Prison changes a man

September 8, 2024

Prison changes a man: About two weeks after his arrest in France, Telegram’s CEO says it’s not fair he was held responsible for others’ criminal activity on his app. Still, he calls it his “personal goal” to fix the problems. Step 1: Telegram’s updated FAQ page says users’ private chats are no longer protected from moderation. Cry me a river. Way too little, way too late.

Tags: activities, apps, calls, changes, fix, moderation, users

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7 free ways to stream TV and movies

A dollar here, $10 there. Streaming services used to be the way to watch what you wanted for much cheaper than cable or satellite. Now? Not so much.

As with everything, what’s old is new again, and more and more folks are ditching paid options for freebies. Sure, you have to put up with ads, but most of today’s streaming services now have those, too!

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Sextortion scams are getting up close and personal

POV: You open your inbox to the creepiest email of all time. It’s addressed to you by name, and it starts like this:

“I suggest you read this message carefully. Take a moment to chill, breathe and analyze it thoroughly. ‘Cause we’re about to discuss a deal between you and me, and I ain’t playing games.”

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Gotta wing it

Imagine soaring a couple hundred feet above the ground in your own personal aircraft. They’re called “short-hop adventure crafts” and they’re taking off. (Sorry, had to.) The electric BlackFly requires only seven days of training before you (not me) can take to the skies. Watch it in action!

442 locations closing

After LL Flooring (formerly Lumber Liquidators) filed for bankruptcy. About 100 stores were shuttered over the summer to save money, but now they’re pulling the plug. Existing orders will be filled, and all remaining stock is going for cheap, so they’re not out of the woods yet.

1 hour a week

Of phone usage leads to a 10% higher risk of cardiovascular disease. So, uh, yeah, that’s pretty much all of us, right? This is a classic example of correlation, not causation. Using a phone doesn’t impact your heart directly, but too much sitting on your butt sure does.

100,000 AI chips

In what Elon Musk says is the world’s most powerful AI supercomputer. Colossus (yes, he really named it that) was built in Tennessee for Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI. The NVIDIA chips cost $40,000 a pop. Good thing xAI raised $6 billion in funding.

1,000 pieces of content

Available on each Delta flight. That includes 300 movies. A six-person team swaps 20% to 25% of the lineup every 30 days so frequent fliers don’t get bored. Honestly, I don’t think airplane jokes are funny; they’re just really Boeing.

76% of patients

Got a price break on a medical bill. How? Picking up the phone. You may assume it’s not worth the time, but new research shows disputing an error or simply asking for reduced pricing goes a long way. My advice: Be polite and firm.

53% of businesses

Have been targeted by a financial deepfake scam. Even worse, 43% fell for it. These scams use bogus images, videos or audio recordings to convince people to buy gift cards, wire money or otherwise spend. If you get a random financial request at work, reach out to the person directly to confirm.

0 screen time

Before age 2, according to a new recommendation by Swedish health authorities. They say kids ages 2 to 5 should have no more than an hour a day of screen time, and it rises to two hours for those ages 6 to 12 and three hours for teens ages 13 to 18. This quote from researchers stopped me in my tracks: “Children’s health is paying the price for tech companies’ profits.”