Annalee Newitz, Author at Gizmodo

Win a Chainmail Shirt!

To celebrate the release of fantasy war apocalypse novel The Company, Orbit Books is giving away two chainmail shirts. Yeah, that’s just the way they roll. You know you want one! Find out more.

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz Nov 10

Feel Confident, Worker Drones!

Artist Michael Lewy keeps pumping out surreal productivity charts from his dystopian office worker world “City of Work.” Here’s his latest, explaining the kind of confidence required to succeed in a feel-good, authoritarian bureaucracy that’s amazingly similar to our own. [via City of Work Notes]

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 10

When Dubai’s Mega-Buildings Attack

Usually when you hear about buildings in Dubai, it’s a news report about how the country is building the biggest or tallest or most freakishly-shaped skyscraper. But of course that means their industrial accidents are also the most spectacular too. Click the image to see up-close what it looks like when a giant crane crashes…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 10

Heaven’s Gate UFO Cult Sneakers – Creepy, Wrong, or Fake?

Click to view Rumors are swirling that Nike discontinued work on this sweet black-and-purple prototype Dunk shoe because it reminded consumers too much of the Heaven’s Gate cult mass suicide. Really? On the Nike Skateboarding blog, they offer up this image of the shoe side-by-side with one of the victims of the Heaven’s Gate suicide…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 8

Help Michael Moorcock Keep Writing

Friendly literary promoter guy Matt Staggs writes in to ask for help on behalf of his friend Michael Moorcock, author of about twenty million amazing multiverse novels (including the popular Elric saga) and occasional lyricist for Blue Oyster Cult. Moorcock is ailing and needs some geeky help finding an unusual kind of PC keyboard that…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz Nov 8

What To Do With Thermite On a Friday

So the thought police are on their way to your underground control chamber, and you need to erase your hard drives fast. They can break the crypto on your secret docs, and even if you overwrite them with a bunch of junk data, they’ve got forensic techniques that could pull an erased file out of…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 7

Hellboy Creator Mike Mignola Working on Old-School Vampire Flick

Hellboy 2 is coming out on DVD November 11, packed with special features and back story about how the effects were created. What’s next for Red and the gang? You’ll be seeing them again in the comic books that launched the movie franchise. This morning we chatted with Hellboy comic book creator Mike Mignola about…

Movies Annalee Newitz Nov 7

Dr. Horrible Soundtrack is 5 Bucks on Amazon Today

Felicia Day, star of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, has Twittered that the mad scientist musical soundtrack is cheap online today. I just downloaded it and now I can’t stop singing the Bad Horse letters, as well as “Brand New Day.” I’m gonna shock the world and show Bad Horse! [via Amazon]

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 7

Firefighters’ Manual Teaches First Reponders to Deal with UFO Attacks

No, I’m not kidding: A recent ABC newscast focuses on how a commonly-used firefighters’ manual from FEMA has an entire chapter devoted to UFO preparedness. Hey, it’s a good idea to be ready for anything, right? If aliens crash-landed, there wouldn’t just be fires — there’d be mass panic. First responders need to have a…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 7

Yeti Girl Bites the Boys’ Asses

A new, highly-topical toy has hit the shelves. Not only is it a Yeti, this month’s monster poster child, but it represents a historic moment in Yeti-hood. That’s right — it’s Nevermore‘s new GIRL Yeti, there on the right, taking her place beside the men as an equal opportunity monster. Want to see the girl…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 7

Brain Scans Reveal that Teen Bullies Get Pleasure from Your Pain

When a bully picks on you, you might get consoled by grown-ups who say things about how he’s just jealous or trying to get your attention. But now a group of psychiatry researchers at the University of Chicago have revealed the true reason behind bullying: That bully beats you up because he enjoys it. Healthy…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 7

Freaky 1980s Vampire Striptease Will Pop Your Vein [NSFW]

Imagine your standard 1980s sex comedy, with the dorky guys who want to get laid and the out-of-reach girls who eventually bed (some of) them. And then throw in over-the-top, awesome Grace Jones — she of the crazy androgynous pop performances and memorable Conan the Destroyer moment. Oh and then? Make her a vampire stripper…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 6

“Beauty Machine” Makes Every Face a Pretty Face

Beauty is not the stuff of poetry anymore; it can be quantified and generated automatically via computer. At least, that’s the claim of a group of researchers in Israel who have built a new software tool that can convert any face into the face of a supermodel. Computer scientist Daniel Cohen-Or, lead researcher on the…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 6

The Developed World Ain’t What It Used to Be

Remember back when you knew you were in the so-called developed world because the economy was doing better than the so-called developing world? Well times are changing. Today the International Monetary Fund announced that, for the first time since World War II, the world’s developed economies would be shrinking by 0.3 percent in 2009 and…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 6

An Ultra-Fast Gravity Portal Between Earth and the Sun

Apparently, a “portal” opens every eight minutes or so between Earth and the sun, and particles streaming through it move ultra-quickly between the planet and its star. It’s called a “flux transfer event” (FTE) and apparently they are twice as common as once believed. Could this be the solution to our inability to travel at…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 6

Kazakhstan’s Republic Square: Before and After

Click to viewYou won’t be able to distinguish between the shiny, soaring spires of Kazakhstan and those of New York City for very much longer. Soviet-style architecture is being replaced by ultra-postmodern buildings there every day. Witness this incredible before-and-after transformation, currently underway as Los Angeles architect Eric Owen Moss converts the gray, rectangular buildings…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 6

The Twelve-Sided Die — In Space!

It’s not just Bender and the crew on Futurama who are getting busy with 20-side die in space. These are actual pictures from the International Space Station, taken of an experiment with satellite technology devised (of course) by MIT students. Want to see these autonomous, flying Dungeons and Dragons bits up close? Then click through.…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 6

Non-Monogamy Gives Men Diabetes

A group of medical researchers has discovered that promiscuous males are prone to diabetes and less able to handle stress. In a rather odd study published today in biology journal Disease Models and Mechanisms, scientists showed a correlation between a tendency to sleep around and a vulnerability to the disease that affects blood sugar levels.…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 6

Students Quarantined in University As Epidemic Unfolds

For the past few days, university students in the Southern Chinese resort town of Hainan have been quarantined on the grounds of the Hainan University campus with little food or water. Apparently there’s been an outbreak of cholera, and the local officials dealt with it Resident Evil style: Lock everybody in, give them no information,…

io9 Annalee Newitz Nov 5

Alan Tudyk Eaten By a Giant Anime Lobster

Those of you unfamiliar with the freakish mania of cult web series Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show may find what I am about to tell you very disturbing. Alan Tudyk, who played Wash on Firefly and has shown up in several CSI episodes, has been poisoned by bubbles and attacked by a giant lobster. We’ve…

Television Annalee Newitz Nov 5

Annalee Newitz

Win a Chainmail Shirt!

Feel Confident, Worker Drones!

When Dubai’s Mega-Buildings Attack

Heaven’s Gate UFO Cult Sneakers – Creepy, Wrong, or Fake?

Help Michael Moorcock Keep Writing

What To Do With Thermite On a Friday

Hellboy Creator Mike Mignola Working on Old-School Vampire Flick

Dr. Horrible Soundtrack is 5 Bucks on Amazon Today

Firefighters’ Manual Teaches First Reponders to Deal with UFO Attacks

Yeti Girl Bites the Boys’ Asses

Brain Scans Reveal that Teen Bullies Get Pleasure from Your Pain

Freaky 1980s Vampire Striptease Will Pop Your Vein [NSFW]

“Beauty Machine” Makes Every Face a Pretty Face

The Developed World Ain’t What It Used to Be

An Ultra-Fast Gravity Portal Between Earth and the Sun

Kazakhstan’s Republic Square: Before and After

The Twelve-Sided Die — In Space!

Non-Monogamy Gives Men Diabetes

Students Quarantined in University As Epidemic Unfolds

Alan Tudyk Eaten By a Giant Anime Lobster

Bose SoundLink Max Bluetooth Speaker Quietly Drops to Its Lowest Price, Now Cheaper Than Last Week’s Low

The Wicked Stepmother of ‘The Testaments’ Is So Much Fun to Hate

Apple’s Smart Glasses Are Stepping Into a Privacy Minefield

Allbirds Is Getting Out of the Shoe Business and Pivoting to AI Infrastructure

Anker Nebula P1i Portable Projector Debuted at CES 2026 and Now Hits Record Low Just Weeks After Launch

There’s No Saving Windows 11. It’s Time for Windows 12

Axiom Space Is Ready to Test Its Next-Generation Spacesuit in 2027

Astronomers Just Dropped the Largest High-Res 3D Map of the Universe

Samsung 27″ Monitor Now Cheaper Than 24″ After Quiet Price Drop, Basically a Free Upgrade to a Bigger Screen

The ‘Good Omens’ Finale Trailer Wants You to Think About the End and Nothing Else

Sony Inzone H6 Air Review: A Perfect Case for Open-Back Gaming Headsets

Anker’s EufyMake E1 Finally Brings Printers Out of the Dark Ages

The Soundboks Mix Is Going to Make You the Most Popular Guy at the Park

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice