🔥 Clout-chasing or a cautionary tale? YouTuber MrBeast’s latest viral stunt has people talking for all the wrong reasons. In a video that’s racked up millions of views, he ties a man to a chair inside a flaming building, part of a $500,000 “death trap” challenge. MrBeast insists everything was done safely with pros on set. But when did lighting someone on fire become family-friendly entertainment? What your kids watch isn’t just harmless fun. It’s content engineered for attention at any cost. If your teen says, “It’s just a MrBeast video,” you might want to take a closer look.
📸 Add Instagram highlights secretly: Create highlights without posting to your story. Open the app, tap your profile button, then the (+) in the top right. Select Story, pick a photo and hit the arrow at the bottom. Under Close Friends, choose someone who doesn’t follow you back and tap Share. Then hit Add to Highlights.
🤖 Meta dropped Vibes: It’s not a separate app but part of your Meta AI now. It’s like Instagram Reels, but you can’t post real videos, only AI-generated ones. You just remix whatever the bots spit out and call it content. Who even asked for this algorithmic soup?
😡 Crackin’ under fake pressure: Remember the Cracker Barrel logo drama? Turns out half those boycott posts on social media were bots. New research says AI-generated accounts fueled a fake backlash, and the brand actually folded. Oh, Cracker Barrel, come for the biscuits, stay for the psyop. Next time you see rage-bait, remember the mob might not even be real.
Kentucky kids rediscover paper: Jefferson County Public Schools just saw a 67% spike in book library checkouts after Kentucky banned phones in class. At Ballard High, students borrowed nearly 900 books in August, up from 533 last year. Librarians say whodunits are a hot commodity. Apparently, when TikTok disappears, Agatha Christie eats.
🪐 Out of this world: NASA confirmed its 6,000th planet beyond our solar system. Lava worlds, Jupiter-size gas giants and even double-sun planets are straight out of Star Wars. Another 8,000 are waiting in line, and scientists think that within a decade, we’ll spot Earth-like worlds that could support life. Who knows, maybe even one with a Chili’s.
🎰 Hacker hits the house: In 2023, a hacker group called Scattered Spider phished MGM’s IT desk on LinkedIn, then nuked slot machines, room keys and reservations from the inside. MGM lost over $100M refusing ransom. Caesars paid $15M. One of the hackers just turned himself in and, drumroll … he’s a teenager! He’s facing six felony charges.
Pay-to-park warfare: A viral site let San Franciscans dodge parking tickets by showing where enforcement officers were in real time. The leaderboard showed one officer writing 192 tickets in a single day, over $20K in fines! The city patched the data feed within hours, killing the tool, after 50,000 people tried it.
Search goes live: Google just dropped Search Live in the U.S. You point your camera, talk out loud, and it feeds you answers plus links in real time. Ask which munchies to grab or how to fix your busted fan, and boom, Google talks back. Free, no sign-up required. At this point, even my snacks are getting SEO’d.
CapCut’s hidden side: Think CapCut’s just a video-editing app? Nope, it’s TikTok’s little cousin without seat belts. No parental controls, weak age checks, and kids can run into strangers or even see posts with phone numbers. Docs say it fuels oversharing and self-esteem hits. If your kid’s using it, check their settings, peek at their uploads and talk about what not to share.
Big TikTok news: Trump is expected to sign an executive order today that officially puts TikTok’s “sale” in motion. Word is that ByteDance will drop its control and the U.S. will lease TikTok’s algorithm so it stays “American enough” to keep running.
🍊 Fruit ninja: Coca-Cola has teamed up with MIT to save … oranges. Seriously. A bacterial disease is wrecking citrus trees, and Coke’s using AI to fast-track a cure. If they don’t figure it out, orange juice could be basically extinct in 25 years. The project’s called “Save the Orange.” Yes, that’s real. I’m rooting for juice. Your future breakfast might just be toast.
⚡ Apple Pay’s “free money”: You have to see this TikTok of a woman crying because she thought Apple Pay was Apple’s way of giving her money. She thought every tap, every time she accepted cookies and every app she downloaded earned her cash. I bet she thinks American Express is a train. Watch the short video here. Real or not? Let me know when you rate the newsletter at the end.
TikTok gets a chaperone: Instead of a ban, TikTok’s getting a weird fix. ByteDance will lease its algorithm (paywall link) to a U.S.-controlled company. Oracle handles the “don’t spy on Americans” part, and the app on your phone? Works the same. No re-download needed, no sudden disappearance.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: On Facebook, save interesting posts for later. Tap the three-dot menu on a post, select Save post and find them anytime under the Saved section.
💻 The kids are not alright: I read this new report and felt sick. One in three boys, ages 9 to 12, has had sexual interactions online. Yeah, 9. Instagram, Discord, even Roblox. Most aren’t telling anyone. If you’ve got kids, ask what apps they use. No shame, no lectures, just real talk. Be their safe place before someone else pretends to be.
🫣 Wait, is TikTok … different? The U.S. takeover deal’s in motion, and with it? A few quiet tweaks. Your “For You” might feel a little … less global. New terms, new vibes and maybe fewer dance trends from Berlin. It’s not broken, it’s just moving in with Oracle.
🌎 Map versus reality: Ever wondered how big a country really is? The True Size Of is a free tool that lets you drag and drop places side by side. Type the name of a country or state, move it where you want, and search another. Use the compass in the bottom left to rotate and your mouse wheel to zoom. Cool.
🔮 Witches on the payroll: Before their hot streak, the Mariners were cooked. Then a fan hired SpellByLuna on Etsy to “unf*ck the team.” Now? Nine wins straight and a team-approved witch cameo on X. Players even shouted out the witch. Sports curses? Cliché. Sports spells? Apparently working overtime. I think the witch was from Austin, which makes her a hexin’ Texan.