Shopping around for a pair of Bluetooth headphones makes you consider a few criteria, like their sound quality, comfort, design, noise cancelling, and price tag.

Apart from all of the above, if there's one feature that I'd look out for in my own pair of Bluetooth headphones, it's the ability to connect to at least two different devices at the same time for that extra little bit of convenience. It's a feature called "Multipoint."

That's not to say you or I want to listen to two streams of music at the same time. That would be silly.

Rather, a pair of Bluetooth headphones that can connect to two or more devices at the same time — like a smartphone and a computer — lets you switch between those devices more easily than headphones that can only connect to a single device at a time.

It's especially useful if you do often switch between devices during the day, and it also lets you listen to music from your computer and take a call through your headphones from your smartphone at the same time. Super handy, right?

These are the Nuraphones from young audio company Nura. They don't quite have Multipoint, but they do let you switch between devices without having to actively disconnect from another device. Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider

Headphones that don't have Multipoint at all actively need you to disconnect from one device before connecting to another, which isn't especially seamless.

To be clear, fiddling around with a wire or your Bluetooth settings on a smartphone or computer isn't a horrible ordeal. But just knowing that there's an easier, faster, and more convenient feature out there that doesn't add much — if anything — to the price tag on a pair of headphones makes it a must-have on any Bluetooth headphones I'm considering buying.

The Bose QC35 II have the best implementation of Multipoint that I've used so far. They offer totally seamless switching between two different devices. Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider

Weirdly enough, some headphone makers don't always make it clear whether their headphones have Multipoint. Bose, for example, only mention it in the FAQs for its QC35 II headphones. And yet, it's the one feature that pushed me to recommend the Bose QC35 II versus the otherwise-fantastic Bose-killer Sony WH-1000 XM3 headphones.

Indeed, the Bose QC 35 II have the best implementation of Multipoint that I've tried so far. There are surely other headphones with totally seamless connections between multiple devices, but I simply haven't reviewed them yet.

Alice Moon once reviewed marijuana edibles for a living. So when a doctor told the 29-year-old Californian that she had to stop using cannabis because of a newly discovered syndrome, it threatened to turn her world upside down.

Before giving up the drug, she wanted one last hurrah. She'd end five years of daily weed use on a high note, she thought.

At a special dinner that evening, Moon ate a five-course cannabis-infused meal prepared by the award-winning chef Holden Jagger. Between dishes, Moon and the other guests were encouraged to take hits of an assortment of joints, hand-selected to complement the flavors in each dish.

Before the meal began, Moon joked with Jagger that it would be her last supper.

A few hours later, she was at home vomiting uncontrollably. She'd spend the next few days in the hospital.

Moon had previously been diagnosed with a condition called cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, or CHS.

Very little is known about CHS, which was first identified in the early 2000s. The recognized hallmarks of the condition are heavy, consistent marijuana use, violent vomiting and nausea, and a tendency to use extremely hot baths or showers for relief.

Initially believed to be very rare, CHS has increasingly cropped up in medical journals and emergency rooms (ERs) around the world. There is no known cure. The only long-lasting treatment is quitting cannabis completely.

The condition may be preventable, however, which is one reason doctors and researchers say they want more people to know about it. Research suggests that more adults are using marijuana in recent years; whether that has to do with more states legalizing the plant remains unclear.

Cannabis isn't one drug. It is a plant with hundreds of compounds. Each of them could have a unique effect on our health. But we are only just beginning to scratch the surface of what those effects look like because the drug was widely illegal for decades, experts say.

Marijuana's benefits could include relief for the symptoms linked with serious health conditions, from pain and nausea to digestive issues and seizures. At the same time, its risks might include addiction, reduced cognitive performance, and CHS.

"We must recognize that the full range of potential adverse health consequences from cannabis consumption are not fully understood," Dr. Nora Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, wrote recently in a major medical journal.

CHS could affect millions of Americans, but we don't know much about it

In interviews that Business Insider conducted with doctors, researchers, and more than half a dozen people who have symptoms of CHS, people painted a picture of a severe but still mysterious illness. Some researchers estimate it could affect millions of Americans; others hope it is less common.

Because marijuana remains illegal on the federal level and the condition was only recently identified, exact numbers on how many people have CHS are difficult to pin down.

The syndrome appears to affect people who consume marijuana heavily across all backgrounds, ages, and genders. Most say they've consumed cannabis several times a day for between two years and up to multiple decades. They describe a condition that appears suddenly and without warning, sometimes hours after marijuana consumption.

For people who've been using marijuana for years, it's as if a switch gets flipped. After the first occurrence, every time someone with CHS uses cannabis, they risk becoming violently ill. Using pesticide-free marijuana, edibles, concentrates, CBD-only products, or vape pens doesn't make a difference, they say.

In some cases, as with other chronic conditions, CHS appears to cause flare-ups that are difficult to predict. Patients can sometimes go weeks without symptoms and then suddenly suffer a particularly intense bout.

Many people with the condition end up in emergency rooms or urgent-care centers, and some are admitted to the hospital. Complications can range from mild to severe and include problems such as infections, kidney failure, and significant weight loss.

If left untreated, CHS can be deadly.

'People don't relate it to marijuana'

Moon in 2017, before she was diagnosed with CHS. Courtesy of Alice Moon Initially, Moon was hesitant to believe that her illness was related to marijuana.

She'd been using the drug for half a decade with no symptoms. To make things more perplexing, she had first turned to cannabis as a way to relieve occasional pain and nausea linked to things such as menstrual cramps. Doctors say Moon isn't alone in her initial disbelief.

"People don't relate it to marijuana because they've been smoking for decades" with no recognizable issues, said Dr. Joseph Habboushe, an associate professor at New York University Langone Health and the lead author of a study on the condition published last year.

Moon had been using various forms of marijuana (edibles, concentrates in vape pens, and several strains of the flower form) daily for about three years. Then one day in 2016, several hours after smoking part of a joint, she ended up bowled over with nausea.

After that, she'd get sick to her stomach roughly every month or so. Thinking that alcohol might have something to do with her symptoms, she quit. It didn't help.

Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

She tried improving her diet. Nothing worked. Eventually, she wound up in an urgent-care center, where doctors diagnosed her with heartburn.

Moon's symptoms continued for more than a year. The only thing that helped was spending hours in a steaming-hot bath.

In 2018, things took a turn. She was throwing up every week. A specialist she saw around that time said it could be CHS and told her the cure was to quit using marijuana. She didn't want to believe it, but she decided she needed to try quitting.

But before giving it up, she went to one last cannabis event. Moon described it as her last supper.

Moon spent that evening — and most of the next two weeks — in the bathroom. Every day, her vomiting was so bad she felt like she could barely come up for air. One morning, she was so weak that she passed out on her front lawn. At that point, she'd had enough.

'I was in denial. I didn't want to believe it was true.'

She quit marijuana completely for three months and was symptom-free. Then she tried CBD, hoping there was some form of cannabis she could enjoy. One day she took 200 milligrams of CBD in capsules. That night, she ended up in the ER.

Within about a week in the ER, Moon developed three ulcers, a hernia, and an infection. She dropped 12 pounds from her already slender frame, missed Christmas with her family and New Year's with her friends.

"I looked like I was dying," she recalled.

In Colorado, CHS was a leading driver of ER visits between 2012 and 2016. Leonard Ortiz/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images

In Colorado, where marijuana is legal, CHS was recently identified as one of the leading drivers of emergency-room visits tied to cannabis.

For a study published last month, researchers looked at ER visits between 2012 and 2016 and concluded that stomach issues such as nausea and vomiting were the main cause of the trips, ahead of reasons such as intoxication and paranoia. Of the stomach issues, CHS was the most commonly reported problem.

"CHS is certainly not very rare," Dr. Andrew Monte, the lead author on the study and an associate professor of emergency medicine at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, told Business Insider. "We see it absolutely every week in our ER."

For Moon, it took a CT scan, an MRI, and an endoscopy to rule out other issues before she took her doctor's initial diagnosis to heart: She had CHS, and she had to stop consuming marijuana.

"I was in denial. I didn't want to believe it was true," she said. "Cannabis is my world. It's my whole life."

Hot showers give temporary relief, but the only cure is quitting

Researchers first began describing the symptoms of CHS in the early 2000s, but it was not until recently that doctors in different hospitals around the world began defining it as a unique syndrome. Initially, it was often lumped in with other digestive conditions that share some of its features, such as cyclic vomiting.

It is still unknown how many cases of cyclic vomiting could actually be CHS, Habboushe said. Conversely, it's also possible that some cases of CHS are something else entirely. Complicating things further, some people initially turn to marijuana to help with their nausea and vomiting. (The federally approved THC-containing drug Marinol is prescribed to treat the nausea and vomiting caused by treatments for cancer and AIDS.)

One of CHS's most distinctive features is the tendency for patients to use hot baths or showers to temporarily relieve the symptoms. Other standard remedies for nausea, such as anti-nausea medications, don't work.

Habboushe believes heat helps because of something to do with the way CHS interferes with the body's natural temperature and pain controls. For some reason, hot water signals to the body that everything is okay, and the pain and nausea from CHS subside for at least as long as the water remains scalding.

"It was this need to be swaddled," Susie Frederick, a 30-year-old Portland resident who was told she might have CHS last year, told Business Insider. "That feeling of needing comfort all over."

Frederick asked Business Insider not to use her real name because she works in the cannabis industry.

Experts say that as a more comprehensive picture of cannabis' potential health benefits is beginning to take shape, a complete understanding of its risks is also coming to light. Associated Press

Frederick is unsure whether her symptoms are CHS or something else, perhaps something linked to hormonal changes. She has a history of other digestive issues, head injuries, and problems with her gallbladder, which complicate things.

Frederick said her episodes of vomiting and nausea tend to happen when she's on her menstrual cycle and when she's traveling or dealing with added stress. She had her first episode after she got a small upper-arm birth-control implant, which releases the hormone progestin to prevent pregnancy.

"It's hard for me to say distinctly that CHS is actually what's happening. It does mimic quite a few other things," Frederick said.

The nausea linked to CHS appears to be stronger and more intense than the typical nausea linked to things such as motion sickness or pregnancy, according to patients.

Barry Howard, a 28-year-old chef in Birmingham, Alabama, said what struck him most about his CHS was the feeling that he urgently needed to rid his body of something, such as a toxin. Business Insider isn't using Howard's real name because he lives in a state where cannabis is illegal.

"It's not a normal, 'Oh, I'm sick to my stomach' feeling. You feel like your insides want to come out — like you're trying to push something out," Howard told Business Insider.

Brian Smith died of dehydration after struggling with CHS for months

If someone with CHS keeps using marijuana, severe complications may unfold. In one case, a 17-year-old in Indiana named Brian Smith died after struggling with CHS for more than six months.

Regina Denney, Smith's mother, told Business Insider that Smith was first diagnosed with CHS in an emergency room in spring 2018. On the way to the hospital, he had been vomiting so badly that she had to pull to the side of the road about five times.

At the ER, doctors told Denney that her son was severely dehydrated and warned her that his kidneys, the body's natural toxin-filtering system, were on the verge of shutting down.

At first, Denney thought his symptoms were related to the heartburn he'd been diagnosed with at age 10, which they'd been treating for years with doctor-prescribed medications such as Prilosec.

After putting Smith on fluids and running a series of tests, they decided to keep him in the hospital overnight.

While waiting on the results, a doctor asked Smith if he smoked marijuana. When he said yes, the doctor said she thought he had CHS. The doctor said CHS is caused by cannabis, and she told Smith the cure was quitting. She didn't say it could be deadly.

'All we'd ever heard about marijuana were the benefits'

Like others diagnosed with CHS, Smith was somewhat doubtful. He'd been using marijuana for years without problems. Nevertheless, he agreed to stop until he saw a specialist.

"All we'd ever heard about marijuana were the benefits," said Denney. "How it helps nausea, how it helps appetite."

The specialist, a gastroenterologist, confirmed the ER doctor's diagnosis a few days later and didn't run any additional tests. He said Smith had CHS and needed to stop using marijuana. Although Smith and his mom still had their doubts, she urged him to stop smoking.

The next two months were excruciating for Denney. Although her son had stopped vomiting — at least as far as she could tell — he continued to lose weight. He also occasionally complained about nausea. At first, she assumed it was related to his heartburn. But one day when she noticed his shoulder blades poking out from the thin cotton of his T-shirt, she began to suspect he was using cannabis again.

"He was skin and bones," Denney said.

Then one night, Denney got up in the middle of the evening to find her son on the couch in the living room holding his stomach. He said he didn't feel good. The next morning, he started vomiting violently. Between sprints to the bathroom, where she'd bend over to hold a bucket under her son and rub his back, and the kitchen, where she was making dinner for her infant grandson, Denney called the doctor.

They'd send some medicine for her to pick up at the pharmacy, they said. But when Denney picked it up, it was the same anti-nausea medication he'd gotten at the ER. After she told the doctor that the medicine they ordered didn't work, they said they would order something else. In the meantime, she went back home.

All of a sudden, at home, Smith collapsed. He grabbed his back, near his kidneys, then his chest. He told his mom he couldn't breathe. Denney immediately called 911.

By the time the paramedics arrived, Smith had stopped breathing. They tried CPR. Smith was pronounced dead half an hour later.

On her birthday, Denney received her son's coroner's report. When Smith died, he had been severely dehydrated, according to the document. The cause of death on the report, which Business Insider viewed, read "dehydration due to CHS."

Denney couldn't believe it.

"I said marijuana couldn't have killed my son. It doesn't take people's lives," she said.

When Denney was cleaning out her car a few days after Smith died, she pulled her son's backpack from the backseat. Inside, she found an unsealed baggy of edibles that looked like candy.

"I have to do something to make people aware," Denney said. "I don't want anybody to have to go through this. No parent should have to lose a child, especially to something like this."

'People say I work for the feds'

Some people with CHS are hesitant to talk about the condition out of fear that they'll be viewed as opposed to marijuana and efforts to legalize the plant. Moon and Howard said they got significant pushback from friends, family members, and other people in their communities when they told them about CHS.

After Moon shared an article that someone recently published about her experience with the condition, her inbox was flooded with hate mail.

"People say I work for the feds. People say I should leave the industry," she said.

Clinicians and researchers are studying marijuana compounds for their potential ability to treat dozens of ailments, and there's already a cannabis-based drug to curb epileptic seizures.

But, at the same time, as research into cannabis' potential benefits continues, a dicey marijuana-as-a-cure-all trend has sprouted. As they seek to take advantage of the growing public perception of cannabis as universally beneficial, hundreds of companies are hawking everything from CBD-based lotions and drinks to cupcakes and candy — many of them without research to support their claims.

At the same time that solid research into cannabis' potential benefits continues, a dicey marijuana-as-a-cure-all trend has sprouted. By Chloe/Leslie Kirchoff

People such as Moon, Frederick, and Howard — people who turned to marijuana because they said it helped with other health issues — appear to be caught in the middle. Frederick began using cannabis for sports injuries and said she also used it to help her transition off a high dose of antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications.

Howard first turned to marijuana because he thought its therapeutic qualities outweighed its risks.

Howard, who was working toward a college scholarship, had played soccer competitively in high school when he developed a compression fracture in his lower back. The injury left him with lifelong pain. Wanting to avoid opioid painkillers out of concern he'd become addicted, he turned to cannabis.

"If anything, I thought [marijuana] was helping what I was going through," Howard said.

'This doesn't mean marijuana is bad or good'

Mario De Fina / NurPhoto via Getty Images Monte and Habboushe emphasized that most CHS patients are using very high levels of marijuana — far higher than what they'd consider standard or "recreational" use. To them, that suggests that while CHS is severe, it may also be avoidable with moderate cannabis consumption.

"Using in moderation is probably the best answer to help people avoid this," Monte said. "People who are using 10 times a day are likely at a high risk. Even just daily use is probably too much, unless you're doing it for medical purposes."

Despite her struggle with CHS, Moon hasn't left the marijuana industry. She no longer reviews cannabis products, having given up any form of the drug, including CBD. Today, she works for multiple marijuana companies and serves as the head of public relations for a cannabis tech startup called Paragon.

"I'm passionate about cannabis, and I believe in its healing properties. But I also recognize that maybe I've had too much," she said.

Since her son Brian's death, Regina Denney has created her own Facebook group in his memory. She hopes to raise awareness about CHS.

"My goal is to bring something positive out of the heartbreak," she said.

When Menlo Ventures partner Shawn Carolan first considered investing in Uber, circa 2011, there was reason to be skeptical. For one thing, the deal would value the startup at a $290 million pre-money valuation — pricey for a two-year-old company.

His attitude changed when he pulled up the app and ordered his first Uber from the second floor of his building. He says the car was waiting for him by the time he walked downstairs. That's when it clicked.

"[Uber] was the perfect customer experience, similar to what Google did for search," said Carolan. "They had a viral growth engine and a product people were willing to pay for. You never see that."

And so, Menlo ultimately decided to invest: That same year, Carolan co-led Uber's $32 million Series B round of funding that same year. Uber would ultimately raise over $24 billion in venture capital and debt financing.

Fast forward to this week, when Uber filed the regulatory documents to go public ahead of its long-awaited initial public offering, which could value the company as high as $100 billion. Needless to say, Menlo Ventures stands to make a significant return on what Carolan had thought was a pricey investment.

Read:Here's who's getting rich on Uber's massive IPO

Now, Carolan says, Uber has an even brighter future ahead — assuming it continues to execute.

"In the end it all comes down to good old fashioned execution. You have to keep making the business better and keep finding the right talent to build the best product. You invest in the areas that build the business and divest from the areas that don't," said Carolan.

Kalanick's contribution, and the rise of Khosrowshahi

Carolan says Uber's growth may not have been possible without founder Travis Kalanick, who was ousted as CEO in 2017, but remains the company's largest individual stakeholder even after selling $1.4 billion worth of his shares in the company to Softbank.

Carolan says it's "undeniable" that Kalanick was an incredible entrepreneur, but the skills and values that helped him build the business didn't always hold up as it scaled — leading to a string of controversies that shook up the company and, by the company's own admission, damaged the Uber brand.

"I really admired the guy," Carolan said. "Many of the ways he changed the way transportation was working, especially that quickly, needed his skill set. Obviously, it had downsides as well in the business and the culture. There was a lack of sensitivity in people working at the company. The company values around hustle were not being held in check."

Uber founder Travis Kalanick Getty

Carolan said the decision as a major investor to support the ousting of Kalanick was "sad," but that ultimately, stakeholders knew Dara Khosrowshahi was a better fit to lead the company as it scaled. According to Carolan, it was Khosrowshahi's humility and vulnerability that best indicated his ability to lead the company past its troubles.

Read More:Uber gave CEO Dara Khosrowshahi $45 million in total pay last year, but it paid its COO even more

"I deeply admire Dara. I felt the difference between him and Travis in Dara's letter [in the filing]. There was a ton of vulnerability, and that language is so powerful coming from leaders of companies like this. That's real. Nobody's perfect, and he's the type of person I know will be working really hard and trying his best to figure out how the system should work," Carolan said.

Business moves

As Uber continues to meet with potential investors ahead of its IPO, Carolan thinks the company's investment in long-term lines of business will pay off.

He points to the success of UberEats, one of the fastest growing parts of Uber's business, as evidence that the company is willing to take big bets before achieving profitability. He also points to Uber's acquisition of Jump, a motorized bike startup that Menlo Ventures had previously invested in, as evidence of a longer term strategy around chasing new, often eco-friendlier, modes of transportation.

"One thing that was always striking was the simplicity of the value [proposition] at the heart of these truly incredible businesses. [Uber]'s is getting from point A to point B, and that's in the context of the company getting from point A to point B, but also the value proposition for the planet."

The 2019 Shanghai motor show — officially called Auto Shanghai 2019— opens to the public on April 18 and runs through April 25.

We typically expect to see some buzz around a few new luxury vehicles from western carmakers, plus an effort by Chinese brands to showcase their wares. In recent years, electric vehicles have also been a feature of the motor show, which alternates between Shanghai and Beijing and is a showcase for the world's biggest car market.

For 2019, California's Karma Automotive is planning a splashy rollout of three vehicles and concepts, while Audi is bringing two electrified concepts. Lexus and China's Geely, meanwhile, are thinking ... minivans. Don't scoff! These vehicles are popular in the Middle Kingdom

Take a closer look at some of the vehicles we've got our eyes on for next week.

It's been a tough 30 days for Boeing. In the month since the tragic crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302, the American aviation giant has seen its hot-selling 737 Max airliner grounded, its stock plunged 10%, and its reputation tarnished by the scandal.

Boeing admitted last week that a faulty sensor triggered the 737 Max's Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System or MCAS on both the Lion Air Flight JT610 and the Ethiopian Airlines plane. The system's activation precipitated nose dives that likely led to both crashes.

"The 737 Max grounding and what we are learning from it shows that this is not the typical airplane accident we've seen in the past and this is not the typical airplane grounding we've seen recently," Henry Harteveldt, travel industry analyst and founder of Atmosphere Research Group, told Business Insider. "This is a very serious problem for Boeing and a big problem for the airline operators and a problem I don't think will be easy to fix."

Read more:Boeing's reputation has been stained by the 737 Max, and it's going to have to fight to convince people the plane is safe.

This week, Boeing investors filed a proposed class-action lawsuit in Chicago alleging the company defrauded its shareholders by failing to reveal potential safety shortcomings of the 737 Max airliner after two fatal crashes in five months.

Lawyers representing the 346 victims of Lion Air Flight JT610 and the Ethiopian crash have filed multiple suits against Boeing.

The Boeing 737 Max family of jets. Boeing At the same time, the airlines whose 371 grounded 737 Max are sitting in storage collecting dust have initiated compensation proceedings to collect damages from Boeing.

Boeing's troubles are mounting and things are going to get worse before it gets better.

Design trouble

The US Department of Transportation has commenced an audit on how the Federal Aviation Administration managed to certify the 737 Max to fly with substantial control issues.

Boeing and the FAA's cozy relationship has come under scrutiny from members of Congress.

Certification issues aside, Boeing will have to answer for the design flaw that is at the heart of the controversy surrounding the 737 Max in the coming weeks and months.

To fit the Max's larger, more fuel-efficient engines, Boeing had to position the engine farther forward and up. This change disrupted the plane's center of gravity and caused the Max to have a tendency to tip its nose upward during flight, increasing the likelihood of a stall. In response, Boeing created MCAS as a software fix to automatically counteract that tendency and point the nose of the plane down when the plane's angle-of-attack (AOA) sensor triggers a warning.

"MCAS was a band-aid that infected the wound instead of healing it," Ross Aimer, an aviation consultant and former Boeing 787 training captain, said in an interview with Business Insider.

The Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 that crashed on March 10.Wikimedia Commons/LLBG Spotter/ CC BY-SA 2.0,One of the most confounding issues with MCAS is that it can be triggered by a single AOA sensor even though there are two on the plane. This is a departure from Boeing standard operating procedure which normally calls for a dual point of failure.

"Since you have two (AOA sensors) in order to get certified, why not use them, I just don't understand it," aviation consultant and former aeronautical engineer Robert Mann told Business Insider in an interview.

"From a design perspective, it doesn't make any sense."

Pilots and passengers don't trust the 737 Max

One of the 737 Max's greatest selling points was the idea that it could be easily integrated into existing 737 fleets with minimal additional training. Since the 737 has long been one of the most dependable airplanes in the world, this congruency helped make the 737 Max a hot seller.

However, the 737 Max is a very different plane from the 737NG it replaced. It has new engines mounted in a different location, redesigned wings, and new avionics. These are all things the pilots knew about.

What they didn't know was that MCAS had been installed on the 737 Max. Pilots found out about MCAS being on the plane after the Lion Air 737 Max crash into the Java Sea on October 28.

The cockpit of Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in June 2018. REUTERS/Abhirup Roy "Boeing in the past always told the pilots and airlines exactly what was on those airplanes," Aimer said. "I have been a Boeing pilot for over 50 years and have loved their products, but they have lost my trust."

Aimer, who is the CEO of Aviation Consulting Experts and a retired United Airlines Captain, feels like Boeing put money ahead of the well-being of passengers and crew.

"Boeing kept that from us purely because they didn't want to bother the airlines with some extra training," he told us. "This was purely a monetary decision on behalf of Boeing and the airlines themselves to keep this away from the pilots and the result was disastrous."

And then there's the traveling public.

A poll conducted by Business Insider a week after the Ethiopian crash showed that 53% of American adults would not want to fly on a Boeing 737 Max even after the FAA clears the aircraft for service.

"The 737 Max has stained Boeing's brand reputation," Harteveldt said. "This can't be denied."

Business Insider reached out to Boeing for comment on the matter. A Boeing spokesperson noted that company CEO Dennis Muilenberg made a speech on Thursday touting the need to regain public trust.

"We know every person who steps aboard one of our airplanes places their trust in us," Muilenburg said in the speech. "We'll do everything possible to earn and re-earn that trust and confidence from our airline customers and the flying public in the weeks and months ahead."

"We take the responsibility to build and deliver airplanes that are safe to fly and can be safely flown by every single one of the professional and dedicated pilots all around the world," the Boeing CEO added.

Boeing might need a replacement for the 737 Max

The Boeing 737 Max is the fastest-selling plane in Boeing history. It's the latest generation of Boeing's money-making 737 family of airliners.

The various versions of the Boeing 737 currently account for 80% of Boeing's 5,800-plane order backlog.

It's going to be an uphill battle for Boeing to restore confidence in the grounded jet.

"You can't hide the 737, you've got thousands of them of all types flying worldwide today for airlines," Harteveldt said.

As a result, you can't simply rebrand the plane.

Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are parked on the tarmac after being grounded, at the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California. MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images "People are going to see right through that," he added.

Therefore, Boeing is going to either have to convince people to fly the 737 Max or come up with a replacement.

"Yes, (737 Max) is the last iteration," Teal Group aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia told Business Insider in March. "They ran out of steam in terms of range and capacity."

That means whichever aircraft Boeing chooses to replace the 737 will be a clean sheet design.

It's not all gloom and doom for Boeing

The situation Boeing finds itself in is not insurmountable.

Aimer said Boeing's engineering team should be able to come up with an effective fix for the 737 Max.

"They can fix this issue, right now they need to be honest and forthright and try to fix this issue to the best of their ability," Aimer said.

Stephen Brashear / Stringer / Getty Images Harteveldt said Boeing can convince passengers to feel safe in the 737 Max.

"Boeing has to become a bit more of a consumer-facing organization to reinstill confidence in its brand so that the saying 'if it's not Boeing I'm not going' can be said again with pride by travelers," the analyst said.

On the other hand, Mann believes Boeing won't have to do much to get people to return to the 737 Max.

"Once the airplane routinely does what it's designed to do and safely, all of this goes away. And it's crass to say it, but the fact is the traveling public has a very short memory," Mann said.

If you have the misfortune to follow or even periodically stumble across the discussion of Tesla impending bankruptcy on Twitter (#TSLAQ) or elsewhere on the internet, you're aware that the company is now often being compared to Theranos, the onetime $9-billion blood-testing startup that's now worth nothing and whose former CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, is currently facing criminal charges.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has poured fuel on the #TSLAQ fire by running afoul of the Securities and Exchange Commission, just as Holmes did (she settled and was barred from serving as an officer of a public company for a decade). Tesla also added Oracle's Larry Ellison to its board — and Ellison was a Theranos investor.

As l'affaire Theranos has broken out of the business press. John Carreyou's Bad Blood, his account of Holmes' and Theranos' rise and fall, is a bestseller, with a film starring Jennifer Lawrence as Holmes in development. An HBO documentary premiered last month. A general climate of skepticism about Silicon Valley's "save the world" ambitions has also emerged in the aftermath of Facebook's scandals.

Read more: The biggest question for Tesla is whether the company can make steady profits on its cars

This has all undermined the reality of Tesla and replaced it with a sort of wildly speculative canvas onto which assorted conspiracies and malfeasances can be painted. At base, Tesla is a relatively small auto company that, remarkably, has come to dominate the mostly abandoned electric-car business (there are more than a billion cars on the road worldwide, and almost none of them run on electricity).

Outlandish enthusiasm on Wall Street for the future of electric cars — coupled with too much money sloshing around in the economy thanks to post-financial crisis government action — has minted a stupid-high stock price for Tesla and intensified the focus on the company. Tesla itself has struggled mightily with its manufacturing fundamentals, becoming an outlier in an industry that easily built over 17 million cars and light trucks in the US alone last year, while Tesla managed 250,000.

Looks bad, right? But is it Theranos bad? Hardly. Here's why:

Long before Steve Jobs famously introduced the iPhone in 2007, which he described as being "an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator" all in one, Apple was clearly experimenting with ways to combine the elements of phones and computers.

That's evidenced by a new video of an unreleased Apple device called the Wizzy Active Lifestyle Telephone, or W.A.L.T, which prominent tech blogger Sonny Dickson published on April 9. Although it's one of Apple's lesser-known devices and was never released to the public, the prototype still managed to sell for $8,000 on eBay in 2012.

While the W.A.L.T. wasn't meant to be a mobile device like the iPhone, it does include many familiar features that were popularized by the modern smartphone and other early mobile devices.

It supports touch input, includes features like an address book, and appears to have been designed with enterprise-oriented use cases in mind. The video shows how the W.A.L.T. could be used to send faxes and manage bank accounts, for example, and it ran on Apple's Mac System 6 operating system, Dickson notes.

Check out the video in full below.

Silicon Valley's relationship with an undemocratic regime that has a troubling human rights record is in the spotlight.

President Donald Trump has spoken out about it. Lawmakers are debating ways to stop the flow of money and data between the two.

The adversary in this cross-border drama is China, which has raised alarm bells in the US as it bulks up its homegrown tech industry and arouses suspicion of spying and influence.

However, there's much less fuss about the cozy ties between another repressive foreign power and Silicon Valley.

Saudi Arabia's presence in Silicon Valley is greater than it's ever been.

That became especially clear on Thursday when Uber filed its IPO paperwork. We learned from the S-1 filing that the kingdom's Public Investment Fund owns 5.2% of the ride-sharing company.

The figure might actually under-count Saudi Arabia's influence within Uber. Softbank, the Japanese tech conglomerate, owns a 16.3% stake in Uber through its Softbank Vision Fund. The biggest investor in the Vision Fund is Saudi Arabia, which contributed $45 billion of the fund's massive $100 billion bankroll.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Softbank's Masayoshi Son Reuters

The Vision Fund is Silicon Valley's undisputed kingmaker today, writing big checks and amassing stakes in high-flying startups such as WeWork, Slack, DoorDash and GM Cruise. That means Saudi cash is essentially funding much of Silicon Valley's innovation.

As the New York Times pointed out in October, this gusher of Saudi money is an inconvenient truth for an industry that prides itself on making the world a better place.

From space to augmented reality, Saudi cash is everywhere

Some basic facts about Saudi Arabia: It's a place where torture and arbitrary arrests are widespread, according to Amnesty International; a place where women are not allowed to travel abroad without the permission of a male "guardian." It's the leader of a coalition blamed for airstrikes in Yemen responsible for thousands of civilian deaths and injuries.

And then there's the gruesome killing of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashogghi, which, according to the CIA's initial conclusion, was ordered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In other words, Saudi Arabia is antithetical to everything tech companies' altruistic mission statements claim to stand for.

Saudi money may be more prevalent in tech now, but it's not new. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal was an early investor in Twitter, and at one point owned a stake larger than cofounder Jack Dorsey's. (Alwaleed was himself detained — in a Ritz Cartlon hotel — for three months in 2017 by his cousin Prince Mohammed, the current leader of the country).

And the Saudi Public Investment Fund is also a shareholder in Magic Leap, Tesla and Virgin Galactic, according to research firm CB Insights. Whether you're in augmented reality or outer space, there's no escaping Saudi money.

A 2018 Quartz article cites an estimate by research firm Quid that Saudi investors directly participated in tech investment rounds totalling at least $6.2 billion during the previous five years.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Fortune

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi backed out of a conference organized by Prince Mohammed last year after the Khashogghi killing, as did now-former Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene. But for the most part, there's been little pushback among tech startups when it comes to accepting Saudi or Softbank money.

Uber's winds of change

So why is Silicon Valley okay with Saudi money?

It's true that we live in a world that runs on oil — so drawing a moral line isn't easy when you're pumping gas into your car every day.

Maybe the tech industry thinks it's bringing the winds of change.

After all, when Uber announced its Saudi investment in 2016, women weren't allowed to drive.

"Of course we think women should be allowed to drive," Uber's Jill Hazelbaker told the New York Times at the time. "In the absence of that, we have been able to provide extraordinary mobility that didn't exist before — and we're incredibly proud of that."

And two years later, change did happen when the ban on women driving was officially lifted.

Did Uber's presence in Saudi Arabia cause the change? It's impossible to say with certainty, but I'd wager not.

Much more likely is that Prince Mohammed, looking for a way to burnish his credentials as a "reformer" when he rose to power in 2017, saw the controversial driving ban as an easy and expedient thing to jettison in exchange for goodwill.

The notion of working from the inside to bring about change has a long and not-so-great track record in tech. Think back to Google contorting itself into a pretzel to justify its introduction, and then withdrawal, of a search engine in China. When outrage recently erupted over Google's secret plans to make a new censored search app for China, the company didn't even try to justify itself with a "change from within" argument.

Tech businesses don't really want a revolution

You may ask, at this point, why more companies don't take a stand and turn down Saudi cash.

The sad reality is that companies are more interested in preserving the status quo that their businesses are built on than in bringing about change; even the "disruptive" tech companies.

That's especially true today, as tech companies are under siege from all sides, blamed for disrupting our privacy, our elections and our children's attention spans.

U.S. President Donald Trump (C) and other leaders react to a wall of computer screens coming online as they tour the Global Center for Combatting Extremist Ideology in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

Thinking differently is great marketing copy when it sells gadgets. But there's little upside in leading a revolution if it scares away customers.

Look no further than Google's app store. Thanks to an app called Absher, Saudi men can direct where women travel, and receive alerts when women use a passport to leave Saudi Arabia. After Insider's Bill Bostock investigation into this wife-tracking app, US lawmakers demanded that Google remove Absher from its app store.

Google refused to pull the app. It argued that the app does not violate its terms of service.

Right now, the tech industry's terms of service are clear. Whether it's about policies, products or investors, the golden rule is stability.

The average TV showrunner probably doesn't spend a lot of time browsing GitHub, the code repository beloved by developers and security researchers.

That doesn't apply to the creators behind "Mr. Robot," the hit Amazon Prime show that is wildly popular with techies thanks to its technical accuracy.

The show stars Remi Malek as Elliot Alderson, a security researcher beset by paranoid delusions and visions, and revolves around his exploits as part of the (fictional) underground hacking group fsociety.

Read more: Here's why the US is terrified of one Chinese company controlling the world's 5G networks

The show's writer and researcher, Kor Adana, and creator, Sam Esmail, incorporate real exploits and homages to hacker culture, and are known for dropping Easter eggs through episodes to set Reddit alight.

"When these episodes air, I don't watch the episodes, I keep my eye on Reddit and Twitter and see what people are saying about it," Kor Adana told Wired in 2016.

Adana and Esmail's attention to detail meant 15 minutes of fame for one real-world security expert and his company, whose exploit was incorporated into Mr. Robot's third series in 2017.

A warning: some slight spoilers for the third series follow.

Elliot Alderson, Mr. Robot's mean character.USA

In "Mr. Robot's" third series, the main character Elliot Alderson - played by the now Oscar-winning actor Rami Malek — is being monitored by the FBI, who can see everything he's doing on his computer. It's not made clear in the show how Alderson, himself a talented hacker, could have been compromised in this way.

But for anyone looking closely, filenames and emails that flash up briefly onscreen make references to "Monitor Darkly" — the name of a real-world exploit published by the security firm Red Balloon in 2016.

Ang Cui, CEO of Red Balloon Security, focuses on security within embedded devices. Embedded devices basically refer to anything that contains a small computer that runs on its own dedicated software — MP3 players, dishwashers, and even hospital equipment can count as embedded systems. The term doesn't really refer to laptops or desktop computers.

In this case, Red Balloon looked into PC monitors, which contain processors to determine what pixels you see on screen.

"There's a small computer inside the monitor itself," Cui explained to Business Insider. "It's a general-purposes embedded computer. It runs on an operating system that very few people on the planet know about, or are aware is inside this thing. It not only controls how the monitor displays pixels, it also sees every pixel that's being shown."

For a hacker that wants to freak out a computer user, this provides an easier-than-usual route to do it.

"If I wanted to come and hack you, I could compromise your browser, I could go through the computer, the network, and try and compromise billions of dollars of research and development that puts the SSL lock on your banking site," Cui said. "Or, I can do code execution inside the monitor and flip those pixels."

The upshot is that a hacker could make manipulate the images on your monitor to make it appear like you had no money in your bank account. At its most extreme, the hack could cause havoc at a nuclear power plant since highly sensitive places also rely on embedded systems.

"We had a demo where we changed the red light to a green light for an industrial control system," Cui said.

That could trick a human into disabling core equipment like a centrifuge."You wouldn't need to take down a centrifuge, you could just get a human to do it for you," he added.

Cui and his team found that no monitor was immune to the attack. They worked with monitor makers like Dell to fix the problem, and published the exploit on GitHub where, presumably, it was spotted by the "Mr. Robot" writers.

"There was nothing for a year, and then suddenly hundreds of comments on our GitHub repo [repository]," said Cui. "They actually built the link to our GitHub into the show, a bunch of people found it, and it pointed to the actual code and presentation we did."

In perhaps typical "Mr. Robot" style, no one actually told Red Balloon what had happened — they just worked it out from all the inbound comments and links. "They never really told us," Cui said.

The writers didn't make it easy to find that particular Easter egg either. Here's one enterprising YouTuber going through the steps of finding the references in the show, then going through a bunch of steps to unlock a QR code that leads to Red Balloon's GitHub repository:

Tesla announced a number of changes to its Model 3 lineup on Thursday night. Among them, the electric-car maker is removing the $35,000 version of the car from its website.

The most affordable "Standard" Model 3 can now only be ordered by phone, or in person at a Tesla store. The company cites customer demand for that change, saying the "Standard Plus" version of the Model 3 has sold at "more than six times the rate of Standard."

The Model 3 Standard will be a "software-limited" version of the Standard Plus, with 10% less battery range than the Standard Plus.

The Long Range rear-wheel drive Model 3 will also require a phone call or a visit to a Tesla store for customers who want it.

That news follows Tesla's move in February to close some of its retail locations in order to shift sales online. The company had walked that announcement back a bit after it took some of its employees by surprise. In March, CEO Elon Musk sent an email to employees to clarify that strategy, saying its most popular stores would "absolutely not be closed down," while lower-volume locations would "gradually be closed down."

Autopilot as a standard feature

In addition to the lineup changes, Tesla announced Autopilot, its semi-autonomous-driving feature, as a standard feature.

"For example, Model 3 Standard Plus used to cost $37,500, plus $3,000 for the Autopilot option. It now costs $39,500, with Autopilot included," Tesla said in a press release Thursday night.

Tesla added: "We think including Autopilot is very important because our data strongly indicates that the chance of an accident is much lower when Autopilot is enabled."

The company also highlighted what it says is positive customer feedback about the technology.

Autopilot as a standard feature is not as robust as the option full self-driving capability, which Tesla offers as a $5,000 option.

With standard Autopilot, a Tesla vehicle can steer within its own lane in traffic, and accelerate and brake on its own. The full self-driving capability adds "Navigate on Autopilot," which gives Teslas the ability to enter and exit freeways and merge onto freeway interchanges, and also drive around slower vehicles.

The self-driving option includes automatic lane changes, auto-park, and the summon feature.

Leasing options and Tesla ride-hailing

As of Thursday, the Model 3 is also available for lease but, unlike a typical vehicle lease, customers will not have the option to purchase their cars at the end of the contract: That's because Tesla plans to have those off-lease Model 3s join its self-driving ride-hailing fleet.

Tesla offered no further details about this yet-to-be-launched autonomous taxi service. Company representatives did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment on that service Thursday night.

Notably, news about that ride-hailing services comes just hours after Uber filed for it's initial public offering. Uber is developing its own fleet of self-driving vehicles. Lyft, Uber's closest competitor that went public in late March, is doing the same.

The long-rumored eighth-generation Corvette has finally been confirmed. And it won't have its likely twin-turbocharged V8 engine up front — the new Vette will be a mid-engine machine.

The car has been spotted testing around the world, but Chevy hasn't said anything about when it would be revealed. We found on Tuesday, when General Motors CEO Mary Barra was driven to a Stephen Siller Foundation event in the camouflaged Vette (the foundation, named for a New York firefighter who died in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, administers various charitable causes).

GM CEO Mary Barra was along for the ride. Chevrolet

Chevy said that the C8 Corvette would be revealed on July 18. The carmaker provided no additional details, but word is that the six-decade-old nameplate will get a new engine that cranks out upwards of 800 horsepower, beating out the current king of the hill, the 755-pony Corvette ZR1. A possible gas-electric drivetrain could take that to 1,000 hp.

Read more:We drove the Lamborghini Urus to see if it holds up as a family SUV

The seventh-generation Vette has been around since 2014; the Stingray was Business Insiders first-ever Car of the Year. The platform has given us the Grand Sport and the Z06, and the C7.R competition version has carried Corvette Racing to victory at numerous sports-car events worldwide, including the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The C7.R Vette was a racing success. Corvette Racing

It's expected that Chevy will sell the front-engine Vettes alongside the new mid-engine car, at least for a while.

It remains to be seen whether the C8.R will take on the mid-engined Ferrari 488 and Ford GT in sports-car races in 2020, but that's certainly something that fans should be looking forward to (the Ford GT program is ending this year, and the participation of Ferrari is contingent on independent teams).

Obviously, one of these days we're going to see some photos of the new Vette in which the car isn't sporting black-and-white camo. But now we know that the long Corvette hood could soon be a thing of the past.

Disney is stepping into the streaming ring against Netflix this year, and the company finally revealed the details of its upcoming streaming service, Disney Plus, during its investor day on Thursday.

Disney Plus will launch on November 12 of this year. It will cost subscribers $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year at launch ($5.83 per month). Unlike Hulu, it will not have an ad-supported option. All content will be able to be downloaded for offline use.

For comparison, Netflix recently rolled out its biggest price increase ever in the US. The streaming giant's most basic plan increased from $8 to $9 this month, while its most popular plan rose from $11 to $13. An Amazon Prime Video subscription is $8.99 a month, and Hulu without ads is $11.99 a month ($5.99 with ads).

UBS analysts estimated that Disney would spend $800 million on original content for Disney Plus this year. Disney is already developing "Star Wars" and Marvel shows for the service, including the previously announced "Rogue One" spin-off and a Marvel series starring Tom Hiddleston as Loki (read all the scripted content that's in the works here).

A "Falcon and Winter Soldier" Marvel TV series is in the works. Disney

Disney also confirmed on Thursday that a Marvel "Falcon and Winter Soldier" series is in the works, as well as "WandaVision," starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany as their Marvel Cinematic Universe roles Scarlet Witch and Vision. A Marvel "What If?" series is also in the works, focusing on alternate-reality series. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said that one of the episodes will be about Peggy Carter becoming a super soldier rather than Steve Rogers, thanks to a suit built by Howard Stark.

Disney's many classic animated films, previously kept in the "Disney Vault," will be available at launch on Disney Plus.

Disney's theatrical windows won't be altered by Disney Plus. Disney Animation Studios CCO Jennifer Lee said that "Frozen 2" will be released to theaters in November, then home video, and then on Disney Plus. That means the movie will likely be available to stream at least seven months after hitting theaters.

The full "Star Wars" saga will be available on the service at launch, including the original trilogy. It was previously reported that that the full "Star Wars" library may not be included, due to a licensing deal with Turner Broadcasting, which held the TV rights.

The first 30 seasons of "The Simpsons" will be available at launch, and Disney Plus will be the exclusive streaming home for the show.

In the Sunday report, UBS analysts estimated the company would also lose $10 billion in licensing revenue between Disney and Fox, which Disney bought for $71 billion last year and the deal closed last month. For starters, Disney ended a licensing deal with Netflix this year, and all of its theatrical releases starting with "Captain Marvel" will eventually land on Disney Plus.

Disney took ownership of Fox's 30% stake in Hulu with the merger. Disney now owns the majority of Hulu at 60%, and will likely pursue complete ownership. Disney direct-to-consumer and international chairman Kevin Mayer said on Thursday that the company "will likely" bundle Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ at a discount.

Scientists know more about the farthest reaches of deep space than they do about the deepest parts of our planet's oceans.

In the heart of the Pacific Ocean, some 125 miles north of Guam under nearly 11,000 meters (roughly 7 miles) of ocean, lies the Challenger Deep.

The deepest part of the infamous Mariana Trench — a 43-mile-wide crescent canyon that cuts its way through 1,500 miles of ocean at the edge of two tectonic plates — the Challenger Deep is home to a unique ecosystem of creatures and microorganisms. (It's also the final resting place of thousands of man-made microplastic pollutants.)

Read More: Tiny plastic particles are polluting the deepest point in the ocean

According to a new study published in the journal Microbiome, a group of bacteria trawled from the depths of the Challenger Deep can not only survive its extreme conditions, but also chomp on hydrocarbon molecules found in everyday crude oil and natural gas.

Oil-eating bacteria like these are also found on the ocean's surface, and helped degrade much of the oily refuse that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. The scientists think these microbial deep ocean oil-eaters can also be used to clean up surface oil spills.

A contract worker rakes oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill off a beach in Grand Isle, Louisiana.Reuters/Lee Celano

Challenger Deep is "inhospitable to nearly every organism on the planet. Cold and completely dark. What is most extreme is the intense water pressure which would crush most organisms in a fraction of a second," Jonathan Todd, a biologist from University of East Anglia in the UK and a co-author on the study, told Business Insider.

"How the microorganisms survive this environment is still a mystery and this is another of our key future research questions," he added.

Collecting samples from 7 miles below the surface

Collecting samples from the crushing depths of the Challenger Deep is no easy feat. To date, only a few expeditions have investigated the denizens that make their homes 7 miles below the ocean's surface (sorry Jason Statham fans, no live Megaladons have been discovered as of yet).

A remotely operated vehicle Deep Discoverer surveys a 46-foot hydrothermal chimney during a deepwater exploration of the Marianas Trench. NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research/AP

In order to get samples, researchers dropped bottles and corers into the ocean and sampled water and sediment at different depths in the Mariana Trench.

"Just think about the size and weight of the cable required to fish at depths of more than 10 kilometers [or 6 miles]," Todd said.

After they examined their samples, the team identified a new group of oil-eating bacteria, and determined that the proportion of hydrocarbon-munching bacteria in the Mariana Trench is higher than anywhere else on Earth. (These bacteria are found in nearly every environment on the planet.)

Todd and his team aren't sure yet why that's the case. "It may be that there is a higher proportion of hydrocarbons compared to other nutrient sources in the Mariana Trench, which supports this particularly large population," Todd said. These hydrocarbons could accumulate within the trench due to its unique topography, he added.

The study authors think the hydrocarbon nutrients could be the secret to these bacteria's success in the Challenger Deep's extreme environment, where pressures reach some 15,000 pounds per square inch — more than 1,000 times the pressure at sea level.

These oil-chomping microbes could combat man-made spills

Hydrocarbon-eating organisms have already been used to help degrade man-made oil spills.

In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon spill off the coast of Louisiana poured some 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. An area the size of Rhode Island was closed off from fishing, and local economies tanked.

Several species of hydrocarbon-eating bacteria, like Alcanivorax borkumensis, feasted on the spilled oil, assisting with the disaster clean-up efforts.

Alcanivorax was one of the types of bacteria that Todd and his group found in the Challenger Deep.

Industrial ship in oil spill on sea, Gulf of Mexico, Mississippi. Nic Kirschner/Getty

Todd thinks it's possible the bacteria pulled from the Mariana Trench could similarly assist in oil spill clean-ups. When tested in the lab, these microorganisms from the ocean depths "very efficiently consumed" the types of hydrocarbons that surface bacteria like Alcanivorax borkumensis degraded after the 2010 Gulf oil spill.

While Todd said further work is required "to test the potential of these novel bacteria," the team believes that the hydrocarbon-eating bacteria from the bottom of the ocean could consume any oil found on the surface.

Travis Kalanick's name appears a total of 13 times in Uber's IPO prospectus.

But the cofounder and former CEO of Uber appears many more times, if your read between the lines of the company's S-1 filed on Thursday. And for the most part, it seems, he's there to serve as a punching bag.

The 300-page IPO prospectus seeks to convince investors that the ride hailing company is a well-managed operation, free of the chaos and problems that plagued it a couple years ago — back when Kalanick was in charge.

"We are on a new path forward with the hiring of our Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi in September 2017 following many challenges regarding our culture, workplace practices, and reputation," Uber says towards the beginning of the document.

"It's a new day at Uber," the document declares.

An entire section labeled "Conduct and Culture" includes categories like "Tone at the Top" and refers to efforts to "fundamentally reform our workplace culture."

"We have made tremendous progress in creating a program that is designed to prevent and detect violations of corporate policy, law, and regulations," it says.

Kalanick served as Uber's CEO from 2010 to 2017, turning the ride-hailing company into the unstoppable juggernaut worth nearly $70 billion. But the company was rocked by a series of scandals on his watch, including accusations of sexual harassment and a toxic work culture, a high-profile trade theft lawsuit, and reports of operations designed to deceive regulators.

Dancing the Travis two-step

Khosrowshahi, the CEO who replaced Kalanick, indirectly refers to his predecessor's legacy in a personal letter to investors that acknowledges "missteps along the way."

It must make for awkward reading for Kalanick, given that he's still a member of the company's board of directors.

And it's a delicate needle for Uber to thread, since the company must also praise Kalanick and sell him to investors as a desirable member of the board.

"Mr. Kalanick was selected to serve on our board of directors because of his experience as one of the co-founders and early leaders of our company, and as such, his extensive knowledge of our business, and his innovation, technology, and high-growth experience, as well as his consumer and digital experience," the Uber S-1 says in Kalanick's director bio.

Depending on which part of the S-1 you read, Kalanick's experience as an "early leader" of the company is either a feature or a bug. Maybe that's the truest hallmark of a tech company.

More on Uber's massive IPO:

The head of revenue at Apttus, an enterprise tech company that has been rocked by a series of controversies and executive turnover, has left the company without an immediate replacement, according to a memo obtained by Business Insider.

Raj Verma, the Chief Revenue Officer at Apttus, along with Gordon Thompson, senior vice president of sales, engineering and solutions, are no longer at the company, according to the memo sent to staff on Thursday by Apttus' recently-appointed CEO Frank Holland.

It's unclear under what circumstances Verma departed, or whether he qualified for any of the $26 million parachute package that rankled some employees when its existence was disclosed in an email to shareholders ahead of the company's sale to Thoma Bravo in fall.

Verma was a contentious figure within Apttus where he was accused by critics of leading a culture war that rewarded brazen behavior and a "boy's club" mentality, while ostrasizing female employees and other employees.

His departure comes six months after Apttus was acquired by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, and a year and a half after he first joined the company as its chief strategy officer. He was hired by founding CEO Kirk Krappe, who left Apttus last June following allegations that he sexually assaulted an employee at a company retreat in Cabo.

Verma and Thoma Bravo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Several current and former insiders described a culture of bullying and fear that permeated the company and attributed it to Verma, Business Insider previously reported. Multiple former employees have also made legal accusations seeking settlements with Apttus related to Verma, people familiar with the matter previously told Business Insider. At least two other former employees have retained counsel to explore lawsuits naming Verma, a person familiar told BI in February.

A-Team,

I'm writing today to inform you of two leadership changes: Raj Verma, Chief Revenue Officer, and Gordon Thompson, SVP, Sales, Engineering & Solutions, are no longer with Apttus.

Since joining the company in October 2017, Raj held multiple leadership roles and during his career was responsible for our GTM strategy, sales and customer success functions.

Gordon joined Apttus in early 2014 and, among other achievements, led the creation of a truly world-class SE team. Their combined contributions are significant and I, along with the rest of the ELT, are grateful for all they've accomplished on behalf of Apttus and in service of our customers.

As we recruit for these key roles, I will serve as the interim Sales leader and take on day-to-day management of their direct reports. It's important that we maintain an unwavering focus on delivering for our customers. You can be confident that I'll work closely with Sales and SE leadership to ensure that's the case.

My personal thanks to both Raj and Gordon. Please join me in wishing them well as they pursue their next opportunities.

Frank

Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block was awarded a $211,703 car and an $86,423 watch, the company said in a proxy statement released on Thursday.

According to the filing, these were awarded to Block at some point in its 2019 fiscal year, "in recognition of Mr. Block's leadership achievements." Salesforce also spent $179,977 on taxes related to the car and $38,005 on taxes related to the watch, in what it says is a one-time bonus.

The filing said that Salesforce's Compensation Committee only reserves these types of awards for unique situations.

"In this case, the Committee approved this award because it believed that recognizing Mr. Block's leadership and success in achieving Company goals was warranted, and that doing so in a memorable and visible way would be motivational not only for the executive, but for other employees who observe exceptional performance being rewarded in exceptional ways consistent with the Company's philosophy of paying for performance," the filing said.

To that point, Block is widely credited with accelerating Salesforce's rapid growth rate: In Salesforce's 2014 fiscal year, when Block left Oracle and first joined up, the company booked $4.1 billion in annual revenue. In its most recent full fiscal year, ended January 2019, that had more than quadrupled all the way to $13.28 billion.

Block served as Salesforce's chief operating officer until last summer, when cofounder Marc Benioff officially promoted him to be his co-CEO. While the filing doesn't say for sure, it seems likely that these gifts were made in honor of Block's ascension to the very highest ranks of management.

It is also unknown what kind of car and watch Block received. Possibilities include a Porsche Panamera Turbo S E- Hybrid Sport Turismo or a Land Rover Defender 90, which both are priced around $211,000. Business Insider has reached out to Salesforce for comment.

In addition, Salesforce spent $1,230,424 on security arrangements for Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff while at work or on business travel. That's notable, because it represents a departure from its 2018 fiscal year, when the company spent nothing on his personal security.

"The Compensation Committee limited the Company-paid portion of Mr. Benioff's security program to cover only security services provided at business facilities and during business-related travel," during that fiscal year, the filing says. However, Salesforce says that it solicited "specific feedback from our major institutional investors," and decided to reinstate his company-paid personal security program after reviewing Benioff's "security profile."

"We view these security services as a necessary and appropriate business expense, but have reported incremental costs to us of the arrangements because they may be viewed as conveying a personal benefit to him," the filing says.

Read more: Here's how much the top Salesforce executives make in salaries, bonuses and stock

All this on top of the two executives' base salary, bonuses, and equity awards.

Block made $16,961,156 in total compensation in the 2019 fiscal year, according to the filing. That includes his $1,342,500 base salary, the $298,126 total value of the car and watch, various equity awards, and all of his other compensation, including the taxes related to those two gifts.

His co-CEO Benioff made $28,391,846 over the same period, including his $1,550,000 base salary, the cost of his security, and all other equity awards and compensation.

SpaceX has launched the most powerful rocket in the world …again. This is SpaceX's Falcon Heavy. It's launching for the second time in history. But this time, its cargo is something far more valuable.

SpaceX first launched its Falcon Heavy in 2018. When it carried Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster into space. But this maiden launch, while successful, was a test. So if anything went wrong and the cargo was lost, SpaceX customers wouldn't take a hit.

Today's launch has much more on the line. And not just for SpaceX. Because this is the Falcon Heavy's first ever commercial launch. It's carrying a communications satellite for the Saudi Arabian company, Arabsat. Once in place, the satellite will reportedly provide television, internet, and phone to customers in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.

Capable of lifting around 140,000 pounds to space, the Falcon Heavy is the most powerful operational rocket in the world. And the second most powerful in history. Bested only by the Saturn V.

The rockets that launched Apollo astronauts to the moon more than 45 years ago. But unlike the Saturn V, SpaceX has a more modern approach to rocket launches. Because its Falcon Heavy is made up of 3 individual, reusable rockets.

To compare, Saturn V rocket engine s fell and sank to the bottom of the ocean after launch. Not reusable, to say the least. And each Saturn V cost up to $189 million to launch in 1969 — $1.23 billion in today's dollars. It costs between $90 to $150 million to launch a single Falcon Heavy rocket, according to CNBC. And already, reports indicate that SpaceX has collected a number of contracts for its Falcon Heavy.

Its launch manifest is currently worth an estimated $500 to $750 million dollars. So this won't be the last we see of the Falcon Heavy.

Uber filed to go public on Thursday, and its S-1 paperwork revealed that from the beginning of 2016 to the end 2018, Uber spent some $58 million on Google Maps — a function that is "critical to the functionality of our platform," built in as it is to the company's apps for riders and drivers alike.

The filing shows that Uber has been working with Google to use Google Maps for Work, its business-grade version of the mapping tool, since October 2015. In the filing, Uber says that it's turned to Google becuase it's the only one that meets its needs all over the world.

"We do not believe that an alternative mapping solution exists that can provide the global functionality that we require to offer our platform in all of the markets in which we operate," the Uber S-1 said.

Still, Uber writes: If Google Maps suddenly gets less reliable, doesn't provide adequate support, or hikes prices, it might have to lean on an alternative solution. Uber warned that such alternatives could be expensive, inferior, or not available at all, which could harm its business.

Read more:Uber gave CEO Dara Khosrowshahi $45 million in total pay last year, but it paid its COO even more

According to the filing, Alphabet, Google's parent company, owns some 5% in Uber. David Drummond, senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer at Alphabet, also served on Uber's board from July 2013 to August 2016.

However, the relationship between the two has been tumultous: A landmark lawsuit between Uber and Alphabet's Waymo over self-driving car technology ended in a settlement in which Alphabet received $245 million worth of Uber equity.

This season's spate of big tech IPOs also highlights the reliance of modern tech companies on products and services from the major platform providers: Pinterest's IPO filing revealed that it's paid over $309 million to Amazon Web Services since 2017, while Lyft has its own commitment to AWS that averages out to some $8 million a month.