Grandma's fruitcake may have been lethal in its own special way, but it paled in comparison to the horrors of the "Battle of the Centuries" to come:

Death swifter than light, silent and stealthy as the shadow of a thought, will ride on the wings of radio to destroy nations in the space of a single breath. . . Imagine a fleet of battle planes circling, maneuvering, attacking or holding fire at the direction of minds hundreds, even thousands of miles away! Imagine the human eye endowed with a power of vision capable of spanning these thousands of miles to witness the lightning-like seep of this squadron . . . leaving in its wake a burnt and blackened desert, devoid of all life!

Among the weapons of the future predicted were:

Jets of water charged with electricity to kill all animal life with which they come in contact.

Wireless telephony, wireless sight, wireless heat, wireless power and wireless writing. . . .

Wireless fire to devastate enemy territory. . . .

Radio "eyes" and "ears" for the ferreting out of secret war plans through thousands of miles of space. . . .

Electrically controlled rockets operated on wires for wrecking planes. . . .

The possible perfection of mental telepathy to the point where it may be used over great distances to verify wireless speech. . .

These were not the "prophecy of a romantic fictionist," noted the Times, but the "sober conclusions" of Professor Archibald Montgomery Low, today considered a pioneer of radio-guidance systems.

One of the main predictions that this Indiana paper made was that Christmas this year would be full of people flying to their holiday destinations. Cars, they suggested, would be things of the past. Everyone would get to work by flying or via pneumatic tubes. The Earth would be used solely for homes and pleasant parks. Sadly the flying car has yet to take off, as it were, and we'll still trapped in our stinky automobiles for at least another century.

But shopping and watching movies via some kind of contraption that combined the telephone and "moving picture machines" was apparently easy to imagine. The paper explained:

A hundred years from now, if you want to avoid the rush and do your Christmas shopping in your own apartments, the scientists probably will have provided for you a combination of telescope and moving picture machine by means of which you can connect your room with the toy department and see the display by wire - or perhaps by wireless - and at the same time you get prices and leave your order with the clerk by telephone . . . If you prefer to remain at your apartments [on Christmas night] the telautoscope attached to your telephone may be connected to any theater you desire and you can sit in your easy chair and smoke while you see the play projected on the wall like the most perfect moving picture. All the stage settings will be there to make the play seem real and the improved telephone will bring ever shade and subtle inflection of the actor's voice to your ear.

It seems certain that this telautoscope arrangement - the exact word to describe it will be coined after the process is discovered - will be one of the triumphs of the coming century. It will enable you to see the person you are talking to over a telephone.

If you want to see a nice version of the whole article, you can check it out here.

via The Occultist (Thanks, Steve Huff, for the tip.)

These photos are from Becka's Transmutations series, which was exhibited at Dubai's Empty Quarter Gallery this past fall. You can see more images from this series on Becka's website, and he has collected the photos and their waxed paper negatives in book form.

Transmutations [Martin Becka via CNN via William Gibson]

Reviewing Metropolis, Wells wrote:"Never for a moment does one believe any of this foolish story; for a moment is there anything amusing or convincing in its dreary series of strained events. It is immensely and strangely dull. It is not even to be laughed at. There is not one good-looking nor sympathetic nor funny personality in the cast; there is, indeed, no scope at all for looking well or acting like a rational creature amid these mindless, imitative absurdities."

The visual differences between Metropolis and Wells' Things To Come are staggering. And if it's necessary to pit these two films against each other in cinema bloodsport, it's difficult to determine a winner. The raw creativity and invention of the images in Things To Come still resonate over seventy years later: workers float through a bright industrial landscape of bubbling fluids in huge transparent vats and spiral staircases that go on forever. The images associated with Metropolis are certainly less fantastic, but iconic. It seems that history has already chosen a winner, and it's Metropolis in a cyborg landslide.

Both films serve as cautionary tales to the audience, but Things To Come tells a much more interesting story with a much wider scope. It is simply epic, regardless of its short running time. Metropolis warns us of removing the human element from our visions of the future, but Things To Come does what is required of great science fiction: It holds up a tremendously ornate mirror to our own prejudice and assumptions, and then requires us to make (and live with) our own decisions.

In Things To Come, a world war launches in 1940, and lasts 30 years, until nobody can remember why it started. The world descends into medieval squalor, and Everytown is run by an evil Boss — until a flying machine, piloted by Cabal, a representative of a group of enlightened scientists and thinkers, appears. The Boss and Cabal fight for control, until Cabal drops "Peace Gas" and wins. And we see 70 years of progress pass by in a montage, as humanity rebuilds its shattered world. But then in the year 2036, in an idealized future utopia, we see the battle between luddites and the representatives progress play out again, as the luddites seek to sabotage the futuristic Space Gun. It never stops.

You can watch the whole thing online at the Internet Archive.

About this particular advertisement for Los Alamos Labs (which worked on weapons systems), Prelinger writes:

The blue spot disrupts the conventionally romantic stylization of planetary or solar bodies by contracting the sphere to its minimal form. [Artist Oli] Sihvonen here seems to reference the early 20th century Russian constructivists, with the prolonged vertical angular shape aimed at the planetary circle. It brings to mind El Lissitzsky's constructivist graphic composition Beat Back the Whites with the Red Wedge which pioneered the use of juxtaposed triangle and circle as a graphic strategy to represent political conflict. I find it ironic that the graphic legacy of Communist action should be re-articulated and put into service - whether with or without the artists' sanction - in the service of American Cold War-era weapons and civil space technological programming.

You can see more of these advertisements, along with design-geek analysis, at Berg London. Or you can pre-order a copy of Prelinger's forthcoming (gorgeous) book, Another Science Fiction: Advertising the Space Race 1957-62.

Here's the trailer for Busby Berkeley musical classic Gold Diggers of 1933.

And let's compare the two iconic dance sequences from these two flicks. Here's "We're In the Money," one of my very favorite musical numbers from Great Depression-era musicals. It's just completely psychotic and wonderful.

And here's the completely psychotic dance party from The Matrix Reloaded.

Which makes you feel more like dancing the apocalypse away?

Over at Hilobrow, Joshua Glenn writes:

What does this mean for men, you ask? John Broome, author of "It's a Woman's World," a science fiction story that appeared in the DC comic book Mystery in Space (#8), asked the same thing way back in July 1952. As the panels shown here demonstrate, Broome predicted that women would one day cruelly discriminate against men - force them to work in the home, while women ran businesses and fought wars.

But luckily, the men fight for their rights and come out back on top.

More awesomeness via Hilobrow

Banwell's masks are currently on display at the University of Oxford's Steampunk Exhibition.

[Tom Banwell Leather via Make]

According to an article in the New York Times, Moholy-Nagy was one of the least well-regarded members of Germany's Bauhaus school during his life, but The New Vision, his posthumous book on the future of art, design education, and the new media of photography and film, helped change that. And now he's being hailed as an important forefather to today's digital artists.

So what does the Light-Space Modulator do? It allows you to study the motion of light. Moholy-Nagy explains:

This piece of lighting equipment is a device used for demonstrating both plays of light and manifestations of movement. The model consists of a cube-like body or box, 120 x 120 cm in size, with a circular opening (stage opening) at its front side. On the back of the panel, mounted around the opening are a number of yellow, green, blue, rot, and white-toned electric bulbs (approximately 70 illuminating bulbs of 15 watts each, and 5 headlamps of 100 watts). Located inside the body, parallel to its front side, is a second panel; this panel too, bears a circular opening about which are mounted electric lightbulbs of different colors. In accordance with a predetermined plan, individual bulbs glow at different points. They illuminate a continually moving mechanism built of partly translucent, partly transparent, and partly fretted materials, in order to cause the best possible play of shadow formations on the back wall of the closed box. (When the demonstration occurs in a darkened space, the back wall of the box can be removed and the color and shadow projection shown on a screen of any chosen size behind the box.) The mechanism is supported by a circular platform on which a three-part mechanism is built. The dividing walls are made of transparent cellophane, and a metal wall made of vertical rods. Each of the three sectors of the framework accommodate a different, playful movement study, which individually goes into effect when it appears on the main disc revolving before the stage opening.

Image by HC Gilje on Flickr. [New York Times]

The above image is Yap's incredible "Legend Of Yamato" image won the CG Society's concept art challenge a couple years ago. You may have seen it before, but it was new to us — and we love how colorfully it reinvents steampunk. Here are some more of our favorites.

It's a steampunk boat that's also a train, from BlueStorm. More of his art here.

A steampunk arctic explorer by Vyse — way more of his awesome art at Concept Art forums.

Fantastic concept art from Big Huge Games' Rise Of Legends. Way more awesome art here.

Fantastic concept art from Big Huge Games' Rise Of Legends. Way more awesome art here.

Fantastic concept art from Big Huge Games' Rise Of Legends. Way more awesome art here.

Fantastic concept art from Big Huge Games' Rise Of Legends. Way more awesome art here.

Fantastic concept art from Big Huge Games' Rise Of Legends. Way more awesome art here.

"Crab fort" concept art from Guild Wars Factions — we featured this art at io9 ages ago, but it's so amazing it deserves to be seen again. More art from the game here.

Walker concept art from Guild Wars Factions. More art from the game here.

Walker concept art from Guild Wars Factions. More art from the game here.

Requiem For Industry by Kazuhiko Nakamura. Way more art here.

Automaton by Kazuhiko Nakamura. Way more art here.

Metamorphosis by Kazuhiko Nakamura. Way more art here.

Steampunk concept art by Lebbeus.

Steam train concept art by Emil Landgreen.

War Zeppelin concept art from Iron Grip video game, by Leviathan artist Keith Thompson. Way more at the link.

ST-38 tank concept art from Iron Grip video game, by Leviathan artist Keith Thompson. Way more at the link.

Steam walker concept art from Iron Grip video game, by Leviathan artist Keith Thompson. Way more at the link.

Freighter concept art from Iron Grip video game, by Leviathan artist Keith Thompson. Way more at the link.

Norse APC concept art from Iron Grip video game, by Leviathan artist Keith Thompson. Way more at the link.

Antarctic exploration by Myke Amend, more at his site.

Captain Nemo's Office by Alex Brockel.

Steampunk Mary Poppins by Daniel Cestari (More at the link.)

Steampunk Mary Poppins (draft) by Daniel Cestari (More at the link.)

Juggernaut assault, concept art from Steam Wars movie by Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra director Larry Blamire.

Turkish "Flaming Kettle," concept art from Steam Wars movie by Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra director Larry Blamire.

Tyler Gunwagon (1872), concept art from Steam Wars movie by Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra director Larry Blamire.

French experimental steam rig, concept art from Steam Wars movie by Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra director Larry Blamire.

Goliath class gunrig, concept art from Steam Wars movie by Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra director Larry Blamire.

Concept art from War Of The Worlds: Goliath, a direct-to-DVD animated movie (from the Heavy Metal Fan Forum. More at the link.)

Concept art from War Of The Worlds: Goliath, a direct-to-DVD animated movie (from the Heavy Metal Fan Forum. More at the link.)

Concept art from War Of The Worlds: Goliath, a direct-to-DVD animated movie (from the Heavy Metal Fan Forum. More at the link.)

Concept art from War Of The Worlds: Goliath, a direct-to-DVD animated movie (from the Heavy Metal Fan Forum. More at the link.)

Concept art from War Of The Worlds: Goliath, a direct-to-DVD animated movie (from the Heavy Metal Fan Forum. More at the link.)

I apologize in advance for the weird racist statue with images # 2 and 3. Images by AFP/Getty.

A18th century Planetarium made by Martin Benjamin is exhibited on October 13, 2009 during the 'Astrum 2009, Astronomy and Instruments' exhibition at The Vatican museum. The exhibition, running from October 16 to January 16, 2010 is organized on occasion of the International year of Astronomy, with the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), and is orientated on the history, functioning and evolution of the different instruments created by Man over ten centuries for the observation of the sky, for the location of the stars and celestial bodies. AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO (Photo credit should read VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images)

A view of a celestial and terrestrial Globe designed by Vincenzo Maria Coronelli in 1696 which is exhibited on October 13, 2009 during the 'Astrum 2009, Astronomy and Instruments' exhibition at The Vatican museum. The exhibition, running from October 16 to January 16, 2010 is organized on occasion of the International year of Astronomy, with the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), and is orientated on the history, functioning and evolution of the different instruments created by Man over ten centuries for the observation of the sky, for the location of the stars and celestial bodies. AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO (Photo credit should read VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images)

A view of a celestial and terrestrial Globe designed by Vincenzo Maria Coronelli in 1696 which is exhibited on October 13, 2009 during the 'Astrum 2009, Astronomy and Instruments' exhibition at The Vatican museum. The exhibition, running from October 16 to January 16, 2010 is organized on occasion of the International year of Astronomy, with the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), and is orientated on the history, functioning and evolution of the different instruments created by Man over ten centuries for the observation of the sky, for the location of the stars and celestial bodies. AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO (Photo credit should read VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images)

A celestial globe by Giovanni Antonio Vanosino in1567, showing the main Ptolemaic constellations in convex representation, is exhibited on October 13, 2009 during the 'Astrum 2009' exhibition at The Vatican museum. The exhibition, running from October 16 to January 16, 2010 is organized on occasion of the International year of Astronomy, with the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), and is orientated on the history, functioning and evolution of the different instruments created by Man over ten centuries for the observation of the sky, for the location of the stars and celestial bodies. AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO (Photo credit should read VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images)

A celestial globe by Giovanni Antonio Vanosino in1567, showing the main Ptolemaic constellations in convex representation, is exhibited on October 13, 2009 during the 'Astrum 2009' exhibition at The Vatican museum. The exhibition, running from October 16 to January 16, 2010 is organized on occasion of the International year of Astronomy, with the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), and is orientated on the history, functioning and evolution of the different instruments created by Man over ten centuries for the observation of the sky, for the location of the stars and celestial bodies. AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO (Photo credit should read VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images)

The Arsenius Gualterus' astrolab is exhibited on October 13, 2009 during the 'Astrum 2009, Astronomy and Instruments' exhibition at The Vatican museum. The exhibition, running from October 16 to January 16, 2010 is organized on occasion of the International year of Astronomy, with the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), and is orientated on the history, functioning and evolution of the different instruments created by Man over ten centuries for the observation of the sky, for the location of the stars and celestial bodies. AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO (Photo credit should read VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images)

Life Magazine has even more box art from 1950s science fiction toys, with plenty of ray guns, spacemen, and rocket ships. The boxes, largely designed in Japan and Korea, take varied views of our spacefaring future, sometimes focusing on the idyllic wonder of space travel (and how our robot companions will help) and other times on the crime and war that could come with an interplanetary frontier. But whether they were meant for peace or war, the robots got to look wonderful and weird.

[Life Magazine via Tokyomango]

French filmmaker Paul Doucet shot this short with a RED ONE digital camera, which is the new hotness - Peter Jackson loves the RED, and District 9 was shot using one too. The RED brings a burnished quality to the look of this film, which perfectly suits the retro-futurist environment inside the bunker.

This short is a little bit Sarah Connor, a little bit Twilight Zone, and a whole lot of post-apocalyptic grimness. Perfect for your morning coffee break.

TrekMovie interviewed Chambliss the other day, and he explained how Saarinen's ground-breaking designs wound up inspiring the look of every structure in Star Trek:

TrekMovie: Would you say doing the Enterprise inside and out was the most challenging and intimidating…

Scott Chambliss: [cutting off] Yes! Yes! And again, yes! [laughs] The outside actually came along pretty early in the game, because the whole idea that JJ embraced thoroughly was about using the Eero Saarinen approach–he was the futurist architect from the late 50s and 60s who designed the TWA terminal at JFK airport. I originally presented the concept of using him for inspiration simply for Starfleet Earth home base, the assembly hall, but he was so turned on by that, JJ suggested applying the concept to everything Starfleet. So that is when I really started playing with the exterior of the ship. But the interior, the bridge, all that iconic stuff, that was much more laborious.

Saarinen helped define the postwar image of the United States with his sweeping, rule-breaking buildings, which sought to expand modernism beyond its "measly ABC." Although he changed his style with every single job, you can see influences of both modernism and "Googie" space-age curves in a lot of his designs.

Just check out some of Saarinen's beautiful, ambitious creations, including the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the M.I.T. Chapel and of course that TWA Terminal.... which even looks a bit like a Klingon battle-cruiser seen from above. You start to wonder how much influence Saarinen may have had on the original Trek, back in the late 1960s.

Top image of M.I.T. Chapel, from atelier/Ed Brodzinsky on Flickr.

[via Wired]

Ross's book Waiting for the End of the World contains photographs and accounts of bomb shelters from across America, Europe, and Asia. Below are photos from just a few of those shelters: shelters in Sanpete and Salt Lake City, Utah, the Phillip Hoag and Charlie Hull Shelters in Emigrant, Montana, oil tycoon's Ling Chieh Kung's shelter in Conroe, Texas, and a public shelter near Zurich.

Picture Show: Waiting for the End of the World [GOOD Magazine via Presurfer]

Kitchen in shelter in Sanpete, Utah
Entrance to shelter in Sanpete, Utah
Storage Shelves in Sanpete, Utah
Entrance to shelter in Salt Lake City, Utah
Traverse tunnel in shelter in Salt Lake City, Utah
Entrance to Phillip Hoag Shelter in Emigrant, Montana
Communications tower for Phillip Hoag Shelter in Emigrant, Montana
Entrance to Kung's shelter in Conroe, Texas
Jail cells in Kung's shelter in Conroe, Texas
Operating room in Kung's shelter in Conroe, Texas
Bedroom in Charlie Hull Shelter in Emigrant, Montana
Bedroom in Charlie Hull Shelter in Emigrant, Montana
Living room in Charlie Hull Shelter in Emigrant, Montana
Air filters in public shelter near Zurich, Switzerland
Doors to public shelter near Zurich, Switzerland
Personal unit in public shelter near Zurich, Switzerland

According to the Futuro House's fansite:

Finnish architect Matti Suuronen designed and built a series of ovaloid, flying-saucer-like houses out of fibreglass in the late 1960s. He called them Futuro. Suuronen's houses were comfortably large but light enough to be carried to remote sites by helicopter.

Wright auction house sold the Futuro House on June 2, with a suggested price of between $50K and $70K, but in the end the house fetched only the bottom end of that range — astonishingly cheap for a house, although maybe it's closer to being a mobile home really.

Check out some of the other items that Wright just auctioned off:


Chromium organs made by Atelier Van Lieshout (just $5K, unsold!)

Acrylic stool by Shiro Kuramata (just $30K, also unsold!)

Zen Chair by Kwok Hoi Chan (just $2,000, also unsold!)

Jitterbug Atom by Buckminster Fuller, sold for $3,125.

Monohex Dome design by Buckminster Fuller, sold for just $3,250.

4-D House blueprints by Buckminster Fuller, $5,000 to $6,000... amazingly enough, unsold. Make them an offer!

Non-Symmetrical Tension Integrity by Buckminster Fuller, sold for $2,500.