Gizmodo

China reported 15,152 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, according to state broadcaster Xinhua, the largest jump in a single day and up significantly from the few thousand confirmed cases China typically reports daily. Chinese health authorities also reported 254 new deaths, the largest number in a single day…Read more...

Authorities linked a man to a factory arson that destroyed “well over a million” dollars in property last month by convincing his son to give them access to an app that would allow them to view the suspect’s movements, Forbes reported.

Making a sequel to Aladdin is no easy task. At the end of the first film, the genie is no longer the genie. He can’t grant any more wishes. Plus, Aladdin and Jasmine are happily together. Where do things go next, after that perfect fairy-tale finale?Read more...

Wherever mass tragedy strikes, there will be vulturous hucksters looking to take advantage of people’s fears. The outbreak of a deadly new coronavirus in China and other countries is no exception. Medical quacks are already trying to sell the very bad idea of swallowing silver to ward off the virus—something that’s…Read more...

A judge in the sprawling case against Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and former company president Ramesh Sunny Balwani has thrown out some of the charges after her defense team argued prosecutors’ case was too broad and too vague, SFGate reported on Wednesday.Read more...

Antarctic has been on one the past few weeks. It reached 65 degrees Fahrenheit last week, a new record high for the continent. Scientists have found warm water creeping farther under its most vulnerable glacier. Other researchers dropped a little remote-operated robot under the same icy “superhighway,” recording eerie…Read more...

Scientists are continuing to discover weird-as-hell viruses all over the world. This week, researchers detailed their finding of relatively mammoth bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria. These large microorganisms don’t just dwarf typical viruses in size—they also seem capable of complex tricks normally only…Read more...

H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man was published in 1897, giving sci-fi one of its most intriguing and enduring characters. Thankfully, that Dark Universe version with Johnny Depp never came to fruition, but the latest adaptation—starring Elisabeth Moss as a woman tormented by her invisible ex—is out February 28.Read more...

Former Google executive Andy Rubin’s smartphone startup, Essential Products, is officially done after years of circling the drain.Read more...

There are lots of reasons not to eat greasy deep-fried fast food, the least of which being the challenges involved with disposing of used cooking oil (clogged sewers). But researchers at the University of Toronto found a way to turn oil from a deep fryer into a light-sensitive plastic for 3D printers.Read more...

We already knew 2010’s Deepwater Horizon disaster was the biggest oil spill in history. When the BP rig exploded, it released 210 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico over the course of 87 days. Eleven workers died. So did thousands of marine animals. By all counts, it was horrible.Read more...

The Skywalker bloodline is perhaps defined by a series of failures. Anakin’s attempts to protect Padmé brought about the rise of the Empire. Luke’s pressure to live up to this prophecy of the chosen one brought about the undoing of his fledgling Jedi Order and his own nephew—who himself saw a moment of weakness and…Read more...

Not all police are bad, but Facebook is the highway to surveillance hell, and cops are on it. In the latest story to highlight cop’s social media activity, a homeless resident of Los Angeles has filed a civil rights suit against the city and a police officer who is accused of conducting a several-year-long harassment…Read more...

Companies have been canceling appearances at Mobile World Congress 2020 left and right—to the point where GSMA, the conference’s organizer, has decided to pull the plug on the event entirely.Read more...

Scientists explored the physics of tossing fried rice in order to devise the “optimal regime” for producing the dish, according to a new paper.Read more...

Because I cover healthcare, and because I work for a website concerned with all the ways people try to separate women from their money, I’m often directed to clinics that say they are revolutionizing basic care. Friends and strangers send me links to Instagram ads, portholes into identically extravagant offices. The…Read more...

Shipt doesn’t command the name recognition of its main competitor, Instacart, nor the market share of Amazon Fresh or Walmart Grocery, for that matter. But unlike many gig work platforms, Shipt was transparent about pay and afforded its personal shoppers the chance to earn respectable wages.Read more...

The smartphone changed the world, but it wasn’t all for the better. Mobile devices are packed full of endless productivity-killing distractions, and the ability to actually make a phone call almost seems like an afterthought now. A frustrated Justine Haupt came up with an unorthodox solution: she designed and built a …Read more...

Samsung believes deeply in the future of foldable phones, but its first attempt, last year’s Galaxy Fold, was a complete shitshow. Devices provided to reviewers ahead of launch were plagued with problems: debris that caught in the hinge, a plastic overlay that turned out to be part of the screen but was easily peeled…Read more...

By prodding a tiny brain region linked to consciousness, scientists caused anesthetized monkeys to suddenly become awake and alert. This fascinating result is providing new clues about the brain and how it produces conscious awareness—insights that could potentially lead to therapies for patients trapped in a coma.

The latest episode of Doctor Who tackled mental health struggles through the lens of a fight against eternal, godlike beings who fed off the traumatic fears of the mortal realm. But it ended with a scene between the Doctor and one of her companions that has left some fans deeply disappointed—and the BBC has had to…Read more...

Thanks to 120Hz displays, fancy new cameras, and support for 5G networks across the entire line, Samsung’s new Galaxy S20 seems like a real powerhouse of a phone. However, with a starting price of $1,000 for the standard S20 and prices going even high for the S20+ and S20 Ultra, it feels like Samsung may have tried to…Read more...

The narrow hallway behind the bowling lanes looks like a miniature factory, rows of well-oiled pipes and pulleys facing boxes and boxes of jewelry-sized parts. On a freezing January evening, the machinery’s caretaker moves down the line with a clipboard, taking his monthly inventory of backup parts.

Social media is a content minefield, and Britain’s had it. Today, the British government announced it will appoint its media watchdog Ofcom as a regulator for social media content in a bid to rein in platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok, among others.Read more...

The Westerdam cruise ship will be allowed to dock in Cambodia, according to a new statement from Holland America Line. The ship had previously been refused entry by five countries over concerns that passengers might have been infected with the new coronavirus that has killed 1,116 and sickened over 45,000 worldwide.

Entrepreneur and Venture for America founder Andrew Yang, the technocratic Silicon Valley bro candidate in the 2020 Democratic primaries, is out after scoring just three percent in the New Hampshire primaries.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is offering a $20,000 reward to anyone who can lead them to whoever murdered two dolphins found dead and beached last week, the Miami Herald reported on Tuesday.

Even before the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Black Lightning’s third season was quickly transforming the city of Freeland into ground zero for a conflict with the nation of Markovia. The city’s growing population of empowered metahumans and the researchers studying their evolution made it Markovia’s prime…Read more...

Even if the Disney+ show Loki was just Tom Hiddleston talking for eight hours, fans probably would have loved it anyway. But it’s obviously going to be way more than that. The cast continues to grow and its latest addition might be the best one yet.Read more...

I hereby stan for Honorable United States District Judge William Alsup, the California sharpshooter who gives tech companies a piece of his mind, and us some delightful reading in the court documents. This week, for example, when denying Apple’s motion to dismiss a consumer fraud complaint, he devoted two full…Read more...

Scientists in Brazil say they’ve made a mysterious discovery. They claim to have found a virus made of genetic material never before seen elsewhere. But you likely have nothing to fear from this virus: It seems to only hunt amoebas.Read more...

According to a Wall Street Journal report, the U.S. government officials are claiming Huawei, a phone and telecommunications company with ties to the Chinese government, has the ability to spy on users of mobile phone networks employing Huawei equipment. The claim comes after years of accusations from the U.S.…Read more...

Since the Kennedy Administration, the light-blue and white jet carrying the president has been more than just transportation for American leadership. It has been a symbol of what that leadership was meant to represent. An internationally-minded, forward-thinking ethos steeped in Modernism and Internationalism. Now,…Read more...

It’s generally accepted that Macs are safer and less malware-prone than Windows PCs. Well, not anymore. A new report says that for the first time ever, Mac-specific threats outpaced PCs by a rate of 2:1 in 2019.Read more...

NASA is officially asking Congress to fund a Mars sample-return project, in what would be one of the most complex missions ever attempted by the space agency.

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, a glacier advanced upon the Pacific Northwest, its ice forming a natural barrier that fractured crows into two populations. These populations began to diverge into two separate species, which ornithologists decided were distinguishable by small differences in body measurements and…Read more...

After months of leaks and rumors, Samsung finally announced its second foldable phone: the Galaxy Z Flip. The announcement came alongside announcements for the new Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Buds+, at its Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco.

Adding to the already-considerable interest in antitrust enforcement against major US tech companies, the Federal Trade Commission today announced a Special Order demanding information from Apple, Alphabet/Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook about their mergers and acquisitions over a ten year period.Read more...

We’re more than a month out from the official start of spring, but that hasn’t stopped it from popping up earlier than expected. The USA National Phenology Network released data Monday showing that spring has arrived across the Southeast earlier than at any point in the last 39 years. Leaves and flowers appearing this…Read more...

While you might have a hard time telling them apart if they were placed side-by-side, in conjunction with the new Galaxy S20, Samsung has also announced a new version of its wireless Galaxy Buds with a few notable upgrades.Read more...

Last year’s Galaxy S10 was a triumph of phone design, combining innovative features like an in-display fingerprint reader, reverse wireless charging, and tiny punch hole selfie cameras with a gorgeous, nearly bezel-free body. However, after missing out on a few features that found their way onto some of the S10's…Read more...

Karaoke Machine Gold Box | Amazon

The World Health Organization has finally come up with a name for the illness caused by a newly discovered coronavirus that’s infected at least 40,000 people and killed over 1,000 worldwide. Meanwhile, scientists elsewhere have coined a new name for the virus itself.

Apple, which has long prided itself on its devices’ security, has joined the Fido Alliance as a board member. As for why that matters, it’s great news if you hate using passwords or password managers.Read more...

A nurse’s aide is legally in the clear after posting a hatefully-captioned photo of an Alzheimer’s patient at a nursing home. After the patient’s husband William Furlow sued for personal injury, the State of Minnesota Court of Appeals has ruled that posting an image of a patient does not qualify as sharing private…Read more...

Alienware m15 | Dell | Promo code AW950OFFRead more...

You may think you know your browser pretty well at this stage, but there’s one very powerful feature that doesn’t get a lot of attention, and that you might have overlooked: User profiles. If you’re on Chrome, Edge or Firefox, they can make a real difference to how you get your web browsing done.Read more...

Google’s VP of People Operations Eileen Naughton will be stepping down later this year. Naughton, who has been at the company for 13 years, became the company’s head of human resources back in 2016 and has since overseen the breakdown between management and rank-and-file employees.Read more...

A surgical robot capable of reconnecting vessels with diameters as tiny as 0.3 millimeters has been tested on human patients, and the results are promising.Read more...

Sony announced on Tuesday another feature for its digital cameras that the company hopes will expand their adoption among professional photographers: a software development kit that allows third-party developers to create their own custom tools to remotely control and operate the cameras.