Gizmodo

It’s not uncommon for robot-building engineers to take inspiration from one of Mother Nature’s designs, but this might be the first time we’ve seen one of her creations, a Venus flytrap plant, used to simplify the creation of an actual robotic component—in this case, a gripper capable of picking up delicate objects.Read more...

It appears no conspiracy is too outlandish for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to peddle. There’s QAnon, false flag conspiracies about the Parkland shooting, and the whole election fraud lie. Now we can add a new one: That the deadly 2018 Camp Fire was ignited, intentionally, by a space laser so California could build a…Read more...

Researchers have found a minuscule chameleon in Northern Madagascar, which they believe to be the smallest reptile on the planet. Small body, big attitude—just look at that face.

“So, Kellyanne, you’re going to fucking jail,” said 16-year-old Claudia Conway, daughter of former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, in a TikTok posted Monday night. She was reacting to news that a topless photo of herself was briefly posted to her mother’s Twitter account, the veracity of which she confirmed. In the…Read more...

Facebook’s Oversight Board, the supposedly independent entity the company created to quell some of the heat over its moderation policies, announced its first five decisions on Thursday. The oversight panel, which consists of 20 academics, lawyers, and human rights activists, overruled Facebook moderators on four of…Read more...

There hasn’t been much attention paid to the iPod since the iPhone arrived, and that’s a crime, because it was a brilliantly simple device with a wonderful user interface. To help make it relevant again, Guy Dupont gave a 17-year-old iPod a much-needed upgrade with the ability to wirelessly stream Spotify so that it…Read more...

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles are continuing to find success using ultrasound to “jump-start” the brains of people stuck in a minimally conscious state. In a report out this month, they detail two patients with chronic and severe brain injuries who experienced improvements in their awareness…Read more...

Stock-trading app Robinhood now faces a class-action lawsuit after it blocked stock purchases of GameStop and other companies favored by Reddit’s WallStreetBets community on Thursday morning.Read more...

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed a suite of executive orders on climate policy, including one that enshrines climate change as a key consideration for American foreign policy and national security.Read more...

While it might seem ridiculous for Facebook to accuse any other company of having monopolistic tendencies, apparently the social media giant has spent the past several months preparing for an antitrust lawsuit against Apple.Read more...

Asus Zephyrus 15.6" Gaming Laptop | $1,800 | Pre-Order at Best BuyRead more...

What’s better than one tab bar? Two, obviously.

The human thumb is a marvel of evolution, allowing our ancestors to craft stone tools and radically expand their food choices. New research suggests our agile, dextrous thumbs appeared 2 million years ago, in a development that irrevocably changed the course of human history.

The lulz (and soaring financial gains) of Reddit’s insurgent investor community, WallStreetBets, are on hold Thursday morning as popular stock-trading app Robinhood halted key types of trades of its favorite stocks due to “significant market volatility.”Read more...

House lawmakers in Utah are weighing a package of bills aimed at strengthening privacy protections and protecting citizens when they’re online. One piece of legislation that’s up for consideration would make catfishing a criminal offense in some cases.Read more...

In Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, the lord of the Dreaming’s journey from imprisonment by mortals back into his abstract realm of thought brings him face to face with a number of figures across the unraveling reality. And now, Netflix’s adaptation has found a few of those faces, and the Dream himself.Read more...

Protecting your privacy in the modern age isn’t easy, with everything from app labels to online cookies to think about, but knowing what the apps on your devices are up to has to be one of your top priorities—and in particular, you’ll want to know which apps are using the camera, the microphone, and the location…Read more...

Vicky Nina, a Yorkshire terrier, and Whisky, a border collie, were given a straightforward task that few dogs can complete: Amid a trove of toys the two pets were already familiar with, they had to identify a new toy by name—more specifically, by the fact that it was the only object they didn’t know the name of. Not…Read more...

For the last six or so months, I have been slowly chipping away at improving a home office space that desperately needed an overhaul—and I mean real bad. My back ached, my tush was sore, my concentration was constantly interrupted, and the toll of staring at a comparatively smaller computer screen than the one I’d…Read more...

Corey Hawkins has joined a very peculiar take on a Dracula adaptation. More of Thor: Love & Thunder’s cast makes their way to Australia. Get a new look at Netflix’s adaptation of the Grishaverse. Plus, what’s to come on Riverdale and Nancy Drew. To me, my spoilers!

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Virgin Hyperloop, one of the entities currently developing Elon Musk’s high-speed transportation idea from 2013, has released a new concept video showing off its vision for the future of moving around a city. And it all looks pretty damn cool to us. The only question is whether Virgin can make it a reality anytime…Read more...

The Food and Drug Administration has issued an unprecedented alert, warning that Americans are being poisoned by a long list of hand sanitizers imported from Mexico during the covid-19 pandemic. More than 900 Americans have reportedly been poisoned this month alone, according to figures obtained by CBS News.

After initially pledging not to recommend civic and political groups to its users, but then sort of continuing to do that anyway, Facebook once again affirmed its commitment to reducing the amount of political content that users see on Wednesday.Read more...

For the pending Artemis missions to the Moon, NASA has already selected the southern polar region as the destination for its astronauts, but an exact landing spot has yet to be determined. Given the needs of the Artemis program, this won’t be easy.Read more...

We’re well into the second decade of iPhone sales, and with the covid-19 pandemic devastating economies worldwide, some wondered: Would 2020 be the year that Apple’s runaway revenue train finally slowed down? The answer is decidedly: lol no.Read more...

After kicking off a historic rally around GameStop stock that has incited the ire of hedge fund tycoons and the SEC, the r/wallstreetbets channel was banned from Discord on Wednesday over apparent hate speech violations.Read more...

The U.S. Department of Defense spent close to half a million dollars—at least $466,810—on fringe science research, in the hopes of someday creating an aircraft that bends the laws of physics. That news comes via a new report from the War Zone, which recently acquired DoD documents via a public records request as part…Read more...

New research suggests that doctors are, thankfully, skilled at correctly identifying a person’s time of death—a crucial aspect of ensuring healthy organs for donation. At the same time, the body can sometimes show flitters of cardiac activity even after death has become truly irreversible, according to the study…Read more...

The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, a congressional advisory panel—helmed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt—has mulled whether or not the U.S. should deploy artificially intelligent autonomous weapons, and, after taking into account the numerous reasons it would be a terrible idea, decided …Read more...

If the online MAGA army wasn’t nervous before today, the Department of Justice just gave them a good reason to tighten their sphincters. In a surprising announcement, DOJ officials said on Wednesday that they’ve charged a prominent Twitter user with taking part in a conspiracy to trick citizens into not voting during…Read more...

When President Joe Biden revoked the Keystone XL pipeline permit, Republicans responded by over-inflating job loss numbers and generally making stuff up. On Wednesday, though, the administration showed it won’t cede ground to the lies.

It’s been more than 20 years since Intel released its last desktop graphics card, the Intel740, but as of yesterday the company is officially back in the discrete GPU game.Read more...

Earlier this month, Lucasfilm announced something of a pivot in its video game licensing. Rebranding its outreach as Lucasfilm Games, it looked toward a future where studios outside of EA, which currently holds an exclusivity deal until 2023, could make Star Wars games. Naturally, that led to us inevitably making a…Read more...

The criminal operation behind a dangerous, global botnet has been disrupted.

You typically use Amazon’s Alexa to play music, provide weather forecasts, and respond to other household requests. But Alexa just got a somewhat unusual new skill: the ability to bark like a dog.

When space is limited and corners of your home have to be multi-functional, consider a standing desk converter that can easily break down to be stored out of sight.

Everyone’s had a boss who sent a tone-deaf email but imprisoned Samsung heir apparent Lee Jae-yong has one-upped them all. Sending a message on Samsung’s intranet, Lee apparently apologized for landing himself in jail once again and urged them to “maintain their work” in his absence, Yonhap reports.Read more...

In March 2016, a research team dropped 39 seismometers to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean off the western tip of Africa, to listen for the rumblings of earthquakes near and far. A year later, they’ve found a hidden story of how the continents are growing farther apart—not pulled from either side by subduction zones,…Read more...

The two wealthiest men in the world—Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos—are bickering about their competing satellite internet projects, in an argument prompted by SpaceX’s recent request to move some Starlink satellites to a lower orbit.Read more...

With great popularity comes great scrutiny. Following WhatsApp’s controversial announcement of changes to its privacy policy, users have flocked to the encrypted messaging app Signal. The app has maintained a relatively small userbase for years, but in the last month, it has reportedly doubled in size. And now it’s…Read more...

Often, when I show off a new smartwatch I’m testing to my gal pals, they inevitably crinkle their noses. “It’s...so big. And ugly,” they say. “I’d never wear something like that.” It’s something I’ve harped about in many a smartwatch review, a plea from the small-wristed among us for a wearable that doesn’t leave us…Read more...

Sharks are doing really badly, according to a new report. The study, put together by the Global Shark Trends Project and published in Nature on Wednesday, found that the number of sharks and rays in the world’s oceans has fallen by more than 70% since 1970.Read more...

Science fiction is about the unbelievable. The impossible. Things most people wouldn’t equate with a show about aging karate champions and their students. And yet, that Cobra Kai not only exists, but is so freaking good, is unbelievable. It is impossible. And that, along with the mountains of nostalgia the show…Read more...

The first capitalism-boosting holiday of the year is almost upon us but due to the ongoing pandemic, an intimate meal in a quiet bistro isn’t an option for Valentine’s Day 2021. There are alternatives, thankfully, but why waste your money on roses when beef jerky conversation hearts and neon pink mac and cheese do…Read more...

I liked the original Bose Frames. They were stylish sunglasses that featured audio-based augmented reality, which actually seemed like a clever workaround for the technological challenges of smart glasses. But alas, Bose AR wasn’t meant to be. Last summer, the company shuttered that division and as a result, Bose…Read more...

Luke Evans has boarded another live-action Disney remake. Tika Sumpter has an update on the Sonic the Hedgehog sequel. Robert Rodriguez is rebooting Spy Kids. Plus, the new Willow adds a familiar Spider-Man face, and filming begins on Thor: Love & Thunder. Spoilers, away!

Today at Fujifilm’s global X Summit, the company announced two new cameras including the new GFX 100S, which is the company’s most compact large format camera yet.Read more...

If the folks who are responsible for beaming content to your eyeballs are to be believed, streamers are thirsty for more ads of all things.

Newark, New Jersey has reached a settlement with environmental justice advocates who sued the city over its pipes leaching lead into residents’ water supply.Read more...