Gizmodo

**gizmodo** · 18-12-22, 21:50

For one reason or another, the idea of a live-action Barbiemovie coming to theaters has seemed bewildering for quite some time. But now that the first look at Greta Gerwig’s take on the popular Mattel toy is out, those concerns seem to have been largely vanished, as the trailer playing in front of Avatar: The Way of…
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Spy x Family Isn't Just Getting Season 2, It's Also Getting a Movie

Just as its pretty stellar first season is about to come to a close, it was confirmed that Spy x Family’sanime will be returning. During this weekend’s Jump Festa, representatives for the series confirmed that a second season is in active development and will be hitting sometime in 2023.
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Akira Toriyama's Sand Land is Jumping Over to Anime

Throughout the last 30 years, Akira Toriyama has become best known as the man behind Dragon Ball Zand artist of acclaimed JRPGs like Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest, and Blue Dragon. As a manga creator, his career goes all the way back to the mid 70s, though not all of his pre and post-Dragon Ball work (most of them…
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HBO's Comedy About Superhero Movies Grabs Some Supervillains for Its Cast

Beyond prestige genre dramas, HBO also has some pretty funny comedies under its belt like Barry and Insecure. The next comedy in the works at the network is The Franchise, which will focus on a group of crew members who work together on the set of a popular superhero movie franchise.

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Behold, Doctor Who's Stylish Fifteenth Doctor

The BBC has released the first official look for Ncuti Gatwa’s season of Doctor Who, where he’ll be taking over for Jodie Whitaker as the Fifteenth Doctor. Also pictured is his companion Ruby Sunday, as played by Millie Gibson.

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Jujutsu Kaisen's First Look at Season 2 Winds Back the Clock

The first season of Jujutsu Kaisen’sanime adaptation cemented itself as one of the most fun, strangest shonen anime of the current moment, and had enough promise to make you want to see what came next. With MAPPA’s increasingly packed schedule, it was a matter of when Jujutsu would come back, particularly after …
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Five Nights at Freddy's Gains Josh Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard

A film adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy’s has been on the docket for a few years now, dating back to the mid-2010s. With a handful of delays and changes in creative teams, plus the recent release of two movies fairly similar to ScottGames’ horror game franchise, you could reasonably think that the Five Nights movie…
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'I Can’t Do This Anymore,' Trump's NFT Collection Pushes Even His Closest Sycophants to Their Limits

Former President turned Florida man Donald Trump has made a name for himself as possibly the world’s most successful online troll. While the bulk of his shitposting repertoire has mostly been reserved for observers on the political left, Trump shook things up this week and went after his own supporters.
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How To Use Apple’s Brand New Freeform App

Apple’s got a brand new app out, which doesn’t happen often: Freeform is available now for iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, or macOS Ventura 13.1, and is described as a “flexible canvas” that you can use in pretty much any way you see fit. The emphasis is on sharing and collaboration, but you can use Freeform—essentially a…
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The 10 Worst New Places You're Going to See Ads in 2023

Last week, I tried to count all the ads I saw in a single day. I didn’t make it all the way through 24 hours of my little experiment, but as I was reading the morning news, listening to the radio during breakfast, scrolling on social media, and passing billboards on the way to a coffee shop, I tallied every time I…
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Here's Your State's Most Popular Christmas Cookie According to Google

Google Trend Data has revealed which Christmas cookies are the most popular for 2022, and found that sugar cookies, gingerbread, and peanut butter blossoms win as the overall top picks.
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The Top 10 Scams of 2022, According to the Government

Ever since folks called my elderly mom and told her they had kidnapped me in order to extort her, scammers have held a special place in my heart. (I was not kidnapped, and thankfully, my mom was not conned.) Specifically, that small little part of it that wishes them eternal damnation and diarrhea.
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My Slow-Moving Ride in the Motorverse, the New ‘Metaverse for Cars’
On a brisk November afternoon, a company called Holoride picked me up from Gizmodo’s Midtown Manhattan office in a new, metallic-blue Audi SUV. Holoride’s CEO Nils Wollny stepped out, well-coiffed and wearing a t-shirt branded with the word “Motorverse.” Grinning, he beckoned me into the car. “Are you ready?” he asked…
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A Powerful Recoil Effect Magnified NASA’s Asteroid Deflection Experiment

Scientists continue to pore over the results of NASA’s stunningly successful DART test to deflect a harmless asteroid. As the latest findings suggest, the recoil created by the blast of debris spewing out from Dimorphos after impact was significant, further boosting the spacecraft’s influence on the asteroid.

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This Week's Toys Are Powerful Allies Indeed

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's roundup of the latest toy news. This week, Lego begins teasing its plans for 2023 with a bevy of Star Wars sets and a smooth jazz celebration, Chainsaw Man merch mania continues with everyone’s favorite blood fiend, and Hot Toys heads back to Attack of the Clones. Check it out!

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The Jasad Heir Is a Tournament Arc Turned Political Thriller

American-Egyptian author Sara Hashem is preparing for her epic political fantasy debut, The Jasad Heir, inspired by her experiences living in Egypt. Hashem wrote this novel to answer the question: “what do you owe to a place and a people you’ve barely known but without whom you wouldn’t exist?” As a fugitive queen…
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Our Best Look Yet at Spider-Man: No Way Home's Final Suit

We may not know when Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is coming back to the big screen, but we do know what he’ll look like when he does. Spider-Man: No Way Home ended with Peter Parker crafting himself a new Spider suit so he could keep up his heroic actions after the manic multiverse events. And the suit was inspired by the…
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The 15 Best Experiences in Theme Parks and Fan Destinations 2022

There was no shortage of fan-tastical avenues to take into our favorite imagined worlds within themed entertainment, amusement parks, haunts, and immersive activations in 2022. Walt Disney World welcomed two new attractions between Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. Meanwhile,…
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Rocket Lab Poised to Start New Era of Launches from NASA's Facility on Wallops Island

Private space company Rocket Lab is gearing up for its first liftoff from U.S. soil, launching its Electron rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
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2022 Was the Year of Actually Caring About Phones Again

When it comes to smartphones, the last couple of years have felt stagnant, regardless of who you get your handsets from. With all the time we were confined to our homes, there was no need to have the latest and greatest as the world slowed down to a relative crawl. Upgraded specs and a better camera seemed tertiary…
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Here's Why NASA's Launch of a Water-Sniffing Satellite Is a Huge Deal

A NASA satellite launched on Friday with an unprecedented task: providing the first comprehensive view of Earth’s ever-changing bodies of water.
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**gizmodo** · 18-12-22, 21:50

BioSentinel, a first-of-its-kind experiment from NASA, is carrying living organisms over 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) into deep space to test the long-term effects of cosmic radiation on living things—in this case, yeast. NASA has unveiled a new real-time visualization tool so the public can follow along…
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Donald Glover Will Play Hypno-Hustler in Sony's Spider-Man Universe

Talk about a deep cut antagonist for Spider-Man—but still, Hypno-Hustler makes perfect sense for Donald Glover. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that the actor, who once fancast himself as Spidey with the internet’s support, is now attached to star and produce a feature centered around the villain.
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The GOP Wants to Investigate Green Groups for 'Collusion' Against American Energy

Axios reported Friday that House Republicans will launch a probe into environmental NGOs based on a right-wing rumor that foreign powers, including China and Russia, are using nonprofit green groups to influence U.S. policy. That unsubstantiated rumor has been pushed for years by a PR firm employed by the fossil fuel…
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Bill Proposed to Curb 'Obscene' Content May Eradicate the Porn Industry

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) proposed a bill on Tuesday that, if passed, would redefine what obscenity means nationwide, which could effectively decimate the porn industry. The Utah Republican filed the Interstate Obscenity Definition Act (IODA) based on the Communications Act of 1934, and stated in the IODA that “obscenity…
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15 Warhammer 40,000 Characters Henry Cavill Could Play in Amazon's New TV Show

It’s official: Henry Cavill is trading Superman and Geralt of Rivia for the other love of his life, the grim dark future of Warhammer 40,000's 41st millennium. But the world of Warhammer is filled with a whole galaxy of wild characters. Who could Cavill lend his talents to? Here’s a list of... well, most of them…
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Eight Financial Influencers Indicted in Massive Pump and Dump Scheme

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James Cameron Says Avatar 3 Would Be a Satisfying Ending, But He Wants More

James Cameron should play the lottery because his big gambles always pay off. Titanic? Nailed it. Avatar? Home run. But after that he bet even bigger, spending 10 years crafting four Avatar sequels with the hope that audiences would want to see them all.
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After Hurricane Ian, Florida Residents Had a New Battle: Mold

After Hurricane Ian struck Florida in September, many residents found themselves grappling with wind and water damage to their homes. But for many, the biggest headache would come weeks later, in the form of difficult-to-eradicate mold.
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HTC Gives First Look At Its Lightweight Meta Quest Pro Competitor

According to The Verge, which was provided with a render of the new hardware, HTC is planning to reveal yet another consumer-focused virtual reality and augmented reality headset at CES 2023 next month, with features that will potentially rival the recently-announced Meta Quest Pro, including full-color passthrough…
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An Audacious Plan to Study a 'Pristine' Comet Is Taking Shape

The European Space Agency announced yesterday that it had signed a contract with private space company OHB to build the Comet Interceptor, a spacecraft to study a yet-to-be identified pristine comet from the Oort cloud, due for launch in 2029.
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Across the Spider-Verse's Spider-Woman Doesn't Need Defending

Any footage of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Versewas going to get folks talking, and the newest trailer from earlier in the week introduced a whole plethora of Spiders for folks to instantly fall in love with. While the trailer primarily focuses on the original Spider-Verse trio of Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, and…
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Elon Bans Mastodon Links as Twitter Purge Continues

Twitter’s locking the hatches to keep users from jumping off its sinking ship.
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Texas Republicans Want Even More Fossil Fuels on the Grid

Texas Republicans are messing with the state’s grid to fulfill their political ambitions. Again.
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A Lot of Influencer PR Packages Are Extremely Wasteful

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The Burning Questions We Have After Avatar: The Way of Water

Avatar: The Way of Wateris the rare film where we know, without a doubt, there will be at least one sequel. We know this because director James Cameron has already filmed Avatar part three, and it’ll be here in two years. So at the end of this movie, while the main story has almost certainly been completed, there are…
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Strike From a Space Rock May Have Caused Soyuz Coolant Leak at the ISS

Ground teams are investigating the cause of an upsetting coolant leak that erupted yesterday on the Russian Soyuz Ms-22 spacecraft docked to the International Space Station (ISS). Experts are now saying that a micrometeorite may have been responsible.
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Bad Bunny Asked to Perform Free Concert in Mexico After Ticketmaster Bungles Sales

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has asked popular reggaeton singer Bad Bunny, whose legal name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, to perform a free concert in Mexico City after hundreds of fans reportedly purchased fake tickets on Ticketmaster.
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This 27-Inch Digital Art Frame Is Actually an LG Air Conditioner

Home electronics were once status symbols and often the center of the living room, but consumers now tend to prefer gadgets and gizmos that camouflage themselves into an Instagram-friendly space. That now includes wall-mounted air conditioners, which LG is keeping out of sight behind an LCD art screen.
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The Best Photos From Mars in 2022

The Red Planet is desolate, freezing, and has an atmosphere 1% as dense as our own. Its winds blow in great gusts that kick up global dust storms that make and break Mars missions that rely on solar energy for power.

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Pokémon Will End Ash and Pikachu's Journey Next Year

The end of an era is upon us. The Pokémon Company has announced that January will see the beginning of the end for its long-running Pokémon anime as we know it, with the legendary hero and perpetual 10-year-old Satoshi, better known across the world as Ash Ketchum, bowing out as the protagonist of the series.

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**gizmodo** · 18-12-22, 21:50

This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here.

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Company That Was Supposed to Tell Us if Binance Is Stable Calls It Quits

After over a week of repeatedly trying to dampen concerns over the crypto exchange Binance’s financial viability, CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao now has his work cut out for him as the company conducting a targeted audit of his company exploded with hardly a word to anyone.
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Call James Cameron: Two Distant Planets Could Be Filled With Water

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have observed two exoplanets that may be examples of a long-hypothesized planetary classification: a water world.
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James Gunn Teases His DC and Marvel Plans

Patrick Stewart talks about Picard and Crusher in the final season of Star Trek: Picard. A Mythic Quest spinoff is on the way. The Twister sequel has found its director. Plus, a new Fear Street is coming, and get a look at the return of Superman & Lois. Spoilers now!

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Republicans Want to Make Tech Censorship and Biden 'Collusion' Top Priorities in 2023

Senior Republican leadership gave the public a sneak peek into their priorities and plans for tech legislation in the coming year, and it essentially all revolves around two words: conservative censorship. Yeah, here we go again.
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World's Largest Free-Standing Aquarium Bursts, Dumps 1,500 Fish and 264,000 Gallons of Water

The AquaDom, the world’s largest cylindrical aquarium, burst on Friday morning in Berlin, releasing more than 264,000 gallons of water (a million liters) onto the premises, which also house a hotel, museum, and cafes. On Twitter, the Berlin police said that there had been “unbelievable maritime damage.”
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The Barbie Trailer Goes Full Kubrick and We're Here For It
Did you have the first trailer for a Barbie movie parodying 2001: A Space Odyssey on your Bingo card? If so, you’re a winner, because that’s exactly what you’re about to see.

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2022 Was A Great Year for Lego Collectors (and a Bad One for Their Wallets)

One of the world’s most popular toys has actually been entertaining kids for over 60 years, putting Lego in a unique position to not only cater to new generations, but also those who grew up with the building toy and never stopped loving it. But as 2022 demonstrated, it’s getting harder and harder to be a…
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**gizmodo** · 20-12-22, 21:50

Last week’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse trailer gave us a whole multiversal nexus of Spider-heroes to freak out about, both new designs and familiar looks. How could there possibly be even more? Well, the movie’s gorgeous new poster managed to get some in.
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Daredevil's Charlie Cox Politely Asks Angry Fans to Be Angry Elsewhere

It doesn’t seem to take much to uphold Charlie Cox’s good-guy reputation, and when Digital Spy asked Cox what he made of people getting upset over the “walk of shame” that Daredevil did the morning after having a really great night with She-Hulk, he said, very kindly, “If She-Hulk’s not your thing, then don’t watch…
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Extreme Weather Events in 2022 | Extreme Earth

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Amazon Agrees to Major Competition Concessions to Avoid Billion Dollar EU Fine

After years of squirming, Amazon agreed to implement a raft of major business practice concessions to the European Commission to avoid paying a looming multi-billion dollar antitrust fine. Though Amazon will walk away from the skirmish without having to drain its wallet, the concessions could fan the flames for…
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Lenovo Wants Your Desk Lamp to Charge Your Phone and Hold Your Webcam

Year after year, we demand more and more features and functionality from our daily use devices, but for some reason we’re happy to just let lamps slack off and do nothing but give us light? The lamp’s day of reckoning is here now that Lenovo has shown us how much functionality it’s crammed into its new Go Desk Station.
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After Twitter Voted Him Out, Elon Musk Indicates Future Polls Could Be Restricted to 'Blue' Users

Deep in Elon Musk’s Twitter replies are the likely hints of the flailing social media CEO’s next policy change. Twitter Blue subscribers, who pay the minimum $8 a month for the privilege of a “verified” checkmark and nebulous other perks like (maybe) fewer ads, will soon be the only ones allowed to vote in important…
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FTX Is Asking Politicians to Return Sam Bankman-Fried's Donations, Pretty Please

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX is asking politicians and charities that received millions in donations from its former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, to please give them back so it can pay off its debts.
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Edie Falco Shot Avatar 2 So Long Ago She Assumed It Flopped

A lot has happened since James Cameron’s first Avatar movie came out in 2009. Presidents have come and gone, pandemics have waxed and waned, and empires have risen and fallen. Also, Avatar: The Way of Water star Edie Falco shot her scenes as a hawkish general and then assumed the movie bombed because she never heard…
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The InSight Mars Lander Mission May Finally Be Over
The InSight lander, which has spent over four years carrying out science on the Martian surface, may have finally died due to a lack of solar power.
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Turns Out You Can Turn Old Blu-Ray Players into Microscopes
Optical microscopes typically max out at anywhere between 500x to 1,500x magnification, at which point you need to switch to a scanning microscope to zoom any closer. They come with some functional compromises, and they’re not cheap, often costing tens of thousands of dollars, unless you’re clever enough to repurpose…
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TikTok Wants to Be More Transparent With Its Algorithm

TikTok announced on Tuesday it is becoming more transparent by introducing a new feature that will tell users why its algorithm recommends certain videos in their feeds. The change is being rolled out in users’ For You feed and will include a question mark icon titled “Why this video” for users to review.
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Netflix's 'Basic With Ads' Tier Was the Least Popular Option in Its First Month

As much as Netflix anticipated the launch of its ad-based tier as a means for generating new subscribers on the most popular streaming service, it turns out customers really haven’t been too interested in a cheaper ad-filled service with fewer shows on offer.

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Why the Keystone Pipeline Oil Spill in Kansas Is So Hard to Clean Up

The Keystone Pipeline spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of tar sands oil into a creek in northern Kansas earlier this month. TC Energy, which operates the pipeline, says it has recovered a small amount of that oil, but experts say the full cleanup will take a long time.

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Updates From Star Trek: Picard, the Future of Pirates of the Caribbean, and More

Lee Cronin promises the new Evil Dead is like “a rocket fueled by blood.” Director James Mangold drops some cryptic clues about the Indiana Jones Disney+ series. Plus, get a retro look at the final season of Riverdale, and what’s next on His Dark Materials. To me, my spoilers!

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A NASA Engineer Is Teaching AI How to Navigate on the Moon

Finding our way around the Moon is likely to be a tricky proposition. Unlike Earth, there are no roads, signs, or common landmarks on the lunar surface—at least not yet. Until that happens, we may want to rely on an artificially intelligent system that’s currently in development.
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Countries Reach Sweeping Deal to Protect Nature

This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here.

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His Dark Materials Stops Monkeying Around

If you haven’t read or watched His Dark Materials, it’s hard to explain how weird it is. This is its greatest strength, I believe, but also its biggest weakness, because while each part is intensely creative, when more closely examined in isolation, these parts can be utterly bizarre. Case in point: I just watched…
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RRR Director S.S. Rajamouli Reveals a Sequel Is in the Works

The Tollywood cinematic spectacle RRR has become a global phenomenon and an awards-season hopeful—and now it’s getting a sequel.
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James Mangold Will Not Stop Telling Trolls They're Wrong About Indiana Jones 5

Turns out the trailer for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny might only be the second-best thing to happen with the movie this month. The top spot might be reserved for the film’s director James Mangold, who’s been patiently, but directly, explaining to people on Twitter he knows more about his movie than they do.
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House of the Dragon's Olivia Cook on Her Most Difficult Scene So Far

House of the Dragon elevated itself very quickly from being “that new Game of Thrones spin-off” to must-watch appointment TV, thanks in no small part to the extreme drama experienced by its well-acted characters. Olivia Cooke’s Alicent Hightower—daughter, queen, mother—had more than her share of trials, but the actor…
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Meta's Not Giving Up on the Metaverse Just Yet

Much has changed since Mark Zuckerberg last year boldly proclaimed the company once known as Facebook would charge the world headfirst into the so-called metaverse. A historic tech downturn grabbed hold of Meta and left it with 11,000 fewer employees and a stock price down a whopping 65%. Meta reportedly burned over…
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Kids vs. Aliens' Trailer Sounds Its Battle Cry: 'F*ck Space!'

Director Jason Eisener is clearly a fan of to-the-point titles; previously, he made Hobo With a Shotgun, about a hobo (Rutger Hauer) toting a you-know-what, and his latest has a similarly literal title: Kids vs. Aliens. A Fantastic Fest selection earlier this year, the film will soon be in theaters—with a new trailer…
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**gizmodo** · 20-12-22, 21:50

Scooter rental company, Bird, has officially boarded the struggle bus. The micro mobility provider sent out emails to current and past customers requesting that they settle their lingering debts earlier this month. And the company left no stone unturned in its quest to recoup revenue.

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The Best and Worst Nerdy News of 2022

I’ve got good news for you... and bad news. Literally. We’ve combed through the io9 archives to discover all the news stories in 2022 that either delighted us or really bummed us out—and compiled them so you can remember the good times and what you should still be angry about in 2023.

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Vatican Defrocks Priest for 'Blasphemous' Posts on Social Media

The Vatican removed anti-abortion activist, Frank Pavone, from the priesthood after he made incendiary posts on social media. The decision to defrock the Florida-based priest was made on November 9 with no chance for an appeal, U.S. Archbishop Christophe Pierre said in a letter obtained by several news outlets.
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James Gunn Is Not Letting Troll Outrage Drive Decisions at DC Studios

As the dust settles from last week’s DC Studios shakeups, between Henry Cavill being done as Superman and Wonder Woman 3 not moving ahead, new co-chair and co-CEO James Gunn once again took to Twitter and Instagram to address the internet’s rumor mill of speculation.
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Over 67,000 DraftKings Betting Accounts Hit by Hackers

New details about a hack from last month show that tens of thousands of users happily gambling away on DraftKings may have had their personal information stolen thanks to account info purchased off the sports gambling site.
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Google Introduces End-to-End Encryption for Gmail

Google Workspace is rolling out a new security update on Gmail, adding end-to-end encryption that aims to provide an added layer of security when sending emails and attachments on the web. Customers will continue to have control over encryption keys and identity services that provide access to those keys.
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South Korea's First Moon Mission Enters Lunar Orbit

After a four month journey through space, the Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) has finally reached lunar orbit. The probe will spend the next year scanning the surface from above in search of water ice and suitable landing spots for future missions.
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Someone's Selling Google's Pixel Tablet on Facebook Marketplace

Google’s Pixel tablet isn’t supposed to come out until 2023, but we’re already seeing a supposed early unit up for grabs. This leak comes to us from Twitter, though it’s just a collection of screenshots from a Facebook Marketplace post that claims to be selling the announced-but-unreleased Google Pixel Tablet.

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West Texas Shaken by Second 5.4 Magnitude Earthquake in a Month

An earthquake that shook West Texas on Friday may be one of the strongest ever recorded in the state, the Associated Press reported. The magnitude 5.4 quake struck at around 5:35 p.m. local time about 14 miles (22 kilometers) north of Midland. It comes just a month after another 5.4 quake in the region, and officials…
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Rings of Power Season 2 Will Move at a Faster Pace

The world created by J.R.R. Tolkien has carved out a new universe on Prime Video with The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Season one recently closed out after a ton of world building, and the main players’ arcs are now gearing up for big moments in season two.
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Incoming Arctic Blast Set to Disrupt Holiday Travel Nationwide

An extreme chill is set to sweep across most of the continental U.S. in the coming days, as a blast of Arctic air dips as far south as Texas. National Weather Service forecasters are predicting unusually cold temperatures from the Pacific Northwest to the Southeast between Wednesday and Saturday, just days after…
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How to Get In-Flight WiFi on Delta, JetBlue, United, and More

Leg room, luggage space, in-flight meals, the actual cost of the ticket—these are all important considerations when booking a flight. But for some of us, perhaps the most crucial consideration of all concerns the on-board wifi options. Are you actually going to be able to get anything done mid-journey, or will you be…
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Yes, Indiana Jones 5 Will Address the Mutt Williams Thing

Mutt Williams, Shia LaBeouf’s character from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, is not in the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. This much has been known for some time. What hasn’t been known is if the film will just ignore him or make him part of the story—and now, we have a little more…
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Just When You Thought Mosasaurs Couldn’t Get Any Scarier

You wouldn’t want to swim in Late Cretaceous seas. If you’ve seen the first Jurassic World movie, you’ll recognize a mosasaur as the creature that leapt from the water to eat a great white shark. That film may have exaggerated the real size of mosasaurs, but the effect is genuine: some species could reach terrifying…
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Patton Oswalt and Rachael Leigh Cook Are Heading Into a World of Superhero Noir in NO/ONE

Radiant Black has become a smash hit for Image Comics, now playing host to a whole rainbow of Radiant heroes and villains. But its next big thing isn’t bright lights and big superheroics—it’s a multimedia thriller about murder in a world of heroes, and io9 has your first details.

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'The Return of the Crawling Evil,' a Lovecraftian Sci-Fi Story Written and Illustrated by Robots

You’ve probably heard about ChatGPT, OpenAI’s new AI chatbot that can spin up essays, poems, Twitter replies , and short stories at the drop of a hat. We at Gizmodo had h eard a lot about the program’s fiction writing capabilities, so we thought: why not have it write us some science fiction? It seemed like an…
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Epic Forced to Pay Record-Breaking $520 Million Fine for Violating Children's Privacy and Engaging in Dark Pattern Deception

Fortnite-maker Epic Games has agreed to pay a massive $520 million fine in settlements with the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly illegally gathering data from children and deploying dark patterns techniques to manipulate users into making unwanted in-game purchases. The fines mark a major regulatory win for the…
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Loki Narrates the (Very) Brief First Look at Season 2 of the Marvel Series

In 2023, Marvel is going full multiverse. There’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and The Marvels to start, but don’t forget the show that started it all. That’s Loki and it too will be back in 2023.
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ChatGPT Has Infiltrated Twitter Replies

As Twitter continues to circle the drain fueled by chaos from CEO Elon Musk, one user noticed something peculiar about tweet replies. After digging a little deeper, user Pieter Levels—who goes by @levelsio on the platform—found that some users are apparently now using the popular text-generating AI ChatGPT to reply to…
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Leak Inspection Finds Hole in Russian Spacecraft Docked to ISS

An inspection has revealed an 0.8-millimeter-wide hole in the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft that sprung a coolant leak outside the International Space Station last week. Russian space agency Roscosmos will make a decision on the flight-worthiness of the spacecraft later this month, at which time Russia may choose to expedite…
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**gizmodo** · 20-12-22, 21:50

For many Americans, soccer is a once-every-four-year thing. We watch the World Cup, the biggest and most important soccer tournament in the world, but once it’s over, it’s over. Then we forget about the sport until the next World Cup. Next time around, though, the 2026 World Cup is here in North America, so maybe you…
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Across the Spider-Verse Wants You to Take Its Villain Seriously

When it was announced that the main villain of the Into the Spider-Verse sequel was going to be D-List Spidey foe the Spot, many people shrugged their shoulders at the thought that someone who looks like a walking dalmatian zoot suit with portal powers could be a major threat to Miles and his amazing friends. But…
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SpaceX Pulls off 3 Orbital Launches in 34 Hours, Smashing Its Record

SpaceX is finishing off the year strong, flying its Falcon 9 rocket three times in less than 34 hours to deliver various payloads to low Earth orbit.
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Google Takes on Doctors' Terrible Handwriting

Google has proposed a remedy for the doctor’s note. The tech giant is working on an AI technology tool to decipher hard-to-read handwritten medical prescriptions, as announced at its yearly Google for India conference on Monday and described in a company blogpost.

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Meta Accused of Breaching Antitrust Policies Connected to Facebook Marketplace

On Monday, the European Commission accused Meta of going against its antitrust laws by using its Facebook Marketplace to promote ads and distort outside competition. The commission warned Meta of the breach in an official statement and said if the company is found guilty, it could receive a fine of up to 10% of its…
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John Carmack Quits Meta, Burns His Virtual Bridges Behind Him

Meta’s pivot away from social media and into virtual reality has hit another snag. One of the company’s executives, John Carmack, who helped build Meta’s Oculus company as Chief Technology Officer—is stepping away from Meta amidst frustration over the company’s efficiency.

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Watch Tom Cruise Repeatedly Try to Kill Himself for Mission: Impossible 7

At this point, Tom Cruise is well known for doing as many of his own stunts as possible, no matter how dangerous they are or needless they seem to be. But that doesn’t make it any less impressive learning how much work and care goes into these stunts/keeping Cruise alive, as this behind-the-scenes look at Mission:…
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Twitter Suddenly Reverses Course on 'Policy' That Banned Links to Competing Social Media Sites

Twitter has once again rushed to undo an impulsive new policy less than a day after introducing it. This week’s victim: Elon Musk’s sudden decision to ban external links to other social media sites.
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Update: Sam Bankman-Fried Finally Agrees to Return to the U.S. to Face the Music

After a strange, strange day of hemming and hawing, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried finally agreed to not contest extradition to the U.S., finally giving in to demands he face federal fraud charges.
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**gizmodo** · 22-12-22, 22:00

In an interview with NME, Charlie Cox discussed what he thinks the new Daredevil is going to look like now that Disney is producing the show. “My opinion is this character works best when he’s geared towards a slightly more mature audience. My instinct is that on Disney+ it will be dark but it probably won’t be as…
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Europe Has Few Options to Reach Space After Vega-C Rocket Crash

Earlier this week, Arianespace’s Vega-C rocket suffered a fatal anomaly that resulted in the loss of two satellites. The rocket, which debuted a few months ago, was meant to fill a major gap for the European space industry, but is now grounded pending an investigation.
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The FBI Says You Need to Use an Ad Blocker

The Federal Bureau of Investigation took a break from hunting serial killers this week to post a public service announcement: if you’re not using an ad blocker, what are you doing?
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A Software Glitch Forced the Webb Space Telescope Into Safe Mode

The Webb Space Telescope’s instruments have been in safe mode intermittently since December 7, but scientific operations resumed earlier this week, NASA said in a press release on Wednesday.
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What Andor Gets Right About Espionage

Much has been written about Tony Gilroy’s excellent Star Wars series Andor, available on Disney+. It’s being rightly praised for its complex characters and its multilayered plot. However, what jumped out at me, as a veteran of the intelligence business, was its knowing depiction of the role and execution of espionage.…
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NASA Tests Upgraded Megarocket Engine Ahead of Future Moon Missions
The crewed Artemis 5 mission to the Moon won’t happen until 2028 at the earliest, but the mission and those that follow will benefit from upgraded RS-25 engines, which NASA will use to power future iterations of its gigantic Space Launch System rocket.

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Don't Get Scammed by Fake Job Postings on Sites Like LinkedIn and Indeed

Scam job listings and fraudulent recruitment efforts abound in email inboxes and on sites like Indeed, LinkedIn, and Zip Recruiter, according to a new report from the Washington Post. Under the guise of fake employment offers and opportunities, internet grifters are angling to take advantage of jobseekers, and collect…
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‘Lightning Lynx’ Strange World Deleted Scene

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Google Is Working Behind the Scenes to Protect Search From ChatGPT

Google is reportedly ramping up work behind the scenes to close the technological gap with OpenAI’s ChatGPT model, an advanced chatbot capable of churning out conversational answers which some critics warn could pose the most significant threat to Google’s treasured search dominance in years.
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Twitter's New Crypto and Stocks Feature Links to Robinhood

As Elon Musk continues to gut Twitter due to his own hubris, it’s odd to hear of a new—potentially helpful—feature coming to the platform. The social media platform announced this week the integration of tickers for stock and crypto prices in search results and tweets.

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A New Ruling Could Make 'Deceptive' Movie Trailers a Target For Legal Action

When two fans of Ana de Armas rented Yesterday after seeing de Armas in the trailer, only to realize at the end of the movie that her part had been cut, they were so unhappy that they went to court over it. And won. In a rather bizarre Free Speech case, a federal judge has ruled in favor of movie-goers over the…
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How Conspiracy Theories and Disinformation Spiral Out of Control on the Internet | TechModo

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Apple Quietly Rolls Out New Updates That Could Prevent AirTag Stalking

Although it’s been more than a year and a half since Apple put its little tracking doohickey called AirTags on the market, the product has been repeatedly abused by stalkers as a way of keeping tabs on targets. This week, Apple silently released details on earlier firmware updates to its AirTags that lets users tell…
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Who's in and Who's Out of DC's Movie Universe (So Far)?

Warner Bros. has been a very busy studio this year when it comes to situations that feel like they are On Fire All the Time. But few have been tumultuous as the last few weeks and months in the studio’s DC Comics wing of moviemaking, where the arrival of a new leadership team has upended the movie slate as we know it.…
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Updates From Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon, and More

New footage from HBO Max’s 2023 slate teases The Last of Us and more. The next Alien film gets an intriguing code name. Megan Fox has joined S.K. Dale’s new sci-fi thriller. Plus, more teases for Henry Cavill’s final season on The Witcher. Spoilers now!

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2022's Biggest Environmental Ghouls

This past year was one of dire climate warnings, from bombshell IPCC reports to a summer of floods and fires to disturbing droughts across the world. And yet, entrenched interests were still working against climate action as hard as ever in 2022.
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Arctic Blast to Send U.S. Into Dangerous Deep Freeze, Imperiling Holiday Travel

Just ahead of the Christmas weekend, much of the lower 48 is covered in a chaotic patchwork of severe weather warnings, watches, and advisories from the National Weather Service. From Thursday through Saturday, bitter cold and winter storms are forecast to ravage the U.S. across an area spanning at least parts of 45…
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5 Ways Climate Change Made Life More Expensive in 2022

This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here.

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North Korea Has Stolen $1.2 Billion in Crypto Since 2017, Spy Agency Says

South Korea’s top spy agency revealed on Thursday that state-sponsored North Korean hackers had stolen $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency and other digital assets from targets around the world over the last five years.
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Heat Waves Are Shutting Down Data Centers and Breaking the Internet

Climate change is throwing a wrench into an unexpected place: the workings of data centers. As the frequency of heat waves grows worldwide, these critical pieces of technology infrastructure are melting down more and more often, threatening a foundational element of the internet.

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CEOs Who Might Replace Elon Musk at Twitter, Ranked

Elon Musk is destroying Twitter and Twitter is destroying Elon Musk’s life and fortune. Now that the man himself has publicly agreed to switch horses midstream, who will be the next CEO of Twitter?
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**gizmodo** · 22-12-22, 22:00

Have you noticed that websites are offering you a friendly new way to sign-in with Google? Try Investing.com. When you hit the site, Google displays a popup recommending that you sign in the top right. If you’re on a phone, the prompt takes up almost half your screen. And if you’re using Chrome, you can sign in with…
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'Super' Disease-Carrying Mosquitoes Detected in Asia

Researchers in Japan say they’ve discovered “super” resistant mosquitoes in Asia. In a study published this week, they detail finding populations of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes—a common disease vector—in Vietnam and Cambodia carrying several mutations believed to confer strong protection against the most widely used…
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FTX Execs Plead Guilty While Throwing Sam Bankman-Fried Under the Bus

Two executives connected to FTX, the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange once valued at $32 billion, have pleaded guilty to criminal charges, according to U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who made the announcement in a video released late Wednesday. And that’s really bad news for FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried because…
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Train to Busan Director Yeon Sang-ho Takes on Freaky AI in New Netflix Sci-Fi Film

The future of AI robotics never seems to have a silver lining, and here’s a new nightmarish vision of what could come to pass from Jung_E, the latest film from Yeon Sang-ho (Train to Busan). The Netflix release is slated to hit the streaming service exclusively on January 20, 2023.
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This Strange World Deleted Scene Highlights a Heroine Moment

Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Strange World will be hitting home media platforms just in time for the holidays. And with the digital release on December 23, animation fans will be able to unlock special features not yet available on Disney+, where the film will also be streaming.

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Avatar: The Way of Water's Space Battle That Could've Been Comes to Life in This Comic Preview

There was a long—long—time between Avatar and The Way of Water, and in the decade-plus it took James Cameron to make his sequel and bits of bobs of maybe another three movies beyond it, there were many ideas for what came next in Jake and Neytiri’s stories that were left off the table. But now you can take a look at…
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New York's New Warehouse Worker Law Sets Sights on Amazon’s Dystopian ‘Time Off Task’ Productivity Metric

Amazon warehouse workers in New York may finally have some legal reprieve from the company’s alleged soul crushing AI-assisted productive quotas. Those quotas were partly responsible for harrowing accounts of Amazon workers last year admitting they felt pressured to pee in bottles to avoid performance penalties.
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The Witcher Will Be Giving Henry Cavill a Suitably Epic Send-Off in Season 3

The Witcher season three will arrive on Netflix next year—a bittersweet binge for Henry Cavill fans, since it’ll be the last time he’ll play Geralt of Rivia before Liam Hemsworth steps into the role (Superman something something, Warhammersomething something). But fret not: the departing star will be getting a worthy…
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Critically Endangered Pink Iguana Babies Found in the Galápagos

Cracks bloom along the ovoid surface of an egg shell. First a small head peaks out, then the rest of a long, thin, scaled body. A pink iguana emerges. No, it’s not a convoluted gender reveal—but it does signal the birth of hope for a critically endangered reptile. Researchers have found nesting sites and juveniles…
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SpaceX Wants to Start Launching Its Next Generation Starlink Satellites Before the End of the Year

SpaceX is trying to squeeze in the debut of its second generation Starlink satellites by the end of the month, hoping the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will grant it temporary authority to loft its heftier broadband satellites.
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The Fictional Characters and TV Shows We Lost in 2022

Death comes to us all, whether we’re real, fictional, or a TV series. When real people die it’s very sad, and don’t worry, we’ll be commemorating them soon. Today, we only want to mourn the characters and shows who didn’t manage to make it out of 2022. Many will be missed. We might be glad certain others finally found…
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Three Astronauts May Be Stranded on the ISS After Disturbing Soyuz Coolant Leak

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This Terrifying Spinning Holographic Christmas Tree Could Leave You Ho-Ho-Horribly Maimed
It may smell amazing, but that fresh cut Christmas tree in your living room can be a genuine fire hazard if you don’t regularly water it. But a dried tree engulfed in an inferno of flames almost seems safe next to this digital Christmas tree that spins a strip of flashing LEDs at terrifying speeds to create a neat…
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Duopoly Done: Google and Meta Now Take in Less Than Half the Internet's Ad Dollars

The sci-fi author Stephen R. Donaldson said that “Everything dies, from the smallest blade of grass to the biggest galaxy.” A few years ago, I might have told you that’s true—about everything except Google and Meta’s ad businesses. My, how times change.
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Rest in Peace, InSight: Scientists Pay Tribute to the Mars Lander

NASA said today that the InSight lander mission has run out of power and is over, four years and a month after the probe landed on Mars.
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Avatar: The Way of Water, RRR, and Pinocchio Lead Genre Contenders on the Oscar Shortlists

The 95th Academy Awards race is gearing up with today’s reveal of 10 Oscar shortlists that will determine the nominations for the 2023 ceremony. Among the potential contenders are James Camerson’s Avatar: The Way of Water, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, the Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All At Once, and S.S.…
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Krispy Kreme CEO Says Robots Will Frost and Fill Donuts Soon

If you’re a donut slinger, a robot could be gunning for your job. Krispy Kreme’s CEO announced in an interview with Yahoo Finance earlier this week that the company is eyeing adding robots to its workforce beginning next year in order to fulfill the company’s demand while cutting production times.

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PayPal, Venmo, and other Cash App Users May Face a Bigger Tax Bill in 2023

President Joe Biden’s administration implemented a change to the tax code earlier this year that impacts those who use services like Venmo, Etsy, StubHub, and Airbnb to collect money. The tax change was meant to ensure people are reporting all of their income to the Internal Revenue Service and will soon require…
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Vega-C Rocket Forced to Self-Destruct With 2 Satellites On Board

Arianespace’s medium-lift Vega-C rocket failed to reach orbit on its second mission, resulting in the destruction of the two satellites on board.
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Bitcoin Miner Core Scientific Files for Bankruptcy

The cryptocurrency industry takes another big hit—one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin miners, Core Scientific, has filed for bankruptcy. The miner reportedly still plans to mine cryptocurrency as it pays off its debts.

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Patti LuPone Joins WandaVision Spinoff Agatha: Coven of Chaos

Patti LuPone is no stranger to science fiction and fantasy work—just within the past few years she’s been in American Horror Story, Steven Universe, Penny Dreadful, and The School for Good and Evil. Her next screen appearance will also fall into genre, as she’s starring in Beau Is Afraid, Ari Aster’s new horror film.…
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**gizmodo** · 22-12-22, 22:00

Update: The Jan. 6 Select Committee announced late Wednesday that it would delay releasing the full final report until Thursday.
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How Avatar: The Way of Water Is Evolving Visual Effects

While the ultimate success of Avatar: The Way of Water is still being determined, it’s already changed filmmaking as we know it. Long before the sequel hit theaters, director James Cameron invested so much time and Hollywood money into the franchise, it gave the team at Weta Digital the confidence and resources to…
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How Power Companies Are Buying Positive Spin in Local Media

A political consulting firm has been helping some of the country’s most powerful utilities pay local news outlets to publish positive stories and propaganda and stamp out criticism, according to an investigation by NPR and Floodlight News published Monday.
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The Dungeons & Dragons Open Gaming License Isn't Going Anywhere

Responding quickly to widespread concern online, Wizards of the Coast has released a statement on DnDBeyond clarifying some misconceptions that have been spread around Dungeons & Dragons’ Open Gaming License (OGL).
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Rian Johnson on How The Last Jedi Reflects His Own Star Wars Fandom

The most contentious conversation starter (or ender) during nerdy holidays just might be whether or not you enjoyed 2017's Star Wars: The Last Jedi—a film still being regularly and passionately discussed, unlike Lucasfilm’s most recent trilogy closer The Rise of Skywalker. Remember that one?
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The Half-a-Billion Fortnite Fine Kicks Off a New Era of Regulating User Interfaces

In a sweeping settlement announced Monday, the Federal Trade Commission fined Epic Games a whopping $520 million after accusing the Fortnite-maker of a variety of unsavory business practices. The complaint touches on a range of issues from alleged violations of children’s privacy to tricking users into unintentional…
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MSG Allegedly Used Facial Recognition to Remove Rival Attorney From Rockettes Show

An attorney working for a law firm taking legal action against MSG Entertainment claims she was spotted by the company’s facial recognition security system while attending a Rockettes show with her daughter and was ultimately denied entry. The case, one of the first of its kind according to a privacy expert speaking…
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ISS Dodges Space Junk With Damaged ‘Life Boat’ Parked Outside

A chunk of Russian space junk came uncomfortably close to the International Space Station early Wednesday, resulting in a debris avoidance maneuver. Routine stuff—except for the fact that three crew members would’ve been forced to escape inside a potentially damaged Soyuz spacecraft had an evacuation of the ISS been…
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Ukraine Secures Funding for an Additional 10,000 Starlink Terminals

Ukraine has reportedly resolved its financial crisis to fund more than 10,000 Starlink terminals provided by SpaceX to combat the Russian invasion that has decimated the country since February.
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**gizmodo** · 24-12-22, 22:01

There’s so many live service and online games out there that hearing about one you’ve never really put much thought into can often be a pleasant surprise. Maybe what you hear about catches your attention for a few days, maybe it gets you to dip into said game to see what it’s all about. That’s more or less what I’m at…
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Open Channel: Tell Us Your Favorite Holiday Specials & Episodes

Every year starting in mid or late November is right around the time that TV networks put out holiday specials or festive episodes. Much of them are new, and some of them are so old you could probably reenact them without much effort. But more often than not, they’re memorable in some form or fashion.

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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's Writers Talk About What Almost Was

The cast and crew of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever spent months being fairly direct about their feelings on continuing the film without original leading man Chadwick Boseman, and more vaguely about what the sequel would’ve been like had he not unexpectedly passed in 2020. Even as the film has become a pretty solid…
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This Week's Toy News Won't Be Found Under This Year's Christmas Tree

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, where this week while we wait to unwrap some toys from Santa this weekend, we’re looking at all the toys we want to get our hands on in 2023! This week, Gondor calls for aid, Hasbro adds another member to its plastic Fantastic Four, and dine in Trek style. Check it out!

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I Made ChatGPT Plan My Christmas

As 2022 stumbles towards its conclusion, Christmas time is with us once again. I’m warming my feet by the fireplace, the family dog is drifting off to sleep beside me, and the sounds of a petty argument between my brother and sister waft in gently from the other room. It’s been a long year of writing articles about…
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The Latest News From Disney Parks, Universal Studios Resorts, and More Fan-tastical Destinations

It’s beginning to look a lot like winter vacation at major theme parks and fan-tastical destinations, with lots of merriment to be had into the new year. The Grinch continues his reign on both coasts at Universal Studios Orlando and Hollywood. Fantasmic returns at Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios with the Frozen…
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Santa's Seven Favorite Surveillance Toys of 2022

It’s the holiday season and now, maybe more than ever, kids around the world are begging their parents for the next shiny gadgets and gizmos. While there’s no shortage of enticing new tech toys to choose from, recent revelations unearthed from The Facebook Papers and academic research show the potentially troubling…
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Tesla Introduces Its Own $300 Version of Apple's Canceled AirPower Charger

Late last month, Elon Musk decided to start a feud with Apple. What feels like a million years later, Tesla has introduced a $300 wireless charging mat that promises some of the features that were supposed to be included in Apple’s AirPower.
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Ancient Egyptian Murals Show Lifelike Doves, Kingfishers, and Other Birds

Researchers examined the wall paintings from a palace at Amarna, an Ancient Egyptian capital, and managed to identify some of the animals in the artworks.
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The Best Animated TV and Movies of 2022

2022 was a strange year in animation—the medium has never felt both as strong and as vulnerable as it as this year, with dozens of incredible films and TV shows releasing alongside news of cutbacks and dismissals of their creators by a wider industry that just can’t seem to understand animation’s worth. In a year…
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Everything You Need To Know About Warhammer 40,000, Before Henry Cavill Explains It for You

Warhammer 40,000 might be one of the biggest and best known wargames around, having made the leap from the tabletop to video games, books, comics, and now, with the help of megafan Henry Cavill, an Amazon streaming franchise of TV shows and movies. But it and its grand, densely written world are still difficult to…
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Yikes! Hackers Had Access to LastPass Users' Password Vaults

A major hack affecting password manager giant LastPass appears much worse than first thought. In an update announcement two days before Christmas, LastPass CEO Karim Toubba admitted the attackers were able to successfully copy a backup of customer vault data. With that data in hand, the attackers can potentially…
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10 Reasons to Watch and Re-Watch Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas

The Muppet Christmas Carol is among the most beloved holiday movies ever; It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas is among the weirdest. But many Jim Henson fans also hold 1977's Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, based on the 1971 book by Russell and Lillian Hoban, near and dear. Its heartwarming riff on O. Henry’s “The…
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New Star Wars Rumors Tease Mary Elizabeth Winstead's Major Ahsoka Role

We know at least one other DC hero who won’t be showing up in The Flash. You’ll have to wait a week longer to see Adam Driver’s sci-fi dinosaur movie 65. Plus, Diego Luna talks why Andor could only be two seasons, and what’s coming on Doom Patrol. ‘Tis the season for spoilers!

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Reddit Gave Away $110,000 to Make 8 Subreddits' Dreams Come True. Here's How It Got Spent.

It’s not often you see a company give a group of strangers on the internet $50,000 and tell them to do something cool. On Reddit this week, we got a dose of the internet as good and pure force, just in time for the holidays.
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Attention Procrastinators: Here's Your Last-Minute Fandom Gift Guide

So you waited until the 11th hour and it’s now too late to order holiday presents online. Thankfully, there are several stores where you can still scavenge in-person for the perfect last-minute geeky gift for the fan in your life. Pro-tip to speed up your quest even more: order pick-up exists!
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A Picture-Perfect Christmas Goes Darkly Awry in Horror Short Snow Globe

Snow Globe introduces us to a perfectly pink-clad woman flitting around a festively decorated room. But it soon becomes clear in this short film from Christopher Ryan Laughter—whose work io9 has shared before—that things are much more sinister than they appear. For one thing, the poem that narrator is reciting is…
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While Away the Time to Across the Spider-Verse With These Into the Spider-Verse Trading Cards

Still high on all that Across the Spider-Verse hype, between the gorgeous trailer and increasingly wider posters revealing even more Spider-cameos? Well, good news for the bad news of having to wait six more months: we’ve got a tiny distraction to help.

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Former Head of Russian Space Agency Wounded in Ukrainian Shelling

The notorious Russian politician Dmitry Rogozin, former director general of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, said he was injured during an attack in Donetsk on Wednesday after someone leaked his whereabouts.
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Somehow, Twitter Finds More Workers to Layoff

As tumbleweeds blow through the empty halls and vacant office spaces of Twitter headquarters, somehow, somewhere, Elon Musk found even more people to fire.

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**gizmodo** · 24-12-22, 22:01

ByteDance, the parent company behind TikTok, admitted this week a handful of its employees, some based in China, inappropriately accessed TikTok data of U.S. users and two journalists when conducting an investigation attempting to snuff out the source of a damning leak.
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Woman King's Thuso Mbedu Is Heading to Comics for a Gorgeous Afro-Fantasy

The Woman King and The Underground Railroad actor Thuso Mbedu is joining Stranger Comics to pen a new tale in the publisher’s Tales of Asunda afro-fantasy series, and io9 has your first look.
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Arctic Blast to Send U.S. into Dangerous Deep Freeze, Imperiling Holiday Travel

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Arizona Considers Water Pipeline From Mexico to Combat Drought

In an effort to avoid drawing more water from the drought-stricken Colorado River, Arizona officials are looking as far as Mexico for reliable water supply.
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Colleges Move To Ban TikTok on Campus

Some colleges are now restricting TikTok access on campus following a government crackdown in several states. Lawmakers have accused TikTok of reporting user data to China, and in recent weeks have moved to ban the app on state-issued devices. South Dakota was the first state to pass the ban with 13 other states soon …
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Dragon Age: Absolution's Creators on Making Its Connections Matter

With Netflix’s Dragon Age: Absolution, BioWare’s fantasy-RPG franchise makes a gradual return after having been previously in a bit of franchise limbo since 2015. The series hasn’t completely gone away thanks to comics and some books, but Absolutionmarks a real sense of change for the series ahead of the release of…
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Judge Tells 30-Year-Old SBF to Move Back in With Parents on $250 Million Bail

Failed crypto founder Sam Bankman-Fried heard the news no young man wants to hear Thursday: “sorry son, you’re moving back in with your parents.” For all the young people who lived with their folks into their 20s, let’s just hope for his sake that the old man didn’t get rid of his old childhood bed.
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Biden Signs Tiger King Bill Into Law

Remember March 2020, when we were all stuck inside watching a kooky gay big cat owner do battle with another kooky tiger-print-wearing big cat sanctuary owner? One of those catty characters just scored a big win in Washington.

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The Arduboy Mini Is a Hackable Gaming Platform That's About As Big as Two Quarters

The original Arduboy made headlines as a credit card-sized handheld you could keep tucked away in your wallet for gaming emergencies, but it was also a great way to get started coding through the Arduino platform. The Arduboy Mini offers the same experience—8-bit gaming and portability—in an even smaller device. It’s…
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Severe Strep A Is Rising in U.S. After 24 Child Deaths in UK

Severe cases of strep A appear to be climbing in parts of the world outside of the UK, where the surge was first reported. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as several children’s hospitals in the U.S. have documented an increase, while doctors in Montreal, Canada recently reported a possible rise…
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Christmas Classics You Can Stream This Holiday Season

As we cozy up beside a roaring fire for some quality family time, or opt to just stay home to avoid the crowds and arctic temperatures spreading across the country, we’ve rounded up some of the more classic oldie but goodie Christmas films that can keep you company.
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The Best Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy, and Superhero Movie Moments of 2022

Even bad movies can have good moments—a standout scene, a big reveal, something impactful that sticks with you. In 2022, movies (some bad, but mostly good) were filled with unforgettable moments. We’re talking animals jumping out of trucks, pirate ships flying through the air, John Krasinski’s Mr. Fantastic being…
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Google Opens Up Tool to Make Your Privates Private

On Friday, Google announced its machine learning tool called Magritte was going open source. According to information sent to Gizmodo, the tool detects objects inside images or video and automatically applies blur when they appear on screen. Google mentioned the object does not matter, and blur can be applied to, for…
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Europe Has Few Options to Reach Space After Vega-C Rocket Crash

Earlier this week, Arianespace’s Vega-C rocket suffered a fatal anomaly that resulted in the loss of two satellites. The rocket, which debuted a few months ago, was meant to fill a major gap for the European space industry, but is now grounded pending an investigation.
Read more...

The FBI Says You Need to Use an Ad Blocker

The Federal Bureau of Investigation took a break from hunting serial killers this week to post a public service announcement: if you’re not using an ad blocker, what are you doing?
Read more...

A Software Glitch Forced the Webb Space Telescope Into Safe Mode

The Webb Space Telescope’s instruments have been in safe mode intermittently since December 7, but scientific operations resumed earlier this week, NASA said in a press release on Wednesday.
Read more...

What Andor Gets Right About Espionage

Much has been written about Tony Gilroy’s excellent Star Wars series Andor, available on Disney+. It’s being rightly praised for its complex characters and its multilayered plot. However, what jumped out at me, as a veteran of the intelligence business, was its knowing depiction of the role and execution of espionage.…
Read more...

NASA Tests Upgraded Megarocket Engine Ahead of Future Moon Missions
The crewed Artemis 5 mission to the Moon won’t happen until 2028 at the earliest, but the mission and those that follow will benefit from upgraded RS-25 engines, which NASA will use to power future iterations of its gigantic Space Launch System rocket.

Read more...

Don't Get Scammed by Fake Job Postings on Sites Like LinkedIn and Indeed

Scam job listings and fraudulent recruitment efforts abound in email inboxes and on sites like Indeed, LinkedIn, and Zip Recruiter, according to a new report from the Washington Post. Under the guise of fake employment offers and opportunities, internet grifters are angling to take advantage of jobseekers, and collect…
Read more...

‘Lightning Lynx’ Strange World Deleted Scene

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Google Is Working Behind the Scenes to Protect Search From ChatGPT

Google is reportedly ramping up work behind the scenes to close the technological gap with OpenAI’s ChatGPT model, an advanced chatbot capable of churning out conversational answers which some critics warn could pose the most significant threat to Google’s treasured search dominance in years.
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**gizmodo** · 24-12-22, 22:01