Credit Card Payment Systems Crashed Friday at Stores and Restaurants Across America

On Friday credit-card payment systems went down for major businesses scattered across the U.S. Business Insider reports:
Fiserv, one of the leading payments providers in the US, told Insider, “A widespread internet service provider outage has impacted multiple businesses today.” Ann Cave, a company spokesperson, added in an email: “Some Fiserv services that rely on internet connectivity were interrupted. The majority have…

Accused Murderer Wins Right To Check Source Code of DNA Testing Kit

“A New Jersey appeals court has ruled that a man accused of murder is entitled to review proprietary genetic testing software to challenge evidence presented against him,” reports The Register. Long-time Slashdot reader couchslug shared their report: The maker of the software, Cybergenetics, has insisted in lower court proceedings that the program’s source code is a trade secret. The co-founder of…

The Mars-Uranus conjunction of January 2021

Mars and Uranus passed close to each other in a conjunction on January 21, 2021. Photos from the event captured by EarthSky readers available here. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/photos-mars-uranus-conjunction-jan-2021…

Photos of the last full moon of the year and decade

Photographers around the world are sharing their pics of the last full moon of 2020 and this decade, which occurred on December 29 or 30, depending on your location. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/photos-of-the-last-full-moon-of-the-year-and-decade…

Last full moon of the decade, again

The last full moon of 2020 – and the last full moon of the 202nd decade – happens on December 29 or 30, 2020, depending on your time zone. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/last-full-moon-of-the-decade-on-december-29-30…

Personal solstices

Photos from EarthSky community members around the world, showing what the December solstice – bringing winter to half of Earth, and summer to the other half – means to them. Thanks to all of you for sharing these evocative images with us! Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/personal-solstices-photos-dec-earthsky-community…

Want to find life on Mars? Look deep underground

A new study from researchers at Rutgers University suggests that the best place to look for evidence of life on Mars is deep underground, where geothermal heat melted subsurface ice. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mars-life-search-subsurface-ice-melted-by-geothermal-heat…

Comcast To Enforce 1.2TB Data Cap In Entire 39-State Territory In Early 2021

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Comcast’s 1.2TB monthly data cap is coming to 12 more states and the District of Columbia starting January 2021. The unpopular policy was already enforced in most of Comcast’s 39-state US territory over the past few years, and the upcoming expansion will for the first time bring the cap to every market…

Photos of 2020’s Leonid meteor shower

EarthSky Community members around the world are sharing their photos of this year’s Leonid meteor shower. Beautiful! Thanks to all who contributed. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/leonid-meteor-shower-nov2020-photos…

Citigroup Tech Executive Unmasked as Major QAnon ‘High Priest’

QAnon’s biggest news hub was run by a senior vice president at Citigroup, the American multinational investment bank and financial services company Citigroup. Jason Gelinas worked in the company’s technology department, where he led an AI project and oversaw a team of software developers, according to Bloomberg. [Alternate URL] He was married with kids and had a comfortable house in a…