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If you’re a fan of Super Mario Bros. and of sugary breakfast cereals then we have great news for you. Kellogg’s and Nintendo are teaming up to release a cereal based on Nintendo’s […]

The post Super Mario Cereal Box is Nintendo’s Newest Amiibo appeared first on Geek.com.

Since the NOC launched in 2013, actress Janina Gavankar has been one of the community’s biggest celebrity boosters. Now, finally, Janina is able to join us on Hard NOC Life! In the intervening years, she has racked up the nerd bona fides by starring in Arrow, True Blood, and Sleepy Hollow. But now, she is part of the biggest nerd franchise of them all: as Iden Versio in the blockbuster game franchise Star Wars: Battlefront II.

Keith and Janina discuss her upbringing in an immigrant household in Illinois and her initiation as a drumcore geek as a teenager. Then, they talk about her gamer origins and what it’s like coming on to projects while also being a fan of the properties. They also talk about how important it is to see a brown girl be the face of something like Star Wars and what it was like portraying a character as nuanced as Iden Versio. Later, she exposes the Desi Illuminati, endorses the Desi Geek Girls podcast, and shouts out everyone’s Iden cosplay!

All this and more on Hard NOC Life! Watch it on your screen, hit “play,” and check this. Subscribe to all of podcasts in the Hard NOC Media family on Apple Podcasts and Google Play!

As always, our official theme music is brought to you by the super team of Adam WarRock and Chops.

Respected civil rights advocate John Hope Franklin has received a long overdue honor just in time for the holidays. A professor, author and researcher who passed away in 2009 at the age of 94, it was announced on Monday that a portion of Interstate 85 in North Carolina has been named "John H. Franklin Highway" in honor of Franklin's memory, according to US News. [brightcove id=4382098264001] Franklin's work directly impacted multiple groundbreaking moments in civil rights history, including the Brown vs. Board of Education case, while his Racial Equality In America lecture series remains in circulation across college campuses today. A revered educator who held positions at several notable HBCUs including North Carolina Central and Howard University, these accomplishments, paired with his published literary work From Slavery to Freedom, earned Franklin a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995. While officially announcing plans to dedicate of the highway back in January 2017, former U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx best described Franklin as "someone who helped people understand African-American history in the greater context of American society."

It's only right.