Katharine Trendacosta

James Gunn’s Poetic Defense of Superhero Movies

James Gunn took to his Facebook page to respond to a number of disses superhero movies took during the awards season. He was mostly very unconcerned with it all, but he did end with the admonition that their characters were every bit as loved as those from “serious” films.

A forgotten fossil from the Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery has just now been shown to be a wholly new species of ichthyosaur. The fossil, brought to the museum in the 80s, was thought by the museum to be a plaster cast, until 25-year-old paleontologist Dean Lomax realized it was real in 2008. It’s been…

This Time-Lapse Proves That Cats Are Solar-Powered

I think we all knew this, but watching it in time lapse form is pretty astonishing. Watch as a strip of sunlight moves across the floor during a day, and packs of cats move with it. It happens so slowly in real life, that at the end of the day, I can tell my cats…

Lighting Can Completely Change How You See a Face

This tweet shows just how important lighting really is: as the light changes, this face completely changes. It’s disorienting and is why film and theater are so dependent on professionals to work with lights. It’s almost as disorienting as the hollow face illusion, only instead of the mask rotating and your brain turning a concave…

Birdman Inspired Hugh Jackman to Play Wolverine “Until I Die”

If we see a dozen more movies with Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, we’ll have this year’s best picture, Birdman, to thank. In an interview with Cigar Aficionado, Jackman spoke from the perspective of watching Birdman as an actual actor with an iconic superhero role. And the movie may have struck much closer to home for…

Academy Award Winners Round-Up: Birdman, Birdman, Birdman!

After hours and hours of songs, heartfelt speeches, and Neil Patrick Harris doing a magic trick about Oscar predictions, we are officially done with the 2015 Oscars. And congratulations to Birdman, a movie we thoroughly loved, for its Best Picture win. The winners are bolded below. Best Picture American Sniper Birdman Boyhood The Grand Budapest…

Watch The Oscars’ “Everything Is Awesome,” With Will Arnett As Batman

If you missed the epic performance of “Everything Is Awesome” by Tegan and Sara and the Lonely Island, then you also missed Will Arnett, who voices LEGO Batman, making an appearance as the very dour Batman. “Darkness. No parents,” indeed. In another bit of nerdy coolness, according to Chris Miller Arnett’s Batsuit was the Val…

In order to make use of fields that can’t be legally built on, airports are turning to beehives. European airports use the bee products to monitor pollutant levels, with Malmo airport’s data consistently showing levels of heavy metals, volatile organic hydrocarbons and polyaromatic hydrocarbons well below European Union limits. [NY Times]

Door That Opens On a Surprise Ball Pit Is The Cure For All Ills

It’s almost the weekend, and I can think of nothing that would improve the week more than a surprise ball pit. I want one in my neighborhood right now. Blake Grigsby set up this door in Chicago Union Station’s Great Hall and filled the freestanding closet with 2,000 balls. The reactions he got are priceless.…

Backpacks And Purses For When You Long to Look Like a Cartoon

These insane optical illusion bags are the work of Jump From Paper, and they are perfect for the days when you’re feeling just a tad 2-dimensional. Even though they’re a little too pricey to be for just a Halloween costume. More below. [Ignant via My Modern Met]

Here’s the First Photo Of Jason Momoa As Aquaman

Zack Snyder released the first image of Aquaman via Twitter, and, well. We wouldn’t mess with him. Seriously, though, hair aside, he looks pretty much exactly what you’d expect the Aquaman in the Batman v. Superman world.

Get Ready For the Next Big Animated Film: Untitled Kung Fu Space Western

There is nothing about this project that doesn’t reek of awesomeness. Deadline recently broke the news that Reel FX Animation Studios has signed a long-term deal with writer/director Jorge R. Gutierrez — whom they worked with for The Book of Life — and the next film on their docket is an untitled kung fu space…

Behind The Scenes Video Reveals Amazing Spider-Man 2‘s Fake Times Square

Sony Pictures’ Imageworks released a video showing just how much work went into sending Spidey web-swinging and web-slinging through New York City in Amazing Spider-Man 2. My god, look how much work it is to recreate Times Square, a place that is very close to being hell on earth as it is.

How much does good art owe to the artist’s inspirations? Alex McCown at the AV Club has written “In praise of artistic theft,” arguing that artistic appropriation is vital to the forward movement of music, literature, painting, etc. It’s hard to be truly original, but you can make something your own or improve upon it.

Animated Life‘s Paper Puppets Show How the Arctic Inspired Pangea

The latest installment of Animated Life, a series of animations by Flora Lichtman and Sharon Shattuck chronicling major scientific discoveries from inspiration to acceptance, is about Alfred Wegener and his then-controversial ideas about Pangea and continental drift. In this paper-puppet documentary short, Lichtman and Shattuck shine a light on three themes of discovery. First, that…

What Makes the Sun Look Like a Flowering Thistle?

When you are looking at a specific kind of red light emitted by hydrogen. This color-inverted photo was taken in October of last year by the Big Bear Solar Observatory’s 1.6 meter New Solar Telescope. They say it looks like a rose, but I definitely see a thistle. Image: Big Bear Solar Observatory/NJIT The photo…

How a Satellite Is Transforming Earthquake Monitoring

The European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1A was launched just last year, and it’s already proving its importance as the first satellite actually optimized to target areas of seismic activity. The proof is in the pudding. In this case, the pudding was the August 2014 San Francisco area earthquake. Image credit: Napa Post Office Following the August…

Hellboy Turns 21 With a Beer. Because What Else?

Hellboy beer! Just in time for the comic to legally drink it, we have been given the gift of Hellboy beer. Which is, of course, a red ale. Drink it until it really does feel like you’ve been hit with the right hand of doom. For the 21st anniversary of Hellboy, Dark Horse has partnered…

The Long, Complicated, and Secret History of Harley Quinn

If you somehow don’t know who Harley Quinn is, Vulture has done a very long and detailed history on her. Even if you do know who she is, this will have new information on the best-selling female character in comics. And then there’s the question of how she got so popular, so fast From inspiration,…

Deleted Scenes from Mockingjay Part 1 Tell Us All About Peeta

Mostly. The one above has Peeta and President Snow, with Donald Sutherland at his genteel dangerous best. The one below has Katniss and Haymitch talking about Peeta. The last one is the only non-Peeta related one, but it’s probably the one that I miss from the film the most. It’s a funny and sweet little…