Notably, Boom said, this is the first time an airline has actually made a financial commitment to supersonic aircraft before they've been available. Air France and British Airways technically pre-ordered the Concorde, but they didn't put any money down and had their costs heavily subsidized to the point where BA paid just £7 for its entire fleet.

The payoff for the investment is likely years away when Boom doesn't expect the first aircraft to enter service until 2023. However, it's understandable why JAL would be willing to take a chance on Boom so soon. For obvious reasons, many of its international flights are long -- Boom's jets could dramatically reduce that travel time for passengers willing to pay a premium.

Tsukiji Fishroom, a sushi restaurant now open at Newark International Airport’s Terminal C, has been earning near-universal rave reviews, which critics attribute to the high-quality fish it flies in every day direct from Japan’s most famous fish market. What do you think?

Enlarge / Deal with it. (credit: Korean Central News Service / Sean Gallagher)

North Korea's latest intercontinental ballistic missile test demonstrates a number of things that are not good news for anyone hoping to prevent the country from becoming a global nuclear power. The missile, called the Hwasong-15, flew high enough (more than 4,400 kilometers, or 2,700 miles—more than 10 times the altitude of the International Space Station) and long enough (54 minutes) to demonstrate that it was capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to anywhere in the United States.

The Hwasong-15 is essentially equivalent to the US' Titan II. It is an immense, liquid-fueled missile, much larger than North Korea's Hwasong-14 ICBM. The 15 appears to use two engines on its first stage as well as an enlarged second stage, according to Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul. While it only flew about 960 kilometers (600 miles) over the ground, David Wright, a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, estimated the Hwasong-15 would have a range of 8,100 miles (13,000 kilometers) in normal flight.

"We do not know how heavy a payload this missile carried, but given the increase in range, it seems likely that it carried a very light mock warhead," Wright said in a UCS blog post. "If true, that means it would be incapable of carrying a nuclear warhead to this long distance, since such a warhead would be much heavier."

Enlarge (credit: Waze)

Google's other navigation app, Waze, started rolling out an Android and iOS app update today that brings highly requested features to the crowdsourced navigation app. While regular navigation apps let you choose your form of transportation from options including a car, bike, and train, Waze now has support for motorcycles as well.

With the update, drivers of two- or three-wheeled vehicles can get better route options based on information provided by other bikers who have used Waze in the new motorcycle mode. Since there are routes that motorcyclists can take that car motorists can't, Waze should be able to give motorcyclists optimized routes for their vehicle as well as more accurate ETAs.

In addition to motorcycle support, Waze will also now support HOV lane navigation. Anyone who has driven in a high-occupancy vehicle lane knows that your route and ETA will be different from those driving in the regular lanes just feet away from you. Now, Waze will provide directions, routes, and ETAs based on HOV lane access.

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Enlarge / Indian visitors walk through the courtyard of Jama Masjid amid heavy smog in the old quarters of New Delhi on November 8, 2017. (credit: SAJJAD HUSSAIN/ AFP/ Getty Images)

With calm winds, seasonal crop burns, and the usual vehicle and industrial emissions, an extremely thick, toxic fog of pollution has settled on Delhi, choking and sickening residents.

Pollution measurements and indexes have exceeded charted ranges, blowing past the highest categorized levels dubbed “severe” and hazardous to health. In some areas of the gigantic metropolitan area, measurements of certain pollutants were around 30 times the levels considered safe by the World Health Organization. Local journalists reported that the smog is causing throat irritation, wheezing, nausea, vomiting, and extreme fatigue.

Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, took to Twitter to call the city a “gas chamber.”

Every day, hundreds of thousands of people all over the world fire up their smartphones and log onto HQ, a live trivia app that has attracted enormous online buzz and been called the “Future of TV” in the past week.

The co-founder and CEO of the app, however, threatened in a tirade to fire its star host simply for speaking to press on Monday.

HQ Trivia allows users all around the world to tune in and participate in twice-per-day live trivia shows where they have the chance to win real cash. The app was founded by Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll, who co-created Vine in 2012.

Since its launch over the summer it has become a cultural force. Over 170,000 people waited in the game’s lobby to play the HQ on Sunday night.

At the heart of the app is a cult figure named Scott, who hosts the majority of shows. Scott Rogowski has become the default face of the app, and while other hosts sometimes fill in, Scott is undoubtedly the favorite. It's Scott's face that is plastered all over HQ's press materials, after all. Fans call him "Quiz Daddy" and on the few days when he doesn't host HQ Trivia, people beg for his return.

"Everyone needs 15 minutes of Scott in their lives," one fan recently tweeted. "If you don't like Scott from HQ we can't be friends," said another.

Because of his status as a rising celeb, The Daily Beast reached out to Rogowski on Monday to write a lighthearted profile on his career and how his life has changed post-HQ fame.

Scott agreed to the interview and chatted with The Daily Beast on Monday afternoon. The Daily Beast simultaneously reached out to the HQ public relations email account and Yusupov, one of HQ's founders, letting him know of our plans to write a story about the show’s host.

Several hours later, we received an email from Yusupov stating that HQ was "not making Scott available to discuss his involvement with HQ with the media/press." The reporter informed Yusupov that we had already interviewed Scott and that the story was nearing publication, but encouraged him to call us with any concerns.

That's when things went off the rails.

Yusupov, the CEO of HQ, called the reporter's cell phone and immediately raised his voice. He said that we were "completely unauthorized" to write about Scott or HQ without his approval and that if we wrote any type of piece about Scott, he would lose his job.

Yusupov continued to threaten Scott's job, even after The Daily Beast explained that the story was framed around Scott's daily life and that he revealed no corporate information.

"You're putting Scott's job in jeopardy. Is that what you want?" Yusupov said. "Scott could lose his job."

"Please read me your story word for word," Yusupov said. "Or you can email it to me." Although The Daily Beast does not typically share the contents of our pieces, the reporter shared quotes from Rogowski, which were non-confrontational and shared no company secrets.

Yusupov’s objections began with the line, "Scott said that despite the attention, he's still able to walk down the street and order his favorite salad from Sweetgreen without being accosted."

"He cannot say that!" Yusupov shouted. "We do not have a brand deal with Sweetgreen! Under no circumstances can he say that."

When asked to confirm that Rogowski can’t say he personally enjoys eating at Sweetgreen, Yusupov said “he cannot say that," inaccurately claiming that Scott had disclosed private company information by revealing his preference for a salad chain.

When The Daily Beast read Yusupov a quote from Rogowski saying “I can make people happy and give them the trivia they so desperately love and want. It's been so great to build this community," Yusupov implored the reporter to “take that out.”

Asked for clarification, Yusupov replied that Rogowski was absolutely not allowed to say that he "enjoys making people happy and giving them the trivia they want."

"He cannot say that people want trivia," said Yusupov, the founder of HQ Trivia app.

"It's highly unprofessional. Highly unprofessional of you to reach out to one of our contract employees without my permission and without going through proper press channels," Yusupov said, revealing previously undisclosed information that Scott himself is not a full-time HQ employee.

Yusupov said that he would approve The Daily Beast to write an article all about Scott's life, but that we were "not allowed" to include any mention of HQ or his role in HQ (which is public), or he could be terminated.

"This is ridiculous," Yusupov said. "If you reached out to an Apple engineer and they gave you information about the new iPhone, would you run it? No, because you'd have to go through proper press channels."

Yusupov was repeatedly reassured that Scott had not revealed a single piece of classified information about HQ.  

After a back and forth wherein Yusupov told The Daily Beast its reporter would never be allowed to talk to Rogowski again, the co-founder nervously stated that the conversation was off the record, something he had not stated before that point and a precondition The Daily Beast had never agreed to. The phone call ended shortly thereafter.

***

The Daily Beast’s chat with Rogowski himself was considerably less combative.

Rogowski said he had planned to move to Los Angeles this fall and had even given up his Brooklyn apartment when he landed his big break with HQ.

When he got the opportunity to interview for the the job of host he thought, "What the hell? Why not? I figured I'm not going to pass on this thing that could be the future."

Rogowski was no stranger to being in front of audiences—although none were as big as HQ’s. He started doing standup in 2005 back when he was in college and moved to Brooklyn shortly afterwards to pursue a career in comedy.

He eventually realized that life as a traditional comedian wasn't quite for him, so he began doing live shows at the Upright Citizens Brigade theatre. He also began making YouTube videos and one of them, a Super Bowl parody, went viral in 2009. Rogowsky said that it opened his eyes in terms of the power of online video.

"That's when I pivoted to video," he said. He began making more videos for corporate clients and eventually producing web shows. He even did a stint at The Onion as a contributing headline writer.

But nothing Rogowsky has done before captivated an audience on the scale of his HQ hosting gig. In the past six months, he has become an A-list celebrity in the eyes of fans of the app.

"I travel everywhere by helicopter now," Rogowsky joked. "Nolita to Soho? I'm taking a chopper. Haha no, to be honest I'm still the same person I was before. I have gotten more Twitter followers though."

The hundreds of thousands of people who waited to play HQ on Sunday night at 9 p.m. all now know Scott Rogowsky.

Rogowsky said that shortly after the app began to launch in beta he was eating with a friend when a man approached him. "'He goes, ‘you're scott from HQ right?' I was like, 'How the hell?"

Since that summer encounter he's had a woman ask him for a selfie while he was retrieving money from an ATM and other people have shouted his name on the street. Several HQ fans even dressed up as Rogowsky for Halloween.

"That was probably the craziest moment," he said.

One of the most hectic encounters Rogowsky has had with fans was when he visited a friend at a local WeWork.

"That's where you get mobbed," he said. "It's all the startup and app-type guys, so they're big fans."

Unlike other corners of the internet, the HQ community is extremely positive, a stark contrast to the defensive secretiveness of its founder. Fans can socialize prior to and throughout the live shows via an open chat log on the bottom of the screen. With tens of thousands of players signed in at once, the chat messages can fly by, but nearly all messages are positive.

Some root for popular players or ask Scott for special birthday shout outs.

"I feel like HQ has been a force for good and it's brought together this amazing community. I would love to see the first people to get married from HQ. Maybe they'll meet in the chat and name their first child Scott," said Rogowski.

"The internet was supposed to bring people together, but it's created big divisions."

***

When The Daily Beast called Yusupov back a day later letting him know that the story was being reframed around his comments, Yusupov brought Rogowski onto the phone call, and falsely claimed that he never threatened to fire him.

"My feeling was that it was unethical and that you were compromising the app," Yusupov said to Rogowski while on the phone with the Daily Beast. "Now they want to reframe the story as me threatening to fire you. Do you think that’s a good idea?"

Rus then said that the two were actually in long-term contract negotiations and that he never had plans to fire him. "He and I are working on a media plan," Yusupov said.

"I don't want to fire Scott. Scott is our guy.”

Aston Martin

On Tuesday morning, the second vehicle in Aston Martin's new "Second Century" plan was revealed to the world. The new Vantage sports car is a modern replacement for the company's best-selling model of all time. Powered by a 503hp 4.0L twin-turbo V8, it's a lighter, more-focused vehicle than the related DB11, which first saw daylight in 2016.

The Vantage is the company's entry-level car—although this is Aston Martin we're talking about, so "entry-level" means $150,000. It'll be some time before we get to drive the new Vantage. But just based on these photographs, plus my experience of the new DB11—by a quirk of fate, you'll be able to read about that vehicle tomorrow—the Vantage will almost certainly justify that price tag.

(credit: Aurich Lawson)

The Federal Communications Commission will vote Thursday on a plan that, according to Chairman Ajit Pai, will strip away regulations that prevent telcos from upgrading their networks.

But in doing so, the Republican-controlled FCC plans to eliminate a requirement that telcos provide Americans with service at least as good as the old copper networks that provide phone service and DSL Internet. The requirement relates to phone service but has an impact on broadband because the two services use the same networks.

As carriers like AT&T and Verizon turn off copper networks throughout much of the country, many people fear that the networks won't be replaced with fiber or something of similar quality. That's why the FCC in 2014 created a "functional test" for carriers that seek permission to abandon copper networks. In short, carriers have to prove that the replacement service is just as good and provides the same capabilities as what's being discontinued.

Enlarge / Doctor giving homeopathy to a child. (credit: Getty | BSIP)

It’s hard to predict which would be more disconcerting: finding out that your doctor believes in notions that defy basic science—like, the pseudoscientific doctrine of homeopathy—or that they’ll prescribe you something they know doesn’t work in hopes you’ll be tricked into believing you’re better—achieving nothing more than a placebo effect.

It might be a toss-up of which is worse. And if you get a homeopathic prescription in Switzerland, it’s also a toss-up of which kind of doctor you’re dealing with.

In a large survey of physicians around Zurich, only 50 percent of the doctors who prescribed homeopathic treatments did so firmly believing that they were treating their patients’ ailments. About 21 percent of doctors who prescribed homeopathic treatments did so explicitly to achieve placebo effect. And the rest provided incomplete responses or reported ambiguous intentions behind their dubious prescriptions.