Americans: Be Prepared to Use the Credit Cards That the Rest of the World Already Uses… by Next October

American credit card holders have long been used to swiping their cards to pay for purchases, with their data being read from the magnetic stripe on the card. But by next year, credit card issuers plan to roll out the computer-chip-based cards that the rest of the world uses for their credit card transactions.

The switch will be part of an effort to curb the fraudulent transactions and consumer data breaches that often occur from magnetic stripe cards.

The Aite Group, a financial research firm, reports that as much as 37% of credit card fraud in the United States is attributed to counterfeit magnetic stripe cards. Because those cards contain unchanging information, the data can be copied to other cards easily and used in fraudulent transactions.

The magnetic stripe card has been replaced by with a small integrated circuit embedded within the card in most other countries in the world. These are similar to the cards used in electronic voting machines in the U.S.

Those credit cards are referred to in other parts of the world as EMV cards, which take their name from the three financial companies that introduced this new standard — Europay, MasterCard, and Visa. The latter, Visa, is the most popular brand worldwide, accounting for roughly 52% of all payment volume globally.

The cards generate new data with each transaction, effectively making counterfeiting impossible. They are used the same as the magnetic stripe cards: they are inserted into the machine and require a customer signature or a PIN (personal identification number) in the case of debit cards.

The proposed change comes at a time when the payments industry is undergoing big changes. One major player, Apple Pay, has introduced convenient mobile payments in a way that doesn’t compete directly with existing credit card issuers, and which allows companies to keep their merchant fees.

MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express have established an Oct. 1, 2015 deadline to make the switch to EMV cards. At fuel pumps, however, the deadline for the switch won’t occur until 2017, due to the complexity of EMV compliance.

Once the deadline arrives, the liability for credit card fraud will shift to the least EMV-compliant party in the transaction. In many cases, this will be the merchant — if they haven’t switched their old PIN machines to new EMV card machines.

Stretch of Highway 62 Closest to Arizona Border Found to Be 12 Times More Deadly Than the Average Road

On Feb. 18, 2011, a black pickup truck sped through a red light at Highway 62’s intersection with Yucca Mesa Road. The truck crashed into the left side of bus driver Johannes Gysen’s minivan, pinning Gysen inside his vehicle.

The pickup, driven by Kimberly Mendelez, had been speeding through the desert at 70 mph.

Marijuana, which was found in Mendelez’ bloodstream following the crash, is known for triggering neurogenesis — but when combined with the cocktail of painkillers and psychoactive drugs also present in her bloodstream, it’s unlikely that any brain cells were being generated.

It took approximately 20 minutes to cut Gysen out of his vehicle, and he succumbed to his injuries in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Mendelez and her five-year-old daughter were uninjured in the crash.

While it may have been a tragedy, it certainly wasn’t an uncommon occurrence on Highway 62’s winding pathway through the desert between the Arizona border and the Coachella valley. The crash that claimed Gysen’s life was just one of an astonishing 182 deaths that have happened on Highway 62 since 2002, a new investigation by the Desert Sunreports.

The stretch of Highway 62 that runs between Parker and Twentynine Palms may be the deadliest area along this road. With 16 vehicle fatalities taking place from 2002 to 2012, Parker’s portion of Highway 62 is 12 times deadlier than the average road.

The Desert Sun’s investigation found that drugs and alcohol, despite having a hand in the crash that killed Gysen, wasn’t that common of a cause for crashes on the highway. In fact, a mere five of the 16 Highway 62 incidents near Parker involved alcohol, and only two of them involved drugs.

The investigation found that 11 of the 16 crashes to take place near Parker happened between Memorial Day and Labor Day, which is peak season for Californians who travel to Parker for river recreation.

With the majority of these crashes taking place during the daytime — meaning most drivers weren’t being blinded by a rising or setting sun — and with speed ruled out as a major contributing factor, what could be the reason for this highway’s disproportionate body count?

The answer, the Desert Sun reports, may be Highway 62’s lack of a meridian to separate the two directions of traffic and prevent head-on collisions, or barriers and rumble strips to prevent cars from drifting off to the right. That means vehicle drift is the likely reason for many of Highway 62’s crashes.

The news isn’t all bad — the Desert Sun’s report showed that fatalities on Highway 62 are in fact decreasing, thanks to bolstered efforts by cities like Parker to improve the road’s safety.

In addition, California’s Department of Transportation, Caltrans, said it plans to have spent about $50 million in the period from 2008 to 2018 on safety improvements, lane additions and expanded shoulders on the highway’s most dangerous segments.

Even so, it may be worth it for Parker residents to consider alternate routes that don’t involve driving on Highway 62 — it just might save your life.

U.K.- Based Aviva Promises To Compensate Victims of Annuity Calculation Error

A recent investigation conducted by the U.K. news publication The Telegraph revealed that the British insurance company Aviva shortchanged about 250 customers who bought annuities; Aviva is now stating that there was an error in sales calculations, and that the company plans to compensate every customer affected by the mistake.

Because an annuity functions like a regular paycheck for retirees — i.e., it provides a regular income for people after retiring — it is usually intended to last for many years, if not for the person’s remaining lifetime. The cost and value of an annuity, therefore, is based on multiple factors regarding the person’s health history, current health status, and changes in rates and inflation.

The recent investigation uncovered that Aviva sold annuities in 2013 that didn’t accurately reflect the health statuses of 250 separate customers. All of these customers had poor health conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and a history of smoking, which often contribute to shorter lifespans.

Normally, when an annuity is concerned, the seller will offer a better annuity package if the customer is predicted to have a shorter life expectancy. In this case, Aviva should have offered its 250 customers an annuity that guaranteed regular income for life, based on its own customer policies.

The Telegraph noted that, based on previous studies, about 60% of Aviva’s eligible customers should have been given lifetime annuity plans automatically; in reality, Aviva has only given extended annuities automatically to about 7% of its eligible customers.

This isn’t a rare occurrence, as many people are finding out. Although quite a few people are eligible for lifetime annuities, it’s estimated that only one out of every four eligible people actually have these annuities.

It comes as no surprise that Aviva has decided to compensate each of its 250 customers, and to make the compensation announcement very public. Even though the company is Britain’s largest insurer right now, and even though most annuity owners are fairly loyal to their seller — with over 90% of annuity owners stating that they still own their first annuity — Aviva could have even more problems down the road if the issue isn’t addressed swiftly. Economic experts are already predicting that a “floodgate of claims” could appear, as more people realize that they’ve been shortchanged by their annuity sellers too.

Unfortunately, Aviva’s mistake can’t be solved with simple financial compensation, since quite a few affected annuity owners have already passed away. It’s likely that the company’s “error” will be investigated thoroughly, since a “mistake” of that gravity is not likely to go unnoticed for well over a year. However, perhaps the silver lining in this situation is that annuity owners across the globe are paying attention and are taking a second look at their own financial plans.

Mozilla Chooses Yahoo to Be Firefox’s Default Search Engine

Studies estimate that 93% of all internet experiences begin with a query on a search engine. In most cases, that search takes place on Google: a March 2014 analysis showed that the popular service controls 67.5% of the search engine industry, placing well above its competitors, all of whom own less than 20%. However, thanks to a new deal, that superiority may be at risk: Yahoo! will replace Google as Mozilla Firefox’s default search browser.

For the past 10 years, Google has been the default search browser on Firefox’s Web browser in the United States. But despite this arrangement, tensions have been high ever since Google unveiled their Chrome web browser in 2008, drawing a considerable number of users away from Firefox. Despite a loyal audience that conducts over one billion search annually, experts say that Firefox has no choice but to become more competitive, and with Google’s contract with the company expiring at the end of November, the search engine will be replaced. The new agreement with Yahoo! is planned to last for five years.

This opportunity comes at an advantageous time for Yahoo!: the search engine is reportedly responsible for a mere 10.1% of searches, and the company’s own website has used Microsoft’s technology to generate its search results since 2010. This deal could be the perfect chance for Yahoo! to become a bigger threat to Google, and the company is duly taking action: CEO Marissa Mayer has announced that Yahoo! will unveil a redesigned search engine in December, before adding the same model to its own site in 2015. As part of their 10-year deal, the technology will continue to be supplied by Microsoft.

Despite these plans, however, it will likely be difficult for Yahoo! to overcome the legacy of their predecessor: in 2012, Google accounted for 90% of Mozilla’s royalty revenue. The company has yet to release its financial report for 2013. Likewise, the financial details of its partnership with Yahoo! have not been disclosed.

In addition to supplanting Google with Yahoo! in the U.S., Mozilla plans to switch to Baidu in China and Yandex in Russia. Firefox users around the world still have the choice to opt out of using the default browser and switching to another choice, such as Google.

New Study Finds That Hormones Play Minor Role In Menopausal Women’s Sexual Desire

A woman’s interest in sex isn’t completely hormonal, as is often the case with men, a new study reveals. In fact, the research suggests that a woman’s sexual desire is more complicated than originally thought.

Conducted in Michigan and six other clinical locations across the United States, the study concluded that naturally occurring reproductive hormones, including testosterone, play a much smaller role than previously thought in influencing menopausal women’s sexual desire and function. Though testosterone is the main sex hormone in men, a woman’s ovaries naturally produce small amounts of it.

The objective of the study was to explore the relationship between menopause and sexual function. Menopausal women still want sex; however, their desire is not influenced by hormones or the innate drive to reproduce, as younger women’s sex drives are. In fact, relationship satisfaction and other psychological factors play a larger role in a menopausal woman’s sexual desire than hormones do.

According to study leader John Randolph of the University of Michigan Medical School, testosterone and sex hormones play a secondary role compared to a woman’s emotional well-being and quality of her intimate relationship. The study’s researchers examined data from 3,302 female participants in order to determine the relationship between hormones and sexual function during menopause.

Participants weren’t only asked about their desire for sex; they also had their blood drawn to measure testosterone and other sex hormone levels. It was determined that women who had higher levels of sex hormones reported having more sexual desire as opposed to women with lower levels. Most surprising was that women who reported having higher levels of relationship satisfaction and fewer sad moods also had higher levels of sexual desire. The study recommends that menopausal women lacking sexual desire should consider other factors besides hormones.

It’s often been said that body’s largest sex organ is the brain. Though the average woman begins experiencing perimenopausal and menopausal systems between the ages of 40 and 58, many women find greater sexual confidence, desire, and satisfaction with age. This is due to both emotional maturity and confidence. While post-menopausal sex serves no reproductive or biological function, sex is an integral part our well-being as humans.

Number of Uninsured Tennesseans Has Decreased 25% Since 2013, Study Says

A new study conducted by the University of Tennessee shows that the number of people in Tennessee without health insurance has dropped by 25% in the last year. This represents the lowest number of uninsured Tennesseans in a decade.

According to the study, released Nov. 17, 7.2% of the state’s 6.5 million residents do not have health insurance. About 2.4% of children are uninsured, which is a 35% drop since 2013.

“The declines coincide with the establishment of the Health Insurance Marketplace, which was put into place in early 2014 through the Affordable Care Act,” a press release from the university notes.

Study Methodology

The survey, administered by the university’s Center for Business and Economic Research in a contract with the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration, has been conducted each year since 1993. This was the final year of Medicaid before the adoption of TennCare in the state.

Data was collected from telephone interviews with 5,000 heads of households between May and July 2014.

The study’s purpose is not only to determine insurance status, but also to compile data on use of medical facilities and to collect satisfaction reports.

Insurance in Tennessee

Of those surveyed, 93% said they were satisfied with the medical care provided by TennCare, marking the sixth consecutive year that satisfaction ratings have topped 90%.

While health insurance rates are rising, other vital kinds of insurance are still neglected by many Americans. For example, three out of 10 American households have no members with life insurance.

The study also sought to understand the underlying causes for people remaining uninsured. These reasons, according to the report’s authors, have for the most part stayed consistent since TennCare’s 1994 implementation.

“The major reason that people continue to report being uninsured is their perception that they cannot afford insurance,” the report reads.

One notable change, however, is that 12% said that they did not have insurance because they do not need it, more than twice the percentage who gave that reason in last year’s survey.

The full report, titled “The Impact of TennCare: A Survey of Recipients, 2014,” is available online.

Millions of Children on Medicaid Aren’t Showing Up for Free Checkups

According to a new report out of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General, millions of low-income children on Medicaid still aren’t getting the free screenings and exams they qualify for, and the government isn’t acting sufficiently to fix the problem.

The report was released Thursday, and claims that although the Obama administration has boosted participation rates in Medicaid, it still has to work harder to get children into their regular wellness and dental checkups as well as vision and hearing exams.

According to the report, 63% of children on Medicaid received at least one medical screening in 2013. While this is an improvement from the 56% who made it into the doctor’s office in 2006, it’s still far lower than the 80% goal. Iowa and California were the only states to exceed that goal last year, while Alaska and Ohio dropped under 40%, and several other states hovered between 40-45%.

A few missed doctor’s appointments may not seem like a big deal, but not taking children to the doctor on a regular basis can, in fact, have major consequences. “We end up with kids who are sicker, with more long-term, serious medical issues that are more expensive to treat,” Jennifer Clarke, the executive director of Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, told Kaiser Health News.

Child health advocates are pointing to several different causes for the low attendance rates. There aren’t enough doctors treating Medicaid patients, especially since they could end up on the OIG’s List of Excluded Individuals/Entities if they misuse federal health care programs or mistreat patients. States are also failing to support medicaid providers, and parents aren’t sufficiently aware of the importance of regular visits.

Other experts are blaming state officials for the low screening rates, since the most the federal government could do to force a change is withdraw Medicaid funding.

“The federal government is working hard on this,” Jane Perkins, legal director of the National Health Law Program, told Kaiser Health News. “But the only power they have over states is to take away their funding and that is highly unlikely.”

Professional Athletes Fall Victim to Debilitating Back Problems

They may be some of the best athletes in the world — but that doesn’t make them immune to the same back problems and spinal conditions that affect the rest of us.

Rafael Nadal, currently ranked as the third-best male tennis player in the world, suffers from chronic back pain after injuring his back during the Australian Open — and, according to the International Business Times, his back problems have kept him from playing to his full potential this season.

In the world of hockey, Columbus Blue Jackets forward Nathan Horton’s career is all but over after a degenerative back injury left him unable to stand or walk. He now faces the choice of waiting for his back to heal itself before returning to the rink, or undergoing a surgical procedure that would leave him unable to play professional sports ever again,Lighthouse Hockey reports.

Many pro athletes are able to seek out chiropractic therapy for their back ailments — in fact, back pain is what brings 35% of all patients to chiropractic therapy. But this isn’t the case for Nadal or Horton, whose conditions are too serious to be healed by a chiropractor.

According to the International Business Times, Nadal has turned to stem cell treatment for his back problems. Stem cell treatments, while not yet scientifically proven to work, are being used by some athletes to help repair damaged tissue and bone in the body.

For Horton, who at 29 has played on a Stanley Cup-winning team in 2011 and has a contract with the Blue Jackets worth $37 million, the decision to undergo a surgery that would repair his back, but end his career, seems impossible. He has yet to choose whether or not he will undergo the surgery, according to Lighthouse Hockey.

Regardless of the results for Nadal and Horton’s respective treatments, one thing is clear — failing to care for one’s spinal health can produce disastrous effects, especially when one’s entire career relies on a healthy, pain-free body.

University of Georgia Researchers to Study Declining Salmon Populations in Alaska

The health of global fish stocks is of increasing concern across the world. According to a study published in Science, popular fishing stocks will be entirely wiped out by 2048, if current fishing and environmental practices are not modified in significant ways.

For most, those findings represent only an abstract, and is too often the case, abstracts haven’t gone very far in pushing people to action. In Alaska, however, declining fish populations are of mammoth concern; the Alaskan fishing industry supports more than 78,000 jobs in the Last Frontier, generating more than $5.8 billion in revenue for the state and its people each year. Needless to say, declining fish populations mean a bit more to Alaskans.

Luckily, UGA Today, a publication from the University of Georgia, reports that a $500,000 grant will go toward studying the causes of the continued collapse of one of Alaska’s most important fish. The Chinook salmon, classically one of the state’s most popular fish, both among commercial and recreational fishers, has seen staggering decline in the last few years. Gary Grossman, professor at UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, and Jason Neuswanger, a post-doctoral researcher, will investigate why Chinook aren’t surviving very long after making their way out of Alaskan streams and rivers and into the Pacific. The half-million dollar grant from the North Pacific Research Board will hopefully yield answers for Grossman and Neuswanger, not to mention the tens of thousands of Alaskans who will rely on this valuable live crop for generations to come.

Chinook Aren’t the Only Salmon in Decline
Even if UGA research yields an answer to the woes of Chinook salmon, it’s unlikely Alaskan fishers will breathe easy. The giant king salmon, the state fish of Alaska, has been banned from commercial and recreational fishing since May of this year. This ban followed emergency funding from Congress of $21 million in February to help king and Chinook stocks recover. So far, the efforts funded by that $21 million have failed to yield results. In short, Alaskan salmon stocks, like those almost everywhere else in the world, have reached a critical tipping point.

Independence Pass Officially Closed For the Season Due to Weekend Weather Forecast

With bad weather in the forecast for the next few days, the Colorado Department of Transportation has closed Independence Pass for the remainder of the season.

Authorities had contemplated keeping Highway 82, which traverses the pass, open throughout the day on Thursday, but with six inches of snow already covering the ground and more snow in the forecast, they decided to close the gates as an extra precaution.

Independence Pass is closed at some point in the fall each year and remains closed for the entirety of the winter season. This year’s closing was actually much later than it has been in the past. The pass closed on November 4 last year, November 9 in 2012, November 2 in 2011 and October 26 in 2010, according to Aspen Daily News Online.

Icy, snowy roads have made driving conditions difficult for Aspen residents so far this season, and a number of accidents have already been reported.

By rush hour on Wednesday, there had already been 11 accidents in the city. Across the county, 13 accidents were reported by early evening, including a four-car pileup. Due to the poor road conditions and high number of weather-related car accidents, authorities temporarily closed down a number of roads, including Owl Creek Road between Highway 82 and Highline Road, and Jaffee Hill where McLain Flats Road crosses Smith Hill Way.

Authorities from the Aspen Police Department blamed many of the accidents on poor car maintenance. Recent studies have shown that over 75% of cars on the road are in need of repairs or maintenance, and old, worn-out tires were responsible for several of the accidents seen on Wednesday.

“We urge everyone to winterize their vehicles. Snow tires and/or studded tires are highly recommended,” said Aspen Police Department community relations specialist Blair Weyer, according to Aspen Daily News Online.

On top of bad road conditions, many traffic lights in the city were also hard for drivers to see. Thick layers of ice and snow covered a number of traffic lights along Highway 82 earlier in the week. Even a Colorado Department of Transportation worker sent to try and de-ice some of the lights broke his scraper in the process.

According to Aspen police, the proper procedure when traffic lights are either covered or not working is to treat the intersection as a four-way stop, though they say they rarely see drivers follow this rule.