Month: November 2019

Enlarge / Mystery Science Theater 3000. (credit: Mystery Science Theater 3000)

Netflix will not produce a third season of its Mystery Science Theater 3000 revival, according to a series of tweets from the show's star, Jonah Ray Rodrigues.

The text of his Twitter thread follows:

So, Netflix decided to not do another season of MST3K. We are off to Get Down in Lilyhammer while the OA helps us take it One Day At A Time. We will be in group therapy with Tuca & Bertie, Jessica Jones, & Lady Dynamite. The sessions will be run by Gypsy (w/ Naomi Watts.) thread

We don't know what the future holds for the show, it always seemed to figure out how to survive. From Comedy Central to SyFy. Then kept alive by RIFFTRAX & Cinematic Titanic. whatever happens, I want everybody to know that getting a chance to be on this show was a dream come true

Getting to work with old friends while making new ones was a gift I didn't take lightly. Collaborating with heroes from my childhood is something I'll never stop beaming about.

So, Thank you Joel & especially all the MSTies who embraced me as a mug in a (yellow) jumpsuit. I know it wasn't easy accepting a new guy, so I appreciate the warmth.

This is the fourth time in the series' history that it has been canceled in one way or another. Fans have repeatedly rallied to bring it back on new networks or, in some cases, in totally new formats and spinoffs like RiffTrax. Also on Twitter, MST3K creator Joel Hodgson said, "It's not the end of MST3K, It's just the end of the first chapter of bringing back MST3K."

Enlarge / The Amazon logo at the entrance of a logistics center in France, July 2019. (credit: Denis Charlet | AFP | Getty )

Reports of poor and unsafe working conditions within Amazon's sprawling web of warehouses have been surfacing for years. A new report alleges that not only did conditions in one Indiana warehouse lead to a worker's death in 2017 but also that state authorities manipulated a report on the matter in a futile attempt to bring Amazon's much-vaunted "HQ2" to town.

Amazon worker Phillip Lee Terry was crushed and killed in September 2017 while performing maintenance on a forklift at Amazon's Plainfield, Illinois, fulfillment center, according to a recent report from the Center for Investigative Reporting. While investigating Terry's death, Indiana regulators found that he had never been given formal safety training that could have prevented the incident.

"The safety issues I've brought up have been dismissed and not dealt with," another worker at the Plainfield facility told the safety inspector from Indiana's OSHA department. "There's no training, there's no safety, it's 'Get 'er done.'" Ultimately, the department issued four citations to Amazon, totaling $28,000 in penalties.

Enlarge / Romaine lettuce can be seen at a store in Mountain View, California, United States, on Friday, November 22, 2019. (credit: Getty | NurPhoto)

An outbreak of potentially life-threatening E. coli infections linked to contaminated romaine lettuce has widened to 67 cases in 19 states, with 39 of those cases leading to hospitalizations, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

No deaths have been reported in the outbreak so far, but six cases have progressed to hemolytic-uremic syndrome, a life-threatening disorder brought on when toxic substances made by an infection destroy red blood cells and damage the kidneys.

The widespread outbreak linked to romaine around Thanksgiving will likely give many consumers an unpleasant sense of déjà vu. About this time last year, the CDC warned consumers to put down their holiday salads as another romaine-linked outbreak struck. When it was declared over in January, the agency had tallied 62 cases, including 25 hospitalizations across 16 states.

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  Embossed text, 'cause it's fancy. [credit: Kyle Orland ]

Google had some good news to share with Stadia streaming's early adopters yesterday: their $10/month Stadia Pro subscription will grant access to two new titles—Farming Simulator 19: Platinum Edition and Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition—starting next month.

That didn't come as welcome news to all Stadia owners, though, because those games had already been on sale as Stadia launch titles for the week leading up to the announcement. That means a fair number of Stadia Pro subscribers had spent $49.99 (for Farming Simulator) or $9.99 (for Tomb Raider) on games that would be free in less than two weeks' time.

Google, to its credit, has not ignored these players. "Because of the proximity between the launch of the platform, and the announcement of these titles in Stadia Pro, we're happy to assist you if you'd like to request a refund if you have purchased either or both of these titles, even if it's outside of our normal policy," a Google community manager wrote yesterday afternoon.