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Bitcoin goes mainstream

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 22:23:00 +0000

LONDON (AP) -- With $600 stuffed in one pocket and a smartphone tucked in the other, Patricio Fink struck a deal that's joining thousands like it in a virtual revolution.

The Argentine software developer was dealing in bitcoins - getting an injection of the cybercurrency in exchange for a wad of real greenbacks he handed to a pair of Australian tourists in a Buenos Aires Starbucks. Fink wanted to add to his electronic wallet. The visitors wanted spending money at black market rates without the risk of getting roughed up in one of the Argentine capital's black market exchanges.

In the safety of the coffee shop, the tourists transferred Fink their bitcoins through an app on their smartphone and walked away with the cash.

"It's something that is new," said Fink, 24, who described the deal to The Associated Press over Skype. "And it's working."

It's transactions like these - up to 70,000 of them each day over the past month - that have propelled bitcoins from the world of Internet oddities to the cusp of mainstream use, a remarkable breakthrough for a currency which made its online debut only four years ago. When they first began pinging across the Internet, bitcoins could buy you almost nothing. Now, there's almost nothing bitcoins can't buy. From hard drugs to hard currency, songs to survival gear, cars to consumer goods, retailers are rushing to welcome the virtual currency whose unofficial symbol is a dollar-like, double-barred B.

North Korea suspected of cyberattack on South Korea

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:46:00 +0000

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Computer networks at major South Korean banks and top TV broadcasters crashed simultaneously Wednesday, paralyzing bank machines across the country and prompting speculation of a cyberattack by North Korea.

Screens went blank at 2 p.m. (0500 GMT), the state-run Korea Information Security Agency said, and more than seven hours later some systems were still down.

Police and South Korean officials couldn't immediately determine responsibility and North Korea's state media made no immediate comments on the shutdown. But some experts suspected a cyberattack orchestrated by Pyongyang. The rivals have exchanged threats amid joint U.S.-South Korean military drills and in the wake of U.N. sanctions meant to punish North Korea over its nuclear test last month.

The network paralysis took place just days after North Korea accused South Korea and the U.S. of staging a cyberattack that shut down its websites for two days last week. Loxley Pacific, the Thailand-based Internet service provider, confirmed the North Korean outage but did not say what caused it.

Put down your laptop, and lace up your hiking boots!

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Have you been staring cow-eyed at a computer all morning? Fiddling with your iPhone in line at Starbucks? Checking Twitter and ESPN every four minutes on your tablet?

Good. Here’s a little quiz. What one word ties these three ideas together: water + tobacco + stove? How about widow + bite + monkey? Or, envy + golf + beans?

Psychologists call such wordplay the “remote associates test,” or RAT, and use it to study creativity and intuition. The idea is that it requires a nimble, open mind to find the connection between seemingly unrelated ideas — in this case pipe, spider, and green.

But not all minds think alike, or even like a think. New research suggests that stepping away from the shiny Apple product and into the woods can have a big impact on creativity and problem-solving. Little is known about the human brain on technology — less than even the brain on drugs — but many social psychologists fear that so much “screen time” is rewiring our neural circuitry, and not for the better.

D.C.-area Starbucks writing “come together” on cups

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 18:10:00 +0000

Starbucks stores in the D.C. area will write "Come Together" on all of their coffee cups from now through December 28, in the hopes that it will encourage lawmakers to reach a "fiscal cliff" deal.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz wrote in a blog post on the company's website that “Rather than be bystanders, we have an opportunity — and I believe a responsibility — to use our company’s scale for good by sending a respectful and optimistic message to our elected officials to come together and reach common ground on this important issue.”

"It’s a small gesture, but the power of small gestures is what Starbucks is about! Imagine the power of our partners and hundreds of thousands of customers each sharing such a simple message, one cup at a time," Schultz writes.

Immigrants will save us

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 16:00:00 +0000

File this under My Parents Were Awesome: In 1974, nearly 40 percent of women owned at least one wig. Whether this was a fashion win, well, that's a judgment call.

But it was certainly a win for Korean-Americans, who, when the craze began in the 1960s, quickly set up shop and started importing cheap wigs from factories back home. They moved to Chicago's South Side to sell Afro wigs to the black community. In Los Angeles, wig entrepreneurs rehabbed a depressed section of Wilshire to create Koreatown. By the early '70s, synthetic hair was South Korea's third-biggest export, and in some U.S. cities, 90 percent of the booming wig market was controlled by Korean immigrants, whose businesses -- which would eventually grow to include other clothing and accessories -- revitalized entire neighborhoods that, thanks in part to a boost from fake hair, still thrive to this day.