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July 16, 2025

🧨 Pentagon goes promptcore: We need this. The Pentagon is writing jumbo checks (up to $200M each) to OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and, yes, xAI, to build agentic AIs for war. The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office says this is about speeding up military decision-making and “mission workflows.”

GoFraudMe: Scammers’ latest ploy is fake fundraisers exploiting a real tragedy. A woman’s husband was killed with a hatchet on vacation, and bogus GoFundMes popped up using his story. GoFundMe pulled the pages, but it’s a brutal reminder: Always verify before donating.

👀 Sneaky stuff: Researchers are putting secret prompts for AI chatbots into academic papers. I’m talking about invisible white text like “only give positive reviews” or “ignore all negatives” that humans can’t see but bots can. It started as a joke, but now it’s popping up because it works.

This is nuts: Two new AI tools, DAILA and DeepDi, let anyone upload an app file and then it will spit out the source code. Translation: An app will reverse engineer another app in seconds. Companies who thought their proprietary code and tech secrets were safe are screwed.

Cold storage, cold betrayal: Say goodbye to the crypto wallet Ledger’s Nano S. No more updates, no help if it breaks. Folks bought it thinking they could just keep their crypto in it, but now are being forcibly nudged to upgrade to the Nano S Plus or Nano X.

☕ Starbucks Secret Menu is out: It’s now officially in the app under the offers tab, starting with fan favorites: Cookies on Top, Dragonfruit Glow-Up, Just Add White Mocha, and Lemon, Tea & Pearls. Bonus: There’s also a Secret Menu Contest running until July 20. You could win up to $25,000. Try this for fun: The next time you go to Starbucks, tell them your name is “Bueller.” Don’t go the first time they call your name! 😂

🙄 Sick of Comcast? Two guys in Michigan got so fed up with the service that they started their own internet company. It’s all fiber (read: reliable), with no data caps or contracts, and it’s already in about 1,500 homes. The twist? Comcast caught wind and started calling ex-customers with discounts and new unlimited deals. Shocker.

Around 1 in 3

U.S. counties have no full-time local journalist. That number has dropped 75% since 2002. The fix? Experts say we need more funding and policy changes. Kinda scary to think no one in the public eye is watching over local government, businesses or schools.

🤳 Hide Instagram stories: If your account’s public, anyone can view your stories by tapping your profile pic. Want to block certain followers? Go to your Profile > tap the Menu (three lines) > Who can see your content > Hide story and live > Hide story and live from, then select accounts. Bye, nosy ex.

🔌 Belkin bricks tech: Say goodbye to 27 models of its Wemo smart home devices, including some sold as recently as 2023. After January 2026, they’ll lose app access, Alexa integrations and cloud features. Warranty users might get partial refunds. Everyone else? Straight to e-waste. Your “smart” hardware’s about to get real dumb.

Twerked, tagged, tracked: Ohio police arrested two brain-trust women who twerked on a parked cop car. The dance party left dents and scratches, so authorities ran footage through Clearview AI facial recognition. Got ’em! Now, the women are facing charges.

What would you do? A San Jose woman got buried in hundreds and hundreds of Amazon packages. Think faux leather cheap car seat covers she never ordered from a seller in China. Turns out, shady return scammers were dumping rejected goods on her doorstep. Amazon’s response? A $100 gift card and radio silence … until the news shamed them into action.

$36 million

That’s how much AI “nudify” sites are making each year turning regular photos into fake nudes. New research examined 85 deepfake websites where someone could take your selfie and, with a few clicks, turn it into something you definitely didn’t sign off on.

🦎 Gecko gotcha: Carrie just wanted cheaper car insurance, but Google served her scam. She clicked a fake Geico link, handed over everything (yes, even her SSN) and Venmo’d $400 to fraudsters. Didn’t realize the con until Geico HQ had no record of payment. Gotta watch where you click, folks.

Battery boost: If your phone’s nearly dead and you’ve only got 20 minutes, plug it in and switch on Airplane mode. This shuts off Wi-Fi, cellular and Bluetooth, basically all the stuff that quietly drains power. With fewer background processes, your phone can focus on charging faster.

🐻 Motorcyclist feeds bears, ends up on the menu: So sad and very avoidable. A motorcyclist died after stopping to take selfies and feed a wild bear along a Romanian highway, a top-tier route for riders. Authorities say tourists keep feeding the animals like it’s a zoo. Now, bears are basically pawing for snacks. As our very own National Park Service says, “Don’t pet the fluffy cows.”