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SpaceX successfully tests parachutes that will help bring astronauts back to Earth

SpaceX has successfully tested four large parachutes that will eventually be used to help lower its crewed Dragon spacecraft back to Earth. NASA published a video of the drop test today, which shows the four large parachutes deploying and slowing a mock spacecraft beneath them.

NASA has been paying SpaceX to make cargo runs to and from the International Space Station since 2012. Despite one big loss, the contract has gone so well that NASA is going to use SpaceX (and Boeing) to shuttle astronauts to and from the space station in the coming years. SpaceX is building a crew-rated version of its Dragon spacecraft for this express purpose.

But before that can happen, the company has a long series of milestone tests it needs to pass,…

Hulu will be the ‘exclusive streaming home’ of all future IFC Films documentaries

Hulu will soon start ramping up its collection of documentary films. The streaming service announced today it closed a deal with IFC Films to become the “exclusive streaming home” for all future documentary releases from the studio after their theatrical release. This includes documentaries released by IFC Films, Sundance Selects, and IFC Midnight.

Lots of movies about food

The documentaries will be available on Hulu’s Limited Commercial and No Commercial plans beginning this fall. The first doc to hit the service will be King Georges, a movie about Georges Perrier, owner of the high-brow French restaurant Le Bec-Fin. It will premiere in theaters on February 26th, and arrive on Hulu a few months later. The next films to arrive will be C…

US government says Theranos lab poses ‘immediate jeopardy to patient safety’

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has decided that Theranos’ Newark, California, facility poses “immediate jeopardy to patient safety.” A letter sent to the company on January 25th says that the lab has been given 10 days to provide “acceptable evidence of correction.”

Crackle’s newest scripted drama revolves around a Miami startup

Crackle doesn’t earn as much attention as Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon, but the streaming service has spent the last year taking small steps into the original content business. In addition to a small lineup of comedies like Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, the network premiered its first original drama (Dennis Quaid’s The Art of More) in November. That show’s moderate success — it’s been renewed for a second season — has led to Crackle giving a series order to Ben Ketai’s tech drama Start Up this afternoon.

The O.C.‘s Adam Brody and Martin Freeman (Sherlock, Fargo) are headlining the show’s first 10 episodes, which revolve around a rising Miami company that’s being funded by a corrupt businessman’s ill-gotten gains and…

Facebook earned record profits in 2015

Facebook’s strong growth continued into the fourth quarter of 2015, with the company posted record earnings for the quarter and the year. The company earned $3.69 billion on $17.93 billion in revenue in 2015; revenue was up 44 percent from 2014. On average, 1.04 billion people use Facebook every day, up 17 percent from the previous year. Close to 1 billion people — 934 million — use Facebook every day on a mobile device, up 25 percent. “2015 was a great year for Facebook,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “Our community continued to grow and our business is thriving. We continue to invest in better serving our community, building our business, and connecting the world.”

New York City is trying to protect babies from creepy hackers

The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs is investigating the security of baby monitors, nearly five months after research demonstrated the existence of serious vulnerabilites in them. The agency sent subpoenas to several manufacturers of these video monitors this month in order to learn more about the devices, the security practices surrounding them, and whether all known vulnerabilities in them have been patched. The DCA wouldn’t confirm which companies it’s subpoenaed.

The subpoenas follow the September release of research from cybersecurity firm Rapid7. Mark Stanislav and Tod Beardsley identified nine different baby monitor devices as open to attacks or containing at least one serious security oversight, including the…

Here’s what the inside of a hoverboard looks like

iFixit and The Wirecutter teamed up to tear down a hoverboard from Swagway, and published the results today. The company isn’t necessarily the biggest offender when it comes to exploding hoverboards, even though its boards were pulled from Amazon back in December over safety concerns. But the post definitely helps shed some well-needed light under the hood.

iFixit’s Andrew Goldberg handled the dismantling of what is Swagway’s current model, the X1, which The Wirecutter provided. The verdict? The charger is “pretty safe,” and the components inside the board itself were properly organized. There were a few surprises, too, like infrared sensors in the foot pads that recognize when you’re actually standing on the board. (This way it won’t…

The iPad Air 3 will reportedly be announced in March

A new iPad Air appears to be on the way. According to 9to5Mac, Apple is likely to introduce an updated model of the Air during an event in mid-March, marking the line’s first change in over a year. The Air 2 was released in October 2014, but Apple chose not to introduce an Air 3 this past fall, when it announced the iPad Pro and iPad Mini 4.

Can rappers beef without resorting to misogyny?

Kanye West’s withering takedown of Wiz Khalifa has officially leveled Twitter, leaving us to marvel in its wake. It was, for the most part, wonderful to watch, and like any rap beef in the present era, will likely spawn all manner of memes and commentary in the coming weeks. But like so many rap beefs these days, the feud quickly descended into casual misogyny. We shouldn’t need reminding that that’s unacceptable.

Deep in Kanye’s tweetstorm, he made references to his ex-girlfriend and Wiz’s ex-wife Amber Rose. His remarks weren’t anywhere near charitable (the tweets below have since been deleted):

4th you let a stripper trap you

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) January 27, 2016

5th I know you mad every time you look at your child…