Gizmodo

When J.K. Simmons plays an authoritative figure in a superhero movie, he doesn’t let anything take that role away. He’s not just J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films, he reprised the role in the Marvel Studios Spider-Man films. He’s Commissioner Gordon in Zack Snyder’s Justice League and now, he’ll return…Read more...

You probably wouldn’t expect to find references to “sugar daddies” in Google’s policy updates, but this week that’s exactly what happened. Android Police was first to note that Google quietly updated its inappropriate content policies in its Play Store to specifically forbid any apps meant to encourage “compensated…Read more...

We’ve known for years that the idea behind Vivo—and its Lin-Manuel Miranda-created original soundtrack—laid dormant until Sony Pictures quietly picked up the project five years ago. Now, we’ve finally got a glimpse of it, and perhaps a cute Kinkajou was worth the wait.

The late John McAfee was a lot of things: a rumored rapist, murderer, and speed-fiend who somehow escaped prosecution, but also a libertarian cryptocurrency shark facing a Securities and Exchange Commission complaint and, of course, the founder of the security company bearing his name. Now, the Daily Beast reports, …Read more...

The night before Thanksgiving usually means getting together with friends and preparing for the feast to come. This year though, it means Hawkeye. Marvel Studios just revealed that its fourth live-action series will debut on November 24, with new episodes coming each Wednesday after that. If the series is six episodes…Read more...

Genzaburō Yoshino’s How Do You Live? has become a classic in Japan since it was first published over 80 years ago, but until now it’s never seen an English translation. Though it’s a little outside the realm of io9's usual sci-fi and fantasy fare, we’re thrilled to be revealing the cover and sharing an excerpt today…Read more...

Scientists investigating a dried-up lava tube in northwestern Saudi Arabia were stunned to find a huge assemblage of bones belonging to horses, asses, and even humans. It was a feast to last a lifetime, and then many lifetimes after that, and the researchers who excavated the site believe they know the identity of the…Read more...

The Tokyo Olympics continue to be an unmitigated climate disaster. It was so hot and humid on Wednesday that Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev thought he could die.

Some extra saccharine news to report this morning: Netflix has renewed Sweet Tooth for a second season of apocalyptic adventures.Read more...

The Pebble was the first smartwatch that genuinely delivered on the promise of smart wearables, but despite a devoted user base, it was not long for this world, and was eventually bought by Fitbit. Despite the company no longer existing, the smartwatches still work just fine, and developers are still making apps for…Read more...

It’s been a while since we’ve heard about Facebook’s collaboration with Ray-Ban on a pair of augmented reality glasses. But in comments during an earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that no, he hasn’t forgotten about the device. It’ll actually be the company’s next hardware release.

The BBC has announced that current Doctor Jodie Whittaker as well as showrunner Chris Chibnall, will depart Doctor Who in 2022. The duo will, after the upcoming season 13, will say farewell with three special episodes to air throughout next year.Read more...

What had been a rich Mediterranean landscape of maquis, ancient olive trees, and ruby vineyards is now a charred skeletal tangle clinging to hills above the pristine Sardinian sea.

If you’re an owner of an older Kindle e-reader, your device may soon lose support for an important feature: internet access.Read more...

Moonhaven’s cast continues to grow. Issa Rae and J.J. Abrams are working on an adaptation of Octavia Butler’s Fledgling for HBO. Plus, new pictures from Day of the Dead and Legends of Tomorrow’s return, and what’s next for American Horror Stories. Spoilers get!

OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei is taking a OnePlus-esque approach to his new company, called Nothing. OnePlus established itself as a go-to brand for affordable smartphones with flagship features, and after months of hype, Nothing’s first product has arrived to deliver the same thing OnePlus’ smartphones did: solid…Read more...

It was a bumpy journey, but Russia’s Nauka module is finally arriving at the International Space Station. You can catch the action live right here.

If you ride the Boring Company’s Las Vegas tunnel, known as the Convention Center Loop, you might be tempted to ask your driver about the company’s founder Elon Musk. But don’t expect a straight answer. The company has a script for its drivers and TechCrunch got its hands on what employees are supposed to say. It’s…Read more...

Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida will reinstate indoor mask mandates for all theme park visitors and staff over concerns about a surge in covid-19 cases. The skyrocketing number of cases in the U.S. is due in large part to many Americans refusing to get vaccinated, as well as the more…Read more...

An 8.2 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Alaska, roughly 60 miles (97 kilometers) southeast of the town of Chignik, triggering a tsunami warning for large parts of Alaska early Thursday morning, according to the U.S. Tsunami Warning System.

U.S. pole vaulter Sam Kendricks tested positive for covid-19 at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan on Thursday, according to the Twitter account of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee. Kendricks, who holds the U.S. record for pole vaulting, reportedly has no symptoms but has been forced to withdraw from the Games…Read more...

A 19-year-old TikTok star and his friend were gunned down in a California movie theater on Monday, in a bizarre and bloody episode that police still have little explanation for.Read more...

Ever since we got our first look at Marvel’s animated Disney+ series What If...?, the company has also been teasing merchandise based on its multiversal take on the MCU. Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line is no exception, and at a special livestream today, the company dove deep into the first look at an entire wave…Read more...

At the start of the pandemic, Big Tech led the way in embracing remote work. Now, it’s also serving as a bellwether of how companies are planning to safely return to the office. But it doesn’t look like everyone is on the same page. While Google and Facebook announced today they will require all staffers to be…Read more...

The co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain, Vitalik Buterin, donated roughly $1 billion in a Shiba Inu-themed cryptocurrency to a covid-19 relief fund in India in May 2021. So far, according to Bloomberg, just $20 million or roughly 2% of the original commitment has made it to its donation.Read more...

Shocking new video shows that though the record heat subsided in the Pacific Northwest earlier this month, the impacts are still rippling throughout ecosystems.Read more...

With the support of the European Space Agency, German aerospace company MT Aerospace has developed a unique design for a small-scale rocket fuel tank made of a carbon-fiber reinforced plastic. The tank can hold liquid hydrogen and oxygen without leaking and without the use of a metal liner.

Queen Elizabeth has endorsed reducing plastic pollution at Buckingham Palace, but it turns out the monarchy may not be taking a climate-friendly turn just yet. On Wednesday, the Guardian published a scathing report detailing how the Queen spent months quietly lobbying Scottish ministers to exempt her private land from…Read more...

Just a day after Intel announced big plans to help the company regain its authority in chip production, Taiwan has now given the greenlight to TSMC to begin construction on the company’s most sophisticated chip plant yet.Read more...

Star Wars’ High Republic era is meant to be defined by the apex of institutions that we have, for most of Star Wars’ recent storytelling (cinematic or otherwise), seen in great decline. The Skywalker Saga laid the frayed Republic low twice, and the Jedi Order was all but stamped out, with only the hints of its return…Read more...

A former eBay security manager has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after helping to orchestrate a batshit insane plot to terrorize a Massachusetts couple who occasionally criticized the company in their newsletter.

Although Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings saga makes many tweaks in bringing J.R.R. Tolkien’s world to the big screen, it is by and large a faithful adaptation. But pressure from the studio in one weird way would’ve taken it down a very different path: a bit of halfling havoc.

DNA analysis confirms that an eel-like creature pulled from a Florida canal two years ago is a caecilian, otherwise known as the “penis snake.” The same canal has since yielded several other specimens, leading to concerns that the non-native amphibian has taken root in the United States.

Astrophysicists have detected light coming from the far side of a black hole, using telescopes to see physics predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity but not yet directly observed. The new findings affirmed ideas about how black holes warp light.

We’ve been enamored with Once and Future’s modern twist on Arthurian fantasy ever since it kicked off and gave us a sweeping tale of magic, terror, and shitty nationalists being thwarted by grandmas with machine guns. But now the series is heading into a new chapter that’s more mystical and dangerous than ever, and…Read more...

Though a lot of movie theaters are back to full function, the safer option for entertainment remains streaming, and fans who choose to stay home and take advantage are constantly rewarded with tons of new content. At the start of each month, most streamers—Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Disney+, and HBO Max—do a little…Read more...

I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend in how people are talking about covid-19. As vaccines have become widely available in the U.S., people are treating the unvaccinated with scorn and anger. Alabama’s Republican Gov. Kay Ivey even went so far as to say “It’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks” for the new…Read more...

Julian Assange’s long, contentious relationship with Ecuador is officially over: According to Associated Press, the nation has chosen to revoke his citizenship effective immediately.

Though Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and Anansi Boys novels feature some key bits of crossover, Amazon’s upcoming Anansi Boys series is set to reintroduce the world to the trickster god Mr. Nancy. It will also be wholly independent of the character’s depiction in Starz’s American Gods adaptation. Beloved as Orlando…Read more...

Joe Biden might want to consider re-backpedaling after backpedaling his accusation that social media companies [Facebook] are “killing people” by spreading vaccine conspiracies and bunk. A new study suggests that Facebook’s news consumers are inordinately unwilling to get the covid-19 vaccine.

Public research labs in France are temporarily halting their work into prions, after at least two employees are believed to have contracted a rare but universally fatal prion brain disease. One woman has since died, almost certainly after having been exposed during a lab accident in 2010, while the second is…Read more...

One of the web’s most controversial cybersecurity projects is being brought back to life next week. PunkSpider—essentially a tool that crawls the internet to create a searchable database of hackable sites across the web—is being resurfaced at next week’s Defcon cybersecurity conference, WIRED reports. This is the…Read more...

Now that Black Widow has landed after what’s felt like a zillion years of delays, Marvel has turned its eye back the next movie in its vast plans, Shang-Chi, with a brief new teaser—one that sets the stage for the titular superhero to confront his past and his father in a battle for their family’s legacy.

The West’s megadrought has produced no shortage of terrible stories. Drought conditions have enveloped 90% of the region, leading to record low water levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the two largest reservoirs in the U.S., as well as countless other smaller water systems throughout the region.Read more...

Of all the portable music players Apple has released over the past 20 years, the original iPod shuffle remains my favorite. It wasn’t my first iPod, and 16 years after its debut I’ve owned countless iterations of the iPhone, but I loved the shuffle for its basic design and functionality, not in spite of them.Read more...

Ancient rocks from northwestern Canada have been found to contain structures consistent with sea sponges. At 890 million years old, they could be the oldest known animal fossils on Earth.

For almost three decades, animated Arthur Read and his fellow anthropomorphic animals have been encouraging young viewers to cultivate a deep love of reading books—not to mention inspiring memes that resonate with multiple generations of people who grew up watching PBS’s Arthur series. Though the show will always be a…Read more...

In a first, Oregon State University says its bipedal robot Cassie managed to go from the couch to a 5K in 53 minutes. It’s an impressive feat of machine learning and robotics engineering, but as far as 5Ks go, I wouldn’t worry about having to outrun killer humanoid robots just yet.Read more...

Earlier this spring, Google announced the development of a new safety section coming to the Play Store next year, and today Google is now following up with more details on the kind of information apps will be required to provide including new mandatory privacy policies.Read more...

Star Wars. Indiana Jones. RoboCop. Jurassic Park. These films and franchises will live forever, and they attained those heights with a little help from Phil Tippett—one of the most legendary visual effects artists in Hollywood history. He’s especially known for his work with stop-motion animation and now, he’s…Read more...