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Architecture’s Top Prize Went to an Incredible Chilean Architect You Probably Haven’t Heard Of

The Pritzker Prize was announced this morning, an award many consider the highest honor for design. This year’s prize went to Alejandro Aravena, a Chilean architect you may not know—but definitely should. The Santiago-based architect is young as far as Pritzker laureates go (48), and he might not have a famous fire-igniting skyscraper to his…

Did You Forget What Marvel’s Secret Wars Was About? Let Us Remind You!

Marvel finally did it. Eight months after it began, Secret Wars came to a close today, after nine issues of reality-bending madness. No idea what the fuss is? Want to get in on the event that brought us an All-New Marvel universe, juuuust as it’s ending? What the hell happened to the Fantastic Four? Here’s…

These Smart Glasses Are So Dumb They Make Google Glass Look Genius

Japan is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world and home to some of the most innovative companies that have ever existed. But today was not its finest day. Tokyo is currently hosting the Wearable Device Technology Expo, and thanks to AFP photographer Yoshikazu Tsuno, we get to see all the gadgets…

This Deadpool Billboard Is the Best Use of An Emoji We’ve Ever Seen

When it comes to film marketing, we’re used to seeing the same footage and images recycled in posters, trailers, commercials and more. But Fox is doing something different with Deadpool and really playing with people. In fact their latest billboard is one of the best ever. Comedian Patton Oswalt saw the above billboard in the…

This Giant Spinning Windmill of Fireworks Gives a Spectacular Exploding Light Show

The maniac inventor Colin Furze cooked up a truly spectacular thing this time around: he made a giant firework wheel. As in, fireworks are attached to a wheel (not unlike a windmill) which is attached to a truck which is then all lit at once which is then spun around in circles which then explodes…

Disney Gave PewDiePie a Giant Pile of Money to Give to Other YouTubers

In a flurry of buzzwords, YouTube star PewDiePie and Disney’s Maker Studios announced a partnership that brings us Revelmode. What is Revelmode? Well, that’s a little less clear. Revelmode is being called a “network.” Which is technically true in that the end result is a bunch of content creators working under a single brand name,…

What’s Going On With Firefly Online?

We may never get another live-action Firefly movie or TV show. So every bit of Firefly media that we do get is precious—and that explains why Browncoats became so excited about Firefly Online, the online role-playing game. But what’s become of this project? We first heard about Firefly Online at Comic-Con 2013, and there was…

How James Patterson Helped Reinvent Publishing

James Patterson hasn’t always written science fantasy or fantasy, apart from his recent young-adult series. But he’s radically changed the whole publishing industry, and especially the way that genre fiction is handled, over the past two decades. The New York Times has a fascinating look at “Patterson, Inc.” As the Times notes, since 2006, one…

Jeb Bush Shocked His Apple Watch Does More Than Tell Time

GOP presidential candidate and sweater ascetic Jeb Bush’s emotional register on the campaign trail hovers between “mildly deflated” to “moderately chagrined”—but LOOK at how his eyes light up as he realizes that the expensive and impractical gadget he’s been wearing can make phone calls. Finally, a ! moment for our favorite dour Floridian scion! “My watch…

We’ve Probably Delayed the Next Ice Age by 50,000 Years

German climate scientists studying past ice ages in Earth’s geologic history have concluded that we probably won’t see another ice age for at least 100,000 years. That’s because of global warming, a consequence of all the carbon we’ve been pouring into the atmosphere for decades. Predicting the future is always tricky, but researchers at the…

”Reality Is Unknowable to Us’: The Dreamlike Fiction of Leena Krohn

Most U.S. readers probably haven’t heard of Leena Krohn, but among connoisseurs of weird fiction like Jeff VanderMeer, she’s a beloved icon. She’s also the winner of the Finlandia Prize, the most prestigious literary honor in her native Finland. And it’s a great time to discover her bizarre stories. In the New Yorker, there’s a…

How could The Winds of Winter get published just three months after George R.R. Martin finishes it? Over at Tor.com, there’s a great breakdown of why book production generally takes a year, and how they might streamline it for A Song of Ice and Fire. Top image:2016 Song of Ice and Fire calendar, art by…

The Oil Industry Can’t Stop Torching Methane and Wrecking Our Climate

The LA gas leak may be a climate disaster, but a similar problem is playing out all over the world. Now, thanks to infrared technology, we’re starting to see just how much methane the oil and gas industry is hemorrhaging—mostly, out of laziness. It took two months for one of the largest methane leaks in…

Shadowhunters Has the Best Fashion Ever (and It’s Totally Ridiculous Fun)

Cassandra Clare’s YA book series begat the 2013 film The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones—a box-office disappointment that didn’t capture why so many people loved the books. Round two: TV adaptation Shadowhunters, which is actually way better suited to the dark fantasy material. Episodes one and two of Shadowhunters are available online, and the series…

Sony’s New ‘Light’ Wants To Be the Brain Behind Your Smart Home

Calling Sony’s new smart light a “light” is doing this weird gizmo a disservice—it’s much more than that. Unappealingly named a “Multifunctional Light,” this ceiling gadget has temperature, humidity, and luminance sensors and can even detect when you’re home, turn on the TV, control the AC, and play music. Oh, it’s also a light. The…

Things Get Super Ominous in the Orphan Black Season 4 Trailer

I know the third season of Orphan Black ended on a down note for the members of Clone Club in a lot of ways, but it was positively cheery compared to this first season 4 trailer. It’s clear all the clones are in horrible danger—I mean, they’ve pretty much always been in horrible danger, but…

Damn Washington, That’s an Impressive Landslide!

A substantial landslide closed part of Washington state’s highway this week. The more impressive part? This mess is going to take days to weeks to clean up. The rock slide closed a chunk of US2 in central Washington between Wenatchee and Chelan early on Sunday. The stretch of road—Pine Canyon in the Wenachee Mountains, part…

What Was the Darkest Moment on Last Night’s Expanse? 

“Rock Bottom,” true to its title, basically spent an hour trying to one-up itself in how dark and bad things could get for its characters. The remaining Canterbury survivors get off the lightest. The random characters on the freighter—Mateo and Diogo—have it brutal. But Dawes and Miller get it worst of all. Spoilers… The biggest…

Learn How American Horror Story: Hotel Created its Scariest Monster

As you count down the minutes to tonight’s American Horror Story: Hotel finale, feast your peepers on this clip highlighting the work of the show’s talented makeup crew. You’ll get your longest look yet at a character who has thus far has made only brief, yet horrifying, appearances: the Addiction Demon. Two big takeaways. First,…

The Shannara Chronicles Is Like Watching Level One D&D Characters Start a Campaign

While watching the latest episode of The Shannara Chronicles, I realized what this show reminded me of: the first time a Dungeons and Dragons campaign sets out, with everyone starting at their first level. Everyone’s ambitious, but nobody knows what they’re doing, and that’s pretty much where all of our characters are at here, with…