Gizmodo

People’s longstanding fear of swarming insects like cicadas is enshrined in our pop culture. For years we’ve reimagined bugs as everything from larger-than-life creatures poised to take over the planet to hyper-intelligent mimics hellbent on supplanting humanity. Now, with millions of the United States’ Brood X…Read more...

New research is quantifying the rate at which intense summer heat brought on by human-induced climate change is killing humans around the world.

Twitter is one of many social media companies that’s struggled to keep misinformation from running rampant on its platform over the years. Its latest attempt to move the needle looks to be a tiered warning label system that changes based on how wrong you are, according to app researcher Jane Manchun Wong.Read more...

First, Gary Gygax created Dungeons & Dragons. Then, he created the fantasy world of Oerth and its greatest city, Greyhawk. Then, he set his mind to writing a D&D novel set in Greyhawk—the tale of Gord, a young street urchin who rises from poverty and imprisonment to become one of the greatest thieves on the planet.…Read more...

Listen, the criteria for portable Bluetooth speakers are not complicated. They’ve got to be easy to carry, sound decent, and not get trashed if you have butterfingers or get caught in the rain. The Sony SRS-XB13 ticks off all these boxes, but it isn’t the best we’ve ever tested. You’ll have to make some compromises,…Read more...

Despite the fact that his first audio drama in the role has been out for a few weeks now, it still feels kind of shocking to live in a world where Christopher Eccleston is back in the proverbial leather jacket as Doctor Who’s Ninth Doctor. But we indeed are, and it’s mostly fascinating: if only because it’s perhaps…Read more...

June is upon us, which means it’s time to fill your summer reading list with all the brand-new sci-fi and fantasy books you can stuff into a beach bag. Good thing we’ve got 54 titles to choose from, with time travelers, reluctant heroes, people who can talk to the dead, and carnival stories among the highlights.

Farmers in California are beginning to feel the heat. As the state plunges into a worsening drought, water deliveries have drastically fallen in much of California’s farmland. That’s forcing farmers to make tough decisions about the future of their operations. Some farmers are ripping up certain crops to plant less…Read more...

NASA’s first budget request under the Biden administration seeks funding increases toward science, STEM education, and the environment while maintaining its commitment to a lunar landing in just three years.

Since 2013, a disease exacerbated by overheating oceans has been decimating sea star populations, especially those of one particularly striking variety: sunflower sea stars. Over the course of three years, the illness killed off nearly 91% of the sunflower species’ global population. Now, scientists are fighting to…Read more...

Peter Parker’s status as one of the most iconic superheroes of the western canon has meant that, as he web-slinged his way out of the comics medium and into alternate formats, many writers, actors, and voice artists have leant their interpretation as to who Spider-Man is. But now, one of the first to do so outside…Read more...

No matter how many times you decline the call or add your number to Do Not Call lists, the spammers are ultimately going to find you. They will stop at nothing to remind you of your expiring car warranty.

Martin Freeman’s getting ready for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Production begins on Shazam: Fury of the Gods. The Rock teases Jungle Cruise. Plus, what’s to come on all the DC/CW shows, and a new look at the Fantasy Island reboot. Spoilers, assemble!

Recording memories, reading thoughts, and manipulating what another person sees through a device in their brain may seem like science fiction plots about a distant and troubled future. But a team of multi-disciplinary researchers say the first steps to inventing these technologies have already arrived. Through a…Read more...

If you’re still coping with the tragic news of the Analogue Pocket’s release being delayed from May 2021 to later this year, I’ve found the perfect handheld emulator to tide you over until it arrives. The Anbernic Retro Game 351V is reminiscent of the Pocket’s Game Boy-inspired design, and while its software-based…Read more...

Intel revealed new additions to its 11th-gen mobile processor lineup as part of this year’s virtual Computex show. The processors are based on Intel’s Evo platform and feature integrated Iris Xe graphics and WiFi 6. The company also announced a 5G modem for connectivity on future Windows machines.

It goes without saying that the pandemic has been hard on travel and human connection. While things are looking up, we are far from back to normal yet. That’s one of the reasons behind the Stargate-esque portals unveiled by two cities in Lithuania and Poland, which are hoping to give their residents access to these…Read more...

As a young child, Estella (Tipper Seifert-Cleveland) was a two-toned hair-colored rebel who was born to give authority figures a hard time. Her mother, Catherine (Emily Beecham), encourages Estella to fight the urge to call herself Cruella and blend in with society as much as possible.Read more...

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has teamed up with Sony, Doshisha University, and toymaker Tomy to send a transforming rover roughly the size of a baseball to the Moon. What a time to be alive, amirite?Read more...

Now that theaters are opening across the country, it’s clear that movie fans have been itching to watch films on the big screen once again.

A “lethal” weaponized drone “hunted down” and “remotely engaged” human targets without its handlers’ say-so during a conflict in Libya last year, according to a United Nations report first covered by New Scientist this week. Whether there were any casualties remains unclear, but if confirmed, it would likely be the…Read more...

Asian representation in Hollywood is still hard to come by outside of the action genre, and only a few break through to explore other parts of the Hollywood machine. Vietnamese American actress, Kelly Marie Tran, is someone who broke through and made her mark on Tinseltown as Rose Tico in the latest Star Wars trilogy…Read more...

Clouds are rare on Mars and usually only pop up at the coldest time of the year near the planet’s equator. One Martian year ago though, NASA noticed some clouds forming in the sky above its veteran Curiosity rover and became determined to document them the following year. In recent months, Curiosity got to work,…Read more...

Freddie Stroma (Bridgerton) is cast in a recurring role as Adrian Chase, aka Vigilante, in James Gunn’s HBO Max series Peacemaker.

Tonnes of plastic waste from a burning container ship is washing ashore in Sri Lanka in what’s likely the nation’s worst beach pollution crisis to date, a senior environmental official told AFP on Saturday.Read more...

Two weeks after Buzzfeed News purportedly found President Joe Biden’s Venmo account using the app’s search tool and public friends feature, promptly setting off cybersecurity and national security alarm bells, Venmo has given users the ability to make their friends list private.Read more...

Apple’s pushing back the launch of its podcast subscription marketplace until June to ensure it’s “delivering the best experience for creator and listeners,” according to a company email to podcasters first spotted by 9to5Mac. Apparently, its new service still needs a few tweaks before it’s ready to see the light of…Read more...

Actor Robert Palmer Watkins has landed a recurring role in The Walking Dead universe.

Following Center of Disease Control guidelines, movie theater chains will no longer require fully vaccinated guests to wear masks. Reduced capacity, social distancing, and heavy sanitization will be followed in compliance with CDC safety measures.

Studios are pissing off a lot of folks. Most of them were blindsided by studios who decided to dump their content onto streaming services without a heads up.

John Krasinski never thought A Quiet Place, would have a sequel because the actor/director didn’t think he could pull it off.

A study that claimed to overturn our understanding of how sperm moves has now been retracted. The research had suggested that sperm cells propel themselves forward through complex spins that created an optical illusion of them only swishing their tails back and forth under a microscope. The authors now agree that…Read more...

WhatsApp initially threatened to revoke core functions for users that refused to accept its controversial new privacy policy, only to walk back the severity of those consequences earlier this month amid international backlash, and now, it’s doing away with them altogether (for the time being, at least).Read more...

Well, that was fun while it lasted. Just a little over a week after reviving its public verification process for the first time in almost four years, Twitter has already pulled the plug.Read more...

The Weasel’s going to die. This isn’t a spoiler, I just can’t imagine James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad movie killing off a slew of its huge cast of villains and the gross, ratty anthropomorphic animal not being among the dead. Still, I suddenly hope he survives as Gunn has just revealed the inspiration for the movie’s…Read more...

U.S. soldiers stationed at various bases in Europe accidentally exposed sensitive data related to America’s nuclear weapons stockpile via poorly secured flashcard apps they were using to memorize said secrets, according to a stunning new report.Read more...

With Black Panther #25 bringing Ta-Nehisi Coates’ run on the Marvel comic—which transformed Wakanda into a time-traveling, intergalactic empire—to a close, the writer’s moving on to tell the next chapter of another comics icon’s story, with Warner Bros.’ upcoming Superman movie about a Black Kal-El. Though Coates is…Read more...

On Thursday, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes filed a 112-question survey for potential jurors for her fraud trial, which is set to begin in August. Presumably, it seeks to weed out people who would love to take time off work to watch this thing.

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's regular round up of the latest in plastic goodness. This week, Miles Morales gets upstaged, the Age of Questionable Mutant Hair hits Marvel Legends, and The Suicide Squad is already on the merch train. Check it out!

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...