The Shiniest Stories On io9 Last Week

Too busy battling polar bears in a post-apocalyptic Manhattan? Don't worry, we've compiled a list of the best stories of the week, just for you.

Magnetic Anomaly Map of the World
This map shows areas on the globe where there are disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field. Here, red indicates a stronger magnetic tug, and blue a weaker one (white lines are the edges of tectonic plates). As you can see, disturbances are fairly regularly distributed, but that doesn't stop UFO enthusiasts from saying aliens have a hand in these magnetic fluctuations. Science, however, has a slightly different explanation for why certain objects (including submarines) create a shift in the magnetic field.

Your First Glimpse At Battlestar Galactica's Black Ops Spin-Off
It wasn't just the Galactica and her fleet that escaped the destruction of the twelve colonies, according to new comic Battlestar Galactica: Ghosts — but that doesn't mean that the smuggler crew of the Orion's Pride or black-ops Viper "Ghost Squadron" have escaped the Cylons altogether. We've got some exclusive pages from the first issue of the new series that show you the vote that doomed the colonies, as well as an introduction to the new survivors.

Superman Has The Best of Days, The Worst of Days Today
Anyone picking up this week's issue of Action Comics may want to prepare themselves for a couple of major changes to the status quo of Krypton's final son. One of them may be familiar to those who've followed Superman's career in other media (or even his career in comics before 1986), but the other... well, that promises some strange days to come for the Man of Tomorrow. Spoilers await.

In Wynter Dark, New Yorkers Resort To Polar Bear Weaponry
Post-apocalyptic ice age flick Wynter Dark, about how a reversal of Earth's magnetic polarity destroys the climate, stole my heart when I discovered it would contain wars involving polar bears — and not the wussy Golden Compass kind. In newly-released concept art (above) you can see how the tech-challenged future world has had to resort to carrier pigeons for communication, which is fantastic. Wynter Dark Creative Director Pete Ford talked to io9 about the warring kingdoms of our future, and indulged my many bear-centric inquiries.

Watchmen Movie Was Almost About The War On Terror
Last night, it was finally New York's turn to see the 25 minutes of Watchmen and get a chance to hear from director Zack Snyder and Watchmen's artist, Dave Gibbons, about the heavy undertaking that is bringing the classic graphic novel to life on the big screen. But more importantly, Snyder shared with us a bombshell — Hollywood wanted to change the graphic novel's alternate 1985 to the George W. Bush era, and turn Watchmen into a movie about the War on Terror. After a quick viewing of a few clips Snyder shared even more "almost" moments where the studio wanted to meddle, easter eggs and what he couldn't live without. Details (and spoilers) ahead.

Read The First 10 Pages of Marvel's Enders Game
The first issue of Marvel's adaptation of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game hits stores tomorrow - but if you can't wait that long, you're in luck. We've got an exclusive preview of the book's first ten pages to whet your palette.

iPhone Apps from Science Fiction
Inspired by the fantasies of SF writers, we've made a shortlist of applications that developers need to build for the iPhone right now — and all of them will make your phone more powerful than a light saber. In fact, the whole iPhone-light saber conversion process is completely retro. In the brave new iPhone future, iPhone apps allow you to control everything.

6 Science Fiction Classics To Help You Choose The Next President
We asked six political pundits, including Andrew Sullivan and DailyKos' Markos Moulitsas, to pick one piece of science fiction that you must read or watch before stepping into the voting booth next month. After all, science fiction often deals with some of the biggest what-ifs and alternate futures imaginable. So we couldn't imagine any better preparation for participating in democracy than six science fiction classics, as chosen by the experts.

Ridley Scott Confirms He’s Making Brave New World
We got the chance to ask science fiction legend Ridley Scott for an exclusive update on his adaptation of Aldous Huxley's classic dystopian novel Brave New World. While he's still knee-deep in the details of the adaptation, he's already got some strong opinions — including his view that Brave New World is closer to the truth than George Orwell's 1984. So what does Scott have in mind for his Brave New World?

Learn the Math Used To Predict What TV Show Dies Next
Wondering whether your favorite show is going to be the next to face the axe in a season that's seeing ratings fall and networks get nervous? It turns out that it's not as entirely random and malicious as you may have suspected (Although I'm still a little worried about Pushing Daisies' chances, to be honest); there may even be an art to predicting which shows have the most to worry about, according to some. But what is the "renew/cancel index," and does it really help us to know how close to death Knight Rider may be?

Send an email to Lauren Davis, the author of this post, at lauren@io9.com.

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