Boing Boing

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is fifteen years old. While it's undoubtedly one of the best games ever made, anything will start to wear thin after a decade and a half, except perhaps true love and/or illegal narcotics. With the sequel still nowhere to be seen outside of vague promises from Bethesda that it is a real game that's still being worked on, we swear, Skyrim's fans have had to get... creative to squeeze more enjoyment out of their favorite game. - Read the rest The post A Skyrim player has taken 397 days to reach quest nine of 19 appeared first on Boing Boing.

In 2019, Durham, North Carolina's Can Opener Bridge, formerly with 11 feet, 8 inches of clearance, was raised to 12 feet, 4 inches, reducing but not eliminating the entertaining and completely preventable shearing off of roofs and air conditioning units. - Read the rest The post Durham's can opener bridge has a new rival in Ohio appeared first on Boing Boing.

M-Vave's FM-1, a tiny ~$70 clone of the legendary Yamaha DX7, is the "synth of the summer". It even has a built-in speaker, so you can play it on the go with its tiny rubbery keys. While it doesn't come with the original patch banks, they're easy to copy over, and it has superpowers that weren't around in the 1980s such as MIDI over USB-C and Bluetooth. - Read the rest The post M-Vave FM-1 clones the Yamaha DX7 and puts it in your pocket appeared first on Boing Boing.

Valve is said to be selling 12,000 Steam Machines a week (previously at Boing Boing), despite an indefinite waitlist and a much higher price than originally anticipated (not their fault). If you've got one, then, you'll be pleased to see iFixit's comprehensive repair guide-also interesting if you just want to see inside one. - Read the rest The post iFixit's repair guide for the Steam Machine appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR:Access 1,000+ developmental courses withEDU Unlimited by StackSkillsfor a one-time purchase of $19.97 (MSRP $600) until Sept. 27 at 11:59 p.m. PT.Gun for a promotion, make that career switch, or just spend your free time on education; with a lifetime subscription toEDU Unlimited by StackSkills, you can gain expertise in IT, design, marketing, coding, business, AI, and more. - Read the rest The post Gain access to over a thousand courses on IT, design, and coding for just $20 for life appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Trump Administration has done an excellent job of hiding the damage Iranian drones and missiles have wrought on US bases across the Middle East.The Pentagon's inspector general now says Iranian attacks damaged or destroyed hundreds of structures across eight countries. - Read the rest The post Hundreds of buildings, nearly 60 aircraft: the Iran war damage Americans haven't seen appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR:New U.S. users canget lifetime access to 14 Babbel languagesand 10,000+ hours of education for $159 with StackSocial code LEARN.This is a universal truth: Trips just feel different when you can actually chat in the language. Ordering dinner, asking for directions, shopping, or simply talking to someone you meet along the way gets a lot easier when your vocabulary extends beyond "hello" and some enthusiastic pointing. - Read the rest The post Travel hits different when you can join the conversation appeared first on Boing Boing.

In 1974, the North American Wildlife Research Team identified the obvious problem with Bigfoot research: nobody had caught one. So they built a trap.They caught some bears and then locked the trap open. Bigfoot is far too smart for this stuff. - Read the rest The post Oregon's Bigfoot trap remains conspicuously Bigfoot-free appeared first on Boing Boing.

RFK Jr discovered the easiest way to not have measles deaths is to refuse to record them, rather than vaccinate people.Pennsylvania's measles outbreak has reached 676 confirmed cases and 124 hospitalizations. Only four of those cases were in appropriately vaccinated persons. - Read the rest The post RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine project rolls on: Pennsylvania reports another measles death appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Getlifetime access to Luminar Neo, a beginner-friendly AI photo editor, plus a landscape photography course and eight creative add-ons for just $69.97 (reg. $332) with this bundle.With Luminar Neo, you don't need to learn Photoshop inside and out to create stunning images. - Read the rest The post Enhance the innate beauty of your photos for life with this $70 Luminar Neo Bundle appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Learn transferable AI skills you can apply across tools and professional settings with this12-course ChatGPT & Automation E-Degreefor $14.97 (reg. $790).AI literacy is becoming less about knowing that tools like ChatGPT exist and more about understanding how to use them effectively. - Read the rest The post Go beyond ChatGPT basics with this $15 AI E-Degree appeared first on Boing Boing.

A Baltimore woman says that her father's nurse took the deed to his home before his death and only told her he had died after she drove to South Carolina to find out why he wasn't responding to calls.Robert Rowland, 75-a vulnerable adult with Parkinson's disease and a brain injury-was cared for by Sarah Smalls of Griswold Home Care in the last months of his life, according to WMBF News, and his daughter Nora Rowland said she heard from him less and less in his final months. - Read the rest The post Caregiver took deed to Parkinson's patient's home and kept death quiet for days appeared first on Boing Boing.

When Jake Edmiston, a reporter for the Toronto Star, tried a spoonful of Maille Dijon mustard from his local Costco, it was so hot that it burned his mouth. It was the brand he'd used a lot in his mustard chicken recipe, so he knew something was off. - Read the rest The post Why a jar of Costco Dijon mustard was 10 times hotter than normal appeared first on Boing Boing.

A lot of video games from the 1970s and later were touted as having AI. Jason Scott of the Internet Archive has a fun retrospective about these games, with links to playable versions.Here's what Scott says about a title from 1985 that I didn't know about:

A new lawsuit sheds some light on all those CSAM problems with Elon "Pedo Guy" Musk's Grok: it claims Grok was trained on child pornography, resulting in the child pornography problems created by Grok.The plaintiff, known as Jane Doe, was preschool-aged when men raped her and distributed images of the abuse. - Read the rest The post Grok's child-porn nightmare just got worse appeared first on Boing Boing.

Proof that any crap can become a fad if you talk about sound quality: young people are buying CD players again. Popular models sell out, and CD sales are booming: the apocalypse is here.Cassettes and CDs are back. It can't be about sound quality; we've heard that both suck since they were released. - Read the rest The post Kids are buying CD players again, proving nostalgia has no standards appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR:Microsoft Visio Professional 2024is a full diagramming program for Windows, and a lifetime license is now $39.97 (reg. $579.99).Professional diagramming software usually requires a monthly subscription. Microsoft Visio is usually no exception, despite being one of the most popular data visualization tools available. - Read the rest The post Microsoft's best design software is only $40 for life through September 1 appeared first on Boing Boing.

Illegal bread dumping is confounding park officials in Daisen, a small town in Japan's Tottori prefecture. Large numbers of loaves, totalling 39 kilograms, have appeared on the Daisen loop road near Daisenji Temple in recent days-a meal accompanied on one occasion by fresh, neatly arranged chicken livers. - Read the rest The post Authorities in Japan baffled by illegal bread dumping appeared first on Boing Boing.

If a country is about to get nuked, you can be sure the rich and powerful will hear about it before us huddled masses. They will jump into their helicopters and take their private jets to New Zealand to avoid getting turned into crispy critters like the rest of us. - Read the rest The post Apocalypse Early Warning System counts the private planes in the sky right now appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Grab yourlifetime license to Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2026for just $29.97 (reg. $499.99).Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2026 is a 64-bit IDE built for professional developers and development teams in need of software that goes beyond simple coding. - Read the rest The post Build, scale, and code faster for only $30 with MS Visual Studio Pro 2026 appeared first on Boing Boing.

007: First Light has been out for months, IOI! You can stop making Hitman DLC! It's okay!Hitman: World of Assassination is already one of the best stealth games ever made, but it gets just a little better (or at least funnier) with every celebrity that pops up in it. - Read the rest The post New Hitman mission lets you assassinate Snoop Dogg appeared first on Boing Boing.

Oswaldo Pirela, the San Diego Padres' (Major League Baseball) minor league catching coordinator who was arrested last Sunday and held by ICE, was released on bond Monday.He entered the U.S. legally from Venezuela in 2014, but the Department of Homeland Security claims he was authorized only to remain until 2018. - Read the rest The post Padres coach held by ICE for over a week is released on bond appeared first on Boing Boing.

Actor Tim Curry, star of classics such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, is dead at 80. TMZ was first to report the legendary film and TV's actor's death at his home in Los Angeles. - Read the rest The post Tim Curry dead at 80 appeared first on Boing Boing.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has agreed to pay no more than $16.68bn to settle claims that it harmed children in its relentless drive for growth and advertising revenue.

The first 10 pence piece bearing King Charles III's portrait is entering circulation in the U.K. Announced Tuesday, the silver coin (worth about 14 U.S. cents) features His Majesty's profile on one side and the world's largest species of grouse on the other. - Read the rest The post New 10p coins feature world's biggest grouse on one side, and a bird on the other appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Stay safer online for less with thisthree-year subscription to Surfshark VPN Starter Plan, on sale now for just $83.99 (MSRP $430).We hate to break it to you, but when you're hopping online at your local coffee shop, hotel, airport, or other public space, your connection isn't secure. - Read the rest The post Secure your connection wherever you browse for less than $3 a month appeared first on Boing Boing.

A YouTuber who goes by soiboi soft built an 8*8 pixel display that uses pneumatics and stretchy silicone instead of LEDs. The effect is mesmerizing and appealing.The orange rubber panel covers 64 cavities. When a vacuum forms in one of the cavities, it produces a dimple in the rubber. - Read the rest The post This 8*8 display uses vacuum and silicone instead of LEDs appeared first on Boing Boing.

Famed country music singer, philanthropist and businesswoman Dolly Parton is dead at 80. Her death was announced by nephew Brian Seaver on social media.

For all of you who own a replica Flock camera, here's a nifty cover to protect it from the elements. It hooks onto a pole, making it easy to cover your replica Flock camera even when it is mounted somewhere high up. - Read the rest The post This slip-on cover protects a replica Flock camera from rain and sun appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR:Pay just $59.95 once fora Windows video suite that enhances blurry or shaky footage, upscales videos and images, converts media, edits clips, records screens, and digitizes DVDs.Some videos are blurry. Some shake like they were filmed during an earthquake. - Read the rest The post Own the software that gives blurry videos a glow-up for just $60 appeared first on Boing Boing.

A kids' Halloween costume featuring a tiny bowler hat and giant red-lipped smile led to a backlash for retailer Target, which has now withdrawn the "Circus Clown" outfit from sale. The costume's resemblance to vintage Jim Crow caricatures and blackface performers, especially as posed at Target's app and website, was soon spotted. - Read the rest The post Target withdraws halloween "minstrel" costume appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR:Pay $29.97 once forMicrosoft Office 2021'sWord, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneNote, Publisher, and Access on one Windows PC.If you're a working professional who prefers a traditional, standalone software experience, Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows Lifetime License might just be right up your alley. - Read the rest The post Replace your patchwork of work apps with 8 Microsoft Office 2021 besties for just $30 appeared first on Boing Boing.

"It's going to completely rebrand everything that was noble about the National Guard into being mundane at best and threatening at worst." - Anonymous National GuardspersonAfter a year of patrolling Washington, D.C., Guard members are describing what it feels like to be turned from the people Americans welcome after hurricanes and floods into an armed political presence no one can trust. - Read the rest The post The National Guard never wanted to be Trump's tool of oppression appeared first on Boing Boing.

Distracted from tyranny and destroying every global economic market he can find, Diaper Donnie has a grand ol' time.Dipsy Donald looks positively chuffed, waving an oversized flag to start his Freedom 250 car race, producing the unmistakable expression of a five-year-old who has just been informed thatyes, he really does get to do it himself. - Read the rest The post Grandpa Pudding Brains gets to wave the green flag appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Lifetime MagellanTV access with 4,000+ documentaries and new content added weekly is just $149.97 (reg. $999).At some point, "watching television" became scrolling through menus for 40 minutes, then giving up and rewatching something familiar.MagellanTV offers a more useful rabbit hole: more than 4,000 documentaries, movies, and series about history, science, nature, space, crime, culture, and civilization. - Read the rest The post Replace another rewatch with lifetime access to MagellanTV's 4,000+ docs for just $150 appeared first on Boing Boing.

Looking for slack from voters pissed off about grocery prices, the Orange Menace is taking another swing at lowering prices. This time by "flooding the market with government-subsidized, below-market beef."For a guy who loves capitalism and decries everyone he doesn't like as a crazy socialist, Diaper Don sure likes socializing stuff. - Read the rest The post Big Beef has big beef with Big Fraud's cut-rate meat appeared first on Boing Boing.

Grandpa Pudding Brains invited a 10-year-old Nathaniel Rai and the lifeguard who saved him to the White House. He then told Nathaniel he would not have saved him, "probably."The look on the kid's face says it all. It also lets the screaming millions who voted for Trump know he is the kinda guy who wouldn't save a drowning kid, even if he was the lifeguard on duty. - Read the rest The post Trump meets boy rescued from drowning, tells him he probably wouldn't have helped appeared first on Boing Boing.

For the past three years, a man known only has Lucky has been in the care of the Dutch government. When the police found his unconscious body on the streets of Amsterdam, he wasn't carrying a phone, passport or anything else that could be used to identify him. - Read the rest The post Dutch police get lucky identifying mystery man appeared first on Boing Boing.

A video game developer, System 3 Software, is under fire from fans for using AI in its upcoming title, The James Pond Legacy. Typical comments include "AI singing, AI characters," and another that says, "Bro, this looks like a shitpost. - Read the rest The post Fans smelled AI in James Pond Legacy's trailer. The studio says they're wrong. appeared first on Boing Boing.

A dark lord of the Sith spoke in favor of Flock cameras and wider public surveillance. Citing his Emperor's support, Darth Vader encouraged San Diego leadership to install more cameras.If you needed any more convincing that Flock Cameras are the tool of the devil:You might be surprised to hear that Darth Vader works better with George Lucas' terrible scriptwriting, but he does. - Read the rest The post Darth Vader tells San Diego that the Emperor is a fan of Flock appeared first on Boing Boing.

Suffering unprecedented embarrassment on the international stage, morale issues are so deep that sailors are reputedly jumping overboard, but never fear: the United States Navy has a plan. Reportedly, they are considering renaming an aircraft carrier after Trump.

TL;DR: Save 42% on a subscription toPDF Expert Premium Planfor just $79.99 (Reg. $139.99).There's nothing more frustrating than opening, closing, and reopening a PDF again and again, trying to make it do what you want. And don't get me started on the rigmarole of putting every PDF through Canva or converter apps just to make a single edit. - Read the rest The post Decrease your cortisol by increasing your control of your PDFs appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Day of Silence is a sacred Balinese Hindu observance, and tourists are expected to honor it too. Luzian Andrin Zgraggen not only failed in this obligation, but insulted it, an infraction that now lands him in an Indonesian jail for a year. - Read the rest The post Year in jail for tourist who wouldn't shut up on Bali's Day of Silence appeared first on Boing Boing.

California's narrower guardrails on whatever exemption anti-vaxxers are currently using to reduce herd immunity work, while Florida's willingness to nod and wink at doubters has its MMR vaccination rate for youngsters falling like a rock.Nationally, of course, we have RFK Jr telling people to take cod liver oil and squinting funny when people mention vaccines. - Read the rest The post Vaccination rates show what leadership is for appeared first on Boing Boing.

In a first, Connecticut judge Walter Spader Jr. issued a decision [PDF] sanctioning a plaintiff for "use of prompt-injection" in their electronic filings. [via Ars Technica]"The Court identified text that had been formatted to be invisible to a human reader while remaining fully legible to any software that reads the document's text," Spader wrote. - Read the rest The post Plaintiff hid prompts in court filings, hoping AI was calling the shots appeared first on Boing Boing.

Remember that Chinese mushroom that can cause you to hallucinate tiny people? The best guess for this bizarre effect is that the mushrooms contain some kind of psychoactive substance unknown to science, rather than cultural conditioning, because the effect is limited to a single species of mushroom. - Read the rest The post An edible mushroom causes visions of tiny people. Nobody knows why appeared first on Boing Boing.

The IKEA Complexity Index ranks IKEA's product line by the number of steps required to assemble them.At the top of the list is the PAX Corner wardrobe ($1,755), which requires 236 steps to build, contains 743 parts, and comes with a 248-page user manual spread across 16 PDFs. - Read the rest The post Someone ranked every Ikea product by assembly complexity appeared first on Boing Boing.

There's a replica of Disney World's Magic Kingdom in a basement in O'Fallon, Illinois. But unless you are a Minifig, you can only view it from above.Doug Schieppe started building it from Lego bricks six years ago during COVID, after his family trip to the full-size park had to be postponed. - Read the rest The post An Illinois man built all six Magic Kingdom lands out of Lego in his basement appeared first on Boing Boing.

In a post earlier this week, I wrote about a 1958 James Bond comic strip in which the cartoonist drew the character like he was drawing Sean Connery. But Connery wouldn't be cast as Bond for the first movie until four years later. - Read the rest The post Jimmy Bond: In the first filmed version of James Bond, he was American appeared first on Boing Boing.

Kindle users have long turned off wifi to extend their ebook library loans. A new update is closing the loophole.For slow readers and folks who borrow way too many books at a time, the 14- or 21-day loan periods for library books are problematic. - Read the rest The post Kindle update disables favorite slow reader trick appeared first on Boing Boing.