Gully Foyle

We've got a lot to get through in this week's "Postal Apocalypse" — zombies, Agent Coulson, more zombies, Game of Thrones, and, of course, more superhero sex. So make sure you send your questions to postman@io9.com, and let's get started!

THE DYING DEAD

Flytrap:

Hey Rob,

A Question about The Walking Dead: Something about the finale bothers me and keeps me from sleeping :

I get that if a Walker bites you, you get infected, die and turn into a Walker - check.

I get that, since everyone is infected, if you die, you turn into a Walker – check.

But if everyone is already infected, how would getting bit matter? You’re already infected so it shouldn’t matter, right?

So, did Andrea die for nothing? Dammit, I LIKED Andrea.

That’s actually a good point. I hadn’t really thought about it, and the show hasn’t really explained it at all, but it’s seems that being bit by a zombie actually kills you, and then the virus already in your system turns you into a walker. I mean, people get bit, they die, they go zombie; people die but don’t get bit, they go zombie. .

I suppose it’s possible there are two forms of the virus — a latent version that’s currently chilling in our blood waiting for us to kick it, and then a more powerful one in the zombies that jumpstarts the effect by also killing you.

S.H.I.E.L.D.’S UP

Brian:

Never believe anything you read on the internet, my grand taught me but browsing the comments on the latest S.H.E.I.L.D. trailer I came across a nugget that got me wondering, and yes I admit it, dreaming if it it could be true. Quoting the wise and mystical-in-all-knowledge Youtube user Eqr36P:

"...Fox/Sony own the film rights to those Marvel characters which MCU don't control. But those rights don't extend to TV. Thus you have currently cartoons where Avengers hang out with Spiderman or whatever, which you can't do on film.

“I'm not saying it will happen, but don't be shocked if Spiderman or Wolverine or Fantastic Four or whoever pop up on A.O.S. and that will be Marvel's loophole to incorporate them into the MCU"

Now that seems just too obvious to me so surely the lawyers were all over that back when they drew up contracts. Could ABC actually reach much further into the Marvel back catalogue than we assumed?

Technically, Marvel (and thus Disney) do have the TV rights to Spider-Man, the X-Men and all the other characters in the Marvel universe. So this is true, but I don’t think we’re in any danger of actually seeing Spider-Man or Wolverine on SHIELD, and here’s why.

Sony and Fox still have all the image rights to their versions of Spider-Man and the X-Men, so not only would Marvel have to recast the roles, but they’d also have to make sure they looked somewhat different. I don’t know that that means they’d have to put Spidey in his black suit or something, but I do know they couldn’t use the movie suit.

Now, a few nods should be fine — a mention of the X-Men on the news, the Oscorp building added to New York City’s skyline — but I think that’s all we’ll get. Putting Spider-Man on TV would be super-expensive, just special effects-wise, and one of the reasons they chose to do Agents of SHIELD as opposed to a specific superhero show is to minimize that cost. Also, using Spider-Man or the X-Men, while legal, would almost certainly piss off Sony and Fox, and since Marvel is patiently waiting to get the movie rights to its characters back, I doubt they want to damage those relationships.

And most importantly, what would they really gain? Marvel clearly isn’t ready to make a Spider-Man or X-Men TV series, and by adding them into Agents of SHIELD and bringing them into the Marvel movie-verse as minor characters, they’d only be limiting their later options for their movies. You cast Peter Parker, have something happen to him, have him meet Coulson — then it’s pretty much is canon for the Movie-verse, and it could be something that contradicts what Marvel would later want to do in their own actual Spider-Man movie, if they ever get a chance.

So I’d look for a few Easter Eggs, maybe a few mentions of these characters, but nothing like an actual appearance.

REALITY BITES

Sean O’C:

Could you defang the zombies and then have them be harmless while we uninfected searched for a cure? If someone got infected could you just take out all their teeth and make them harmless?

No, because the zombies still have arms and fingernails and they could grab you and scratch you, and while that wouldn’t definitely turn you, it still could if they manage to deposit their infected tissue inside you. Even if you don’t subscribe to the scratch theory, chances are the zombies wouldn’t stop trying to bite people just because they had no teeth, so then you have to deal with the living dead grabbing at you and gumming you all the time.

Which is why you have to do the full Michonne, and chop off their arms and bust their jaws, removing all their offensive capabilities. If Walking Dead is correct, this also makes them docile. If so, great, but if not, I personally still wouldn’t take any chances — your body is full of holes and orifices, and even a jawless, armless zombie could get lucky and manage to drool in your mouth while you slept or something.

SEX-MEN

J:

Hey Mr. Postal Apocalypse Guy,

There's been a lot of sex questions lately... might as well continue with that trend. Because of the downturn in the economy and everything, if Professor X had to convert the school to make some extra cash, and it became a super brothel, who's his biggest money maker? Obviously, if he could get Mystique, she'd be the winner. Rogue is pretty bad for repeat customers (or is a condom sufficient protection...?) And also, was Rubber Maid written specifically for this eventuality? And ALSO, Pimpfessor X is a pretty sweet new name.

Pimpfessor XXX’s Home for Sexually Gifted Barely Legal Youngsters, eh? All right then. I have to argue with your choice of Mystique, unfortunately — while her ability to change into anyone would be a hell of a moneymaker, telepath Emma Frost (or Jean Grey, if she happened to be alive at the time) could do all that an more without ever actually having sex with anybody. Emma could make the customers think they weer having the most mind-blowing sex of their entire lives while she was busy reading the newest John Grisham book in the corner.

Assuming this is an equal opportunity whorehouse, I imagine Wolverine would be pretty high up on the list, based on his popularity. While I think plenty of folks would go for the giant Colossus, believing he’s in-scale, I still contend Cyclops has the biggest penis of the X-Men, so if Pimpfessor XXX somehow lists his measurements on a menu or something, I think he’d be a real earner.

Rogue would have to be the worst earner, because she couldn’t. You can’t have any skin-to-skin contact with Rogue or she pretty much kills you, so literally the only action Rogue could provide is via a glory hole where the customers would still have to wear condoms, and I don’t see a lot of guys paying for that when Storm, Psylocke, Kitty Pryde, and everyone else are available.

As for Rubbermaid, while her name is hilarious, her power is actually just being hyper-elastic rubber, which would probably only be a draw for auto-erotic asphyxiation enthusiasts — a specialty, to be sure. Also, she’s depowered and currently dead, so… still a specialty, I guess.

Also, gross.

[WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILER FOR THE NEXT EPISODE OF GAME OF THRONES AHEAD]

Viv A.:

What do you think the reaction will be after the next episode of Game of Thrones?

First of all, let me reiterate that if you don’t know what’s happening in the next GoT, you should probably skip this (I put this at the end, so there’s nothing else to read). Also, let me apologize to Viv for rewriting her question completely to be appropriately vague.

What do I expect after episode 9 of Game of Thrones season 3? Mass hysteria. Insanity, anger, disbelief, people trying to figure out what the trick is, people quitting the show, people in awe that the show could be so bold. Basically all the stuff I felt when I got to that part when I was reading A Storm of Swords. And that’s all I’ll say, lest a non-book reader is accidentally reading this — for now.

Do you have questions about anything scifi, fantasy, superhero, or nerd-related? Email postman@io9.com! No question too difficult, no question too dumb! Obviously!

Could the villain of Marvel's big space opera be the ruler of one of its most famous alien races? Could a Man of Steel prequel comic set the stage for one of Superman's closest allies? Could a villain of anniversary specials past return to menace the Doctor on his 50th anniversary? Maybe not, but prepare for spoilers!

Top image from World War Z.

Guardians of the Galaxy

It's been heavily rumored (but I don't believe confirmed yet) that Pushing Daisies star Lee Pace will play the main, presumably non-Thanos villain in this movie, but there's been no clear sense of which villain that would be. The latest rumor claims Ronan the Accuser will be that villain. Ronan was originally a Fantastic Four villain — which might actually create some rights issues with 20th Century Fox, although he's a minor enough character that Marvel Studios could likely get hold of him if they really wanted to — and is of mostly of note for being the rule of the Kree, which might in turn set up the Kree-Skrull war that everyone seemed to think was going to happen in The Avengers. In other words, this is probably just the prelude to a whole new round of Kree-Skrull rumors for The Avengers 2. In the meantime, I'd advise treating this rumor with the deepest skepticism, and not just because we're still pretty dubious that either the Kree or the Skrulls are going to show up in a Marvel movie anytime soon. [JoBlo]

Man of Steel

While it's always difficult to tell how much faith to put in tie-in comics, the contents of the comic Man of Steel Prequel #1 — the story of which was devised by Man of Steel director Zack Snyder and writer David S. Goyer along with DC Comics chief creative office Geoff Johns — are just crazy enough to be worth highlighting. IGN has the rundown:

The comic is essentially the origin story of Supergirl in this new movie continuity. The story sees Kara and several fellow students undertaking a harsh test of survival on Krypton. She passes the test, but not before her lover Kell-Ur is killed by fellow student Dev-Em. Kara's reward is the opportunity to join a team of astronauts that will seek out and colonize a new world in the name of Krypton. However, Dev-Em escapes custody and manages to sabotage the ship. The end result of her final clash with her nemesis is that Kara is sealed in a cryogenic pod and crash-lands on Earth thousands of years before the arrival of Superman.

Unless you count those clearly bullshit Lindsay Lohan rumors from a couple years back, there have been no serious indications that Supergirl would appear in Man of Steel, so if this comic is at all setting up a movie storyline, then this will most likely be dealt with in a subsequent movie. Still, the most likely explanation is that Snyder and Goyer just wanted to do a story featuring Supergirl, and a comic was the best way to do that. [IGN]

And here's a pair of character posters. [First Showing]

Prometheus 2

It's still very far from confirmed that Ridley Scott will be able to make a Prometheus sequel after the original's less than spectacular reception at the domestic box office, and it's still very far from clear just when Scott would even be able to make the thing — 2015 is probably the earliest opening he has in his schedule — but that hasn't stopped the first casting rumor for the film.

Specifically, British actor Rik Barnett, a near unknown whose only significant role to date (of three credits total) was in the 2010 film Rebels Without a Clue, has reportedly met with Scott on multiple occasions to discuss a role in the film. It's hard to know what to make of any of this, considering there's no indication that a script has been finished or, again, that 20th Century Fox even wants to make the movie, and even then it seems strange for Scott to be taking a specific interest in an actor with such a low profile.

So then, best to take this with a huge grain of salt, but I will say that if this story is made up or even just an exaggeration of a less compelling truth, it's one of the most bizarre stories I've ever come across, because seriously... who would make up a Prometheus 2 casting rumor about some guy named Rik Barnett? Well, other than Rik Barnett, I guess. [Prometheus Movie News]

The World's End

Here's a pair of posters. [/Film]

World War Z

Iron Man 3 costar James Badge Dale says the creative and budgetary problems on his next blockbuster, Marc Forster's World War Z, have been overstated:

There’s been a lot of talk about World War Z being all over the place, but no, that wasn’t true. That gets blown up in the press. Every movie has their share of problems. The truth is, the creative experience on World War Z was fantastic, and it looks amazing. You want to work with good people. When you’re working with good people, it frees you up. There’s nothing worse, as an actor, to show up and then feel like you have to protect yourself somehow because you don’t feel like you’re in good hands. It’s not an actor’s medium. It’s a director’s medium. We’re just one cog in this giant machine. You show up and look at all the other cogs like, “Wow, everyone is the best at what they do.” You’re in really good hands. And that frees you up to play and feel safe, and you can take chances, creatively. You can take risks. I want to show up to work and take risks. I don’t ever want to play it safe.

[Collider]

And here's a TV spot.

Poltergeist

Here are some reported plot details for the Poltergeist remake:

The new version follows Eric Bowen and his family who, after he loses his job, relocate to a new town to start anew. His daughter, Madison, is abducted, making him truly understand what’s important in life: family. In the new version, Eric’s wife, Amy, can communicate with the dead. Another interesting new character is Carrigan Burke, a television personality who hosts “Haunted House Cleaners.”” The supernatural doesn’t scare this guy. Dr. Brooke Powell is Carrigan’s ex-wife who is a parapsychologist at a local university. Her team investigates the supernatural events surrounding the disappearance of the Bowen girl.

Check out the link for a rundown of when and where the movie is likely to be filmed. [Bloody Disgusting]

Doctor Who

With season seven now completed, it seems like high time we have a crazy, almost certainly false rumor about the 50th anniversary special. And this one is a real stalwart of crazy Doctor Who rumors: according to what are reportedly "a number of very reliable sources," Omega, the original rogue Time Lord, will be a villain in the special.

For whatever it's worth, Omega has long been rumored as a potential returning Doctor Who villain, because although he clearly isn't as iconic as the Daleks, Cybermen, Master et al., he has a fairly compelling backstory, he appeared in the original multi-Doctor anniversary special "The Three Doctors," and his exile in an anti-matter universe means he's the one Time Lord with a ready-made explanation for his survival.

There were even rumors that the great Jason Isaacs was meeting with Steven Moffat in preparation for taking on the role at the end of season six... which obviously never happened, and that's the most likely fate of this rumor, especially when John Hurt's presence as the secret Doctor already probably gives the special all the morally compromised Time Lords it can handle. [Doctor Who Spoilers]

Game of Thrones

Here's a behind-the-scenes video entitled "The Politics of Marriage."

True Blood

Episode eight is reportedly called "Dead Meat" and will feature the supporting roles of "a guard and a bottling plant foreman." I realize these are probably just bit parts with a total of two words between them, but now I'm weirdly intrigued in the spin-off series, True Blood Nights: The Continuing Adventures of a Guard and a Bottling Plant Foreman. Just when you thought the original True Blood was sexy! [SpoilerTV]

Revolution

Here's a promo for the next episode, "Children of Men."

Production is reportedly moving to Austin, Texas for season two. The first season was shot in the Wilmington, North Carolina area. [SpoilerTV]

Sleepy Hollow

Here's a pair of promos for what certainly looks like a prime contender for the most gloriously, delightfully awful show of the 2013-14 TV season, in which a time-traveling Ichabod Crane solves crimes or something.

666 Park Avenue

For anyone who remembers that the final four episodes of this show never aired in the United States — or, hell, for anyone who remembers that this is a show that actually existed — here's a heads-up that ABC has now scheduled those episodes to air on consecutive Saturdays between June 22 and July 13. [TV Line]

Arrow

Executive producer Marc Guggenheim says there will be two main villains in the second season:

"We made no secret of the fact that we subscribe to the Whedonesque model of having a big bad, and in Season 2, we'll actually have two big bads. They'll both be very recognizable names to fans of the comic book. We're really excited about both of them." With Malcolm and the Dark Archer, we sort of had two big bads in one person. In Season 2, we're going to split them up essentially, and there will be a Malcolm-esque big bad and a Dark Archer-esque big bad."

He also says the destiny of Slade Wilson — who will now be a main character after Manu Bennett's promotion to series regular status — will be a big question in season two:

"If the question of Season 1 is, 'What happened to Oliver on that island?' The question of Season 2 is, 'What happened to Slade Wilson on that island?' We're definitely trying to take the show to the next level in Season 2. Obviously we're feeling a lot of pressure, but also a huge desire to return with a few big bold statements that the show is not quieting down. If anything, it's ramping up. It's going to be cool. I'm really excited about both villains. We've set the bar pretty high for ourselves in terms of ending with a bang, and we're looking to exceed that in Season 2."

[TV Guide]

Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

Animals are smarter than many people realize, and they can learn to do all sorts of stuff. That's why so many creatures have been domesticated — but it's also why people have tried, over and over, to send animals to war. Here's a history of animal soldiers, in pictures.

Pigeons As Photographers

This aerial photography technique was invented in 1907 by the German apothecary Julius Neubronner. He used pigeons to deliver medications for long time, so he had a simple idea: what if he fits the pigeon with a miniature camera on an aluminium breast harness? First he used the Ticka watch camera, but later developed lighter and better ones.

The double camera had two lenses pointing in opposite directions, but he made a stereoscopic camera and a panoramic camera, too.

The doves lived in a small carriage that combined a darkroom with a dovecote.

The Prussian Army was interested on the technique, so they made some tests with the flying animals, during the Battle of Verdun or the Battle of the Somme — but after WWI, the Prussian War Ministry didn't want to experiment any further.

Christian Adrian Michel's camera

In the 1930s, though, the Swiss Army and the Germans made more research: in 1937 a Swiss clockmaker, Christian Adrian Michel successfully made a 16mm film camera with a timer operated by a clockwork. During WWII, the Russian Army discovered abandoned German trucks with pigeon cameras that could take photos every five minutes.

During the 1970s, the CIA developed a battery-powered pigeon camera, and used it for a short time. On their first few flights, most birds would return with a film full of soft-focus, black-and-white shots of them and their mates pouting and holding cigarettes.

(via Wikimedia Commons, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, German Federal Archives, CIA, Novacon and Modern Mechanics, February 1932)

The Pigeon Post of Paris

In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, homing pigeons carried up to 50,000 microfilmed telegrams per flight from Tours to Paris.

(via CIX and Microscopy UK)

Dolphin Defenders

These awesome creatures have been used since the Vietnam War by the American Navy, but the Soviet Navy had some until the fall of the Soviet Union, as well. In 2000, the Russians sold their military dolphin project to Iran.

These mammals can detect underwater mines, and some of them are also trained to apprehend waterborne attackers around military bases. Oh, and the Ukranian Navy just lost three of them back in March.

(via US Navy and Sergei Svetlitsky/Associated Press)

Operation Kuwaiti Field Chicken (KFC), 2003

The U.S Marines used a really low-tech detection device to find chemical weapons in Kuwait: chickens. This was the easiest way to keeping troops safe from dangerous gases. 41 or 43 chickens were deployed to the Gulf — but all of them died within a week.

(via Mink/Flickr)

Cats As Super Spies

In the 1960s, the CIA started the Operation Acoustic Kitty – they implanted a microphone into those little furry creatures' ear canals, a radio transmitter at the base of their skulls, and a thin wire antenna to their long fur. The CIA spent over $20 million, but the project failed. After the first spy-cat was released, it was immediately killed by a taxi.

The Acoustic Kitty project was cancelled in 1967.

(via A CIA Memo, 1967 and Today I Found Out)

Bat bombs

This idea came from a Pennsylvanian dentist named Lytle S. Adams in 1942. The bombs had Mexican Free-tailed Bats inside, with an attached small-timer bomb. The animals hibernated in the canister, and only woke up in the falling weapon. At 1,000 ft. above the ground, the bomb opened, and the bats were flying in a 20-40 mile radius to houses made of wood and paper. The first tests were successful, but the program was cancelled in 1944 by Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King.

(via Wikimedia Commons and UC Santa Barbara Department Of Geography)

Trained gerbils against terrorists

The Israelis placed gerbil cages at the security checkpoints of the Tel Aviv airport. A fan sent the scent of people into the gerbils' cage, and the small rodents pressed a lever if they detected a high amount of adrenaline. Later, the MI5 wanted to adapt the technology at British airports, but unfortunately, the animals couldn't discern between terrorists and passengers who were scared of flying.

(via Wikimedia Commons/Gophi)

Anti-tank dogs

Some dogs were trained by the Soviet and Russian military forces between the 1930s and 1996 to carry explosives to tanks, bunkers and other military targets. They were used in WWII against German tanks and bunkers full with Germans.

No question — the dogs died during the explosions. And there isn't any data about the efficiency of using these poor dogs. But Soviet sources wrote that circa 300 German tanks had been damaged in this way.

(via War Writing and Yuri Pasholok/Primeportal)

Wojtek, the Soldier Bear

A small Syrian brown bear cub was found in 1942 by an Iranian boy and sold to Polish soldiers. The bear named Wojtek liked beer, and loved eating and smoking cigarettes, too. He enjoyed wrestling and carried mortar shells during the Battle of Monte Cassino.

Paolo Soleri, who died last month at 93, transformed the way people imagine cities of the future. You've probably seen some of his concepts without realizing it. He even built an experimental city in Arizona, called Arcosanti. We've got a gallery of his drawings and designs, some of which have never been online before.

With his Arcosanti workshops and classes, Soleri popularized the idea of "arcology," a cross between architecture and ecology. The idea was that cities should reflect both human aspirations as well as the shape and needs of the Earth's environment. Often, like the image you see above, he imagined arcologies would be partly underground, or built into natural geological features of the landscape.

His designs are intended to be flexible, sustainable and beautiful; they've influenced many urban planners, as well as artists and concept designers. If some of these images look familiar to you, it's because Soleri's visions became synonymous with "futuristic cities" — you see references to his work a lot in 1970s science fiction movies.

According to a release from Arcosanti:

Soleri’s exhibition in 1970 at the Corcoran Museum in Washington DC – and the concurrent publication of his landmark book, City in the Image of Man – changed forever the global conversation about urban planning on our living planet. His term, “Arcology” joining the words architecture and ecology to represent one whole system of understanding human life on the earth is meant to serve as the basis for that conversation.

Paolo Soleri’s ideas are embodied on the ground in the flowing forms of his architectural workshop Cosanti in Paradise Valley, (now an Arizona Historic Landmark) and in the continuing construction at Arcosanti, the urban laboratory on the high desert in central Arizona. There, to date over 7,000 students have participated in its construction. More than 50,000 architecture enthusiasts visit the site each year.

Soleri continued questioning and creating until his death. The theme of his last project, a series of collages entitled “Then and Now”, juxtaposed his own signature forms with illustrations of life from antiquity. In this project Paolo Soleri attempted to capture the critical notion that we are constantly building on the past, on the work of countless generations that have preceded us on the earth. Our own work - and Soleri’s work especially - put into this context, might be a seed that takes many more generations to mature and complete.

In Soleri's visions below, you can see his ideas taking shape and flowering into Arcosanti. He tries to reflect the history of how humans have built cities in the Americas, but always looks to the future. One day, our carbon-negative cities may look like arcologies. Or maybe they will be radically different — a transformation which is exactly the kind of thing Soleri would have loved.

Learn more about Soleri's work by visiting the Arcosanti website — or by visiting Arcosanti itself, which is just 100 km north of Phoenix, Arizona.

MESA CITY - Higher Learning Complex.
Photo Credit: Cosanti Foundation - Ivan Pintar

MESA CITY - GROUND VILLAGES.
Photo Credit: Cosanti Foundation

MACRO COSANTI.
Photo Credit: Cosanti Foundation

HEXAHEADRON Arcology
Image Credit: Cosanti Foundation

NOVANOAH I Arcology
Image Credit: Cosanti Foundation

BABEL IID Arcology
Photo credit: Cosanti Foundation

ARCOSANTI.
Photo credit: Cosanti Foundation

“3-D JERSEY”
Photo Credit: Ivan Pintar

INDIA VILLAGE. 2 Suns Arcology
Photo Credit: Cosanti Foundation

Original sketch of the “HYPERBUILDING”
Photo Credit: Cosanti Foundation

Original sketch of the “HYPERBUILDING”
Photo Credit: Cosanti Foundation

NUDGING SPACE
Photo Credit: Tomiaki Tamura

SOLARE
3D rendering - Youngsoo Kim

LEAN LINEAR CITY connected to the larger node of NUDGING SPACE Arcology.
3D rendering: Youngsoo Kim

LEAN LINEAR CITY - ARTERIAL ARCOLOGY
3D Rendering: YoungSoo Kim

LEAN LINEAR CITY - ARTERIAL ARCOLOGY
3D Rendering: Tomiaki Tamura

ARCOSANTI 5000 model
Photo Credit: Michael E. Brown

ARCOSANTI 5000 Section
Photo Credit: Jeff Manta

Back in the days of yore, TV series and movie were often forced to imagine extra-terrestrials with low-tech special effects and limited budgets. Nowadays, thanks to the wonders of computer VFX, we can create anything — and sometimes aliens still look like crap.

Please vote for the worst-looking alien you've ever seen on screen in the comments — and make sure to add a pic so we have visual proof of their crappiness.

Tyrannosaurus rex was a thrasher, prone to vigorously shaking its powerful, prey-packed jaws from side-to-side like a crocodile. But new simulations reveal Allosaurus was equipped to dismember its prey with a little more decorum, stripping flesh from bone not with the head-swinging motion of a croc, but the meticulous tug-tug-tug of a falcon.

Top image by Simon Farrell – for more examples of his stunning work, visit his website.

In the latest issue of Palaeontologia Electronica, a team of experts in biomechanics, computer visualization and dinosaur anatomy have produced some fantastic simulations of Allosaurus anatomy, which reveal the bird-like eating habits of the formidable predator. Led by Ohio University paleontologist Eric Snively, the researchers first performed CT scans on a high-resolution cast of an Allosaur head and neck (which you may recognize as a replica of "Big Al"):

The researchers then converted the data into a 3D model, and added musculature, a windpipe and other soft tissues to the skeletal frame. Borrowing an engineering method known as "multibody dynamics" from the field of robotics, Snively and his team conducted a series of motion simulations, which allowed them to analyze head and neck function in Allosaurus and examine their role in feeding mechanics:

Their analysis revealed that Allosaurus, unlike T. rex, had a relatively light-weight head, which, by their measurements, could be moved around with speed and precision. Snively compares the dinosaurs' differences in head-motion to the rotational inertia of a figure skater:

"Allosaurus, with its lighter head and neck, was like a skater who starts spinning with her arms tucked in," said Snively in a statement, "whereas T. rex, with its massive head and neck and heavy teeth out front, was more like the skater with her arms fully extended … and holding bowling balls in her hands. She and the T. rex need a lot more muscle force to get going."

The analysis also suggests that the unusual placement of a muscle called "longissimus capitis superficialis" would have enabled Allosaurus to drive its teeth downward into flesh while retracting its head, in a manner not unlike modern day falcons:

"Allosaurus was uniquely equipped to drive its head down into prey, hold it there, and then pull the head straight up and back with the neck and body, tearing flesh from the carcass," said Snively, "kind of like how a power shovel or backhoe rips into the ground."

Snively and his colleagues acknowledge Allosaurus was probably not limited to a single strategy for "defleshing" its prey (side note: awesome terminology). Its dental structure, for example, suggests "forceful alternating tugs to either side of the head, as seen in Komodo dragons," would also have been effective at ripping meat from a kill.

The researchers also hypothesize that Allosaurus' ability to, in Snively's words, "power shovel or backhoe" her prey may have enabled her to brace prey with her feet, "holding flesh with the head highly flexed, and pulling up and back with their legs," in a manner similar to modern raptorial birds, like Merlins:

Photo by Steve Mills via National Geographic

"Although Allosaurus has large bladelike teeth and lacks the hooked beak of raptorial birds, similarly energetic ventroflexion may have enabled analogous behavior," write the researchers in their newly published paper. "Assessing the likelihood of such action awaits fullbody simulations that combine leg and neck function."

The researchers' work is published in the latest issue of Palaeontologia Electronica. See also the following illustration, created by Snively's team – what is hands down the single best dino/human/kestrel silhouette we've ever seen. We think it deserves a place in our ever-growing inventory of amusing journal figures:

All images courtesy of Witmer lab unless otherwise indicated

The Terminal Man, a book published by Michael Crichton in the 1972, links explosive violence with epilepsy. This isn't the first book to put the two together — the idea that epileptic seizures could cause violence goes back into antiquity. But is there any truth to this notion?

Michael Crichton is best known for coming up with the story for the enduring cinematic powerhouse that is Jurassic Park, but he'd been writing stories for over a decade before it hit theaters. One of his earlier books (which was made into one of his earlier movies), was The Terminal Man. A man suffers a car accident that leaves him with brain damage and neurological episodes that spur him to near-superhuman violence. Doctors implant a chip in his brain that's meant to calm the episodes, and, since it's a thriller, everything goes wrong. For modern audiences, one of the most puzzling aspects of the entire book is the man's diagnosis - psychomotor epilepsy.

Today we don't think of epileptics as a dangerous bunch, but in the 1970s and 1980s, a diagnosis of epilepsy was employed in many a court case. And the twentieth century was not the first time this notion was explored. The idea of epileptic seizures as times of abnegation of responsibility dates back to when it was called "the falling sickness," and "the sacred disease." People who had epilepsy felt things, saw things, and behaved in ways that were alien to normal experience. These experiences were sometimes considered visions from gods, or possession by spirits. It made sense, then, that if a god could give a person a vision, a god could make that person harm another person, without the epileptic being responsible.

Courts in the 1970s didn't hold with possession by the gods, but they did consider the idea that epileptics could commit great violence against someone else during a seizure without being responsible. The idea was backed both by individual claims and by scientific study. In 1978 a man who murdered his wife with a hammer claimed that he did it during an epileptic seizure. After his arrest and jailing, he was observed having seizures and committing acts of violence during those seizures. One study, done in 1982, found that out of 97 incarcerated young men, 18 had epilepsy. Their level of violence correlated with the number of their psychomotor symptoms. People were — and sometimes still are — arrested for violent behavior, during or immediately after epileptic seizures. Psychomotor epilepsy also seemed like the best candidate for such violent behavior. It is confined to only parts of the brain, and so seizures don't generally look like the full body seizures that often happen when the entire brain is involved.

When people began taking a closer look, though, the tide began to turn. The man who had been incarcerated was observed during his seizures. It was true that he had no history of violence before the crime, and didn't display violent behavior outside of the seizures. Still, during his seizures, his violence was not directed. Although he struck out, he struck randomly and didn't follow up any strike with a continuing attack. This lack of direction was noted in other epileptics as well. A seizure isn't just a flipped switch that causes people to fall to the ground or become absent. It starts with a period of confusion in which people talk without meaning, become agitated, and sometimes fumble at their clothes. This can disturb people around them, who either approach or try to physically restrain them. As the intensity of the seizure increases, the epileptic strikes out. Epilepsy sufferers can also strike at people when they're coming out of a seizure. Often they lose awareness during the seizure and are alarmed when they come to and have someone touching them or standing close to them. Rarely, if ever, does any epileptic make any sort of directed and sustained attack.

As wider surveys were done, evidence began to pile up against the severity of epilepsy being associated with severity of violence in an epileptic. In 1986 a study of prison populations did show that epilepsy was more prevalent among prisoners than a wide control population, but epilepsy was also more prevalent among the lower socio-economic levels from which much of the prison population was drawn. Epilepsy was not more common among people who had committed violent crimes, and severe epilepsy did not seem to correlate with severe violence. The researchers concluded that violence as a result of epilepsy was extremely rare, and should only be considered as relevant if it was shown to be part of each epileptic event, not just the occasional shove by a confused person coming out of a seizure.

So is there a link between epilepsy and violent outbursts? In 1999, a study of fifty epileptics was done. Twenty-five had intermittent explosive disorder, or IED, which is characterized by sudden physical or verbal violence grossly out of proportion with the cause of such violence. In the twenty-five patients with IED, the researchers found atrophy of the amygdala and an increased rate of history of encephalitis. The amygdala processes both memory and emotion, helping us deal with things like confusion, anger, and fear. Encephalitis is brain inflammation, and has been shown to increase a risk of both IED and epilepsy. So a disease that increases the odds of epilepsy can also increase the odds of extreme violent outbursts, but that's hardly a correlation.

By the end of the 1980s, the epilepsy defense — and the idea that epilepsy might cause acts of violence — were both generally abandoned. In a post-script in a reprinting of The Terminal Man, Crichton himself wrote that any sort of violent behavior from epileptics was incredibly rare. Today, the link is almost forgotten, and so modern authors will have to find some other neurological bogeyman.

Via Epilepsy, Violence, and Aggression: Legal Implications, American Journal of Psychiatry, The Epilepsy Foundation, Epilepsia, Brain, Epilepsia, Medscape.

It's summer movie season, the time when blockbuster films come out every week and we pit Vin Diesel against Wolverine. But how do you keep that cineplex excitement alive when you're at home on the couch? With books! Here are 10 science fiction novels that pack more non-stop thrills than Fast & Furious 6. Really.

Top image: The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton.

To compile this list, we took to our Facebook page, and asked our peeps there. We did take some liberties with the responses — like, we didn't include any books that we've included on similar lists recently. (Scroll down for further reading.)

1) Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

This one is sort of a gimme, considering our review of this book proclaimed it to be " as close as you'll get to a Hollywood blockbuster in book form." We praised the space-faring setting as well as the "intense space station combat," among other things. And you guys agreed. Says Jacqueline, "Leviathan Wakes is a serious guilty pleasure. Part gumshoe detective story, part buddy adventure, part romance, part space opera, with the added bonus of vomit zombies. Rip roaring adventure."

2) The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold

In general, a few people mentioned Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series, full of space adventure and intrigue, as a good movie-substitute. But this book, in particular, seemed to be singled out as especially fizzy. Or maybe Young Miles. As we wrote a few years ago, "The three-time Hugo-winning saga of the disabled Miles Vorkosigan and his awesome military career is like Flash Gordon on steroids."

3) Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

We tend to praise Banks' sprawling Culture series for its thought-provoking portrayals of a post-scarcity society and artificial intelligences. But he can also bring intense, fast-paced thriller-y action — people also praised Banks' first Culture novel, Consider Phlebas, for that. In this one, a Culture operative named Cheradenine Zakalwe is brought out of retirement for One Last Mission, while flashbacks travel backwards in time, retracing his career and showing just how everything went wrong for him. Cracking great suspense and action, alongside Banks' usual mind-expanding ideas.

4) Uncharted Territory by Connie Willis

This is a quick, fun read in comparison to some of Willis' longer, more in-depth works — and it's basically a frontier story set on another planet, with Willis poking fun at tons of genre tropes. It's the story of two "famous planetary surveyors," Carson and Finriddy, who travel to a distant planet and wind up going on an expedition into unknown areas with a native guide and a woman who only knows of them through ridiculous video dramatizations of their exploits.

5) Deathworld by Harry Harrison

We've praised Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books a lot before, and also paid homage to Bill the Galactic Hero. But Harrison's Deathworld books are also a cracking great adventure story — as Troy says, "I still say that's one book that MichaelBay should turn into a movie." They're the story of Jason, a dissolute gambler with psionic abilities, who travels to the Most Deadly Planet Ever Colonized, where things evolve so quickly that even natives have to be retrained to survive after leaving for a while. Image via Project Gutenberg

6) The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook

Basically your standard "buddy cop romance in a steampunk post-apocalyptic world with zombies" kind of story, in which Detective Inspector Mina Wentworth is forced to team up with the notorious Iron Duke to travel into the zombie-infested wasteland and save England. Says Carrie: "Iron Duke has the most action, but Riveted has a much better hero and still has plenty of action to go around. Steampunky goodness." Art by Anastasia Tychkova.

7) The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

The tale of Gully Foyle, the resolute individualist, who faces off against massive megacorps that seek to control everything. Says Kenneth James, "Every chapter is a classic, near-standalone action set-piece. (And his first novel, The Demolished Man, is not too far behind; in that book every chapter is a classic crime-thriller-future-noir confrontation.)" Says Alface, this book "starts off slow and keeps on changing gears and doesn't let go to the end."

8) Divergent by Veronica Roth

This is just one of the many, many dystopian young adult science fiction novels that have trundled down the assembly line in the years since Hunger Games unleashed an insatiable hunger. But it's becoming a movie soon, and people are enthralled by this frenetic depiction of a future Chicago where everybody has to choose to embody one singular virtue. Reviews of this book tend to mention its nonstop violence and Roth's mastery of action scenes.

9) Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton

Says Rick Cromack: "Genetically bred starships swallowing in and out of sentient orbital cities; boosted mercenaries capable of harnessing more firepower than a main battle tank; exotic, interdimensional beings that by their very existence shred the fabric of reality; planetary defense platforms capable of mazing entire arcologies; energy weapons that render entire regions of space into dead zones; planet-busting antimatter bombs deployed to annihilate the populations of entire worlds. And, then, there are the armies of returned dead, possessing both the living and godlike abilities."

10) Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

As we wrote in our review a few years ago, this debut novel is popping with clever ideas, as if Morgan wasn't sure he'd ever get to write another one. And we added back then: "It could make a terrific movie, if they could travel back in time to 1990 and get Bullet In The Head-era John Woo to direct."

Further reading...

Researchers from the University of Manitoba have shown that birds can either be very good at flying or swimming, but not both. And they’ve been studying a very awkward seabird to prove it.

Animals that can fly really have it good. Flight allows for quick getaways, aerial view hunting, expanded territorial ranges, and the ability to travel vast distances when making seasonal migrations.

So, for a species to give up flight, there better be a damned good reason.

And indeed, the penguin did exactly such a thing about 70 million years ago, foregoing flight in favor of swimming. Scientists aren’t really sure why penguins made the switch, but they suspect it had something to do with a lack of land-based predators.

The High Cost of Flying

But a new theory, the biomechanical hypothesis, suggests that nature cannot provide a seabird with a wing that is proficient at both flying and swimming. For penguins, selectional pressures eventually tipped over in the direction of swimming, resulting in a vestigial wing that could propel the bird not through air, but through water. As a consequence, flight had to be completely abandoned lest the species remain mediocre at both — a condition that nature, with its preference for fitness peaks, will not endure.

To reach this conclusion, a research team led by Kyle Elliott studied two birds that are closely related to the penguin, the thick-billed murres (Uria lomvia), which are wing-propelled divers, and pelagic cormorants (Phalacrocorax pelagicus) which are foot-propelled divers. The murres proved to be particularly interesting — it’s a bird that’s reasonably good at swimming, but absolutely dreadful at flying.

Evolutionarily speaking, the murres is not quite ready to give up on flight just quite yet — but it’s not too far off, either. Without a doubt, the murres is one of the most awkward flying seabirds to ever be documented by scientists. In order to fly, it must beat its wings like crazy, expending energy at 31 times their resting state. Most animals burn energy at about 25 times their resting rate when going full-tilt.

The murres is also really terrible at landing.

At the same time, they’re so-so swimmers. Compared to penguins of the same size, the murres has to expend about 30% more energy. The scientists theorize that the dual-purpose feathered wings are causing too much drag for the bird underwater. The penguins' smooth and stubby flippers, which propels them through the water, is highly specialized for the task.

The murres, on the other hand, needs a wing that’s good at both, making specialization impossible. This bird is obviously well suited to its environment right now, but like the penguin, selection pressures may eventually tip it towards one of two possible directions.

Read the entire study at PNAS: “High flight costs, but low dive costs, in auks support the biomechanical hypothesis for flightlessness in penguins.”

Images: Kyle H. Elliot; inset: Christian Musat.