This week in the world of cartoons, Princess Bubblegum goes on a date, Starfire kills Beast Boy, and we get a look at the series premiere of Avengers Assemble!

TMNT is delayed for a couple of weeks, while Ultimate Spider-Man and Gravity Falls continue their unusual hiatus. I'm guessing Ultimate Spider-Man will return in July to correspond with the regular run of Avengers Assemble. As always - minor spoilers ahead!

Transformers: Prime – "Chain of Command"

The promotion of Ultra Magnus to second command is causing controversy within the Autobot camp, but the good 'bots don't have much time to argue. At least one predacon has surfaced, so the Autobots head to Scotland to look for more predacon fossils.

Adventure Time – "The Suitor"

Princess Bubblegum takes the spotlight in this episode. Peppermint Butler sifts through the hundreds of men looking to take the princess on a date in hopes of finding a proper suitor - a suitor that will get her out of the laboratory.

Check out this clip for a look at Braco, a suitor that inherited his place in line from his dead father. I like this fella.

Regular Show – "Cool Cubed"

Thomas the Intern returns this week - he is chugging a slushie dubbed the "Cool Cubed" in order to get the biggest brain freeze ever and thus earn respect from Mordecai & Rigs. Thomas might have died in the process.

Teen Titans Go! – "Ghostboy"

Starfire kills Beast Boy! Not, not really, although some viewers might not mind. Beast Boy uses this unusual situation to play a series of tricks on an extremely gullible Starfire, while the rest of the Teen Titans attempt to convince Beast Boy that he is dead. We only get one new episode of Teen Titans Go! this week, as the second half of the time-slot is a repeat.

Avengers Assemble – "Avengers Protocol Part 1 & 2"

The hour long premiere of Avengers Assemble takes place Sunday on DisneyXD, with the series beginning its regular run in July. If you've been missing your dose of Marvel cartoons (or action cartoons in general), check out the hour long preview Sunday, which features Iron Man re-uniting the Avengers to take on the Red Skull.

The clips convey a changing of the guard in the Marvel Universe, as Tony Stark comes across as the leader of the Avengers instead of Captain America. Is this a smart move? I think so, but we'll see if role develops in the series premiere Sunday.

Top image courtesy of Marvel and DisneyXD. Adventure Time and Regular Show air Monday nights on Cartoon Network. Transformers: Prime airs on The Hub. Teen Titans Go! airs Tuesday nights and Saturdays on Cartoon Network. Avengers Assemble premiere this Sunday, with the series starting its official run this July on DisneyXD.

An ancient sword, the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, is linked to ancient tales of gods and serpents in Japanese lore. The sword is seen as a weapon of immense power, a weapon that legitimizes the rule of a Japanese emperor. But where is this sword now?

Serpents and Swords

The story of the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi begins with an eight-headed serpent known as Yamata no Orochi, which happened to hide an empire-changing sword within its tail.

On a yearly rampage, the serpent Yamata no Orochi targeted a well-to-do family, eating seven of the family's eight daughters over the years. The annual daughter-eating-binge led their father to call on the legendary warrior and god of storms, Susanoo, to dispatch Orochi.

Susanoo immediately launched a direct attack on the formidable serpent, but failed. Defeated, the head of the family offered his final daughter's hand in marriage as a reward should Susanoo slay the eight-headed serpent.

Taking up the challenge, Susanoo plotted to trap each one of the eight heads of Yamata no Orochi. Susanoo used a simple trick — the god lured each one of the serpent's heads away with giant bowls of rice wine.

While the serpent laid intoxicated and sleeping, Susanoo chopped off the heads of Orochi one by one with his sword. Susanoo sliced off to the tails of Yamata to ensure that the serpent would not return.

Within one of Yamata no Orochi's tails, Susanoo found a second sword, one he called Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi - the "Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven". This second sword would play an important role in shaping Japanese tradition.

After the Dragon

Susanoo did not keep custody of the sword for long. Banished long ago from the company of the gods by the deity Izanagi, Susanoo gave the sword to his sister, Amaterasu, to amend their sibling rivalry and end his exile. While in Amaterasu's possession, the sword would become an accoutrement of Japanese emperors.

According to Japanese mythology, Yamato Takeru, the son Emperor Keikō, was given the sword. While in Takeru's possession, the sword gained its current name, and its ties to the imperial line. While on a hunting trip, a rival set fire to the dry grass around Yamato Takeru, dooming the son of the emperor.

Takeru used the sword to cut the flaming grass down and send the fire in the direction of his rival. After this battle, Takeru renamed the sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, which translates to "Grasscutter Sword".

The legend of the sword continued to grow from this point, with the possession of Kusanagi implicated in the death of the Emperor Temmu in 686 A.D. After his death, the Kusanagi is placed in the Atsuta Shrine, where a duplicate of the sword resides today.

Why a duplicate? That's a pretty complicated question. During the 12th Century Battle of Dan-no-ura, a monumental sea battle between the two dominant clans of Japan — the Minamoto and Taira — the sword was lost forever.

Killed during the battle was the kindergarten-age Emperor Antoku. Instead of allowing the Kusanagi to fall into the hands of the Minamoto clan, a soldier tossed the Kusanagi into the water.

Two theories exist as to the fate of Kusanagi after this battle — the fabled sword either sits at the bottom of the sea and is forever lost, or priests recovered the sword when it washed ashore. The former is much more likely.

Where is Kusanagi now?

Whether or not the modern Kusanagi is original, it still maintains all the symbolism attached to the original. Along with a sacred mirror and jewel, the Kusanagi makes up a trio of Imperial Relics that passed on to each new emperor as he comes to power.

The current emperor of Japan, Akihito, received the sword during his ascension ceremony. The sword, however, did not see the light of day, as the sacred relic remained covered throughout the ceremony. Whether Kusanagi or any of the trio of relics still exists today remains a mystery.

While the current existence of Kusanagi remains questioned, depictions of the sword abound. The sword makes an appearance in the video game Ōkami, the Final Fantasy series, the Naruto franchise, and the Usagi Yojimbo comic. The Kusanagi name is also lent to the protagonist of the Ghost in the Shell series. So even if the sword is never seen any more, its influence on pop culture remains strong.

The top image is of the late 19th Century painting "Susanoo slaying the Yamata-no-Orochi" by Toyohara Chikanobu and within the public domain. Image of the Atsuta Shrine via Paul Davidson/Flickr. The statue depicts Yamato Takeru, a statue which resides in Osaka and the image is in public domain. For more info on this fabled sword, the Nelly Nauman published "The Kusanagi Sword", an extremely detailed history of Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi. Sources linked within.

Want to take a very bizarre vacation? Not worried about putting a trespassing arrest on your record? Pennsylvania’s Raven Rock Mountain Complex might be the destination for you.

The United States built the mysterious Raven Rock Mountain Complex in the early 1950s, to allow for the continuation of the U.S. Government should a widespread nuclear attack occur. The site can hold 3,000 people comfortably, and there are rumors that amenities include a fully-stocked Starbucks on site, and a tunnel to Camp David. But what's the truth about Raven Rock, and what's a big stinking lie?

A Cold War Relic

Devised and built soon after the USSR successfully detonated its first nuclear bomb in 1949, Raven Rock Mountain Complex is just outside the small town of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. While the position is obscure, the out-of-site location is within close proximity to the Pentagon, the White House, and Camp David.

Originally, Raven Rock was designed to house high ranking government officials and up to 3,000 individuals for 30 days should a global catastrophe occur, as part of the United State's Continuity of Government Plan during the Cold War.

While the site likely does not maintain enough supplies to house 3,000 people in the post-Cold War era, Vice President Cheney probably "hunkered down" in Raven Rock during the weeks following September 11th.

Currently, Raven Rock is known by several names, including Site R and the Alternate Joint Communication Center. And Raven Rock contains everything necessary to carry on key communication services and allow for Navy, Air Force, and Army decision-making, should dialogue cease or a rapid change in the chain of command within the United States Executive Office occur.

The Department of Defense recently made the Raven Rock Mountain Complex an official part of the Pentagon. That designation places a number of unusual restrictions on the site. According to the Federal Register, one of the more unusual restrictions forbids the taking of pictures or even drawing sketches of the Raven Rock facility:

Furthermore, it shall be unlawful to make any photograph, sketch, picture, drawing, map or graphical representation of the Pentagon Reservation and Raven Rock Mountain Complex without first obtaining the necessary permission.

The facility does appear on Google Earth — but you can't find it with a direct word search.

What is at Raven Rock?

If you happen to be in the area, you can get reasonably close, but don’t expect to be able to enter the complex. Several civilians live in the rural homes surrounding the complex. I would consider that a super-safe zip code.

At least four stadium entrance-like portals dot the outside of the facility, portals that burrow directly into Raven Rock Mountain. Height-wise, Raven Rock is closer to a hill than a mountain, as the summit of Raven Rock is a little over a kilometer high.

Near the top of the mountain lies a high-powered communications array, to carry out the facility's current mission of maintaining lines of communication with all branches of the military.

Once inside the complex, word-of-mouth accounts paint a picture of a small city built inside a cave-like environment. At least 5 three-story buildings are present, with the buildings connected by a series of roads accessible by car.

Due to the nature of the sixty-year-old underground base, far-fetched rumors about the facility abound. One of the less bizarre rumors suggests that there's a tunnel to the nearby Camp David, but there's no evidence to support the tunnel's existence.

Raven Rock garnered its own parody website - whitehouse.gov1.info - which touts souvenir coins, guided tours for visitors, and claims the facility has a fully-stocked Starbucks on the premises.

Raven Rock also plays a role in the video game Fallout 3, a role harkening back to the facility's Cold War roots. In Fallout 3, the Raven Rock Mountain Complex is the home of the Enclave, the last vestige of the United States government.

While rumors abound, the Raven Rock Mountain Complex is a necessary site in the world climate we live in. The fact facility can be found via Google Earth takes away some of its mystique — but the compound remains practically impenetrable, and for good reason.

Top image is of two possible portals into the Raven Rock Mountain Complex, with the satellite image via Google Earth. Second image is a satellite image of a communications array near Raven Rock via Google Earth. Sources linked within.

I just hope that the new Batman show delivers on the promise of more obscure characters, like B&B.

I think it will. I'm sure there will be some resistance to Beware the Batman since it's going to be different - a new interpretation of Anarky, Alfred in an almost side-kick role - but it's going to put a new spin on things. I'm looking forward to it.

Grey delisle hinted at something this summer for Korra.

The sooner Korra comes back, the better.

Beware the Batman looks like it will premiere in July.

This week in the world of cartoons, the Decepticons take a cue from the Galactic Empire and begin cloning armies to fight the Autobots, Finn and Jake give up on their vocal cords, one of the regulars on Regular Show is in health trouble, and we take an advanced look at a new Disney/Marvel release.

TMNT is off until next week, while Ultimate Spider-Man and Gravity Falls continue their unusual hiatus. As always - minor spoilers ahead!

Transformers: Prime – "Project Predacon"

It's time for a new Decepticon baddie! Shockwave clones prehistoric predacons in this episode to create a new weapon for the Decepticon arsenal. The clip gives a great look at ancient Cybertron.

Adventure Time – "Shh!"

Finn and Jake take the day off from talking, communicating only by holding up poster boards - sort of like the video for Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues. This stresses the heck out of BMO, as some bikini babes are on the way today.

Regular Show – "Skips' Stress"

Skips has to do something about his level of anxiety - the goliath is called upon to do everything at the park and is unable to say no to anyone. The above clip includes a really nice depiction of the way anxiety and fear can creep into one's thoughts.

Teen Titans Go! – "Dude Relax"

Robin's a bit high strung, but heck, anyone who spends that much time around Bruce Wayne would be. During an unusually low crime period, the Titans attempt to teach the young ward how to relax.

Cyborg joins in with a shock collar for some operant conditioning and hilarity ensues. Definitely one of the better episodes so far.

Teen Titans Go! – "Laundry Day"

If the Teen Titans lived at my house, this episode would be entitled "Thursday Night". The Titans have just faced off in a grimy battle against a monster made of slime, and no one wants to do the mundane-yet-gross task of cleaning their uniforms.

Robin suggests a series of contests, leading to a nice little montage. There's a great Ghostbusters nugget in the above clip, so check it out.

Big Hero 6

In case you missed this sneak peek as it made the rounds last week, here's quick look at the first Disney/Marvel animated feature-length film! If you're not familiar with Big Hero 6, the team is a late 1990s comic book creation by Steven Seagle and Duncan Rouleau that appeared in Alpha Flight Vol. 2 #17 before getting their own limited series.

Rouleau and Seagle are charter members of Man of Action Studios, the creators of Ben 10/Generator Rex and the minds behind several episodes of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man, and the upcoming Avengers Assemble. That's quite the pedigree.

The sneak preview video doesn't have a lot of action; it is more of a high quality test of concept. The film is slated for a November 2014 release, and if the movie is half as pretty as this clip, Big Hero 6 will be worth every second of the wait.

Top image courtesy of Hasbro and The Hub. Big Hero 6 #1 image courtesy of Marvel Comics. Adventure Time and Regular Show air Monday nights on Cartoon Network. Transformers: Prime airs on The Hub. Teen Titans Go! airs Tuesday nights and Saturdays on Cartoon Network.

This week in the world of cartoons we see the return of a TMNT wannabee, we get a preview of Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H & Avengers Assemble, plus we take a look at an old episode from Star Trek: The Animated Series as we get ready for the release of Into Darkness.

Ultimate Spider-Man & Transformers: Prime are off this week, with Transformers: Prime returning May 17th. As always - minor spoilers ahead!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – "Pulverizer Returns!"

The fake member of the TMNT, the Pulverizer, is back. Shredder is making a battalion of mutants (are Tokka and Rahzar headed to the series?) to attack the turtles, so Leo and the crew call on the Pulverizer to lend a hand. TMNT has moved from Friday nights on Nickelodeon to Saturday mornings, so check your DVR.

Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H & Avengers Assemble Preview

If you took part in free comic book day last Saturday, you might have snagged this Marvel offering, which adapted stories using art from the upcoming series. Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. will debut August 11th, while Avengers Assemble kicks off with a one hour preview on May 26th before the official season begins on July 7th. The pics above and below are taken from the Free Comic Book Day offering.

Agents of S.M.A.S.H. appears particularly exciting in this preview, as the series will feature Skaar, Red Hulk, and She Hulk and scripts by Paul Dini. I'm excited about a Hulk series that features an expanded cast.

Star Trek: The Animated Series – "More Tribbles, More Troubles"

In honor of J.J. Abram's newest installment of the Star Trek franchise arriving next week, let's take a look at one of the more unusual moments in history. Star Trek: The Animated Series aired for two seasons beginning in 1973, the first such revival of the franchise after the cancellation of the live action series in 1969.

Star Trek: TAS brought back the majority of the original cast (Walter Koenig is a looming exception) to do voice work. In this clip, the crew of the Enterprise is taking on an unusual Klingon weapon, a situation made worse when Cyrano Jones beams aboard with a batch of tribbles.

Adventure Time – "James Baxter the Horse"

This is one of those episodes of Adventure Time that shows off how wonderful and weird the series can be. Finn & Jake are enamored with James Baxter - a horse that travels on a bouncing ball as it repeats "James Baxter" as it neighs.

Finn & Jake try to replicate the joy James Baxter brings, but in doing so, the duo disrupts a funeral and does battle with a ghost that shoots milk.

Regular Show – "Carter and Briggs"

Modecai & Rigby are spending a night watching their favorite cop show, Carter and Briggs. When the opportunity to win a spot in an episode of the show arises, the duo enter the "8th Annual Donut Spinathon" to meet their heroes.

Teen Titans Go! – "Double Trouble"

Raven make a duplicate of Cyborg in this episode, as Cyborg is a little sick of hanging out with Beast Boy all the time.

Teen Titans Go! – "The Date"

Speedy asks Starfire on a date, so Robin kidnaps him. Seems fair.

There are some great moments featuring a love-struck Robin in this clip.

Top image courtesy of Nickelodeon. Adventure Time and Regular Show air Monday nights on Cartoon Network. TMNT airs Saturday mornings on Nickelodeon. Teen Titans Go! airs Tuesday nights and Saturdays on Cartoon Network.

In order to pay Germany's staggering World War I reparations, one of the country's greatest scientific minds created a plan to concentrate and remove gold from seawater. Fritz Haber, a Nobel Prize winner, went from creating chemical weapons to panning for gold in the ocean. But could this have worked?

The Shadow of World War I

In wartime, what is the duty of an eminent scientist? Fritz Haber, an expert on electrochemistry and gaseous chemical interactions, felt an intense desire to serve the German cause during World War I. In doing so, Haber left behind a legacy that would overshadow his immense civilian contributions; contributions to science from which humanity continues to reap the rewards.

During World War I, Haber aided in the weaponization of chlorine gas and in the creation of several other weapons of mass destruction.

Haber's wartime contribution extended outside of the laboratory doors — the scientist often journeyed to the battlefield in order to oversee the dispersal of the chemical agents. Chemical weapons became a key component of the German arsenal in the early 20th Century, weapons that could destroy hundreds of entrenched and unprotected enemy soldiers within minutes.

Haber’s first wife, Clara Immerwahr, also held a Ph.D. in Chemistry and aided the German war machine. On the eve of Germany’s first field use of chemical weapons, however, Clara committed suicide out of guilt stemming from Haber's chemical weapons work and their marital difficulties.

Haber’s extensive participation in World War I did not harm his Nobel Prize chances, with a fifty-year-old Haber winning the 1918 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work leading to the synthesis of ammonia via the Haber-Bosch process. Humanity continues to reap the benefits of his ammonia research, as industrial use of the Haber-Bosch process provides for the majority of the world's fertilizer.

Haber did not receive the 1918 Nobel Prize until 1919, shortly after Germany’s defeat in World War I. The acclaimed scientist never faced trial for war crimes,thanks to Britain and France also using chemical weapons widely during the war.

Gold from Seawater?

After World War I, the 1919 Treaty of Versailles required that Germany pay between 50 and 132 billion German gold marks to France, Britain, and Russia. This was a huge blow to a war-torn economy — the upper end of that figure comes close to half a trillion dollars, when adjusted for inflation.

Playing to his nationalistic side, Haber sought a process by which to extract tiny amounts of gold from seawater. Seawater contains a wellspring of elements. Sodium, chloride, magnesium, potassium are present in large amounts, while an element as obscure as uranium is present in trace amounts. Haber believed the gold within the world's oceans could be withdrawn and accumulated, to create a "free" source of money for Germany.

This bizarre scheme appeared financially viable at first. Haber initially estimated that sixty-five miligrams of gold could extracted from a metric ton of seawater.

To extract gold, Haber planned to separate the acquired seawater using massive centrifuges and his expertise in electrochemistry. Concentrating the gold would consume a phenomenal amount of energy, but at the estimated acquisition rate, an energy cost that would leave Germany with a large profit margin.

On Haber's recommendation, Germany initiated a two-year journey to survey the amount of gold in bodies of water across the world in 1925. In time, Haber found an error in his initial calculations, with the actual amount of gold within seawater overestimated by a factor of one-thousand.

And that, in turn, meant the effort would not be worthwhile. The value of the gold garnered by the process would would not cover the cost of the energy necessary for extraction. Dr. Haber took the failure of the gold-from-the-sea effort to heart, believing that he should have caught the error in his initial projections.

In 1933, Haber left Germany under duress, due to his Jewish heritage although he had converted to Lutheranism early in life. He died in 1934 from cardiovascular failure, leaving behind a legacy that merges the deaths of thousands in World War I with his Nobel Prize-winning peacetime work, which laid the foundation for modern agriculture.

Top image via via Covilha/Flickr. Image of Haber is from Nobel Prize.org. Additional image from Uberculture/Flickr. Sources linked within.