The mysterious figure known as the “jetpack man” was spotted again over Los Angeles.

A pilot spotted a flying object that resembled a person wearing a jetpack on Wednesday evening near Los Angeles International Airport, where at least four “jetpack” sightings have been reported in the last year, CBS News reports. Upon the pilot’s sighting, air traffic control warned other flights to watch out for what’s since been dubbed “the jetpack man.”

“A Boeing 747 pilot reported seeing an object that might have resembled a jetpack 15 miles east of LAX at 5,000 feet altitude,” the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. “Out of an abundance of caution, air traffic controllers alerted other pilots in the vicinity.”

In recordings obtained by CBS Los Angeles, the figure was described as a “UFO” and “Iron Man.”

“Skywest 3626, use caution. The jet man is back, let me know if you see him,” air traffic control said. “Skywest 3626, did you see the UFO?”

“We were looking, but we did not see Iron Man,” the pilot responded.

The FBI investigated a string of “jetpack” sightings in the Los Angeles area late last year. The “jetpack man” has become something of a local legend in Southern California after multiple reports of the flying object around LAX.

In August 2020, an American Airlines pilot reported seeing a “guy in a jetpack” at 3,000 feet during his descent to LAX, and that October, a crew on a China Airlines flight reported another unidentified flying object at 6,000 feet as the plane approached the airport. The American Airlines pilot spotted the figure only 300 yards to his left.

In December of that same year, a local flight school posted footage of what appeared to be a person zipping around the Palos Verdes Peninsula using a jetpack, which is just south of LAX.

It’s unclear whether the sightings are related.

While there are a handful of jetpack manufacturers worldwide, few are for sale. It’s also unlikely that a jetpack tank could have enough fuel to reach more than a mile of altitude like the object spotted by the China Airlines crew did. JetPack Aviation, a company based in Chatsworth, California, created jetpacks that are technically capable of reaching 15,000 feet, but Chief Executive David Mayman told the Los Angeles Times that the packs can only really reach around 1,000 to 1,500 feet safely because of fuel constraints.

“To fly up to 6,000 feet from the ground, to fly around long enough to be seen by China Airlines and then to descend again, you’d be out of fuel,” Mayman said.

It’s not entirely out of the question, though. In February 2020, the aviation company Jetman Dubai announced that pilot Vince Reffet reached 6,000 feet of altitude operating one of its winged jetpacks, before deploying his parachute and safely landing. Reffet died in a training accident nine months later.

One widely accepted theory is that the “jetpack man” haunting LA skies is just a mannequin strapped to a drone. Recreational drone users aren’t allowed to fly above 400 feet, over groups of people, over restricted airspace, and especially near other aircraft.

The air traffic controller reporting the August jetpack man sighting put it best: “Only in LA.”

This week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that the company’s next consumer product will be its Ray-Ban smart glasses. But details for the upcoming device have been extremely limited — until now.

In a statement to Mashable, a Facebook spokesperson provided some insight as to how the smart glasses will work:

“When we refer to always-available augmented reality glasses, we’re envisioning future devices with a built-in display to provide a digital overlay.

Smart glasses—which is what we’re building with Luxottica—will rely on an external display (e.g. phone), but start to show you what it’s like to be more present in the moment.”

Essentially, the Ray-Ban smart glasses won’t act as a standalone device. Instead, they’ll work in conjunction with a smartphone or another external display.

We already knew the device wouldn’t have an integrated display, as reported by The Verge last year. But there’s been some speculation as to how they’ll operate, leading many to wonder if they’ll function the same way Snapchat Spectacles or Amazon Echo Frames do.

And based on these recent comments, it seems they might actually be much more similar to those other smart frames than we’d previously thought. As with the Spectacles and Echo Frames, Facebook’s Ray-Ban smart glasses will allow you to stay connected (to whatever device that may be) without distracting you from your current environment.

Those worried Facebook will use this device as an opportunity to gather information on its users for its Project Aria AR glasses can relax… sort of. Facebook said its “Ray-Ban glasses are completely separate from Project Aria. They will not share data.”

Whether the company will use your smart glasses data for other Facebook hardware and services remains to be seen. The company said it would “share more info on capabilities and our data policies when we reveal the product.”

Considering Facebook’s track record — like that time it accidentally shared user data with thousands of developers and the infamous Cambridge Analytica incident in 2017 — you might want to hold off from buying a pair when they launch. Let’s just say that you’ll want to really read through the terms of service before deciding if you need these smart glasses.

We’ll find out soon enough later this year.

In the wake of Black Widow’s simultaneous theatrical and pay-for-stream release on Disney+, the MCU’s most deadly assassin has taken aim at a new target: Disney itself. According to the Wall Street Journal, actor Scarlett Johansson has filed a lawsuit in the state of California alleging that offering Black Widow on the Disney+ streaming service violated her contract and cost her up to $50 million in box office bonuses.

According to the lawsuit, Johansson’s original contract specified that Black Widow would receive an exclusive theatrical release and a portion of her salary from the movie was tied to box office performance. Black Widow made $158 million at the box office in its opening weekend and another $60 million in pay-to-watch downloads on Disney+; Johansson’s lawsuit appears to accuse Disney of failing to update Johansson’s contract and compensate her for streaming revenue.

The lawsuit also asserts Disney was aware that Johansson’s contract would need to be renegotiated in the event that Black Widow did not get a theater-only release. Marvel’s chief counsel David Galluzzi even wrote in a 2019 email that “should the plan [for theatrical only release] change, we would need to discuss this with you and come to an understanding as the deal is based on a series of (very large) box office bonuses.”

Johansson is far from the only party with a bone to pick with Disney over its simultaneous release strategy. The Atlantic reported that the National Association of Theater Owners released a statement pertaining to Black Widow after Disney published news of the $60 million in streaming revenue. In the statement, the association argued that simultaneous streaming releases were a net loss for all parties including Disney because of of password sharing, piracy, and the fact that the $30 fee to stream the movie was less than an “average” family would pay to see the movie in theaters. The statement concluded that “simultaneous release is a pandemic-era artifact that should be left to history with the pandemic itself.”

The trend for streaming services like HBO Max and Disney+ to release movies on their platforms at the same time they appear in theaters was controversial when first announced because many actors have similar theatrical release clauses in their contracts with the streamers. The Wall Street Journal also reported that WarnerMedia, which runs HBO Max, paid $200 million to talent in renegotiated contracts for movies on their streaming release slate — movies that include would-be blockbusters like Dune, The Suicide Squad, and The Matrix 4. Still, the unprecedented shift in power towards streaming services in the COVID-19 pandemic all but ensures that whole Johansson may be the highest profile lawsuit to be filed this early, it’s likely she won’t be the last.

Update, 7/29, 5:55 pm ET: Disney has responded to Johansson’s lawsuit with a statement via a spokesperson. From The Hollywood Reporter:

“There is no merit whatsoever to this filing. The lawsuit is especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Disney has fully complied with Ms. Johansson’s contract and furthermore, the release of Black Widow on Disney+ with Premier Access has significantly enhanced her ability to earn additional compensation on top of the $20M she has received to date.”

Related Video: Everything you need to know before seeing ‘Black Widow’

Save $120: The HP Chromebook 14-inch FHD laptop (Intel Celeron N4000, 4GB RAM, and 32GB eMMC) is on sale for only $219.99 at Amazon as of July 29.

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When you’re on the hunt for a new laptop, always consider its primary function. Is it for work, video games, or mostly browsing the internet? If you don’t need the most powerful processor and are more budget-conscious, a Chromebook might be all you need.

On sale for its best price ever, this HP Chromebook 14-inch laptop with FHD display is now just $219.99 from Amazon. That 35% discount makes what was already a pretty cheap laptop an absolute steal — something to keep in mind if you need a new laptop for school or work.

This particular model of the HP Chromebook comes with an Intel Celeron N4000 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 32GB of eMMC internal storage. Don’t expect to play Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on it or run video editing software. But if you mostly need it for basic tasks such as writing, browsing online, and watching videos, that’s all the power you need.

Chromebooks have come a long way to provide quality performance and low prices, and that combo hardly gets any better than a $219.99 HP Chromebook.

Explore related content:

• Best 2-in-1 laptops for the best of both worlds

• A guide to the best tablets out there

• Need a laptop that won’t break the bank? Here are the best options for under $300.

If you’ve been anxiously awaiting Facebook’s smart glasses, we have some good news for you: They’re slated to be the company’s next consumer device.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed the news on Wednesday during Facebook’s second quarter earnings call, while providing some insight on the company’s upcoming product cycle.

“Looking ahead here, the next product release will be the launch of our first smart glasses from Ray-Ban in partnership with EssilorLuxottica,” he said.

While Zuckerberg didn’t provide any specifics regarding a timeframe for release, he did state that the device will look just like regular glasses. The Facebook CEO went on to explain that “the glasses have their iconic form factor and they let you do some pretty neat things.”

We’re not exactly sure what those “pretty neat things” will be as far as features and specs go. But that’s not stopping Facebook from hyping the product as an instant “classic.”

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Last year, the social media giant told The Verge “that the device will not be classified as an Augmented Reality (AR) device, and it will not have an integrated display of any kind.” That report goes on to note that the glasses may look similar to Snapchat’s Spectacles or Amazon’s Echo Frames — both of which blend in fairly well with everyday attire.

That earlier statement echoes Zuckerberg’s last words on the subject during Wednesday’s call. Before moving on to other topics, the CEO said he was “excited to get [the smart glasses] into people’s hands and to continue to make progress on the journey towards full augmented reality glasses in the future.”

While these “smart glasses” aren’t considered to be full AR, the project is still part of Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) — the company’s R&D outfit for XR technologies. So, any data and feedback gathered by these smart glasses could help contribute to Project Aria, the lightweight AR glasses Facebook is currently testing.

It remains to be seen when exactly in 2021 Facebook plans on launching these Ray-Ban glasses. But considering we’re more than halfway through the year already, it’s likely the company will release them very soon — perhaps in time for the holiday season.

The internet has changed the world in myriad ways — it has reshaped politics, retail, media, to name a few things — but it has entirely redefined the way people waste time.

If the internet was ever good for anything, in fact, my goodness it it fantastic for wasting time or killing boredom.

But not all time wasting is created equal. For instance, your’s truly spends countless hours scrolling through Twitter. That might be bad for me, in the long run. But wouldn’t it be nice to switch up your habits instead of mindless scrolling?

The internet is vast and filled with dozens of websites to help you kill time. We did the work of finding some great place you might not know about. So next time you want a new way to pass the time online, we’ve got you covered.

Here are 15 of the best sites to waste time.

1. r/eyebleach 

This subreddit collects pure things that’ll lift your spirits when you’ve simply had enough internet for the day. It’s eye bleach, as in, it washes out your eyes from the bad stuff. 

2. Map Crunch

If you’re someone who loves seeing the world, Map Crunch will bop your around random Google Street View locations across the globes. Just tap the green “Go” button to be transported to a new location.

3. Window Swap

This site is kind of mundane, but fascinating nonetheless. Window Swap is exactly what it sounds like. You get transported to a random view out someone else’s window. (It is not live, so you’re not being that creepy.) It’s kind of cool to see the view and imagine living whatever life (and window) you’re dealt. Also, the ambient sounds that accompany the view are oddly soothing. 

4. Scream Into The Void

Honestly, this one is for those days you just need an impossibly dumb outlet. Scream Into The Void lets you type frustrations, and then you hear a scream, and the words you type get sent into “the void.”

5. Oregon Trail

This site provides a healthy dose of nostalgia for ’80s and ’90s kids who got to play Oregon Trail on days a substitute teacher took over the classroom. It looks and plays exactly how you remember the 1990 version of the classic game, and will definitely kill some time. 

6. Google Earth

If you can’t tell, I love maps and scrolling through the vast web of imagery Google has created. But Google Earth is especially cool because the massive tech company created ways to explore famous places in-depth. You can get lost virtually traveling to places like ancient Roman, iconic sports stadiums, or use the “I’m feeling lucky” button to randomly jump across the globe.

7. Autodraw

Autodraw allows you to freehand a doodle and then the site guesses what you were attempting to draw. It’s pretty fun for both the artistically gifted and those who can’t drawn anything (like myself). 

8. Quick, Draw!

This site is a lot like Auto Draw, but gamified. You try to draw a random object and then see if your image was good enough for Google’s neural network was able to guess what it is. 

9. Histography

I am a huge history fan. This massive, interactive timeline of history is dangerous and fun, because it will pull up Wiki pages for all sorts of historical events. Good luck not going down countless rabbit-holes. 

10. The Useless Web

This is exactly how it seems. You go to this website, click a big button then get redirected to a generally useless website. It might kill a few minutes of time, however, with the sheer oddness on display from some of the sites. Sometimes you’ll get a simple game to pay, other times you’ll see a man get slapped with an eel. 

11. GeoGuessr

It’s a lot like Map Crunch, except you play a game. You attempt to guess your location based on a random Street View and get a certain number of points based on how close you were to the correct answer. Unfortunately, you do need to create an account to play, but a free one lets you play a certain number of games per day. 

12. Flight Radar

Quite simply, Flight Radar lets you see every aircraft that’s currently in the air. And while the map is a bit of an illusion — planes fly in a three-dimensional sky, not a 2D landscape — it is quite interesting to see how many aircraft pack the sky. Kill some time by seeing where folks are jetting off to in real time. 

13. Radio Garden

Radio Garden lets you listen in to different radio states around the world. Take a tour around the globe and hear what kind of music different folks enjoy.

14. r/AmItheAsshole

The premise of this subreddit is simple. People share stories and ask commenters if they’re the asshole in the situation. Yes, some of the tales are almost assuredly fake, but they’re still enjoyable to read. 

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15. McMansion Hell

Picture Zillow but for all the strangest houses. Writer Kate Wagner critiques strange, often poorly designed homes. You can lose hours on the site reading Wagner’s commentary on houses built by folks with more money than sense (or taste). 

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Bored still? We’ve got this list of 50 more websites to browse around.

Useless Websites

1. Find the Invisible Cow

An Internet version of the hiding game Hot and Cold.

2. Cat Bounce

It’s simple. You (harmlessly) bounce virtual cats.

3. Hacker Typer

Hollywood-style hacker code. Pound on your keys and freak out your boss.

4. Pointer Pointer

What’s the point of this? Yeah, I don’t know — just embrace the weird.

5. Staggering Beauty

Make the worm dance with your mouse. (Warning: Flashing images.)

6. Bees Bees Bees

This site reveals Oprah’s secret plans.

7. Shady URL

Changes URLs to look like viruses.

8. Don’t Even Reply

A collection of emails from awful people.

9. Shut Up and Take My Money

A shopping website of stuff you don’t need, but you really want.

10. Just this giant Wikipedia list of dogs

Space dogs? Check. War dogs? Check. Famous dogs? Check annnnd check.

11. Drive Me Insane

Turn on the lights (or a disco ball) in someone’s home from your computer. The site has been running since 1997.

Educational Websites

12. Astronomy Picture of the Day

Stunning photographs of space.

13. Duo Lingo

Learn a new language for free.

14. Hubski

A forum of good ideas and conversations.

15. Lizard Point

Browser-based educational activities.

16. Music Theory

Learn the language of music.

17. Sleepytime

A calculator that tells you exactly when to wake up for a good night’s sleep.

18. Code Academy

Step 1. Learn to Code. Step 2: ??? Step 3: Profit.

19. What Should I Read Next?

Suggests books and authors based upon your interests.

20. OnRead

Free e-books.

Creative Websites

21. Weave Silk

Draw stunning symmetrical images with the click of a mouse.

22. I Need a Prompt

An idea generator.

23. This is Sand

Draw things with sand.

Gaming Websites

24. Pokemon Showdown

A Pokémon battle simulator to waste hours on.

25. SNES Party

This site allows you to upload ROMs (legally obtained, _of course_, unless you’re a bad person) and play with friends within your browser. Pick a game, share a link to your room, and you’re set.

26. Sporcle

Brain games.

27. Poptropica

An interactive online RPG.

28. TagPro

Multi-player online capture the flag.

29. Cookie Clicker

Click for cookies and level up.

30. Foddy

A running game using your keyboard skills.

31. HabitRPG

A habit building app that treats your life like a game.

32. Flash by Night

A collection of addictive games.

Music Websites

33. Party Cloud

Automatically syncs music, now you’re a DJ.

34. You are Listening to

Syncs police scanners from different cities with ambient music.

35. Incredibox

Create your own music with just a few clicks.

Mood Websites

36. A Soft Murmur

Set the mood with weather sounds.

37. Rainy Mood

Sometimes, the sound of rain is soothing.

38. Good vs. Evil

When doing good in the world feels too hard, just vote for good. It won’t change the world, but you the distraction can be nice, even for a moment.

39. Free Rice

Each questions answered correctly translates to 10 grains of rice donated to a hunger charity.

Utility Websites

40. Do I Have a Dead Pixel?

Find out.

41. Da Font

So. Many. Fonts.

42. wallhalla

You probably need a new desktop background.

43. Retail Me Not

Deals and steals.

44. Mint

Tracks how you spend your money.

45. Taste Kid

Explores your tastes and preferences.

46. Addictive Tips

Tips to improve your digital experience.

47. Lifehacker

Sometimes, it’s the little things in life that need improvement.

48. Instructables

DIY everything.

49. Snopes

Dig deeper and find out the truth.

50. Interface Lift

Stunning photography and backgrounds for all of your devices.

This post was updated in August 2018, and again in July 2021.

Olympic athletes are finding unexpected celebrity status during the 2020 Tokyo Games not as gold medalists, but as TikTok stars. Without the strict social media guidelines of the 2016 Rio Games, Olympians are allowed to make more entertaining content.

I, for one, keep forgetting to watch the Olympics. I’m perpetually behind on which teams are competing, what events are taking place on each day, and who’s winning. The pomp of the Olympics is fun, but the time difference and my inability to pay attention to sporting events tend to outweigh the excitement of actually keeping up with the games. Like I’ve done for the past three Olympics, I usually sleep through the events I actually consider watching, and then catch up through clips posted on Instagram and Twitter.

This year, I’m at least familiar with the athletes competing in the Olympics. Athletic exceptionalism got them to Tokyo, but their delightful TikTok content got them to my For You Page. Regardless of their performance at the Olympics, athletes are building a following based on their digital fluency.

Athletic exceptionalism got them to Tokyo, but their delightful TikTok content got them to my For You Page.

It started with the infamous cardboard beds. Despite allegations that the bed frames provided by the Olympic village were designed to discourage hook-ups — the Olympics are notoriously horny — Tokyo 2020 organizers said the 18,000 cardboard frames and polyethylene mattresses are meant to be a sustainable alternative to offset the overwhelming waste produced during the two-week event.

Olympics athletes started testing the beds themselves, and went viral on TikTok in the process. Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan disproved the “fake news” by aggressively jumping on his cardboard frame.

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Other athletes followed. Team USA volleyball player Eric Shoji posted a video of his teammate Taylor Sander testing the beds’ durability by performing TikTok’s dolphin dance challenge. American Rugby player Ilona Maher posted a video of her teammates trying “various activities” on the beds, including performing CPR, throwing a tantrum, and launching into a WWE-style cage dive knock-out.

Maher ended the video with a cheeky, “And for this last take, Nicole and I will be having sex.”

Irish track star Leon Reid, meanwhile, bypassed the bed testing and went straight to posting about international hook ups.

Since the anti-sex cardboard bed rumors, Olympic athletes have dominated TikTok with snippets of their day-to-day lives. The behind-the-scene tours of the Olympic village and clips of mistakes from practice give fans a less idealized view of their lives, but it’s not necessarily new content. Social media brought newfound engagement with the Olympics in 2012. And in 2016, Olympic athletes were divided on whether or not they’d post on Instagram during the competitions.

During the 2016 Rio Olympics, Team USA swimmer Kelsi Worrell and rhythmic gymnast Laura Zeng told USA Today that they thought social media was a distraction, choosing to focus on themselves during the games rather than engage with Instagram and Twitter. WNBA player Elena Delle Donne told USA Today that she planned on “interacting a little bit” to “share some of the experience” with her fans, but posting would be limited because she’d be “pretty busy.”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) also ruled Olympic social media accounts with an iron fist. Participants, including athletes, coaches, and officials were allowed to post photos from the village and competition venues online, but all audio and video content had to be pre-approved by the IOC. Athletes with non-Olympic sponsors weren’t allowed to post about those sponsorships, either.

By the 2018 Winter Olympics, Instagram stories were the norm and gave athletes the chance to casually engage with their audiences. Participants posted tours of the Olympic village, showed off their gear, and vlogged through the competitions. Ice dancing sibling duo Maia and Alex Shibutani were prolific vloggers, posting makeup routines and outtakes from practice. Their 2018 Olympics vlog, which has since been taken down by YouTube’s stringent copyright policies, was nearly an hour long.

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The IOC eased up considerably for the 2020 Tokyo Games, and while Olympians are still forbidden from posting unapproved spon-con, participants are welcome to share noncommercial video content on their personal pages.

Per the guidelines posted by the IOC, “Athletes and others holding accreditation to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games are encouraged to share their experiences with their friends, family and supporters via social and digital media and to preserve the memories of their attendance at the Olympic Games.”

It’s a free for all. The Olympians’ TikTok debauchery mirrors that of college freshmen spending their first week in dorms, if all of said college freshmen were at the peak of human fitness. It’s horny, chaotic, and all around entertaining.

Maher, for one, became an overnight TikTok star for thirsting over other “tall foreign demigod lookin athletes.” American swimmer Drew Kibler tried on all his Olympic gear at once with a viral sound about back-to-school outfits in a video with over 1.1 million views, and Puerto Rican basketball player Ali Gibson snuck booze into the otherwise dry Olympic village. Raven Saunders, who refers to herself as The Hulk, may have broken records in shot put and discus throw, but she was the envy of the Tokyo games as one of the few athletes who was assigned a queen size bed on a non-cardboard frame. The Hulk showed off her bed on TikTok.

Meanwhile, 18-year-old American swimmer Tyler Downs isn’t shy about his admiration for gymnast Simone Biles, and posted several TikToks about hoping to run into her. The American women’s swim team parodied a controversial video of an infant swimming lesson by tossing a teammate into the water and repeatedly snapping at her until she floated to the surface. (She notably struggled much less than the infant in the video did.)

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It’s not the youngest Olympians taking off on TikTok, but the most TikTok literate. Jesse Smith, the 38-year-old Team USA water polo captain competing in his fifth Olympic games, poked fun at his age in a video viewed over 800,000 times.

“When you check in with security for practice, say your sport (water polo), and they ask if you are a coach,” Smith captioned the video, dancing off beat to a popular slowed version of Stromae’s “Alors on danse.”

What makes Olympic athletes’ TikTok presences so refreshing is the unpolished nature of TikTok itself. Instagram accounts for public figures tend to comprise of sponsored content, professional photos, and long-winded podcast or book announcements. TikTok editing is an art form in itself, but the short-form constraints of the platform prioritizes fun over production quality. The best performing Olympic TikTok content isn’t well-produced, but it is organic.

The decision to even hold the Olympics this year was a divisive one; only 23 percent of Japan is fully vaccinated, and 83 percent of Japanese citizens would rather not host a two-week-long superspreader event. The IOC’s stance on marijuana is regressive; Sha’Carri Richardson’s suspension for using cannabis in a recreationally legal state left a bitter taste in many Americans’ mouths, especially after fellow Team USA athlete Megan Rapinoe started promoting her own CBD line. The entire spectacle of the Olympics is a similarly touchy subject. The sheer cost, carbon footprint, and tons of waste generated by the Olympics has some activists pushing for a permanent Olympics location rather than saddling host cities with building infrastructure they may never use again.

It’s difficult to enjoy the Olympics when the IOC’s double standards and the unfathomable environmental impact of the games overshadows its celebrations. The Olympic athlete’s lighthearted videos are a welcome reprieve. That’s not to say that the athletes don’t play into the IOC’s conservative standards, but they’re less entrenched in the institutional issues of the games.

Olympians are compared to deities for their physical feats, as the original games in ancient Greece were held to honor Zeus himself. Their TikTok presences, however, are a reminder that they’re just like any other young person: painfully online.

When TikTok users expressed their surprise at Olympic athletes being so relevant and involved with online culture, Downs took offense.

“Why did everyone think Olympians weren’t funny like c’mon we aren’t just athletic,” Downs posted. “I swear I’m normal.”

And as someone who’s slept through too many live matches and resorted to keeping up through TikTok, I appreciate it.

Big tech is finally taking a stance on vaccinations.

On Wednesday, Facebook said it would require employees to receive Covid-19 vaccinations before returning to work in U.S. Facebook offices. This is a reversal from its December 2020 policies which would encourage, but not require, Covid-19 vaccines for in-office work.

“As our offices reopen, we will be requiring anyone coming to work at any of our US campuses to be vaccinated,” Lori Goler, Facebook’s vice president of people, said in an emailed statement sent to Mashable. “How we implement this policy will depend on local conditions and regulations. We will have a process for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical or other reasons and will be evaluating our approach in other regions as the situation evolves. We continue to work with experts to ensure our return to office plans prioritize everyone’s health and safety.” 

On Wednesday, Google announced that it would require vaccinations for “anyone coming to work on Google campuses.” Previously, Twitter was the only big tech company to require vaccines for employees working on-site.

But the situation has changed as the Delta variant causes Covid spikes across the country. While the new infections are occurring largely among the unvaccinated, the CDC also reversed previous guidance around masking, saying vaccinated people should wear masks indoors in places where infections are prominent.

Government agencies are also making vaccine policy changes. City employees of New York and Los Angeles now have a vaccine mandate, as do California state and health employees. At the federal level, frontline health workers for the Veterans Affairs agency must also get vaccinated within two months, and the Biden administration is reportedly planning to announce a vaccine requirement for federal employees, or weekly testing.

The common-sense vaccine requirements may be more controversial than they should be. Some conservatives have conflated getting vaccinated as an issue of personal freedom, not public health; Republican lawmakers have even passed laws preventing businesses from requiring customers to show proof of vaccination. At the same time, big tech companies want to appear politically neutral as they face (unproven) accusations of anti-conservative bias, and anti-trust inquiries on both sides of the aisle.

The moves by Facebook and Google are positive steps to protect employees, encourage mass-vaccination, and plant their flag on the side of public health. Unfortunately, vaccine hesitancy and Covid conspiracy theories have flourished on Facebook and Google-owned YouTube, despite bans of this content by both companies.

The two companies are now doing their part to protect employees and send a positive, pro-science message. However, that pales in comparison to the damage their respective platforms have done by enabling the spread of anti-vaccination misinformation.

Documentaries offer engaging looks at real-life stories and can often be a great way to better inform yourself about current headlines and broader social issues. That being said, the documentary genre is massive – with so much to choose from, it’s easy to get intimidated and not know where to start. That’s where streaming services like Netflix come in handy. Netflix’s library features a wide variety of excellent documentaries that are sure to teach you something new in a compelling fashion.

If you want to get better acquainted with the world around you, look no further than these 10 documentaries, all of which can be found on Netflix. These films tackle a variety of timely and important subject matters, including climate change’s effect on coral reefs, the racism of the prison industrial complex, and transgender representation in film and television.

Here are 10 relevant documentaries on Netflix to watch if you want to learn something new:

1. American Factory (2019)

American Factory simultaneously tackles two topics that have been discussed in stump speeches from politicians, news podcasts, and daily briefings over the past three years: the American middle class and relations between the U.S. and China. The film centers around the closing of a General Motors plant that left many jobless, an event that has become all too familiar.

When a Chinese business owner reopens the plant and hires back many of the former employees, both Chinese and American workers must reckon with their opposing manufacturing styles and practices. American Factory presents globalization in a localized context, putting real faces to those affected by large-scale issues. The documentary was released on Netflix via Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground, and was directed by Julia Reichert and Steven Bogner.

2. The Bleeding Edge (2018)

Kirby Dick’s The Bleeding Edge explains that when commercial and consumer culture infiltrate the medical field, unproven and untested devices harm the lives of countless people. Much like the opioid epidemic, profitable sectors of the healthcare industry push products to be prescribed or implanted in patients in order to make money, rather than to actually help them heal.

If you’ve ever seen advertisements seeking out those who’ve experienced the harmful affects of medical devices for a class action lawsuit, you’ve gotten a piece of the story. Bleeding Edge will fill in the gaps on the topic that is malpractice in the American healthcare system.

3. Reversing Roe (2018)

Reversing Roe, which references Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement but was released weeks before the fated Kavanaugh Hearings, examines how abortion has become a highly politicized and emotionally charged issue in the years since Roe v. Wade in 1973.

The film’s creators, Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, interviewed both abortion rights and anti-abortion activists to provide a two-sided approach to a hot-button issue that is inevitably intermingled with appeals to our nation’s sense of religion, morality, agency, and autonomy.

4. 13th (2016)

Before Brian Banks, Free Meek, and even True Justice, Ava DuVernay’s groundbreaking 13th educated audiences nationwide about mass incarceration and the widespread wrongful imprisonment of Black Americans.

The documentary, titled to reference the 13th Amendment — the amendment that abolished slavery — not only elevates the voices of those who have fallen victim to the broken justice system, it exposes those who made such a system possible, such as proponents of Jim Crow-era statutes and the multiple former presidents and political leaders that contributed to the Republican Party’s war on drugs (which enlisted Bill Clinton as well). 13th extensively enlightens viewers on how a majority of black Americans unfairly serve time in the prison industrial complex. It won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary.

5. Chasing Coral (2017)

For must of us, the Great Barrier Reef is the setting for Marlin and Dory’s epic adventure to find Nemo; it exists in our minds as a multi-colored, albeit animated, wildlife masterpiece. But in reality, the Great Barrier Reef, which consists of a massive amount of coral, is deteriorating due to a process called coral bleaching. As Chasing Coral explains, this bleaching occurs as a result of climate change.

Luckily, we are at a pivotal moment. We can still work to reverse the effects of the global heat wave that has been rampantly affecting coral. The film’s creator, Jeff Orlowski, and those committed to combatting climate change at Exposure Lab have put together an action guide that details how viewers can make a difference by transitioning to 100% clean energy and working to put an end to harsh practices like dredging and overfishing. Chasing Coral is an environmental call to action, and its sweeping ocean panoramas can’t be beat.

6. Icarus (2017)

From Bryan Fogel (Race to Witch Mountain), Icarus takes a closer look at Russia through the lens of illegal doping in the Olympics. Doping, as stated in the film, affects the credibility of sports — a form of entertainment and binding part of the cultural identity of many nations.

Fogel originally intended to center Icarus around his experience injecting himself with performance-enhancing drugs, also captured on film. However, when he interviewed Dr. Grigory Rodchenov, head of the Russian anti-doping program, Fogel uncovered how Russia built a legacy of Olympic excellence through longstanding systematic cheating called for by Putin himself. Described as a “geopolitical thriller,” Icarus uncovered truths about a taboo subject and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

7. Amanda Knox (2016)

Amanda Knox made headlines back in 2007 for allegedly murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher in the apartment they shared in Perugia, Italy. Knox and Raffele Sollecito, her then-boyfriend who was accused alongside her for the murder, were held imprisoned in Italy until 2011.

Like Casey Anthony, Amanda Knox became synonymous with the image of an unsuspecting white woman who was capable of the unthinkable … or was she? After years of her personal life, choices, and diary being on display, Knox was definitively acquitted in 2015. In her self-titled documentary film directed by Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn, Knox dispels the rumors and tales that defined Meredith Kercher’s murder case — and Knox’s life — for a decade.

8. Get Me Roger Stone (2017)

Roger Stone is much more than another one of the notorious key players in the multiple ongoing lawsuits against Donald Trump: He played a big role in defining what opposition research in political campaigns looks like today. Stone worked on the campaigns of former presidents Reagan and Nixon, as well as those of Jack Kemp, Bob Dole, and Donald Trump. Throughout his tenure in Washington, he’s amassed a reputation as a political fixer who has an affinity for playing dirty — think ultra combative political lobbying and a recent association with Wikileaks — and dredging up tidbits on opponents that slander and smear their entire campaigns.

Created by Daniel DiMauro, Get Me Roger Stone understands that Stone’s ruthless and unique logic is worth comprehending, as it has affected much of recent political history. If you didn’t quite know who Roger Stone was before, you’ll know him now. And, oh yeah, that Nixon tattoo is real.

9. Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution (2020)

Crip Camp is a vital documentary that tells the story of the generation of disability activists who first learned to organize while attending the now defunct Camp Jened. Camp Jened was a summer program for children and teens with a wide range of disabilities, and the documentary uses archival footage from the camp’s heyday in the 1960s to show the impact its progressive and accessible space had on its campers.

Some of the same people shown as children in the camp footage went on to lead life-changing demonstrations that improved the social status of people with disabilities in the United States, but Crip Camp’s greatest strength as a film is in showing how early access to inclusive spaces gives marginalized community members the opportunity to dream of and create a better world.* —Alexis Nedd, Senior Entertainment Reporter

10. Disclosure (2020)

Right now, we’re living through a period of “unprecedented trans visibility,” according to Disclosure‘s executive producer and Orange Is the New Black star Laverne Cox. But she notes that since 80 percent of Americans do not personally know a trans person, onscreen portrayals have become the only experience for some people. “For a very long time, the ways in which trans people have been represented onscreen have suggested that we’re not real, have suggested that we’re mentally ill, that we don’t exist,” says Cox. “Yet here I am. And here we are. And we’ve always been here.”

Disclosure takes a hard look at the representation of trans people on screen throughout history, which goes back way further than you might think. And with this disheartening analysis comes a discussion of the offscreen impact of that representation, with transgender people portrayed onscreen more often than not as a joke, someone to be feared, or someone who constantly experiences violence. “For decades, Hollywood has taught people how to react to trans people, and that is with fear,” explains GLAAD’s Nick Adams in the film. There is hope, however, in how far we’ve come with the likes of Orange Is the New Black, Transparent, and Pose. The documentary, as writer Jen Richards says, gives a sense of a broader history of trans representation onscreen so trans people “can find themselves in it.” * – Shannon Connellan, UK Editor

Asterisks (*) indicate the entry has appeared on a previous Mashable list.

This story was originally published in November 2019 and updated in July 2021.

NASA is developing a “Solar Sail System,” which will eliminate the need for rocket propellant in some space missions.