Gizmodo

Frankenstein’s monster is kind of like a human puzzle. In most iterations of the story, he was crudely pieced together using leftover body parts before being brought back to life. He’s a hodgepodge. More than a little disjointed. And that’s the energy artist Anthony Petrie shocked into his latest poster.Read more...

Another sign of how fundamentally screwed the economics underlying the app economy are: It is possible to take advantage of exploitative food delivery platform DoorDash’s efforts to sign up restaurants without their consent to engage de facto “pizza arbitrage,” according to a report by Margins.Read more...

We really do live in those interesting times they keep talking about.Read more...

A new Facebook survey of small- and medium-sized businesses has found that, among those who have shut down amid the global covid-19 health crisis, only 45 percent plan to rehire the same employees when they reopen.Read more...

With most of the U.S. quarantined and many people working at home, Verizon has officially finalized its acquisition of video conferencing platform BlueJeans.Read more...

Using the internet to diagnose your latest health concern is, perhaps unsurprisingly, not all that effective. A new study from scientists in Australia tested more than two dozen so-called symptom checker apps and found that they correctly diagnosed a hypothetical person’s illness barely over one-third of the time.…Read more...

Batman is one of those characters whose casting has a tendency to unleash a certain passion in folks. With every casting there’s criticism. Michael Keaton was too funny to play Batman. Christian Bale was too skinny. Ben Affleck was too Ben Affleck, and Robert Pattinson is apparently too sparkly because over 10 years…Read more...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is facing a lawsuit over its alleged mishandling of records requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Plaintiffs accuse the agency of “systematically obstruct[ing]” attempts by the public to acquire details about the government’s handling of the novel…Read more...

“I know this is going to sound dramatic, but I’m not coming home this weekend,” I told my sister through the phone. It was the Thursday before the first weekend in March, and I had what I thought was a cold—but what kept me in Brooklyn was the suspicion that it might actually be something else. I just wasn’t sure.Read more...

Alibaba founder and Michael Jackson enthusiast, Jack Ma, is stepping down from his role on Softbank’s board just as the company is reporting the biggest losses in its history.Read more...

Yaya Han was supposed to be on tour right now. Instead of signing copies of books and posing for pictures with fans, the cosplayer is at home prepping her next shipment of washable masks to help people prevent the spread of covid-19.Read more...

A rapidly intensifying Category 5 super cyclone is moving across the Bay of Bengal and heading for the India-Bangladesh border. The storm could cause extensive damage in an area already suffering from the covid-19 pandemic.

Unemployment claims are reaching record highs, taxing each state’s digital systems like never before. But in at least one state, a laggy site or unreachable offices aren’t the only issues that resident are facing while trying to file for benefits.Read more...

As bloody, curse-laden, and generally bawdy as DC Universe’s Harley Quinn show is, it’s always displayed a surprising level of emotional intelligence in the way that it’s handled the complicated, interpersonal relationships that have shaped the lives of its characters.Read more...

Even under normal economic conditions, labor arbitrage racket and venture capitalist money pit Uber barely made sense; during an economically devastating global pandemic, the company looks to be flailing.Read more...

The Polaroid camera might be back from the dead, but at $2 for every instant photo you snap, it makes photography an expensive hobby again. If you’re okay with a black-and-white, grainy, high-contrast aesthetic—or happen to miss the Game Boy Camera as much as I do—Oaxis’s myFirst instant camera for kids uses a…Read more...

After closing all of its U.S. retail stores on March 13 due to covid-19, Apple will begin reopening Apple stores in North America this week, starting with four dozen locations in the U.S. in Canada.Read more...

An experimental vaccine for covid-19 is showing some promising (though still very preliminary) results in people, according to its manufacturer. On Monday, biotech company Moderna announced its incomplete findings from a Phase 1 clinical trial of the vaccine candidate, called mRNA-1273. The trial found that the…Read more...

Courts have been embracing video conferencing since the pandemic began, but in what’s likely a pandemic first, the Collin County District Court in Texas will be the first to hold a jury trial over Zoom.Read more...

Last month, China finally ended its coronavirus lockdown. While air quality improved dramatically during The Quiet Time, new data shows it was short-lived. What’s more, air pollution is coming back at higher levels than during the same period last year.Read more...

What makes smartwatches so useful—quick access to info through a small device always on your wrist—also makes them challenging for other uses. To overcome the limitations of such a small screen, researchers from Leibniz University Hannover created a special stylus that turns the back of a wearer’s hand into a larger…Read more...

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power may be about Adora’s fight against the Horde, but it’s been just as much Catra’s story. The friends-turned-enemies have spent the entire show in a game of cat and mouse, and it was unclear what would happen at the end of the road. Now we know and io9 had the chance to talk to series…Read more...

It wouldn’t be spring in the climate change era without a massive heat wave in the Arctic.

Hypothetically, if you, a criminal, wanted to steal millions of dollars from a corporation, one place to start might be figuring out who it owes money to. Does it pay rent on any of its offices? How often does it make payments on the expensive software or equipment it leases? Which overworked account executive handles…Read more...

In the before times, one question would invariably arise in the office kitchen as my coworkers poured kombucha into a coffee mug while eyeing my undiluted cold brew: “What projector should I get?” Now, amidst the global pandemic, it comes via text, DM, and Slack message, with more urgency. My answer to these…Read more...

Danny Boyle and Michael B. Jordan are teaming up for a wild take on a biblical legend. There’s still a chance Green Arrow and the Canaries could come to the CW. Plus, what’s to come on Snowpiercer, and a better look at Stargirl’s new Justice Society. Spoilers now!Read more...

In the 19th century, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli thought he spotted canals on Mars through his telescope. Since then, we’ve seen lots of things on the Red Planet that aren’t really there. From spoons and squirrels to campfires and women wearing dresses, we present to you the most notorious false sightings…Read more...

Reality has plenty of exit-hatches: strong drugs, streamed television, certain corners of social media. But the most immersive reality-dissolver might be lucid dreaming, wherein the dreamer recognizes they’re dreaming and proceeds to reshape their dreamscape per their own specifications. A slight disreputableness…Read more...

JBL Charge 4 | $120 | Amazon

The Chinese province of Jilin has placed about 108 million people into lockdown on Monday after roughly 34 new cases of coronavirus and one death were identified in the region over the past few weeks, according to a new report from Bloomberg News. The new lockdown demonstrates widespread fear in China of witnessing…Read more...

As we all try to adjust to our current new reality, I have some thoughts to share with you all. I have come to realize that it is likely that for the next few months, or year, we will have to learn to live with dry, papery hands. At least, that’s what my hands feel like because of all the soap and hand sanitizer in my…Read more...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Saturday announced that it had issued an emergency use authorization for an at-home coronavirus sample collection kit. The kit allows consumers to self-collect a nasal sample and then send it off to be tested for the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease covid-19.Read more...

As we all know, the Trump administration isn’t the best thing that’s happened to parks in this country. Some might say even that’s an understatement. Nonetheless, even it can manage to do some good things for parks every now and then. We’re talking about the marvelous new social distancing posters being rolled out by…Read more...

President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he was considering restoring some funds to the World Health Organization (WHO). Trump froze funding for the WHO in April after he criticized the organization for its response to the coronavirus pandemic and accused it of being biased in favor of China.Read more...

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is preparing to possibly add a new element to its pre-boarding screening procedures in the U.S. airports: checking temperatures. If approved, the new measure could be rolled out at about a dozen airports as soon as next week, the Wall Street Journal reported.Read more...

Louisiana is starting to reopen on Friday, but that doesn’t mean much to 66-year-old Myrtle Felton. She lives in St. James Parish in the southeastern portion of the state where there’s not much business at all except the refineries and chemical plants that surround her home.Read more...

On Friday, President Donald Trump unveiled the official flag of the United States Space Force and, in his latest display of unparalleled oratorical excellence, touted a new “super duper missile” from the Department of Defense that’s sure to make the likes of China and Russia pee their pants.

In yet another escalation of the ongoing U.S.-China feud over Chinese tech giant Huawei, Donald Trump’s administration took steps to greatly expand punitive trade sanctions against the company on Friday, Reuters reported.

Discord has already taken a few steps to help people stay connected during The Quarantine, but with its latest update, Discord may have just given gamers a true replacement for competing video chat apps like Zoom, Hangouts, and others.Read more...

The internet is piecing together an alleged UFO crash landing in Brazil on Wednesday, with convincing evidence. Here’s a Reddit thread, a Twitter video at night, a Twitter video in the daytime, and even a close-up YouTube video of the suspected spacecraft on Earth—although, upon further soul-crushing inspection, the…Read more...

For the first time in a century, archaeologists will excavate a buried Viking ship. Located a less than 2 feet below the surface, the ship is being ravaged by fungus, forcing archaeologists to act quickly.Read more...

If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. When the pandemic started wreaking havoc on the U.S. in March, several telecom companies were quick to respond to the FCC’s pledge to “Keep America Connected.” But that pledge seems to have come with a major caveat, as some customers are starting to find out:…Read more...

A few years ago, I stopped being afraid of birds and realized that, actually, I really liked them. It just clicked one day. It’s cool that there are so many that I can see relatively close to my house, they make for challenging photo subjects, and, in general, I love any subject that provides a large number of random…Read more...

Editing Ryan has been one of the best experiences in my career as an editor. They can write about physics like no one else and have helped me understand concepts I never thought I could get my mind around, from dark matter to quantum computers to weather (actually, I still don’t understand weather). Perhaps even more…Read more...

Here are some of the latest developments in covid-19 research, including whether people can develop immunity, the effects of covid-19 on the brain, and the potential for the pandemic to grow even larger than it has already.Read more...

Like nearly every other fully developed organism on the planet, human beings are driven by an instinct to fuck. In fact, a significant portion of the world economy revolves around fucking or the desire to fuck—to the extent some say humans are now becoming desensitized to arousal. But unless you are a lizard in New…Read more...

The last thing anyone wants to deal with right now is severe weather, but here we are. The first tropical storm of the year is likely to form this weekend, two weeks ahead of Atlantic hurricane season’s official start date.Read more...

When studying penguins, there’s a surprise you’ve gotta watch out for: the laughing gas produced by their poop.Read more...

There are times when everything sucks and you just want to rage against the machine—sometimes literally, as is the case with one of the movies on this list we’ve compiled. Check out some of our favorite films to watch when you’re craving a good old fashioned revolution against a tyrannical system that exploits the…Read more...

Amazon has confirmed two more deaths of workers at its facilities in two different states amid a growing chorus of lawmakers and activists demanding that the company release official figures on the number of cases and confirmed deaths related to covid-19.Read more...