A Reuters investigation into unsafe working conditions at SpaceX has uncovered more than 600 injuries going back to 2014 that have not been publicly reported until now. Current and former employees cited in the report blame CEO Elon Musk’s aggressive deadlines and hatred of bureaucracy, alleging his goal of getting humans to Mars “as fast as possible” has led the company to cut corners and eschew proper protocols.

Injury rates at some SpaceX facilities are much higher than the industry average of .8 injuries or illnesses per 100 workers, Reuters found. At its Brownsville, Texas location, the 2022 injury rate was 4.8 per 100 workers. At the Hawthorne, California manufacturing facility, it was 1.8. In McGregor, Texas, where the company conducts rocket tests, the injury rate was 2.7.

Employees have suffered broken bones, lacerations, crushed fingers, burns, electric shocks and serious head wounds — including one that blinded Brownsville worker Florentino Rios in 2021 and another that left employee Francisco Cabada in a coma since January 2022. At SpaceX’s McGregor site, one worker, Lonnie LeBlanc, was killed in 2014 when wind knocked him off the trailer of an improperly loaded truck. Yet over the years, SpaceX has only paid meager fines as a result of its safety lapses. After LeBlanc’s death, the company settled with OSHA for $7,000, according to Reuters.

Reuters spoke to over two dozen current or former employees, as well as others “with knowledge of SpaceX safety practices.” One SpaceX ex-manager told Reuters that “workers take care of their safety themselves,” and others said employees were even told not to wear bright-colored safety gear because Musk does not like it. SpaceX has also repeatedly failed to submit injury data to regulators for much of its history, according to Reuters.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spacex-workers-face-above-average-injury-rates-as-musk-prioritizes-mars-over-safety-report-finds-224235095.html?src=rss

A Reuters investigation into unsafe working conditions at SpaceX has uncovered more than 600 injuries going back to 2014 that have not been publicly reported until now. Current and former employees cited in the report blame CEO Elon Musk’s aggressive deadlines and hatred of bureaucracy, alleging his goal of getting humans to Mars “as fast as possible” has led the company to cut corners and eschew proper protocols.

Injury rates at some SpaceX facilities are much higher than the industry average of .8 injuries or illnesses per 100 workers, Reuters found. At its Brownsville, Texas location, the 2022 injury rate was 4.8 per 100 workers. At the Hawthorne, California manufacturing facility, it was 1.8. In McGregor, Texas, where the company conducts rocket tests, the injury rate was 2.7.

Employees have suffered broken bones, lacerations, crushed fingers, burns, electric shocks and serious head wounds — including one that blinded Brownsville worker Florentino Rios in 2021 and another that left employee Francisco Cabada in a coma since January 2022. At SpaceX’s McGregor site, one worker, Lonnie LeBlanc, was killed in 2014 when wind knocked him off the trailer of an improperly loaded truck. Yet over the years, SpaceX has only paid meager fines as a result of its safety lapses. After LeBlanc’s death, the company settled with OSHA for $7,000, according to Reuters.

Reuters spoke to over two dozen current or former employees, as well as others “with knowledge of SpaceX safety practices.” One SpaceX ex-manager told Reuters that “workers take care of their safety themselves,” and others said employees were even told not to wear bright-colored safety gear because Musk does not like it. SpaceX has also repeatedly failed to submit injury data to regulators for much of its history, according to Reuters.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spacex-workers-face-above-average-injury-rates-as-musk-prioritizes-mars-over-safety-report-finds-224235095.html?src=rss

SAG-AFTRA has released more information about its tentative deal with Hollywood studio executives ahead of ratification votes starting on Tuesday. The actors’ union announced the agreement on November 8, bringing to an end a nearly four-month-long strike.

Under the deal, actors would get three wage increases between the time of ratification and July 2025: a 7 percent bump right away, followed by a 4 percent increase in July 2024 and 3.5% in July 2025. For background actors, there will be a wage increase of 11 percent as of November 12, followed by 4 percent and 3.5% increases in July 2024 and July 2025, respectively.

It also secures a bonus for some members whose work has landed on streaming platforms, albeit it much smaller than the union demands initially called for. According to Variety, there will be a bonus fund amounting to $40 million a year for the deal’s three-year term to be paid out to actors on top of their normal streaming residuals. But to be eligible, the show or movie in question must meet certain criteria of “success,” which will only work out to be “a thimble worth of shows on these platforms,” said SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher in a press conference on Friday.

Regarding studios’ use of artificial intelligence, the deal would require “informed consent and compensation for the creation and use of digital replicas of our members, living and deceased, whether created on set or licensed for use.” It also establishes higher contributions toward SAG-AFTRA workers’ health and retirement benefits, and aims to put an end to longstanding practices in hair and makeup that actors of color have called out as racist, like “inappropriate wiggings and paintdowns.” The deal would also require the use of intimacy coordinators for sex scenes and those involving nudity, or if an actor otherwise requests it.

The SAG-AFTRA National Board approved the deal with 86 percent of votes in its favor, and now members will get their chance to weigh in. The voting period for ratification will open on Tuesday, November 14 and run until December 5.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sag-aftra-deal-includes-a-40-million-streaming-bonus-and-ai-protections-204526458.html?src=rss

SAG-AFTRA has released more information about its tentative deal with Hollywood studio executives ahead of ratification votes starting on Tuesday. The actors’ union announced the agreement on November 8, bringing to an end a nearly four-month-long strike.

Under the deal, actors would get three wage increases between the time of ratification and July 2025: a 7 percent bump right away, followed by a 4 percent increase in July 2024 and 3.5% in July 2025. For background actors, there will be a wage increase of 11 percent as of November 12, followed by 4 percent and 3.5% increases in July 2024 and July 2025, respectively.

It also secures a bonus for some members whose work has landed on streaming platforms, albeit it much smaller than the union demands initially called for. According to Variety, there will be a bonus fund amounting to $40 million a year for the deal’s three-year term to be paid out to actors on top of their normal streaming residuals. But to be eligible, the show or movie in question must meet certain criteria of “success,” which will only work out to be “a thimble worth of shows on these platforms,” said SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher in a press conference on Friday.

Regarding studios’ use of artificial intelligence, the deal would require “informed consent and compensation for the creation and use of digital replicas of our members, living and deceased, whether created on set or licensed for use.” It also establishes higher contributions toward SAG-AFTRA workers’ health and retirement benefits, and aims to put an end to longstanding practices in hair and makeup that actors of color have called out as racist, like “inappropriate wiggings and paintdowns.” The deal would also require the use of intimacy coordinators for sex scenes and those involving nudity, or if an actor otherwise requests it.

The SAG-AFTRA National Board approved the deal with 86 percent of votes in its favor, and now members will get their chance to weigh in. The voting period for ratification will open on Tuesday, November 14 and run until December 5.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sag-aftra-deal-includes-a-40-million-streaming-bonus-and-ai-protections-204526458.html?src=rss

Gadget accessory maker Dbrand has released a pair of novelty mechanical keyboard keycaps, and they’re just as absurd as fans might expect. The company has been teasing its artisan keycaps for months, and their launch today coincides with Dbrand’s 12th anniversary.

One of the aluminum keycaps, a replacement for the Escape key, is a pyramid designed to stab you when you press it — because, according to Dbrand's tongue-in-cheek announcement, “there is no escape.” The second is for the Enter key, and has a message for whoever is looking at it: “F off.” They’ll both be available in black, silver, and a colorful neochrome. 

Dbrand is selling the keycaps through NovelKeys for $60 (Pyramid) — nearly the cost of its PS5 Darkplates — and $40 (F*** Off) in a limited drop. They’ll ship in two waves, with the first going out immediately and the second set for the last week of November.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dbrands-artisan-keycaps-are-here-to-curse-you-out-and-stab-you-170254661.html?src=rss

Gadget accessory maker Dbrand has released a pair of novelty mechanical keyboard keycaps, and they’re just as absurd as fans might expect. The company has been teasing its artisan keycaps for months, and their launch today coincides with Dbrand’s 12th anniversary.

One of the aluminum keycaps, a replacement for the Escape key, is a pyramid designed to stab you when you press it — because, according to Dbrand's tongue-in-cheek announcement, “there is no escape.” The second is for the Enter key, and has a message for whoever is looking at it: “F off.” They’ll both be available in black, silver, and a colorful neochrome. 

Dbrand is selling the keycaps through NovelKeys for $60 (Pyramid) — nearly the cost of its PS5 Darkplates — and $40 (F*** Off) in a limited drop. They’ll ship in two waves, with the first going out immediately and the second set for the last week of November.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dbrands-artisan-keycaps-are-here-to-curse-you-out-and-stab-you-170254661.html?src=rss

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a wearable with batlike sonar that could improve upper-body tracking in virtual reality and other applications. The Cornell team fitted a generic pair of eyeglasses with a tiny sonar system, demonstrating how acoustic signals can be used instead of cameras to capture the body’s movement. 

Not only would sonar be more efficient in terms of battery consumption, the team told the Cornell Chronicle, but it would also do away with the privacy risks that come with headsets’ externally facing cameras. The system, dubbed PoseSonic, uses two pairs of microphones and speakers to send and receive acoustic signals, according to a recently published paper. With help from their deep learning model, it can then estimate 3D poses at nine different points — the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips and nose — as these signals bounce off the upper body.

The team tested it both in the lab and “semi-in-the-wild,” and found it wasn’t negatively affected by environmental noise in any significant way. With this technique, “we use less instrumentation on the body, which is more practical, and battery performance is significantly better for everyday use,” senior author Cheng Zhang told the Cornell Chronicle.

In addition to its potential use in augmented and virtual reality, the researchers say sonar could make for better health tracking by capturing more detailed information on the body’s movements. They’ve only got the upper-body covered at the moment, though — VR legs continue to elude us.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/these-sonar-equipped-glasses-could-pave-the-way-for-better-vr-body-tracking-201958516.html?src=rss

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a wearable with batlike sonar that could improve upper-body tracking in virtual reality and other applications. The Cornell team fitted a generic pair of eyeglasses with a tiny sonar system, demonstrating how acoustic signals can be used instead of cameras to capture the body’s movement. 

Not only would sonar be more efficient in terms of battery consumption, the team told the Cornell Chronicle, but it would also do away with the privacy risks that come with headsets’ externally facing cameras. The system, dubbed PoseSonic, uses two pairs of microphones and speakers to send and receive acoustic signals, according to a recently published paper. With help from their deep learning model, it can then estimate 3D poses at nine different points — the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips and nose — as these signals bounce off the upper body.

The team tested it both in the lab and “semi-in-the-wild,” and found it wasn’t negatively affected by environmental noise in any significant way. With this technique, “we use less instrumentation on the body, which is more practical, and battery performance is significantly better for everyday use,” senior author Cheng Zhang told the Cornell Chronicle.

In addition to its potential use in augmented and virtual reality, the researchers say sonar could make for better health tracking by capturing more detailed information on the body’s movements. They’ve only got the upper-body covered at the moment, though — VR legs continue to elude us.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/these-sonar-equipped-glasses-could-pave-the-way-for-better-vr-body-tracking-201958516.html?src=rss