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.

Giant sunspot doubled in size in 24 hours, and it’s pointing right at Earth | Live Science

June 30, 2022June 28, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A gigantic sunspot has swelled to twice Earth’s size, doubling its diameter in 24 hours, and it’s pointed right at us.

The sunspot, called AR3038, grew to 2.5 times Earth’s size — making the sunspot roughly 19,800 miles, or 31,900 kilometers, in diameter — from Sunday (June 19) to Monday night (June 20), according to Spaceweather.com, a website that tracks news about solar flares, geomagnetic storms and other cosmic weather events.

Sunspots are dark patches on the sun’s surface where powerful magnetic fields, created by the flow of electric charges from the sun’s plasma, knot before suddenly snapping. The resulting release of energy launches bursts of radiation called solar flares and generates explosive jets of solar material called coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

Millions of children could soon lose access to free school meals | Fast Company

June 29, 2022June 28, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Hulu Kaopio-Camvel lives on the quiet, outer-Hawaiian island of Molokai, which is only 38 miles long and has a population of 7,000. All groceries come to the island via a barge. Since it’s the only option, residents often feel the shock of food prices, especially with inflation. And during the height of the pandemic and supply chain shortages, the boat sometimes didn’t even make it to shore. “Just to get a gallon of milk was crazy,” she says. What used to cost $8.99 has now surged to $12.99 with inflation. So, for her three school-age kids, the free breakfasts and lunches provided at school were a lifesaver.

The national school breakfast and lunch programs, administered by the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and which have stringent income-eligibility criteria, are typically reserved for families at or below 130% of the federal poverty line. But in March 2020, Congress waived those qualification tests to provide families financial relief during the pandemic, and that allowed every child in America to access free breakfast and lunch—an estimated 30 million kids in total. Lawmakers have extended the waiver twice since. But after opposition from Republican lawmakers, members removed a provision from the latest federal budget that would have extended the program through the forthcoming school year. (It wasn’t until June 25, five days before the program was set to expire, that President Biden was able to sign a brief summer extension into law after Congress finally agreed on it.)

6 Tips On How To Use Technology To Improve Your Business | The Startup Magazine

June 24, 2022June 22, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Technology has come a long way, and there are now countless ways for businesses to use it to improve their operations. In this blog post, we will discuss six tips on how businesses can use technology to become more efficient and productive. Whether you are just starting out or you have been in business for years, these technology tool tips will help you take your business to the next level!

1. Use online tools to manage your calendar and schedule appointments

To-do lists can be helpful, but they can also be overwhelming. If you find yourself constantly putting things off until later, try using an online calendar to stay on top of your tasks. You can set reminders for yourself and

Use the calendar to plan your week. This will help you make sure that you’re using your time wisely and getting things done.

There are a number of different online tools that you can use for this, so find one that works best for you and your business. If you’re not sure where to start, try using Google Calendar or Asana. Both of these tools are free to use and easy to get started with.