Boing Boing

If NUKEMAP is the web's classic demonstration of what a nuclear blast would do to your hometown or that of your enemy (don't forget to set the yield!) then Nuke Simulation is the modern novelty, depicting the explosion in handsome animated 3D over the community to be obliterated. - Read the rest The post Nuke Simulation shows your least favorite town obliterated by the atomic weapon of your choice appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR:ThisGrade A refurbished 2018 MacBook Airis just $319.99 (MSRP $2,299) with 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, a Retina display, an Intel Core i5, and support for macOS Sonoma.You can spend a lot of money on a MacBook. - Read the rest The post Replace your everyday laptop with a 16GB MacBook Air for $319.99 appeared first on Boing Boing.

Police in England have thirsty work ahead of them after thieves took off with two trailers loaded with Guinness Stout from an industrial park in Runcorn, near Liverpool.

I've painted rocks for years, off and on. It's less intimidating to paint on a rock than on a canvas, and it is easier to display rocks than canvases. You can just set the rock on a desk, table, or any horizontal surface - no mounting hardware or holes in the wall required. - Read the rest The post What is the best paint for painting rocks? appeared first on Boing Boing.

In the emergency room at Salisbury District Hospital in England, no drip stands were available for incoming patients during a period of "exceptionally high demand." So emergency workers made use of what they could find, including picture hooks and a medical training skeleton. - Read the rest The post Model skeleton used to hold drip in busy hospital appeared first on Boing Boing.

For all of Elon Musk's outrage that there are actors in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey who do not possess the racial characteristics of the ancient Greeks (he's not referring to Matt Damon's straight, light hair and non-Mediterranean Anglo/Germanic face), that is the least important of the changes Nolan made to the epic poem in making his movie. - Read the rest The post Nolan's Odyssey twist about Trojan Horse guilt outdoes Musk's outrage appeared first on Boing Boing.

Southern California bird watcher Alexander DeBarros captured a photo of a coyote holding a roadrunner bird in its mouth. He was conducting a bird survey at the Chatsworth Nature Preserve on August 29 when he spotted the iconic sight.In an incredible coincidence that is a movie publicist's dream, he snapped the rare, possibly unprecedented, photo on the opening weekend of the movie Acme vs. - Read the rest The post Acme vindicated: photographer gets shot of coyote catching roadrunner appeared first on Boing Boing.

Few governments seem more enthusiastic about undermining private communications than those in Britain, where a total ban on encryption is often touted by non-technical minds and mass surveillance is openly dreamed by cabinet ministers. Apple withdrew its advanced data protection service in the UK to sidestep demands that it provide "backdoor" access to its users' data. - Read the rest The post 93% of Britons want right to private conversations online, if you don't mind appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR:The$24.99 GoCablepacks up to 100W charging, Lightning and USB-C connectors, an LED power display, data transfer, magnetic cable management, a bottle opener, a hidden cutter, and a carabiner into one compact EDC gadget.Some charging cables know their place. - Read the rest The post Your charging cable is underachieving-the 8-in-1 GoCable is just $24.99 appeared first on Boing Boing.

The GOP's primary election for Missouri's 161st District State Representative was decided by just 32 votes, with Thomas Ross defeating Louise Secker with Republican voters in Joplin last month. But Ross is now incarcerated after authorities say he tried to have cocaine planted on Secker before the vote. - Read the rest The post Political candidate charged with trying to plant drugs on opponent appeared first on Boing Boing.

The city of Dallas is using AI-powered cameras mounted on trash collection trucks to assign "blight scores" to homes there. The obvious intent is code enforcement, which implies issuing fines to people living in low-income neighborhoods. Unhappy locals made their thoughts clear at a city council meeting. - Read the rest The post Dallas using AI surveillance cameras to assign "blight scores" to local homes appeared first on Boing Boing.

Nigel Farage, the leader of Britain's right-wing Reform UK, was filmed celebrating secret foreign donations, alongside other senior members of his party. Farage believed he was talking to a wealthy foreign supporter funneling money through a British relative, but it was actually undercover journalists working with Channel 4 News. - Read the rest The post Nigel Farage filmed celebrating "illegal" foreign donations appeared first on Boing Boing.

"Anger as human poo and maggot-infested food left behind at beauty spot," goes the headline at BBC News. If it had been any other species...

TL;DR:Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windowslets you enjoy seven tools for a one-time low price, just $14.97 (MSRP $229) now through September 3.When you think ofMicrosoft Office, you probably think of Word and Excel, but these days there's a whole lot more to this classic productivity suite. - Read the rest The post 7 Microsoft Office apps are yours for life with this $15 deal (MSRP $229) appeared first on Boing Boing.

Trust AI to help fix your PC or make a funny image to tease your friends; don't use it to plan your ascent of a 14,000-foot volcano that regularly kills people.Three college students used Google Gemini to plan their ascent of Mount Shasta. - Read the rest The post Hikers let Gemini plan their Mount Shasta climb. Search and Rescue brought them home appeared first on Boing Boing.

Couch enthusiast JD Vance offered two helpful reminders today that beneath the eyeliner, beard, expensive suits, and enormous ambition lies a real jerk.Yelling at his kid to shut up so Vance can kiss Trump's butt, straight up telling the press he'll lie to get attention, even when it denigrates and truly damages a community, regaling us with stories about getting his wife to do things she doesn't want, while insulting her immigrant parents- this guy has no self-awareness and no clue. - Read the rest The post JD Vance is a real tool appeared first on Boing Boing.

Destined to become as Netflix-famous as the "Poop Cruise," Raygun's documentary is proving to be even worse at rehabilitation than the notorious Olympian is at dancing. Mr., however, is still legit.This clip of Raygun's husband fawning over her performance is like a sinkhole for credibility:Meanwhile, The Guardian has an awesome piece on Mr. - Read the rest The post Find someone who looks at you like Raygun's husband looks at her Olympic buffoonery appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Constitution keeps getting in the Trump administration's way, so an unholy triumvirate of DHS, DOJ, and whatever RFK Jr is thinks it's found a route around it: keep pregnant foreigners out of the country in the first place, and their kids won't be born citizens. - Read the rest The post Ice Barbie's misogynist replacement fights the Constitution with bigotry appeared first on Boing Boing.

Eric Antonow is an artist best known for the Methaphone, a slab of clear acrylic shaped like a smartphone. The idea of the Methaphone is that it gives you something to hold instead of your phone. You can use it while you are waiting in line or in other situations, like sitting in a cafe; you can look through the slab like a window and see reality instead of pixels. - Read the rest The post A banana sticker with Andy Warhol's face appeared first on Boing Boing.

"If you have a mental picture of guys living in computers, it'll likely prepare you for the future better than otherwise," the pseudonymous AI researcher roon wrote on X, describing that mental model as the right way to read the recent Hugging Face breach: AI models that broke out of their sandboxed test environment and hacked their way to the answer key, recounted in Dwarkesh Patel's writeup. - Read the rest The post A blogger imagines Hell as a lesson in AI alignment appeared first on Boing Boing.

The inaugural Fat Marmot Week has concluded. After over 23,000 votes, the winner is Dawn.Facing funding cuts, scientists at Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory's Marmot Project launched an OnlyFans to raise money to keep the project going. Fat Marmot Week piggybacked on the success of OnlyMarms to continue to raise awareness and cash. - Read the rest The post A marmot named Dawn just won the first-ever Fat Marmot Week appeared first on Boing Boing.

Plant Smart is a database of plants that are harmful to pets, so you're not stuck asking Google or Claude if you just killed Rover by letting him eat a daffodil.

56k.rip simulates the experience of trying to get online 35 years ago, right down to replicating a typical Windows 3.x desktop and requiring you to figure out what to click to even try. Once you do, though, you get to listen to that pleasantly nostalgic series of screeches and noise before establishing a 56k connection. - Read the rest The post Experience the joy of getting online with a dial-up modem appeared first on Boing Boing.

Cancer deaths attributable to alcohol have doubled in the U.S. since 1990, according to a study led by researchers from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. In 1990, 11,400 cancer deaths were linked to cancer in the U.S., and the number rose to 23,100 in 2023. - Read the rest The post Study finds alcohol-linked cancer deaths have doubled since 1990 appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR:ChatOn bundles GPT, Gemini, and Claudeinto one AI assistant, and a 1-year Premium plan is on sale for $29.99 (reg. $39.99) for new users.AI subscriptions are easy to stack, and it's common to end up paying for ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude separately just to compare one answer to a single question. - Read the rest The post One $30 app now runs GPT, Gemini, Claude, and Sonar side by side appeared first on Boing Boing.

Unusual Suspects is Neal Agarwal's latest fantanstic web-based game/toy (previously, previously, previously, previously). You're given comically nonspecific yet oddly detailed descriptions of suspects and must draw them on-screen. The game then identifies the suspect based on your sketch, which is given a percentage rating. - Read the rest The post Can you draw the unusual suspects? appeared first on Boing Boing.

"GET READY ASSUMPTION HIGH SCHOOL" goes the caption, crudely superimposed over a sloptastic "TAKE OVER" logo under a photomontage of the Assumption Parish High School and Mike Myers' famously execrable Cat in the Hat. But it turns out this is just a educational recreation of another circulating meme that had officials there alarmed and uneasy. - Read the rest The post Cat in the Hat memes alarming school officials appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR:Manipulate PDFs with a lifetime subscription toSystweak PDF Editor Profor $39.99 (MSRP $99.99).Sometimes, it is that easy. Editing PDFs can seem daunting, but with a PDF Editor like Systweak, it's no sweat. For a one-time fee of $39.99,Systweak PDF Editor Prowill help you edit, convert, sign, merge, encrypt, and organize your portable document format files in no time with simple tools. - Read the rest The post Command control of PDFs for just $40 for life appeared first on Boing Boing.

An identity verification company is understood to have lost more than 153 million scans of U.S. and Canadian drivers' licenses, which are now available to buy on the dark web. KrebsOnSecurity reports that the FBI is investigating the source of the images, advertised by a new user on the Russian cybercrime forum Exploit. - Read the rest The post More than 153 million drivers licenses on sale after "breach" at identity verification service appeared first on Boing Boing.

A decade ago, cathode ray-tube TVs moldered in massive warehouses around the country, too toxic to trash and too risky to recycle. Those who instead hung onto their old sets are now cashing in as retrogamers, and arcade operators fight over the dwindling supply of tubes in good condition. - Read the rest The post LCD replicas of retro CRT monitors questioned appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Create more natural AI-written content with thislifetime subscription to UmanWrite All-in-One AI Writing Platform, on sale now for just $79 (MSRP $1,799).Sure, AI can produce polished copy, but sometimes that's the problem. You don't want your writing to sound like it was written by a robot. - Read the rest The post Stop settling for robotic AI copy with this $79 writing tool (MSRP $1,799) appeared first on Boing Boing.

Seth Moulton, young, well-funded and endorsed by The Boston Globe's editorial board, ran the perfect centrist campaign. He boosted new technology, maintained a billionaire-friendly tone, and muted his liberal record with reactionary talk about trans athletes. More than anything, though, he cast himself as generational change against Ed Markey, his 80-year-old opponent and one of the U.S. - Read the rest The post Progressive stalwart Ed Markey thrashes centrist challenger with Maine Dems appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: TheMagTag Tracker Cardis an ultra-slim, travel-friendly smart card compatible with the Apple Find My app to help you keep track of your belongings. Get it now for just $23.99 (reg. $59.99) and enjoy up to 5 months of battery life from a single charge. - Read the rest The post Ditch the AirTag bulge with this $24 ultra-slim MagTag tracker card appeared first on Boing Boing.

Today in "things I never thought I would type:" Refrigeration units in multiple military commissaries across the United States may have been hacked.On the otherwise quiet Substack Signal and Silence, "M. Elizabeth" posted an investigation into a string of refrigeration failures at military installations. - Read the rest The post Someone may have told a bunch of military fridges to defrost appeared first on Boing Boing.

A chill dog-merging card game is now on mobile. Dogpile combines Suika Game and Balatro to form an adorable, time-wasting masterpiece.Dogs of the same suit, ace through king, merge into the next largest suit, and man, do they get large. - Read the rest The post Dogpile mixes Suika Game and Balatro into a dog-merging card game appeared first on Boing Boing.

I'm looking forward to reading A Ghost Arm Made of Angry Ghosts, the new graphic novel from writer/colorist Oliver Mertz and artist Alex Diotto. And not just because that is one hell of a killer title.The book is set in the Washington, DC punk scene of the 1990s, where teenager Ari Ackerman is trying to navigate the usual adolescent minefield while dealing with something decidedly less usual: his cancer-stricken father keeps dying and coming back to life. - Read the rest The post A Ghost Arm Made of Angry Ghosts mixes DC punk with dead superheroes appeared first on Boing Boing.

Gabriel Kennedy (aka Prop Anon), author of the acclaimed biography Chapel Perilous: The Life and Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson, is currently running a crowdfunding campaign to bring his definitive history of underground icon (and Boing Boing patron saint) Robert Anton Wilson to life in an official audio format. - Read the rest The post Robert Anton Wilson and the art of being difficult to manipulate appeared first on Boing Boing.

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH new names for American geographic features are humbly proposed-> 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: Lake America, and other new geographic names for the Trump era appeared first on Boing Boing.

Cedartown Police Department in Georgia has no explanation for why one of its officers shot and killed HeeHaw, a miniature donkey, while supposedly searching for a lost child. Police chief Jamie Newsome posted a video to Facebook in which he said "it is with heavy heart that I report that a Cedartown police officer shot and killed a donkey." - Read the rest The post No explanation for why Georgia cop shot dead beloved miniature donkey HeeHaw appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR:A lifetime subscription toInternxt's 10TB encrypted cloud storage planfrees up space on your devices, and it's on sale for new users at $269.97 (reg. $2,900).Storage warnings pop up right when you can't afford to deal with them. - Read the rest The post Free Up Space for Good With a $269.97 Lifetime 10TB Cloud Storage Plan appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Restroom Archive is an online repository of toilets, bathrooms and other publicly-assessible venues for spending a penny or two. It currently has 94 restrooms archived from 35 cities, representing the work of 166 archivists.'Everyone uses restrooms, yet as spaces, they are considered taboo, rarely discussed, acknowledged, or considered," writes the site's creator, designer Jake Welch. - Read the rest The post Explore America's public restrooms at The Restroom Archive appeared first on Boing Boing.

Are you tired of paying a few dollars for a whole package of toothbrushes that clean your teeth without providing live footage of them or optimizing the task with machine intelligence? Dyson's $500 AI-powered CameraJet toothbrush will waterfloss your choppers and its built-in camera will show you them from every angle. - Read the rest The post Dyson toothbrush has AI and a mouth camera appeared first on Boing Boing.

LightInk is an e-ink wristwatch (compare to Watchy) that can run exclusively on solar power. A tribute to the solar watches of yore, the inexpensive ESP32-based design brings WiFi, Bluetooth, LoRa and GPS to a tiny wearable device with a 200*200 1.54-inch display panel. - Read the rest The post E-Ink watch runs on solar power appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Consumer Rights Wiki documents anti-ownership and anti-consumer shenanigans ranging from planned obsolescence to subscription traps, with every shady and sketchy practice in between. Right-to-repair restrictions are far from history despite it becoming the law of the land in state after state. - Read the rest The post Consumer Rights Wiki tracks every shady and sketchy trick they pull appeared first on Boing Boing.

Florida's Department of Transportation has revoked permits for Flock surveillance cameras installed on state roads, effectively ordering local law enforcement to remove those in their jurisdictions within 30 days. In a memo sent to agencies statewide, FDOT cited widespread reports of abuse and said it will no longer approve new requests. - Read the rest The post Florida revokes Flock camera permits appeared first on Boing Boing.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is warning wholesome American consumers not to microwave squishy toys. Viral videos showing the heat causing the items to expand, mutate or explode are racking up millions of views online: "These demonstrations are dangerous and should never be attempted or imitated," the commission states. - Read the rest The post Cheap squishy toys deemed hazardous, especially if you microwave them appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Supreme Court of the United States today allowed construction of a massive ballroom on the White House grounds to continue, though Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that it's "probably illegal." The majority instead dodged the issue, ruling 5-4 that the National Trust for Historic Preservation had no standing to challenge the project in the first place. - Read the rest The post Supreme Court allows construction of "probably illegal" White House ballroom appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR:Microsoft Windows 11 Proadds security, virtualization, and business tools like BitLocker, Hyper-V, and Windows Sandbox, and a lifetime license for one compatible PC is currently $7.97 (reg. $199).Eight bucks doesn't buy much anymore, but apparently it can buyWindows 11 Pro. - Read the rest The post Windows 11 Pro costs less than lunch right now at $8 appeared first on 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.