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Radio-frequency chips - the parts in every phone, car radar, and satellite link that send and receive signals - have stayed a hand-crafted "dark art," mastered over years, even as CPUs and GPUs got designed by algorithm. Writing in IEEE Spectrum, Princeton's Kaushik Sengupta describes teaching AI to design these RFICs from scratch, with no human templates - and the results look nothing like human work. - Read the rest The post AI-designed radio chips look like QR codes and beat human ones appeared first on Boing Boing.

America's 250th birthday celebration has reached the "FBI director's girlfriend is available" stage of event planning, which is the sort of sentence that makes the Founders look smart for dying early.To be fair, America has always relied on volunteers in moments of crisis. - Read the rest The post What luck, America! Kash Patel's girlfriend joins Trump's talent-fleeing Freedom 250 event appeared first on Boing Boing.

It's no secret that AI is frigging terrible for us. The experts building it scarcely understand what they've created; the technology is a threat to the environment, and if handed the reins of war machines or infrastructure like hospitals or the power grid, it could cost lives. - Read the rest The post Microsoft CEO wants people to shut up about AI being bad for us appeared first on Boing Boing.

We need to de-normalize punching down at trans people during your comedy sets and start normalizing turning them into weird social experiments. Aaron Westberry has become one of my favorite comics for this precise reason, injecting his open mic appearances with one weird twist after another. - Read the rest The post Comedian guilt-trips audience into laughing appeared first on Boing Boing.

If you have even the slightest interest in peering behind the curtain into the world of game design, I cannot possibly recommend /noclip enough. No, not the console command, the documentary team covering the triumphs and pitfalls and huge feats of coordination that go into bringing any project home. - Read the rest The post What is the Jedi problem, and why does every game designer fear it? appeared first on Boing Boing.

I'm truly, genuinely sorry to everyone who was looking forward to helping Gabe Newell buy a hundredth yacht, but it's just an unavoidable truth: the Steam Machine is kind of a bad deal, guys. Valve's overpriced, underpowered little cube is just the latest victim of soaring component prices driven by investment in AI, because who cares if you can't afford a computer as long as the most racist person you know can make his virtual girlfriend say a slur. - Read the rest The post Building a better PC than the Steam Machine for cheaper: is it possible? appeared first on Boing Boing.

Sporothrix brasiliensis is a fungus that gives cats oozing skin ulcers, can spread through their whole body, and jumps to the people around them. Since it emerged in Brazil in the 1990s it has sickened thousands of cats and more than 11,000 people across South America, and the CDC's Shawn Lockhart told Science News it's "just a matter of time" before it reaches the US - "We're waiting." - Read the rest The post A cat-borne fungus infected 11,000 people; the US is next, CDC says appeared first on Boing Boing.

A standard office printer, a paper cutter, and a book binder - that's the "printing press" the FBI logged when it raided Elizabeth and Ines Soto's Texas home. That, plus their membership in a leftist reading group called the Emma Goldman book club, became part of the government's case that the couple provided "material support to terrorists." - Read the rest The post Zine publisher sentenced to 50 years in prison for "material support to terrorists" appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR:ChatPlayground lets youcompare responses from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, and morein one interface. Lifetime access to the Unlimited Plan is $54.97 (reg. $619) through June 28 as part of Deal Days.It didn't take long for AI power users to figure out thatthe best answer usually isn't hidden inside one chatbot. - Read the rest The post ChatGPT, Claude & Gemini are all invited-and lifetime access is just $54.97 during Deal Days appeared first on Boing Boing.

A manager at the Arbys in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, spat in a customers food, say police, an act that allegedly resulted in the victim contracting oral herpes. The Smoking Gun reports that Amanda Hendricks, 38, was charged with adulterating food, assault and battery. - Read the rest The post We Have The Herpes: Arby's worker accused of infecting customer by spitting in food appeared first on Boing Boing.

Kodak's Charmera, the keychain-sized digital camera that became a minor cultural phenomenon last year, is back with a new look. Reto, the company that makes the camera and licenses the Kodak name, has launched the Charmera Millennium Edition, which trades the original's '80s styling for a Y2k take on tech: think shiny metallics, fussy gradients, and early pixel nostalgia. - Read the rest The post Kodak's new Charmeras have Y2K vibes appeared first on Boing Boing.

Joseph McGrail-Bateup, a 58-year-old air conditioner cleaner and honorary town crier from Canberra, Australia, has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's loudest person. McGrail-Bateup yelled the word "now" at 122.4 decibels, beating the previous mark of 121.7 dB set by Northern Ireland schoolteacher Annalisa Flanagan in 1994, who shouted "quiet." - Read the rest The post Canberra's town crier recognized as world's loudest person with 122.4dB yell appeared first on Boing Boing.

Professional cycling spent decades looking for cheating in blood, urine, and hotel mini-fridges. Then came the suspicion that the real juice was hiding in the bike.The video follows the story from early viral accusations against Tour riders to the day scanners found a motor hidden inside a seat tube. - Read the rest The post The cheating wasn't in the rider. It was in the bike appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Get a lifetime license toMicrosoft Office Professional 2021 for Windowsfor $29.97 (reg. $219.99) during Deal Days - no subscription required.The easiest way to lower a software budget isn't finding a cheaper subscription. It's eliminating one altogether. That's what this deal on theMicrosoft Office Professional 2021 for Windowssubscription brings: one payment, then years of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more without renewal notices. - Read the rest The post Deal Days cuts Microsoft Office Professional 2021 from $220 to $30 appeared first on Boing Boing.

Grandpa Pudding Brains tried to tell a story about a New York police officer "please, sir"ing him and somehow ended up admiring the man's muscles as if he had wandered into a weird Conan movie.If there were muscles, the muscles were all over the place, and so was the story. - Read the rest The post Grandpa Pudding Brains gets lost in a cop's muscles appeared first on Boing Boing.

Irish artist Niall de Buitlear's eight-minute found-footage piece Duplicate Content splices video art from the mid-1960s through mid-1970s together with recent social-media clips - most of them, in his words, "people alone in a room filming themselves performing for the camera." - Read the rest The post Duplicate Content splices 1960s video art with today's TikToks appeared first on Boing Boing.

This structure called Expo Hall, or "Shining Hat", creates a stunning optical illusion in the sky. The top of the structure makes it look like a giant portal has opened in the atmosphere. Its defining feature is a vast, reflective golden underside that makes the roof appear to dissolve into the sky from certain viewpoints. - Read the rest The post Toyo Ito's Expo Hall "Shining Hat" looks like a portal opening in the sky appeared first on Boing Boing.

The creator, owner, and driver of the 23-foot-long Big Banana Car, Steve Braithwaite, gets to meet a lot of curious cops.

The Oregon Symphony performed Jaws live with the movie, and one bassist understood the assignment so completely that he played the entire thing dressed as a shark.A concertgoer praised the symphony's movie series after seeing Jaws in Concert in Portland, but gave special credit to the musician who wore the shark costume through the whole film while playing bass. - Read the rest The post Jaws in Concert gets the shark-costumed bassist it deserves appeared first on Boing Boing.

Don't you just love all the innovations that the advent of AI has allowed for? There's mass disinformation, the price of consumer computing going through the roof, poisoning groundwater for entire communities, but, uh... at least it's making some people's jobs easier! - Read the rest The post Don't be fooled by scammer deepfakes appeared first on Boing Boing.

A while ago, fans of Better Call Saul (it's me, I'm fans) were surprised by a new piece of official content dropped out nowhere on an unassuming YouTube channel. Bob Odenkirk was back in full force as criminal lawyer Saul Goodman, salmon-colored suit and all, to tell you about your rights in what we all assumed was a fun one-off video to celebrate America's 250th. - Read the rest The post So that Saul Goodman return video wasn't just a one-off appeared first on Boing Boing.

Loath as I am to admit it, I think we may all have seen this coming after Valve raised the price of their Steam Deck. Naturally, this raised questions about how much Valve's flagship Steam Machine "living room PC" would cost - questions that have now unfortunately been answered. - Read the rest The post Valve's Steam Machine will run you at least a thousand dollars appeared first on Boing Boing.

Karoline Leavitt returned to Fox News and immediately tried to convince America that the Lincoln Memorial Algae Farm is a campaign promise kept.On FOX, Leavitt called the algae-costumed protesters "deranged leftists" and said, "Only the Democrats could hate beautifying our nation's capital and making it a symbol of pride again, but this is what the American people elected President Trump to do." - Read the rest The post The Mouth of Moron returns to explain that pond scum is democracy appeared first on Boing Boing.

REI, the company that tells people to "Opt Outside," apparently opted out of looking at the AI bicycle before posting it.PetaPixel reports that REI shared an Instagram ad for a Van Rysel bike using an AI-generated image that immediately failed the "has anyone here ever seen a bicycle?" - Read the rest The post REI tells people to Opt Outside, posts AI bike from nowhere on Earth appeared first on Boing Boing.

I saw a coyote drinking matcha at Gjusta. His man bun was perfect.Los Angeles' offbeat Venice has already adapted to skaters, tourists, tech money, RV fights, influencers, and the occasional guy explaining crypto near the beach. Now the canals have coyotes. - Read the rest The post Venice residents add coyotes to the coexistence curriculum appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR:DashResumeanalyzes resumes against job descriptions, identifies keyword gaps, and helps create ATS-friendly applications - all for $39.99 (reg. $139).You could be the perfect candidate for a job and still get rejected by a robot before a human ever sees your resume. - Read the rest The post This AI resume tool helps you get past ATS filters for $40 appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Colossi of Memnon are "two large stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III" that have stood on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor since about 1350 BC. According to Wikipedia, each rises about 18 meters and weighs "an estimated 720 tons." - Read the rest The post For centuries, a cracked Egyptian statue sang at dawn appeared first on Boing Boing.

Every year around the end of the Buddhist Lent, crowds gather along the Mekong River to watch the Naga fireballs - glowing balls that, according to Wikipedia, "are alleged to naturally rise from the water high into the air." They are said to be "reddish" and to "range in size from smaller sparkles up to the size of basketballs," and "the number of fireballs reported varies between tens and thousands per night." - Read the rest The post Mysterious glowing balls rise from the Mekong every year appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Man in the Iron Mask was "an unidentified prisoner of state during the reign of Louis XIV of France." According to Wikipedia, he was arrested in 1669 under the name "Eustache Dauger" and "held for 34 years in the custody of Benigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars in four successive French prisons, including the Bastille." - Read the rest The post The masked prisoner of Louis XIV whose name was never spoken appeared first on Boing Boing.

Wesley Willis was "an American musician and visual artist" from Chicago who, after being "diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1989," became a cult figure in the outsider-music tradition. According to Wikipedia, his songs were "partially spoken in an MC style, and partially sung in a nasal and out-of-tune manner reminiscent of punk rock vocals," recorded over "the auto accompaniment feature on his Technics KN keyboard." - Read the rest The post The schizophrenic Chicago artist who became an outsider rock legend appeared first on Boing Boing.

For three decades, a Hollywood director who wanted to disown a film could take his name off it and replace it with one man: Alan Smithee. According to Wikipedia, the name was "an official pseudonym used by film directors who wish to disown a project," coined by the Directors Guild of America in 1968. - Read the rest The post For 32 years, every director who disowned a film became Alan Smithee appeared first on Boing Boing.

The "Great Moon Hoax" began on August 25, 1835, when The Sun, a New York newspaper, ran the first of six articles "about the supposed discovery of life and civilization on the Moon," falsely attributed to the astronomer Sir John Herschel. - Read the rest The post In 1835 a New York paper put bat-men and unicorns on the moon appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: ThisMicrosoft Office 2024 Home & Business + Premium Microsoft Office Training Bundlegives you the software you want and the skills to use it for just $105.97 (reg. $409.99).If you're someone who enjoys the simple things in life, this Microsoft Office Bundle deal may be just what you're looking for. - Read the rest The post Get MS Office 2024 and a Premium Training Course for $106 during Deal Days appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: For $269.97 (Reg. $2,900), this10TB Internxt Cloud Storage Lifetime Subscriptionlets you ditch the monthly cloud storage subscription fees and provides ample storage to play with.If you've already started saving for Prime Day, don't bother. With Deal Days, Stack Social is here to bring you great savings on the products you need most, like this 10TB Internxt Cloud Storage Lifetime Subscription for just $269.97 (reg. - Read the rest The post Get 10TB of cloud storage for life for $270 during Deal Days appeared first on Boing Boing.

There are now seven Call of Duty: Black Ops games, which is honestly fewer than I thought. Even so, ask any CoD fan on the street and they'll tell you that the best Black Ops games, if not the best CoD games as a whole, are the first two. - Read the rest The post Call of Duty shrugs, reheats its leftovers with Black Ops remaster appeared first on Boing Boing.

Tommy Wiseau's 2004 masterpiece The Room is, perhaps, the most infamous bad movie ever made. So much so that the movie about it being made went up for an Oscar, to say nothing of the video game adaptation.In today's age of remakes and reboots, it was only a matter of time before someone proposed just that, which is how we ended up with The Room Returns. - Read the rest The post Bob Odenkirk stars in straight-faced remake of The Room appeared first on Boing Boing.

If at any point you've ever doubted that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be the biggest entertainment product since the Epic of Gilgamesh, look no further than this: a thirty-second video showing off the game's cover art and absolutely nothing else has amassed about seven and a half million views in less than 24 hours. - Read the rest The post Grand Theft Auto 6 opens pre-orders, reveals cover art appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR:FastestVPN Pro is $29.97 (reg. $600)for Deal Days, and it covers up to 15 devices with privacy tools, unlimited bandwidth, 900+ servers, and one year of Passhulk Password Manager.There are two kinds of people online: people who use a VPN, and people who will one day have a deeply annoying reason to start using a VPN. - Read the rest The post Deal Days has a 15-device VPN for less than $30 appeared first on Boing Boing.

A cyberdeck is a homemade portable computer in the cyberpunk mold (utilitarian, DIY) and NickZero's Ultra Minimal Cyberdeck [instructables.com] is exemplary: just a single-board computer, a tiny keyboard (cf. my "Cormac" board, useful only for writing novels by Cormac McCarthy), a small screen, and a battery laced together inside a 3D-printed shell. - Read the rest The post Cyberdeck with punishingly minimal 30% keyboard appeared first on Boing Boing.

Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields [airfields-freeman.com] collects America's half-forgotten strips and reconstructs each one's history from old aeronautical charts, topographic maps, aerial photographs, and tips from readers who flew or lived nearby. Every airfield gets its own dated, illustrated entry showing how it appeared, changed, and slipped into history. - Read the rest The post The obscure airfields of America appeared first on Boing Boing.

When astronomers first observed iPTF14hls in September 2014, they identified it as a supernova and expected it to dim within 100 days. Instead, it kept erupting. Over approximately 1,000 days, its brightness peaked at least five times, varying by as much as 50 percent. - Read the rest The post A star discovered in 2014 has exploded six times and none of the theories explain it appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Honj Masamune, forged in the 13th or 14th century and passed from shgun to shgun as a symbol of the Tokugawa dynasty, is considered one of the finest Japanese swords ever made. It was designated a National Treasure in 1939. - Read the rest The post Japan's greatest sword was surrendered to a US sergeant in 1946. Nobody knows where it is. appeared first on Boing Boing.

In February 1985, a 29-year-old woman from Tokyo's Suginami neighborhood sent a letter to the Japanese magazine Book Magazine. "I'm not sure why," she wrote, "but since about two or three years ago, whenever I go to a bookstore I am struck by an urge to move my bowels." - Read the rest The post In 1985, a Japanese woman wrote a letter about bookstores making her need to use the bathroom. It became a phenomenon. appeared first on Boing Boing.

From 1970 to 1974, the Varosha district of Famagusta, Cyprus, was "one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world," a favorite of Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Raquel Welch, and Brigitte Bardot. When Turkish forces invaded Cyprus in August 1974, every Greek Cypriot resident fled. - Read the rest The post In 1974, Turkish forces fenced off a Cyprus beach resort. It's still empty. appeared first on Boing Boing.

John Lahr, writing in the London Review of Books, offers the sharpest piece I've read on Sid Caesar - ostensibly a review of David Margolick's new biography When Caesar Was King, but really a psychological autopsy of American comedy's first TV star and the culture he shaped. - Read the rest The post Sid Caesar built the writers' room that taught Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Carl Reiner, and Woody Allen how to be funny appeared first on Boing Boing.

I'm a huge fan ofstreet art, and this recent piece in Naples, Italy by World Press Photo Award winner and acclaimed photojournalist Eduardo Castaldo is one of the best I've ever seen. The piece, titled "Donald Dump," is a black and white stencil painting of Donald Trump. - Read the rest The post "Donald Dump" depicts Trump with sludge oozing out of his mouth appeared first on Boing Boing.

I've previously written about the glorious ASMR videos starringKing Bumi, a long-snouted, toothless, bushy-tailed, coarse-haired giant anteater who lives at the North Florida Wildlife Center in Lamont, Florida, a nonprofit rehabilitation and education center whose focus is on caring for rare and endangered species. - Read the rest The post This giant anteater uses his dancing tongue to keep cool in the summer's sweltering heat appeared first on Boing Boing.

Science fiction aficionados and fans of practical effects will want to pour one out today: Brian Johnson, a man responsible for building some of the most iconic sci-fi craft in movies and television history, has died at the age of 87. - Read the rest The post The man who built the spaceships for 2001, Alien, and Empire has died appeared first on Boing Boing.

With so much going sideways since... forever, it can be hard to recall that some great stuff has happened. This week marked 43 years since Sally Ride strapped her ass to a rocket for NASA's seventh space shuttle mission, STS-7. As mission specialist and flight engineer on Space Shuttle Challenger, she became the first American woman in space on June 18, 1983. - Read the rest The post Sally Ride flew to space 43 years ago today. She still has the best astronaut name. appeared first on Boing Boing.

A dude who goes by Marketplace Builds on Instagram uploaded this hilarious video of a pink toy car that has been hacked to go much faster than normal. This is the kind of toy car that a kid can drive themselves, usually at snail pace for safety reasons. - Read the rest The post Man supercharges a child's pink ride-on car, sends it flying appeared first on Boing Boing.