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This Artwork For A New Man In The High Castle Edition Blows Our Minds

Philip K. Dick’s famous novel, The Man in the High Castle has recently gotten special treatment from The Folio Society, a publisher notable for their exquisite editions of classic literature. With the release, they’ve provided us with a special look at some of the artwork inside. This new edition of the book is now out,…

Ellen DeGeneres To Produce Naomi Novik’s Uprooted

Naomi Novik has been gaining considerable acclaim for her latest novel, Uprooted. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, it’s being adapted for film courtesy of Ellen DeGeneres and Jeff Kleeman at Warner Brothers. A couple of weeks ago, we described Uprooted as a book that “combines fantasy, fairy tale, and coming of age stories in…

The Oculus App Store Will Be a Walled Garden, Much Like Apple and Google

“The Rift is an open platform,” said Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, one month ago. “We don’t control what software can run on it, and that’s a big deal.” A day later, dozens of headlines proudly proclaimed that Oculus wouldn’t block virtual reality porn. Sadly, it’s not true. Not the porn part… and maybe not the…

Here’s The Microsoft Smartwatch You’ll Never Be Able To Buy 

It seems like everybody is making smartwatches these days: Apple has one, Samsung has a few, and you can get wearables from Motorola, ASUS and more. Microsoft even made one. But I’m not talking about the Microsoft Band—I’m talking about the Microsoft Moonraker: the company’s cancelled smartwatch. https://gizmodo.com/i-beta-tested-the-apple-watch-so-you-dont-have-to-1703824830 https://gizmodo.com/samsung-gear-s-review-but-i-dont-wanna-be-dick-tracy-1658861223 https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-band-review-tracks-your-every-move-then-bre-1656011848 Never heard of it? Don’t…

This Year’s Science Fiction Hall Of Fame Inductees Are Legends

Seattle’s EMP Museum houses the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, and yesterday, announced the 2015 cohort of inductees: James E. Gunn, Georges Méliès, John Schoenherr, Hayao Miyazaki, Kurt Vonnegut and Jack Gaughan. This year’s inductees are an interesting mix of author and artists: The Science Fiction Hall of Fame was originally located at the Gunn…

SFWA Introduces New Medal Designs for Award Nominees 

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America has introduced a new set of book medallions for award winners and nominees for the Nebula and Andre Norton Awards. https://gizmodo.com/women-dominate-the-2015-nebula-awards-1709630982 The medallions, designed by Saga Editorial Director Joe Monti and designer Michael McCartney to be displayed on all works which have received the honors. Why does…

Alien and Prometheus Mashup Redeems the Latter

In an editing exercise, film student Job Willins has taken Ridley Scott’s films Alien and Prometheus into a single film called Derelict. The end result is pretty good, and well worth watching. Willins wanted to put the two films together, highlighting what worked in Prometheus, and explore its ties to the larger Alien universe. ‘Derelict’…

With This Insane Tractor Controller, Anyone Can Be a Virtual Farmer

Admit it: You’ve always dreamed of being a farmer. Sim Farm’s pixelated corn fields didn’t quite cut it; Farmville promised action but delivered an endless series of mindless chores. Despair not, would-be agronomist: Soon, you’ll be able to plow fields, sow seeds and whack weeds with the best of them, all from the mud and…

Security Bug Leaves iCloud Passwords Vulnerable to Phishing

In a proof-of-concept attack, a researcher has shown how a security flaw within the iOS mail client can be easily exploited to trick Apple users into handing over their iCloud passwords. The flaw, which can be found in the default email program in the latest version of iOS for iPhone or iPad, fails to strip…

Blazing Hot Exoplanet is Smothered in Sunscreen

Life on WASP-33b would basically be hell—the titanic exoplanet’s atmosphere ranges in temperature from a searing 6,000 to a comparatively balmy 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. But hey, at least you wouldn’t have to bring sunblock. That’s because WASP-33b contains a familiar atmospheric layer called a stratosphere. And just as Earth’s stratosphere includes a thin sheet of…

RIP Wolfgang Jeschke (1936-2015). The prolific German science fiction author’s books included The Others, Midas, The Last Day of Creation, and recently The Cusanus Game. As an editor with Heyne Verlag, he brought unedited overseas science fiction to German readers. Top image: Cover of Meamones Auge by Wolfgang Jeschke, via SF-Fan.De.

Google is using its prototypal “Im2Calorie” program to estimate the number of calories in photographs of food. No word yet on availability, but long-term goals are reportedly more wide-reaching that calorie counting, which Google research scientist Kevin Murphy calls “just the killer app.” Contact the author at [email protected].

This Ballet With Humans And Robots Is Sweet and Slightly Scary

Right now, you can watch human and robots perform ballet together at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, in a piece called “Robot.” It’s about humans teaching robots to dance, though the small mechanical creatures aren’t able to replace their fleshbag teachers quite yet. IEEE Spectrum’s Eliza Strickland saw the show, and said the robots often…

Some Intriguing New Hints About What Ant Consciousness Is Really Like

They build cities. They farm. They make war. Ants do a lot of things that seem uncannily human — and yet they’re profoundly alien, part of a hive mind called a social organism. What does that feel like to each individual ant? Now a new scientific paper suggests that there is always doubt in the…

Can We All Agree That Ants Are Just The Awesomest?

KQED’s excellent science series Deep Look (previously here, here, and here—can you tell we’re fans?) just kicked off a new run of videos with an episode about how ants use leaves to harvest fungus. Which, sure, fungus harvesting is fascinating in its own right, but wait until you find out what the ants are harvesting…

These Artists Painted People’s Pets As Game Of Thrones Characters

Does your cat remind you of Daenerys Targaryen? Is your dog more of a Jon Snow or a Tyrion Lannister? The pet portraiture artists at Spendid Beast have done a series of paintings that place household into Game of Thrones — and best of all, they take commissions. It’s especially fun to see the pets…

Watch Photorealistic Drawings Of Iconic Landmarks Come To Life

Those of us without artistic training or practice may look at a particularly realistic drawing and wonder how on Earth someone made that with just pencil and paper. In these timelapse videos, artists show us how they draw famous landmarks from the first marks to the final lines. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Manhattan skyline Big…

On Hannibal, Will Graham Nurses A Rather Peculiar Kind Of Heartbreak 

Is Will Graham alive? The question lurked around the edges of the season three premiere of Hannibal, at least in the minds of Lecter and Bedelia. You and I, of course, knew that scrappy fella was alive, because as much as we love Hannibal, there’s no Hannibal without Will. But how did he survive? Spoilers!…

Sesame Street Martians’ Official Position On Whether Big Bird Is On Mars

Today we learned that conspiracy theorists had set their sights on Big Bird’s large yellow head, claiming the giant Muppet had cast his shadow across Mars. And in response, commenter Chick Counterfly shared this…well, we’re not sure exactly what it is. We only know that we can’t stop reading it. https://gizmodo.com/new-conspiracy-theory-big-bird-has-secretly-been-to-ma-1710818728 Here’s Chick Counterfly’s account…

A Map That May Have Led Columbus To America Is Finally Being Deciphered

The primary way we share ideas today is the internet. In the 15th century, it was cartography. And now, researchers at Yale are giving us a glimpse of one of the most influential maps in history—parts of which, up until now, had been too faded and aged to read. Henricus Martellus isn’t a name you’d…