Share:
To fund propaganda surrounding the war in Ukraine. The money was taken from the tech giant’s Russian bank accounts in 2022, forcing Google’s Russian entity to declare bankruptcy. The funds went to Russian TV channels that pledged to use the funds to support the Kremlin’s war.
Tags: Google, money, support, tech
If you have an internet connection, companies are racing to gather every bit of data they can on what you might buy — and they’re getting increasingly sophisticated about it.
How do they do it? Let’s dive into how retail tracking works and, more importantly, what you can do about it.
Oh, no! An urgent text from the U.S. Postal Service about your package delivery. Yeah, we all know by now these texts are fake.
And we finally know who’s behind the scammy messages. I thought this was super interesting, and I bet you will, too. A Chinese phishing operation has been farming personal info for the last year and a half.
Remember “Rickrolling”? It’s the prank when you trick someone into watching the video for Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” An AI CEO says his bot just did it to a customer. No kidding, the person asked for a video training session. When the AI couldn’t find one, it sent a link to the 1987 hit. Yes, they patched the glitch.
Photoshop skills without all the training: It’s here with Adobe’s Magic Fixup. Imagine deciding you want something in an image in a different place or a little bigger. You can cut and paste it, then AI does all the work to make it look natural. Amazing stuff.
“He’s replaced me with ChatGPT”: A 25-year-old said her dad, a first-generation Chinese American, has replaced her with AI. Dad now uses AI instead of asking her for help translating, composing emails and keeping all his dad jokes in a dad-abase.
🗺️ It’s a joke, OK? Stop sharing the mock electoral maps flooding social media as if they’re facts. The trend is to take a blank map, color it mostly blue or red, and slap a clever line about how either Democrats or Republicans could win the Electoral College. Want in? Here’s a generator to make your own.
In Zelle hell: One tech pro lost $1,600 using Zelle. Eventually, Wells Fargo credited him for the fishy charge. He agrees with lawmakers who say Zelle and banks are quick to blame victims for using it “wrong.”
⚠️ Scammers’ new tactic? Using social media and messaging apps like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram to tell you you’re hot or offer tips to show you how to make money. About 86% of victims are tricked into transferring money themselves — without the crooks ever accessing their accounts. Come on! Please don’t fall for it.
🧠 You have a dirty mind: Brain samples from corpses found nearly 0.05% were made up of microplastics, double the amount in 2016. It’s coming from bottled water, sugar and even the air we breathe. The next time your doctor says you’re overweight, reply, “I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Plastics.” (Yes, that’s a throwback to “The Graduate.”)
Jeff Bezos isn’t one to wing it: His fourth private jet, a Gulfstream G700, just set him back a cool $80 million. It’s one of the biggest and most advanced jets out there, reaching speeds up to 710 mph. For my nerds, that’s about 92.5% of the speed of sound. And to think, he started by selling used books from a garage!
