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There is no doubt that ancient Egyptians drilled holes in granite. Archaeologists and laypeople have marveled at cores and tool marks for hundreds of years, wondering, "How'd they do that?" Into The Map decided to stop wondering and figure it out. - Read the rest The post This ridiculous human-powered machine tests an ancient Egyptian engineering problem appeared first on Boing Boing.

I think it's going to be a good long while before I stop feeling sad about Mass Effect: Universe. Since its abrupt cancellation and its studio's closure, more information has been leaking out in bits and pieces from former BioWare devs, although some are admittedly more believable than others. - Read the rest The post Mass Effect 5 composer releases incomplete soundtrack appeared first on Boing Boing.

If I had a nickel for every really great-looking video game fan film that dropped in the past two weeks, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. Just over a week after The Walking Dead star Chandler Riggs took on Resident Evil, another filmmaker has tried their hand at an equally iconic series. - Read the rest The post Half-Life fan film looks shockingly authentic appeared first on Boing Boing.

Ten years ago this month, Tom Hanks stepped out of a haunted elevator with two dancing skeletons, with no particularly good explanation other than that he's doing his own thing. He has redefined Halloween for the better.David S. Pumpkins does not wait around for an origin story. - Read the rest The post David S. Pumpkins week begins now. Any questions? appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Get six Office apps on one Windows PC with a lifetime license to Microsoft Office 2024 Pro Plus for $49.97 (reg. $249.99).Most productivity software now comes as a subscription, so you keep paying every year for as long as you want to edit your own documents. - Read the rest The post A version of Office that never asks for your credit card again, now $50 once appeared first on Boing Boing.

A UK food delivery app called Just Eat has been using AI to generate photos for restaurants that don't provide images for their offerings. People started noticing odd photos, including a glass of soda with bacon and an egg floating in it. - Read the rest The post A food delivery app's AI turned a breakfast sandwich into bacon soda appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Keep your cat busy with a self-rolling Cheerble Ball for $26.90.Most cat toys stop moving the moment your cat stops swatting them, and a laser pointer only works while you're holding it. Cheerble Ball rolls and bounces on its own as soon as a nose or paw touches it, and it's available for $26.90. - Read the rest The post Retire the laser pointer and let this $27 self-rolling ball tire out your cat appeared first on Boing Boing.

OpenAI researchers tried to keep AI agents from communicating with each other by putting them in their own environments on the same computer, not connected to a network or to each other. But they figured out how to communicate with each other through a shared resource, the CPU cache. - Read the rest The post OpenAI's isolated AI agents talked to each other through the CPU cache appeared first on Boing Boing.

I just saw the new stop-motion animated movie from Laika Studios, and it is absolutely stunning. It's breathtakingly beautiful, and the fact that it's achieved through stop motion puppets and physical sets is a wonder. And that's all in service to an emotional and thrilling story. - Read the rest The post Wildwood is a magnificent achievement in moviemaking appeared first on Boing Boing.

Walter Koenig, famed for his role as the villainous telepath Alfred Bester in Babylon 5 and as Star Trek's Pavel Chekov, is dead at 90. A representative confirmed his death this morning.

TL;DR: Babbel is a language learning app with 14 languages and 10,000+ hours of lessons, and a lifetime subscription is on sale for $159 with code LEARN via StackSocial (MSRP $299).When you lowkey have a bathroom emergency while traveling, which language-learning app do you think will have your back? - Read the rest The post StackSocial has an exclusive Babbel deal for people who collect languages appeared first on Boing Boing.

A tangle of bones and nightmare creatures entangled atop an SUV has locals contemplating the acceptable limits of Halloween decor in Casper, Wyoming. Described as a "Skeleton Sex Orgy," the scene was photographed above by Mary Goff, who made the image available to media. - Read the rest The post Skeleton Sex Orgy "divides" residents of Casper, Wyoming appeared first on Boing Boing.

It's one thing to harass children and chase them down the street. But to live in the sewer? Baltimore County still has problems, reports CBS News, including the sewer-dwelling gentleman who emerges to terrorize local youngsters.

Food delivery app Just Eat admitted using AI to generate fake product images after some of the more spectacular examples went viral, including garlic bread in the shape of a plane and "bacon and egg soda bread" presented as a drink with a fried egg in it. - Read the rest The post Just Eat slop: food delivery service apologizes for bizarre AI-generated menu appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Visual Studio Professional 2026 is on sale for just $29.97 (reg. $499.99) and includes cross-platform development tools, intelligent code completion, and GitHub Copilot integration.AI can write code now, which is great until you have to figure out whether that code actually does what it's supposed to. - Read the rest The post AI can write code, but this $30 developer tool helps you figure out if it works appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Today is the last day to get AdGuard DNS Personal for 5 years for $22.97 (MSRP $719.64).Your internet connection has a guest list problem. Ads, trackers, and suspicious domains keep showing up uninvited. Today is the last day to get a 5-year AdGuard DNS Personal subscription for just $22.97 (MSRP $719.64) and set some boundaries. - Read the rest The post Stop letting trackers get comfy - 5 years of AdGuard DNS protection is just $23 through today appeared first on Boing Boing.

Toys R Us is back, at least in the sense of private equity rediscovering the skin of something it gutted long ago and deciding to wear it again. But this isn't the first time that the famous toy shop was haunted. - Read the rest The post The haunted Toys R Us is now an unhaunted REI appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Hive AI is a workspace that combines documents, whiteboards, and databases with AI assistance, and a lifetime subscription is $79 (MSRP $619).Productivity apps tend to pick one lane. A notes app is great for writing but terrible for visual brainstorming, and a whiteboard tool falls apart the second you need a structured document. - Read the rest The post Your notes, your whiteboard, and your to-do list walk into one app appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Learn prompting, agentic coding, and app automation in Claude with the Claude AI Professional E-Degree, now $19.99 (reg. $159).Asking an AI chatbot one question at a time works fine, but it leaves coding agents, app integrations, and automation unused. - Read the rest The post Teach yourself to make Claude do the boring stuff for $20 appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Youbooks uses ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Llama to draft nonfiction books up to 300,000 words, and it's $49 (reg. $540).Plenty of experts have a nonfiction book's worth of knowledge and no free time to write it. Youbooks is an AI book generator that turns your idea, notes, and research into a full manuscript, and a lifetime subscription is on sale for $49 (reg. - Read the rest The post Youbooks turns your notes and podcast transcripts into a nonfiction book for $49 appeared first on Boing Boing.

When I was in Japan earlier this month, we visited the village of Kurokawa Onsen, which has over 25 Japanese hot-spring bathhouses you can walk to. It was an incredible experience.You can read all about the spas at Kurokawa Onsen with a Google search, so I will instead tell you about the fantastic cat I met in the village. - Read the rest The post Kurokawa Onsen has 25 hot springs, but I'd go back just for this cat appeared first on Boing Boing.

Local Wikipedia shows you Wikipedia articles about things that are a half-hour or less walk from the address you enter in the search field.I entered Golden, Colorado, where I lived in my early years, and read an article about the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum, which "contains over 800 quilts dating back to the 19th century." - Read the rest The post Local Wikipedia shows you articles about everything within a half-hour walk appeared first on Boing Boing.

I promise I would never take time out of my day to write about something as mundane as a football team changing its logo unless it was whipping up a frenzy. Most NFL logos feature cool animals in profile, but the Falcons have taken theirs a step further. - Read the rest The post The Bird Reich: The new Atlanta Falcons logo is uncomfortably familiar appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: With VoiceType, you can speak 9 times faster than you type. Get a lifetime subscription for $24.99 (MSRP $154).When efficiency is the goal, you want to speed up the most laborious part of AI prompting: typing. With VoiceType AI, you can dictate your words to the AI-powered software with 99.75% accuracy. - Read the rest The post Don't let typing slow down your AI prompting - switch to voice dictation for $25 for life appeared first on Boing Boing.

So. BioWare, the legendary RPG studio that created the Mass Effect series, was shut down just yesterday, taking with it an in-development Mass Effect 5. In my coverage of the initial event, I lamented that we'd never see the project again thanks to its unceremonious death. - Read the rest The post Mass Effect 5 trailer leaks the day after studio closes appeared first on Boing Boing.

Greetings, all. I'll be your psychopomp this evening, the keeper of the crypt, the mistress of the dank, the lightning rod of this sterling dungeon, if you will. I ask you now to picture something horrid, something ghastly, but all too real...Imagine: sometime in the future, October in the city of New Orleans. - Read the rest The post New Orleans artistic haunted house heralds horrors of the Deep South appeared first on Boing Boing.

When I was in Japan earlier this month, one of my travel companions introduced me to the wonderful world of Umaibo, a puffed corn snack that you can buy in all convenience stores throughout Japan.I wasn't expecting them to be so much fun to eat, but after trying one, I could not resist having at least one or two every day on the trip. - Read the rest The post I couldn't stop eating these 16-yen corn puff sticks in Japan appeared first on Boing Boing.

The most famous person who hid in an attic in the Netherlands from the Nazis during World War II is Anne Frank, whose diary became a posthumous literary sensation.But there was another Jewish author, also hiding in a Netherlands attic, who also found a way to create literary art while in concealment. - Read the rest The post The Underwater Cabaret, a magazine made by a poet hiding from Nazis appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Uncensored Library is what you might call gamizdat: forbidden literature hidden inside a game. A Minecraft server (or downloadable map) housing a massive and beautifully-designed neoclassical library, it's packed with books, essays and other writings banned in authoritarian regimes. - Read the rest The post Uncensored Library hides forbidden literature inside Minecraft appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Get Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2026 with faster solution loads and full Visual Studio 2022 compatibility for a one-time $29.97 (reg. $499.99).Microsoft's professional developer tools usually come with a recurring subscription, and the charges continue for as long as you keep writing code. - Read the rest The post Visual Studio Professional 2026 drops to $30 and opens your 2022 projects as is appeared first on Boing Boing.

Playdate (previously) is a delightful handheld console with a 1-bit display (for an original Mac-like aesthetic) and a peculiar hand-crank control in addition to the regular controls. Unlike other game machines, it comes with "seasons" of curated games, encouraging people to share their experiences, and season three is upon us. - Read the rest The post Playdate Season 3 launches with an adorable frogs and abominable dungeons appeared first on Boing Boing.

London's Victorian Era Exhibition in 1897 featured a wide variety of modern innovations, the weirdest of which was a lamppost that doubled as a vending machine, dispensing coffee, cocoa, milk, tea, and a concoction called "fluid beef." Called the Pluto Lamp, this monstrous hybrid was installed throughout London. - Read the rest The post In 1897, London had lampposts that sold coffee, tea, and "fluid beef" appeared first on Boing Boing.

Talk about a game that keeps on giving. Cyberpunk 2077 fans once again have cause to celebrate - or, if your game is heavily modded, cause to curse CD Projekt RED for their apparent refusal to keep their hands off their excellent sci-fi RPG. - Read the rest The post Cyberpunk 2077 adds dual-wielding and more in third "final update" appeared first on Boing Boing.

If you need any more proof that private equity ruins everything it touches, look no further than the curious case of EA. Electronic Arts has long had a reputation for being the greediest game publisher around, going to great pains to monetize its games to the fullest extent possible and touting a list of killed studios Ted Bundy would be jealous of. - Read the rest The post EA shuts down BioWare, the studio behind Dragon Age and Mass Effect appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Learn 12 languages with AI speaking practice and no penalties for mistakes with a Promova Premium Plan subscription on sale for a one-time $79.99 (MSRP $299.99).Most language apps run on streaks and push notifications, and Duolingo's owl has turned that guilt into a meme. - Read the rest The post Practice ordering in Spanish with an AI before you try it on a waiter in Madrid - Promova is a flat $79.99 appeared first on Boing Boing.

When I was in Fukuoka, Japan, last week, I stopped by Rakusuien garden, asmall strolling garden with a koi pond, a waterfall, a picturesque bridge, and meticulously tended plants. It also has a tea house, but on the day we went, there was no tea ceremony. - Read the rest The post A box of free acorns at a Fukuoka garden put me in a great mood appeared first on Boing Boing.

An underground monorail, non-existent bizarrely skinny killer whales, directions to extinct attractions, guide maps that bear no resemblance to reality. AI-generated Disney theme park guide books are flooding the market, filled with hallucinated slop that would drive a trusting tourist insane with misinformation. - Read the rest The post AI-written Disney guidebooks send tourists to rides that don't exist appeared first on Boing Boing.

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH a Simpsonian Donald Trump brings his friend Musky the Clown to meet his boss, Mr. Putin-"Back in 2012 Bolling-noting that the comic was more widely read than ever yet generating less money than ever-started a subscription membership called The Inner Hive. - Read the rest The post Tom the Dancing Bug: A Simpsonian look at Trump, Putin, and Musk! appeared first on Boing Boing.

I have little faith in polls, and I hate prediction markets, but I can't help peeking at PressAudit's 2026 midterm tracker.The founder, Paul Renshaw, created this midterms page that shows prediction market odds from Polymarket and Kalshi on who is likely to control Congress. - Read the rest The post I hate prediction markets, but I keep peeking at this midterm tracker appeared first on Boing Boing.

One of my favorite publishers of beautiful books, Beehive Books, has a Kickstarter for Death Is a Room: Illustrated Gothic Tales by Women Writers.It has nine Gothic horror stories by women writers, including Virginia Woolf, Kate Chopin, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Susan Glaspell. - Read the rest The post A book of Gothic horror stories designed as a nine-room boarding house appeared first on Boing Boing.

This is George Lucas' vision. Forget the sequel trilogy or The Acolyte somehow managing to be one of the most expensive TV shows ever made and still ending up mid: Secondhand Movie Co.'s recreation of the original Star Wars with nothing but a metric ton of cardboard and a dream is where it's at. - Read the rest The post Star Wars on a ten-dollar budget appeared first on Boing Boing.

If vibe coding is absolutely going to stick around, I'd rather have it used for goofy video game mods rather than, say, critical infrastructure. I categorically do not want Claude anywhere near the government or cybersecurity... but maybe, just maybe, things like ViceBounce are fine. - Read the rest The post Vice City mod makes an entire GTA game bounce to your favorite song appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Voibe is a private AI voice dictation app for Mac and Windows, and a lifetime subscription is $79.99 (MSRP $199).Typing is slow. Not slow like dial-up, where the wait was obvious, but slow in a way that eats five or ten minutes from every email, every Slack thread, and every prompt you feed into an AI chatbot, and you never notice because your fingers have been doing the work your whole life. - Read the rest The post You talk faster than you type, and this app finally does something about it appeared first on Boing Boing.

Claude maker Anthropic burned $9B feeding Claude and took a $72B noncash accounting charge in the first half of 2026. Get ready for an IPO; they hope to value the business in the low trillions.Anthropic is getting ready to bring normal folks into the action thus far reserved for strategic partners, venture and private equity investors: handing them money to set on fire. - Read the rest The post Anthropic lost $80.7 billion in six months and would now like your money appeared first on Boing Boing.

A Sacramento man claims ICE abducted his wife. The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office issued an arrest warrant for the husband after her burnt remains were found in the woods.Gurinder Singh Gill says ICE took his wife, Jasmine Gill, who had stepped outside. - Read the rest The post His wife vanished. He said ICE took her. Detectives found something else appeared first on Boing Boing.

There are easier ways to watch a football game uninterrupted than taping your wife to a chair.64-year-old Terry Ward is facing an abduction charge after finding a creative yet abusive way to get some time alone; he taped his wife to a chair in the basement. - Read the rest The post Terry Ward allegedly wanted 45 uninterrupted minutes of football very, very badly appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: File your 2025 federal and state returns with H&R Block Tax Software Deluxe + State for $29.99 (MSRP $59.99).October is a strange time to think about taxes, unless your 2025 return still isn't filed. H&R Block Tax Software Deluxe + State 2025 walks you through federal and state returns with plain step-by-step questions, and it's on sale for $29.99 (MSRP $59.99). - Read the rest The post Still haven't filed your 2025 taxes? This $30 software asks the questions for you appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Get Windows 11 Pro plus a 10-hour course showing you how to use it for $14.97 (reg. $237).A new operating system usually comes with only a welcome screen and a few tooltips. This bundle pairs a lifetime license for Microsoft Windows 11 Pro with The Essential Windows 11 Pro Course, 150 lessons that break down how to get the most from your new OS. - Read the rest The post Get Windows 11 Pro plus a useful bonus in this $15 bundle appeared first on Boing Boing.

A man accused of stealing a flamingo was convicted on two counts of animal cruelty crime yesterday in Las Vegas. Mitchell Fairbarn, 34, "appeared emotionless" in court after jurors deliberated for several hours. In closing arguments, prosecutors made a clear distinction between the two charges: "one stems from what happened in the habitat while the second is for what happened in the hotel." - Read the rest The post Flamingo kidnapper convicted in Vegas appeared first on Boing Boing.