In the super cool thing category, it’s always fun to see two companies we are investors in easily put together a demonstration of the integration of their products.

Oblong is a master of spatially interacting with 3D data on a 2D display. Looking Glass lets you interact with 3D data in a 3D display with their product (the Looking Glass.)

Together, you can move and interact with 3D images on either a 3D display or a 2D display.

Now, if we could only print this out on a 3D printer. Hmmm.

Microsoft was one of the original "brilliant jerk" tech cultures. Its genius founder Bill Gates has mellowed over the years and is now known for being a thoughtful philanthropist. But even he recently admitted that some of his past behavior toward people that worked at Microsoft was "over the top."

He was referring to his tantrums. And that culture of the impatient tantrum-ing jerk behavior filtered throughout the company. We've heard of stories over the years of male division heads warring with each other, trying to take each other down, well into the Steve Ballmer era of the company.

When Nadella took over as CEO Microsoft in 2014, one of his missions was to shut that nonsense down. He led a giant round of layoffs, flattened the organization (getting rid of middle managers), and ditched the company's controversial stack-ranking employee review system. Stack ranking is a system in which employees are compared against each other instead of against their own goals. Today, all managers have diversity as part of their bonus-earning goals. It's not a hiring quota but they are expected to build and maintain diverse teams.

In a recent interview with Wired, Nadella was asked about diversity and inclusion at the company.

He said that the days of turning a blind eye to "brilliant jerks" who mistreat their teammates are long gone.

"That's done," he told Wired. "In 2019, to succeed, I hope anybody joining this industry starts by saying, 'I want to be great by honing my skills but I want to create energy around me where people of all genders and ethnicities can contribute.'"

And yet, earlier this year news came to light of how some Microsoft women still felt stymied in their careers. The uproar caused others to jump into discussion forums and decry some of the company's efforts to hire more women, minorities and other people from under-represented groups.

And it's not just women and minorities who wind up at the other end of such jerk behavior. Business Insider just talked to a newbie male programmer who got into programming after serving in the military. He was thrilled to join Microsoft and quickly quit the company after dealing with such behavior that threatened to immediately tank his career, he told us.

Microsoft's is such a big and important company that its culture has ripple effects across the industry. Nadella deserves kudos for taking this on, telling programmers that being kind to your coworkers is expected behavior. Unfortunately, anecdotal evidence indicates that even in 2019 this kind of behavior is far from over.

More than 100 employee at Los Angeles video game studio Riot Games walked out of work Monday afternoon to protest the company's forced arbitration policy for workplace disputes.

The protest comes after eight months of turmoil at the company, which has faced numerous accusations of fostering a hostile, sexist work environment. Last year, Riot Games apologized for its culture first documented in a scathing expose reported by Kotaku in August, 2018. Riot's culture again became the center of media attention when a former high-level Riot Games employee published a blog post about the sexism he said he witnessed at the company.

Among the allegations in the blog post and lawsuit were reports of women being rated on "hotness," executives using the slogan "no doesn't necessarily mean no," and women who suffered through unsolicited pictures of the male anatomy.

In November, a current and a former employee filed a class-action lawsuit for gender-based discrimination, sexual harassment, and unequal pay.

In December, the "League of Legends" game maker suspended its chief operating officer, Scott Gelb, for two months without pay following reports of sexual misconduct. Gelb has been accused of repeatedly farting on employees, humping them, and hitting their testicles as a part of what was described as a running workplace joke.

The same week in March Gelb was scheduled to return to work, the company announced it had hired a chief diversity officer, the Verge reported.

And in April, Riot filed a motion requesting that lawsuit be sent to private arbitration. Private arbitration makes a class action lawsuit all but impossible. It also takes the lawsuit out of the public eye.

As a result of that motion, Riot employees threatened to walk out, Vice reported at the time. Executives, including the new Chief Diversity Officer talked to employees and promised changes.

Last week, Riot announced that it was changing its forced arbitration policy but only after the lawsuit was resolved and only for new employees, giving them a chance to opt-out of forced arbitration" for sexual harassment and sexual assault" claims it said in a blog post. It told current employees it would tell them at a later time if it would allow them to opt-out of forced arbitration for the same claims.

The company also made a number of promises to improve its culture in the next 30, 60 and 90 days.

But protesters were not happy with that decision and so the walkout happened.

One reporter noted slogans on signs held up by protesters that said:"It shouldn't take all this to do the right thing" and "I reported and he got promoted".

Another protester explained in a tweet, "It should not be legal to force workers into arbitration when they suffer sexual harassment-- or any other discrimination, really. It's already not legal in several states. I'd like my company to be on the cutting edge of this issue!!"

Riot Games isn't the only tech company facing worker revolt over forced arbitration policies. Google announced an end to forced arbitration involving sexual harassment claims in February after an employee walkout.

It followed Microsoft, which ended forced arbitration for sexual harassment in late 2017.

In late 2018, Uber whistleblower Susan Fowler also pushed for legislation to end employee forced arbitration agreements. And in 2017 she also filed a brief with the Supreme Court lobbying it to rule against forced arbitration as well.

Warning: This post contains spoilers for "Avengers: Endgame."

Seven years ago, filmmaking brothers Joe and Anthony Russo were hired to direct "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" after they had made their name in TV sitcoms like "Arrested Development" and "Community."

"The Winter Soldier" opened in 2014 to rave reviews (it has a 90% Rotten Tomatoes critic score), and decent box office (it grossed $714 million worldwide), solidifying the Russos as the Marvel Cinematic Universe's future power players.

READ MORE: The Marvel Cinematic Universe will enter an uncertain era after 'Avengers: Endgame,' but experts see a path for it to dominate another decade of pop culture

Now, "Avengers: Endgame," the culmination of not only their four Marvel movies but the entirety of the MCU up to this point, is shattering box-office records at an unprecedented level.

The Russos talked to Business Insider last week about the pressure of bringing this era of the franchise — the biggest one of all time at over $19 billion worldwide over 22 movies— to a satisfying conclusion. They also addressed the fates of key characters like Captain America, Gamora, and even Loki, and what could bring them back to the MCU.

"Avengers: Endgame" Disney

This interview was conducted on Wednesday, May 1. It has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Travis Clark: Now that the movie is out, what's running through your mind? Is it a big weight off your shoulders?

Joe Russo: It's a big weight off our shoulders, without question. We did four of these in seven years and there were bigger stakes for each one that we did. The budgets went higher and the complexity went higher and the degree of difficulty gets higher with each one.

Clark:Was that daunting?

Joe: It's daunting only in the pressure that you put on yourself. We're good at blocking out pressure from the outside world because it doesn't add a lot of value to what we're doing. We always just try to focus on telling the best story. Certainly, once you're done and you spend a month promoting the movie before its release, that's when you first think about, "I hope this works." Until then, you're making one of the most expensive movies ever made and that involves a lot of decisions being made every day, so your mind is fairly occupied.

Anthony Russo: It is a massive change for us because seven years ago exactly we were hired by Marvel, and from that moment on, we were hurtling toward a production date, and then a release date.

READ MORE: 'Avengers: Endgame' raises questions about the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but gives plenty of clues

Clark:Were the high stakes the most intimidating part of making this movie?

Anthony: The stakes and the schedule. These are very complex movies and they're logistically complicated.

Joe: I would argue that the stakes were even less significant than the physical toll. That's the thing that you stare down every day. The hours are intense. You're shooting for a year straight. We were working seven days a week, on average 15 hours a day for a year.

Clark:Especially for that final battle, right?

Joe: For sure. Those are a grind. They're hard.

Clark:What were some of the intricacies of that?

Joe: When you're working with action, it's hard on the crew, it's hard on the cast, it's hard on us as directors. It's physical, it's people taking fake punches but they can get hit sometimes. You have to be careful with the set. That's a high pressure situation during action sequences. There's explosions and dangerous things happening all the time on set but you have to control the chaos. If you're doing that day-in and day-out for a few months, the tension is always high.

Chris Hemsworth as Thor. Marvel Studios

Clark:Did you ever have a scare on set, like something go wrong?

Anthony: Never with the cast, but Chris Hemsworth did have to wear a bodysuit for that [Thor] role. We had to toggle back and forth. While we were shooting "Endgame" where he was heavier we had to do some pick-up shots for "Infinity War," so he would have to go back-and-forth between those two looks. So he had to wear a bodysuit and it was quite heavy. That suit started to wear on his back which was scary when you have someone who has to be so physical.

We were shooting in Atlanta so exterior stuff in Atlanta in the summer was brutal. The actors' costumes don't breathe very well.

But I wanted to make clear, though, the stakes for us were the opportunity to work with the material. It's special for Joe and I. We know we have a huge passion for the material and we know it's something we're extremely motivated to do and something we want to spend our time doing. Whether or not it works for audiences is a separate question from that and something we can't control.

READ MORE: How 'Avengers: Endgame' changes these 5 upcoming Marvel movies and TV shows

Clark:So you're coming at it as both fans and filmmakers. Is that hard to distinguish?

Joe: I think that it's the fan in us that fuels the filmmaking choices. We've been inspired by these mythologies since we were children and have an emotional connection to it and understand it on a deep level. I don't think we'd be where we are without the fan in us.

Anthony: And that's been the whole key for us. Because we have that passion for the material, we never need to question ourselves. We always know we're servicing the fan in ourselves, and that's the only fan we can service. Every fan in the universe has different opinions than we have. Fandom doesn't speak with one voice.

Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye. Marvel Studios

Clark: In The New York Times, ["Endgame" screenwriters] Christopher Marcus and Stephen McFeely said that it was your idea, Joe, to open the movie with Hawkeye losing his family. Why was that the right thing to do?

Joe: We were originally going to include that at the end of "Infinity War." Hawkeye wasn't going to be in the film, and then at the end when Thanos snaps his fingers, we were going to cut to black and then come up on a family picnic at [Clint] Barton's (Hawkeye's) house. We wanted the audience to be confused. "Why are we here, what am I watching?" And then after Barton's family slowly disappeared we'd cut back to Bucky. We tried it, but we found that it was too jarring of a concept. So I thought, why don't we remove it from the body of this movie and move it to open the next movie. It's a great way after a year to remind you of the pain that everyone was feeling.

Anthony: It ended up being appropriate because "Endgame" is so dependent on moving forward from that moment.

Clark:And then after the opening of the movie, after they kill Thanos, it jumps five years. What made five years an appropriate length?

Joe: We wanted something that allowed them to change enough. We needed enough time for them to process their grief that it would alter them as people.

Anthony: They were past the immediate grieving period.

Joe: They accepted it and made choices about how they were going to proceed with their future, and that changes people. Clearly, Banner has changed dramatically.

Anthony: It gave Tony enough time to have a daughter he can interact with.

Joe: Thor became increasingly depressed and isolated. So one year wouldn't have allowed for quite the effect and five makes it feel more permanent to the audience.

READ MORE: There are 6 Marvel movies in the works for after 'Avengers: Endgame' — here are all the details

Clark:Yeah, there were gasps in the audience when that ["five years later"] title card came up on screen.

Joe: Our mission is to always surprise the audience. When we sit in the writer's room, we try to follow a path of logic together. Thanos snapped, half of life disappeared, and if you're a hero how to do you proceed with that? You go through the stages of grief. You get angry and you go after him. What happens when you go after him? Well, he's a really smart villain so he [destroyed] the stones so that nobody else could ever use them. Now what happens? Well, the angriest among you, the one who's suppressing his guilt about the final confrontation he had with Thanos in "Infinity War," cuts his head off. Now what happens? You just keep tracking forward. So what if we just jump in time and found them all in a fractured, dystopian future?

Anthony: The thing that excited us most about that was, to start the movie at that moment, when Thanos had snapped, and then blow way past that moment and move on to something else. It just seemed exciting to us.

Clark:You mentioned a dystopian future, and that shows that Thanos' plan was flawed.

Joe: Well, Thanos is crazy [laughs].

Clark:Well, yes, but his whole deal was that he thought life would thrive, but that obviously doesn't happen on Earth. Is that something you wanted to convey?

Joe: Thanos is an egomaniac. He was rejected in his youth when he presented a solution to his home planet and he lost it and probably lost a lot of people he cared about. So years later, he has processed his grief in a way that has convinced him that this is a really good idea.

He's smart enough to know logically that it's like resetting planets like Earth back 50 years. But I think his hope was that the pain of what he had done would teach them to appreciate the resources moving forward. And by the end of the movie, he gets to the point where he's like, "I should have just wiped it all out and started over."

Anthony: Because people can't get past their memories.

Chris Evans as Captain America. Marvel Studios

Clark:Was there ever a discussion about giving Captain America's shield to Bucky instead of Sam, and why not Bucky?

Joe: We definitely would sit around and talk about what made the best story moving forward, and Sam just always felt like the right recipient. After all, Bucky is damaged.

Anthony: And Sam seemed to most share [Steve Rogers'] qualities. When they first met, the bond between those two characters just spoke to a symmetry in their moral nature.

Clark:What made Cap finally worthy of Thor's hammer? Was there a specific instance, because in "Avengers: Age of Ultron," he nudges it, but can't quite pick it up.

Joe: I think in "Age of Ultron" he may have not picked up the hammer in order to not embarrass Thor.

Anthony: That's the way we think of it.

READ MORE: We made a timeline showing the entire history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe leading up to 'Avengers: Endgame'

Clark:At the end, when Cap brings the stones back in time, does he correct all the timelines that got screwed up? Is there a past Loki still out there?

Joe: The intent was that he was going to correct the past timelines at the point that the stones left.

Loki, when he teleports away with the Time Stone, would create his own timeline. It gets very complicated, but it would be impossible for [Cap] to rectify the timeline unless he found Loki. The minute that Loki does something as dramatic as take the Space Stone, he creates a branched reality.

Anthony: We're dealing with this idea of multiverses and branched realities, so there are many realities.

Clark:So by that logic, Cap basically created a new timeline for himself when he went back?

Joe: Correct, so he would have to come back to this timeline in order to hand off the shield.

Anthony: There's a question of, how did this separate timeline Cap come to reappear in this timeline and why?

Clark:And that's a story for another day?

Joe: [laughs] Correct.

"Guardians of the Galaxy" Marvel Studios

Clark:At the end, Peter Quill (Star-Lord) is looking at a computer screen for Gamora. I assume she didn't get dusted? So obviously they're looking for her. Can you answer just generally where she went? We didn't see her leave.

Joe: We don't know whether she was dusted or whether she survived. That's probably a question that "Guardians [3]" will answer.

Anthony: Quill doesn't know either.

Joe: I'm sure future films will answer that question.

Clark:That's up to James Gunn, I guess.

Anthony: [laughs] Exactly, we've done our job.

Clark:Are there any Fox characters you wish you could have used in this movie, hypothetically?

Joe: We love all the Fox characters, but there were so many characters in this film. I don't know if we could have handled adding any more characters, especially characters that weren't developed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But I'd love to in the future.

Clark:Have you heard of any Fox conversations?

Joe: We don't know what [Marvel Studios president] Kevin [Feige]'s plans are. He's been very specific about just ending the Infinity Saga. But Fantastic Four needs a definitive movie at some point.

Anthony: There's a whole layer of complexity to the whole equation that had to play out first. The business issue was announced and achieved first [the Disney-Fox merger]. Now the creative work begins.

READ MORE: Every Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, ranked from worst to best

Clark:Is there a backstory behind "America's ass"?

Joe: [laughs] No, we were just looking for a good joke about his suit from "Avengers."

Clark:Yeah, his suit has really evolved over the years.

Joe: [laughs] Yeah, we were looking for something that didn't make too much fun of the suit but gave the audience a good laugh.

Clark:A more serious question to end on: You guys have said you're done with Marvel for now, but is there anything that would bring you back to this franchise? Any movie, any Disney Plus show, anything?

Anthony: We don't know what that is yet. We love Marvel, we have the most amazing working relationship with them, and we're very close with them. Maybe there will be an idea that comes up in the future, but there is none now.

One of the great creative upsides of "Endgame" for Joe and I was this was the first time since we started on "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" seven years ago that we weren't thinking about the future of the MCU at all. Our job on this movie was to bring things to a satisfying conclusion. I think that was really creatively liberating for us. We really thank and respect Kevin for giving us that space. It's part of why he's a genius producer.

Clark:But if the right thing came up, you'd think about it?

Anthony: For sure.

Joe: Absolutely. It's just about finding the right story that inspires us. That's why we get out of bed every day [laughs].

Clark:Any particular characters that would do that?

Joe: I mean, I love Ben Grimm from the Fantastic Four. Doctor Doom was always one of my favorite villains. Wolverine, but I think he's got to be set aside for a little while.

Clark:Yeah, it's hard to top Hugh Jackman.

Anthony: [laughs] Yeah, that was an amazing run.

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"Pokémon: Detective Pikachu" will arrive in theaters this week, and "Pokémon Go" developer Niantic is giving players new ways to get in on the fun with a limited time event.

"Detective Pikachu" content will arrive in "Pokémon Go" on May 7, giving players a chance to catch their own version of the star Pokémon and score some special rewards.

During the event, Pokémon from the movie will appear more frequently in "Pokémon Go," including Bulbasaur, Jigglypuff, Psyduck, Snubbull, Cubone, and many more. In photo mode, players may find that a Pikachu wearing a Sherlock Holmes-style deerstalker cap will pop into the frame — players may be able to catch their own Detective Pikachu this way, but we won't be sure until the update is live.

Read more:'Detective Pikachu' will bring dozens of cute and creepy Pokémon to theaters this week— here's every live action Pokémon shown in the trailers so far

For dedicated "Pokémon Go" players, the event will also bring special raid battles and field research quests, as well as "Detective Pikachu"-inspired clothing for their trainer avatars.

"Pokémon: Detective Pikachu" will arrive in theaters on May 10. Based on the 2016 video game, the movie stars Ryan Reynolds as the voice of Pikachu and puts live actors alongside dozens of CGI Pokémon. Early reviews are generally favorable, with a 70 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Check back later this week for our full review.

Drivers for ride-hailing companies including Uber, Lyft and others are planning coordinated strikes in at least 10 cities this week to call attention to low pay and other issues, according to the 10 groups organizing the demonstrations.

It's far from the first time drivers have raised issue with how how little they are paid, or their status as independent contractors as opposed to full-fledged employees with benefits like paid time off or sick leave.

However, this strike seems to be attracting more attention than others thanks to its proximity to Lyft's first ever earnings report as a publicly traded company on Tuesday, and before Uber's debut on the New York Stock exchange on Friday.

Read more: More Uber and Lyft drivers are using the app to fit their schedules, but those who make it a full-time job are barely earning a livable wage

It all comes down to take rates

Paying drivers is one of the biggest expenses for ride-hailing companies. The fraction of total fares that Uber or Lyft skims from trips (and deliveries, in the case of Uber), is known as the take rate.

Setting these rates is a delicate dance as the two companies — basically the only competitors in most of the country — fight to win over both drivers and riders. The higher the take rate, the more money Uber or Lyft can add to their coffers, and the better the numbers look to Wall Street investors.

The lower the rate, the more more money is kept by drivers.

"We note that drivers are hired as independent contractors vs. full employees, meaning they are responsible for their own vehicle expenses (maintenance, gas, insurance, etc.) and it is difficult for them to increase the amount of earnings per hour beyond a certain level given the current dynamics of the industry with take rates the hot button issue," Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said in a note to clients on Monday.

Uber's take rate increased to 21.7% in 2018 from 20.5% the prior year, the company disclosed in IPO filings. Lyft's, by comparison, was 26% in 2018 (though the two companies calculate this number slightly differently, with Uber including tolls and surcharges in the calculation.)

Ives says he's expecting a "minor increase in 2019 to 22.3% but overall expect limited upside to take rates," at Uber. Any increase in that take rate, while beneficial for Uber's bottom line, could be risky, Ives said.

"We do see added risk from Uber aiming to take greater share of the fare from drivers and expect that the more Uber pushes here, the more drivers will fight back and protest, increasing the likelihood of regulations (particularly at the state level in the U.S. and in Europe) of minimum wage guarantees," he writes.

"Drivers classified as employees would be a challenge to Uber's operations in those markets where they are classified as such," Ives continued.

Both Uber and Lyft have fought hard for years to ensure that drivers remain classified as contractors and not employees. In their prospectus filings for IPOs, both companies mentioned the employment status of drivers as a risk factor. Classifying workers as contractors can cut costs for platforms by 20 to 30%, industry experts estimate, hence why companies have fought so hard to keep the status unchanged.

"We continue to maintain that drivers on our platform are independent contractors in such legal and administrative proceedings, but our arguments may ultimately be unsuccessful," Lyft said in its S-1. "A determination in, or settlement of, any legal proceeding, whether we are party to such legal proceeding or not, that classifies a driver of a ridesharing platform as an employee, could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations."

Uber's warning used much of the same language:

"If, as a result of legislation or judicial decisions, we are required to classify Drivers as employees, we would incur significant additional expenses for compensating Drivers, potentially including expenses associated with the application of wage and hour laws (including minimum wage, overtime, and meal and rest period requirements), employee benefits, social security contributions, taxes, and penalties," the company's S-1 reads.

Self-driving cars could theoretically mitigate some of the money that Uber must pay to drivers, the company also said in its IPO filings. However, researching autonomy is an expensive bet, with Uber's advanced technologies group comprising more than 1,000 employees at three offices in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Toronto.

Read more:Uber has raised $1 billion for its self-driving unit, which is now valued at more than $7 billion

So what do striking drivers want?

According to the groups organizing Wednesday's strikes, drivers are demanding job security, livable incomes, and more regulations to help drivers stay afloat.

"Wall Street investors are telling Uber and Lyft to cut down on driver income, stop incentives, and go faster to Driverless Cars," Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said in a press release. "Uber and Lyft wrote in their S1 filings that they think they pay drivers too much already. With the IPO, Uber's corporate owners are set to make billions, all while drivers are left in poverty and go bankrupt. That's why NYTWA members are joining the international strike to stand up to Uber greed."

Notably, New York is the nation's largest ride-hailing market, and also one of the first cities worldwide to establish a minimum wage law for app-based drivers. Lyft and Juno sued the city to overturn the law, arguing that a key calculation for how drivers are paid unfairly favors Uber thanks to its larger size. A state judge last week rejected Lyft's arguments and said that the law can stay in place as written.

Ahead of the demonstrations, both companies acknowledged that drivers are the most important element of their businesses. Here's Uber's statement:

"Drivers are at the heart of our service─we can't succeed without them─and thousands of people come into work at Uber every day focused on how to make their experience better, on and off the road. Whether it's more consistent earnings, stronger insurance protections or fully-funded four-year degrees for drivers or their families, we'll continue working to improve the experience for and with drivers."

And Lyft:

"Lyft drivers' hourly earnings have increased over the last two years, and they have earned more than $10B on the Lyft platform. Over 75 percent drive less than 10 hours a week to supplement their existing jobs. On average, Lyft drivers earn over $20 per hour. We know that access to flexible, extra income makes a big difference for millions of people, and we're constantly working to improve how we can best serve our driver community."

More Uber and Lyft news:

Following is a transcript of the video.

Narrator: In 2016, Toronto spent $31 million to fend off a raccoon invasion. The masked critters were everywhere, pooping on porches, stopping traffic, and infesting attics, and they're not just taking over Toronto. Reports of raccoon vandalism have plagued cities like Portland, Chicago, and New York City, and as raccoon-ridden cities know, we can't seem to stop them.

Between the 1930s and 1980s, the US raccoon population increased twentyfold, and it's still going strong. From 2014 to 2015, raccoon complaints in Brooklyn nearly doubled, so how are these masked bandits making it in big cities?

Well, for starters, they can digest just about anything from fish and acorns in the forest to dog food and pizza on the street, and just like humans, raccoons usually prefer the pizza, which is why they flock from woodland to city in the first place.

In Brooklyn, for example, captured raccoons sometimes get relocated to Prospect Park and nearby forests, but wildlife biologists report they often head right back to the dumpster-packed city streets.

It's just about impossible to stop them, as Toronto discovered after it spend millions on raccoon-proof waste bins. Unlike traditional bins, the lids had special gravity locks, which open when a garbage truck arm turns the bin upside down. The idea was that if you cut off their major food source, they would skip town, but that didn't happen. In fact, one year later, a wildlife-control business reported that raccoon-related work had doubled.

Finally, a clever raccoon was caught on camera jailbreaking the new bin. How did she outwit an entire city? Well, study after study has revealed that raccoons are considerably smarter than your average medium-sized critter. Turns out raccoon brains have more neurons packed into their brains than other animals of the same size.

In fact, they have the same neuron density as primates, who are notoriously smart, and their clever brains help explain why raccoons can open complex locks, solve puzzles with ease, and even come up with solutions to problems that scientists didn't think of. Add to that their ultrasensitive hands, er, paws, which have four times as many sensory receptors as their feet. This helps them to feel subtle textures like special trashcan lids in Toronto and even open locks without looking.

And unfortunately for us, driving them away is a fool's errand. Studies show that after mass removal, populations tend to rebound to their previous levels in a year. After all, females can start giving birth at just 1 year old and can have as many as eight kits in a single year. This quick breeding is also why experts say mass cullings aren't a long-term solution.

And while they're awfully cute, the damage they can cause is not. When raccoons nest in buildings, they can destroy insulation, chew up wires, and tear holes through walls, and it can cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars to repair that kind of damage. One raccoon was even caught destroying over $3,000 worth of artwork, and just removing them can cost $300 to $500 a pop.

Plus, the poop they leave behind can contain roundworms and other parasites, which can enter your lungs when you breathe or get tracked into your home by your pets. Even worse, raccoons can transmit diseases like canine distemper and, in rare cases, rabies.

So it's understandable that cities are trying to find some way, any way, to manage them.

Man on broadcast: Can't do a thing about it, just chase them off. They come back.

Narrator: If nothing else, it's a lesson learned. We may have built the cities, but we don't necessarily rule them.

More than eight months after surviving a deadly mass shooting at an esports event, professional gamer Timothy "oLarry" Anselimo has returned to competition in the NBA 2K League.

Three people were killed during the mass shooting at a "Madden NFL 19" tournament in Jacksonville, Florida on August 26, 2018. Anselimo was one of the 11 other people injured at the scene.

ESPN reports that Anselimo suffered four gunshot wounds to his chest, hip, and hand. The injuries to his hand detached his right thumb, requiring a pair of reconstructive surgeries at the University of Florida Health Jacksonville hospital in the days following the shooting.

The injury forced Anselimo to undergo intensive physical therapy and change the way he grips the controller. With his thumb still recovering, Anselimo now relies more on his index finger to execute commands. Anselimo told ESPN his physical therapist expects him to have 90 percent of the function in his right hand by the end of the year.

Prior to the shooting, Anselimo competed in the first season of the NBA 2K League as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks' affiliate, Bucks Gaming. The team declined to renew his contract on September 4, 2018, just days after the shooting occurred. NBA 2K League teams were only allowed to retain two players at the end of the season, and the remaining players were entered into an expansion draft pool, including Anselimo.

Three weeks later, Anselimo was drafted by Minnesota's T-Wolves Gaming. He was then traded to the Cavs Legion, the 2K League affiliate of the Cleveland Cavaliers. After months of physical therapy, Anselimo debuted with his new team in March. The NBA 2K League plays its regular season games at a studio in Long Island City, New York. Players earn a salary between $33,000 and $37,000 for the six-month season.

Timothy "OLarry" Anselimo of Cavs Legion Gaming Club Cavs Legion's game against Blazer5 Gaming on April 26, 2019 at the NBA 2K Studio in Long Island City, New York. Jennifer Pottheiser/NBAE

To learn more about Timothy "oLarry" Anselimo's intense road to recovery, and how he deals with the aftermath of the Jacksonville shooting, be sure to check out Jacob Wolf's full profile on ESPN. The 2019 NBA 2K League season is currently underway, and you can watch the games every Thursday on Twitch or YouTube Gaming.

Warning: This post contains spoilers for "Avengers: Endgame."

"Avengers: Endgame" doesn't just conclude the Marvel Cinematic Universe's "Infinity Saga" — it has huge ramifications for the MCU's future on both the big and the small screen.

In the movie, the Avengers travel back in time to find the Infinity Stones so they can reverse the Thanos snap that wiped out half of humanity in last year's "Avengers: Infinity War." A group travels to 2012 during the Battle of New York in the first "Avengers" movie, and the Space Stone heist goes horribly wrong. The villain Loki (played by Tom Hiddleston) uses the stone to escape the Avengers and teleport to an unknown location.

Read more: 'Avengers: Endgame' directors describe the pressure and grueling work of concluding this phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and tease what's in store for the future

In the final moments of "Endgame," Captain America travels back to when the Infinity Stones were stolen, to reverse the timeline. But according to the movie's directors, Anthony and Joe Russo, Loki still manages to escape.

In an interview, the Russo brothers told Business Insider that the Loki of that period actually created his own timeline.

"It gets very complicated, but it would be impossible for [Cap] to rectify the timeline unless he found Loki," Joe Russo said. "The minute that Loki does something as dramatic as take the Space Stone, he creates a branched reality."

This move has implications for the "Loki" TV series in the works for Disney's upcoming streaming platform, Disney Plus. Loki was killed by Thanos in "Infinity War," so one might assume that the TV series, in which Hiddleston will reprise his role, would take place before that movie. That may still be the case, but it could also take place in an alternate reality.

The latest trailer for July's "Spider-Man: Far From Home" confirms that the events of "Infinity War" and "Endgame" created a "multiverse."

TV series have already spun out of the MCU — such as Netflix's Marvel shows like "Daredevil" and ABC's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." — but they were only loosely connected. The Disney Plus series "will intersect with the movies in a very big way," Kevin Feige, the Marvel Studios president, told Variety last month, highlighting how much the MCU and Marvel's strategy could shift after "Endgame."

"It's a totally new form of storytelling that we get to play with and explore," Feige added.

Other Marvel TV shows being developed for Disney Plus include "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," starring Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan, and "WandaVision," starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany. Disney Plus is set to launch November 12.

Carta, a service for buying and selling shares in private companies, has built its business around the surging valuations of startups.

On Monday, Carta provided a firsthand example of the trend when it announced that its own valuation jumped by nearly $1 billion in the span of just five months.

The company announced it has closed $300 million in series E funding tied to a $1.7 billion valuation. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, and Marc Andreessen will join the company's board to help Carta move beyond business-to-business asset management.

Carta most recently raised $80 million in series D funds in December that valued the company at $800 million. With Monday's announcement, the company has raised a total of $447.8 million.

"We are building, growing quickly and growth is expensive," Carta founder and CEO Henry Ward told Business Insider. "We're building a new financial infrastructure, and that is expensive."

Carta helps employees and investors sell stake in privately held companies through their online equity-management platform, formerly known as eShares.

Ward said the new funds would help the company build out CartaX, which is essentially a stock market for private assets, like shares in a private company. He said the company wanted to bring on investors with experience in capital markets to help build the company's New York presence. Lightspeed Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs Principal Strategic Investments, Tiger Global, and Thrive Capital joined Monday's round as their first investment in the company.

"Since the railroads, there's been no liquidity in the private world," Ward said. "A lot of people are trying to solve that problem and we might be the first company that gets to crack the code."

Ward sees Carta's growth coming predominantly from CartaX as more companies stay private longer and fewer Americans have equitable access to investment assets.

"My mom can't even invest in my company," Ward said. "Our goal is to create a private stock market where we will build democratized access to investments and private assets."

Read more: This founder hung out at truck stops talking to drivers about their problems. Now his startup is worth more than $1 billion

Carta began by offering a fund-administration tool for investors in 2018, which Ward said is projected to comprise 20% of Carta's overall revenue by the end of 2019 as the company's fastest-growing product line. According to Carta, fund administration counts over $9 billion in assets under management with a $5 million annual run rate.

According to Ward, Carta serves about 25% of the venture market and adds 10 to 15 firms to its fund-management tool a month. He said part of the appeal for venture-backed companies is Carta's ability to help them prepare to go public.

"When you look ahead, the IPOs in 2023 are the series B companies on Carta today," Ward said. "The lines between private and public [markets] will blur over the next few years, and we are building the structure to allow those lines to blur."

Are you ready for a creeper to blow up in your neighborhood?

That's exactly what Microsoft is promising with its new tease for "Minecraft" as a "Pokémon Go"-like augmented reality game.

In a short teaser shared on Microsoft's Twitter account on Monday, an Android phone is used to demonstrate how someone might interact with "Minecraft" as an AR application:

Microsoft

The characteristic inventory menu from "Minecraft" sits along the bottom of the screen, but the rest of the screen is consumed by the world of "Minecraft."A very pixelated pig marches around in mud, and a few of the game's villagers show up to take a look.

There's little else to know at the moment, but it sounds like we'll hear more soon — a May 17 reveal is scheduled, right in time for the 10th anniversary of the game.

Check out the full teaser right here:

Just the name is intimidating to some people: Google Analytics. It might help to know that analytics is the name for the branch of mathematics dedicated to analyzing data, and is generally used to tease out meaningful patterns that can be used to generate statistics and make predictions about future trends.

That said, you don't need to know or perform any math to use Google Analytics— all of that is done in the background for you.

What you can do with Google Analytics

Google Analytics — commonly abbreviated as GA — is a free tool that Google provides to help you understand, analyze, and improve your website traffic. It provides graphs and data that you can use to understand information about your site. Here are just a few examples of the kind of information you can learn using GA:

It's important to note that only the site's owners and managers can see GA data, so strangers, visitors, and competitors cannot, for example, access your Google Analytics page (at least not without your permission or login information).

How to create a Google Analytics account

To get started, you need to create a Google Analytics account for each website you own or manage.

1. Go to the Google Analytics homepage and sign into your Google account if needed.

2. If you don't already have a GA account, click "Sign Up."

3. Follow the setup instructions by entering the name and URL of your web site, along with other details, and click "Get Tracking ID."

To get a Google Analytics account for your website, fill out the simple one-page form. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

4. On the next page, you'll be given a tracking code that you need to add to the

You'll need to update your web site with this tracking ID. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

After creating your account, you can enable other people to see your GA page:

1. On your Google Analytics page, click the Gear icon in the lower left corner to open the Admin page.

2. Click "User Management." You should see your own login information.

3. Click the blue plus sign in the upper right corner of the screen.

4. Click "Add users," and enter the email address for each person you want to add to the GA account. They'll each get an email inviting them to GA with their own unique password. You can always return here to revoke their permission.

A quick tour of Google Analytics

Once you have a working GA account, you can log in at any time and get a snapshot of your site's performance. Here are some key places to start:

The Home page of your Google Analytics report summarizes the overall health of your site. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

This is an exciting page to leave open in the background if you want to monitor your site's traffic hour-by-hour. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

The Behavior tab tells you what your most valuable pages are. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

Learn more from Google

Google has a wealth of online instruction and tutorials for Google Analytics. If you want to learn how to use this tool, you should start with Google Analytics Academy, which is a collection of videos and articles that introduce you to every aspect of the site.

The world's greatest leaders, from Marin Luther King Jr. to Nelson Mandela, all exhibited one trait that rarely gets talked about: love.

The best leaders can also empathize with others, which is an extension of love, billionaire philanthropist Melinda Gates says.

"Love is the most powerful and underused force for change in the world. You don't hear about it in policy discussions or political debates," Gates wrote in her book, "The Moment of Lift."

"Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer, Mohandas Ghandi, Dorothy Day, Desmond Tutu, and Martin Luther King Jr. all did hard-headed, tough-minded work for social justice, and they all put the emphasis on love. It's a mark of our culture's uneasiness with love that political candidates never talk about it as a qualification for holding public office."

Read more: How to solve a problem with no apparent solution, according to top problem solver Melinda Gates

Gates recently sat down with Business Insider US Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell to discuss her book and solutions to the world's biggest problems, like poverty and inequality. She said the same principles of leading with love can extend beyond politics and into the workplace.

Managers should express love and empathy for their employees, especially during difficult times in their personal lives. In doing so, workers feel more comfortable being themselves at work. Gates said while you should keep your personal problems at home, an organization that encourages everyone to feel comfortable with one another has the most success.

"When you reach out and connect with somebody over their humanity, that ultimately is love — whether you name it or not," Gates told Business Insider.

Gates strove to create a positive work environment during her time as manager at Microsoft. Coming out of Duke University with a masters degree in business, Gates felt uncomfortable with Microsoft's aggressive, competitive environment. While she contemplated leaving at first, Gates decided to stay and ended up attracting people from all over the company to join her team.

When coworkers asked how she attracted so many talented engineers, Gates said she remained true to herself, and that led to a more welcoming work environment where people eventually began requesting to join her team.

"In my view, love is one of the highest qualifications one can have," Gates wrote in her book.

"As one of my favorite spiritual teachers, Franciscan priest Richard Rohr, says, 'Only love can safely handle power. For me, love is the effort to help others flourish—and it often begins with lifting up a person's self-image."