​The Tragic Demise of Science Fiction’s Greatest Idea

The matter transmitter is one of science fiction’s greatest inventions. It’s been in hundreds of SF stories, perhaps most famously in Star Trek as the transporter. And yet writers keep trying to turn this incredibly useful, flexible idea into nothing more than a fancy system of transit. Which is all wrong. The first attempts on…

Hitchcock Gold Box, Guardians of the Galaxy, Persona Q, and More Deals

It’s Hitchcock day on Amazon. You might get… wait for it… vertigo from these low prices. Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection (Limited Edition) ($99) | Amazon Alfred Hitchcock Presents: S1-5 [DVD] ($) | Amazon Watching Guardians Of The Galaxy is like getting back part of your soul, so you’ll probably want to watch it again.…

Painkiller Jane Movie Will Be Rated R And “Batshit Crazy”

Horror directors and sister movie-making team Jen and Sylvia Soska are currently busy at work adapting the violent, ass-kicking, foulmouthed Painkiller Jane series into a movie. And they promise it’s not going to be your run-of-the-mill Marvel movie. In an interview with Crave Online, the Soska Sisters (American Mary) discussed their plans for Painkiller Jane…

Artist Paints Nic Cage As Various Pokémon—It’s As Weird As You’d Expect

Really, with the wide variety of roles Nicolas Cage has had over the years, who is to say he wouldn’t play a Bulbasaur? Artist Jess Bellamy has been painting Cage’s mug on Pokémon bodies and selling the results at her Etsy shop. In some cases, the Pokémon/Cage mashup works oddly well; I fear I may…

The World’s Most Famous — And Ambiguous — Illusion

The above figure, called the Boring Figure, is the most famous of the “ambiguous illusions,” which can be seen as two different figures, depending on how one looks at them. We’ll tell you how ambiguous illusions work, and show you how the figure evolved. The Boring Figure got its name from Edwin Boring, who wrote…

The Future of TV Is Great If You Hate Sports

Thanks to the new promise of HBO without a cable subscription, we’re getting very close to the cord-cutting future of TV we’ve hoped for. It’s not hard to imagine that soon you can pay for only the content you want and none of what you don’t. It’ll be pretty great, as long as you hate…

Happy 10th Birthday, Missile Defense! Too Bad You Still Don’t Work.

Members of Congress and conservative lobbyists have been celebrating a very special birthday: President George W. Bush’s official activation of the U.S. ballistic missile defense system. But the sad truth is that they’re celebrating 10 years of self-delusion. The project is broken, despite the $40 billion spent on it. Missile defense advocates chose to swallow…

What Does MDMA Do To Your Brain?

In the latest episode of AsapSCIENCE, Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown look at the neuroscience of 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methyl amphetamine (better known as MDMA) and its oft-adulterated surrogate, ecstasy. Good on Moffit and Brown for calling attention to MDMA’s potentially therapeutic effects. Like marijuana and psilocybin (the latter being the hallucinogenic compound found in magic mushrooms), MDMA…

How WWI Shaped Air Combat — And Still Influences Modern Missions

Planes first appeared over a century ago, but they’ve changed considerably since then. What hasn’t changed, however, is their role in controlling the air, striking, reconnaissance, and mobility — the roots of which go back back to the first World War. Top image: Time to change the world: Thirtyfootscrew, CC BY-NC-SA. Since the end of…

“Drunk” Baymax Is The Cutest Thing In These Big Hero 6 Clips

The more we see of Disney’s Big Hero 6 movie, the more we’re reduced into screaming toddlers that want it now! It’s so cute, so precious, so sweet and Baymax is just the best. Here’s a collection of new clips that show a new side to Baymax and a few of the other heroes. Adorable,…

What Fictional Food Would You Most Like To Try?

Fictional characters undertake some truly heroic tasks — they fight evil, solve mysteries, go on incredible journeys — and the food they eat while doing so is often just as ambitious. Today we want to know about the fictional foods you’re dying to taste-test. Maybe you want to try a fictional food with a mix…

​Gundam Is Coming To America. All Of It.

Bandai Japan is partnering with anime distributor Right Stuf to bring out the entire mecha anime franchise, including Turn A, Gundam ZZ, The Origin and a few other versions that never made it to America before. The original 1979 Gundam series and Turn A will lead the charge with a spring 2015 release. [Via The…

This Gigantic Ancient Kangaroo Didn’t Hop — It Actually Walked

For millions of years there lived a rather large species of kangaroo in Australia called sthenurines. Weighing in at 550 pounds and featuring a 6’6″ frame, these Pleistocene creatures must have been an awesome site — an animal made all the more remarkable by virtue of the fact that they walked around on their feet…

Will Bill Murray Cameo In Ghostbusters? And Who’s Directing Avengers 4?

The list of actors up for Doctor Strange keeps growing. Channing Tatum has an update on the Gambit movie. Who is The Walking Dead’s new character? Is HBO committed to making a Westworld TV show? Plus updates on Arrow, Agents of SHIELD and The Flash. Spoilers now! Top image: Arrow Avengers 3 and 4 Now…

A small group of elite science journals get the lion’s share of citations and media attention, but that dominance is eroding as it becomes easier for scientists to find obscure but relevant papers. In 1995, only 27% of citations pointed to articles published in non-elite journals. That portion grew to 47% by 2013.

Watch the Brushstrokes of Classical Landscapes Invade the Real World

In “Regular Division” shots of gardens inside greenhouses and domes all over the world mosaiced together. That would be trippy enough, but overlaying each shot is a magnified, high resolution paint stroke from a landscape. It gives the short film, which already whirls around in a dizzying circle, an extra surreal edge. Christopher Jobson at…

Even Deadpool’s Not Sure How He Ended Up as a G.I. Joe Figure

That’s the thing about Deadpool: he warps the reality of every medium he’s translated to. And, in this print from Marco D’Alfonso, neither the Joes nor Deadpool has quite figured out how this crossover makes sense. https://gizmodo.com/even-as-a-figure-deadpool-manages-to-break-the-fourth-1638993701 The details on this are really what makes it great — just look at the choking hazard warning…

Syfy’s Re-Teaming with Stargate Writers to Bring Dark Matter to TV

Syfy’s going to adapt Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie’s graphic novel Dark Matter into a series. The pair, who worked with the network back in the Stargate days, will be back to executive produce the show. Coming in 2015, the 13-episode first season will be co-produced with Prodigy Pictures (Lost Girl, XIII). The story follows…

Katniss Visits Home in the New Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt. 1 Trailer

With The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 coming out November 21, Lionsgate’s released this little preview of Katniss returning to District 12. There, she also gets a little message from President Snow. The whole preview’s set to Lorde’s “Yellow Flicker Beat,” which comes from the movie’s soundtrack. Lorde’s “curating” the entire album for the film,…

In This Film’s Topsy-Turvy World, The Gay Majority Persecutes Straights

Two years ago, Kim Rocco Shields’ short film “Love Is All You Need?” made a splash with its unusual premise. In an alternate world, almost everybody is gay or lesbian — and the tiny minority of straight people are discriminated against. And now, it’s becoming a full-length movie. The 20-minute version of “All You Need”…