Gizmodo

Members of the billionaire Sackler family, long accused of misleading the public about the addictiveness of the OxyContin sold by their privately owned pharmaceutical company, Purdue Pharma, were granted sweeping immunity from civil lawsuits by a federal judge on Wednesday.Read more...

Creepshow, Shudder’s anthology series inspired by the George A. Romero-Stephen King cult films, returns in just a few weeks—and the show, which is executive produced and showrun by Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead), has just unleashed its first season three trailer. Feast your eyes!Read more...

You might be familiar with the McFlurry machine as “the way you get a milkshake at McDonald’s” or, more typically, “the machine that’s always broken, preventing you from getting a milkshake at McDonald’s.” But according to a new report, the Federal Trade Commission is familiar with the McFlurry machine as “potentially…Read more...

A few months after Nia DaCosta officially signed on to direct the new Candyman—which has gone on to become the first movie directed by a Black woman to premiere at the top of the box office—the director happened to bump into New York Times columnist and illustrator Julia Rothman, who was randomly interviewing people…Read more...

In states like Florida and Georgia, hospitals and morgues are buckling under the weight of a new sudden surge in COVID cases with no end in sight. You might be thinking that people should focus on wearing masks and getting vaccinated to flatten the curve, but Sweetgreen CEO Jonathan Neman thinks we should be taking a…Read more...

Even when a hurricane is all but a zombie, it can still do serious damage. The remnants of Hurricane Ida, now a tropical depression, unleashed hours of heavy rains and threatened thousands of people on the East Coast on Wednesday just two days after the storm made landfall and caused widespread destruction in LouisianaRead more...

Sunday evenings aren’t for sitting around in existential dread of the week to come anymore! Instead, they’re for families, both kids and adults, to come together and watch Warner Bros.-produced content. Specifically, families should come together starting at 6:00 pm ET on September 19, because that’s when Cartoon…Read more...

The first official tests of Joby Aviation’s all-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle have begun. NASA is leading these tests, which it’s doing to foster the development of similarly advanced aircraft.Read more...

When is a piece of art better than another piece of art? When it’s two pieces in one. That’s the theme of “Transitions,” the latest show by pop culture artist Cuyler Smith. Smith is best known for turning sports movies into trading cards, but in recent months he’s become interested in lenticular prints and has been…Read more...

The second-generation Nest Doorbell is the first battery-powered version of the device from Google, equipped with various battery-saving features by default. But even though you can plug in the new Nest Doorbell via power wire, it won’t support around-the-clock video recording.

Even if you don’t live in Texas, you’ve likely heard about the state’s draconian abortion restrictions that officially went into effect on Wednesday. The so-called “Heartbeat Bill,” aka Senate Bill 8, makes it fully illegal for anyone—friends, family, doctors—across Texas to help women access an abortion in the state…Read more...

A New York City legislator has introduced a bill that would let the police department use radar and artificial intelligence to surveil noise levels related to traffic in the city. If you got caught making a ruckus in violation of city code under the new law, the NYPD could use the tech to identify your car and send…Read more...

Earlier this year, a group of people working with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and other writing guilds formed the “Disney Must Pay Task Force.” This was the result of a public disagreement between the studio and Star Wars and Alien tie-in novelist Alan Dean Foster over Disney holding back on…Read more...

Archaeologists in southeastern China found evidence of ancient beer consumption tucked away in some of the ceramic vessels at the site. Because the excavation also turned up two human skeletons, the research team believes the beer was ritually consumed, perhaps to honor the dead.Read more...

Author Salman Rushdie is joining subscription newsletter service Substack, telling the Guardian that hardcover books remain “incredibly, mutinously alive” and he is “having another go, I guess, at killing it.”Read more...

A Syrian power plant began leaking oil last week, and now the spill is heading for Cyprus. The effects on marine ecosystems and communities could be devastating as it spreads across the Mediterranean.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Apple is working on a number of advanced health features for the Apple Watch, including the ability to measure your blood pressure and body temperature. This is definitely in the realm of possibility, but just because Apple’s working on a feature doesn’t mean it’ll land on…Read more...

This month we’ve got stories galore to keep you entertained as the seasons change. Read on for kingdoms in rebellion, magical murder mysteries, space shenanigans, parallel dimensions, vampires, a new Dune novel, haunted houses (and forests and lakes), short-story collections, and so much more.Read more...

In both Marvel’s What If animated series and the comic books they’re based on, Uatu the Watcher is committed to a life of unceasing, removed impartiality and sworn to never become directly involved with any of the events he witnesses across the multiverse. Episode four of Disney+’s What If was a reminder of the…Read more...

In the same way that the Doom Patrol is seemingly always open to the idea of adding new members to their heroic group, they’re just as willing to haphazardly accept newcomers into their rogues’ gallery. After two seasons of fighting demons, aliens, and oversized vermin, Doom Patrol’s on its way back to HBO Max for a…Read more...

Apple wants to hold all of our most important stuff in the Apple Wallet: a tempting offer we’re declining for now because we don’t need the pain of losing the phone compounded with also losing our credit cards, house keys, and car keys. But if you’re willing to roll the dice, Apple has announced that eight states are…Read more...

Like so many of us, Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant just wants to be heard and understood, but is often drowned out by the discordant cacophony of 21st century life. But no longer: Amazon is reportedly rolling out a new adaptive volume feature that will allow Alexa to respond more loudly if you happen to be in a noisy…Read more...

An international collaboration of scientists say it’s safe for astronauts to fly to Mars and back, provided the length of the mission does not exceed four years and that crewed flights to the Red Planet coincide with a well-known solar cycle.

The meat culture wars have shone a light on the uncomfortable truth: As delicious as they are, hamburgers aren’t so great for the planet. Agriculture makes up one-third of total methane emissions worldwide. While that encompasses a lot of different components, like land use and manure management, emissions from the…Read more...

We already know Microsoft is launching Windows 11 on Oct. 5, but what would a new operating system be without new hardware to showcase it? Microsoft is having what many have pegged as a Surface hardware event on Sept. 22 at 8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET. It’s all virtual, of course, and there’s a link available if you want to…Read more...

The average pooch may know when you’re choosing not to give them treats, new research from Germany suggests. The study found that dogs reacted differently when people withheld food from them intentionally or seemingly by accident, indicating that they could tell the difference. The findings could mean that dogs…Read more...

It’s still kind of a bummer that Charlize Theron won’t be returning as Furiosa in the Mad Max: Fury Road role she played so indelibly that it earned the character a prequel. But since the Furiosa movie takes place in the Imperator’s past, you can’t do much better than rising star Anya Taylor-Joy of The Witch and The…Read more...

Hurricane Ida slammed into the Gulf Coast this weekend, but we’re still getting a handle on the damages from the storm. While New Orleans made it through the storm without much flooding (though the city is suffering from widespread power outages and sewage problems), other parishes around the city were hit hard.

More than 100 subreddits with tens of millions of users between them are all going dark this week in protest of Reddit’s inexplicable decision to allow communities to spread misinformation about COVID-19 and its vaccines. Reddit’s stance became clear last week when the company’s CEO, Steve Huffman, responded to a…Read more...

Taking a page from Apple’s playbook, it looks like Google is working on its own processors for Chromebooks and tablets. And according to a Nikkei Asia report, we could see in-house Google chips as early as 2023, and devices powered by those chips soon after.

Here’s one way of making yourself look totally innocent: issuing wild threats against anyone who dares cooperate with investigators.Read more...

“You know, I’ve always wanted a child. And now I think I’ll have one on toast!” We’re two months out from Halloween, and since it’s never too early to start planning for the best day of the year, io9 is thrilled to be sharing four recipes inspired by one of our favorite seasonal films (which has a sequel on the way),…Read more...

Amid a pandemic-induced labor shortage that has forced some businesses to stretch their existing workforces to the breaking point in order to meet demands, Agility Robotics released a video on Wednesday that shows a bunch of robots that can lift boxes at least 40 percent as well as a human, but still can’t write a…Read more...

The popular crypto exchange Coinbase freaked out a helluva lot of people this past weekend when it sent them erroneous alerts telling them that their 2-factor authentication settings had been messed with.Read more...

DoorDash is clearing a suite of class-action lawsuits from Massachusetts and California off its plate, just as it marches ahead with extended battles in those states against employee classification. The company’s proposed settlement for claimants in 11 cases results in a predictably lousy payout for workers who’ve…Read more...

Tardigrades are famous for their extreme durability, but new research shows how good they are at walking, despite their teeny size and squishy bodies.

Get another cryptic look at Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho. Shazam: Fury of the Gods has wrapped filming. Netflix bares its teeth for vampire antics in Night Teeth. Plus, a glimpse at today’s What If episode, and what’s to come on Y: The Last Man, Archer, and more. To me, my spoilers!

I was just settling into a new home, town, and life when I realized my older brother Wes and I had left something terribly precious behind in our family’s move: a Sega Dreamcast. With it, my childhood fantasy of hauling ass around San Francisco in a yellow Cadillac Eldorado slipped beyond reach.Read more...

Sony has made a great deal of noise about their new 2021 Bravia XR OLEDs, which makes sense. The TVs are the first to feature Sony’s new Cognitive Processor XR, which sounds an awful lot like a proto-supervillain brain. The company says the processor will recreate how humans actually see things in real life.Read more...

The Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee has been cancelled due to flooding from Hurricane Ida, which was Tropical Depression Ida by the time it hit the state on Tuesday. The four-day festival was scheduled to start Thursday with headliners like the Foo Fighters, Run the Jewels, Tyler the Creator, Lizzo, Tame Impala,…Read more...

A 24-year-old woman from Illinois was arrested on Sunday while trying to enter Hawaii with a fake covid-19 vaccination record card. How did authorities know it was fake? For starters, the counterfeit card said the woman had received the “Maderna” vaccine rather than the Moderna vaccine.Read more...

Smart lights are the cheapest, easiest way to get started with a smart home. Philips Hue, one of the most popular smart light markers, just took the wraps off a whole new lineup of smart lighting for various rooms in your house, along with built-in Spotify integration within the Hue app to make it all sing and light…Read more...

Last year, Funimation brought the iconic original Mobile Suit Gundam to streaming for the first time, giving people the chance to experience what makes the franchise so influential and special in the first place. Now, at long last, they’re also going to get a chance to experience its fascinating follow up.

It looks like Big Tech workers won’t be returning to a physical office this year after all. After exhaustively detailing the measures it would be taking to help ease employees back into the office, Google is pushing back the official return date from Oct. 18 to Jan. 10, 2022.

Alien 3 has some issues. Even the movie’s most ardent fans have to admit this, given that it went through countless story, script, director, and editing changes, leaving what many feel is the most muddled of the four classic Alien films. Legendary Neuromancer author William Gibson was one of the (many) writers to give…Read more...

Paul Gosar, Republican representative from the state of Arizona and, some say, a friend to white nationalists, recently posted a picture of himself on Twitter that appears to show a long green arrow pointed at his penis.Read more...

The world probably doesn’t need any more aftershows, no matter how good the show itself is—and FX’s brilliant supernatural comedy What We Do in the Shadows is one of the very best around. However, we could all do with more Harvey Guillén in our lives, so we’ll be happily tuning in for After the Shadows, hosted by the …Read more...

There appears to be growing tension between the Biden administration and at least some people affiliated with public health agencies over recommending covid-19 booster shots for all next month. Two senior officials with the Food and Drug Administration are leaving, reportedly in part due to the White House’s decision…Read more...

On top of all the Star Trek we’ve got to look forward to soon, we’re getting a brand new show in the form of the animated series Prodigy on the immediate horizon. And while we wait to see something a little more substantial beyond the teaser we got at Comic-Con this summer, we’ve now got a glimpse at its opening…Read more...

At my therapist’s office, there’s a small portable AC. It’s a loudly humming, short monster that grunts at me, disapprovingly, from a foot away. I’ve coped with this by annunciating my anxieties. It’s actually cathartic at 45-minute intervals. But for my work-from-home pandemic setup, that kind of pandemonium is…Read more...