Gizmodo

Exandria Unlimited: Calamity is a four-episode miniseries produced by the Critical Role team that explores a time just before an unavoidable apocalypse. io9 spoke to three members of the Calamity cast—Travis Willingham, Aabria Iyengar, and Luis Carazo—about performance, improv, and how playing to an audience impacts…Read more...

Intense rain over Yellowstone National Park yesterday caused severe flooding that triggered massive mudslides, damaged roads, and even swept away a bridge.

A SpaceX cargo mission to the International Space Station has been pushed back to no earlier than July 11 after teams discovered elevated vapor levels of propellant. The mission was originally scheduled for launch on June 10, but ground teams noticed a potential hydrazine leak while loading cargo.

Researchers have detailed the life and grisly death of a male mastodon that died 13,200 years ago by scrutinizing the chemical composition of one of its tusks. The tusk revealed the mastodon grew up in the Great Lakes area and, later in life, made annual trips to a mating ground in northeastern Indiana—until it died…Read more...

Many performers, including singers and musicians, credit YouTube for giving them the exposure they needed to eventually gain fame and fortune. But one performer who’s yet to break into the record scene just received a major upgrade that could finally be their ticket to super stardom.Read more...

California-based Momentus is currently performing its first test of an orbital transfer vehicle known as Vigoride-3, but the 180-day demo mission is off to a rocky start.

Adobe Photoshop will soon be free to all users as a basic web-based version of the full photo editing app. This free edition is currently being trialed in Canada, where users can access Photoshop from a web address so long as they are logged into a free Adobe account, The Verge reports.Read more...

Spotify’s finally showing some semblance of an interest in crafting a more coherent content moderation policy.Read more...

While it certainly had its issues, we’re generally fans of the fourth season of Stranger Things here at io9—at least of the seven episodes that have been released so far. So we’re also excited to see the epic, nearly four-hour-long(!) conclusion next month... despite Netflix’s newest preview of the final two episodes.Read more...

The superhero genre has been trying its hand at various different tones in recent years, but the upcoming Joker sequel is really swinging for the fences. Yesterday evening saw the surprising news that Joker: Folie à deux won’t just be casting Lady Gaga in a role that’s probably his most notable gal pal Harley Quinn,…Read more...

Known for making some of the best third-party game controllers you can buy—including options for the Xbox—8BitDo is once again taking inspiration from Microsoft with a new compact gamepad designed to accommodate players with limited mobility that moves almost all of the functionality to dedicated buttons.Read more...

A new AI chatbot released Tuesday claims it uses the words of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg when replying to questions such as “Is pizza better than burgers?” to “Is America quietly becoming an autocracy?” (The answers to both: “Big juicy burgers” over New York style pizza, and “No, I don’t think the…Read more...

As prices drop and availability increases, some of the last road blocks to mass adoption of electric vehicles is range anxiety and charging times. But a prototype test track in Italy solves both of those issues by borrowing the same technology that makes it easy to charge your smartphone without wires.

Saramonic is a company dedicated to producing professional audio and recording systems, from microphones to mixing consoles. For a few years now, more affordable wireless microphone systems have hit the market, aimed at beginners or enthusiasts who can’t afford to pay for thousands of dollars worth of equipment. The…Read more...

There’s goats and gods abound in new posters for Thor: Love and Thunder. Chucky’s second season adds a mysterious new guest. Lana Condor plays a ghost obsessed with social media in Netflix’s Boo, Bitch. Plus, once again it cannot be stressed enough: Riverdale’s got biblical plagues now. Spoilers get!

A recent competition organized by the European Space Agency asked art students to draw inspiration from the upcoming Artemis lunar program. The results are impressive.

The crypto roller coaster ride continues to plummet downhill fast. Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange platforms, is laying off 18% of its staff, or about 1,100 employees, according to a company SEC filing. The news also came in a letter to staff written by the CEO, Brian Armstrong, and tweeted out on…Read more...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk may as well be the living tech embodiment of Katy Perry’s 2008 hit song, “Hot N Cold,” given that it perfectly describes his state of mind with its insightful prose: “Cause you’re hot then you’re cold. You’re yes then you’re no.” In fact, that might be a good song to play at the Twitter town hall…Read more...

Ryan Petersen, the CEO of a logistics tech company called Flexport, tweeted out a photo that went viral Monday, purporting to show a time when McDonald’s used supposedly healthier cooking methods. Petersen suggested the people from this allegedly ancient photo were much healthier than the people of 2022, insinuating…Read more...

The world can be a dark and awful place. But as Brian and Charles so delightfully explores, the power of friendship can perform miracles, even when that friendship gets stormy at times—and even when that friendship is between a lonely inventor and the awkwardly bulky robot he crafts from random parts.Read more...

This is, to use the most obvious phrase on the table, not a joke: according to a new report, Oscar-winning singer-turned-actress Lady Gaga is in early negotiations to co-star as Harley Quinn opposite Joaquin Phoenix (also an Oscar winner) in DC Comics and Todd Phillips’ Joker sequel, recently announced to be titled …Read more...

Obi-Wan Kenobi is—was—a Jedi. A General of the Clone War. A warrior monk of such skill, such balance, such understanding of his form both spiritual and physical that he could sit atop the Jedi Order’s ranks as a Master of its Council. And here he is, stuffing a child under a trenchcoat on a wing and a prayer, and I’m…Read more...

When Taika Waititi took over the Thor franchise, fans began to hope that Natalie Portman would return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Jane Foster, especially since the two Oscar winners share similar indie dramedy sensibilities. In a new interview with Fandango, Waititi—along with Chris Hemsworth and Tessa…Read more...

Thirty-one members of one of the most active white nationalist groups in the U.S. are facing criminal charges after a local Idaho police department made a mass arrest in response to a 911 tip over the weekend. Members of the fascist group, Patriot Front—formed in late 2017 in the wake of the racist “Unite the Right”…Read more...

This fall, a reprised 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro could be on the roster. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who authors the subscriber-only Power On newsletter, reports that he expects Apple to update the two iPad models with the M2 chip in September or October.

Comedian John Oliver decided to wade into the antitrust battleground this week, and he didn’t hold back any punches.Read more...

The One Punch Man film based on the hugely successful manga series and beloved anime has found a director who’s no stranger to hugely successful franchises himself: Justin Lin, who made Fast & Furious parts three, four, five, six, and nine, as well as Star Trek Beyond.Read more...

While Google’s multiple antitrust cases continue to drag on here in the U.S., it looks like the search giant’s starting to make a few concessions across the pond. Reuters reports that Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has made an offer to European Union regulators in response to an ongoing investigation into the tech…Read more...

On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) completed its environmental assessment of SpaceX’s proposed site expansion in Boca Chica, Texas, after months of delay.

People with a severe form of baldness will now have a significant treatment option available. On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration approved baricitinib for treating alopecia areata. The drug, taken as a pill, is the first of its kind intended to treat the autoimmune disorder, though it’s already commonly used…Read more...

Try, if you can, to put aside all the off-screen Lightyear nonsense. What is this movie? How does it fit in with Toy Story? None of that matters. The first three frames of the latest Pixar animation film clear all that up simply and succinctly. In 1995, a boy named Andy got a Buzz Lightyear toy. It was from his…Read more...

The most recent crypto crash is causing quite a lot of reviled FUD (a term used in the community for fear, uncertainty, and doubt) not only among investors but inside the companies as well, though in the latter’s case its for their job prospects. The crypto lending company BlockFi announced Monday it was slashing 20%,…Read more...

People might be more hotheaded than we thought. In new research this week, scientists say they were able to create the first maps of healthy people’s brain temperatures. Their findings indicate that brain temperature varies widely depending on many factors, like the time of day and region of the brain, but that it’s…Read more...

Google announced that the Pixel 6a wouldn’t debut until later this summer, but that hasn’t stopped the leakers from teasing us. Over the weekend, Malaysian YouTuber, Fazli Halim, published an 11-minute long look at the upcoming Pixel 6a. The device featured in the reel matches the Pixel 6a previewed during the Google…Read more...

Apple’s WWDC event came and went without any mention of an AR/VR headset, but that hasn’t slowed the influx of reports and rumors surrounding this highly anticipated product. Despite the first model’s absence, we’re now learning about Apple’s second-generation mixed reality headset.Read more...

As struggling streaming services race to expose more viewers to ads, advertisers are seeing some pretty expensive hiccups start to happen. Case in point: on Monday, GroupM—one of the biggest ad-buying brands around—published a new study that found that about $1 billion worth of streaming ads every year are playing…Read more...

Throughout the years, BioWare has become equally known for both the games it makes and the reactions surrounding those games. Most of the time, this relates to its sci-fi RPG Mass Effect, which is due to receive some type of resurgence within the next couple of years. And while you very much wouldn’t say that’s the…Read more...

There’s not much you can thank one-hit ‘90s wonder Vanilla Ice for, but among those few things is this: he tied the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles inextricably with rap music. Of course, he did it by performing the confounding “Ninja Rap” in the second TMNT movie, Secret of the Ooze, but the many, many TMNT-themed raps…Read more...

A shutdown of a major current in the Atlantic Ocean would rapidly transform wind, temperature, and precipitation patterns across the whole globe, according to new research.

If you are in the global north and want to migrate to a fictional dystopia, then you have lost your grip on reality but also, more worryingly, may have expat colonial/oligarch aspirations: your only possible reason for wanting to move could be to reinforce that dystopia’s ruling elite. This advisory is not for you.Read more...

NASA lost two small satellites on Sunday after a rocket malfunctioned en route to orbit. The two TROPICS CubeSats were the first pair of a six-satellite constellation designed to study tropical cyclones, but the space agency is still hoping to launch the remaining four, pending an investigation of the failed …Read more...

The Communications Workers of America announced today via press release that they have reached a labor neutrality agreement with Microsoft. The agreement has five core provisions, the most notable of which is Microsoft agreeing to remain neutral in employee unionization efforts.

It feels like we’ve recently learned more about Doctor Who’s upcoming 60th anniversary celebrations next year than we have about the impending departure of Jodie Whittaker’s current Doctor a few months from now. And yet, the more we learn about the 60th, the stranger and stranger it gets.

Chile’s freshwater sources—and the people who depend on them—are in trouble.Read more...

Jurassic World Dominion sets out to put a bow on a franchise that began almost 30 years ago. But does it? The film has a sweeping scope with globetrotting action but in the end, we here at io9 were left with more questions than answers about not just various elements of the plot, but the state of the Jurassic world…Read more...

More than 2,000 people who invested money in the the so-called “algorithmic stablecoin” TerraUSD (UST) have come together in a class-action lawsuit against the crypto-trading platform Binance, according to a report from CoinDesk.

Federal regulators are threatening to quash Donald Trump’s dreams of becoming the next Jeff Bezos before they have a chance to take off.Read more...

Intel’s next generation of desktop processors is rumored to arrive later this year, and if the latest leak is accurate, these chips could provide significant gains over the company’s outgoing ones. However, they might not be enough to topple AMD and its upcoming Zen 4 processors.

As if the list of things that can make flying an annoying experience isn’t already long enough, Devialet has partnered with a company called Safran to create a new personalized speaker system built right into the headrests of airplane seats. This will theoretically give every passenger their own private sound…Read more...

In the much-lauded Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Measure of a Man,” Lt. Commander Data, an artificial android, is being questioned of his own sentience. In response to this confrontation, Data commands the room when he calmly states “I am the culmination of one man’s dream. This is not ego, or vanity. But…Read more...