Gizmodo

When authors Sam Sykes (The Mortal Tally, An Affinity for Steel) and Chuck Wendig (Star Wars: Aftermath, Blackbirds) had a detailed Twitter conversation deconstructing the horror genre last year, who could’ve guessed we’d see that conversation brought to the big screen?Read more...

Ed Whelan, an ally of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh who floated, then retracted, a conspiracy theory on Twitter accusing another man of sexually assaulting Christine Blasey Ford, allegedly viewed Ford’s LinkedIn profile before her name was made public, Ford says.Read more...

I’m not talking about when your mom calls. If your mom calls, you should answer the phone, and actually, you should just probably call your mom more often so she doesn’t have to call you. (HI MOM!) What I want to know is what you do when a number you don’t know calls. Do you answer the phone?Read more...

A Hanime, if you will.

“Unthinkable” is, conveniently, the perfect way to describe The Unthinkable, a brash, bold, film directed by a five-man Swedish film collective called Crazy Pictures. It’s a movie that’s wildly, comically unpredictable in ways that are both very good and very bad.Read more...

People who wear contact lenses are often warned to properly clean their reusable contacts. A new study published Friday provides a sober reminder of why those warnings exist. Since 2011, it found, an outbreak of a rare infection that can cause blindness has been spreading among contact lens wearers in England, often…Read more...

Some Twitter users received an alert on Friday warning that a bug “may have” allowed their direct messages and protected tweets to be viewed by developers who weren’t authorized to see them. But the conditions needed for that to happen seem so far-fetched, it’s unlikely any users at all were actually affected.

Dozens of groups, including the ACLU, NAACP, and the Economic Policy Institute, wrote letters to some of America’s largest tech companies on Friday, demanding that they free their employees from forced arbitration. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Uber were among the companies whose CEOs received the…Read more...

Concerns over the economic realities of gig workers have largely focused on more public-facing firms like Uber, Lyft, Taskrabbit, and Instacart. A study released yesterday by the International Labour Organization—an agency of the United Nations—suggests pay and work arrangements are as bad or worse for those working…Read more...

Nintendo’s new Pikachu And Eevee Nintendo Switch Bundles blew up the internet before Toad, Bert, and Ernie grabbed the torch, and now, you can preorder both from Amazon. The console is the same in both bundles, but one includes a download code for Let’s Go Pikachu, and the other includes Let’s Go Eevee. Both will set…Read more...

Just when we thought Twitter was going to be the last one to hold the toxic bag that is Alex Jones, payment processing giant PayPal reminded the internet today that, yup, it was still helping Infowars make money, and that also it’s very sorry and plans to stop. Better late than never!

Parents, to curb your kid’s phone usage, you may no longer need to hold their chargers hostage, yell out nightly countdowns (“Three more minutes!”) or draft up elaborate tech contracts that you’ll look at exactly once. At least, if you’re on Apple devices. The new iOS 12 parental controls are here, and they allow you…Read more...

You’ve seen the man behind the masquerade. Now you get to see just what Joaquin Phoenix’s nascent clown prince of crime will look like.

Have you seen that viral video of President Donald Trump hissing? It’s really weird. But it makes more sense if you see the original video. And after some sleuthing, we finally tracked it down.Read more...

Apple’s hyped up new iPhones hold a lot of allure. Clad in a silver, space gray, or a rich gold finish and featuring the new A12 Bionic chip inside, the recently debuted iPhone XS represents the best tech Apple can jam in a phone. So naturally, one of the first things people did after getting their hands on one was…Read more...

Praying mantises are what scientists call “generalist” hunters, meaning they eat pretty much whatever they want. Despite their eclectic taste, however, no one has ever seen a praying mantis eat fish—until now.

A man involved with the porn site “StraightBoyz” that featured hundreds of videos of his sex acts with other men—many of them unconsenting and unaware that they were being filmed—has pled guilty to charges against him in a federal court.Read more...

The laptop computer is one of our greatest mobile productivity tools, and at the same time, a fantastic way to procrastinate with endless distractions at your fingertips. For those times when you’re racing a deadline, and can’t trust yourself with easy access to Facebook, King Jim’s new Pomera e-ink typewriter strips…Read more...

The largest tech platforms in the world have yet to prove that they can effectively and expeditiously moderate their hellish platforms, and Instagram is no exception.

It’s been a long-ass week. And next week isn’t looking better. But I would urge you to take a break from our never ending freak show on the surface and feast your eyes on one of the most amazing things you will ever see courtesy of scientists aboard the E/V Nautilus—this incredible eel.

The 2016 Presidential Election was undoubtedly the worst thing that’s ever happened to Facebook, and it’s doing everything it can to signal that it wants to avoid a repeat of that nightmare. On Thursday, it told reporters that it will stop dispatching employees to work directly with political campaigns.Read more...

Somehow during the history of Earth, life took to the skies. As these winged creatures evolved, they specialized and improved their flying abilities. Today, we have specimens like the incredible hawk moth, a hummingbird-like insect that can precisely control its hovering.Read more...

If you’re already nervous about flying, you may want to skip this story. Passengers on Jet Airways Flight 697 from Mumbai to Jaipur, India, recently had a terrifying experience after the flight crew forgot to pressurize the cabin. Dozens of passengers on the flight yesterday started bleeding from their ears and nose…Read more...

By performing a DNA analysis of elephant tusks nabbed at ivory busts, scientists have successfully backtracked the contraband to three major African cartels. This application of genetics presents a powerful new tool in the ongoing struggle to stop elephant poachers.

This weekend, a Twitter user shared a disturbing story that verged on the surreal. In a 32-tweet thread, Ashley recounted an abusive relationship with a boyfriend who forced her to eat until it caused her pain—seemingly for his own sexual pleasure.

Gun rights activist Cody Wilson reportedly fled from Texas to Taiwan after getting tipped off that he was going to be charged for allegedly paying a 16-year-old girl $500 for sex. But now local news outlets in Taiwan report that he has been captured.Read more...

Kilauea volcano has quieted down considerably since August, and recovery efforts are now in full swing. That includes a major milestone coming up on September 22, when the National Park Service (NPS) is set to re-open parts of the colossal Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which has been closed since shortly after the…Read more...

Get a new look at Agents Hemsworth and Thompson in behind-the-scenes pics from the new Men in Black. Brie Larson talks Captain Marvel. Alan Tudyk is joining another comic book adaptation. John Carpenter teases that a Prince of Darkness show is on the way. Plus, HBO’s Watchmen finds some intriguing musicians for its…Read more...

With the launch of a new national cyber strategy, President Donald Trump has authorized the use of “offensive cyber operations” against U.S. adversaries, National Security Adviser John Bolton told reporters on Thursday.

Twitch had a rush of popularity in China last month, but now reports indicate that the live streaming video platform is no longer available in the country.Read more...

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

A voice-activated microwave is a terrible idea and a pointless frivolity, a device which solves a problem almost no one had. Why trust your lying eyes? Amazon’s Basics microwave (with Alexa!) is no such bauble, and as silly a creation as it may appear, it’s the company’s cutthroat business as usual.

The scientific world, like so many industries, is finally reckoning with widespread sexual and gender-based harassment within its ranks. This week, a number of prominent organizations and groups have pledged to take concrete steps to deter and punish scientists who engage in sexual misconduct. But outside observers…Read more...

From the minute we’re born, we’re surrounded by a swarm of things not visible to the human eye—dangerous pathogens, harmless microbes, and a wide assortment of chemicals. A new study out of Stanford University seems to illuminate this hidden world, and the results are admittedly both cool and terrifying.

Everyday it feels like science fiction and reality slide ever closer together. In the latest edition of “could this happen,” scientists have published a new study that weighs building massive berms to protect receding Antarctic glaciers.

Amazon today unveiled Echo Auto, capable of putting Alexa into every car in the world for the price of $49.99. In our not-too-distant future Alexa is everywhere.

The digital assistant wars are in full swing, and with Google just recently notching the latest victory by finishing Q2 with the top-selling smart speaker in the world, Amazon is revamping its Alexa-powered roster in a very big way.

Amazon announced a whole bunch of new stuff today, from refreshed Echo devices, to a smart microwave, to an analog wall clock that doubles as a visual display for your Echo kitchen timers. Preorders for most of the products should be available today, and we’ll add links below as we see them.

An international team of researchers is claiming to have discovered traces of cholesterol on a fossil of Dickinsonia—a mysterious creature that lived during the primordial Ediacaran Period. This evidence, the researchers say, makes Dickinsonia the oldest known animal in the fossil record. But the discovery is not…Read more...

The devastation wrought by opioids in recent years is only part of a much larger drug crisis in the United States that stretches back four decades, according to a new study published Thursday in Science. Since 1979, the study found, the overdose death rate has been exponentially climbing, even as the deadly drugs of…Read more...

It’s no secret that ice around the world is receding as global temperatures rise. Even so, the sudden destabilization of a remote ice cap in the Russian High Arctic has scientists throwing around words like “extraordinary” and “unprecedented.”

The U.S. House Committee on Science, Space & Technology has sent a list of recommendations to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), asking that federal research grants be taken away from researchers who engage in sexual harassment and other inappropriate behavior.Read more...

Thanks to the seemingly endless number of Pixel 3 leaks, we’ve got a pretty good idea of the kind of phones Google will probably launch on October 9. However, info on other product announcements scheduled for Google Day are still a little sparse, which is why these pics that appear to show Google’s new Chrome OS…Read more...

After weeks of suspicion about the mysterious closure of the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico, unsealed FBI records have provided an explanation: a child porn investigation.Read more...

“That’s great news!”

When humans take the drug MDMA, versions of which are known as molly or ecstasy, they commonly feel very happy, extraverted, and particularly interested in physical touch. A group of scientists recently wondered whether this drug might have a similar effect on other species—specifically, octopuses, which are seemingly…Read more...

The Star Wars movies under Disney’s purview have ranged from excellent expansions to the franchise to perfectly fine—opinions may vary of course, but there hasn’t really been a generally poorly-received one. There has been quite a lot of them though, with even more on the way. But Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger says…Read more...

Following another round of in-store display leaks that GoPro just can’t seem to avoid, the action cam maker officially announced today a new 7-series line featuring three compact cameras differentiated by scaling features, but now easily distinguished by black, silver, and white housings.Read more...

Amazon’s 20% video game discount for Prime members is no more, but its replacement is arguably even better right now, at least for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The game itself is actually discounted by a few bucks, to $56, but Prime members who preorder will still get a $10 Amazon credit (30-35 days after the game…Read more...

Facebook’s internal policies allow users to advocate for white nationalism, but not white supremacy. What’s the difference? Facebook seems to believe that’s up for debate. But Facebook is reportedly reviewing its policies on white supremacy after outcry from civil rights groups.