Silicon Valley

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Ellen Pao and the 'Second Class' Workers of Silicon Valley

Pao opens up about sexism and her discrimination lawsuit

(Newser) - Two years after losing a high-profile sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit, Ellen Pao is opening up about her experiences with sexism in Silicon Valley. "Sometimes the whole world felt like a nerdy frat house," Pao says in the Cut , which has a lengthy excerpt from her new book,...

They Have a Hit HBO Show. It Could Land Them the Nobel

It revolves around 'middle-out' compression

(Newser) - It would certainly be a first: to create not just a hit HBO show, but to win a Nobel Prize in the process. It's apparently an actual possibility for Silicon Valley co-creator Mike Judge and showrunner Alec Berg. The detail comes from a New Yorker piece (as spotted by...

Google Co-Founder's Flying Car Takes Off

Kitty Hawk Flyer will be available later this year

(Newser) - Airbus' flying car might have competition. Kitty Hawk, a Silicon Valley startup named for the location of the Wright brothers' first controlled flight and backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, has revealed its flying car prototype and says buyers will be able to get their hands on a similar design...

Silicon Valley Invests $120M in Hilariously Inessential Juicer

Human hands are more efficient than Juicero's WiFi-enabled juicer

(Newser) - The Juicero juice machine —basically a fancy WiFi-enabled Keurig machine but for juice—was already an "unnecessary luxury," the Verge reports. Now it's just "flat-out unnecessary." That's because—as revealed by Bloomberg —a pair of human hands work just as well as...

Mike Judge: Expert Chronicler of 'American Suckiness'

The man behind 'Beavis & Butt-head' now thinks 'Idiocracy' was too optimistic

(Newser) - Mike Judge, the man behind Beavis & Butt-head and Office Space, has spent his entire career "exploring the contours of American suckiness." And the New York Times commits more than 4,000 words to getting to the bottom of the man and his oeuvre in a hilarious profile....

More Silicon Valley Sexism Accusations—This Time, Tesla

Employee files harassment suit against company on tail of complaints against Uber

(Newser) - Is it something leaking out from under the hood? First Uber was hit with sexism and harassment allegations ; now Tesla is under the microscope. But the difference between AJ Vandermeyden, who's just lodged a lawsuit against Elon Musk's electric-car giant for "pervasive harassment," and Susan Fowler,...

Silicon Valley Shows How Much It Hates Trump's Travel Ban

Apple, Facebook, Google among the heavyweights to file legal challenge

(Newser) - Some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley have lined up against President Trump's travel ban. Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and 94 other tech companies have filed a legal brief with a federal appeals court opposing the ban, reports the Washington Post . The president's executive order banning travelers...

In Silicon Valley, Armageddon Is Taken Very Seriously

'New Yorker': Richest Americans are prepping for doomsday

(Newser) - Prepping for Armageddon is no longer monopolized by conspiracy theorists on the fringe. As a lengthy New Yorker story explains, it's actually quite common among the richest Americans in Silicon Valley. For the uber-rich, preparing for a breakdown in society, whether caused by an earthquake, a military attack, or...

Peter Thiel: Lack of Corruption Can Be 'Too Boring'

Tech billionaire sits down with Maureen Dowd

(Newser) - Billionaire tech investor and PayPal founder Peter Thiel made big headlines for his once-secret funding of the lawsuit that destroyed Gawker, then for his strong backing of Donald Trump, the latter an anomaly in Silicon Valley. Now he "explains himself" in an interview with Maureen Dowd, as the headline...

Third of Schoolchildren Near Silicon Valley Are Homeless

Their families are being pushed out of their homes by the area's ballooning wealth

(Newser) - The Guardian has revealed a shocking statistic about schoolchildren living near the extreme affluence of Silicon Valley: more than one-third of them are homeless. That's 1,147 kids in the Ravenswood City school district, which encompasses East Palo Alto. These children live in RVs, shelters, and other families' homes...

Tech Bigwigs Headed to NYC for Trump Tech Summit
Tech Bigwigs Headed to NYC
for Trump Tech Summit
THE RUNDOWN

Tech Bigwigs Headed to NYC for Trump Tech Summit

It could be 'super awkward'

(Newser) - Donald Trump has invited some of the biggest names in tech to a summit at NYC's Trump Tower on Wednesday, and a good number of them have RSVP'd yes, per USA Today and Investor's Business Daily . Reported "ayes" are Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, Apple's Tim...

Here's What Happened When Peter Thiel Tried to Kill College

A look inside the Thiel Fellowship

(Newser) - When Peter Thiel started the Thiel Fellowship in 2010, offering $100,000 to 20 teens to drop out of college and work on whatever they wanted, he envisioned he was funding technological breakthroughs on the level of the moon landing or home computers. What he actually funded is an exclusive...

Secrets of Mysterious Silicon Valley Company Revealed

BuzzFeed takes a deep dive into Palantir Technologies

(Newser) - BuzzFeed is offering a first-ever look inside what it calls "one of Silicon Valley's most secretive and highly valued companies," courtesy of hundreds of internal documents company insiders. Palantir Technologies was founded by Peter Thiel in 2004, partly using CIA money. The software-making, Lord of the ...

Democrats' $35M Mega-Donor Was Apolitical—Until Trump

Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz abruptly got out his wallet to help Clinton

(Newser) - First came Dustin Moskovitz's "historically large donation" of $20 million last month to stop Donald Trump from reaching the Oval Office. Then the Facebook co-founder ponied up another $5 million in mid-October to a Hillary Clinton super PAC (as well as $10 million more to other political advocacy...

Hipsters Are Healing Their Souls With &#39;Grandmother&#39; Drug
Hipsters Are Healing
Their Souls With
'Grandmother' Drug
in case you missed it

Hipsters Are Healing Their Souls With 'Grandmother' Drug

Amazon's ayahuasca is said to offer therapeutic benefits—though not without a cost

(Newser) - A psychedelic concoction known as yage, or ayahuasca, has been brewed in indigenous communities in the Amazon region for centuries. But now it's found a relatively new audience: Americans immersed in what Ariel Levy, writing for the New Yorker , calls "the Age of Kale," who are tapping...

Ex-Employee Recounts Her Silicon Valley 'Nightmare'

Startup WrkRiot has gone offline amid the controversy

(Newser) - Just a month after starting at a Silicon Valley startup, a marketing professional from Dallas has taken to Medium to accuse her already former employer of fraud and more—and the startup is suddenly scrubbing its online presence clean. Penny Kim detailed her life since a July 2016 job offer—...

Lawyer, Engineer Say Even They Can't Afford Palo Alto

City's planning and transportation commissioner explains why as she resigns

(Newser) - Palo Alto's planning and transportation commissioner sat down and did the math: For Kate Vershov Downing and husband Steve to purchase a home similar to the 4-bedroom, 2,300-square-foot dwelling they currently rent (with another couple, at $6,200 a month), their monthly payment would be $12,177. That'...

Here's How a $10B Startup Tightens Its Belt

No more gym washing service!

(Newser) - These times, they are a-changin', at least when it comes to the "free-spending, growth-at-all-costs culture" of Silicon Valley. Amidst "a weaker VC funding environment and freezing tech-IPO market," Business Insider sees startups large and small getting more serious about profitability. In April, the San Jose Mercury News ...

One Unusual Indicator Spells Trouble for Silicon Valley

Sales of ping-pong tables are down

(Newser) - A post at Silicon Beat notes that one question is on everybody's mind in the tech world: "Are we in a tech bubble, and when is it going to burst?" Some traditional indicators don't bode well for Silicon Valley, with a big one being that IPO numbers...

Palo Alto May Subsidize Housing for People Making Up To $250K

In other words: the richest 3% of Americans

(Newser) - The city of Palo Alto in Silicon Valley is considering subsidizing housing for those who need the help most: the wealthiest 3% of Americans, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Palo Alto is an incredibly wealthy town—the median family income of $167,000 was more than three times the national...

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