Coming to a street near you? The U.S. is eyeing Britain’s surveillance playbook. Facial recognition systems scan every face in public and cross-check it against databases to spot fugitives in real time.
🧬 Cancer vaccine: How about some great news? University of Florida scientists made an mRNA vaccine that cranks up the immune system like a rave DJ, and boom, tumors in mice shrank or disappeared. Pair it with immunotherapy drugs, and it’s even stronger. This is a step toward a universal cancer vaccine. Human trials are next. I hate cancer.
20%
How much worse doctors get at spotting abnormalities on their own after using AI during colonoscopies. They’ve become over-reliant on the system’s little green box that flags suspicious areas, and when it’s gone, they start missing things. Think of it like GPS: Once you’ve had it, paper maps suddenly feel impossible.
Find your mouse pointer on Mac: If the cursor keeps disappearing, go to System Settings > Accessibility > Display > Pointer. Drag the Pointer size slider to make it larger, and pick new colors for the outline or fill. Bonus: Turn on Shake mouse pointer to locate. Next time you lose it, a quick shake makes the pointer balloon for a second. Amazing.
💻 Get detailed system info on Windows: Before installing drivers, you might need your specs. In the search bar, type “cmd,” right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator. Then type “systeminfo.” After a few seconds, you’ll see a report with your Windows version, build number, BIOS, memory and if your PC is 64 or 32 bit.
🔥 Laptop running hot? It happens when you’ve got lots of apps open or are doing something resource-heavy. Besides the noisy fans, your system might slow itself down to stay cool. Quick: Get a cooling pad to improve airflow and keep things running smoother. Here’s a good one on sale. You’re welcome.
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Turn off Windows 11 notifications: Some app alerts get annoying fast. Go to Settings > System > Notifications > Notifications from apps and other senders, and toggle off the ones you don’t want. To silence them all, go back to Settings > System > Notifications, and turn it off completely.
1,500 years
That’s how long ago engineers in Tajikistan built a hidden aqueduct system. Ancient designers used ceramic pipes and waterproof mortar to serve a fortress city long before flush toilets were a thing. And yes, it still impresses modern-day scientists. Click through the photos, and you’ll see why.
$14.5 billion
Biggest crypto theft ever. In 2020, a hacker cracked one of the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pools using a laughably weak 32-bit security system you could brute-force with a gaming PC. They drained 127,000 Bitcoins (worth $3.5B then, $14.5B now) from over 5,000 wallets and then just left the stash untouched for five years.
GPT-5 eats its siblings: OpenAI says GPT-5 is so good they’re deprecating every older model. That means GPT‑4o, GPT‑4.1 and GPT‑4.5 will be gobbled up. ChatGPT defaults to GPT‑5 via a unified “auto‑switching system” sometimes. Comes with “personalities,” can solve real-world problems, and yes, it’s free.
Brighten up your Mac screen: If your display keeps dimming on its own, turn off the auto settings. Go to System Settings > Displays and disable Automatically adjust brightness. Then go to System Settings > Battery > Options and switch off Slightly dim the display on battery.
Over 1.2 million kilometers
How far one 1985 Toyota Tercel has driven in the past 40 years. The car’s still in mint condition, and if you don’t believe owner Andy, he’s got a photo of the odometer rolling over at 999,999 (it only goes up to six digits). His secret? Regular oil changes. (That’s about 745,000 miles if you’re like me and never got the metric system.)
🚫 Stop Chrome from running in the background: To shut that down, go to Settings > System and toggle off Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed. While you’re there, turn on Use graphics acceleration when available. Your little laptop will run a bit smoother.
Your laptop will thank you: Windows 11 swapped out Power saver for a new Energy saver mode. Go to Settings > System > Power & Battery > Energy saver. Turn on Always use energy saver to dim the screen, pause app syncing and disable fancy effects. Or set it to kick in automatically at a battery level, like 20%.
🧨 The dronepocalypse starts now: New FAA rules (Part 108) will nix those tedious waivers and unlock drone flights over people, at night and out of sight. Great for commercial use like deliveries or for agriculture. Awful for an air traffic control system still running on floppy disks. Also: D.C. just let drones fly in the capital.
🚇 Off the rails: I thought this was interesting. NYC dropped big bucks on a computerized train signal system 25 years ago, and it’s already headed for retirement. ICYDK, it was supposed to let trains run faster and closer together. Meanwhile, the 100-year-old clunky mechanical system is still doing its thing, chugging along like your grandma’s toaster that refuses to die.
🤖 AI gone wrong: A Florida man was arrested after facial recognition tech said he matched a suspect trying to lure a 12-year-old at a restaurant. The system gave a 93% confidence score, two witnesses ID’d him from a photo lineup, and that was enough to put him in cuffs. But nope, it was a false positive. Case dropped.
🧪 Tumors, meet your match: Scientists may have found a workaround for cancer’s ghosting tendencies. Instead of waiting for tumors to “respond,” they’re forcing the convo with a generic RNA vaccine. It basically slaps the immune system awake, and in mouse tests, it worked solo or with backup. I hate cancer.
Working late on your PC? Turn on Night light in Windows to reduce eyestrain. Go to Settings > System > Display > Night light. Enable Schedule night light, then choose Sunset to sunrise or Set hours. You can also adjust the Strength slider to control how warm the screen gets.
🤖 Grok just keeps Grokking: Elon’s chatbot went rogue, quoting Hitler and calling itself “MechaHitler.” xAI blamed a system prompt. Days later? Boom, Grok 4 launches with a $300/month “SuperGrok Heavy” tier. It allegedly doubled OpenAI’s top model score. “Terrifying rate of progress” sounds less cool when your bot’s quoting Mein Kampf.