Beyond the airport

🪪 Beyond the airport: Travel verification company Clear is working on facial recognition for everything: Replacing your wallet, driver’s license, passwords and even your house keys with a selfie. They say it’ll help prevent fraud and be more convenient. What happens if hackers steal your face when it’s your universal ID?

Tags: airports, clear, facial recognition, fraud, identification


Kim Kardashian hangs out with $30K Tesla robot

🤖 Kim’s new BFF: Kim Kardashian’s showing off her new Tesla robot on X and Instagram. In one clip, she makes half of a heart with her hand and the bot completes it. In another, she teaches it to blow a kiss and tries the game Rock, Paper, Scissors. Optimus goes into full production by 2026 for $20,000 to $30,000 a pop. I wonder if another Kim K. can get a freebie …

30 pizzas

Delivered to a gate at a New Mexico airport. A United Airlines flight was diverted for a medical emergency, so the pilot decided to treat the waiting passengers. He bought 30 pizzas and served up the slices himself. Really, it was the yeast he could do. (Oh, that was so bad, it was good!)

$1 million-plus

To build a gamer’s paradise. An Austin software engineer turned his home into LAN party heaven for in-person gaming marathons. His setup includes 22 computers, four Dance Dance Revolution pads and a board game room. Let’s just hope he added showers.

70 hours 

The ideal workweek, according to a retired founder of a trillion-dollar tech company. Narayana Murthy, who used to run Infosys, says he doesn’t “believe in work-life balance.” You know, the problem with the rat race is even if you win, you’re still a rat.

97 years old

Isn’t too old for cheerleading! Ilagene Doehring got a blast from the past when Michigan’s Merrill High cheer team surprised her at her nursing home. Over 80 years after her stint as a high school cheerleader, she joined the squad for a performance. You have to see the video! What did the cheerleader drink before the big game? A root beer!

$20 billion 

Google Chrome’s estimated value on the open market. In August, a judge ruled Google is monopolizing web search. Selling Chrome is one way to fix that big problem. With 3 billion monthly users and a 61% market share, it’s a behemoth. Microsoft Bing could go out with a bang!

470,000 feet

Altitude reached by the University of Southern California’s student-built rocket. Aftershock II broke the previous record of 380,000 feet, becoming the first non-governmental or private-company-owned rocket to reach this far into space. Oh, space is a vacuum, but it doesn’t suck.

50 doctors and ChatGPT 

Were tasked with diagnosing illnesses from medical case histories. When graded on their diagnoses and reasoning, ChatGPT scored 90%, and the doctors alone scored 74%. Docs using ChatGPT? 76%. If something’s medically wrong with you, redact your personal info and ask “Dr. AI” what it thinks. Remember, though — it can make crap up.

$0.99 a month

Hulu’s Black Friday deal … maybe. They offered that promo last year and have slashed prices to between $1 and $3 a month every Black Friday since 2018. They said last year it won’t happen again, but we all know how that goes. I’ll drop a link if they do.

5 million in Sweden

Got pamphlets to prep for nuclear war. The booklets have instructions for storing food and water and finding shelter in case there’s war with Russia. Norway did the same last week. ICYMI, check Ready.gov for the U.S. government’s disaster planning guides.