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The Best Toys of the Week Will Absolutely Not Be Under Your Christmas Tree This Year

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9’s regular round up of all the coolest toys and merchandise we’ve seen on the internet lately. This week, it’s nearly Christmas and every toy manufacturer is waiting for it to be 2020! These toys might not be coming down your chimney with Santa this festive season, but we’ve got…

Toys & Collectibles Andrew Liszewski Dec 20 '19

Big Pharma Money Really Does Influence What Doctors Prescribe, Report Finds

A new ProPublica report out Friday confirms what many people already suspect about Big Pharma’s influence on health care: Doctors who get money from a pharmaceutical company related to a specific brand name drug are more likely to prescribe that same, often expensive drug to their patients. It’s no secret that pharmaceutical companies spend plenty…

Health Ed Cara Dec 20 '19

Foldable Moto Razr Gets Delayed Less Than a Week Before Pre-Orders Go Live [Updated]

The new foldable Razr seems like the perfect reboot, capturing the style and spirit of Motorola’s iconic mid-2000s phone, but with clever upgrades based on more modern tech. Unfortunately, less than a week before pre-orders were scheduled to go live, Moto has just announced that the Razr’s launch is getting delayed. Originally, pre-orders for the…

Gadgets Sam Rutherford Dec 20 '19

Rare Skeleton Points to Compassion, Care, and Tragedy in Prehistoric China

The discovery of a 5,000-year-old skeleton of a young adult who had serious physical limitations suggests a form of social support existed in Neolithic China, but only to a point, as this individual may have met an untimely death. The skeleton was found at the Guanjia site in China’s Henan Province, and it dates back…

Human History George Dvorsky Dec 20 '19

Washington State Lawmaker Engaged in Domestic Environmental Terrorism, Report Finds

When domestic terrorists took over the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in early 2016, the face of the takeover was rancher Ammon Bundy. But it turns out a good chunk of the planning going on behind the scenes was done by someone with a little more power: Washington State Representative Matt Shea. A new report commissioned by…

Earther Brian Kahn Dec 20 '19

The Creator of Adventure Time Has a New Netflix Show That Puts a Real Podcast in Space

Shows like Homecoming and Limetown have proven that it’s a good time for adapting podcasts on television. But this latest one is trying something different: It’s using the actual podcast. Adventure Time’s Pendleton Ward is teaming up with podcaster Duncan Trussell for a new Netflix series, The Midnight Gospel, which uses Trussell’s podcast to tell…

io9 Beth Elderkin Dec 20 '19

If There Was Any Question, You Definitely Aren’t Getting $125 From Equifax

I hate to say it, but the Federal Trade Commission was right. We’re not going to see anything near that piddly $125 we were hoping to get out of Equifax’s massive data breach. But you know who will be seeing a pretty payday in the case? The attorneys who represented consumers. A judge this week…

Tech News Catie Keck Dec 20 '19

All the Creative and Inspiring People We Lost in 2019

The end of the year brings along with it a lot of things—snow (depending on where you live), gift-giving, too many cookies, and of course, a lot of time spent reflecting on the past 12 months. While looking back can bring joy, it can also bring a bit of sadness. This is one of our…

io9 Io9 Staff Dec 20 '19

Largest Statewide Ban On Styrofoam Likely to Take Place Where Else But New Freakin’ Yawk, Baby

Cawfee cups. Disposubuhl coolahs. Those little trays wit da lids the good halal cart puts ya lamb ova rice in. Whaddathey got in common, besides containin’ some-a life’s most precious food items fer consumin’ after a long day in da Big Apple? Nine times outta ten, they’re freakin’ styrofoam. And not fuh nothin, but whose…

Conservation Avery Ellis Dec 20 '19

‘Anonymized’ Location Data Leak Allows Reporters to Quickly Track Trump’s Secret Service Detail

New York Times reporters working on an investigation into the sprawling location data business—in which the paper obtained a three-year-old file containing 50 billion location pings for over 12 million Americans—were able to track the movements of a member of Donald Trump’s Secret Service security detail. And thus, the Times reporters were able to track…

Privacy & Security Tom McKay Dec 20 '19

A Superbug STD Is on the Loose in Australia

Researchers in Australia are sounding the alarm over a foodborne and sexually transmitted disease that’s become resistant to every common antibiotic used to treat it. The disease is called shigellosis, named after the Shigella bacteria that cause it. It’s one of the most common bacterial culprits of diarrhea and stomach flu worldwide, affecting some 500,000…

Health Ed Cara Dec 20 '19

io9’s Rise of Skywalker Roundtable: Trying Not to Murder Each Other Over Star Wars

Deep breath. Out of the io9 staff, Charles Pulliam-Moore, James Whitbrook, Cheryl Eddy, Germain Lussier, and I have now witnessed the end to the Skywalker Saga—Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Some of you have now as well and we all have a lot of feelings. Who would have guessed? Before we dive in, our…

Movies Jill Pantozzi Dec 20 '19

Gadget Hacker Solves the Biggest Problem With Robovacs by Making One That Flies

Even the most expensive robot vacuums—like those capable of emptying themselves so they can run autonomously for weeks—lack the ability to climb up and down stairs in order to clean multiple floors of a house. YouTuber Peter Sripol came up with a solution to that problem, but it’s a hack you probably won’t see as an…

Gadgets Andrew Liszewski Dec 20 '19

Welp, There’s at Least One Thing That Bing Does Better Than Google—Disinformation

The Bing search engine—which is still around ten years after Microsoft created it, despite having only five percent market share—gets a lot of flak for not being as useful as Google’s search engine. But a recent study found that it’s actually even worse at delivering information than was previously known. A Stanford Cyber Policy Center…

Tech News Jennings Brown Dec 20 '19

Stop Buying Gadgets with MicroUSB

Chances are you’ve done a lot of your gift shopping already, but if you’re like me and got a late start, this holiday season, I implore you not to buy any gadget still saddled with a microUSB port. Now obviously this comes with the caveat that sometimes you just don’t have a choice, but quite…

Gadgets Sam Rutherford Dec 20 '19

Flickr Could Be In Serious Trouble

Flickr, where we could live free if only we were willing to pay for it, may be on its last leg (again). On Thursday, TechCrunch reports, Flickr’s relatively new owner SmugMug has sent out an appeal to paying subscribers to tell their friends, bluntly describing Flickr as: “the world’s most-beloved, money-losing business.” They’re not sugar-coating…

Tech News Whitney Kimball Dec 20 '19

Native Hawaiians Scored a Major Victory in the Fight Over the Thirty Meter Telescope

Many Native Hawaiians have been protesting the construction of the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope atop sacred Mauna Kea for months. They scored a victory on Thursday when Hawaii Governor David Ige announced that construction efforts were hitting pause. The governor also announced the state will be pulling state troopers from the site until further notice,…

Environmental Justice Yessenia Funes Dec 20 '19

MIT Engineers Create Laser Ultrasounds That Can Look Inside Your Body Without You Even Feeling It

Engineers at MIT have come up with a new approach to medical imaging that is both non-invasive and hands-off the patient. Using lasers, they can peer beneath the surface of the skin without any physical contact required, improving upon the limitations of equipment like ultrasound machines. There’s a myriad of techniques and machines that physicians…

Health Andrew Liszewski Dec 20 '19

A 3-Hour Cut of Doctor Sleep Is on the Way

Films fans slept on Doctor Sleep. Even with relatively positive reviews and DNA from both Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick, the film has grossed barely over $70 million worldwide. Ouch. And yet, writer and director Mike Flanagan believes in it—to the point that the film’s getting an extra-long cut when it comes home. As he…

Movies Germain Lussier Dec 20 '19

Apple’s Secret Satellites Could Mean Trouble for ISPs

It’s no surprise that Apple has secret teams working on secret projects. Over the years, we’ve heard of Apple Cars, Apple AR Headsets—you name it. Now, a Bloomberg report says the latest “secret” team is working on satellites that could potentially beam data to devices sometime in the next five years. According to Bloomberg, Apple…

Tech News Victoria Song Dec 20 '19

The Best Toys of the Week Will Absolutely Not Be Under Your Christmas Tree This Year

Big Pharma Money Really Does Influence What Doctors Prescribe, Report Finds

Foldable Moto Razr Gets Delayed Less Than a Week Before Pre-Orders Go Live [Updated]

Rare Skeleton Points to Compassion, Care, and Tragedy in Prehistoric China

Washington State Lawmaker Engaged in Domestic Environmental Terrorism, Report Finds

The Creator of Adventure Time Has a New Netflix Show That Puts a Real Podcast in Space

If There Was Any Question, You Definitely Aren’t Getting $125 From Equifax

All the Creative and Inspiring People We Lost in 2019

Largest Statewide Ban On Styrofoam Likely to Take Place Where Else But New Freakin’ Yawk, Baby

‘Anonymized’ Location Data Leak Allows Reporters to Quickly Track Trump’s Secret Service Detail

A Superbug STD Is on the Loose in Australia

io9’s Rise of Skywalker Roundtable: Trying Not to Murder Each Other Over Star Wars

Gadget Hacker Solves the Biggest Problem With Robovacs by Making One That Flies

Welp, There’s at Least One Thing That Bing Does Better Than Google—Disinformation

Stop Buying Gadgets with MicroUSB

Flickr Could Be In Serious Trouble

Native Hawaiians Scored a Major Victory in the Fight Over the Thirty Meter Telescope

MIT Engineers Create Laser Ultrasounds That Can Look Inside Your Body Without You Even Feeling It

A 3-Hour Cut of Doctor Sleep Is on the Way

Apple’s Secret Satellites Could Mean Trouble for ISPs

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