Gizmodo

Thea Guanzon's debut novel, The Hurricane Wars, takes inspiration from the myths and culture of her native Philippines-but it also draws on elements universal across fantasy fiction, including secret magic and forbidden romance. io9 has an exclusive excerpt to share today from this new author.

After debuting in Japan, earlier this year, Sony is finally ready to bring Mocopi-the company's smartphone-based wearable motion-tracking system-to the US, and while it arrives with a slight price bump, it's still a far more affordable alternative to building an entire mocap studio or surrounding a room in sensors.Read more...

After more than 50 years, NASA's pending return to the Moon could encompass more than just leaving footprints on its surface, as it could entail efforts to mine the Moon for resources-an initiative that could start early next decade.Read more...

Update: June 29, 12:55 p.m. ET: Virgin Galactic has successfully completed its first commercial flight, with the Unity spaceplane reaching a maximum altitude of 52.9 miles (85.1 kilometers). The mission ended at 11:42 a.m. ET, with a successfully runway landing at Spaceport America, New Mexico. Unity, which released...Read more...

The Chinese spy balloon captured images and video surveillance using American technology, U.S. officials reported on Thursday. The balloon, which was shot down off the coast of South Carolina earlier this year, likely didn't transmit the information back to the Chinese government based on a preliminary investigation, ...Read more...

Weather is big news in Alaska. In a place where many people's lives and livelihoods are directly tied to the environment, knowing what's in the forecast is often a question of survival. Very soon though, the state's most reliable source of meteorology media is set to disappear.

An industry watchdog group says the judge tasked with ultimately determining the fate of Microsoft's $68.7 billion bid to acquire Activision Blizzard should recuse herself because her son works at Microsoft. U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley revealed the family connection during a pre-hearing conference last...Read more...

One of the great joys of the last few weeks leading up to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has been getting to see Harrison Ford open up. We've seen him cry, we've seen him joke, and now we get to see him play with Legos.Read more...

The Federal Trade Commission is set to launch an antitrust case against Amazon, thefourth against the retail king this year and the biggest one yet, according to a report in Bloomberg.

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The big subreddit protest of 2023 has Reddit right at the end of its rope. The company is reportedly handing out notices of a Thursday deadline to the biggest subs that still remain private, telling them they need to offer a reopening plan, or else they'll do... something.Read more...

The U.S. Coast Guard has found what appears to be human remains among the Titan submersible debris. The vessel was carrying five passengers to the Titanic wreckage site on June 18 when it imploded thousands of feet below the water's surface, killing all onboard.Read more...

The European Union is calling for international talks on a potential worldwide framework on how to treat and regulate deliberately atmosphere-altering tech, aka geoengineering.Read more...

The Meta Oversight Board, the Supreme Court-like content moderation authority for Facebook and Instagram, announced Thursday it had overruled a decision by the company. Facebook had allowed a video to remain viewable in which authoritarian Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen called on political opponents to choose...Read more...

Meta is releasing a series of new tools and insights offering everyday users one of the clearest looks yet into how various AI systems serve and recommend stuff on Facebook and Instagram. Users can now read through 22 different system cards" which provide more clarity on the types of AI systems used in different...Read more...

Astronomers and astrophysicists at five different pulsar timing array collaborations today announced data that strongly suggests the presence of a gravitational wave background: a constant murmur of low-frequency ripples in spacetime that emanates from some of the universe's most exotic objects.Read more...

Few things in life have thrilled me more than the prospect of seeing Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg tape their knuckles up and step into a ring to settle their differences like a couple of misshapen Macaque monkeys tussling over a piece of fermented fruit. If you haven't heard about this, I beg you to do a quick Google...Read more...

There are lots of horror movies themed around psychiatric hospitals-be they fully functional facilities, like A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3: Dream Warriors, or abandoned, like Session 9. Regular medical hospitals don't pop up nearly as often-but as these 10 films show, leaning into what's already an unsettling...Read more...

After seeing all of the pink Barbie movie collections available, I'm definitely not thinking about death anymore.Read more...

Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly bringing live content from CNN to its rebranded streaming service, Max, in the coming year. It appears to be a move toward more news-related content, sources close to the matter told Bloomberg.Read more...

What would San Diego Comic-Con be without big showings from the biggest companies in the world of comics? While we recently learned that Marvel Studios, the film and TV arm of Marvel, will only have a presence on the convention floor-we now know that DC Comics will have a huge overall presence across the convention.Read more...

It's been two months since season three of The Mandalorian came to an end, and now it's time to find out how they got there. This week, Disney+ released the latest episode of Disney Gallery: Star Wars The Mandalorian, a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of the popular show.Read more...

The long-running saga over a Washington woman's refusal to get treated for tuberculosis might finally be drawing to a close. The woman was released from a local jail late last week, under the condition that she stay isolated at home and complete her course of antibiotics. Should she fail to do so, she could be...Read more...

Stranger things have happened, but this one conspiracy theory might actually be true. Alex Goldman, the former host of the once-heralded, now-defunct podcast Reply All, may have just cracked the code on whether Disney replaced the skin of a Hillary Clinton robot with that of Donald Trump.

To celebrate the release of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny this week, Hasbro decided to mostly ignore that movie and show us a whole host of toys from the climactic entry in the original Indy trilogy, The Last Crusade. Did they choose wisely? Maybe, but it doesn't mean we didn't get at least some hints of what...Read more...

Cinephile's cherished Turner Classic Movies was slated to be Warner Bros. Discovery's latest amputation of beloved content. Out of the blue, famed directors Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson stepped up to bat for the classic cinema channel. Now it seems the three have managed to hold Warner...Read more...

Natural Access to Bi-directional Utilities. Doesn't sound very exciting, does it? But the acronym NABU is becoming one of most interesting, burgeoning spaces for retro computer devs. Thanks to the cheap sale of these once-defunct PCs, more and more people are helping to revitalize a long-defunct cable internet service...Read more...

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Paramount's decision to unceremoniously both renege on its season two greenlight for Star Trek: Prodigy and completely remove the show from its streaming platform has created a PR nightmare of its own making with many, many layers to it. But amid all the concerns, the thing I keep thinking about is just how rude it is...Read more...

Smart TV company Vizio is more known for its budget screens than it is for a functional, modern UI. Now, the company said it's finally ready for a facelift, one that's been a long time coming. Starting on Wednesday, Vizio's new interface does away with its old box-y look and rearranges icons to make finding apps and...Read more...

The long-in-development third installment of the Tron franchise is set to shoot this August-if the SAG strike doesn't happen-and it's just added a new star to its cast.Read more...

Pelagic Research Services is recovering debris from the Titan submersible which fatally imploded while journeying to view the Titanic wreckage last week, killing all five crew members on board. Search and rescue teams searched a 900 sq-foot area over four days in a mission that ended abruptly when an ROV discovered...Read more...

With more laws on the books demanding additional pay for gig workers, DoorDash has finally come around to offering some hourly pay for its Dashers, though only when they're hoofing it to their delivery spot. The food delivery app announced Wednesday that contract delivery drivers can now earn a base hourly pay and...Read more...

As hundreds of flights to and from the East Coast were canceled this week due to severe weather, the CEO of United has an axe to grind. In a leaked email, Scott Kirby, the airline's head honcho, blamed the Federal Aviation Administration for the cancellations.

There's a saying that the eyes are the window to a person's soul, but according to a team of researchers from the University of Maryland, the eyes might instead be a mirror, providing enough data to reconstruct exactly what a person in a short video clip was looking at as an interactive 3D model.

Director Roland Emmerich hates Earth. This we know; it's why so many of his movies feature the planet under attack by aliens, Godzillas, moons, and so forth. But it appears his frustration with not being able to properly destroy the planet is getting to him, because Emmerich is going to space... specifically Space...Read more...

Episode two of Secret Invasion, Marvel's new Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) series, continues the trend started in episode one by further cutting him off from the people he trusts. Fury's biggest power isn't flying around, super strength, or how good his gadgets are; his secret weapon has always been in how big his...Read more...

Together, dark matter and dark energy comprise 95% of the known universe, yet scientists don't know what they are. The Euclid telescope, set to launch to space from Florida on Saturday, may help decipher them.Read more...

Businesses and homes throughout Texas cranked up their air conditioning this week during the ongoing heat dome, pushing the grid into record-breaking energy usage.Read more...

Is a European post-apocalypse the big new fad? Case in point: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon will bring the character to meet the zombies of France. Now, Bird Box Barcelona wants to bring the series' mysterious, suicide-inducing entities to Spain, and its first trailer is here.

While roaming the Martian terrain, NASA's Perseverance rover spotted an odd-shaped rock that may have traveled its way from space to land on the Red Planet.Read more...

Costco members should be wary of sharing their cards with friends or family as the company takes action against non-members. The company announced on Tuesday that it is cracking down on card-sharing, and members will soon be required to show proof of identification at the checkout counters before they can make a...Read more...

It's often impossible to watch something completely divorced from the context surrounding it. Despite what some may have you believe, once you know about the controversy attached to a film or show, you can't un-know it, and that's going to affect how you view the finished product in question.

The battle of the billionaires is heating up, and Elon Musk is looking to claim a win. Ahead of a potential cage match with Meta's own Mark Zuckerberg, Musk has accepted an offer from UFC champion and former mixed martial arts fighter George St-Pierre.Read more...

The lawsuit lodged against Montana's historic TikTok ban by influencers in the state earlier last month may not have a grassroots effort. What seemed to be a creator-led legal rebuke was actually financed by TikTok itself.

ODIN Space has passed a major milestone by powering up a super-sensitive experimental in-space sensor. Once fully developed, a dispersed network of these sensors could be capable of tracking hypervelocity objects no larger than a grain of sand.Read more...

It's never too early to start learning about spooky Christmas horror movies. Margot Robbie discusses the chances of a Barbie sequel. Plus, behind the scenes footage from Venom 3, and what's coming on this week's Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Spoilers, away!

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Although far more convenient to carry around than a set of over-ear headphones, wireless earbuds can often become uncomfortable when crammed into your ears for hours. With its new OpenFit wireless earbuds, Shokz is promising all day comfort via an open-ear design that ensures you can also hear everything going on...Read more...

The Vatican is getting in on the AI craze. The Holy See has released a handbook on the ethics of artificial intelligence as defined by the Pope.Read more...