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Tech News
Amazon Says ‘Extensive’ Fraud Allowed Cybercriminals to Siphon Cash From Seller Accounts
UK legal documents obtained by Bloomberg show that e-commerce titan Amazon fell prey to “extensive” fraud that allowed cybercriminals to obtain access to around 100 seller accounts and transfer cash into their bank accounts, with the company confirming to the news agency that it had completed an investigation into the incident. Amazon lawyers wrote in … Continued
By Tom McKay -
ScienceHealth
Denver Vote to Decriminalize Psilocybin Mushrooms Appears to Snag Last-Minute Victory [Corrected]
Correction: 5/8/2019 at 9:45 p.m. ET: Turns out magic mushrooms really do sneak up on you! An earlier version of this story, citing preliminary results and media reports, stated that Measure 301 failed. In a twist that appears to have surprised most of the national media—and that did not occur until late Wednesday afternoon—Denver’s psilocybin … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
One of the World’s Largest Crypto Exchanges, Binance, Hacked to the Tune of $40 Million
Cryptocurrency trading hub Binance, one of the world’s largest, has confirmed it lost about 7,000 Bitcoins (around $40 million) to hackers after its so-called “hot wallet,” i.e. one connected to the internet and used to process transactions, was breached, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. The hot wallet in question contained about two percent of Binance’s holdings … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsNews
Reports: Police Bust Deep Dot Web, Saying It Made Millions Off Referral Links to Dark Web Markets
The FBI working in conjunction with authorities in multiple nations has arrested several individuals in connection with their involvement in Deep Dot Web, a website that allegedly profiteered by taking commissions on referral links to dark web markets, TechCrunch reported on Tuesday. It has also seized domains affiliated with the site and replaced them with … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsNews
Apple, Google Remove Three Dating Apps FTC Said Could Expose Minors to Sexual Predators
The Federal Trade Commission on Monday said that Apple and Google had removed three dating apps from their respective app stores after—yikes—the agency found they allowed children under the age of 13 to sign up, collected data on them in likely violation of federal law, and could allow sexual predators to contact children, CNBC reported. … Continued
By Tom McKay -
ScienceHealth
Damn, Donald, Back At It Again With the Gross Pools
The president of the United States may be an infamous germophobe, but he is also an infamous cheapskate whose business ventures regularly attract the attention of health authorities. The latter of these two impulses appears to have won out by far with respect to pools at his resorts in Florida, which Quartz reported on Monday … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsBest of the Week
Batwoman, Failed Airlines, and Height Enhancement Scams: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
It’s been a busy week for our friends at Facebook: Amid showing a bunch of loser far-right trolls and also Louis Farrakhan the door, kicking off an unhinged Twitter spree by the president, the company announced a confusing pivot towards being a privacy-first platform while also announcing other features designed to lure users into telling … Continued
By Tom McKay -
ScienceSpace
Interstellar Technologies Becomes First Private Japanese Firm to Reach Space With Momo-3 Launch
Aerospace company Interstellar Technologies Inc. became the first private firm in Japan to launch a rocket into space on Saturday, per the Japan Times, by sending an unmanned, 10-meter, one-ton Momo-3 rocket some 68 miles (110 kilometers) upwards on a brief but milestone hitting journey. This is the third launch attempt by Interstellar. A 2017 … Continued
By Tom McKay -
io9Television
Whoops, Game of Thrones Allegedly Leaked Again
Game of Thrones has just three episodes left to air, and clips from one of them are reportedly already circulating online hours before its premiere tonight, according to reports in Deadline and Variety and posts on Reddit’s “Free Folk” board. Leaked material that was quickly spreading on Twitter and elsewhere could not be immediately verified … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech News
Air Force Says It Has Successfully Shot Down Multiple Missiles Using a Laser Prototype
The U.S. Air Force announced on Friday that it had successfully used a ground-based surrogate for its laser weapons project, the Self-Protect High-Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD), to shoot down multiple air-launched missiles during a test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The system is designed to eventually be mounted on aircraft, where it … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsNews
FAA Revises Predictions for Commercial Drone Market, Estimates It Will Triple by 2023
After an explosive increase in commercial drone registrations in 2018, the Federal Aviation Administration has revised its predictions for the sector and now expects it to triple in size by the year 2023, according to NextGov. According to NextGov, the FAA was caught off guard when commercial drone operators registered over 175,000 drones in 2018, … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsNews
Trump Is Very, Very Mad About Facebook’s Latest Purge of Conspiracy Theorists and Far-Right Trolls
This week, Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram banned a number of far-right figures, including white supremacists and conspiracy theorists, in a somewhat clumsily executed effort to rid itself entirely of figures like failed congressional candidate and anti-Semite Paul Nehlen, Infowars founder Alex Jones and associated fringe personality Paul Joseph Watson, internet troll Milo Yiannopoulos, opportunistic … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
North Korea Launches ‘Several’ Unidentified Projectiles Amid Stalled Nuclear Talks
North Korea fired off what the South Korean military described as “several unidentified short-range projectiles” early Saturday local time in a move that could threaten to upset whatever diplomatic gains the U.S. has achieved with the country in recent years, the New York Times reported. According to the Times, the incident was the “most serious … Continued
By Tom McKay -
ScienceSpace
NASA Says Fraudulent Supplier Caused It to Lose Two Climate Satellites, Wasting Over $700 Million
NASA has found its loss of two 92-foot Taurus rockets—as well as the climate-monitoring satellites they were carrying—in 2009 and 2011 was due to a supplier that falsified test data about frangible joints that were supposed to split and release the rockets’ fairings, according to Quartz. According to a NASA Launch Services Program (LSP) report … Continued
By Tom McKay -
EartherClimate Change
Steve King Tells Iowans Hit By Flooding Not to Worry Because Maybe All That Rain Will Make Deserts Green
On Tuesday, parts of downtown Davenport, Iowa dramatically flooded after temporary flood barriers failed to stave off the gushing Mississippi River—which has crested to near record-setting levels in parts of Iowa and Illinois after hard-hitting snowfall this winter and heavy rain (such as that bomb cyclone in March). It’s part of a particularly bad flood … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsApple
Qualcomm Scored $4.5 Billion or More in Settlement With Apple
Semiconductor and telecommunications equipment manufacturer Qualcomm said on Wednesday it will take home a one-time payment of between $4.5 billion to $4.7 billion from its settlement with tech giant Apple over the next quarter, the New York Times reported. Last month, Qualcomm and Apple put to bed a massive, long-running patent and antitrust case that … Continued
By Tom McKay -
ScienceHealth
FDA Clears Horrible-Sounding ‘Heat Not Burn’ Tobacco Vape Made By Phillip Morris for Sale
The Food and Drug Administration has cleared for sale tobacco giant Phillip Morris International (PMI) and its sister company Altria’s baffling, “heat not burn” iQOS dry tobacco vaporizer on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported, handing Big Tobacco a major win despite there not actually being any evidence it is safer than traditional cigarettes. iQOS is essentially a … Continued
By Tom McKay -
EartherWeather
Downtown Davenport, Iowa Floods After Temporary Levees Fail
Downtown Davenport, Iowa flooded after HESCO barriers in the region failed sometime around 3:30 p.m. local time as the Mississippi River rose to nearly 22 feet, with no injuries reported but authorities and volunteers having to rescue some people by boat, the Quad-City Times reported on Tuesday. KWWL Storm Track 7 tweeted that after flood … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsApple
Apple Q2 2019 Earnings Show iPhone Business Stalling, But Services Expanding at Rapid Pace
Everyone has a theory: Maybe it’s that iPhones are too expensive. Maybe it’s that Apple’s quality control seems weaker, or that they’ve alienated consumers by removing consumer-friendly features like the headphone jack. Maybe it’s that iPhones keep getting more and more expensive at a time when consumers have realized the price premium isn’t worth it … Continued
By Tom McKay -
ScienceHealth
Trump’s Health Secretary Praises Trump for Opening Up ‘Debate’ on Vaccines That Is ‘Settled’ Now
The nation’s top health official, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, praised his boss Donald Trump on Monday for supposedly contributing to some kind of scientific “debate” about whether vaccines cause autism (they do not) and that it is now “settled” and Trump deserves even more credit for changing his mind (literally the … Continued
By Tom McKay