Bird Flu Bioterrorism Is Harder Than It Sounds
Doubtless there are further viral horrors awaiting a new millennium with dramatically enhanced genetic and chemical engineering capabilities.
CLI-FI
Fracking’s Addiction to Frackquakes
To what should be the surprise of no one, earthquakes caused by the junkie gas sector’s hydraulic fracturing process, known as fracking, have been returning like Freud’s repressed.
Director Brad Bird On The Iron Giant, Animation And His Fist Live-Action Film
I love that The Iron Giant has had a resilient afterlife. It was kind of rough when the film came out, because we all worked really hard on it. No one really seemed to know what it was when it was released, and not that many saw it in theaters.
10 Things For Progressives to Be Thankful For
It’s been an insane year for progressives, who have seized the international spotlight thanks to populist uprisings in politics, economics, media and elsewhere. I shared my list on Thanksgiving at […]
Occupy Hip Hop
“I hope hip hop can open itself to the possibilities that Occupy Wall Street presents. If we can use its power, we may see some lasting change from this after all.”
Welcome to Population Overload
“We’ve already crossed the threshold.”
Six Heroes Who Fought The Power and Won
While winners ultimately writes histories, what makes a winner often depends on the tenor of the times. And the times they are a-changin’. Again.
Nine Twilight Zone Blockbuster Upgrades
Hollywood is turning into a serious culture vulture scavenging off of existing properties, whose box-office is logically positioned better than films with no previous franchises. It’s a double-edged sword. For […]
Private Roads, Public Tolls
Try to avoid the road rage.
Kate Beaton’s Hark! Heckles Superheroes, Scientists, Sellouts
The smart, sharp Beaton casts a much wider cultural dragnet in her otherwise unassuming art, one which snatches up literary, historical and scientific icons without mercy.
Nuclear Cinema: Ten Prescient Meltdowns
Fukushima and worse could have been avoided if the public and proper authorities would have just watched the following 10 destabilizing cinema and documentary meltdowns.
We’ve Entered the Age of Mass Extinction
Every species has but one goal: To take over the planet. And every species that could, would, if it got the chance.
Our Biggest Security Threat Is Global Warming’s Extreme Weather
If we don’t start seriously sweating the existential crisis of climate change and ignoring the small-time drama of terrorism and partisan sellouts, then we’re finished.
The Last Airbender Reincarnates As The Legend Of Korra
Think the original series, plus Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, and you’re probably there.
Alan Moore On The Sixties, Superheroes, America, The Bible And Why Lost Sucked
“When the state started to take us seriously and initiated countermeasures, the majority of us folded like bitches.”
Patriot Acts: Ten Comics Nationalists
Straight-up supersoldiers, jingoistic nationalists, unrepentant terrorists and even clueless dunces
Frank Miller Is Ready For His Comics Fatwa
DC Comics said hell no, in a manner of speaking.
Futurama: The Sci-Fi Toon That Wouldn’t Die
Payback is a shiny metal ass, fully bitten.
Space-Walking Through Swervedriver’s Sci-Fi Sonics
Franklin broke down his band’s speculative soundtracking below for fans old and new. Come for the dystopian geekery and cultural esoterica, stay for the spacey rock signatures.
Adam Curtis’ Killing Machines of Loving Grace
Humanity now sees through the dead eyes built into the machines to which we have ceded our lives.
Superman Defies America, God In 900th Issue
The genius of Superman is that he belongs to everyone, for the dual purposes of peace and protection. He’s above ephemeral geopolitics and nationalist concerns, a universal agent unlike any other found in pop culture.
Moby Makes Sense of Destroyed Media
Moby has been making music across media and genre for over three decades now. Which means he’s watched genres bleed into each other, technology kill the music industry as we […]
Anonymous Clowns Cybersecurity Loudmouths. So Who’s Next?
I’ve been following the sometimes merry digital pranksters of Anonymous for awhile now. But I was stoked when my AlterNet editor Jan Frel asked me to break down their genius […]
Brad Bird Leaves Animation (at Gunpoint)
Is Ratatouille director Brad Bird leaving feature animation? Not if Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg take their guns out of his face.
Grant Morrison’s Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne Is a Masterful Time-Wipe
No one mashes science, philosophy and superheroes as well as Grant Morrison. And his years-long run on Batman, the most iconic human superhero of all time, is an object lesson […]