Gizmodo

Universal Studios Japan has long outdone both Universal Studios Hollywood and the Universal Parks and Resorts in Orlando on both the cute merch and foodie game. Whether it’s Minions, Jaws (look up the Jaws hot dog pocket), Nintendo, Chucky, Casper, Back to the Future, or E.T. the Extraterrestrial—the the adorable and…Read more...

When you hear the name “Weird Al” Yankovic, you think of music. You think of parody songs. You think of all the unforgettable music videos he’s made over the years. But Weird Al has always been about spreading his wings. A biopic, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, was released late last year, and now he’s got his very own…Read more...

This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here.

On Monday, SpaceX completed its first attempt to load a fully stacked Starship rocket with propellants, and it did so with surprisingly little fanfare. The seemingly successful test marks a major milestone for the company, setting the stage for a static fire test and an eventual orbital launch.Read more...

If there’s one thing the polarized body of the U.S. Congress can agree on, it’s that Ticketmaster sucks. After a spectacular failure of Live Nation Ticketmaster’s sale systems during presale for Taylor Swift’s upcoming tour, the company was under the microscope of a Senate hearing today.

It’s no secret that Twitter has fallen on hard times. And things aren’t quite looking up for Elon Musk’s most recent acquisition. The company is facing two fresh lawsuits from different landlords, adding onto a plethora of existing legal trouble.

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk, known as “Mr.Tweet” by some attorneys, will resume testifying Tuesday before a nine-person jury in a securities fraud trial stemming from his 2018 tweets proclaiming his intention to take Tesla private at $420 per share. That figure, Musk said under oath, has absolutely nothing to do with cannabis.Read more...

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange has been linked to a federally charged crypto company and its founder to the tune of nearly $346 million in bitcoin. It comes after months of speculation that federal prosecutors are honing in on Binance over allegedly facilitating illicit money laundering.Read more...

When, oh when, will we simply allow solid animated shows and films to remain animated, perfect in their medium of choice? Anyway, Invincible is likely going to be a live-action movie soon. The Rock is one of Santa’s elves now? Sure, why not. Everything is weird and nothing makes sense, but you know what, something’s…Read more...

After years of openly flirting with disrupting the health care industry, Amazon went all out on Tuesday in its debut of RxPass, a new subscription service that provides Amazon Prime members with unlimited prescription medications for an additional $5 monthly fee.Read more...

ChatGPT has made some poor attempts to be a journalist and a therapist, but could it be a good student? Professor Christian Terwiesch from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania thinks so. After Terwiesch proctored a final exam from a Master of Business Administration course for the chatbot, he found…Read more...

The 95th Academy Award nominations are here, and while there aren’t any big surprises, Michelle Yeoh and Everything Everywhere All at Once continued to receive their justly deserved due.

After the dust cleared from Microsoft making moves to lay off over 10,000 employees—5% of its global workforce—it’s become apparent Microsoft isn’t merely taking a different tact on its virtual reality and mixed reality designs, it’s curtailing several of the major teams supposed to plant their virtual flag in the…Read more...

Two of the most forward-thinking agencies in the United States are joining forces to foster the development of advanced space propulsion. A fireside chat on the new collaboration is scheduled for Tuesday morning, and you can watch it live right here.

Over a century ago, the mummy of a teenage boy was found in Nag el-Hassay, Egypt. The body remains wrapped to this day, but a team of researchers just used CT scanning to peer through the linens to find 49 amulets on and inside the boy’s body.Read more...

Reports indicate that a bug in Grand Theft Auto V Online is putting PC gamers’ gameplay—and even, potentially, hardware—at risk.Read more...

Apple hit us with new hardware last week—the MacBook Pro, the Mac Mini, the second-gen HomePod—and there’s more to come this year in sprinklings. But what’s next on the horizon might not be worth the immediate upgrade, reports Bloomberg’s Power On newsletter. In particular, it will probably be a “light year” for the…Read more...

While Chick-fil-A was serving you sandwiches, it was also serving up data to Facebook’s parent company Meta. According to a new lawsuit filed Sunday, the fast food chain did that in a way that violated one of the only federal privacy laws in the United States.

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There’s a new potential casualty in the “woke” wars. More than a year of absurd conservative critique of M&M’s cartoon mascots has led the candy brand to take drastic action. M&M’s, owned by parent company Mars, Inc., is reportedly nixing its animated, anthropomorphic “spokescandies.” The familiar fictional…Read more...

Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes filed a motion to strike on Monday, claiming the government made false claims against her. The motion is in response to allegations that Holmes had plans to flee the country by purchasing a one-way ticket to Mexico just weeks before she was convicted on several fraud charges.Read more...

When Star Trek: Picard returns next month, as well as the iconic TNG crew it’ll be bringing a similarly iconic vessel as well—the USS Enterprise. But it won’t be the vessel we last saw Jean-Luc captain in Nemesis, it’ll be an all-new version of the Federation flagship—but one that has history before its TV debut.

NASA is taking a break from attempts to unfurl a finicky solar array on the Lucy spacecraft, claiming that the probe is too cold and that efforts at deploying the array could be more fruitful when Lucy is closer to the Sun in December 2024.

If you haven’t checked your iPhone yet, there’s an update rolling out today. The iOS 16.3 update is relatively minor but includes bug fixes and interface tweaks, support for the second-gen HomePod and its temperature sensors, and new wallpaper. There’s also an optional feature that adds extra security to your Apple ID…Read more...

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Microsoft announced it is entering a third-round partnership with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI in a new multibillion-dollar investment. The company first entered a partnership with OpenAI in 2019 and confirmed its second round two years later as it endeavored to expand its AI-related products.Read more...

The ad-supported tier of Disney’s child-distraction/video streaming service Disney+ goes for $7.99 a month. That’s great for families on a budget and, up until now, has been great for fans of digital privacy: Disney didn’t allow advertisers to target those ads at specific children or households. That’s changing,…Read more...

The governor of Virginia is blocking a potential Ford battery factory that would have provided thousands of jobs in an impoverished area—based on fearmongering about China.

The cost of living throughout the U.S. is on the rise, including what households must pay to stay warm throughout the winter. This has pushed more Americans to rely on firewood from wood banks to heat their homes, a new report from the Guardian outlines.Read more...

For now, there’s really only one way to capture an HDR image when lighting conditions vary wildly across the frame: you take multiple shots with different exposures, and then assemble a final composite using the properly exposed areas from the various images. But that could soon be on the way out, with a new Canon…Read more...

This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here.

As founding cast members of Critical Role, Matt Mercer and Marisha Ray are some of the most influential Dungeons & Dragons players in the world. Currently they act as the Chief Creative Officer and Creative Director for Critical Role, and have always centered their fans in their creative endeavors. When asked about…Read more...

The FDA is set to propose a major change to coronavirus vaccine strategy, according to documents released online on Monday. Instead of the confusing, multi-booster advice currently in place and an “update when possible” free-for-all for pharmaceutical companies, the federal agency is hoping to shift to an annual…Read more...

The “gushiest, mushiest, most romantic day of the year” gets its due in Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day special, a festive (and, naturally, foul-mouthed) new special featuring our favorite animated DC lovebirds, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. But it’s not all hearts and moonbeams for these two,…Read more...

Exercise is generally good for your body and brain, no matter how you do it. But research out this month suggests that even brief outdoor activities can be especially stimulating for your noggin. The study found that people’s cognitive function on a test improved after a short walk outside, but not after they walked…Read more...

Messenger users may finally have a fully encrypted chatting service, though these folks may have to wait a few months before every single one of their group chats are finally secure.Read more...

After only two weeks, it should be pretty clear that HBO’s The Last of Us is catching on with audiences. From its spot-on adaptation of elements of the video game, to its dark extensions of that lore, to the terrifying reality of its world, fans and non-fans of the game alike seem to be eating it up. And, in the…Read more...

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One single case coming up in front of the highest court in the U.S. could singularly determine how the internet can operate going forward, and you can bet your bottom dollar there’s a few tech companies, civil liberties groups, and politicians on both sides of the aisle willing to offer an opinion on the matter.Read more...

Last week, astronomers at a Hawaiian observatory spotted a spiral-like structure over Maunakea. A SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage is the likely source of the strange atmospheric feature, as this sort of thing has happened before.

The Webb telescope team has detected water ice and frozen complex molecules in a molecular cloud about 630 light-years from Earth. By the scientists’ measure, the frigid findings are the deepest, coldest yet found in such a cloud.Read more...

In the summer of 2017, reports of American and Canadian diplomats developing an unusual illness while stationed at their embassies in Havana, Cuba first emerged.

The year is 2023 and, yes, we’re still talking about the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Specifically, the disconnect between Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi and J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker. Star Daisy Ridley has a new movie at Sundance and there, she was asked what she thought about the reveal…Read more...

CNET told staff it would halt the publication of articles generated via artificial intelligence, in a Friday call, according to a report from The Verge. Or, at least, the company said it would pause the AI-article practice “for now,” as it waits out a stream of media criticism.

The Razer Kishi V2 is already an effortless way to upgrade your smartphone into a handheld gaming machine, but a new software update for both the Kishi V2 hardware and its accompanying Nexus app now makes the clamp-on controller compatible with games that only support touchscreen inputs. At least if you’re on Android.

Observers along the U.S. East Coast could be in for a treat this week, as Rocket Lab is set to perform the first launch of an Electron rocket from its new Virginia launch pad.

Elon Musk’s Starlink is getting even closer to a widespread reality. The satellite internet constellation from SpaceX is now steadily beaming information to and from Antarctica, according to scientists currently stationed on the remote continent.

Elon Musk will stand before a nine-person-jury in California today and try to explain a series of tweets from 2018 that could cost the Tesla billions. A group of burned Tesla shareholders are suing Musk, and they argue the billionaire misled investors, costing them tens of millions when he published his now infamous “…Read more...

If you’ve been paying attention to Dungeons & Dragons at all over the past few weeks, it likely hasn’t been because the new D&D film, Honor Among Thieves, is nearing its release date. The real excitement (in the agitated sense, not the happy sense) is about Wizards of the Coast attempting to change its Open Gaming…Read more...