Gizmodo

Multiple health departments in Missouri have abandoned most or all of their covid-19 tracking and prevention work after a recent court ruling stripped state and local public health agencies of their powers to establish disease prevention measures.Read more...

Early on Sunday, a tweet appeared on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s account announcing, out of the blue, that the country had adopted bitcoin as legal tender and would be distributing 500 coins, or $24 million at current market prices, to citizens. Sorry to rain on your parade cryptocurrency stans, but the post…Read more...

With Halo Infinite, 343 Industries and Microsoft want the sixth major entry in the long-running shooter franchise to feel like a soft reboot of the series, particularly in regards to the relationship between the Master Chief and his AI buddy Cortana. After her supposed death at the end of Halo 4, and Halo 5 setting…Read more...

As the “Great Resignation” and anti-work movement continue to pick up steam, companies are struggling with record employee turnover. Customer service industries have been among the hardest hit, with many workers saying no thank you to the idea of handling Karens day in and day out during a pandemic. In a bid to curb…Read more...

One of the things that often makes My Hero Academia so compelling a read (and watch) is Deku. Fun as it can be to watch Bakugo overreact to everything or get swept in the superhero spectacle of it all, using the once powerless Izuku Midoriya as an anchor point to bounce off other characters in the throes of heroic…Read more...

Ever since Injustice: Gods Among Us showed up in 2013 with its take on Superman as a despot, and Man of Steel offered a take on the superhero that was more brutal than the versions that came before, the idea of the Man of Steel being anything other than a shining beacon of hope has been met with disdain. Those who…Read more...

On late Saturday evening, it was announced that Anne Rice, the novelist of gothic horror books such as “Interview with a Vampire,” died at 80 years old. The news broke from her son Christopher, who revealed on social media that complications from a stroke led to her passing.

A bug that prevented a small number of Android users from calling 911 if they had Microsoft Teams installed and were not signed in has been fixed in the latest version of the app.Read more...

As many AirPod owners probably know, Apple’s wireless headphones, while undoubtedly good devices, can have problems just like any other piece of technology. When it comes to issues with firmware, though, the devices can be a bit of a pain to fix given that there’s no manual way to update them. That’s set to change…Read more...

For a long time and to many a fan’s ire, it felt like the only way for DC characters to get a video game was if they were adjacent to Batman. Whether it was being the Dark Knight’s disciples, enemies, or friends turned enemies, the caped hero has largely dominated DC’s gaming output for decades, not unlike in films or…Read more...

When Idris Elba was announced as Knuckles the Echidna for the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the internet lost its mind at the idea of the Brit’s voice inhabiting the role of a mammal with big ass fists. Given how sometimes voiceover roles can see A or B-list actors not really give it their all, there was also some…Read more...

With how popular adaptations of musicals have gotten over the years and Hollywood loving itself some modern reboots that are also fresh retellings, we were bound to get a new take on Phantom of the Opera. It’s been long enough since the 2004 film with Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum that it almost feels overdue.

After What If...?’s first episode introduced the world to a version of Peggy Carter that took the Super Soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers, fans really took a shine to that version of Haley Atwell’s character. With this iteration of Peggy also set to be the lead of the show’s eventual sophomore season, it’s not a…Read more...

The sun has risen on scenes of widespread destruction from Arkansas to Illinois following a series of deadly tornadoes that hit overnight on Friday.

Physicists at Stanford University and SLAC have built a contraption they hope will detect dark matter, though exactly which theoretical particles they think they’ll find—hidden photons or little blips called axions—is still a question mark.Read more...

If you were looking for nominees for “Worst Boss of the Year,” look no further than Better.com CEO Vishal Garg, who is apparently “taking time off” in response to the backlash he’s received for behaving like trash.Read more...

While some people may consider gold, jewelry, art, wine, or antiques good investments in the long-term, a new study challenges that notion and presents a unique and more lucrative alternative: Lego sets.Read more...

Did you know James Cameron used to make movie posters? It’s true. In his new book, Tech Noir: The Art of James Cameron, the director of Terminator, Avatar, and Aliens talks about his time creating posters for an old movie company called Saturn, not even watching the movies because they were so bad, and just sending in…Read more...

For years, Alex Jones, the proprietor of far-right internet hellhole InfoWars, was able to monetize disgusting lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, where a gunman shot and killed 26 people including 20 children before dying by suicide. Jones was particularly obsessed with selling the idea that…Read more...

One of the world’s leading luxury car brands just won regulatory approval from the German government to operate a hands-free, autonomous driving system on public roads, a feat that marks a significant stepping stone along the long, and so far winding road toward self-driving cars. That car company was not Tesla.…Read more...

One of the sillier things about Marvel and Sony’s upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home is Peter Parker’s apparent reluctance to take out the dimension-hopping foes he’s about to face. In Marvel’s latest trailers for the movie, Peter’s been dismayed at the idea of Electro, the Green Goblin, and Doctor Octopus all being…Read more...

Everybody get ready to patch up. What started off as a security issue for fans of the immensely popular video game Minecraft has quickly transformed into a full-blown, internet-wide crisis.

Even hardcore investors will likely admit that the crypto community tends to attract some pretty scummy personalities; cyber-criminals, con-artists, and Elon Musk, for starters. Now, it looks like we can add white supremacists to that list as well; a new study from the Southern Poverty Law Center probed into the…Read more...

Social media erupted this week when a single passage from this year’s World Inequality Report went viral comparing the carbon footprint of a short space joyride to a lifetime’s worth of emissions for the world’s poorest. The statistic perfectly encapsulates the unequal distribution of between those who cause climate…Read more...

We’re now learning the great lengths Microsoft was willing to take to bring Xbox games to iPhones. The company reluctantly planned to bring exclusive triple-A Xbox titles to the App Store in the form of individual apps due to Apple’s requirements for games, but the deal fell through.

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's regular round-up of the latest and greatest in nerdy merchandise. This week: Lego’s latest modular building brings some class to your display, The Book of Boba Fett opens up to a page of action figures, and Destiny’s most iconic rocket launcher is getting the Nerf treatment. Check it…Read more...

Jason Momoa shares an update on Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Thora Birch has exited Netflix’s Wednesday Addams show. Plus, a new look at the next Hotel Transylvania, and AMC sinks its teeth into a new vampire adventure. Spoilers now!

If you’re not streaming your gameplay to the world, are you really gaming at all? If you’re just getting started with livestreaming, or if you’re interested in upgrading from the basics, there are plenty of gadgets on the market to upgrade your audio, your video, and every other aspect of your streams.Read more...

Some PC builders consider the case to be nothing more than a necessary utility for organizing components. Buy the cheapest black rectangle that can house a CPU and GPU without running into thermal troubles and be on your way. Others, however, see them as a blank canvas for expressing ideas and interests. These folks…Read more...

Bill Gates, the cofounder of Microsoft who left the company’s board in 2020, wrote an end-of-the-year note on Thursday filled with reflections on the pandemic and the year 2021. But Gates also included some predictions for the future, and they could give some indication of where tech companies are looking for the next…Read more...

Julian Assange can be extradited to the U.S. based on a new UK court ruling early Friday, according to multiple reports from news outlets in London. A lower court ruled back in January that Assange couldn’t be extradited to the U.S. because he’d likely face torture in the American prison system and was in danger of …Read more...

We’ve seen the helmet. We know who from Halo lore is showing up, and what new faces will join them. Now it’s time to get our first proper look as the Master Chief warthogs his way to his very own streaming series.

A German court has ruled that a man who fell down a staircase while walking from his bedroom to his home office injured himself at work and is therefore covered under his company’s workplace accident insurance policy.Read more...

Sonic the Hedgehog 2's first trailer, otherwise known as the sick little treat tucked into this year’s Video Game Awards, is finally here—and it is, to put it mildly, a trip.Read more...

The Sundance Film Festival has a long tradition of debuting movies that make an impact—including genre hits like Saw, The Blair Witch Project, Donnie Darko, 28 Days Later, The Descent, and Primer. So each year, we keep an eye on what’s playing, hoping to find the next big breakout. With the 2022 program recently…Read more...

In the years since the Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed how easily Facebook’s political ads could be weaponized by bad actors abroad, the social network has made some major overhauls that, in a perfect world, would keep a scandal like that from happening again. It rolled out an ever-growing library of the ads…Read more...

In another effort to win subscribers in the streaming wars, NBCUniversal announced on Thursday that it will make movies from Universal Pictures, Focus Features, Illumination, and DreamWorks Animation available on Peacock as early as 45 days after their release in theaters.Read more...

Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop ended on something of an interesting cliffhanger with its first season, but from the sounds of things, the recently released show’s luck has run out.Read more...

A cheap $300 TCL TV is one of the best tech purchases I’ve made in recent years. I had just moved to Brooklyn as a cash-strapped 20-something out of college and needed a TV that just got the job done. The TCL with Roku built in was the ideal solution, and since then, I’ve been recommending it to folks on a similar…Read more...

Two men are three weeks into an expedition to Antartica’s Pole of Inaccessibility, an isolated spot that is 560 miles from the South Pole. The pair are working in collaboration with NASA and the European Space Agency as they record the psychological and physiological effects of the journey, data that the space…Read more...

For all the talk we’ve heard from tech giants in recent weeks about the future in which we all work and play in something called the metaverse, few people have actually been able to experience this grand vision for themselves. Well, now you can: Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, has opened its Horizon…Read more...

Desperate to reinvent the wheel as it weathers a Senate investigation and cedes more and more of its young user base to platforms like TikTok, Instagram will once again give users the option to browse “a version” of its chronological feed after years of utilizing an algorithmically-generated one.Read more...

For years, Karate Kid fans looked down on The Karate Kid Part III. That changes this month when The Karate Kid Part III looms large over Cobra Kai. The upcoming fourth season of the hit Netflix show debuts December 31, and the return of Cobra Kai co-founder and Part III villain Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffin) is…Read more...

Foldable phones promise to one day supplant our standard slab-shaped devices, and now another smartphone giant is throwing its hat in the ring with a product set to rival the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3.

Traveling the globe remains a challenge as we quickly approach our third year of living with the Covid-19 pandemic. To help stave off cabin fever, Alex Shakespeare built themselves a fake window that simulates a live view from different cities around the world, but how it’s controlled might be the best part.Read more...

Role-playing games can be hard, but life is harder. It’s a lesson that the already anxious Maggie learns when she enters middle school in Veronica Agarwal and Lee Durfey-Lavoie’s upcoming graphic novel Just Roll With It. Maggie navigates life by rolling a 20-sided die whenever she gets nervous, and she gets nervous a…Read more...

Even more Spider-Man: No Way Home footages teases its villainous mashup. Joe Madureira’s Battle Chasers’ could be coming to TV. Plus, there’s good news for Invasion, and we’ve got a new look at Snowpiercer’s third season. To me, my spoilers!

As a vacuuming fanatic with a deep-seated hatred of crumbs on my floors, the greatest thing to happen to my daily routine was the convenience of a cordless vacuum—but they’re not perfect. Cordless vacs are often a pain to empty without creating another mess, and if you’re not willing to permanently attach a charging…Read more...

The government of New Zealand is preparing to ban cigarette smoking forever by anyone born after 2008, according to a new report from the news outlet Stuff. The move would eventually make it illegal for anyone in New Zealand to smoke, no matter how old they got, while allowing those who are currently addicted to…Read more...

The U.S. Senate voted late Wednesday to block President Joe Biden’s proposed covid-19 vaccine mandate for private businesses, a move that’s largely seen as symbolic since the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives is unlikely to take up the issue and the White House has the power to veto the legislation even…Read more...