Gizmodo

It’s a noble cause—trying to help bees thrive as populations face catastrophic collapse. One of the ways folks have been doing this recently is by purchasing bee houses. Bees will build their nests and lay their larvae inside these cute little tube-filled wood boxes, which have become prevalent at garden centers.…Read more...

Kindle Paperwhite (2018) | $100 | Amazon | 10% cash back for Prime holdersRead more...

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels | $3 | AmazonRead more...

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Brian Walsh rejected tech giant Google’s efforts to have a lawsuit originally brought by ex-Google engineer James Damore dismissed, the Mercury News reported on Friday, meaning that the case can now proceed into the discovery phase.

When Nintendo released Splatoon 2 for the Nintendo Switch in 2017, the company announced that it would provide Splatfest events for two years. That commitment is nearing its end, with Splatoon’s chief creator Hisashi Nogami announcing in Los Angeles today that the game’s final Splatfest will be held from July 18…Read more...

Disney’s crowning attraction right now is Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the sprawling Star Wars theme park experience. But for some fans, even the non-Star Wars parks had some novel excitement thanks to unendingly delightful Spider-Man actor Tom Holland.

Chinese government officials summoned representatives from major tech companies both from the U.S. and elsewhere this week to warn them of “dire consequences” if they go along with the Trump administration’s prohibition on sales of certain U.S. technology to a number of Chinese companies, the New York Times reported…Read more...

Brittany Avery worked at Xseed, a US studio that specializes in localizing and publishing JRPGS, for seven years as a localization producer and then left the company. Recently she discovered that her name had been removed from the credits on a game she worked on. In response to the controversy, Xseed revealed a policy…Read more...

When I think of movies I need to see again, with new actors and a slightly refreshed script, of course I think of the moderately charming late-’80s Bill Murray vehicle Scrooged. Do you—do you not?Read more...

Ridesharing giant Lyft is fighting to retain total control of the docked and dockless bike share market in San Francisco, the Verge reported Friday, and has filed a lawsuit that its contract prohibits the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) from issuing permits to competitors.

Check out the new gameplay footage from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a game that is still, somehow, not about Ahsoka Tano.Read more...

Janet! I need tissues.Read more...

Bosch Blaze Pro Laser Distance Measure | $50 | Amazon

Blendtec Designer 650 Blender | $300 | AmazonRead more...

Many of us are familiar with the uniquely infuriating hell that is robocalls, and folks, I hate to say it, but the problem isn’t getting any better. A recently announced iPhone feature arriving with iOS 13, however, might help quiet some of those unknown callers by kicking them straight to voicemail. So far, I’m…Read more...

YouTube dug a great big hole for itself earlier this week when its PR bungled its response to the ongoing harassment of a journalist by a far-right pundit. Internally, the backlash from employees at its parent company is growing as LGBTQ and allied workers mobilize to demand a satisfactory response.

Multiple vaping companies were sent letters by federal regulators this week over posts by social media influencers that did not include necessary warnings about the vape products.

For more than two hours on Thursday, one of China’s largest internet providers forced a huge chunk of European mobile traffic to be rerouted through its own servers.

In case you hadn’t heard, Facebook’s working on a cryptocurrency. There have been plenty of rumors floating around on the secretive project, codenamed Libra, for a while now, but this week we saw the floodgates open with reports of a likely official launch on June 18.Read more...

Earlier this decade, as Marvel Studios was building toward its own mega-movie crossover, Fox was doing the same thing. A new report claims the studio hired writers and even courted a director to make an X-Men vs. Fantastic Four crossover movie, and now details have emerged on what that might have looked like.

Starting as early as next year, NASA will make the International Space Station available to space tourists and other business ventures. Sounds exciting, but the associated costs are far beyond what most of us can afford.Read more...

Comcast violated the Consumer Protection Act a whopping 445,000 times, a Washington State court ruled on Thursday. The ruling stems from accusations by the state’s attorney general that the telecom giant signed up tens of thousands of customers for a shitty monthly program without their consent.Read more...

Warning: This post contains graphic imagery.Read more...

You know how it is, in between days of shilling scientifically dubious lifestyle methods to women and filming cameos for Marvel movie after Marvel movie. They all blur together to the point that you just don’t have a clue where you’ll eventually show up.

A new campaign headed by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) called IAU100 NameExoWorlds will allow each country in the world to name a star and its exoplanet, the IAU announced yesterday.

You wouldn’t expect that finding a tapeworm egg in your brain would be seen as good news, but such was the case for New York resident Rachel Palma this past fall. That’s because the larva found inside was the true cause of Palma’s worsening symptoms of insomnia and hallucinations, rather than a brain tumor that her…Read more...

RT has published leaked footage from inside the prison where Julian Assange is currently serving a 50-week sentence for jumping bail in 2012. And hilariously RT, a Russian propaganda outlet financed by the Kremlin, claims that news outlets and internet users aren’t allowed to embed the video, despite the fact that RT…Read more...

Researchers have combined laser techniques and an ingenious detection scheme in order to create a powerful new molecule-imaging system—a quicker, easier way to determine the identity of microscopic molecules. Basically, it’s an advanced yet surprisingly simple microscope.

The Sydney Opera House is a dope-ass work of architecture. Nestled along the Sydney Harbor in Australia, the building is a sight to see. Now, the sea wall at Bennelong Point, where the opera house sits, features 18 hexagonal-shaped steel frames meant to serve as artificial coral reefs.Read more...

On Friday, Walmart fired its latest salvo in the retail wars, announcing a bizarre scheme where a worker will physically stock your fridge while you watch from afar via livestream. This poses an obvious question: Which company will be the first to baby-bird a chewed-up, eight-ounce steak directly into my mouth,…Read more...

A Google employee who helped organize last year’s 20,000 worker walkout left the company this week and said she’s faced professional retaliation as a result of her speaking out.

Archaeologists in Bulgaria are claiming to have uncovered stone cannonballs used during Vlad III Dracula’s assault on the historic Zishtova Fortress. The unusually cruel military commander—famously known as Vlad the Impaler—wrested the stronghold from the Ottoman Turks in 1461.Read more...

Technology can learn a lot about us, whether we like it or not. It can figure out what we like, where we’ve been, how we feel. It can even make us say or do things we’ve never said or done. And according to new research, it can start to figure out what you look like based simply on the sound of your voice.

Glaciers and other icy landscapes are often named after the scientists who first set eyes on them. But it isn’t just human eyes spotting new features in Earth’s frozen wastes; many of these remote landforms are discovered and detailed via satellite. So, shouldn’t the robots get some credit, too?

Ever google something and the results are all from the same site? Google’s aiming to fix that with a Search update that will give users more site diversity.Read more...

Russia is getting closer to implementing the sort of internet regulations that exist under the Great Firewall of China. Earlier this year, internet providers began preparing to conduct tests to find out if Russia can build an internet disconnected from the rest of the world. Now, Russia plans to block major VPN…Read more...

James Ketchum, an Army psychiatrist who conducted controversial drug experiments on members of the U.S. military, died last month, on May 27, at the age of 87. And while Ketchum’s legacy is filled with plenty of weird and horrifying tales, there’s one story that should get more attention in the wake of his death.

One of the worst parts of pet ownership is leaving your dog or cat home alone. They’re stuck in the house, and you’re out in the world! Pet cameras are ostensibly a great way to watch and interact with pets even when you’re away from home. While they used to feel like a kludgy gimmick that can’t rival a real security…Read more...

New results from the world’s largest particle accelerator illuminate the structure of the pentaquark, an exotic particle consisting of five quarks bound together.Read more...

There isn’t a video game from the heyday of arcades you can’t play on a home console (or even your phone) now. But spending hours hunched over gaming cabinets in a seedy storefront was a wonderful childhood experience for many of us, and one that can now be easily recreated at home—minus the seedy. If you can…Read more...

While the cast of Simon Kinberg’s Dark Phoenix has spoken about the similarities between the film’s original ending and the ending of another recent big superhero film—similarities that were so extensive they required the final X-Men installment to undergo extensive reshoots—everyone has been coy about what that other…Read more...

Hey—there’s a new iPod Touch in town, and it’s in line to get the latest iOS 13 upgrade later this year (dark mode and all). But why on earth would you want a hobbled iPhone? Apple wants to sell it to you because it’s committed to services like the App Store and TV+ and a cheap iOS device lets it get those services…Read more...

How about a bit of good news? It looks like the controversial provision in the Taxpayer First Act that would have prevented the Internal Revenue Service from directly competing with filing services offered through the Free File Program will no longer be part of the bill.Read more...

Americans want to get to work saving the planet from catastrophic climate change. Presidential candidate Jay Inslee’s idea of forming a Climate Conservation Corps—akin to the Peace Corps and Americorps—is among the most popular climate policies associated with the Green New Deal.Read more...

The team behind To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is tackling Lauren Oliver’s clone YA adventure Replica. Famke Janssen is open to returning to Jean Grey. Kristen Bell will go behind the camera for The Good Place’s fourth season. Plus, what’s to come on iZombie, and Cary Elwes hypes up Stranger Things’ return.…Read more...

Google is warning the U.S. government that its ban on Chinese tech giant Huawei actually puts America’s national security at risk by forcing Huawei to produce an insecure operating system that could be exploited by bad actors, both governments and lone hackers alike. That’s the claim in a new report by the Financial…Read more...

Retail giants are increasingly turning over jobs and tasks performed in the past by human workers to a growing workforce of robots. A new report on this automation of jobs by Walmart says it’s led to a greater sense of tedium and unease among some human employees, even as the company insists that its robots are meant…Read more...

This week Amazon is hosting its first Re:Mars conference, a Las Vegas event where researchers, executives, and Tony Stark are discussing AI and space travel. During Thursday’s events, burgeoning evil mastermind and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos tested out large robotic hands and described his plans to create an infrastructure…Read more...

Throwing his arms around a far-right provocateur whose shtick includes labeling political adversaries “queers” and “fags,” Senator Ted Cruz on Thursday tweeted a rebuke of YouTube over the company’s belated decision to take action against Steven Crowder, a man whose years-long campaign of harassment against a gay…Read more...

Fresh, soft skin comes at a cost—to the planet. Specifically, I’m talking about all that packaging your favorite lotion or cream comes in, which is likely made of hard-to-degrade plastics. That’s why Olay—y’know, that bougie stuff your abuelita is always putting on—is dipping its toes in the refillable packaging…Read more...