One million species are threatened with extinction, more than ever before in human history, according to a landmark report released Monday from the United Nations. And humanity is responsible.
"Ecosystems, species, wild populations, local varieties and breeds of domesticated plants and animals are shrinking, deteriorating or vanishing," said Josef Settele, an ecologist at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Germany, who co-chaired the new assessment, in a statement. "This l
Over 150 discontented Riot Games employees walked out of the League of Legends publisher’s offices in Los Angeles today to protest the company’s stance on forced arbitration. Standing in a parking lot on Riot’s campus, employees held picket signs and gave impassioned speeches.
“We’re asking that forced arbitration be ended for all past, current, and future riot employees, including contractors and in current litigation,” said Jocelyn Monehan, a social listening strategist at Riot, in an interview with Kotaku. Standing in front of a sign reading “Rioters Unplugged,” a play on Riot’s internal “Riot Unplugged” meetings, Monehan would later tell her assembled colleagues through a megaphone, “asking to feel safe does not make you entitled.”
Monehan had one major point she hoped to get across to her colleagues—even those who chose to stay in their desks and continue working. “We are what makes Riot great. I want us to feel solidarity and connection with each other. I want us to feel connected. I want us to feel like our voices are heard and heard in a way that matters.” Colleagues took turns speaking through the megaphone, with several admitting that they were scared to participate and be labeled “anti-Riot.” Said one, “I was worried. I was like, ‘What if I go and nobody shows up?’ I’m a little less worried about that now.”
Today’s protest appears to be the first labor-related walkout for a large game studio like Riot. The company’s management is allowing its employees to participate and has urged managers to be accommodating and understanding of employees who are participating. In an email to Kotaku this morning, a Riot representative added, “We respect Rioters who choose to walkout today and will not tolerate retaliation of any kind as a result of participating (or not).”
Riot employees gathered during today’s walkoutImage: Nathan Grayson
In the months since Kotaku’s investigation uncovering endemic sexism at Riot Games, five current or former employees sued the company, in part, for violating California’s Equal Pay Act. Last week, Riot filed a motion to force two of those current employees into arbitration, an extralegal forum where a suit does not go in front of a jury. Recently, 20,000 Google employees walked out to end forced arbitration; months later, Google announced it would comply, but only for harassment cases. Last week, Riot announced it would now allow incoming employees to opt out of forced arbitration for harassment suits and would consider extending that to current employees “as soon as current litigation is resolved.”
Giving a speech, one current Riot employee announced she was quitting in two weeks. “I’m quitting because I don’t want to see people who were protected by people in high places in Riot,” the employee said. Two higher-up employees at Riot Games, including the CFO, have been retained at the company (in the CFO’s case, after a two-month unpaid leave) despite several complaints against them to HR and otherwise being accused of everything from gendered promotion strategies to ball-grabbing in Kotaku reports. Adding that she’s worried that she’ll “be labeled a red flag,” she continued, “I don’t even spend time with my husband who works here, because I worry that he’ll also be labeled.”
A Riot employee speaking to her colleagues through a metaphoneImage: Nathan Grayson
Signs at the protest read, “It shouldn’t take all this to do the right thing,” “Be the company you say you are,” and “Silence one of us, you silence us all.” In an Kotaku report earlier today, employees expressed several reasons they would participate. While several attended specifically to show support for the two plaintiffs in suits against Riot, others were frustrated that eight months after Kotaku’s investigation, they have not seen concrete signs that Riot is dismantling its sexist culture. Said one, “So far I haven’t seen a single outcome of our diversity and inclusion efforts at Riot. I haven’t seen a single metric or number to indicate things have improved and I haven’t seen a single project get finished.”
One other employee, who is male, explained, “While I fully believe Riot is doing everything they can in the moment to end future arbitration, I see value in presenting a nonviolent, unified voice. As someone with a voice, I am lending it to others who feel like they might not have one or be unheard.”
Orange, a French telecom giant, is being sued for moral harassment, among other charges, after 19 employees died by suicide and another 12 attempted to kill themselves over a three-year span. Over 100 people have claimed work culture at the company, contributed to employees’ mental health issues.
The trial, which started on Monday, is being characterized as the largest case of its type involving a company and its executives. There were originally 39 employees on the case, of which almost half had died by suicide, and 126 more people asked to join claiming they also suffered from the work culture.
In addition to Orange (previously named France Télécom), former president of the company Didier Lombard, former HR director Olivier Barberot, and former deputy executive director Louis-Pierre Wenes are among the company executives on trial for having “degraded work conditions of personnel that risked hurting their rights and dignity, altering the physical or mental health (of personnel), or compromising their professional future,” the AP reported.
According to French law, moral harassment is punishable by a year in prison or a fine of 15,000 euros (about $16,800).
According to the prosecutor’s report, 50-year-old Michel left a note in July 2009 that said, “I’m taking my life because of my work at France Telecom. It’s the only reason,” the Associated Press reported. The note also detailed the “permanent sense of urgency, overwork, absence of training, the total disorganization of the company,” and “management by terror.” And in June of that same year, 37-year-old Christel “slashed her veins,” according to the AP, in front of her superiors who had told her that day that she was going to be transferred. In March of that year, 52-year-old Herve attempted to jump out of the office building window but was stopped by his peers. In September of that year, a 32-year-old woman also jumped out of the office building. And in July of 2008, 53-year-old Jean-Michel jumped in front of a train while he was on a call with his union reps.
In April 2011, a 57-year-old worker who had been with the company for 30 years set himself on fire in the company parking lot. François Deschamps, of the CFE-CGC Unsa union, told AFP that the man, who at the time of his death worked at a call center, was forced to change jobs often. “Those enforced changes meant he had to sell his house,” Deschamps said. “He had written to the management on several occasions and in my understanding had no reply. I saw him two or three weeks ago. I did not feel like he was on the verge of suicide.”
The former executives are on trial for their conduct after a company restructuring in 2006, which involved cutting 22,000 jobs and changes to 14,000 others. The series of suicides occurred between 2007 and 2010. “I’ll get them out one way or another,” Lombard reportedly told senior managers during a meeting in October 2006. “Through the door or through the window.”
If you or someone you know is having a crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, or text the Crisis Text Line at 741-741.
The more moving parts a machine has, the more likely it is to eventually fail. It’s an especially problematic rule of thumb for aircraft given the fact that a mechanical failure during a flight can be catastrophic. To help remedy this, a British aerospace company recently tested a unique plane that replaces its wing’s adjustable ailerons with powerful blasts of air to steer the craft.
BAE Systems’ MAGMA unmanned aerial vehicle looks like many of the modern, pilot-less drones in use by military agencies around the world. But instead of flying reconnaissance or bombing missions, it’s used to safely test a revolutionary new control system that could one day make all aircraft safer to fly and maintain.
Developed in collaboration with researchers from The University of Manchester, the MAGMA craft actually demonstrates two different approaches to using moving air to steer a plane. The first, Wing Circulation Control, directs some of the air generated by the plane’s powerful jet engine through thin vents located on the trailing edge of the wings, where you’d normally find the ailerons that can raise and lower. When the vents are open, the blasts of air, moving at supersonic speeds, change the direction of air moving over the aircraft’s wings during flight, which causes the plane to nose up, or roll, depending on how many of the vents are active.
The other approach successfully tested on the MAGMA aircraft is called Fluidic Thrust Vectoring which instead uses a series of vents inside the jet engine’s rear nozzle to control the angle of thrust as it exits the craft, which in turn allows the plane to maneuver. It’s similar to how the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor can change the direction of its thrust for added maneuverability using a series of movable flaps, but this approach reduces the number of mechanical components and moving pieces to accomplish the same thing.
In addition to simplifying the design of at least part of an aircraft, which can make them cheaper to maintain and more reliable in the long run, this approach can also help reduce a plane’s radar signature. Fewer moving parts means less open seams on the body of the aircraft, which helps to increase its stealthiness. As a result, the military will undoubtedly be the first to adopt technology like this, but that will help hasten the research and development so that it will hopefully start showing up on commercial aircraft and making air travel just a little safer.
is priced at $1,499 per month, plus fees and taxes and will first be available in Nevada, Missouri, and Minnesota. Users will have access to Subscribe by Enterprise’s more than 20 different vehicles from its
that restrict choices to within the brand, and sometimes only select models. One caveat to Subscribe by Enterprise’s car selection is that users aren’t guaranteed the vehicle they want will be available at their local
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If this sounds good to you, and you’re in one of the test markets of Minnesota, Missouri, or Nevada, the service requires at least two months of commitment and charges a $250 enrollment fee, a $1,499 monthly cost, plus taxes. This allows up to 3,000 miles of driving per month, and only the subscriber (who must be at least 21 years old) is allowed to get behind the wheel. Unused miles expire, and mileage overages charge $0.40 per mile. The driver is also responsible for any tickets, tolls, or fees incurred from driving. For more information visit the
BERLIN/FRANKFURT — German prosecutors imposed a 535 million euro ($598 million) fine on German luxury carmaker Porsche AG, a unit of Volkswagen, as punishment for lapses in supervisory duties which allowed the company to cheat diesel emissions tests.
Prosecutors in the southern city of Stuttgart on Tuesday said that the company’s development department had neglected its legal obligations, which ultimately led to the sale of diesel cars that spewed excessive pollution levels.
The fine against Porsche follows a 1 billion euro penalty for management lapses imposed against Volkswagen by prosecutors in Braunschweig, and a fine of 800 million euros against Audi by prosecutors in Munich, Germany last year.
U.S. authorities disclosed Volkswagen’s systematic emissions cheating on Sept. 18, 2015, sparking the biggest business scandal in the company’s history which has cost Volkswagen Group 30 billion euros in penalties and fines.
VW, Porsche and Audi all sold diesel engine cars which failed to conform to clean air rules and cheated emissions tests.
German prosecutors have pursued individual engineers and took action against the companies for lack of oversight because managers failed to prevent heavily polluting cars from hitting European roads.
Prosecutors said Porsche had not appealed the findings by the prosecutor.
Porsche confirmed the fine and said that prosecutors’ proceedings against the company had come to an end.
The fine does not hinder ongoing proceedings against individual people in relation to Porsche’s diesel manipulations, the prosecutors added.
When engineers want to test the aerodynamic properties of the newly designed shape of a car, airplane, or other object, they would normally model the flow of air around the object by having a computer solve a complex set of equations — a procedure that usually takes hours or even an entire day. Researchers have significantly sped up this process, making streamlines and parameters available in real time. The method uses machine learning to model flow around continuously editable 3D objects.
