About 99% of the internet flows through undersea cables
I bet you imagine the internet as a magical cloud floating wirelessly between satellites and Wi-Fi routers. Nope. It’s mostly underwater.
Nearly all of your “in the cloud” traffic actually travels through fiber-optic cables laid along the ocean floor. These thin strands of glass are buried in some places and simply resting on the seafloor in others.
⚡ Hands off my wallet: The BBB says crooks are pulling a new move called “ghost tapping” (paywall link). They carry a legit-looking wireless card reader, like the ones you see at coffee shops, and only need to get a few feet from your tap-to-pay card or phone. Bump into you at a concert? Stand too close in a line? Boom, tiny “test” charge hits your account. The scam works best on debit cards since the money comes out instantly. Easiest defenses: Toss your cards in an RFID-blocking sleeve (they’re cheap), turn on instant bank alerts and always check the terminal screen before tapping your phone, debit or credit card. If something feels sketchy, swipe or insert instead. It’s pickpocketing, just upgraded for 2025. These scams are getting nuts.
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Robo-blitz incoming: Amazon is layering AI over NFL broadcasts like queso on fries. You’ll gradually start noticing video game-like overlays on Thursday Night Football. You’ll see if your QB’s about to get pancaked, whether your team has even a prayer of a comeback and which defender’s sneaking up to ruin the drive. I love tight ends.
Parent app overload: Parenting used to mean packing lunch. Now it’s like managing a startup. Schools have separate apps for buses, grades and announcements, and parents get 80+ emails a month. Kindergarten has more software than my first job.
💊 Beware the Benadryl: A South Carolina teen landed in the ER after trying TikTok’s “Benadryl Challenge,” sending her heart racing to nearly 200 bpm while hallucinating. She’s OK, but high doses can cause seizures, coma, even death. Her parents are warning other families.
YouTube runs the show: Be real, when’s the last time you watched cable? Exactly. YouTube’s replaced it, plus Netflix and most of your weekend. 2.5 billion people are on it, and 500 hours get uploaded every minute. And now, AI is helping creators crank out edits, titles, even Shorts. If you have a YT channel, check this out. I can’t wait to try the new tools.
🔥 Delete these apps now: Hackers snuck 224 fake apps into Google Play, downloaded over 38 million times. Yes, you read that right. Disguised with names like CreateCreatives, Foocus, ChatGLM and ClapTrack (ahem, clap to find your phone?), they looked harmless but installed shady ads. Then came the real damage: The apps hijacked devices, silently launching invisible web browsers that ran 24/7, draining battery life, eating up data, slowing down performance and overheating phones, all to generate 2.3 billion fake ad views per day. Ad networks paid out as if real users were watching, while your phone was working overtime behind your back. Check your device for any apps listed here.
📦 Prime and pause: Don’t click “Buy Now.” Amazon just announced a big hardware event for Sept. 30 in New York City, where it’s going to unveil new Echo speakers, Fire TV gear and a colorful Kindle that you can write on. Alexa’s gonna be smarter, too. Maybe it will ask me, “Kim, why am I unplugged?”
AI ads incoming: Roku is rolling out generative AI tools so even the tiniest business can slap together an ad in minutes. Roku has hundreds of advertisers, but they want 100,000+. Streaming’s booming, ad slots are open, and AI sludge is about to fill the void.