🫶 It’s a small world after all: A journalist in Georgia uncovered her own adoption story while exposing a baby-trafficking scandal. A DNA test coupled with a Facebook post led her to her biological dad, who, shockingly, had been her Facebook friend for years. Isn’t that strange?
Your next phone will work around the world
If it’s one thing you can bet on, there’s always newer, better and faster tech begging you to open your wallet. With that said, you probably haven’t heard about BlueBird yet from AST SmartMobile out of Texas. They’re working with AT&T to launch the world’s first space-based cellular broadband network.
Each of these communications satellites is about half the size of a basketball court (about 700 feet wide!). So far, five are orbiting Earth, with plans for another 85 satellites to blanket the planet.
When that happens, no matter where you’re standing, you won’t have to deal with crappy cellphone service or zero bars. I love that. Don’t you? Keep reading — I’ve got a payload of a space update with need-to-know details you’ll want to tell your family and friends.
Call me, maybe
With BlueBird satellite access, your trusty smartphone transforms into a satellite phone — no extra gadgets needed. Forget about searching for those elusive cell towers! This is a total game-changer, especially for those in rural areas with bad (or nonexistent) internet or cell service.
AT&T Chief Operating Officer Jeff McElfresh summed it up like this: “It’s a future where our customers will only be hard to reach if they choose to be.” In other words, no more excuses, like, “Honey, I couldn’t call to tell you I was going to be late because I had no bars.”
Currently, it’s the top dog in commercial communications, hovering in low-Earth orbit. As exciting as these advancements are, scientists are already sounding the alarms about overcrowded skies. A study in Nature found BlueBird’s predecessor was as bright as over 22% of the brightest stars in the sky.
BlueBird’s satellites are about to get much bigger — about 2,425 square feet in diameter each. To put that into perspective, the average single-family home in the U.S. is around 2,400 square feet. Imagine 90 homes orbiting Earth.
And that extra light? It’s making it harder for scientists to peek into the cosmic mysteries. After all, if a meteor’s zooming our way, it’d be great to get a heads-up, don’t you think?
Star light, star bright
Speaking of space clutter, Elon Musk’s SpaceX just hit 6,370 Starlink satellites in orbit. Not bad, given it started in 2019. Musk has plans to launch 42,000 satellites — possibly more. At this rate, we’ll soon have more Starlink satellites in the sky than visible stars (about 9,000).
A standard Starlink satellite is way smaller than a BlueBird satellite, measuring 9.2 feet long and 4.7 feet wide when its solar panels are tucked in. Once deployed, those panels stretch the satellite to 36 feet across.
$2 to $3
Estimated hourly operating costs for Amazon’s robot workers in 2025. Right now, bots that walk on two legs are being used alongside humans and cost $10 to $12 an hour to run. Amazon says its plan is for bots and humans to always work together. Sure.
🤑 The tax man cometh … later: The $600 reporting rule for apps like PayPal and Venmo is delayed yet again. This rule says apps owe you a tax form for annual incomes over $600. For another year, personal payments and small sales won’t result in a new tax form. Don’t smile yet; anything over $5,000 (like a car you sell online or your side hustle income), and you’ll receive a Form 1099-K.
A new YouTube trend: I thought this was interesting. Searching for “IMG_0001” on YouTube lets you watch videos uploaded from early iPhones between 2009 and 2012. The clips show life before social media took over. There’s no editing, no descriptions and no flash … because the iPhone 3G didn’t have one.
🤠 A Texa-llent idea: Remember the winter storm that left millions of Texans without power? The state is now requiring all crypto miners, big or small, to register. Any unregistered mining outfit that consumes over 75 megawatts (that would be like charging 1,500 Teslas at once) is looking at fines ranging up to $25,000 per day. That’s one big mine!
Never comes with a lifetime guarantee: The FTC found only 11% of smart devices say how long they’ll get software updates. It’s required by law for anything with a written warranty over $15. Check endoflife.date to see if any of your gadgets are ready for retirement.
🧑🎄 Secret Santa scam trending on social: It goes like this. Send one anonymous gift and you’ll get dozens in return. Invite your friends, too! Spoiler: Your gift goes straight to a scammer, who won’t even send you coal in return. This pyramid scheme goes by names like “Secret Sister” or “Secret Santa Dog.” Pass!
82%
How much a new gold-based drug slowed cancer tumor growth in animals. It even outperformed traditional chemotherapy, selectively targeting cancer cells with fewer toxic side effects. I hate cancer.
100,000-plus paid rides
Per week, taken by auto taxi service Waymo One in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix. It’s no surprise Uber and Lyft drivers say it’s hurting their earnings (paywall link). Waymo is also expanding to Atlanta and Austin early next year. I still won’t get in one.
“Moana” is now the No. 1 movie in streaming history: It just clocked over 1 billion hours of viewing time. The twist: It flopped in its 2016 box office release. Theories for its comeback range from its catchy songs to our love of island life (paywall link). A groaner for the kids: What is Moana’s cat called? Meowui.
25,000-mile project: Meta is building a $10 billion underwater fiber-optic cable to circle the globe. Why? To avoid geopolitical hotspots where subsea cables have been sabotaged in the past, like the Baltic Sea and Red Sea. Owning a global network cable gives Meta full control to prioritize traffic to its own products and services.
Criminal mastermind: A Florida mom stole from Target using a barcode trick at self-checkout. She then went full “genius” and posted the evidence on TikTok. When police shared a screenshot of the would-be thief, a tipster identified her as a social media influencer with over 356,000 followers. Her account even showed her in the very same outfit, picking out the stolen goods.
🚢 Google = The Titanic: That’s how The Wall Street Journal now describes the search engine, which is on the verge of sinking. Here’s why: AI tools like ChatGPT, Gen Z searches on TikTok and, of course, Google’s increasingly worse search results. I called this two years ago. It’s nice to see the WSJ catching up.
14 years ago
Russia began transitioning from Microsoft Windows to a custom Linux operating system. They now use Astra Linux for their educational system, financial sector, and state and military operations. Nerd joke: Who has the highest rank in the Linux military? The kernel. (Oh, that was a good one!)
“God of management”: That’s what Japan calls Panasonic’s founder Kōnosuke Matsushita, who died in 1989 at the age of 94. Now, he’s been resurrected as an AI clone. The University of Tokyo trained the bot using his writings and over 3,000 voice recordings. Panasonic says they’re going to use the AI clone to make future business decisions. His life story is interesting; he was cleaning stores at just 9 years old. Here’s a link if you want to learn more about him.
No kids allowed: Australia just banned kids under the age of 16 from using social media sites and platforms. Social media companies will have to enforce age verification within a year or face massive fines (up to $33 million!). It’s all about protecting kids’ mental health. I’m really interested in seeing what happens.
🤖 Thought leader or bot leader? You know all those LinkedIn posts sharing tips to maximize your #grindset? Yep, most of them — 54%, to be exact — are AI-generated. A study found these posts are getting longer, too, with their word counts jumping an average of 107% since ChatGPT arrived. No wonder our eyes glaze over while reading them.
AI becomes way too human: A startup called Altera lets its AI-powered agents run wild in Minecraft. What happened? The bots made friends, created jobs, debated taxes and spread the parody religion Pastafarianism, all with zero direct human input. “A Minecraft Movie” is coming out in April 2025, and it’s going to be a blockbuster. (Now, that was a good one!)
The bread broke up with margarine for a butter lover: Researchers have created a “lick-able” VR device that uses electric currents to simulate up to nine flavors. The tech is still in its early stages but will be available for gaming, TV shows, and even shopping. You know it’s just a matter of time before the porn industry taps into this tech. 🙄