Eurovision semi-final: Australia break this year's rock 'curse'
The five-piece band, whose singer is an immigration lawyer, are one of 10 acts going to the final.
1970-01-01 08:00
Taylor Swift speculation turns book into bestseller
Attaching Taylor Swift's name to almost anything can, apparently, make it a hit.
1970-01-01 08:00
Do You Really Have to Preheat the Oven?
You should preheat the oven to whatever temperature the recipe says—but here’s what’ll happen (or won’t happen) if you don’t.
1970-01-01 08:00
Mental Floss’s ‘The Curious Compendium of Wonderful Words’ Features Fun Slang, Strange Phrase Origins, and More
Sure, all books are filled with words—but not quite like this.
1970-01-01 08:00
Can you find the fourth object in this picture? No one can find the flower
A number of different puzzles have been circulating on social media - for example the egg, glove, envelope and crutch picture. Now the latest one to capture people's attention is all to do with an odd image of what appears to be Disney princess Pocahontas sitting on the toilet in a bathroom. “I’m sure you can’t find the 4th object,” the puzzle instruct and has a list of four different items to look out for in the image: A whistle, egg, brush and flower. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Sounds pretty straight forward right? @larry2k23 #CapCut #cocofun Well it is (at least for the first three objects) as the whistle is the toilet handle, the egg is on Pocahontas's necklace and brush is part of the princess's underwear. After this, you may have spent some time feeling impatient since finding the flower appears to be a trickier task. Though it turns out there isn’t actually a flower in the image at all. Following a similar pattern to other fourth object challenges, this is a silly social media prank to entice people in a bid to improve or boost their engagement on their social media profiles. Often this involves someone going live on TikTok and displaying the puzzle and then proceeding to change their profile picture to read “Tap the + to see it”. This is to try and encourage you to click to find the answer, but instead of providing answers, you are actually taken to their profile. Elsewhere, people cannot find the french fries in this image. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
1970-01-01 08:00
Copy of Where is the fourth object in this picture? No one can find the crutch
From optical illusions to world puzzles like Wordle, the internet is full of different method to put our brains to the test - and this "I'm sure you can't find the 4th object" picture is putting people to the test. The picture itself shows three people at the toilets, with one woman sat down while the two are stood over their own respective toilets. At the side of the image are the objects to find: an egg, a glove, an envelope and a crutch. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter @e.ugh Let me know when you see it ?#greenscreensticker For those who want to try and figure out where those things are - the answers are ahead... Given the beige colours of each object, they may be difficult to spot initially, but the brown glove is on the skirt of the person standing in the middle of the image. Next, the egg can be found on the nose of the person on the left-hand side and then the envelope has been can tilted at 90 degrees in order to blend in with the bathroom tiles on the wall. But what about the crutch? Well, no matter how much you scan and analyse the picture, you will not find a crutch hidden in there. In the creator's profile image, it suggests a way to figure out the last part by doing the following: "Tap the + to see it." Though this will only mean you follow this account, and still you won't be able to see a crutch as there isn't one in the picture. This is a popular method to gain followers, so next time you're scratching you head over a TikTok puzzle this is something to always keep an eye out for. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
1970-01-01 08:00
'Black Lives Matter' coffee T-shirt sparks outrage on TikTok
A Black Lives Matter T-shirt has caused a stir across TikTok – for obvious reasons. In a viral clip that's racked up almost two million views, TikToker Ashton (@ashray) shared an image of the bizarre top, which read: "Black Lives Matter." It was complete with a graphic of a coffee mug, reading: "But first, coffee" which implies coffee is more important than black lives. Ashton's reaction said it all: "What if I hit you with my f***ing car?" The clip was soon flooded with hundreds of gobsmacked users asking who in the right mind thought it was appropriate. "You just KNOW it was some Karen with a live laugh love aesthetic that pitched this," one person said, while another added: "Like what do you mean 'but firsttttttt'?" A third commented: "WHO THOUGHT THAT WAS OKAY????" Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter @ashray #greenscreen It comes after Walmart were forced to pull one of their T-shirts due to an unfortunate spelling blunder. The garment features a pro-recycling slogan with the letter RE in upper-case, followed by four words: Cycle, Use, New, and Think. On closer inspection, the first letter of each of those words spells out a four-letter profanity. Twitter users were left in hysterics with one person tweeting: "Did they trash the shirts or recycle them?" Another was convinced the Walmart clothes designer knew exactly what they were doing, despite a spokesperson saying: "This was not intentional, and the t-shirt has been removed." People who managed to get their hands on the T-shirt before it was officially removed by the supermarket have since been selling them on due to high demand. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
1970-01-01 08:00
95 percent of people cannot find the word 'eat' in this picture
A new puzzle has become TikTok famous, namely because of how difficult it is. The popular app has had a surge in optical illusions and puzzles in recent months, backed by thousands of views. The latest image taking the platform by storm challenges people to locate the words 'tea' and 'eat'. While it may sound seemingly easy, it turns out no one can actually find the word 'eat'. "I looked horizontally vertically diagonally reverse horizontally reverse vertically letter by letter no eat," one person commented, while another joked: "I mean there is ate which eat in past tense so technically that is eat". A third person added: "POV: you looked in the comments for answers." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter @markmud08 Can you find it #fyp #foryoupage #puzzle #followme #viral #markmud08 #coyoteclan?? #funny For those still struggling, 'tea' is much easier to locate. Simply draw your eyes to the third letter down in the first column and you'll find 'tea'. 'Eat', on the other hand, is much more challenging and has led people to believe it isn't there. But, it is. Go to the fourth row down and you'll find ‘E’ in the final column. Look diagonally upwards on the left and you'll find the word. It comes after TikTokers found themselves frustrated when they couldn't find the hidden fourth object in this image. The bizarre photo shows an illustration of Ronald McDonald on a stretcher being treated by paramedics. "I’m sure you can’t find the 4th object," the poster wrote as the caption. @e.ugh French fries took days to find ?#greenscreensticker The four objects in question are a comb, a straw, a knife and some french fries. One person wrote: "yeah i could not find the French fries but I found a Bird and dynamite..." Another added: "Bro I saw a bird and dynamite." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
1970-01-01 08:00
TikTok reportedly stored a list of all users who watched LGBTQ+ content
TikTok has been accused of storing a list of users who watched LGBTQ+ content on the app. A former employee for the popular video platform told The Wall Street Journal that they were saved for "at least a year" and was done so to understand trends online and boost engagement. Employees across the US, UK and Australia raised concerns about the data collection to senior staff members in 2020 and 2021. They were said to be concerned about whether data could be shared with third parties or to blackmail TikTok users. While TikTok doesn't ask users for their sexual orientation, the former employee claimed it categorised videos under labels such as LGBT, short for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. Staff members could allegedly view the information through a dashboard with claims that it included ID numbers. "The data represents users’ interests and isn’t necessarily a sign of someone’s identity," they said. "Users who engage with LGBT content on TikTok may not identify as LGBT themselves, just as there are people who enjoy baking content but aren’t bakers." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter A TikTok spokesperson told the outlet that the platform "doesn’t identify potentially sensitive information such as sexual orientation or race of users based on what they choose to watch," nor does the platform "infer such information." They added that the data collected "isn’t necessarily a sign of someone’s identity" and is, instead, there to represent people's interests. The spokesperson said before deletion, TikTok had "protocols" to ensure data was only viewed by authorised staff members. Indy100 reached out to TikTok for comment. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
1970-01-01 08:00
Horrified mum says stranger 'spoke to her son for weeks' after hacking baby monitor
Baby monitors are a staple of any new parent’s toolkit, designed to put mums and dads’ minds at ease. And yet, one mother found her monitor the opposite of reassuring after a hacker managed to hack the device and use it to speak to her young son. Influencer Kurin Adele made the frightening claim in a TikTok posted on Saturday. In the clip, which racked up 6.1 million views in three days, Adele told viewers that she’d noticed over “the past couple of weeks to a couple of months” that her son had been unplugging his bedroom camera. On Friday night, she asked her husband to plug the device back in which, to her surprise, made her little boy very upset. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “My son starts crying and he's like, ‘I don't want my camera plugged in, I don't want my camera plugged in,’” she recounted. “‘Someone talks to me at night and it scares me, someone wakes me up and talks to me and I'm scared.’” The content creator said she and her husband “looked at each other completely terrified” before reassuring their child that he was safe and they wouldn’t be plugging the camera back in. She then explained that they immediately went to change the password to the app for the device, at which point they received a message from its manufacturer, Owlet. The pop-up read: “This password has appeared in a data leak, which puts this account at high risk for compromise. You should change your password immediately.” Furious, Adele continued: “Who the heck knows how long someone has had our password and has been messing with my son? Owlet never notified us. “The only reason we didn't know about this sooner is because our son thought it was us talking to him, so whoever was talking to him was telling him that it was his mum and dad.” She ended the clip by urging fellow parents to ditch their wifi cameras, claiming that “people are hacking into baby monitors left and right just to mess with people”. @kurinadele Get rid of your wifi cameras!!!!! #owletcamera #babymonitorhack Her video racked up more than 850,000 likes and 6,400 comments as fellow TikTokers rushed to share their horror at Adele’s discovery. “10th video I have seen of a baby monitor getting hacked,” one wrote. “As someone who designed networks for a living, I would NEVER recommend a wifi enabled camera. They're so easy to hack,” said another. “I’m a law student and we did a trip to the cyber police department and the guy also said to never get ‘smart’ baby monitors,” added a third. On Monday, Adele shared an update, saying Owlet had replied to her complaint about the whole affair after she sent them a “hate email”. “They responded with a very dismissive email, basically telling me that their data is super encrypted and there's no way that someone could hack in, but they'd like to look into it further,” she said. However, she went on: “About 20 minutes ago, I got an email directly from Owlet, It looks like they saw my video.” She went on to say that she felt “a little bit bummed” that the “only reason they're reaching out to me is because I have a platform and my video went viral,” before admitting that she was still “excited to see how they rectify the situation”. The mother-of-two, who’s expecting her third child, said she was keen to know whether they’d be able to find out who logged into their account, adding that she’d keep her followers posted on any updates. @kurinadele Owlet update!! #babymonitor #babymonitorhack #owlet #owletcamera At the time of writing, the mystery of the hacker had yet to be solved, and Adele’s most recent video was about a trip to Taco Bell. Indy100 has contacted Owlet for comment. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
1970-01-01 08:00
TikTok's stomach-churning 'turbulence' trend explained
If you thought turbulence on a plane was bad, just wait till you find out what it means on TikTok. That’s right, a trend has emerged whose name was inspired by those unpleasant inflight jolts. Warning: This trend does involve some NSFW material. Head to the video-sharing app, and you’ll find a plethora of clips using the hashtag “turbulence” or close variations. Many of the most viewed options were created by content creator Just Jo, whose videos have been stitched and commented on by the likes of ishowspeed and Kai Cenat who have millions of followers between them. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Indeed, Just Jo is credited with kicking the whole craze off back in 2021. The streamer was performing a dance live on TikTok when he announced that there was a “whole bunch of turbulence” going on. Well, that doesn’t sound so bad, you may say to yourself, but the “dance” in question wasn’t your standard viral routine. Instead, it involved Just Jo slapping his penis loudly from side to side between his thighs – and thus, a new craze was born. Since then, he has published countless follow-ups, showing his skill at rhythmically clapping his gear, getting it to go at top speed, or simply explaining how it's done. @shackav He's unstoppable @JUSTJOOO Turbulence ? #justjoo #turbulence #thugshake #justjoofficial #viral #foryoupage Still, the one saving grace is that the… eh hem… physical mechanisms used to create the “turbulence” are never shown: the videos are filmed from the waist upwards. This leaves the viewer wondering if the slapping sound is really coming from the implied NSFW source, or whether it’s down to a pair of hands belonging to a hidden participant. Regardless, all we can say is this “turbulence” stuff is enough to turn anyone’s stomach. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
1970-01-01 08:00
'Bridesmaid for hire' claims she caught groom cheating on wedding day
A woman, who works as a bridesmaid for hire, has turned to TikTok with claims that she caught a groom cheating on his wedding day. Jen Glantz (@bridesmaidforhire) insinuated to her 1.1 million viewers that it wasn't just the once. Jen mimed along to Doja Cat’s 'Ain’t Sh**' song, which says: "This happened one, two, three times too much." In a follow-up video responding to a comment hoping Jen told the bride, the professional bridesmaid explained: "The first time I told the person getting married, she said she already knew. But she didn’t want to make it a thing. And she just wanted to marry the person anyway, even though he was cheating." She continued: "The second time this happened, I told the groom that he better tell the bride that he’s cheating on her or else I will. And he did. They also still got married." It didn't take long for people to chime in on her claims, with one writing: "I’ve been waiting for this. I went to a wedding, and we found the groom in bed with the bridesmaid." Another commented: "I work at a resort… I have seen grooms ask for an extra room in the middle of the night with another woman." Meanwhile, a third suggested: "Florist here!! I could write a book." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter @bridesmaidforhire No joke. It didn’t end well. #cheating #wedtok #groomsreaction Jen, who has worked as a professional bridesmaid for almost ten years, had the idea to launch her unique career path after being a bridesmaid for many of her friends and family members. She started off by advertising the service as a 'bridesmaid to hire' on Craigslist and said she received over 300 responses. Jen's prices start at around $2,500, telling the US Sun: "I always say 'I’m the on call therapist, the personal assistant, the social director, and the peacekeeper who deals with all of the drama." She continued: "The only catch is that when people hire me, they hire me to go undercover. So I use a fake name, a fake backstory of how I know them from their real life. "Most of the time the person they’re marrying has no idea." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
1970-01-01 08:00