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This Live-Action Batman: The Animated Series Opening Is Bat-Tastic

Watch out, living, three-dimensional criminals of Gotham City! Vengeance is also three-dimensional and coming for you thanks to this excellent live-acton remake of the Batman: TAS opening credits. Hey, if Gotham tanks, Fox should just consider making a live-action shot-for-shot remake of TAS. I’d watch it. [Via IGN]

John Berkey’s space art makes me nostalgic for a future that never was

John Berkey is one of the classic painters of the golden era of science fiction. He did some of the original Star Wars posters, but this is for me his best work: Gigantic deep space exploration ships, beautiful white galactic liners, and huge space posts orbiting Earth and other planets—all of them mixing elegant biological…

Apple Just Put Its App Design Bible On iBooks For Free

Apple’s iOS Human Interface Guidelines, a set of tips and rules for designers that was previously only available through the developer portal, is free on iBooks as of today. It’s a little glimpse into how Apple hopes app developers will follow its lead when it comes to design. The “book,” which is more of a…

The Evolution Of The TARDIS Key!

Sure, sure—the TARDIS is always evolving along with the ever-regenerating Doctor, but what of the TARDIS key? One clever artist plotted out the evolution of the TARDIS key from Doctor Who. And it is delightful. Created by Terrasolo Pictures, this is really just a wonderful collection of TARDIS keys. And I would probably wear the…

Beautiful Landscapes Far, Far Away

The annual National Geographic Traveler photography contest is accepting entries until June 30th. The outdoor spaces category is of particular interest to me, with peeks at landscapes far away. These are a few of my favourites: Basalt in Iceland A stream cuts through dark black rocks in Iceland. Iceland is rich in basaltic rocks, rich…

The Astronomer Who Wanted to Rearrange the Solar System, Using Nukes

CalTech astronomer Fritz Zwicky was the first to conceive of dark matter, supernovas and neutron stars. He also had a theory about colonizing the solar system using nuclear bombs. We could terraform other planets, he argued, by pulverizing them and then moving them closer or further from the sun. If you’ve never heard of Zwicky,…

The Algorithms at the Heart of the New September 11 Memorial Museum

The National September 11 Memorial Museum opens to the public tomorrow here in New York City after more than a decade of complications, and amidst not always civil disagreements over what the museum should be in the first place—what its narrative intentions might be and whether or not it could ever be possible to achieve…

A Wall-Mounted Computer Chess Game Is Playable Art

Staring at the Mona Lisa provides a few minutes of enjoyment and contemplation, but were the famous portrait on the wall of your living room, you’d soon find yourself wishing she did more than just sit there and smirk. Maybe that’s what inspired the Artful Dodger to build this portrait chess set that lets you…

10 Comic Books That Would Make Excellent TV Shows

It’s official: The most exciting new genre shows on network TV are based on comics. iZombie, Constantine, Flash, Gotham… But the networks are just scratching the surface of what’s out there. Here are 10 comics that are crying out to become television shows right now. The comics on this list have a few things in…

Corn Grown in Space Caves Could Be the Future of Farming

Anew discovery could take corn farming to perhaps the last place you’d expect to see it: in underground mines and caves. Perhaps, eventually, even to other planets. It sounds like science fiction, but it’s real, and it could drastically change the future of food production as we know it. It all started when researchers at…

Seed-Filled Caps Turn Plastic Bottles Into Tiny Gardens

If you’re looking for a more profitable way to recycle your empty plastic water bottles, forget about taking them to the curb every week. As long as your home gets a few drops of sunshine every day, you can turn them into tiny productive gardens with these Petomato bottle caps. Using them is not quite…

Roberto Orci Will Make His Directing Debut With Star Trek 3

It’s been confirmed; Paramount has given the job of directing the third nu-Trek movie to suddenly single writer Roberto Orci. It will be his first time directing anything, although he did write the scripts for the first two movies with his ex-partner Alex Kurtzman. Can he direct? Also, can he write something better than Star…

A Short About A Color-Stealing Villain In The Style Of A Scanner Darkly

In a black-and-white world, only a few artists possess color. But they live in fear of the Gold Sparrow, a malevolent woman who steals the color of any who dare to perform. Can anyone stop her? Director Daniel Stessen wrote The Gold Sparrow based on the song by the Brothers Lit. The production team assembled…

This Is the World’s Oldest Sperm

You’re looking at the world’s oldest sperm. At 17 million years old, it’s not quite as lively as it once was—but it still took scientists some serious investigation to identify it. The samples in which it resides were discovered at the Riversleigh World Heritage Fossil Site by a team including University of New South Wales…

Lucid Dreaming Can Be Induced By Zapping Brains With Gamma Waves

By administering mild electric currents to the brain, neuroscientists from Frankfurt University have successfully induced self-awareness in sleeping volunteers. Amazingly, the technique could be used to help people take better control of their dreams. But it’s also a discovery that’s offering critical insights into the very nature of consciousness itself. Gamma waves have been linked…

Dear Massimo: 12 Designers Who Penned Letters To Their Hero

Earlier this week, we posted a call from the son of Massimo Vignelli: The graphic design legend has fallen ill and requested letters from those he might have inspired or influenced during his long career. Designers all over the world have been mailing letters, and posting them online as well, tagging them #dearmassimo. It’s a…

Harley Quinn Is Even More Fun Dressed As A Real Medieval Court Jester

Concept artist Claire Hummel has been dressing Disney princesses in obsessively researched historical garb, but here she takes a break to imagine what the villainess Harley Quinn would look like as a real medieval fool. Here Hummel places Harley in the 14th century, though she still has her oversized mallet. She has also drawn Harley…

Half Of The U.S. Is Now In A Drought

It’s now just as likely for an area of the U.S. to be in drought as not. This drought map showing which half of the country is currently in drought and by how much was put together by the U.S. National Drought Monitor, who points out that not only is the scale unusual, it’s also…

A Microsoft update for Windows 8.1 mentions that it “adds support to the Surface Pro 3 camera.” That’s either a typo, or a big hint that a new tablet is on the way…

Why You Can Never, Ever, Ever Make The Biggest Fans Happy

Or, “Why The New Power Rangers Movie Will Never Make Power Rangers Super-Fans Happy, For A Specific Example.” It’s a more accurate headline, but it was a little wordy, don’t you think? Fight the Power x84jdh: Dear Post-Apocalyptic Postmaster General, I don’t know if you noticed, but seconds before the temporal anomaly that allows you…