Gizmodo

The government of the United Kingdom has sparked a strong backlash from many in the scientific community by redacting large portions of a Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies report advising ministers on the coronavirus pandemic, the Guardian reported Friday.

Joined by Senators Bernie Sanders and Ed Markey, Kamala Harris is pushing new legislation that would provide up to $2,000 a month for every U.S. resident. There’s another term for that: a universal basic income.Read more...

Earlier this year, I set out to read Frank Herbert’s Dune for the first time. This was for two reasons: 1) to be ready for Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation that comes out this December, and 2) so I could finally watch the 1984 David Lynch film. I’d heard legends of this strange, bloated mess, with fish tank sperm…Read more...

If you’re keen to start your very own podcast, now’s the time—you’re bored at home, you’ve got a captive audience of people also bored at home, and everything you need to get up and running can be got at affordable prices and operated within the confines of your own four walls.Read more...

The Pentagon’s X-37B space plane will be returning to low Earth orbit later this month. But unlike previous operations, the U.S. military is sharing details about this mission and what the mysterious vehicle will be doing.

The Google Authenticator has long been a useful tool when it comes to adding two-step verification to your accounts. But now, thanks to its first update since April 2019, Google has just made it way easier to securely migrate 2SV codes from one device to another.

Are you afraid of going to work during a global pandemic that’s sickened over 1.25 million Americans and killed more than 75,000? Fuck you. At least that’s the message from state officials in Ohio, where roughly 3,000 workers have been “turned in” by their employers for staying home. And states like Pennsylvania,…Read more...

Though the covid-19 pandemic has affected all walks of life, it’s hit some people in the U.S. much harder than others. That especially includes those working in the meatpacking and processing industry, with factories becoming the epicenters of massive outbreaks across the U.S. But these outbreaks are only the latest…Read more...

When Apple revealed its AirPower wireless charging pad in late 2017, allowing three devices to be charged on the same mat in any orientation, it sounded too good to be true. It turns out it was. After Apple made AirPower quietly disappear, Zens managed to make the tech a reality in its Liberty wireless charger. It…Read more...

Samsung Pay has been around for five years, but it looks like the company isn’t content to just leave it at that. In a blog, Samsung vice president and general manager of Samsung Pay in North America Sang Ahn announced the company will be the latest tech giant to roll out a debit card.Read more...

Ever get the urge to just flee the planet? Especially lately? A few years ago, io9 put together a list of the worst aliens to be abducted by, but these days we’re thinking that suddenly jetting away from Earth wouldn’t be so bad. In fact, it could rule—especially if any of these 10 aliens are willing to handle the…Read more...

Imagine being told to shelter at home due to a global pandemic, only to have your home, drinking water, and food stores destroyed. It would be a nightmare, but that is exactly what happened for indigenous people in the Ecuadorian Amazon after a massive oil spill polluted two major rivers.Read more...

Ava DuVernay teases a very specific corner of the Fourth World appearing in her New Gods movie. The Russo brothers confirm they’re working on bringing Hercules to live-action for Disney. Get a glimpse of Diana vs. Cheetah in a new Wonder Woman 1984 picture. Plus, what’s to come when you re-enter The Twilight Zone.…Read more...

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The Boston Dynamics robot known as Spot has been deployed to a park in Singapore to remind people they should follow social distancing guidelines during the pandemic, according to a new report from Singapore’s top government technology agency. And it almost feels like the robots are there to taunt us as this point,…Read more...

Zoom, the video conferencing platform du jour while nearly everyone’s stuck inside under shelter-in-place orders, has been gradually beefing up its security as part of a 90-day plan after a wave of disturbing troll attacks drew international ire. On Thursday the company announced its latest step: finally implementing…Read more...

The question of whether you own your digital purchases, or whether you’re simply licensing that content from whatever tech giant du jour hosts it, has always been a bit of a black box for consumers. Recently, this lack of transparency has prompted one California user to file a lawsuit against Amazon for saying…Read more...

As we shut ourselves inside and try to find things to do, many have turned to the world of tabletop gaming to find comfort and distraction (and something to do that scratches that social itch in the era of social distancing). But if you’re looking to pick up another board game (or six), you might as well justify it to…Read more...

Politicians aren’t exactly able to go door-to-door meeting folks at the moment, but Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is doing the next best thing—or maybe even the better thing—and heading out to meet folks in Animal Crossing instead.

Two free-roaming archivists are wildly uploading hundreds of early Windows Desktop themes from the ‘90s and early aughts to the Internet Archive, populating the site with a trove of off-brand fan art you can install as your desktop wallpaper. Why? I do not know, but they have a captive audience. They probably would…Read more...

Lyft, which has somehow spent the last few months of the coronavirus pandemic merely suggesting passengers and drivers wear face coverings, said on Thursday that it will soon make it a requirement.

Alamo Drafthouse is bringing a slate of very good films to your desktop, and soon your phone, with its new streaming service Alamo on Demand.Read more...

As you play your way through The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you end up becoming the catalyst for the creation of Tarry Town, a brand new settlement composed of Hylians who come together to live in the middle of nowhere because—one assumes—they’re tired of being harassed by the monsters that roam the land.…Read more...

Hayabusa2 is heading home to Earth, but scientists continue to review data collected by the spacecraft during its visit to the Ryugu asteroid, including its brief moments on the surface. New images are providing an unprecedented look at this gigantic pile of rocks, as well as a potential explanation for its weird,…Read more...

A U.S. private military contractor with a plagiarized website and unclear connections to Trump’s White House recently attempted to invade Venezuela and depose its authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro and replace him with a U.S.-backed puppet government this month—leading to predictably disastrous results. In the…Read more...

There’s a hacker/security researcher with the Twitter handle GreenTheOnly that has been doing some interesting work with used Tesla parts. This time specifically, he’s acquired three Tesla Model 3 integrated media control units (MCU) and Autopilot (HW) units (known as the ICE computer, just for Models 3 and Y), and a…Read more...

Hurricanes can be deadly. But they can unleash disgusting consequences as well. Among them? Shit. Literally. The flooding that accompanies these gigantic storms can unleash animal feces from industrial farms, and it can also trigger a release of our own crap traveling in pipes beneath our cities if the system clogs or…Read more...

The heat in my apartment is broken. When my partner and I noticed this last month, we figured we could put off dealing with it.Read more...

Like San Diego Comic-Con, Wonder-Con, and Emerald City Comic Con before it, MegaCon Orlando has become the latest major convention to be canceled this year. As you are well aware by this point, the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic has made it unsafe for people to congregate in large groups. However, in Florida, that…Read more...

This is Sick Days, a series documenting how jobs are changing during the coronavirus pandemic, as told by workers themselves. This week, we hear from workers in city government, a car dealership, and elsewhere as they navigate financial and mental health struggles. If you’d like to submit a story, use this Google form…Read more...

One way to accelerate the development of a covid-19 vaccine is to conduct early testing of promising candidates on human volunteers—a prospect wrought with ethical challenges. A new policy paper outlines the ethical requirements for this type of research, but some critics believe the proposed guidelines fall flat.

The revolution will be on a website for a midcentury modern bungalow, CNBC reports. After Airbnb hosts complained that they’re getting nothing from the federal relief package (calling it a “publicity stunt”), and little from Airbnb’s own $250 million relief package in the form of 25 percent cancellation fees, the…Read more...

This week, the New York Times introduced many of us to the “murder hornet,” more accurately known as the Asian giant hornet. But a small subset of us were already familiar with this bug, because we’d eaten it.

While FX’s vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows is across-the-board delightful, we have a special affection for the show’s “energy vampire,” a character who’s both totally original and instantly recognizable. He’s also pretty terrifying—especially when he gets a sudden power boost.

For the past two years and change, Google’s smart-city-centric sister company Sidewalk Labs has put millions on the line to build what it called a model smart city in downtown Toronto. The planned neighborhood, called “Quayside,” was supposed to be nothing short of utopic, boasting everything from affordable housing…Read more...

Twitch, the service popular for live gameplay streams, is reportedly planning to launch a slate of unscripted series that include dating and game shows—because we certainly have nowhere near enough half-baked reality TV being churned out already.Read more...

Citing long-term costs and “recent economic events,” smart home hub maker Wink has announced in a blog that it’s switching to a mandatory $5 per month subscription starting May 13. And as you might expect, the response from users has been less than thrilled. In fact, some have taken to social media accusing the…Read more...

Republican lawmakers on Wednesday lined up to throw their support behind Shelley Luther, a Dallas salon owner who’s attracted headlines for violating Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s statewide order close businesses as the coronavirus spread across the state.

El Niño is one of the most familiar climate patterns on Earth. Pools of water in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean become abnormal warm, triggering changes in global weather patterns.

Earlier this week, Apple announced a refreshed 13-inch MacBook Pro with updated components and a new Magic Keyboard. But if rumors are true, it seems Apple has a bunch of other gadgets it could announce at a moment’s notice.Read more...

Microsoft finally showed its next-gen Xbox Series X in action today during a special edition of Inside Xbox featuring a slew of trailers for upcoming games, including Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Dirt 5, and Yakuza: Like a Dragon.

The Old Guard follows a group of extremely long-lived warriors who all have the ability to be reincarnated. They find themselves in the modern-day world still fighting the good fight and doing everything in their power to rid the world of evil. Their cause is a noble one, but after thousands of years living, dying,…Read more...

To discourage cheating, high schools and colleges limit what gadgets can be brought into an exam, and they require students to use very basic calculators if math is involved. But that doesn’t mean cheating is impossible, it just requires considerably more effort, like upgrading a dumb Casio calculator with a secret…Read more...

The White House has refused to release CDC guidelines that were developed to give schools and businesses across the United States a better idea of what they should do to maintain health and safety during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report from the Associated Press. The news comes as several states…Read more...

Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson could team up again for a new comic book adaptation. Neve Campbell says she’s been broached about the fifth Scream film. Phil Lord offers a tiny tease of the work on Into the Spider-Verse 2. Joel McHale talks his Stargirl filming experience. Plus, another Sword and Shield fave is coming…Read more...

What exactly will just a $100 get you in a desktop CPU? A lot. If I wanted to build a new rig on a budget, and I wanted to do it sooner rather than later, I could buy either AMD’s Ryzen 3 3100 or Ryzen 3 3300X and know I’m getting a solid deal. They perform flawlessly out of the box and pack a surprising amount of…Read more...

Sony’s WF-1000XM3s raised the bar for noise canceling capabilities on wireless earbuds, but a lack of waterproofing and a $230 price tag limited where they could be used. Wearing them on rainy days or during sweaty workouts just wasn’t worth the risk. But Sony’s new WF-SP800N earbuds not only pair noise-cancellation…Read more...

Axl Rose, the lead singer of legendary 1980s rock band Guns N’ Roses, is currently squabbling with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Twitter about the coronavirus pandemic. Why? Because that’s our reality here in the year 2020. Just spin the giant wheel of pop culture references, political incompetence, and…Read more...

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