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It’s a wonderful Wednesday, {{first_name | friend}}. Somewhere between Friends reruns and the invention of “u up?” humanity made a bold discovery that texting style has become a personality test. How you break up a message that can say almost as much as what you type, i.e., shorthand.
📲 Which kind of texter do people like less? A) The one who sends one long paragraph, B) The one who sends five rapid-fire messages, C) The voice-note person or D) Your kid replying “K”? Keep reading, the text is going to pop up at the end.
💻 Ten devices. One account. Two clicks: That’s NordVPN, and it delivers. I use it on my phone, laptop and tablet. Fast enough to stream, private enough to bank. I trust it for me and my family. Get 76% off. That’s $3.37 a month.*
💧 I write this for you: Splash of AI now comes out every Tuesday and Thursday. You asked for more, and one issue couldn’t hold it all. Still free, even better. Sign up now at SplashOfAI.com, so it hits your inbox tomorrow morning. Look for this emoji in your inbox 💧! — Kim
TODAY’S DEEP DIVE
Tweet dreams are made of this
Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando
🤯 WOW! On Oct. 8, 2025, weather radar counted 1.25 billion birds in the air over the U.S. That’s the biggest overnight flight ever recorded. One county saw 17.8 million fly over. And we’re in peak season right now.
📖 Read time: 1.5 minutes
Step outside tonight around 10. The sky looks empty.
It isn’t.
More than 80% of North America’s migratory bird species travel at night. Warblers, thrushes, sparrows. Most take off 30 to 45 minutes after sunset and fly as high as 10,000 feet. You never see them. A billion birds overhead, and not one stops to ask for directions. Show-offs.
📡 The radar that counts birds
The same radar that tracks storms for your forecast also picks up birds. A project called BirdCast, run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and university partners, turns those blips into a live count.
Three nights have topped a billion birds. Oct. 6, 2023. Sept. 25, 2025. Then Oct. 8, 2025, at 1.25 billion. Two records, two weeks in the same year.
Late September to early October is peak season in the northern half of the country. A cold front with a north wind is the signal. The birds wait for a tailwind, then everybody goes at once. (Think Black Friday, with feathers.)
Could this week top a billion? Nobody knows until the radar says so. That’s half the fun.
🔦 How to watch, and how to help
Go to BirdCast and open the Migration Dashboard. Type in your county. You’ll see how many birds crossed last night, which way they flew, how fast and how high.
Sign up for migration alerts. I was shocked that almost 400,000 were overhead the other night near me.
Check the forecast maps. They predict migration three nights out. About 10% of nights carry half of the season’s traffic.
Turn off outdoor lights on big nights. Bright lights pull birds off course and into windows. Scientists suggest lights off from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Go birding the next morning. The birds that flew overnight land in parks, backyards and tree lines to rest and eat. Bring binoculars.
I’ve started a waterfowl migration service with my friend. I call it two men and a duck. Ba-dum-tss!
📩 Send this to someone who keeps a bird feeder full and binoculars by the window.
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📺 YOUTUBE: THE KIM KOMANDO SHOW
Make $50 for folding laundry
Robot companies need to learn how humans do chores, and they’ll pay you to show them. Up to $50 an hour to record yourself folding laundry, loading the dishwasher and wiping counters. I break down who’s paying, what gear you need and the catch to know before you hit record.
What do you think? Leave a comment on YouTube. I read them all. Thank you!
WEB WATERCOOLER
🔎 Search result roulette: If Medicare and Marketplace shopping starts with a Sponsored result, treat it like a stranger asking for your wallet. The FTC says scammers are paying to put look-alike sites at the top of searches, using official-looking logos to snag money and Medicare numbers. Go straight to Medicare.gov or HealthCare.gov instead. Typing an address feels very 2004, but it beats a year of identity theft cleanup. Speaking of, here’s how to use AI to pick the best coverage.
Copilot had eyeballs: Get this. A privacy investigation found that third-party contractors reviewing Microsoft Copilot logs could directly access images you uploaded, including sexualized AI edits. If you handed the tool a selfie, family picture or something intimate, a real person may have seen it. The everyday lesson is painfully simple: Treat AI photo uploads like handing prints to strangers behind a counter. Think twice, and never blanket-approve all photo access. Nothing spices up photo editing like an unidentified contractor.
🛒 Checkout grows hands: Shopping bots can send your order to somebody else’s porch before you notice the address changed. Shopify lets AI agents complete checkout across roughly 2 million stores, and Meta’s Muse can edit delivery details and click buy inside your browser. Sounds cool, but there’s been a 450% jump in dark web chatter on forums about AI agent tools over six months. PSA: I wouldn’t do this. If you run a shop, flag last-minute address swaps. If you’re buying, verify everything before paying.
Service records exposed: Picture a scammer calling with your name, birth date, Social Security number and military specialty. That nightmare has over 3 million possible targets after hackers accessed a Pentagon personnel system for nine months. Fake VA claims or loans can look painfully legitimate. If you serve or served, freeze your credit and monitor benefits. Ignore surprise calls, Uncle Sam doesn’t need your password. Coveron.com/Kim can help protect your identity and alert you if your information pops up somewhere suspicious.*
⚡ Beam me up, Watty: You know that garage extension cable that’s a borderline fire hazard? Space admires you. A Florida startup wants to beam electricity through space. Star Catcher’s Protostar rides a SpaceX rocket as soon as Thursday. The plan? Shoot power between two unconnected spacecraft while they zoom along at about 16,800 mph. Last year, Star Catcher beamed more than a kilowatt down a runway at Kennedy Space Center. The goal? A power grid for satellites by decade’s end. What’s electricity’s favorite topic? Current events.
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
📦 Prime deals start next week
Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days are less than a week away. Mark your calendar for Oct. 6 and 7, because this is like a second Prime Day with a fall twist. Explore deals on home décor, Halloween stuff, everyday staples and early holiday gifts, all dropping at once.
Not a Prime member yet? You can join for $14.99 a month or $139 a year, or start a free 30-day trial if you’re eligible. Between 18 and 24, or a college student? Prime for Young Adults gets you the same benefits for $7.49 a month or $69 a year, with a six-month free trial to start.*
DEVICE ADVICE
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Can’t remember the name of that diner you loved? In Google Maps, press and hold the location to drop a pin, then tap Add label. Call it something you’ll remember, like “best burgers ever.” You can search for that label next time. Works for a friend’s house, too. “Sarah’s new place” beats memorizing another street address.
📱 Galaxy S26 owners, the wait’s nearly over: Samsung is finally rolling out One UI 9 to more phones. Think smarter typing suggestions, stronger privacy alerts, a new lock screen and more accessibility features. Connect to Wi-Fi, then check Settings > Software update. It’s a big download. Let the home internet do the heavy lifting.
📺 Little hands, fewer surprises: Roku’s new Kid & Teen Mode lets you choose which apps the kids can see, like Netflix or PBS Kids. It blocks search, voice commands, casting and Roku Pay purchases, and hides home screen ads. Lock the exit with your four-digit PIN. Check Settings as it rolls out. Suddenly, leaving them with the remote feels less like a gamble.
💬 Sound off, still in the loop: Your iPhone can add captions to videos in Photos. Play a video where someone’s talking, then tap the speech bubble icon in the playback bar to switch them on or off. Want them automatically when muted? Go to Settings > Accessibility > Subtitles & Captioning > Show when Muted. The waiting room says thanks.
🤫 Let’s keep that chat to ourselves: We’ve all asked ChatGPT something we’d rather not explain to someone over our shoulder. Click the three dots beside the conversation > Archive to remove it from the sidebar. Want it back? Go to Settings > Data controls > Archived chats > Unarchive. It’s like putting it in a drawer instead of the shredder.
Be on the show! Has tech ever saved you money? Driven you crazy? Changed your life? I want to know!
KIM’S DAILY DEALS
As an Amazon Associate, some links pay us a commission at no extra cost to you. Keeps this newsletter free. Thank you.
⚡ Watts of wisdom
Get amped for steals on lights, plugs and power.
💡 Bulbs with brains: Smart light bulbs (32% off, $23, four-pack)
4.5 ⭐ 7,700+ reviews
Hands full of groceries? Say, “Alexa, lights on” and skip the switch. Screw them into any lamp, then dim the glow, set routines or change colors. They sip less juice than regular 60-watt bulbs.
Image: Linkind
🔌 Ten sockets, one strip: Tessan’s power strip (20% off, $20) packs six outlets, four USB ports and a plug that hugs the wall behind furniture.
Find the live one: Before any DIY electrical job, hold a voltage tester (13% off, $13) near the wire. It beeps and flashes if it’s hot.
🚗 Stuck roadside? Visibility matters. These LED road flares (32% off, $27, four-pack) have foldout stands and can be seen up to a mile away.
Block those blinkers: Light-dimming stickers (50% off, $5, two sheets) go over LED indicators that turn your bedroom into a disco at 2 a.m.
🔋 More power to you: Hundreds of other bright ideas are waiting in my Amazon storefront. →
Prices and deals were accurate at the time of publication.
WHAT THE TECH?
Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando
🚔 Arrested development
Your digital footprint now comes with an evidence table. The latest ChatGPT trend is basically a personality test with probable cause.
People are asking AI to generate a fictional police photo of everything it “knows” about them laid out as seized evidence. My haul? Cars, boats, a private jet, Apple gear, travel books, supplements, dogs and enough Louis Vuitton bags to worry an insurance adjuster.
ChatGPT can pull relevant details from memory and chats, which explains the oddly personal yard sale. Note the aluminum luggage. Well, the locks broke, and I had Chat write me a note to customer service for an exchange. It worked.
Here’s the prompt:
Generate a fictional image of police officers standing in front of the items seized during a recent house search. Base the seized items on everything you know about me.
Try it! When you rate the newsletter below, let me know what the cops got on you!
LOGGING OUT …
🎓 What you learned today: Sponsored health insurance searches can hide scams, AI photo uploads may reach human reviewers, Meta’s Muse and other shopping agents need a checkout double-check and satellites may beam power to each other. Not bad for one email. Stop searching for your bank like it’s a takeout menu. Fake login pages are popping up in results, and Sponsored links can be risky. Tomorrow, I’ll explain the scam and the simple fix.
📱 The answer: B) The rapid-fire texter. In one experiment with 805 people, participants rated the person sending multiple back-to-back messages more negatively than the one who sends one long paragraph. Science says younger people weren’t charmed by the machine-gun bubble approach.
A couple sent on their cell phones. The wife, being a romantic at heart, decided one day that she'd send her husband a text that said, “If you are sleeping, send me your dreams. If you are laughing, send me your smile. If you are eating, send me a bite. If you are drinking, send me a sip. If you are crying, send me your tears. I love you.” The husband, being a no-nonsense sort of guy, texted back, “On the toilet. Please advise.”
🔒 I tested every major VPN so you don’t have to: NordVPN won. Fast enough to forget it’s running, private enough to trust with my own devices. Two clicks, and you’re protected anywhere. Get your 76% off. That’s $3.37 a month plus four extra months.*
💡 Thanks for spending part of your Wednesday with me. Leave the porch light off tonight. The birds say thanks, too. — Kim
Kim Komando • Komando.com • 510+ radio stations • Trusted by millions daily
🏆 THE KIM CHALLENGE: Forward this to ONE person who needs to hear it today. Pick the person who popped into your head while reading. You know who it is.
Photo credit(s): ChatGPT/Kim Komando, Amazon, Linkind
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