Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Futurism.
Is the Government Hiding UFOs?
"You ever notice that UFO's never land at places like MIT or UCLA? They always land in some swamp in Arkansas where Billy Hot Dog and his cousin, Weenie, are out hunting. They're real good for reliable reports. It was big and round. Imagine if it landed in Times Square... taxi drivers would honk and scream out 'move that thing!' Bums would come and warm their hands by it and say 'This is nice!' " —Jay Leno
By Futurism Staff10 years ago in Futurism
'This Island Earth'
The Zahgon fighter ships dive suicidally toward the planet Metaluna. Slicing through the thick cloud covering of the planet’s Ionization Layer, the delta-winged invaders magnetically carry a payload of deadly meteors in tow. The ships swoop in for the kill, sending the meteors hurtling down onto the war-ravaged planet’s surface. In a series of spectacular explosions, the space boulders sear into the Metalunan landscape. Eye-boggling displays of molten rock and incandescent smoke mushroom into the air, illuminating the surrounding area for miles around.
By Futurism Staff10 years ago in Futurism
Best Philosophically Driven Sci-Fi Books
The liberty to set a story anywhere, in any time period, and in any of our infinite realities gives sci-fi an uncanny power to reshape, or at least cause us to re-examine, our perception of the world. These brilliant authors can take the bare bones of a story, flesh it out with compelling characters and unique settings, and weave a plot whose pattern delights readers; but then go further.
By Jake Burgess10 years ago in Futurism
Bill Lear Interview
William Powell Lear was a notable rarity among inventors of the 60s and 70s: He turned his ideas into money. The classic inventor sold out in despair after years of unrewarding toil, then watched someone else make a fortune out of his invention. Bill Lear, by contrast, was worth between $30 and $50 million in his prime—and he started from scratch.
By Futurism Staff10 years ago in Futurism
Best Erotic Sci-Fi Art
OMNI magazine aimed to provide content on "all realms of science and the paranormal." The platform on which OMNI was built went beyond any regular sci-fi magazine, including an examination of the stunning—yet sometimes bizarre—artwork which permeated its publications.
By Jake Burgess10 years ago in Futurism
Best Worst Paranormal Movies
The paranormal movie is truly a staple of cinematic history. Ever since The Exorcist, ghosts, ghouls, and all sorts of unexplainable phenomena have invaded our screens. We’ve seen films like The Sixth Sense and Paranormal Activity arrive from this newfound fascination with the paranormal, but just like every other fad in the movie world, there are some stinkers to pair with the great movies. The problem is, judging the quality of these movies by the trailers seems to be an increasingly difficult challenge, and therefore people have been tricked into seeing some, to put it bluntly, metaphorical dumpster trucks on fire. The best worst paranormal movies will make you laugh so hard you scream.
By Emily McCay10 years ago in Futurism
Impact Craters of North America
The time: June 30, 1908. The place: central Siberia, Imperial Russia. A giant meteorite, blindingly incandescent, streaked across the sky and smashed to Earth near the Tunguska River, devastating a roughly circular region nearly 150 kilometers in diameter. Forests were flattened and several herds of reindeer killed. The earth was pitted by cone-shaped craters up to 50 meters across. Ground vibrations from the impact shattered windows scores of kilometers away. Heat seared the bark from trees, and smoke billowed many kilometers into the atmosphere. Shock waves from the blast were "heard" around the world by delicate microbarographs, instruments that measure pulsations in atmospheric pressure set up by very long sound waves.
By Futurism Staff10 years ago in Futurism
What is Kabbalah?
There’s a tale my grandfather told me. He explained he heard it many a time at Military Intelligence in London, when the candles guttered low and the fog curled about the windows. It happened in 1914, when England was losing the first world war and it seemed only a miracle could save her. There was this writer, name of Arthur Machen, never popular or well known, a bloody Welshman in fact and a mystic to boot. Well (they say), this Welshman, this Machen, took it into his head to write a story about the kind of miracle England needed, so he imagined St. George himself leading a group of medieval archers to aid the English troops at Mons. And after the story was published in a magazine, some enterprising newspapers picked it up and reprinted it as fact. And (they say) the whole damned country was gullible enough to believe it. It did as much for national morale as the real miracle would have.
By Robert Anton Wilson10 years ago in Futurism
Women of 'Andromeda'
It sounds like the sci-fi equivalent of Thelma and Louise: Actresses Lisa Ryder and Lexa Doig teaming up in a futuristic action-adventure series called Rumble and Sparks. OK, so it wa really just a recurring joke between the two co-stars of Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, but hearing Ryder talk about the idea was irreverently amusing.
By Futurism Staff10 years ago in Futurism
