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A gingerbread version of Chewbacca by Craftster member kala. It may not be at the same level of awesomeness as the AT-AT gingerbread we recently posted, but it still looks delicious.

[Source: Craftster.org | Via Neatorama]

In the wake of a massive data breach, Target Corp <TGT.N> suffered reduced customer traffic over one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The number of transactions at Target fell 3 to 4 percent compared with last year's final weekend before Christmas, while, transactions at other retailers were strong, the Journal said, citing estimates by retail consultancy Customer Growth Partners LLC.

Target said on Thursday that hackers had stolen data from as many as 40 million credit and debit cards of shoppers who visited its stores during the first three weeks of the holiday season.

At least 2 million shoppers who used bank debit cards at Target stores during its recent data breach are facing lower limits on how much cash they can take out of teller machines and spend at stores.

"This is the worst possible time something like this could happen," Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners told the Journal. (http://link.reuters.com/zyg65v)

The consultancy firm estimates that U.S. retail sales on Saturday totaled $17 billion, exceeding those on Black Friday by $2 billion, according to the paper.

A Target spokeswoman declined to comment to the Journal specifically on this weekend's results, saying the retailer reports sales on a quarterly basis.

Target could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside of regular U.S. business hours.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Supriya Kurane)

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Ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show next month, Samsung announced a few of the new features it will add to its line of Internet-connected Smart TVs.

Samsung won't formally show off the new Smart TVs until its big CES press conference on January 6, but here's a brief teaser of what you can expect:

• Improved voice control: The TVs will now understand more natural language. For example, instead of starting with the command "change channel," you can just say the channel number.
• News pop-up windows: You can use voice control to check stuff like weather, stocks, and news while watching TV. Those items now pop up in a window on top of whatever you're watching. You can then decide if you want to expand the window to full screen.
• New finger gestures: Samsung Smart TVs have built-in cameras that can detect certain gestures for controlling basic functions. The new update adds some "finger gestures" that will let you swipe between screens and change the channel.

Samsung hasn't shown how all these new features will work yet, but we'll have hands-on photos and videos for you from CES in a few weeks.

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Product Name: Pi Shower Curtain
Price: $29.95
Who would like this?: Mathematicians, Nerdy Family Members, Children

For every broad-chested, extroverted, weight-lifting enthusiast in the family, there is at least one mathlete. This holiday season, keep their apartment appropriately decorated with the Pi Shower Curtain by Simple Memory Art.

Aside from warding off preventable, shower-related house floods, this shower curtain will also help your loved one achieve the common new year's resolution of memorizing the first 1,000 digits of Pi.

Who would benefit the most from this shower curtain, though, is the young math whiz on your list. Encouraging the eternal quest for knowledge, the curtain will get your youngster asking questions early — and the added benefit of requiring them to shower in order to do so doesn't hurt. Read more...

via

The post BOOTY SHAKING BY THE CHRISTMAS TREE appeared first on Girls In Yoga Pants.

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The United States is known for its aggressive stance when it comes to copyright infringements.

It therefore came as quite a surprise that the U.S. military had been using unlicensed logistics software for years, a case the Obama administration settled for $50 million last month.

However, a signal soldier serving in Qatar informs TorrentFreak that this incident may not be as unique as it sounds. According to the soldier, who we will name Mark, the soldiers’ education center at his base has 18 computers which all run unlicensed copies of Windows 7.

“All of the computers in this computer lab show that the operating system is not a genuine copy,” Mark says.

The picture below shows several of the computers in the education center of Camp As Sayliyah. The facility is open to all active and reserve military personnel as well as DOD civilians.

The computers have been running in this state for quite a while according to the soldier, and he is unaware of any attempts to properly license the software.

The picture below again shows a Windows 7 copy that hasn’t been activated. The product-ID displayed is a generic OEM one, which is often used on Dell machines.

The desktop of the machines also shows a clear reminder that the Windows copy is not genuine. In addition, users also get the occasional popup warning that they “may be a victim of software counterfeiting.”

Mark informs us that this is the first time he has seen a military base openly run unlicensed Windows systems. He brought up the issue with his direct superiors a few weeks ago, but that hasn’t changed anything.

“I am not anti-government in any way, but I have been in the army a long time and I feel the army should be kept honest and accountable for what they do, especially when it is so public and a hot button issue in these times,” Mark told us.

From the information we received it is unclear why the computers are not licensed. Perhaps the legitimate keys were lost, perhaps there are no valid keys available, or maybe the Army has fallen victim to the consumer unfriendliness of DRM.

What we do know is that the Department of Defense has a long-standing relationship with Microsoft. Earlier this year both parties signed a $617 million licensing deal to bring Windows 8 to the Army, Air Force, and Defense Information Systems Agency.

Considering this new deal, Microsoft will probably forgive the U.S. for running a few computers without a license.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and VPN services.

Cracker Barrel has become the first major Duck Dynasty product partner to pull merchandise from the A&E series from their stores.

“Cracker Barrel’s mission is Pleasing People. We operate within the ideals of fairness, mutual respect and equal treatment of all people. These ideals are the core of our corporate culture,” the company said in a statement.

“We continue to offer Duck Commander products in our stores. We removed selected products which we were concerned might offend some of our guests while we evaluate the situation. We continually evaluate the products we offer and will continue to do so.”

Cracker Barrel did not clarify which items were pulled from stores, but A&E’s Duck Dynasty merchandising is separate from the Duck Commander line owned by the Robertson family.

The decision to remove the products from the stores comes after A&E suspended Phil Robertson indefinitely for his recent anti-gay comments.

In an interview, Robertson said that society has started to embrace sinful behavior.

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there — bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” Robertson said. He also called homosexuality illogical.

“It seems to me, a vagina — as a man — would be more desirable than a man’s anus,” the Duck Dynasty patriarch said. “That’s just me. I’m just thinking, ‘There’s more there! She’s got more to offer.’ I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.”

Robertson also claimed that black people were happy during the pre-civil rights era.

“I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!… Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues,” Robertson said.

The Human Rights Campaign and the NAACP wrote a joint letter to the president of A&E expressing their concern over Phil Robertson’s comments.

“We want to be clear why Phil Robertson’s remarks are not just dangerous but also inaccurate. Mr. Robertson claims that, from what he saw, African Americans were happier under Jim Crow,” the letter read. “What he didn’t see were lynching and beatings of black men and women for attempting to vote or simply walking down the street.”

The letter continued:

“And his offensive claims about gay people fly in the face of science. In fact, it’s important to note that every single leading medical organization in the country has said that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being [lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender] — it’s not a choice, and to suggest otherwise is dangerous.”

[Image via Colleen Greene]

Cracker Barrel Pulls ‘Offensive’ ‘Duck Dynasty’ Products is a post from: The Inquisitr News