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Riot Games staff walk out after sexism lawsuits result in forced arbitration
More than 150 employees from Riot Games walked out of the League of Legends publisher's offices in Los Angeles yesterday to protest forced arbitration and sexist culture, and say they are prepared to take further action if the company does not commit to meeting their demands by May 16th.
Google staff share claims of company retaliation in town hall meeting
As promised, Google employees who led the large-scale walkouts in November have held a town hall meeting to share more allegations of a retaliatory culture at the company. Bloomberg understands that Claire Stapleton and Meredith Whittaker provided "more than a dozen" additional stories of reprisals at the gathering, which gave participants a chance to offer input. Details of those extra stories weren't available as we wrote this, but Stapleton described the tales in company email as evidence of "systemic issues" that wouldn't be addressed without collective action.
Google makes it easier for employees to report harassment
Google is making it easier for employees to file harassment and discrimination complaints by setting up a dedicated site for them to do so. Melonie Parker, the company's chief diversity officer, wrote in a letter to employees that Google has firmed up some of the commitments it made in November following an outcry from employees.
Google Walkout leaders accuse company of retaliation culture
Two of the seven Google employees who organized a massive walkout last November say they've since faced retaliation. After leading the protest, which sought to change Google's handling of sexual misconduct, Meredith Whittaker says she was told her role would be "changed dramatically." Claire Stapleton was told she would be demoted. The two claim they're not alone, and they plan to gather more stories and strategize with colleagues.
The Shed and the art of the flex
The Shed's concept is simple: It's the 120-foot tall building that moves. This idea is both its architectural hallmark and its metaphor for the future of culture. Opening on Friday, New York City's half-billion dollar, hybrid museum-meets-performance space can shapeshift to double its indoor perimeter in five minutes.
The UK government finally pins down Mark Zuckerberg
The UK government has been trying for the best part of a year to get Mark Zuckerberg in front of it. Now, after being repeatedly given the run-around by the Facebook CEO, it looks like it might finally have its man. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport has confirmed that UK culture secretary Jeremy Wright will meet with Zuckerberg at Facebook's Californian headquarters on Thursday.
Stock photo of an egg beats Kylie Jenner's Instagram record
It's a tale as old as time: Some bright spark decides to make a statement about how vacuous the system is, by exploiting its absurdity to their own ends. Today's entrant in the canon is the Instagram account for World Record Egg, which is now the most-liked image on the site. In its bio, the anonymous creator says that it's aiming to beat "the current world record held by Kylie Jenner (18 million)!." At the time of publication, the image -- of an egg -- has received more than 25 million likes.
Tidal brings master-quality audio to its Android app
At CES two years ago, Tidal enabled studio-quality music streaming on desktop through a partnership with MQA. The feature later arrived on Essential Phone and LG V30, and even more people will be able to access Tidal's master recordings, as they're now available on all devices running Android 5.0 or above.
Skydio's R1 drone can autonomously follow your car, too
Skydio's AI-powered R1 drone can autonomously track subjects like a champ, but until now it's been limited to following humans. Now, the company has introduced a feature called Car Follow cinematic mode that can film you on four wheels and not just two feet. Skydio said it trained the R1's neural networks on large data sets of car images, helping the 13 cameras automatically follow your vehicle while ducking any obstacles.
Why we care whether everyone heard ‘laurel’ or ‘yanny’
Earlier this week, the internet erupted around a new obsession tailor-made to go viral. It started with a one-word snippet of recorded audio that had actually been circling the web for awhile, but unclear pronunciation made it an aural Rorschach. The question 'Do you hear 'laurel' or 'yanny?'' rallied everyone to pick a side. But why do stories like this, reminiscent of the great dress color debacle of 2015, captivate the internet?
David Chang’s Netflix series ‘Ugly Delicious’ debuts February 23rd
David Chang, the chef and restaurateur behind the ever-growing Momofuku family of restaurants, has a new show in the works -- a Netflix series called Ugly Delicious. In the series, he'll travel the world eating at notable restaurants with writers, entertainers and other chefs and they'll explore topics like culture, authenticity and identity and how they relate to food. Chang told Eater that in more recent years, he had really begun to embrace the Korean food he grew up with but chose not to cook as a young chef. "As I've gotten older, I've embraced all the things that I truly love eating," he said. "I'm not embarrassed about it anymore. Now I'm just like, I don't give a fuck."
You don’t need a PhD to grasp the anxieties around sex robots
NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts. If you want to understand the myriad issues concerning sex robots that humanity needs to grapple with, you have two options. You can either spend several years studying for a PhD in either of those fields, or you can sit down in front of your TV.
Twitter's opaque thinking fails everyone
It seems like Twitter can't go long before finding itself embroiled in a new controversy about how it applies its conduct policies. And yet it's hard not to feel a sliver of sympathy in the face of the latest backlash against the ailing company. In suspending Rose McGowan's account for 12 hours, it might have done the right thing, but in completely the wrong way.
Google employee's anti-diversity screed enrages coworkers (updated)
For all the talk of improving diversity in technology companies and getting employees to treat each other with respect, it's clear that there's still a long way to go. Motherboard has learned that a Google staffer infuriated many of his coworkers after publishing a viral document attacking the company's purported "ideological echo chamber." He contended that women had low representation in software engineering due to biological differences (because they prefer people more than things, he claims), and said that the company should drop attempts to include different cultures and genders to instead focus on accommodating conservative social views.
US lifts laptop ban from final Middle Eastern airline (updated)
If you're a business traveller who wants to use your laptop on a flight originating in the Middle East, things are looking up. The US started to lift restrictions for passengers carrying large electronics like laptops on flights originating in the Middle East earlier this month, including lifting the ban at Abu Dhabi airport, and exempting Emirates and Turkish Airlines from the ban. Now, according to a report by Reuters, the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has finally lifted the laptop ban on inbound passengers on Saudi Arabian Airlines, the final airline to be under restriction.
Airbnb makes good on its promise to house the displaced
Airbnb said it would help hosts take in refugees and evacuees as a response to President Trump's attempted immigration ban, and it's following through on that promise. The home rental service has launched a promised website that lets you volunteer to host people who need temporary housing, focusing on refugees and those displaced by natural disasters. As before, it's also accepting suggestions for other groups that could benefit from the offer.
Portland wants to get driverless cars on its roads this year
A new initiative from the city of Portland, Oregon hopes to attract the fast-growing self-driving car industry to the city's streets. According to Bloomberg, Mayor Ted Wheeler and the city's Bureau of Transportation are working to finalize a new set of rules governing autonomous vehicle pilot programs and hope to have driverless vehicles on the roads by the end of this year.
Coal company plans Kentucky's biggest solar farm for old mine site
Amid the decline of coal power, one fossil fuel company is refurbishing one of its old strip mining sites as a solar farm. Berkeley Energy Group is setting up two sites in eastern Kentucky as test locations to see if the concept is feasible. Early estimates peg the farm's production at 50 to 100 megawatts, which would yield five to ten times more electricity than the largest existing solar facility in the state.
Bose accused of secretly sharing your listening habits
The podcasts and music you listen to can reveal a lot about your personal and political leanings. That's the basis of a class-action lawsuit filed against Bose, whose wireless headphone and speaker companion app tracks the listening habits of its users. The complaint claims that Bose not only collects, but transmits and discloses its customers' private music and audio history to third parties and a data-mining company.
I don't want to live inside Facebook's vision for social VR
Over the last few decades, there have been several attempts to merge the mundane aspects of the real world with the digital. All of these, while catering to a niche, have failed to conquer the world in the way that Mark Zuckerberg hopes that Facebook's social-VR efforts will.
