Wired has a nifty article about Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos company that will soon take tourists into space. The rocket is called New Shepard. “Starting next year, Bezos plans to use New Shepard to send passengers on jaunts into space. Clad in cool Star Trek–style jumpsuits, customers will settle into a comfy capsule and shoot up over the atmosphere for a quick peek at their home planet through panoramic windows and a few moments of weightless ecstasy. Though Blue Origin hasn’t announced the fee, it’s been reported to be a couple hundred thousand dollars per head, and Bezos anticipates ramping up quickly to a few flights a week.” 

On Tuesday, Amazon announced that Crystal City in Virginia and New York City will house its second headquarters. You might imagine that the people in those areas would be excited by the prospect of new jobs and investment, not least the political leaders. Some, such as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo are. However, some serious concerns have been raised, not least Queens, where the New York City set up will be. The Financial Times took a look at what is causing this rather cold welcome for Amazon.

Yet while Andrew Cuomo, New York governor, and Mayor Bill de Blasio were toasting their success on Tuesday at luring the online retailer to the Long Island City section of Queens, Mr Gianaris could hardly have been less pleased. Along with a local member of the City Council, he issued a blistering statement accusing Amazon of “running a cynical game” in which it “duped” New York into offering $3bn in tax incentives and subsidies to woo one of the wealthiest companies on earth.

Google’s subsidiary DeepMind Health is restructuring and becoming part of the company. Now that its new app Streams is a Google product, people are concerned that Google will start linking patient health data to their respective Google accounts. My thought: You could just delete your Google account, but the health data will likely be added to an advertising profile of you instead. Update: A spokesperson from DeepMind reached out to me to make some clarifications. I’ve also changed the headline to make it more accurate.

Patient data is, and will continue to be, kept strictly separate from other Google projects/products, and subject to strict audit and access controls. Our contractual agreements with existing partners, and their restrictive rules on patient data, are still in force and unchanged. Patient data remains under our partners’ strict control, and all decisions about its use will continue to lie with them. The move to Google does not affect this.

Mozilla’s Privacy Not Included gift list helps you shop safe for the holidays. It shows all of the holiday presents and tech gear that can be easily hacked. Ashley Boyd, vice president of advocacy at Mozilla, told Wired:

We want to provide people information about how to make informed decisions when shopping for gifts that are connected to the internet. These products are becoming really popular. And in some cases, it’s easy to forget that they’re even connected to the internet.

I think this is a fantastic idea and it brings more awareness to the insecurity of many popular gadgets and gear.

A website called Orcasound lets you listen to orcas using hydrophones, which are underwater microphones. Scientists use these recordings to find and study whales, especially at night or in bad weather.

The team behind Orcasound hope that non-expert listeners will help quickly alert researchers to the presence of orcas, so they can send out boats to test fecal matter and leftover bits of prey, thereby getting a better sense of what the whales are eating.

If you like whales and you’re interested in citizen science, check out Orcasound.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer is a well known Apple bull. Indeed, his charitable trust owns shares of Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google’s parent company Alphabet. Last night he pursued this line – even encouraging investors to buy shares despite the difficulties faced by Apple stock in particular. A news report on the CNBC website focuses on the Mad Money presenter’s criticism of analysts who have been downgrading Apple since its earnings call on 1 November. He believes that they are overlooking the possibility that Apple may actually have anticipated some weakness in sales prior to the earnings. Cramer’s comments on what on what he refers to as the FANG stongs – Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google (Alphabet), might also be worth a read for anyone trying to work out what is going on with big tech stocks right now. Here’s some of what he had to say:

“What do you think of the possibility that Apple knew all about the weaknesses in unit sales that are now so revelatory?” he asked, pointing to reports that Apple may have tapered its orders from a key supplier. “CFO Luca Maestri even alluded to that weakness when he told us the guidance accounts for ‘uncertainty around the supply and demand balance’ of recently launched products.”

A normal display for a Mac or PC nowadays has an aspect ratio of 16:9 or 16:10. But an ultrawide display has an aspect ratio of 21:9 and sizes can be substantial. And, unlike the failed technology of curved 4K/UHD TV displays, a curved computer monitor is actually useful. And beautiful. Digital Trends has put together an analysis of the five best. The “best ultrawide monitor overall” went to the Samsung CF791 (shown), but there were other categories.

Be careful though, ultrawides are dangerous — once you try one, you’ll be spoiled for all other monitors. Even the sharpest, clearest 16:9 monitor will seem insubstantial and inadequate by comparison.