A load of garbage

September 6, 2024

A load of garbage: A woman in Texas used Apple AirTags to track her recycling bags after dropping them off for the city’s “all plastic accepted” program. Spoiler: Instead of being processed as expected, the bags were dumped in a nearby storage facility. Turns out, hundreds of thousands of pounds of unrecycled materials are sitting around.

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Tags: Apple, storage, Texas, track

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Sextortion scams are getting up close and personal

POV: You open your inbox to the creepiest email of all time. It’s addressed to you by name, and it starts like this:

“I suggest you read this message carefully. Take a moment to chill, breathe and analyze it thoroughly. ‘Cause we’re about to discuss a deal between you and me, and I ain’t playing games.”

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Leak: Big Tech companies are listening to your convos

For years, tech companies have assured us no one’s listening through our smartphones to see what we’re interested in. It sure feels like it, though, when our ads seem so closely matched to our private chats with friends and family.

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Which of the following smartphone charging “facts” is actually a myth? Is it … A.) Charging overnight damages your battery, B.) Using your phone while it’s charging can make it explode, C.) Charging only when it reaches 0% extends your battery life, or D.) You should only use the charger that came with your phone?

Find the answer here! →

100,000 AI chips

In what Elon Musk says is the world’s most powerful AI supercomputer. Colossus (yes, he really named it that) was built in Tennessee for Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI. The NVIDIA chips cost $40,000 a pop. Good thing xAI raised $6 billion in funding.

1,000 pieces of content

Available on each Delta flight. That includes 300 movies. A six-person team swaps 20% to 25% of the lineup every 30 days so frequent fliers don’t get bored. Honestly, I don’t think airplane jokes are funny; they’re just really Boeing.

76% of patients

Got a price break on a medical bill. How? Picking up the phone. You may assume it’s not worth the time, but new research shows disputing an error or simply asking for reduced pricing goes a long way. My advice: Be polite and firm.

53% of businesses

Have been targeted by a financial deepfake scam. Even worse, 43% fell for it. These scams use bogus images, videos or audio recordings to convince people to buy gift cards, wire money or otherwise spend. If you get a random financial request at work, reach out to the person directly to confirm.

0 screen time

Before age 2, according to a new recommendation by Swedish health authorities. They say kids ages 2 to 5 should have no more than an hour a day of screen time, and it rises to two hours for those ages 6 to 12 and three hours for teens ages 13 to 18. This quote from researchers stopped me in my tracks: “Children’s health is paying the price for tech companies’ profits.”

50 to 80 bpm

Will boost productivity. Studies show music with 50 to 80 bpm can enhance creativity and learning. Check out this playlist. “Bohemian Rhapsody” is 72 bpm! After watching “Bohemian Rhapsody” three times in a row, I feel a little sick. It must be the high Mercury content.

$9,850,000

Listing price for Bob Ross’ very first painting from his TV show. He created “A Walk in the Woods” live during the 1983 premiere of “The Joy of Painting.” Yes, it features a few happy little trees.