How I avoided a $40K scam

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Paul emailed me about a $39,500 invoice, demanding I pay up ASAP. The problem? I didn’t owe him a cent. Plus, AI is eyeing 60 million jobs, Gen Z is trauma dumping on TikTok, and a woman was rescued after falling 60 feet off a mountain thanks to her navigation app.

Tags: AI (artificial intelligence), apps, download, Gen Z, jobs, navigation, navigation app, open, pay, Plus, scam, T, TikTok


🌺 Hula you kidding? A newspaper in Hawaii just “hired” AI reporters that analyze news articles and transform them into “live broadcasts.” Look close and you’ll notice they don’t blink, their mouths are out of sync and they don’t actually answer each other’s questions. Those AI bots need to go back to school: Kamana Wanna Lei U. (Oh, I heard you laugh!)

2 in 3 Americans

Experience cognitive decline by age 70. Good news: Eating more eggs could help fight that. Choline, found in egg yolks, is linked to healthy cognition. Talk to your doc before making any major dietary changes. Why should you be careful what you say around egg whites? They can’t take a yolk.

Imagine that! Dependable internet on a plane: United Airlines is joining other airlines like Hawaiian to use Elon Musk’s Starlink for better in-flight Wi-Fi. Testing starts soon; look for it on passenger flights by late 2025.

9 days of vibrations

Felt across the earth, explained a year later. A glacier in Greenland melted, sending 33 million cubic yards of rock and ice (enough to fill 10,000 Olympic swimming pools!) into the water. That triggered a massive tsunami.

🍬 Trauma dumping: Gen Zers on TikTok are spilling everything from breakups to eating disorders and even abuse. Candy Salad vids pair the heavy stuff with tossing candy into a bowl. It’s a coping mechanism to feel less alone … but the internet is forever, and not all comments are supportive. Talk to your kids about spilling their deepest secrets online.

Hackers are targeting VPN wireless routers: ASUS, TP-Link, Zyxel and Ruckus have already been hit. How it works: They break in, infect your router with malware, then use it to infect others. Warning signs you’re part of a botnet: Weird PC behavior, slow speeds when your internet is working fine, and strange emails and messages you didn’t send. Keep your router updated and run antivirus software.

A side hustle that won’t work: Pay a startup $30 a month and they’ll auto-post AI-generated vids to social media for you. Pick a topic (like motivation), and they’ll generate a script, voiceover, background track and AI images. The idea is to help you build an audience and start making money. Remember Shrimp Jesus (paywall link)?

Ultimate power move? Using a dumbphone like the Punkt MP02. Some bosses are switching to old-school tech to cut out distractions and constant notifications. Snap’s Chairman swears by fax machines, saying they’re more secure than email and grab others’ attention because they’re so rare (paywall link).

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50,000 gallons of water

To put out a Tesla Semi fire. After a crash in California, the truck’s massive lithium-ion battery reached up to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Firefighters had to call in an aircraft to drop fire retardant around the electric semi to make sure the fire didn’t spread.

🚨 Bogus captcha tests: Instead of picking images or typing words, these shady tests ask you to press Windows key + R and Ctrl + V. Doing so then pastes in a Windows PowerShell script that unleashes Lumma Stealer malware. Stay alert: These fake captchas are popping up on random websites and in phishing emails.