Boing Boing

TL;DR:Curiosity Streamis a full documentary streaming platform, and a lifetime subscription is on sale now for $149.99 (reg. $399.99).Netflix has like three good documentaries every year. For dedicated documentary lovers, that's nothing. If you want to really get your fix on educational content and soothing narration, check outCuriosity Stream. - Read the rest The post Netflix's smartest competition doesn't charge a monthly fee appeared first on Boing Boing.

ASCII CITY is an explorable cyberpunk city rendered in three dimensions with plain text characters. You can run the streets, enter buildings and take lifts to see it all from different elevations. There's no audio, story or "game" in there yet, but buying it buys access to future version and continued development. - Read the rest The post ASCII CITY: a cyberpunk city explored in pseudo-3D plaintext appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: GetMicrosoft Office 2024 Professional Plusfor $49.97 (reg. $249.99), with lifetime access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and Access on one PC.Microsoft 365 keeps Office on a recurring payment schedule, but that's not the only way to get the desktop apps. - Read the rest The post Skip the Microsoft 365 subscription with Office 2024 for $50 appeared first on Boing Boing.

Open Waters is a game in development designed to induce thalassophobia: the intense and supposedly irrational fear of large bodies of water. The teaser trailer had me clenched within seconds and that was before that thing even showed up.

Lawmakers in Mato Grosso, Brazil, find their work increasingly disrupted by capybaras wandering into the state legislature in Cuiaba, which was built next to a wildlife park. The large rodents, native to South America, are famously relaxed but not particularly interested in parliamentary procedure. - Read the rest The post Capybaras invade state legislature in Brazil appeared first on Boing Boing.

Evidently, George Santos is too low for Kalshi.Kalshi gave the already convicted fraudster its first-ever lifetime ban! Santos bet on himself, then allegedly tried to manipulate the market by lying about whether he'd show up to Trump's State of the Union. - Read the rest The post George Santos Pete Roses himself out of Kalshi appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched yesterday on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and will soon begin its mission as NASA's latest eye on the final frontier. If the James Webb Space Telescope is the telephoto, this one is our wide-angle shot. - Read the rest The post Roman Space Telescope launches to study space in wide-angle view appeared first on Boing Boing.

Transportation Secretary and former "Real World" cast member Sean Duffy has uncovered a transportation problem demanding immediate federal attention: some truck drivers do not speak English.DHS claims it's targeting improperly issued commercial driver's licenses and fraudulent medical certifications. But Duffy made it abundantly clear who he wants off the roads. - Read the rest The post MTV's Sean Duffy threatens companies that hire truckers who don't speak English appeared first on Boing Boing.

ICE has imprisoned a 76-year-old for more than two months despite knowing Loreto Javar is fighting Stage 4 prostate cancer. His family says he's missed critical doctors' appointments, is losing weight, and can not reliably take his cancer drugs on schedule because the detention center sometimes serves lunch at 6 p.m. - Read the rest The post Is ICE trying to kill this 76-year-old cancer patient? appeared first on Boing Boing.

Don't want a giant ghost building full of power-sucking, heat-generating computers at the end of your street? Enjoy being "backwards and poor," says Diaper Don. Folks building data centers for the AI bubble now eye neighborhoods with excess power and space. - Read the rest The post Beholden to Big Tech, Grandpa Pudding Brains demands more data centers appeared first on Boing Boing.

A Star Wars: The Phantom Menace-cobranded Pepsi vending machine somehow survived decades outside a Pittsburgh fire station to become an ironic tourist attraction. Pepsi, alert to its growing fame, donated $10,000 to the firefighters who kept it stocked. But it disappeared last week, replaced by a similar machine crudely painted to resemble it. - Read the rest The post "Content creator" claims to have taken Pittsburgh's iconic Phantom Menace vending machine appeared first on Boing Boing.

Defrag98 is a fully-featured Windows 98 Disk Defrag tool simulator "faithfully reborn in your browser," complete with teal backdrop, bitmap-fonted gray user interface, and even the hollow clicks of a Microsoft Intellimouse. Once you click start, you are treated to the soothing grind of a Western Digital Caviar. - Read the rest The post Defrag your computer like it's 1998 appeared first on Boing Boing.

I saw a video about Monge's theorem on Instagram and thought it would be fun to vibe code an interactive demo.Monge's theorem states that given any three circles, you can draw a line tangent to each pair. Those tangent lines will cross at a point. - Read the rest The post Any three circles hide a straight line. Here's a demo that shows it. appeared first on Boing Boing.

MIT's building that houses its Department of Chemistry was shut down on August 27 after a grad student "self-reported to a local emergency room and claimed to have synthesized dimethyl mercury," according to MIT Emergency Management.

TL;DR:AdGuard DNSoffers centralized filtering for up to 20 devices, with custom rules, parental controls, real-time statistics, and a five-year subscription for $24.97 (reg. $719.64).Online trackers are nosy little things, and installing a browser extension only covers part of the problem. - Read the rest The post Your ad blocker can venture outside the browser for $25 appeared first on Boing Boing.

bsod.win is a single-serving website that mimics the classic 20th-century Windows Blue Screen of Death. Unlike the original, you can refresh the page to get a different outcome. Whether the Current Application Will Be Terminated or It May Be Possible To Continue, though, is mere illusion: here there is only blue death. - Read the rest The post Enjoy the Blue Screen of Death one more time appeared first on Boing Boing.

Since it was released last year, I've had it in mind that the reMarkable Paper Pro Move was in dire need of a Bluetooth keyboard. Not a keyboard case like the full-sized reMarkable Paper Pro has, mind you: a keyboard with the dimensions to fit inside of a case for the 'Move would make for a lousy productivity experience. - Read the rest The post This app turns a reMarkable Move into a typewriter appeared first on Boing Boing.

Dolly Parton died this week and it was bullshit. In this polarized era, there are so few people that we can all point to and agree upon as being a force of good in the world. Dolly? She was that. - Read the rest The post Zuckerberg polls so badly that only Putin ranks lower appeared first on Boing Boing.

This study comes out of Germany: the dark neuroscientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences tested 122 head-banging metalheads to see if there was any difference in their ability to tolerate pain compared to folks from the (presumably) Neil Diamond and Notorious B.I.G. - Read the rest The post German study finds pain tolerance rises during a metal festival appeared first on Boing Boing.

A lawsuit in El Paso County, Colorado, claims that chronic understaffing at Dollar Tree stores has made the national chain a "hunting ground" for public masturbators-and that the company has taken no serious action to prevent it.The Denver Post reports on "gooning" incidents at local stores, in which "perpetrators masturbate on or at unconsenting victims in public spaces for sexual gratification or online notoriety." - Read the rest The post Dollar Tree sued over public masturbation incidents appeared first on Boing Boing.

Michael Fultz is Brevard County Sheriff's Office's Deputy of the Year. But Fultz, 24, just resigned. Why? Because he was about to get fired after filming himself putting a service handgun in his ex-girlfriend's mouth, using racial slurs, performing a Nazi salute, making "inappropriate" video calls in uniform from a patrol car, getting pulled over (and let off!) - Read the rest The post Brevard County Sheriff Department's racist, Nazi-saluting, speeding deputy of the year used Flock to stalk his ex appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR:Design, model, and deliver BIM projects with a year-long subscription toAutodesk Revitfor just $399 (Reg. $3,005) - that's 85% off.Some things shouldn't be easy. Or cheap. Building design, for example, deserves to be an elevated art to give people the safety and security of a well-made building. - Read the rest The post Design the building of your dreams for 15% of the price appeared first on Boing Boing.

A man from Morgantown, West Virginia with the username "MrChildPorn" was arrested by Virginia State Police after no less than 48 reports of him "boasting of his large cache of 'child porn'," reports WBOY.Garrett Highlander, 20, posted about CSAM on Discord under a variety of monikers such as the above, according to a criminal complaint. - Read the rest The post Perhaps man with username "MrChildPorn" wanted to be caught appeared first on Boing Boing.

Belbury Poly's brilliant 2012 album The Belbury Tales (previously at Boing Boing) was a high point of hauntology, right at the point it wandered into folk horror and related aesthetics of "this municipal library used to be an auroch burial ground and contains strange Usborne books about computers that didn't exist" (Scarfolk, Wyrd Britain, Windows 95 Tips). - Read the rest The post Belbury Poly turns its haunted synths to 80s fantasy appeared first on Boing Boing.

Afterglow is a modern MacOS app that runs the classic Macintosh After Dark screen savers. Flying Toasters, Fish, Starry Skylines once helped cathode ray tube-monitors avoid burn-in and became a popular commercial software category in their own right.

TL;DR:AskAnyModel AIlets you compare responses from up to six AI models side by side, with 30 unlimited standard models and 500 monthly premium credits. Lifetime access to its Pro Plan is on sale for $39.99 (reg. $499).Asking one AI for an answer is useful. - Read the rest The post This $40 AI hub lets GPT, Claude, Gemini, and more duke it out appeared first on Boing Boing.

"Zero immigration for the next 20 years. No ifs, no buts," wrote political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos on social media last year. Today the Briton was taken into custody by ICE, having allegedly overstayed in the U.S. He last legally entered the county in 2019, officials say, and failed to show up for an immigration hearing in July. - Read the rest The post Far-right pro-Trump ex-gay still-British commentator Milo Yiannopoulos detained by ICE appeared first on Boing Boing.

Applicants who have had used the services of sex workers are not eligible to join the FBI, a prohibition the bureau now plans to drop. It will consider "in a more holistic manner" those candidates who have "engaged in the practice," reports the Associated Press. - Read the rest The post FBI drops ban on hiring people who have had sexual encounters with prostitutes appeared first on Boing Boing.

Steve Jobs couldn't be bothered to retrieve his old eighth-grade science project from the family home. He told his stepbrother to keep it instead. That decision just turned into $34,375.Jobs made "What is the SCR?" while attending Cupertino Jr. High in 1968. - Read the rest The post Steve Jobs told his stepbrother to keep his old stuff. Good call! appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR:Getlifetime access to 1min.AI, a multi-model AI workspace built for writing, images, documents, PDFs, audio, and more for just $79.99-for just 2 more days.Using one AI tool for writing, another for images, and a third for PDFs is how a perfectly normal browser window becomes a cry for help. - Read the rest The post Pay $79.99 Once and Put ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini Under One Roof appeared first on Boing Boing.

Dementia Donnie visited NASA today and explained that his interest in space is apparently hereditary because his uncle was smart and liked space. His uncle also liked "nuclear," so we might be in trouble.The Orange Menace was at Johnson Space Center honoring, as only he can, the Artemis II astronauts when he started down a stream of consciousness about his uncle, John Trump, an MIT electrical engineer and physicist whom the president has spent years invoking as evidence of his own intellectual gifts. - Read the rest The post Grandpa Pudding Brains genetically believes in space appeared first on Boing Boing.

A teacher working Straford upon Avon in England was banned from the profession for life after giving them a pen with a hidden camera. Matthew Udall, teaching science, suggested the child use it to "write in a journal" and encouraged them to "change their clothes" before writing. - Read the rest The post Teacher banned for life after giving spycam pen to student and telling them to get changed appeared first on Boing Boing.

Eric Harshbarger, a mathematician at Auburn University, has created a set of 60-sided dice that never tie and allow up to five game players to have an equal chance of going first. From the Auburn press release:

A street mural of snooker legend Ronnie O'Sullivan now graces the side of the Spot On snooker club in Sheffield, England, but locals and fans of the sport complain that it's terrifying and that he looks like a zombie.

The highest court in France struck down a national ban on children under 15 using social media, ruling that it disproportionately limits free speech and fails to address privacy protections. The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports a welcome win for free expression as governments across the world seek to restrict it under the pretense of protecting children from the big tech platforms they otherwise refuse to regulate. - Read the rest The post Social media ban blocked by France's highest court appeared first on Boing Boing.

After storming the Kennedy Center, replacing the board with cronies, and slapping his name on the side, Diaper Don has found the artists quitting and the audience drying up. His Department of Justice is arguing that only putting his name back up will bring out the donors who can save the institution from its Trump-instigated disaster. - Read the rest The post DOJ: Kennedy Center has a fever, and the only prescription is more TRUMP appeared first on Boing Boing.

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH the MAGAs are dreaming of a Right Wing Christmas-> Please join the team that makes it possible for your friendly neighborhood comic strip Tom the Dancing Bug to exist in this hostile Trumpverse! JOIN US INTHE INNERHIVE, and be the first kid on your block to get each week's Tom the Dancing Bug comic - before it's published anywhere, plus lots of other stuff! - Read the rest The post Tom the Dancing Bug: The MAGAs are dreaming of a Right Wing Christmas appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Turn academic books, journals, and texts into searchable, editable documents with thisPDF Agile Premium lifetime subscription for Mac and PCfor just $39.99 (reg. $119).A good PDF manager goes a long way, especially if you're a student or working in academia. - Read the rest The post Turn academic texts into searchable, editable files for just $40 appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Load-Bearing Vocabulary of Claude is an interactive dictionary of that language model's favorite turns of phrase. If the term "load-bearing" is the famous shibboleth of its presence, there are plenty of others that distinguish Claude's output. The runner-up "quietly" may be commonplace enough to escape notice, but "latent" and "genuine" are among the gongs. - Read the rest The post Claude's "load-bearing" vocabulary charted appeared first on Boing Boing.

Reason, the actually-fun digital audio workstation, now has a free edition,though you'll need a different DAW to enjoy it. (Update: it does include a "A standalone version of the Reason DAW supporting up to 16 audio and/or MIDI tracks")"Reason Free" is immediately available for download at Reason Studios' website. - Read the rest The post Reason Free racks 15 synth and effects appeared first on Boing Boing.

In 1868 Henry T. Brown wrote a book called Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements. The subtitle is an apt description of the contents:

Peter Cullen, whose booming voice defined "hero truck" Optimus Prime, Knight Rider's KARR and intimidating characters in many other shows and movies, is dead at 85. TMZ was first the report the Canadian actor's death at his Los Angeles home. - Read the rest The post Peter Cullen, voice of Optimus Prime, dead at 85 appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR:OneAir Elitetracks flight and hotel prices for savings up to 60 percent, and a lifetime subscription is now $99.99 (reg. $790).Booking a hotel and watching the price drop the next day is a familiar frustration, and most travel sites give you no way to claw that money back. - Read the rest The post For $100, you can avoid ever paying too much on hotels and airfare appeared first on Boing Boing.

After two severe hemorrhages in six days, Six Flags Magic Mountain finally shuttered one of its most famous rollercoasters. Though the park has not said what prompted the closure, these aren't the first injuries reported by people who rode the X2, and now CNN reports two decades of permanent disabilities, comas and even deaths. - Read the rest The post Six Flags' head-banging X2 rollercoaster closed after two brain hemorrhages in six days appeared first on Boing Boing.

In June, Canadians bought more weed than Californians. Bong down, eh?Canada's weed market is growing, while California's has fallen off its peak. While there are perhaps 2-3 million more Canadians than Californians, many of the Canadians are Quebecois and probably not into it. - Read the rest The post Canada out-weeds California appeared first on Boing Boing.

Stories of gambling in baseball, when I grew up, were akin to original sin. Eight Men Out was a classic. Pete Rose got a very perma permaban. Man, when we were young, if you could hit a ball, you could also hit your wife, cheat on her, or be a poster child for substance abuse, but gambling threatened the integrity of the game itself. - Read the rest The post Baseball's unforgivable sin is now a sponsorship opportunity appeared first on Boing Boing.

"Nobody would try to dismantle a pyramid by cutting a thin slice into one side." - History for GraniteIn this fantastic video, History for Granite debunks another tentpole of Egyptology by examining the evidence. Consensus seemed to be, based on one account from the 1100s, that the great breach in Menkaure's pyramid resulted from an eight-month treasure hunt. - Read the rest The post Who defaced that pyramid? appeared first on Boing Boing.

Every year since 1993, hackers, researchers, computer security specialists, and government intelligence employees have gathered in Las Vegas for the annual DEF CON. This year Clifford Stoll gave an energetic talk on the 40th anniversary of the hacker hunt behind his famous non-fiction thriller, The Cuckoo's Egg. - Read the rest The post Cliff Stoll revisits the 75-cent glitch that caught KGB hackers, 40 years later appeared first on Boing Boing.

Seems Beverly Hills is still trying to usurp Huntington Beach's place as Southern California's MAGA safe zone.As if getting into trouble with the California DOJ for illegally interfering with the opening of a women's health clinic, Weezer's favorite city now faces a lawsuit from a longtime substitute teacher claiming she was fired for posting her opinion of an on-campus MAGA rally. - Read the rest The post Beverly Hills, fresh from blocking an abortion clinic, allegedly fires teacher for criticizing Trump appeared first on Boing Boing.

The 1960s are an endless source of fascination for me. No matter how many books I read about the decade, or the movies I watch or music I listen to, my curiosity doesn't wane. I just get more curious and want to dig deeper. - Read the rest The post A countercultural film playlist for 1960s obsessives appeared first on Boing Boing.