Hello fellow web crawlers! Kira here. Welcome to today’s edition of web_crawlr.
Today’s top stories are about: the internet’s reaction to the design of a new Trader Joe’s in Harlem, how an unhinged-looking horse has taken over the discourse about an upcoming Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh movie, a ransomware group that hacked a conservative newspaper and auctioned off the data online, and a viral TikTok explainer about why mosquitos love biting some people but not others.
After that, the Trending Team have got a “Main Character of the Week” column for you.
See you tomorrow,
— K.D.
⚡ Today in Internet Culture
🛒 CONSUMER BACKLASH
‘Whole Foods would never’: Trader Joe’s new location under fire for how it tried to connect with locals
“You can open a store in Harlem but no need to do all that,” reads a viral post on X.
🎠 THE INTERNET SEES EVERYTHING
‘No one is going to notice’: Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh’s new movie gets memed—because of a carousel horse
The artificial equestrian has completely upstaged the promo for ‘We Live in Time.’
🧑💻 HACKERS
Ransomware group claims it hacked the Washington Times—hosts data auction on dark web
The data looks to include scans of IDs as well as Social Security cards.
🦟 TIKTOK SCIENCE
‘There’s actually some science behind this’: Expert shares why you’re a magnet for mosquitoes
A dermatologist went viral for her explanation, and we got the exclusive scoop.
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By Ramon Ramirez
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Main Character of the Week: Man who discovered how to make sour scream
Main Character of the Week is a weekly column that tells you the most prominent “main character” online (good or bad). It runs on Fridays in the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter. If you want to get this column a day before we publish it, subscribe to web_crawlr, where you’ll get the daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.
🕸️ Crawling the Web
Here is what else is happening across the ‘net.
🦷 First-time visits to a new dentist can be nerve-racking. Whether due to incompetence or even scamming, things aren’t always guaranteed to go well. But for one woman, a routine dentist visit turned into a complete nightmare.
🛍️ This Instacart shopper shared how she exacted revenge on a customer who gave her the wrong address.
🌧️ Driving in the rain is notoriously dangerous. So it shouldn’t be surprising that a driver sharing a hack for seeing road lines in the rain is getting a ton of attention online.
🍦 We’ve all been stuck waiting for our food to be delivered at a restaurant, and perhaps some of us have even had the urge to march back to the kitchen and pick it up ourselves. Well, one man did just that at his local McDonald’s.
🏳️🌈 From the Daily Dot archive: From Club Penguin to Roblox, LGBTQ youth have always flocked to gaming websites.
🤳 Today’s Viral Video
That version would have been SO different.
