Before Cloud Atlas kind of, sort of delighted us, we got a peek at a tumultuous version of the film's futuristic Seoul. Concept artist Adam Kuczek shows off the more brightly colored side of Seoul, its neon centers of commerce and its glowing transportation systems.
What would Miyazaki characters look like in real life?
Andrew Michael Golden made it his mission to create photorealistic images of the odd and mystical characters from various Studio Ghibli films. I must say, Porco Rosso cuts a rather convincing--not to mention stately--figure. Over at his site, you can see Golden's attempts at Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Ponyo, and more.
[via Geek Tyrant]
By Lauren Davis
While the ruins of Los Angeles' Griffith Park zoo have been left to molder as an oddball tourist attraction, the abandoned remains of Torino, Italy's old zoo have gotten a second life as a Street Art Museum. Now the lion cages and primate houses are covered in bizarre, sometimes nightmarish works of public art. Warning: Fleeting NSFW imagery and lots and lots of fisheye lens.
Homo floresiensis likely stood about 3'6", making this prehistoric human roughly the average height of one of J.R.R. Tolkien's Hobbits. For years, Flores Man has been referred to by the nickname "hobbit," contributing to the species' popularity. But one company that owns film rights in The Hobbit has decided that the archaeologists who discovered Homo floresiensis cannot refer to the ancient human by that name.
By Charlie Jane Anders
The winners of the 2012 World Fantasy Awards were just announced here in Toronto, Canada -- and the Best Novel Award didn't go to George R.R. Martin or to Jo Walton, who'd already swept the Nebula and Hugo Awards. Instead, it went to Lavie Tidhar's Osama, a strange pulp-oriented alt history about Osama Bin Laden.
Do you know your sci-fi spaceship ABCs?
Head over to Time for Hugs and get the full-resolution version of this poster. (Creator Scott Markley is emailing out files since he can't sell the copyrighted images.) Print it out and hang it on a child's wall. Drill them on it every day. That is all.
Spaceship Alphabet [Time for Hugs via Geeks are Sexy]
By Lauren Davis
There are always folks trying to exploit the success of authors long after those authors have died. Whether it's capitalizing on a famous ancestor (see Dacre Stoker) or continuing to publish under a deceased writer's pen name, some writers and publishers refuse to let celebrity novelists rest in peace. But few tales of posthumous publishing are quite as strange as those involving Mark Twain. After Samuel Clemens, better known to the world as Mark Twain, passed away in 1910, at least two women claimed Clemens communicated with them via Ouija Board, making him the ultimate ghostwriter.
This children's book will teach you all about the Houses of Westeros
Bran Stark might have had an easier time learning those House mottos if he'd grown up with a book like this. mrstater posted this series from the imaginary children's book of Game of Thrones houses, inspired by Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
[mrstater via Popped Culture]
By Lauren Davis
On this week's Clone Wars, we took a break from teaching rebels how to blow up power stations and headed back to the Jedi enclave. A group of Jedi younglings gathers for an important rite of passage: the discovery of their lightsaber crystals. Each youngling must confront his or her own greatest flaw in order to find their personal crystal--and the animators give us some striking visuals in the process.
The Confederate captain wore jaguar pants
If you thought cheetah, leopard, and jaguar print clothing was a strictly modern phenomenon in the West, take a gander at the outfit of Captain Samuel J. Richardson, commander of the W.P. Lane Rangers, an independent Texas cavalry that fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Richardson wore trousers made of jaguar hide, with a pair of matching holsters. While Richardson's outfit may have been one of the more flamboyant marching about Texas, it wasn't the most elaborate use of animal skin. Texas Republic President Sam Houston was himself known for wearing a jaguar vest, and members of the 8th Texas Cavalry were said to wear bearskin pants--one even had a full bearskin suit.
[Spotted on Retronaut]
The zombie gummy bears are coming to get you, Barbara
Photographer Tau Zero makes sci-fi scenes even stranger by replacing all the characters with sweet gummy candy. Gummy Alien? Check. Gummy A Clockwork Orange? Yep. The gummy bears even travel to spots as diverse as Oz, Arrakis, and the Overlook Hotel.
Sweetness and Fright [Tau Zero via Ian Brooks]
By Esther Inglis-Arkell
When we saw an amazing pair of high-heeled shoes propped up by neon green T-Rexes, we wanted a pair in every dinosaur. Sadly, we couldn't figure out the origin of those theropod shoes, but Instructables user mikeasaurus comes to the rescue with a guide on how to convert ordinary pumps into custom dinosaur heels.
Over the course of 10 seasons, the folks at Mystery Science Theater 3000 mocked nearly 200 movies. The films were bad, but watchably bad thanks in part to commentary from the show's trio of B-movie snarkers. But how did the MST3K team select films that walked that line between bad and atrocious?
When the Insect Army invades, it will bring bee-mounted guns and beetle tanks
Job Van Der Molen adds mechanical equipment to preserved insects, imagining a future in which these creatures might serve as our labor-saving servants--or tiny, fearsome enemy combatants. Just tell me those bullets aren't laced with bee venom.
[via Ian Brooks]
By Lauren Davis
Independence Day may feature the most iconic destruction of the White House, but is it the best? This week, we celebrate Election Day--and cope with our exhaustion with the US presidential campaign--by examining the myriad ways pop culture smashes up the presidential home.
Darth Vader tells other Disney-owned characters that he's their father
Star Wars/Disney mashups have been flooding the Internet ever since the news of Lucasfilm's sale to the House of Mouse. But Gale Williams' comic is particularly clever in the way it uses Disney/Pixar/Marvel media to respond to Vader's grand paternal revelation. The Lion King ending is especially grand, since Darth Vader (or at least James Earl Jones) actually is Simba's dad.
