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Soft Rock and Reggae Music Helps Dogs Relax, Study Finds

Megan Diane
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Soft Rock and Reggae Music Helps Dogs Relax, Study Finds

Do you own a dog that needs to relax? A new study suggests reggae music has a positive effect on a dog’s behavior.

A study published in the Journal of Physiology & Behavior suggests that dogs enjoy listening to classical, soft rock and reggae music.

The University of Glasgow and the Scottish SPCA researchers examined how different music genres affected shelter dogs. Scientists played different musical styles and monitored their heart rates.

Soft Rock and Reggae were among the top music genres that helped decrease dog’s stress levels.

“Overall, the response to different genres was mixed highlighting the possibility that like humans, our canine friends have their own individual music preferences,” Professor Neil Evans, lead researcher in the study, explained in a statement. “That being said, reggae music and soft rock showed the highest positive changes in behavior.”

Evans argues that by playing soft rock and reggae music in animal shelters, it could be an excellent way to help dogs relax.

The lead researcher in the study and PhD student Amy Bowman said, “We were keen to explore the effect playing different genres of music had, and it was clear that the physiological and behavioral changes observed were maintained during the trial when the dogs were exposed to a variety of music.”

Following the review, the Scottish SPCA will be investing in sound systems for all of their kennels.

How music affects animals

A 2002 study examining music in animal shelters also found similar results. Published in the Journal of Animal Welfare, when researchers played classical music, dogs spent more time resting. However, when researchers played heavy metal music, dogs barked more.

But, dogs are not the only animals that are affected by the music they hear. A 2001 psychology study found dairy cows were able to produce more milk when they listened to Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony or REM’s Everybody Hurts than Beatles’ Back In the USSR. The results of the study suggest music tempo affects animals productivity.

New York Taxis Stop JFK Airport Pick Ups to Protest Trump’s Immigration Ban

Reginald Edward
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New York Taxis Stop JFK Airport Pick Ups to Protest Trump’s Immigration Ban

Mark Zuckerberg is not the only one upset with President Donald Trump’s immigration ban. The New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NTWA) took to Twitter to announce on that they will be stopping all passenger pickups at John F. Kennedy airport. Starting from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m today NWTA will protest the executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Friday by stopping all passenger pick-ups at JFK airport.

The NYTWA explained in a statement, “Today, drivers are joining the protest at JFK Airport in support of all those who are currently being detained at the airport because of Trump’s unconstitutional executive order. Drivers stand in solidarity with refugees coming to America in search of peace and safety and with those who are simply trying to return to their homes here in America after traveling abroad. We stand in solidarity with all of our peace-loving neighbors against this inhumane, cruel, and unconstitutional act of pure bigotry.”

Yesterday evening, the CEO of Facebook wrote an open letter criticizing Trump’s executive order banning refugees and immigrants from “terror-prone” countries from entering the United States. “We need to keep this country safe, but we should do that by focusing on people who actually pose a threat,” Zuckerberg explained in a Facebook post.

On Friday, President Trump signed an executive order that banned Syrian refugees from entering the United States. Also, the executive order prohibits residents from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, and Somalia from entering the United States for the next three months.

On Saturday, the U.S. government detained 12 refugees at JFK Airport. Since then, protesters have gathered at the airport chanting “No hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here.” According to NBC, more than 300 demonstrators held signs.

When asked about the immigration ban, Mr. Trump said, “It’s not a Muslim ban, but we were totally prepared,” The New York Times reports. “It’s working out very nicely. You see it at the airports, you see it all over.”

Report: Washington, DC Police CCTV Cameras Hacked Days Before Inauguration

Jonathan Antonio
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Report: Washington, DC Police CCTV Cameras Hacked Days Before Inauguration

Before Donald Trump’s Presidential Inauguration, hackers hacked 70% of Washington, D.C’s closed circuit TV cameras (CCTV). As a result, hackers infected over 100 police cameras with ransomware, according to the Washington Post.

The Washington Post reports that city officials revealed hackers were able to infect police cameras with ransomware. As a result, the cameras were unable to record for three days. Starting January 12th through January 15th, nearly 70% of closed-circuit TV systems were victims of the cyber attack. The CCTVs survey public areas across Washington, DC, the Washington Post reports.

However, a spokesperson for the Secret Service told reporters public safety was never in jeopardy.

The story continues by explaining that the city’s Chief Technology Officer, Archana Vemulapalli, said the city did not pay the ransom and solved the problems by removing all the software and restarting the system. Also, the Washington Post reports that the hack was only confined to police CCTV cameras and did not spread into other computer networks.

Hackers use ransomware to infect a computer and stop the device from working until the victim pay the ransom. This news comes after the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a 2016 report showing the number of ransomware attacks is on the rise. In the report, FBI’s Cyber Division Assistant Director James Trainor explained in the report that, “These criminals have evolved over time and now bypass the need for an individual to click on a link. They do this by

Rise of Ransomware

This news comes after the FBI released a 2016 report showing the number of ransomware attacks is on the rise. In the report, FBI’s Cyber Division Assistant Director James Trainor explains hackers take advantage of legitimate websites and infecting them with malware allowing for hackers to take advantage of vulnerable computers and users. Trainor added, “by paying a ransom, an organization might inadvertently be funding other illicit activity associated with criminals.”

However, despite the FBI’s warning, businesses are still paying ransoms. A study by the Ponemon Institute, “The Rise of Ransomware”, found that 48% of all firms that were victims of ransomware paid the ransom.

Twitter Announces the Release of National Security Letters

Jonathan Antonio
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Twitter Announces the Release of National Security Letters

Two years ago, Congress passed the USA Freedom Act. The USA Freedom Act allowed for companies to make small disclosures about national security letters they receive. Also, to stop the use of indefinite gag orders. As a result, the Department of Justice has to review disclosure restrictions in national security letters.

Tech companies have slowly become more transparent after they received national security letters from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. These letters often come with gag orders that force companies to release user data to the federal government confidentially.

Twitter’s National Security Letters

On Friday, Twitter opened up about two national security requests. These requests were accompanied by gag orders, preventing the social network from notifying the account holders or publicly disclosing the national security letters. Recently, the FBI lifted the gag orders allowing for the social network to disclose the national security letters publicly.

“We have provided each of the account holders with copies of the relevant NSLs (certain information redacted to protect privacy) as well as the account data we were compelled to produce,” Twitter’s Associate General Counsel, Elizabeth Banker, explained in a statement. “While the actual NSLs request a significant amount of data, Twitter provides a very limited set of data in response to NSLs consistent with federal law and interpretive guidance from the U.S. Department of Justice.”

Twitter is”encouraged” by the lifting of these two gag orders after seeing other companies such as Google and Yahoo! disclose their national security letters to the public. But, the social network explains that they are unsatisfied with the restrictions. Twitter plans on pursuing their lawsuit against the U.S. government to speak more publicly about national security letters.

Last December, Facebook revealed that government requests increased by nearly 30% in 2016. The social network explained that the number of government requests for account information rose by 27% in 2016. In fact, Facebook tells the government requests for user data increased from under 50,000 in the first six months of 2015 to nearly 60,000 in the first half of 2016.

Two Men Allegedly Ran a ‘Hamilton’ Ticket Resale Ponzi Scheme

Reginald Edward
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Two Men Allegedly Ran a ‘Hamilton’ Ticket Resale Ponzi Scheme

Two New Yorkers were charged with raising over $81 million from investors after promising to make money off of popular live events shows.

Mathew Harriton and Joseph Meli allegedly convinced at least 125 investors to invest in a Ponzi scheme based on false claims of buying and selling tickets for popular shows including Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton. On Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the two men.

A Ponzi scheme is an investment operation that is completely fraudulent. Scammers that use Ponzi schemes take money from new investors to pay returns to other investors. Scammers that use Ponzi schemes promise higher returns on investments than traditional investments.

Harriton and Meli allegedly scammed investors claiming they had an agreement with Hamilton’s producer to buy tickets in bulk. The alleged scammers told investors that their funds will pay part of the tickets. Then, Meli and Harriton promised to resell the tickets at a higher price. Harriton and Meli also promised investors that in less than a year they would earn their money back plus an additional 10% annualized profit, according to a SEC federal civil complaint.

The SEC complaint alleges that Meli and Harriton only used a small portion of investor funds to make payments to people connected to the ticket reselling business. Instead, the New Yorkers took the money and developed a Ponzi scheme, according to the SEC charges. In addition, Meli and Harriton also spent over a million dollars of investors’ money on personal expenses including private school tuition, jewelry, and casinos.

Hamilton Broadway Ponzi Scheme
(EQRoy / Shutterstock, Inc.)

Hamilton started off as an Off-Broadway theater production in February 2015 and the production quickly sold out. The show then hit Broadway in August 2015 and received one of the highest advance box office sales in recent history. By 2016, Hamilton received 16 Tony nominations and winning 11 total Tony awards including Best Musical. In addition, the show won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Hamilton helped launch Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show’s creator, to superstardom. 

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Criticizes Trump’s Immigration Ban

Reginald Edward
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Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Criticizes Trump’s Immigration Ban

The CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, spoke out on Friday against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

In a Facebook post, the multi-billionaire wrote in disagreement with Trump’s promise to build a wall along the Mexican border. Zuckerberg also criticized President Trump’s executive order banning refugees and preventing immigrants from certain countries from entering the United States.

Zuckerberg’s open letter

Zuckerberg opened up about his own European heritage and his hope that America can unite following Trump’s recent executive orders. “We need to keep this country safe, but we should do that by focusing on people who actually pose a threat,” Zuckerberg explained in a Facebook post. “Expanding the focus of law enforcement beyond people who are real threats would make all Americans feel less safe by diverting resources, while millions of undocumented folks who don’t pose a threat will live in fear of deportation.”

Facebook, among many other companies, employs workers from countries around the world to help engineer their technology.

Zuckerberg finished his open letter to Donald Trump by saying, “We are a nation of immigrants, and we all benefit when the best and brightest from around the world can live, work and contribute here. I hope we find the courage and compassion to bring people together and make this world a better place for everyone.” Zuckerberg added, “We should keep our doors open to refugees and those who need help. That’s who we are.”

 

Donald Trump’s Executive Orders

Donald Trump Executive Orders
Evan El-Amin / Shutterstock, Inc.

On Wednesday, Donald Trump followed through with this campaign promise to “Build the wall”. Trump signed executive orders that would employee thousands of new border patrol officers, deportation agents, and end government funding for sanctuary cities.

On Friday, Trump signed another executive order that banned Syrian refugees from entering the country. According to the executive order, for the next four months, no Syrians are allowed to enter the United States. In addition, for the next three months, no residents of “terror-prone” countries will also be not allowed to enter the U.S; The terror-prone countries include Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, and Somalia.

College Students Hospitalized After Caffeine Study Goes Wrong

Brent Edward
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College Students Hospitalized After Caffeine Study Goes Wrong

Starbucks coffee may give you the lift you need to accomplish your morning errands. But, too much caffeine and you run the risk of dying. Earlier this year, the Pentagon issued a warning to soldiers regarding the risks associated with energy drinks. Now, two college students nearly died after being given a caffeine equivalent of nearly 300 cups of coffee.

Alex Rossetta and Luke Parkin participated in a study at Northumbria University in England. The two students were supposed to be given 0.3 grams of caffeine. But due to an experimental error, the students were given approximately 30 grams of caffeine, according to the BBC.

The students were given a mixture of caffeine and water or orange juice. Immediately, thereafter, the volunteers experienced caffeine related side effects including dizziness, blurred vision, shaking and a rapid heartbeat. The students were taken to a hospital. At the hospital, the students underwent dialysis. In fact, one of the students reported having short term memory issues. Luckily, the two students recovered.

The whole incident eventually went to court. Adam Farrer, the prosecutor in the court case, told the court that people have previously died after ingesting a fraction of what the young boys consumed during the study. Farrer explained, “If they had not been admitted to intensive care immediately for treatment they could have died from caffeine overdose.”

The University was fined over $500,000. The school also apologized, “All those involved are deeply sorry and genuinely sorry for the breach in this case.”

Caffeine warnings

Earlier this year, the official U.S. Defense Department Science blog warned soldiers to monitor how much caffeine they are consuming. The Pentagon warned soldiers to avoid consuming more than 200 mg of caffeine every four hours.

Caffeine does does have benefits. A 2016 study published in the “Journal of Psychopharmacology” examined how Red Bull affected performance. Researchers found that Red Bull improved memory, accuracy, and speed of working memory.

Google Chrome is Now Nearly 30% Faster

Jonathan Antonio
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Google Chrome is Now Nearly 30% Faster

Google has announced a major improvement to their Google Chrome web browser. The latest version of Chrome will process reloading web pages by reducing the number of validation requests. Ultimately, speeding up the web browser’s speed by nearly 30%.

Reloading is one of the most common functions internet users use while, surfing the web. Over the years, webmasters have developed new tools to improve the quality of web pages. This has led Google to change the way the company handles how it processes reload requests.

Initially, a browser checks the web server to see if cached resources are still usable. This is called validation. A usual website has hundreds of validation requests on every page. It takes a longer time for a web page to be displayed especially on mobile devices, if it has too many validation requests. However, with the latest version of Chrome, web pages are able to load nearly 30% faster. In addition, have 50% less validation requests.

If you are reloading a page on Facebook, a large majority of the page elements are going to be the same. Facebook informed Google that Chrome was sending validation requests three more times the rate of other browsers. As a result, Google did something about it. Following Google’s upgrade, web pages now load 28% faster and feature 60% less validation requests on Google Chrome.

“We hope this faster reload will come in handy whenever you want to get the latest content on your favorite website or quickly recover from a flaky connection in the subway,” Takashi Toyoshima reported on Google Chrome’s blog.

Google Chrome

Google first released their very own web browser nearly a decade ago. Now, the company reports that 63% of all internet users use Google Chrome. Following the success of Google Chrome, the search engine giant attached “Chrome” to other products such as the Chromecast, Chromebook, and other “Chrome” branded products.

 

Study: More People are Showing Up Late for Work

Reginald Edward
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Study: More People are Showing Up Late for Work

Since the start of 2017, companies have announced plans to hire more employees. Wal-Mart, Amazon, General Motors and many other companies launched initiatives to hire thousands of new employees starting this year. But, these companies may have a new problem on their hands. After surveying over 2,000 human resource managers and over 3,000 employees, CareerBuilder has discovered an ever growing number people are showing up late for work.

3,400 employees and 2,600 hiring and human resource managers were surveyed in this nationwide survey. Researchers found 16% of employees admitted to showing up to work late at least once per week, which is an increase of 3% from last year. In addition, nearly 30 percent of employees admitted showing up to work at least once per month – an increase from 25% last year.

Researchers also asked questions related to hours employees are expected to work. CareerBuilder found nearly 2 out of 3 employers and employees believe working a “9 to 5” is old fashioned. But, more than 50% of employers expect their employees to show up to work on time. Over, 40% of employers report firing someone for being late.

Researchers also found that 29% of employees had no problem with an employee occasionally showing up late, as long as it did not become a frequent occurence. The most common excuses for showing up late for work include traffic, oversleeping, bad weather or simply procrastinating.

The study showed that employees are becoming more honest about the hours they work. 69% of employees who arrive late say they will stay later to make up for it, which is an increase from last year’s study – up from 62%.

CareerBuilder also shared some of the most outrageous excuses reported in the survey. Some of the craziest excuses include: “I forgot it wasn’t the weekend,” “I thought Flag Day was a legal holiday,” and “My mother-in-law wouldn’t stop talking.”

If your boss does not buy your “pet turtle needed to visit the exotic animal clinic” excuse, have no fear because Amazon is reported to hire over 100,000 new jobs by 2018.

 

Oprah Teams with Kraft Heinz Launching Ready-To-Eat Food Company

Reginald Edward
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Oprah Teams with Kraft Heinz Launching Ready-To-Eat Food Company

The Kraft Heinz Company has partnered with Oprah Winfrey to create a new company called Mealtime Stories, LLC.

The new partnership will initially sell “ready to eat refrigerated products”. In addition, the company will donate 10 % of their revenue to charities to stop hunger.

In a press release, Kraft Heinz explains the company’s mission “is to create a new line of food that will make real, nutritious products more accessible to everyone.”

Oprah Winfrey started off poor but, became a millionaire in her thirties after her talk show became syndicated nationwide. At 41, Winfrey had a net worth of over $300 million beating Bill Cosby. In turn, Winfrey became the only African American on the Forbes 400 list. Since then, Oprah Winfrey has became the first African American female billionaire in world history worth over $2.9 billion.

In 2015, Oprah purchased a 10% stake in the Weight Watchers company and joined the board of Weight Watchers International. Earlier this month, Oprah appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and revealed she lost over 40 pounds on Weight Watchers.

“Everybody who has watched me over the years knows I’ve struggled with food. It’s the first time I’ve actually felt that I’ve gotten it under control,” she said on Colbert’s show.

The next day, the company’s stock price rose by over 20%. In fact, according to a CNBC news report, Sidoti analyst Frank Camma reports that stock is worth between $28 to $25 per share, thanks to Oprah’s marketing campaign.

In other Kraft news, Kraft-Heinz launched a petition for a national day off after the Super Bowl, named Smunday. The company started a Change.org petition and launched a website called, www.smunday.org. If 100,000 people sign the petition, Kraft Heinz will send a petition to Congress to turn the day after the Super Bowl a holiday. The company will also be giving all of their salaried employees the day off.

 

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