The four major credit card networks — American Express, Discover, Mastercard and Visa — say they will no longer require merchants to obtain customers' signatures. From the New York Times:… Read the rest of the article: Credit card companies will no longer require signatures
In a survey of 1,300 Android users, 89% percent said that they did not give Facebook consent to scrape their call and text history. Facebook has been allegedly scraping phone… Read the rest of the article: Survey: 89% of Android users didn't give Facebook consent
This looks like a worthy cause — Sesame Street is seeking $75k to fund its Autism Initiative to prevent bullying. We've mapped out a multi-step plan to address bullying as… Read the rest of the article: Sesame Street launches its first crowdfunded campaign, to prevent autistic kids from being bullied
File under "what were they thinking?" — @disney removed its tweet showing an unresponsive Pinocchio marionette receiving a sparkly spell from a magic wand, with the caption, "When someone compliments… Read the rest of the article: Disney deletes "Dead Inside" tweet
Two pranksters placed a remote control lawnmower in a grassy field and steered it from a distance, unseen. One man (the property owner?) made several attempts to climb on it… Read the rest of the article: Pranksters control lawn mower at a distance, angering others
Taking a stand against Facebook for repeatedly and willfully violating the privacy of its users, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is deleting his account. "Users provide every detail of their life… Read the rest of the article: Wozniak quits Facebook
Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist, reported that his young son drew stick figures on some couch cushions. His wife cleverly dealt with the issue by embroidering the… Read the rest of the article: 3-year-old scrawls on furniture cushions, mom embroiders them
You have probably seen sushi restaurants where plates of different kinds of sushi move past you on a conveyor belt. These kinds of places are called kaitenzushi. Here's one where… Read the rest of the article: A visit to a self-service sushi restaurant in Japan
The folks at Great Big Story went to Madrid to find a hidden Chinese restaurant known as "The Underground." Underneath a plaza in Madrid lies one of Spain's greatest culinary… Read the rest of the article: Finding a "secret" Chinese restaurant in Madrid
Jezebel says it has learned that its recent hire, Cannibal Witch, who often tweets about her propensity for eating children, is in fact a cannibal. "We should not have hired… Read the rest of the article: Jezebel apologizes for hiring Cannibal Witch as writer-at-large
Scotty, who runs the excellent Strange Parts YouTube channel, went to Shenzhen, China to upgrade the memory in his iPhone 6s from 16GB to 128GB. "I've been hearing for several… Read the rest of the article: Watch: Scotty buys spare parts in China to upgrade his iPhone memory 800%
Daniel Sheikhan dropped his car off at a dealership for service. He was billed $700 for transmission work, but as his dashcam shows, the mechanics didn't do anything but put… Read the rest of the article: Dashcam reveals lazy, lying mechanics
Not surprising, but here's a new study confirming the obvious: couples that help each other with the dishwashing are happier. From The Atlantic: A forthcoming report from the Council of… Read the rest of the article: Dishwashing causes more relationship distress than any other household task
Most songs aren't as good when the instrumentals are stripped out, but Marvin Gaye's vocals in "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" are so powerful and haunting that they don't… Read the rest of the article: Listen to Marvin Gaye sing "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" in an isolated vocal track
This edition of Asian Boss asks residents of Shanghai what they think about China's new national reputation system, a mass surveillance tool that uses big data analysis to rewards and… Read the rest of the article: Is China's social credit system becoming a Black Mirror episode?
15 or 20 year ago Japanese schoolkids started making shiny balls out of mud (dorodango). Now people have figured out how to make shiny balls out of aluminum foil. They… Read the rest of the article: How to make a shiny ball out of aluminum foil
A duo of grimly determined New Jersey cops were so certain that a man was in possession of marijuana that they went on a lengthy and energetic roadside expedition into… Read the rest of the article: New Jersey police officers probe man's anus in desperate search for marijuana
Tacotron 2 is Google's new text-to-speech system, and as heard in the samples below, it sounds indistinguishable from humans. From Quartz: The system is Google's second official generation of the… Read the rest of the article: Google's talking AI is indistinguishable from humans
In 1981 Howard Phillips got a job at a Nintendo arcade game shipping warehouse in Seattle. One the the perks of the job was being able to play the games… Read the rest of the article: How a shipping warehouse employee became the face of Nintendo
I met science illustrator Paul Mirocha through a personal Discord server I set up and when Paul started posting his illustrations in the "Show your creations" channel, I was blown… Read the rest of the article: The incredible science illustrations of Paul Mirocha
