The 2002 Batman/Superman movie wouldn’t have been the worst thing ever

Last week, we showed you the full script of Batman/Superman: Asylum, Warner Bros.’ 2002 attempt to bring both DC superheroes to the same movie screen. Because the script is 1) really long and 2) oft illegible, here’s a reasonably quick summary of the movie’s plot, its strengths, its plotholes, and its weirdness. Here’s the one…

The Secret Origins of Higher Education in America

For many people, Labor Day marks the beginning of the college year, and a return to academic pomp and dignity. But did you know Columbia was only founded because New Yorkers couldn’t stand that New Jersey had a college? And UPenn fudged its founding date to beat Princeton? Learn all the dirty secrets of American…

This cosmic caterpillar might someday look just like our Sun

This new image from Hubble depicts a proto-star, a knotted clump of gas and dust that stretches well over a light-year in length. Located some 4,500 light-years from Earth, this future star is desperately trying to gain as much mass as possible — all while older, bigger stars blast it with ultraviolet radiation, which is…

This is what it looks like when chimpanzees create art

The Humane Society has just announced the winners of its chimpanzee art contest. Each painting has an incredible story behind it. 27,000 people voted in the contest online, and prize money goes to the sanctuaries where each of these chimps has found a home after incredibly rough lives in research, performance, and zoos. Above, you…

Legendary anime director Hayao Miyazaki announces his retirement

Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder of Studio Ghibli and director of such films as Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and countless other masterpieces, has announced his retirement from feature films. Okay, sure, Miyazaki has been retiring sporadically ever since he finished Princess Mononoke in 1998, but it’s been a while since the last one, and for some…

A Walking Dead episode will be taken “almost verbatim” from the comics

Plus, what’s next for David Morrissey’s murderous governor? Tatiana Maslany reveals what’s ahead in Orphan Black’s second season. Captain America is definitely going to have a love interest in Winter Soldier, and the Dinobots are definitely going to be in Transformers 4. Once Upon a Time is only adding about three new Disney stalwarts next…

The Glamour! The Drama! The Full Results of the 2013 Hugo Awards!

The Hugo Awards just happened at San Antonio’s LoneStarCon 3, and it was a night of dramatic reveals. The winners: Game of Thrones! John Scalzi! Tor’s Patrick Nielsen Hayden! Ken Liu! Pat Cadigan! Stanley Schmidt, twice! Brandon Sanderson, twice. And Saga! Full details below. Top image: Kevin Standlee. Paul Cornell MCed the Hugo Awards this…

T-600 Is Menacing Even When You Can See Puppeteers Moving It

Stan Winston Schools has released other behind the scenes footage of the T-600 puppet from Terminator Salvation, but this gives a clearer sense of how the animatronics evolved and how important the materials are in any puppet. If it’s not lightweight, but with the stability and feel of whatever it’s representing, it can’t be convincing.…

In his house at R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming

The shape is both talon and ocean wave, cresting into foam and bone. It seems to move, but also to undermine the very idea of motion. It is about to turn your life into nothing but an insane dream of having once lived. This incredible illustration of R’lyeh comes from the pencils of artist Allen…

Tuberculosis may have been stalking humanity for 70,000 years

Tuberculosis is one of the most common infectious diseases on the planet: about a third of the current global population has had TB. It’s also one of the most deadly. Left untreated, it kills about half of all those it infects. Now it seems the disease could date back to humanity’s origins in Africa. There’s…

These Are The Weirdest Dinosaur Statues Ever

No animal deserves a monument more than a dinosaur. That’s why some of the weirdest, biggest, and most awesome (in the original sense of the word) statues in the world are devoted to these extinct beasts. Here are some of the most mind-boggling. Kissing dinosaurs, Erenhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region In the border town between…

Want to follow the Hugo Awards? You can watch them live via UStream (unless it gets taken down again), or read the official liveblog. Plus @WWEnd and @LightspeedMag will Livetweet. Plus check back here for the complete list of winners later this evening!

The Star Wars/Game of Thrones crossover you NEED: Darth Drogo!

What if Khal Drogo, the Dothraki horselord, came over to the Dark Side? It would probably look a lot like this. Behold Darth Drogo by jbcasacop on Deviant Art, the first in a new series called Star Wars: The Throne Wars. Check out the whole thing below. Writes jbcasacop: Dark lord of the Khalasar. I’m…

The mainstream media has finally realized that climate change is real, and that including deniers in their “balanced” coverage is the same thing as including flat-Earthers in an article about globes. So says Phil Plait over at Slate.

Draft script for Doctor Who‘s “The Tenth Planet” has different ending

Almost everyone knows how the Doctor Who story “The Tenth Planet” ends — it’s the last story where William Hartnell plays the mysterious time-traveling Doctor. Except that a newly unearthed draft script by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis leaves out the Doctor’s regeneration. Instead, the climax of the story is much more about the Doctor…

Learn from the future… today! The University of California at Riverside is launching a program in Science Fiction and Technoculture Studies, for people who want to study how science fiction addresses our anxieties around technological change.

Mars could have developed life more quickly than Earth

Nobody is sure how life emerged from the primordial chemistry of Earth. But now we have more evidence that Earthlike life could have evolved on Mars. Illustration of Mars today and Mars several billion years ago, by Kevin Gill It all has to do with phosphates, minerals that are crucial for building DNA, cell membranes,…

Did you know that the classic Clash song “London Calling” was actually about climate change? That’s what the original band members say in a fascinating interview with the Wall Street Journal. According to Mick Jones, who co-wrote the song with the late Joe Strummer: The initial inspiration for the song “London Calling” wasn’t British politics.…

The Most Intrepid Superhero Spaceships

On Earth, superheroes can soar through the air and swing through the urban jungle like Tarzan. But when costumed crime-fighters go into deep space, they often need a ship to zoom around in. Here’s a round up of insane and awesome superhero space vehicles. Note: This doesn’t include most of the actual “space heroes,” like…

Corn syrup has weird and beautiful powers over light

Corn syrup may be sending us toward a slow death, but in the meantime, it can create pretty swirling colors. Why? Because it’s an optically active material, and can turn polarized light into a rainbow. When light comes in from the sun, or from conventional light bulbs, its waves are jiggling in all different directions.…