SNL comic Pete Davidson, who once played an astronaut on a sketch with Elon Musk, may reportedly be a passenger on an upcoming Blue Origin flight, reportedPage Six. The Jeff Bezos-owned commercial space travel company has successfully launched three crewed spaceflights over the past year. A source close to Davidson said that while he had yet to sign an official contract, details are currently being finalized. It’s unlikely the 28-year old’s desire to be launched into space at the cost of $2.5 million per minute just appeared out of nowhere. In fact, Davidson and his girlfriend Kim Kardashian dined with Jeff Bezos and his partner Lauren Sanchez earlier this year. According to Page Six’s source, Davidson “got on really well” with Bezos.

How much is Davidson’s journey into the edge of space going to cost? Blue Origin has been notoriously tight-lipped about the price of seats on its future flights. The winning bid in a public auction for a seat on the very first Blue Origin flight was $28 million. The winner, Justin Sun, CEO of blockchain platform Tron, later had to give up his seat because of “scheduling conflicts” (luckily he was able to reschedule the once-in-a-lifetime experience for another date). But the actual price of a seat is most likely far less. The cost of upcoming suborbital flights through Richard Branson’s commercial flight company, Virgin Galactic, is a far more frugal $400,000. Bezos has said in earlier interviews that a seat on Blue Origin’s New Shepard would likely be in the same ballpark. Given that Davidson’s net worth is estimated to be around $8 million, it’s likely this will be more appropriate for his budget range. Not all Blue Origin passengers have had to pay, so it's possible Davidson may have secured a better deal. 

New Glenn’s next flight is scheduled for takeoff at some point in the fourth quarter of 2022. Thanks to the surge of celebrity interest in Bezo's commercial space venture, Davidson will actually be the third SNL alum to join a Blue Origin flight. Former Blue Origin passengers William Shatner and Bezos have both hosted SNL.

A group of Democratic lawmakers led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) want regulators to take a closer look at Amazon’s points-based attendance policy, which they believe may be punishing workers for taking legally protected time off. First reported by Vice, the letter to the Department of Labor and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission focuses on Amazon’s “no-fault” approach to absences, which adds points every time an employee misses work without giving advance notice, regardless of the reason. If workers reach a certain number of points, they are automatically reviewed for termination.

Under the company’s attendance policy, an employee whose child has suddenly fallen ill or who suffers a medical emergency would still be penalized. Employees who don’t report absences at least 16 hours before the start of shift receive two points on their record. If they give notice less than two hours before a shift, they receive two points and an “absence submission infraction”. If workers receive three absence submission infractions and eight attendance points, Amazon will consider firing them.

Lawmakers believe that Amazon’s attendance policy could violate current laws that allow workers to take sick, family, medical and pregnancy leave without advance notice. For example, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) guarantees eligible workers unpaid leave for a variety of circumstances, including pregnancy or the need to take care of a sick family member.

“We field numerous calls from Amazon employees; while many workers know about Amazon’s punitive attendance policies, they describe never receiving information about the federal, state, and local laws that entitle them to legally protected time off—much less understanding how such laws apply in practice in their own lives,” noted labor rights group Better Balance in a letter to Congress.

Other companies with "no-fault" attendance policies have run into legal troubles in the past. Back in 2011, Verizon was ordered to pay $20 million after the EEOC found that the company's no-fault attendance policy made no exceptions for disabled workers. 

Many warehouse workers have complained that Amazon neglected to inform them of their rights under FMLA or disability laws. The company has had a poor track record with how it treats workers at its many warehouses and fulfillment centers. A number of warehouses, in response to poor working conditions at the e-commerce giant, are currently pushing to unionize.

Netflix's move into interactive shows is extending beyond the occasional single-episode project. The streaming firm is launching its first interactive daily quiz show, Trivia Quest, on April 1st (no, it's not an April Fools gag). The Trivia Crack-inspired series will present 24 multiple-choice questions around topics like art and science while weaving a narrative into the experience. You're meant to help the hero Willy save the people of Trivia Land from a villain bent on hoarding knowledge — contrived, maybe, but it's more than a pure competition.

Trivia Quest doesn't offer any real-world prizes, but you can replay an episode to earn more points and make progress toward a "definitive ending." The title will be available on all devices that support interactive Netflix material, including most modern browsers, mobile devices, smart TVs and streaming hardware.

The company is quick to bill Trivia Quest as an "experiment," and hasn't committed to more shows like it. With that said, it wouldn't be shocking if there were similarly ambitious interactive shows in the future. On top of adding variety, they give you a reason to keep coming back to Netflix where you might turn to other services.

Even as governments and corporations around the globe squeeze the Russian economy through increasingly stringent financial sanctions for the country's invasion of its neighbor, Ukraine, some within the aggrieved nation have sought to punish Russia further, by kicking it off the internet entirely. 

On Monday, a pair of Ukrainian officials petitioned ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) as well as the Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC), to revoke the domains ".ru", ".рф" and ".su." They also asked that root servers in Moscow and St. Petersburg be shut down — potentially knocking websites unde those domains offline. On Thursday, ICANN responded to the request with a hard pass citing that doing so is not within the scope of ICANN's mission and that it's not really feasible to do in the first place.

"As you know, the Internet is a decentralized system. No one actor has the ability to control it or shut it down," ICANN CEO Göran Marby, wrote in his response to ICANN representative for Ukraine, Andrii Nabok, and deputy prime minister and digital transformation minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, on Thursday. 

"Our mission does not extend to taking punitive actions, issuing sanctions, or restricting access against segments of the Internet — regardless of the provocations," he continued. "Essentially, ICANN has been built to ensure that the Internet works, not for its coordination role to be used to stop it from working."

A company called Cana has revealed what it's calling the planet's first "molecular beverage printer." The idea is that, using a single cartridge of flavorings, the machine can mix one of thousands of different beverages, including juice, soft drinks, iced coffee, sports drinks, wine and cocktails.

With Cana One, which is designed to sit on a kitchen countertop, you'll be able to select a drink from a wide range of beverage types and brands using a touchscreen. You can customize the levels of alcohol, caffeine and sugar (alcoholic and caffeinated drinks can be locked behind a PIN). Cana has teamed up with beverage brands from around the world and created its own concoctions.

A team of scientists spent three years studying popular beverages at the molecular level, Cana says. The researchers seemingly isolated the trace compounds behind flavor and aroma, and used those to create a set of ingredients that can deliver a large variety of drinks.

Cana

The system uses a "novel microfluidic liquid dispense technology" to mix the beverages. Cana says at least 90 percent of what we drink is water with flavorings, sugar and alcohol added in.

The company claims Cana One can reduce waste and associated emissions by helping people avoid bottled and canned drinks. Cana also says it can reduce water waste that's needed to grow ingredients for things like orange juice and wine.

Cana will automatically replace ingredient cartridges (which should each last around a month) as needed at no cost. However, you'll pay for the device's concoctions on a per-drink basis. Each will cost between 29 cents and $3, though Cana claims the average price will be lower than bottled beverages at retailers. The system also requires sugar and spirits cartridges — both of which are replaced automatically — and a CO2 cylinder.

Cana

It remains to be seen how well the company's claims hold up in practice, though you can reserve a Cana One now. You'll need to plunk down $99, which is a refundable credit toward the full price. Cana One will cost $499 for the first 10,000 orders, rising to $799 after that. The company expects to start shipping the machine in early 2023.

Russia's RT is facing numerous bans and restrictions following the country's invasion of Ukraine, and it's using a familiar tactic to get around them: move to a laissez-faire service. The state-supported media company has made its around-the-clock livestream available on the "free speech" platform Rumble. This will theoretically let devotees tune in when its broadcasts and social media posts aren't accessible elsewhere.

The move may be more of a hedge than a necessity, although that situation could change. RT's English livestream was still available on YouTube as of Thursday. However, CNN said it obtained a memo indicating that RT America's production company T&R Productions was laying off all staff due to "unforeseen business interruption events."

Rumble, like Gab and Parler, has lately served as a haven for right-wing personalities who've been kicked off other platforms or feel their content is restricted elsewhere. Fox News host Ban Bongino, for instance, moved to Rumble after YouTube banned him over COVID-19 misinformation.

As a Russian state-backed media firm, RT has been accused of serving as a propaganda mouthpiece and either heavily restricted on some sites or banned outright. An EU ban on RT has led to action at multiple sites. Facebook has demoted RT content, Twitter has halted ads and recommendations (on top of labels warning of RT's ties) and YouTube has denied ad revenue. Most recently, Reddit banned all links to Russian state media. This is on top of bans from conventional TV providers like DirecTV.

As with other moves to alternative services, though, the Rumble shift might not help RT recover its lost exposure. Rumble is relatively small compared to mainstream social media sites, streaming providers and conventional broadcasters. RT's viewership is likely to take a steep hit regardless — Rumble is more of a consolation prize than a solution.

Twitter will resume business travel and open up its offices all around the world on March 15th, according to a tweet by Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal. While some Twitter staff began working out of the company’s San Francisco and New York City offices last fall, most offices have remained closed since the beginning of the pandemic. But unlike many companies who are returning to in-person operations, Twitter is not requiring employees to come back. Early into the pandemic, Twitter granted employees the option of working from home indefinitely.

Agrawal noted that a workforce where a large fraction will either be 100 percent remote or switching between the office and home will have its unique challenges. “In 2020 we adjusted quickly to working virtually with resilience and agility, but almost all of us were working from home. Distributed working will be much, much harder. Anyone who has joined a meeting remotely while others are in a conference room knows this pain. There will be lots of challenges in the coming months, and we’ll need to be proactive, intentional, learn and adapt,” wrote Agrawal. 

Both Twitter and Slack have adopted “work from home forever” policies during the pandemic, but other tech companies are being more strict. Facebook employees have the option to request to work from home permanently, but some roles are not eligible for this privilege. Google is mandating that all employees return to work by April 4th for at least three days a week, though employees can request extensions or apply to work from home permanently.

Twitch has updated its misinformation policies and says it will ban those who frequently share falsehoods. Under the new rules, the platform will block “harmful misinformation superspreaders who persistently share misinformation on or off of Twitch," as The New York Times first reported.

"Every day, people come together on Twitch to build communities that celebrate a variety of interests, passions, and talents," Twitch wrote in a blog post. "We’re proud that Twitch can bring people together — but we do not believe that individuals who use online services to spread false, harmful information, have a place in our community. While these individuals are not prevalent on Twitch, they could cause significant harm if allowed on our service."

Fewer than 100 channels will be affected by the policy at the outset, Twitch said. It sees these primarily as precautionary measures. For the platform to take action under these rules, channels must meet several criteria. "We seek to remove users whose online presence is dedicated to persistently sharing widely disproven and broadly shared harmful misinformation topics," the policy reads.

The "Harmful Misinformation Actors" rules cover lies about COVID-19 vaccines and election fraud, as well as conspiracy theories related to dangerous medical treatments. The policy also means that those who peddle "misinformation promoted by conspiracy networks tied to violence and/or promoting violence" or share falsehoods that could put public safety at risk during emergencies risk being booted off of the platform.

Twitch says it works with independent misinformation experts like the Global Disinformation Index, along with election boards and congressional certification to assess civic misinformation claims, such as election fraud and ballot tampering.

The platform also noted to The Times that the policy applies to Russian state-run media channels that are spreading lies, though it has only spotted one of those to date. Other platforms — such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Spotify and Reddit — have banned, labeled or limited the spread of content from Russian state media outlets over the last week amid the country's invasion of Ukraine.

It's notable that the policy covers actions carried out by creators outside of their Twitch streams. If you learn about a streamer who may be violating the away from Twitch, you can report them by email. Last year, the service said it would ban users for serious misconduct that took place offline or on other platforms.

Engadget has contacted Twitch for comment.

Want a smaller Razer keyboard than the Huntsman, but don't want to give up the analog feel from some of the company's other models? You now have a viable option. Razer has introduced a Huntsman Mini Analog keyboard that preserves the ultra-compact 60 percent design of the regular Huntsman Mini, but uses "analog optical" switches. The finer-grained key action will help you dial in your preferred sensitivity, as you might guess, but you can also use it to replace analog controls in some games (such as the accelerator in a racing sim) or even assign two functions to the same key depending on force.

The RGB-lit keyboard is billed as durable between its aluminum body and double-shot PBT key caps. The USB-C cable is fully detachable to make this micro-Huntsman easier to carry.

Razer is selling the Huntsman Mini Analog today for $150. That's no small amount, especially if you're used to full-size keyboards, but it might be easy to justify if you're a fan of the brand or want truly flexible analog input.

The Senate will vote on the nominations of Gigi Sohn to the Federal Communications Commission and Alvaro Bedoya to the Federal Trade Commission, respectively. The Senate Commerce Committee moved forward their nominations, though the 14-14 tie means there will be an additional procedural step for each before a full Senate vote.

Democrats and Republicans each have 50 senators though Vice President Kamala Harris has a tie-breaker vote. Should Sohn and Bedoya be confirmed as commissioners, the Democrats will hold a majority in both the FCC and FTC.

The committee delayed a vote on the nominations after Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) suffered a stroke in January. Luján, whose vote was needed for Democrats to move the nominations forward, has since returned to work.

President Biden nominated Sohn at the same time he put forward Jessica Rosenworcel as FCC chair in October. While the Senate approved Rosenworcel's permanent appointment in December, Sohn's appointment has taken longer. As such, the FCC has been deadlocked at 2-2 along party lines, leaving Rosenworcel unable to, among other things, advance a net neutrality policy.

Opposition to the nomination of Sohn, a longtime advocate for net neutrality, has come from a number of quarters, including the Directors Guild of America. The group urged senators to vote down Sohn's nomination due to her "hostility towards copyright law." Sohn was previously on the board of Locast, a defunct service that rebroadcast over-the-air TV broadcast signals via the internet. She said she'd recuse herself from issues concerning retransmission consent and broadcast copyright.

In confirmation hearings, Republicans portrayed Sohn as an extreme partisan. She hit back at those assertions, arguing that she had been subject to "unrelenting, unfair and outright false criticism and scrutiny."

The FTC, meanwhile, is in the process of reviewing some significant proposed mergers. According to reports, those include Amazon's planned buyout of MGM and Microsoft's bid to acquire Activision Blizzard. Reports suggest the FTC is mulling an antitrust challenge to block the Amazon-MGM deal, though it would need a majority vote to proceed with a lawsuit.