Gizmodo

August was a bumper month for Lego, bringing plenty of bricks for you to beat the heat with. September is an altogether quieter outing... that is, unless you like Star Wars, and a certain new Star Wars TV show on Disney+ in particular...

The threatened Pearl River darter (Percina aurora) has not been recorded in its namesake river for 40 years, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. But now, the service is attempting to reestablish the itsy-bitsy vertebrate in its native waters.

An outbreak of meningococcal disease in Virginia has sickened dozens of people and killed at least five, local health officials reported this week. Though severe cases are typically rare, the state has seen a noticeable increase over the past year. The bacterial infection is vaccine-preventable, and most cases during...Read more...

On August 17, there was an update on the Gen Con Card Heist. The persons of interest in the case-TJ Dunbar and Pearson Giaume-had been contacted by the police, according to a Tweet posted on X (formerly Twitter). The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department additionally said that the case is expected to presented...Read more...

There is somehow a Barbenheimer movie in the works. Could Hammer Studios make a return? Star Trek: Prodigy producer Aaron J. Waltke talks about bringing Voyager's Doctor aboard the show. Plus, more clips from the next Futurama. Spoilers, away!

Sony finally has a date for its so-called Remote Player" that's definitely not a handheld console. The $200 PlayStation Portal, the company's new Wi-Fi-only streaming device, is set to hit player's hands on November 15th, and now prospective players can pre-order the device from Sony's PlayStation Direct website.Read more...

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In order to contact its interplanetary spacecraft, NASA relies on an array of giant radio antennas spread across different parts of the world. The trusty communications network has been transferring data back and forth for more than 60 years but its antennas are currently operating at capacity, with an anticipated...Read more...

Playing full-featured PC games in the palm of your hand has long been a dream for PC gamers. Yes, there were expensive specialty machines that could do it, or you could try streaming to a handheld device via a cloud gaming service like GeForce Now, but it wasn't a mainstream, easy to use solution.

Lenovo introduced its first Windows gaming handheld device today, the Legion Go. The Steam Deck-like mobile console runs standard PC games on its compact display and has a pair of Nintendo Switch-like removable controllers. It also joins a few other Legion-branded products in the fanfare as the company unveils its...Read more...

Lenovo now has its own handheld gaming machine, called the Legion Go. Similar to the Steam Deck and Asus Ally, it plays PC games on the go. This version adds a unique twist in that its side controllers can pop off, much like a Nintendo Switch.Read more...

Two things are really shaking up Hollywood these days: labor unions and Taylor Swift. Thursday morning Swift announced that she was entering the fall movie season by releasing a nearly three-hour film based on her blockbuster Eras Tour. The news sent mobs of fans to online ticket sites and fear down the spines of...Read more...

Meta's Oversight Board, the Supreme Court-like entity tasked with reviewing Facebook and Instagram's most contentious content moderation conundrums, is taking on a case involving a bizarre and unpleasant mashup: a Nazi Squidward meme.

Meta, the maker of Facebook and Instagram, introduced a new privacy setting Thursday that lets you ask, pretty please, for the company not to use your data to train its AI models.

How perfect of a match was Harrison Ford's stunt double on the set of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny? The stunt double could literally unlock Ford's phone with Face ID. This is just one of the fascinating, but not always essential, facts we enjoyed in a brand new making-of documentary.Read more...

Students, teachers, and vintage TV screencappers, the Chrome browser has a new feature that makes taking screenshots of scenes easier than before. Google used a blog post about helpful classroom tools to subtly announce the ability to copy a frame from a video. It's available in the latest release of Chrome and will...Read more...

NASA's trusty Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has captured images revealing a fresh crater on the Moon's surface. This crater is suspected to be the impact site of the ill-fated Luna 25 mission, Russia's first lunar attempt in nearly five decades.

Surgeons at New York University have reportedly reached another milestone in making pig-to-human organ transplants a reality. They now claim to have transplanted a genetically engineered pig kidney that has survived inside a human body for six weeks and counting-the longest period yet. It's likely that larger clinical...Read more...

The Webb Space Telescope recently imaged Supernova 1987A (SN 1987A), one of the brightest supernovae in the night sky and the nearest observed in centuries, according to NASA.

Hollywood may be at a near-standstill due to the ongoing strikes, but AMC Studios has been granted waivers to resume work on three of its most high-profile shows. Interview With the Vampire and two of the Walking Dead spinoffs, Daryl Dixon and The Ones Who Live, will resume production under waivers granted by...Read more...

You can now include the Church of Scientology alongside big tech firms like Apple and tractor makers John Deere for groups that have opposed the right to repair.

In this week's episode of Ahsoka, the New Republic brings to bear its frustrating head, as Mon Mothma and a cadre of senators bullishly cast aside the fact they're sitting on a tinderbox of Imperial resurgence as the threat of Grand Admiral Thrawn offers a lit match. If only they could see, our heroes implore them as...Read more...

Humankind struggled to survive during a 100,000 year period during the early Pleistocene, according to researchers who used a computer model to discover a severe population bottleneck in our species' ancient past.Read more...

After that rather bedazzling cliffhanger that capped Chucky season two (I screamed, both in horror and fiendish delight), everyone's favorite killer doll has quite the path carved out for season three. Fans don't have to wait long to see WTF happens next: Chucky season three arrives October 4, and we've finally got a...Read more...

You've read the comics. You've seen the movie. Will you still be able to get something out of the new Netflix anime, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off? The answer, according to the show's creators, is a resounding yes. If you think you know what you're going to see, you don't," show co-creator BenDavid Grabinski told the Los...Read more...

Firefly Aerospace and its partner Millennium Space Systems have entered into the hot standby phase of Space Force's Victus Nox mission. The groundbreaking initiative aims to launch a satellite with a mere 24-hour notice, a capability that traditionally takes months-if not years.Read more...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is coming home soon-and while everybody loves the Turtles, for obvious reasons, this exclusive clip from the bonus features turns the focus on their adorably awkward human bestie, April O'Neil, who's voiced by Ayo Edebiri (Big Mouth, The Bear, Abbott Elementary).

Well, chalk another victory up for the machines. After successfully beating humans in Chess, Go, and a variety of video games, AI has now beaten humanity's best drone racers. Three world champion drone pilots were recently defeated in a competition by an autonomous, artificial-intelligence-powered drone called Swift....Read more...

Tropical storm Idalia has made its way through several states since it made landfall yesterday and has moved on to North Carolina after leaving a trail of collapsed homes, flooded streets, and felled trees.Read more...

Two months before many users' initial Pixel Pass subscription was supposed to come due, Google is altering the nature of the agreement, canceling the service altogether, and letting customers loose with some discounted subscriptions and a $100 pity prize.Read more...

Grant Morrison is responsible for some of the greatest comics of the modern age, from their legendary turn on New X-Men, to the likes of Green Lantern, All-Star Superman, Doom Patrol, and many, many more. But after dipping into the world of prose fiction last year with their novel Luda Morrison is back in comics......Read more...

Picking up the trash in space could be as easy as stuffing pieces of defunct spacecraft into a giant bag, closing it up, and tossing the pesky space junk into an orbital recycling plant. At least that's what space startup TransAstra hopes to do with its inflatable capture bag.Read more...

The U.S. federal government is taking a significant step closer to becoming tolerant of cannabis. On Wednesday, a leaked letter from the U.S. Health and Human Services revealed that the agency has endorsed the rescheduling of the drug from a Schedule I to Schedule III controlled substance, a more lenient designation....Read more...

Lower Decks' third season brought with it a lot of great laughs, and a sincere, loving view of the Star Trek shows that came before it. But something felt off: its characters by and large stagnated, rehashing arcs they'd already gone on to reach a conclusion that was more of a reset than an evolution. Thankfully,...Read more...

Saw X director Kevin Greutert teases the film's approach to John Kramer. Morfydd Clark and Matt Smith get all spooky about trees in supernatural folk horror Starve Acre. Plus, behind the scenes on the return of The Nun. To me, my spoilers!

It's not every day that one of gaming's biggest companies releases what it hopes will be its next major franchise, but that day is almost here. Starfield, the latest from Bethesda Games, will be released next week, and it promises hours upon hours of space exploration, action, and excitement in the mold of Fallout and...Read more...

Elon Musk's big push to make Twitter into an everything app" like the China-centric WeChat is taking the app down the rabbit hole of dubious data collection. This week, the company modified its privacy policy to include provisions for Biometric Information" and Job Applications/Recommendations."Read more...

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The world is covered with plastic pollution. That breaks down to become microplastics-tiny bits of plastic smaller than 5 mm. We know that it isn't healthy to find these bits of plastic all over the planet (and in our bodies) but there isn't much research on how this is going to affect mammals. A new study published...Read more...

The Wheel of Time enters its second season this week with a third installment already on the way. That frees up Prime Video's Robert Jordan adaptation to delve into storylines that don't have to be resolved in just eight episodes-with stakes that feel both higher and more uncertain for all its characters.

The International Gemini Observatory, a key player in global astronomical research, has temporarily halted astronomical operations following a cyberattack. The culprits and their motives remain unknown.

Philips Hue, the brand mostly known for its smart home lighting tech, is casting a big, blinding spotlight on its new new security tech suite. Despite the shift to smart home cameras and sensors, the company is saying it's still focused on lighting tech, though its now-Matter-enabled brand of bulbs and strips are...Read more...

Deadline reports that Hollywood studio execs are supposed to meet tonight in order to get on the same page" regarding negotiations with the currently striking writing and acting guilds, presumably after the latest round of bad press surrounding the AMPTP's failure to negotiate in good faith.

The unfortunate removal of Star Trek: Prodigy from Paramount+ earlier this year hasn't been a killing blow for the team on the animated series, who continue to work on finishing the previously greenlit season two in the hopes that the show can find a home elsewhere. But what then? It's not necessarily the end of the...Read more...

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Sony is hiking its PlayStation Plus Premium subscription cost by $40 starting next month, the company announced on Wednesday. The price adjustment will apply across all tiers under the 12-month subscription and will take effect in all countries where PlayStation Plus is available.Read more...

Do you have enough Marvel heroes on your toy shelf? Do you need additional renderings of Black Widow, Bruce Banner, Captain America, War Machine, Spider-Man, Thor, and possibly two more Iron Man armors? The Hasbro Marvel Legends series has got you covered, with a new release featuring all of the above.Read more...

Elijah Kinch Spector's sequel to debut fantasy adventure Kalyna the Soothsayer is on the way, and from the title alone-Kalyna the Cutthroat-you can tell things have shifted a bit for the central character. The book's not out until late 2024, but io9 has the cover reveal and an exclusive excerpt from Kalyna the...Read more...

Not one to let Apple hog the buzz of phone launch season, Google declared Wednesday it's planning to host its own big phone announcement extravaganza soon. Called Made By Google," the event will include a livestream keynote where the company is expected to unveil its Pixel 8, the Pixel Watch 2, and more hardware.Read more...

Alcohol's effect on men's dating attitudes might be more complicated than we think, new research this week suggests. The small study found that young men's perception of a woman's attractiveness didn't change once they started drinking. But, when under the influence, the men did become more willing to try meeting...Read more...