http://cache.io9.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png http://io9.com/tag/political science (fiction) http://io9.com/tag/political science (fiction)

Yesterday, President Obama hosted over 100 students at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the second annual White House Science Fair. Young scientists of all ages showed off projects in subjects ranging from robots, to rocketry, to energy conservation. Fourteen-year-old Joey Hudy even brought an air cannon capable of launching marshmallows upwards of 175 feet. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5883337&view=rss&microfeed=true

In 1995, New Mexico state senator Duncan Scott was getting aggravated by the number of psychologists and psychiatrists being used as expert witnesses in legal trials. To protest this perceived overuse of psychiatric professionals, Scott tacked the following protest amendment onto a bill: More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5882671&view=rss&microfeed=true

To round out their squadron of flying boats and UFO project, an estimated 3,500 Iranian women are training in Japanese ninjutsu, according to a state-run news station. It's official — the Iranian government is in cahoots with COBRA from G.I. Joe. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5882402&view=rss&microfeed=true

Life will be sweet on Newt Gingrich's moon base. We'll all wear awesome retrofuturistic jumpsuits, children will serve as janitors at their own schools, and Vice-Admiral Herman Cain will be there to greet us with a warm secret space handshake. And, of course, President Newt will rule over it all, defending truth, divorce, and the lunar way. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5882387&view=rss&microfeed=true

Although supervillains tend to cause their mayhem in the private sector, a handful of superpowered schemers find more success pulling strings inside the government. How might supervillains change the American political landscape? For one thing, we'd have more lightsabers. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5882269&view=rss&microfeed=true

Newt Gingrich may have surprised a lot of folks with his announcement that he wants to put a permanent base on the moon. But maybe they shouldn't have been surprised. After all, the original Men in Black film revealed to the world that Gingrich is actually an extraterrestrial. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5880252&view=rss&microfeed=true

Space, the final frontier...of warfare? Science fiction tales often center around the militarization of space, with lasers and torpedoes made of light racing past (and through) battleships and star destroyers. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5879139&view=rss&microfeed=true

Evidence continues to mount that your political leanings are determined, to some extent, by aspects of your biology. The latest installment in this emerging area of research comes from the University of Nebraska, in a study that looks at peoples' responses to certain forms of visual stimuli — politically themed or otherwise. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5879506&view=rss&microfeed=true

And now, for something completely different. Well, not that different from Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but pretty outlandish in the grand scheme of things. Maybe it's the next Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS? More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5877008&view=rss&microfeed=true

For the last several decades, boot-headed performance artist Vermin Supreme has been running for political office on the platforms of zombie awareness and mandatory dentifrice for all Americans. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5874126&view=rss&microfeed=true

As if the synchronized weeping and lachrymose snowstorms weren't enough, North Korean state news is now reporting that divinely anointed flocks of magpies have been flocking to a monument of Kim Jong-Il's father, Kim Il-sung. On December 18, a few dozen magpies landed near a memorial statue in Unsan county and just would not leave. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5871497&view=rss&microfeed=true

Ben Masterton-Smith, recipient of the inaugural RIBA Norman Foster Traveling Scholarship in 2007, visited North Korea for a period of architectural and spatial research. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5870984&view=rss&microfeed=true

You might think that democracies work best when people care and know about the key issues. But a new study argues that for a democracy to function at all, you need lots of ignorant people blindly siding with the majority. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5869088&view=rss&microfeed=true

After failing to secure a plot of land for his reptilian pets, a snake charmer named Hakkul released a bunch of his wriggling companions — including several venomous cobras — inside a tax office in India's Uttar Pradesh state. According to the serpent tamer, he had been promised a plot to keep the reptiles, but the officials' ongoing demands for bribes forced him to play his hand. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5864758&view=rss&microfeed=true

After Odessa city authorities okayed an initiative to parcel out land by the Black Sea to citizens, Darth Vader trotted down to the mayor's office to capitalize on this opportunity to expand the Empire. Explains Reuters: More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5861428&view=rss&microfeed=true

Should we tax the asteroid belt? In the future, the dwarf planet Ceres has attracted ruggedly individualist settlers who set up an anarchist paradise. When two Terran tax agents show up and to bring Ceres into the universal government, the Ceresians must try to win the tax agents to their side, or risk war with Earth. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5860981&view=rss&microfeed=true

Frank Miller's had an interesting career trajectory. First, he was the guy who pumped out oodles of unimpeachably classic comics. Then he was Hollywood's new golden boy with the success of Sin City and 300. His star began to fade with the missteps that were All-Star Batman and Robin and The Spirit. And now — with the release of the absolutely head-scratching Holy Terror and the blog post below — he's sold his wardrobe and donned the tin-foil pajamas and tissue-box loafers sold exclusively at Wild-Eyed Rufus' Paranoid Menswear Emporium. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5859038&view=rss&microfeed=true

The White House has responded to two petitions asking the US government to formally acknowledge that aliens have visited Earth and to disclose to any intentional withholding of government interactions with extraterrestrial beings. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5856768&view=rss&microfeed=true

Orson Scott Card's homophobic views aren't exactly news — they've been a source of online controversy for years. It's only newsworthy when Card does something especially notable, like rewriting one of the world's greatest ghost stories into an anti-gay screed. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5838334&view=rss&microfeed=true

There's a meme going around lately, saying that the September 11 attacks gave rise to our current boom in superhero movies. And there's definitely some truth to it — superheroes gave us a nice escapist fantasy in the wake of a terrible tragedy, and allowed us to talk about some stuff we couldn't have addressed in straight-up narratives. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5837450&view=rss&microfeed=true

Many science fiction books imagine strange new worlds — but only a few science fiction books have actually changed the world we live in. A few visionary authors have managed to make such an impression that they left the world a vastly different place. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5832078&view=rss&microfeed=true

Artist Jason Heuser is on a quest to commemorate those great moments in presidential history that never happened, like Old Hickory's defeat of an extraterrestrial army and Teddy the Trust-Buster busting up some Bigfoots. Heuser is selling prints of these pieces on Etsy. These fine portraits truly deserve a hallowed corner in the Hall of Inaccurate Presidents.

More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5831152&view=rss&microfeed=true

I don't know about you, but I could never get into the ending of Harry Potter. Once Voldemort kicks it, we're whisked ahead 19 years into the future and everyone's married to the first person they dated for more than 10 minutes. We don't see how wizarding society recovers or if Gregory Goyle is tried for war crimes. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5830576&view=rss&microfeed=true

In the fog of confusion over the newly reached debt ceiling deal, nobody quite knows how to describe what's happened. So naturally, everyone reaches for Tolkien. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5826635&view=rss&microfeed=true

Just in case you were worried there wouldn't be enough crassness on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Frank Miller has got you covered. His graphic novel Holy Terror, about a superhero who takes down Al Qaeda, comes out Sept. 2011. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5816828&view=rss&microfeed=true

Cyber-terrorists could target the U.S. electrical grid and throw the nation into chaos, lawmakers warned at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee. There are "many PhDs" inside Al Qaeda, and cyber-spies have already infiltrated the electricity system. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5807192&view=rss&microfeed=true The United States tax code is a thing of wonderment in its insane complexity. But what if we could massively simplify the code — without changing anybody's tax burden? David Brin, author of the Uplift novels, has a suggestion. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5802747&view=rss&microfeed=true

William S. Burroughs died in 1997, but he's still causing trouble. The Turkish Prime Minister's Council for Protecting Minors from Explicit Publications has accused Burroughs of "incompliance with moral norms" and "hurting people's moral feelings." More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5796087&view=rss&microfeed=true

Every cult needs its own wacky trainwreck of a movie. Scientology got Battlefield Earth, and now the cult of Ayn Rand gets Atlas Shrugged, Part 1. But how does Atlas stand up to Battlefield Earth? More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5792663&view=rss&microfeed=true

There's a fascinating profile of Arthur C. Clarke over at the Sri Lanka Guardian, a newspaper in the land where Clarke spent the second half of his life. There are tons of insights into Clarke's life, writing and technological foresight. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5783238&view=rss&microfeed=true

In Dragon Ball, probably the most famous action manga of all time, the characters fighting those deadly-serious battles have names like Vegeta, Trunks, Freeza and Kiwi. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5768702&view=rss&microfeed=true

How would the international community respond to the rise of a zombie horde? Daniel Drezner's Theories of International Politics and Zombies answers this crucial question — but also parodies the stultifying state of academic international relations programs. And for those of us who don't understand all the competing theories of international relations out there, it sounds like Drezner's zombie book is a pretty good primer. According to a great writeup in Mother Jones: More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5755245&view=rss&microfeed=true

Walter Jon Williams' Deep State, out next week, picks up the themes of viral marketing and social media from his previous novel This Is Not A Game. And a lot of the stuff that Williams wrote about is very similar to what's been happening in Egypt and Tunisia. Is Williams a prophet of the internet age, or just lucky? Here's his take on what happened. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5751156&view=rss&microfeed=true Would time travel be a good thing for the world? Or would it wipe out our universe, creating a new timeline in which you and I might not even have been born? And as a result, should the government be supporting or hindering time travel research? That's the dilemma that econo-blogger Tyler Cowen struggles with, over at Marginal Revolution. He adds: "Alternatively, imagine yourself as a benevolent philanthropist: should you support this area of research if you can do so as a free lunch? Or should you try to hinder it?" More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5733350&view=rss&microfeed=true

A group of physicians and human rights activist claim that the United States government used shoddy and intentionally biased science in order to downgrade what was considered torture to "enhanced interrogation techniques." More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5724545&view=rss&microfeed=true

It's hard to believe how much the world has transformed in the past decade — but our handy infographic tells the whole story. Click to enlarge! More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5720871&view=rss&microfeed=true

A group of idealistic young hackers and computer whizzes exposes all of the government's secrets - sound familiar? It's the plot of John Brunner's 1975 novel, Shockwave Rider, which some are calling a precursor to Wikileaks. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5708864&view=rss&microfeed=true

Everybody wants more optimistic science fiction, but the near future is full of nightmare scenarios like global climate change. How do we get around that? Alastair Reynolds has one idea: a 22nd century saga set after the climate's already changed. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5706908&view=rss&microfeed=true

The Republican party needs to wake up to the reality that we're causing global climate change before it's too late, warned two former GOP congressmen. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5695380&view=rss&microfeed=true

In honor of Election Night 2010, let's remember the bizarre historical minutiae comic books have taught us about the ol' U.S. of A. You know, like the time Henry Kissinger met Doctor Doom.

More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5680091&view=rss&microfeed=true