Texas attorney general files lawsuit against Meta over Facebook’s facial recognition technology | TechCrunch

February 15, 2022February 14, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Meta over Facebook’s facial recognition practices, his office announced on Monday. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, which notes that the lawsuit seeks civil penalties in the hundreds of billions of dollars. The lawsuit alleges that the company’s use of facial recognition technology, which it has now discontinued, violated the state’s privacy protections regarding biometric data.

A press release announcing the lawsuit alleges that Facebook has been storing millions of biometric identifiers contained in photos and videos uploaded by users. Attorney General Paxton says that Facebook exploited the personal information of users “to grow its empire and reap historic windfall profits.”

Geomagnetic storm sends 40 SpaceX satellites plummeting to Earth | Live Science

February 10, 2022February 9, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A powerful geomagnetic storm has doomed 40 Starlink satellites launched by SpaceX last week, the company has announced.

Elon Musk’s company launched a Falcon 9 rocket bearing the 49 satellites from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday (Feb. 3), but a geomagnetic storm that struck a day later sent the satellites plummeting back toward Earth, where they will burn up in the atmosphere.

“Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday,” SpaceX said in a statement. “Preliminary analysis show[s] the increased drag at the low altitudes prevented the satellites from leaving safe mode to begin orbit-raising maneuvers, and up to 40 of the satellites will reenter or already have reentered the Earth’s atmosphere.”

Amazon raises US price for Prime as profits jump | BBC News

February 4, 2022February 3, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Amazon is raising the price of its Prime service for US customers after reporting record sales and profits.

The e-commerce giant said it was hiking the price by 17% to $139 for annual membership.

The firm, which cited increased wage and shipping costs, said it had no announcements to make about other countries “at this time”.

It is the first increase since 2018 for Prime, which gives subscribers access to benefits like faster shipping.

Domino’s Response to the Labor Crunch: Pick Up Your Own Damn Pizza | Inc.com

February 4, 2022February 3, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

When you can’t fill your open roles, consider paying your customers instead.

That’s the strategy Domino’s is using to compensate for both labor shortages and a decline in sales. The Ann Arbor, Michigan-headquartered pizza chain announced this week that it will offer customers a $3 “tip” to apply to their next order (placed within a week) if they pick up their online orders themselves. The promotion is expected to run through late May.

Starbucks Set to Increase Prices in All Stores, Once Again | Entrepreneur

February 3, 2022February 2, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

There might be some bad news for Starbucks regulars, and they can thank the seemingly never-ending supply chain issues for it.

Starbucks reported that it will be increasing prices in stores later this year thanks to less than stellar Q1 2022 results. Though total revenue topped estimates at about $8.05 billion, earnings did not meet Wall Street’s expectations.

“Our pricing strategy … is driven by several factors such as inflation rates, partner investments, the infrastructure investments that we want to make, and then obviously, the investments we want to make on continuing the innovation pipeline. We do all those things while balancing the premium value for our customers and the experience we want to provide them,” John Culver, group president of North America and COO of Starbucks said on its quarterly earnings call.

Thousands of Planes Are Flying Empty and No One Can Stop Them | WIRED

February 3, 2022February 2, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

IN DECEMBER 2021, 27,591 aircraft took off or landed at Frankfurt airport—890 every day. But this winter, many of them weren’t carrying any passengers at all. Lufthansa, Germany’s national airline, which is based in Frankfurt, has admitted to running 21,000 empty flights this winter, using its own planes and those of its Belgian subsidiary, Brussels Airlines, in an attempt to keep hold of airport slots.

Although anti-air travel campaigners believe ghost flights are a widespread issue that airlines don’t publicly disclose, Lufthansa is so far the only airline to go public about its own figures. In January, climate activist Greta Thunberg tweeted her disbelief over the scale of the issue. Unusually, she was joined by voices within the industry. One of them was Lufthansa’s own chief executive, Carsten Spohr, who said the journeys were “empty, unnecessary flights just to secure our landing and takeoff rights.” But the company argues that it can’t change its approach: Those ghost flights are happening because airlines are required to conduct a certain proportion of their planned flights in order to keep slots at high-trafficked airports

MrBeast goes full Willy Wonka, launches his own Feastables food brand | Fast Company

January 31, 2022January 30, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In just a few short years, 23-year-old Jimmy Donaldson—better known as MrBeast—has built one of the largest audiences on the internet; become the highest-paid YouTube star ever, thanks to his videos generating some 10 billion views; and even convinced 456 people to compete in a precise reimagining of the activities at the heart of Squid Game (minus the bloody death) for $456,000. A year ago, he launched a restaurant concept called MrBeast Burger, using ghost kitchens to scale up very quickly. It sold 1 million burgers in its first three months.

Now, starting today, January 29, he’s also a major packaged-food brand.

Time May Be Running Out on Backdoor Roth IRAs | Small Business Trends

January 28, 2022January 27, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The passing of President Biden’s Build Back Better (BBB) legislation could mean the scrapping of a loophole referred to as the backdoor Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA). The Roth IRA unlike traditional IRAs is funded with after-tax dollars making contributions not tax-deductible. But once account holders start withdrawing funds, the money is tax-free. It gives them an edge over traditional IRA deposits which are generally made with pretax dollars and income tax is charged when money is withdrawn from the account during retirement

Critics of the backdoor Roth say that it allows individuals a loophole to get around the income limits that normally prevent high earners from owning Roths.

Amazon’s Alexa returns after morning snooze | BBC News

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

Users of Amazon’s Alexa complained that the voice assistant was not working on Friday morning.

According to the website Down Detector, the problem appeared to affect the UK and parts of Europe and lasted about an hour.

Some users posted on social media that they had been unable to get Alexa to respond or help with their morning routine.

How a Day of Apple-Picking Led to a $2 Billion Startup on a Mission to Feed the Hungry | Inc.com

January 25, 2022January 24, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Abhi Ramesh had expected to return with only fresh fruit the first time he went apple-picking with his future wife in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. But he also brought home a business idea.

“There were apples all over the ground,” says Ramesh, a serial entrepreneur who had earlier founded a coding school and an e-commerce startup. “I saw just firsthand how much food goes to waste at the farm level. I was shocked at the time.”