[via Apple]

io9 pal Katayama writes the popular Tokyomango blog and has recently published a series of pieces on Japanese men who marry cartoon characters (she's covered this phenomenon for the New York Times Magazine, as well as in the BoingBoingTV segment above) . Dismayed over the oddly serious, and occasionally insulting, responses from Western audiences, she recently analyzed the idea of "Japanese weirdness" over on BoingBoing. Katayama writes:

Why do so many love to gawk at this mysterious, foreign "other" that is Japanese culture? There are plenty of strange things going on in the US too, but when it happens in Japan, it's suddenly incomprehensible, despicable, awesome, and crazy. This fascination doesn't just end with angry commenters, either. Over the last couple of decades, it has spawned a huge industry of magazines, blogs, and products themed around Japanese culture marketed to Westerners by Westerners who are also obsessed with Japanese culture . . . [But the fact is] that none of this is meant to be taken seriously. One important premise of Japanese popular culture is the commitment to have fun and not take offense. Japanese humor works on many different levels and its nuances can be hard to explain to people who didn't grow up with it.

If you're one of those people who watched our wedding video between the man and his DS girlfriend and said things like: "He's such a loser" "He takes it too seriously LOL" and "God help this poor soul" - not to mention the racist comments about Japs and nukes and one-inch dicks - you just don't get it. You're not in on the joke. You're the one taking it too seriously, and you might be imposing your own biases and hang-ups on someone else's situation.

Being majime (too serious) is not cool in Japan; likewise it is important for voyeurs of Japanese culture to recognize that most everything pop-culture-y that is exported to the West comes at us with a wink. If you're all up in arms about it, then maybe the joke is on you.

I think her comments here apply to far more than videos of Japanese men marrying anime characters. She's talking about a strong tendency in Western culture to misinterpret Japanese goofiness as something seriously weird. In science fiction, this misinterpreted humor is used as a way of showing an "incomprehensible" or bizarre future world.

Obviously some of William Gibson's early works exhibit this fascination with Japan, as does the movie Bladerunner. These days, Western SF has also turned its eye toward the "weirdness" of China (think Firefly, or Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age) and India (Ian McDonald's River of Gods). And in recent indie flick Moon, our abused clones were manufactured by a Korean company. Is the West doomed to misunderstand the Eastern present as some weird version of the future?

via BoingBoing

A team of California researchers discovered that they could create blood cells by layering hemoglobin and other proteins on top of a microscopic, donut-shaped polymer mold. When the proteins had a stable structure, they removed the polymer mold and presto - they had a classic blood-cell shaped hollow vessel. The cells are also biodegradable, so you wouldn't have synth-cells roaming your body forever. Here are typical red blood cells, below.

One synth-cell could carry oxygen through the blood just like a typical red blood cell, its unique shape allowing it to squeeze through tiny capillaries. But it could also carry drugs like anti-coagulant heparin, releasing it gradually. This could prove a boon for doctors trying to administer drugs to highly-targeted areas fed by the circulatory system. And of course it could prove a perfect system for hiding data or other sensitive substances in your bloodstream. One injection of synth-cells and you're carrying secret plans around in your blood that can't be detected by anyone.

via PNAS

We mentioned a while back that ABC had commissioned a series of posters from various artists in honor of Lost's final season. Last night, the final poster was revealed at Gallery 1988's Lost show: an illustration of a large portion of the Lost cast by Tyler Stout (whose detailed movie posters we've featured before).

Unfortunately, each of the limited edition posters has sold out except Stouts, which as of this posting has not yet gone on sale. Also, each poster is featured under its own web domain, each an in-joke related to the poster's theme. Stout's final poster sits at the domain NothingIsForever.com.

Lost Posters [Damon, Carlton And a Polar Bear via OMG Posters]

"Lost" by Tyler Stout
"The Numbers" by Tim Doyle
"Locke's Secret" by Olly Moss
"The Dharma Van" by Methane Studios
"The Crash" by Eric Tan
"The Love Triangle" by Leia Bell
"The Four-Toed Statue" by Jason Munn
"The Smoke Monster" by Ken Taylor
"The Hatch" by Kevin Tong
"Rousseau's Transmission" by Dan McCarthy
"The Swan Station" by Rob Jones
"Walt's Kidnapping" by Drew Millward
"Jacob's Cabin" by Daniel Danger
"The Barracks" by Nate Duvall"
"Ben Linus" by Todd Slater
"The Polar Bear" by Jay Ryan

If you were reading Doctor Who novelizations in the 1970s or 1980s, you'll recognize Achilleos' trademark epic-flames-and-grayscale-heads design. But he also did some great art for other media entities, including this nice Blade Runner image. And if you followed his early, straight-up media SF images, then you would have been startled to see him turn towards erotic pin-ups and fantasy art... but he never lost the splashy sensibility that made his early Who work so memorable.

Sirens, the collection of Achilleos' art, has been out of print for 20 years, but Titan Books just reissued it. Here's the official description:

The second book of fantasy illustrations by Chris Achilleos, Sirens is a feast for the eyes, bursting with full-color art, sketches and development drawings in everything from oil paint to airbrush and inks. Massively popular and highly regarded, Chris Achilleos' glamour and fantasy artwork ranges from his acclaimed Doctor Who and Star Trek book covers to the erotic pin-ups that made him famous, embracing along the way Greek mythology, role-playing games, Tolkien and movie posters for the likes of Heavy Metal. With full-color gallery shots and pin-ups, as well as pencil sketches, Sirens will delight old and new fans alike.

Warning: The last couple images in this gallery might be slightly NSFW, due to sassy breastplates.

This could be the next Hangover, if executed correctly, and if all the jokes aren't in this trailer. Hot Tub will be in theaters next March.

THR is reporting that the man who leaked Wolverine a month before the release date has been found and arrested:

Gilberto Sanchez was arrested at his Bronx, New York home this morning and is expected to go before a magistrate judge later today on charges of violating federal copyright law. According to the FBI, the 47-year-old man was indicted by a Los Angeles federal grand jury last week. A copy of the unsealed grand jury indictment indicates that Sanchez uploaded the film to file sharing network Megaupload.com under an alias. Information on how Sanchez allegedly obtained the feature film is still yet unknown. He faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Though Wolverine was a box office smash, the studio still claims this leak caused damages.

Meanwhile, it seems that the law has been kinder to Samantha Tumpach, 22, who was charged with criminal use of a motion picture exhibition facility after she got busted recording parts of New Moon in Rosemont, IL. She got off pretty easy, seeing as she had only recorded about two scenes, and was actually taping a birthday party that was taking place inside the theater and not the actual movie itself. The New Moon scandal went straight to the top. Director Chris Weitz eventually defended Tumpach's actions.

And that's justice, Hollywood style.

Surendra Pal, associate director of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Satellite Centre, told news outlet DNA India that the Chandrayaan-1 probe detected chemical signals of what may be organic matter on the moon's surface. The information is currently being analyzed by ISRO researchers as well as peer reviewed. At a press conference yesterday, NASA's own chief lunar scientist Mike Wargo indicated that NASA is intrigued by the possibility and very interested in learning more about ISRO's results.

ISRO is also exploring how organic matter might have found its way to the lunar surface in the first place — whether it might have be the result of meteor or comet strikes, or even left behind by a human instrument.

If it turns out that the moon does hold organic matter that wasn't placed there by humans, it could help us better understand how organic matter travels through the universe and could provide yet another natural resource for an eventual lunar colony.

Indian scientists detect signs of life on Moon [DNA India via Universe Today — Thanks to Enon for the heads up]

From countless Toho giant monster spectacles to Space: 1999, SF-themed library music has been discreetly making its way into films, television, and radio for at least a century. With the advent and spread of low cost analog synthesizers among recording studios around the world, there was an explosion of electronic library music, some of it truly inspired and bizarre. There are many hundreds of albums of sf-themed library music from France, Italy, Germany, and the UK, and a few are superlative, right down to the LP cover art. Every time I listen to one, it's uncanny how quickly images come rushing to mind, and a movie seems to make itself right there in my head. The titles of the tracks help set the scene: ""Frozen Silence", "Electronic Brain", "Vibraphonoid", and "Window On The Antiworld". I think the liner notes on "Time Signals", Klaus Weiss' 1978 Selected Sound LP, might say it best. The text — meant to suggest different scenarios which the music could be used for — reads like apocalyptic concrete poetry:

Rhythm section + synthesizer, drum solo, various rhythm and sounds. For documentary application. Reporting, information, news, sports, industry, technic, electronic, research and science, crime, adventures, space, science-fiction, environmental problems, narcotic - action, speed, stress, traffic, pursuit, tension, high-performance, violence, fright, power, creation, genesis, constructions, return, unendless, strange world, distance, time-retarder, depth.

The beauty of sf library music is that much of it is sonically so far out there — way ahead of its time when it was made in the 60s, 70s, and 80s — that we are only now just catching up to it. You very well might hear one of these tracks in the future at a theater or drive-in near you.

The glowing, pulsating "Lunar Module" by Earl Salisbury comes from the US-based Major/Valentino library, and was re-issued on "Cinemaphonic: Electro Soul". "Xenos Cosmos", from library maestro Janko Nilovic on the French label Montparnasse 2000, with full chorus and prog rock changes, evokes the soundtrack of "Chariots of the Gods". Working almost exclusively on library music, Nilovic did scores of LPs on Montparnasse 2000, and his complete oeuvre is one of the absolute finest in the field. "Jazz Computer" comes from the Italian library Music Scene LP "Futuribile (The Life To Come)", a masterpiece of personal electronic strangeness by "Gianni Safred & His Electronic Instruments". Finally, we have "Survivor", a post-apocalyptic dirge on the German Selected Sound library, from the LP "Time Signals" by jazz drummer Klaus Weiss, an entire LP of minimal synth lines and acoustic drums, that is nothing short of brain-searing. Weiss is best known for his work as "Niagra", an all-percussion German cosmic disco jam band in the early 70's, but his small output of library music is truly amazing.

Thanks to APM Music

Even more thanks to Adam Pash, creator of the nifty service MixTape.me, which you can learn more about here.

For those who haven't seen it yet, Inglourious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino's alternate history of World War II, about a fictional band of bloodthirsty Jewish soldiers called the Basterds. Led by southern white boy Brad Pitt, the group roves around Europe, leaving hundreds of scalped Nazis in their wake. Their current mission is "Operation Kino," a suicide bombing run where they'll attend (and blow up) the Paris premiere of Joseph Goebbels' latest propaganda flick, Stolz der Nation (Spirit of the Nation). Lucky for the Basterds, the woman who owns the theater is actually a stealth Jew whose family was murdered by Nazis - so she's got her own explosive plans for high-ranking officials attending the event.

The movie is as much about movies as it is World War II. The war's historical details are smudged throughout with imaginative flourishes that speak mostly to contemporary fantasies borrowed from action flicks. A standout is Hostel director Eli Roth, known for his torture-laced movies, playing "the Bear Jew," who likes to smash Nazi heads open with baseball bats. Another great moment comes when the stealth Jew theater-owner Shoshanna describes how to fight back against the Nazis using the power of film. At first it seems as if she's made another version of famous French resistance movie Open City. But no - she just means that movies are incredibly flammable. If she lights her film collection on fire, it's going to make one hell of a bomb.

A highlight of the DVD extras is a fairly long interview with Tarantino and Pitt, in conversation with film critic Elvis Mitchell. They talk about how intense it was when they showed the film in Germany, and Tarantino speculates that this is perhaps one of the only movies that gave Germans permission to laugh at Nazi history rather than feeling guilty about it. He says there's a whole generation of Germans who had nothing to do with the Nazis' crimes, and that they all carry around this burden of guilt which is reignited by movie after movie - and yet something about Inglourious Basterds allowed them to see their history in a new light. Possibly it's this same aspect of the film that caused some Jewish groups to attack the movie for anti-Semitism.

Film nerds like me will love the special features that explore all the cinematic influences on the movie, including Enzo Castellari's 1970s flick Inglorious Bastards. Tarantino and Roth talk about how much they loved the original film, and we get to see a quick behind-the-scenes on Castellari doing his cameo in the movie.There's also a quick tour from critic Mitchell through the rare movie posters on display in Shoshanna's movie theater, which help explain some of the references in the film, as well as the fictional posters created for Tarantino's alternate history.

Best of all is the fake "making of" documentary about Stolz Der Nation, the movie-within-a-movie which was directed by Eli Roth. And of course, there's Roth playing the director and talking about how great it is that Hitler is going to write an endorsement of the movie.

If you liked the movie in the theaters and just want to plunge more deeply into the piles of references that inform it, or if you didn't get a chance to see it yet, you'll want to check out the Inglourious Basterds DVD.

Former guard dogs, strays in the city of Yekaterinburg have been spotted sporting green coats. Although some locals initially thought it was a prank, the police believe that illegal chemical dumping is responsible for these dogs of a different color. As a result of the startling discovery, the city council has been asked to clean up the toxic area.

It sounds like the color is probably the result of a chemical reaction with the dogs' fur, but it probably doesn't bode well for their overall health and well-being. Still, the folks responsible for the dumpng better hope they don't end up with a pack of canine Toxic Avengers on their hands.

Wild Dogs Turn Green From 'Toxic Waste' [Yahoo! News via Geekologie]

In 1970, the KGB was worried that Hitler's burial place would become a place of worship for Fascist sympathisers. KGB chief Yuri Andropov — with the support of the party leadership — ordered the remains of Hitler, Braun, Goebbels, and Goebbels' family exhumed.

They had obtained the bodies in May of 1945, and the remains were eventually buried at a Soviet garrison in Magdeburg. In 1970, they handed the garrison over to the East Germans, and had to make a decision about what to do with the remains.

Taken to the outskirts of Shoenebeck, the corpses were burned on a bonfire, ground into ashes, and then thrown into the Biederitz River to destroy them completely. But the Soviets retained chunks of Hitler's skull and jaw, we assume for zombie clone related purposes.

[Via CNN, Image via Daerhos on DeviantArt]

[Josh Keyes via Nerdcore]

And here's your spoiler warning. Spoilers ahead!

So in Avatar, Jake Sully is a marine who's suffered a spinal injury (someone "blew a hole in my life," as he puts it) and his life is going nowhere. Until he gets a chance to go to the far-off Pandora and take his dead brother's place, piloting a genetically engineered "avatar." Built out of alien DNA, the avatar allows Sully to walk among the Na'Vi, the giant blue natives of Pandora, and look like one of them. Because Sully is a warrior, like the Na'Vi tribespeople, he finds acceptance in their ranks — even as he knows his fellow humans are preparing to relocate the Na'Vi by force, to get at a rich supply of a rare substance called Unobtanium.

As Jake learns to use his new alien body, leaping from treetops and clifftops, romancing the chief's sexy daughter (Zoe Saldana) and bonding with a flying dragon for life, you'll discover your new favorite escapist fantasy. Jake falls in love with the excitement and the nobility and yes, the biodiversity, of Pandora, and you're right there with him. Avatar's journey really does feel magical and transformative, for Jake and for the audience.

It's hard to imagine a movie where medium and story are so closely married. Even as Jake Sully climbs into a coffin and abandons his human body for a spry alien one, Cameron is hoping to pull you into his alien world to a much greater degree than the usual movie immersion. Cameron has spent untold millions of Fox's dollars to make you forget you're really in a movie theater, instead of on an alien planet. The whole exercise is a metaphor for the experience of watching any movie, with Cameron's camera lens represented by the beds that transfer people's minds into alien bodies.

And the film's 3-D, CG and motion-capture really are all they're cracked up to be. The scenes which look trifling on your little computer window become etched on your mind's eye, when you see them on the big screen in 3-D. The transition from live-action to animation feels like a costume change, and when live-action people are on the screen with CG characters, it's miles away from Roger Rabbit, or even from Andy Serkis' Gollum.

Cameron is clearly saying: Look what technology can do. It can tight-beam your consciousness into a totally foreign time and place. And just maybe, like Jake Sully, you'll find yourself going native.

There's only one problem with this notion, and it nearly wrecks an otherwise nearly perfect movie: The further we venture into Pandora's heart, the more unconvincing it is. At first, the forest moon is heart-breakingly beautiful and well-realized, and every weird creature on the planet stands out in its own way. When Jake gets chased by big dinosaur-like monsters, it's tons more thrilling than your standard Roland Emmerich/Michael Bay CG spectacle. But once Jake gets himself embedded among the alien Na'Vi people, the illusion starts to fall apart.

This is partly because once you're surrounded by Pandora's fantasy-land, it starts to get just a bit too pretty, and certainly too rich. About the time hundreds of glowing tree-spirits land on Jake's blue avatar body, the animation starts to feel a bit... cartoony.

But more than that, we never really see the Na'Vi as a convincing society — instead we see a ludicrous "noble savage" stereotype, that only gets cruder and more ridiculous the deeper into it we go. When Jake is only interacting with Saldana's character, Neytiri, their interaction feels natural enough. But once you're in the middle of a Na'Vi crowd scene, you have a harder time believing in these people. And that, in turn, may pull you right out of the movie.

Cameron has clearly thought endlessly about every aspect of this movie's worldbuilding, but it never seems to have occurred to him that populating his planet with Pocohontas/Tarzan ooga-booga people would be a mistake. The Na'Vi are animalistic and in tune with nature, and they're good-hearted in direct proportion to their simplicity. They worship a mystical world-mind and its messengers, magic happy tree spirits that connect them to their ancestors — through their magical native-people hair. (Their tree/ancestor religion turns out to have a scientific basis, to be fair.)

By the time the Na'Vi's matriarch is leading the whole tribe in a hippie ritual, with lots of swaying in front of the sacred tree, you'll be rolling your eyes so much, it may interfere with the 3-D stereoscopy.

(When I mentioned the term "forest moon" a little while ago, it may have created an association in your mind. That association was not entirely unintentional.)

In a way, Cameron's strengths work against him a little bit here. The humans' world feels completely lived-in. Pandora's soldiers could have stepped right out of the first reel of Aliens. Cameron is in love with all of the toys, from the Huey-helicopter-inspired flying machines to the "avatar" chambers. His human characters are mostly well-worn archetypes, from the weaselly evil corporate guy (Giovanni Ribisi, channeling Aliens' Paul Reiser) to Stephen Lang's brutal Col. Quaritch (bringing the George C. Scott) to Sigourney Weaver's tough scientist with a heart of gold. The human world isn't as original as Pandora, but it feels a lot more fully inhabited. The contrast doesn't do the dragon-riding, hissing, deeply spiritual tree people any favors.

It's likely that if the Na'Vi felt as real as the human society — if you could feel the dirt under your fingernails after a day's bow-hunting and chafe under the patriarchal tribal leadership — then the escapism of running off to join the clan might not seem as alluring. In his earlier movies, Cameron never had to try and make us fall in love with Skynet, or the Alien queen. So it's not surprising that he stumbles when he tries to create an "other" that's lovable rather than scary.

The movie's other big problem is somewhat related: It gets preachy about environmentalism, to an extent that may grate on your nerves. Early on, when Jake is learning about the nature-loving ways of the Na'Vi, he grumbles that he hopes this "tree-hugger crap" won't be on the final exam. And it totally is.

But like I said, Avatar is otherwise a nearly perfect movie. (It's up to you whether stereotypical native peoples or eco-lectures are a deal-breaker.) As an action-adventure movie, it's vastly superior to pretty much any you've seen in the past few years. As science fiction, it's thrilling, because it's pro-exploration and its most unambiguously heroic character is Weaver's character, Dr. Grace Augustine. It shouldn't feel so refreshing, to have a smart, heroic scientist whose scientific explanations are cool and important to the movie, but it is. Weaver has lost none of her fire, and is a joy to watch.

Sam Worthington, as Jake, does a great job of selling his slow transformation from cynical wise-ass human to a warrior of the Na'Vi people, without overplaying it. Worthington has that rare gift, of seeming totally down-to-Earth even when he's in the middle of a totally outlandish scene, and it keeps him completely relatable even as he's embracing a totally alien culture. He really does carry the movie, in both his human and alien bodies.

And you have to admire a movie whose central message is that only by becoming a wholly artificial life form can you touch something true and natural. This contradiction is at the heart of the movie — a luddite fable made with technology so advanced, Cameron had to create it from scratch.

Cameron deliberately avoids any of the usual cop-outs you'd see with this kind of story. The natives know from the first time they lay eyes on Jake that he's a "dream walker" (their word for alien meat-puppets operated by sleeping humans. And they call humans the "sky people.") When they come to accept Jake as one of them, it's with the knowledge that he's actually a tiny pink-skin in a tank somewhere. And the movie's arc isn't the standard one, of Jake realizing that he's "really" a human and should stop trying to pretend to be one of the aliens. Rather, becoming a genetically engineered, and hence synthetic, creature allows Jake to discover who he really is.

So, to sum up, everything you've heard or thought about Avatar is true. It's one of the most vivid, visceral movies you've ever seen. It's cheesy enough for ten Swiss villages. It's James Cameron delivering an action thrill ride, at the top of his game. It's a schlocky Dances With Wolves rip-off. It will transform the way you think about movies forever.

According to the New York Times:

[The] projected peak in China, 1.4 billion people, will be lower than previously estimated and . . . it will occur sooner. With the fertility rate declining to fewer than 1.6 births per woman in this decade from 2.2 in 1990, China's overall population growth rate has slowed to 0.5 percent annually.

In contrast, India's 1.4 percent growth rate is being driven by a fertility rate of 2.7 births per woman.

The bureau's International Data Base projects that China's labor force will peak at 831 million - 24 million more workers than today - in 2016. That is because the number of newcomers to the labor force in their early 20s is expected to start declining in 2011 after reaching 124 million.

In India, the number of new entrants to the labor force is expected to reach 116 million in 2024 before decreasing.

According to the same report, the world's population is growing, but its rate of growth is about to enter a steep decline. It may be that we will witness the world's peak human population in our lifetimes.

via New York Times and US Census Bureau

Top image via Premshree Pillai.

The concept is pretty much the same — there's a mysterious murder and a left-over tape. You know the drill. The best part is, they're actually going through with the "It's not fake, but you know, we know, you know" hooey. Check out the "description" from the site.

There's been some comment on the internet about our release called PARANORMAL ENTITY and why is hasn't been posted on our website until now.

This has been a sensitive issue for all of us:

A few weeks ago we were approached by surviving members of the Finley family who asked us to release never-before-seen home video footage shot by Thomas Finley, who was accused of murdering his sister, Samantha (pictured) in 2008, and who later took his own life in prison.

The family has always maintained that Thom was innocent of the crime and that Samantha's tragic death was not caused by anything human.

Released onto DVD Dec. 22nd.
[via Asylum]

Shoer writes:

With the advent of superluminal travel, each species soon discovered the network of Channels traversing the galaxy, allowing near-instantaeous travel from Channel Anchor to Channel Anchor. The giant artifacts spoke of a precursor civilization - but where are they now? Their ruins, gargantuan structures on planetary scales, float dead in the Burial Grounds or the Sea of Relics, but no explorers have ever located their ruins on a planet. The only unexplored portions of the galaxy seem uninhabitable: the vast Far Reaches, and the irradiated Cathedral at the galactic core...

Sounds like a smashing setup for a novel to me.

via Joseph Shoer

Here's the back-cover copy for Sureblood:

Torn apart by lies and deception...

Five years ago, rival space pirate captains Val Blue and Dake Sureblood stole one incredible night together. But their brief, passionate history ends with the assasination of Val's father and the condemnation of Dake's clan. Now, Val struggles prove her mettle-to herself and to dissenters within her own people. Every successful raid is a boot-heel ground in the burning memory of Dake Sureblood—and their secret son is a constant reminder of their shared past…

Ambushed and captured before he can clear his name, Dake Sureblood returns from hell to expose the true killer of Val's father. But as the identity of their enemy becomes chillingly clear, the former lovers must put aside their mistrust and join forces to protect their clans—and their precious son.

It sounds pretty thrilling, what with the rival space pirate captains and the raids and everything.

As science-fiction romance gains in popularity, the novels have been growing in word count and becoming more epic, emphasizing the sprawling story over the romance part. But publishers are stil hoping to pitch these books to regular romance readers. Thus, according to the always entertaining Galaxy Express blog, there's a constant tension between "man titty" covers like the above one, versus covers that actually depict what goes on in the book.

This discussion has been going on for a while, but it flared up again in response to this latest Harlequin cover. Writes Galaxy Express:

Where are the space pirates promised by the jacket copy? The cover conveys erotic romance to me... Perhaps it's a sign of these difficult economic times that romance publishers are ratcheting up the man titty/erotic romance campaigns. Seems like in order to capture as many sales as possible, they are attempting to appeal to every single romance reader regardless of individual taste (but all readers swoon for man titty cover? Really?). In the end, they will end up pleasing a number that in my totally biased opinion will fall short of potential.

Sexy and romantic covers? Great, awesome-why not a clinch cover for SUREBLOOD, with a starry background, perhaps? A fiercely accessorized, sexy space heroine with generous cleavage would be a great draw for male readers. Why do historical romances get clear historical visual cues and books like these don't? Ghettoization of SFR? Yes, in part, along with the corporate mentality that dictates standardization of art.

Is this cover fiasco another indication that romance publishers think their female readers are idiots when it comes to science fiction romance? Maybe Harlequin thinks the stories are both too science fictional and too exotic for readers to enjoy.

Count this as another vote for novels about space pirates to have covers depicting space pirates... preferably sexy ones. It's also just fascinating to see that every subgenre has its own worries about perceived marginalization. The issues are often the same, even if — as in this case — they're sort of opposite.

Variety announced that Universal Pictures is in early talks with well known commercial director, Carl Erik Rinsch, to bring back the Creature from The Black Lagoon.

Carl Erik Rinsch was originally picked by Ridley Scott to helm the much buzzed about Alien prequel, but now Scott has taken over that director's chair himself. The script is by Gary Ross, who previously stated that is will have, "scientific underpinnings."

[Picture via inknerd by Alfie Lamberger at Mark of the Sparks Tattoos]

Iron Man 2

Entertainment Tonight premiered a few moments from the film, including a scene where Pepper kisses Iron Man (well, his helmet, anyway). [via Cinema Blend]

Forbidden Planet

As if he doesn't have enough on his plate, James Cameron has confirmed that he's "actively involved" in J. Michael Straczynski's project. But apparently he hasn't made any decisions about what his role will be. [MTV]

Inception

We get our first one-sheet for Chris Nolan's mysterious thriller. Apparently, the crime scene inside Leonardo DiCaprio's mind has a plumbing issue. [/Film]

Toy Story 3

A new pic shows the toys heading off to their new home. Check out the full-sized image at Empire Magazine.

Sherlock Holmes

If you've always wondered what goes on the set of a Guy Ritchie movie, Cinema Blend has a bunch of behind-the-scenes clips. [Cinema Blend]

Rec 2

Here's the Italian trailer for the sequel to the Spanish plague film. [via ShockTillYouDrop]

Doctor Who

The Angels will have the phone box once again. Steven Moffat has revealed that the creepy Weeping Angels from "Blink" will return in the next season. [Blogtor Who]

Also, the Tenth Doctor wishes you a Merry Christmas in a pair of station identifications. [Planet Gallifrey]

True Blood

The casting directors have been very busy lately. Joe Manganiello, who has had recurring roles on One Tree Hill and How I Met Your Mother, landed one of the season's key parts — that of the heroic werewolf Alcide. [E!]

Eric's dancing lover has also been cast. Natasha Alam will play the Fangtasia employee who takes up with the blond viking. And Gregg Daniel has been cast as Reverend Daniels, spiritual adviser to Tara's mom (and object of her affections). [EW]

But that's not all! Sam and Lafayette are both getting new parental units. Cooper Huckabee will be introduced in the season's second episode as Joe Lee Mickens, Sam's father, and multiple Emmy Award-winner Alfre Woodard is signing on as Lafayette's mom. [ShockTillYouDrop, ShockTillYouDrop]

Lost

As promised, there's no new footage in the pre-premiere promos, but relive the previous seasons' tragedies to "Amazing Grace." [via /Film]

More news from the sets. At the Diamond Head Stage, Desmond, Mikhail, and Sayid are going to be getting wet. At an airport, Sun and Jin were seen going through customs. [DarkUFO]

And here are few more of the casual wear promo pictures. [Lyly Ford]

Chuck

Zachary Levi promises that Chuck's cool new powers (including fluency in Thai) won't change the klutzy heart of the show. Armand Asante will be playing the leader of the Costa Gravas, a sort of Castro-like figure. Chuck gets stuck on an airplane with Stone Cold Steve Austin's bad guy character. According to the creators, Brandon Routh and Kristin Kreuk's characters will be more than romantic obstacles for Chuck and Sarah, and that they will be connected to the larger mythology of the show. Kreuk's character Hannah will set multiple hearts aflutter at the Buy More, and that's just one issue the store has to deal with. Buy More will contend with cutbacks and management overthrows, and will get a new assistant manager. [Cinema Blend]

Chuck goes kung fu in Converse sneakers in a new Season Three poster.

Meanwhile, the set photos show Chuck giving Brandon Routh a lift. [Socialite Life]

And NBC has more promos to get you ready for the new season. [via Spoiler TV]

Still want more Chuck? In a new special preview feature, the cast talks about the new season.

And Zachary Levi is excited to get back to superspying.

Smallville

More details have emerged on the two-hour Justice Society movie. Apparently, the first episode starts with a death, which sets Clark's encounter with the JSA in motion. But one member has a special interest in clark. Says Britt Irvin of her character Stargirl:

"She has a special connection with Clark because he reminds her a lot of her mentor," says the actress. What's more, when the JSA gets wind (via Dr. Fate) of Clark's destiny, Stargirl realizes "he's very important for mankind."

Irvin also says that her mysterious mentor will make an appearance (as a corpse?), and that Stargirl and Hawkman will have some friction with Green Arrow in the beginning. [Fancast]

FlashForward

Here's a casting call for the 15th episode:

[WOMAN] 30s-40s.. Any Ethnicity. Office worker leaving at the end of the work day. She encounters an incident outside her building and is forced to wait to go home...CO-STAR

[FBI AGENT #1] 30s-40s, Male, Any Ethnicity. No-nonsense FBI Agent. Tasked with handling a sensitive issue, he must maintain order while tempers flare...CO-STAR

[FBI AGENT #2] 30s-40s, Male, Any Ethnicity. No-nonsense FBI Agent. Tasked with handling a sensitive issue, he must maintain order while tempers flare...CO-STAR

[DINA] 30s. Female, Any Ethnicity. An amusement park employee with a talking parrot that are both very helpful in giving directions.sptv050769..CO-STAR

[Spoiler TV]

And another for the 16th episode:

[KENT NELSON] 40s... Any Ethnicity. Homeless, a loner. He experiences a violent encounter with someone from his past...Co-Star/Possible Recurring

[GREG] 30s, Male, Any Ethnicity. A Secret Service Agent assigned to protective detail. He is by-the-book and official in his interaction with a visitor whom he escorts to meet with his boss...Co-Star

[DAVID] 30s-40s, Any Ethnicity. An Episcopal minister. Welcoming, relatable. He shows his church to some visitors who are interested in using it for a ceremony...Co-Star

[CHUCKIE] 50's, Any Ethnicity. A sandwich maker at Bay Cities. Frustrated with amount of orders from demanding customers.sptv050769..Co-Star

[Spoiler TV]

Additional reporting by Josh Snyder and Charlie Jane Anders.

The awesome dance routine, of course, really comes from the very end of Radioactive Dreams, directed by the great Albert Pyun. Philip and Marlowe have been trapped in a fallout shelter for the past 15 years, with no entertainment other than classic noir detective stories — hence their names and their determination to be Bogart-esque. They have launch keys to one of the last remaining nuclear missiles, so in addition to the cannibals wanting to eat their uncontaminated bodies, they also have gangsters and "disco mutants" chasing after them. It's not much of a spoiler to say they prevail, and succeed in teaching all the mutants how to dance properly. And of course, this movie has classic 1980s post-apocalyptic mutants, with the punk hair and KISS makeup.

Deluxe Editions Of Science Fiction/Fantasy Classics

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Discover The Art Of Science Fiction, And Drool Over Collectibles

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Explore The Wonders Of Science!

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Additional reporting by Mary Ratliff.

Cameron's early '90s "scriptment" is the kind of thing that shows that, while he may have loved the comics as a kid, he didn't necessarily understand them. For example, Peter's pre-Spider-Man awkwardness became defiance against modern culture in Cameron's hands:

PETER PARKER. Age 17. Peter is in the bathroom, popping a zit in the mirror. He puts on his glasses and checks his look in the mirror. Still the same. Nerdy. He doesn't care. Screw 'em... He thinks they are the real losers. They'll be flipping burgers while he's discovering the cure to cancer. We'll see who wins in the long run. He wears his isolation like a badge... with an air of superiority.

That's not the only essential change to the Spider-Man mythos: Uncle Ben doesn't give a "With great power comes great responsibility" speech - or, if he does, it's not mentioned in the scriptment - and Peter starts considering do-gooding before Ben's death (albeit with mixed results). J. Jonah Jameson is a television station owner, not Daily Bugle editor, and the Bugle doesn't appear in the film at all. The movie even ends with Peter winning Mary Jane's love by revealing that he's Spider-Man - the two of them, by that point, having shared a terrible love scene that hints at Cameron's Titanic script as well as shows that Peter's into bondage:

ON TOP OF THE BRIDGE TOWER. Hold a beat. We hear screams approaching. Spidey appears and sets her on terra firma. She clings to him, looking down and around in wonder. He has put the world at her feet. She can't believe this is happening to her.

In a dizzying down-angle we see how the suspension cables all meet radially at the top of the tower... like the treads of some vast spider web. Peter and MJ seem to sit at the very center of the web, surrounded by the lights of the city. It is a warm spring night. And the moment is pure magic.

She stands with her back against a girder, needing to feel something solid. Spider Man stands before her, a perfectly formed male silhouette with a soothing low voice.

SPIDER MAN
Courtship among the spiders is highly ritualized. It varies from species to species. The male spider may circle the female, or wave his front legs... to signal that he is not prey.

Spider Man moves in a hypnotic arc around her. He raises his hands in a dance-like movement. Lowers them.

SPIDER MAN
The female usually signals her willingness by an uncharacteristic passivity.

MJ takes a deep breath. Her lip trembles. Her knees are weak. Her eyes, though, are steady, gazing at the silhouette before her. She doesn't move or speak. He moves closer.

SPIDER MAN
In certain crab spiders, such as Xysticus, the male will attach strands of silk to the female... tying her limbs...

Spider Man moves his hand gracefully across her, and she sees the sheerest silk webbing glinting in the moonlight. First one wrist. Then the other. Hypnotic movement in the moonlight. Her arms are bound to the wall. Her breathing gets more rapid.

SPIDER MAN
Since the female can break free at any time, the bonds have only symbolic significance.

MARY JANE
The male must be very bold... to take such liberties with the predatory female.

SPIDER MAN
Yes. He is very bold. But he must also trust her.
(he moves very close)
Close your eyes.

He removes his mask and kisses her. Their mouths very slowly and very sensuously devour each other. Peter and MJ are locked together. He is mesmerizing, gentle, powerful. He pushes up her skirt. They make love, high above the world. She doesn't look.

Well, at least it's not as bad as this scene from earlier in the script:

THE NEXT DAY. Tight on Peter as he wakes up. He opens his eyes cautiously. Not knowing what to expect. PULL BACK to reveal that he is still in bed. All is normal. He breaths a sigh of relief. In fact... he feels pretty good. Lots of energy. He pulls back the covers and...

Something is causing the sheet to stick to him. He lifts it, revealing a sticky, white mass completely covering him, gluing him to his bedding.

OMG HIS WEBBING IS LIKE JIZZ I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE.

The villains of the piece are versions of Sandman and Electro, although they have different names for no immediately apparent reason (As does high school bully Flash Thompson, who becomes Nathan "Flash" McCreery. Maybe Cameron was working out some high school issues or something), and both end up dead during the climactic final battle (Sandman ends up turned into glass with the following, wonderful, description: "Sandman is a smoking lump of melted glass in the vague form of a man. Poised, cooling, in a position of agony. Like Michaelangelo's dying slave. His glass mouth is a shapeless pit of eternal pain. Bummer.").

You can read an illustrated version of Cameron's entire scriptment here, but we wouldn't blame you if you'd read enough already. While offering up enough visual thrills and surface spectacle that you know it would've made an exciting movie to watch, Cameron's Spider-Man shaves off so much of the weirdness of the character that it could be any generic teenage superhero saving his girlfriend and the The Day. We're happier this script stayed unmade and Sam Raimi got his chance to show off his superhero chops instead and, let's face it: Wouldn't the world rather have had Avatar than this, in the end?

[via Topless Robot]

Writing in SFNovelists, Butler explains:

I tried to write a thriller. It was the last book I worked on before starting Reiffen's Choice, the first book I sold. The problem was, I don't like thrillers. Never have, never will. At least not reading them. (I've always loved thriller movies.) But I had this great idea, and a great ending. A shootout on top of Mt. Washington in a June snowstorm. Very visual. I was sure I could sell it.

But first I had to write it. Boy, was that painful. Like I said, I hate thrillers. My idea was about a serial killer who murders child molesters, and the biggest problem was that I had to write all these molestation flashbacks and come up with about half a dozen creative, graphic murders. Very nasty. I stated really dreading my time at the keyboard.

Even worse, it was boring. I was boring myself, which is a terrible sign. If you don't jump up and punch the air in celebration once every couple of weeks about a scene you've just written, chances are no one else is going to punch the air about it, either. If the writer's bored, pity the poor reader.

Thank goodness Butler finally switched to working on the fantasy novel he was actually excited about before his gritty gun-toting thriller hero nearly killed him. Anyway, "write what you love" seems like basic advice, but it's something many writers ignore to their cost.

In 2006, Haering's company was drilling in Basel, Switzerland, as part of a project to convert heat in the underground rocks into electricity. But Swiss authorities charge that the drilling activated the major fault line that runs underneath the city, triggering a series of small earthquakes. Although the most intense of these quakes only rated a 3.4 on the Richter Scale and resulted in no injuries, the Swiss government claims Haering's drilling caused $9 million worth of property damage. Furthermore, they claim there is a 15 percent chance that, had the drilling continued, it would have triggered a major quake that could have caused $500 million in damage.

If Haering is found guilty of deliberately triggering the quakes, he could be jailed for up to five years. But this wouldn't be the first time human actions led to shaky ground. Wired lists five ways humans can cause earthquakes of their very own, including examples of a handful of other accidental Lex Luthors.

Switzerland geologist on trial for 'causing quakes' [BBC via Slashdot]

The comic, penned by Andrew Cosby with art by Jason Shawn Alexander, takes place after the United States' residents have had to be evacuated to London due to an evil increase in nocturnal carnivore people. The comic tells the story of the American expats in London, and tries to find out where the world went wrong.

Paramount has asked Zack Stentz and Ashley Edward Miller, who've written for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Fringe, and also wrote future blockbuster film Thor, to try their hand at the adaptation, no doubt hoping to crank it out before silver screen vampires have lost their luster. No director is attached at this moment.

[THR]

Wright has been posting regular tidbits from the production, and yesterday gifted Scott Pilgrim watchers with this apparent still from the film:

We skewed the photo a little to get the top image. It looks like we're getting a shot of Scott, Ramona, Young Neil, Knives Chau, Kim Pine, and Stephen Stills at a show at Lee's Palace.

Now that the actors are posed and in costume (albeit under reflective glass), do they look the way you'd hoped? Does Michael Cera fit the Scott Pilgrim role after all?

[Edgar Wright Here via /Film]

According to a news release from NASA's Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope:

Astronomers identify the object as 3C 454.3, an active galaxy located 7.2 billion light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. But even among active galaxies, it's exceptional.

"We're looking right down the barrel of a particle jet powered by the galaxy's supermassive black hole," said Gino Tosti at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Perugia, Italy. "Some change within that jet — we don't know what — is likely responsible for these flares."

Blazars, like many active galaxies, emit oppositely directed jets of particles traveling near the speed of light when matter falls toward their central supermassive black holes. What makes a blazar so bright in gamma rays is its orientation: One of the jets happens to be aimed straight at us.

Here's the above image, with 3C 454.3 circled:

At the Daybreakers sponsored site Capture Humans, there's a Facebook video that, once hooked up to your page, will explain the viral "gift" that is vampirism — by establishing you and all your Facebook friends as the original vampires. It's actually pretty fascinating and helps build the vampire world that exists in Daybreakers. See if you can catch the picture I used for "patient zero." It also gives a bit of background to the Bromley and Marks "blood bank," where future vampires will keep their currency. The "population control" is pretty intense as well.

If you're not keen on putting in your FB stats, you can just watch the video we provided above.

Also on the Capture Humans site are a few tips from the site on what to do if you encounter one of the few humans left on the planet:

Plus from their home page here are a few lovely wallpapers that show vampire rides, and what happens when a vamp is thrown out from the front of their car. Fire!

And here are awesome new posters:

Marcus Parcus spotted the similarity between James Cameron's lithe, catlike aliens and a character from the sixth issue of Timespirits, a short run comic by Steve Perry and Tom Yeates published in 1985. The long ears, the blue skin, the stripes, the lack of clothes all bear a striking resemblance to the Na'vi and Neytiri in particular. She even takes down her fair share of military men in the course of the issue. Parcus wonders, was Cameron a fan of the series?

You can see more pages from the issue, compared with shots of Neytiri at Marcus Parcus' Livejournal.

[via Super Punch]

We're torn about Girl Comics; on the one hand, a series written, drawn, lettered, colored, edited and all production work (proofreading, design, etc.) by women seems very... gimmicky, for want of a better way of putting it, and not unlike a token move that "proves" that women can work for Marvel too. But on the other, whatever cynicism we have is quickly dispelled by the quality of creators involved in the three issue series (many making their Marvel debut): Kathryn Immonen, Ann Nocenti, Trina Robbins, Louise Simonson, G. Willow Wilson, Amanda Conner, Jill Thompson, Colleen Coover, Molly Crabapple and Carla Speed McNeil all contribute, and io9 favorite Devin Grayson makes a long overdue return to comics in the series as well. Editor Jeanine Schaefer talked to Publisher's Weekly's The Beat blog about the project:

Although some creators have gravitated towards their favorite female super hero, it's not specifically focused on our female characters, and I'm not trying to generate content that I think will appeal to more women... I think the characters and the stories will draw in just as many men in as women, and will get people thinking that good comics aren't about the gender of the writer or artist, it's about where what you like to read intersects with what they like to create.

The series debuts in March, to coincide with Women's History Month (and She-Hulk's 30th anniversary).

Exclusive: Marvel announces GIRL COMICS [The Beat]

According to The Register:

[University of Washington researcher Sapna] Cheryan and her colleagues arranged multiple experiments and surveys among hundreds of non-computing-subjects students at Washington uni. Questionnaires were filled in in different rooms - one previously prepared with a science fiction poster, games kit and Coke cans; one instead with "nature" and "art" wall graphics, books and coffee cups. This stage dressing was ostensibly not part of the tests, but nonetheless it had a powerful effect on decisions by the ladies taking part.

Specifically, women filling in questionnaires in the stereotypically geeky room were significantly less likely to express interest in computer-science related studies or careers. having seen both environments, and then hypothetically offered a chance to work in an all female team in either kind of room, they still went for the non-geeky atmos.

Cheryan goes on to say that we want to attract more people to computer science, and the presence of Chewbacca action figures scared off both men and women from the discipline.

What the article doesn't mention until towards the end, though, is that the people taking part in this study weren't computer-science students — they were studying other subjects. (Do you really want to attract English majors to computer science?) Add to that the loads of biases that seem to have been jammed into this study (like the idea that liking science fiction is "masculine" and science-fiction toys are automatically a boys-only thing) that it's hard to take it seriously.

It sucks, though, that companies are receiving these kinds of messages, like the idea that women only want to look at images of nature. (Maybe a nice waterfall, or a kitten with a sign saying "HANG IN THERE BABY"?) It just seems intrinsically silly — women who are interested in computer science will be, ipso facto, geeks, and that means they'll be interested in geeky stuff. So let's not rush to tear down the giant robot wall art just yet.

LatinoReview has a scoop that during The Brothers junket, Maguire was asked who he wanted to work with his answer was, Guillermo del Toro. Which he followed with:

"We may have something here in the near future."

Cue the internet fanfare and rumor whirlwinds. This must mean that Tobey is the next Bilbo Baggins — but then again, it's the closest thing we've heard to actual Hobbit news in a while. Plus LatinoReview confirms this overheard conversation with a CAA source. Plus, Tobey is not shooting Spider-Mans 4 and 5 back to back, so he may have some free time. And it is a role of a lifetime — we'd still rather see David Tennant in the role, but Tobey has had an impressive career, and there's no doubt he could handle the role. We guess the rest is in GDT and Jackson's hands.

UPDATE: Movieline has the update from Maguire's publicist saying that the whole rumor is false, meanwhile super Tolkein site TheOneRing.com says the rumor is completely new to them, and none of their sources can confirm the possible Maguire Bilbo talks.