Current Events in June 2018

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Jose is a forum for the company to showcase its latest strides in technological advances, as well as show consumers what’s to come from the tech giant. The conference opened yesterday, and Apple is showing its commitment to customers’ privacy right out of the gate.

At last year’s conference, Apple introduced Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP), a desktop Safari feature that monitors how often users visit certain sites; if a website isn’t visited for 30 days, Safari will automatically purge the cookies.

This year, Apple is building off of this software in an attempt to become a leader in the arena of consumer privacy. The company’s next rollout of updates will allow consumers to block Facebook, Google, and other platforms from tracking them across different websites based off of “likes” or “shares.”

“We’ve all seen these like buttons and share buttons,” said Apple software VP Craig Federighi. “Well it turns out, these can be used to track you, whether you click on them or not. So this year, we’re shutting that down.”

At the conference, Federighi demonstrated how the newest updates to Safari will show a pop-up window that asks users whether or not they want to allow a plugin to track their browsing. It will also have a feature that counters browser fingerprinting techniques that track users from site to site, which happens even when users clear their cookies.

“Data companies are clever and relentless,” he said. “It turns out that when you browse the web, your device can be recognized by a unique set of characteristics like its configuration, its fonts you have installed, and the plugins you might have installed on a device.”

Apple’s stance on privacy

Apple’s initiatives to protect its customers line up with many of its past actions. Back in 2010, then-CEO Steve Jobs said that his company “always had a very different view of privacy than some of [its] colleagues in the Valley.”

“Privacy means people know what they’re signing up for, in plain English and repeatedly,” Jobs said. “I believe people are smart and some people want to share more data than other people do. Ask them. Ask them every time. Let them know precisely what you’re going to do with their data.”

In the eight years since then, Apple hasn’t changed its tune.

“I think that the privacy thing has gotten totally out of control and I think most people are not aware of who is tracking them, how much they’re being tracked, and the large amounts of detailed data that are out there about them,” said current CEO Tim Cook. “We think privacy is a fundamental human right.”

Facebook strikes back

While Apple’s latest move may protect users from many different online platforms that may be loose with their data, Facebook didn’t take to Apple’s announcement too kindly.

The social media giant took a huge hit earlier this year following a scandal that left over 87 million users’ data repurposed by Cambridge Analytica. Though CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent a great deal of time answering questions from Congress and promised that his company is recommitting itself to stricter privacy regulations, Facebook continues to be a target due to what critics say are rather lenient privacy settings.

Following Apple’s announcement, Facebook’s chief security officer Alex Stamos took to Twitter to question whether Apple was really committed to protecting privacy or the move was “just cute virtue signaling.”

Facebook continues to take heat over revelations about its data privacy practices. Just before Apple’s announcement, the New York Times reported that Facebook’s data-sharing partnerships with various phone and device developers was going strong -- despite the company’s claim that they ended these data sharing practices in 2015.

“It’s like having door locks installed, only to find out that the locksmith also gave keys to all of his friends so they can come in and rifle through your stuff without having to ask you for permission,” said former FTC chief technologist Ashkan Soltani.

Volkswagen has vowed to stop funding experiments that test the effects of diesel exhaust on animals, the New York Times reports.

The pledge follows the company’s emissions cheating scandal and pressure from animal rights groups. In January, it was revealed that the company funded a study that put 10 monkeys inside airtight chambers and exposed them to fumes from a diesel VW Beetle and an old pickup truck for four hours.

The company’s pledge to stop financially supporting animal testing came in a letter to the German branch of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). PETA says the automaker promised it won’t conduct experiments on animals unless it is required by law.

PETA praised the move

In the letter, Herbert Diess, Volkswagen’s chief executive, said that the company’s decision to conduct experiments on primates was ethically questionable. However, he maintained that the tests did not violate any U.S. laws.

“Research projects and studies must always be balanced with consideration of ethical and moral questions,” Diess wrote. “Volkswagen explicitly distances itself from all forms of animal abuse. In the future, we will rule out all testing on animals, as long as there are no pressing — such as legal — reasons that would make this necessary.”

PETA said Volkswagen “did the right thing” by vowing to stop conducting tests on animals.

“PETA is calling on other carmakers that still test on animals to follow suit and embrace modern and humane, animal-free research methods instead,” said Kathy Guillermo, a senior vice president for PETA.

Recovering from emissions-cheating scandal

The German automaker’s pledge to stop funding animal testing is its latest effort to recover from the emissions-cheating scandal, which became public nearly three years ago.

At that time, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that about a half million Volkswagens equipped with diesel engines had been found with on-board software to defeat pollution controls.

The scandal resulted in tens of billions of dollars in settlements and fines, as well as the imprisonment of former top company executives. Volkswagen is also facing a lawsuit filed by shareholders that could add billions to the company’s costs.

Fiat Chrysler (FCA) is one of the last automakers to embrace electric cars, but the company has announced it's ready to plug in.

As part of a newly-unveiled five-year plan, FCA said it will introduce 30 hybrid or electric vehicle models in the next four years. The company has committed over $10 billion to the effort.

But FCA is not ready to fully commit to an all-electric future, as Volkswagen and some other automakers have. In fact, company CEO Sergio Marchionne says the majority of the company's vehicles will continue to rely on the internal combustion engine.

VW makes a big change

In 2017, Volkswagen announced that it was going all-in on electric vehicles, committing to an all-electric line-up by 2030. It's a big change for VW, which until recently was known for "clean diesel" technology.

But revelations that the company had installed software in its cars to make the emissions appear lower during tests gave it, and the technology, a black eye. VW announced its shift to electric vehicles not long afterward.

Earlier this year, Infiniti announced it will go all-electric in 2021. As part of the company’s five-year business plan, all new Infiniti models launched after 2021 -- with the exception of a handful of SUVs -- will either be all-electric vehicles or will rely on the parent company’s new range-extending electric motor-powered technology called ePower.

Mercedes-Benz said it will offer electric versions of its entire fleet by 2022.

Practical reasons

FCA says it is moving to electric vehicles for highly practical reasons. It says selling more electric vehicles will help it meet U.S. emissions standards. Its cars that have no emissions will make up for its cars that burn gasoline and diesel fuel.

Additionally, not having electric vehicles could keep it out of a growing number of important markets. This city of Paris plans to ban gasoline-powered cars within a few years, and a number of cities and countries are considering similar steps.

Despite carmakers' embrace to electric vehicles, consumers appear to have their doubts. Only 26 percent of consumers say they're interested in purchasing an electric car, according to a AAA survey released last month.

The Association of Global Automakers, an industry trade group, said an advertising and promotion campaign will be necessary to persuade consumers to buy an electric vehicle. Without it, the group says carmakers could soon be turning out vehicles that sit on dealers' lots instead of consumers' driveways.

Today, U.K. Culture Minister Matt Hancock approved 21st Century Fox’s planned takeover bid of the British broadcasting network Sky. However, the deal can only move forward if Sky News is sold to a third party -- either Disney or another alternative buyer.

Fox has been waiting 16 months for clearance to bid on the network. Now, the company finds itself competing against Comcast in what many are considering to be an intense bidding war for Sky News.

A control issue

Fox experienced such a long waiting period from the U.K. government because of regulators’ fears that owning Sky News would give Rupert Murdoch -- and his family -- too much control over the British media.

Back in December, Disney agreed to buy much of 21st Century Fox, including its Sky News stake, the movie studio 20th Century Fox, and the Indian broadcast network Star. Hancock noted that Comcast’s current bid of $29 billion for Sky would also be allowed to proceed. Because of this, Comcast will likely force Disney’s -- and by extension, Murdoch’s -- hand in this bidding war.

Hancock’s decision to approve 21st Century Fox’s bid was entirely dependent on the company’s ability to keep the United Kingdom’s media an independent source. Hancock was concerned about both Sky’s editorial independence and the influence of the Murdoch family in the British media landscape.

However, despite Hancock’s apprehension, both Sky and Fox were pleased with the decision.

“In respect of 21st Century Fox’s proposed acquisition of Sky, Sky notes that the Secretary of State considers that the undertakings provided by 21st Century Fox have provided a good starting point to overcome the adverse public interest effects of the merger that he has identified, and that DCMS [Department for Digital Culture, Media, and Sport] Officials have now been instructed to seek to agree final undertakings with 21st Century Fox,” Sky said in a statement.

“21st Century Fox welcomes today’s announcement by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport that he has cleared [our] proposed acquisition of the remaining shares in Sky on broadcasting standards, as recommended by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA),” Fox said in a statement.

“Regarding the effects on media plurality we note that the CMA recommended to the Secretary of State that divestiture is ‘the most effective and proportionate remedy. We now look forward to engaging with DCMS and we are confident that we will reach a final decision clearing our transaction.”

What this deal would mean

Obtaining Sky would seemingly be a huge win for either Disney or Comcast, as the network currently has 23 million customers across five countries, and owns broadcasting rights that are particularly valuable in today’s market, such as English Premier League games, Formula One races, and other sporting events.

The network also has its own streaming service -- Now TV -- and produces its own entertainment shows.

Sky is a leader in pay-TV services in the United Kingdom, and also sells broadband and mobile phone services.

General Motors is recalling 88,129 model year 2018 GMC Terrain vehicles.

The sensing diagnostic module (SDM) that senses a crash and deploys the necessary air bags may not power down correctly when the vehicle is shut off, causing it to be inoperative when the vehicle is restarted.

If the SDM becomes inoperative, it will not detect a crash or command the necessary air bag deployment, increasing the risk of injury in the event of a crash.

What to do

GM will notify owners, and dealers will reprogram the SDM with updated software, free of charge.

The manufacturer has not yet provided a notification schedule.

Owners may contact GMC customer service at 1-800-462-8782. GM's number for this recall is 18179.

H-E-B is recalling certain flavors and container sizes of EconoMax and Hill Country Fare ice creams and Creamy Creations sherbets.

Broken metal in processing equipment was found during routine maintenance.

There have been no injuries reported to date due to this incident.

The products, sold in stores in Texas and Mexico, are being recalled:

What to do

Customers who purchased the recalled products may return them to the store for a full refund.

Consumers with questions or concerns may contact H-E-B customer service at (855) 432-4438 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (CST).

On May 30, Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed a bill into law that would allow remote workers to move to his state and earn $10,000 over a two-year period. The initiative will start in January 2019, and the stipend is designed to cover relocation expenses, coworking memberships, computers, internet, and other work-related costs.

The money will be available as a tax grant, and it will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. Those interested must work full-time for an out-of-state employer and should be committed to becoming Vermont residents.

A total cost of $125,000 will be available for the program in 2019, followed by $250,000 in 2020 and $125,000 in 2021. Should funding continue after that point, subsequent years would yield $100,000 towards the program.

“We have about 16,000 fewer workers than we did in 2009,” Governor Scott said. “That’s why expanding our workforce is one of the top priorities of my administration. We must think outside the box to help more Vermonters enter the labor force and attract more working families and young professionals to Vermont.”

A shrinking and aging state

This initiative is aimed at young, remote workers for a very good reason: Vermont is shrinking -- and aging -- pretty rapidly.

Earlier this year, USA Today released an article on the fastest growing and fastest shrinking states in the United States. Vermont was number three on the fastest shrinking list, which can be largely contributed to out-of-state migration.

Moreover, as of 2017, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that Vermont had only 623,657 permanent residents. In signing this new bill into law, Scott is hoping to bolster the population with a new demographic of young employees that will remain in the state.

The trouble isn’t attracting people to visit -- Vermont sees nearly 13 million visitors every year. However, Scott and his administration are looking to gain permanent residents and believe this is the first step in doing just that.

Additionally, Vermont is aging faster than any other state in the country. As of 2015, the average age of a Vermont resident was 42.8. As recently as 1990, the average age was 33. In the last 25 years, the average age of the country as a whole rose five years to 37.8, but Vermont’s rose by 10 years.

Other initiatives to join the state

In addition to this new remote worker legislation, Scott and his administration started the Stay to Stay Weekends program throughout the state, which is designed to bring together visitors, business owners, and residents.

“The Stay to Stay Weekend program is a lodging and networking package to connect guests to employers, entrepreneurs, and potential neighbors in local communities around Vermont,” the website states.

Over the course of the weekend, guests will network with area professionals, meet others interested in relocating to Vermont, and talk with business owners, state and local legislators, and community leaders.

By the end of the trip, guests have the opportunity to meet with hiring employers, set up a tour with local realtors, or visit a co-maker space to meet with other professionals. The weekends are held in April, June, August, and October, and held in various cities throughout Vermont.

“Thirteen million people come to Vermont each year, and many of them express a desire to stay permanently as residents,” said Wendy Knight, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing.

“The Stay-to-Stay program helps make that daydream of living in Vermont a reality. We’re excited to launch this innovative initiative with our local chamber and young professional networks and appreciate their work in recruiting businesses and workers, strengthening our economy, creating vibrant communities, and welcoming future visitors and future residents, alike.”

Tesla has refunded nearly a quarter of prospective customers who had put down a deposit for the Model 3, according to data analyzed by marketing firm Second Measure.

The findings suggest that customers who hoped to own a more affordable version of Tesla’s luxury electric cars are growing disenchanted and giving up after repeated manufacturing delays.

Unable to keep up with demand

Tesla’s hyped Model 3 was billed as the company’s first mass-market vehicle, with the base price set at $35,000 -- a fraction of the price set for one of the company’s Model S or Model X vehicles, which cost upwards of $100,000.

Production had yet to start when Tesla began collecting $1,000 deposits from buyers two years ago. Since then, nearly half a million people have put down deposits to reserve the cars. But repeated delays and testimony from stressed and tired workers suggest that the company is unable to meet consumer demand.

As of April, Tesla delivered just 8,180 Model 3s to customers, and none were actually sold for $35,000, according to the investment site Seeking Alpha. The site reports that the average Model 3 sales price “has been around $50,000 thanks to the company prioritizing orders for more expensive upgrades.”

Tesla disputes refund statistics

Tesla has allowed consumers who made the $1,000 deposit to receive a refund up until they customize the car, which requires an additional $2,500 deposit. The company admitted last year that 12 percent of the Model 3 early-adopters had asked for a refund.

Since then, Tesla has been “tight-lipped” about its refund rate, reports Second Measure, noting that nearly two-thirds of customer orders are either still waiting in the Model 3 queue or actively waiting for a refund. With 23 percent of deposits having been refunded already, according to the firm’s analysis of company figures, deposits for the Model 3 are now being refunded faster than they are coming in.

A Tesla spokesman told Recode that Second Measure’s findings were incorrect but would not be more specific about what Tesla’s own internal sales data shows.

Facebook has another data-sharing controversy on its hands.

The social media giant worked out deals with mobile device makers over the last 10 years, allowing them to access Facebook user data without their permission.

The New York Times reports Facebook reached deals with at least 60 smartphone makers, including Apple, that allowed companies to offer customers access to popular Facebook features, in the days before there were Facebook apps.

The data transfer took place through something called device-integrated APIs -- software developed to help consumers use Facebook on different mobile devices. The company draws a sharp distinction between that practice and the inadvertent sharing of data with third-party apps.

Company explanation

"In the early days of mobile, the demand for Facebook outpaced our ability to build versions of the product that worked on every phone or operating system," Ime Archibong, vice president of Product Partnerships, said in a statement. "It’s hard to remember now but back then there were no app stores."

Archibong said Facebook, and other platforms like Google, Twitter, and YouTube, had to work directly with operating system and device manufacturers to get their products into people’s hands.

Facebook says it was necessary to integrate user data with devices in order for the social media platform to work on a wide variety of smartphones. It says device makers were required to tightly control the data and to not use it for any other purpose.

Not disclosed

But The Times points out the scope of these partnerships with device makers, and what they entailed, was never publicly disclosed. It says the revelations not only raise questions about Facebook's privacy protections, it also calls into question the company's compliance with a 2011 privacy consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The Times also says device companies with these data-sharing agreements had access to the data of users' friends without asking for their consent. The report maintains that some device makers were able to access personal information from users’ friends, even if those individuals thought they had taken steps to prevent any sharing.

Facebook found itself in an uncomfortable spotlight in April, after it was revealed that a third-party app developer, which had access to Facebook user data, sold that data to a political marketing firm, Cambridge Analytica.

In the weeks that followed, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress, telling lawmakers that the company was taking steps to improve user privacy protection. He and other executives said the company was conducting internal audits to determine whether there had been other undisclosed data transfers.

One in every 5 deaths in young adults was tied to an opioid overdose in 2016, a new study finds.

For the study, researchers in Canada used mortality data stored in the WONDER database of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to look at all opioid-related deaths from 2001 to 2016 in the United States.

They found that deaths by opioid overdose increased 296 percent overall. During that window of time, there were 335,123 recorded cases of opioid-related deaths. By 2016, one in every 65 deaths was associated with an opioid overdose.  

The largest increase in lives lost due to opioids was in the 25-34 age range. In 2001, only 4 percent of opioid-related deaths occurred in this demographic. By 2016, that number had grown to 20 percent.

The second-most dramatic increase in opioid-related deaths was in the 15-24 year old age group; 12 percent of all deaths in 2016 were caused by opioid overdoses. Over two-thirds of all the deaths were among males, the study found.

‘We’re losing so much potential life’

Study author and epidemiologist Tara Gomes of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto says it’s the younger demographics “where we really see this huge contribution of opioid overdoses.”

“We’re losing so much potential life,” she said. Gomes and her colleagues found that a total of 1,681,359 years of life were lost prematurely to opioid-related causes in 2016, which exceeds the years of life lost annually from hypertension, HIV/AIDS, and pneumonia in the U.S.

"Despite the amount of attention that has been placed on this public health issue, we are increasingly seeing the devastating impact that early loss of life from opioids is having across the United States," she said.

Gomes says the crisis will likely impact upcoming generations due to the country’s shortcomings in treating opioid addiction.

“In the absence of a multidisciplinary approach to this issue that combines access to treatment, harm reduction, and education, this crisis will impact the U.S. for generations,” she said.

The full study has been published in JAMA Network Open.

After facing much scrutiny from its shareholders for the addictive quality of its devices, Apple announced that it will be releasing software that helps iPhone users monitor how much time they spend on their devices.

The company opened its Worldwide Developers Conference today in San Jose, and while its typical for the tech giant to discuss the countless ways its devices are becoming even more intuitive to its users’ needs, with this latest upgrade, Apple is doing the exact opposite. This year, Apple is making a point to show consumers how to use their devices less.

“We need to have tools and data to allow us to understand how we consume digital media,” said Tony Faddell, a former senior Apple executive who worked on the original iPhone and iPad. “We need to get finer-grain language and start to understand that an iPhone is just a refrigerator, it’s not the addiction.”

Engineers at Apple have been working on Digital Health, a new initiative that will help users monitor how much time they spend on their devices and also give a breakdown on time spent on each individual app. These tools will be bundled into a menu inside the Settings app in iOS 12 -- the likely name of Apple’s newest operating system.

The surge in tech addiction

The decision to inform users of their (potentially) excessive gadget use comes after Apple faced a high amount of criticism from shareholders on the addictive quality of the company’s devices.

In early January, Jane Partners LLC and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System -- two investors that hold $1 billion in stocks between them -- urged the company to develop software that limits how long children can use its smartphones. The investors wrote a letter to the company, pointing to studies that show excessive phone use can cause sleep deprivation, disrupt lessons, and harm students’ ability to concentrate on school work.

“According to [an] APA survey, 94 percent of parents have taken some action to manage their child’s technology use, but it is both unrealistic and a poor long-term business strategy to ask parents to fight this battle alone,” the investors wrote in the letter. “Imagine the goodwill Apple can generate with parents by partnering with them in this effort and with the next generation of customers by offering their parents more options to protect their health and well-being.”

Back in 2016, a survey by Common Sense Media reported that half of U.S. teenagers believe they are addicted to their phones. Respondents said they often felt pressure to respond to text messages immediately.

However, Apple is now committed to helping users who struggle to get offline. The new Digital Health software will allow consumers to cap the time they spend on their phones or on certain apps.

Other updates out of Apple

In addition to Digital Health, Apple is expected to make other announcements that may want to make users pick up their phones even more. The company is working on unveiling updates to its augmented reality (AR) software with new tools for the iPhone and iPad.

“We’re already seeing things that will transform the way you work, play, connect, and learn,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “Put simply, we believe AR is going to change the way we use technology forever.”

Microsoft Corp. announced on Monday that it has cut a deal to purchase software development platform GitHub.

The acquisition gives Microsoft a boost toward making itself more valuable to clients and another in-road on bringing services to new audiences. GitHub sports an envious client base of 1.5 million companies using the platform as a software development repository, in addition to 28 million software developers working on 18 million repositories of code.

“Microsoft is a developer-first company, and by joining forces with GitHub we strengthen our commitment to developer freedom, openness and innovation,” said Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO. “We recognize the community responsibility we take on with this agreement and will do our best work to empower every developer to build, innovate and solve the world’s most pressing challenges.”

Microsoft’s elation was mirrored on GitHub’s side of the deal, as well. “The future of software development is bright and I’m thrilled to be joining forces with Microsoft to help make it a reality,” said GitHub’s current CEO, Chris Wanstrath. “Their focus on developers lines up perfectly with our own, and their scale, tools and global cloud will play a huge role in making GitHub even more valuable for developers everywhere.”

GitHub has to be happy about the purchase price, too. Microsoft is paying out $7.5 billion in company stock -- nearly three times what GitHub was last valued for in 2015.

Developers are the new kingmakers

Bill Gates once said that “a great lathe operator commands several times the wage of an average lathe operator, but a great writer of software code is worth 10,000 times the price of an average software writer.”

In buying GitHub, Microsoft looks to be setting itself up to have the best software developers on the market.

In Microsoft’s conference call announcing the deal, company CEO Satya Nadella cited a LinkedIn study showing that software engineering roles in industries outside of tech -- such as retail, healthcare, and energy -- are seeing double-digit growth year-over-year, 25 percent faster than the tech industry by itself.

Starting Wednesday, HelloFresh (an Authorized Partner) will start selling meal kits at 581 Giant Food and Stop & Shop stores, with more retailers to be added this year.

Tobias Hartmann, the company's president of U.S. business, said the move into retail may benefit consumers as well as grocers.

"Our retail line reduces the pressure on grocers to create these meals themselves and easily integrates into growing areas of their business such as online grocery and delivery," Hartmann said in a statement.

Partnering with retailers

HelloFresh (an Authorized Partner) joins other meal delivery services that have branched out from doorstep delivery.

Last month, Blue Apron announced that it would start selling meal kits at Costco. Plated announced in April that it would selling its meal kits at Albertson’s, and Walmart announced that it would be expanding in-store availability of its own line of meal kits back in March.

By partnering with brick-and-mortar retailers, meal kit makers are hoping to bolster their business by addressing the needs of a wider range of customers.

“HelloFresh (an Authorized Partner) strikes a chord with households that want fresh dinners on the table, without artificial ingredients or overly complicated recipes,” Hartmann said.

“The addition of retail, a channel well-placed to benefit from the unique data, brand and infrastructure assets we have built out over the years, allows us to better address the everyday needs for even more customers, adding what we view as a highly complementary customer segment.”

The company said the move to retail was supported by a network build-out. It expanded from five to 11 facilities, with more expansion to come. HelloFresh’s (an Authorized Partner) meal kits are expected to cost between $14.99 and $19.99. Each pre-portioned meal takes less than 30 minutes to cook, according to the company.

You can learn more about HelloFresh (an Authorized Partner) by reading reviews of the company here.

For consumers, air travel appears to be getting more tolerable. The 2018 J.D. Power North America Airline Satisfaction Study finds continued improvement over 2017.

On a scale of 1 to 1,000, J.D. Power puts customer satisfaction with major airlines at 762, the highest level since the annual survey began. The report credits newer planes, cheaper fares, and more in-cabin storage space.

"With a single exception, airlines in North America show consistent improvements across all the factors, from booking a ticket to handling luggage,” said Michael Taylor, Travel Practice Lead at J.D. Power. “Operationally, it’s never been a better time to fly."

Taylor says passengers may be happier because they are perceiving greater value in ticket price. The check-in process has been streamlined and bags are getting lost less often. But he says there is definitely room for improvement.

Trying to keep up with technology

“The exception is in the in-flight services factor, which includes food, beverage and entertainment systems,” Taylor said. “Today’s passengers expect trouble-free connectivity for personal devices and airlines are challenged to keep pace with the technology that can achieve that goal."

In fact, this could be the key to improving a satisfaction rating. Taylor says passengers are far more likely to have a positive experience with an airline if they are entertained during their flight.

Alaska Airlines' winning streak

Alaska Airlines took the top spot among traditional airlines for the 11th consecutive year, earning a score of 775. The study found that Alaska Airlines scored particularly well in all seven factors of the study, with a great deal of improvement coming from investments in new overhead bins that fit roll-aboard bags better than traditional bins. Delta Air Lines was a close second with a score of 767.

Southwest Airlines ranked highest among low-cost carriers for the second straight year. It's score of 818 reflects a high level of satisfaction in all seven categories. JetBlue was second in the category with a score of 812.

If low fares contributed to airlines' increased standing in the eyes of the traveling public, the future may not bode well for continued happiness. Doug Parker, CEO at American Airlines, told CNBC today that rising fuel costs are cutting into all airline profits. If costs remain high, he says it's possible airlines will have to raise ticket prices to maintain profit margins.

On Tuesday, Starbucks temporarily closed 8,000 stores in order to hold a four-hour racial bias training session with 175,000 of its employees.

The training was scheduled in response to the April arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia Starbucks. However, the mandatory training was met with mixed responses from staff members, with some calling it “uncomfortable.”

Employees were shown an eight-minute training video created by award-winning documentarian Stanley Nelson and underwritten by Starbucks. The film shows interviews of mostly young people of color describing their experience in public spaces such as restaurants and malls.

"People assume you're doing something bad," and "I feel like I'm disturbing people or making them uncomfortable just walking in," and "It's not like I can mute my actual blackness, so everything has to be as perfect and clean and as blended in as possible” were among the feelings expressed. 

Painful and uncomfortable for some

The film included several clips that have gone viral, like one of a passenger reacting to a man being dragged down an airplane aisle by officials. It focused heavily on clips of police brutality against black people, which made one employee so uncomfortable she had to leave.

“The training materials focused a lot on police brutality, which had nothing to do with the incident that happened… At one point, a girl at my table actually had to get up and leave because video after video they showed black people being assaulted by police or black people being verbally assaulted and white people being racially biased toward people of color,” a Starbucks employee told Philadelphia Magazine.

Another employee said that, as a Mexican woman, she hoped the training would promote inclusivity for people of all backgrounds, but instead the curriculum focused on the “white barista-young black male customer interaction.”

“They told us we need to be ‘color brave’ instead of color blind and it was the whitest thing I’ve ever heard,” the employee told TIME. “Me and my coworkers of color felt uncomfortable the entire time.”

In addition to the film, employees were taken through small self-guided sessions that asked such questions as, "Recall when you first noticed your racial identity," and "... when you had a friend of a different race who regularly visited your home." The curriculum was released in full by Starbucks Tuesday night.

Beneficial to others

Other employees had a different view of the workshop.

“It was surprisingly productive and I thought the information was carefully prepared and thoughtfully distributed,” Erin Martysz, a white barista at an Escondido, CA store, told Fast Company. “Overall I think everyone benefitted.”

Starbucks said it plans to continue taking steps to combat racial bias in order to prevent another incident like the arrest in Philadelphia from happening again. "We realize that four hours of training is not going to solve racial inequity in America," Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz told CNN.

Going forward, the trainings will be part of employee onboarding. Starbucks also recently changed its policy to allow people who haven't made a purchase to spend time in stores or use the bathroom.

Experts estimate that Starbucks’ recent racial bias training cost the company more than $12 million in lost profit alone.

Facebook is changing the way it displays news on its platform, replacing "Trending" stories with 'Breaking' local and national news.

The change will take place this week and is designed to blunt some of the criticism directed against the social networking giant over its power to influence opinion.

Writing in the company blog, Alex Hardiman, Facebook's head of News Products, said research shows the feature was not getting much use and was only available in five countries.

"We’ve seen that the way people consume news on Facebook is changing to be primarily on mobile and increasingly through news video," Hardiman wrote. "So we’re exploring new ways to help people stay informed about timely, breaking news that matters to them, while making sure the news they see on Facebook is from trustworthy and quality sources."

Taking some heat

Facebook took heat during the 2016 election when content provided by unvetted publishers, which was either untrue or of questionable validity, reached millions of viewers. Since then, Facebook has been tweaking its news delivery system.

With the change, the "Trending" button will be replaced with a "Breaking News" label. Facebook has been conducting a test that allows 80 publishers to embed a "breaking news" indicator within its content in the news feed, and users will be receiving breaking news notifications as part of the change.

Facebook is also testing a feature called "Today In." It's a section of the site that connects users to the latest breaking and relevant news from local publishers in their city, as well as updates from local officials and organizations.

Changes to news videos

Facebook says it will also soon launch a section on Facebook Watch that provides live coverage, daily news briefings, and "deep dives" into events and issues.

"People tell us they want to stay informed about what is happening around them," Hardidan said. "We are committed to ensuring the news that people see on Facebook is high quality, and we’re investing in ways to better draw attention to breaking news when it matters most."

Facebook may be feeling pressure to improve its news content because so many consumers now get so much of their news from it. Newspapers are on the decline, as is cable television viewership.

A report from the Pew Research Center, published in September, found 67 percent of Americans get at least some of their news from a social media platform. The report concludes that Facebook, by far, is the most influential, with 66 percent of U.S. consumers using the site and 45 percent of those users depending on Facebook for news.

If cryptocurrency companies want to replace big banks, they’ll have to get better at stopping hackers from attacking their trading platforms. This time, a hacker made off with nearly $20 million worth of cryptocurrency, affecting people who trade in Bitcoin Gold, Verge, and Monacoin.

The breach, Futurism reports, is classified as a 51 percent attack. This rare, complicated kind of hack allows hackers to take over the computer networks that cryptocurrencies are both traded and mined through. Bitcoin Gold bared the brunt of the attack but says that most traders are not at risk.

“The only parties at risk are those currently accepting large payments directly from the attacker. Exchanges are the primary targets,” Bitcoin Gold said in a statement.

The company that services companies

The blandly-titled Corporation Service Company, a Delaware company that provides domain registration and other services to Fortune 500 companies, has published a notice that they “detected that an unauthorized third party accessed its network and certain systems.”

In appropriate corporate hacking fashion, the Corporation Service Company does not specify much about what was hacked. The company says that 5,678 customers were affected and that they were based in California. Coincidentally or not, California’s state law, as CyberScoop points out, requires companies that were hacked to send notices directly to all affected consumers.

The notice does not specify or make clear if people who reside outside of California were also hacked.

The Corporation Service Company says in a letter addressed to the state’s attorney general that it “took immediate steps to stop the activity” by informing the proper authorities and hiring cyber security firms.

“While the investigation into this event is ongoing, the data stored with the exfiltrated database table included a combination of the individuals’ names and Social Security numbers or credit card/debit card information,” the company's letter says.

Oxnard

Municipalities also seem to be a regular, popular hacking target. The town of Oxnard, California is reportedly investigating a data breach into their utility system.

The breach may have exposed the personal data of residents who were just trying to pay their bills. Officials alerted their software vendor and the police, who are looking into the matter.

Doctors, researchers, and health advocates across the globe have gone back and forth on the supposed health benefits of e-cigarettes. Now, a coalition of researchers from six continents have spoken out and asked regulators to ban flavored versions of the product and certain types of advertisements.

The group alleges that e-cigarettes cause extensive damage to users’ health – a prospect that is worrying given their rising popularity with teens.

"Until recently, the risks of e-cigarettes and their rising popularity with children and adolescents were under-recognised or ignored. We wrote this statement to address growing public health concerns over e-cigarette use among youths,” said Dr. Thomas Ferkol, a professor at Washington State University and co-author of a paper published by the coalition.

“Some people truly believe e-cigarettes could be used as a smoking cessation technique, but these products also are an entry to nicotine addiction and tobacco use in young people.”

Harmful to young people

The group explains that young people are especially susceptible to nicotine addiction, and that the increasing acceptance of e-cigarette products from a safety standpoint detracts from the harm they can do.

The group states further that the assertion that e-cigarettes are less harmful than cigarettes does not mean that they are an acceptable substitute.

"Although exposure to potentially harmful ingredients from electronic cigarettes may be lower than traditional cigarettes, this does not mean that e-cigarettes are harmless,” said Charlotta Pisinger, a professor and clinician at the University of Copenhagen.

“When we are talking about children and adolescents who are trying e-cigarettes for the first time, we should not be comparing their use to traditional cigarettes. We should be comparing them to no tobacco use.”

Banning flavorings and advertisements

In their paper, the researchers make several recommendations about how e-cigarettes should be regulated. They believe that the products should be subject to the same rules that other tobacco products must follow.

Specifically, they call for policymakers to ban sales to younger people, discontinue flavored products to make e-cigarettes less appealing to this group, and stop advertisements that spin the products as a safer alternative.

“E-cigarettes are largely unregulated, particularly in low and middle-income countries. They are marketed as a smoking cessation tool and a safer alternative to tobacco cigarettes. However, there is growing evidence that nicotine has many acute and long-term adverse effects, including addiction. Young people are at particular risk for this,” said Dr. Aneesa Vanker, a specialist in pediatric pulmonology at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

"We want local, national, and regional decision-makers to recognise the growing public health threat that e-cigarettes pose to children and adolescents. Inhaling something other than air is never good for a child's lungs."

The group’s full statement has been published in the European Respiratory Journal.

Eating up to one egg per day is associated with a lower risk of heart disease and stroke, according to a recent study published in the journal Heart.

Researchers from China and the UK came to this conclusion by looking at the egg-eating habits of half a million participants in China and following up nine years later to compare egg consumption with heart-related diseases and death.

The team found that participants who had eggs daily had an 11 percent lower risk of heart disease and an 18 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease during the study period compared to people who didn’t eat eggs.

Lowers stroke risk by 26 percent

Participants who ate one egg per day had a 26 percent lower risk of hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in the brain), which is more common in China than in other higher income countries. There was also a 12 percent reduced risk of ischaemic heart disease for people eating about five eggs per week, compared to those who ate them rarely.

Since this was an observational study, no definitive conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect. However, the researchers said that the results suggest eating up to one egg per day may have health benefits.

“The present study finds that there is an association between moderate level of egg consumption (up to 1 egg/day) and a lower cardiac event rate,” the authors said.

Although the health impact of eggs has been questioned due to their high cholesterol content, more recent research finds eggs can help raise high-density lipoprotein (or “good” cholesterol). Eggs also have high amounts of protein, vitamins, and omega-3 fatty acids -- healthy fats that can promote heart health.