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📵 Nonlethal cyber weapon: The Israeli Defense Force dropped hundreds of thousands of leaflets into Lebanon. Each had a QR code and note that said scanning the code would reveal a map of a safe area to avoid airstrikes. In reality, scanning would instruct the phone to transfer all its data to the IDF, then it’d brick the device. Wow … just wow.
So many of the calls, emails, messages and DMs I get are about privacy and security. I can’t remember the last time I had a full day where no one asked me some version of “How do I get all this info about me off the internet?”
Grew into a 10-foot tree with biblical significance. It took 14 years, but scientists grew a once-extinct plant. It appears to be the one that produced a medical extract called “tsori” that was referred to in the book of Genesis and Old Testament accounts of Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
Will be nearsighted by 2050. Blame less time spent outside and more screen time for youngsters. An estimated four in 10 kids will need prescription glasses. Girls are more likely than boys to develop myopia (the fancy name for objects far away looking blurry).
Found buried with Bronze Age mummies in northwestern China. It took researchers a decade of DNA analysis to determine the substance was, in fact, the world’s oldest cheese. Un-brie-lievable.
How often Tesla’s Full Self-Driving mode requires human intervention. In a 1,000-mile test, drivers had to intervene to prevent dangerous behavior more than 75 times. The good: Self-driving mode brakes for pedestrians and lets oncoming cars through. The bad: It also runs red lights and drives into oncoming traffic. Just say no.
Paying the neighbor’s electricity bill. A guy in Vacaville, California, has lived alone in the same apartment complex since 2006. The entire time, he wondered why the heck his power bill was so high. Turns out he was paying for the apartment next door, too. What a dope.
To return a kid’s beloved stuffed animal. A Texas woman took to Facebook after her 9-year-old left his stuffed gorilla at a California hotel. A stranger saw the post, went an hour out of her way to pick it up, then documented the gorilla’s journey home. Absolutely watch this if you need a smile!
Playing on gaming platform Steam at once, a new record. What’s popular right now? Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, PUBG, Final Fantasy 16 and Banana, among others. Banana is, I kid you not, just clicking on a JPEG of a banana. I don’t get it. I just don’t get it.
AI can beat online captcha tests designed to stump bots. A researcher trained a bot he called You Only Look Once (yeah, YOLO) on images of roads (paywall link). Now, the bot can ace the “Are you a human?” quizzes.
