Why Marvel’s Civil War Movie Shouldn’t Be Anything Like The Comic

Greetings, my lascivious envelope-lickers! Uh, that sounded dirtier than I intended. Sorry. In today’s mailbag, I have the answers you seek — as long as you’re wondering where the hell Disney’s cartoons are hiding and whether Thor’s hammer has accidentally killed somebody. Three, two, one, let’s jam! Civil, Right Mad scientist13: Mr. Postman: I am…

C.J. Cherryh Explains The Key To Creating Terrific Female Characters

How do you go about creating female characters that have the same charisma and depth as the male ones? People debate this endlessly, and come up with complicated arguments about one aspect or another. But Downbelow Station author C.J. Cherryh has a refreshingly simple answer to this question. Writer and regular io9 contributor Andrew Liptak…

Oklahoma’s Myths Come Out To Play In This Delightful Webcomic Dramedy

The weirdest thing about Oscar’s life used to be his name. (It’s Oscar Wilde.) Then he moved to Podunk, Oklahoma, a quiet town that turned out to be…not so quiet. Now he has to deal with ghosts, witches, and werewolves, and that’s before the local mythological creatures start crawling out of the woodwork. Pascalle Lepas’…

Watch a Dad’s Special Effects Turn Playtime Into Crazy Action Scenes

The world’s best Dad-who-is-also-pretty-good-with-Adobe-AfterEffects is back with a brand new batch of cutscenes to turn his lucky kid into the most adorable action hero this side of baby Groot. Between blasting UFOs out of the window of a car to starring in a Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robot’s scene that is at least 50 times…

How To Write Perfect Sentences No One Understands

I didn’t mean to kill him. I didn’t mean to kill him. I didn’t mean to kill him. I didn’t mean to kill him. I didn’t mean to kill him. Which one of these did I mean? This is a fallacy that goes all the way back to Aristotle. He came from a culture interested…

What’s The Best Way A Mind-Blowing Scientific Fact Was Explained To You?

Whether it’s the mind-boggling scale of the universe, the complex lives of cells, or the weird mechanisms of physics, science is filled with plenty of concepts to stretch the boundaries of our minds. Today we want to know the best way someone has ever explained one of those facts, that instantly made you get it.…

Obama’s 2015 State Of The Union Address Peaked At A Grade 10 Level

Last night’s State of the Union address by President Barack Obama was tailored around a tenth-grade comprehension level, which is actually higher than his previous speeches. The speech analysis was conducted by Vocativ who used the Flesch-Kincaid readability test, a widely recognized reading comprehension algorithm. Using this test, large swaths of text can be assigned…

Just How Insane A Body Count Does The Joker Rack Up In Suicide Squad?

Get an insider’s look at the big fight in Batman v. Superman. And a possible glimpse of Max von Sydow’s Star Wars character. One star is eager to return in Amazing Spider-Man 3. Plus fresh looks at Mad Max: Fury Road, Jupiter Ascending, and Pan. Spoilers now! Top image: The Walking Dead Suicide Squad On…

You Only Have 24 Hours To Read This Self-Destructing Book

If you thought blockbuster movies were the only form of entertainment that relied on over-the-top publicity stunts, you were wrong: It’s alive and well in the book world as well. James Patterson’s new thriller, Private Vegas, will not only be made available as 1,000 free digital copies that will self-delete after 24 hours. There will…

Your next urban fantasy TV or movie obsession? The other day, we reviewedDaniel Jose Older’s fun, inventive Half-Resurrection Blues. Now, the book’s been optioned for TV or movies by Tony Award-winning actor Anika Noni Rose (who also costars in The Good Wife).

Even our underwater forests are dying off. Kelp forests have been undergoing huge losses in the last 75 years. So what’s causing the disappearance? NASA’s Earth Observatory identifies three of the biggest problemsas warmer oceans, more intense storms, and invasive species moving into the area.

“TL;DR Jurassic Park” Is Three Minutes of Pure Geeky Plot Dissection

Max Knoblauch and Bob Al-Greene devote about three minutes — that’s one per film — to summarizing/questioning the plots of the three Jurassic Park movies. Also, they spend some time proving their dinosaur knowledge. And they are correct that the baby T-Rex is the most memorable part of The Lost World. [via Tastefully Offensive]

The Walking Dead Spinoff Is a Prequel Where the Threat of Zombies Looms

Bleeding Cool has a copy of what looks like a September 2014 version of the pilot script for the Walking Dead spinoff, and it’s full of people refusing to believe that the end we all know is coming is actually coming. Take a look at the brand new trailer for the flagship show’s February return…

The Solar Dynamics Observatory Has Captured 100 Million Sun Images

On January 19th, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) released its 100 millionth image of the sun. This image is a processed multiwavelength blend made from the images taken on the 19th to honor the milestone. Credit: NASA/Goddard/SDO You can see more of the SDO’s images — which takes eight images of the sun every twelve…

Star Wars Could Be Genius, Might Cast Tatiana Maslany Or Rooney Mara

Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany is testing for the female lead in the Gareth Edwards Star Wars spinoff. Come on, Lucasfilm, this one’s easy. Joining her is Rooney Mara and a few others. It’s kind of unclear in the original report if they’re all testing for the same role,…

The Originals Wields Irony Like A F–ing Straight Razor

To most people, The Originals is a wacky spinoff of the “vampire love triangle” show The Vampire Diaries — in which the ancient vamps from TVD go to New Orleans, have a magic baby, and get caught up in endless power struggles. But to devotees, The Originals is a reliable supplier of hilariously bitter irony.…

This Snail Makes A Venom So Toxic, It Disables Fish Swimming Near It

Cone snails are known for their venom. Upwards of fifteen people have died of it. One snail, Conus geographus, doesn’t even have to sting to kill its prey. And scientists have found out why. To fill someone with poison you’d need a claw, a fang, or stinger, right? Not if you’re Conus geographus, the geography…

Only The Greatest Airship Pilots Could Reach The Forest Sanctuary

It took a great deal of skill to navigate through the trees, and a woodsman’s memory of the forest to remember the exact location of the sanctuary. But any who found their way to the dock could expect comfort, food, and wisdom that couldn’t be obtained anywhere on the ground. “Arrival at Svetoslav Sanctuary” is…

NBC Might Make A Live TV Presentation of The Wiz, We Have Thoughts

After Peter Pan Live! and The Sound of Music Live, NBC is moving onward and upward, picking up the rights to The Wiz. This is a much more complicated musical than Peter Pan, so NBC, if you’re going to do it, do it right. Cast Janelle Monáe. We totally agree with Slate’s earlier suggestion that…

The Greatest Inventions That Everybody Forgets Exist

Quick, what are the most important technologies in the world right now? If your first thought was something like the computer or cellphone, we get it. But the fact is that a lot of the most important inventions, the ones that underpin our lives, are largely invisible. Here are some of the most life-changing ones.…