Gizmodo

Update: 3:38 p.m. ET: Relativity Space gave it a royal try today, but ultimately chose to forgo the attempt. No reason was given for today’s scrub, nor do we know when the company might try again.Read more...

This week’s Mandalorian whisked us back to the ravaged homeworld of the once-warrior race, Mandalore, to further delve into the complicated history of its people and its warring cultures. But it climaxed with Bo-Katan Kryze and Din Djarin uncovering something that could change the world—and what’s left of its…Read more...

Scientists agree that we’re going to need to build machines to suck carbon from the sky to stave off the worst impacts of climate change—but there are a lot of challenges for this new industry in the coming decades, including figuring out how to make the technology more effective. A discovery from a team of…Read more...

A team of experts believe they’re confirmed the first U.S. case of tickborne illness caused by a particular bacteria. The case involved a 75-year-old Alabama man who likely caught the germ from a lone star tick. Thankfully, the man was successfully treated with antibiotics.Read more...

OpenAI’s founder Sam Altman has a finger in more than one tech pie, so to speak. The controversial former president of startup accelerator, Y Combinator, and current ChatGPT kingpin isn’t only interested in getting his company’s artificial intelligence-powered chatbot into classrooms. He’s also interested in living…Read more...

We all know everyone’s favorite Scream character is Ghostface—encompassing all the knife-wielding maniacs who’ve worn the costume over the past 27 years—followed closely by Sidney, Gale, and Dewey (RIP). But what about those cast members who didn’t get top billing, but whose performances still made a lasting impact?Read more...

Orion set several records during the Artemis 1 mission to the Moon, in addition to surviving 5,000-degree Fahrenheit temperatures during atmospheric reentry. The spacecraft’s innovative heat shield made this possible, but NASA’s follow-up analysis of the protective layer has revealed levels of wear and tear that…Read more...

Jenna Ortega (Scream VI) sat down with Dax Shepherd for an episode of his podcast Armchair Expert, and revealed more than a few disappointing memories of working on Netflix’s Tim Burton-produced series Wednesday. Ortega said that she would frequently change lines, refuse to act according to the script, and admitted…Read more...

Adobe has promised there will be no more layoffs in 2023 as the company opens its fourth office, based in San Jose, California. Standing at 18 stories and 1.25 million square feet, Adobe’s new office tower has the capacity to hold 3,000 employees, all of whom will be given a hybrid or remote working option, Bloomberg…Read more...

A customer service agent for Ring, Amazon’s home-surveillance company, told a concerned user that a Politico article about the company’s privacy problems was a “hoax” perpetrated by one of its competitors.

Steve Ballmer is really, really excited about toilets. The former CEO of Microsoft and now owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team just couldn’t contain himself while offering a construction update on the Intuit Dome, a new basketball arena that is currently under construction in L.A.

Senate Democrats introduced new legislation Tuesday attempting to, once again, outright ban facial recognition use by federal agencies and officials, particularly law enforcement. If passed, the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act would cut the feds off from a variety of other sensitive…Read more...

When Jurassic Park hit theaters in 1993, it was six years before Lego introduced licensed sets with a handful of buildable Star Wars ships. So when the film and its dinos were tearing up the box office, there were no Jurassic Park Lego sets on store shelves: a tragedy that Lego is finally making up for.Read more...

An alligator egg that was stolen from a Texas zoo 20 years ago has been returned to Animal World & Snake Farm Zoo in Central Texas. The alligator, named Tewa, was reportedly taken and kept as a pet by a woman whose name has not been released and who investigators say was a volunteer at the zoo.

Android 14's second developer preview is now available for download. It’s more feature-filled than the previous rendition, which came out last month, with a particular focus on features like being able to log into websites by scanning your face. Sound familiar? And the good news is that we’re about a month away from…Read more...

Earlier this week, the International Space Station was forced to adjust its orbit to avoid an encroaching commercial satellite. The object is likely one of many Earth-observing satellites that are falling into and aligning with the space station’s orbital path, according to experts.Read more...

Since its premiere last month, Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur has managed to cement itself as one of the best Marvel cartoons in years. Much of that can be owed to the show’s characters; beyond Lunella and Devil, the people that inhabit the Lower East Side of New York all have personality and feel like they have something…Read more...

Google is announcing more features that are being expanded to include all Google One subscribers. The new additions include VPN access for every Google One member, not just those with Pixel devices or Premium plans. The company is also launching a “dark web report” so you can figure out where your sensitive…Read more...

On The Mandalorian, the goal is clear. In order to be redeemed, the main character must travel to the mines of Mandalore and bathe in the living waters. Only then can he rejoin his people and be forgiven for taking off his helmet. It seemed like a goal that would take some time to reach, but nope: episode two of The…Read more...

Imagine: you’re driving your brand new Tesla down the highway when suddenly, the steering wheel slumps from the steering column into your hands. Or, don’t simply imagine it, instead look at these images posted by a Tesla driver who reported going through just that at the end of January.

io9 has highlighted the work of best-selling fantasy author Chloe Gong in the past—last year, we announced and shared an excerpt from her adult debut, Immortal Longings, which is out in July. But Gong has another 2023 release: Foul Heart Huntsman, the second book in her Foul Lady Fortune duology following the…Read more...

Researchers studying a distant star forming within a dusty cloud have found an abundance of water in its immediate vicinity, which could have implications for the origins of the water in our own solar system.

Earlier this year, Amazon planned to lay off 18,000 employees. Now a leaked audio from the company appears to indicate that the company may regret that decision. In the audio, an HR executive chews on a strategy to rehire employees that have been laid off.

Google’s finally rolling back its unpopular decree against any kinds of profanity in videos, making it harder for any creators used to offering colorful sailor’s speech in videos from monetizing content on behalf of its beloved ad partners. The only thing is, Google still seems to think the “f-word” is excessively…Read more...

Has Marvel’s Blade movie found its new director? New set photos from The Penguin tease Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone. Plus, a Lucifer star joins The Walking Dead: Dead City, and what’s coming on Wolf Pack. Spoilers, ho!

Don’t worry, helpless insurance companies: the Texas Legislature is here to protect you from big, bad environmentalists. A Texas state senator said during a panel discussion last week at a conference put on by a prominent climate-denier think tank that the state legislature would focus on rolling out legislation this…Read more...

As the first subsidiary of eBay to attempt to unionize, TCGplayer—a site where collectors can buy and sell any number of collectible cards used in games like Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic: The Gathering, and Pokémon—knew that it was going to face opposition from management. Now, only a week after its successful supermajority vote…Read more...

Twitter CEO and supreme overlord Elon Musk apologized to former employee Haraldur Thorleifsson for mocking his disability, proving that even tech’s biggest villain has a heart, or at the very least the sense to smell a huge incoming lawsuit.Read more...

DuckDuckGo launched a beta version of an AI search tool powered by ChatGPT Wednesday called DuckAssist. The addition to the company’s privacy-focused search engine uses ChatGPT’s language parsing capability to generate answers scraped from Wikipedia and related sources like the Encyclopedia Britannica. The tool is…Read more...

My conversations with friends have devolved to the point where we barely communicate. Rather than express our love or commiserate about the suffering that is the human experience, our daily interactions are a tit-for-tat over for who can make the best joke, or spot the best meme. The meme wars are fierce, and when all…Read more...

The ending of a Scream movie is always the best part. It’s what you’ve been waiting for: the reveal of who’s behind that now iconic mask and why they’re targeting the teenagers of Woodsboro. Scream VI, however, bucks that trend. It has an excellent ending to be sure (don’t worry, we won’t even come close to spoiling…Read more...

The Federal Trade Commission has been on a mission to compel Twitter to turn over internal communications and documents related to its ongoing layoffs, the Wall Street Journal reports.Read more...

What’s better than a tale of vampiric horror? A tale of old-timey vampiric horror, and one of the hunter becoming the hunted—which is right where Tim Seeley, Aaron Campbell, Jim Terry, and Triona Farrell’s West of Sundown happily establishes its story of 19th century terror. Want to whet your appetite? Come read the…Read more...

Several weeks after a journalist accused the U.S. government of being behind the Nord Stream pipeline’s destruction, sources within the government are telling the New York Times that a “pro-Ukrainian group” is actually responsible for the brazen act of international sabotage.

Pharmedica USA LLC is warning consumers who purchased its Purely Soothing 15% MSM eye drops to stop using the product and return it to the distributor. A recall was issued in compliance with the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) because of a non-sterility issue with the eye drops.Read more...

Elon Musk doesn’t have a great track record of saying things that then come true. Or, put another way, he loves to make promises and then break them. Or, put yet another way: the man is full of it. For instance, he’s repeatedly said his biotech device company, Neuralink, is nearing human trial approval. Spoiler…Read more...

Twitter has seen its share of political bot campaigns, but since spring 2022 there’s been a long-running, highly prolific bot campaign proliferating through Twitter to support former President Donald Trump. Even if you first thought it’s just the Russians again, a new report suggests these fake accounts were created a…Read more...

Following the release of an independent review examining the delay of NASA’s Psyche mission, the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) says it’s making progress in addressing the broader issues at the institution that went beyond its delayed asteroid mission.Read more...

There’s good news for all those folks who picked up the last version of the Pixel Buds Pro. Google’s finally catching up to Apple and announced it will add spatial audio to its flagship earbuds devices. Unfortunately for all those folks who went for cheaper options, less expensive buds like the Pixel Buds A-Series…Read more...

A team of scientists appears to be on track toward developing an effective treatment for drunkenness. In research out this week, they were able to quickly sober up drunk mice by boosting their levels of a naturally produced hormone called FGF21. More research will need to be done, but the team believes that FGF21…Read more...

Panic made a handful of announcements today for its almost-too-quirky-for-its-own-good Playdate handheld. Depending on your needs, they may either entice you to finally grab one, or have you just sticking with your smartphone for casual gaming. The Playdate is getting a price increase, but also its own…Read more...

Netflix has been going back and forth on different pricing options and tiers in recent months as the OG streaming service tries to keep up with a global rise in competition and subscriber losses and gains. Most recently, Netflix has slashed subscription costs for many countries including Kenya, Nicaragua, Indonesia,…Read more...

There may be a totally non-violent reason that an orca near Iceland was spotted caring for a pilot whale calf. But given what we know of orcas—a species infamous for breaking the spines of dolphins and eating the livers of unlucky great white sharks—you’ll forgive us for being a little suspicious.Read more...

The quest to be an empress for Rachel and Sarah—along with their gardening vibes—came to a head in the season two finale of YOLO: Silver Destiny on Adult Swim. io9 sat down with the animated series’ creator Michael Cusack and cast members Sarah Bishop (Sarah) and Todor Manojlovic (Rachel) to talk about this season’s…Read more...

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People and fish alike along Florida’s west coast are feeling the effects of an ongoing red tide. The toxic algae bloom is making both humans and sea life sick as it persists along nearly 150 miles of the Sunshine State’s coastline.

Even when you’re going into battle with garishly colored plastic blasters loaded with painless foam darts, the element of surprise can still be advantageous. Sneaking up on your enemy with a Nerf gun in hand isn’t exactly stealthy, but doing the same with a handful of cleverly engineered self-firing darts? No one will…Read more...

Gigi Sohn, Joe Biden’s pick to end a nearly two-year deadlock in the Federal Communications Commission, withdrew her nomination Tuesday. The exit, which Sohn blamed on stonewalling from dark money groups, means the FCC will remain without any one-party majority for the foreseeable future. That 2-2 commissioner…Read more...

Things are quickly shifting over at Lucasfilm with the Star Wars feature slate. Variety reports that Patty Jenkins and Kevin Feige’s movies are officially shelved. Taika Waiti remains standing with the plan to star in his own movie.Read more...

Most computer glitches can be resolved with a simple question, “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” It seems this simple instruction also applies to computers on board spacecraft orbiting thousands of miles away.Read more...