Former W.H. press secretary Stephanie Grisham says conversations between the two leaders “redefined the word random.”
Today we’re taking a peek at the TOSY Flying Duo – two flying toys from RoboFi that roll with LED lights aplenty. The TOSY Flying Disc and the TOSY Boomerang make up the TOSY Flying Duo, sold together in a package originally crowdfunded with Kickstarter. We’ve been playing with both of these devices for a couple of weeks, and they’re … Continue reading
A group of former and current Blue Origin employees have accused the company of fostering a “toxic environment.” In an essay written by former head of employee communications Alexandra Abrams and 20 co-authors, the group claims some senior leaders at Blue Origin “have been known to be consistently inappropriate with women.”
The essay states that one executive has been reported to human resources multiple times for sexual harassment. Another former exec used condescending language to women and inappropriately enquired about their personal lives. The group says that person had a “close personal relationship” with Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and was only removed from the company after groping a female subordinate.
“We found many company leaders to be unapproachable and showing clear bias against women,” the group wrote. “Concerns related to flying New Shepard were consistently shut down, and women were demeaned for raising them.” The essay details several instances of how men and women are treated differently at New Origin, such as one man receiving a going-away party after being fired and a female leader who was let go being ordered to leave the premises right away.
“The workforce dedicated to establishing this future ‘for all’ is mostly male and overwhelmingly white,” the group said. “One-hundred percent of the senior technical and program leaders are men.”
The group details other concerns, such as Blue Origin ignoring safety and environmental issues. The authors say, for instance, that despite the company’s mission to “build a better world,” none of them “has seen Blue Origin establish any concrete plans to become carbon neutral or significantly reduce its large environmental footprint.”
They say that “professional dissent” is stifled, with CEO Bob Smith asking one of the group not to make it easy for workers to ask questions during company-wide town halls. The essay’s authors state that Smith asked for a list of “troublemakers or agitators” within the company so that senior leaders could “have a talk” with those in their divisions.
On top of that, the essay makes reference to history’s worst space race between Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson. “Competing with other billionaires — and ‘making progress for Jeff’ — seemed to take precedence over safety concerns that would have slowed down the schedule,” the authors claimed.
The group concluded the essay by saying that Bezos and other Blue Origin leaders should be held to account and learn how to run a company that’s respectful and responsible. “In our experience, Blue Origin’s culture sits on a foundation that ignores the plight of our planet, turns a blind eye to sexism, is not sufficiently attuned to safety concerns, and silences those who seek to correct wrongs,” they wrote. “That’s not the world we should be creating here on Earth and certainly not as our springboard to a better one.”
A Blue Origin spokesperson sent the following statement to Engadget:
Ms. Abrams was dismissed for cause two years ago after repeated warnings for issues involving federal export control regulations. Blue Origin has no tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind. We provide numerous avenues for employees, including a 24/7 anonymous hotline, and will promptly investigate any new claims of misconduct.
After debuting on Nintendo Switch toward the start of the year, Monster Hunter Rise is finally making its way to PC. The latest entry in Capcom’s much-loved action RPG series will make the jump to Steam on January 12th, 2022, the publisher announced on Thursday.
It looks like PC fans can look forward to a thoughtful port. Not only will the Windows release include all previously available content for the title, but Capcom has also promised it will allow you to play the game at 4K with an unlocked framerate and on widescreen monitors. Additionally, the PC version will feature optimized keyboard and mouse controls and much sharper textures than you’ll find on the Switch release. Lastly, Monster Hunter Rise’s upcoming Sunbreak expansion will arrive on both Switch and PC sometime in the summer of 2022.
Ahead of the game’s January 12th release date, Capcom will release a Steam demo of Monster Hunter Rise on October 13th. It will include all 14 weapons types found in the final game, allowing players to get a good sense of what Rise is all about.
Ingenuity Helicopter Had an 'Anomaly' on Mars, Just Before the Solar Conjunction
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe Ingenuity helicopter will need to wait a couple of weeks for its next flight, as Mars is fully on the far side of the Sun from Earth, disrupting communications with spacecraft stationed there. But all solar conjunctions aside, the helicopter has another issue: It needs to adapt to a changing atmosphere.
In the wake of The Mandalordian’s Gina Carano being dismissed from the show after posting anti-Semitic memes, spreading election conspiracy theories, and mocking the usage of pronouns, Star Wars fans wasted no time speculating who might replace the actress if her character, Cara Dune, was going to return to the series…
The release date for Forza Horizon 5 is quickly approaching, and today we’re learning more about the PC version of the game. Not only are Microsoft and the team at Playground Games sharing updated PC recommendations for Forza Horizon 5, but the two companies have also shared supported peripherals for the game. If you’re planning to dive into Forza Horizon … Continue reading
Today we’re taking a broad look at what’s set to be available in Pokemon GO in the month of October in the year 2021. This all begins in just a few hours after this article is set to go live, and it’s basically ready to roll in a non-stop update cycle throughout the month. This is the most exciting month … Continue reading
For months there have been rumors that ASUS has been working on the stuff of nerd dreams: an RTX 3070 GPU with built-in Noctua fans. This week, an ASUS employee in Vietnam prematurely posted images and information about the collaboration on Facebook. Wccftech first spotted the listing, and managed to download images of the GPU before ASUS took them down, giving us a good look at the chunky 3D card.
If you’re not familiar with Noctua, the company consistently makes some of the most efficient and quiet fans you can buy for a PC build. It’s also known for its signature brown and beige color scheme, which, as you can see, is on full display here. Oh, and the card looks like Noctua’s owl mascot. Good stuff.
The same employee who posted images of the GPU also said it would cost about 26 million đồng (approximately $1,100). In other words, it will very likely have a higher MSRP than the RTX 3070 Founders Edition, which ostensibly sells for $499 — but good luck getting at that price with the current global chip shortages. And that’s the GPU market in a nutshell at the moment. OEMs like ASUS know they can charge extra for RTX 30 series cards because the demand for NVIDIA’s latest GPUs is so high.
When we last saw Netflix’s “Mexican Lord of the Rings,” the titular Maya (voiced by Zoe Saldana) was trying to transcend her patriarchal culture to become a warrior, only to discover her life has been claimed by the God of War, Lord Mictlan (Alfred Molina). But if she’s going to escape her fate, as well as fight what…