From Political BlindSpot.com The real “Lone Ranger,” it turns out, was an African American man named Bass Reeves, who the legend was based upon. Perhaps not surprisingly, many aspects of his life were written out of the story, including his ethnicity. The basics remained the same: a lawman hunting bad guys, accompanied by a Native […]

From PrivacySense.net Nowadays, it is far more convenient to pay at gas stations with a speedpass, use Paypal for online purchases, and pay with plastic rather than holding wads of cash and pockets of loose change. But instead of now worrying about being mugged for cash, there is a technique to defraud you of your […]

By Ethan Trex writing for Mental Floss As soon as an actor in a movie or TV show starts rattling off a phone number, every viewer knows what the first three digits will be: 5-5-5. How did “555” become the convention for fake phone numbers, and are there any real 555 numbers? Let’s dial up some answers. […]

By Nico Hines writing for The Daily Beast. Brazil is suffering pre-Games fears, delays—and Zika—but Rio probably won’t be among the all-time most disastrous Olympics. Here are the top five worst ever. With the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse apparently saddled up and riding toward Rio, it’s been claimed that Brazilian organizers are making preparations […]

By: Elizabeth Weise, USATODAY SAN FRANCISCO – What you think are robocalls by aggressive marketers are more likely scams by crooks. The top three phone scams targeting consumers this year are Google listing scams, loan-related scams and fraudsters offering free vacations, an information security company found — by masquerading as unsuspecting customers. These calls cost Americans $7.4 billion […]

By Leena Rao for Fortune The voice controlled assistant now works with smart locks made by August. Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa can order an Uber, check your credit card balance and even arrange for a Domino’s pizza to be delivered to your doorstep. Next up, it will be able to lock your door, thanks to an integration […]

From GolfEurope.com The birth of golf. Golf as we know it today originated from a game played on the eastern coast of Scotland in the Kingdom of Fife during the 15th century. Players would hit a pebble around a natural course of sand dunes, rabbit runs and tracks using a stick or primitive club. Some […]

By ADAM BRYANT This interview with Lisa Gersh, chief executive of Goop, a wellness company, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant. Q. Tell me about your early years. A. I grew up in the Bronx, and my parents both worked. My mom had the greatest impact on me, in terms of always telling me […]

By Laura Northrup Instead of talking to customer service representatives who adhere to scripts in a robotic manner, soon we might be talking and chatting with customer service employees that are actual robots. While industry experts say that technology isn’t quite there yet, the companies that run outsourced call centers, including offshore ones are already […]

By: Antonio Villas-Boas, Tech Insider Yes, we know. Our smartphone batteries are bad because they barely last a day. But it’s partially our fault because we’ve been charging them wrong this whole time. Many of us have an ingrained notion that charging our smartphones in small bursts will cause long-term damage to their batteries, and that […]