Gizmodo

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...

House of the Dragon’s first season is racing towards an inevitable climax: the breakout of civil war between the myriad factions of the titular House Targaryen. But where does it go from here? Well, the good news is that George R.R. Martin knows exactly where, and how long it’ll take.

No matter how many cameras or sensors they use, autonomous cars will never be perfect, but research coming out of Japan suggests that a simple upgrade could help reduce the risk of self-driving cars hitting undetected pedestrians: a pair of animated googly eyes that make it obvious what the vehicle has or hasn’t…Read more...

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Heather Langenkamp wants Nightmare on Elm Street to get the Halloween reboot treatment. Tenoch Huerta hopes Namor gets people talking in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Plus, a glimpse at the She-Hulk finale, and behind the scenes on Madame Web. To me, my spoilers!

Researchers have determined that the country is dotted with tens of thousands of locations that may be contaminated by PFAS, which are per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances—aka forever chemicals that do not disintegrate over time in nature or in the human body. Now, they’re mapping those sites to help regulators better…Read more...

A Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to wire fraud after he set up a hoax in which he claimed people had spray-painted left-wing messages on his garage, including “Biden 2020,” an anarchy symbol, and “BLM,” and set fire to several vehicles, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice. It’s not…Read more...

During his spotlight at New York Comic Con, Oscar Isaac brought on stage a couple of his creative collaborators: illustrator Christian Ward and writer Brian Buccellato. The three teamed up last year to help bring Head Wounds: Sparrow to life via Kickstarter, in collaboration with Legendary Comics.

It’s week two of io9's annual costume show and we’re getting into the Halloween spirit of things with some throwbacks and four-legged cult hit looks. Special thanks to all our comment submissions who are helping us kick into gear for spooky time. We’ve also got a couple editorial team submissions thanks to our…Read more...

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New research this week is the latest to suggest that some drugs meant to treat type 2 diabetes might also help prevent dementia in high-risk groups. The study found that older people who used a relatively older class of antidiabetic medication were less likely to develop dementia than those who used other common…Read more...

The rough bustle of humanity covered every square inch of the New York Comic Con show floor. Among the rows of tables of Artist Alley, it felt more like being driven by a tide rather than an exploration through the minds of some of the most creative people in the comics scene.Read more...

Airlines would love you to believe that simply checking a box on the internet can erase the environmental impact of jetting across the Atlantic. Yet unfortunately for the companies, the Kardashians, and the climate, it’s not true.

On Tuesday, the Biden administration said it would take steps to redefine how the federal government distinguishes “employees” from “independent contractors,” a proposal that could, potentially, allow millions of so-called gig workers to demand workplace rights like a minimum wage and overtime pay.Read more...

It seems more and more likely that Elon Musk will be forced to buy Twitter, despite his months of attempts to squirm out of the deal. If the billionaire does get handed the keys to Twitter, big changes are likely on the horizon. First and foremost is the possibility that Musk would reinstate a host of trolls,…Read more...

Microsoft Office and Teams are coming to Meta Quest, as well as Xbox Cloud Gaming. According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, having Microsoft 365 on Meta’s Quest headset will allow users to “create, communicate, and collaborate in completely new ways.”Read more...

The results are in from NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, which attempted to deflect an asteroid: NASA has forever reshaped the Didymos-Dimorphos system. The successful test points to a possible planetary defense strategy for protecting Earth against hazardous near-Earth objects.Read more...

The inimitable veteran actress Dame Angela Lansbury, a musical performer who went from stage in shows like Sweeney Todd as Mrs. Lovett, to screen in Disney’s animated classic Beauty and the Beast as Mrs. Potts, has passed away. Her family shared in a statement, “The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are sad to announce…Read more...

Tom Cruise is gearing up for the ultimate, gravity-defying stunt where he will be hanging off of a space station as it orbits the Earth at an altitude of 254 miles (408 kilometers).Read more...

You may know TikTok as the platform responsible for popularizing viral teen dance moves and constantly bringing Republican lawmakers’ blood to a boil, but newly posted job listings reveal a potentially new direction for the company: e-commerce giant.Read more...

Director Ryan Coogler and his Black Panther ensemble pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman’s memory in a new behind the scenes look at Wakanda Forever. The Marvel Studios sequel pressed on after the untimely death of the beloved actor, who so memorably portrayed King T’Challa onscreen.Read more...

Some of the members on Reddit aren’t happy with Taco Bell. The website’s avid Taco Bell fandom is vocalizing its discontent over the restaurant’s new ad campaign featuring Pete Davidson, an outrage that is spilling out onto other parts of the site.Read more...

“Legs,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg exclaimed during his 2022 Meta Connect keynote. The camera then zoomed back to show his Horizon World avatar standing, actually standing. Truly, it’s a new era.

Disney has announced a major overhaul of its upcoming release schedule, including big delays for Marvel’s future—including the pushing of the launch of the MCU’s Phase 6 to 2025.

Over the weekend, Harvey Guillén, who plays Guillermo de la Cruz on FX’s What We Do in the Shadows, hosted a spotlight panel at New York City Comic Con, recording a live episode of his podcast Behind the Shadows. He was joined by Hocus Pocus 2 star Belissa Escobedo, who will be in the upcoming Blue Beetle film…Read more...

At the Meta Connect conference on Tuesday, the company made a big deal out of saying VR has transformed from a solitary to a social and shared experience. The company accentuated that in Horizon Worlds, people play games, record podcasts, make music, and “roast marshmallows.”And beginning next year, folks will also…Read more...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off the company’s Meta Connect conference today with expected, but still highly anticipated news: The company’s next virtual reality headset will be called the Meta Quest Pro, and will also be the first Quest product to offer a mixed reality experience, bringing the metaverse and the…Read more...

Private aerospace company Firefly declared its “To the Black” mission a success with the inaugural launch of its Alpha rocket despite the majority of the rocket’s payload having reentered through the atmosphere.Read more...

After Stranger Things, Netflix knew that it had a star in Millie Bobby Brown, and the Enola Holmes franchise is the perfect vehicle for the fresh-faced actress. Brown stars as Sherlock Holmes’ younger sister, a post-Doyle addition by young adult author Nancy Springer. The new films are adaptations of her series, which…Read more...

It is “Spooky Season,” so it just makes sense we’d be seeing, or at least hearing, some famous tech folks coming back from the dead. Steve Jobs often feels like he’s still got two feet out of the grave for how often the tech entrepreneur is brought up in conversation by folks both in and out of the company he…Read more...

If you enjoy the cringe comedy stylings of master manipulator and Canadian business school graduate Nathan Fielder, know that you’re not alone. In fact, you’re in company with everyone’s favorite richest man on Earth. Elon Musk also apparently feels a deep connection to Fielder’s off-kilter humor, and is sure that he…Read more...

While Archie Comics has had no problem pitting its main characters against werewolves, zombies, and more, the realm of spooks and specters has always been more the domain of Sabrina the Teenage Witch... and her cursed cat, Salem. Now, the feline familiar will get his own chance to battle the forces of darkness when…Read more...

England baked under several heat waves throughout this summer. It didn’t just push the country into uncomfortable days—the heat waves also caused more than 2,800 additional people aged 65 and up in England to die, according to a new analysis from the U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Office for National…Read more...

I’m not one to make much of curses, but it really does seem like the Blade—Marvel’s feature film starring Mahershala Ali as the daywalker, Eric Brooks—is running into quite a string of bad luck. After director Bassim Tariq quietly exited the production two weeks ago, citing scheduling conflicts, it appeared as if…Read more...