Cooper Griggs

You might want to be more cautious the next time you click on an internet image link sent by a stranger -- much like the pirate cat photo you see above, that adorable picture could be hiding something sinister. Security researcher Saumil Shah has dev...

Rumors that Apple is going to debut its retooled music offering at WWDC next week are nothing new. However, in a report by The Wall Street Journal comes word that the streaming service will be priced at $10 a month when it's announced in a matter of ...

A high-octane speed race between a Porsche 911 GT3 and a Nissan 350Z on Autobahn gets interrupted by an unexpected challenge from a “sleeper” Volkswagen Golf.

According to Bloomberg Business, the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating an incident wherein Google's solar-powered Solara 50 plane reportedly crashed shortly after takeoff. The event occurred on May 1st at a private airfield outsid...

Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. Hard Reboot: The Excellen...

If it feels like we hear a whole lot of stories about retail data breaches here in the U.S., well, that’s because we do. Americans are super duper popular targets for card hacks and fraud, and it’s for one simple reason: our credit card security is bad and should feel bad.

Quartz reports this week on a new report from British-based international megabank Barclays, and it’s bad news for consumers on this side of the Atlantic.

American credit cards represent about a quarter — 24% — of all cards in use in the world. But when it comes to fraud, American cards represent nearly half — 47% — of cards that have been subject to fraud.

The main culprit is one we’ve covered many times before: in the U.S., where magnetic stripe technology is still the dominant way payment cards are accepted, we are vulnerable to software incursions and theft. Simply put, we are low-hanging fruit. Intruding into a system like Target or Home Depot and making off with usable data for tens of millions of payment cards is easy as pie, at least as compared to other nations.

And that is, of course, because other nations have long since switched to more secure, EMV (chip-using) credit and debit cards. The EMV system doesn’t completely eliminate the potential for card fraud, but it does make it much harder to do.

Worldwide, Barclays reports, chip-card adoption sits at about 43% — but that doesn’t include the U.S. In Western Europe, most nations have long since gone through the conversion process and the adoption rate sits at almost 82%. Since starting the transition to chip-and-PIN cards in 2003, the U.K. has seen an over 70% reduction in payment card fraud.

Here in the states we are finally on our way to joining the rest of the world, but it’s a slow process happening one bank and one retailer at a time, rather than something with a firm, government-imposed deadline. MasterCard and Visa will require merchants to upgrade to having chip-enabled payment systems by October of this year, but many banks are unlikely to make it before another two years into the future*.

One only wonders how many 50 million card megabreaches American consumers will see between now and then.

*Correction: This article originally incorrectly stated that the MasterCard/Visa liability shift for merchants to upgrade to chip-enabled card readers had changed to 2017. That date is still in 2015; it may take banks until 2017 to issue the cards.

Americans are, by far, hackers’ favorite credit-card fraud targets [Quartz]

Solar Impulse has already shown the potential for sun-based aviation in its attempt to fly around the world, but it just embarked on its most ambitious trip yet. Pilot Andre Borschberg has taken off from Nanjing, China on a cross-Pacific flight whose...

via http://feedly.com/index.html#category%2FINSPIRATIONS%20!!!

via http://filthflarnfilth.com/

Scam: Online buyers pay with cashier's checks larger than the purchase price, then ask that the overage be sent to a third party.

(photo via brianito)

gifsboom:

Video:  Cat Wants a Little Privacy

Mobstr

Does the notion of flying a drone around a crowded, hectic concert sound a tad too risky to you? We're sure Enrique Iglesias is having second thoughts. The singer sliced his hand at a Tijuana performance this weekend after he tried to grab a camera d...

You're about to get a textbook lesson in why you should always, always check vintage gadgets before you toss them out. A woman discarding her late husband's electronics inadvertently gave a Milpitas recycling firm an ultra-rare Apple I computer that ...

The 9 Circles of Scientific Hell - Neuroskeptic:

Third Circle: Post-Hoc Storytelling
“Sinners condemned to this circle  must constantly dodge the attacks of demons armed with bows and arrows,  firing more or less at random. Every time someone is hit in some part of  their body, the demon proceeds to explain at enormous length how they  were aiming for that exact spot all along.”

blvcc-gold:

alwaysbewoke:

Kickstarter: The Angelica Doll: A Natural Hair Doll For Young Girls

BOOST AND SUPPORT!!

(”Sophia wanted long straight hair, and she even started expressing a strong dislike for her facial features and skin tone.” Don’t tell me representation, dolls, toys don’t matter to children. Think internalized racism and self hatred happen by accident? It’s rampant among the Black community and Black girls are especially targeted).

This is amazing these dolls should be in everysingle toy store