New browser-tracking hack works even when you flush caches or go incognito | Ars Technica
The prospect of Web users being tracked by the sites they visit has prompted several countermeasures over the years, including using Privacy Badger or an alternate anti-tracking extension, enabling private or incognito browsing sessions, or clearing cookies. Now, websites have a new way to defeat all three.
The technique leverages the use of favicons, the tiny icons that websites display in users’ browser tabs and bookmark lists. Researchers from the University of Illinois, Chicago said in a new paper that most browsers cache the images in a location that’s separate from the ones used to store site data, browsing history, and cookies. Websites can abuse this arrangement by loading a series of favicons on visitors’ browsers that uniquely identify them over an extended period of time.
Why Isn’t Fish Considered Meat During Lent?
For six Fridays each spring, Catholics observing Lent skip sirloin in favor of fish sticks and swap Big Macs for Filet-O-Fish. Why?
Legend has it that centuries ago a medieval pope with connections to Europe's fishing business banned red meat on Fridays to give his buddies' industry a boost. But that story isn't true. Sunday school teachers have a more theological answer: Jesus fasted for 40 days and died on a Friday. Catholics honor both occasions by making a small sacrifice: avoiding animal flesh one day out of the week. That explanation is dandy for a homily, but it doesn't explain why only red meat and poultry are targeted and seafood is fine.
Cicadas to reemerge across country for first time in 17 years
Brood X, one of the largest broods of cicadas, is set to emerge after 17 years underground this summer.
The bugs have been lurking beneath the surface since 2004, feeding on sap from the roots of plants, according to?Michael J. Raupp, emeritus professor of entomology at the University of Maryland. Once they're mature, the "big brood" will emerge in 15 states where they'll spend two to four weeks in late May and early June "courting, mating, flying, driving people crazy, being eaten by everything" including humans like?Raupp.