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By Tiffany Hsu The New York Times Fri., May 10, 2019 The punch cards stuffed in your wallet know next to nothing about you, except maybe how many frozen yogourts you still need to buy to get a free one. But loyalty programs, as they shift from paper and plastic to apps and websites, are increasingly tracking a currency that can be more valuable than how much you spend: personal data. As a result, the programs know things about you that some of your friends may not, like your favourite flavour (mango), when your cravings strike (early afternoon) and how you pay (with your Visa), in addition to billing details and contact information. Hackers are in close pursuit. One loyalty-fraud prevention group estimates, conservatively, that $1 billion (U.S.) a year is lost to crime related to the programs. As a share of fraud not involving a physical payment card, such schemes more than doubled from 2017 to 2018, according to the Javelin Strategy & Research firm. Some criminals … [Read more...] about Customer loyalty programs are a hacker’s paradise
Land rover who makes
Blue Moon: Life on the Moon may not be too far away
The world's wealthiest man, Jeff Bezos wants to lead the next stage in the human exploration of space with his private company, Blue Origin. While Elon Musk has been busy making not-flamethrowers, Bezos revealed the first lunar lander from his company - Blue Moon."We've been working on this lander for 3 years. It's a very large lander. It'll soft land in a precise way 3.6 metric tons on to the lunar surface. The stretch tank variant of it will soft land 6.5 metric tons on to the lunar surface," said Bezos at a press conference in Washington today.The lander is capable of carrying four rovers using a new rocket engine which was also revealed at the same conference. This enhances the possibilities of new ventures in space. A feature of the lander which was repeatedly emphasised is its smooth landing capability. Bezos claims this vehicle will allow rovers to land on the Moon smoothly, and relay information back to the Earth via an optical communications system.Bezos spoke at length about … [Read more...] about Blue Moon: Life on the Moon may not be too far away
Attacks on Brazil’s ecological paradises threaten biodiversity
RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil is home to more than half of the world's plant and animal species, but its ecological paradises are facing growing threats from big business and criminal outfits who have found a champion in far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, experts say.Brazil's rich biodiversity is under attack from multiple fronts, including landowners who cut down multi-storied trees to make way for soya bean crops, clandestine miners who pollute rivers used by indigenous people, and timber traffickers who decimate valuable species.Bolsonaro, a climate-change skeptic who was swept to power in last October's elections by the support of powerful farming and mining lobby groups, is on their side.His anti-environment rhetoric has included a pledge to end "Shiite ecologist activism," using the word "Shiite" as a synonym for radicalism rather than denoting a branch of Islam."It sends a message to farmers and especially organized crime mafias who invade the land to occupy it," said Emilio La … [Read more...] about Attacks on Brazil’s ecological paradises threaten biodiversity
Tom Ford: Portrait of a perfectionist, anal-retentive, painfully shy vegan designer
Tom Ford has come early to rearrange the furniture. He thinks that the already stylish room in the hottest new private club in town, the San Vicente Bungalows, could be even more captivating. So a team of eight club staff members gets busy under his direction, pulling a potted plant from the terrace for one corner and setting up two dozen glowing amber votive candles.Ford himself redoes the white flowers, plucking out the roses and leaving in the ranunculus, because he doesn’t like mixed blooms. The Murphy bed he can do nothing about.As I enter, the designer is lost in thought, still fantasising about redoing the room in his own preferred palette, draping chocolate brown velvet on the walls.Everything in life can always be more sensual and beautiful, if you think about it. And Ford is always thinking about it. From the time he was big enough to push furniture, at six years old, he was rearranging it in his house. And giving his mother critiques on her hair and shoes.Being Tom … [Read more...] about Tom Ford: Portrait of a perfectionist, anal-retentive, painfully shy vegan designer