Nike’s Quest to Beat the Two-Hour Marathon Comes Up Oh So Short
The attempt was beautiful to watch, and a thrilling achievement in itself. But, despite the hype, despite the shoes, despite the millions of dollars of investment, despite the rigorous application of the latest scientific thinking and biomechanical analysis, and despite the mammoth effort of Eliud Kipchoge, the world’s best marathon runner, Nike’s much-publicized attempt to…
That New Thor Trailer Proves Marvel Really Knows What You Want
The first trailer for Thor: Ragnarok opens not with a bang, but with a wink: the Norse god of thunder in chains, cracking wise. "I know what you’re thinking," he deadpans in the voiceover. "How did this happen?" Thor might be smart, but in this case he's wrong. What you’re actually thinking is: Is that…
Doctor Who's New Spin-Off Goes Places the Doctor Can't
Patrick Ness didn’t want to write for Doctor Who. The author was a fan of the iconic sci-fi show, sure, but when the BBC approached him about penning an episode, he declined. He felt like he'd been writing for other people for a while and was looking to do something "entirely my own." Lucky for…
Robots Aren't Human. You Only Make Them So
If a robot were to look at you with a twinkle in its eye, you wouldn’t be blamed for running away in terror. But that plunge into the uncanny valley doesn’t bother Max Aguilera-Hellweg, who’s been photographing anthropomorphic bots since 2010. “I’ve never found myself afraid of any of them,” he says. In fact, he’d…
The Unsettling Performance That Showed the World Through AI’s Eyes
Inside an abandoned warehouse on the San Francisco docks, as the damp air floods through the holes in its rusted tin roof, Sunny Yang is playing her cello while recovering from the flu. She is 45 percent sad and 0.01 percent disgusted. That, at least, is the read from the AI that's tracking her expressions,…
Your Guide to the Crazy, Intertwined YouTube Starscape
Oh, you’ve never heard of smoshing? Shemurr. The originators of the term, Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla, are YouTube idols. Between merch, ads, and sponsorships, intertainers (that’s internet entertainers) have gone from bedroom vloggers to multimillionaires with digital empires. (Though as outcast PewDiePie shows, you’re just one offensive clip—or in his case nine—away from disgrace.)…
American Gods Gives 'Faithful Adaptation' All New Meaning
By the time you've finished watching the first five minutes of American Gods, in which a boatload of Vikings arrives in the New World, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was about to be the most violent show you've ever seen. A human body becomes a pincushion for dozens of arrows. Ritual eye-gougings render a…
Why Can't We Have a Good King Arthur Movie? Blame Game of Thrones
In case you haven't heard—which you probably haven’t, because nobody cares—there's a new King Arthur movie. Directed by gangster-flick auteur Guy Ritchie, it's got the oddly generic title King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and is limping into theaters this weekend with horrendous reviews and virtually no buzz. It's another reimagining of the Camelot legend…
Sorry, But the Guardians of the Galaxy Are No Fleetwood Mac
The song most indicative of the motley crew in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2—you know this because you hear it once in the trailer, twice in the film, and because *Entertainment Weekly *mentioned it in a cover story—is "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac. And, really, why shouldn’t it be? The film, like the song…
Sacha Baron Cohen's Fake Conspiracy Site Is Fully Post-Parody
The first episode of Sacha Baron Cohen’s new show Who Is America? hit Showtime over the weekend, and it makes for 30 minutes of brutally uncomfortable viewing. It opens with Cohen, disguised as Dr. Billy W. Ruddick, publisher of Truthbrary.org, interviewing Bernie Sanders about Obamacare. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I really don’t,”…