Gizmodo

NASA hopes to launch the much-anticipated James Webb Space Telescope from French Guiana on October 31, 2021, the agency announced today. Ongoing technical challenges and the covid-19 pandemic were cited as reasons for the latest delay to the project.

It’s been weeks since Mark Zuckerberg pledged to wipe voter suppression from the site, thanks, perhaps, to a grim internal civil rights audit which called Facebook’s measures to curb voter suppression and racism “reactive and piecemeal,” or, maybe, the ad boycott. How’s it going over there?Read more...

Donald Trump’s reelection campaign manager and magically impotent “digital wizard” Brad Parscale has gone to that big dumping ground for washed-up Trump lackeys in the sky.Read more...

An apparent cryptocurrency scheme that bombed Twitter Wednesday saw the accounts of high-profile brands, crypto exchanges, businesspeople, celebrities, and politicians compromised in an unprecedented hack that raises serious concerns about the security flaws of the platform and what information could have been…Read more...

TikTok is facing a widespread crackdown due to security concerns, which has left Facebook an opening to take down the rival social network. The company will use Instagram to do it, just like it did with Instagram Stories to keep Snapchat at bay. Instagram launched a new TikTok-esque feature, Reels, in India earlier…Read more...

For the past two weeks, US officials have been grilling TikTok and other China-based tech giants over potential concerns surrounding the data security of Americans who use these apps, not to mention the national security implications of these apps’ alleged allegiance to the Chinese government. Now, it’s looking like…Read more...

While no one likes being jerked around on the phone, the amount of spam and robocalls we’re forced to endure is only expected to increase, so today T-Mobile introduced a new collection of tools and apps designed to prevent annoying calls from hitting your phone.

Put in some headphones, close your eyes, and let chill jams and tropical endangered birdsongs transport you to the threatened jungles of Latin America. A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean is a new album that features birds and artists from the region all with the purpose of sharing the…Read more...

Although they’re usually considered jokes nowadays, the tiny Smurfs are titans of pop culture. I’m not talking about those three live-action/CG movies that came out last decade, although they made a cool billion collectively. I’m talking about the ‘80s cartoon that ran from 1981-89, had 272 episodes, and has been…Read more...

The U.S. Army has a Twitch channel that it uses to fish for potential recruits. Last week, it came under fire for issuing bans to viewers who asked about war crimes. This week, a report by The Nation dug deeper, pointing out, among other things, that the channel had a habit of running fake controller giveaways that…Read more...

Burger King just launched a low-methane Whopper, made by changing cows’ diets, with a super cringe ad campaign. It’s meant to be a small fix for a serious problem: Methane has a short-term heating effect 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide.Read more...

Experts are saying there shouldn’t be a gender gap when it comes to safer drinking. On Thursday, a committee of experts brought together by the U.S. government to work on updating the country’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans released their recommendations. Among them: Both men and women should limit their…Read more...

Microsoft has been testing its Project xCloud game streaming platform throughout the past year, and today Microsoft announced xCloud will leave beta and become available to the public in September as an addition to Xbox’s $15 a month Game Pass Ultimate.Read more...

Though Marvel Studios won’t be attending Comic-Con this year, a new member of the family is making a late-breaking appearance. Disney just announced that long-awaited Marvel film The New Mutants will have a virtual panel during the convention on Thursday, July 23.Read more...

New research shows how some deep-sea fish, with their specialized, ultra-black skin, are able to avoid detection even in the presence of light.

Apple recently announced plans to pivot its Macs from Intel hardware to ARM-based chips that the company will be developing itself. However, the shift to ARM won’t happen all at once, meaning both Intel and ARM-based Mac models will be available at the same time. If you’re thinking about a new PC, should you buy and…Read more...

Maybe you’ve got friends coming over to watch a movie, or you need your family to watch this one really great YouTube video. Or maybe you’ve just got a slideshow of photos to show off to no one at all because some of us are still stuck at home in the midst of a pandemic. Whatever the reason, you’d rather put your…Read more...

Even in the best-case scenario for the 2020 election, in which America flushes Donald Trump out of office and we can feel like we’ve showered for the first time since 2015, the toilet plume of this presidency will likely hang over us for years to come. After numerous reports on QAnon adherents currently running for…Read more...

Russian Instagram blogger Sergey Zamkadniy usually posts images of beautiful sunsets or riverine adventures. His latest work, however, shows a disaster unfolding in real-time. An abandoned mine in Russia’s Ural Mountains has tainted streams orange.Read more...

Though Netflix’s She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is about a bunch of plucky children teaming up to go on a magical adventure to save their world, the story it told was very much one about the emotional and physical devastation that war can bring to a peaceful society. And it seems if series creator Noelle Steven…Read more...

Are you a frontline worker dealing with new stresses or irresponsible management? Is working (or not working) from home starting to take a psychological toll? How are you coping with reopening? Submit a story using this Google form or send me an email with the subject line “My Covid Story” and provide as…Read more...

Looking at the past five years of Star Wars films, one sticks out like a gold droid on a forest moon: Solo: A Star Wars Story. Not only did the film gross the least of the bunch (by over $300 million), it was the only one released over the summer, centered on an original trilogy character who was recast, and it was …Read more...

Gather the coins in your couch cushions and whatever’s left of your Trump bucks. On August 6, 2020, you can bid for over 50 life-size animatronic dinosaurs on AbleAuction. This is not a drill. I repeat: this is not a drill.Read more...

Just to get this out of the way: Yes, it is bizarre that a device called BlazePod has nothing to do with vaping weed. What else could it possibly be? Officially, BlazePod is a modular fitness gadget that supposedly helps you train your agility, strength, balance, and focus. Unofficially, it is a gadget that, no matter…Read more...

Elsewhere in the world of video game adaptations, the Just Cause movie has tapped John Wick’s writer for its script. M. Night Shyamalan offers an update on Servant’s future. Plus, the Agents of SHIELD are caught in a time loop, and oh no, the Muppets have discovered video conferencing. To me, my spoilers!

The U.S. is now firmly in the middle of a second peak of the covid-19 pandemic, if still nestled inside its first wave. But given the rapid spread of the coronavirus during a time of the year when many similar diseases tend to lay low, it’s worth exploring: Why isn’t the summer stopping or at least mitigating the…Read more...

You’d think that since I’m barely leaving the house these days, I’d be watching a ton of new shows, but as it were, it’s hard to watch TV during a pandemic. Against a backdrop of mass death, pretty much everything feels too light or too heavy. Except, apparently, this new beluga whale live cam.Read more...

The closest images ever taken of the Sun have revealed a never-before-seen stellar phenomenon. Dubbed “campfires,” these bright spots could solve a longstanding mystery about the Sun’s scorching outer layers.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed an executive order on Wednesday banning all cities and counties in the state from requiring people to wear masks during the coronavirus pandemic. The move comes as Georgia has experienced a steep rise in covid-19 infections over the past two weeks, with 3,871 new cases and 37 new…Read more...

Norton 360 for Gamers | $35 | Amazon Gold BoxRead more...

On Wednesday, Donald Trump’s administration eviscerated a key law that requires federal agencies assess the environmental impact of planned projects, likely making it far more difficult to block the construction of new gas and oil pipelines, mines, highways, and other infrastructure.

Ask any Funko fan and they’ll tell you the same thing: acquiring Funko exclusives at San Diego Comic-Con can be a nightmare. It used to be a matter of how early you lined up, but in recent years the process changed to an online lottery, meaning you had to hope you were randomly selected for a small window to give…Read more...

As part of its ever-expanding slate of services, Apple is betting on original podcasting with its newly announced daily news program, Apple News Today.Read more...

Last year, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said its millimeter-wave 5G coverage would only be available in select areas instead of nationwide, clarifying that the company would use high-frequency millimeter waves “as far as [they’re] economically sustainable.” But that didn’t stop the company from falsely implying its…Read more...

Twitter spectacularly shit the bed on Wednesday evening as it scrambled to stamp out a widespread hack of high-profile accounts.

This may look like the president possibly violating ethics rules by posing with several Goya products in a blurry Instagram photo to spite a loosely organized boycott over the company’s pro-Trump CEO. But watch out there, Mr. Trump: One of those delicious Goya foodstuffs is filled with bees.

Something normal happened on Twitter earlier this afternoon. Someone claiming to be Elon Musk started tweeting an obvious scam to entice his loyal bootlickers to send bitcoin to a random cryptocurrency wallet. This happens all the time, but the strange thing about today was that the tweets were coming from Musk’s …Read more...

Everybody wants to be a superhero, and now everyone can. In the first trailer for Project Power, a drug called Power can temporarily access people’s inner superpowers. But bringing these abilities to the world comes at a price, and former soldier Art (Jamie Foxx) doesn’t think it’s worth the cost.Read more...

An explosive Yahoo News report out Wednesday describes the Trump administration’s efforts to expand the Central Intelligence Agency’s power in 2018 to launch offensive cyberattacks against America’s foes.

Scientists have found evidence that climate change was behind the relentless heat wave that stuck over Siberia this year.Read more...

It’s time to grab a shoulder of rum and sit down to hear the tale of a group of pirates, who sailed the open seas (and air) in search of fame, adventure, and of course a buttload of cash. These are our top 10 pirates we’ve seen on film so far. Enjoy, or walk the plank!Read more...

As with almost everything, the roller coaster wars, where theme parks across the country try to top each other with wilder attractions every Summer, were put on hold for 2020. But that hasn’t stopped coaster designers from continuing to toy with the laws of physics. If you love to spend your weekends vomiting, the AxisRead more...

Mozilla, the privacy and security nonprofit and maker of the Firefox browser, is launching its very own VPN.Read more...

Microsoft just can’t catch a break with all its updates that seem to cause more problems. The company rolled out a Windows 10 update yesterday which fixed a major DNS security flaw (and a few other things), but in the process might have removed Notepad, Paint, or WordPad for some users if they were updating to version…Read more...

Zoom, the de facto pandemic video-conferencing software company of choice, is getting into the hardware game. Today, the company announced the Zoom For Home—DTEN ME, a 27-inch tablet that comes with Zoom pre-installed. It’s $600.Read more...

At first glance, the plot of Umbrella Academy’s upcoming second season might seem as if it were torn right out of the pages of Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s second volume of the Dark Horse comic. After narrowly avoiding an apocalypse, the Hargreeves siblings all become entangled in a series of events leading up to the…Read more...

Every year, companies like GoPro manage to pack more and more functionality into smaller and smaller action cameras that are less obtrusive to wear. But a team of researchers from the University of Washington has managed to build a live-streaming wireless camera that’s so small even an insect can wear it.Read more...

For archaeologists, ancient bones and stone tools are important lines of evidence, but sometimes the answers to our past can be found in piles of human poop, as an important new analysis shows.

An abundance of reporting has confirmed that you’re not paranoid, Minority Report was nonfiction, and face paint isn’t just an art project. We hear about how law enforcement can match our faces with photos scraped from our social media profiles and monitor us through neighbors’ doorbells. The near-weekly updates send…Read more...

On Wednesday, mayors from around the world came together to announce how a plan for a just and green recovery from the three crises their constituents face: climate change, coronavirus, and racial inequality.