Phones down, eyes up

May 3, 2025

📵 Phones down, eyes up: That’s the YMCA’s new water safety campaign for parents this summer. Why? Drowning is the number one cause of death for kids ages 1 to 4, and it often happens within 25 yards of a distracted parent. It’s usually silent, with no splashes, and can happen in 30 seconds or less. I know there’s someone you need to share this with.

Tags: kids, parents, safety, summer, water

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Digital self-destruction for fun and paranoia

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How to make any USB drive self-destruct

“Kim, I’m paranoid about losing my USB drive. Is there any way to make it so if someone steals it, they can’t see or open anything?” — Dave in Denver

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Tech we thought was the future

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It’s Friday, and I’m feeling a little nostalgic. Let’s take a fun walk down memory lane back when our gadgets were clunky, slow and somehow magical.

Remember when flipping your phone shut made you feel like a movie star? Or hearing the sound of a modem? Good times. Take a look at this list and see if there are any you miss.

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Cluckin’ wild

The Minecraft movie is meh, but Jack Black’s unhinged chicken ballad, “Steve’s Lava Chicken,” shot up to # 78 on Billboard’s Hot 100. It’s now the shortest song ever to hit the famed list, clocking in at 34 seconds, making it both a record and maybe a cry for help for our attention spans. Listen here, you have been warned.

82%

The percentage of Americans who want businesses to disclose when they use AI. People just want to know if they’re talking to a human after years of chatbot creep, fake reviews and AI content. At this rate, Clippy from Microsoft Word would be a trusted news anchor.

$10 million

How much revenue TikTok creators are collectively pulling in daily. New data also shows it’s now the second most-watched livestreaming platform on the net. So far in Q1: Twitch has 4.85 billion hours, TikTok Live 8.03 billion and YouTube leads with 14.98 billion hours. Dang, that’s crazy.

Nearly $400,000

What someone paid at auction for a chilling letter from a Titanic survivor. The first-class passenger wrote it five days before the Titanic went down, saying, “It is a fine ship, but I shall await my journey’s end before I pass judgment on her.” The cruel twist? He still died a few months later from health issues made worse by the wreck.

Less than 100

That’s how many shark bites are reported globally each year. Not a huge number, but it’s been going up. Why? Blame social media. Some influencers are telling tourists to snap selfies or reach out for a pat. Add to that the fact that most people can’t tell a reef shark from a bull shark. Yeah, natural selection in action.

$0

That’s the price for the dish and router when you sign up for a new 12-month Starlink plan. You’ll save $349, the monthly service fee stays the same, and you’ll have 30 days to return it for a refund. The catch? If you then cancel or change your service address, you’ll have to pay a prorated cost for the hardware.

Over 6 hours

If you sit still for that long every day, you’re basically asking for neck pain. The main culprit is your phone (paywall link). Why? You hunch your neck and slouch your shoulders. Over time, that throws off the muscle balance in your neck and upper back, leading to major aches and musculoskeletal issues. So yeah, remember to move around.

$150 billion

How much IBM plans to invest in the U.S. over the next five years. Some of the money’s going into research and development for their mainframes and quantum computers (paywall link). Not bad for a company that’s been around for 114 years.