Gizmodo

In general, I can be on the fence about Instagram. The pressure to be “perfect” for the ‘gram can make me roll my eyes or bore me (though yes, I have succumbed to this pressure before, I’m only human). One thing Instagram knows is that I like is cats, which frequently leads me to ask myself: Why aren’t there more cats…Read more...

At this point, Florida’s ban on mask mandates in public schools can be compared to Katy Perry’s famous song, “Hot N Cold.” Sometimes it’s a yes, sometimes it’s a no.Read more...

Ravenloft and Dragonlance, two of D&D’s most iconic classic settings, wouldn’t exist without the work of husband-and-wife team Tracy and Laura Hickman. Now, the Hickmans are setting their sights on a new world for a tabletop roleplaying setting—and while it’s not explicitly part of D&D, it’s leveraging the latest…Read more...

While we’re thrilled to get any sneak peeks at what’s to come on our beloved Star Trek: Lower Decks, we’re also a little dismayed to be receiving a mid-season trailer right about now... since it’s making us realize that the show’s excellent second season will soon be nearing its home stretch. However! As this clip…Read more...

After the near $100 million opening of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the Walt Disney Company just made a major statement about the future of its films. First, all of the company’s remaining 2021 releases, including Eternals and The King’s Man, will play only in theaters for 45 days. In addition, the…Read more...

In an attempt to fight a recent deluge of hateful and bigoted content on its platform, Twitch has opted for a new tactic in its war on persistent trolls: taking them to court.

Last week, the trial against Backpage began, commencing a long-awaited battle over either a massive criminal conspiracy or the fate of free speech online—all ultimately sideswiping sex workers who depended on the site. Prosecutors allege that the site facilitated sex work and sex trafficking; the founders have branded…Read more...

What’s an employer to do if they found out they had underpaid workers by millions of dollars what they were legally owed? If they had a conscience—or at least a fear of consequences—they could fess up and give them back pay owed. Google instead shrugged and dragged its feet on a remedy when it discovered that it had…Read more...

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's regular roundup of all things good, posable, and plastic. This week: Hasbro puts a stake in a wild Transformers crossover, the latest Skywalker lightsaber gets a killer new replica, and Lego returns to the Bale Batman era. Check it out!

If you haven’t had the chance to get a COVID-19 vaccine yet, here’s a pretty good reason to schedule your first dose. On Friday, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients hinted that the jab might soon be mandatory for folks looking to take domestic air travel in the U.S.Read more...

In a press conference on Friday, NASA revealed more about the Perseverance rover’s first successful collection of Martian rock, which was confirmed Monday. The successful sampling is the fundamental first step in a 10-year-plan to bring Martian rock to Earth for close examination.

Rewatching the 1999 superhero comedy Mystery Men was not a good decision. But it was a decision I made for specific, good reasons. I saw Mystery Men when it was originally released and didn’t quite care for it. Didn’t hate it, just didn’t care for it. But, as we all know, in the years since its release, the pillars…Read more...

If you’ve been holding off on getting a Sonos speaker because they’re too expensive, some bad news: They’re about to get more expensive. Starting Sept. 12, Sonos is raising prices on almost all its products.Read more...

Satellite images of Louisiana taken before and after Hurricane Ida show a dramatically altered coastline, with many low-lying areas still inundated with water. Scientists are carefully monitoring the landscape to see how it evolves over time, and whether some changes are permanent.Read more...

A bacterial infection has killed at least eight people in Florida this year so far, health officials reported recently. Twenty people in the state overall have been sickened by the waterborne bacteria Vibrio vulnificus, a relative of cholera infamously known for sometimes causing a flesh-eating infection.Read more...

Whom amongst us hasn’t dreamt of being something they’re not. Me, personally, I dream about quitting journalism to open a coffee roastery in a mountain town where I can sling joe in the morning and get a couple of laps in the afternoon. Maybe I’d even close the shop for an hour on mornings with fresh powder. Summers…Read more...

YouTuber DanCreator has us wondering what fun Switch accessories we’d be enjoying had Nintendo not seemingly abandoned its Labo cardboard building kits. As fun as the cardboard fishing rod was, we’d eagerly swap it for a full-on cardboard Mario Kart Arcade cabinet, complete with a working steering wheel and gas pedal.Read more...

It’s been 91 years since amateur astronomer Clyde Tombaugh first spotted Pluto on a set of glass negatives. Since then, the object has been declared a planet, named, and, of course, demoted to a dwarf planet in 2006. Whatever its status, our fascination with Pluto has held fast. But until very recently, we didn’t have…Read more...

Kirk and Spock. Burnham and Georgiou. Janeway and Tuvok. The list of Star Trek duos whose relationships define so much of the emotional cores of their series goes on, and on, and on. In a pairing like Boimler and Mariner, Lower Decks is no exception. But this season has seen the pair shift and shuffle around enough…Read more...

One day, when the Statue of Liberty has been replaced by a giant Funko Pop; when big-headed, black-eyed figures feature in all our religious iconography; when these vinyl toys are somehow made legally available to hold public office, remember this: the beginning of the end came on November 25, 2021, when an enormous …Read more...

An alarm went off on the International Space Station earlier this morning as cosmonauts woke up to the smell of smoke.

Welcome to Burning Questions, a series where Earther answers the most common asks we get on how to address climate change. Many people want to do something, anything to help address the climate crisis. We answer your questions about how to help change your life—and the systems that will save us. Check out our past …Read more...

Over the years we’ve seen countless contraptions designed to help protect cyclists in the event of a crash, including a neck collar that inflates around the head, and pants that blow up like a balloon. EVOC Sports’ new Commute Air Pro 18 appears to be a simpler idea, hiding an emergency airbag inside a motion-sensing…Read more...

If you’re of a certain age, just the name of the 1982 animated film The Secret of NIMH is enough to fill you with a certain amount of dread, even if you can’t remember exactly why. Luckily for you—and those younger generations who haven’t been scarred by the tale of a mouse widow who must protect her young family from…Read more...

Jair Bolsonaro, the fascist Keebler elf who unfortunately remains president of Brazil, is now ordering social media platforms not to delete certain content including his fantastical assertions that he can only lose next year’s elections due to fraud.

The record for hottest summer in the U.S. has stood since 1936, the worst of the Dust Bowl. But 2021 has eclipsed that 85-year-old mark amid a season of drought, flames, and suffering.Read more...

Toxic algae blooms have sent over 300 Americans to the emergency room in recent years, new research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found. Researchers reviewed ER visits related to algae bloom exposure across the country between 2017 and 2019, and they warn that doctors will need to be on the…Read more...

We love a space mystery—and Braking Day, from debut novelist Adam Oyebanji, sounds like an exceptionally juicy one. It begins as a man working on the generation ship where he’s spent his entire life sees something unbelievable: a woman floating in space without a helmet. How... and who? io9 has an exclusive first look…Read more...

Now that The Matrix Revolutions’ first trailer has been uploaded to the real-world internet that keeps our world humming, it’s time to break down Lana Wachowski’s vision for the next chapter of the Matrix franchise.

New fossil evidence suggests mammals have been suffering from cavities for a very, very long time, and we can blame it on our timeless love of sugary foods.

Microsoft announced in a blog post that it’s testing out new firmware for Xbox controllers in order to ensure that the accessories people already have in their collections have cross-device connectivity akin to what the Series X|S controllers currently offer.Read more...

Michael Myers strikes in another new glimpse from Halloween Kills. The Muppets date their own Haunted Mansion ride. Get a look at what’s coming on Titans, and Riverdale...wait I’m sorry there’s a Queen of Bees now? To me, my spoilers!

Hot off the heels of the incredibly beefy HT-A7000, Sony’s back with yet another Dolby Atmos soundbar. And while the specs on these two speakers are pretty similar, the Sony AT-5000 is meant for smaller rooms and spaces. Oh, and it’s $400 cheaper.Read more...

After years of murmurs, Facebook was all set to formally announce its first pair of “smart” sunglasses today. Ray-Ban, Facebook’s partner on this project, even put up a splashy site teasing the announcement two days ago. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg even posted video clips supposedly taken with the device. And then…Read more...

Product launch season is here, and that means it’s about time to gear up for Apple’s annual September event. Like last year, ongoing production issues and supply chain woes probably mean we’re going to see multiple launch events this fall. That said, we’re pretty sure next week’s event will center around the iPhone 13.Read more...

Astronomers have captured the best images yet of Kleopatra, a 168-mile-long asteroid nicknamed the “dog-bone” on account of its unusual shape. The latest observations are offering fresh insights into the object’s shape and precarious spin and how its moons likely came into existence.

The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, has a message for people visiting loved ones in the hospital with covid-19: Having sex isn’t part of regular “visiting hours.”

The most frequently asked question when it comes to robot vacuums is simple: Does it clean pet poop? The answer is still no, but today, iRobot announced a new Roomba that’s at least capable of detecting and avoiding your furbaby’s stinky accidents.Read more...

The return of Q into the life of Jean-Luc Picard was never going to be good, but who would have guessed he would go full Biff Tannen? Revealed as part of Paramount+’s Star Trek Day celebrations, we have our latest look at Star Trek: Picard season two. And surprise! Sir Patrick Stewart also announced the series has…Read more...

We’re not getting a glimpse of the series proper yet, but here it is: your new Enterprise crew for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Well, technically an old-new Enterprise crew.

Stardate, November 18: that’s when we’ll finally pick back up with the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery, led by a brand-new captain we’ve gotten to know rather well over the past three seasons: Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green).Read more...

Sure, they don’t know where the gravity controls or weapons buttons are, but it is an experimental starship, after all.Read more...

A hacker gang has allegedly collected and dumped a large trove of approximately 500,000 login credentials belonging to users of a popular VPN product from cybersecurity firm Fortinet.Read more...

Over-the-air wireless charging is the dream—after all, who doesn’t want to charge their phone without plugging it in? Gadget-makers have attempted to bring the technology to market and make it a daily reality, though there’s still work to be done and regulatory hurdles to clear.

The ongoing pissing match between Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX reached new levels of pettiness on Wednesday with a letter filed by Amazon to the Federal Communications Commission regarding Musk’s plans to expand its growing satellite network.Read more...

The Brennan Center has released a cache of 6,000 pages of Los Angeles Police Department documents, obtained by the California Public Records Act, detailing years of surveillance campaigns. The collection is a critical resource for activists, journalists, and First Amendment advocates who’ve been collecting evidence…Read more...

Health officials in India are trying to stop the spread of yet another serious infectious disease. Over the weekend, a 12-year-old boy died from an infection caused by the Nipah virus, a highly lethal germ spread from bats or contaminated food that can also spread between people. Hundreds of people potentially exposed…Read more...

The scariest words any anime fan can hear are “live-action adaptation.” Popular anime series and films work because of the medium—animation allows for things that are impossible to capture in real life. And Japanese animation in particular has a style and vibe that’s wholly unique and damn near impossible to recreate.…Read more...

Furthering its quest to suddenly become every other app, Twitter is now introducing Facebook Group/Reddit subreddit-like groups called Communities that revolve around shared interests.

Being able to see inside a closed room was a skill once reserved for super heroes. But researchers at the Stanford Computational Imaging Lab have expanded on a technique called non-line-of-sight imaging so that just a single point of laser light entering a room can be used to see what physical objects might be inside.Read more...