Stay groovy, Old Faithful: Social media’s latest doomsday fantasy? That Yellowstone’s wildlife is fleeing an imminent volcanic eruption. The panic started with a fake post claiming “hundreds” of the park’s ~40 mountain lions were fleeing. Bears “escaping” turned out to be filmed in a drive-thru zoo in South Dakota. Someone posted a herd of wildebeests in Africa. Speaking of… What did the dad say after dropping his son off at Yellowstone National Park? Bison! (lol)
Your EV battery knows where you’ve been even if GPS is off
ChatGPT
You already know your smartphone tracks your every move like a jealous ex. And your car? Duh, it’s been watching you since Bluetooth became a thing.
Here’s the shocker: Researchers at MIT just revealed that your EV battery alone can quietly map your life without GPS, Wi-Fi or cell signals.
Before you even think, “Kim, this doesn’t matter to me. I drive a gas car.” It’s important because at some point, you’ll probably own a hybrid.
📍 EVs’ breadcrumb trail
Every time you accelerate, brake, idle or park, your battery’s energy use shifts. Researchers fed this data into machine learning models, and boom, they could pinpoint your starting point, destination, route and even how long you were at a stoplight. With over 90% accuracy. Dang.
Worse, this battery data is being collected and stored by carmakers, service centers, EV charging apps, insurers or anyone willing to pay for behavioral gold.
This isn’t just a Tesla thing. It’s any modern EV or plug-in hybrid with built-in telematics, which includes most new vehicles.
⚠️ What happens if you turn telematics off?
Yes, you can disable telematics in many cars (though it’s buried in menus or requires dealer help). But here’s what you give up:
- Over-the-air updates for features and security patches
- Remote access via apps (locking/unlocking, remote start, pre-air conditioning)
- Emergency crash response (like GM’s OnStar or Ford’s 911 Assist)
- Battery health reporting and smart diagnostics
It’s a trade-off: privacy vs. convenience. Most people never knew they were trading in the first place.
🔎 See what your car knows about you
31 years
How long the world’s oldest baby chilled in a freezer before being born. Frozen in 1994, he’s technically older than Friends, Google and probably your favorite jeans. Science: 1, Nature: confused.
Connect Bluetooth gear to your Fire Stick: Watching TV late at night? Pair some wireless headphones. On your Fire Stick, go to Settings > Controllers & Bluetooth Devices > Other Bluetooth Devices > Add Bluetooth Devices. Make sure your gadget’s in Pairing Mode, select it on-screen and you’re all set.
🔴 Red pill teens are rising: “Red pilled” used to mean you saw the truth, like in The Matrix. Now it’s code for online communities where young men vent about women, feminism and dating, often turning hateful, sexist and sometimes racist. It’s becoming a gateway drug for disillusioned boys looking for belonging. Make sure your guys are not partaking.
🧨 The dronepocalypse starts now: New FAA rules (Part 108) will nix those tedious waivers and unlock drone flights over people, at night and out of sight. Great for commercial use like deliveries or for agriculture. Awful for an air traffic control system still running on floppy disks. Also: D.C. just let drones fly in the capital.
Facebook trickery can’t get past us: Meta wants access to your unposted camera roll, via a pop-up that quietly signs you into cloud uploads and AI scanning. They say it’s for fun little collages but don’t specify whether that data’s going into AI training. Go to Facebook > Settings > Your Information > Camera Roll Cloud Processing and switch it off. This also starts deleting anything already uploaded after 30 days.
📦 QR code scam alert: The FBI says scammers are shipping fake “gifts” with QR codes that lure you into handing over personal info, or worse, downloading malware. No sender info, just a data breach waiting to happen. If a box shows up uninvited, don’t scan anything. Just toss it or enjoy your free salad spinner.
$243 million
What a jury told Tesla to cough up over a fatal Autopilot crash. That includes $200M in punitive damages, aka “don’t do that again” money. The crash killed a young woman and injured her boyfriend. Autopilot was engaged, the driver was distracted, and the jury decided both were to blame, not equally.
Stream your own drama: Fable Studio just got Amazon funding for Showrunner, an AI platform where you can script shows, insert yourself into episodes and get paid if others build on your story. It’s $10 to $40/month and launching publicly this week. Your next group chat meme could be a full TV episode.
🚗 Shock and vroom: Ford says it’s cooking up an EV so revolutionary, it’ll make the original Model T look like a horse and buggy. On Aug. 11, CEO Jim Farley promises to show off a sub-$25K electric car that’s built to scale, fast, cheap and U.S.-powered.
⚡ Solar hacker warning: Turns out smart inverters in home solar panels can be hacked. If attackers exploit hardware bugs or trick people into granting app access, they could disrupt entire power grids and trigger blackouts. The kicker? These inverters last over 15 years, so even good security now might not hold up later.
🫠 Your AI chat’s in the wild: That chat convo you shared with a friend? It might be on Google now. Really. If you hit “Share” on a ChatGPT chat, it’s public and searchable. Thousands of personal exchanges, including trauma dumps and mental health stuff, are popping up in search results. Yikes.
$151 billion
That’s Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s net worth. The real flex? He says he’s made more billionaires on his management team than any other CEO. He personally reviews pay for all 42,000 employees and gives out raises every year. Nice, right? Well, only if they survive. An ex-employee had to attend seven to 10 meetings a day.
Paying too much for cloud services? Check this out. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or OCI, is built for speed, power and serious savings, without the usual cloud headaches. That’s why some of the biggest AI innovators trust it. Try it for free right now.
Mario gets friend-zoned: Nintendo just hard-launched emotional damage by announcing Mario and Peach are “just good friends.” This, despite years of flirty kisses, wedding attempts and Nintendo itself calling them a couple in past games. Peach watched him fight Bowser and still said, “Thanks, bestie!” Guess saving someone from 500+ castles only gets you a LinkedIn endorsement now.
Privacy opt-out trap: Researchers hit up 543 California data brokers to request their data, like you’re legally allowed to do. Nearly half ghosted them entirely. The others? Dead-end forms, pointless hoops and privacy riddles that required even more personal data. So yeah, trying to reclaim your data just means giving up more of it, along with your time. That’s why I use Incogni and you should, too.
🛬 DJI drones aren’t banned yet: But they’re vanishing like crypto influencers in a bear market. The U.S. says all drones from communist China need a security review by December, but that review hasn’t even started. DJI says customs is already blocking shipments. You can still buy one, if you enjoy paying 2x MSRP and firmware roulette.
🧠 Mark Zuckerberg just dropped a full-blown AI manifesto: It’s a doozy. He says humanity’s future depends on each of us having a personal AI sidekick: smart glasses that listen to your life, know your dreams and nudge you toward your best self. And wouldn’t you know it? Meta just happens to make those very glasses. They lost over $4 billion last quarter building them, so clearly, the real payoff isn’t the hardware. It’s all the juicy data they’ll collect while riding around on your face. Read it here if you’re really that bored.
Get better results on Facebook Marketplace: Tired of seeing stuff that sold weeks ago? Go to Marketplace > Filters > Sort by and choose Date listed: Newest first. Then under Filters > Date listed, toggle on Last 7 days. Oh, and if the seller’s profile says they joined in 2025, it’s probably a scam.