Day: September 16, 2016

Posted on

The Napsack, A Wearable Sleeping Bag With Arm And Leg Holes

wearable-sleeping-bag.jpg

This is the Napsack, a wearable sleeping bag with zippable arm holes and a cinch at the bottom so you can stick your legs out and wear it as a dress. It’s perfect for the camper who’s being attacked by bears and doesn’t have time to change before making a hasty getaway. Weird, I always thought wearable sleeping bags were called parkas. Napsacks come in a handful of colors and patterns and are available HERE for around $135. Admittedly, that’s cheaper than I expected them to be. The menu at the restaurant for my date last night? That was much more than I expected it to be, which is why I feigned food poisoning from earlier almost as soon as I got there. I can make myself puke anytime I want, easy. Now I’m not trying to get my hopes up, but I think I made a pretty memorable first impression.

Keep going for a weird video of people floating around in the things.

Thanks to red, who just invented a wearable sleeping bag/tent combo so you don’t have to bring anything but a can of beans to go camping.

blog comments powered by Disqus

from Geekologie – Gadgets, Gizmos, and Awesome http://ift.tt/2cdrzA8
via IFTTT

Posted on

Wells Fargo sued over fraudulent accounts

The first lawsuit has been filed against Wells Fargo by customers following revelations that the bank collected fees for millions of unauthorized accounts.

The proposed class action suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Utah on Friday, accuses the bank of invasion of privacy, fraud, negligence, and breach of contract. The three plaintiffs are asking for compensation to cover damages related to identity theft, anxiety and emotional distress, and legal fees.

Related: U.S. opens investigation into Wells Fargo fake accounts scandal

The suit is the latest fallout for the bank after it was caught opening millions of fake bank and credit card accounts for customers over the past five years. The phantom accounts were a way for the bank to earn extra fees from unwitting customers, as well as artificially inflating its sales figures.

“Wells Fargo’s resulting market dominance has come at a significant price to the general public, because it has been achieved in large part through an ambitious and strictly enforced sales quota system,” said the complaint.

It claims Wells Fargo managers and bankers took part in unethical techniques to improve sales numbers. The bank has an average of six accounts per customer, but was pushing to have eight, the suit claims, and blames the bank for pushing bankers into fraudulent practices though the quotas and constant monitoring.

Related: 5,300 Wells Fargo employees fired over 2 million phony accounts

Wells Fargo said it has fired 5,300 employees in relation to the scam. It also agreed to pay $185 million in fines and refund $5 million to customers.

But its problems may just be beginning. The Department of Justice has opened an investigation and has issued subpoenas to the bank.

Earlier on Friday, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee announced it would launch an investigation into the bank and hold a hearing in later September. Wells Fargo said its CEO, John Stumpf, will testify.

This is the first lawsuit to be brought against the bank for the fake accounts. Wells Fargo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CNNMoney’s Matt Egan contributed to this report

CNNMoney (San Francisco) First published September 16, 2016: 7:21 PM ET

from Business and financial news – CNNMoney.com http://ift.tt/2cfASEk
via IFTTT

Posted on

Watch what it takes to build a 350HP combat robot right here

Our dreams of watching giant robots battle it out in front of us have almost come true. The folks behind the MegaBots Kickstarter have released the first trailer for their upcoming web series that follows the trials and tribulations of building a 10-ton, 350HP combat robot. The team hired an Emmy-nominated video team to capture all the gory details, and it sounds like the main event — a hand-to-hand battle against Japan’s Kuratas robot — will be the season finale.

The first episode of real-life Titanfall will drop September 28th on the MegaBots YouTube channel and Facebook page. After that, release cadence will be every two weeks. But because the team is still filming, it warns that exact timing could be a little hit or miss for each subsequent episode. Check out the video below for your first taste of the chaos.

Source: Kickstarter

from Engadget http://ift.tt/2cZb0d6
via IFTTT

Posted on

Report: Apple is a sexist, toxic work environment

Apple made improving its employee diversity a focal point in recent years — but the company is still dominated by men. Women only make up 32 percent of its total workforce, and that imbalance has reportedly manifested itself in some very ugly ways. Mic has obtained a number of emails from female Apple employees and prospective employees, and their comments paint a picture of a sexist workplace in which women face discrimination, harassment and a "toxic" work environment.

Some of the complaints Mic reported on include a female engineer whose "male-dominated" team made jokes about an office intruder coming to "rape everyone." The jokes caused that engineer to email CEO Tim Cook, who did not respond to her complaint. Another female employee said she was in a meeting with a dozen other men and no other women; the conversation turned to how all of their wives and significant others were nags, a conversation that the team’s manager let go on unchecked. This employee was also told to "smile more" by a male area manager.

Yet another employee said she feared retaliation from her co-workers for reporting their behavior. Someone eventually came to investigate her concerns and even admitted that she was in a hostile work environment. But the choices she was given amounted to staying in her current position or being demoted to a job that paid less on a different team. The employee took the demotion.

She also told Mic that a number of employees quit, citing a "white, male, Christian, misogynist, sexist environment" — and those employees were not given exit interviews because they company didn’t think their departure was a concern. "Their departure is being written up as a positive attrition," she said.

These concerns weren’t confined to female employees, either. Mic spoke with a male former Apple employee who had complained about the toxic environment to multiple people at the company, including Cook. This employee said that his co-workers would say he was having his "man period" as a way of insinuating he was overly emotional and unreliable. I would consistently be referred to as an emotional man that resembled having the qualities of a woman," he wrote in an email obtained by Mic. "Any male can tell you that being referred to as a woman is an insinuation that you are not strong enough or stable enough to handle the difficulties of life or work in the way a man can."

Yet another female employee says that she was never given the opportunity to apply for two advanced positioned that she was "more than qualified for." The positions were never posted externally; instead, her male boss selected two men to fill them. This employee filed a complaint with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing on August 4th to investigate how Apple treats women in leadership positions; she also emailed Cook about her concerns without a response.

An Apple spokesperson gave Mic a statement in which it said it takes these types of complaints "very seriously" and that it thoroughly investigates each situation, but that it doesn’t discuss specific incidents for the sake of privacy. If the problem is indeed as widespread as this report makes it appear, though, we wouldn’t be surprised to hear the company make a more declarative statement sooner than later.

Source: Mic

from Engadget http://ift.tt/2cMep2u
via IFTTT