We All Know Which Movie Last Night’s Arrow Was Referencing, Right?

On last night’s Arrow, Ollie and Thea have come to Ollie’s old island to train. The title of the episode was “The Return,” but we all know what its title should actually be: The Wrath of Khan. Ollie and Thea barely have time to bond before they are betrayed. They discover that Malcolm Merlyn has…

Help Author Sara Amundson Create a Legion of Bizarre Monsters

Sara Amundson needs monsters. Lots of monsters, and the weirder the better. Her “Make a Monster Project” is a call for monster ideas, which she turns into flash fiction, reads aloud in a video series, and possibly includes in her Dreamer urban fantasy novels. Amundson is an unpublished writer, currently looking for a publisher or…

Oliver Sacks On Learning He Has Terminal Cancer

Neurologist and science popularizer Oliver Sacks — author of such books as Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat — has written a poignant and touching op-ed in the The New York Times to reflect on the recent news that he’s dying of cancer. Sacks, who is now 81, learned a…

What’s Your First Memory Of Using A Computer?

Whether you learned your letters off of a laptop’s keyboard or the changing times forced one on you later in life, we want to know about the first time you used a computer. Ever. Tell us in the comments about the first time you remember using a computer, what you were trying to do, and…

Deadpool Casts Morena Baccarin As Its Romantic Lead. Wait, What?

Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool movie is going to have romance in it? That’s… that seems kind of weird, doesn’t it? No offense to Morena Baccarin — if she can pretend to be in love with the cardboard cut-out that is Jim Gordon on Gotham, she should have no problem feigning affection for a hideously scarred, completely…

The Latest Ghostbusters Casting Rumor Gives Away A Huge Twist

Find out how Neill Blomkamp’s Alien movie connects to Prometheus 2. Terminator Genisys script reviews give some major hints. Meanwhile Hellboy’s Doug Jones joins Arrow. Plus, details on the next Pirates of the Caribbean film. Spoilers Now! Top image: Ghostbusters. Ghostbusters Rumors are circling Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot — Film Divider is claiming that Saturday…

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…

We’re watching you! Scary graffiti from Buenos Aires, photographed by Gustavo Carbonaro/ Flickr

If You Love Computers, This Novel Should Be on Your Must-Read List

Liu Cixin’s science fiction novel The Three Body Problem was a smash hit bestseller in China, and has finally been translated into English by Ken Liu. It’s a mind-bending tale of politics, aliens and gaming — and it also contains the most awe-inspiring description of computers I’ve ever read. What’s immediately fascinating about The Three…

Kelly Link’s New Book Is The Funniest And Darkest She’s Ever Been

It’s been an eternity since we had a book of Kelly Link stories for adults. And Get in Trouble is somewhat different than I was expecting. Less dreamlike and strange than I remember her work being, more snarky and comedic, with lots of pop culture humor. But it’s also some of her darkest, most indelible…

J.J. Abrams Is Making A Thomas Edison Movie, But What About Tesla? 

J.J. Abrams’ production company Bad Robot is secretly working away on a Thomas Edison biopic. But will it show him electrocuting an elephant? TheWrap is reporting that Paramount and Bad Robot are teaming up yet again to make a Thomas Edison film that will “depict the legendary inventor as a rugged eccentric genius.” Honestly, the…

Holy Xenomorphs! Neill Blomkamp WILL Be Making His Alien Movie After All

From the moment that District 9 and Chappie director Neill Blomkamp released his concept art for a possible Alien movie, we’ve been salivating over the possibility of a Blomkamp-directed Alien film. But after saying that he wasn’t “ready” to make it, Blomkamp has apparently confirmed it’s his next project. https://gizmodo.com/neill-blomkamps-secret-alien-movie-looks-so-good-were-f-1677082116 Well, Blomkamp says it all…

How Did Dinosaurs Become Birds?

Most paleontologists agree that birds are living dinosaurs, the distant evolutionary descendants of animals like Tyrannosaurus rex. Less clear, however, is how dinosaurs evolved into the birds we know today. https://gizmodo.com/more-proof-that-dinosaurs-live-among-us-1537054467 https://gizmodo.com/real-life-dinosaurs-are-way-scarier-than-the-movies-1608044920 Above: The claw of a Harpy Eagle, a modern day dinosaur. Audubon is currently running a feature by Michael Balter about the enigmatic…

The Greatest Comic Book Characters Who Didn’t Originate In Comics

The path of comic book characters making their way onto the big and small screens is a well trod one. But what about the reverse, of characters who started out on-screen and then made their way into the comics? Here are the best comic book characters who got their start somewhere else. In response to…

An artificial molecule built according to our understanding of HIV infection may protect cells more effectively than the body’s natural antibodies. A study published in this week’s issue ofNature found the molecule kept four monkeys injected with large doses of the virus free of HIV infection.

Cookie Monster’s Shower Thoughts About Food Are Just Plain Hilarious

What does Cookie Monster think about when his mind is left to wander? Well, mostly, he thinks about food, and it’s pretty hysterical watching the cookie-fiending Muppet wander through the Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art offering his profound culinary thoughts. Mashable‘s Annie Colbert and Armand Valdes created this video…