World of Warcraft workers unlock 'form a union' achievement

Engadget

World of Warcraft (WoW) artists, designers, engineers, producers, quality assurance (QA) testers and other game developers have unionized. The staff of more than 500 workers voted to unionize the Blizzard Entertainment studio with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) creating the World of Warcraft Gamemakers Guild, according to an X post from the union’s official account.

The Blizzard

That Chipotle portion-size social media drama might mean more 'generous' meals for some customers

Tech Insider
Chipotle worker at assembly line
A Chipotle worker behind the counter at one of the chain's restaurants.

Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

  • Chipotle has taken action after some customers complained about small portion sizes at the chain.
  • The company found stores that got "outlier portion scores" in surveys, CEO Brian Niccol said.
  • Chipotle never gave "a directive to provide less to our customers," Niccol added.

Maybe

Respawn is walking back its unpopular changes to the Apex Legends battle pass

Engadget

Respawn Entertainment is bringing back the option to buy Apex Legends battle passes with in-game currency. "You've spoken, and we've listened," the company said. The developer drew player outrage and a sweep of review-bombing earlier this month after it announced a new approach to the game's reward system.

The original announcement was convoluted, but the gist of what frustrated the Apex community

10 boy bands and singers who were discovered by Lou Pearlman, the disgraced music manager who inspired the new docuseries 'Dirty Pop'

Tech Insider
The music manager Lou Pearlman poses for a photo with the five members of *NSYNC
Lou Pearlman poses for a photo with *NSYNC circa 1996.

Mark Weiss/WireImage

  • Lou Pearlman was a music manager best known for launching the careers of *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys.
  • He also signed artists like Aaron Carter and O-Town to his label, Trans Continental Records.
  • Pearlman's controversial career is explored in the new Netflix docuseries "Dirty Pop."

Lou Pearlman has been described as a boy

NASA fired its space lasers to communicate with the ISS

The Verge
Drawing of a space station and satellite communicating with a receiver on the Earth’s surface via laser as represented by a striking pink line.
A graphic representation of a laser communications relay between the International Space Station, the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration spacecraft, and the Earth. | Image: NASA/Dave Ryan

NASA researchers have successfully tested laser communications in space by streaming 4K video footage originating from an airplane in the sky to the International Space Station and

AI search engines that don’t pay up can’t index Reddit content

Engadget

When Reddit said last month that it would block unauthorized data scraping from its site, everyone’s (rightful) first reaction was “AI, AI, AI.” However, now that the change has taken effect, chatbot makers may not be the only ones being locked out. The widely used forum also appears to be blocking major search engines other than Brave and Google, the latter of which reportedly inked a deal

13 photos from NASA's most powerful X-ray space telescope reveal the invisible universe

Tech Insider
crab nebula expanding structured clouds of purple red and blue with a bright purple point in the center with a bright jet shooting out it and bright concentric circles around it
The Crab Nebula, the result of a bright supernova explosion witnessed by astronomers in 1054 A.D. Chandra sees the rings around its center with jets blasting into space (bright purple).

X-ray: (Chandra) NASA/CXC/SAO, (IXPE) NASA/MSFC; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/K. Arcand, L. Frattare, and J. Schmidt

  • NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is one of its most scientifically