YouTubers Bernie Su and Hank Green are releasing a modernized spin on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as told through a series of vlog entries in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. With the main thread of the story playing out from Lizzie Bennet’s perspective, other characters are turning to social media to fill in the details.

By Michael Andersen, originally posted at ARGNet

Lizzie Bennet’s mother wants the best for her three daughters. Unfortunately for Lizzie, her mother’s antiquated impression of what is best involves settling Lizzie and her two sisters down with the first rich, eligible bachelors to come along. She even printed out a motivational tshirt for poor Lizzie, broadcasting that “[i]t is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” As a graduate student living at home and pursuing a Masters degree in Mass Communications, Lizzie is taking out her frustrations at her mother’s overt attempts to control her life over social media for a class project she’s calling The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, with a little help from her best friend Charlotte Lu. Sound familiar? No? Maybe this will help: the Bennet family’s new neighbor, Bing Lee, is best friends with an abrasive socialite named William Darcy.

That’s right, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is an adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice, with a modern twist. Lizzie unabashedly assumes the role of unreliable narrator in the video blog (“vlog”) series recounting her various adventures that serves as the crux of the experience. While Charlotte and her sisters occasionally take over the vlog, the cast is purposefully minimal, forcing Lizzie, Charlotte, and her sisters to don over-the-top costumes while mimicking their parents, William Darcy, and even each other in a format that should be very familiar to frequent YouTube viewers. These videos offer a powerful platform for the sisters’ disparate personalities to shine through, allowing the plot to serve as a pleasant afterthought supporting a steady stream of sisterly bickering.

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To be a pop star in the 1980s you needed two things: a good set of chops and a whole lotta hair mousse. Actually, the chops might have been optional. See if you can identify these ’80s singers by their impressive tresses.

Mouse over just to the right of each number to reveal the name of each singer.

Puzzle by Jeffrey Marman and Mike Selinker
Illustration: Kelsey Dake

Also in this issue

• How to be a Geekdad
• Why Next-Gen Videogames Will Rock Your World

Muppets Puzzle (ages 6-9)

By 6, kids can associate pictures with words. (They may need help with instructions, though.) Using these pictures, put the Muppet names in their numbered blanks. The highlighted column will spell out the name of another Muppet.

Solution »

Build a Trebuchet
Make a Bucky Fuller Blanket Fort
How to Bike With Your Kids
Watch Star Wars The Right Way
Plan a Trip
Geekdad Must-Have Hardware
Science in The Bath
GeekDad Puzzles for Ages 6-17
Build a Hovercraft
Dissect It

Keep YouTube to Yourself
Cool Science Kits
Cook Up Some Worms
Page Turners for Younglings
How to Build an Art Bot
Princess Free Stories
Mold a Dino Fossil
How to Make Electric Play-Doh
Toys for Brainy Tots

Your director has given you the following instructions for reenacting these stunt sequences from eight famous films. Who are you playing in each?

Also in this issue

• The Man Who Makes the Future
• How to Spot the Future
• The Rise of the Robot Reporter

1. Exit vehicle through windshield, bend hood ornament and grill, cling to fender, clamber under vehicle, hook on undercarriage, move up cord, reenter vehicle.
2. Dodge bulldozer, climb tower, leap to basket, climb cable, move through crane, fight, jump off crane onto roof, slide over table, careen down elevator shaft, leap through transom, bounce down side of building and into street.
3. Run, surf down stairs, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, impale with shield, stab, kick.
4. Fire gun, dodge bullets, wrap hose around waist, leap, dangle, kick window, shoot window, enter building, get pulled backward.
5. Drift around traffic circle, drive on sidewalk, enter tunnel, drive, crash into police car, sideswipe bus, hit motorcyclist, break gate, knock over pedestrian, go under arches, drive against traffic, flip car, crash.
6. Spin chair, move from chair to door and back, climb wall, shimmy up wall, encircle chandelier, leap over chandelier, walk down wall, wind up back in chair, complete the circuit again.
7. Run up hill, roll down hill, prepare to shoot it out, argue, jump off cliff into rapids, continue to argue.
8. Throw knife at gong, catch knife, throw knife back into bad guy’s forehead.

BONUS: EXCLUSIVE ONLINE EXTRAS

9. Punch, get punched into dumpster, fight, dodge two-by-four, fight, rest, fight, get sunglasses put on face.
10. Climb, hit cop with awning, climb, get hit with plank, climb, grab on to clock hand, hang from clock hand as face of the clock comes off.
11. Clash, force enemy up rocks, flip over enemy, get pushed back to cliff, switch hands, force enemy up stairs, lose weapon, leap to pole, land, regain weapon, clash, move back up rocks, lose weapon, catch weapon, get outmaneuvered, get clocked.
12. Exit car, slide down windshield, strap self to hood, slide on hood, kick legs in air, lose straps on impact, hold onto hood, scream.
13. Get on cart, roll under vehicle, mess with wires, puncture gas tank, lose cart, hold onto undercarriage, reenter vehicle.
14. Ride horse down street, into building, through drum kit, up garage ramp, into pool, into elevator, onto roof, and over edge of roof (without horse).
15. Fight on pool table, get hit by chandelier, leap over bar, flip back in chair, hit with chair, leap onto appliances, fall down fridge, fight among appliances, knock bad guy into freezer, get hit by shopping cart, leap over wall, fight over bottles, fight among pinball machines, throw pinball machine, escape into back room, fight with ski.

Last month, Six to Start released Zombies, Run!, its Kickstarter-funded fitness app that inserts runners directly into a zombie apocalypse. Since the app’s launch, the game’s runners have clocked in over half a million miles. Celina Beach takes the app for a trial run to see what keeps players coming back for more.

By Celina Beach, originally posted at ARGNet

A few weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to try a new iOS app by Six to Start called Zombies, Run!, a “running game and audio adventure” that transplants its participants into a zombie apocalypse. The story begins: you are Runner #5, a refugee of a supply helicopter crash, with no identification to prove you’re not from one of the other rival camps, trying to earn your keep in Abel Township by running on supply or rescue missions. Along the way, you collect items that will help the camp, and sometimes obtain information that might help explain who you are, how the world got in this state, and maybe even how to save it.

Images courtesy of Six to Start

At its heart Zombies, Run! is designed as a narrative complement to players’ running music playlist. After starting the mission by loading up the app and swiping the “slide to run” control, the first segment of the story will start, interweaving music from the phone’s iTunes library with additional story segments until the mission is over. While running, a computerized voice informs you of items you pick up along the way: USB Keys, bottles of water, batteries, clothes . . . and often CDC records, information about other factions, or even other apps. In one document, a newspaper article describing a suspicious fire at a university contained a live Twitter account.

Zombies, Run! received its initial funding through a Kickstarter initiative, and one of the benefits offered to early backers was the ability to be inserted into the story, either as an individual or a brand. One of the companies to jump at this opportunity was the app development company ChipotleLabs. Various items recovered over the course of the story including the “Kensaido sword” and “Kensaido Manifesto” hint at a secret ninja society that predated the zombie apocalypse, and whose members work to combat the growing incursion. In addition to providing more information about the world beyond Abel Township, the items promote ChipotleLabs’ upcoming app, Kensaido.

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