The “airpocalypse” of smog swirling over Chinese cities has reached its most dangerous levels yet. Beijing issued its first-ever red alert today
While the short-term effects of being exposed to smog like this are scary—irregular heartbeat, asthma, respiratory problems—even lower levels can have devastating long term effects. In China, about 4,000 people die from premature deaths
At the COP21 summit this week in Paris, China’s leaders have made some pretty significant pledges
Whip ‘em out. Which science fiction movie has the biggest spaceship or station or cube thing or star planet? MetaBallStudios made this CGI video detailing the ships across movies like Star Wars and Interstellar and 2001: A Space Odyssey and even included video games like Mass Effect and real life like the ISS to see who’s the biggest.
Lev Grossman’s Magicians trilogy has won legions of fans, in large part thanks to its vividly described world. And now, Syfy is bringing that world to life, and we’ve been there. We sat in the front row at Brakebills’ magic lab, hung out in the Physical Kids’ Cottage, and met the cast of The Magicians.
Syfy’s The Magicians doesn’t debut until January 25th, but Syfy was excited to show off the magical world they’ve summoned into being, and with good reason: the sets are in-fucking-credible.
We were whisked through some secret sets that I am magically bound from disclosing since they feature in later episodes, and into the airy, wood-paneled Brakebills magic lab. In The Magicians book one, protagonist Quentin Coldwater is given the opportunity to attend Brakebills College For Magical Pedagogy, a boarding school with Victorian trappings and a supernatural curriculum, instead of college.
On the TV show, Brakebills has become a grad school, and the characters have been aged up accordingly. The students no longer wear uniforms, but Brakebills’ lab still has a refined feel from another century.
The Brakebills lab sports a massive stone fireplace bearing the Brakebills crest, warm wood walls, shelves full of magical and scientific equipment, paintings on the walls of distinguished magicians and mystical scenes, a Periodic table of elements both natural and magical, and a side “test room” to try out dangerous spells. Basically, the dream classroom you always wanted—and a far cry from Harry Potter’s dank dungeon potions room.
A cabinet of curiosities
The magic testing room
We were told this enhanced Periodic Table is the prop Lev Grossman is most likely to steal
View from the front of the classroom
Proper form for magical hand-gestures
It’s immediately apparent how much creative time and energy went into The Magicians’ set and production design. Exploring the lab, there’s always another easter egg to find, another magical contraption to explore. Every piece seems selected with purpose.
The magic lab is impressive, but the crown jewel of the set has to be the Physical Kids’ Cottage. In the book, the Cottage serves as a kind of clubhouse for those whose disciplines center around the manipulation of physical magic. Many of the descriptions from the story are manifested there—there’s a piano, a pool table, and a lot of alcohol—but the designers have taken the text and expanded it. Here’s how The Magicians describes the Cottage:
...a shabby but comfortable library lined with threadbare rugs...Books overflowed the bookcases and stood in wobbly stacks in the corners and even on the mantlepiece. The furniture was distinguished but mismatched, and in places it was severely battered. In between the bookcases the walls were hung with the usual inexplicable artifacts that accumulated in private clubs.
On set, the Cottage is atmospheric and sprawling, with multiple rooms and hallways that lead off to cozy nooks and gathering spaces. Every area is accented with painstaking attention to detail, like ashtrays full of cigarette butts and keys on a TARDIS keyring (the Cottage is much, much bigger on the inside than out).
What’s so cool about the Cottage is that it’s both a realization and an expansion of Grossman’s work. Whatever image we might have had in our minds was blown out of the water, and the many rooms and fantastic decorations make it a place to wander—there was hardly enough time to take it all in, and all my pictures don’t do the Cottage’s eclectic decor justice.
Wherever you look inside there’s something else to discover, from framed group pictures of past Physical Kids to Harry Houdini posters to the voluminous library that contains books related to the students’ esoteric studies.
Author Lev Grossman in one of the Cottage nooks
The Cottage feels lived in, and like a genuinely great place to party. So it’s probably not surprising that the cast members like to set up their chairs to hang out there between takes. The proof of many a magic-laced evening is apparent from objects like chairs and tableware stuck to the ceiling—the product of drinking games for young magicians, showrunner Sera Gamble (Supernatural) told us. The actors revealed that none of the booze is real, however.
What you do as a young drunk Magician, apparently
The Physical Kids know how to party
No, really
They are not messing around
We hear they study magic sometimes
When not playing Brakebills foosball
The creative team—led by production designer Rachel O’Toole, art director Kendelle Elliott, and props master Pat O’Brien—have put in funky additions that aren’t even in the books, but which demonstrate how much thought has gone into set creation, like an opium den-inspired cubby bed where Alice, Quentin’s shy and powerful love interest, likes to hide out. And behind the pool table is wallpaper featuring bunnies, a theme that readers will know is inspired by Fillory, The Magicians’ fairytale other world.
Alice’s den
Bunnies!
The “mom jeans” chair
A reading nook
Since the Physical Kids spend a lot of time having dinner parties and drinking (facilitated by resident lush Eliot), the collection of bar implements and bottles is overflowing. Author Lev Grossman, who was on the tour with us, joked that on his first visit he thought he’d need to tell them to add more alcohol, only to find the Cottage sufficiently stocked.
Hale Appleman (Eliot) demonstrates Eliot’s technique
We also saw Julia’s Brooklyn apartment, which after the Cottage was like stepping into a universe as distant as Fillory. A sprawling hipster pad with a retro feel, Julia’s modern world is far removed from Brakebills’ eccentricity—as is her storyline.
In the books, Quentin’s childhood friend Julia doesn’t pass the Brakebills admissions test, and her quest to learn magic through other means is a subplot that’s slowly revealed. On the TV show, Julia’s hardscrabble magical education will be shown in parallel with Quentin’s, giving the audience the chance to experience her origin story firsthand. It’s a sort of Ivory Tower versus self-education set-up. In Julia’s apartment, you can stare out at the New York City skyline, inspect the mystical herbs on her counter, examine the jewelry scattered on the sidetable, even explore her full bathroom and bursting closets. Then it was back to Brakebills magic lab, to talk with the cast and creators.
We got a chance to chat with some of the castmembers, author Lev Grossman, and showrunner Sera Gamble about their experiences making the show, and what’s been changed in adaptation. We’ll have lots more Magicians details for you, as we get closer to the series debut January 25th on Syfy.
Summer Bishil (Margo, ne Janet), Arjun Gupta (Penny), Hale Appleman (Eliot) and Olivia Taylor Dudley (Alice) turn the tables and take pictures of the reporters
The creatives behind The Magicians have built an immersive space for their characters to learn, play, and work all kinds of magic in. We’ve seen the pilot episode, and the show fills a modern fantasy niche that’s been lacking on TV since the days of Buffy.
This is clearly a grown-up fantasy series, with elements of horror alongside its humor and time for sexy escapades in between magical exams. But fans of the books can rest assured that The Magicians is in the hands of people with a deep appreciation for its source material, and we’re excited to see the world of Brakebills and beyond brought to life.
Plus the movie confirms another superhero cameo. Find out if The Force Awakens will have a post-credits scene! The Russo brothers hint at Spider-Man’s costume in Civil War. Game of Thrones set reports reveal a confrontation for Melisandre. Plus, a surprising comeback on The Flash. So many spoilers!
Speaking at Brazil CCXP, costume designer Michael Wilkinson confirms that the dystopic sneak peek
It is a different look. [Director] Zack [Snyder] had a great idea of this sort of nightmare-ish vision, almost a vision of the future, a post-apocalyptic vision. It’s like a dream that Ben [Affleck] has, so we wanted to, it has almost a ‘Mad Max’ quality to it where it’s like the end of the world, trying to survive and then of course Superman and his minions come, so it’s sort of a way of representing the amazing amounts of, the sort of obsessive quality that Bruce Wayne has about the threat of Superman.
In this film, Superman, of course he’s normally seen as a figure of hope, a positive thing, but in this film, his motivations, the consequences of his actions are really being questioned by the world. Is he a savior? Or is he a dangerous alien with unknown intentions? And this becomes an obsession for Bruce Wayne. And he really wants to sort it out. So, it’s manifested in this sort of incredible dream that Zack decided to create.
Wilkinson also briefly acknowledged designing a suit for The Flash, confirming that Ezra Miller’s speedster will make a cameo appearance in the film.
Well, I’m not really at the liberty to talk about the Flash right now, but it’s something that you’ll be seeing in the future in our films. You do get a glimpse of him, of course, in ‘Batman v Superman.’ But I’m really looking forward to taking the amazing, iconic costume for the Flash and interpreting it in a fresh way where Ezra Miller is playing the Flash. He’s an extraordinary performer, he has a sort of interesting sense of humor and the youth that will be great for Barry Allen and I think he’s going to make a great Flash.
[CBR]
Peyton Reed says the movie will move on from the “heist” genre of the original, and try something new:
I think there’s probably going to be some aspects that maybe call back to the tone of this movie, but for “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” we have an entirely different template. We know what that template is, and we have an entirely different genre template for that movie. But it’s going to remain a surprise. But yes, that’s already been decided.
[CBR]
In an extensive video interview, Quentin Tarantino has suggested that he might attempt to return to the world of his stylistic hyperviolent martial arts/revenge series Kill Bill. Previously the director has hinted that a third movie in the franchise would revolve around the daughter of the first assassin killed in The Bride’s quest for revenge in the original Kill Bill going on her own quest. [AV Club]
Anthony Russo briefly teases Spider-Man’s costume in the film, and the response is apparently leading people to believe that the “twist” will be the “Iron Spider” red-and-gold costume created by Tony Stark for Peter Parker in the original Civil War comics:
Tom Holland is an amazing Spider, people will love it. It was a very experimental process, placing it with other actors, especially with Downey Jr., we were learning as we did and are very happy with the result. But we are still working on some things, like the uniform. He’s not ready because so much will be produced with special effects.
The film will show a mix of what everyone is waiting and a little twist. So yeah, that’s what I can tell.
[CBR]
Cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria: The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that the first trailer for this movie will run ahead of showings of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Speaking at a press conference over the weekend, Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that the movie enters official production for principal photography next month. [Jedi News]
J.J. Abrams has flatly denied that the film will have a post-credits teaser
No. All of the scenes are actually in the movie.
Although we’ve seen Greg Grunberg’s X-Wing pilot before
Do you want oodles of more Star Wars footage? Here is oodles of Star Wars footage! First up, a Verizon advert in which Han Solo offers a blaster to Rey:
A new Disney XD featurette ends with brief new shots of Leia and Rey in new costumes:
And a new TV spot with some teeny-tiny new snippets of Rey and Finn piloting the Falcon.
Los Siete Reinos (via Watchers on the Wall) has a set report about a minor scene for Melisandre—an argument between her character and Davos Seaworth that takes place early on in the season. Considering Davos was recently rumored to have teamed up with Jon Snow
Lonsdale Martin discusses the introduction of Wally West to the show:
What can you tell us about Wally West?
Where we meet Wally and how we’re introduced to him, he’s just a regular guy. He’s not Kid Flash just yet. I don’t know when that’s going to happen. He is also into drag racing, which makes the family dynamic kind of funny when your dad is a detective. It’s pretty cool. He’s fairly protective of himself and what it is that he does. It’s difficult having to be introduced into a new family; really, a family with really strong personalities. Iris is a really strong person and she’s determined and has protected herself. When Wally is maybe getting into trouble, she is very concerned and does what she needs to do to help him out. It’s that kind of thing: Does Wally want to be helped at all by anyone, family or not? That’s where he’s at. He’s got his defenses built up pretty high.
When he arrives, does Joe know who he is at that point?
I can’t say too much about the reaction. Overall, fans will enjoy it. It’s going to let out a different side of Joe, Iris and Barry as well. They all have to deal with this new family member, just like Wally does. It’s going to be interesting to watch those struggles. It’s not easy. It’s not an easy transition. As much as Joe is a great guy and a great father, he’s going to have to struggle with how he can be a father to a kid that maybe doesn’t need that. That’s where Wally’s at, and Wally doesn’t make it easy at all for anyone.
[EW]
Robbie Amell, who used to play Ronnie Raymond/Firestorm in the series, has posted a picture of the Firestorm reactor to instagram with the tagline “hello, old friend”, teasing his return to the show.
Kids come under fire in a drone attack in a new comic preview for “Dark Waters”.
Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero-Wright preview “Cape Town”.
Finally, Ward threatens Fitz in another clip from the midseason finale, “Maveth”.
Additional reporting by Gordon Jackson and Charlie Jane Anders. Image: Batman v Superman.
This is unexpected. There’s finally going to be a live-action adaptation of Kim Stanley Robinson’s beloved Mars trilogy of novels. It’s going to be on Spike TV, best known for reality shows like Bar Rescue and Ink Masters (and infinite Cops reruns). But the surprises don’t end there.
First off, Variety says the show will be executive produced by scifi TV guru J. Michael Straczynski and Game of Thrones producer Vince Gerardis, which is cool. Second is that this is Spike’s first scripted drama in nearly a decade, and it’s a hard scifi series—not the “dude” channel’s usual fare at all. But most surprisingly, the channel has ordered the show straight-to-series—meaning it’s completely invested in making the series, before it even sees a pilot.
As the nation’s bro-iest network, I would have been wary of any Spike adaptation of science fiction, but between JMS and Spike’s shocking support for the show even in its most nascent stages, I’d say there’s a good possibility of Red Mars the TV show being watchable at minimum. But will any of Spike’s regular viewers give a crap? That remains to be seen.
Contact the author at rob@io9.com.
Supergirl continues to find ways to tell compelling stories about people in costumes with other-worldly powers, without needing to turn dark, “gritty” and misanthropic. This flies in the face of everything we know about superheroes in the 21st century! Clearly, someone has not gotten the memo.
Spoilers ahead!
“Human for a Day” was the traditional “hero loses their powers” storyline, which every superhero series has to do at some point. It’s pretty much required. In this case, the mechanism of Supergirl losing her powers was lifted right from the recent Superman comics—Superman (and Supergirl) have the power to unleash a “Solar Flare,”
http://kotaku.com/superman-s-new...
The “hero loses his/her powers
Oh, and there’s a random earthquake in National City, on the one day when Kara doesn’t have her powers. So she’s unable to help people who are trapped, dying, and in distress.
The emotional heart of the episode comes when Kara is forced to watch a woman’s father die of internal bleeding, which she could have fixed easily with her superpowers. For all that this show is mostly light and goofy, it gives that moment the weight it deserves. And the expressions that go through Melissa Benoist’s face as she gives up on being able to save this man’s life (putting her glasses back on, because the X-ray vision is not going to happen) are pretty impressive:
Benoist can do Kara’s usual collection of quirky mannerisms and Supergirl’s perky bravado really well, but she actually has some range when the show asks it of her.
Anyway, Supergirl is tested—and not surprisingly, she passes. She chooses to put on her costume and go and confront some guys robbing a convenience store, even though she’s powerless and they could easily kill her. She wins out through a combination of bluffing and inspirational speechifying, convincing the random looters that they’re better than this and even though they’re scared, they can rise above. Supergirl’s speech to the looters is intercut with Cat Grant, on a live feed that Winn has rigged up at CatCo, speaking to the people of National City to reassure them that everything is going to be OK even though Supergirl seems to have abandoned them. This interpolation of two inspirational speeches is both ridiculous and somehow moving, at the same time.
James Olsen has been following Kara around, trying to convince her of two somewhat contradictory things: A) her powers aren’t what make her a hero, and she can still help people without them, and B) until she gets her powers back, she should stay out of trouble and not try to help anybody too much. But when he sees her risking her life and talking down those looters, he’s inspired and takes the best ever photo of Supergirl, taking the main looter guy’s gun away.
And—as pretty much always seems to be the case on this show—James provides the main moment of emotional realness in the episode, talking about how his father gave him a camera before he went away to the Gulf and never came back. James has hung on to the camera since then, because it’s a way to keep things permanent in a world where nothing ever sticks around.
Supergirl and Cat Grant are both in the position of having to reassure the scared people of National City about Supergirl’s absence, partly because Max Lord is stirring them up with a lot of fear-mongering. He mongers that fear like he was born to monger. And continuing the “Max Lord=Lex Luthor
One of the clunky bits in this episode, incidentally, is the way Supergirl gets her powers back. Max Lord insinuates that she may have lost her powers forever, because it’s already been 48 hours and she hasn’t gotten them back. (He’s almost as good at insinuating as he is at mongering.) But then Winn looks into some DEO files and finds that she just needs a jolt of adrenaline to get her powers back. Cue James Olsen trying to rescue a bunch of trapped people and nearly dying, so Supergirl can re-power just in time to save him. I get it, we need drama and stuff, but still... slightly clunky.
The lovely part, though, is how much Supergirl enjoys using her powers once she has them back. That’s one of the things that people love about superhero narratives when they’re not mired in gritty darkness all the time:
And there’s a nice conversation between Supergirl and Cat Grant, in which Supergirl thanks Cat for the inspiring speech and Cat tries to scold Supergirl for her absenteeism. Supergirl just sort of brushes it off, in a neat sign that she’s starting to grow into this. This show, in general, is growing into its format a bit more, which is nice.
Meanwhile, you know which character is still not clicking? This guy:
I’m not as much of a Winn hater as some of you guys—but jeez. He needs another dimension besides “dorky nerd who’s obnoxiously in unrequited love with Kara.” At least he gets to make himself useful in this episode, helping Cat—but then he’s being a total whiny jerk to Kara afterwards. Telling her that she’s doomed to be alone because she’s a superhero, and later sulking because he’s disappointed in her for hugging James.
Grow UP, Winn. You’re starting to look like a refugee from Scorpion.
In the episode’s “B” plot, the earthquake traps Alex and Hank inside the DEO headquarters, where Jemm the Son of Saturn has escaped and is using his psychic powers to kill a bunch of DEO agents. This is a somewhat rushed plot, and Jemm comes off like a somewhat stock villain rather than the awesome alien hero we know from the comics. Oh well. In any case, the point of this storyline is not really dealing with Jemm, but Alex handling her distrust of Hank in a situation where they have to rely on each other. Alex is still trying to get to the bottom of the mystery of her father’s death, now that she knows her father was secretly a DEO agent and Hank was the last one to see him alive.
But the Jemm storyline does give us a killer moment where Alex takes him on alone and nearly kicks his ass:
In the end, though, Hank saves Alex, despite her having randomly handcuffed him to a pole. (A decision that seems somewhat inexplicable when you’re being hunted by an alien telepath, even with the aforementioned trust issues.)
And kudos to all the commenters who guessed it—Hank is indeed J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter
http://io9.com/5759457/5-reas...
So he’s secretly an alien, running the organization that is dedicated to hunting down and imprisoning aliens. That... is an interesting lifestyle choice. Actually, a lot of stuff about J’onn’s story doesn’t entirely hold together, if you think about it too much. Like, Hank has been sort of gratuitously xenophobic about aliens, and a major jerk to Supergirl—but maybe he was overcompensating. More seriously, there’s the whole story of how J’onn became Hank. Basically, the DEO was hunting J’onn even though he wasn’t one of the Fort Rozz escapees. And they tracked him to Peru. But Alex’s dad realized that J’onn was a harmless refugee rather than a criminal, and didn’t want to hurt him. Still, Hank became obsessed and was willing to go to any lengths to take J’onn out. So Jeremiah Danvers sacrificed his life to save J’onn, and somehow Hank was killed too. So J’onn took Hank’s place, using his shapeshifting powers. With me so far?
Here’s the part I don’t get—J’onn promised Jeremiah he’d protect Alex with his life, and look after her as if she were his own daughter. And somehow, this translated to “recruiting her to join the DEO to hunt aliens at my side.” Because that’s the absolute best way to ensure her long-term safety and keep his promise to the dying Jeremiah. Right? Umm...
But hey. That’s some pretty good makeup/CG right there:
Meanwhile, in the episode’s kicker, the other shoe drops with the whole evil Kryptonians subplot.
Remember how we said it was so great that this show didn’t make us wait for the confrontation between Supergirl and her aunt Astra
I like the fact that we’re already seeing Kara start to improve as a hero and gain confidence, and watching her learning curve has been pretty fun. There have been some bumps along the way, some of them typical first-season stuff, but I’m still enjoying the ride.
And this episode, in particular, showed that Supergirl is able to use the occasional moment of serious emotional darkness—like the bit above, where she watches a man die—and use it to ground a whole hour of fun, frothy, unabashedly inspirational action. That’s a use of gritty darkness that we can get behind.
Charlie Jane Anders is the author of All The Birds in the Sky, coming in January from Tor Books. Follow her on Twitter, and email her.
Well... the answer’s maybe. As part of an ongoing roll-out teasing the special features in the Marvel Phase 2 box set, last night the company revealed a preview clip discussing the upcoming Doctor Strange movie. The kicker? The clip ends with what could just be concept art of the live-action Sorcerer Supreme.
The short preview video debuted on USA Today yesterday afternoon, and features several members of the team on Doctor Strange—Scott Derrickson, Kevin Feige, Steven Broussard and more—discussing the challenges of brining the mystical side of the Marvel universe to life. You can check it out below:
The visuals largely stick to comic art, but the very end of the clip features a shot of Strange floating out in space, manipulating colorful magical energy. It certainly looks a little bit like Cummerbund Bandersnatch Benedict Cumberbatch facially, and the wild colors and imagery of the good Doctor floating in space certainly match up with what we saw behind closed doors at the D23 expo earlier this year
However, the costume itself doesn’t quite match up with what’s been heard about the outfit before. Although the color scheme above is very much in line with the traditional colors worn by Doctor Strange in the comics, back in August
That sounds like it could be potentially closer to the modern costume redesign Strange began wearing in 2012’s Defenders comic, rather than the classic look seen above, or maybe both given there’s a description of a cape.
So we’ll leave this up to you to decide—this might be your first fleeting tease of how Benedict Cumberbatch will appear in Doctor Strange, or it might just be some fancy art. It presumably won’t be much longer until we see more—with the movie currently filming, we’re bound to get some better glimpses of the Sorcerer Supreme in action sooner rather than later.
Looking for more from the world of Panem after Mockingjay came to a conclusion last month? Well, so is Lionsgate. It’s been discussed
Speaking at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference, Burns commented that potential prequels to the massive Young Adult franchise would bring back something fans missed from later entries—the battle-to-the-death arenas of the titular games, an element of the series that faded more into the background as Katniss’ journey from contestant to revolutionary played out. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he continued:
The one thing that kids say they missed (from the early Hunger Games films) was there was no arenas. If we went backwards there obviously would be arenas.
You know, I kind of love the idea of young Hunger Games fans watching Mockingjay and going “Sure, but you know what this movie needs? More arenas full of kids murdering each other.”
Lionsgate sees The Hunger Games as one of its most important franchises—it’s been a huge success, so naturally it wanta to keep it going as long as possible. After all, it’s turning the whole damn thing into a theme park
http://io9.com/the-director-o...
But clearly doing more pre-Katniss Hunger Games isn’t just the only prequel idea floating around at the moment. Recently
The interesting part of the story for me is to go back 75 years earlier and see how everything became the way it is. I’m sure if Suzanne [Collins] were to get inspired and decide there’s another story that’s important for her to tell that exists within the world of Panem and whether about the Dark Days, another character, or another set of Games, whatever that could be, I’m sure it would be great. And I’d loved to be involved, absolutely.
There’s clearly a lot you could do with the world of The Hunger Games. But should they? Can a franchise ever truly end any more, in an era of non stop spinoffs and shared universe? Lionsgate certainly doesn’t think so.
[Via THR]
We don’t know who she is, or what’s happened to her in the past, but the mute young protagonist of short science fiction film Strawberries has a very special talent—and she’s had just about enough of the mysterious man who’s been ordering her how to use it.
Explains director Rowan Spiers-Floyd:
“My goal was to create a sense of unease. Rather than telling a straightforward narrative, my focus was on bringing a sense of depth and truth to the alternate reality where the story unfolds, leaving the audience to speculate about the nature of this world, what has brought our characters into this moment, and how this scene fits into a large tale.”
Strawberries uses quick cuts and enigmatic images to explain the dark nature of the girl’s powers; by the time you figure out exactly what’s going on in her head, the haunting last shot is on the screen. Simple, but very effective.
[Via Geek Art Gallery]
This is perhaps one of the silliest, yet most exciting strings of words I’ve ever had to contemplate: Dark Horse have announced that iconic Canadian poet and novelist Margaret Atwood is writing her first ever graphic novel. It’s called Angel Catbird, and it’s basically Atwood getting her hands on Cat-Hawkman.
Update: An earlier version of this article did not credit colorist Tamra Bonvillain, whose name was left out of PR material provided to news sites by Dark Horse. It has been updated to reflect Bonvillain’s role in the project.
Atwood will pen the book—in fact, a trio of graphic novels—with art from Johnnie Christmas (Sheltered, Pisces), and colors from Tamra Bonvillain (Rat Queens, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur), depicting the pulpy adventures of her hybrid hero. Here’s Atwood briefly discussing the idea behind the book’s hero, which sounds wonderfully strange:
I have concocted a superhero who is part cat, part bird. Due to some spilled genetic Super-Splicer, our hero got tangled up with both a cat and an owl; hence his fur and feathers, and his identity problems.
Keeping in line with the cat/bird legacy of the hero as well as Atwood’s long history as an environmental activist
The first graphic novel in the Angel Catbird series will be out some time next year, and each entry will set you back $11. Small price to pay to see someone like Atwood take on the world of superhero comics!
Tucked away in the recently released Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 2 Blu-ray megaset
Hmm? Those aren’t delusions spurred from Drax’s alcohol abuse, but instead are early CG versions of Groot and Rocket Raccoon, which were never completed because the scene was dropped early enough in production it would have been silly to spend the money to fully animate them? Oh. Yeah, okay, that makes more sense.
[Via Comic Book Resources]
Contact the author at rob@io9.com.
Disney Animation has been on a roll recently and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop anytime soon. Their next film, Zootopia, hits theaters March 4 and it features a world just like ours, except it’s totally populated by animals.
But animals are all so different. Different sizes, different climates, different diets. How the heck could they all co-exist in a single place? Well, they’d need different modes of transportation, different neighborhoods, and big wall in between to keep the climates correct in each one.
Below, you can see some concept art from these different neighborhoods in Zootopia, which explain how all these animals can co-exist in one city.
Here’s a Zootopia crosswalk. Notice everyone is walking on two legs. That challenge of making the animals bipeds was a big one for the filmmakers.
This is Rainforest District, where all the warm, moist climate animals live.
Here’s Sahara Square, the desert themed land. Think Abu Dhabi, complete with a massive, high-end hotel in the middle.
Tundra Town speaks for itself. Snow, ice, and in the back you get a glimpse of the massive air conditioning wall which climatizes each land in Zootopia.
See the fox here? That’s Nick, one of the main characters. He’s a fox running through Rodentia, where all the rodents live. Notice the scale of a fox versus all the cars and buildings. It’s all miniature.
Mice and elephants, living together, mass hysteria!!! Here you see how mice cross the street in Zootopia, so as not to get crushed by bigger animals.
Zootopia opens March 4, check back next week for much more on the film.
Contact the author at germain@io9.com.
The PlayStation 4 is an unexciting video game console, all things considered. It’s a box that you put under your TV, and it plays video games. Slowly but surely, it’s getting better at doing that. The games it plays are also getting better and more numerous. Slowly, but surely.
This is part of our 2015 “State of” series, a look at how the five major consoles (and PC) are doing this year.
The PlayStation 4 of 2015 isn’t all that different from the PlayStation 4 Sony launched in 2013. It’s gotten a minor hardware update, but the box and controller look the same. Its operating system is largely unchanged, aside from a few small but welcome new OS features. It’s gotten some great new games—enough that we now feel the console is worth buying
From its launch until today, the PS4 has maintained a pace of steady improvement to both its functionality and its game library. Taken individually, those improvements may have arrived too slowly for some fans. But when viewed over a long enough timeframe, the PS4’s upward trajectory is easier to see and more reassuring.
Sony’s console has also maintained a number of small advantages over its current-gen competitors. For example, despite the odd exception, it’s now taken as a given that the PS4 version of a multiplatform game will run at a higher resolution and with more consistent performance than on the less-powerful Xbox One. However, when placed on the full spectrum of modern gaming—one that includes the PC—the PS4 becomes much less of a confident competitor.
The PS4 has gotten a minor hardware revision: a new console purchased this fall will feature more efficient power management and clickier power/eject buttons than the original 2013 model. Sony has also launched a 1TB model—recommended, given how quickly the initial 500GB hard drive can fill up—though it remains as easy as ever to simply install your own
The DualShock 4 controller has seen some minor tweaks, but nothing to address users’ two primary complaints: The lackluster battery life and the thumbsticks, which are a bit too squishy and prone to decay after heavy use. (Thank god for custom thumbstick caps
Of course, both the physical console and its controller were already pretty good. If it ain’t broke, etc.
The PS4’s operating system remains largely unchanged from two years ago. It’s still clean and no-frills, and it remains occasionally difficult to navigate. The share button still works very well, and the Capture Gallery is a solid software addition that makes managing captured screenshots and videos much easier. The settings menu is still confusingly organized, and adjusting a given setting can still require a lot of hunting around.
The better-late-than-never suspend mode
Sony’s PlayStation Network works better than it has at some points in the past but still leaves significant room for improvement. The service goes down just often enough to be considered problematic, and party chat has any of a number of annoying problems, including hiccuping chat quality and NAT issues that break lines of communication between specific party members.
After two years of heavy online PS4 use, it’s clear that Sony’s online infrastructure just isn’t where it could be. Also, they really need to let us change our freakin’ PSN names
Games make the console, and the PS4 has plenty of good games, though the majority of the best games on the system are also available on other platforms. Just three of the games on our list of the 12 best PS4 games are PS4 exclusives, and one of those—The Last of Us: Remastered
In terms of PS4-only games, the fall of 2015 was a disappointment. This time of the year is usually when console owners get a big exclusive or two to sink their teeth into, but PS4 owners got only Until Dawn
Last fall’s lineup was disappointing as well: Driveclub blew a gasket
Despite all of that, it’s still possible to look at the PS4 and come away with the impression that it’s a strong console with a lot of good games. Part of that is due to Sony’s two-pronged strategy of aggressively pursuing partnerships with independent game developers while also closely associating their console with a number of big-budget multiplatform franchises like Destiny, Assassin’s Creed, and Call of Duty. The latter goal has mostly been achieved thanks to the questionable practice of securing timed-exclusive DLC, but it’s hard to argue that Destiny, for example, isn’t more closely associated with the PS4 as a result of Sony’s deals with publisher Activision.
2016 looks promising, with a bunch of exciting multiplatform games coming to the PS4 along with a smattering of promising exclusives like Uncharted 4, Horizon Zero Dawn and The Last Guardian. The PS4 library seems on track to continue its steady growth, expanded regularly with multiplatform games and, less frequently, with a new must-have exclusive. (No pressure, Uncharted 4.)
Sony has demonstrated a continuing willingness to experiment with new ideas, though few of those ideas have markedly improved the PS4 experience. SharePlay, for example, is an innovative feature
Going by last weekend’s PlayStation Experience press event, it appears as though Sony’s next big push for PS4 will be their PlayStation VR headset
In the fall of 2015, the PlayStation 4 is as sturdy a gaming device as it ever was. The console has yet to have a single, transformative moment where everything kicks into overdrive, and it’s seeming increasingly unlikely that it will anytime soon. Sony’s strategy has been less about software overhauls and bold new directions, and more about steadily building on the foundation they laid in 2013. It’s working well enough so far.
To contact the author of this post, write to kirk@kotaku.com.
Illustration by Sam Woolley
Chances are you’ve admired the bold, dramatic paintings of Frank Frazetta. But you haven’t seen the best of his art. A huge collection of his sketches, drawings and watercolor paintings is going up for sale—and you could gain a new appreciation for the master. Warning: NSFW images below!
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--CUp6j7Fw--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/xjwqhta6zaikzq7wwuaq.jpg)
Conan and the Savage Sea
Frazetta’s best friend Doc Dave Winiewicz is auctioning off his collection of Frazetta’s works on Friday at 11 AM PST. And this particular Frazetta collection isn’t the set of images you’ve seen
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--bzSe7ZzQ--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/bcdb1wh4fkkl8yiexiur.jpg)
Conan the Buccaneer
“The thing that separates my collection from a lot of others is that I concentrated on drawings,” Winiewicz told me when we spoke on the phone. “Because I considered Frazetta to be the greatest draughtsman who ever lived.”
Frazetta was a great creative artist who “should be part of art history,” Winiewicz added. He should be known beyond the science fiction and fantasy community or the tattoo community—he was a great and original enough talent that he should be considered an important artist in his own right. And to Winiewicz’s mind, these drawings and watercolors show off his command of figures.
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--_1BQwDrl--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/apkptps2sio0o4brsmgp.jpg)
Mastermind of Mars—Girl with Dagger
Most of the images in this auction were published in one way or another, mostly back in the 1960s and 1970s. But some of hte watercolors are not the final versions of the images that appeared in books or magazines. “Some of the sketches are just sketches, that he did out of the love of sketching,” says Winiewicz.
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--qS-lJ2Pv--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/lymithmwgwqlbhtdx2dl.jpg)
Kubla Khan
The images in this collection cover “all the different aspects of Frazetta’s career,” says Winiewicz—including some of his pornographic art as well as his art of Conan and Tarzan, plus his own creations like the Death Dealer.
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--oUit-6K6--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/bxap0tn0rvluvhlzsdid.jpg)
Tarzan and the Castaways cover art
Winiewicz wrote an essay about Frazetta in 1979, and sent it to the artist in 1980. “I was so curious as to why I was so powerfully affected by his art.” The essay is included in the auction book (which you can read as a PDF at the auction site) and Winiewicz says Frazetta was blown away by it—he said, “That’s the best thing that’s ever been written about me.” So they became friends for the next 30 years. Winiewicz would go visit Frazetta every couple of months, and they would hang out and talk about art.
It was like if you lived in the Renaissance and you got to be friends with Michelangelo, says Winiewicz.
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--cpECVuQT--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/au5ejod1kfu7rx77jzsq.jpg)
Tarzan at the Earth’s Core cover art
Sometimes, Winiewicz would watch Frazetta draw or paint, and say, “Frank, just tell me what you’re thinking while you’re doing this.”
And Frazetta would “engage in a stream of consciousness,” says Winiewicz. “What impressed me was the depth with which he would consider these things.” Frazetta “would build entire scenarios and entire worlds around these images.” His work always had touches of realism alongside images from fantasy, and he put a “part of his soul” into every image.
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--g7NNXWM---/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/vdo69zyl39t32n3mop4y.jpg)
Flash Gordon Battles the Monster from Mongo
“This guy would sit down and create out of his imagination,” said Winiewicz. “95 percent of his work that he produced was an imaginative work, it wasn’t photoreference.” Frazetta didn’t work with live models or any kind of reference materials, he just drew and painted what he saw in his head.
The one exception was when he did movie posters back in the 1960s—the studios would send him photos of the films’ stars, and he would incorporate their likenesses. But “just about every piece in my catalog is a piece by Frazetta that came out of his imagination, that wasn’t derivative in any way.”
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--3M7anlPy--/bz6neeavkofwg9oeswpn.jpg)
Death Dealer and Snow Queen
Frazetta created his most famous character, the Death Dealer, because “people were starting to circulate a rumor that he had lost it, that he hadn’t produced a great image in a long time,” said Winiewicz. “That got to Frank.”
He immediately sat down and painted the Death Dealer and the Snow Warriors—“two images that people love.”
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--jjEMR-qJ--/byf7ryce6mvh7b7t9wa4.jpg)
Death Dealer and Snow Queen
The Death Dealer was on the cover of American Artist magazine, and it was the only time they ever had to go back for a second printing, said Winiewicz.
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--QY4PK5kZ--/zmegbieyqgai7qveqftc.jpg)
Lord of the Jungle (Master of Adventure cover)
There’s just so much life in Frazetta’s paintings that people are drawn to it, said Winiewicz. “People are automatically attracted to them, because of that visceral sense of life,” and there’s so much going on in them. “If that’s not a god-given gift, I don’t know what is.”
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--5-AuIpLH--/jvysyuaj8p9zqqs2wv6l.jpg)
The Encounter: spaceship and fairy-creature
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--hVv9lfUv--/upayehxgwgfkwj6uw3ky.jpg)
Lion Queen (colored pencil)
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--JiapMiZ1--/opzrvmeioldxkbqfjoeq.jpg)
Funeral Pyre with Nude
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--PVYoQjnY--/fmfwcgunb9ymrqfqiwik.jpg)
The Rescue
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--upT517X6--/ekwny6g75oddow0zkdd4.jpg)
At the Earth’s Core
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--RhAOeHYY--/kgp1nzvpsjxvcnmbfzxh.jpg)
Tarzan and the Golden Lion
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--Ui2nG12V--/lj6fxmmcnpprz0ifuqlh.jpg)
Windblown
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--Wo_pBQRj--/xheg8djb6l0tm9bkqzjx.jpg)
Tarzan the Invincible
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--4Aw-dSQl--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/yymu2rmq5bnop7eyfzh6.jpg)
The Lion Queen
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--khDZ5Hgv--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/u0bsehgchbm6fkrs6gzo.jpg)
At Earth’s Core
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--qKxqESwH--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/asxncg6u3zosmqwozrcb.jpg)
Lord of the Savage Jungle
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--fO0b3uir--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/blqrkwuxusap7wtgbrrp.jpg)
Lord of the Rings—The Black Nazgul
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--0cz94D9r--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/kyxuzawxfklhumx9tunt.jpg)
Tarzan at the Earth’s Core
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--8CFcF0rL--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/s3kk3dcawjvi0rycwoka.jpg)
Flash Gordon and the Princess of Mongo
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--_kFqERmH--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/npwfq5csr0edzp4eba1b.jpg)
A Gentle Breeze
![Get Ready To Appreciate The Fantasy Art of Frank Frazetta on a Whole New Level! [NSFW]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--CnfEWbcC--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/daou7hndgilfrhd62uy6.jpg)
And here’s the auction book cover.
Contact the author at charliejane@io9.com and follow her on Twitter and Tumblr
From powering airplanes
As we previously
In 2013, a paper published in the journal Bioresource Technology reported that algal fuels can cut carbon dioxide emissions by 50 to 70 percent. It’s also more efficient than other biofuels, like those derived from corn. The US Department of Energy says that algae could produce up to 60 times more fuel per acre than land-based plants.
Major corporations are starting to take note. In 2011, United Airlines made history with the world’s first algae-powered flight, transporting passengers from Chicago to Houston.
It’s even being eyed as a safer substitute for nuclear energy. In Fukushima—a place that’s all too familiar with the dangers of atomic power—a Japanese think tank is seeking to produce
Speaking of Japan: it’s one of the countries that’s aggressively pushing for microalgae production and its use as a fuel, especially for modes of transport, like cars, buses, and even jets. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe apparently named an algae biofuel company in Japan as his “favorite” startup.
That company, called Euglena, announced last week that it’s working with All Nippon Airways—Japan’s biggest airline—to use algae as plane fuel, and will open a demonstration plant in Yokohama. Euglena is spending 3 billion yen (around $25 million) to build the plant, which will produce over 33,000 gallons of algae a year.
Still, that’s a drop in the slimy green bucket. One Boeing 747 can burn that much fuel in a single ten-hour flight. That’s why coming up with a cheap way to mass-produce algae is so important. So can’t we just turn to one of our thousands of scum-filled rivers and strike green gold? Sadly, that’s just not how it works.
Researchers at Euglena Co. in Japan are working with All Nippon Airways and Chevron to produce microalgae as vehicle fuel. Credit: Akio Kon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
You might’ve heard of these things called “algal blooms” in the news recently. That’s when algae spike in number in streams, rivers, ponds or lakes. Sometimes, that algae can be toxic to fish and other aquatic animals. These increases are called harmful algal blooms.
The Environmental Protection Agency says that in freshwater and saltwater environments alike, warmer temperatures could trigger more blooms of algae in these bodies of water.
Scientific American reported earlier this year that an increasing number of algae blooms have been found everywhere in the Western US, from Monterey Bay in California, all the way up to Alaska. These “unprecedented” algae blooms can harmfully impact local economies, especially in the fisheries industry. Plus, the blooms can suck oxygen out of the water, making it uninhabitable for life.
But wait, you say! We can put this algae to good use, right? Let’s scrape it out of all those ponds and fill 747 fuel tanks with ‘em! That’s a big misconception when it comes to algae as a biofuel. In reality, “algae” actually has an incredibly wide definition.
“Algae are actually an extremely diverse set of organisms and vary greatly in their characteristics,” said Erik Hyrkas, a spokesperson for the Department of Energy. “Some are toxic and some are not, just as some plants are toxic and some are not. Strains selected for biofuel production are not toxic.”
The National Wildlife Foundation says that those algal blooms that we hear about in the news these days are often harmful. While teeny tiny algae plays a vital role in the aquatic food chain—phytoplankton serve as microscopic snacks for small animals called zooplankton—there are dangerous types, too. Cyanobacteria is a blue-green variety that can produce toxic chemicals capable of killing zooplankton, fish, and other water dwellers. Harmful algal blooms, or HABs, are often composed of cyanobacteria. And we can’t use that for producing biofuels.
And unfortunately, future Earth is going to see a lot more HABs. Climate change is to blame. It can lead to drought, which makes fresh water saltier, thereby triggering increased toxic algae. It also raises levels of worldwide carbon dioxide, which algae need to thrive. Finally, other environmental changes can occur, like changes in rainfall, a rise in sea level, and shifting patterns in how winds push water from the ocean to the shore. (There are manmade causes for HABs, as well, such as fertilizer runoff from farms.) All of these factors can lead to increased algal activity.
According to the National Wildlife Foundation, parts of the US have seen dizzying increases in annual precipitation—particularly the Northeast and England, where rainfall has increased a whopping 71 percent in the last 50 years. That’s led to these blossoming blue-green algae pools. Last August, a massive HAB in Lake Erie resulted in a temporary ban on drinking tap water in Toledo, Ohio, affecting 500,000 people for two days.
Okay, we get it. That’s pretty scary, but if not all algal blooms are harmful, isn’t there someway we can use all that algae floating around in the wild to good use? The answer is still tricky.
Microalgae for fuel is cultivated in big lab tanks like these, not scooped from algal booms in water bodies. Credit: Akio Kon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
As an oil alternative that’s much better for the environment, algae is being seriously targeted across the world as a sustainable fuel source. However, unlike oil, we can’t just go out into the world and scoop it up. It needs to be raised in specific conditions. Otherwise, it’s too hard to collect.
“Even for blooms with large surface scums, as in Lake Erie, the bloom does not represent a large and dependable supply of algae which can be easily harvested,” said Quay Dortch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She’s the program coordinator of its HAB prevention and mitigation programs.
Besides sometimes being too toxic to use for biofuels, these big blooms in nature are also very dilute and quickly move up and down currents, making tracking them down in the first place a challenge. And most blooms only last for a short period in the growing season, Dortch said. The US Department of Energy agrees.
“Our office is not currently investing in the harvesting of algal blooms,” Hyrkas told Gizmodo in an email, “due to unpredictability of biomass and lipid composition and lack of co-location with conversion facilities when harvesting that biomass, which prevents it from being economical at the current time.”
Cylinders of microalgae sitting in a lab. Credit: Akio Kon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
So, how is algae being harvested as new fuel source? It sounds damn near impossible, based on all this algal bloom gloom and doom. It’s not—it just requires planning. Here’s what organizations are doing to tap algae, including the Department of Energy.
To ensure that the algae is both non-toxic and contained—the opposite of an HAB, basically—specific strands of microalgae are bred in big tubs in controlled facilities and labs. The University of California, San Diego has a whole division for algae growth: the California Center for Algae Biotechnology, which boasts 33,000 square feet of labs, 18 thousand-liter ponds, two 30-foot, 8,000-liter “raceway” ponds, and more. Scientists study the algae and figure out ways to best mass produce it as a sustainable source for fuel.
In those labs and in others like it (such as the Algae Program at the DoE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office), the real challenge is strain selection. That’s another difference between algae that’s bred to be suitable for biofuel, and the wild algae you might find in Lake Erie. Scientists are studying these microalgae in these controlled environments, trying to pinpoint which water and temperature conditions, for example, yield the most powerful strain of algae. From there, microalgae can be converted into biofuels.
Still, the biggest obstacle is economic feasibility. Algae is extremely expensive—but the DoE told me this summer that the goal is to get it down to $3 per gallon, which is on par with crude oil. That’s why that strain improvement process is so crucial: if researchers can find which energy-rich, robust, non-toxic microalgae types are best and how to grow those specific types quickly, they can scale that up to mass production.
The good news is that, unlike petroleum-based fuels, algae grows—fast. That’s one thing all algae has in common, whether it’s in a pond bloom or a lab tank.
They can double their number in an hour. Researchers want to use that to their advantage. That is, after all, part of the reason these algal blooms have slowly taken over our water supplies. But in this case, we want to figure out how to trigger algal spikes intentionally, in controlled environments, and with safe species of algae that are non-toxic and primed to pump out fuel.
Despite all the challenges and misconceptions, algae is being pursued by more and more governments, research centers, and corporations alike. Once we educate ourselves more on just how this process works, the green biofuels seems less pie-in-the-sky, and more plane-in-the-sky.
Top image: Sunlight from a solar collector at Utah State University’s Energy Laboratory shines through fiber optics to stimulate algae growth, seen here in 2009. Credit: AP Photo/Colin Braley
Email the author at bryan@gizmodo.com, or follow him on Twitter.
Looks like those recent rumors
http://io9.com/universals-mum...
According to The Wrap, Boutella (who’s set to appear in Star Trek Beyond next year as well)—has joined the project, which was allegedly floating around alternate scripts by Jon Spaihts depending on if a man or a woman was cast. Of course, Boutella’s not the only actor linked with the film. Recent rumors
It’s cool to see a woman land the role—especially as, beyond The Mummy, Boutella would now star in multiple Universal Monsters films as part of plans for a Marvel-esque shared universe. As long as this is just a straight up sinister Mummy who happens to be a woman, rather than a cliché “Yummy Mummy” (ugh), that is!
[Via The Wrap]
The world is a scary place sometimes, but we can all take solace in the fact that the forces of good have come together and made this happen: The Garbage Pail Kids Movie has just been released on Blu-ray, with all manner of special features befitting its “Collector’s Edition” status.
Though it was released in 1987 to audience indifference and critical disgust, the sparkling treatment of this new release cements The Garbage Pail Kids Movie (tagline: “It doesn’t get any grosser than this!”) as a genuine cult classic.
It’s certainly the one and only movie of its kind—unless someone can point me toward another work of cinema about creepy aliens who vaguely resemble human teenagers (except with way more oozing bodily fluids, farts, etc.) that come to earth, save an orphan (Mackenzie Astin) from bullies, break into song, design clothes, tangle with a femme fatale named Tangerine, get drunk with bikers, cause general mayhem, etc. All of that from a trading-card game! (Although my personal favorite—the hot air balloon disaster that is “Cheryl Peril”—didn’t make the cast, alas.)
Yep. So anyway, the Blu-ray is out today on Shout Factory and it comes with the following brand-new special features:
- The Effects Of The Garbage Pail Kids Movie – Interviews With Special Makeup Effects Creator John Carl Buechler And Makeup Effects Artist Gino Crognale
- On The Set – An Interview With First Assistant Director Thomas A. Irvine
- The Artful Dodger – An Interview With Actor Mackenzie Astin
- The Kids Aren’t All Right – Interviews With Garbage Pail Kids Actors Arturo Gil (Windy Winston) And Kevin Thompson (Ali Gator)
The holiday are upon us, so you know what to do: give the gift a horrified New York Times deemed in 1987 “enough to make you believe in strict and faraway boarding schools.” Or even better, buy it for yourself.
[H/t The Retroist]
A pterosaur fossil has been discovered in Texas. It has a relative that is close genetically but not geographically—meaning ancient pterosaurs could have made very, very long journeys.
Cimoliopterus dunni lived around the Cretaceous period, in what is now Texas. Paleontologists studying it saw that it had teeth, a relatively rare feature for that part of the world at the time. Usually, one would assume that the different kinds of pterosaurs living in the region about 94 million years ago were related to each other, but this C. dunni seems to be an exception. It is not closely related to its peers, nor is it related to South American pterosaurs of this epoch.
Its closest relative was in England: Cimoliopterus cuvieri. Scientists know that pterosaurs were decent flyers, and that they lived near the sea, but this fossil find confirms that they were stronger and more comfortable flying out over the ocean than paleontologists had thought. The English and American branches of this pterosaur family were isolated when a gulf opened up between Europe and North America.
Relatively few species of toothed pterosaur made it to America, an indication that getting from one continent to the other was a long journey. The fact that any made it at all implies that ancient pterosaurs, including the ancestors of C. dunni, flew out over the ocean, moving from one island to the next, until they made it to the very old New World.
[Source:First North American occurrence of the toothed pteranodontoid pterosaur Cimoliopterus]
New Horizons returned some amazingly detailed shots and data of Pluto over the course of its mission—but just what did it have to fly through to get there? So, so much.
NASA put together this visualization of what the spacecraft encountered between January and August on its way to Pluto. The list includes a series of punishing solar winds, but even more curious were some very oddly behaving particle clouds.
Better known as coronal mass ejections, we see those same particle clouds around the Earth. What surprised scientists, though, was that as they reached Pluto, the clouds didn’t have their characteristic “balloon shape” anymore. Instead, they spread out into the thin, arching ring shapes you see below.
So what is this interstellar weather report, besides a trippy look at what’s going on between the planets? It’s also got a lot of potential to help us figure out longer space journeys—perhaps someday even a piloted one. One of the big impediments to traveling further out into space is getting spacecraft that can withstand the radiation and pressure. By getting a better idea of what they’re facing, scientists will also have a better idea of just what they’ll need to build to get through it.