Gizmodo

Microsoft had “no security measures” on a program that had humans transcribe user voice recordings from its Skype video calling service and Cortana assistant, the Guardian reported on Friday, even when those workers were located in China.

In the latest and juiciest of Hummer-related rumors, the Wall Street Journal claims that “people familiar with the matter” say GM is bringing back Hummer as an off-road electric pickup model under the GMC brand. Set to debut in early 2022, the truck will be shown off by basketball genius LeBron James during this…Read more...

An updated interpretation of the famous Rök runestone suggests Vikings were preoccupied by the threat of a climate calamity.

WASHINGTON, DC—Fire Drill Fridays have been a fixture in Washington since mid-October when Jane Fonda began a weekly climate strike in the nation’s capital inspired by Greta Thunberg and the youth climate strike movement.Read more...

Spectrum customers who are also users of the company’s home security service are about a month away from being left with a pile of useless equipment that in many cases cost them hundreds of dollars.

The U.S. Department of Energy has decided on the final location of a major upcoming American particle collider: Brookhaven National Lab on Long Island in New York.Read more...

First Nations folks have urged Canada to stop building the Trans Mountain Pipeline, which carries crude and refined oil from Alberta to British Columbia, for years. A new United Nations report is backing them up.Read more...

An experiment to see how deep-sea creatures might react to the presence of an uncommon food source—alligator carcasses—has resulted in some fascinating new science.

For an enterprise as big and as dominant as Amazon is, you would expect its website to be maybe a little bit more polished and easier to navigate—as it is, it feels like 20 years’ worth of bits of web code bolted rather haphazardly together. While we wait for Amazon to do a ground-up revamp, here’s how to make your…Read more...

Electric scooter company Lime is laying off more than 10 percent of its workforce and pulling its scooters from roughly a dozen major global cities as its competitor Bolt, too, has yanked its e-scooters from city streets in multiple U.S. markets, Gizmodo has learned.Read more...

I was pretty tired by the time I rolled up to Crave’s CES booth at the Sands Expo. It was a cute booth. There was a 1961 Airstream trailer set up with neon lights that invited you to “Own Your Pleasure.” Above was an Instagram-worthy sign detailing Crave’s Pleasure Manifesto, full of sex-positive aphorisms about how…Read more...

KYOKU Daimyo Series Damascus Nakiri Knife | $65 | Amazon | Clip the coupon and use the promo code KYOKUI4LRead more...

Earlier this week, Australia’s bushfire smoke crossed the Pacific. A 7,000-mile train of smoke is pretty damn bad, and yet somehow things have gotten more alarming.

The next Mission Impossible recruits another big star. John Cena dances around his character from The Suicide Squad. What We Do in the Shadows continues its sublime guest casting streak. Plus, what’s to come on Black Lightning’s return, Fear the Walking Dead brings back a familiar face, and the cast and crew of The…Read more...

On Wednesday, Teen Vogue found itself in the crosshairs of the internet when an article entitled “How Facebook is Helping Ensure the Integrity of the 2020 Election,” was published to its site without a staff byline or, initially, a clear indication that the content was sponsored. The piece documented how Facebook is…Read more...

New emails and direct messages released by Boeing to congressional investigators reveal some shocking messages from Boeing employees about both their own planes and the regulators overseeing the safety on their aircraft. In one of the most startling messages from April of 2017, a Boeing employee wrote, “this airplane…Read more...

Imagine a world fractured into rival factions, countries distrustful of one another and unwilling to cooperate. Nationalism is on the rise with authoritarianism on the horizon. Inequality is also climbing, and the resource curse is alive and well. Rich countries plunder poorer ones, leaving behind a wave of…Read more...

Update: Available at Walmart, Best Buy and GameStop for the same price. Thanks BurnedAgain.Read more...

So much for that “free” lunch, huh?Read more...

Motherboard on Thursday revealed that a “secretive” U.S. government vendor whose surveillance products are not publicly advertised has been marketing hidden cameras disguised as seemingly ordinary objects—vacuum cleaners, tree stumps, and tombstones—to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, among other law enforcement…Read more...

On Thursday, Facebook overlord Mark Zuckerberg published his annual New Year’s resolution list. Last year, he promised to hold a series of public talks on issues posed by the tech industry (and boy, did he ever).

There are a few things Facebook’s proven, time and again, that it can’t get quite right—like keeping its user data under wraps, curbing partisan political ads, and, as proved this week, blogging. Truly though, you need to give props to the multibillion-dollar tech giant for perfecting the art of the well-timed news…Read more...

Sometimes things sound good on paper but don’t live up your expectations. When I wrote up the L’Oreal announcement for its upcoming skincare personalization gadget Perso, I was stoked and a little nervous that seeing it up close and personal would be a disappointment. After all, that’s generally how things go at…Read more...

Known bookworm Donald Trump would like you to know he has a book. That book is about Donald Trump, known environmental champion. It’s written and self-published by known Trump lover and advisor Edward Russo.Read more...

Organizers of an American Astronomical Society conference in Hawaii held a special session to discuss the ways in which satellite megaconstellations, such as the one currently being built by SpaceX, are poised to disrupt telescopic observations. The astronomers also proposed potential solutions to this emerging…Read more...

Coming into this season of Short Treks, “Children of Mars” was teased as one of two precursors to the events of Star Trek: Picard. It is not a factual indicator of what’s to come, or some grand, necessary setup for the plot Jean-Luc and his friends will tackle. But it does give us a tonal insight into the dark times…Read more...

Scientists in China think they’ve made a break in the case of a mystery disease that’s caused pneumonia in dozens of people. In several patients, they’ve found a virus never before discovered—albeit one related to the viruses responsible for causing SARS and other respiratory illnesses.Read more...

Food-delivery giant GrubHub is mulling the possibility of selling itself off, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, as part of a strategic review of its options amid increasing competition and a declining valuation.Read more...

The MTA, New York City’s monument to dysfunction and grime and anguish, is overcharging us again, the bastards. Riders have reported seeing $2.75 charges on their Apple Pay accounts after walking past contactless OMNY fare readers, even when using the physical MetroCards. Like most of our city’s public transit woes,…Read more...

In a letter last month, a group of U.S. lawmakers voice concerns about the proposed sale of the .ORG top-level domain to Ethos Capital, a private equity firm founded last year. Announced in November by ICANN, the organization that manages all internet domain names, the sale has worried nonprofits, which have…Read more...

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has helped federal agencies know any and all potential impacts proposed infrastructure projects may have on the environment, economy, and local communities. It’s a key pillar of environmental protection in the U.S. So of course on Thursday—in true Trumpian fashion—the…Read more...

New research suggests Homo erectus—the most successful hominin prior to the emergence of modern humans—reached southeast Asia later than is conventionally assumed. It’s a significant finding, as it casts doubt on a theory that points to an Asian birthplace for this now-extinct species.

Scientists encountered five previously undescribed bird species during a six-week trip to three Indonesian islands, according to a new study.Read more...

HP might finally be changing its printer business plan according to a new note by Morgan Stanley analysts. Typically HP sells printers for super cheap and then charges exorbitant prices for the required ink, leaving consumers paying hundreds a year if they want to keep this printer printing well.Read more...

Last year was certainly the year of fire, and the Amazon was at the epicenter of it as humans used fires to clear land. Now, data from INPE, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, confirms what we all suspected: The Amazon Rainforest suffered its highest rate of deforestation in a decade last year and the…Read more...

Officials at the Pentagon believe the Ukrainian Airlines Flight that crashed shortly after takeoff on Wednesday, killing all 176 people on board, was mistakenly shot down by Iran, according to a new report from Newsweek and follow-up reporting by CBS News and CNN.

Intel’s first graphics card in years, the Intel DG1, is coming later this year. Announced earlier this week at CES, here’s everything we’ve learned about the DG1, its architecture, Xe, and Intel’s plans to pair it with its next generation of CPUs, Tiger Lake.Read more...

MaxKare Massage Gun | $105 | Amazon | Clip to 25% off couponRead more...

Google has unveiled a potentially helpful new feature that will allow Google Assistant to read websites back to the user as well as translate them to more than three dozen languages.Read more...

African grey parrots will help out their friends, even if they won’t personally benefit, an adorable new lab experiment shows.Read more...

Senator Bernie Sanders has a $16 trillion climate plan. And now he has an army of young climate activists ready to support his Democratic presidential candidacy and ensure he brings that plan to the White House.Read more...

Scientists have predicted that a pair of stars in our galaxy will collide, producing an explosion that will temporarily become one of the brightest objects in the night sky. They don’t know exactly when it will happen, but they estimate it will be later this century.

Despite putting in a lot of hours pounding the pavement, I have never been the fastest runner. It’s not for lack of trying! I do fartleks, interval runs, tempo runs—you name it. I read an absurd number of articles about proper running form, and hyper-obsess over minute differences workout-to-workout from running…Read more...

Roundtrip Flights to Italy, Greece, Dubai, Africa & More | Sherman’s TravelRead more...

Another mystery face joins Matrix 4. DC Entertainment’s Gotham City Sirens isn’t happening any time soon, but Bright 2 might, according to David Ayer. Even more Star Trek: Discovery is on the way. Plus, Jordan Vogt-Roberts is working on a new monster movie, what’s to come on Doctor Who, and a look at Netflix’s take on…Read more...

Massage chairs at CES are a staple. Every year, you can spot a half dozen massage chair makers scattered across the show floor. For the most part, they’re your average massage chair. Every once in a while, they look like Optimus Prime. And sometimes, they come with an Oculus headset.Read more...

The upcoming presidential election is going to be an absolute nightmare, with habitual liar and white supremacist Donald Trump squaring off against a yet unchosen Democratic challenger on November 3, 2020. But Facebook is doing one thing that will hopefully make the election slightly less bad. Mark Zuckerberg’s…Read more...

Stasher Reusable Food Bag, Sandwich Size (15-ounce) | $7-15 | Amazon | Multiple colors availableRead more...

Teen Vogue deleted a glowing, 2,ooo-word-plus article touting Facebook’s efforts to fight online disinformation during the 2020 elections from its website on Wednesday after it became incredibly obvious that it was sponsored content, not a reported piece of journalism. In response, Teen Vogue and Facebook gave a…Read more...

Something Awful’s notorious Fuck You and Die (FYAD) board, one of the early indicators of just how horrifying a place the internet was going to become, has now gone to that big web archive in the sky.