firehose

Los Angeles and San Francisco are suing ride-sharing startup Uber for making misleading statements and breaking California law, the latest in a series of setbacks for the company. In a statement, the two cities' district attorneys say that Uber misled passengers about the effectiveness of its background checks, misrepresented fees for safety checks and airport tolls, operated in airports without permission, and did not get state approval for the system it used to calculate pricing.

"Uber has refused to comply with straightforward California laws that protect consumers from fraud and harm," said district attorneys George Gascón and Jackie Lacey. "These companies can be innovative in the way they deliver services without ignoring the laws that protect the public." The news comes days after Portland, OR filed suit against Uber for launching service without the city's permission, threatening thousands of dollars in fines to drivers. And abroad, Spain, Thailand, and India have all ordered it to cease operations.

Uber led customers to believe its background checks were the best in the business

Uber, which launched in San Francisco in 2010, has been fighting local governments from the start. It circumvents traditional taxi organizations, and critics have questioned whether it sufficiently vets its operators, a concern that's been exacerbated by periodic sexual assault accusations against drivers, an accidental death, and one violent attack on a passenger. In their complaint, Gascón and Lacey say that Uber's marketing materials and a $1 "Safe Rides Fee" led customers to believe that it ran exceptionally rigorous background checks on drivers before letting them on the road. But they say that Uber does not include a fingerprint check that would stop drivers from passing off someone else's identification as their own, and that it put out misleading information after allowing convicted criminals to become Uber drivers.

Gascón and Lacey initially sent letters to Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar earlier this year, threatening legal action. In this complaint, they are requesting that Uber comply with California law and provide restitution to customers, paying a $2,500 fee per legal violation and refunding any Safe Rides or Airport Toll fees that they collected.

Uber wasn't the only ride-sharing app to come under fire today. A complaint was also filed against Lyft, which the cities also accused of misrepresenting background checks and operating without approval. But Lyft, it turns out, has already settled. A separate press release said that the company had agreed to cease any misleading statements, submit its app for government approval, and get permission before operating in airports. Additionally, it will pay civil penalties of $500,000, half of which will be waived after a year if Lyft has met all the other terms of the settlement.

Emails leaked in the massive hack of Sony Pictures have revealed fractious debates behind the production of Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs movie. Much of the drama, collated by Gawker, is between producer Scott Rudin and Sony Pictures chairman Amy Pascal (both pictured above), who clash heads over Angelina Jolie and David Fincher. Jolie apparently wanted the Social Network director for her own Cleopatra project, but was upset with Sony for putting him on Steve Jobs.

"Shut Angie down."

Among other emotionally typed rants, Rudin rages at Jolie's "rampaging spoiled ego" after telling Pascal to "SHUT ANGIE DOWN BEFORE SHE MAKES IT VERY HARD FOR DAVID TO DO JOBS." Fincher later laughed off a "WTF" email from Pascal in reference to rumors of him leaving the Steve Jobs project — which turned out to be true. When the project went to Universal, Pascal begged Rudin to let her try to secure it again, but the producer retorts that Pascal had told "Danny" [likely new director Danny Boyle] that she doesn't "believe in this version of" the movie. Afterwards, Rudin tells Pascal that she's "behaved abominably" and "destroyed [her] relationships with half the town"

It's been clear for a while that Sorkin's Jobs biopic had hit some bumps in development, but the whole series of emails shows how personal arguments and vendettas can threaten to derail entire movie projects costing tens of millions of dollars.

Spoiler warning: this article contains information that might reveal plot points for The Interview.

Hackers released emails from Sony this week, which revealed Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai's role in changing the ending of The Interview, which features North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un dying horrifically. Bloomberg writes that Hirai gave input on the changes and made it a point to keep Kim's exploding face from appearing on international screens. He was responsible for providing the ultimate go-ahead after selecting a toned-down version of shot 337.

In an email to Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal, Hirai wrote, "I’ve given this a lot of thought and would like to go ahead with a variation of version 337." He also said, "It would be much appreciated if you could push them a bit further as you mentioned in your e-mail. Also, please ensure that this does not make it into the international version of the release."

Recode reports that Pascal had expressed worries about the movie's finale to Seth Rogen in a series of personal correspondences, noting that this was the first time Sony had given her any input in the 25-years she worked with the company. Kim's slow-motion death involved flaming hair, burn marks, and "head chunks." However, after receiving Pascal's email, Rogen promised to reduce the gruesomeness of the scene.

"We will make it less gory. There are currently four burn marks on his face. We will take out three of them, leaving only one. We reduce the flaming hair by 50% … The head explosion can’t be more obscured than it is because we honestly feel that if it’s any more obscured you won’t be able to tell its exploding and the joke won’t work. Do you think this will help? Is it enough?"

The first revision was submitted on July 18th, but work on the fifteen-second sequence did not end until October 6th when Rogen sent Pascal an exultant:

"This is it!!! We removed the fire from the hair and the entire secondary wave of head chunks. Please tell us this is over now. Thanks so much!!"

Pascal did not respond, but instead forwarded Rogen's email to Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton and president Doug Belgrad. The latter expressed extreme relief at the new footage.

Lately, it’s been just one thing after another for Uber, the not-quite-taxi company.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles and San Francisco district attorneys jointly filed a civil lawsuit in San Francisco against Uber "for making false and misleading statements to consumers." The prosecutors made good on a September 2014 threat to sue Uber and its rival Lyft. Rather than face a suit, the pink mustachioed car company opted to settle and will pay $500,000.

Amongst other allegations of unfair business practices, the prosecutors claim that Uber's background checks of its drivers are not quite up to snuff and that Uber charges a $4 "airport toll fee" to customers coming to or from San Francisco International Airport even though that fee is not imposed by the airport itself.

Earlier today, it was revealed that HBO was outsourcing plans for its new, standalone video streaming service that would stand separate from the existing HBO Go. The earlier report indicated that HBO's chief technology officer Otto Berkes "couldn't pull it off" — and now Berkes has tendered his resignation, according to Variety.

"Recently HBO's management decided to partner with a third party to assist HBO in bringing our OTT service to market in 2015," Berkes wrote in a memo obtained by Variety. "This is a change in direction from what I planned with HBO and the approach will not utilize my overall capabilities. Therefore, I feel that this is the right time for me to move on from HBO so that I am able to fully pursue my passion building world-class technology teams, products and businesses."

Berkes leaving doesn't exactly come as a surprise — in addition to sources saying that the CTO wasn't able to get HBO's in-house product where it needed to be, Fortune reported earlier that his group was toxic and "backstabbing." Now, rather than build its own solution, HBO will outsource the work on its forthcoming streaming solution to  MLB Advanced, which is used by MLB.com, the WWE Network, and WatchESPN.

In an interview with USA Today, Inside Out writer-director Pete Docter revealed that Kyle MacLachlan and Diane Lane have signed on to voice the parents of the main character, Riley (Kaitlyn Dias). Although the Pixar film largely takes place inside Riley’s mind and focuses on different emotions voiced by the likes of Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, and Mindy Kaling, Docter says that Inside Out also will dive into the parents’ heads. The mind of MacLachlan’s character is similar to a NORAD headquarters operated by mustached men, while the mind of Lane’s character “features emotions wearing her red glasses … who engage in civil discussion à la The View.” Because, for all our liberal didacticism, no one has taught anthropomorphized emotions to move beyond gender stereotypes.

According to Docter, “I started out doing a film about growing up, but it turned out it’s a film about me watching ...

The last several years have left California facing a series of water emergencies, as the usual winter rainfall hasn't materialized. The drought has been associated with a ridge of high-pressure air off the Pacific Northwest coast, which prevents storms from the Western Pacific and Alaska from reaching California. That ridge, in turn, has been associated with warm sea surface temperatures in the area.

Beyond the immediate causes, however, it's reasonable to ask whether the drought is a symptom of a warming climate, and thus whether we should expect more of them in the future. Several papers have already looked into the matter, with mixed results. But now, NOAA has weighed in with a report that pins the blame on natural variability. But the report has come under criticism from some scientists, and it may have been finalized before some recent, relevant papers.

There are a number of ways to ask whether a particular event (or, in this case, a series of events) is natural or driven by human influences. Events should not be viewed as conclusive on their own, but collectively, they can build a case. The NOAA report tries a number of these.