On a recent reporting trip out West, I found myself surrounded by hundreds of vicious carnivores, all soaking their prey in a corrosive mix of flesh-eating enzymes. In a California bog, I stood in a field of carnivorous plants. The sticky sundews held their sparkling, modified leaves just an inch or so off the ground,…Read more...

Fans of Italian horror legend Dario Argento (Suspiria, Deep Red, Inferno, Tenebre, Phenomena, Opera) have long hoped that the veteran filmmaker, who turned 82 in September, might have one more masterpiece lurking within. While Dark Glasses is far better than other recent fare, like 2009's Giallo, it unfortunately…Read more...

NASA is up to something in Las Cruces, New Mexico. In this remote location, the agency is studying how different spacecraft designs will interact with super-tiny rocks whipping through space.

California regulators are likely to approve a new water desalination plant today as state officials look for solutions to ongoing water shortages, as the state struggles through its worst drought in over 1,000 years.Read more...

U.S. soldiers are experiencing one of mixed reality’s oldest, pervasive problems. Simply put, their Microsoft HoloLens mixed reality headsets make them want to puke.Read more...

Astonishingly, you are looking at a picture of Dame Emma Thompson. I know, I can scarcely believe it either, but this is just part of the magic of Netflix’s upcoming film adaptation of the award-winning, internationally successful musical of Mathilda, based on the beloved children’s tale by Roald Dahl about a little…Read more...

In June 2021, a radio telescope in New Mexico picked up signs that a black hole had begun flinging material into space, the astrophysical equivalent of spitting up your food. But here’s the rub: It hadn’t eaten anything in years.Read more...

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In the midst of surveying thousands of stars to spot exoplanets, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) entered into safe mode on Monday. It’s not yet clear what happened to the spacecraft, but engineers are trying to resuscitate the planet hunter.Read more...

Checked bag vigilantism is back on the table for passengers of Germany’s largest airline. Contrary to confusing reports earlier this week, Lufthansa is not banning activated Apple AirTags from customers’ luggage. The company says it came to its final determination following an assessment from the Germany Aviation…Read more...

NASA wants to send a giant silver balloon to the hellish world of Venus, where the floating robot would explore the toxic Venusian atmosphere. Functional tests of a smaller prototype recently took place in a Nevada desert in preparation for this upcoming mission to the solar system’s inferno.

What kinds of promises does it take for Truth Social, a platform renowned for spreading misinformation and falsehoods by its most prolific and influential users, to get approved on Google Play Store? Apparently, all it takes is a vague promise to actually adhere to its existing terms of service.Read more...

Until Nintendo decides to make a gaming watch (don’t pretend like you wouldn’t wear a Time Boy) it seems like the closest we’ll get to Mario officially being on a wearable is Tag Heuer collaborations, including two new Mario Kart themed timepieces with some fun mechanical engineering and less fun astronomical price…Read more...

David Gordon Green gives an update on his Exorcist reboot. Andy Serkis and Jonathan Cavendish want to bring back The Wicker Man. Mike Flanagan hypes up The Fall of the House of Usher. Plus, check out a sneak peek at the She-Hulk finale, and what’s next on Stargirl. Spoilers get!

In 1981 the photographer Lynn Goldsmith took a portrait of Prince. He sits alone on a white background, wearing a blank expression with a glint of light in his eyes. In 1984 Andy Warhol used that photo to create art. Warhol altered the image, adjusting the angle of Prince’s face, layering on swaths of color, darkening…Read more...

Despite the huge improvements made to smartphone cameras in the last decade, photos and videos captured with a dedicated shooter still look markedly better, and Sony is hoping to woo vloggers and streamers away from their phones with its new video-focused ZV-1F camera, which arrives with an aggressively tempting price…Read more...

The iPhone got access to Shortcuts way back in iOS 12, giving you ways of combining different apps and tasks together to get stuff done—from calculating journey times and texting someone the details at the same time, to resizing and converting a whole batch of images at once. What you might not know is that, since the…Read more...

Log onto TikTok, and among the endless scroll of quick clips, you’ll find another, omnipresent temptation: the invitation to watch creators livestream.

If you’re looking for somewhere to store your files in the cloud, there’s a new service to consider—alongside the many options that you’ve already got. The developers behind Proton Mail have launched a Proton Drive service that promotes security and privacy, so we’re going to weigh up its various features against one…Read more...

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Digital license plates have become legal for all cars in California, after a trial with a select number of drivers that’s lasted almost four years, according to a new report from the Los Angeles Times. Why would anyone want a digital license plate? Users can change the messaging at the bottom of their plates through a…Read more...

Finally, the Rock has made his long-awaited debut in the DC Universe as Black Adam. Promising that the hierarchy of power will change, Dwayne Johnson suits up (costumes now available) to deliver a bolt of lightning to revive the state of the DC slate. If it worked seems to depend on who you ask.Read more...

The latest cinephile venture from Kevin Smith is set to debut with a series of director talkbacks at the filmmaker’s Smodcastle theater in New Jersey, which upon opening in the new year will feature an extremely rare big-screen showing of Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League.Read more...

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Listening to the jury verdict of InfoWars’ Alex Jones defamation trial in Connecticut was like hearing a bell toll. Over and over, each line read was like a stake being stabbed into a bloodsucking vampire’s heart: “$120 million,” “$55 million,” “$54 million, $28,800,000…” each of the 15 individual members on the…Read more...

If you’re into retro Nintendo games, now’s your chance to check out two that no one’s ever played before.Read more...

After two launch scrubs, an impromptu tanking test, and an awful hurricane, NASA is once again preparing for the inaugural launch of its Space Launch System.Read more...

In a letter sent to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, AKA ERCOT, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and her fellow congressional Democrats ask how the Texas electrical grid is subsidizing crypto mining groups when they subsidize their companies during peak demand.Read more...

America’s birds are having a rough go of things, a new report from the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) this week has found. The findings show that many bird species in the U.S. are in decline, with nearly a hundred species losing more than half of their population since the 1970s. Without more…Read more...

TikTok users who felt compelled to donate digital gifts to struggling Syrian refugee streamers may have unintentionally helped line the social media company’s pocketbooks.Read more...

Despite Kingdom Hearts’ seemingly endless capacity to continue existing, its relationship with Disney beyond the literal games themselves has always been a little distant—at least on the Disney side of things. You’re not going to see Sora in the theme parks perhaps any time soon, but once upon a time that wasn’t…Read more...

As the fervor of Fat Bear Week rages on, a different corner of the animal kingdom is in trouble: The Antarctic penguin community. Australian researchers studying Adélie penguins point to a plunging population.

As Brendan Fraser embarks on a tour for his current Darren Aronofsky film The Whale, the Mummy star has talked about his feelings toward Warner Brothers Discovery over its decision to cancel Batgirl. The actor was to be featured as the DC film’s villain Firefly in the superhero spin-off directed by Adil El Arbi and…Read more...

Three Meta executives have been identified by name—reportedly by mistake— in a California federal lawsuit brought by adult entertainers alleging bribery and abuse of internet databases designed to flag terrorist content and other online threats.

The European Space Agency is gearing up to test a new rocket to add to its fleet. A test model of the Ariane 6, which is set to become ESA’s new vehicle for getting payloads into low Earth orbit, is undergoing assembly in French Guiana in anticipation of its first launch next year.

Get ready to have one of the most iconic theme songs of all time stuck in your brain again: cult-beloved series Unsolved Mysteries, which enjoyed a hit revival in 2020 on Netflix, returns to the streamer next week with even more perplexing cases to keep you up at night.Read more...

There’s a well-funded heavyweight fight over potential EV tax credits brewing in California that is drawing the attention of some serious financial interests. A group of billionaires, mad about a proposed tax increase, is squaring off against a powerful ridesharing company over a ballot initiative that could open the…Read more...

It turns out even Google’s own workforce isn’t sold on the company’s claims around Incognito mode’s privacy protections.

It’s raining harder across most of the U.S. and climate change is to blame, new research has found.Read more...

SpaceX has yet to send Starship to orbit, but that’s not stopping the company from selling rides aboard the future megarocket. Dennis and Akiko Tito are the first passengers announced for SpaceX’s second commercial spaceflight around the Moon. The pair, along with 10 others, will fly aboard the company’s Starship on a…Read more...

Next year, the Endangered Species Act will turn 50. But a team of researchers that analyzed the thousands of plants and animals protected by the act has found that a small fraction of those species actually recover.Read more...

Lines are drawn at The School for Good and Evil, the place where “every fairytale begins.” Friends Sophie (Beetlejuice on Broadway’s Sophia Ann Caruso) and Agatha (High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ Sofia Wylie) are set up to become great enemies when they’re enlisted in opposing schools—yes, one on the…Read more...

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is, by many estimates, the most important chipmaker in the world, both monetarily and for the worldwide tech supply chain. If the global economy suddenly lost access to TSMC’s chipmaking expertise, it could spell massive impacts to most countries that are still working to get…Read more...

In new research this week, scientists say they’ve been able to teach mice and human brain cells how to play one of the most enduring video games in history: Pong. The novel feat suggests that even neurons on an individual level can learn and exhibit a form of rudimentary sentience, the authors say. And the research…Read more...

Episode six of Andor provided one hell of a payoff to the heist that’s been brewing over the course of the last couple episodes of the Disney+ series. “The Eye,” directed by Susanna White with a script from Dan Gilroy, is likely to go down as one of the greatest hours of Star Wars committed to screen.Read more...

It’s hard to resist a sci-fi noir, especially when the main character is a reluctant gumshoe—and even more when the setting is as unpredictable as a crime-riddled city that happens to be underwater. Chris McKinney follows up 2021's acclaimed Midnight, Water City with Eventide, Water City next year, and io9 is thrilled…Read more...

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, destroyed its Epsilon-6 rocket mid-flight on Tuesday, resulting in the loss of eight commercial satellites that were included in the rideshare mission, local media reported.Read more...

Microsoft is still making Surface PCs! The company held a short virtual event earlier today to introduce two new models to its lineup, plus a few new software updates coming down the pipeline, including one with DALL-E integration.

Roblox, the online game that is massively popular amongst children, is facing the growing pains of moderation as it rolls out artificially intelligent bots to sweep the platform for unsavory content.Read more...

Like practically every other streaming network out there, Apple can’t seem to stay away from taking a big bite of the advertising pie that’s lingered uneaten since the dawn of TV streaming services.Read more...