Gizmodo

Described as “Princess Mononoke meets Stardust,” Cassandra Rose Clarke’s fantasy novel The Beholden follows sisters who make a desperate deal with a goddess and must grapple with the consequences when their bill comes due. io9 just so happens to have the beautiful cover and an exciting excerpt to reveal today!

Have I Been Pwned, or HIBP, a website that allows users to check if their passwords have been compromised, is about to get a powerful new partner—the Feds.Read more...

Usually when a first trailer comes out, you have to wait at least a few months to watch the movie itself. Maybe sooner if it’s a Netflix movie. But, in the case of the new Mark Wahlberg sci-fi film Infinite, you won’t even have to wait two weeks. It’ll be here on June 10 and the first trailer was just released.Read more...

Members of the media are sarcastically complaining about a sarcasm detector developed by researchers partnering with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Using sarcastic language, they indicate that it is a stupid killjoy only useful to GOP politicians. Before eye-rolling on Twitter, hear me out. An…Read more...

There are increasing signs that Matt Gaetz’s future prospects aren’t great.

Iran banned bitcoin mining this week, after four months of continuous blackouts partially due to what officials say is a huge energy suck from illegal mining.Read more...

Google Chrome may be a battery-sucking behemoth of a web browser, but it has a slew of useful features—one of them being the ability to manage all your passwords without signing up for another app or installing additional software. Here’s how to get started.Read more...

The brand new Jurassic World roller coaster, the VelociCoaster, doesn’t officially open until June 10—but you can take a ride on it right now from the comfort of your own home, thanks to the magic of the internet.Read more...

In an effort to assuage fears about the dangers inherent in its autopilot system, Tesla has announced that the in-cabin cameras in its Model 3 and Y vehicles will now monitor drivers for “attentiveness” while the feature is turned on, TechCrunch reports.

Cruella arrives today, Maleficent is two movies deep, and considering how much Disney loves to plunder its own works—is that Gaston show still happening?—this surely won’t be the end of the studio’s stable of villains getting their own moments in the spotlight.Read more...

Researchers say they’ve found a way to help make science lessons more interactive for students, particularly for those living with blindness. In a new study out Friday, they detail creating bite-size and even candy-like models of molecules that kids can safely use their mouths to feel—models that seem to be as easily…Read more...

I have often described sous vide as “the nerdiest way to cook a steak.” I also think it’s the best way. Or, at least, the best way to achieve consistently excellent results and have it be almost impossible to screw up. Honestly, I didn’t think it could be improved upon much, so when I heard that a new sous vide…Read more...

If all goes according to Amazon and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s plans, the web service giant will soon acquire the legacy film studio in an $8.45 billion deal that will add thousands of movies and television shows to the tech company’s portfolio of content available to stream to 200 million Prime subscribers. Taken at face…Read more...

A group of UK officers who thought they were going to bust up a massive cannabis farm found something completely different behind the doors of a local warehouse: a regular, legal, bitcoin mine.Read more...

Fitbit has been in the sleep tracking game longer than most, and it now appears the company is preparing a new snore and noise detection feature for its smartwatches.Read more...

Russia’s national oil company has begun construction on a massive project in the Arctic that officials say will produce 25 million tons of oil each year by 2024. The new operation is possible only because the Arctic is now traversable in places and at times it previously wasn’t, due to sea ice levels plummeting as the…Read more...

Iceland’s giant volcano Katla is overdue for a very, very large eruption. It’s kind of terrifying, but Netflix’s first-ever Icelandic movie, which is also titled Katla, manages to make the volcano look much more dangerous and infinitely creepier, as this first trailer shows.

The winners of the 2021 Milky Way Photographer of the Year have been announced, and they’re providing some of the best views of our galaxy that we’ve ever seen.

Away from the shadow of the Empire, Disney+’s Star Wars: The Bad Batch has found itself in a fascinating place of exploration early on in its run. Stripped of the military world that gave them order in the age of the Republic, our titular heroes and their new ward now have to make a way for themselves outside the rule…Read more...

There are few ways to better spend a hot summer afternoon than with a water gun fight, and the creators of one the most advanced water blaster ever developed—one that shoots liquid bullets—is back with an upgraded version that’s quieter, faster, more powerful, and is less likely to leave the shooter soaking wet.Read more...

As rumors had suggested earlier this spring, Samsung announced this week two brand new tablets in the Galaxy Tab S7 FE and the Galaxy Tab a7 Lite.Read more...

President Joe Biden campaigned saying that the climate crisis is the “number one threat” facing the U.S. Since entering the White House, he’s pledged to decarbonize the U.S. electricity grid by 2035 and ordered his administration to place a moratorium on drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But on…Read more...

Ingenuity experienced an “in-flight anomaly” during its sixth flight on the Red Planet, causing it to fly erratically. The helicopter managed to land safely, but the incident served as an unexpected stress test of the system.

For the past few months, rumors about the next-gen AirPods have been pretty consistent—they’re going to have shorter stems and crib some design elements from the AirPods Pro. But a new Bloomberg report is finally giving us something fresh to chew on. When the next-gen AirPods Pro arrive sometime in 2022, they’ll…Read more...

Researchers in Ecuador have found a long lost friend. This week, government officials and conservation associations confirmed that a giant tortoise found three years ago belongs to a species that was previously thought extinct for a century.

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John Wick 4 recruits a new ally for Keanu Reeves. Todd Phillips will return to write the Joker sequel. The Green Lantern HBO Max show has found both a director and its Alan Scott. Plus, a familiar face returns to Cobra Kai, and Loki promises a bit of good and bad in his new streaming show. Spoilers get!

How often have you looked down at the tablet in your lap, essentially nothing but a giant LCD panel, and wondered why, among its many features, it can’t also be used as a screen for another device? As Lenovo now demonstrates with its new Yoga Pad Pro Android tablet that includes a microHDMI port, there’s no reason it…Read more...

A rash of sensational headlines in recent months have warned of a rising infertility crisis in men as sperm counts plummet. Some outlets have claimed that plastics are behind the great sperm dieoff. But it turns out the truth about fertility could be much more complicated.Read more...

One of the best features of the original N64 Pokémon Snap game was bringing your memory card to a Blockbuster Video and printing out a sticker sheet of your favorite shots. Fujifilm has rekindled that functionality for the new Switch version of Pokémon Snap with a rebranded smartphone printer that inspired me to…Read more...

Big changes are coming to the way Google Photos stores your photos, and how much the company charges for storing your photos. If you’ve been taking advantage of Google’s free unlimited storage for pictures and videos in the cloud, that’s no longer going to be possible. Here’s what you need to know about what will be…Read more...

The hackers behind the massive SolarWinds attack are currently trying to access the email systems of thousands in western governments, think tanks, and NGOs that may be opposed to the Russian government, according to a warning released late Thursday night by Microsoft.Read more...

The governor of Minnesota has announced his state is offering free fishing licenses, free tickets to the State Fair, and plenty more to the first 100,000 residents who get vaccinated for covid-19 between now and June 30. The complete list of freebies is the most Minnesotan thing you’ve ever seen, don’tcha know.

Twitter may have accidentally spilled the beans on its rumored subscription service Twitter Blue thanks to an update to its App Store listing. As you can see in the screenshot below, “Twitter Blue” is now listed as Twitter’s sole in-app purchase for $2.99 per month, though the feature doesn’t seem to be fully enabled…Read more...

Lest you miss out on the delightful goings-on in U.S. politics these days, picture this: A politician passes a draconian, poorly thought-out, maybe illegal regulation, designed mostly as a symbolic gesture to his base but that will likely help none of his actual constituents. Then, a pro-business lobby jumps in to…Read more...

Amazon came up with a dystopian solution for when its warehouse employees struggle to keep their sanity amid workloads so grueling they often don’t have time to use the bathroom: Banish them to the meditation box.Read more...

To be a director requires a lot of things, but also, sometimes it just means following your heart. Especially when your heart says “You know what this documentary needs? Neon Genesis Evangelion’s A Cruel Angel’s Thesis.”

There’s a conspiracy afoot in the next phase of Lucasfilm’s High Republic series, as the Republic makes its play to expand into the Outer Rim through a diplomatic new fair. But there’s another mystery that I can’t stop thinking about: just what is the chancellor of this enlightened era of Star Wars actually up to?

Some states get to be popular states because of their big reputations, which attract visitors to make them backdrops for Instagram content. New York is where artists create ostensibly intellectual theme parks. California is where every teen gets a mansion. Florida is where a man throws an alligator into a Wendy’s.…Read more...

Researchers are looking for good boys and girls to volunteer their time and paws for the sake of science. This week, scientists at Hunter College’s Thinking Dog Center sent out an open call for everyday cats and dogs, as well as their owners, to participate in a citizen science project. The study is intended to help…Read more...

Citing leaked internal chats logs of the night Citizen falsely accused a California man of intentionally setting a wildfire, Motherboard on Thursday offered readers an inside look into the company’s self-inflicted blunder, even as it was blindly executed, logs show, at the emphatic direction of its chief executive,…Read more...

A drill aboard a Japanese research vessel has set a new record for the deepest ocean hole in history. The hole is located in the Pacific Ocean near the epicenter of the catastrophic 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, which is perilously close to Kaiju country.

Researchers recently discovered security flaws in PDFs that could allow a savvy hacker to surreptitiously manipulate or deface the contents of certified documents. While the vulnerabilities in question have already been patched by most reader applications, the new research provides a weird little look at how online…Read more...

I don’t look at my DVR anymore. The last time I did, I had piles of new episodes of DC Entertainment’s The Flash, Batwoman, and Supergirl on there—all of it from the most recent seasons. I feel like I should catch up because I’ve watched virtually every episode of all of them since the CW’s Arrowverse was created back…Read more...

The eyes of Marvel’s latest streaming hero are upon you.

An activist investor that staged a coup at Exxon on Wednesday over the company’s mishandling of climate change and got two new board members elected has generated headlines around the world.

For at least the second time in recent memory, a person’s life potentially hinges on critical information that is being withheld by a social platform. Joseph Colone, a man accused of murder and sentenced to death in Texas in 2017, is seeking code stored on GitHub, which could show that key evidence in his case was…Read more...

A team of physicists in the Netherlands and Germany recently placed a bunch of titanium atoms under a scanning tunneling microscope. Those atoms were in constant, quiet interaction with each other through the directions of their spins. In a clever feat, the researchers were able to home in on a single pair of atoms,…Read more...

This... was unexpected. As part of the hype surrounding LeBron James’ upcoming Space Jam: A New Legacy’s release, Robin, Raven, Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy are getting together to hold a viewing party of the 1996 original movie. However, they won’t be alone—Space Jam’s classic villains the Nerdlucks are invited,…Read more...

The Government Accountability Office said it’s becoming increasingly unlikely that a crewed lunar landing will be possible in just three and half years, citing technical risks and ongoing management issues at NASA.