Connect With Your Community!
Connect With Your Community!
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 29
QR codes skyrocketed in popularity during the touch-free days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now they're everywhere. From menus to forms and posters, who doesn't like these scannable shortcuts to information and fast, frictionless payments? Now QR codes also serve a much different purpose: as a tool for scammers. In December 2023, the Federal Trade Commission warned of a new form of phishing. Appropriately coined quishing, the scam leverages QR codes to trick people into divulging personal inform...
Everyone's guilty of procrastinating sometimes—even the ancient Greeks and Romans did it. That said, it's one thing to put off a task for a little while. It's another to chronically avoid doing things until the absolute last minute. Wysa researched the psychology behind procrastination, what makes people do it, and how they can work to overcome it. According to the Association for Psychological Science, procrastination comes in two forms: habitual and situational. The latter happens when w...
QR codes skyrocketed in popularity during the touch-free days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now they're everywhere. From menus to forms and posters, who doesn't like these scannable shortcuts to information and fast, frictionless payments? Now QR codes also serve a much different purpose: as a tool for scammers. In December 2023, the Federal Trade Commission warned of a new form of phishing. Appropriately coined quishing, the scam leverages QR codes to trick people into divulging personal inform...
The combination of inflation and increased work-from-home opportunities brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted migration patterns across the United States, the effects of which are still being felt in 2024, according to the latest Census Bureau data. In the first year of the pandemic, migration out of densely populated, expensive cities like New York and San Francisco was especially notable. Many moved to Sun Belt states where the weather is warmer and the cost of living significantly...
About one-fifth of the continental United States is currently experiencing moderate to exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Storms during this past winter brought heavy (in some areas, record-setting) rainfall and flooding to California, offering the state an expected two-year reprieve from widespread droughts that covered nearly 100% of the state from 2020 to 2022. But in other parts of the country, especially dry conditions continue. West Virginia is currently the state...
During a breathless summer of world-class sport, there have been only a rare few hours when the Tour De France, Wimbledon and the European Championships have not been vying for your attention. Then again, with those events coming to their conclusion there's little time before the Olympic flame burns again in Paris. If you are not planning on moving from your sofa this summer, we can hardly blame you. This is especially true if you are also a fan of sports documentaries. With a new one appearing...
It's a startling find straight out of the dark depths of sci-fi horror: Aboard the International Space Station, NASA discovered 13 strains of a superbug, a multidrug-resistant bacterium. Its name? Enterobacter bugandensis. Enterobacter Bugandensis While that moniker might not roll off the tongue, the bug is no joke. Having mutated in the extraordinary (and extraordinarily isolated) environment of outer space, the microscopic oddity is thus genetically distinct enough from its terrestrial...
Fewer mail ballots were rejected for voter errors overall in this year's primary election, a Votebeat and Spotlight PA analysis shows, an achievement that the state credits to a modified ballot return envelope designed to help voters avoid mistakes. But state data points to a new type of voter mistake affecting ballot rejections. And the way counties have diverged in their response to this error has opened up a new avenue for litigation ahead of November's presidential contest. Compared with...
Equipment enables manufacturers to create almost every modern product, from the clothes on our backs to the cars we drive. Acquiring the latest equipment and machinery consumes more than three-quarters of American manufacturers' annual capital budgets, Census Bureau data shows. U.S. manufacturers spent more than $135 billion on new and used equipment and machinery in 2021, according to the most recent Annual Survey of Manufactures. In all but one state, these expenses comprised more than 60% of...
Almost 20 years after the first wave of opioid overdose deaths in the U.S., more than 75% of drug overdose fatalities were connected to opioid use in 2021, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ophelia explored how U.S. prescription opioid dispense rates in 2021 varied by state using Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data, which includes information about Medicaid, a public health insurance coverage for low-income households and people with ce...
It's that special day that moms everywhere look forward to – Mother's Day 2024 will be celebrated on May 12. Way.com presents some amazing destinations to head to for a momcation – a much-needed break from the demands of motherhood. Yes, we don't need a special day in particular to celebrate moms and motherhood. But it feels good to be pampered and made the center of attention once in a while. On such a mom-entous day, it makes sense for you to take a momcation of your own. You'll want to get...
Americans spend an average of four hours looking at their cellphones every day, checking them at least 144 times a day, a 2023 Reviews.org survey found. In today's world, communication is wireless, connected, always on, instant, and high fidelity. The smartphone has become so much more capable than anyone imagined at its invention; it's now our bank teller, research assistant, video game device, health monitor, and then some. More than 4 in 5 Americans (85%) own a smartphone now, up from 35% in...
If it feels like GPS has been around forever, that's because it has. Well, at least the human brain-powered version. People have been making their way around the world—with and without maps—for ages. It is a true survival instinct. It has been just a few decades since humans outsourced their wayfinding to global navigation satellite systems. The United States only completed its global positioning system in 1993. Perhaps because superpowers don't want to rely on something outside their con... Full story
Fewer Americans moved in 2022, according to the latest census data, but of those who did, 1 in 5 moved to a different state. Population growth has returned to pre-pandemic norms; Southern states continued to record influxes in population, while the Northeast saw the biggest drops, particularly in New York and Pennsylvania. These trends largely continued into last year, according to United Van Lines' annual movers study. States with the most inbound moves in 2023 were Vermont, Washington D.C.,...
The next time you're in a security line at the airport, you may find that instead of a Transportation Security Administration officer checking your ID, a camera and screen will use biometric facial recognition to confirm your face and photo ID match and ensure your ID isn't fake. The TSA has installed the system in over 200 U.S. airports to improve identity verification accuracy and keep its lines moving. Spokeo used information from Customs and Border Protection to see how many airports in each...
The Small Business Administration backed loans worth $27.5 billion through its primary lending program in 2023—rising well above pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels as government officials aim to stabilize the economy. Many small businesses get their start and scale up with SBA loans, which increased lending to Black, Latino, and women entrepreneurs in the past few years in step with efforts to become more equitable. Flippa found the county in Montana where applicants were approved for the most SBA l...
When Purdue Pharma first began sales of OxyContin in the late 1990s, it was advertised as relief for cancer patients and people with chronic pain. Aggressive marketing fueled the drug's popularity, along with that of other opioid pain management drugs on the market. But as the company touted OxyContin to physicians, it downplayed the drug's addictiveness, according to confidential Justice Department reports obtained by news organizations, leading to widespread use that has fueled an opioid...
Record rainfall pelted parts of Iowa for 12 hours straight in July 2010, sending 10 inches of rainwater draining toward Lake Delhi, Iowa, a popular recreation destination for decades since its construction in the 1920s. Holding back 9 miles of lake water with more precipitation flowing in by the minute was the 80-year-old Lake Delhi Dam, constructed of hundreds of feet of earth, concrete, and steel. The water punched a 30-foot-wide hole in the dam wall, spewing floodwater into the surrounding...
An estimated 21,000 people in Montana over age 65 have Alzheimer's, according to estimates released by the Alzheimer's Association in 2023. Alzheimer's disease afflicts an estimated 6.7 million Americans, and that number is only growing. Medical professionals believe the volume of diagnoses could double by 2060 if there isn't a breakthrough in prevention—or a cure. For the first time, the Alzheimer's Association released estimates on Alzheimer's prevalence in each state and county. Researchers h...
The 20th century was a period of unprecedented innovation, ushering in technology that transformed the ways humans can connect to one another, including the internet, radio, and mobile phones. Humans could speak with, see, and send messages to people thousands of miles away from them in real time. Over those 100 years, the newly connected world became more globalized, changing our politics, economics, and cultures. In recent years, the world has continued to get smaller. Using news sources,...
In 2021, the IRS received a whopping 5.4 million business applications—an all-time high since the U.S. government began tracking this data in 2004. The year with the second-highest number of new business applications? 2020. Today, small businesses employ nearly half of the nation's workers, according to a Chamber of Commerce report. It's fair to say that the past few years have been banner years for small businesses, but what about regional differences? The business climate in a small town in T...
Scrubs could become an essential part of the wardrobe for millions more Americans as health care jobs grow across the country. The aging U.S. population is rapidly increasing demand for many jobs in the health sector, which has become the fastest-growing part of the national economy. Although many medical jobs require advanced degrees—physicians, nurses, surgeons, etc.—the role growing fastest across most states is generally accessible to anyone with a high school diploma. The job? Home hea...
Overdose deaths tragically rose during the COVID-19 pandemic, sparking renewed calls for awareness of substance use disorders and access to treatment. The once-in-a-century global health crisis had widespread impacts on physical and mental health and coincided with America's worsening fentanyl epidemic. And though calls have been made to expand access to treatment, people with substance use disorders often face barriers to getting the help they need to survive addiction to deadly substances...
There were an estimated 42,795 fatalities due to motor vehicle crashes in 2022, down by 0.3% from the year prior, according to early estimates released in April 2023 from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. While a reduction in crash-related deaths, even one as slight as this, is generally positive, the facts remain deeply concerning: Crash-related deaths rose more than 10% in 2021 and more than 7% the year before that, marking a disturbing trend leading into and persisting...
Most of America's public school teachers have advanced degrees, but studies show that highly educated teachers are seeing sharper declines in pay. TeacherCertification.com explored how salaries aren't keeping up even as more teachers earn post-baccalaureate degrees, citing National Center for Education Statistics data. Low teacher pay results in fewer young people entering the profession, fueling a nationwide teacher shortage. "We are not taking our country's economy and wellness seriously as...
