🌐 Sorry, metaverse is the word of the year

Wednesday

Dec 28 2022

ICYMI, all throughout December we have been presenting our picks for the best TV, movies, games, gear, and scientific breakthroughs of 2022. You can explore the full hub here.

Thank you for reading Inverse in 2022. We look forward to exploring the universe with you in 2023 — and beyond. Enjoy, and happy holidays.

What's New

Inverse Awards

Gear

Sorry, metaverse is the word of the year whether you like it or not

Even if you’ve never dipped so much as a virtual toe inside the metaverse, in many ways, you’re already swimming in it.

Just take a look at the headlines. The term itself was narrowly felled by “goblin mode” for Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year, and yes, it did lose, but only in a technical sense. For conceptual tech, cultural cachet is equally as important as silicon.

Snoop Dogg is in the metaverse. Gucci is in the metaverse. Your friends (at least if you’re of a generation that’s only ever lived life on the internet) are in the metaverse. That makes it about as ubiquitous as an idea can get in the world of tech. That makes it as ubiquitous as an idea can get, period.

Inverse Awards

Entertainment

How Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio became the darkest musical of the year

Patrick McHale wasn’t sure about Mussolini. The Italian dictator makes a surprise appearance in Pinocchio, a fresh interpretation of the 19th-century book by director Guillermo del Toro, now streaming on Netflix. Co-screenwriter McHale worried the cameo might glorify fascism, but del Toro insisted.

“Guillermo really wanted to do it,” McHale tells Inverse. “He’s very confident in just going for things. So I kind of just followed his whims.”

Like del Toro, Patrick McHale knows how to craft an arresting atmosphere. The creator of Over the Garden Wall and creative director of Adventure Time’s first five seasons, McHale is a master of balancing joy with more mature themes.

Breakthrough Awards

Science

This physicist helped confirm Einstein's greatest predictions

Growing up, Mariafelicia de Laurentis always wanted to find more than an occupation. She wanted a calling.

“I didn't want an ordinary job. I wanted to leave a mark,” de Laurentis tells Inverse. “And maybe having the name imprinted on the page of a book that changed history: this is my concept of Earthly eternity.”

Today, de Laurentis is a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Naples Federico II. She’s also a member of the Scientific Council of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) and deputy project scientist of the EHT collaboration that produced the first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), in May of 2022.

Review

Movies

Edgar Allan Poe steals Christian Bale's thunder in The Pale Blue Eye

A sequel to the new film The Pale Blue Eye is not in the works. And yet, when you finish watching the film, the first thing on your mind might be: Could this be a backdoor pilot to an awesome Netflix detective show?

Set in 1830, the movie tells the fictional origin story of how horror legend Edgar Allan Poe — played brilliantly by Harry Melling — became so enamored and sympathetic to all things macabre. Based on the 2003 Louis Bayard novel of the same name, The Pale Blue Eye is a psychological horror movie masquerading as a period-piece police procedural. It’s a slow burn of a movie, with a great twist, which will ultimately leave viewers wanting more.

Cars

Gear

This electric hypercar smashed an EV acceleration record

Poor conditions be damned, the McMurtry Spéirling hypercar is here to break records. The British automaker’s signature EV just hit 0 to 60 mph in 1.4 seconds and did a quarter mile in 7.97 seconds. The kicker is that the Spéirling did it on a damp day on England’s Silverstone circuit.

The Spéirling comes from the recently-formed British automaker, McMurtry, which got its start in 2016. The EV hypercar earned a lot of attention for its Batmobile-esque design but also for breaking records at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Meanwhile...

New study reveals how the Aztecs used the Sun to help build their ancient empire

The best over-ear headphones with ANC released in 2022

12 times James Gunn broke major DC movie news on Twitter

You need to watch the most satisfying sci-fi thriller of the year on Netflix

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The Pale Blue Eye awesome Netflix detective show director Guillermo del Toro The Italian dictator EV acceleration record BREAKTHROUGH AWARDS Science Event Horizon Telescope deputy project scientist supermassive black hole fictional origin story psychological horror movie first five seasons Inverse Awards Entertainment Mariafelicia de Laurentis Inverse Awards Gear

🌐 Sorry, metaverse is the word of the year

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