If it's ever seemed like people are more crotchety on social media when there's a heatwave or heavy rain, you're probably not alone in having that perspective. Researchers analyzed more than 7.7 billion geotagged tweets from 190 countries that were posted between 2015 and 2021. They used a language analysis tool to measure the sentiment of tweets against daily weather data.

The researchers found that, compared with days of regular weather, "both local extreme heat and extreme precipitation events worsen online emotional states globally by elevating rates of posts with negative expressions and also reducing the rate of posts with positive words." They also determined that people were more likely to tweet negatively during downpours and heatwaves than when daylight savings time kicks in and they forego an hour of sleep.

These outcomes might not seem incredibly surprising. However, the researchers suggested that because the findings were so consistent across tweets from more than 43,000 counties, they indicate that we're finding it hard to adapt to climate change. They carried out the study in the first place to explore the links between climate change and mental health.

“As of right now, we see very little evidence of adaptation in the way that these new extreme events that are emerging globally are impacting human sentiment,” says Kelton Minor, a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University and co-author of the study, told The Verge. "Since climate change is shifting the extreme tails of most regional temperature and heavy precipitation distributions rightwards, the impact of more severe extremes on overt emotional states may far exceed those registered in the recent past, pending further adaptation," the abstract of the study reads.

Minor and co-author Nick Obradovich, chief scientist at a nonprofit called Project Regeneration, found the biggest shift in sentiment during a record-breaking heatwave in the Pacific Northwest and southwest Canada in 2021. More than a thousand deaths were linked to that heatwave, while negative sentiment in tweets increased tenfold compared with the typical heatwave in the US, the researchers found. Minor and his colleagues plan to keep monitoring social media sentiment in the face of more extreme weather events, which studies suggest are likely to happen more often amid rising global temperatures.

HTC has big plans for CES, which include revealing an all-in-one headset with virtual reality and augmented reality support. The company will formally show off the seemingly small and light headset for the first time on January 5th, but it provided The Verge with a render that shows a goggles-style design. The device, for which HTC has yet to announce a name, appears to have front- and side-facing cameras.

Those cameras will be a key part of HTC's plan to deliver a full-color passthrough video feed. As with the Meta Quest Pro and the Pico 4, you'll be able to see a colorized version of the physical world around you without having to remove the headset. This should also enable HTC to offer more immersive mixed-reality experiences than you'd get with black-and-white passthrough video. What's more, the headset may offer a more dynamic range than rival models, which could enable wearers to more easily read text on computer or phone screens (at least without taking the headset off).

HTC says you'll get two hours of use on a single charge, while the controllers will feature six degrees of freedom and hand tracking. The headset can operate as a standalone device or you can hook it up to a PC for more demanding VR games. You can also use it for exercise, entertainment and productivity, if you're so inclined.

It's not yet clear whether there'll be built-in eye tracking, but there is a depth sensor that may enable more in-depth mapping of a user's surroundings. HTC also indicated to The Verge that the headset will protect user privacy by storing data on an encrypted local partition. Pricing and availability are as yet unclear. We'll find out more about the headset — including the name and how it might measure up against the likes of Meta Quest — in a few short weeks.

A VR spinoff and Horizon Forbidden West expansion won’t be the last we see of Guerrilla Games’ Horizon universe. The studio has at least two more games in the works for the PlayStation franchise, including a multiplayer title.

Guerrilla made the announcement in a recruitment tweet. Along with working on more “epic solo adventures for Aloy,” the star of the first two games, the studio has set up a separate team to create an “online project set in Horizon’s universe.” It added that the latter will feature new characters and a “unique stylized look,” as well as the fact friends will be able to play together — which suggests there will be a focus on co-op.

Rumors had been swirling since last year that Guerrilla was planning a multiplayer Horizon game, and the studio has now confirmed that’s the case. Sony is placing a bigger focus on live service games. It's planning to release 10 of them by March 2026, including a multiplayer offshoot of The Last of Us. However, it’s unclear how the online Horizon game fits into that strategy as yet.

Along with the three upcoming games and the Forbidden West DLC, there’s even more to come from the series. A Horizon TV show is in development at Netflix. Word on the street is that there’s a mobile game and a Zero Dawn remaster for PS5 in the pipeline as well.

Georgia has become at least the 11th state to ban TikTok from state government-owned devices. Governor Brian Kemp has also prohibited state agencies from using WeChat and Telegram. Kemp cited concerns that the governments of China and Russia may access users' personal information through the apps and use the data for spying purposes.

“The state of Georgia has a responsibility to prevent any attempt to access and infiltrate its secure data and sensitive information by foreign adversaries such as the [Chinese Communist Party],” Kemp wrote in a memo to state agency heads, as the Associated Press reports. “As such, it is our duty to take action to preserve the safety and security of our state against the CCP, entities it controls and other foreign cyberthreats.”

FBI Director Chris Wray said this month that China could use TikTok to collect data on users. Kemp cited those comments in his directive. A spokesperson for the governor told the AP that there would be exceptions to the rules for law enforcement and prosecutors to use the three apps after obtaining permission. Among those impacted by the ban are state colleges and universities.

Other states that have enacted similar bans include South Dakota, Maryland, Texas, Alabama, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah. The US military has banned TikTok from devices it owns too. Meanwhile, Indiana sued the app this month over what it claims are security and child safety issues.

On Wednesday, the Senate unanimously passed a bill that seeks to ban TikTok from federal government devices. The legislation still requires House approval before it lands on President Joe Biden's desk to sign it into law. Lawmakers also filed matching bipartisan bills in the House and Senate this week in the latest attempt to completely ban TikTok in the US.

TikTok has tried to assuage American politicians' concerns over Chinese officials gaining access to data it holds on users in the country. As of June, TikTok has been routing all domestic traffic to Oracle's servers so the data remains in the US. TikTok and parent company ByteDance have pledged to delete said information from their own data centers in the US and Singapore. In August, Oracle started reviewing TikTok's algorithms and content moderation systems for signs of manipulation.

Apple TV+ has announced a Mythic Quest spinoff show. The streaming service hasn't revealed too many details about Mere Mortals just yet. However, it did say the so-called "extension series" will delve deeper into the lives of the employees, players and fans who are impacted by Mythic Quest, the fictional game at the heart of the eponymous sitcom.

Mere Mortals will take inspiration from Mythic Quest "departure" episodes, such as the standalone "Everlight," "Backstory" (which is set in 1972) and "Quarantine," which showed how the characters were dealing with COVID-19 lockdowns. Mythic Quest writers Ashly Burch, John Howell Harris and Katie McElhenney created the eight-episode spinoff. Burch (who also stars as Aloy in Sony's Horizon games) plays Rachel in the original show. Mythic Quest creators Megan Ganz, Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day are involved as executive producers as well.

Apple TV+ didn't say when Mere Mortals will debut. Season 3 of Mythic Quest premiered on the streaming service last month.

Some soccer fans may have missed Wednesday's World Cup semi-final between France and Morocco because of a FuboTV outage. The streaming service says that it was not knocked offline due to demand or reaching bandwidth limitations. Instead, it claims to have been the victim of a cyber attack.

At 9:20AM ET on Wednesday, Fubo reported that users may have been unable to log into their account or create a new one. The issue logged some users out of the FuboTV app as well. On its status page, Fubo apologized to those who were having issues while trying to watch the game, and directed them to a free, 60-minute livestream preview on Fox's website.

"While this ongoing issue has been resolved for some users, we are aware that many users are still unable to access the FuboTV app and website at this time," a message posted on Fubo's status page at midnight reads. "Our teams remain engaged and will be working into the night to fully resolve this issue." 

Even though Fubo claimed that service was fully restored on Wednesday evening, the status page still said that account creation, password reset requests and streaming functions remained disrupted as of 12:45PM on Thursday. In any case, fingers crossed everything goes more smoothly for Sunday's World Cup final between Argentina and France.

Fubo said it took steps to contain the attack as soon as it discovered what was going on. It has reported the incident to law enforcement and it brought in third-party cybersecurity experts to look into what happened and how.

"Our investigation is at an early stage, but we are committed to transparency regarding this incident," Fubo co-founder and CEO David Gandler wrote in a note to users. "We will provide an update at an appropriate time when we have more information to share."

Lara Croft is making a return with the help of Amazon Games. The company will publish the next Tomb Raider title, which Crystal Dynamics is developing. Amazon said the studio is using Unreal Engine 5 to craft the biggest and most expansive Tomb Raider game to date.

It'll likely be a few years before you can get your hands on the next Tomb Raider game, which is coming to multiple platforms. It's still in early development, but Amazon says it'll retain all of the franchise's hallmarks. This will be a single-player game with "an environment that rewards exploration and creative pathfinding." Naturally, you'll solve puzzles and battle a variety of enemies. The game will continue Lara's story rather than being another reboot (so it's probably not going to be the Tomb Raider 2 remake some have been hoping for).

This will be the first mainline Tomb Raider game since 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider (mobile title Tomb Raider Reloaded arrived earlier this year). Embracer Group recently bought Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal and Square Enix Montreal from Square Enix in a cut-price $300 million deal. Embracer snagged the intellectual property rights to Tomb Raider, Deus Ex and dozens of other games from Square Enix as well. The gaming giant also plans to revive Deus Ex in Unreal Engine 5.

“Crystal Dynamics has an extraordinary opportunity following our acquisition by Embracer to redefine what a publishing relationship is for Tomb Raider,” Crystal Dynamics head of studio Scot Amos said in a statement. “Transformative is what we’re looking for, and with Amazon Games, we found a team that shares our creative vision, ambitions and values for a Lara Croft universe across the spectrum of possibilities. They’re uniquely positioned to rewrite what publishing and development collaborations are, and we’re eager to forge this new path together, starting with building the biggest and best Tomb Raider game yet!”

Amazon has been making more waves in game publishing recently. It had another hit on its hands when it brought Smilegate's Lost Ark to North America, South America and Europe earlier this year. Last week, Amazon revealed that it will bring Bandai Namco’s upcoming free-to-play multiplayer RPG Blue Protocol to the west. Amazon Games will be moving into new territory with Tomb Raider, as that will be its first single-player narrative title.

Instagram is introducing more safety and security tools. These include a hub where people can go to report and resolve account access issues they're having. This could be hugely beneficial for hacked users who are struggling to regain access to their accounts.

If you can't log in, you can visit the hub on the Instagram website. Instagram will ask whether the issue concerns a hacked account, forgotten password, impersonation, loss of two-factor authentication method or disabled account. Once you select the issue, you can follow a string of steps to help you access your account again.

One method you can use to verify an account is actually yours is to ask others to confirm your identity. If you get locked out of an account, you can get two Instagram friends to verify your identity. Instagram started testing this feature earlier this year and now it's available to everyone. Your friends will have 24 hours to respond to the request. If they do, Instagram will let you reset your password. 

Instagram

Meanwhile, Instagram says it's employing more measures to prevent account hacking in the first place. The service is removing accounts that its systems deem malicious, such as those that are impersonating others. A new test involves sending you a warning "if an account that we suspect may be impersonating someone requests to follow you." In the coming months, Instagram will start sending warnings to those who get a DM from an account that may be impersonating a business.

On top of all that, you'll start seeing the blue badge for verified accounts in more places. Along with profiles, you'll now see the badge on Stories and DMs. The badge will show up in the feed soon as well. Instagram says this will help users know if an account they're interacting with is the real deal.

Uber Eats has expanded autonomous food deliveries to Miami under a new partnership with robotics company Cartken. AI-powered robots will start making deliveries from select retailers in the Miami suburb of Dadeland today. The companies plan to expand autonomous deliveries to other parts of Miami-Dade County and more cities in 2023.

Uber Eats started two autonomous delivery pilots in Los Angeles in May after teaming up with Motional and Serve Robotics (which spun out of Uber). In September, Uber Eats agreed a 10-year deal with Nuro for autonomous food deliveries, beginning in Texas and California.

Cartken also works with Grubhub on college campus deliveries. Its six-wheeled robots use NVIDIA Jetson tech along with sensors and cameras to help them avoid collisions and take routes with fewer hazards. The machines, which are built by Magna, have a cargo capacity of 1.5 cubic feet, which is roughly the same as two full paper grocery bags. They can travel at up to six miles per hour, depending on conditions and the environment.

A NASA satellite launch is scheduled to take place today, but this isn't any old project. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite will track the vast majority of water on Earth for the first time. It will measure the depth of oceans, rivers and lakes to help scientists track how they change over time. SWOT will help scientists better understand how oceans absorb carbon and atmospheric heat, which can help to moderate climate change and global temperature changes.

Observations from SWOT should help to improve flood forecasts while bolstering models that are used to monitor droughts and predict rising sea levels. On top of that, the data that the satellite records will include details about ocean tides, currents and storm surges, as well as river water level measurements.

The satellite will use a radar-based system to survey water levels. The Ka-band Radar Interferometer (Karin) bounces signals off of two antennas on either side of SWOT. This, NASA said, will allow for a much larger view of Earth's surface with high resolution and accuracy. SWOT should be able to measure large tracks of water across the planet in a relatively short period of time.

Scientists will be able to observe ocean features at 10 times the resolution of current tech. SWOT will be able to monitor almost every river that's wider than 330 feet (100 meters) and north of a million lakes that are larger than 15 acres (62,500 square meters). All told, the satellite will survey water on 90 percent of the planet's surface.

NASA jointly developed SWOT with French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales. They had help from the Canadian Space Agency and the UK Space Agency.

SWOT is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff is targeted for 6:46AM ET and NASA's launch coverage will get underway at 6AM. You can watch the livestream below: