Gizmodo

It’s been an incredible year for tabletop roleplaying games, from both large publishers and indie outfits. Crowdfunding has firmly established itself in the ecosystem, and both small indie games and massive core rulebooks are making the most of the model.

Following its trip to the Moon and back, NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashed down into the Pacific Ocean on Sunday. The inaugural flight for the Artemis program may have been uncrewed, but Orion carried five souvenirs to honor a legacy of lunar exploration.Read more...

If “toilet plumes” aren’t already on your list of reasons to avoid public restrooms, well, scientists at University of Colorado Boulder are doing their best to change that. They used green lasers and basic cameras to reveal what sprays up when you flush a typical commercial toilet.

The owner of a Twitter account that’s spent the past two years tracking billionaire Elon Musk’s flight location says his account is being “shadow banned.” That accusation comes despite recent public assurances from Musk that he wasn’t taking action against the account.Read more...

A fully intact and toasty-hot Orion spacecraft came home on Sunday from its trip around the Moon, splashing down off the coast of Baja, California. The historic mission ended as it began, with a fiery trip through Earth’s atmosphere, and with NASA pulling off one daring accomplishment after another.Read more...

Pop culture art fans have been patiently waiting for this moment—and now, io9 can reveal it’s finally here. Mondo and Acme Archives are teaming up with artist Jason Edmiston for an ongoing series of Star Wars prints in the style of Edmiston’s popular “Eyes Without a Face” series. The first two, from the recent show …Read more...

Every parent excitedly awaits the day when they can share their interests with their child, even gamers. But when that day arrives and your five-year-old is reaching for an expensive wireless controller with peanut butter-covered fingers, you can either let the idea of a pint-sized player two die, or turn a…Read more...

After a surprising pre-announcement tease and the official reveal event on November 3rd, AMD’s long-awaited RDNA 3, Radeon RX 7900 series GPUs are here… starting tomorrow. While you might not be able to press a buy button today, we have our full review ready to share with you, including our results for thermal…Read more...

A Libyan man accused of building the bomb that exploded on a civilian plane over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 270 people, has been transferred to U.S. custody, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Elon Musk, the billionaire who wants nothing more in life than to be adored by legions of fans, was loudly booed by a crowd in San Francisco on Sunday night after he was invited onstage by comedian Dave Chappelle. And the footage is pretty rough, even if you don’t particularly like Musk.

Though Marvel has been making a big name for itself in the console games space with fairly recent hits like Guardians of the Galaxy and Insomniac’s Spider-Man saga, the comics publisher still has a foot in the mobile game market. It’s Second Dinner’s Marvel Snap that’s currently won over the hearts of fans following…Read more...

Of the many movies that took over the world this year, Smile was one of the more pleasant surprises. After an initial showing at Fantastic Fest led to strong reviews and word of mouth, the film went on to fuel Paramount’s pretty impressive run of theatrical releases this year. For a film that was originally meant to…Read more...

Ever since 2009, BioWare’s Dragon Age franchise has managed to carve out its own space in the fantasy genre. As much as the RPG series cribs from the classics to inform its own universe, there’s a unique flair that gives it an identity all its own. Even though the series has been, game wise, on ice since Dragon Age…Read more...

The uncrewed Orion spacecraft performed a flawless splashdown in the Pacific Ocean earlier today, in what is a very promising and exciting start to the Artemis era of lunar missions.

Richard Miller, a sculptor at Industrial Light & Magic, died earlier in the week at the age of 80, a handful of days after his birthday. Per the Hollywood Reporter, he passed after an extended stay in hospice care. Fon H. Davis, one of Miller’s colleagues, later confirmed the news on Instagram, writing that he was “…Read more...

The past week has been eventful for fans of DC movies. Between a debut poster for Blue Beetle, everything going on with Dwayne Johnson and Black Adam, and varying movies getting put on hold or maybe straight up gone, things are looking...kinda weird as James Gunn and Peter Safran begin to settle on what the next few…Read more...

Over the decades, animation featuring Batman has taken the Dark Knight down some interesting avenues. Beyond seeing him at best and most green, we’ve seen him get out of his relative comfort zone by singing or becoming a ninja. For his next animated venture, he’ll be winding back the clock all the way back to the…Read more...

During the late 2010s, when it seemed like Star Wars video games would become more notable for their controversies rather than the games themselves, Respawn Entertainment released Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. That game resonated with audiences that it both let EA create more Star Wars games (and other studios take a…Read more...

TV shows getting canceled are never fun, particularly when they’re at Netflix. The streamer puts out so much content that it’s hard to know what their metrics are for success—at least, until they vaguely allude to these supposed success stories—and it turns, it’s all the easier for shows to get the axe out of nowhere.

The still fairly recent hiring of James Gunn and Peter Safran to head up Warner Bros.’ DC Films arm has sent some ripples through the already turbulent air of DC movies. Wonder Woman’s third movie was put on ice ahead of Gunn and Safran’s pitch to WB for their overall plan, sequels for Superman and Black Adam may have…Read more...

Let’s face it: bed is one of the best places to be. It’s somewhere we feel warm, and safe, and comfortable, so it’s perhaps no surprise that getting up in the morning can be such a chore. If you’re finding that you’re hitting the snooze button once too often after waking up, there are a selection of apps you can pick…Read more...

A lagoon in the southern part of the Andes has dried up completely as the mountain region and the people living in it are struggling through a years-long drought.

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's regular round up of all things wonderful and plastic. This week, Lego returns to Lord of the Rings with some unlikely new sets, Hasbro’s Power Rangers Lightning Collection goes ninja-mad, and our first look at Transformers: Rise of the Beasts toys rolls in. Check it out!

Read more...

Is there any story more adapted by other entertainment than Charles Dickens’ beloved novella A Christmas Carol? It’s possible, but go check out TV Tropes’ page for Yet Another Christmas Carol, which lists more than a hundred shows, movies, comics, etc. that retold, adapted, or parodied the story. It’s a classic…Read more...

Andor is the rare Star Wars property where the Jedi and the Force are wholly absent, literally and metaphysically. Even its chronological predecessor Rogue One was deeply enmeshed in the idea of the Force as a connective, religious entity. And yet, with nary a telekinetic wave or the snap-hiss of a laser sword, its…Read more...

Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced Friday that a new software update was in the works to inform users if their accounts has been “shadowbanned.” The new feature would explain why a user had been shadowbanned, meaning a profile is difficult to find or your posts are invisible to other Twitter users, even followers, and…Read more...

Getting into space is only half the battle—the other half is keeping yourself clean. Colgate-Palmolive Company announced this week that the company has signed the Space Act Agreement with NASA to research new ways to keep astronauts clean in space.

If you log into Twitter and search “Agua Papi Namor,” you will see account after account thirsting after Black Panther: Wakanda Forever star-antagonist Tenoch Huerta. For anyone who requires a translation, “Aqua Papi” means “Water Daddy”—which, well, let io9 show you why this nickname is so fitting.Read more...

A common bacterial infection known as Strep A has likely killed over a dozen children in the UK in recent months. On Friday, health officials reported yet another fatality linked to the bacteria, which can, in rare cases, cause a more invasive and life-threatening infection. There are likely several reasons why the…Read more...

Several oil giants released their capital expenditure budgets for the year ahead this week, including Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the U.S.’s two biggest oil companies. The budgets are an interesting insight into how the industry is going to move forward with the spoils of their banner year—and as the clock increasingly…Read more...

Saudi Arabia’s bizarre new megacity, “The Line,” is going full steam ahead. While construction began on the project in October, new satellite images have revealed how much ground the project has covered, the scale of the city’s length, and the layout of its construction site.

Late Thursday night, Substack journalist Bari Weiss tweeted a batch of screenshots detailing how Twitter limited the visibility of the accounts of several people popular among the online right.

To say that Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is unlike any Pinocchio story you’ve ever seen seems pretty obvious. Going by del Toro’s previous work, it’s also pretty obvious to assume the movie is darker and more messed up than previous dark and messed-up versions of the story have been. What might be less obvious,…Read more...

Astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) are overdue for some new threads, but NASA is hoping to upgrade its spacesuits soon. The space agency awarded Collins Aerospace a $97.2 million contract to develop a spacewalking system to use outside the space station, NASA announced on Thursday.Read more...

Alphabet owned autonomous delivery drone company Wing on Friday released footage of a first of its kind delivery drone command center. The space resembles a military war room but rather than monitor Predator drones dropping bombs over villages, Wing technicians will watch Uber like GPS routes to ensure flying Doritos…Read more...

Read more...

Last night the Game Awards dumped a veritable bevy of teases (and hastily announced winners, because who shows up to the Game Awards for those, apparently?) of what’s to come in the near future for video games—and there was a lot of cool sci-fi and fantasy storytelling on the cards. Here’s the genre highlights you…Read more...

All good things come to an end, including NASA’s wildly successful Artemis 1 mission to the Moon and back. At least, it’s been successful so far, as Orion must still perform a harrowing reentry through Earth’s atmosphere. You can follow the action live right here.

It’s a big day for Muppet fans with a Disney+ subscription. As previously reported, the service has just added the “full-length version” of Brian Henson’s 1992 film, The Muppet Christmas Carol. However, unlike some of the other new releases this weekend, it’s not that easy to find. So let us help out.Read more...

Six months after researchers from Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) set a new data transfer record of 1.02 petabits per second, a team of researchers from the Technical University of Denmark and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden has shattered that record, hitting…Read more...

Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, began erupting in Hawaii in late November for the first time since 1984. Eruptions have continued for nearly two weeks, creating spectacular, slow-moving lava flows that so far have not threatened any local communities.

Texas has it out for social media. A new bill proposed by Texas Representative Jared Patterson is interested in restricting social media access to those under 18 years of age.

What if The Terminator was recreated as a black-light painting, and instead of a killer robot from the future, the scrappy heroine had to battle a killer robot Santa Claus? No need to wonder: that’s basically Christmas Bloody Christmas, a holiday slasher propelled by style, many F-bombs, and nifty practical effects.

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried agreed to testify before the House Financial Services Committee next week in an attempt to uncover what caused the cryptocurrency company’s downfall. Bankman-Fried, who often goes by “SBF” posted a tweet on Friday saying he is “willing” to testify but says he won’t bring much to the…Read more...

An oil spill in northern Kansas has shut down a major pipeline that transports crude oil from Canada to Texas.

Just a few months after its debut in August, Xiaomi is looking for ways to show off the unique capabilities of its humanoid robot, CyberOne. Instead of putting it to work on an assembly line, Xiaomi propped it up behind a digital drum kit and let it bang out a rhythm, but Ringo Starr, Dave Grohl, and Chad Smith don’t…Read more...

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has revealed the eight-person crew that will join him on a trip around the Moon.

If you thought Archie Comics’ horror series was running out of ridiculous monsters for its stars to battle, well, the publisher has a little Christmas present for you. Namely, an upcoming one-shot titled Happy Horror Days, which features three tales of holiday mayhem, and io9 has a special preview of all three.

Stephanie Hsu rocked my world earlier this year when she exploded (literally) onto screens as the intra-dimensional being of ultimate power, Jobu Tupaki. As Everything Everywhere All at Once became a critical darling and is now starting to attract Oscar attention, A24 has released Hsu’s audition for Joy Wang/Jobu…Read more...