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How Many of Quibi’s Paltry Launch Day Downloads Were Rage Downloads?

Quibi, the (mostly) mobile-only streaming service that launched this week, doesn’t appear to have had a spectacular response straight out of the gate—in fact, the response was rather abysmal. According to one preliminary estimate, Quibi’s launch-day downloads amounted to roughly 300,000 despite all its pre-launch marketing and hype coming out of this year’s CES just…

Tech News Catie Keck Apr 7

Image: Paizo, Free League Publishing, Rowan, Rook, and Decard, Modiphius, Wizards of the Coast

11 Tabletop RPG Sourcebooks That Are as Fun to Read as They Are to Game With

Even though technology is allowing for plenty of ways to try and keep your tabletop and boardgame groups going during social distancing, the fact of the matter is it’s really hard right now to actually play tabletop RPGs. That doesn’t mean you can’t spend some of your free time engaging with those worlds though, thanks…

Books & Comics James Whitbrook Apr 7

Relive the Hype of Avengers: Endgame‘s Opening Night Reactions With This Thrilling Video

Right now, going to the theater isn’t just an absolute impossibility, in many places, the thought of being in a tightly-packed room full of people, no matter how excited, is enough to fill you with a sense of dread. Just a year ago when the world was sitting down to watch Avengers: Endgame, that wasn’t…

Movies James Whitbrook Apr 7

Not Everyone Can Go to School Online

This week, Washington state governor Jay Inslee announced that the state’s schools would remain closed for the remainder of the school year, mandating that the state’s more than 1 million K-12 students would be learning from home through the end of June. These students are in good company: To date, more than a dozen states…

Tech News Shoshana Wodinsky Apr 7

New Data Shows Black Americans Are at a Higher Risk for Covid-19 in Some States

As the U.S. starts to collect more data on covid-19 infection rates, researchers are starting to break down that data into race and ethnic groups rather than just by age. While it’s too early to draw solid conclusions, researchers have noticed that black Americans have been disproportionately impacted by the virus in certain states and…

Tech News Joanna Nelius Apr 7

The First Lego Super Mario Expansions Look Wonderfully Weird

When Lego and Nintendo first announced a collaboration to bring the Mushroom Kingdom to the world of plastic bricks, we all immediately dreamed up collectible minifigure sets and lavish models. What we’re getting is…not that, but something much weirder and cooler than your standard licensed sets—and its latest additions are just as fascinating. Lego revealed…

Toys & Collectibles James Whitbrook Apr 7

Number of Coronavirus Deaths in New York Is Likely Much Higher Than We Think

New York City’s covid-19 death toll is likely higher than reported, due to the fact that the medical examiner doesn’t test the bodies of people who’ve died at home from the virus. A report from WNYC has found that, while the daily rate of deaths at home has increased nearly tenfold since the outbreak, only those…

Tech News Whitney Kimball Apr 7

McDonald’s UK Will Stop Putting Plastic Toys in Happy Meals Next Year

A few months after celebrating the Happy Meal’s 40th anniversary by resurrecting some of its most popular toys, McDonald’s UK has announced that it will be eliminating plastic toys altogether in the the UK and Ireland. Starting in 2021, McDonald’s restaurants across the pond will swap out a hard plastic non-sustainable toy with either a…

Earther Andrew Liszewski Apr 7

Hawks’ Forbidden Love Results in a Rare Hybrid

She was a common black hawk. He was a red-shouldered hawk. They weren’t in the same genus, let alone the same species, and they normally don’t even live in the same part of the continent. But in a strange twist of fate, none of that mattered: It was love at first screech. Researchers have discovered…

Biology Jake Buehler Apr 7

10 Nerdy Things to Watch on CBS All Access (Besides Star Trek)

We love Star Trek. And Star Trek is clearly the number one reason to get a CBS All Access account, especially with the 60-day free promotion the streamer has going on at the moment. But what else does CBS’s online hub have, besides Picard and other Treks, and, like, NCIS spin-offs? We did some digging for you.…

Movies Cheryl Eddy Apr 7

Renewable Energy Set a Major Record in 2019

Globally, renewable energy sectors including wind, solar, and hydropower are booming. The world is using more renewable energy than ever before. Over one third of the world’s electricity comes from renewable sources, according to data released by the International Renewable Energy Agency, or Irena, on Monday. From 2018 to 2019, new renewable energy capacity construction…

Climate Change Dharna Noor Apr 7

Just Get a Damn Set-Top Box and Free Yourself of Your TV’s Crap Software

Planned obsolescence is annoying regardless of which smart gadget you’re talking about, but it particularly grinds my gears when it comes to TVs. Sure, you don’t have to destroy your wallet for a decent 4K smart TV anymore—but I know plenty of friends and gadget nerds who do shell out for something a ‘lil nicer…

Gadgets Victoria Song Apr 7

Peak Design’s Travel Tripod Just Earned a Permanent Spot in My Camera Bag

When it comes to traveling and trying to pack light, I always seem to run into a dilemma: cram the tripod in my bag or leave it at home. Ideally, I’d always want a tripod around for taking things like landscape shots or long exposures, but the bulky nature of most tripods usually means it’s…

Other Gadgets Sam Rutherford Apr 7

Steven Moffat Takes on Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor in the Latest Doctor Who Short Story

Doctor Who’s ongoing short story series is one of the most lovely things to come out of this otherwise pretty grim period of social isolation we all find ourselves in right now. It’s giving us beautiful little snippets, and samples of things we’d never thought we’d actually get—like former showrunner Steven Moffat taking on a…

io9 James Whitbrook Apr 7

Here’s What We Know About Coronavirus Risks to Children, According to the CDC

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the first to try detailing how covid-19 is affecting children in the U.S. Children tend to experience milder symptoms and are less likely to be hospitalized, the report found. Evidence from other countries and isolated outbreaks (such as onboard the Diamond Princess cruise…

Health Ed Cara Apr 7

Image: ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies

‘It’s Horrific’: Climate Change Is Killing the Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is under threat by hot waters that have everything to do with our failure to take climate action. The ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at Australia’s James Cook University published its findings Tuesday outlining a mass bleaching event taking place off the coast of Australia. Bleaching occurs when…

Climate Change Yessenia Funes Apr 7

Animal Crossing Forecasting Tool Just Might Help You Predict High Stalk Market Prices

If you want to score some bells and pay down your debts in Animal Crossing: New Horizons as quickly as possible without spending hours catching individual bugs and fish, one way to do it is by playing the highly volatile Stalk Market and hawking turnips at a premium. This typically involves either dumb luck, coordination…

Tech News Catie Keck Apr 7

Health-Monitoring ‘Smart Toilet’ Remembers Your Distinctive Butthole

What do your butthole and a snowflake have in common? Turns out no two of these are the same, allowing this “smart toilet” to differentiate your sphincter from others. By doing so, this toilet can monitor changes to your health over time and flag signs of disease. New research published in Nature Biomedical Engineering describes…

Health George Dvorsky Apr 7

Location Tracking to Fight Coronavirus Is Dangerous and Possibly Pointless

How much surveillance do we need to stop a pandemic? As the novel coronavirus spreads, testing and health system resources are becoming more and more scarce, while normal life has screeched to a halt for millions of people under shelter-in-place orders. The solution to both these problems, according to some researchers and government agencies around…

Privacy & Security Dan Calacci Apr 7

Image: John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Divergent Author Veronica Roth’s Chosen Ones Is Out Today, and We’ve Got an Exclusive Excerpt

Veronica Roth is best known for penning the Divergent series, but her latest project branches out of YA: sci-fi thriller Chosen Ones, her first novel aimed at adults. The book is out today and io9 has a juicy excerpt to share. Here’s a description of the story, to start: Fifteen years ago, five ordinary teenagers…

Books & Comics Cheryl Eddy Apr 7

How Many of Quibi’s Paltry Launch Day Downloads Were Rage Downloads?

11 Tabletop RPG Sourcebooks That Are as Fun to Read as They Are to Game With

Relive the Hype of Avengers: Endgame‘s Opening Night Reactions With This Thrilling Video

Not Everyone Can Go to School Online

New Data Shows Black Americans Are at a Higher Risk for Covid-19 in Some States

The First Lego Super Mario Expansions Look Wonderfully Weird

Number of Coronavirus Deaths in New York Is Likely Much Higher Than We Think

McDonald’s UK Will Stop Putting Plastic Toys in Happy Meals Next Year

Hawks’ Forbidden Love Results in a Rare Hybrid

10 Nerdy Things to Watch on CBS All Access (Besides Star Trek)

Renewable Energy Set a Major Record in 2019

Just Get a Damn Set-Top Box and Free Yourself of Your TV’s Crap Software

Peak Design’s Travel Tripod Just Earned a Permanent Spot in My Camera Bag

Steven Moffat Takes on Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor in the Latest Doctor Who Short Story

Here’s What We Know About Coronavirus Risks to Children, According to the CDC

‘It’s Horrific’: Climate Change Is Killing the Great Barrier Reef

Animal Crossing Forecasting Tool Just Might Help You Predict High Stalk Market Prices

Health-Monitoring ‘Smart Toilet’ Remembers Your Distinctive Butthole

Location Tracking to Fight Coronavirus Is Dangerous and Possibly Pointless

Divergent Author Veronica Roth’s Chosen Ones Is Out Today, and We’ve Got an Exclusive Excerpt

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