Gizmodo

[gizmodo]

Prepare to be hosted by Ken if you manage to nab a booking of the Barbie Dreamhouse in Malibu, CA through Airbnb. Even though Ryan Gosling is presumably not part of the deal, Ken’s version of the Barbie Dreamhouse does include an exclusive stay with your own skates and surfboard—all the better to live your best …
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James Gunn Is Casting His Superman and Lois Very Soon. Seriously.
By the end of the week, we may have a new Superman and Lois Lane. That’s what the Hollywood Reporter is saying in a detailed update on the casting for James Gunn’s 2025 film, Superman Legacy.
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Florida Gov. DeSantis Challenges Disney for Immunity From Lawsuit
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ response to Disney’s lawsuit against the governor and his Reedy Creek Oversight Board—the area in Florida that contains Disney World—is to claim immunity from litigation. As reported by Deadline, DeSantis filed a motion against Disney’s claim in his effort to strip to the company of control…
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The One Cut of the Dead Remake Finally Gets a Trailer
A surprising remake of one of the best zombie films of all time (which you may or may not have heard of) is coming to theaters next month—and its trailer has finally arrived.
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Influencers Gas Up Shein After Sketchy Factory Tour: No Slave Labor Here!
Fast fashion giant Shein paid for influencers to take a tour of part of its Chinese manufacturing operation several weeks ago, and the lucky Instagram and TikTok stars filled social media with videos from their recent trip last Tuesday. The videos showed off clean, pleasant factories, smiling workers, and a stalwart…
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The Latest News From Disney Parks, Universal Studios Resorts, and More Fan-tastical Destinations
The internet convinced Disney Parks to make Rogers: The Musical a reality—and its limited run starts this week at Disney California Adventure, just in time for Fourth of July weekend. If you’re traveling to Las Vegas, AREA15 lights up immersive fantasy realms with Secret Garden, complete with Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart…
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Uber Passenger Allegedly Shot Driver After Mistakenly Believing She Was Being Kidnapped
An Uber passenger has been charged with murder for shooting and killing her driver in El Paso, Texas. Phoebe D. Copas, 48, allegedly shot her driver, Daniel Piedra Garcia, 52, several times in the head, while in the backseat of his Nissan Maxima, according to a City of El Paso news release.
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The Texas Heat Wave Is Heading North This Week
A scorching heat wave that has roasted the Gulf for much of June is likely to head upwards to Northern Texas and other nearby states. Oklahoma, a lot of the Mississippi Valley, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle are going to be especially hot this week, Bob Oravec, a forecaster with the National Weather Service, told…
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This Malware-Laced Mario Fan Game Will Turn Your Computer Into an Unwitting Crypto Miner
Security researchers recently discovered a trojanized version of Mario Forever that will make you wish you’d never been born.
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Paramount's Star Trek Struggle Is a Mess Of Its Own Making
“My goal is that there should be a Star Trek something on all the time on All Access,” CBS TV Studios president David Stapf told Deadline in 2018, when the return of Captain Jean-Luc Picard for a new Star Trek series was a glimmer in the mind’s eye. Five years and a name change later, Paramount+ achieved that for a…
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A Rule That Could Help Save Coal Miners’ Lives Is Mired in Red Tape
Gary Hairston worked as an electrician in an underground coal mine for almost 30 years. It was hard, often grimy work. When a big machine called a continuous miner dug into the hard earth, it kicked up all kinds of dust. Slowly, Hairston began to notice that daily tasks wiped him out.
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Why James Mangold Decided to Feed the Trolls Before Indiana Jones 5
Whether you live in a magical mystical world, or just post on the internet, one rule is always the same: don’t feed the trolls. In internet terminology, trolls are people who purposefully stir up shit. They say things hoping to get a reaction. And, the best way to deal with them, is to ignore them. But last year, one…
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Is Google's New $1,800 Pixel Phone Worth It? | Gizmodo Review
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The First Lord of the Rings Secret Lair Magic Cards Are Ralph Bakshi Classics
If you, Magic: The Gathering neophyte or otherwise, sat down and cracked open a bunch of the card game’s grand new Lord of the Rings crossover, Tales of Middle-earth, this past weekend and thought you were done? Good news/bad news: there’s even more very cool cards coming soon.
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Meet the Full Cast of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
It’s been quite the summer if you’re a fan of amazing animation. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verseis still blowing minds at the box office. Nimona is ready to make your heart melt on Netflix this week—and soon after that, you truly aren’t ready for the awesome that is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
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Astronomers Uncover an Entirely New Way for Stars to Die
Gamma-ray bursts are extremely energetic explosions caused by some of the cosmos’ most remarkable objects: black holes, neutron stars, and the violent deaths of stars. Now, astronomers have found evidence of gamma-ray bursts emerging from the collisions of stars.
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San Antonio Airline Worker Dies After Being Ingested Into a Plane Engine
On Friday, a Texas airline worker was ingested into an engine and killed at San Antonio International Airport. The employee, whose name has not yet been released, was working on the runway at 10:25 p.m. when he was “ingested” into the engine of an Airbus A319aircraft, which had just arrived from Los Angeles…
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How to Watch Star Trek: Prodigy Now That It's Been Removed From Paramount+
Paramount apparently couldn’t wait more than a weekend after its shocking decision to both renege on the season two greenlight for Star Trek: Prodigy and remove its entire first season from its Paramount+ streaming service: the animated Trek series, barely a year old, has now been removed from “the home of Star Trek.”…
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Meta's New Subscription Service Comes With Two Quest Games Each Month, But You Don't Get to Pick Them
Even with a $3,500 price tag for the Vision Pro headset, Meta now still has to consider Apple one of its competitors in the VR space, so today the company announced another reason for consumers to opt for its more affordable Quest hardware with a new subscription service delivering two new titles every month.
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Musk’s Megarocket Requires ‘Well Over a Thousand’ Tweaks Ahead of Second Launch
The largest rocket to ever take flight requires a substantial number of upgrades ahead of its second test flight, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed this past weekend.

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[gizmodo]

I’ve long been skeptical of foldable phones. I’ve had to bite my tongue to stop myself going as far to call them an expensive gimmick. Then Google’s $1,800 Pixel Fold comes into my life, and suddenly I’m enamored by the thought of dual screens. Google’s entry into the foldables category is pitched as combining the…
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First Daryl Dixon Preview Sends Him on a Walking Dead Euro Trip
We’ve already had a small tease of the more-than-slightly anticipated Walking Dead spin-off so imaginatively titled Daryl Dixon, where the eponymous hero can be seen floating unconscious on a boat in what is presumably the Atlantic ocean on his way to France. Now, AMC has released a two-minute preview... and if you…
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Train Carrying Asphalt and Sulfur Derailed Into the Yellowstone River
A bridge that crosses over the Yellowstone River in Montana collapsed on Saturday morning, dropping parts of a freight train into the river below, authorities said.
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Bodega Delivery: Amazon Turns to Thousands of Small Shops to Speed Up Deliveries
You might see an Amazon package next time you visit the bodega, the florist, the coffee shop, or any one thousands of other small businesses that will deliver packages in 23 US states as part of an effort by the company to beef up its “Amazon Hub Delivery” program. The expansion is the latest attempt by Amazon to turn…
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Twitter Hacker Who Turned Celebrity Accounts Into Crypto Shills Gets Prison Sentence
A chapter of internet history has come to a close. One of the cybercriminals behind 2020's major Twitter hack was sentenced to five years in U.S. federal prison on Friday. Joseph O’Connor (AKA “PlugwalkJoe”), a 24-year-old British citizen, previously pleaded guilty to seven charges associated with the digital attack.…
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Best Early Amazon Prime Day Deals You Can Get Right Now
The annual Amazon Prime Day event runs from July 11-12, but many of the best deals are already available, if you’re an Amazon Prime member.

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How the Dial in Dial of Destiny Came to Be | io9 Interview
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The Flash Movie's Miserable Box Office Keeps Getting Worse
There’s very little the Flash can’t outrun, but it seems audience interest is one of those things. The Flashmovie, which opened to a significantly less-than-expected box office of $55 million, way down from Warner Bros.’ expected/optimistically hoped-for $75 million. But if that was the Flash stumbling, the hero has…
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False 911 Calls Skyrocket During Bonnaroo as the iPhone Mistakes Dancing for Car Crashes
There’s bound to be a few extra emergency calls when 80,000 people descend upon your city for a weekend music and arts festival, but according to authorities in Coffee County, Tennessee, the iPhone 14's automatic crash detection was responsible for a spike in false 911 calls at Bonnaroo as it mistook revelers’…
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Netflix Tests Killing Off Its 'Basic' Subscription
Netflix announced that Canadian users will no longer have access to its cheapest streaming subscription tier that doesn’t include ads. Netflix’s help page now notes Canadians looking to get Netflix or switch plans will no longer have access to the $9.99 Basic option. Their choices now are to accept ads into their…
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This May Be the Earliest Evidence of Hominin Cannibalism
In 1970, the renowned paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey found an ancient, nondescript leg bone sitting on the ground in Ileret, Kenya. Now, 53 years on, a research team has found marks on the bone they believe could be evidence of “systematic cannibalism” in the hominin fossil record.
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57,000-Year-Old Cave Engravings Were the Work of Neanderthals, Researchers Say
It’s now consensus that Neanderthals were complex, social cousins of Homo sapiens that disappeared from the Earth around 40,000 years ago. But our lost relatives just became more complex, with the discovery of ancient cave engravings in France that appear to be their handiwork.

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Updates From Indiana Jones, Paddington 3, and More
Elizabeth Olsen, Alicia Vikander, and Anna Kendrick are all set to join the new French sci-fi drama The Assessment. The cast and crew of Disney’s Haunted Mansion discuss the classic ride. Plus, John Hamm experiences the concept of Tea in a new Good Omens season 2 clip. Spoilers now!

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The Best Apps to Upgrade Your Summer Road Trip
If you’ve got a road trip planned this summer, you’ve no doubt got Apple Maps or Google Maps ready and waiting to get you from place to place, as well as a music, podcast, or audiobook app to provide audio accompaniment for the journey. However, there are plenty more apps out there that can make your traveling a whole…
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This Week's Toy News Is a Tale of Two Primes
Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's regular round up of the latest toy and merch news across this internet. This week, Hasbro keeps on the Transformers train, with multiple Primes and a Primal for good measure. Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures gets a cutesy plush line, and be ready to embrace the new flesh: a new…
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Don't Replace News Editors With AI
Germany’s best-selling newspaper, Bild, is reportedly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) to replace certain editorial roles, in an effort to cut costs.
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1973's 'Turkish Spider-Man' Film Now Has an HD Documentary
There’ve been a lot of adaptations of Marvel’s Spider-Man over the years, particularly in live-action. One that you might not know about released in 1973, and because it’s turning 50 years old in November, a new documentary is aiming to shed some light on the cult film.

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Twilight Zone's Movie Was a Wake-Up Call Hollywood Didn't Fully Answer
TV shows getting big to the point where they warrant a full-on movie doesn’t always happen. But when it does, it’s significant in some kind of way, even if it’s just the fact that the creators involved managed to pull it off in the first place. And in the case of the movie for CBS’ Twilight Zone, its significance is…
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Christopher McQuarrie on the Two-Part Challenges of Dead Reckoning
Splitting films into multiple parts is still a fairly recent phenomenon, and 2023 has multiple “Chapter One” movies playing in theaters. In addition to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the first movie in Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moonsaga is coming in December, Fast X was its own “Part One” back in May, and next month…
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Spy x Family's First Movie Will Ring in the Holiday Season
It’s always exciting when a new anime becomes the talk of the town, and one of last year’s hits in that regard was Spy x Family. The adaptation of Tetsuya Endo’s action series quickly became a fan favorite, and it’s returning later this year in the form of both season two and its first-ever movie.

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[gizmodo]

If you were a kid back in the late 90s, you were likely aware of Furbys. Much like Pokémon, Power Rangers, Barbie, etc., they were something of a sensation, and have existed off and on for nearly 30 years now. (And if you didn’t have one, you surely heard about how creepy they are at some point in your life.) With…
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How to Make Sure Your Phone Doesn't Overheat in Summer Weather
An overheating phone is something you want to avoid: It can impact the performance of your device, degrade the battery, and even cause permanent damage to the phone (and anything in close proximity to it). As we go into the summer months, spending more time outside, the risk of your phone going from hot to dangerously…
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Elon Musk, King of Censorship: 10 Times the 'Free Speech Absolutist' Silenced Twitter Users
Elon Musk talks a big game about freedom of expression. The billionaire refers to himself as a “free speech absolutist,” and spent the last year making bold promises about undoing Twitter’s perceived history of suppressing distasteful ideas. But the old saying goes, you should judge a man by his actions, not his…
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Nier Automata's Anime Finally Returns in July
Back at the start of the year, the anime series for Nier: Automatareleased, and its release schedule has been all over the place. Early into its run, it had to take a hiatus, reportedly due to COVID-19, that saw it off the air for nearly a few months. When it returned in February, it seemed like that was the end of…
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Where in the World Are the X-Men? Marvel's Got a Map for That
Location-wise, superheroes tend to operate in two modes. Either they’re firmly in one city, with occasional stops at other places nearby, or they’re gallivanting around basically anywhere in the world (or galaxy, in some cases). It can be dizzying sometimes, to the point that you might need a map to keep track of…
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Sonic & Shadow Fix the Multiverse in Sonic Prime's Season 2 Trailer
Multiverses have been all the rage as of late, to the point that even Sega got in on it with its iconic mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog. In last year’s Sonic Primeseries for Netflix, the Blue Blur (voiced by Devon Mack) ended up breaking the Paradox Prism, which in turn created an assortment of alternate realities…
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Mars Looks Gorgeous in New Images Taken by NASA's MAVEN Spacecraft
NASA’s Martian explorer, MAVEN, captured Earth’s neighboring planet in fascinating detail, revealing the changing seasons on Mars as it orbits around the Sun.
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Directors Guild Makes New Deal with Studios, Despite Low Voter Turnout
Earlier in the month, the Directors Guild of America (DGA) reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP). Because the WGA Strike is about to reach its second month, and SAG-AFTRA may also strike (depending on how things shake out soon), it initially seemed like the…
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Putin's Porpoises: Russia Doubles Dolphin Soldier Pens in Crimea to 'Counter Enemy Divers'
Russia is ramping up its efforts in the Ukraine war by doubling the number of its pens holding trained dolphins near the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, the UK defense intelligence agency said on Friday. The British bureau’s satellites captured images of expanding enclosures it said contain bottle-nosed dolphins.
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OceanGate, the Company Behind the Titanic Sub, Was a Sea of Red Flags
The saga of the Titan has come to a close. After disappearing over the weekend, the Titanic-bound submersible left Americans in a state of suspense for several days, forcing us to drop whatever we were doing and focus instead on the epic manhunt unfolding throughout large parts of the Atlantic. The hope was that the…
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These 9 States Are Trying to Block Kids From Social Media
States from every part of the country are racing to pass new legislation barring young users from accessing social media and other online services without first obtaining consent from their parents. From Texas to New Jersey, lawmakers are preparing to enforce strict, constitutionally dubious laws that could…
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[gizmodo]

Women job candidates were allegedly asked sexually explicit and personal questions while interviewing for a position at Bill Gates’s private investment office, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The women went through an extensive screening process and were reportedly asked intrusive questions including if…
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We Have to Talk About the Ending of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Ghosts melting Nazis. Rocks healing villages. Immortality is real and so are spaceships. Indiana Jones movies are often defined by their shocking, genre-breaking endings, and the new one, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, is no different. Things get... pretty crazy there at the end, so let’s talk about it and see…
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Endangered Orcas in the Pacific Northwest Are Battling a Mysterious Skin Disease
Orcas in the Pacific Northwest are battling some kind of unknown skin disease, new research out this week suggests. The study found photographic evidence that these orcas have been developing more and more mysterious lesions over the years. It’s not clear yet how harmful this trend may be, but it’s the latest…
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Strange New Worlds Got Its City on the Edge of Forever
Strange New Worlds is always going to be playing with fire when it brushes up against a legendary episode of the original Star Trek. The nature of its place in the series’ timeline, its wheelhouse in remixing spins on classic tropes, the comparisons will always be there. Last season, it proved it could play in those…
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Let's Break Down That Epic New Dune: Part Two Trailer
Have you caught your breath yet? Warner Bros. just dropped an incredibly massive trailer for Dune: Part Two and it gives us an even better idea of all the awesomeness Denis Villeneuve is getting ready to drop on the world. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should definitely check it out at this link. Then, once your…
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California Officials Vote to Protect the Iconic Joshua Trees
California officials have recently voted to permanently protect the otherworldly western Joshua tree, as the desert plant faces challenges caused by development and climate change.

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Wild Webb Telescope Image Uncovers Never-Before-Seen Carbon Molecule in Distant Star System
The Webb Space Telescope recently peered into a gassy region of the Orion Nebula and managed to spot a carbon-based molecule that could be a “cornerstone of interstellar organic chemistry,” according to a European Space Agency release.

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Power Rangers Morphs Its Way Out of New Zealand
What’s mightier than a Power Ranger? Tax breaks. Or so seems to be the reason that the Power RangersTV series, which has been filming in New Zealand for the past 20 years because of its relatively low cost, will be made somewhere else for its next and 31st season.

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Warner Bros. Is Starting to Fix Max’s Dreadful Creator Credits
It’s not exactly been the greatest of times, public relations-wise, when it comes to Warner Bros. lately. Whether it’s The Flash speeding headfirst into disaster, its CEO becoming the perpetual media industry villain of the week, or HBO Max’s troubled relaunch as simply Max. But! A small glimmer of good news.
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Southeast Asian Myths Flow Through Romantic Fantasy The Hurricane Wars
Thea Guanzon’s debut novel, The Hurricane Wars, takes inspiration from the myths and culture of her native Philippines—but it also draws on elements universal across fantasy fiction, including secret magic and forbidden romance. io9 has an exclusive excerpt to share today from this new author.

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Sony's Smartphone Motion Tracking System Will Be Available in the US Next Month for $449
After debuting in Japan, earlier this year, Sony is finally ready to bring Mocopi—the company’s smartphone-based wearable motion-tracking system—to the US, and while it arrives with a slight price bump, it’s still a far more affordable alternative to building an entire mocap studio or surrounding a room in sensors.
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[gizmodo]

When does a squirrel become a pancake? Answer: Apparently, when the world becomes a griddle. It’s officially sweat season for humans in the U.S., which means it’s sploot season for squirrels. And if you don’t know what that means, keep reading.

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Meta Reportedly Wants to Pursue Direct App Downloads Through Facebook Ads in Europe
Apple and Google may soon have a new app store competitor to deal with. Meta, the maker of Facebook and Instagram, is reportedly working on a way for users in the European Union to directly download apps through a new type of Facebook ad. If successful, the move could potentially shake up the current duopoly of app…
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Google Booed by Employees at Planned Drag Show Event
Google employees booed the company at its second annual drag show following the company’s decision to reverse its support for the event. Google withdrew its support of the planned drag show after some employees signed a petition saying the event was offensive to their Christian religion.
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This Nonprofit Wants to Catapult Material From Incoming Asteroids to Protect Earth
In February 2013, an asteroid about the size of a house punched its way through Earth’s atmosphere and broke apart over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia. The blast was so strong, it left a bright streak in the skies and triggered a powerful shockwave, shattering glass and resulting in the injury of over a 1,000 people.
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Tech Companies Sue Arkansas Over Parental Consent Law for Social Media Access
After Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law that requires teens and kids to get parental consent before signing up for social media, that law is now in the crosshairs of a tech trade group called NetChoice, which filed a lawsuit against it.

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The Spiders of Across the Spider-Verse Come to Life in a New Artbook
One thing that has enchanted the internet almost as much as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse itself has is getting glimpses from artists into the work that made the movie such a visual treat. Now, some of that work is about to be collected into a sumptuous new artbook, and io9 has your first look inside.
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Supreme Court Says Yes, Biz Owners Can Discriminate Against Gay People
Time for another round of the Supreme Court’s newest game show: Who Should Be Discriminated Against Next? On Friday, the court decided 6 to 3 in the case of 303 Creative v. Aubrey Elenis, agreeing that the First Amendment protects website designers who choose to discriminate based on their clients’ sexual orientation.
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Canadian Wildfire Smoke Has Wrecked NYC’s Air Quality...Again
The Northeast has been hit by another round of wildfire smoke from our neighbor to the North.

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Brilliantly Modded Game Boy Camera Is No Bigger Than a Cartridge
Twenty-five years after the Game Boy Camera first debuted back in 1998, fans are not only still enjoying lo-fi, black and white, pixelated photography, they’re also re-engineering the camera to make it better, even going so far as to shrink it down to the size of a regular Game Boy cartridge.
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James Mangold Has a Plan for Swamp Thing
Now that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is almost here, director James Manfold is ready to head to the swamp. Speaking of, Phoebe Waller-Bridge hopes you haven;t seen the last of Helena Shaw. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds explains the niceties of storming a castle. All thus and mch mre, because the spoilers are…
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YouTube Threatens to Cut Off Ad Blocker Users After Just Three Ad-less Vids
Google is trying out a new show of force to keep users from watching YouTube videos without ads. Some users are reporting that the company will allow access to just three videos before prompting to either disable ad blockers or otherwise pay Google for the privilege of ad-less viewing.
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What is One Change Mark Zurkerberg Should Make to His Social Platforms? | Gizmodo Interview
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Four Ways Criminals Could Use AI to Target More Victims
Warnings about artificial intelligence (AI) are ubiquitous right now. They have included fearful messages about AI’s potential to cause the extinction of humans, invoking images of the Terminator movies. The UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has even set up a summit to discuss AI safety.

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Apple’s Vision Pro Head Strap Problem
When I got a chance to try out Apple’s Vision Pro headset several weeks ago, there was one big difference between what I wore and the display models shown off by Apple.

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James Mangold's Boba Fett Movie Would've Been Sort of Like Logan
The list of Star Wars projects that have started and never seen the light of day is very long. Heck, we even made one ourselves. However, arguably the most intriguing of those was a Boba Fett movie by director James Mangold. Mangold, the director of Logan, The Wolverine, and 3:10 to Yuma was working on a Fett film…
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There Are No Future Indiana Jones Plans... Yet
This July, not only will Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny be playing in a theater near you, Harrison Ford will turn 81 years old. Suffice to say, when the actor who brought Indy, Han Solo, and Jack Ryan to life says this is his last time with the hat and fedora, we believe him.
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Supreme Court Ruling Will Make Online Harassment Harder to Prosecute
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court made prosecuting online harassment more difficult. In a 7-2 ruling on Tuesday, SCOTUS determined that a lower court’s decision to convict and imprison a Colorado man for stalking was flawed. The majority opinion in the case (Counterman v. Colorado), authored by Justice Elena Kagan,…
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Grace Byers on Horror and Comedy in The Blackening
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Google Says It Would Rather Shut Off Canadian News Links Than Pay Publishers
Google says it plans to remove Canadian news links from its search results and other major products once Canada’s hotly contested Online News Act takes effect in the coming months. The bold show of force comes less than one week after Meta announced it would cut off Canadian users’ access to news links on Facebook and…
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How to Know If You're Dangerously Overheated
It’s the end of June and tens of thousands of Americans have struggled through sweltering heat throughout this month. Texas has seen a pretty long heat wave that has brought on triple digit heat, and heat indices higher than 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius) in some cities. Residents have cranked up the air…
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[gizmodo]

It’s a good time to be a Disney foodie if you’re a Star Wars or Marvel Studios fan.
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A New Class Action Lawsuit Adds to OpenAI's Growing Legal Troubles
A new class action lawsuit accuses ChatGPT creator OpenAI of criminally scraping data from all over the internet, then using the stolen data to create its popular automated products. The lawsuit, filed this week by the Clarkson Law Firm in a Northern California court, is only the latest in a slew of legal challenges…
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New Nimona Featurette Explains How the Film's Art and Themes Align
Nimona is now streaming on Netflix and if you’ve seen it, you know the long wait for its arrival was incredibly worth it. (If you haven’t yet watched, you’re in for a delight.) To celebrate the animated film—adapted from the graphic novel by ND Stevenson (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)—Netflix shared a featurette…
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Watch Live: SpaceX to Launch Euclid—Europe's Dark Universe Telescope
The European Space Agency (ESA) is gearing up for the launch of its highly anticipated mission to explore the cosmic dark side.
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Max's Dune: The Sisterhood Series Builds Its Cast Back Up
With that exciting new trailer for Dune: Part II arriving this week, there’s no better moment to pile on more good Dune news. This time, it concerns the long-in-development Dune streaming series, Max’s Dune: The Sisterhood, which has added new cast members as it moves forward.
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NASA Visualization Offers a Disturbing Glimpse of All That Carbon in Our Atmosphere
Animations created by NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio include images and videos showing what carbon emissions would look like if they were visible in our atmosphere. The videos of the swirling emissions were released this month—and it looks like a grosser, creepier version of the Northern Lights.
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3 Billion Chrome Users Are About to See This Privacy Sandbox Pop-Up
Google Chrome users will soon see a pop-up when they update their browser to version 115 , initiating the first phase of Google’s years-long Privacy Sandbox project. The prompt, which describes the changes as “Enhanced ad privacy in Chrome,” is the first stage in Google’s astonishingly complicated plan to kill…
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All the New Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books to Put on Your Radar for July
July is here, and it’s brought with it an almost overwhelming array of new sci-fi, horror, and fantasy books. Whether you’re in the mood for magic, monsters, or mysteries—or some combination of all three—io9's monthly list of new releases has you covered.

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Gaze in Wonder at These Stunning Views of the Cosmos
The cosmos is a hostile but beautiful place; from Earth, its phenomena—from our Sun and the aurorae it generates to nebulae and distant galaxies—are worth capturing.
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Mosquitos Carrying Malaria Found in Florida
A few mosquitos in Florida have tested positive for the the parasite that causes malaria. The finding follows multiple confirmed human cases of the disease—four in Florida and one in Texas—believed to be the first domestically acquired instances of malaria in the U.S. in 20 years. The newly reported mosquito test…
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The Best Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy Streaming in July 2023
Let’s get streaming! Welcome to io9's latest edition of the Nerd’s Watch, where we pare down the enormous lists of new films and television shows arriving on all your favorite streaming services into the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror titles we think you’ll like most. (And sometimes, just the ones that we like most.)

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Dolphin Moms Use Baby Talk Around Their Calves, New Research Suggests
It looks like baby talk isn’t just for humans. New research this week suggests that dolphin mothers also adopt a higher-pitched tone during certain forms of communication with their young.
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Apple TV+'s Alien Invasion Continues in August
Apple TV+ viewers are in for a busy summer of sci-fi. In addition to Silo, which just wrapped its first season and was renewed for another, Foundation season two arrives July 14—and now we know Invasionseason two (not to be confused with Marvel’s Secret Invasion over on Disney+) will be premiering August 23.
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Dylan Mulvaney Speaks Out Against Bud Light for Lack of Support
Dylan Mulvaney, a trans influencer who was sponsored by Bud Light for two Instagram posts, is speaking out after receiving hate mail and threats while reportedly receiving no support from the beer company. The sponsorship garnered a mass anti-trans response and calls for a boycott which has decimated Bud Light’s sales…
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Tron 3 Continues to Make Its Way Onto the Grid
Casting continues for the long-awaited third Tron film and now, for the first time in a long time, we think this movie might actually be happening. No, seriously.
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Reddit's Valuation Has Fallen Even Further, Fidelity Says
Reddit is facing a crisis both in its user base and its finances. After protests and backlashed ravaged the platform in the wake of Reddit opting to charge for access to its API, the company’s valuation has been sliced.

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Magic: The Gathering's Rarest Lord of the Rings Card Has Been Found
Some lucky person just became a millionaire by opening a pack of cards. That’s because it has been revealed that the rarest, most sought-after card in the entire new Lord of the Rings expansion of Magic: The Gathering has been found.
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Seven Now Dead From Fungal Outbreak Tied to Surgery Clinics in Mexico
An outbreak of fungal meningitis linked to two surgery clinics in Mexico appears to have claimed more lives. This week, the Centers for Disease and Prevention updated its case tally, reporting seven confirmed or probable deaths linked to the outbreak. Officials are still trying to contact everyone at potential risk…
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Lego Celebrates the Fourth of July Early With the Equivalent of America on Wheels: a 1961 Corvette
Although the Fourth of July isn’t until next Tuesday, most Americans will be lighting up the bbq, setting off fireworks, and heading to the beach this weekend to celebrate early. Lego is getting in on the festivities, too, with the reveal of a new bright red 1961 Corvette model: an icon of American automotive design.
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Halloween Comes Early With All the Best Lego Sets You Can Finally Buy in July
Like the rest of us, Lego apparently can’t help but be distracted by thoughts of long weekends, vacations, and trips to the beach. The lineup of new building sets arriving in July is about as lengthy as the amount of work you get done on a July Friday afternoon—there’s just three worth adding to your collection.

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[gizmodo]

After your July 4 re-watch of Independence Day, your next move should be to stream 1996's other patriotically themed release: Uncle Sam, a movie so up-front about its intentions as a satirical horror comedy that its poster, a ghoulish parody of a military-recruiting ad, has the tag line “I Want You... Dead.”

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Greta Gerwig Explains the 'Long Journey' to Cast Ryan Gosling as Ken
The lore that’s already been built up around Barbie has taught us that star Margot Robbie was instrumental from the very beginning in bringing the fashionable Mattel doll to the big screen. But apparently, co-star Ryan Gosling—who plays Ken—took a bit more convincing to join the project.
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Ibai Says Twitch Capped Viewers on His Boxing Stream, the Most-Viewed in History
Tensions continue to simmer between Spanish streamer Ibai Llanos, who on Saturday broke the world record for most concurrent live viewers on Twitch with his annual boxing event, and Twitch. After slamming the platform on Saturday for outages during La Velada del Año III, which drew in 3.4 million viewers, the streamer…
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Rogers: The Musical Succeeds From Screen to Stage at Disney Parks
Now open at Disney California Adventure’s Hyperion Theater at the Disneyland Resort is Rogers: The Musical. Perhaps one of the last things Twitter fandom made happen, the abridged musical history of Steve Rogers’ Captain America takes the corny parody seen in Disney+’s Hawkeye and expands it into a theme park-perfect…
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Everything You Need to Know About Foundation Ahead of Season 2
The first season of Apple TV+’s adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation required paying close attention to keep track of its dense plot and frequent time shifts. But those who stuck with its sci-fi saga were richly rewarded—and with season two on the way, there’s no better time to catch up on season one.
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Astronomers Baffled by ‘Planet That Shouldn’t Exist’
The search for planets outside our Solar System – exoplanets – is one of the most rapidly growing fields in astronomy. Over the past few decades, more than 5,000 exoplanets have been detected and astronomers now estimate that on average there is at least one planet per star in our galaxy.

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An Ode to My Favorite Moment in Independence Day
There are 20 seconds in the 1996 blockbuster film Independence Day that get me every time. And it’s not some big reveal. It’s not some funny joke or hugely emotional beat. It’s just a brief, 20-second blip where the film achieves a level of perfection that, I feel, it never reaches again, and this is coming from a…
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Text AI Art Generators Hinder Artists More Than Help Them
Making art using artificial intelligence isn’t new. It’s as old as AI itself.
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Secrets of Amazon Prime Day
I’ve been covering Amazon Prime Day since it launched in 2015, and over the years I’ve seen it blow up into a huge made-up shopping holiday. But is it actually a good way to save money?

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Bluesky Sees "Record" Web Traffic After Elon's Latest Dumb Twitter Decision
Elon Musk apparently took a break from training for his upcoming battle royale with Mark Zuckerberg to do a new, incredibly unpopular thing to Twitter this weekend. In a bout of inspired stupidity, Musk tweeted out a new edict Saturday: from now on, anybody who doesn’t pay for Twitter will only be able to read a…
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One Piece's English-Dubbed Anime Is Coming to Crunchyroll
This weekend at Anime Expo, One Piece fans learned that the Japanese version of the upcoming live-action Netflix series will be dubbed by the anime’s original Japanese voice actors. Today, there’s even more One Piece dub news: the English dub of the anime will soon be arriving on Crunchyroll.
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James Gunn Won't Be at Comic-Con 2023, Which Doesn't Bode Well for DC Films
Comic book movie fans going to San Diego Comic-Con this year were just dealt another punch in the gut as filmmaker James Gunn revealed on his Instagram that he won’t be attending the convention.
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Suicide Squad ISEKAI Sends the Hitmen Into an Anime Fantasy
A cryptic, weirdly fantastic new anime is coming from WB Japan. Harley Quinn and the Joker take on another world, or possibly multiple worlds, in the teaser trailer for Suicide Squad ISEKAI. Do I know what’s going on? No. But does it look exceptionally cool? Absolutely it does. Check out the short teaser below.
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Valve All But Bans Steam Games From Using AI-Generated Content
Game developers looking to distribute their playable creations via Valve’s popular Steam hub may have trouble if they’re looking to use AI during the creative process. The game publisher and distributor says that Steam will no longer tolerate products that were generated using copyright-infringing AI content. Since…
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You Can’t Access Pornhub in Mississippi or Virginia Anymore
Pornhub has officially pulled out of two more states, namely Mississippi and Virginia. As much as the latter state is “for lovers,” PornHub says it’s protesting the states’ recently-enacted age verification laws that create massive business and privacy issues for the porno site.
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Exhaust Yourself Watching Tom Cruise Sprint in Every Mission: Impossible Movie
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Onepromises to add even more perilous stunts to the Tom Cruise action franchise. But as part seven’s release approaches, Paramount’s paying tribute to a feature of the films that requires just its star and his very fleet feet. Who knew how much running Cruise did in these…
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After Barbie, Here Are 14 Other Toys Mattel Might Make Into Movies
All signs point to this month’s release of Barbie being a massive hit. It just seems to be the summer movie most people are talking about, and tracking on its opening weekend says it’s likely to beat the new Christopher Nolan movie—even before any reviews have come out. If Barbie is actually as good as we all hope it…
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Anker's New iPhone Battery Might Be Incompatible With the iPhone 15
After MagSafe came along in 2020, most of Anker’s iPhone-specific portable chargers took advantage of the feature; magnetically adhering to the back of the device and charging it wirelessly. For the first time in a while, Anker has released an iPhone backup battery that connects directly to its Lightning port, but if…
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You Up? Mars Helicopter Finally Makes Contact After Two Months of Silence
After 63 days of agonizing silence, NASA’s Martian chopper finally phoned home.
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The Superhero Noir Plot Thickens on Next Episode of Image Comics' Who Is No/One
The next issue of Image Comics’ Massive-Verse title No/One is out this week—and with it, a new installment of podcast Who Is No/One, which expands on its story. io9 has an exclusive clip to share from the true crime-style podcast, which stars Rachael Leigh Cook and Patton Oswalt as investigative journalists—and this…
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[gizmodo]

Even for those who grew up in the days of cable—the ones who cut their teeth on brain-melting Sunny D or Kool Aid commercials—watching ads on streaming services is somehow more taxing and annoying than anything that came before Netflix first burst onto the scene. Part of the issue is that the same ads run constantly…
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'Conan the Barbarian With a Sense of Humor' | io9 Interview
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Where the Hell Is Instagram’s Twitter Clone?
After reports teasing a launch date of June for its Twitter rival, Instagram has let us down as we venture into July. However, there may be hope on the horizon as the competitor was briefly listed on the Apple and Google app stores over the weekend.

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Ticks Use This One Neat Trick to Help Them Suck Your Blood, Study Finds
Blood-sucking ticks might be even clingier than we thought. Recent research has found that at least one tick species seems to use static electricity to help itself grapple onto potential hosts. The trick allows the tick to extend its reach by several body lengths, the authors say.
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Humane’s Totally Real ‘Disappearing Computer’ Designed by Former Apple Execs Gets a Name
Humane, the hotly-hyped up consumer device startup-up helmed by former Apple executives finally has a name for its illusive AI-enabled wearable device. The pocket-sized product, which was spotted nestled in an executive’s front pocket during a presentation earlier this year, is called the Humane Ai Pin. Whether or not…
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Google Says It'll Scrape Everything You Post Online for AI
Google updated its privacy policy over the weekend, explicitly saying the company reserves the right to scrape just about everything you post online to build its AI tools. If Google can read your words, assume they belong to the company now, and expect that they’re nesting somewhere in the bowels of a chatbot.
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A Detail Indiana Jones 5 Gets So Right, That Star Wars Gets So Wrong
Details can make a world of difference. When handled correctly, a tiny, well-thought-out detail can add a whole new level of enjoyment to a project. If ignored though, it can speak to a larger level of indifference. And this weekend, while rewatching Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, I noticed a perfect,…
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Attaching Massive Kites to Boats Will Help Slash Shipping Emissions
French company Airseas, has promised to help cargo ships reduce their fuel consumption, and cut their greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 20%. And they’re doing this with the Seawing—a 1,000 square meter kite that will fly 300 meters (984 feet) above the water’s surface. So the global shipping industry is…
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Cozy Enchantment Awaits in The Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping
Sometimes you want your fantasy tales pierced with bloody drama and apocalyptic magic; other times, you’re in the mood for something a bit sweeter. There’s a reason “cozy romantasy” is a popular genre, and Sangu Mandanna’s debut The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches enchanted lots of its fans. The author…
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The Webb Telescope Finally Snaps Saturn’s Luminous Rings
The Webb Space Telescope has taken an image of the ringed planet Saturn, completing its photo album of our solar system’s gas giants.
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That Essential Morning Coffee May Be a Placebo
Scientists testing coffee against plain caffeine found that plain caffeine only partially reproduces the effects of drinking a cup of coffee, activating areas of the brain that make you feel more alert but not the areas of the brain that affect working memory and goal-directed behavior.

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Secret Invasion's Director Didn't Think About The Marvels at All
Ali Selim was tapped to direct Secret Invasion—Marvel’s six-episode limited series on Disney+—precisely because of his work on spycraft historical fiction. But it seems like his focus on the “grounded” world of Secret Invasion meant that he didn’t think much about the superheroes flying around in the rest of the MCU.

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TweetDeck Falters as Elon Musk Wrecks Twitter
The hits don’t stop coming for Twitter users. This weekend, the platform’s owner Elon Musk claimed he’s imposing a limit to the number of tweets an average non-Blue user can read. In the aftermath, Twitter’s dashboard application Tweetdeck failed spectacularly.

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The $700 Liebherr Crawler Crane Is the Most Expensive Lego Technic Set Ever
Inflation has made everything from grocery shopping to home-owning more expensive, but it’s hitting Lego fans especially hard. The new 2,883-piece Liebherr Crawler Crane LR 13000 model is officially the most expensive Lego Technic set to date at $700, but it’s actually far from being the largest set ever in terms of…
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That New Spawn Film Is Still in Development, We Promise
Jason Blum’s Spawnremake is for sure in the works, even though there’s no writing happening due to the producers’ and studios’ continued refusal to bargain fairly. He says 2025—maybe. Regardless, I think we can say with confidence that Barney & Friends will be out before Spawn. Get ready to share the love, and…
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New AirPods May Accept USB-C, Determine Body Temperature Through Your Ear Canal
Doctor Apple is coming in with another fastball pitch that could potentially reposition its AirPods as more than just a pair of premium earbuds. Apple is reportedly trying to enable USB-C on AirPods, make them connect to the upcoming Vision Pro headset, and engineer ways the buds could read users’ internal temperature…
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This Week's Toy News Brings Iconic Heroes Out of Retirement
Congratulations on finding your way back to Toy Aisle, io9's regular round up of the latest toy and merch news from across the internet. This week, Hot Toys delivers a remarkably lifelike Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones figure, Hasbro mashes up the Transformers and G.I. Joe again with Soundwave partnering with the…
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How to Cope With Anxiety About AI
Even tech experts have been astonished by the recent, rapid growth of AI technology, able to hold human-like conversations in multiple languages, create music and pass medical exams. While the potential benefits of AI in fields such as healthcare are indeed inspiring, the pace of change is rapid, and there is still…
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Indiana Jones & the Dial of Destiny Whips Up a Muted Box Office
The month of June has been pretty crowded with one blockbuster (or more) releasing each week. Closing out June is Disney’s Indiana Jones & the Dial of Destiny, Harrison Ford’s first lead blockbuster role in years and his final portrayal of the role he’s inhabited since Raiders of the Lost Ark back in 1981. And for a…
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Back to the Future's Musical Has Warped to Broadway
Back to the Future: The Musicalis back...to the stage.
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[gizmodo]

The Indiana Jones movies are a deep part of the popular culture in a number of ways, from its fellow treasure hunter imitators Tomb Raider and Uncharted to how they’re partly responsible for Harrison Ford’s decades-long star power. While the first three movies are liked to varying degrees, 2008's Indiana Jones & the…
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One Piece's Japanese Cast Will Dub One Piece's Netflix Series
The anime adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece has been going on for nearly 25 years, and is still finding ways to impress longtime fans of the franchise. With Netflix’s upcoming take, the aim is to recapture some of the magic that enchanted viewers back in 1999, but via live-action for new audiences. Those who’ve…
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Soft Robo-Glove Can Help Stroke Patients Relearn to Play Music
Researchers have developed the prototype of a comfortable and flexible “soft smart hand exoskeleton,” or robo-glove, which gives feedback to wearers who need to relearn tasks that require manual dexterity and coordination, for example after suffering a stroke. The present study focused on patients who need to relearn…
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Netflix's Pokémon Concierge Looks Like Well Worth the Visit
Throughout the decades, Nintendo’s Pokémon franchise has portrayed the titular pocket monsters in one of three typical ways: they’re either pets, natural extensions of every day life, or forces of nature whose existence can sometimes be a little messed up. And when they aren’t one of those, they’re off doing their own…
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Ibai Slams Twitch for Outages During His Record-Breaking 3.4 Million Viewer Stream
Twitch megastar Ibai Llanos slammed the platform for outages during his annual streamer vs. streamer boxing match, which broke Twitch’s world viewing records three times in a single stream on Saturday. At one point, Llanos’ channel reached a peak of nearly 3.45 million concurrent viewers.
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AI Fatalism Won't Help Us Deal With Its Actual Risks
Over the past few months, artificial intelligence (AI) has entered the global conversation as a result of the widespread adoption of generative AI-based tools such as chatbots and automatic image generation programs. Prominent AI scientists and technologists have raised concerns about the hypothetical existential risks
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Amazon Prime Day: Best Early Deals You Can Get Right Now
The annual Amazon Prime Day event runs from July 11-12 in 2023, but many of the best early deals are already available, if you’re an Amazon Prime member.

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Jason Blum Credits Patrick Wilson for Insidious' Family Reunion
The original Insidiousreleased in 2011, and can be considered the big breakout moment for director James Wan, writer Leigh Whannell, and cast members Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne. Over the years, the franchise has gradually moved away from the Lambert family (played by Wilson, Byrne, Ty Simpkins, and Andrew Astor)…
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Crikey, Baldur's Gate III Sounds Pretty Dang Long
Video games have become a bit of a time commitment unto themselves over the last few years, especially RPGs. For many of them, a first run could last a few dozen hours or more, depending on how deep in the side quest weeds one chooses to get. But if you’ve been looking for something that takes substantially longer…
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Ibai Draws 3.4 Million Viewers for Boxing Match, Breaking the Twitch World Record
Spanish megastreamer Ibai Llanos has broken the world record of concurrent viewers on Twitch, drawing 3.4 million spectators within minutes of the first fight of his streamer vs. streamer boxing match, La Velada del Año III, according to Streams Charts.

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Twitch Streamer Ibai Llanos Looks to Make History Once More With La Velada del Año III
Spanish streamer Ibai Llanos will once again attempt to make Twitch history today, although unlike most streamers, he won’t be behind a setup in his room. Instead, Llanos will be streaming live from the Civitas Metropolitano soccer stadium in Madrid before nearly 70,000 people, all of whom who have traveled from…
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[gizmodo]

Next month’s Star Wars: Ahsokasees the titular non-Jedi (voiced by Ashley Eckstein in animation and played in live-action by Rosario Dawson) make a return to live-action after previously showing up in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Outside of Ahsoka herself, the big draw of her show is seeing the return…
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Blumhouse May Be Starting a Renaissance of Horror Game Adaptations
Within the last decade, Blumhouse has been a key figure in helping horror movies become a bigger part of mainstream pop culture. With classic franchises like Halloween and The Exorcist under its belt alongside its own originals such as The Purge and M3GAN, the production company continues to expand. One of its next…
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How Do You Live? Will Be Studio Ghibli's First IMAX Film
Throughout the decades, Studio Ghibli’s grown a passionate fanbase from its run of movies like My Friend Totoro and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. Unlike its previous work, the studio’s next film Kimi-tachi wa Dō Ikiru ka (or How Do You Live?) is famously playing its marketing close to the vest beyond one single…
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Upcoming Launch Revives India's Dream of Placing a Lander on the Moon
India’s space agency is getting ready to launch its latest mission to the Moon, hoping this one will stick the landing on the lunar surface.
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The People's Joker is Getting a U.S. Screening Next Week
You may recall that late last year, a movie by the name of The People’s Jokercaught the attention of film folks during the festival circuit. After a single showing at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Warner Bros. Discovery shut down future screenings on the basis that they own the rights to the…
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11 Times Tech Really Did Take Our Jobs
Artificial intelligence is replacing hundreds of jobs across the U.S., creating skepticism and uncertainty about the future of humanity. It is a daunting development as even the creator of AI has warned about the technology’s potential takeover.
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ChatGPT's User Base Shrinks for the First Time Ever
Ever since it debuted last year, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has been the hottest product in tech. It kicked off the so-called “AI revolution,” launched droves of new businesses, and has experienced explosive growth on a global scale. However, it appears that the honeymoon phase may finally be over.
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Grab This Fandom Gear for Summer Travel
If you’re planning trips to fan-tastical destinations like Disney Parks, Universal Studios, San Diego Comic-Con, or even somewhere out of the country, this travel essentials guide is for you.
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Don’t Count Bluesky Out Yet
Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter late last year, things have gone from bad to worse at the microblogging site. Many users want out, and they’re hoping that there’s a worthy alternative waiting in the wings. Even if Meta’s newly launched Threads is currently enjoying all the attention, the other major Twitter…
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Gundam Shows and Movies to Try If You Liked Witch From Mercury
The Witch From Mercury’s final episode this past weekend brought what is for now the end of this latest take on the Gundam franchise to a close. But with the show’s successes having drawn in audiences that have never seen a Gundam show before, there’s plenty of people who might want to see what else the franchise has…
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Jony Ive Made a 'Gentle' Redesign of a $60,000 Turntable
Apple’s former chief design officer, Jony Ive, is getting in on the vinyl boom with his latest project, a $60,000 turntable.
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Instagram Head Wants Threads to Be a Sterile, News-Free Environment
Meta’s new Threads app designed “for public conversations,” is meant to be a happy-go-lucky, flower-strewn realm of “kindness,” one that CEO Mark Zuckerberg told MMA fighter Mike Davis is a “friendly place.” As is becoming more clear from the higher-ups in control of the new app, they don’t want Threads to stray…
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Deadpool 3 Will Bring Back Jennifer Garner as Elektra
We knew Deadpool 3 was bringing back Hugh Jackman as Wolverine but now another surprising superhero is joining the fun. The Hollywood Reporter says that Jennifer Garner will reprise her role as Elektra in the film, which is currently filming and scheduled for release on May 3, 2024.
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10 Horror Movies to Watch on Shudder Right Now
It’s hot outside. Why not stay indoors and cool off with a horror movie, preferably with a fan pointed directly at your face? Here’s a list of 10 films—a mix of newer releases io9 has recently reviewed, and some cult gems too—all currently streaming on Shudder.

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Episode One of My Adventures With Superman Is Now on YouTube
So I might have been a wee bit too critical with my first impression of My Shonen Adventures with Superman, as reviews—including our own—are praising the new show for its light-hearted, rom-com take on the Man of Steel. Now, you can watch Clark-kun for yourself, free on YouTube!

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In a First, FDA Grants Full Approval to Anti-Amyloid Drug for Alzheimer's
On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration made a decision that’s likely to have a major impact on the landscape of Alzheimer’s disease research. The agency issued a full-throated traditional approval of the drug Leqembi, developed by the companies Eisai and Biogen. The drug is the first of its class to receive…
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Baldur's Gate 3's Commitment to D&D Shenanigans Includes Carnal Druid Bear Sex
Recently Larian Studios—the developers behind the beloved Divinity: Original Sin games tasked with the daunting prospect of continuing the legacy of the Baldur’s Gate series, some of the most iconic Dungeons & Dragons games ever made—made a big fuss about the scope of its game. More dialogue than Lord of the Rings!…
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Thumbs-Up Emoji Is an Official Contract Agreement, Canadian Court Rules
You’d better think twice before responding to an ask from your boss with a ????. A Saskatchewan court has ruled in favor of making the emoji an official agreement to enter a contract.
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Will We See More of Uhura's Relationship with Spock? | io9 Interview
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Mad Men Meets Severance for Fight Club in the Corner Office
Corner Office has just dropped a new trailer and I feel like it will be playing behind my eyeballs for at least three hours. Is this headline weird? Is it, perhaps, a little bit of nonsense? Honestly good. This trailer gave me whiplash. Please watch and if you feel the need to scream, please think about the floor.

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[gizmodo]

The once-sacrosanct halls of Wordle are adding new ads. When you hit “Play” on the Wordle mobile app, you’ll now be treated to what advertising boys call an “interstitial” ad, meaning the video or the image takes up your entire screen.
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Companies Think Their Idiot Customers Will Accidentally Cancel Their Subscriptions if It's Too Easy
The Federal Trade Commission’s recent proposal to require that companies offer customers easy one-click options to cancel subscriptions might seem like a no-brainer, something unequivocally good for consumers. Not according to the companies it would affect, though. In their view, the introduction of simple unsubscribe…
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Insidious: The Red Door Is a Better Drama Than a Horror Movie
What happens after the horror movie ends? Once the heroes have killed the monster and lived to fight another day, what is life like? What does that kind of fear and trauma do to a person or a family? Those are the questions at the center of Insidious: The Red Door, the fifth film in the Insidious franchise and first…
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Sega Boss Says the Company Might Be Done With that Dumb NFT Game
With crypto becoming a hell of a lot less appetizing over the last few months thanks to numerous crimes and scandals, game companies that were once so hungry for ballooning crypto profits have been creeping their chairs away from the dinner table, inch by squeaking inch.
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Astronomers Surprised By a Distant Black Hole Roaring Back to Life
Black holes often sit at the centers of galaxies, where they can gorge themselves on the superheated material that falls into their abyssal event horizons. Now, a team of astronomers have observed the beginning of one such meal.
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BookTok Might Have Been a Mistake, But Sometimes It's Still Good
Publishing is brutal. Writing a book is difficult enough, but selling it is another challenge that most authors feel unprepared for. Social media has always been a bit of a crapshoot when it comes to selling anything,but somehow TikTok has amassed a massive cohort of readers and authors who have the power to make any…
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AI Systems Could Help Us Speed Up Extreme Weather Forecasting, Studies Show
As climate change makes extreme weather more likely, and more unpredictable, meteorologists and government agencies need new tools to keep up. Two studies published this week in the scientific journal Nature suggest that artificial intelligence can be used to support accurate and faster forecasting and extreme weather…
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Is Threads a Threat to Twitter? | Future Tech
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Star Trek: Prodigy's Missing Episodes Might Be Making Their Way Home
Appropriate for a show with so many connections to Star Trek: Voyager, the second half of Prodigy season one might make it home the long way round. Weeks on from from the streamer’s shocking decision to reverse renewal and pull the series from its service, there could be a chance fans will get to physically own what…
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Creator of ElonJet Moves His Musk Flight-Tracking Account to Threads
Jack Sweeney, the college student behind the Twitter account @ElonJet, has moved his platform to Threads after he was banned last year. Elon Musk banned Sweeney’s account from tracking his private flights and threatened to take legal action against him, claiming that tracking his flights put his son at risk.
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Snikt! Lego's X-Men Wolverine Claw Set Trades Adamantium For Plastic
Ahead of the premiere of X-Men ‘97—the follow-up to the popular ‘90s cartoon series—early next year, Lego is releasing another Wolverine set next month which focuses on the iconic Marvel character’s most recognizable and most dangerous feature: those retractable adamantium claws.
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Shazam Expands iOS Integration to YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok
Shazam is one of those genius apps that has stood the test of time and then some. Now, it’s getting a huge improvement on iOS. You can now use the music-identifying app on your phone while you have TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram open.

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Deadpool 3 Set Pictures Tease an Upgraded Costume
Mark Ronson teases some wild additions to Barbie’s soundtrack. The long-delayed Uzumaki adaptation is still happening. Strange Planet’s animated adaptation sets an August release date. Plus, what’s coming on My Adventures With Superman and Riverdale. Spoilers, away!

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You're Going to Need an Appointment to Get Your Hands on Apple's Vision Pro
Apple’s planned early 2024 launch of the Vision Pro headset is already shaping up to be a tangled, complicated hullabaloo. Not only will customers need to drop $3,500 on Apple’s first “spatial computer,” but you’ll need to schedule an appointment and sit down for a skull measuring session just to get your hands on the…
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Shell Backtracks on Greenwashing, Renews Commitment to Drill, Baby, Drill!
Oil and gas giant Shell has walked back the greenwashing image that it had worked so hard to foster over the last few years. The company has moved away from its previous strategy to slowly decrease oil production this decade. It’s back to (openly) drilling the planet dry for profit.
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Louisiana Outlaws Sexual Deepfakes of Children
Louisiana has become one of the first states to pass legislation explicitly criminalizing the creation of deepfaked child sexual abuse material. The legislation, called SB175, makes it a crime to knowingly create or possess an AI-generated image or video depicting a person under the age of 18 engaged in a sexual act.…
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The Super Mario Bros. Movie Streams on Peacock in August
Going by its staggering box-office haul, it doesn’t seem like too many fans waited around to watch The Super Mario Bros. Movie—but those who did can now set their countdown calendars for August 3, when the movie arrives on streamer Peacock.

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NASA's Space Shuttle Endeavour Will Stand Tall Once More
The Space Shuttle is going to look launch ready once again, although this time the retired spacecraft won’t be firing its engines.
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Biden Appeals Judge's Ban on Government Asking for Social Media Takedowns
The Biden administration is appealing a bombshell ruling from a federal judge barring government agencies from contacting social media companies to make takedown requests or recommend other content moderation. State Department officials had already halted routine meetings with Facebook in response to the July 5th…
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LIGHTSPEED Presents: 'Six Months After All Life on Titan Died' by JB Park
io9 is proud to present fiction from LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE. Once a month, we feature a story from LIGHTSPEED’s current issue. This month’s selection is “Six Months After All Life on Titan Died” by JB Park. You can read the story below or listen to the podcast on LIGHTSPEED’s website. Enjoy!
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[gizmodo]

Strange New Worlds has made a name for itself over the course of its first season, and now the first half of its sophomore, in taking the vibes of the original Star Trek—and sometimes literal episodes—and translating them to a modern television show, and the expectations that come with them. But what happens when the…
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Twitter Hits Meta With Lawsuit Threat Over Stolen 'Trade Secrets'
Meta successfully triggered a response from Twitter on Wednesday amid the rollout of its new rival app, Threads. Elon Musk’s longtime attorney Alex Spiro sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, threatening to file a lawsuit against the company for engaging in “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of…
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Missions: Impossible, Ranked
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is consider yet another ranking of Mission: Impossible films.
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Here’s the Deal With Las Vegas’ Huge Psychedelic Orb
A giant shape-shifting orb has invaded the Las Vegas metropolitan area. If you’ve seen pictures, you’d be forgiven for being alarmed because it sorta resembles something that might land on Earth during an alien invasion. A pulsating ball that likes to change its color and appearance, the orb sometimes looks vaguely…
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Webb Space Telescope Discovers Farthest Active Supermassive Black Hole Known
Astronomers imaging the cosmos with the Webb Space Telescope have found the most distant active supermassive black hole yet. The black hole was “seen” as it was around 570 million years after the Big Bang.
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Top 5 Shopping Tips for Amazon Prime Day
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SAG-AFTRA Is Making Preparations to Strike
SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents “actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists, and other media professionals,” according to its site, has begun sending out surveys and communications…
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We're So Ready for Barbie's New Billie Eilish Music to Wreck Us
The Barbie movie has achieved what was once thought impossible: getting us even more hyped for its release, as pop star Billie Eilish has announced her latest single “What Was I Made For?”—written for the Greta Gerwig film.
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An Angry Birds Cafe Is Opening in New York in a Desperate Attempt to Recapture the Game's Glory Days
It wasn’t the hardware that made the iPhone a hit, or even iOS, it was the potential unlocked by the introduction of the App Store, and one of the earliest must-have apps for Apple’s smartphone was a game about slingshotting enraged fowl that, almost 14 years later, will be the branding focus of a new cafe coming to…
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What We Do in the Shadows Season 5 Promises Even More Vampiric Hijinks
The first thing you notice on the What We Do in the Shadows set is that they really built a whole ass haunted house. Shadows is made alongside a busy street in a Toronto suburb. The outer facade of the house—the steps, topiaries, and stained glass windows—face traffic, and cars slowed down as a group of media…
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OceanGate Suspends All Operations in the Aftermath of Titan Implosion
OceanGate, the owner of the Titan submersible, is suspending “all exploration and commercial operations” following the fatal implosion of its vessel, which killed all five crew members on board. The suspension comes only weeks after the Titan deployed to the Titanic wreckage site, located about 12,500 feet below the…
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[gizmodo]

Getting butts into movie theater seats is an assignment Tom Cruise has taken upon himself, one cinema-revitalizing blockbuster at a time. In partnership with director-writer Chris McQuarrie, the star is hitting the screens with the latest thrilling chapter of the Mission: Impossiblefranchise, Dead Reckoning Part One.

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The Gaming Shelf Is a Furious, Godkilling Cocaine Owlbear
We’re switching formats! As I am incapable of saying no, this is an overstuffed edition. Soon I will start saying no. Or i’ll go weekly with this. One or the other.
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Cecilia Rose Gooding on the Writers Strike | io9 Interview
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‘Big Tax Prep’ Shared Sensitive Data With Meta and Google, Congress Says
Congress released a highly anticipated report on Wednesday detailing how major tax prep companies and big tech firms like Google and Meta, parent of Facebook and Instagram, “recklessly” shared the sensitive tax data of tens of millions of Americans without proper safeguards. The senators cited evidence from their…
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Tumblr Is in the Red and Losing $30 Million Every Year
Once the go-to spot for teens wearing Doc Martens and suffering from a taste in alternative music, Tumblr is apparently seriously in the red: The platform’s CEO claims that the company is losing $30 million annually.

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[UPDATED] Archive of Our Own Is Back Online After a Massive DDoS Attack
The Archive of Our Own—the largest digital library for fanfiction currently operating, and one of the highest-trafficked sites in the world—was temporarily unavailable after it experienced a large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack from a hacker group calling itself “Anonymous Sudan.” Ao3 reported the…
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15 Comic-Con Panels We're Excited for in 2023
This year promises to be a San Diego Comic-Con like no other, but maybe not in the best way. Over the past two decades or so, fans could count on Comic-Con to be one of the best places to find out the biggest news about all their favorite movies, TV shows, books, comics, video games, and more. This year though, while …
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A Decade Later, Pacific Rim Remains a Worthy Delight
You can always count on tentpole blockbusters to give bombastic spectacle and massive action. During the 2010s, audiences watched plenty of CG armies fall, crossovers happen, and superheroes rise to the challenge. But one niche that wasn’t exactly being filled at the time (at least in the West) was the giant robot…
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Samsung Unpacked is happening July 26 in Seoul: Here's How to Watch this Foldable-Centric Live Event
The next Samsung Unpacked event will come alive July 26 at 7 a.m. ET/10 a.m. PT, with the company hosting a live event at its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea. At the same time, Unpacked should be livestreamed on the company’s website and YouTube channel. Based on the artwork for the event (and online rumors and…
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Elon Musk Launches Another Artificial Intelligence Startup, xAI, in Newest Bid to Stay Relevant
Elon Musk launched his newest venture, an artificial intelligence company called xAI, to compete with other AI developers including ChatGPT maker OpenAI (which he also founded) and Google’s Bard. Musk announced the launch on Wednesday, saying on the company’s website: “The goal of xAI is to understand the true nature…
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Super Pocket is the Perfect $59 Retro Handheld For Gamers Who Don't Want to Deal With ROMs
There are lots of affordable consoles on the market that will let gamers play thousands of classic retro titles, but most also require users to have a large collection of legally gray ROM files on hand. That’s where the new Super Pocket is different. It’s a Game Boy-sized handheld that comes with a small selection of…
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Sea Otter on the Lam Steals Hella Surfboards and Looks Cool Doing It
A large sea otter has been making rounds as the most notorious surfboard stealing sea creature this side of the Pacific Ocean. As of Wednesday, the aggro otter—herself a member of an endangered species found in central California—still remains at large, stalking the waters off the coast of Santa Cruz for her next…
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Sorry, Elon: Chinese Company Becomes the World's First to Launch Methane Rocket to Orbit
A private space company in China made aerospace history by launching its methane-fueled rocket to orbit, ushering in a new era of cleaner, safer rocket fuel that’s better suited for reusability.
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Superman: Legacy Adds Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho
Superman: Legacyis adding another superhero to its roster, and his name is Metamorpho.

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Lawyers Who Argued Supreme Court Cases Paid a Clarence Thomas Aide Via Venmo
While the rest of us were Venmo-ing our friends for the dinner check, an aide to conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was apparently receiving payments on the app from lawyers that appeared before the high court.

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NASA's Perseverance Rover Finds Preserved Organic Molecules on Mars
Researchers poring over imagery and data from the Perseverance rover on Mars have found evidence of organic molecules in the planet’s Jezero Crater, potentially providing evidence of the planet’s carbon cycles and its ability to host life.

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SAG-AFTRA Agrees to Federal Mediation, But Not to an Extension
As strike talk in Hollywood heats up, entertainment industry publications like Variety and Deadline are running multiple stories about the WGA, SAG-AFTRA, DGA, and the AMPTP every day. And, as a result of aggregating such articles, so are many other sites, including io9. But many of the trades’ sources have their own…
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Harvey Guillén on Guillermo’s Evolution in What We Do in the Shadows | io9 Interview
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Farmers Insurance Pulls Out of Florida’s Shaky Market
Farmers Insurance will stop offering insurance coverage in the state of Florida. This includes home insurance, auto, and policies that cover a combination of these. Apparently, the company made this decision in order to better manage its risk exposure in such a hurricane and natural disaster-prone state, CNN reported.
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New Fast & Furious Coaster Ride Coming to Universal Studios Hollywood
The long-rumored roller coaster for the Fast and Furious franchise has officially received the green light in the latest Universal Studios theme parks expansion.

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The Sony A6700 Brings Better Autofocus, Stabilization, and Video Capabilities to its APS-C Camera Lineup
It’s been almost four years since Sony introduced a new model to its popular, affordable, A6000 series of APS-C digital cameras. While the new A6700 isn’t a huge step-up over 2019's A6600, it arrives with more than enough new features and improvements for fans of the line to consider finally upgrading their gear.
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Watch: Chipotle's New Kitchen Robot Can Peel and Core 25lbs of Avocados In Half the Time It Takes a Human
In 1864, David Goodell revolutionized kitchen food prep with the invention of a hand-cranked device that could peel an apple in a matter of seconds. One hundred and fifty-nine years later, Chipotle is introducing the next innovation in automated fruit prep with Autocado: a robot that can halve, peel, and core a…
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Andor and Last Of Us Among Multiple Sci-Fi Projects to Score Emmy Nominations
We all love movies, but let’s be honest: television is where most of the best storytelling is happening these days. And today, nominations for the 2023 Primetime Emmys were announced, showcasing what voters think are the best of the best. And those voters apparently love genre.
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[gizmodo]

Google got smacked with a class-action lawsuit Tuesday accusing the search giant of “stealing everything ever shared on the internet,” including copyrighted works and millions of people’s personal data. The law firm behind the case, Clarkson, said the case comes after Google changed its AI privacy policy, an updated…
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Doctors Report Unsettling Case of Man With Green, Fuzzy Tongue
A man and his mouth got into a hairy situation, according to his doctors. The man developed a fuzzy and starkly green discoloration of his tongue. Thankfully, this condition is usually benign, and his tongue eventually returned to normal.

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San Francisco Protesters Are Decorating Self-Driving Cars With Traffic Cones
General Motors and Google parent Alphabet are silently pushing the city of San Francisco to expand the number of beta-testing self-driving vehicles allowed on the road. In protest, hoards of city denizens have figured out a way to combat the multi-billion dollar companies’ high tech, AI-driven cars: the humble orange…
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The Webb Space Telescope's Best Images, One Year On
The Webb Space Telescope launched to space in December 2021 with an ambitious goal: providing scientists with a deeper, sharper view of the history of the universe.
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Secret Invasion Finally Picks Up Speed, But Loses Any Subtlety
Secret Invasion is back with the Worst Spies in the world! A reminder that Rhodes is very likely a Skrull, Skrulls are doing Super Skrullification, and G’iah has been shot but if she’s dead I’ll eat my backpack. Priscilla has a gun, is likely on Gravik’s side, and Talos is still an idealistic dumbass. Also Fury? Is…
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Microsoft Warns That a Chinese Cyberattack Breached Government Email Accounts
A cyberattack attack on Microsoft originating in China breached government email accounts, the company reported late Tuesday. The threat, labeled Storm-0558, has mainly targeted Western Europe government agencies using espionage to steal data and credentials access.
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Potential Setback for Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin as Rocket Engine Explodes in Test
During a test firing in late June, a Blue Origin rocket engine exploded at the company’s West Texas facility in what could be another major setback for the launch of the Vulcan Centaur rocket.

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Artists Accuse Shein of Algorithmically Stealing and Selling Their Art
Three independent artists are now suing ultra-cheap online retailer Shein, alleging that the company has been deploying an algorithm to identify trending art—including the artists’ own designs—and recreating it in sweatshops, all under the leadership of a mysterious tech tycoon.
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A New Featurette Discusses Ahsoka's Journey to Live Action Series
I understand that very few people care as much about Interview With the Vampire as I do, but the new season is right around the corner and promo is already getting set up for San Diego Comic-Con—so nobody should expect me to be normal about it. There’s also just... a lot of interesting discussion going on about what’s…
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You Can Hang This Gargantuan E-Reader On Your Wall and Turn Newspapers Into Art
Although mostly relegated to e-readers, e-notes, and price tags at your local grocery store, there are some other novel users for E Ink displays. Want to display art on your walls without committing to just a single artist? That’s how Project E Ink is using the display technology, but instead of putting renaissance…
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Bigger, Brighter, More Expensive: Nothing Reveals the Phone (2)
Nothing’s Phone (2) has finally struggled out of the muck into the light of day. It’s got a beefier processor, a better camera, more of Nothing’s signature blinking lights, and it costs more than $100 more than its first iteration.

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Home Depot Halloween Is Here, Complete With a Colossal Jack Skellington
It’s the dead of summer so we can safely say it’s time for Halloween season to start ramping up. Home Depot—the ghouls who brought the 12-foot skeleton into the world—is fully aware, and is ready to unleash an absolutely gargantuan new Pumpkin King.

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Tesla Is Dodging Apple's 30% App Store Tax
Apple has a controversial policy in its App Store, one that’s drawn the ire of Elon Musk in the past. If you want to charge people to unlock a feature in your app, you need to use Apple’s “In-App Purchase” system. That routes the transaction through Apple’s payment network, and the $3-trillion tech giant takes a 30%…
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Silk Road Founder's Mentor Sentenced to 20 Years
A 61-year-old Canadian man who acted as a mentor to Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Ulbricht’s confidant, known publicly by his online pseudonyms “Variety Jones” and “Mongoose” advocated in favor of a hired hitman and reportedly helped Ulbricht see “a larger vision” for the…
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Former Amazon Security Engineer Arrested and Charged with Hacking Crypto Exchange
A top cybersecurity pro for Amazon appears to be in deep trouble. Federal prosecutors say Shakeeb Ahmed used his hacking skills to steal $9 million in assets from a cryptocurrency exchange last summer, then attempted to launder the stolen goods through a haze of online trickery.
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Superman: Legacy Chooses Its Hawkgirl and Mister Terrific—and a Green Lantern
With his Clark Kent and Lois Lane newly chosen, James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy is starting to fill in supporting roles in what will presumably be a formidable ensemble cast. We now know Isabela Merced (Dora and the Lost City of Gold) will be Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi (X-Men: First Class) is Mister Terrific, and Nathan…
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Open Channel: Tell Us Your Favorite (or Most Hated) Superhero Movie Suit
Thus far, the big selling point for Deadpool 3 is that it’s surprisingly managed to bring back (among others) Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Jackman hung up his claws rather decisively with Logan in 2017, but the upcoming Marvel Studios flick seems to be going with a different version of the character—not the one…
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Hollywood Studios Discuss Bringing in Federal Negotiator to Avoid Actors' Strike
Instead of getting on a conference call to figure out how to give SAG-AFTRA a fair deal, Variety reports that bigwigs in the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers got on a conference call to “discuss the urgent situation.” Additionally, Variety says that the group, which included Bob Iger (Disney), David…
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Anthropic's Claude 2 Is a Faster, Kinder, More Constricted Version of Its ‘Harmless’ AI
The chatbot Claude has been sitting in the back of the class while the other AI like ChatGPT have fielded teachers’ questions, even if the bot’s answers are often misconstrued or outright wrong. Now Claude is ready to speak up, sticking a “2” next to its name while adding an interface for anybody to use.
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Ford Exec Allegedly Attacked Wife With Google Nest Hub
A Ford executive has been charged with two felony counts for an alleged assault against his wife. Franck Louis-Victor’s wife claimed her husband hit her with a Google Nest Hub smart screen, “slapped and headbutted” her, and threatened to burn two of her bags worth $20,000 with a “lit butane torch.”
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[gizmodo]

A mighty wind satellite has been losing altitude at a steady pace of nearly one mile per day, falling towards the surface of Earth. The European Space Agency (ESA) will attempt to guide the satellite on its way down to minimize risk of damage as its pieces hit the ground.
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Discord Unveils New Parental Controls to Keep Tabs on Your Kids
Discord, the go-to social network for notoriously level-headed and respectful gamers, wants to make its platform more kid friendly. The company unveiled the Family Center Tuesday, a new tool to help parents and guardians keep an eye on their child’s activity on the app.

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Godzilla Minus One's First Teaser Is Here to Stomp Across Your Tuesday
While Legendary’s MonsterVerse rumbles forward with projects like Netflix animated series Skull Island and big-screen live-action crossover sequel Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Toho would like to remind you that the OG King of the Monsters is still making movies, and still crushing Japan.

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Bank of America Fined $150 Million for Overusing Overdraft Fees and Opening Fake Accounts
Bank of America was ordered to pay $150 million in fines for double-charging customers, withholding promised reward bonuses for credit card holders, and opening thousands of bank accounts under customers’ names without their knowledge, a federal investigation revealed.
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The First Year of Covid-19 Saw a Surge in Booze-Fueled Liver Injuries, Study Finds
The first year of the covid-19 pandemic helped fuel a spike of boozy liver injuries in the U.S., recent research suggests. The study found a jump in reported hospitalizations from alcohol-related hepatitis across the U.S. in 2020—even above the steady increases seen in past years. Deaths from these injuries…
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Blue Beetle Looks Like the Most Fun Superhero Movie of the Year
While the new DC movie universe is starting to take shape, Warner Bros. still has a few movies left over from the old regime it’s releasing this year. One of the more interesting ones is Blue Beetle, whose promotion has been fairly minimal since its first trailer hit a few months ago. But with the film just over a…
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California Is in for a Long, Scalding Hot Week
It’s supposed to be pretty hot in California during the summer, but the golden state is going to see higher than average temperatures this week and into this coming weekend.
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