre evolutionary missteps, creator Theyab seeks to explain some of the most ludicrous elements of typical kingdom plumber's toolbelt.

Anyway, below is the first chapter on the near-miraculous super mushroom (I appreciate the use of Dr. Mario viruses standing in as fungal bacterium). Do yourself a favor and check out the rest here. Now if someone could just explain the Tanooki suit!

via Kotaku

GayGamer.Net Can't Be Stopped

Over the weekend, videogame news blog GayGamer.net was attacked by some homophobic douchebag (or douchebags) who set upon the site with DOS attacks, spammed their message boards with anti-gay crap and eventually caused a server crash. GayGamer.Net is an excellent site for game news and smart, frequently hilarious commentary, but I'd assume that whoever was responsible for the attack probably never bothered to look past the domain name.

As a fan of the site and a gay gamer myself, I'm happy to report that GayGamer is back on it's feet as of noon today. Along with a short post on the details of the crash and aftermath, contributor The Boy Blunder has written a thoughtful post on how discrimination and hatred are dealt with in comic books. He pledges to subscribe to the Charles Xavier methodology of trying to reach out to people who hate those different from themselves. Reach out...with murderous psychic powers. Just kidding. I love peace. Hopefully, the blogosphere coverage of this whole mess will only help to publicize the site and win some new readers.

Via Kotaku