Gizmodo

Weird Al’s up to a lot lately, especially with the arrival of the Daniel Radcliffe-starring biographical sendup Weird: The Al Yankovic Story on Roku today. But the musician is also dipping into the world of comics with a superstar team up trawling through the lyrics of his musical history, and we’ve got a sneak peek.

The towering Space Launch System is back at Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, following a nine-hour trek from the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building. The agency is targeting November 14 for the rocket’s first launch, an event that will kick off the Artemis 1 mission and NASA’s return to the Moon.Read more...

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has announced a plan to launch a bureau dedicated to the space industry, a move prompted by the ever-increasing number of satellites sent to space.

Head back to the world of James Cameron’s Pandora, but make it cute and tiny with Funko Pops. In celebration of the upcoming release of Avatar: The Way of Water, we’ve got a first look at the Avatar line hitting shelves for the holidays. You can find the pre-order for the character bundle at Walmart.Read more...

Volcanic eruptions can create serious impacts on human activity and climatic behavior, as ash, gases, and water are lofted high into the sky. While most eruptions are relatively shallow in the atmosphere, the plume generated by the incredibly powerful January 2022 eruption of Tonga’s Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano…Read more...

Just before midnight last Thursday, Elon Musk tweeted “the bird is freed.” The message confirmed once and for all that he’d finally, officially, really, actually purchased Twitter. It marked the end of a long saga during which Musk spent months trying to wriggle out of buying the company, leading to a public feud with…Read more...

A winning Powerball lottery ticket is one of the most coveted items in modern capitalism, and with the current estimated jackpot at $1.5 billion, lots of people are buying tickets today. We all know that winning the lottery is rare, but with the jackpot cresting over a billion, the odds of you actually walking home…Read more...

There are approximately one million pieces of Twitter news circulating this week. If you’re a user of the site, it could be hard to keep tabs on what’s happening behind the scenes amid Elon Musk’s chaotic takeover.

In an effort to streamline your online shopping habit, Google’s Gmail is reportedly adding a feature that lets you track your package.

Twitter began its highly anticipated mass layoffs Thursday evening by eliminating its top internal critics. Twitter’s Ethical AI team, according to former staff, is no more.Read more...

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Bird alert: Scientists formally described a previously obscure species of owl this week. And, good news, it’s a flying meme-generator that sounds like a newborn puppy. Sadly, this special owl is already likely critically endangered.Read more...

Twitter is refocusing all its efforts on making the most money in the shortest possible time, according to some reports.Read more...

The booster from a Chinese Long March 5B rocket reentered Earth’s atmosphere at 6:01 a.m. ET Friday, with debris falling west of the Mexican coast. There are no reports of injuries, but the 22-metric-ton core stage threatened populated areas during its final orbit.Read more...

Google is an absolute menace when it comes to messaging. As it officially retires its long-running Hangouts app, it’s worth noting that the company has launched over a dozen different messengers over the course of the last decade and a half. Some of them have had long, confused life cycles; others have died quick and…Read more...

The Joker sequel finally starts filming next month. Lewis Pullman teases the new Salem’s Lot adaptation. Agatha: Coven of Chaos keeps expanding its cast. Plus, what’s next on Ghosts, and another new look at Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Spoilers, away!

Rocket Lab is gearing up for a second go at its dangerous stunt: catching a rocket mid-air using a large helicopter. Here’s how you can catch the action.

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

Five former Twitter employees who were fired on Thursday have already filed a lawsuit against the social media company for failing to adhere to California’s WARN Act, a law that requires large employers to provide 60 days of notice to employees before mass layoffs. And the lawsuit even calls out another company run by…Read more...

Scientists investigating the genomes of ancient South Americans have made a surprising discovery: the presence of DNA from Neanderthals and Denisovans, two species of humans that are now extinct. The findings complicate our understanding of ancient South Americans and their ancestries.Read more...

Back in August, Dr. Lisa Su introduced the world to AMD’s newest iteration of CPU technology, the Ryzen 7000 Series–but she didn’t stop there. We got an announcement for an announcement: RDNA 3, AMD’s next generation of GPU technology. Well, today is November 3rd, and we now know more about AMD’s answer to the RTX 40…Read more...

As the first season of Andor hurtles toward its season finale later this month, development for the Disney+ Star Wars series’ second season is already in the works.Read more...

Fast and Furious fans would do just about anything for actor Sung Kang. Case in point, they were so vocal about how poorly his character, Han, was treated, they all but convinced the studio to bring Han back for F9. Now though, Kang might need those fans to support him in a new way—by seeing a movie he made.Read more...

It’s been a very busy time for Henry Cavill lately, what with his formal return to the role of Superman and his shock exit from The Witcher, and even throwing a reprisal as London’s second greatest detective in the Enola Holmes sequel. But he is concerned not with these things. He just wants to talk miniatures.

In Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, audiences will be introduced to the underwater civilization of the Talokan (inspired by the ancient Aztec paradise Tlālōcān), which reimagines the Atlantean villain Namor (Tenoch Huerta) and his armies as more complex antagonists.

Drones are going to be lighting up the night sky above the Hudson River Thursday night. Why, you may ask? Well how could you not know it’s Candy Crush Saga’s 10th anniversary? Such an event obviously demands filling the western New York City skyline with displays of poking a silly cupcake to make other cupcakes…Read more...

There’s something you need to know about me: I am a huge Taylor Swift fan. So much so that I’ve successfully weaseled my way into transforming that interest into content for Gizmodo. It’s also important for me to point out that I get a lot of pitches here at Gizmodo—that’s not a flex, that’s just a fact. With that…Read more...

Billionaire Jeff Bezos is being sued by one of his former housekeepers, Mercedes Wedaa. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Washington’s King County Superior Court, alleges that Wedaa worked for three years in the Amazon founder’s primary residence and other homes. It details alarming claims of racial discrimination, long…Read more...

A study out this week is the largest of its kind to suggest that psilocybin—the key ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms—can be a potential treatment for depression. The randomized trial found that people with treatment-resistant depression who received a large dose of psilocybin along with psychological support…Read more...

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All of the glaciers in Yosemite National Park, Italy’s Dolomite mountains, the continent of Africa, and thousands of other individual ice giants are set to disappear over the next 30 years, according to a new report from the United Nations.

If you’ve been on Twitter at all since it became an Elon Musk company, you’ve no doubt seen apoplectic users imploding as they worry it’s becoming more of a swamp than it was before—if that’s even possible. In recent days, a barrage of users has lamented the state of blue bird app and collectively asked: What …Read more...

The Connected Standards Alliance, or the CSA, wants to remind you all that the Matter 1.0 smart home standard is live and is now supported by over 190 devices. The CSA held an event in Amsterdam to officially debut devices that will be compatible with the new smart home standard. They include reveals from gadget…Read more...

Deep Space Nine revolutionized so much of what could be possible in the world of Star Trek, but it will always be remembered for one of its most transgressive plot threads: the devastating outbreak of the Dominion War, a conflict that, 25 years ago, challenged everything the franchise’s idealistic vision of utopia…Read more...

You know the old joke about running Doom on everything from graphing calculators to rotten potatoes to even a window inside Doom itself? Well, we’re starting to progressively witness the same thing, but with your entire Steam game library. On Thursday, Google announced that Chromebooks running ChromeOS 108 beta will…Read more...

Six months ago, after the news broke that changes were coming to Twitter’s policies against disinformation and hate speech, I decided to give Mastodon a try. Unfortunately, I didn’t stick with the app long enough to develop a habit of using it. After returning to it once again this week, that’s something I’ve come to…Read more...

The University of Alaska Fairbanks has teamed up with Explore.org, an organization with a network of live nature cams, to launch a webcam that gives you a live look at the university’s musk oxen, reindeer, and bison.Read more...

Lyft workers, like so many others in the tech industry this year, opened their inboxes today to read some dreaded news: Nearly 700 of their coworkers would lose their jobs.Read more...

io9 is proud to present fiction from LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE. Once a month, we feature a story from LIGHTSPEED’s current issue. This month’s selection is “Beyond the Shore” by Tania Fordwalker. You can read the story below or listen to the podcast on Lightspeed’s website. Enjoy!

Saturday’s drawing in the Powerball multi-state lottery has an estimated jackpot of $1.5 billion. That’s the third-largest lottery prize ever in U.S. history.

Seemingly every corner of our world is now littered with plastics, and only a tiny percentage of it is ever recycled. To mitigate this, many companies are offering items labeled as “compostable” or “biodegradable” plastic—but as new research finds, those may be a misnomers.

There’s magic in the air, Muppets fans! The wait is finally over as Disney+ is officially adding the extended cut of The Muppet Christmas Carol to the streaming platform. And yes, it’s going to include the beloved holiday musical’s long “lost” song, “When Love is Gone.”Read more...

The Cygnus X-1 system is one of the brightest sources of X-rays in the Milky Way, consisting of a black hole called Cygnus X-1 and its giant companion, a star packing 41 times the mass of our Sun. Researchers recently measured the polarization of those X-rays to better understand the geometry of the superheated plasma…Read more...

As you’ve probably noticed, there’s a lot going on at Twitter at the moment. If the thought of a social network helmed by Elon Musk has you seriously considering quitting the platform for greener pastures—perhaps you’re not keen on paying for features that used to be free—we’ve pulled together some of the leading…Read more...

When a person loses a loved one, you never quite get over it. But, eventually, you do have to move forward. And that was one of the many dilemmas the cast and crew of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever had. What do you do in a sequel to a movie whose star, Chadwick Boseman, tragically died? Do you recast the role? Do you…Read more...

An out-of-control booster from a recently launched Long March 5B rocket is expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere on Friday. The 22-metric-ton object poses a threat to human lives and property, but determining exactly when and where it will crash is proving to be fiendishly difficult, and here’s why.Read more...

When Meta’s shares plummeted last week in response to yet another dismal earnings report, most analysts pointed to Mark Zuckerberg’s obsession with the Metaverse as the source of the company’s woes. And while it’s true that Zuckerberg’s Metaverse experiment to date has been underwhelming, these analysts are missing…Read more...

There’s a reason Godzilla is the King of the Monsters: the Big G has had 37 films to his name since his debut in 1954. Now you can add #38 to the list as Toho Studios has announced another Godzilla movie will be coming out next year.

What once seemed like some sick joke or wild fantasy has finally become a reality. After months of rumors, Netflix finally has an ad-supported tier, and it’s launching across 12 different countries this week.Read more...

The Department of Defense (DOD) has signed agreements with four companies to help develop a space-based communications network of commercial and military satellites. The project hopes to use military and commercial satellites to transport data across a secure communication architecture, ultimately delivering it to…Read more...