Photo credit: Jane Dodd via Peta Pixel
Jane Dodd renewed her driver’s license online, but what she received was completely unexpected. The digital renewal was to solely avoid a trip to the DMV, which can be a tedious process to say the least, but in the end, she received something worthy of an internet meme. How so? On her new license, a photo of an empty chair replaced the one that should have shown her face. Read more for the news segment and additional information.
Octopuses are known to camouflage themselves when hunting and to avoid predators, but when it spotted a GoPro action camera recording, this creature had other plans. While it takes specialized skin cells that change the appearance of the skin by adjusting its color, opacity, or reflectivity, to camouflage itself, grabbing onto this gadget only took its tentacles. Read more for the video and additional information.
“Never Gonna Give You Up,” a song recorded by British singer and songwriter Rick Astley, was first released on July 27, 1987, but thanks to the internet, it’s been a popular meme for the past 12-years. For those who don’t know, this song was a worldwide number-one hit, initially in the UK, and eventually topped the charts in 25 countries, including the United States. Read more to see what happens when an AI-powered neural network attempts to continuously generate new parts for this song.
A woman from Dubai knew that there are countless knockoff AirPods being sold online, but the last thing she expected was to receive a giant Bluetooth speaker shaped like Apple’s earphones. For the record, she paid $62 USD for a pair of these speakers, and some users on social media have compared the fake AirPods to a hairdryer. Read more for a hands-on video and additional information.
On PBS’s Spy in the Wild 2 – Episode Two: The North, a spy camera disguised as a macaque join a group of primates in the Jigokudani Monkey Park. These monkeys begin most days with a relaxing dip in Joshinetsu Kogen National Park in Japan’s Nagano prefecture.This primate-only onsen is world-famous as the preferred simian hot spring. Read more for a video and additional information.
What started out as an outdoor workout session recording turned into a foxy adventure, literally. Mikayla Raines, founder of SaveAFox Rescue, which is a Fairbault, Minnesota-based center that re-homes foxes while educating people about the fur trade, placed her smartphone on the ground, but before she knew it, a fox came along. Read more for a video showing what happens next.
Photo credit: Rachele Clegg
Many companies are turning to videotelephony for meetings, as many are forced to work from home. Whether it be Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or other software, there are plenty of options. Lizet Ocampo, the national political director for the progressive advocacy group People For the American Way, just so happened to be having one of these virtual meetings on Monday over Microsoft Teams when she accidentally turned on a potato filter. Read more for a video showing how to activate filters for Microsoft Teams and additional information.
Photo credit: Justin Hinton
It’s common practice for reporters to use social media to broadcast live nowadays, but sometimes, things don’t go as planned. Asheville television reporter Justin Hinton, who reports for WLOS, accidentally activated Facebook’s “Mystery Mask” filter generator during his live stream while covering the snowfall last week, and hilarity ensued. Read more for the video and additional information.
Photo credit: Simon Weckert
Google Maps has evolved over the years to include many new tools, like traffic reports, Simon Weckert shows that these are easy to spoof, and he does so by using a basic wagon lugging 99 smartphones. This simple “hack” enabled him to create virtual traffic jams throughout Berlin. Yes, he even stopped by Google Berlin during his journey, and many times drivers were rerouted due to the red color coding of traffic. Read more for a video and additional information.
Photo credit: Unnecessaryinventions
Apple AirPods are a must-have in many everyday carry bags, as they can not only be used for music, but hands-free calls as well as voice assistance. The main issue people have is not losing an earbud when their charging case isn’t nearby, and that’s where Unnecessary Invention’s BulkPods comes in. Simply put, it can simultaneously charge and store up to 48 AirPods earbuds, so should you lose one, or even two, there will be plenty more to replace them with. Read more for additional pictures and information.