Lost Social Security card

May 4, 2025

Lost Social Security card? Starting this summer, the Social Security Administration will let people with “my Social Security” accounts see their full Social Security number online. It keeps your physical card safe from theft, but might open a can of worms courtesy of hackers. Don’t forget to secure it with two-factor authentication!

Tags: hackers, online, security, Social Security, two-factor authentication

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Your phone has a death date

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Your phone is dying as you’re reading this. Many people don’t realize that, like milk, condoms or your favorite hot sauce that’s been in the fridge since 2018, your phone has an expiration date.

Here are the average lifespans for some of today’s most popular phone brands and makes:

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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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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.

1 hour

The weekly amount of weight training needed to gain muscle. One study found just two 30-minute sessions a week helped participants get noticeably stronger and more jacked (paywall link), no five-day grind or bro science required. One set per exercise. Nine moves. That’s it. I hear you: “Instead of calling my bathroom the John, I call it the Jim. That way I can tell people I go to the Jim every morning.”

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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23%

That’s how many HTML attachments are malicious. They usually show up in your inbox with names like “invoice.html,” and when you click, they redirect you to phishing websites. That’s where scammers steal your info or drop malware on your device. Moral of the story? Stay sharp and use real-time protection. My pick is TotalAV, just $19 a year.

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.