Katharine Trendacosta

The History Channel and Jeremy Renner Are Working On Templar TV Show 

Because of course they are. We’re only a few years away from losing nonfiction television shows entirely. The History Channel took its first tentative steps into this area with Vikings, and this new show, Knightfall, will be its second scripted show. The show comes from Jeremy Renner and Don Handfield’s production company The Combine and…

io9 March Madness Sweet 16: Game of Thrones vs. Firefly!

io9’s March Madness continues apace, and we’re kicking this week off with the sweet sixteen. Well, technically the there are only fifteen — Star Trek’s managed to hang in on both the TV and Movie side of this bracket. But is there any chance of a Star Trek vs. Star Trek final? Only one way…

Timing your meals can have all sorts of effects — good and bad. NPR talked to scientists about how eating late at night can be detrimental and eating early in the morning can be healthy.

This Twin Peaks-Themed Burlesque Performance Was Downright Amazing

Here’s a bit of advice, from me to you: If a friend asks if you want to go to a Twin Peaks-themed burlesque show, go. No matter what other plans you may have for that night. It will be totally worth it. Mildly NSFW photos — as in pastied-and-g-string-nudity— below. All photos by Honey Beavers…

A Meteor Was Mistaken For a Sinking Ship In North West England

We often hear of people mistaking the mundane for the unusual. It’s a little rarer to hear it happen the other way around. And even rarer to hear about it happening in modern times. And yet, a full-on search and rescue operation had to be called off when an SOS signal turned out to be…

A Haunted Wood Disturbs a Jogger In This Short

Line Signal, by John Panton and Meat Bingo, is under ten minutes long, but is wonderfully set up and paid off. Beautifully shot, and strangely complex, it really rewards re-watching. Piecing it all together — if its meant to be — is a rewarding exercise. It’s thoroughly disturbing, even if I wasn’t looking for extra…

io9 March Madness Round 2: Harry Potter Vs. Star Wars! Hobbit Vs. Alien!

It’s Movies vs. TV in this edition of io9 March Madness, and after two days of voting, we’re down to the 32 competitors. Now it’s time to get down to 16. Will the favorites continue to dominate? Top image and bracket: Jim Cooke Wednesday brought some pretty big surprises. The DC Animated Universe took out…

io9’s March Madness: Star Wars Vs. Dune! Firefly Vs. Xena!

In this year’s io9 March Madness, we’re pitting movies against TV shows, in a fight for total media supremacy. On Monday, we started off looking at TV shows set in the here and now and movies that tell more serialized stories. Now, the remaining regionals take the stage. Top image and bracket by Jim Cooke…

Wondering about the different shapes of icicles? Visit the Icicle Atlas. Created by Dr. Stephen Morris and including the work of Antony Chen, the Icicle Atlas contains academic studies,”images, time-lapse movies and time-series data on 237 distinct laboratory-grown icicles.” [via theNew York Times]

How Many Rings Do You See In This Image of Saturn?

We all know that Saturn is the planet with the rings, but how many did you think there were? In this photo, by the Cassini spacecraft on January 8, 2015, you can spend a good couple of hours trying to count them. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute From NASA, an explanation of where structures inside…

Here’s the Birdman/Harvey Birdman Crossover We’ve Been Wanting

For some of us, it was hard to ignore the fact that Academy Award-winner Birdman immediately conjured images of a different masked character than the one who spoke to Michael Keaton’s Riggan Thomson. Well, When No One Gets Your Cosplay (or the unexpected virtue of ignorance) has arrived to put both characters together. Warning: Some…

Emma Thompson and Kevin Kline Join the Live-Action Beauty and the Beast

Disney’s upcoming live-action version of Beauty and the Beast — following the super-fun live-action Cinderella and the upcoming Jungle Book— is pretty much nailing its casting. It’s doing so well, I’m actually getting anxious that expectations are too high. The latest in perfect casting? Emma Thompson and Kevin Kline. Joining Emma Watson as Belle, Dan…

io9’s March Madness: Movies Vs. TV!

It’s that time again: io9’s March Madness. In past years, we’ve crowned the best movie, the worst movie, the best TV show, and a winner in an epic science fiction versus fantasy showdown. This year, we’re figuring out which medium has produced the best work: film or television. Top image and bracket by Jim Cooke…

California Is In the Middle of a Sea Lion Crisis

In January and February of 2015, over 1,450 sea lions have appeared on the beaches of California in need of rescue. The reason? Experts believe that their food is being driven away from the islands where sea lions breed, forcing immature sea lions to enter the sea in a search for food. And ending up…

A Suprisingly Clear Photo of an Explosion’s Shock Wave

Defence Research and Development Canada’s (DRDC) experimental proving ground is a piece of land over 470 square kilometers — and its isolated, clear, and moderate weather makes the location perfect for scientists and researchers to do defense work. Like this explosion. Image credit: Defence Research and Development Canada This particular photo is of an explosives…

This Jigsaw Puzzle Made of 1,000 Colors Is Easier Than You Think

A thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle which isn’t an image, just the color spectrum, sounds like it could be a giant pain. And yet, its designer, Clemens Habicht, swears it’s easier than a traditional puzzle. The puzzle is 1,000 pieces and exactly 1,000 colors — arranged on the cyan, magenta, yellow, key (CMYK) spectrum. Habicht says of…

A Man Wanting Solitude And a Creature Wanting Company Find Each Other

In this animated short by Gavin C Robinson, we see the plights of a man in a busy city and creature in fairly empty forest trying to get what the other has. It takes a thermos full of tea for the two to fix their problems. Even though they get what they want, I still…

See iZombie‘s Opening Credits, Done By the Original Comic Artist

In advance of iZombie’s premiere next week, Comic Book.com has the opening credits, which provide a motion comic-style synopsis of the characters and the main plot. The art comes from Michael Allred, the artist on the original iZombie comic. It’s always nice when comic book adaptations pay credit to their source material in some way.…

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Defends NASA’s Mission. All of It.

On Thursday, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden testified in front of the Senate Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness, chaired by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Pushed hard by Cruz on the core mission of NASA, Bolden delivered an eloquent defense of everything NASA does. In the hearing (which, if you so inclined, you can watchhere), Cruz…

Here’s a Real Photo Of the Mars Location of Andy Weir’s The Martian

In The Martian, the stranded astronaut protagonist spends a lot of the story stuck in a site located in the southern Acidalia Planitia. This is an actual image of that area on Mars, based on the map in the book. Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona The book follows Mark Watney, stranded on Mars when the…