Remarkable 17th Century Maps Of The Earth’s Interior

Born in 1601, Athanasius Kircher has been hailed as the “last Renaissance Man” owing to his scholarly works in fields as diverse as biology, geology, medicine and technology. Among his most remarkable books was Mundus Subterraneus, a study of the Earth’s interior that might have inspired Jules Verne. Kircher wrote his 1664 opus some three…

A Stellar Webcomic About A Fantasy Princess Transported To Our World

The French cartoonist Boulet routinely releases brilliant, genre-busting stories, like the magical realist roommate story Darkness or the time paradox romance Paola-4. In his latest short comic story, a princess enters our world thanks to a wizard—and finds her relationship to her rescuer prince vastly changed. Now, you may think at first that you’ve heard…

A Japanese city has its own, Police-approved Batman

A few weeks ago, Japanese media blew up with twitter images of a man, completely clad in a Batman costume, riding a kitted out trike on the streets of Chiba. It turns out the city has a new popular hero, one that even the local police force are fans of: Chibatman. Header Image Credit: Doorblog…

What Would You Rather Restore Than Buy New?

We live in a world of easily disposable objects. The difference between what we keep and what we throw into the garbage can be as small as a frayed cord or a broken switch. So what makes you decide to hold on to something and fix it instead of replacing it? What things do you…

The Einstellung Effect Proves That a Good Idea Can Be A Very Bad Idea

The perfect is the enemy of the good. We know that phrase very well. What the Einstellung Effect proves is the good can be a real enemy of the even better. When we have a solution that’s good, we can’t begin to think about a better one. The seeming inability to come up with a…

Archaeologists Have Made An Incredible Discovery At Stonehenge

Using powerful ground-penetrating radar, investigators working around Stonehenge have detected a trove of previously unknown burial mounds, chapels, shrines, pits — and most remarkable of all — a massive megalithic monument made up of more than 50 giant stones buried along a 1,082-foot-long c-shaped enclosure. This news is unreal — and it’s resetting virtually everything…

China Is Mass-Producing Islands To Extend Its Strategic Borders

A dramatic change is taking place in the South China Sea where, since the beginning of this year, Beijing has created at least five new islands by dredging rock and sand and pumping it into reefs to form new land. By doing so, the Chinese are sending a blunt message to its neighbors and the…

Jeff Goldblum Sings The Jurassic Park Theme Song And It’s Beautiful

Jeff Goldblum sings the unofficial Jurassic Park theme song and reveals that he has the voice of an angel. Is there nothing Jeff Goldblum cannot do? While appearing as a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers, host Meyers asked Goldblum to sing a few bars from the wildly accepted Internet version of the Jurassic…

Batman V. Superman’s Batmobile Revealed, Is It Better Than the Tumbler?

Holy badass Batmobile, Batman. The first ever full shot of Ben Affleck’s ride in Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice has been revealed, and it is not understated in the slightest. But is it better than the Tumbler? The challenge of making a Batmobile better than Christian Bale’s ride in the Dark Knight trilogy is…

DC TV Round-Up: News From The Flash, Gotham, Arrow, and Supergirl!

Michael Douglas talks who is going to wear the Ant-Man costume. Hayley Atwell tweets photos from the set of Agent Carter. The Flash teases more heroes. And Orlando Bloom is willing to return to Pirates of the Caribbean. Spoilers now! Top image: Gotham Ant-Man Michael Douglas said that he, as Hank Pym, will not be…

The Whales That Carry Worlds On Their Backs

The each species of skywhale carries a different biome on their back. For a planet to exist with variable geography, individuals of the various species must band together and fit the environments they carry together. These sculptures are the work of Ruilin Wang in his DREAMS-ark series. There are tree-covered cliffs on the humpback whale…

Make-a-Wish Helps Child Defeat Evil in His Own Sci-Fi Film

Clark Doyle, a seven-year-old with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, made his very own science fiction epic with the help of the Make-a-Wish Foundation. The above photo of awesomeness is Clark at the red carpet premiere of his film Zero Hour. Between this and the Iron Manchild, our hearts may just implode in on themselves. According to…

CBS is getting into the Stephen King business again. Following Under the Dome is a miniseries adaptation of the short story The Things They Left Behind, about a 9/11 survivor who finds possessions of his dead co-workers in his home.Producing is Greg Berlanti, who adds this to Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl. [TV Line]

How Harry Potter‘s New Artist Deals With the Fan Backlash

Harry Potter’s British publisher decided to re-issue the books with new covers, choosing Jonny Duddle from four finalists. As each of his new covers are revealed, Duddle gets a deluge of comments on Twitter, some supportive and others complaining. But he waves off the biggest complaint with some logic. For many of us, the Harry…

Tonight’s Jam Is John Oliver’s Sex Gecko Tribute Ballad

Quite correctly, John Oliver was devastated by the loss of Russia’s space sex geckos. So he and A Great Big World performed “Say Something” as a tribute. Complete with a sex gecko mascot.

“Everyone My Age Pees His Pants”: Happy 48th, Adam Sandler

It was a busy day here at Giz: Somebody talked about some stuff, and then we talked about that stuff, too. With all the excitement around here, you’d be forgiven if you forgot about the day’s other big news. It’s Adam Sandler’s birthday, you guys. The buzz on Sandler as he begins his 48th year…

The Last Picnic on Earth

We were the last cleanup crew to leave the planet. It had been a decade since the vote that decided we would purge ourselves from the Earth’s ecosystems. We celebrated our impending local extinction with a few sandwiches, enjoyed under biodegradable shelters. Kait Kybar is a concept artist and designer in Amsterdam. You can see…

Latest VIRTIS Temperature Scans Show Comet 67P/C-G’s ‘Hot Spots’

The latest temperature scans of Comet Churymov-Gerasimenko should help mission planners choose a site that’s neither too hot nor too cold for the Philae lander. Above: An orthographic projection of the comet’s surface centred on the 0° meridian (left) and the 180° meridian (right), showing the temperature for local time between 12h and 14h. The…

Why Do Alien Cultures Have Just One Language Each?

Here on Earth, we speak over 7,000 living languages. But in science fiction, alien species routinely turn out to have just one language, or a few major dialects at best. Over at Slate, they ask whether this is realistic — or whether we’re just lumping alien languages together, based on shared characteristics. The Slate article…

Which Story Really Convinces You The Fate Of The World Is At Stake?

Sometimes it feels like we’re overloaded with massive stories about saving the world, or maybe the galaxy. But there’s nothing wrong with high stakes, as long as they’re convincing and grounded in the characters. Which book, movie, TV show or comic made you believe the world really was at stake? Please include a picture, poster,…