Yet another iconic car is coming to Rocket League, and it's one that'll be nigh-on impossible to drive without humming a certain theme tune. James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 will arrive in the Item Shop on July 29th. 

Until August 4th, you'll be able to snag the 1963 model of the car, along with a DB5 paint finish (which is designed to look like Aston Martin's signature Silver Birch color), engine audio, wheels and decal. Given the Bond movies' focus on gadgetry, something about firing up the rocket boosters to score a goal with the DB5 seems just right. 

This won't be a one-and-done deal for James Bond in Rocket League, either. More content related to the legendary superspy is in the pipeline. Developer Psyonix struck a multi-year deal with MGM and Aston Martin.

Psyonix

This is the latest in a long line of crossovers between Rocket League and pop culture tentpoles. The DeLorean from Back to the Future and Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters have made their way to the arena. More recently, three vehicles from the Fast and Furious franchise rolled into the game.

Meanwhile, the latest Bond movie, No Time to Die, is scheduled to finally hit theaters on September 30th in the UK and October 8th in the US. The impact of COVID-19 forced distributors MGM and Universal to delay it several times.

The US Space Force is gearing up to launch a research and development satellite on Thursday with the help of Rocket Lab. The company's Electron rocket is scheduled to launch from a site in New Zealand sometime between 2AM and 4AM ET (6PM-8PM local time) to take the Monolith satellite into low Earth orbit.

The aim of the mission, which is called "It's a Little Chile Up Here" (a reference to the green chile from the Space Test Program's New Mexico home), is to test small satellites for the Department of Defense. Monolith will help determine whether it's large deployable sensors are feasible. Such sensors account for a significant proportion of a spacecraft's total mass. Since the sensor may alter the spacecraft’s dynamic properties, the mission will examine whether it's possible to maintain altitude control after the sensor has been deployed.

"Analysis from the use of a deployable sensor aims to enable the use of smaller satellite buses when building future deployable sensors such as weather satellites, thereby reducing the cost, complexity, and development timelines," Rocket Lab wrote in a statement. "The satellite will also provide a platform to test future space protection capabilities."

You can watch the launch as it happens on the Rocket Lab website. A stream may also be available on Rocket Lab's YouTube channel.

The next time you open Uber Eats, you might see a new delivery option: a way to have flowers dropped off at your door swiftly with just a few taps. Uber has teamed up with flower industry stalwart FTD for its first nationwide florist partnership as part of its latest on-demand delivery venture.

Folks in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami and some other locations can now order flower arrangements from FTD’s ProFlowers locations. Uber expects to roll out the option nationwide by early 2022, so it should be available almost everywhere by Mother's Day next May. You can see the available options by tapping the flower icons in the Uber Eats app and selecting a ProFlowers location. Uber Pass and Eats Pass subscribers will get discounts and no-free deliveries on eligible orders of at least $15.

Deliveries have become an increasingly important part of Uber's business over the last couple of years. One key reason is that far fewer people took rides amid COVID-19 restrictions. The company recently doubled its grocery delivery markets to more than 400 US towns and cities, and it just started delivering Costco orders in Texas.

Back in 2015, before NFTs really became A Thing, the Wu-Tang Clan sold the only copy of the album Once Upon a Time In Shaolin for a reported $2 million at auction. The buyer, it later turned out, was former pharmaceutical exec and convicted dirtbag Martin Shkreli.

Perhaps better known as Pharma Bro, Shkreli became infamous for buying and jacking up the price of life-saving AIDS medication Daraprim from $13.50 to $700 per pill. He was later convicted on securities fraud and securities fraud conspiracy charges and sentenced to seven years in prison. A forfeiture judgment of about $7.4 million was also made against Shkreli, and the government later seized assets to satisfy the judgment — including the album.

All of which brings us to today. The government has soldOnce Upon a Time In Shaolin. Prosecutors didn't say who bought the album or how much they paid, but the sale covers the outstanding balance Shkreli owed the government.

So, after three years of being locked in a federal vault, and almost four years of being owned by the weaselly Shkreli (who tried to sell it on eBay before he was incarcerated), the album is once again in private ownership. Although snippets of the album have popped up online, you probably shouldn't expect it to hit Spotify any time soon, unfortunately.

One of the conditions for the auction sale was that the buyer couldn't use it for commercial purposes until 2103. It's unclear whether that stipulation is still in place, but Shkreli was allowed to play it at listening parties. Maybe the new proprietor of Once Upon a Time In Shaolin will feel generous enough to play it for Wu-Tang fans somewhere. Meanwhile, as is the way of things, Netflix is making a movie about the saga.

Yet another Twitter account has been turned into a TV show. Netflix has adapted Chicago Party Aunt (@ChiPartyAunt) into an adult animated series of the same name.

Actor Chris Witaske, who's perhaps best known for his role in Netflix series Love, is behind the account. Lauren Ash (Superstore) plays the titular aunt, Diane Dunbrowski in the show. Diane "has always been and always will be the life of the party, even when the party has long since been over" and "continues to live every day like it’s a 1980s' Styx tour bus," according to Netflix. The cast also includes Rory O'Malley, RuPaul Charles and Jill Talley, as well as Chicago Party Aunt creators Witaske, Jon Barinholtz and Katie Rich.

Of course, Chicago Party Aunt is far from the first Twitter account to be turned into a TV show. $#*! My Dad Says aired on CBS for one season a decade ago. Very British Problems, based on an account that pokes fun at stereotypical British awkwardness, debuted in 2015 and ran for a couple of short seasons.

Pinterest influencers might soon be able to make a living directly from the platform. The company has revealed its first set of monetization tools for creators.

Retailers have added hundreds of millions of Product Pins on the platform, according to Pinterest. Users who click or tap on the pins can buy those products. Pinterest is now rolling out an option for users to tag Idea Pins (its version of other platforms' Stories) with Product Pins.

The company says users are 89 percent more likely to be interested in buying an item that's tagged in Idea Pins than ones they see in Product Pins. That's perhaps because users can see how their favorite creators are using products and maybe take some inspiration from that. Creators can use affiliate links to receive a cut of sales generated though their Idea Pins.

Pinterest is adding another feature to Idea Pins — a "paid partnerships" label for creators who share branded content. Influencers who create content on behalf of a company can tag the brand in Idea Pins. Once the brand gives the tag the green light, the label will appear. The aim is to improve transparency and make it easier for creators to disclose paid partnerships.

“Pinterest is the place where creators with inspiring and actionable ideas get discovered," Aya Kanai, Pinterest head of content and creator partnerships, said in a statement. "With this latest update, we’re empowering Creators to reach millions of shoppers on the platform and monetize their work. Creators deserve to be rewarded for the inspiration they deliver to their followers, and the sales they drive for brands."

Product tagging on Idea Pins will initially be available on business accounts in the US and UK. The feature will hit other markets in the coming months. As for paid partnerships, select Pinterest users in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru now have access.

Other visually focused platforms are focusing on ways to help influencers earn a living (and, crucially, to dissuade them from moving elsewhere). In April, it emerged Instagram is working on Creator Shops as well as a “branded content marketplace” amid Facebook's $1 billion push to court influencers. Instagram has also offered a paid partnership label since 2017.

If Detective Pikachu had you hankering for more real-world(ish) Pokémon action, Netflix appears to be working on something that might catch your interest. The streaming giant has a live-action Pokémon series in early development, according to Variety.

Lucifer co-showrunner Joe Henderson is reportedly involved with the show as a writer and executive producer. Netflix picked up Lucifer after Fox canceled the show. Henderson has another project in the works at Netflix, an adaptation of his Shadecraft comic. 

Several Pokémon shows have streamed on Netflix, including Pokemon: Indigo League and Pokemon Journeys. Netflix has also announced or streamed a bunch ofgame-relatedtitles and live-actionanimeadaptations.

A live-action Pokémon series has the potential to be a massive hit for Netflix. Given the company's bigger push into video games, perhaps Netflix will work with The Pokémon Company on a game that ties into the show too.

Scientists have discovered the first evidence of water vapor on Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon. They used new and archival datasets from the Hubble Space Telescope to find the vapor, which forms when ice on the surface sublimates and turns from solid to gas.

A team led by Lorenz Roth of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden examined data captured by Hubble's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph in 2018 and images the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph obtained between 1998 and 2010. Ultraviolet images captured by the STIS in 1998 showed “colorful ribbons of electrified gas called auroral bands,” according to NASA (which launched Hubble as a joint project with the European Space Agency).

Researchers previously believed that atomic oxygen may have caused discrepancies between UV images that were captured over time. However, using data from the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, Roth's team found that there was barely any atomic oxygen in the moon's atmosphere. As such, there had to be another reason for the discrepancies.

The temperature at Ganymede's equator may become warm enough for surface ice to release some water molecules. When they re-examined the relative distribution of the aurora in the UV images, Roth's team found that differences between them match up with where water would be expected in the moon's atmosphere.

Previous research indicated that Ganymede may hold more water than in all of our oceans. The moon's ocean is believed to be around 100 miles below the surface, so the vapor isn't from there. Water on the surface is frozen due to the moon’s temperatures.

The finding arrived ahead of the ESA's wonderfully named upcoming mission, JUICE, or JUpiter ICy moons Explorer. The mission should launch in 2022 and arrive at Jupiter in 2029. It will then spend at least three years examining the planet and three of its largest moons. JUICE will pay special attention to Ganymede, both as a planetary body and possible habitat. 

"Our results can provide the JUICE instrument teams with valuable information that may be used to refine their observation plans to optimize the use of the spacecraft," Roth said in a statement. 

NASA's Juno mission has also been studying Ganymede and Jupiter's environment (aka the Jovian system) since 2016. The agency says examining the Jovian system and understanding its history "will provide us with a better understanding of how gas giant planets and their satellites form and evolve. In addition, new insights will hopefully be found on the habitability of Jupiter-like exoplanetary systems."

SiriusXM has revealed a new $35/month plan that allows you to listen to the service’s 300-plus channels from two cars and log in to the SXM streaming app on two devices simultaneously. Subscribers will have other perks through the Platinum VIP plan, including the chance to check out some exclusive events with artists and celebrities.

The plan includes access to more than 5,000 soundboard-quality concert recordings. You’ll also be able to check out 250 video recordings of shows selected from live concert streaming service nugs.net’s library. The lineup includes gigs from Bruce Springsteen, Phish and Pearl Jam (all of whom have SiriusXM channels), as well as the likes of Wilco and Metallica.

Platinum VIP seems like SiriusXM’s take on a family plan, with live concert recordings and other perks to sweeten the deal. For subscribers who have more than one car, the plan could be a better option than perhaps having two $22/month Platinum plans.

Even though every media-centric company is battling for customers' time and dollars, SiriusXM targets a slightly different type of user to the likes of Spotify and Apple Music. It has some high-profile exclusive stations, including ones from Howard Stern, as well as features like Pandora stations and play-by-play for several major sports. However, Spotify has significantly expanded its non-music offerings over the last few years, with investments into the likes of podcasts and Clubhouse-style audio chat rooms. 

The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard this week over alleged sexual harassment and discrimination against women. In a memo to staff obtained by Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, Blizzard Entertainment president J. Allen Brack wrote that "the allegations and the hurt of current and former employees are extremely troubling."

Brack wrote that everyone should feel safe at Blizzard and that "it is completely unacceptable for anyone in the company to face discrimination or harassment." He noted it requires courage for people to come forward with their stories, and that all claims brought to the company are taken seriously and investigated.

"People with different backgrounds, views, and experiences are essential for Blizzard, our teams, and our player community," Brack wrote. "I disdain 'bro culture,' and have spent my career fighting against it."

In the suit, the DFEH made a string of accusations against former World of Warcraft senior creative director Alex Afrasiabi. The agency alleged that Afrasiabi was "permitted to engage in blatant sexual harassment with little to no repercussions" and suggested that the activity was an open secret.

Brack is said to be among those who were aware of Afrasiabi's purported actions. The DFEH claimed Brack "allegedly had multiple conversations with Afrasiabi about his drinking and that he had been 'too friendly' towards female employees at company events but gave Afrasiabi a slap on the wrist (i.e. verbal counseling) in response to those incidents." After those supposed talks, Afrasiabi "continued to make unwanted advances towards female employees," including groping one of them, according to the suit.

The DFEH claimed a Blizzard employee informed Brack in early 2019 that people were leaving the company because of sexual harassment and sexism. The employee allegedly said that women on the Battle.net team were "subjected to disparaging comments," that "the environment was akin to working in a frat house" and that women who weren't "huge gamers" or "into the party scene" were "excluded and treated as outsiders."

Activision Blizzard has denied the allegations. It claimed the suit "includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard's past." The company also accused the DFEH, which investigated Activision Blizzard for two years, of "disgraceful and unprofessional" conduct and claimed the agency didn't engage in a “good faith effort” to resolve complaints before resorting to legal action.

"A recently filed lawsuit presented a distorted and untrue picture of our company, including factually incorrect, old and out of context stories — some from more than a decade ago," Fran Townsend, executive vice president for corporate affairs at the publisher, wrote in a memo to employees. Some Blizzard employees are "fuming" over the note, according to Schreier.

Townsend, a former Homeland Security advisor to President George W. Bush who joined Activision Blizzard this year, said "the Activision companies of today, the Activision companies that I know, are great companies with good values." Townsend also claimed Activision Blizzard "takes a hardline approach to inappropriate or hostile work environments and sexual harassment issues" and that the company has "put tremendous effort into creating fair compensation policies that reflect our commitment to equal opportunity."