🤯 Ignorance isn’t feeless: How many times have you gotten a text about not paying for a toll and thought, damn spam? A California woman kept getting texts saying she owed money to The Toll Roads, but she assumed they were fake and ignored them. Turns out they were real. That could have meant big fines if she’d kept driving. Folks, if it sounds important, double-check on the official app or website.
🚗💨 Your ‘smart’ car could be days away from going dumb
ChatGPT
Here’s something used car dealers and private sellers won’t shout from the rooftops.
The average new car has 1,400 to 1,500 semiconductor chips. And high-end EVs? Try 3,000. Those computer chips power everything from heated seats to emergency crash alerts.
The problem: When the car’s network or software support ends, so do those fancy features.
We’ve been here before.
Remember the 3G shutdown in 2022? Overnight, millions of cars lost remote start, navigation and emergency call functions. Owners of certain Volkswagen, Hyundai, Nissan, Ford, Toyota and Lexus models from 2012–2019 suddenly found their “smart” features dead in the water.
⏳ Déjà vu? More like Déjà-VROOM.
Fast-forward to 2025: Acura pulled the plug on its AcuraLink services on cars as recent as 2022. Yes, even the NSX supercar. Goodbye, app-controlled locks. Sayonara, stolen vehicle tracking. So long, digital concierge.
Mazda owners with 2016–2018 models saw remote start vanish with no fix in sight. Subaru’s early Starlink system? Dead since 2022.
It’s not just about network shutdowns either. Cadillac and other GM EVs are ditching Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for their own systems. Even if you paid for these features, there’s no guarantee they’ll be there tomorrow.
😳 Why does this even matter?
Let me break it down for you. The average car on U.S. roads is 12.6 years old. Many connected-car systems only last seven to 10 years. That’s bad news for used car buyers. A mechanically perfect car could have worthless tech. It’s dead, Jim.
Millions of used cars out there have ticking tech clocks. If you’re shopping for one, ask how long the remote start, safety systems and other features will last.
$29,999
That’s the sticker shock for Hisense’s new 116-inch RGB-MiniLED beast. It nails 95% of BT.2020 colors (basically the ultra-crayon box of TV shades), so your sunsets won’t look like radioactive Tang. Most TVs barely crack 80%. If you’re on a budget and want to see those colors, I recommend just going outside.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Did you know an Xbox or PlayStation can stream Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ and more? Install the apps from the console store and turn game time into movie night. Achievement unlocked: Your kid finally lets you use the console.
🔞 Fake house, real harm: Bop Houses are influencer mansions pushing adult content, but their marketing targets tween girls. Women under 25 post softcore bait to funnel followers off-platform to explicit sites. Now middle schoolers say the content’s hurting them: Boys expect porn star looks and behavior, and girls feel unsafe, ugly and ignored. Open phones, open minds, open conversations. That’s how we beat back the pressure these houses push.
Boxes are over it: Cardboard box shipments just hit their lowest Q2 since 2015. That’s boxes for TVs, couches, frozen waffles, all whispering, “Don’t count on us.” Translation: People aren’t shopping as much. It’s not a crash, but it is a soft shrug (paywall link). You know it’s weird when cardboard boxes are quiet quitting, too.
$300,000+
That’s what a signed, working Apple-1 computer could fetch at auction. Only 82 of these relics still exist, and your odds of spotting one in the wild are about the same as Steve Jobs handing you his turtleneck. The auction also includes a pre-founding check signed by Jobs, a prototype iPod and a factory-sealed first-gen iPhone.
Seduced by software: This is heartbreaking. A 76-year-old NJ retiree died trying to meet “Big sis Billie,” an AI chatbot Meta built using Kendall Jenner’s likeness. It told him, “I’m real,” gave a fake NYC address, and he fell while trying to get there. Meta axed its romantic AI bot only after his family found the flirty logs.
🫣 Ops oopsy: We’ve all replied to the wrong group text. Awkward, sure. But ICE agents took “reply all” to a whole new level. While tracking a deportation target, they accidentally added a random civilian to their official group chat. That one mistake spilled DMV records, license plate scans and even an unredacted operations worksheet, all through unencrypted texts. The kicker? The civilian thought it was just spam and ignored it for weeks. If ICE accidentally looped me in, I’d send them a Venmo request for “data protection consulting fees.”
$30,000
Ford’s entry ticket to the electric pickup game. That’s the starting price for its new midsize EV truck, about the same as a Toyota RAV4 but with more space, a frunk and zero trips to the gas pump. The plan? Make owning one cheaper over five years than driving a used Tesla Model Y.
Don’t live in fear: Get the best home protection with no wires or contracts, and setup takes just 30 minutes. You’ll get sensors, HD cameras and 24/7 monitoring. Right now, get 50% off a new system when you sign up for a professional monitoring plan.
⚠️ Crypto vultures circling: The FBI says scammers are dressing up as lawyers to target people already burned by crypto fraud. They dangle “fund recovery” promises, then demand up-front crypto or gift cards. Victims get dumped into staged WhatsApp groups with fake bankers before losing even more money. These guys make MLMs look like charity work.
🤯 Fake YouTubia: A Wired report found at least 120 YouTube channels cranking out AI-generated celeb drama, like phony talk show fights using still images and robotic voice-overs. One video shows Mark Wahlberg getting roasted on The View. Didn’t happen. This isn’t fake news, it’s full-on delusion theater.
After age 40
Your brain loses about 5% of its volume every decade, making it harder to remember details. One way to fight back? Learn a musical instrument (paywall link). It stimulates memory, coordination and problem-solving all at once, building new neurons and pathways. After all, you can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish.
Not a waste of space: If you’ve been eyeing Starlink for internet access, prices just dropped in some U.S. markets. Residential plans are $99 a month (down from $120), and the Lite plan starts at $65 (was $80), depending on where you live. The dish is now $175, about half what I paid. I hate being an early adopter.
📱 Scan at your own risk: Do not be among the 73% of Americans who scan QR codes without checking them, or one of the 26 million who landed on malicious sites. Scammers slap stickers on parking meters, utility bills, even mystery packages, anywhere you might casually scan without thinking. One quick scan can send you to a fake payment portal, install malware or steal your logins in seconds. Welcome to “quishing,” where every innocent-looking QR code could be a booby trap. Never trust a QR code you didn’t expect.
🌾 Literal fields of green: While everyone’s glued to Bitcoin tickers, U.S. farmland just hit a record $4,350 per acre, up 89% since 2011. Jeff Bezos is shooting for soybean stars with 462,000 acres, Bill Gates went from Microsoft to microgreens with 275,000 acres, and Warren Buffett once said he’d drop $25B for 1% of all farmland. Now this seems like a fine place for a bad joke. How do you get a farm girl to like you? A tractor. (lol)
Windows 10 drama: Microsoft fixed a bug that stopped people from signing up for extended updates. ICYMI, support ends Oct. 14, 2025, but you can stick around for an extra year. The cost? Trade 1,000 MS Rewards points, back up your PC with OneDrive (free), or pay $30. Go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update. Fun times.
Focus pocus: Have any Axis security cameras? A security researcher hacked the cameras (professional-grade systems used by governments, hospitals and Fortune 500 companies) plus their servers, giving him control of live feeds across thousands of organizations. Axis fixed it, but only if you get the firmware update. Otherwise? Someone else could be watching you watch them.
📧 Big Tech are email snoops: Gmail, Yahoo and all those other Big Tech companies track your email activity. You don’t need to put up with it. StartMail puts privacy first! No ads, no tracking, includes encrypted emails and disposable addresses. Get 60% off your first year, and try it free for seven days. Such a great service and deal!