Tag: script

Equifax will give your salary history to anyone with your SSN and date of birth

Equifax division TALX has a product called The Work Number , where prospective employers can verify job applicants’ work history and previous salaries (it’s also used by mortgage lenders and others): you can create an account on this system in anyone’s name, provided you have their date of birth and Social Security Number. The former is a matter of public record, the latter is often available thanks to the many breaches that have dumped millions of SSNs (the latest being Equifax’s catastrophic breach of 145,000,000 Americans’ data). (more…)

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Equifax will give your salary history to anyone with your SSN and date of birth

Adding a bit of asphalt speeds lithium battery charging by 20 times

A Rice University chemist found that a dding asphalt to lithium batteries allowed the battery to go “from zero charge to full charge in five minutes, rather than the typical two hours or more needed with other batteries.” The Rice lab of chemist James Tour developed anodes comprising porous carbon made from asphalt that showed exceptional stability after more than 500 charge-discharge cycles. A high-current density of 20 milliamps per square centimeter demonstrated the material’s promise for use in rapid charge and discharge devices that require high-power density. The finding is reported in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano .

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Adding a bit of asphalt speeds lithium battery charging by 20 times

Watch this real-time creation of a glass flower encased in a sphere

John Kobuki demonstrates the remarkable patience, dexterity, and craftsmanship required to spend 40 minutes shaping a clear glass sphere with a flower inside. (more…)

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Watch this real-time creation of a glass flower encased in a sphere

Biologists find new hermit crab that uses living corals as shells

A new species of hermit crab with feathery antennae has been discovered off the coast of Japan. What’s especially cool is that they use living corals as shells. (more…)

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Biologists find new hermit crab that uses living corals as shells

A typography historian shares his favorite typefaces

Paul McNeil just published his comprehensive typographical overview, The Visual History of Type . To celebrate, he also published a list of his six favorite faces for It’s Nice That, starting with the first compact italic: The Aldine Italic / Griffo’s Italic / 1501 Few typefaces have had as great an influence on Western culture as Francesco Griffo’s Italic. At the end of the 15th century, when most books were large and heavy, Aldus Manutius commissioned Griffo to cut this compact, inclined letterform. Easily legible at small sizes, the Aldine Italic permitted the production of small, affordable, portable books suited to the requirements of an educated, mobile class of literate individuals. Over the next three centuries, the practice of publishing changed everything. By allowing texts to be reliably reproduced and disseminated in an almost limitless time frame, it triggered new ideas that profoundly challenged all forms of institutional control, leading to dramatic religious reforms, radical socio-political changes, and to the scientific worldview that initiated the modern era. • The Visual History of Type (via It’s Nice That ) Image via ilovetypography.com

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A typography historian shares his favorite typefaces

These people revealed their passwords a little too freely

Earlier this month on Jimmy Kimmel Live , random people on the street were asked to share their main internet password. Amazingly, some did… on camera, no less. ( Viral Viral Videos )

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These people revealed their passwords a little too freely

Beyond the big five, humans have dozens of senses

The five traditional senses are tied to visible sense organs, but depending on the definition, humans possess dozens of senses , including thermoception (temperature), proprioception (bodily spatial relations), nociception (pain), equilibrioception (balance), and mechanoreception (vibration). (more…)

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Beyond the big five, humans have dozens of senses

Google buys $1.1bn piece of HTC

Rumored for some time, Google’s purchase of a significant chunk of handset-maker HTC was announced today . The WSJ: Google said an HTC team that helped develop Google’s flagship Pixel smartphone will join the company. The Mountain View, Calif., company will also get a nonexclusive license to HTC intellectual property. HTC was hired by Google to be the contract manufacturer for the Pixel, a high-end smartphone that was launched last year, in part to better compete with Apple Inc. $1.1bn in cash is probably most of HTC. The company’s market share evaporated over the last half-decade but it remains a well-respected manufacturer. Alternative Betteridge headline: “Will Google buying HTC go better than Google buying Motorola?”

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Google buys $1.1bn piece of HTC

Dead man sat in truck for 8 months in airport parking lot before someone found him

A dead body sat in a pickup truck for eight months in a parking lot at the Kansas City International Airport before someone discovered it. 53-year-old Randy Potter disappeared January 17, and had parked at the airport that same day. When his family contacted the airport police to report their missing relative and to see if his truck was still in the parking lot, the police said if it was, they would find it. Astonishingly, they somehow missed it. It wasn’t until someone reported a bad odor that the body was spotted inside the truck. Apparently, according to police, Potter had committed suicide, but no other details were released. According to Time : The truck’s windows are tinted, but are light enough to allow anyone to see inside. When an airport police officer found the body, it was covered up by a blanket, according to a police report. “No one should go through what we went through,” said Potter’s wife, Carolina. “We should not have gone through eight months agonizing, speculating.” Potter’s truck had been listed in the missing person flyers circulated by Lenexa police. The family had visited the airport early on. Kansas City spokesman Chris Hernandez said city officials were gathering facts to determine how Potter’s body remained in the lot as long as it did. The economy lot where Potter’s body was found is one of three lots situated about 2 ½ miles (4 kilometers) north of the airport terminals. Shuttles carry travelers from the lot to the terminals. The airport has over 25,000 parking spaces, and clearly needs a better way of managing them. Image: Dean Hochman

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Dead man sat in truck for 8 months in airport parking lot before someone found him