• chart porn

    Create Your Own Original Star Trek Story

    The original Star Trek only managed to make 80 episodes before running out of Dilithium. Not enough! So we mixed up the show's most frequent plot twists, to create a foolproof Trek story generator. More »
    01/28/09
    186,708
    75

  • chart porn

    War and Social Upheaval Cause Spikes in Zombie Movie Production

    There's been a huge spike in the production of zombie movies lately, and many of them seem to be inspired by war. Everything from 28 Days Later to Zombie Strippers make explicit reference to wartime, as did seminal 1968 zombie flick Night of the Living Dead. Is there really a connection between zombie movies and social unrest? We decided to do some research and find out. The result? We've got a line graph showing the number of zombie movies coming out in the West each year since 1910 — and there are definite spikes during certain years, which always seem to happen eerily close to historical events involving war or social upheaval. More »

    Feature

    10/29/08
    35,867
    38

  • chart porn

    The Most Accurate (and Inaccurate) Predictions About Homes of the Future

    For decades, scifi movies and futurist documentaries have promised us domestic bliss via flying cars and housecleaning droids. We may not have home heliports yet, but several old movies actually got it right when it came to predicting the crazy gadgets that would be in our homes today. We've whipped up an infographic for you (just click it to expand) that shows what nine movies predicted, and how accurate they were. More »
    09/12/08
    10,940
    34

    Comment by Dillenger69: No fruit trees under glass domes? I get BC Hothouse products all year round. [www.bchothouse.com] I'd say that's a green not an orange. 3 Responses | Other threads

  • chart

    How Does Your Hero Measure Up On Our Wish-Fulfillment Checklist?

    Sometimes you just want to escape into a heroic universe of wish fulfillment, with just the right kind of angst. And let's face it, some heroes do a better job of hitting your escapism sweet spots than others. We've put together a chart comparing the great action heroes, and seeing which ones hit most of the sweet spots of escapism. More »
    07/25/08
    52,358
    81

  • space porn

    The Ten Most Important Satellites Orbiting Earth Now

    Today, a satellite was involved in your life. Whether you checked a weather report, watched SportsCenter or looked for your mom's house on Google Maps, you did something that would have been impossible without an automated spacecraft orbiting hundreds of miles above your head. But how many of these satellites do you know by name? Here are the top ten you need to know, because they make modern life possible. More »
    05/19/08
    109,317
    44

    Comment by wetboxersguy: The ISS important? It's the most useless space junk ever built. more » | Other threads

  • chart

    Satellite Smackdown — Which Moon is the Solar System's Awesomest?

    A little while back, io9er Ed said Titan was "The Awesomest Moon in the Solar System." Well where I come from, them's fightin' words. What about Earth's Moon? Mars' Phobos? Europa?? There are boatloads of kickass moons in the solar system. We break down ten contenders in a highly scientific chart to settle this debate, once and for all. More »
    05/02/08
    9,918
    56

    Comment by gunnk: I pick Ariel (named for the sprite in Shakespeare's The Tempest). Mostly because it shares that name with my daughter (also... more » | Other threads

  • giant monster chart

    Do Giant Disasters Provide Inspiration for Giant Monster Movies?

    It's practically a truism to claim that the giant monster movie craze of the 1950s was inspired by the atomic bombs the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the hundreds of atomic tests done afterwards. And some have argued that the Cloverfield monster's attack on New York was a not-so-subtle reference to the terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center in 2001. But is there a real historical basis to these claims? We've charted some of the biggest disasters of the last century, and lined them up next to a timeline of giant monster movies, to see what the temporal correlation is between giant disasters and giant monsters. The results revealed an interesting giant monster cycle in pop culture. More »
    04/28/08
    4,925
    29

    Comment by RAHfanboy: If there is a correlation between events and monsters (I'm open but not convinced) there are two ways to look... more » | Other threads

  • chart

    Where Do Scifi Fads In Mainstream Lit Come From?

    Dale Peck and Tim Kring's alternate-history novel is just the latest in a long history of mainstream authors lifting ideas from science fiction. But what sci-fi concepts have been most in vogue with literary publishers — and when did those fads peak? We decided to look at the biggest novels by literary authors that involved time travel, alternate history, or post-apocalyptic futures. And then we threw in larger political, cultural or literary events that could have influenced authors, publishers or readers. We discovered a shocking connection between real-life wars and the popularity of time-travel stories. More »
    04/18/08
    6,846
    24

    Comment by Son of Tezby: I think the apparent correlations here are accidental. There's usually a time lag of at leat 3-5 years between an... more » | Other threads

  • battlestar galactica

    Documentary Fetishism in Battlestar Galactica

    TV watchers tuning into the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica tonight have more accurate information about humans killed in the show's space battles than they do about civilian deaths in Iraq. This fetish for numerical exactness is part of what makes the show so realistic and appealing to non-scifi fans — but it's also what makes fans so freakishly devoted. Because you can track every single death. And we've done that for you here, in a chart revealing the strangely detailed information Battlestar offers about its fictional population of spacers fighting robots. More »
    04/04/08
    9,117
    30

    Comment by joebeaudoinjr: @shoffsky: The population dropped all the way to 39,000ish at one point, and it happened during the New Caprica occupation.... more » | Other threads

  • chart

    Do Real-World Politics Affect Star Trek's Prime Directive?

    The cardinal rule in the Star Trek universe is the Prime Directive, which forbids the super-advanced Federation from interfering with the development of less-advanced cultures. Of course every crew breaks it regularly, but some crews have broken it more than others. Since Star Trek often tries to make reference to current U.S. politics, we decided to see if there was a relationship between these imaginary violations and what the US was doing in the world. Click through for a comparison of U.S. overseas troop levels and Star Trek's meddling, which may surprise you. More »
    03/28/08
    5,391
    37

  • chart

    Meet the First Realistic Martian Woman

    What would we have to do to our bodies if we wanted to live on Mars? io9 consulted scientists, our imaginations, and a designer, and came up with the most realistic-possible portrait of a Martian colonist who might truly exist on the Red Planet in 100 years. She's really tall, doesn't have to wear a bra, and has some pretty awesome photosynthesis and water-reclaiming implants in her exosuit. It's time to meet the first Martian woman. Click through for full frontal. More »
    03/21/08
    10,869
    45

    Comment by Bloodboiler: Designed by Roberd Crumb? Feet certainly are big enough. more » | Other threads

  • chart

    Bad Movie Physics: A Report Card

    Space epics almost always play fast and loose with science, treating the laws of physics like suggestions. Sound in space, unprotected bodies splatting in vacuum, and alien planets that all look just like Calabasas. But some movies dismember Newton and Einstein with way more gusto than others. We rated 18 movies based on how many laws of physics they mangled, and here's our report card. More »
    03/14/08
    153,836
    138

    Comment by kitharion: Though I can't agree with BreakAtmo on his gravity argument. It's extremely unlikely that terraforming could ever include altering... more » | Other threads

  • infoporn

    Why All Female Superheroes Look the Same

    This chart compares the body mass index (BMI) of superheroes in Marvel comics with those of typical American women and men. Researchers Karen Healey and Terry Johnson used physical stats from Marvel's Web site to show that the vast majority of female superheroes are underweight, though the males are mostly normal. Just to remind you, in the BMI scale, below 18.5 is underweight, 18.5-24.9 is normal, and over 25 is overweight. Healey's analysis of what this means is hilarious and thought-provoking. More »
    02/28/08
    14,259
    44

    Comment by Dr-Gordon-Patzer: Annalee, My compliments to you for a great post highlighting the same narrow range of looks for female superheroes that then... more » | Other threads

  • chart

    When The Economy Booms, Dystopias Rule

    Economists agree the U.S. is sliding into recession, and that can only mean one thing — fewer movies about oppressive systems that crush the souls of ordinary people. We charted the number of dystopian movies in the U.S. for each of the last 30 years, against economic downturns, and found that dystopian movies are counter-cyclical. That is, dystopian films do best when the economy is booming, and a fall in the number of dystopian movies may predict a recession. Click through more details, including a bigger version of the chart and a list of dystopian movies by year. More »
    02/22/08
    7,836
    28

    Comment by yeschaton: Hey, don't forget Southland Tales (2006) Tagline: Have A Nice Apocalypse more » | Other threads

  • chart

    The Rise And Fall Of Cyberpunk

    Maybe cyberpunk isn't quite dead, but it definitely peaked a while back. There are way fewer books and movies with cyberpunk themes coming out now than there were in the golden age of the 80s and mid-90s. And we've got the statistics to prove it. We counted up the cyberpunk books and movies for every year since 1980, and charted their rise and fall. Click through to see what we found. More »
    01/18/08
    3,800
    32

    Comment by sfam: Hi Charlie, Just a follow-up to my last post (I assume its in moderation?). Jason Harrison has compiled the best list... more » | Other threads

  • chart

    New Proof That Every Scifi Epic Is Based On Joseph Campbell

    Why do so many adventure movies seem to have the same story? A lot of the blame goes to the Hero's Journey, a cookie-cutter spiritual-ish adventure recipe concocted by Joseph Campbell in 1949. Star Wars and many fantasy sagas famously follow this treasure map step by step, but how do other science fiction stories measure up? We score scifi stories on our "Hero's Journey" checklist, after the jump. More »
    01/14/08
    7,373
    36

    Comment by DeadWriter: Campbell's purpose was to help root out cross cultural similarities in story structure. He never set out to write a... more » | Other threads

  • infoporn

    Doctor Who: Revolutionary Or Tool Of The Man?

    Why didn't the Doctor do anything to fix the oppressive alien society he met in the Doctor Who Christmas special? Because most of the time, the Doctor only tries to preserve the status quo. But occasionally he visits a dystopia where he launches a revolution and smashes the system. Click through for our chart showing the Doctor's waxing and waning revolutionary tendencies over time. More »
    01/02/08
    13,991
    46

    Comment by aspiringexpatriate: This is really interesting. I wish I had a cool comment to drop. But yeah, Braak seems 'right'... 1 Responses | Other threads

  • environmental collapse

    Which of Your Toys Will Suck Most Next Year?

    Good magazine has whipped up an amazing chart that shows how much energy your electronic toys will suck up next year — even when they're turned off. Most electronics stay in standby mode when turned off, maintaining a clock in a microwave, say, or a timer in your DVR that tells it when to turn on. After the jump, see the full chart showing how much money people in the US will spend next year just to keep devices on standby. It ain't pretty. More »
    12/17/07
    339
    2

    Comment by MirDreams: Ok, except for the plazma TV I don't think that's too bad. I'd like to know what it'd be... more » | Other threads

  • apocalypse

    A List of All the Ways We Imagine Los Angeles Being Destroyed

    Sure it's cool to destroy New York, but it's even cooler to destroy Los Angeles. That's why Omega Man, the 1970s version of I Am Legend, took place in Los Angeles. Viral decimation is only one of the many ways LA has been crushed, according to a 1998 book by Mike Davis, Ecology of Fear, in which the irascible social critic gives us a helpful list of how LA is destroyed in 145 scifi/disaster novels. Of course nukes top the list, with a whopping 49 books wiping out LA in a big blast. But you'll be surprised by some of the lesser-known forms of LA-elimination. More »
    12/13/07
    531
    1

    Comment by CalebNumskis: LA is already the living dead. Thats why it's so beautiful. more » | Other threads

  • environmental collapse

    Are You in a Climate Change Hot Zone?

    An international team of scientists has crunched the numbers and predicted which areas of the world will be hit hardest by the effects of climate change. They created this map of the "socioclimatic" future of the world. The reddest areas, which include China, India, and the United States, are in the most danger because they suffer from a deadly combination of social problems and lax policies on toxic emissions (it's no coincidence that all three countries are not signatories to the Kyoto Treaty). Check out the stats for yourself. [Eurekalert] Image by Pamela Burroff-Murr/Diffenbaugh et al./Dan Annarino/NOAA.
    12/11/07
    502
    1

    Comment by jak2rocks: Aww, damn! I'm in FL and that's part of the 1 out of 2 reddest areas... more » | Other threads

  • predictions

    Do You Live In A Flu Epidemic Zone?

    Using the deadly SARS flu outbreak as a template, researchers have created a model that can predict the spread emerging global epidemics. A team of researchers in the US and Europe incorporated travel and census data from 3100 urban areas and 220 countries to figure out where a virus would travel and how fast. More »
    11/21/07
    187
    0

  • 1

  • 1-21 of 21 for "Chart, "