🔞 Forget the days of finding Dad’s Playboy under the bed: If you have teens, talk to them about this. Teens are romancing bots and AI on apps. Some bots have filters, others barely try. The risk isn’t just sexting, it’s warping emotional development in a world where your “girlfriend” never says no and always texts back. Speaking of … Years ago, a monk was selling flowers on the Playboy Mansion grounds, and no one but Hef could get him to leave. Turns out, only Hugh would prevent florist friars. (I saw you shake your head!)
Honor their service: How to get official military records
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If you’ve ever lost someone who served, or even just want to understand your family better, listen to this. I was poking around online, and I found my dad’s actual WWII draft card application. His name, his handwriting, his signature, where he lived. It was all there. I didn’t expect to get so emotional, but wow.
I remember him telling me a few stories. In the Korean War, he put up radio towers. I always found that ironic.
🔍 Get official military records and medals
You can request service records, replacement medals, even discharge papers (the famous DD-214) from the National Archives. It’s free. You just need the person’s name, service branch and birth/death dates if you have them.
Dig up old draft cards and enlistment records. It’s hard to beat Fold3 (offers a free seven-day trial). It has a massive military record collection, including digitized WWII draft cards like the one I found. You could also try FamilySearch (totally free).
🇺🇸 This Memorial Day, help a veteran
We honor the fallen on Memorial Day, but it’s also a chance to make sure the veterans still with us aren’t forgotten.
If someone in your life served, ask them to talk. Their stories matter. One of my favorite projects is StoryCorps’ Military Voices. They record and preserve veterans’ memories for future generations.
The Veterans History Project from the Library of Congress also makes it easy to submit interviews, photos and memoirs. Many local VA hospitals offer writing or oral history workshops, and even your local American Legion or VFW may help document life stories.
I can’t tell you how cool it is to find that piece of someone’s story and hold it in your hands. Someone who stood in line, filled out forms like we do … then shipped off into history.
Memorial Day isn’t about sales or hot dogs. It’s about remembering and sometimes, rediscovering. If you find something amazing, I’d love to hear about it. Know someone who needs this info? Use the handy icons below to send it via email or post a link on your social media.
57%
Of all spam emails in the world come from the U.S. We’ve got loads of data centers, which makes it difficult to enforce regulations properly. This isn’t just inbox clutter, either; 67% of those messages contain phishing or malware links. You could say we’re the outbreak monkey of the internet.
🔗 You’re doing LinkedIn wrong: Don’t put links in your LinkedIn posts. The algorithm buries anything that sends folks off the site. Instead, post your content without the link and drop it in the first comment. That tweak can double or even triple your reach. Hiring? Click here to post your job for free!
Don’t buy drugs online: Investigators found over 200 Spotify podcasts with AI voices or no sound at all. The goal? Get people to click the link in the bio, which led to sites selling sketchy prescription meds like Xanax. They weren’t hard to find, either. Some appeared in Spotify’s Top 50 when you searched drug names.
Android vs. phone thieves: Starting later this year, if your phone’s setup wizard gets skipped post-theft, the OS forces a second reset and locks down the phone until it gets proof of life, aka your old screen lock or Google login. Next up: Android yelling, “WHO SENT YOU?!” after every reboot.
Get your info removed from the internet: Data brokers sell your info all the time without your knowledge. Incogni helps to delete your private information online automatically. So many readers and listeners say it’s worth every penny. I definitely agree. Get 60% off with code KIM60 today!
🤖 Fake dog alert: Those viral ads slinging “military-grade robot dogs” for $49? Total scam. They’re Frankensteining DARPA clips, festive music and lies at scale. YouTubers are debunking it so you don’t spend your rent money on a vibrating Furby with one wheel. And yeah, TikTok is letting it happen anyway.
Crypto brain drain: Glen Fishman thought he was talking to legit Coinbase support. Turns out, it was a scammer who yoinked his password and stole his crypto fortune. FBI clawed back $95K (truly a miracle), but the rest? Poof. Fishman says he may have to delay retirement. Reminder: Never trust a dude whose support ticket opens with “Hey boss.”
📱 iPhone tariff: About 60% of Americans use an iPhone, so we’re talking big money. Trump just threatened a 25% tariff on iPhones not made in the U.S. He says Tim Cook’s too cozy with India and Apple’s been Asia-based for decades. Its factories are basically tech cities. Wall Street winced; Apple stock dipped 3.9%.
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The top pods: Check out YouTube’s new Weekly Top Podcast Shows chart to see what folks are tuning in to. Right now, “Rotten Mango,” “The Joe Rogan Experience” and “48 Hours” are leading the pack. Subscribe to mine to help it climb up there.
Facial ID, no thanks: Airport scanners know your face before TSA even checks your ID. It’s now live at 84 airports, pitched as “frictionless.” Opting out is possible, but no one tells you how. Critics say it screams surveillance state. TSA says it’s just “enhanced security.” Next upgrade: retina scan in the TSA PreCheck mirror.
Watt is love? Baby don’t Hertz me: Tesla’s wheeling out its long-hyped robotaxis in Austin, starting with 10 cars and ramping to a thousand, basically a product experiment with bumpers. Musk says they’ll “geofence” the cars into safer areas. Everyone’s watching, especially Waymo.
Netflix cuts off Fire TV devices: Starting June 3, first-gen Fire TV, Fire TV Stick and the Alexa remote version will stop working. Why? They haven’t received security updates in years and can’t handle newer streaming tech. If you need an upgrade, the latest 4K Max model is 33% off.
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“Destroying my mind”: That’s how 22-year-old Sarah Hills felt about her Oura Ring (paywall link). Every spike in heart rate or dip in her “readiness score” sent her into a panic. It’s called “Oura paranoia,” and she’s not alone. Oura’s own head of science says he takes breaks from wearing his ring. You might want to do that with a wearable, too.
📸 Talk about driving a point home: Rep. Nancy Mace displayed a censored still of her naked body at a congressional hearing, saying it was taken without her consent by her ex-fiancé’s security cam. She’s pushing two bills to beef up federal voyeurism laws. The ex denies it all. The Founding Fathers did not die for 4K creep shots.
Dumb TikTok prank: Kids are sneaking up behind people in stores, tapping their phone to your phone and playing the Apple Pay “ding” sound. No, they’re not stealing your money. They’re just faking it with a sound clip. It gets worse. Someone’s filming your reaction. Because apparently, that counts as great content now.
🧳 TSA bans chargers: Portable chargers and power banks now have to go in your carry-on only. Why? Most use lithium-ion batteries, which can catch fire in a plane’s cargo hold (paywall link). Easy rule to remember: If it can spark, leak, ignite or explode, it doesn’t belong in your suitcase.
📡 Siri’s not OK: Maybe you’re like me getting so frustrated at it because it just sucks. Apple’s AI fix is … other people’s AI. Siri flopped so hard, Apple’s sending us off to ChatGPT (and maybe Gemini and Perplexity, too) to avoid embarrassment. A shiny new, non-humiliating Siri is in the works, but don’t hold your breath. It’s not even invited to Apple’s developers conference in June.