Gizmodo

Back in February, the heat probe of NASA’s InSight lander didn’t get very far while trying to tunnel a hole into Mars. It’s been stuck ever since, but NASA has devised a plan in the hopes of getting the probe moving again.

Allow me to begin this special Gen Z edition of Jezebel Investigates with a disclaimer: the following unhinged exploration into Internet culture is not meant to overwhelm your senses with frivolous nonsense. It is meant to contextualize an image you might’ve encountered online, whether from a friend’s kid or a meme…Read more...

Attorney General and Droopy Dog impersonator William Barr is set to request Facebook halt its expected expansion of encrypted messaging through its networks, according to a draft of a letter obtained by Buzzfeed and expected to publish tomorrow.Read more...

We can’t quite say that His Dark Materials is going to be HBO’s next Game of Thrones, but the latest trailer...kind of makes it feel like it could be HBO’s next Game of Thrones. To put it another way, things just got much, much bigger.Read more...

Logitech K750 Solar Keyboard | $42 | Amazon

The partially U.S. government-funded National Academy of Sciences removed a webpage with a video describing gene editing in ways that conflict with the organization’s own ethical guidelines.

Uber, a company arguably just exploiting human workers while it figures out how to pivot to automation, is evidently looking to expand its labor pool beyond cab drivers and food delivery.Read more...

Prospective parents—but especially dads—might be wise to avoid too much alcohol, according to a new study out this week. It suggests that women and men who binge drink in the months before conception are more likely to have children with congenital heart defects, with the father’s alcohol consumption surprisingly …Read more...

Rapid progress in research involving miniature human brains grown in a dish has led to a host of ethical concerns, particularly when these human brain cells are transplanted into nonhuman animals. A new paper evaluates the potential risks of creating “humanized” animals, while providing a pathway for scientists to…Read more...

Tuesday was National Day in China, which marked the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Like all authoritarian regimes the ruling Chinese Communist Party loves a good giant celebration of state power to remind everyone who is in charge, and the parade featured plenty of new weapons and…Read more...

Every year around 10 million acres of the U.S. is seared by wildfires. The country spends more than $2 billion trying to fight them—a total that doesn’t even include the cost of lost property. Fighting wildfires is still mostly a reactive effort, something that happens after the fires have already ignited. But…Read more...

Over the next decade, U.S. banks, which are investing $150 billion in technology annually, will use automation to eliminate 200,000 jobs, thus facilitating “the greatest transfer from labor to capital” in the industry’s history. The call is coming from inside the house this time, too—both the projection and the quote…Read more...

Save Up to $500 During the Fall Sale | BurrowRead more...

A new analyst report says that Apple will release a second-generation iPhone SE at the beginning of next year. Lovers of the old Apple design with its 4-inch screen will be tempted to rejoice and welcome back the iPhone for people with small hands, but that would be premature. According to almost every rumor, the new…Read more...

Presidents have taken steps to breakdown the integrity of the science federal agencies produce, according to a new report. Under President Donald Trump, however, the situation has gotten a whole lot worse, reaching what the report calls “a crisis point.”Read more...

Last night, President Donald Trump posted a meme-y video on Twitter featuring the song “Photograph” by the rock band Nickelback. It has since been taken down. And while some believe the video was removed after Warner Music Group, the copyright holder of the song, filed a copyright complaint, we all know the truth:…Read more...

I’m never going to suit up in a highly-engineered spacesuit that NASA spent millions of dollars developing, but heading out into a thunderstorm in a jacket made from The North Face’s new Futurelight material genuinely made me feel like I was wearing an engineering marvel. It’s a waterproof fabric that feels nothing…Read more...

I only got a little time with the Duo and Neo, Microsoft’s new dual-display devices, but that little time made one thing clear: Microsoft has a wildly different approach to the collapsible device than just about everyone else.Read more...

While Microsoft may have stolen its own thunder with the announcement of the Surface Neo and Surface Duo, the company’s workhorse laptop and 2-in-1 also got some straightforward but still very meaningful upgrades.Read more...

Chris Terrio discusses the key questions at the core of The Rise of Skywalker. James Cameron gets wet in a new behind-the-scenes tease from the Avatar sequels. Harbinger is coming to Crisis on Infinite Earths. Plus, what’s to come on Batwoman and Riverdale, and some wild speculation about the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+…Read more...

We’ve got another variation of Microsoft’s operating system to keep track of: Windows 10X. It’s coming first to the dual-screen Surface Neo due in 2020, but behind the scenes it tells us much more about the future of Windows across multiple devices and form factors—and we’ve got everything you need to know about this…Read more...

It’s not as flashy as some of Butcher Box’s lifetime offers, which add extra meat to every box as long as you’re a customer, but their latest deal gets you a ton of extras in your first delivery.

I realize it’s early October, but this illustrated Die Hard Christmas book is a great read all year long, and at $11, it’s within about $1 of an all-time low price. Even if it lives in your Christmas decoration storage box for 11 months of the year, it could still be worth grabbing with this sale.

The top court in the European Union has ruled Facebook must delete content globally, not just in Europe, if a European court decides that the content is defamatory. The case was brought by an Austrian politician who said that a Facebook user had defamed and insulted her by writing she was a “corrupt oaf,” among other…Read more...

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) isn’t so thrilled with Tesla’s rollout of a feature that automatically summons the company’s vehicles in parking lots, telling Reuters they are investigating resulting crashes.

If there’s one thing we know for a fact that filmmaker Dean DeBlois can do, it’s bring sweeping adventures on land, air, and sea to life on the screen—and that’s what he’ll soon try to do with a literary classic.Read more...

The Trump administration is moving to start testing the DNA of people detained by U.S. immigration officers, according to reports of call on Wednesday between senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials and reporters.

Fair warning: It’s time for users to update encrypted messaging service WhatsApp.

During its October Surface event on Wednesday, Microsoft revealed something unexpected (besides the Surface Duo phone): A stylish, thin, repairable laptop.Read more...

Scientists have discovered nitrogen- and oxygen- containing organic molecules in ice grains blown out by Saturn’s moon Enceladus, according to a new study.Read more...

On Wednesday, a federal judge struck down the U.S. government’s attempt to stop the development of the country’s first supervised injection site in Philadelphia—a move heralded by many public health experts worried about the opioid and drug overdose crisis.Read more...

Bernie Sanders is recovering after experiencing chest discomfort and having two stents placed to treat an artery blockage. According to the Sanders camp, the Vermont senator is in good spirits and “feels better than ever.” He may also be buoyed by the influx of well wishes he’s received from supporters, colleagues,…Read more...

California is stepping up to help its first responders and firefighters in light of worsening and more deadly wildfire seasons. Governor Gavin Newsom signed a few bills Tuesday to increase the access to mental health services for the state’s first responders. This comes almost a year after the state saw the deadliest…Read more...

In addition to killing as many as 125 million people, a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan would unleash mass starvation around the world due to the ensuing climate impacts, according to a disturbing new study.Read more...

Luiza Figueiredo always loved puzzles—you have to if you collect so many you get the Guinness World Record for most assembled puzzles ever.Read more...

For one British man, the controversial vote that led to Brexit in 2016 might have literally driven him around the bend, causing a temporary bout of psychosis.Read more...

M.R. Carey, who wrote remarkable zombie tale The Girl With All the Gifts, is one of our favorite authors here at io9. We’ve been lucky enough to share excerpts from his works in the past, and we’ve got another one for you now: a first look at the debut book in his new post-apocalyptic trilogy, The Book of Koli.Read more...

Today at its fall Surface event, Microsoft announced a new range of laptops and 2-in-1s including a revamped Surface Pro 7 and a new 15-inch Surface Laptop 3, while also teasing two exciting dual-screen Surfaces due out in late 2020.Read more...

Floppy-eared rabbits, also known as lop rabbits, are more susceptible to serious ear and tooth disorders than upright-eared domesticated rabbits, according to new research. The findings are raising important concerns about the appropriateness of breeding lop rabbits, adorable as they are.

Marvel Super Heroes Arcade1Up Arcade Cabinet + Riser | $380 | WalmartRead more...

According to an internal complaint submitted by a Boeing engineer after this year’s 737 Max crashes, the company declined to put a proposed safety system in the plane in an effort to keep costs low—a decision that may have contributed to the crashes in India and Ethiopia that collectively killed 346 people.Read more...

The City Enduring, the titanic Dyson swarm at the center of writer N.K. Jemisin and artist Jamal Campbell’s upcoming series Far Sector, is more than just a makeshift planet that nearly 20 billion people call home. It’s an experiment trying to figure out how to successfully bring three races of warring aliens together…Read more...

Hurricane Lorenzo, the weirdest storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, struck the Azores on Wednesday and is forecast to continue its jaunt across the eastern Atlantic toward Ireland. It could make a rare landfall there with hurricane-force winds and crippling surf.

Though it’s been drowned out by other news lately, let us not forget about Iran. In recent months alone it shot down a $200 million U.S.-made drone, captured a British oil tanker, and was implicated in last month’s drone and cruise missile strikes against Saudi oil refineries. Conflict—at least in a limited…Read more...

No, that is not the just-announced Surface Neo in Panos Panay’s hand. That’s the Surface Duo, the long-rumored Microsoft Surface phone.Read more...

In September, fires in the Amazon Rainforest dropped dramatically both compared to the number of fires the region saw in 2018 and from the outburst of flames the rainforest saw in August.Read more...

After years—YEARS—of rumors, Microsoft has finally announced its dual-screen Surface device, the Surface Neo. Panos Panay, chief product officer for Microsoft’s Devices Group, showed off the device at Microsoft’s annual Surface event alongside a whole slew of devices and a brand new version of Windows, Windows 10 X,…Read more...

Released last year, the Neo Geo Mini was a good, if imperfect nostalgia trip that especially appealed to fighting game fans. But if the console’s original $109 price tag scared you off, it’s time to give it a second look.

Microsoft is making a 15-inch Surface Laptop for people who needed more screen and power than the 13.5-inch version, and beyond being bigger, the 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 will also offer AMD inside.

Bolstering its claims of a greater focus on user privacy, Google is finally starting to roll out Incognito mode for its Maps app.Read more...