Andrew Liptak

A Samurai Watches Everything Change In Thundercat’s Video For Them Changes

Thundercat’s delightful video for Them Changes has been playing here all day in the background. The direction from Carlos Lopez Estrada is fantastic, and the music isn’t bad either.

It’s long been noted that NASA does a lot of work for a small amount of money, but with budget uncertainties and the potential for shutdowns, there’s real scientific losses. Writing for the New York Times, David Brown highlights how the planets don’t wait for Congress.

Watch These Book Jackets Come To Life As Gifs

Chilean artist Javier Jensen has taken some of his favorite books and put a bit of movement to them, animating their covers. Speaking to The Guardian newspaper, Jensen noted: “I wanted to go back to the books that made us live, dream and believe in different things and reflect what I always imagined when I…

The Dozens Of Famous Characters In This Video Make One Hell Of A Party

I really appreciate a good mashup. Hell’s Club puts together dozens of famous characters into one club, and it’s spectacular. The editing here is excellent, jumping from character to character, often with the same actors looking themselves in the eyes. Al Pacino, Tom Cruise, Ewen McGregor, and many, many more from a whole range of…

Listen To The Solar System Sing With This Fantastic Simulation

This is a seriously cool visualization of the solar system. What if you turned the planets into a sort of music box? That’s the point of Solarbeat, which turns the movement of the planets into music. Solarbeat actually launched five years ago in 2010, but the designer Luke Twyman decided to revamp the website recently…

Bat Blood Ignores Everything That Made Bad Blood Great

The folks behind How It Should Have Ended have gone and parodied Taylor Swift’s crazy music video Bad Blood, dumping in just about every reference that you can think of and ignore what made the original great. This sort of proves the point that I think that Bad Blood was trying to point out (as…

The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet Is This Year’s Most Delightful Space Opera

There’s no two ways around it: Becky Chamber’s debut novel, The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet is probably the most fun that you’ll have with a space opera novel this year. It’s exciting, adventurous, and the cozy sort of space opera that seems to be in short supply lately. The Long Way To…

Watch How Builders Made That Fantastic Armor From Lawbreakers 

In the release trailer for an upcoming game called Lawbreakers, you’ll spot a trio of armored soldiers riding down an elevator. It’s a cool shot, but what’s even cooler is that that armor actually exists. The guys behind Tested were hired to build the armor used in the shot, which blends a bit of CGI…

Could Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother Become The Next Hunger Games? 

Hollywood’s appetite for YA dystopian thrillers isn’t dying down anytime soon. According to Deadline, Paramount Pictures has picked up Cory Doctorow’s novel Little Brother for a potential franchise. The novel, released in 2008, follows 17-year-old Markus (also known as w1n5t0n), he he and his friends are caught in the aftermath of a terrorist attack in…

We Really Wish This Sci-Fi Air Show Existed In This Reality

Airshows are always really awesome to visit, but what if you could walk up to your favorite science fiction spacecraft? That’s the aim of the Sci-Fi Air Show, a digital project that puts fictional spacecraft on display. Sadly, these aren’t actually real-world props on display for one weekend a year: they’re miniatures mashed up with…

The Guardian Is Your Thought Provoking Animated Video For This Weekend

This short film threw me through a loop with its minimalist and surrealist animation. The Guardian, directed by Alessandro Novelli, is a really well executed short, and it’s well worth watching several times. The Guardian is a free interpretation of the parable “Before the Law” from Kafka’s book “The Trial”. A peasant after traveling the…

Princeton Will Host A Symposium On Speculative Arts and Social Justice

Princeton University will be hosting a symposium on how speculative fictions can examine some of society’s most prevalant social problems in order to put help build a better world. Black To The Future is a one day event takes place on September 14th and it features an impressive lineup of authors, artists and academics. Here’s…

So You Want To Join The Empire: Arm Up, Part II

After last week’s misadventure with a couple of components, it’s time to get back on track with finishing out the arms for the Stormtrooper. This week, we’re finishing up the arms. To recap, here’s the 501st Legion’s Costume Reference Library entry for the upper arms: Upper Arm Armor For 501st approval: Armor is fully closed.…

Open Channel: What Cancelled Show Should Come Back For A Limited Season? 

A bunch of shows are coming back from the dead: The X-Files and Twin Peaks to name two. It’s gotten me thinking: what cancelled show did I want to see come back for a revitalization? For me, it’s Bryan Fuller’s Pushing Daisies. Maybe once he’s done with American Gods. So, what show do you want…

Explore The Galaxy Far, Far Away With This Interactive Map

The Star Wars universe is loaded with hundreds of planets. Now, design agency nlcud has put together an interactive map that’ll allow you to explore the galaxy, planet by planet. This is a neat feature – it allows you to jump from planet to planet, and details the size, year, climate, terrain, population and length…

Science Fiction fandom has the Hugo Award, but there’s a lot of other awards beyond that, covering a wide range of virtues and mediums. Over on his blog, George R.R. Martin traces the evolution of science fiction’s awards.

Mark Watney Lists All The Ways Mars Can Kill Him A New Martian Teaser

A new teaser for The Martian has hit the web, and in it, Matt Damon’s Mark Watney lists off all the ways that the Red Planet can kill him: suffocation, implosion, starvation, etc. The Martian hits theaters on October 2nd.

Stephen King Awarded National Medal Of Arts

The White House has announced that author Stephen King will be one of ten recipients of this year’s National Medal of Arts. President Obama will present the award to this year’s recipients during a ceremony in the East Room on September 10th. King was cited for his prolific work as an author: Stephen King for…

In No-A, A Robot Risks Everything For Its Creator

No-A is a short student film directed by Liam Murphy. In it, a hulking robot risks everything to save its creator from an army of faceless soldiers. It’s a really neat CGI film with some really outstanding designs in it. Overall, this feels like a bit of a sliver from a much larger story, and…

The Mythbusters Play With Lasers In Their Latest Star Wars Episode

On tonight’s episode of Mythbusters, Adam and Jamie return to Star Wars for some inspirations. Among the things they figure out? Just how fast a blaster shot moves, and how people can dodge out of the way. In the clip below, Adam explains how they came to find out just how fast blaster bolts travel.…