Mom needs to be a mom

Mom needs to be a mom: Instead of being strong with her 12-year-old son, an Ohio mom is suing the makers of Fortnite and the Madden NFL game series over her son’s gaming addiction. He’s glued to the screen up to 10 hours a day (paywall link), leading to severe emotional distress, a shrinking friend circle and serious anger flare-ups. PSA: Take away the gaming console, put the kid in counseling and grow a set.

Tags: Fortnite, friend, game, gaming, hours, Link, old, paywall, screen, series


PayPal using your data to boost its ad business

Well, well, well … What do we have here? Another tech giant selling your data to make a buck? Shocking, I know.

This time, it’s PayPal. Through the new PayPal Ads network, the company plans to tap into customer transactions to supercharge targeted ads. This feels pretty darn gross if you’re using it to run a business, buy things you don’t necessarily want filling up your ad feed, or know that data being sold to who-knows-who for who-knows-why.

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Your data: It’s all posted online - But there's a simple way to remove it

A loyal reader, Racquel, emailed me recently after dealing with a very angry customer at work. “Last week, she left me a voicemail and said that I was behind all her problems and she was ‘going to find’ where I lived.” 

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New app limits kids bathroom breaks

Are your kids ready for this to become the norm?

Trivia

We talk a ton about self-driving cars, but if you’ve been in an airplane, you’ve already been in a self-driving vehicle! Modern airplanes are computer-controlled for what percentage of the flight? Is it … A.) 10%, B.) 40%, C.) 50% or D.) 95%?

Find the answer here!

25 seconds

For thieves to steal a Kia, if yours is unpatched. The hack shared on TikTok by the so-called “Kia Boys” has become so popular that kids as young as 10 have stolen Kia and Hyundai models without an immobilizer.

Allowing specific calls while on Do Not Disturb

Do Not Disturb keeps calls and texts from bugging you, but what if there’s a person or two you want to get through any time? Here’s how to flag important contacts and silence the rest.

$11 tip

For a nonexistent burger. A guy with way too much time on his hands ordered a burger from McDonald’s, then removed everything from the list of ingredients. His DoorDasher came through: “You’re gonna get an empty box. You good with that?”

0.305 seconds

For a Mitsubishi Electric robot to solve a Rubik’s Cube. For context, 0.3 seconds is about the blink of an eye. The bot record is 10 times faster than the best-ever human time of 3.13 seconds.

2-plus hours

Time per day the average person spends “dreamscrolling.” This is when someone’s looking at things online they can’t afford and want to own someday. That time-suck works out to an average of 36 days of “dreamscrolling” a year. I can think of 50 better uses for my time.

Trivia

Which movie holds the record for the most expensive sealed, original VHS tape ever sold? Is it … A.) “The Goonies,” B.) “Back to the Future,” C.) “E.T.” or D.) “Ghostbusters”?

Find the answer here!