The Beginning of “Thriller” Animated Entirely in LEGO Bricks

We’ve seen Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video reenacted by LEGO minifigs before, but Annette Jung takes a different approach, creating a stop-motion animation using LEGO bricks as pixels. Jung makes nice use of the medium by showing the bottom side of the bricks to suggest slightly darker colors and occasionally layering her bricks to create depth.…

Why You Can’t Travel Back in Time and Kill Hitler

You’ve gotten your hands on a shiny new time machine, and you decide that your first order of business is to travel back in time and kill Hitler. But killing Hitler and preventing the Holocaust isn’t quite as simple as it sounds. Here’s why. His Life is a Fixed Event in Time “No Time Like…

Concept Art Writing Prompt: Tales from the Octopus Train

Chugging along the fish-filled tracks, the octopus train pulls into the station, aided by its mighty tentacles. What stories does it bring with it? This moody piece by Alex Andreyev is titled “Fade to Black,” via this isn’t happiness. As always, we invite you to write a story inspired by this image and post it…

A scout sent to explore a planet finds his doppelgänger instead

In Malachi Ward’s short comic The Scout, a scout is sent to an alien world to determine whether it is suitable for colonization. But when he encounters another version of himself, he ends up exploring his own identity instead. The premise of The Scout is simple: an explorer’s information has been sent to the caves…

Carl and Beth discuss the afterlife in Walking Dead deleted scene

It’s actually a shame that this scene from Season 3 of The Walking Dead didn’t make it onto television. It’s a great moment between Carl and Beth in which they discuss grief and how the afterlife works with zombies. We saw earlier this week that another rather emotional sequence was trimmed from Season 3: Morgan’s…

Even without skin, the Chestburster mechanism test is nightmarish

Some horror creatures become less frightening when you see the special effects that brought them to life. Not so with the Alien chestburster, which is still pretty damn creepy even during its mechanism test. Stan Winston School posted this video of the mechanism test. Stephen Norrington’s description of the chestburster mechanism as “serpentine” is perfect.…

We’ve seen Gravity and it’s even better than we’d hoped

We’ve seen Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity and it is one of the best space films we have seen in ages. One part giant showcase of the cosmos and one part a deeply harrowing action thriller, Gravity is about to show Hollywood what a real white-knuckled audience looks like. And here is our spoiler-free first impression of…

Compare 1836 and modern-day New York with this interactive map

Travel back in time with this interactive map of New York, which lets you take a spyglass to any part of the city and uncover what that circle of space looked like in 1836. David Rumsey is a map expert and collector, and he calls this wall map, drawn by Joseph Colton, one of his…

Gene Roddenberry’s 1968 memo on improving Star Trek‘s characters

As Star Trek embarked on its final season, creator Gene Roddenberry issued a memo directing the writers on how to approach the characters of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Chekov. It’s a great peek into Roddenberry’s management of the show. Mission Log Podcast came across this memo, from April 1968. It’s fascinating to see what Roddenberry…

In a high-class brothel, sex is a fantasy but love is complicated

Welcome to the Teahouse, where beautiful men and women attend to the sexual needs of the lords and ladies of Ivore. But even transactional sex isn’t uncomplicated when some of the clients and their favorite courtesans fall in love. Last year, I compiled a list of sexy science fiction and fantasy webcomics and heard one…

This animation about a heroic knight ends with a tragic twist

Don’t watch Un Conte unless you’re prepared to be sad for the rest of the day. This brief, beautifully animated short film follows a knight’s quest to rescue a woman in peril, but reality proves far crueler than fantasy. Heads up: This one contains images of domestic violence. Un Conte was directed by Guillaume Arantes…

Holy crap, this woman’s hanging GLaDOS cosplay is incredible

Unless you happen to be a potato, it isn’t easy to dress up as Portal’s malevolent AI GLaDOS. But Athena Cole, a.k.a. Enayla, commits to the costume by suspending herself from a frame. The Vine is a great way to show of Enayla’s costume; first there’s seeing GLaDOS so animated, then realizing that there’s an…

We learn that Plastic Man sports Batman pajamas on DC Nation

This week in the world of cartoons, Beware the Batman returns, Regular Show and Adventure Time spotlight relationship woes, and we bid farewell to Futurama! As always – minor spoilers ahead! Futurama – “Meanwhile” It’s the last episode of Futurama! I don’t want to give away too much on this one – if you are…

This week, we explored mysterious ruined cities, the promise of space, and why the hell DC won’t let Batwoman get married. We discussed what plot threads we’d kill to see resolved, and worried about RoboCop. And, just in case you were getting comfortable, there are some kinds of life that can’t be categorized. Illustration by…

Holy crap Elon Musk really is Tony Stark

First, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk inspired Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Iron Man. Now, the futuristic design interfaces depicted in the movie trilogy have inspired Musk to create 3D immersive reality visualizations for designing and printing rocket parts on the fly. We’ve come full circle, people. Reality and fiction are colliding and the outcome is…

Japan terrorized by giant lighter people with USB compatible asses

Sad news as the nation of Japan has been overrun by giant, anthropomorphic lighters, as evidenced by this commercial. These creatures are insane, sticking their asses in our computers, sleeping with our match-headed woman, and, worst of all, teaching the English alphabet improperly. Obviously, were these lighters an appropriate size, they would be a great…

The Strange and Wonderful History of Diving Suits, From 1715 to Today

Long before we had spacesuits, we had diving suits. The ocean was the first hostile environment that we sent people into, completely covered with protective gear. And the suits that people created with late-18th century or 19th century technology are astonighing to behold. See for yourself! The first known diving helmet by Edmond Halley, late…

The Funniest, Saddest Thing You’ll Read Today: Star Wanderer!

Nebula Award-nominated author Jake Kerr has written the funniest thing, and the saddest, you’ll read today: a satire of Hollywood’s endless reboots called “The Adventure of the Future Adventures of the Star Wanderer.” Trust me, you’ll want to read this. It’s below. Top image: Frank Frazetta, via GW Thomas. https://jakekerr.kinja.com/the-adventure-of-the-further-adventures-of-the-star-wan-1265525480

How Mike Massimino ‘nearly broke’ Hubble during a spacewalk

Space Shuttle astronaut Mike Massimino has penned a riveting article for Esquire magazine recounting his harrowing attempt to repair the Hubble Space Telescope back in 2009. His account is downright horrifying — the stuff of spacewalk nightmares. Back in May 2009, Massimino was chosen to perform a spacewalk during an Atlantis shuttle mission. Credit: NASA…

Brilliant art posters celebrate Star Trek: The Animated Series!

This Sunday the beloved Star Trek: The Animated Series turns 40! And to celebrate, CBS Consumer Products will be releasing a collection of poster images, one for each episode. We’ve got the first two posters exclusively, right here! The posters will be available for purchase in the future (but no date has been set yet,…