Gizmodo

We see a lot of deals around the web over on Kinja Deals, but these were our ten favorites today.

When it comes to naming the world’s fastest creature, it’s tempting to think of peregrine falcons, cheetahs, or marlins, but as researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology are apt to point out, we mustn’t forget Spirostomum ambiguum—a worm-like creature that reaches breakneck speeds through rapid shrinkage.

Everyone knows there is no sound in space. After all, a sound wave requires a medium, like air or water, to travel through, and space is mostly a vacuum. But in studying a nearby galaxy cluster, astronomers detected a true occurrence of sound in space—and in this case, the incredibly deep sound was coming from a black…Read more...

Gab, the Twitter knock-off of choice for the far right, has 48 hours to delete offending content that Microsoft says incites violence. If Gab doesn’t delete the two posts, created by a user of the site, Microsoft says it will suspend its hosting services.Read more...

It’s become all too clear this election season that issues involving technology are becoming a core part of campaigns and voter concerns. The Democratic nominee for governor of Colorado, U.S. Representative Jared Polis, wants to add blockchain to the list of items voters consider this year. But what does that mean?Read more...

Star Trek Las Vegas 2018 confirmed a huge piece of news for the Trek universe last weekend: the rumors were true, and Sir Patrick Stewart would be returning to television to reprise his role as an older, wiser Jean-Luc Picard in a new Star Trek series. We know little else about the series beyond that, but I really…Read more...

Tired of that smug look of satisfaction on your kid’s face when they’re able to find Waldo on a page faster than you can? A creative agency called RedPepper built a robot that levels the Where’s Waldo playing field using a camera and machine learning AI to spot the striped traveler in as little as four-and-a-half…Read more...

I didn’t understand the Apple HomePod, when it launched six months ago. Sure, I got the business reasons behind Apple’s smart speaker (everyone’s got to have a smart speaker it seems), but the HomePod struck me as too stupid and too expensive. It just seemed like Apple’s weird attempt at showing Amazon and Google that…Read more...

It’s long been thought that tighty-whiteys and other kinds of snug underwear can be bad for men’s semen quality, thanks to the warmer temperatures they can cause down below. And a new study out of Harvard University seems to confirm that suspicion. It found that men attending a fertility center who regularly wore…Read more...

The public is currently Freaking The Fuck Out over asbestos. Yes, the group of cancer-causing minerals people thought were a problem of the past. The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule back in June that seemingly went unnoticed until this week. It essentially states that any manufacturer or importer that…Read more...

What does Sony have planned for their Spider-Man film universe after the release of Venom? The answers may surprise you, because they sure surprised us.Read more...

At Samsung’s Unpacked event, the company confirmed what we already knew, and announced its Samsung Galaxy Note 9 phablet. It also announced a new wearable: The Samsung Galaxy Watch, the fourth device in Samsung’s line of wearable gadgets. With LTE connectivity, a slew of new health features, and three different…Read more...

Speaking at the Pentagon earlier today, Vice President Mike Pence outlined the official plan to create the U.S. Space Force, the first new branch of the military in more than 70 years.

Listen, I get it. Your phone came with a pair of earbuds, and you’ve been using them every day, because they’re fine. Things could be so much better, my friend. Sometimes in life, it’s worth splurging on on a thing you use a lot. And upgrading from your tinny, terrible earbuds to proper headphones is one of those…Read more...

Using photos snapped by citizen scientists, Canadian researchers have documented the northerly spread of black widows into regions not typically known to host these spiders, whose bites can cause severe pain.

As if we don’t have enough smart assistants already, after months of speculation, Samsung finally took its AI-powered voice helper Bixby and put it in a speaker that its calling the Galaxy Home.

Back in June, Microsoft built an underwater data center off the Scottish coast. The company has installed some underwater cameras to keep an eye on things, but Microsoft isn’t keeping the view all to themselves. The company is generously livestreaming the view, just in case watching fish swim around large submerged…Read more...

Last year’s Galaxy Note 8 was a totally solid phone, but it wasn’t very exciting. With a screen that was the same size as what you get on a Galaxy S8+ or S9+, and a battery that was actually smaller, it felt like Samsung played it safe.Read more...

You probably haven’t touched a 12-inch ruler since your grade school days, but think back to how that makeshift sword felt in your hand; that’s roughly the same size as a new solid state drive from Intel that stacks 64 memory cells atop each other to create a dense 3D grid packing 32-terabytes of storage.Read more...

The CW has enlisted Ruby Rose (The Meg) to be their live-action Kate Kane in the upcoming Arrow/Flash/Supergirl crossover special and next year’s potential Batwoman series from Caroline Dries. The moment her casting was announced, it immediately clicked. But now, the actress is sharing just how much like Batwoman she…Read more...

Created in 1908, Hydrox was the original chocolate sandwich cookie, but it was Oreo (which first went on sale four years later in 1912) that ended up dominating the market. In the decades since, Hydrox has been something of a cult favorite compared to its younger, more recognizable competitor—a battle for biscuit…Read more...

Ketogenic diets (keto for short) have become the fad health trend of the moment, with adherents claiming that they can help you lose and keep off weight faster than anything else, as well as provide a bevy of health benefits. But a new mouse study out of Switzerland suggests that keto diets might have an unintended…Read more...

Back in June, ubiquitous chat company Discord launched a games tab that bore a slight resemblance to Steam’s front page. Now it’s launching its own store that resolutely refutes Steam’s anything-goes approach.

Authorities partially closed Schönefeld Airport in Berlin on Tuesday after they confused a bag of sex toys for a bomb.Read more...

Weather geeks went wild last week when the National Weather Service announced that the Carr Fire near Redding, California had spawned the equivalent of an EF-3 tornado on July 26. And for good reason: Fire tornados are among the rarest weather phenomena on Earth, and this vortex had the added distinction of possibly…Read more...

Android 9 Pie is finished and heading out now to Pixel devices, with phones that were part of the Android P beta program next in line. Whether you’ve been following the development of the OS for the last six months, or you’re completely new to it, here are some of the cool tricks that are now possible on Android…Read more...

A familiar voice has been found for the Sonic movie. ABC has hopes for Agents of SHIELD’s future beyond the next season. Morbius could be casting an important figure from the character’s past. Plus, creepy teases for American Horror Story: Apocalypse, and James Wan on Aquaman’s connections to the rest of the DC…Read more...

If you’re in the market for a Mac, a bunch of different Apple laptops are deeply discounted today on Woot. These aren’t refurbished models—they’re brand new and most (but not all) include a standard Apple warranty—the catch is that they’re 2016 models, so they’ll be a generation or two behind the latest and greatest.

Employees at a National Weather Service center in Maryland were randomly interrupted by a “message in Chinese” broadcast over the facility’s little-used intercom system on Wednesday, morningthe Washington Post reported. Bizarrely, it also reached “employees by phone” in the same complex.

Donald Trump’s administration has moved to have the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration take control of California water management under the official rationale of fighting the state’s rampaging fires, saying that the water “should be prioritized for wildfire response instead of endangered species…Read more...

Department of Homeland Security-funded research by Virginia-based security firm Kryptowire has allegedly discovered major security flaws in numerous phones, according to a report on cybersecurity site Fifth Domain.

One of the many things that make animated Disney movies so memorable are the exotic locations. Some are real, like Paris in Ratatouille. Others are fantasy, like Arendelle in Frozen. But no matter if the settings are real or fictional, the places in those movies are places we’d love to visit.Read more...

Supergirl was a joke. Until about 15 years ago she was memorable mainly for her campy ‘80s movie and that time she died in that comics, possibly because her campy ‘80s movie was so bad. Yet as the Supergirl series continues to be popular on the CW, the DC movieverse’s Superman is in limbo, and a new Supergirl film is…Read more...

Face recognition is coming to schools, stadiums, and airports, but surprisingly not to body cameras—yet. On an earnings call Tuesday, Rick Smith, CEO of Axon, one of the largest body camera manufacturers in the U.S., said the reason was simple: In addition to privacy and policy concerns, face recognition isn’t…Read more...

It’s International Cat Day, and we’ve got to face the cold, hard truth: Genre movies and TV have the best cats. They talk, they scheme, they creepily tell people when they’re full of bullshit. Normal cats don’t do any of that. Well, except scheme. They definitely scheme.Read more...

Parents picking up school supplies for their kids this season may want to go for the more expensive crayon brands this time around. A new study found that Playskool’s crayons were the only major brand that contained traces of asbestos.

Alvin Toffler, who died in 2016, will be remembered for his many contributions to the work of futurism. Toffler was a prolific writer, most notably the author of the 1970 best-selling book Future Shock, and a man who became friends with important figures across the political spectrum in Washington DC, including Newt…Read more...

Various news outlets have been discussing a strange object in space, which may or may not be a planet. New measurements show that what was thought to be a brown dwarf—essentially a “failed star” that is too small to generate nuclear fusion, but too big to be a planet—might be a planet after all. But that’s far from…Read more...

China claims to have successfully tested a hypersonic aircraft capable of reaching speeds in excess of Mach 6, or 4,563 miles per hour. The cutting-edge vehicle has the potential to penetrate U.S. missile defense systems and be refitted to include a nuclear warhead.Read more...

In a stunning blow to companies like Uber and Lyft, the New York City Council today approved a one-year halt on issuing new licenses to rideshare drivers.

All gamer parents want video games to be a positive part of family life, and parental controls can help achieve that with minimal arguments. Parental controls on consoles are something that you never think about until you need them. When you have a video-game-obsessed eight-year-old on your hands who sulks every time…Read more...

The Show Me Your Nerd team is hard at work on a second season, and we want you to submit your coolest, nerdiest collection to appear in season two. Have a hundred CPUs dating back to the 70s? Collect medium format cameras? Possess a particularly impressive array of cathode tubes?Read more...

A new report has brought some new twists and turns into the ongoing saga of James Gunn and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.Read more...

As worrying as new invasive species of parasitic ticks might be, a recent report released by the lab testing company Quest Diagnostics should remind us of the more pressing dangers these eight-legged bugs can cause. It suggests that not only have cases of the tick-borne Lyme disease substantially risen in the past few…Read more...

There’s an ongoing debate among archaeologists as to which route the first settlers of North America took to reach the continent. Some say these migrants travelled along an interior passage between two massive ice sheets, while others say they traversed along a coastal route. New research suggests both interpretations…Read more...

Security researchers released a tool this week that lets you collect social media profiles of a massive amount of people using face recognition. While that might sound like a terrible idea, the tool’s creators say it will help security professionals by giving them the same tools as the bad guys.Read more...

Geoengineering our planet to solve climate change is one of the riskiest propositions humanity has ever considered. That’s largely because there’s no way to know all the consequences that come with reflecting sunlight back into space, particularly when it comes to the agricultural system that has allowed humanity to…Read more...

You may have seen recent headlines about a strange radio signal picked up by a Canadian telescope. Some go as far as to say it was caused by all-caps ALIENS.

You remember the feeling. Maybe it’s been a while, but you know what it’s like to walk into a climate-controlled space (that often smells good, too), find a nice item on a shelf, hold it in your hands, hand a clerk a few bucks, and walk out the door with that new thing in a bag. We don’t do that enough any more, and…Read more...

Two years ago, Elon Musk promised the world that Tesla would produce solar panels virtually indistinguishable from roof tiles. But his solar factory isn’t producing panels that are to his liking yet, and that’s leading to some major production issues, according to a report from Reuters.