World News: Talking Tech: How many phone numbers do you have memorized?

Thursday, July 14

Happy Thursday, Talking Tech readers. It's Jayme Deerwester – aka The Daily Money newsletter writer – supplying your tech headlines in tech while Brett Molina enjoys a well-earned vacation.

So, Twitter's been having a rough week:

•	On Tuesday, it sued would-be buyer Elon Musk, after he backed out of his $44 billion deal to buy the social media platform last Friday. The lawsuit also came a week after it laid off 30% of its recruiting team.
•	Also on Tuesday: The Jan. 6 Congressional committee heard from a former employee who worked on its content moderation policies between 2020 and 2021. The anonymous worker said that former President Donald Trump used his tweets to incite violence at the U.S. Capitol in the days leading up to the attacks and that Twitter failed to intervene despite staffers expressing "serious concerns."
•	And on Thursday, the social media platform experienced a global outage.

What else happened in tech?

Bankrupt crypto barons disappear: Three Arrows Capital founders uncooperative with liquidators.

Honda key fobs may be vulnerable to hackers: What you need to know.

Take me off your list: Bill Gates wants donations to erase him from world's richest list.

Lock it down: Apple's new iOS 16 Lockdown Mode feature to fight hacking and spyware.

Space news: Astronomers detect radio waves that sound like a heartbeat; see dazzling photos from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

Thursday's tech tips

This week's tip is decidedly old school.

Thanks to our reliance on smartphones, 1 in 10 people can't even remember their own number, according to a survey from consumer site WhistleOut. It also revealed that 16% don't have their parents' number(s) memorized; 17% don't have their partner's number memorized and 49% only have between 2-5 numbers memorized from their contacts. More concerning: Nearly 1 in 3 Americans don't have their emergency contact numbers memorized.

That's a problem, says Dr. Janet Hurley, a longtime family medicine doctor in Tyler, Texas. She advises that people memorize at least two emergency contact numbers, essential especially if their phones get damaged or lost.

"I challenge you to dial the number by hand for a while until you are sure you have the number memorized," Hurley says. "Should you be in an accident in the future where your cellphone is unavailable, you will sure be glad you did."

Have a great weekend, Talking Tech readers!