Gizmodo

Here at Splinter, we spend a not-insignificant amount of time covering the uniquely awful quality of state and local politics, especially the personalities that make them a frothing cauldron of dysfunction, nepotism, and far worse.

Another hurricane has formed in the Atlantic Ocean, and Bermuda is sitting in its projected path.Read more...

Netflix’s Disenchantment started out as a curiosity. Much of it felt like standard Matt Groening fare, akin to The Simpsons or Futurama. But it ended on such a promising note, it made me eager to see what was around the corner. The sophomore season has buffered out the rough edges, embracing the show’s unique…Read more...

You’d be forgiven for assuming that this video was the work of a talented animator, a visual effects artist, or an illusionist. But the only magic at play here is magnets and a magnificent execution of miniaturized robotics. This is a real Rubik’s Cube that can completely solve itself while floating in mid-air.

There’s a new (ish) technology in town, one that’s made it to the consumer smartphone market with the arrival of the iPhone 11: ultra-wideband (UWB). What is this tech, which now lurks on the Apple U1 chip? And how is it going to change how you use your phone in the future? Here’s what you need to know.

LastPass has fixed a security bug that could have revealed credentials entered on a previously visited site. But to be safe, LastPass users should check that they’re running the most current version of the password manager.Read more...

Last week, the Minor Planet Center announced that astronomers had tentatively discovered the second interstellar object on record—and now we have a picture of it.Read more...

Ernie Hudson finally confirms his return for Ghostbusters 2020. New Goddess of Thunder or otherwise, Chris Hemsworth is still the star of Thor: Love & Thunder, according to Taika Waititi. New novels give us our best look yet at Birds of Prey’s heroines. Plus, a look at the Killjoys finale and more Batwoman teases.…Read more...

Anker LC40 Rechargeable Flashlight | $17 | AmazonRead more...

Even people who believe in climate change are climate change deniers: you might know, intellectually, that our world is coming to an end, but it is hard to truly register this fact, the same way one both does and does not believe that they will one day die. There are counterexamples—you might be one of them; Ethan…Read more...

Purdue Pharma, the drug company that makes the controversial pain medication OxyContin, filed for bankruptcy protection late Sunday night. The bankruptcy filing will temporarily halt thousands of lawsuits against Purdue alleging that it made billions of dollars while helping to create America’s opioid epidemic which…Read more...

It’s Sept. 15, but because time has lost all context and meaning and we live in a ever-spinning technicolor nightmare kaleidoscope, we are entering week three of the one-sided feud Donald Trump has against federal weather agencies for questioning his incorrect assertion that Hurricane Dorian was on a path that could…Read more...

Following a surge in mysterious vaping-related illnesses associated with at least six deaths and renewed focus on skyrocketing teen use, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Sunday that his office is now seeking emergency regulations that would ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes other than tobacco and…Read more...

We live in a truly incredible time for action figures—whether you’re wanting to spend a couple hundred bucks or even just twenty, you can get well articulated, highly detailed recreations of some of your favourite characters from all sorts of shows, movies, comics, and games. But it means we also get this: amazingly…Read more...

A year after the CEO of classified ads website Backpage.com, Carl Ferrer, pleaded guilty to federal charges and the site was permanently shut down, the feds have turned their attention to Backpage’s successors.Read more...

He’s finally bloody done it. Ash Ketchum, star of the Pokémon anime and perennial clutcher of defeat from the jaws of victory, is finally the winner of a Regional Pokémon League. The world of Pokémon fandom is rejoicing with him, including...himself?

The allegations ofsexual assault documented against Brett Kavanaugh during his Senateconfirmation hearings last year should have been enough to prevent him frombecoming a Supreme Court justice. They weren’t.Read more...

If you’ve been trying to pay attention to whatever in god’s now-ungodly-name is going on in the UK right now over the nightmare that is Brexit, recently you’ve heard about some bizarre, arcane parliamentary terminology. Prorogation! The Speaker! The Black Rod! Boris Johnson! Well, here’s one new term you probably…Read more...

Yesterday we got a glimpse at the Apple Watch Series 5. While it boasts a new LTPO screen and some software updates, one thing that hasn’t changed is its 18-hour, “all-day” battery life.Read more...

Brother HL2390DW | $100 | AmazonRead more...

Cable Organizer Bag | $10 | Amazon | Promo code CQUSPF63Read more...

UK police have now arrested at least 19 environmental activists who threatened to fly drones and disrupt air travel at Heathrow Airport in protest of the planned construction of a third runway at the UK’s main air hub, the Guardian reported on Saturday.Read more...

Seems like any other day. You head to the doctor to undergo a routine digital back-up of your consciousness, but find yourself suddenly trapped in someone else’s body. That’s the premise behind Restoration, an Australian sci-fi miniseries now available to watch for free online.Read more...

Amazon-owned Whole Foods is slashing benefits for 1,900 part-time workers at the start of 2020, with staff working 20 hours a week told the bar to buy into the company health care plan will now be set at 30 hours a week, Business Insider reported this week.

The Jim Henson Company might have bit of competition. Artist Nicholas Brown from LoreCraft has released a video where he created a sculpture of Deet, one of the stars of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. This puppet lookalike might not be on strings, but damn if she doesn’t look alive.Read more...

Iron Man’s post-credits scene was a game-changing moment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, because it was the very thing that established the MCU in the first place. However, as revealed by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, there was a version that not only teased the arrival of the Avengers, but could’ve blown…Read more...

A settlement tentatively reached this week between scores ofmunicipal and state governments and Purdue Pharma over the nation’s opioidcrisis hit another snag on Friday when New York’s attorney general announced the discovery of$1 billion the company’s family owners allegedly transferred to offshoreaccounts.Read more...

Saudi Arabia has shut down approximately half of its oil production capacity after “coordinated drone strikes on facilities in [its] Eastern Province” set blazes at the Hijra Khurais oil field and Abqaiq, the world’s largest oil stabilization facility, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Over on the Minecraft subreddit, MrCatFace8885 has created a rather impressive and scary looking plane. Using Redstone, slime blocks and pistons, MrCatFace8885 was able to build a working plane in Minecraft without special mods. Though I’m not sure I would actually want to fly in this loud, convulsing contraption.

It’s no surprise that most movies and shows don’t follow space logic. Even works like Firefly or Gravity, known for attempting a sense of realism, bend or break the rules. Director and co-writer James Gray may have promised Ad Astra will have the “most realistic depiction of space travel” ever, but he did make one…Read more...

RAVPower 30W PD GaN Charger | $20 | Amazon | Promo code KIN0628XRead more...

Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina a year ago today. And while its winds were only Category 1-force, its record rainfall and floodwaters caused major devastation—especially to coal ash ponds, which can contain toxins like mercury and lead. This toxic sludge can pose a major public health threat if it…Read more...

Disney CEO Bob Iger has bowed out of Apple’s board of directors ahead of what’s sure to be a heated competition come November when both companies release their dueling standalone streaming services. According to a filing Apple submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, he resigned on September 10,…Read more...

On Friday, a panel of experts assembled by the Food and Drug Administration voted that the agency should approve a drug called Palforzia designed to help people manage their peanut allergy. But the non-unanimous verdict rendered by the panel highlights the ongoing debate over whether this therapy, a pill containing…Read more...

Well, well, well, isn’t this Apple rumor just delicious.Read more...

Law enforcement arrested two men who broke into Iowa’s Dallas County Courthouse this week, despite their insistence that they had been hired to do so by the state court administration.Read more...

Physicists at Fermilab have produced and tested a powerful magnet of the sort that could appear in the next generation of particle colliders.Read more...

After launching a service that seemed too good to be true, MoviePass parent company Helios and Matheson have abruptly announced that the beleaguered movie ticket subscription service will be shutting down permanently tomorrow, September 14th.Read more...

Adapting videos to various screens has been a challenge ever since movies shot for wide theater screens were first broadcast on square TVs. We’ve now got devices like tablets and smartphones added to the mix, so Adobe has created an AI-powered plugin that can automatically prep a video for any screen while ensuring…Read more...

Your flight could soon be keeping tabs on everything from your preferences for in-flight snacks to the length of your bathroom trips.Read more...

After months of rumors and speculation, we finally know who’s back, who isn’t, and who’s arriving for the first time when it comes to the cast of James Gunn’s Suicide Squad sequel. And my god, it’s a hell of a big cast.Read more...

I’ve seen many pictures of Saturn, some crisp and clear, some blurry, some big, some small. I think I have the authority to tell you that this new image from Hubble is an especially good one.

Scientists have created something of a reverse solar cell: a tool that generates electricity from the darkness of night.Read more...

House lawmakers probing Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon for potential antitrust violations have requested the companies turn over internal records, including executives’ own communications.

The oil and gas industry is one step closer to accessing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Bureau of Land Management released the final environmental impact statement for oil and gas drilling on the refuge’s 1.5 million-acre coastal plain on Thursday.Read more...

A new analysis of the Lovers of Modena—a pair of 1,600-year-old skeletons found buried with their hands clasped together—reveals the pair as being male, in a discovery unique to archaeology.

Before launching into its battery of Apple Watch announcements on Tuesday, Apple set the tone, as it often does, with a moving promotional video. Among the many characters featured was a mother who described how the Apple Watch helped catch a pregnancy-endangering heart condition and saved her baby. Later, Apple…Read more...

An airplane flying across the Atlantic Ocean had to reroute after a pilot spilled his coffee in the cockpit and damaged the audio control panel.Read more...

Today, the floodgates opened for pre-ordering the next batch of Apple’s flagship smartphones and with it, a ton of promotions from multiple storefronts.Read more...

The winners of the 2019 Ig Nobel Prize—an annual contest that satirizes ridiculous science—have been announced.