The newest stalwart of the sharing economy is none other than Goop herself: Uber is now part of Gwenyth Paltrow's favorite things, joining a pantheon that includes salvia and magic water that thinks.

It's been a busy day for Uber. In addition to adding a presidential mastermind to the payroll, the company also began an "experimental" delivery service called Corner Store "rolling out first to DC area customers." According to ThinkProgress, those customers all have something in common. (Spoiler: they're white.)

Just because Uber's motto is "Everyone's private driver," doesn't mean every car is yours for the hailing. But the popularity of apps like Uber and Lyft have spawned some awkward curbside interactions. "Basically anytime I'm pulled over on the side of the street, someone tries to hail me or just opens my car door," said tech investor Ashwin Deshmukh, when I asked him about the trend.

Uber is the Übermensch of the sharing economy. It's better at making money than other startups, it knows how to politick better, and it throws sharper elbows. Uber applied the same superior machinations to a press release claiming that Lyft wants to get acquired by Uber.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick likes to talk about the unfair ways that taxi incumbents "protect their monopoly" against his popular product. But the bigger Uber gets, the more aggressive its own protectionist tactics become. CNN says new data from Lyft, a smaller rival, shows 117 Uber employees cancelled 5,560 rides with Lyft drivers around the country since last October.

The Department of Defense just announced that Uber executive Emil Michael will be joining the government agency's Defense Business Board. So . . . Uber for self-driving tanks? Or Uber's next investment round is led by Blackwater?

For the 200,000 attendees of San Francisco's Outside Lands Music Festival this past weekend, where a three-day pass cost $275, Uber's hated "surge pricing" scheme made sure that exhausted revelers ponied up hundreds of dollars to get a few miles across town.

Republicans have long struggled to capture the hearts of millennials. It's never helped that the emerging crop of young voters are fundamentally opposed to the GOP's archaic social policies and general inclination toward stupidity. But the party of Big Business thinks it has found a wedge issue in Silicon Valley that can seduce skeptical kids: backing anti-regulation startups like Uber.

Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, the celebrity role-playing game from the Seinfeld of reality stars, is currently the fifth most popular free iPhone app on Apple's charts. It's also the fifth-highest grossing. One analyst predicted revenue of $200 million this year. But how many of the fame gamers that put it there have any idea what they spent to get on the C-list?

Uber has been connected to a number of sexual assaults and kidnappings this summer. The latest comes from Washington D.C., where an Uber driver stands accused of molesting a drunk passenger.

Software engineer Aaron Landy figured out how to get your Uber passenger rating. Look on your work, ye mighty, and despair!

Re/code reports that Facebook and Uber have discussed integrating the car service into Facebook's Messenger app. Uber was synergized into Google Maps in May. Google Maps is currently no. 14 among free apps in the Apple store. Messenger is no.3.

Despite an impressive "25% off uberX this summer" deal, one man's worthless 82 foot Uber journey around Houston still set him back $4.28.

Earlier this afternoon, Bloomberg reported that Google Ventures managing partner Bill Maris (the Glass man in the middle, above) thinks that Uber could one day be worth "$200 billion or more." Why would a sensible outlet like Bloomberg give an Uber investor the platform to pump up his investment?

Politicians have historically left Washington to land cushy jobs on Wall Street. But as the alpha males of banking have decamped to California in pursuit of startup riches, Washington's revolving door increasingly opens to Silicon Valley, not Wall Street. Now techies are charming the latest D.C. free-agent: former Obama flack Jay Carney.

Seattle police have cleared an Uber driver of rape charges, but have kept the investigation into sexual assault "active and ongoing." Komo News, which had access to the police report, said the victim had been visiting Seattle from Texas and was on her way to her fiancé's home.

Uber may have instituted a $1 "Safe Rides Fee" in April, but its background checks remain trivial to get around. Now their lax standards have resulted in another kidnapping. This time, a scofflaw driver in Washington D.C. took a group of out-of-town visitors for a "wild ride."

Uber and Lyft are the Hatfields and the McCoys of ordering cars on your telephone—if the more affluent Hatfields had $1.5 billion in venture financing to the McCoys' piss poor $332 million. Now the feud the companies started in San Francisco has traveled 3,000 miles without losing any steam.

Everyone's least and most favorite transit app catches a lot of flak for lacking anything you might call a conscience, but is that really so fair? It just said it will obey the law and no longer charge insane prices during crises and natural disasters. Those softies!

For too long, the war of words over e-hailing apps has been dominated by the Uber's bombastic CEO and fat cat taxi companies defending their turf. But filmmaker Max Maddox flips that script, exploring "the lives of drivers caught in the crosshairs" in his mini documentary "Taxi 2.0."