Your Wi-Fi was part of 2.7 billion records leaked
I bet you’ve never heard of Mars Hydro. It’s a company headquartered in Communist China that makes Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Their speciality? LED lights and hydroponics equipment.
Security researcher Jeremiah Fowler (I had him on the show about other breaches, and he’s a smart, standup guy) was digging around and found they had a massive 1.17TB database online for anyone to see. There was no encryption and no password required.
Deepfakes going to a new level
TikTok owner ByteDance built an AI tool that makes realistic videos of people talking and singing from a single photo. OmniHuman can take an image (half-body or full-body) and bring it to life. Snazzy, but scary in the wrong hands. And let’s not forget this is Chinese-owned. I wouldn’t hand over any personal pics.
Over $1 million
Earned from the 55-second “Charlie Bit My Finger” video. You remember it, right? The toddler crying because his baby brother bit his finger? Almost 900 million views later, Charlie is 18 and says the clip helped him pay for law school. A big chunk of that came in 2021, when the video sold as an NFT for over $600,000. Whoa.
Winter bash goes viral
I love this and I know you will, too. An 87-year-old guy in Bucks County, Pennsylvania is having a party tonight. Doug Turner went door to door with handwritten invites. The winter celebration is from “4 p.m. until the cops arrive.” His neighbor shared their doorbell cam chat on TikTok. No strangers at the party, but after Doug said he liked the snail mail, letters flooding the PO Box his daughter set up. He’s planning to reply to each one with his special fountain pen.
38,000 mph
Speed of an asteroid hurtling toward Earth. There’s a 2.3% chance it’ll impact in 2032. That’s the highest chance of any space rock we’ve spotted. At 460 feet wide, 2024 YR4 is 500 times more powerful than an atomic bomb. We’ll get a better look at where it’s heading in 2028. I’ll set a calendar reminder to update you!
375
Swatting phone calls made by one teenager. Alan Filion from California charged up to $75 to send police to schools, businesses and even an unnamed former president. In one call, he said he was approaching a school with an AK-47, and the bomb squad showed up. When he targeted homes, Filion said the goal was to “get the cops to drag the victim and their families out of the house, cuff them and search the house for dead bodies.” He’s so lucky no one died.
Remember the 'Charlie Bit My Finger' video?
You know, the toddler crying because his baby brother bit his finger. Almost 900 million views later, Charlie is 18 and says the clip helped him pay for law school. The 55-second clip has earned his family over $1 million. A big chunk of that came in 2021 when the video sold as an NFT for over $600,000.
$2
For a Toyota Corolla with 116,000 miles. Yes, the side mirrors are duct-taped, the license plate is bolted on with pliers, and there’s a minion painted on the hood. But mechanic Scotty Kilmer said in a viral TikTok he’d never get rid of an old Corolla. Under the ugly paint job is a 1.8L engine that’ll last forever. Here’s one for ya: Can a Toyota stretch? No, but a Mercedes-Benz.
34 seconds
Mandatory pit stops coming to Formula E. Pit Boost fast-charging stations are debuting at the Jeddah E-Prix this weekend. They’ll power up the electric racecars 10% in just 30 seconds.
23 seconds
Tests that predict your fall risk. Test 1: Stand heel-to-toe with one foot touching the front of the other. Test 2: Balance on one leg. Brazilian researchers say 10 seconds (the old baseline) isn’t enough. Aim for 23 seconds. Every extra second lowers your risk of a fall in the next six months by 5%.