The Daily Populous

Thursday July 26th, 2018 morning edition

image for Uber can't keep down accusations of "vomit fraud" against its drivers

We have to ask ourselves: What is the world coming to, when not even the time-honored act of horking up a bucketful of $12 cocktails in the back of a taxi can still be considered sacred?

That’s the depressing takeaway from a new Vice story this afternoon, which dives deep into the latest scandal projectile-launching itself all over the grubby interiors of the ride-sharing industry: The insidious threat of “vomit fraud.”.

This is originally from a Miami Herald report—because of course this is happening in Florida—which alleges that Uber drivers have been padding their bills lately by charging passengers a “cleaning fee” for their rides, then backing up their claims with pictures of vomit-covered backseats.

Except, claim said passengers—irate, presumably, both at the cost (ranging from $80 to $150), and also the impugning of their resistance to chunder—the images are fakes.

The Herald purportedly talked to at least one ride-share driver who confirmed the accusations, too, saying that some of their fellow drivers have “been doing it for a long time,” and noting that the practice relies on customers failing to check their bills for extra fees. »

Underground Lake of Liquid Water Detected on Mars

Authored by popularmechanics.com

The findings, if confirmed by future observations, would be the most significant discovery of liquid water on Mars to date.

What's more, tantalizing clues have continued to imply the existence of liquid water on Mars today.

This new discovery of a subterranean water deposit, outlined in a new paper in Science, suggests water is indeed underneath the red sands of Mars. »

Mars may have a lake of liquid water

Authored by sciencenews.org

Orosei and colleagues spotted the lake by combining more than three years of observations from the European Space Agency’s orbiting Mars Express spacecraft.

Radar runs Repeated passes by ice-penetrating radar beamed down from the Mars Express orbiter reveal a hidden lake on Mars.

The pool could also be more mud than water, but that could still be a habitable environment, Horgan says. »