A Texas woman took to Facebook after her 9-year-old left his stuffed gorilla at a California hotel. A stranger saw the post, went an hour out of her way to pick it up, then documented the gorilla’s journey home. Absolutely watch this if you need a smile!
The world’s most advanced chatbot - March 15th, Hour 2
Meet Manus, an AI that thinks on its own. What it means for your job and the future of work. Plus, futuristic laptops, Millennials’ biggest parenting regrets, and a message sent 15 billion miles into the unknown.
👮 Stop, it’s the police: DJI made new drone accessories that let cops yell at you from the sky. The Zenmuse V1 speaker blasts voices at up to 127 decibels, which is about as loud as a jet taking off. Nothing says “subtle police presence” like a screaming metal bird. There’s also a spotlight that beams light up to 500 meters (that’s 0.3 miles for the rest of us).
$330 Million
What Mark Zuckerberg spent on two yachts just to go skiing. He shipped his 387-foot mega-yacht and its $30M helipad buddy 5,300 miles just to shred some fjords in Norway without technically violating local laws that ban choppers from landing on actual land.
5 minutes
China’s top battery makers have reached five-minute charging speeds for EVs, more or less the time it takes at a gas station. CATL and BYD just flexed batteries that can deliver up to 320+ miles of range off a five-minute charge. Meanwhile, most U.S. EVs take 15 to 30 minutes.
$1 million
A rare photo of Abraham Lincoln might sell for that at auction. The pic was made between 1895 and 1900 using an original negative from 1860. Bidding starts at $250,000 and kicks off today at 10 a.m. ET. I’ll never forget when I told my son to get off his Xbox and said, “When Abraham Lincoln was your age, he used to walk 10 miles every day to get to school.” Ian responded, “Really? Well, when he was your age, he was president.” Kids.
7,000 miles
That’s the range of the U.S. military’s MQ-9B spy drone. The twist? It just got a whole lot deadlier. They’ve strapped a 25-kilowatt laser to it that can melt incoming kamikaze drones and missiles right out of the sky. And it doesn’t stop there: The laser can be scaled up to 300kW in future versions.
7 miles
How far a lost 2-year-old boy walked to safety. He wandered from his home in rural Arizona and spent the night alone in mountain lion territory. After 16 tense hours, a rancher spotted him safe with his dog, Buford. Turns out, the shaggy companion guided him out of the wilderness. Imagine getting out-hiked by someone who can’t say or spell “hike.” Amazing.
👀 Smile, you’re on 15 different cameras: A journalist drove 300 miles across rural Virginia, then filed public records requests to see how often his car was caught on surveillance. The short answer: a lot, proof that even on the quiet backroads, Big Brother is watching and judging your late-night Taco Bell runs.
3,700 miles
How far a man’s body was flown from the UK to Michigan to be stored in a liquid nitrogen cryogenic chamber. The goal? Freeze now and hope science figures out how to bring him back to life later. Think advancements in AI, stem cell research and nanotechnology. Hey, it’s a long shot, but when you’re already dead, what have you got to lose?
🚗 Meanwhile, have a second-gen Rivian? A new update lets you drive with your hands totally off the wheel. It only works on 135,000 miles of “compatible highways” in the U.S. and Canada. I wouldn’t trust it.
300 to 500 miles
The common myth about when running shoes need replacing. Try this instead: Grab the heel with one hand, the toe with the other and twist. If the midsole doesn’t bend and still feels stiff, your shoes are probably good to go (paywall link). What did the sneaker say when it sneezed? A shoe! (Good one!)
33 mushers
Are taking on this year’s Iditarod dogsled race in Alaska because the usual route didn’t get enough snow. There are normally 50 to 75 mushers. The new course is farther north and now stretches a record 1,128 miles, forcing racers through endless wilderness and brutal blizzards (paywall link). You know, life is like a dogsled team. If you’re not the lead dog, the view is always the same.
31,000 miles
The longest undersea cable Meta wants to build. If you wrapped it around the equator, you’d have 6,000 miles left over. It’ll speed up the internet, but Meta’s main goal is boosting their AI capabilities.
$2
For a Toyota Corolla with 116,000 miles. Yes, the side mirrors are duct-taped, the license plate is bolted on with pliers, and there’s a minion painted on the hood. But mechanic Scotty Kilmer said in a viral TikTok he’d never get rid of an old Corolla. Under the ugly paint job is a 1.8L engine that’ll last forever. Here’s one for ya: Can a Toyota stretch? No, but a Mercedes-Benz.
Pranksters, unite: TouchTunes is the app equivalent of putting a quarter into a jukebox. Over 65,000 bars and restaurants use them, and you don’t have to be there in person to add a song to the queue (paywall link). That made it easy for the troll who played “Rocky Top” (the University of Tennessee’s unofficial fight song) in an Ohio State University bar … from 500 miles away.
✈️ Faster flights? Yes, please: If all goes well, an XB-1 commercial plane nicknamed the “Son of Concorde” will hit Mach 1, or about 767 miles per hour, and break the sound barrier next week. How will it feel as a passenger? No extreme g-forces — just a slight pull as it reaches supersonic speeds. You’ll be finishing your peanuts in the baggage claim!
$20 trillion tunnel
Connecting New York City and London. There’s no telling how long the Transatlantic Tunnel would take to build. A 23.5-mile tunnel linking England and France took six years. NYC and London are 3,000 miles apart. For the record, I’d totally ride it.
Get a dashcam, trust me
The Fourth of July is just around the corner, and AAA says about 71 million people will be traveling over 50 miles that week. Make sure you’re prepared for anything that might happen on the road.