Give yourself extra time before your next flight: After attacks on Hezbollah, aviation authorities in Lebanon banned travelers from boarding planes or checking luggage with pagers and walkie-talkies. Expect the TSA to increase their screening for explosives (paywall link).
Twitter wants to charge you $3 a month - Here's what you get
Say what you want to about Twitter, but it has grown exponentially over the last few years. By the end of last year, it had around 353 million active users and is projected to have just over 400 million by the end of 2021. Tap or click here to delete your Facebook and Twitter account for good.
It might only be a fraction of Facebook’s 2.80 billion monthly active users, but it has become a hotbed for debates, cat pictures and online disagreements.
Twitter can be a great free tool to keep up with world events and local happenings. But if you are a power user, would you pay to maximize Twitter’s potential?
Here’s the backstory
Jack Dorsey’s social media platform announced recently that you can now pay to enjoy some premium features. For the low price of $2.99 per month, you can join Twitter Blue in the U.S. and New Zealand. The service was first launched in Canada and Australia in June and is available on Android and the web.
So, what do you get for your monthly fee? Here are some features of Twitter Blue:
- Bookmark folders. If you have a lot of saved tweets, you can organize them into separate folders. That makes it easy to find them again.
- Undo tweet. Somewhat self-explanatory, it gives you a 30-second window to prevent it from appearing on your timeline. You know, kind of like deleting a tweet.
- Reader Mode. In Twitter’s own words, the Reader Mode is designed to “get rid of the noise” on your timeline. To view longer threads, it presents you with a more streamlined experience, and reading news articles will be ad-free.
- Custom navigation. Through the subscription you can customize what appears in your navigation bar.
- Other perks. While Twitter is a bit shy on the exact features, it includes “customizable app icons, fun color themes, and dedicated subscription customer support.”
The only function that might entice daily news readers is the ad-free experience of reading articles from over 300 sources. However, the monthly fee does not give you access to news reports that are protected by a paywall.
If you want to give it a try, go to your Twitter profile’s main page, click on the More option and look for the Twitter Blue subscription option.
Keep reading
Free app to quickly remove your pics and posts on Facebook, Twitter and more
How to stop someone from seeing what you post on Twitter without blocking them
$300,000
For a souped-up Land Rover Defender … that’ll probably break down. Fans of the Defender are modifying iconic older models notorious for mechanical issues. One guy dropped six figures (paywall link) to trick out his 1986 Defender. Meanwhile, his gas gauge still doesn’t work. 🤦
Slang lesson of the day: Gen Alpha (those born since 2010) is tossing around the word “Ohio,” and it’s got zilch to do with the state. They’re using it to call out something weird, cringey or random (paywall link). Spot a lawnmower on the freeway? “Only in Ohio.” Rock a polka dot and stripes combo? “You’re so Ohio.” Mew.
¡Ay, car-amba! Last year, GM nearly tied its 1979 record for Corvettes sold. While other sports cars struggled, GM moved twice as many (paywall link) Corvettes as in 2019. Why? Engineers put the motor in the back, just like high-end supercars. I swear it looks like a Ferrari. Now, gearheads are lining up.
🚫 Teenage mutant bullies: Kids at Great Valley Middle School in Pennsylvania created fake TikTok accounts to impersonate their teachers, posting lewd pics, racist memes and homophobic statements (paywall link). They were suspended. It’s got to be so hard for a teacher today.
🔋 Dead battery: In June 2023, EVs were $8,201 more expensive on average than a gas car — a 25.1% difference (paywall link). Now, one year later, they’re 8.5% cheaper, or around $2,657 less than a gas car. And 46% of all EV owners want a gas-powered car.
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.
50,000 calories
How much energy it takes to carry a baby for nine months (paywall link). I never knew this fun fact! Did you? Only 4% of that is for the little one; the other 96% is to support all the work Mom is doing. That equates to 50 pints of ice cream — talk about legen‑dairy.
1,600% increase
In power costs in Texas. Things are bigger in Texas, but that’s nuts. Hotter temperatures are sending energy prices soaring (paywall link). Here’s how to lower your bills.
I’m no lawyer, but …: Docs in a lawsuit against OpenAI show the company destroyed two massive datasets used to train its GPT-3 AI model. The Authors Guild (paywall link) says they likely contained thousands of copyrighted books. Oh, and the “researchers” responsible for creating the datasets no longer work there. How convenient.
AI has stock photographers worried (WSJ, paywall link) about their jobs. Clients now have a faster, more affordable way to find pictures of “synergy.” I’m holding on to hope … There will always be a place in my heart for photos of real people in a conference room high-fiving.
I love you just the weigh you are: Folks on social media are pushing Ozempic but hush-hush about its nasty side effects. Karen Evans (paywall link), for instance, never mentioned that severe vomiting made her quit the drug. Get this: Health influencers with under 100,000 followers are making $10,000 and up promoting Ozempic. Influences with over a million followers? They’re making $50,000 to $125,000 per post.
Taylor Swift’s new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” was leaked to Google Drive two days early. Swifties were quick to call it an AI deepfake (paywall link). Surprise, the leak was real. Swifties did get a consolation prize: 15 additional songs. Share this with your favorite Swiftie.
Clock ticking: TikTok’s future took a huge hit this past week, with the House voting 352-65 to ban the Communist China app. Cue the chaos as small-biz folks, teachers, activists and young people hit the Capitol, waving signs about TikTok’s “crucial” role in our economy and public life (paywall link). The bill still needs to be passed by the Senate.