During the episode in which the humans and the Cylons discover a devastated Earth, they come across the remains of its civilization. One of the things they found partially covered in the radioactive soil was a "2000-year-old, ancient Cylon." That was the exact phrase in the script, which was used by VFX supervisor Gary Hutzel and chief model maker Pierre Drolet to create the Cylon head you see above.

Like Ralph McQuarrie did for Darth Vader, the pair took inspiration on classic samurai armor designs.
The result clearly came way too close to the Sir Dark Lord Van Vader Von Ham of Shin's helmet. So close that they took a couple of layers out of the helmet, to make it look like the skull on the right, which is the model that finally ended up in the actual shot:

Beautiful design either way, although I liked the full helmet better. I don't care it looked like Vader's, specially when McQuarrie also did art for Battlestar Galactica (some of it is under these lines.) [Darth Mojo—Thanks Alice]

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

My wife and I started watching the mini series skeptically on a Friday night around 7pm, sitting down to pad thai and a few beers. We forced ourselves go to bed around 4am, leaving the story somewhere in the first season. For the remainder of the weekend, we partook in a gluttonous feast of sci-fi, scarfing it quickly and knowing the behavior was completely unsustainable and wastefully opulent.

I've often questioned just what makes the show resonate with so many people. It's, of course, a completely unfair question with limitless legitimate answers. One thing I've always appreciated is the props. Just as the original Star Trek or Lost in Space would glue together studio scrap to fill their sets on a shoestring budget, so too does Battlestar accentuate the futuristic with the contemporary and mundane. Mechanics wear stock ski goggles, Captain Adama drinks from Bodum glasses and the crew loves a good backwards sleeveless tee. It's a small point that ties Battlestar to its predecessors, an homage, intentional or not, that designs a future (or past?) unlike any we've imagined before.

Anyway, if you're reading this, you're probably watching the Battlestar Galactica finale tonight (or very soon). So our question of the day is a little different that just that. With such a complex lore, can Battlestar untwist its own enigmas before the show fades to black?

We are so used to the International Space Station that we don't give its massive scale a second thought. I, for one, took it for granted until a newly-released NASA photograph reminded me that this thing is huge. So huge that I fired up Photoshop and did an illustration comparing it to a Colonial Viper Mk1, a Corellian corvette, the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A, and the new Battlestar Galactica. Check both the high resolution sizemodo and the amazing NASA photo after the jump.

<<< Click on the sizemodo to see the high definition image*

Here's the NASA photography, showing the scale of an astronaut against a small section of the International Space Station.

I don't know about you, but this one really make me go oh-ah. Maybe it's all a fake and that guy is a Lego Minifig.

ISS Size:

Mass: 300,214 kg (661,857 lb) (June 18, 2008)
Length: 58.2 m (191 ft) along truss (February 22, 2007)
Width: 44.5 m (146 ft) from Destiny to Zvezda
Height: 27.4 m (90 ft) (February 22, 2007)

Solar arrays span: 73.15 m (240 ft) (February 22, 2007)

* The sizemodo shows the final completed ISS. The scale is 1 pixel = 0.5 meters. Scaled and measured with Photoshop's measurement tool.

The Medallion was laser cut in separate layers and pieces, then glued together. Red LEDs were added behind the bird inset to illuminate the dvd drive and provide a nice backlit effect.

The specs

• EVGA nForce 590 SLI motherboard
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ CPU
• Two EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS graphics cards in SLI
• 4GB (2x2GB) Crucial Ballistix Tracer Red DDR2 800MHz
• Cooler Master 850W modular PSU
• Pioneer slimline slot loading DVD drive
• Logitech G15 keyboard and G9 mouse
• IZ3D 22" 3D monitor
• Western Digital RaptorX 150GB HD (x2)
• Swiftech pump, blocks
• Black Ice Stealth 360 radiator
• PC Ice clear fluid
• Primoflex red tubing
• 10" LCD
• 2.5" LCD (x3)

Yeah, it's really horrible, but I really miss Starbuck. Hit the link for a detailed report and gallery. [Bit-Tech]

Now seriously, can't engineers stop doing their...engineering or whatever they do at their secret underwater lairs, and watch some sci-fi movies or TV series or at least Pigs In Space? What are they going to do when Monty's wife starts taking out the inhibitors from all the Roombas at the White House and they steal the launch codes? One word, people: Cylons. Or worse: Bender. [Anybots via BotJunkie]

BSG Spoiler List

• Lightsabers will debut this season.

• Cylons build a fully armed and operational battle station. From a distance, it looks like a moon.

• A Colonial Raptor lands in a new planet and one of Galactica's pilots gets attacked by some kind of bug that attaches to his face.

• Galactica flight deck crew install a new weapon in a Viper apparently called "Death Blossom."

• Galactica has a problem with its heating system, but another Colonial Raptor lands in a forest planet to discover a large population of small, bear-like creatures living on trees. They kill them all and make nice coats for everyone in the ship. Colonist rejoice. Viewers too.

• In the final episode, we discover that President Roslin is really a lizzard with fake skin (that was a given, quite frankly.)

• Galactica then arrives to Earth, only to discover a world full of monkeys. They also kill them all.

• In the final scene, Starbuck and Apollo discover the hand and the head of big woman statue, made out of copper, coming out of a beach's sand. They don't know what the frack that means, but finally make love next to it.

• Starbuck discovers she's Apollo's sister.

Frack! Shine a Light and now this. Adrenaline is pumping out of my ears. [Video from io9]