As part of the Sphero RVR Kickstarter campaign, Amy and I have decided to give away up to 200 RVRs as part of a new tier called the 2 RVRs for you + 1 for a Teacher tier.

If you buy this tier, you get two RVRs. Then, you get to designate a teacher – any teacher – who you’d like to give a third RVR to. Our foundation (the Anchor Point Foundation) will be underwriting this.

As a special bonus, I’ll do an hour long AMA on Kickstarter Live for everyone who participates in this tier. Like many of the AMAs I do, I’m hopeful the conversation will be wide ranging, covering whatever anyone on the AMA wants to explore.

So, if you have a teacher in your world who you love and want to give a special gift, go sign up for the Sphero 2 RVRs for you + 1 for a Teacher tier on Kickstarter.

Dan Reed's two-part HBO documentary, "Leaving Neverland," examines the lives of two men— Wade Robson and James Safechuck — who say they were sexually abused by Michael Jackson in the 1980s and 1990s. And the director wants to continue telling the stories of those who say why were abused by the King of Pop.

Reed told Business Insider he'd be interested in a follow-up to "Leaving Neverland" if he could speak to Jordan "Jordy" Chandler and Gavin Arvizo, the two people who accused Michael Jackson of child sexual abuse while the artist was still alive.

Read more: "Leaving Neverland" director explains why he didn't interview Macaulay Culkin for his brutal Michael Jackson documentary

"Wade and James' story hadn't been explored until now, but they didn't make allegations when Jackson was alive," Reed said. "So they never felt the brunt of the attack machine of the Jacksons. Jordan Chandler and Gavin Arvizo, they felt the full force of that."

In 1993, Chandler and his parents filed a civil suit claiming Jackson molested 13-year-old Jordy. The singer agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to settle the case before it went to trial. In 2005, Jackson was acquitted of molesting 13-year-old Arvizo in a criminal trial. Throughout his life, Jackson denied molesting children.

Read more: "Leaving Neverland" director explains which part of his Michael Jackson doc disturbs him the most and why

Reed believes the claims of sexual abuse made by Robson and Safechuck in "Leaving Neverland" prove Jackson was a pedophile, and also suggest there could have been a massive cover-up to keep it from coming out.

"The mechanics of the cover-up is what really interests me," he said. "How did it really happen that this guy that we now know was a pedophile hiding in plain sight, how did he get away with it for so long? Who were the people who were part of allowing this crime to go unpunished for so long? There is an inside story that should be told."

Currently, Reed said a sequel is only in the idea phase. He has not been contacted by Chandler or Arvizo about telling their stories.

Amazon Prime members can no longer stream anti-vaccination movies for free, but DVD's of those movies still remain available for purchase for free — and one was listed as Amazon's Choice for an unknown amount of time.

On Friday, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) sent an open letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on concerns that Amazon is recommending products that discourage vaccination on its platform — for example, anti-vaccination movies. Later that day, anti-vaccine documentaries were pulled from Amazon Prime Video, BuzzFeed News reported.

"I am writing out of my concern that Amazon is surfacing and recommending products and content that discourage parents from vaccinating their children, a direct threat to public health, and reversing progress made in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases," Schiff wrote.

The anti-vaccine movies "Man Made Epidemic," "Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe, Shoot 'Em Up - The Truth About Vaccines," and "The Greater Good" are no longer available to Prime members for free streaming. However, DVDs of those films are still available for purchase on Amazon.

At the time of the BuzzFeed report, The "Man Made Epidemic" DVD was given the distinction of "Amazon's Choice" on the platform. However, as of Monday evening, it appears that the "Amazon Choice" distinction has been removed.

Meanwhile, the "Vaxxed" DVD is the #1 bestseller in the "Special Interests" category. "The Greater Good" is still available for streaming on Amazon Prime, but requires a third-party channel subscription. Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Man Made Epidemic, an anti-vaccine movie, was listed as "Amazon's Choice." Screenshot

The anti-vaccination movie Vaxxed is a #1 bestseller in the "Special Interests" category. Screenshot

According to the World Health Organization, immunization is proven to eliminate life-threatening infectious diseases and is estimated to prevent 2 and 3 million deaths annually.

However, there is a rising trend of parents choosing not to vaccinate their children. In his letter, Schiff brought up Washington state declaring a public health emergency because of a measles epidemic that broke out in Clark County -- a disease that can be easily prevented with vaccines.

Schiff said that one of the causes of this trend is medically inaccurate information about vaccines online.

"As the largest online marketplace in the world, Amazon is in a unique position to shape consumption," Schiff wrote. "Yet the algorithms which power social media platforms and Amazon's recommendations are not designed to distinguish quality information from misinformation or misleading information and, as a result, harmful anti-vaccine messages have been able to thrive and spread."

Schiff also said he was concerned about Amazon accepting and promoting paid advertising that includes misinformation about vaccines. He expressed concerns over parents seeing information on Amazon searches and recommendations and then choosing not to have their children vaccinated. In addition, he said that parents who are looking for accurate information could end up finding videos with misinformation about vaccines.

Amazon still hosts and algorithmically suggests other conspiracy films as documentaries, including ones on the Illuminati, 9/11, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

Read more: Amazon and Hulu's algorithms are recommending conspiracy theory films, and the consequences could be more serious than you might think

Previously, Schiff had written similar letters on anti-vaccination content to Google and Facebook. Afterwards, YouTube banned channels that promote anti-vaccination content from running ads, BuzzFeed News reported. Facebook told Business Insider it is exploring ways to make educational information about vaccines more accessible while reducing misinformation, but it is still "thinking through what the right approach for this effort might look like."

Over the weekend, SpaceX pulled off the first leg of a space mission that NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine described as an "historic achievement."

On Saturday, Elon Musk's rocket company successfully launched Crew Dragon, the world's first commercial spaceship designed to ferry humans to and from space. The new vehicle then docked to the International Space Station (ISS).

Crew Dragon carried no people into space — just cargo and a female crash-test dummy named "Ripley." But the demonstration mission, called Demo-1, represents a turning point for the US. The last time an American rocket launched an American spaceship to the ISS was during NASA's final space shuttle mission in July 2011.

"Our sincere congrats to all earthlings who have enabled the opening of this next chapter in space exploration," Anne McClain, a NASA astronaut and Expedition 58 crew member on the space station, said on Sunday during a welcoming ceremony for Crew Dragon. "And congratulations to all nations, private space firms, and individuals who wake up every day driven by the magic of exploration. This day belongs to all of us."

Yet in pulling off the first major parts of the six-day mission (Crew Dragon is due back on Earth this Friday), Elon Musk's rocket company inadvertently caused a small problem on Earth. It wiped out inventories of a soccer-ball-size plush Earth doll.

That doll, which wears a look of surprise on its face, was launched into space inside Crew Dragon. The owners of the company that makes the toy, Celestial Buddies, were similarly taken aback.

"We apologize for our current lack of Earths," Jessie and Jon Silbert said in a message posted on their company's website. "We have never had one of our products launched into space before, and we were taken totally by surprise."

They added that their warehouse will be empty of the little Earths at least until the end of April.

How SpaceX's Demo-1 mission wiped out the stock of a cute toy

An illustration of SpaceX's Crew Dragon vehicle, a spaceship designed to fly NASA astronauts, docking with the International Space Station.SpaceX

On Saturday at 2:49 a.m. ET, Crew Dragon launched on top of a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

About three hours before launch, Musk posted two images of the plush Earth doll. One showed the product up close, while the other showed the toy inside the Crew Dragon, a few seats away from Ripley the mannequin.

"Super high tech zero-g indicator added just before launch!" Musk tweeted.

Read more: Elon Musk says he would ride SpaceX's new Dragon spaceship into orbit — and build a moon base with NASA

The toy was attached to a seat by a long tether so that it could float around once Crew Dragon reached its Earth-orbiting speed of about 17,500 mph. Sure enough, camera feeds inside the space capsule broadcast footage on NASA TV showing the little Earth moving about once in orbit.

About 27 hours later, McClain and her two colleagues on board the space station — David Saint-Jacques, a Canadian astronaut, and Oleg Kononenko, a Russian crew member — greeted SpaceX's new vehicle.

"On behalf of Ripley, little Earth, myself, and our crew, welcome to the Crew Dragon," McClain said. "These amazing feats show us not how easy our mission is, but how capable we are of doing hard things. Welcome to the new era in spaceflight."

She then spun the Earth toy with a gentle nudge.

Due to the high-profile nature of the mission — hundreds of thousands of people tuned in Saturday morning to watch it via webcast — countless people went looking for the Earth toy online. The toy sells for approximately $20.

'We apologize for our current lack of Earths'

Celestial Buddies says its small plush toy Earth product sold out after SpaceX put it inside their new Crew Dragon spaceship for NASA and launched it into orbit.Celestial Buddies

Over the weekend, Celestial Buddies said on its website that it quickly sold out.

Below is a portion of the message that the Silberts posted:

At 2:49 AM EST on Saturday, March 2, 2019, SpaceX launched its Dragon Crew Rocket toward the International Space Station. On board were "Ripley" an anthropomorphic test device (aka test dummy) named for Sigourney Weaver's character in the movie "Alien," and Celestial Buddies' own Earth, which SpaceX founder Elon Musk dubbed a "super high tech zero-g indicator."

We at Celestial Buddies had no advance information about Earth's participation in the launch, although a sudden flurry of orders for Earth in the 48 hours prior to lift off had made us wonder if something was afoot. By the time the rocket left Cape Kennedy, however, our entire inventory of Earth had been completely sold out, with scores of orders still unfilled.

We apologize for our current lack of Earths...we have never had a product on backorder before...but we have never had one of our products launched into space before, and we were taken totally by surprise. Thus, our reorder will not be in our warehouse until the end of April.

By Monday, Amazon.com had sold out of its standard inventory as well, and secondary sellers were asking for $78.69 per doll.

Auctions of the toy also appeared on eBay, where sellers were marketing them as "SpaceX Plush Celestial Buddy Earth."

However, the little Earths are sold in gift shops at museums and science centers, among other physical locations. So if you're looking for a decently priced Earth toy before May, that'd be a good place to start.

Yesterday, over the course of a single afternoon, Lee County, Alabama was ravaged by back-to-back tornadoes.

The one-two punch brought winds of 170 miles per hour, which ripped homes off their foundation, destroyed property, injured dozens, and killed at least 23 people.

But these twisters were only two of some three dozen tornado reports across the southeastern US yesterday.

According to the Weather Channel, tornadoes were reported in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina — as far west as Mobile, Alabama, and as far north of Columbia, South Carolina. All the reports came within a span of a few hours, from early afternoon into early evening.

When multiple tornadoes occur in a short amount of time across a large region as a result of a single weather system, it's called a "tornado outbreak."

While the exact number of tornadoes that swept this part of the country has yet to be determined, it was undoubtedly the "deadliest tornado day" since 2013, when an Oklahoma storm with winds gusting 200 miles per hour killed 24 people.

Yesterday's tornado outbreak caused double the number of tornado-related deaths that the US saw in all of last year.

It also confirmed a trend that climatologists and scientists have been worriedly watching: Tornado outbreaks in the southeastern US are getting worse.

A tree fell on a car where two back-to-back tornadoes touched down in Lee County near Beauregard, Alabama. Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters

North America sees dozens of tornado outbreaks annually, and the number of tornadoes that occur per outbreak seems to be increasing.

A 2016 study found that the average number of tornadoes in these outbreaks has increased since 1954, from 10 to 15. Between 1972 and 2010, outbreaks were associated with 79% of all tornado fatalities. The chance of these extreme outbreaks has also increased.

"When it comes to tornadoes, almost everything terrible that happens, happens in outbreaks," Michael Tippett, lead author of that study, said in a press release. "If outbreaks contain more tornadoes on average, then the likelihood they'll cause damage somewhere increases."

Tippett's current research tracks where tornado outbreaks might become more intense. His data suggests that the part of the southeast that was hit yesterday, particularly Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, are seeing trends of increasing activity.

Sunday's tornado outbreak was "consistent with trends that we've been seeing for several years now," he said.

Lee County, Alabama — which sits 80 miles north of Montgomery — suffered the most in the recent outbreak. Two tornadoes touched down there in a span of 10 minutes, and all of yesterday's reported deaths were in that area. According to the National Weather Service, one of the tornadoes that hit Lee County was a EF-4 storm, the second-most severe designation possible, with 170-mph winds.

The track of that "monster tornado" was at least 24 miles long, the New York Times reported. The average distance tornadoes travel is about 3.5 miles, according to the Storm Prediction Center, so this was far above average in that regard.

An even more deadly tornado outbreak occurred in 2011. It spawned 363 tornadoes across North America, caused $11 billion in damages, and killed more than 350 people.

Ashley Griggs, left, helps Joey Roush sift through what is left of his mother's home after it was destroyed by a tornado in Beauregard, Alabama. David Goldman/AP

Climate change has been suggested as a contributing factor to the trend Tippet has observed, but he said the jury is still out on that.

"The consensus is we'd expect to have more thunderstorms and tornado activity in a warmer climate, but it's not completely clear that these trends we're seeing now are a result of climate change," he said.

An email advertising Munchery gift cards sent to a customer weeks before the startup went out of business.

Former Munchery vendors protested today at @sherpa, one of the startup’s investors that’ve stayed silent as former employees, vendors and drivers claim to be owed thousands: “Startup idea don’t steal pies!” Photo by @ThreeBabesBake pic.twitter.com/kfaOZ9CFkq

— Kate Clark (@KateClarkTweets) January 30, 2019

After an abrupt shutdown, Munchery’s small business vendors are the ones picking up the bill

On Monday, Chronicle — a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet — announced Backstory, a cybersecurity product designed to help companies figure out how to protect themselves from hackers.

And Splunk, a publicly-traded company that makes a similar product to Backstory, saw its shares dip as low as 7.7% following the announcement, and ultimately closed about 5% down from its opening price.

What the two companies have in common: They want to make it easier for companies to analyze the ever-growing amount of data generated by modern computing infrastructure to figure out when and how attacks happen, and provide the information how to fix them.

"We believe the power of the security community is our best defense against aggressive and determined attackers," Chronicle wrote in a blog post. "By offering a global platform with the ability to apply massive computational capacity to an ever-growing set of enterprise security data, our goal is for Chronicle to help enterprise customers, as well as other vendors, to better protect what matters most."

Chronicle originally began as a cybersecurity division in X, formerly Google X, Alphabet's so-called "moonshot factory." It was spun out of X in January 2018, but took the interim to develop and announce its new product.

In an interview with CNBC, Chronicle CEO Stephen Gillett said that he didn't see Backstory as being competitive with other security products, but rather complimentary.

Read more: Google's parent company just announced a new project to give the digital world 'an immune system'

For its part, just Thursday, Splunk announced that it generated $622 million in revenue last quarter, beating Wall Street's estimates of $561 million, NASDAQ reported. The company has been trying to focus on using cloud subscriptions to grow its business, and provide more security products to IT teams.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Narrator: Why study alone, when you can study with a bunch of strangers from all over the world?

This is gongbang, which translates to "study broadcast" in Korean. In Japan, it's known as benkyou douga, and in the US and other parts of the world, it's simply called "study with me." It's a type of video in which people prepare for an exam on camera, while other people watch and study as well.

This might not sound like riveting entertainment, but these videos are racking up millions of views on YouTube. So why are they so popular? And is this just the latest example of lazy content creation, or is there something more going on here?

The Man Sitting Next to Me: When you're studying by yourself, you can feel alone. But they can reduce their loneliness by getting the sensation of studying with other people.

Narrator: This YouTuber goes by the name "The Man Sitting Next to Me." He prefers to remain anonymous. He lives in Korea and is studying to be a tax accountant. He livestreams himself studying for hours at a time and has over 20 thousand subscribers on his channel.

The Man Sitting Next to Me: It depends on my exam schedule, but, in general, I broadcast from 9 a.m to 12 a.m.

Narrator: His videos show him simply sitting at a desk taking notes or looking at a book.

Jamie Lee: You're studying for a long time whether it's for high school, college, or a professional degree. It can be really lonely, and it's always helpful to have sort of a study buddy.

Narrator: This is Jamie. She lives in New York and runs a YouTube channel called "The Strive to Fit." She started her channel when she was in medical school and continues to film herself studying while in residency. Unlike The Man Sitting Next to Me, Jamie's "study with me" videos are prerecorded. Her videos range from around 20 minutes to two-and-a-half hours in length, and some have over two million views.

She offers videos with music and some with the natural sounds of the pencil on paper as a sort of ASMR.

Jamie: I try to cater to different types of audiences. It'll just be kind of the natural sound of like, pen and paper or book sounds and things like that.

Narrator: With a quick YouTube search, you can find all sorts of different people and types of study videos to choose from. This study video trend is a lot like mukbang, which has become more popular in recent years. It involves people eating food, often a whole lot of it, on camera.

Looking at what's on YouTube these days, like ASMR, mukbang, and reaction videos, it would seem like you don't need a whole lot of special skills to be a success. But gongbang serves a real purpose, helping people focus. Or at least that's what the content creator and the fans are saying.

While it may seem distracting to watch YouTube while doing your work, they say it actually is a helpful way to avoid distractions.

The Man Sitting Next to Me: The first benefit my viewers can get is motivation. By watching other people studying, they can also get motivated to study hard. And for myself, by studying with all of you, I can prevent myself from getting lazy and continue to focus with my study.

Narrator: And based on some of the comments, this method seems to be working.

"I'm an engineering student, a week ago I wasn't motivated at all, then I found your channel. Thank you for saving me."

"I feel more concentrated on my exam preparation. Thank you Jamie for your video. It's actually very nice and helpful."

Jamie: It really helps them focus, because every time they're tempted to do something on their phone or go somewhere on their website, they kinda look up and see that I'm still studying on the screen, so it kind of motivates them to keep studying and stay focused on what they're supposed to be doing.

Narrator: And while they do make money off the videos with YouTube ads, they say viral fame and fortune isn't why they're doing it. Keep in mind, these YouTubers are studying for careers outside of YouTube, like tax accountants and doctors. They say they're only using YouTube as a means to an end, that isn't becoming the next Logan Paul or Jenna Marbles.

The Man Sitting Next to Me says he even uses the money that he earns to give back to his community, charities, and nursing homes. You can find him on his channel interacting with his viewers, giving out gift cards for things like coffee and books to help study.

The Man Sitting Next to Me: There's a system in my channel where you can mark your attendance. Among those people, I randomly choose around 20 people a month, and I also host public events to give out gifts to people who study.

Narrator: His followers will often stick with him until they complete their exam and share his channel with friends.

The Man Sitting Next to Me: People revisit as long as they're studying for their exam. And once they pass, they let other people know, so they can also get motivated.

Narrator: But what happens when the tests are over for these YouTubers? What can their followers expect? Both Jamie and The Man Sitting Next to Me say they plan to keep filming themselves but perhaps with different content related to their careers.

The Man Sitting Next to Me: I promised the people in my community to continue gongbang for the rest of my life. So I'm gonna continue. But I will add more content like tax advice.

Narrator: No matter why you watch or when you watch, it all comes down to one thing: making sure you do the work and pass that test.

Big brands are getting smarter about how they advertise online— and they're starting to see better results.

Dick's Sporting Goods relied on automated merchandising on Facebook during the holiday season in 2018, leading to 100,000 incremental purchases and $10 million in incremental sales.

Facebook shared the results of Dick's campaign with Business Insider ahead of publishing a blog post to coincide with the retail conference Shoptalk about how retailers can create frictionless experiences for consumers.

The retailer used dynamic ads and store sales optimization, a product that Facebook describes as using machine learning to show ads to people who are most likely to buy in-store.

With the dynamic ads, Dick's showed specific products to people who were most likely to be interested in them. For example, mothers were shown ads with gifts for children.

"We grew up as a traditional retailer sending circulars out in direct mail pieces and doing television and radio," said James Keaney, director of digital marketing at Dick's Sporting Goods. "But Facebook is somewhere we can speak to consumers on all levels of the customer journey."

Dick's Sporting Goods initially started using Facebook to grow awareness, targeting a wide audience with a range of Facebook's ad products and ad creative that was brand-focused.

One of the dynamic ads that Dick's ran Dick's Sporting Goods As the retailer tried to get customers further down the path to purchase, the ads became more product-focused. It used units such as Carousel ads to show a range of products and Local Dynamic Product ads that showed where the nearest Dick's store was, for instance.

In the final stage, the brand used dynamic ads, which essentially retargeted people with ads for products they had already seen.

One of the biggest benefits Dick's got from Facebook was using its third-party data to broaden its reach, said Keaney.

"We're seeing a lot of success in using Facebook as a prospecting channel," he said. "We can cast a wide net and reach a lot of people that haven't shopped with us in a long time or a lapsed customer or someone that's never shopped with us before."

The retailer used Facebook conversion lift studies to gauge the ads' impact on people's propensity to shop at Dick's after seeing the ads.

During the holiday campaign, Dick's shifted its budget to focus on reaching people who had visited its site and retargeted them with ads designed to get them to purchase.

Such ad tracking that measures incremental returns on a given advertising campaign, using test and control groups, is growing more common among marketers. Airbnb and eBay have also run incrementality studies.

Read More: Big marketers like Airbnb and eBay are using Facebook to see which ads are a waste of money

For Facebook, these studies are a way to show its vast data can drive tangible business outcomes for advertisers, like sales. Brands, on the other hand, can use ad tracking to calculate lifts in ad performance and justify marketing spend on a given campaign or channel.

"Through testing, we found that customers who were previously exposed to our TV ad had comparable ROAS (return on ad spend) to the lookalike audience we had been using," said Keaney. "This supported us using Facebook as a full-funnel platform."

Juniper Networks on Monday announced that it plans to buy Mist Systems for $405 million.

Mist makes what it calls the first artificial intelligence-driven WiFi. Its flagship product delivers WiFi using high performance WiFi hardware, along with a cloud service.

The access points include some patented tech that helps the wireless network perform reliably. But it's the cloud service that makes Mist different. This service can analyze the network and do things like troubleshoot any problems with the help of an AI assistant named Maven.

It can also deliver location-aware apps, such that a business can grant access to apps or websites when the user is in the right place at the right time. For instance, when a traveler walks through the doors and arrives at the hotel's reception area, the WiFi can automatically pop up everything they need to check in.

Mist was founded in 2014, and launched its first product in the summer of 2016.

Its claim to fame was that its founders, Sujai Hajela and Bob Friday, were some of the people that helped Juniper's oldest rival Cisco become a Wi-Fi networking powerhouse.

Read: Microsoft and VMware are working on a partnership that won't make Amazon happy

Mist co-founders Sujai Hajela and Bob Friday Mist They led groups that built Cisco's internal WiFi products — were also responsible for one of Cisco's bigger acquisitions, buying business WiFi company Meraki for $1.2 billion in 2012.

Meraki's subscription-based service has since become t he model upon which Cisco is remaking itself, with a new focus on subscription-based cloud services.

At Cisco, the two execs knew they wanted to go out on their own and build a new kind of wireless network designed from the ground up with mobile devices in mind. But the key inspiration for the company came from Hajela's daughter, the founders told Business Insider back in 2016.

In 2014, before they tried to drum up a Series A venture capital investment, Hajela told his daughter about his newfangled Wi-Fi product idea, he said at the time. She told him, "Dad, that's too technical." She told him she just wanted a network that put whatever information she needed about wherever she was at her fingertips.

That idea, coupled with their backgrounds, helped them raised about $14 million in a Series A from Norwest and Lightspeed, on top of about a $500,000 seed round raised from Lightspeed. By the time they launched their product, they had 20 potential customers trying out their new take on WiFi.

Between 2016 and today they gained more customers including big names like Ikea, Okta, Raleys, PetSmart, Stanford and Juniper Networks. Their customers include two among the Fortune 10, seven of the top 40 retailers, a major facility at a large US healthcare system, a mobile carrier, and an airline.

Mist also raised $88 million, according to PitchBook, and was valued at at $246 million valuation as of their last raise in 2018. Investors included Mist's alma mater, Cisco Systems — meaning Cisco had to be aware and keeping an eye on Mist.

That also means that Juniper is paying a premium for Mist Systems of nearly $160 million more than its year-ago valuation. No doubt Juniper is hoping that Mist will be for it what Meraki was for Cisco: a way to sell more cloud services, with a business model built around recurring cloud subscription revenue.

This past Valentine's Day, Amazon stunned New York City by announcing it was withdrawing its plan to build its new Queens headquarters. The company's 14-month long search for a new home, which spanned all of North America and attracted wall-to-wall media coverage, ended unceremoniously that morning when it announced it would take its 40,000 jobs elsewhere.

This loss for New Yorkers is disappointing. This was the single biggest job creation opportunity in New York State history, projected to deliver close to $30 billion in tax revenue over the next quarter century, fortify the city's economy, and given tens of thousands of people new pathways to the middle class. New Yorkers were excited about these career ladders; a Siena poll published two days before the company backed out showed that 58 percent of New York voters approved of Amazon's headquarters, with the margin even wider in communities of color.

With the dust settling from Amazon's abrupt change of plans, New York is now taking stock of the current economic state of play. We are reorienting ourselves and asking hard questions. Are we going to be a city where tech companies can successfully grow? Where innovations are born? Where prosperity can be shared across all economic strata and backgrounds?

The answers to all these questions have to be "yes."

New York has no choice but to keep working to become the country's most dynamic innovation hub. The way we will do this is by embracing growth, debunking rumors that thwart progress, and seizing the power of our diverse population to build a model inclusive economy.

Read more: Amazon is opening a new grocery chain

New York's successful Amazon bid proves the city's tech star is rising. Our unparalleled talent pool boasts of 2.3 million residents with a bachelor's degree or higher. We are a proud bastion of diversity and are home to 3.3 million immigrants, a population larger than Chicago's. And, after decades of fits and starts, we are ranked the number one tech city in the world. Moreover, the bid showed the city is committed to building a new commercial hub in Long Island City and that our leadership can execute bold ideas on seemingly impossible timelines.

But all this won't matter if innovation companies feel as though their growth will be stifled here. We as a city need to continue to support expansions that generate good-paying jobs, whether it's Google spending more than $1 billion to build a new campus on the Far West Side or Zola's headcount tripling since 2017.

This also means the majority of New Yorkers who support such expansions must stand up and speak out when there is a lack of honest dialogue about the facts, as was the case during the Amazon process. We continue to see the effects of the misinformation campaign today as people share ideas on how to spend the $3 billion in subsidies Amazon was slated to receive. This was the estimated discount on the $30 billion of new tax revenue the city and state stood to collect. The next time an unprecedented economic opportunity arises, we will work even harder to ensure every New Yorker understands the nuances of the opportunity.

Perhaps most importantly, New York needs to continue differentiating itself from Silicon Valley by leaning into our greatest asset: our diversity.

While the tech industry has been excoriated for its homogeneity, New York's ecosystem is doing far better than its peer cities. Nearly 50 percent of tech workers are foreign born and roughly 40 percent of industry jobs are held by women.

Read more: From new iPhones to foldable phones, these are the top smartphones we can't wait to see in 2019

But we need to continue raising the bar. At a time when 44 percent of these roles don't require a college degree, there is no good reason why tech jobs shouldn't be widely accessible. Now more than ever, we must connect New Yorkers with the skills they need to participate in the 21st century economy.

Back in 2017, no one thought New York had a shot of landing the new Amazon headquarters. Not only did we prove them wrong, but we finally proved New York is a formidable player in the tech space. And I believe history will show that the city emerged from this moment with even more tech companies, more innovations, and more prosperity for all New Yorkers.

James Patchett is the President and CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

The meal-kit maker Blue Apron tumbled 12.06% to $0.95 a share Monday, nearly a week after an investor dumped the stock at a discount.*

On Wednesday, Bessemer Venture Partners sold a block of 15 million shares at a $1.15 apiece, representing an 11% discount to the prior day's closing price, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. Shares have since tanked 26%. 

Blue Apron has had a rough time as a publicly traded company since its June 2017 initial public offering. First, Amazon announced plans to buy Whole Foods, causing Blue Apron to slash its IPO range to between $10 and $11 a share, down from $15 to $17, as investors worried about the competition such a deal would bring. Then, less than a month later, Amazon rolled out its own meal-kit business. 

And in August of last year, Blue Apron announced it was having trouble keeping customers. The meal-kit maker said its total number of customers plunged by 24% in the second quarter versus the prior year and that revenue per customer dipped by $1 to $250.

After bottoming at $0.65 apiece in December, shares started to recover — up as much as 145% — following a December 20 announcement that Blue Apron was partnering with Weight Watchers to provide healthier home cooking, as well as a forecast of achieving profitability since 2019 sent out during its quarterly earnings release on January 31. 

Blue Apron was down 8% so far this year.

*This story has been updated to reflect that Bessemer Venture Partners — and not Blue Apron — sold the shares.

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The National Enquirer published its story about Jeff Bezos' affair as a favor to investors from Saudi Arabia, Bezos' investigator is planning to claim in an upcoming report, Vanity Fair said Monday.

Bezos asked Gavin de Becker, his longtime security chief, to look into the leak of his text messages with Lauren Sanchez and and information about his affair with the former television anchor. In a post on Medium last month, Bezos hinted that there was a link between Saudi Arabia and the Enquirer's coverage of him.

American Media, the Enquirer's parent company, has a "crushing" amount of debt and the Enquirer's circulation has been plummeting, Vanity Fair said. The company raised $460 million to refinance its debt in January. De Becker's apparent theory is that the Enquirer ran the story on Bezos to return a favor to its Saudi backer, according to Vanity Fair.

In his Medium post, Bezos implicitly alleged that Saudi Arabia hates him because he owns the Washington Post, which has published stories critical of the country following the murder of Post journalist and Saudi citizen Jamal Khashoggi.

Representatives for Bezos and for American Media didn't immediately respond emailed requests for comment about the Vanity Fair report.

Read the full report in Vanity Fair.

Viruses and other kinds of malicious software - collectively known as malware - hang like a dark cloud over the world of technology.

Security experts warn about the risk of malware on PCs and Macs, and most people run some kind of antivirus software on their desktop or laptop for protection.

But what about iPhones? Are they also at risk? Here's what you need to know.

In general, there's little to no risk

In short, no. For the vast majority of everyday users, there's virtually no risk of viruses on the iPhone. "In the consumer space, there is so little risk as to be none," said Marc Rogers, executive director of cybersecurity at Okta. Rogers was the white hat hacker who was one of the first to hack Apple's Touch ID, and he is one of the technical advisors for the TV show, "Mr. Robot."

Amit Serper, the head of security research at Cybereason, agrees. He said the low risk is a consequence of the fact that "Apple has a very closed security model for their iOS that takes a walled garden approach."

The so-called walled garden, another term for Apple's approach to requiring third-party apps and services to be specifically approved and vetted through the App Store, effectively prevents malware from taking control of the entire phone. Another factor working to the iPhone's advantage: "Apple has avoided OS fragmentation which is the curse of Android," Rogers said.

Android is a much more fertile environment for malware because there are so many versions of the OS in the wild, and it's the carriers - not Google - that get to decide when or even if the operating system is patched with security updates on specific model phones. In contrast, Apple device owners update their operating system software far more frequently, and Apple doesn't have to deal with the same amount of OS fragmentation found within the Android ecosystem.

No device is invulnerable

That said, a more thorough answer to the question of whether iPhones can get viruses is that "it depends," though the number of potential viruses that could affect an iOS-based device is minuscule compared to the tens if not hundreds of thousands of known viruses for PCs.

Still, there are active threats in the wild today. As Rogers explained, the economic value of these exploits is so great that they are generally only leveraged by nation states against very high-value targets.

"It's no surprise that nation states have been looking for ways to crack mobile devices for years," Rogers said. "You'll remember that after the San Bernardino shooting, Apple refused to open devices. It was a testament to Apple's security, but it also meant that governments had to come up with their own way in."

You should take sensible precautions

Though the risk to everyday users is quite low, you should still take sensible precautions - and thankfully, it requires almost no effort.

It should go without saying, but do not "jailbreak" your phone. Jailbreaking is an unauthorized change to iOS that allows you to install apps that aren't found in the official Apple App Store.

But moreover, the best defense against malware is to "keep your iPhone updated to the latest version," Serper said. To make sure you have the most current OS update installed, do this:

Rogers had some other tips for avoiding malware: "Set strong passwords on your phone and online services. Only install apps you trust, and don't click on unknown links in email."

The future of iPhone malware

It's reasonable to assume that Apple will continue to update iOS as hackers play cat and mouse with newly discovered vulnerabilities. Steve Grobman, chief technical officer at antivirus company McAfee, said you should also be aware of other risks, like social exploits - in which criminals pose as a business to get you to reveal passwords and other personal information. This could be done over the phone or via email, which commonly referred to as a "phishing."

"Malware is just one of many security concerns for mobile devices," Grobman said. "iOS had a significant Bluetooth vulnerability in 2018, and we recently saw security problem with FaceTime. Cybercriminals have even set up rogue Wi-fi networks in public places. Viruses are just one way in." (Apple has since fixed the vulnerability found in group FaceTime calls.)

If you take simple precautions and stay vigilant, you should be safe. But as Serper said, "I'm not a fan of the popular narrative that iPhone are impervious to malware. Anything with a CPU is vulnerable."