Keen

Andrew McDonald, a student of High Sierra Workshops, took this photo at the falls, amid a sea of photographers. For a few weeks in February if the conditions are just right, for about 10 minutes around sunset, one waterfall in Yosemite National Park looks more like its opposite — a firefall. Visitors who flocked to the California park last week, many with cameras in tow, have not been disappointed by the glowing transformation of Horsetail Fall, which flows from El Capitan. “In the over 20 years I have been photographing the firefall and leading workshops there in Yosemite, I have never seen a more spectacular one,” said Michael Mariant, a photographer from Morro Bay, Calif., who leads teaching trips to Yosemite. The phenomenon occurs if there has been enough snow and rain in the Sierra Mountains to fuel the waterfall, if the skies are clear and if the setting sun strikes the water at an angle that creates the illusion of lava. Mike Gauthier, the park’s chief of staf...

By JANE E. BRODY It did not take long for me to recognize the therapeutic potential of Max, the hypoallergenic 5-month-old Havanese puppy I adopted in March 2014. He neither barked nor growled and seemed to like everyone, especially the many children that come up and down our block. When I asked if a crying child passing by would like to pet a puppy, the tears nearly always stopped as fluffy little Max approached, ready to be caressed. So I signed us up for therapy dog training with the Good Dog Foundation, which met conveniently in my neighborhood. If we passed the six-week course, we would be certified to visit patients in hospitals and nursing homes, children in schools, and people in other venues that recognize the therapeutic potential of well-behaved animals. Training involves a joint effort of dog and owner, usually in groups of four to eight pairs. The dog can be any size, any breed, but must be housebroken; nonaggressive; not fearful of strangers, loud or s...

Smile for your MasterCard authentication selfie! MasterCard wants to ditch the old-fashioned password and use selfies to approve online purchases. The company announced it is launching new mobile technologies that will allow customers to authenticate their online purchases using selfies or fingerprints. The technology will be rolled out by big banks in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and some European countries over the next few months. People from around the world will be regularly using this authentication technology within five years, said Ajay Bhalla, president of enterprise security solutions at MasterCard (MA). Bhalla said that using facial and fingerprint scans for purchases is safer than typed passwords since many customers foolishly use easy-to-guess codes. Customers who want to try selfie authentication will have to download a special MasterCard app that will allow them to take a photo each time they make an online purchase. Their face (or fingerprint)...