Shaking Is The New Password For Cell Phones

Proving that they have nothing better to do, British scientists have developed a way to establish a secure wireless link between two cell phones by shaking them very hard. No, seriously, no more passcodes or keywords, you just shake your phones together: Built in accelerometers are used to measure the movement of each device as…

Scientists: “Warp Speed Travel? Make It So!”

In a sobering moment of life imitating William Shatner, scientists plan to meet next week to discuss the possibility of real life warp speed space travel. The British Interplanetary Society’s catchily-titled conference, “Faster than Light: Breaking the Interstellar Distance Barrier”, aims to raise awareness of what used to be as impossible as the Vulcan nerve…

RAF Pilots To Get New Hardware, Stay On Target

While America’s military may have been the first to steal the term Star Wars for their own use, Britain’s Royal Air Force are the first to design their hardware on Luke Skywalker’s fashion sense: Pilots flying the next generation of jet fighters will use futuristic, Star Wars-style helmets, the Ministry of Defence has revealed. The…

Marvel Comics Goes Digital, Finally

In a move designed to bring them right up to the year 2004, Marvel Comics have announced that their back catalog will be made available online. According to a report in USA Today, Marvel’s library will open today with 2500 issues – interestingly enough, for online browsing only, no downloading – for those willing to…

Wonder Woman + Monkey Assassins = Nirvana

Instead of mourning the dismal prospects of the Wonder Woman movie, now is the time to celebrate. Tomorrow sees the release of Wonder Woman #14, written by new series writer Gail “Birds of Prey” Simone. Can you spot the clues to awesomeness in this promo blurb? What exactly is the Circle, and what deadly secret…

NPR Wants Scifi Novels On Your Bedside Table

NPR’s Nancy Pearl, who has probably written enough words about science fiction to fill a couple of Del Rey compendiums with, has laid out of a list of her recommended reading. While technically only two of the books on her list are science fiction, you can’t really argue with Frederik Pohl and Joe Haldeman. Neal…

The Savior in Science Fiction Films

There have been a recent rash of websites posting about the Christ-like similarities that some of the major figures in science fiction films exhibit. Everyone from Paul Atreides in Dune, to Neo in The Matrix, to Spock in Star Trek, and even Doctor Who seem to have the same messianic properties, but is it case…

Cities Will Save the Planet and Suburbs Are Racist

If we want to survive as a species, we will have to live in massive mega-cities. Living at one with nature is just crap idealism from the past, and the suburbs are nothing more than archaic residue of racist white flight patterns. So says futurist-environmentalist Van Jones. He isn’t afraid to piss people off, and…

TV’s Frank From MST3K Masquerades As Studio Executive

Although it’s been more than a decade since TV’s Frank (Frank Conniff) appeared on Mystery Science Theater 3000, it’s hard to mistake his white hair and baritone voice in this parody video showing us the other side of the Writer’s Guild Strike: the poor, suffering studio executives. Besides playing what looks like a chubbier version…

Time Travel Is Like Heroin in Primer

Four corporate drones trying to spinoff a cool startup accidentally discover time travel in Shane Carruth’s dark SF flick Primer, a Sundance hit in 2004. Carruth’s tale explores what happens when time travel doesn’t work quite the way you’d expect — to travel back in time 6 hours, you have to sit in a cramped…

Harlan Ellison Not Happy About Star Trek Movie Rumors

If you’ve been reading anything about the upcoming J.J. Abrams Star Trek remake online, then it’s probably been boring stuff like casting rumors. However, plot details have started to surface over the past few days, and at least one person out there isn’t happy about it. Fair warning: there be potential spoilers ahead. Harlan Ellison,…

Joss Whedon Says the Strike Isn’t About Money

Joss Whedon appeared on the Hollywood picket lines in a rather rakish Australian Akubra hat to show his support for the strike, and broke down what it’s all about. While he says residuals aren’t really about the money, the translation is: yes, it’s all about the money. He uses the analogy of a baker getting…

Camera Surveillance Is 94 Years Old

The All-Seeing Eye in the Sky is watching you, thanks to satellites, wiretaps and “trusted” computers. Or maybe superheroes can hear your every murmur from their private satellite. Feeling paranoid yet? Then you’re just in the right frame of mind for Diet Soap, a new zine that aims to channel the wacked-out writing of Philip…

Scifi Geek Bling Gives You Street Credit

Hard-wired geeks looking to pimp out their inner alien need to look no further than Los Angeles-based metalsmith Han Cholo. Nothing says, “Step off, fool.” better than a burnished blaster belt buckle.

Scifi Capsule Hotel Opens In London

Never before have we seen a hotel whose rooms let you pretend you’re an officer embarking on the maiden voyage of a new starcruiser. If you’re in London next month, try out the new Yotel, a Japanese capsule hotel in the Queen’s backyard. From their press materials, “The study desk folds out of the techno…

Astronomers were warning an asteroid (a comet?) was due to swerve closer to Earth than any large object since the comet that wiped out the dinosaurs — in just a few days. They were all set to issue an “emergency email” and start going on television telling people not to panic too much. At the…

Cast Members of Old and New Bionic Woman Snipe at One Another

Original bionic woman Lindsay Wagner is apparently not a fan of the show’s new incarnation, which she finds “kind of dark and broody and violent”—and not in a good way. “It’s not at all what we were doing. We were doing a show for kids intentionally and making it fun in such a way that…

Man Hops Off A Freight Train At 7,000 KPH In Space

Rockets may be a thing of the past one of these days. Instead, we may use huge electromagnetic "rail guns" to escape from the gravity of a body such as Earth or the Moon. But this concept hasn’t appeared much in movies or TV yet. Hence this new short film (which is still in development,…

Secret Papers of the Man Who Harnessed the Energy of the Human Orgasm

It’s special time for orgasm science. This month marks the fiftieth anniversary of Wilhelm Reich, the controversial philosopher who was eventually sent to prison for his theories of sexual revolution and the “orgone,” a unit of energy derived from human orgasms. His personal papers, held at Harvard until 50 years after his death, will now…

Astro Boy Will Be “Dark Pinocchio” Story Of Robot Violence

The animated Astro Boy movie, due out in 2009, will be a gorgeous and painterly homage to Hiyao Miyazaki and early George Lucas, director Colin Brady tells FirstShowing.net. This “dark Pinocchio” story (about a robot who can never become human) will feature hardcore robot-on-robot violence. And judging from the first concept art, it’ll be gorgeous.…