Traps

When thinking about where to travel, many folks stick to the defaults. While some places are undisputed classics, frequent travel has created a whole host of locations that exist just to fleece you. Someone asked travelers to share “Which City is the worst tourist trap?” and people gave their “best to avoid” answers. We also got in touch with veteran traveler Sophie Collard to learn more. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites, and be sure to comment your own examples and experiences below. More…

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A consumer protection group alleged Starbucks’ mobile app traps users in a vicious cycle of beverage buying in a December complaint to Washington’s Attorney General. The coffee chain’s mobile app allegedly uses “dark patterns” to make low funds on a Starbucks Card unusable, forcing you to add $10 or lose that money altogether.Let’s Eat a Chocolate Xbox Controller“The Starbucks Payment Platform involves unfair and deceptive digital dark patterns that effectively trap its customers into prepaying for the company’s…

Back in the 1970s and 80s, millions of wooden buildings (both new and old) were treated with preservatives that were later found to be neurotoxic and carcinogenic. A special process is now able to neutralize those chemicals in existing buildings, saving the structures from being gutted.The two preservatives, lindane and pentachlorophenol (PCP), were used to protect against fungus and wood-eating insects. Even though the chemicals are now widely banned, wood that had already been treated with them continues to give off…

Even in our crazy and constantly changing world, there is one constant thing - people's passion for travel. Since the end of the pandemic, tourism, both domestic and international, has been growing for the third year in a row. No wonder - people want new experiences.Today, almost the entire globe is available to travelers - the only question is money and the right choice of destination. Moreover, you may realize that some incredibly popular places of interest are actually greatly overrated. The corresponding online…

Dedicated Starbucks customers know that the use of the company’s mobile app and digital payment cards to pay for coffee and other goodies comes with restrictions.You can only add money to the card in $10 increments and must choose a tip from predetermined choices. That means no loading an exact amount for a single purchase or giving an odd tip amount to get your balance down to zero.And you can’t split a payment between two cards if one doesn’t have enough money on it to cover your purchase, unless you complete the…

As the Christmas-loving masses gear up for the long-awaited arrival of Santa Claus, passionate moviegoers are engaging in a jam-packed marathon of joyous movies, and Home Alone is undoubtedly at the top of everybody’s list — for the simple fact that folks want to indulge in its outrageous booby traps. Let’s not kid ourselves here, we’ve all had a moment of pause during a Home Alone rewatch and thought: “Wow, is Kevin actually trying to murder Harry and Marv?” I mean, I get it, they broke into his home, so he’s simply…

MIT researchers have discovered that smectite, a clay mineral formed from plate tectonics, can sequester carbon effectively, influencing global climate over millennia. Their findings suggest that smectite has been instrumental in triggering past ice ages and offers potential for future climate change mitigation. Credit: SciTechDaily.com An accordion-textured clay called smectite efficiently traps organic carbon and could help buffer global warming over millions of years. MIT geologists have found that a clay mineral on…

Yesterday in Helsinki, this editor interviewed four of the six general partners at Benchmark, the nearly 30-year-old, Silicon Valley firm that’s known for some notable bets (Uber, Dropbox), paying each general partner exactly the same way, and for continuing to raise similar-size funds over its many years rather than balloon in size.  We were speaking at Slush, a major event for the European startup ecosystem, so I naturally asked why the firm was making such a big showing, given that it’s hard enough getting the…

The image shows the protein traps, which consist of nanoscale chambers and polymers that form gates above. These “doors” are opened up by increasing the temperature by about 10 degrees, which is done electrically. Then the polymers change their shape to a more compact state so that proteins can pass in and out. Credit: Chalmers University of Technology | Julia JärlebarkProtein clumps are implicated in several challenging diseases such as ALS, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. Understanding the interaction of these proteins is…