How to stop butt dialing everyone with your phone

PLUS: Silicon Valley's eviction crisis, hydroxychloroquine's dirty cousin, and the digital divide. View this email in your browser  |  Manage newsletter subscriptions 08.20.20   SILICON VALLEY While Big Tech Prospers, an Eviction Crisis Looms Next Door BY ARIELLE PARDES Over 40,000 families in Silicon Valley are at risk of losing their homes. Could tech offices, vacated during the pandemic, offer some emergency relief?   HITCHING What Happens If Uber and Lyft Flee California? Look at Austin BY AARIAN MARSHALL The ride-hail services are threatening to stop service in the Golden State to protest a judge's ruling. They did something similar in Texas in 2016.   WRONG NUMBER How to Stop Butt Dialing Everyone with Your Smartphone BY WHITSON GORDON The age of touchscreens hasn't stopped pocket dialing. Here's how you can put an end to it once and for all.   VIDEO GAMES Retro Gaming's Misogyny Is Brought to Light After a Violent Tragedy BY CECILIA D'ANASTASIO A retro game champion is suspected of killing an ex-girlfriend and then himself. Gamers now say they warned others about his threatening behavior for years.   DIGITAL CULTURE Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Wields Brevity as a Superpower BY JASON PARHAM Skilled in the conciseness of Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, the congressperson said all she needed to say in the short time she was given at the DNC.   IDEAS Hydroxychloroquine Is Toast. Now Say Hi to Its 'Dirty' Cousin BY ROXANNE KHAMSI Amodiaquine, a related treatment for malaria, can beat back Covid-19 in hamsters. But if this drug, too, gets overhyped, there will be awful consequences.   EDUCATION The Pandemic Is Forcing Everyone to Face the Digital Divide BY WIRED STAFF Editor in chief Nicholas Thompson sits down with WIRED reporters to talk about how another round of remote learning could deepen education inequality in the US.   GROUND CONTROL This Plane Flies Itself. We Went for a Ride BY GREGORY BARBER Xwing is testing a Cessna that's controlled from the ground, not the cockpit. Its goal is to automate as much as possible, while keeping a human in the loop.   AS THE WORLD BURNS California's Wildfire and Covid-19 Disasters Just Collided BY MATT SIMON Rare thunderstorms have peppered the California landscape with conflagrations, pouring smoke into the Bay Area—all as the state struggles with the pandemic.     This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or Manage your newsletter subscriptions