In the desert, any patch of green may seem like a lifesaver, with water and shade. But for some places in the Sahara Desert, an oasis may not be so for all who travel there. For underneath the lush exterior, something more sinister waits.
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🧨 Military-tech frenemies: Meta and its exiled VR golden boy Palmer Luckey are now building souped-up VR headsets for the U.S. Army. It’s part rebrand, part redemption arc and fully dystopian. Move over, Xbox Live, tactical goggles now have patch notes.
🚨 Update Chrome ASAP: Google dropped an emergency patch to fix a flaw that could let hackers take over your accounts. Don’t wait. Go to Settings > About Chrome and make sure you’re up to date. Windows and Linux should be on version 136.0.7103.113. macOS should be on 136.0.7103.114.
🚨 Chrome’s audio bugged & dangerous: If you’re running Google Chrome 136 without the latest patch, you’re leaving your digital front door wide open. A fresh vulnerability (named CVE-2025-4372) surfaced in Chrome’s WebAudio API that lets hackers run malicious code remotely. No user privileges required, just a quick visit to a rigged web page, and boom, they’re in. Update now.
Robot strawberries: In Virginia, a vertical farm is growing 4 million pounds of strawberries a year indoors, on two-story towers, with no soil, no bees and a whole lot of AI. The system analyzes 10 million+ data points a day. It’s less “Old MacDonald,” more “Black Mirror: Produce Edition.” Can’t wait for my future salad to come with bug patch notes.
Mind over metal: Move over, Neuralink. Precision Neuroscience, started by a Neuralink cofounder, just tested a brain patch thinner than a human hair on Tim Fisher, a 63-year-old with Parkinson’s (paywall link). Unlike Neuralink, this patch sits gently on your brain without poking it. The FDA just approved it for use for up to 30 days. Tim even fist-bumped the robotic hand used in the test. Love that.
🚀 Baby, you’re a satanist: People can be so weird. Katy Perry, Lauren Sánchez and four other high-profile women just flew 66.5 miles above Earth in a Blue Origin rocket, crossing the Kármán line, officially entering space during the 11-minute joyride. Conspiracy theorists on X took to declaring the launch a satanic hoax filmed in a Hollywood pool, using green screens and scuba tanks, and that the mission patch is a satanic goat sigil if you squint, flip it and lose your mind.
Update your PC: Like, now! This month’s Patch Tuesday update fixes four zero-day vulnerabilities and 55 other issues. Go to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and hit Check for updates. By the way, you can update your iPhone to 18.3. It’s all good.
🚨 Heads-up, Windows users: Microsoft’s July 9 Patch Tuesday security update is causing reboots, freezes and the dreaded Blue Screen of Death. If you see a BitLocker recovery screen at startup, you’ll have to enter your recovery key. You can get it by logging into the BitLocker recovery portal with your Microsoft account. Here’s a step-by-step.
Update your PC: Windows’ latest Patch Tuesday fixes a whopping 142 flaws, including four zero-days (aka vulnerabilities hackers already know about). There are non-security updates, too: Windows 11 KB5040442 and Windows 10 KB5040427.
🚨 To be continued: Google says Samsung and other Android devices are now vulnerable to the same security risk behind June’s Pixel zero-day warning. It’s so bad that they aren’t even saying what the exploit is (code for “We don’t want bad guys to find out”). I’ll let you know when they release a patch to fix it.
Patch Tuesday: Updates for Windows 11 versions 23H2, 22H2 and 21H2 just dropped. Top of the list? A fix for that annoying bug that caused VPN connections to fail. Your PC should handle this update automatically, or go DIY if you’re feeling antsy: Start > Settings > Windows Update > Check for Updates.