Stay groovy, Old Faithful: Social media’s latest doomsday fantasy? That Yellowstone’s wildlife is fleeing an imminent volcanic eruption. The panic started with a fake post claiming “hundreds” of the park’s ~40 mountain lions were fleeing. Bears “escaping” turned out to be filmed in a drive-thru zoo in South Dakota. Someone posted a herd of wildebeests in Africa. Speaking of… What did the dad say after dropping his son off at Yellowstone National Park? Bison! (lol)
$243 million
What a jury told Tesla to cough up over a fatal Autopilot crash. That includes $200M in punitive damages, aka “don’t do that again” money. The crash killed a young woman and injured her boyfriend. Autopilot was engaged, the driver was distracted, and the jury decided both were to blame, not equally.
🔴 Red pill teens are rising: “Red pilled” used to mean you saw the truth, like in The Matrix. Now it’s code for online communities where young men vent about women, feminism and dating, often turning hateful, sexist and sometimes racist. It’s becoming a gateway drug for disillusioned boys looking for belonging. Make sure your guys are not partaking.
🧨 The dronepocalypse starts now: New FAA rules (Part 108) will nix those tedious waivers and unlock drone flights over people, at night and out of sight. Great for commercial use like deliveries or for agriculture. Awful for an air traffic control system still running on floppy disks. Also: D.C. just let drones fly in the capital.
Facebook trickery can’t get past us: Meta wants access to your unposted camera roll, via a pop-up that quietly signs you into cloud uploads and AI scanning. They say it’s for fun little collages but don’t specify whether that data’s going into AI training. Go to Facebook > Settings > Your Information > Camera Roll Cloud Processing and switch it off. This also starts deleting anything already uploaded after 30 days.
📦 QR code scam alert: The FBI says scammers are shipping fake “gifts” with QR codes that lure you into handing over personal info, or worse, downloading malware. No sender info, just a data breach waiting to happen. If a box shows up uninvited, don’t scan anything. Just toss it or enjoy your free salad spinner.
Stream your own drama: Fable Studio just got Amazon funding for Showrunner, an AI platform where you can script shows, insert yourself into episodes and get paid if others build on your story. It’s $10 to $40/month and launching publicly this week. Your next group chat meme could be a full TV episode.
🚗 Shock and vroom: Ford says it’s cooking up an EV so revolutionary, it’ll make the original Model T look like a horse and buggy. On Aug. 11, CEO Jim Farley promises to show off a sub-$25K electric car that’s built to scale, fast, cheap and U.S.-powered.
⚡ Solar hacker warning: Turns out smart inverters in home solar panels can be hacked. If attackers exploit hardware bugs or trick people into granting app access, they could disrupt entire power grids and trigger blackouts. The kicker? These inverters last over 15 years, so even good security now might not hold up later.