Gizmodo

Once you get past the lightsabers, TIE fighters, and general awe of being part of one of the biggest franchises in the world, acting in a Star Wars movie should be like any other acting job: Arrive on set, get in costume, and say your lines. But according to Richard E. Grant, that’s not exactly the case.Read more...

Sensitive data related to roughly 5.2 million arrests in the state of South Carolina were discovered exposed online last month by a California-based security company, Gizmodo has learned. A small percentage of those arrested were juveniles at the time.

Living in the worse possible timeline means that each week invites a new, unbearably dumb viral sensation. This week, it’s pigeons in tiny hats. And reader, while it pains me to spoil the novelty of birds in miniature clothing, whoever is doing this should feel terrible.Read more...

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call Bowers & Wilkins headphones iconic. The recognizable chrome and leather design always drew me in, almost by whispering, “These are the fancy ones.” For reasons I cannot comprehend, Bowers & Wilkins recently trashed that great design and replaced it with an unexpected combination…Read more...

If you’ve ever wondered why photos you upload to Twitter don’t look as nice as the pics in your camera roll or gallery, it’s because typically Twitter reduces the quality of your photos in order to save space. But starting today, that’s about to change.Read more...

Every time Greta Thunberg speaks, I have to fight tears. The 16-year-old Swedish climate activist stood on the main stage at the international climate talks ongoing in Madrid Wednesday and didn’t go on about personal stories or struggles. Instead, she stuck to the science—and still managed to make me choke up.

Sony WH-XB900N Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones | $123 | AmazonRead more...

In what can only be described as an unsurprising turn of events, Donald Trump’s campaign has likened the president of the United States to Thanos, the depraved villain from Marvel’s comics, television series, and film franchise whose whole schtick is wanting to murder billions of people because he’s obsessed with…Read more...

A Switch Pro controller, dog and cat treat Gold Box, and a 128GB MicroSD card lead off Wednesday’s best deals from around the web.

Laptop, Tablet and Monitor Sale | AmazonRead more...

Google’s $2.1 billion deal to acquire fitness tracker manufacturer Fitbit has attracted the attention of antitrust enforcers at the Department of Justice, according to reports that first emerged in the New York Post tabloid and were subsequently verified by Reuters.

Apple’s new Mac Pro and 32-inch 6k Pro Display XDR, whose base models retail at $6,000 and $5,000 respectively, are available for sale as of today. Much hullaboo has been made about how the display requires the additional purchase of a $999 Pro Stand or $199 VESA mount adapter, but the Mac Pro maxes out at a…Read more...

As Steven Universe grew into his vast Gem powers and learned the truth about his and his mother’s identities, he gradually began to discover the degree to which Pink Diamond was able to deceive the people who loved her most. It’s likely that Steven and the Crystal Gems will never know the full extent of what Pink hid…Read more...

Here’s one more leak in the drip drip drip of evidence that Facebook is totally out of control, even if and when it tries to get it together. Buzzfeed reports that an extremely predatory scammer that exploited Baby Boomers (also previously exposed by Buzzfeed in October) had a helper on the inside at Facebook.

If Google had its way, everyone would carry around a physical security key to protect our mountains of sensitive and personally identifying data. Alas, most of us do not, so the company has taken measures in recent years to prioritize security for users by baking them into Chrome.Read more...

The enormous fissure that formed decades ago in the deathless American debate over encryption proved insurmountable on Tuesday. Senate lawmakers struggled to be heard on the all-important topic by the two tech company suits that they invited over mostly for the purpose of serving as punching bags.

A week ago, we learned that Doctor Who will be returning on New Year’s Day, and now we’ve got our first clip from the season premiere.

Today, the New York City Council passed one of the country’s most comprehensive bird-safe glass laws yet.

Yesterday I complained about the breakneck speed of the CW’s Crisis on Infinite Earths. The scope was incredible, the wide array of heroes on call was impressive, and the Easter eggs were plentiful. Yet there seemed something soulless at the heart of part one—it moved so quickly that the catastrophes never quite…Read more...

At 8:01 p.m. on October 10, 2018, a bolt of lightning flashed inside of a storm cloud just east of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The International Space Station was passing overhead at the time, and a suite of instruments observed as the bolt produced a flash of gamma radiation—and, simultaneously, emitted a…Read more...

The Green New Deal is a massive proposal that aims to take on the climate crisis—the greatest threat humanity has ever faced—while creating millions of jobs and boosting economic equality. That’s going to take plans for everything from electricity to housing to flood control, not to mention a fuckload of political…Read more...

TP-Link Deco Whole Home Mesh WiFi System | $100 | AmazonRead more...

I think that we all can agree that Black Twitter is the most popping space on Al Gore’s internet. (Disagreements?! Let’s fight. OK, OK—I’m [mostly] a lover not a fighter. Stop it, guys. Back to business).Read more...

Surprise, surprise: The Arctic didn’t do too well this past year. You can thank global warming for that.Read more...

Feast your eyes on the incredible winners of the Nikon Small World in Motion contest, featuring tardigrade cannibalism, growing mouse embryos, and swimming coral polyps.

We give you our modern-day Macbeth, a 27-year-old man who once sat on an empire of dumb college memes and now, after a domain name hijacking that ended in bloodshed, pays the price of 14 years in federal prison and $35,000. Was it all worth it, Mr. Adams?, we ask, as we now reflect on the nature of the United States…Read more...

A third-party DNA database that began as a passion project and later became embroiled in an ongoing debate over genetic privacy has now gone commercial. This week, the San Diego-based forensics company Verogen announced its acquisition of the controversial genealogy website GEDmatch. But it’s anyone’s guess as to how…Read more...

After a bit more than a year of legal wrangling, a landmark lawsuit against ExxonMobil has ended with the oil giant emerging unscathed.Read more...

Let it be said, Apple is not afraid to take people to court. The company’s latest beef involves Gerard Williams, a former employee who purportedly spearheaded the design for Apple’s A-series processors. You know, the itty bits of silicon that have powered Apple’s marquee gadgets since the iPhone 5S.Read more...

For the past month or so, I’ve been carrying two sets of earbuds with me everywhere I go. In a compact, instantly recognizable white case, there are the $250 AirPods Pro. In a similarly sized, nondescript black case, there are the $180 Jabra Elite 75t. They’re the best earbuds I’ve gotten my hands on this year, and I…Read more...

This decade we saw the smartphone move from overpriced gadget to something more necessary than a laptop or desktop. We saw the e-reader settle on a design so perfect it’s barely changed in seven years. We saw games systems that made us rethink how we game and laptops that made us rethink what a good laptop should look…Read more...

Over the summer we were told the next generation of consoles would have the “greatest compute jump in any console,” and last week, a report from Kotaku claimed Microsoft’s plan to make two versions of Project Scarlett, including a cheaper disc-less model, and now some new info has specific numbers on how powerful…Read more...

Decades ago, a Soviet geneticist purposely bred foxes to make them extra tame, an experiment that produced a host of unanticipated physical changes in the animals. It’s one of the most famous experiments in genetics, but it might not have gone down in the way we were told. A new opinion paper argues these foxes…Read more...

Streaming on the Pirate Bay probably won’t be as easy as clicking play on Netflix—or as legal—but it’ll definitely be free.Read more...

With price tags of $1,000—or more!—it’s hard to imagine buying a new iPhone outright. You could set up a payment plan with your phone company, but then you’re usually stuck with that carrier for two years. In some cases, you don’t even own the phone you pay for every month; it’s more like a lease.

Ancient insects similar to modern lice parasitized dinosaurs by feasting on their feathers, as evidenced by a pair of fascinating new amber fossils.

A Sephora sale, dog harnesses, TaoTronics Bluetooth Earbuds, and Anker ANC headphones lead off Tuesday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

Operators lost contact with a C-130 Hercules military aircraft on Monday at 6:13 pm GMT—almost an hour and a half into a flight carrying 21 passengers and 17 crew members to Antarctica, according to a statement released by the Chilean Air Force.Read more...

Senator Elizabeth Warren envisions a future where our cars don’t run on gas but on the algae growing in our seas. That’s according to her “Blue New Deal” proposal out Tuesday that’s essentially a Green New Deal for the oceans. And what goes in our cars is only one quick example of the ways she would transform our…Read more...

The Matrix 4 adds another mystery member to its cast. David Arquette says he knows nothing about a potential new Scream. New merchandise gives us our best look yet at Black Widow’s heroes and villains. Plus, what’s to come on Crisis on Infinite Earths. Spoilers, away!

If you want a camera to sit on your mantelpiece and ping your phone every time the dog walks past, you’ve got more choice than ever before. But if you’re worried about what these devices are going to do with your videos, and with your data, there’s another option—build your own bespoke solution.Read more...

Save big on a boatload of Aukey gear during the company’s holiday sale. Choose from an $11 USB C Charger 18W, USB PD Charger, 10,000mAh power bank, USB-C 2.5" hard drive enclosure fpr $10, and USB C Car Charger PD with 39W Output.Read more...

Save up to 40% on Men’s Clothing | AmazonRead more...

An online firm that helps customers obtain copies of their birth certificates from state and local authorities left some 750,000 applications on an unsecured Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud storage system, TechCrunch reported on Monday.

Amazon thinks it lost a military cloud computing contract worth $10 billion to rival Microsoft because our vendetta-addled president wanted to personally “screw” CEO Jeff Bezos, court documents show.Read more...

We’re less than two weeks until The Witcher is finally released and fans can binge the highly-anticipated fantasy show just a fast as humanly possible. When that happens, they’ll become instantly familiar with the show’s version of franchise favorites like Yennefer of Vengerberg, Princess Cirilla, and, of course,…Read more...

CEO Steph Korey of luggage startup Away is stepping down following an investigation by the Verge into her role in the company’s deeply malicious work culture. But the company insisted that they had been planning on replacing her since this spring, while Korey will remain a high-placed executive at the company instead…Read more...

According to a report from iFixit, Nikon plans to end its authorized repair program sometime next year. So instead of having several options of where to take a Nikon camera to be repaired, users in the United States will be forced to ship their shooter to one of just two official repair centers in the country, which…Read more...

The first season of CW’s Charmed reboot wasn’t very good, but that didn’t matter. It was silly and fun, with an emphasis on sisterhood and challenging the status quo of its namesake. Season two brought in new showrunners with a new vision—one that rejects or mocks everything that made it stand out in the first place.…Read more...

In a new study this week, researchers in Japan have found a link between lifetime drinking to an increased risk of cancer—only the latest bit of research to suggest that even light drinking over a lifetime can be bad for us.Read more...