6 feet longer

The average length of great white sharks near Norfolk Island compared to elsewhere. Why are sharks supersized in this part of the South Pacific? It’s thanks to their unique diet of seabirds. At dusk, thousands of birds float in groups just off the coast, making them easy prey for mega sharks to sink their teeth into and vanish into fin air.

Tags: Air, birds, diet, groups, sharks, unique


Hackers just stole 10 billion unique passwords

You might want to sit down for this one. Hackers posted a file named RockYou2024[.]txt to a dark web forum on July 4. The file includes a mind-numbing 9,948,575,739 passwords.

Wondering if this attack puts you at risk? Yup, it does. The RockYou2024 leak is made up of passwords from both old and new data breaches.

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What I'm watching this weekend

The movie ‘Thelma’ follows a 93-year-old on a mission to get back $10,000 from a phone scammer. The scam is 100% real. A crook used an AI voice clone to pose as Thelma’s grandson in jail. Luckily, the real Thelma was smart enough to call her kids, who stopped her from sending the money.

🧠 Putting Neuralink to shame: The only thing more sci-fi than a brain-controlled robot? A robot controlled by a lab-grown brain. Chinese scientists grew a “mini-brain,” plugged a chip into it and taught it how to control a robot using electrical signals. I just know Elon Musk is punching the air right now.

Ammo sold in vending machines

Oklahoma and Alabama now have AI-powered vending machines that don’t dispense snacks; they sell bullets. American Rounds says their facial-scanning tech can verify the age of a buyer. I’m sure it’ll be able to detect if someone’s wearing a mask or a ton of makeup, too, right?

Apple’s working on a little surprise: It’s an iPad 7 mini! A coder found clues to a new release hidden in Apple’s backend software. Insiders say it’ll have an 8.3-inch display, a better chip and a front-facing camera (finally). Plus, you’ll be able to use it with the fancy, new Pencil Pro.

I miss the bouncing DVD logo: Remember when I told you how YouTube hijacks your TV screensaver with its own videos? Now Amazon’s doing it, too, but it’s way more annoying. When you let your Fire TV fall asleep, it’ll show you a 30-second ad before your screensaver pops up.

🚨 180,000 Shopify users just had their data compromised, thanks to a third-party app. The exposed info includes account IDs, names, email addresses, cellphone numbers and total spending. If you have a Shopify account, watch for any legit-looking emails from them and don’t give out any personal info.

P*rn passport: Spain is testing a new way to confirm the age of p*rn viewers on websites — digital passports. Once you verify you’re over 18, you’ll get 30 tokens good for 30 days. The Spanish government says it won’t track users’ activity or keep records of their identities. You can bet the U.S. government is keeping an eye on how it goes.

🔫 Change is inevitable, except from vending machines: Several grocery stores in four states, including Oklahoma and Alabama, now have AI-powered vending machines that don’t dispense snacks; they sell bullets. American Rounds says their facial-scanning tech can verify the age of a buyer. I’m sure it’ll be able to detect if someone is wearing a mask or a ton of makeup, too, right?

👀 How FedEx is helping cops spy on you: Flock Safety makes automated license plate readers and video surveillance gear. Its 40,000 cameras are used in 3,000 communities across 40 states. FedEx has AI-powered cameras in its delivery trucks recording everything it sees. Now, FedEx is selling those recordings to Flock, which will provide them to law enforcement agencies and who knows who else. Reminds me of the book “1984.”