Gizmodo

With a statewide marijuana decriminalization ordinance set to take effect at the start of 2020, Cook County, Illinois is slated to automatically clear “tens of thousands of cannabis convictions” with the assistance of an algorithm, the Chicago Tribune reported on Wednesday. Cook County is the nation’s second most…Read more...

Streaming giant Spotify is testing a way to make it even easier to record a podcast that probably no one will listen to, according to findings from app researcher and tech blogger Jane Manchun Wong.

Starting tomorrow you can get Amazing Fantasy #15, Uncanny X-Men #1, and The Incredible Hulk #181 for $40 each. Now, they’re limited edition posters instead of the actual comics—but for most of us, that’s probably as close as we’ll ever get to owning those legendary issues.Read more...

The Transportation Security Administration will use face recognition technology at security checkpoints at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. The good news is you can opt-out. The bad news is that the program in Vegas furthers the TSA’s ongoing efforts to expand biometric technology more broadly.Read more...

YouTube has built a separate kids-only website in the wake of growing concerns about the platform showing disturbing videos to children.Read more...

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli dipped his toe into the world of memes on Wednesday, tweeting out a photo of a homemade Statue of Liberty and comparing it to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, because who the hell knows why.Read more...

At an event in LA yesterday the UHD Alliance, who is behind the standards for UHD Blu-Rays, a group of studios, including Warner Bros, and the tv maker Vizio, announced a plan to make your TV stop looking like shit. A new Filmmaker mode will be available in TVs from Vizio starting in 2020 and this mode should…Read more...

Robotics engineers at MIT have built a threadlike robot worm that can be magnetically steered to deftly navigate the extremely narrow and winding arterial pathways of the human brain. One day it could be used to quickly clear blockages and clots that contribute to strokes and aneurysms, while at the same time making…Read more...

The far future is notoriously unknowable, but one thing we can be reasonably certain of is that we will die. Some very rich and imaginative people like to think that this is not the case—which will honestly make it pretty funny when they eat it like the rest of us proles.

Darpa is often described as the “mad science” wing of the Defense Department. They’re the ones who have a history of working on cutting edge technology for the military like virtual fences, disaster relief robots, and the invention of the internet itself. They even tried to build Skynet in the 1980s.

Scientists at MIT built a 16-bit microprocessor out of carbon nanotubes and even ran a program on it, a new paper reports.

Ransomware incidents—cyberattacks in which bad actors demand payment in exchange for encrypted files—are a frighteningly common fixture of our modern era. But more troubling is that the number of attacks may be hiking due, in part, to the insurance companies tasked to deal with the fallout in the event of such crime,…Read more...

Amazon, a trillion-dollar firm that employs some of the brightest minds in engineering and logistics and has the power to upend entire industries just by announcing its possible encroachment into them, just wants to be liked. And like any well-adjusted people-pleaser, it keeps copious notes on the haters who just…Read more...

Amazon’s home security company Ring is opening up about just how many police departments it’s partnered with across the country. Today the company published a map showing hundreds of departments with which it’s inked deals.Read more...

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Despite recent competition from rivals like Canon and Nikon, Sony remains the leader in full-frame mirrorless cameras. Just last month, Sony looked to extend its lead with the introduction of the full-frame A7R IV, and now, Sony has come back to flesh out its APS-C camera lineup with the new a6600 and a6100.Read more...

The discovery of a nearly intact skull in Ethiopia is the first to show the facial characteristics of a critically important species linked to early hominin evolution. At the same time, the 3.8-million-year-old fossil is further complicating our understanding of Australopithecus—the genus that likely gave rise to…Read more...

A man who has insisted he is the man behind the pseudonymous identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, inventor of bitcoin, has been ordered to pay half of his cryptocurrency bounty to a man believed to be his former colleague.Read more...

Your next chocolatey pot edible could be more or less potent than labeled, new preliminary research suggests. It found that chocolate-based products can sometimes provide inconsistent lab readings on the amount of THC found in them.Read more...

Following public outcry over workers listening to audio captured by voice assistants, Apple announced on Wednesday that it would no longer relegate the task of listening to Siri recordings to contractors, and instead, only Apple employees would review these audio clips. As a result, hundreds of contractors have…Read more...

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine declared Pluto a planet again in a video this week. I’m assuming Bridenstine was half-joking, since there is someone laughing in the background, and I think I see a smirk on his face. But now is as good a time as any to discuss the complicated issue of Pluto’s planethood.

As someone obsessed with handheld gaming consoles, Nintendo’s Switch should have been the ultimate portable system for me. Instead, it actually made me nostalgic for Tiger Electronics’ LCD handhelds; arguably some of the first true portable video game systems. They were cheap, durable, simple, and addictive, and 30…Read more...

On Tuesday morning, Tropical Storm Dorian looked like it would thread the needle between western Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. But as the sun rose on the still-organizing storm on Wednesday, Dorian’s forecast track has shifted. It could now strafe or even hit the heavily populated eastern side of Puerto Rico…Read more...

A built-in ice maker is a great way to be woken up in the middle of the night by your fridge when a fresh batch of frozen cubes is loudly dumped into its dispenser. But if you turn your nose up at cubes—the beverage chiller of common folk—LG will now happily sell you a $4,400 fridge that churns out an endless supply…Read more...

When Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale debuted, it wasn’t just a show. It was a movement. The timing was uncanny, as the series premiered just months after the election of Donald Trump, and amidst growing threats to women’s rights. But three seasons later, the show’s fire of resistance has lost its spark.Read more...

Security researchers at Kaspersky discovered malware in various versions of the Android app “CamScanner” that were published to the Google Play store in June and July. You should remove it from your Android phone right now if you haven’t updated the app to any versions released since June 30, and even then, we…Read more...

One thing I really appreciate about Chinese smartphone makers is their willingness to take risks in order to innovate. Sure sometimes things flop or are completely unusable, but Chinese phone makers are responsible for the return of slider phones and fun, pop-up selfie cams.Read more...

Lego remains one of the most popular and valuable toy lines but the company’s sets are also some of the least accessible to those dealing with visual impairments. To remedy this, the Danish toymaker has announced a pilot program to update its building instructions with verbal descriptions so each step is compatible…Read more...

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Taika Waititi somehow has the time to consider a DC movie role, but he’s also explaining how he got Natalie Portman back for Thor: Love and Thunder. Get over here, because Mortal Kombat has found its Scorpion. Yesterday’s Himesh Patel has joined the case of Christopher Nolan’s mysterious new movie. Plus, a first look…Read more...

BMW seemed to miss the “just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should” memo when they decided to paint a one-off of their new X6 in Vantablack, the color that’s so black it’s even blacker than black. I don’t know who decided this was a good idea, but I need to have a word with them to let them know why,…Read more...

The new Fitbit Versa 2 seems awfully aware of the issues Fitbit has had with its smartwatches for the last few cycles. The product, announced today, addresses many of the previous issues with the Versa line while also keeping features that we love about its predecessors. As before, it’s a smartwatch that looks like an…Read more...

The ZTE Axon 7 was one of the most underappreciated phones of its generation. However, following the ambitious but flawed Axon M and a short-lived ban on buying U.S. components after the company was found to have violated sanctions in Iran, ZTE’s U.S. presence largely disappeared. There was no Axon 8, and the Axon 9…Read more...

TRX Pro Suspension Trainer | $120 | Amazon

President Donald Trump is promising a pardon to people who break the law while building his wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a new report from the Washington Post. But White House officials insist Trump is just “joking,” an increasingly common defense of the president’s immoral behavior.

Donald Trump’s administration has turned its all-consuming maw to Alaska’s 16.7-million-acre Tongass National Forest, per a Tuesday report in the Washington Post citing three sources briefed on a plan to exempt the forest from logging restrictions imposed in 2001.

Martin Scorsese’s new movie, The Irishman, stars Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci and is probably very good. It is also 210 minutes long. That is too many minutes, no matter how good the minutes are.Read more...

Fried chicken chain Popeyes launched a new chicken sandwich on Aug. 12. The sandwich is good. Perhaps not good enough to justify the viral national craze that has resulted in Popeyes actually running out of said sandwich the month before it was supposed to, but good.

Marvel Comics continues to drum up controversy.

In August, Elizabeth Ann Clark sued her ex-husband Adam Matthew Clark and his new girlfriend for stalking, cyberstalking, revenge porn, and libelous comments, which included allegedly posting fake personal ads of her on Craigslist and Facebook. This included posting a partly nude photo of her online. On Monday, a jury…Read more...

Say what you will about modular smartphones—and there’s certainly plenty to say—they do have one very clear benefit over the phones folks most commonly carry around in their pockets: reducing electronic waste. Throwing our gadgets away simply because we do not know how to fix them or simply can’t continues to take a…Read more...

There are still two and a half months before Disney launches its new streaming service, but if you are ready to commit to the platform, and Disney’s fan club, then you can get Disney+ for cheaper than Netflix and Hulu.

Cranes first appeared in ancient Greece over 2,500 years ago, but new research suggests a primitive lifting machine—a kind of forerunner to the crane—was in use around 150 years earlier.

While everyone is oohing and aahing over the Nintendo Switch Lite today, I’d rather throw $200 at YouTube’s GmanModz to build me this fully functional Sega Dreamcast that’s been cut down and miniaturized to squeeze inside of a portable housing that’s about the size of the 2DS.Read more...

To a steady beat of whistles, car horns, and “AB5 and a union!” hundreds of rideshare drivers amassed outside Uber’s corporate headquarters in San Fransisco this afternoon. For over an hour, Market Street has slowed to a crawl, choked by the cars of for-hire vehicle drivers.Read more...

Hundreds of parts of the critically endangered helmeted hornbill appeared for sale on Thai-language Facebook groups, according to a new report.

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This week, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens in Walt Disney World, bringing an unprecedented theme park experience to the citizens of Orlando, Florida. Eat the food and drink of a galaxy far, far away! Hop aboard an iconic Star Wars ship! Live in a fantastical world, populated by people in character, an immersive…Read more...

One-time autonomous vehicle wunderkind Anthony Levandowski—the central figure in Waymo’s contentious lawsuit against Uber—has been charged with 33 counts of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets, the New York Times reports, bringing the high-profile corporate espionage case back into the news.Read more...

North Carolina is aggressively going after the vaping industry for what the state sees as its role in getting kids hooked on nicotine. On Tuesday, State Attorney General Josh Stein announced that his office would be filing lawsuits against eight e-cigarette companies, arguing that each purposefully targeted underage…Read more...