Death approaches, for one and all. But what about our important data stored within free services that Google may or may not shut down before our death? For this, there's Google Afterlife. It's not called Google Afterlife, but that's just what some tech writers have named it, because "Inactive Account Manager" sounds like something Verizon would do to you for $6.99 a month, in or out of the grave.

Here's how it works: You can go to some Google page and click some things. No more worries about death! After your demise, if Google hasn't killed off the service, the particular way you misunderstood "Inactive Account Manager" will function [...]

Okay, well, after a weird couple of weeks where the natural order of things was forced to contend with the grave disturbance of front-loaded holiday time, we have returned to what is more or less the first real week of the year. How does it feel? Yeah, I know, me too. Let's ease back into things as casually as possible, by which I mean funny animal stories (I think we've got an otter post coming up for you at some point this morning) and bear videos. If you are expecting the dulcet tones of Choire Sicha in this space alerting you about events around town, I am sorry [...]