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(credit: Brian Brown)

For many, taking the time to floss every day is a bother. But for dentists, taking the time to properly research flossing over the course of a century is apparently even more inconvenient.

Despite being dentist-recommended since the early twentieth century, researchers have yet to conduct sufficient, reliable studies to support the claim that flossing effectively prevents cavities and gum disease.

This stain on the dental profession was cracked wide open last year when the Associated Press asked federal agencies for the data behind its recommendation that Americans floss. After the AP filed Freedom of Information Act requests, the government admitted that it didn’t have adequate data to back the recommendation—something it is required to have by law.

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If you want to fly Dragons, you've got to get close to the fire.

In recent years, former SpaceX employees have said that the company forced them to work long hours for relatively low pay. Some even filed lawsuits alleging that the Hawthorne-based rocket company violated California labor law. What seems clear is that the rocket company is a demanding employer, hiring the best and brightest and expecting them to work hard toward solving some very difficult problems—like landing rockets on boats in the ocean.

However, during a revealing Reddit AMA on Tuesday with Brian Bjelde, head of human relations at SpaceX, the engineer pushed back against the notion that the company overworks its employees. "We recruit people who are incredibly driven by our mission, but it’s a myth that most of our employees are working 100 or even 80 hour weeks on a regular basis," Bjelde wrote. "Sometimes you have incredibly tight schedules that you need to keep, and that just goes along with launching rockets. But we want our employees to be productive over the long term and that means working at a pace that’s sustainable."

According to Bjelde, SpaceX turnover rates are "below average" for the industry, although he didn't specify the rate. "We have lots of employees, like me, who have been here more than 10 years and have made a fantastic career with SpaceX!" he wrote. "Getting to Mars is a long term mission so we seek to attract employees, and retain them, for the long term."

(credit: US Air Force)

The US Air Force today announced that its first operational squadron of F-35A Lightning II fighters is ready for combat duty. The announcement was made just a day into the five-month period that the Air Force had been given to reach operational levels with the 34th Fighter Squadron, based at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

The "initial capability" declaration comes after two Air Force F-35As joined two Marine Corps F-35s at July's Royal International Air Tattoo at the United Kingdom's Fairford Royal Air Force base and after an accelerated pace of operational tests for the 34^th over the past few months. The first F-35A aircraft were delivered to the 34^th in September of last year. They've been modified several times after delivery, including getting software updates to the avionics that have eliminated some of the "instability" problems previously experienced (including radar system crashes that required reboots while in flight). Since the most recent software upgrades, the squadron has flown 88 individual aircraft sorties without a software problem, according to an Air Combat Command statement.

The system, the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), combines diagnostics and repair functions with part inventory and verifies that the correct parts have been installed properly. In earlier versions of the software, a bug in ALIS prevented aircraft from flying even when properly maintained. ALIS 2.0.2, the latest version, won't be available to the Air Force until October at the earliest.

(credit: Gary Dordick)

The family of the late Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin filed a wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday against Fiat Chrysler (FCA), alleging that because of a "defective design and/or manufacture" on his 2015 Jeep, the 27-year-old was killed.

According to the lawsuit, Yelchin’s 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee had a defective monostable gear selector. Last month, Yelchin parked his Jeep at the top of his steep driveway at his home in Studio City, California, believing he had put it properly into park. However, the car seems to have rolled down the driveway quickly, pinning him to the gate, trapping him there, and eventually killing him.

The civil complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, says that not only was Yelchin’s 2015 Jeep affected, but as family lawyer Gary Dordick noted:

(credit: Mike Mozart)

The Washington state attorney general's $100 million lawsuit against Comcast, filed yesterday, uses a sales script and transcripts of chats with customers to make the case that Comcast deceived subscribers when marketing what the state calls "near-worthless" service plans.

Since January 2011, Comcast made $73 million selling Service Protection Plans (SPP) for up to $5 a month to 500,000 customers in Washington. But the service plans were sold to customers under false pretenses, with Comcast describing the plans as being far more comprehensive and useful than they were, Attorney General Bob Ferguson alleged.

Comcast's service plan revenue was mostly profit. Between January 2013 and July 2015, Washington customers paid Comcast $41.6 million for service plans that helped them avoid only about $5 million in service call charges. That's a $36.6 million profit gained largely because of deceptive advertising, the lawsuit said.

(credit: Google Street View)

The Oregon Supreme Court has ruled that while a convenience store clerk was guilty of stealing lottery tickets through the store’s computer system, she did not violate the state’s anti-hacking law while doing so.

In the case, known as State v. Nascimento, Oregon’s highest court ruled late last month that a hacking conviction against the defendant should be overturned, and the court sent the case back down to the lower court for reconsideration. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which appeared on Caryn Nascimento’s behalf during the case as an amicus curae (friend of the court), announced the narrow victory on Tuesday.

According to the Supreme Court’s decision, the case dates back to 2007, when Nascimento began working at Tiger Mart, a small convenience store in Madras, Oregon, about 120 miles southeast of Portland. In late 2008 and early 2009, a company vice president began investigating what appeared to be cash shortages at that store, sometimes about $1,000 per day. After reviewing video recordings that correlated with Nascimento’s work schedule, this executive began to suspect that she was buying lottery tickets but not paying for them.