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Layoffs are ravaging the tech industry due to the wildly abstract threat posed by “the economy,” but Intel is taking a different approach. Instead of laying off thousands of its workforce, the company has seemingly decided to make sweeping pay cuts from 5% to 25%.

A case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy—more colorfully known as mad cow disease—has been detected on a farm in the Netherlands. It’s the first time that an infected cow has been reported in the country in over a decade. Authorities say the cow should not pose a threat to human health, but they’re looking for other…Read more...

Let’s get streaming! Welcome to the latest edition of io9's streaming column the Nerd’s Watch, where we pare down the enormous lists of new films and television shows arriving on all your favorite streaming services into the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror titles we think you’ll like most.

Although virtual pet devices like Tamagotchis strive to simulate the responsibilities of caring for a real animal, the stakes are low, and there are no real consequences if your pixelated pet passes away. That’s not the case with this conceptual smartwatch. There’s a real life living organism inside it, and if it’s…Read more...

The Federal Trade Commission took historic action against the medication discount service GoodRx Wednesday, issuing a $1.5 million fine against the company for sharing data about users’ prescriptions with Facebook, Google, and others. It’s a move that could usher in a new era of health privacy in the United States.Read more...

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Jason Bateman will direct Bad Robot’s new supernatural western, The Pinkerton. Get a new look at Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The Dexter revival is dead, long live... young Dexter? Plus, what’s coming on Quantum Leap. Spoilers, away!

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As much as Netflix account holders were dreading the day the company finally cracked down on password sharing, the streaming giant’s first taste of what it has in store for users was both confusing and concerning. Folks online were dumbfounded by some unverified reports that Netflix’s password sharing would require…Read more...

In That Self-Same Metal, her debut fantasy novel, author Brittany N. Williams draws on her own background—she’s a classically trained actor who knows her way around a sword—to help bring her young protagonist to life. io9 has an exclusive excerpt to share from this Shakespearan tale today.Read more...

Height limitations have always been a challenge for some amusement park guests, as safety features on thrill rides aren’t designed to accommodate every rider. But Mario fans flocking to Universal Studios Hollywood this month for the opening of Super Nintendo World may find themselves unable to enjoy the park’s most…Read more...

A bill in the Massachusetts state legislature, proposed by Democratic state Representatives Carlos González and Judith García, to create the Massachusetts Incarcerated Individual Bone Marrow and Organ Donation Program, which the legislation’s sponsors say “would restore bodily autonomy to incarcerated folks” and also…Read more...

Surfing the web is one of the great joys of modern life. With the click of a button you can know who starred in that TV show you like, what to name your child, or how to tell if your cat wants you dead.

Unprecedented layoffs have put tens of thousands of highly qualified computer nerds out of a job, but there’s apparently one place they can always turn to if they get really desperate: the dark web! A recent report from security firm Kaspersky shows that some job postings on darknet crime forums offer absurdly…Read more...

OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company behind viral text-generator ChatGPT, has released a new AI tool intended to help manage the mess wrought by its previous creation. Unfortunately, it’s not very good.

Ten years ago, Hasbro announced something akin to a disturbance in the Force—and Star Wars toy fans’ wallets: The Black Series, a brand new line that would bump the iconic heroes and villains of the galaxy far, far away up to 6" scale for the first time (and away from the 3.75" scale Star Wars changed the game with).

It feels like the last month of gaming news has been a whole decade. Remember the OGL 1.1? That happened less than three weeks ago! For those of you who don’t pay attention to Dungeons & Dragons (teach me your ways), you can check out our explainer here. Otherwise, here’s some incredible games as we gear up for Zine…Read more...

A new rebrand is in the works for Paramount after CEO Bob Bakish announced the company is merging Showtime and Paramount+. As part of the merger, Paramount+ will be rebranded as Paramount+ With Showtime, which will be overseen by Tom Ryan. Meanwhile, Chris McCarthy will continue to oversee network operations for…Read more...

Not to be left behind in any trend-chasing, Hollywood is scrambling after the promise of artificial intelligence. In this case, one movie is banking its premise on the promise of AI-driven deepfake tech.Read more...

It’s February, traditionally a month for romance—but 2023 is also bringing a bumper crop of frights! There are several big horror titles out this month, including Stephen Graham Jones’ sequel to My Heart Is a Chainsaw and author Matt Ruff’s return to Lovecraft Country... as well as all the sci-fi and fantasy your…Read more...

The European Space Agency has released its image of the month for January, and it is (perhaps unsurprisingly) a stunning shot from the Webb Space Telescope.Read more...

Starlink, the satellite-based internet service from SpaceX, has an active presence on the continent of Africa, with the company announcing yesterday that Starlink is now available in Nigeria.

Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger are returning to the app game with a new innovative startup since leaving the ‘gram in 2018. Artifact is a new social media platform that will provide a feed of articles and facts aimed to create a dialogue between users to discuss things of interest.Read more...

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During the press event where DC Studios rolled out its planned projects for the future of the DC Universe, new co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran outlined what to expect—and also what not to expect. The latter includes any chance of seeing Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah’s cancelled Batgirl movie.Read more...

If by some miracle you had a great 2022, you’re not alone. At least two of the world’s biggest oil corporations thoroughly rocked last year. In fact, for ExxonMobil and Chevron, 2022 wasn’t just a good year—it was the best one ever.Read more...

Hope you got the chance to test out Twitter’s CoTweet feature, as the company suddenly dropped the ability for Twitter users to co-author tweets Tuesday.Read more...

After its first two episodes, everyone knew The Last of Us was good, but episode three really put things on a whole new level. Titled “Long, Long Time,” the extended flashback beautifully told the love story of Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), two men who fall in love and prove that good things are…Read more...

Welp, it’s official: New York City has been snow-free for the longest time in its recorded history this winter. On Monday, January 29, the city surpassed the previous date of the longest amount of time without snowfall in a winter season, beating out a record set in 1970.

The 28th flight of NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia ended in disaster on February 1, 2003, while it was 27 miles above the state of Texas, marking the second catastrophic mission of NASA’s shuttle program. Twenty years later, the tragic event serves as an important reminder of the dangers posed by space exploration—and…Read more...

There’s a new DC Universe in town and it’s being run by James Gunn and Peter Safran. Tuesday, Warner Bros. announced the initial slate of projects coming from DC Studios, which will attempt to relaunch and recalibrate not just DC movies, but TV shows, games and more. It includes a new Superman movie, a new Batman…Read more...

There’s a lot of junk orbiting our planet, from tiny flecks of paint to defunct rocket stages. While solutions to remove pre-existing debris have been developed, a private space company in Germany has successfully tested a method to deorbit satellites at the end of their life to prevent them from becoming space…Read more...

Today in extra-nerdy information about the new Dungeons & Dragons film, co-director and co-writer Jonathan Goldstein shared a behind-the-scenes picture of Dragon Cultists waiting in line for the porta potty. Not the most flattering image, sure, but the costumes do look appropriately Cult of the Dragon-y, and we can…Read more...

In the latest in a string of troubling incidents at the Dallas Zoo, two emperor tamarin monkeys have vanished, just weeks after a clouded leopard also disappeared from its habitat and an endangered vulture was found dead under suspicious circumstances. On Tuesday, the Dallas Police released a photo of a man they say…Read more...

For those people who loved Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson’s interpretation of the Dark Knight and were worried about how it might fit into James Gunn’s bold, unexpected vision for the new DC Universe, don’t worry: It won’t. But that’s a good thing, since The Batman sequel will still be coming out.

Superman, Batman and two Green Lanterns will feature prominently in the newly reimagined DC Universe, a shared, overarching storyline blending films, television, animation, games, and more, all under the watchful eyes of DC Studios presidents James Gunn and Peter Safran.Read more...

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We are, horrifyingly, less than 365 days away from another US presidential election year. But before that, we have another annual election of infinitely less dire and thus stressful consequences—picking which mutant joins the X-Men. And unlike years previous, you don’t have to be a diehard X-fan to know who all of the…Read more...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) requested documents from Tesla related to the company’s Autopilot and so-called “Full Self-Driving” features, according to a Tesla financial filing submitted Tuesday. In part of Tesla’s most recent quarterly report to investors and the Securities and Exchange Commission, the…Read more...

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There’s a lot of opinions flying around about the pros and cons of the future of ChatGPT, but Arvind Narayanan—a computer science professor from Princeton University—thinks the hype is still overblown at this point.

Before it eventually imploded, the crypto lender Celsius Network promised users it would not be any regular bank—no, it would be bigger than a bank—and users could “unbank” themselves by funneling some of their funds to Celsius. Users would gain interest while Celsius would gingerly handle your crypto for you,…Read more...

NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars on February 18, 2020, and has since been spending every Martian sol exploring the western end of Jezero Crater, imaging the Martian surface, and—vitally—collecting rock samples that will be shipped to Earth in the early 2030s.Read more...

In some genuinely disappointing news, FX has canceled Kindred, the television adaptation of Octavia Butler’s seminal novel about a young woman who travels back and forth in time between her ancestor’s slave-holding estate in Baltimore and her life in present-day California. While I found the show a little slow at…Read more...

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Genetic engineering company Colossal Biosciences said Tuesday that it will try to resurrect the extinct dodo bird, and it’s received $150 million in new funding to support its “de-extinction” activities.Read more...

Apps and websites are always wanting more, aren’t they? More data, more privileges, more control. As a result, you’ll often get a flurry of permissions or cookie pop-ups whenever you open up an app or a site for the first time, pop-ups that you might not always be paying full attention to as you try to get on with the…Read more...

While the market for true-wireless gaming earbuds is remarkably small, it just got a little bigger with the addition of the Anker Soundcore VR P10. These earbuds have a lot in common with the typical Bluetooth options you’ll find on the market, but they bear the budget-friendly pricing of Anker’s other Soundcore…Read more...

California prosecutors charged Dharmesh Patel, a 41-year-old radiologist from Southern California, with three counts of attempted murder for driving a Tesla with his family inside off a 250-foot cliff earlier this month.Read more...

Last week on Zoom, where I spend all the best moments of my life, I spoke with the chief product office of an ad tech company called Full Throttle. Amol Waishampayan said his company has a brand-new patented technique that will let companies collect even more of your data—ten times more data, he claims—and tie that…Read more...