Harvard: distracted driving a big problem for office workers | Fast Company

July 26, 2022July 25, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Ninety-five percent of Americans call distracted driving “extremely dangerous,” and federal campaigns to stop activities like texting behind the wheel (“U text. U drive. U pay.”) have been carried out by federal agencies as varied as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Yet, according to a new survey by Harvard Business School researchers, 87% of the commuters they interviewed still admitted to “multitasking” on their way to and from work.

Deadline to Apply for EIDL Loans Due to Texas Drought Nears | Small Business Trends

July 25, 2022July 25, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Deadline to Apply for EIDL Loans Due to Texas Drought Nears

Director Tanya N. Garfield of the SBA’s Disaster Field Operations Center-West Texas reminded small non-farm businesses of the August deadline dates to apply for an SBA federal disaster loan for economic injury. The low-interest loans were offered to offset economic losses from reduced revenues caused by drought.

Texas EIDL Deadlines Draw Near

The deadline for primary counties Fisher, Jones and Scurry is August 15, and is the same deadline for neighboring counties Borden, Callahan, Garza, Haskell, Kent, Mitchell, Nolan, Shackelford, Stonewall and Taylor.

The deadline for primary counties Camp, Franklin, Hopkins, Knox, Titus, Upshur and Wood is August 22, and is the same deadline for neighboring counties Baylor, Delta, Foard, Gregg, Harrison, Haskell, Hunt, King, Marion, Morris, Rains, Red River, Smith, Stonewall, Throckmorton and Van Zandt.

The interest rate for the loans is as low as 2.83% for businesses and 1.875% for private non-profit organizations. The terms are up to 30 years, with the actual loan amounts and terms to be set by the SBA who base them on each applicant’s financial condition.

Union suspends Heathrow refueling staff strike | BBC News

July 21, 2022July 20, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A strike by refuelling staff which could have disrupted several airlines at Heathrow Airport later this week has been called off.

A total of 50 workers from Aviation Fuel Services (AFS) were due to stage a three-day walkout from Thursday to Sunday in a row over pay.

However, the Unite union said on Wednesday that a fresh pay offer was now on the table after talks.

It will now ballot members on the new offer.

The union said talks at reconciliation service Acas on Wednesday had led to the new offer from AFS.

India’s central bank wants to ban cryptocurrencies, government says | TechCrunch

July 20, 2022July 18, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

India’s central bank wants to ban cryptocurrencies, the government told the parliament on Monday, raising more uncertainty about the future of the nascent virtual digital asset in the world’s second largest internet market.

Nirmala Sitharaman, the minister of finance in India, said Monday that the Reserve Bank of India has expressed concerns about the “destabilising effect of cryptocurrencies on the monetary and fiscal stability of a country” and has recommended “for framing of legislation on this sector,” she said.

“RBI is of the view that cryptocurrencies should be prohibited,” she added.

Tinder’s parent company expands background checks to more dating apps | Mashable

July 15, 2022July 13, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Tinder’s parent company has expanded its background check feature to two more of its dating apps. Now, daters on Match Group’s namesake app and Stir, created for single parents, can run background checks on potential matches. The feature was unrolled earlier this year on Tinder, allowing users to screen dates through an integrated service. The checks are conducted by non-profit platform Garbo, which aims to prevent harm in the digital age by offering public information on a person’s violent or harmful behavior.

Netflix with ads is coming, but it’s ‘early days’ | CNN

July 15, 2022July 13, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

You’ll soon be able to sign up for a cheaper version of Netflix with ads — though that option is still in its “early days.”

Netflix will partner with Microsoft on this new ad-supported subscription plan, the two companies announced Wednesday.

The partnership follows the surprising announcement in April that Netflix (NFLX) would be open to adding a lower-priced ad-supported tier to its service — something its CEO Reed Hastings resisted for years. But the company is going through one of the roughest periods in its 25-year history, after losing subscribers in the first quarter for the first time in more than a decade.

Jerry Harris: Star of Netflix’s Cheer sentenced to 12 years | BBC News

July 8, 2022July 6, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Jeremiah “Jerry” Harris, one of the stars of the Netflix documentary series Cheer, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison on child sex abuse charges.

He pleaded guilty in February to charges of child pornography and travelling across state lines with the purposes of having sex with a child.

He was also sentenced to eight years of supervised released after prison.

Harris admitted to exchanging lewd pictures with 10-15 children in three states that he knew to be underage.

Inflation’s Unexpected Dividend: More Entrepreneurs | Inc.com

July 7, 2022July 6, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Up to four million Latino workers are thinking about taking the entrepreneurship plunge to help cope with record-high inflation.

That’s according to a new reading of a December survey from QuickBooks, Intuit’s fintech software arm, which was collected as the nation’s inflation gauges were rapidly escalating. The survey suggests that 15 percent of Latino and Hispanic respondents expressed interest in becoming an entrepreneur in 2022. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the number of Latino and Hispanic workers in the U.S. at 27.1 million.

Virgin Galactic aims for 400 flights a year with two new ‘motherships’ | TechCrunch

July 7, 2022July 6, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Virgin Galactic is gearing up to take more tourists to the edge of space, working with Boeing to build two new “motherships” that will take the rocket-powered spaceplanes to launch altitude. It’s all part of the plan to hit 400 flights a year: every day and twice on Sundays, perhaps.

VG’s approach, which has been performed a few times with test crews and founder Richard Branson himself aboard, has the spacecraft strapped to the belly of a larger, custom aircraft, which gives the former a running start and skips the necessity of rocket acceleration through the densest part of the atmosphere.

The Worst Hacks and Breaches of 2022 So Far | WIRED

July 6, 2022July 4, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

WHETHER THE FIRST six months of 2022 have felt interminable or fleeting—or both—massive hacks, data breaches, digital scams, and ransomware attacks continued apace throughout the first half of this complicated year. With the Covid-19 pandemic, economic instability, geopolitical unrest, and bitter human rights disputes grinding on around the world, cybersecurity vulnerabilities and digital attacks have proved to be thoroughly enmeshed in all aspects of life.

With another six months left in the year, though, there’s more still to come. Here are the biggest digital security debacles that have played out so far.