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Old-school static wins the spy wars
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This is one of the coolest things I’ve learned recently: Foreign intelligence agencies still use good ol’ radio to share top secrets. Even with all the powerful tech at their fingertips, radio use in espionage has actually gone up in popularity since the 2010s. Pretty wild.
Russia in particular loves this technique. Why? Intelligence agencies don’t trust the internet. Makes sense.
📻 Spy-Fi: The original wireless network
Foreign agencies have been using shortwave radio frequencies to broadcast coded messages for decades.
Starting in the mid-1960s, if you tuned your radio to shortwave frequencies between 5.422 and 16.084 megahertz (MHz), you might hear music … or you might hear a woman’s voice with an English accent reading number combinations.
The U.K.’s MI6 intelligence agency and other spy networks used these “number stations” until at least 2008 to talk to operatives in the field. Whoa.
🤫 All secrets, all the time
This tactic is still very much alive and well. In 2020, the FBI discovered messages being sent to Russian deep-cover officers living in Massachusetts. Last year, researchers caught Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, SVR, broadcasting a test transmission in French.
But it’s not just Russia. Taiwan is active now. The “Star Star” station (V13) broadcasts coded messages to agents in mainland China, complete with flute music intros.
So, what’s the advantage? Even encrypted phones can be hacked. It’s also easier than ever to plant spyware on a device.
☝️ The secret’s in the signal
In each broadcast, the sender and receiver use what’s called a “one-time pad” to encrypt and decrypt the message. It’s basically a matching list of random numbers, no fancy spy gear required.
Real estate secrets hiding in plain sight
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Most people hop on real estate sites just to see their dream house or check local sales prices. That’s cute, but if you know where to click, these sites cough up more secrets than your drunk aunt at Thanksgiving.
0%
That’s the critics’ score for Ice Cube’s War of the Worlds remake. When critics and audiences agree, you know it’s … something. This Prime Video disaster-piece did the impossible though. People are actually watching it.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Someone’s alarm blaring across the house? Don’t get up. Just call them. One ring is usually enough to silence it. Works on most phones and saves you the … awkward confrontation.
Privacy report card: Which AI flunked
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AI bots are our digital sidekicks. They’ve helped me write emails faster, plan my vacations, you name it. But the more we share, the more these bots learn about us. That can come back to bite you. Let’s lock down your data before your secrets become someone else’s payday.
🚁 Self-flying Black Hawks? Yep, Texas A&M University is working with DARPA to make it happen. The goal is to use AI to help helicopters fly solo and handle things like wildfire drops and dangerous area surveys, all without risking human pilots. We should see them in action after two more years of testing.
Science needs your frog pics: A massive new study confirms iNaturalist, a site where anyone can upload wildlife pics tagged with time and location, is driving thousands of research papers worldwide. With millions of uploads, the platform’s helped map species ranges, spot invasives and even rediscover lost animals. It’s kind of like Pokémon Go for real animals.
🗣️ AI’s new favorite party trick? Stealing your TikTok rants, word-for-um-filled-word, and deepfaking them with a totally different face and voice. A wild “incinerator at Alligator Alcatraz” video hit 20M views, copied from a real person, made by a robot. And TikTok barely flinched. Next up: a deepfake of you reacting to this deepfake.
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$160,000
The price of the “Ammortal Chamber,” aka a human optimization pod. It uses 10 wellness technologies to boost your body and mind in just 20 to 30 minutes. Pro athletes are already using them, and soon you can, too. They’re popping up in spas across the country.
Pour one out: After 24 years, Apple finally gave the old “Macintosh HD” icon the boot, replacing the hard disk image with a new SSD-style one in macOS 26 Tahoe. Because nothing says innovation like updating a decorative PNG five years after the hardware changed. Wait until they hear Safari’s icon is a compass.
11:18 p.m.
That’s when the average American actually falls asleep. Bedtime may start at 10:36 on average, but your brain’s running a late-night talk show until nearly midnight. Toss in some regret, a side of scrolling, the kids starting school again, and voilà, sleep debt before sunrise.
🩸 Caught red-handed: A jury ruled Meta broke privacy law by quietly siphoning up data from the Flo period app. Yes, including your pregnancy goals and cycle info. The twist? Flo gave it up via hidden SDKs. Meta claims it didn’t know what it was collecting. The court was like: lol, ok. Now they face massive damages.
IG’s map is sus: Rolling out now, Instagram Map broadcasts your last app activity location to friends. Meta swears it’s off by default, but I don’t trust it and apparently neither does half the internet. Here’s how to turn it off: Go to your Profile and Tap the ≡ menu (top right). Select Story, live and location, tap Location sharing, and toggle off sharing.
🚨 Docusign warning: Scammers are sending fake Docusign emails claiming you’ve been charged by companies like Apple or Netflix. They tell you to call a number if you didn’t make a purchase, but it’s actually fake customer support trying to steal your info. Don’t click anything. When in doubt, log in directly to check your purchase history.
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Share Instagram posts the right way: Tagging friends in the comments? Meh. Next time you see a funny reel, tap the little arrow under the post (or on the side). Pick who you want to send it to and hit Send. It lands right in their DMs.
📚 Sort and filter books on your Kindle: You can organize your Library so it’s easier to find what you’re reading (or ignoring). Tap the Filter icon (top left) to show only Downloaded, Unread or Read books. Then hit the Sort icon (top right) to sort by Most Recent, Title or Author. Easy.
Sleep surveillance: Is your Fitbit saying you’re waking up at night more than usual? It’s not because you’re broken, sleep tracking just got “more accurate.” Translation: Fitbit is clocking every micro-wiggle like it’s the NyQuil NSA. Google says this is step one in a whole series of sleep upgrades, rest assured.