Techlife News #529

The line of cars started forming at dawn. It was early November in Greenville, North Carolina, and drivers waited in a line that stretched for miles to pick up Thanksgiving turkeys — 10,000 free frozen birds to anyone who asked. Who was behind this act of holiday kindness? A community foundation, perhaps? Or a food charity with deep pockets? Would you believe a young man who once spent 50 hours buried alive or went through the same fast food drivethru 1,000 times? Jimmy Donaldson — the widely popular YouTube video maker who goes by MrBeast — has built, alongside his fun viral stunts, an unusual charity playbook that leverages his fame and skills with the goal to end hunger. Philanthropy as entertainment. “I want to feed millions of people on a monthly basis,…

A former Netflix executive was sentenced this week to 2 1/2 years in federal prison for taking bribes and kickbacks from tech companies to approve lucrative contracts with the streaming giant. Michael Kail, 52, of Los Gatos also was ordered to forfeit $700,000 and pay a $50,000 fine, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement. “Bribery and kickbacks are pernicious crimes that stifle Silicon Valley’s culture of competitive innovation,” acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds said in the statement. Kail is a former Netflix vice president who oversaw the company’s internet technology department. Prosecutors alleged that Kail accepted more than $500,000 in kickbacks — as well as valuable stock options — in exchange for approving millions of dollars in contracts for nine tech companies seeking to do business with Netflix between February…

Delta Air Lines no longer expects to lose money in the fourth quarter with travel during the holiday season heating up. The company said Thursday that it now foresees an adjusted profit of approximately $200 million in the final quarter of the year. In October Delta cautioned that it expected a “modest” loss in the fourth quarter due to rising fuel prices. Shortly after the company issued that forecast, however, crude prices that had been soaring throughout the year began to ease. At the same time, demand for airline tickets is strengthening. This month, the AAA forecast that more than 109 million people will travel 50 miles or more during the holiday season between December 23 and January 2. Airlines, according to AAA, will see a 184% increase from last year. Airlines are also wrestling…

A big postal rate increase over the summer hasn’t stopped catalog retailers from stuffing mailboxes this holiday season. The U.S. Postal Service says more than 300 million catalogs flooded into people’s mailboxes last month, and the overall number of catalogs has grown 12% over last year, officials said. The boost continues a positive trend for catalogers that are defying those who predicted their demise in a digital world. “The industry is not dying. There are plenty of companies that are still aggressively mailing catalogs,” said Paul Miller, vice president and deputy director of the American Catalog Mailers Association. Some online retailers like Bonobos, Amazon and Wayfair began mailing catalogs in recent years. A few that went away, like the Sharper Image and J. Peterman, have returned. Heavyweights like Lands’End, Hammacher Schlemmer and L.L. Bean…

Yes, pets and other animals can get the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, but health officials say the risk of them spreading it to people is low. Dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits, otters, hyenas and white-tailed deer are among the animals that have tested positive, in most cases after contracting it from infected people. While you don’t have to worry much about getting COVID-19 from your pets, they should worry about getting it from you. People with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 should avoid contact with pets, farm animals and wildlife, as well as with other people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “If you wouldn’t go near another person because you’re sick or you might be exposed, don’t go near another animal,” says Dr. Scott Weese at Ontario Veterinary College. This particular…

Next week’s launch of NASA’s new space telescope is delayed for at least two days because of a communication problem between the observatory and the rocket. Liftoff of the James Webb Space Telescope is now targeted for no earlier than Dec. 24. NASA announced the latest delay for the $10 billion telescope late Tuesday. More information will be available later this week, officials said. Webb is awaiting launch aboard an Ariane rocket at the European Space Agency’s spaceport in French Guiana. The telescope had been put on top of the rocket last Saturday. Liftoff had been scheduled for Dec. 22. Webb is considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and has already been delayed by years.…