Boing Boing

• At least 260 coronavirus cases are traced to Sturgis motorcycle rally last month, where many didn't wear masks A Minnesota man who went to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota in August has died from COVID-19, said health officials in Minnesota on Wednesday. The Minnesotan who went to Sturgis then died of coronavirus […]

Florian Kohler from Venom Trickshots and Valerie Bedard demonstrate proper technique for jumping a ball. Valerie uses a jump cue, but it is not a requirement. After attempting to jump a ball, this DIY video may also come in handy: Image: YouTube / Venom Trickshots

YouTuber Randomonium decided to build his own invisibility shield after seeing some examples online. Based on his field testing, he was able to make a few improvements. FYI this was the video from Quantum Stealth that inspired him: Image: YouTube / Randomonium

Doctors in Germany treating Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny say he was poisoned with a novichok-class nerve agent. The conclusion sharpens suspicion of the Russian government, which developed the chemical and has used it in the past in similar attacks. Angela Merkel has demanded answers from the Kremlin over the "attempted murder" of the Russian […]

What a shot! A Ranger used a shotgun slug to break two horn-locked bucks free.

People with normal blood pressure, even people with no history of heart disease, can decrease their likelihood of having a stroke or heart disease if they reduce their blood pressure below normal levels. Scientists came to this conclusion in a study of 348,854 participants from 48 trials. The European Society of Cardiology says, "each 5 […]

Mosquitoes spread Zika, West Nile, Chikungunya, Dengue, and Malaria, resulting in 700 million illnesses a year and a million deaths. Even if you don't get sick from a mosquito bite, the blood thinner they pump into your flesh before draining your blood causes swelling and itching. This article in Smithsonian Magazine lists the factors that […]

In every high school there's always one or two guys who look like they're full-grown adults. Maybe they are! Police in Baldwin County, Georgia arrested Abay Holmes, 21, who had pretended to be a homeless 14-year-old and signed up for high school. WMAZ reported that "a woman in Milledgeville took in Holmes and he was […]

Yesterday I drove a new-to-me white 2012 Ford F150 V8 work truck from LA to San Francisco to see my daughter and deliver her bicycle plus other summer beach stuffs that were abandoned in the dead Vanagon. The truck is like a giant living room that never need stop for gas! Electra and I were […]

98 Kōshien is a high school baseball videogame released only in Japan for the PlayStation in 1998. One of the features is the ability to customize the pitchers' windups. This resulted in delightful ballets like the ones seen above and below. (via r/ObscureMedia)

"Boneless chicken wings are just chicken tenders… which are already boneless," explained Lincoln, Nebraska citizen Andrew Christensen at Monday's Lincoln City Council meeting. Here is the entire City Council meeting.

Hypotheses: 1. The seal is lazily circling a large acrylic water donut clearly made for that purpose. 2. The donut is filled with air, not water; the seal levitates.

YouTuber Brainiac75 tackles a question that lights up certain corners of the internet: are bananas and macadamia nuts radioactive? Under certain conditions (like burning them), you can up the radioactivity measurements, but beyond the general radioactivity of potassium, the unburned ones you buy at the store generally do do not have much higher than environmental […]

Icons are almost like road signs around the internet. In one tiny illustration, your eye is immediately attracted to a focal point, informed what to do next, and led to navigate in your favored direction. Whether it's a menu direction, a download function or just a visual representation, icons stand in as a kind of […]

Nick Brett somehow managed to thread the needle in this brilliant shot from the last indoor Bowls championship in Paris. The red team had effectively blocked him from a shot that would hit the yellow jack in the center. It's worth watching the relaxing first three minutes for context, but if you want to skip […]

Steve Molans of Skeptik Innovations and Infinity Illuminations tricked out his 1991 Nissan Skyline GTS-4 with two cool features: infinity mirror tail lights and a remote starter made of a repurposed Nintendo controller. Before installing your own, check your local jurisdiction to confirm that these tail lights are street legal. And check with your friends […]

Installation artist Gabriel Dawe is known for vibrant works that create rainbows using thread. He sat down with the Smithsonian to discuss his work. Below are some examples of his Plexus series from his Instagram: Image: YouTube / Smithsonian American Art Museum

Ed Markey prevailed today over Joseph Kennedy III in the Democratic Party primary in Massachussets, all but securing another term in the U.S. Senate and putting the Kennedy dynasty's political cachet to the torch. Kennedy, endorsed by Nancy Pelosi, is the first of his line to be thusly defeated in Massachussets. Markey, on the other […]

The government of Pakistan, an Islamic nation in which extramarital affairs and gay sex are illegal, has blocked five popular apps in its quest to purify the internet of the second largest Muslim-majority country. Reuters reports that the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority today sent notices to the management of five apps, Tinder, Grindr, Tagged, Skout and […]

• Court OKs Trump request to delay Manhattan's district attorney from obtaining tax records for criminal probe of business practices. A federal appeals court decision on Tuesday means that tax records for impeached U.S. President Donald Trump will not be made available any time soon to Manhattan's top prosecutor, while Trump's lawyers kick off another […]

CNET's Jesse Orrall decided to see if he could get away with "attending" Zoom meetings using only prerecorded clips. The first meeting was easy, with dozens of attendees and no expectation that he would participate, so he just used a 5-minute loop. The second one was a weekly update call where he was expected to […]

Spoken Word with Electronics is an audio series delivering to you a two side recording of unusual stories paired with vintage modular electronic sounds Welcome back to the show. This is episode 21 of SWWE, and we return after taking a five week break. The big news this episode is TEMP N TOSS, our favorite […]

Alvin Zhou make three chocolate cakes. The first one called for 20 ingredients. The second one had 10 ingredients, and the third one was make only from chocolate, eggs, (and a bit of water). Which one was the best? Spoiler – they all were!

Almost 30,000 people from around the world answered the following question on Reddit: "Non-Americans of Reddit, what is your genuine reaction to what's going on in America right now?" They mostly feel sorry for a country they once had good feelings about. Some select comments, via Digg: The US always appeared like an older, stronger […]

Bloomberg reports that Amazon delivery drivers are placing smartphones in trees near Amazon delivery stations to trick Amazon's dispatch Network into thinking the drivers are close to the stations, which means they get more delivery work. The phones in trees seem to serve as master devices that dispatch routes to multiple nearby drivers in on […]

From tiny ultra-portable models to hulking beasts with loads of extra features to units that light up like a disco ball, Bluetooth speakers have diversified over the years. Now, users can always find one that suits their specific speaker needs. Of course, that often disregards what should be the most important line on any speaker's […]

Australian comedian Greg Larsen posted a challenge on Twitter: give him the name of someone who is universally agreed upon to be evil, and he'll figure out how Fox News or Ben Shapiro or any other Right Wing pundit would defend them. The results are bleakly hilarious, if not painfully accurate. Here are a few […]

It was reported last year that Trump made an unscheduled trip to a hospital, with no credible information to be found beyond the White House's questionable claim it was for routine tests. Today, however, it emerged that Vice President Pence was placed on standby to assume command of government, suggesting at a minimum that Trump […]

YouTuber CGMatter loves this origami illusion of a T Rex that can be printed and folded, but he wanted a digital version. That turned out to be a significant challenge in blender, but he prevails in the end. The digital one looks great superimposed on a street scene! Image: YouTibe / CGMatter

Chrome paint takes a little bit of skill to do well. Australian YouTuber custompaintmods tries applying it with paintbrush, airbrush, and with various primers and topcoats, and the end results compare favorably with real chrome. One interesting quality of chrome paint is that it looks best applied over glossy black paint. Another is that is […]

Turkeys were a key herd animal of many indigenous peoples in the western hemisphere, and one of the main products was the soft feathers that could be woven into blankets. Archaeologist Mary Weahkee shows how it was done. In the video, she says that these feathers come out of turkeys without causing them to bleed. […]

From KALB in Louisiana: Louisville lawyer Sam Aguiar, one of the attorneys representing Breonna Taylor's family, said local law enforcement had tried to offer Taylor's ex-boyfriend a plea deal in exchange for him naming Taylor as a co-defendant in a drug case. A convicted drug trafficker, Jamarcus Glover was arrested on new drug charges just […]

U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Nathan Freihofer is a Tik Tok star with 3 million followers. After the 23-year-old field artillery officer delivered a humorless "joke" about the holocaust in his annoying narcissist hyena voice, the army took immediate action, suspending him from duty and launching an investigation. In the short video, Freihofer said he would […]

While many birds have iridescence that is visible to humans, many also have colorful markings visible under ultraviolet light. Via Atlas Obscura: Studies have shown that seeing in UV helps birds with all kinds of tasks, from finding food to differentiating their own eggs from those of nest parasites. Some, like grouses, use it to more […]

During quarantine, amateur Belgian luthier tchicks' local lumber store was closed, so as a challenge, he made his third guitar from a shelf: This is my third guitar build, handcrafted in Brussels, Belgium. I used wood from a shelf to make the body, not only because Brian May is my hero, but mostly because the […]

It was the best of vans, It was the worst of vans. From Vancouver to Los Cabos, I explored the west coast of North America in that van. My daughter's childhood memories will be filled with camping trips all over Northern California in that van. She named it Serendipity and stuck each sticker on the […]

The charcoal-drawing artist Nokis Art [Facebook, YouTube] did this beautiful tribute to the late actor Chadwick Boseman of 'Black Panther' fame. Chadwick Boseman died of cancer at age 43, an announcement shared to his Twitter account on August 29 read. "He died in his home with his wife and family by his side," read the […]

If you're a fan of edibles, then you already know this, but for everybody else, a look at the price of some standard edibles might shock you. Depending on the dosage, an edible baked good is often about $15 to $20. A weed-infused lollipop is $10 to $12. And a pound of butter with a […]

Oh they REALLY want you to start flying again. We may be witnessing the end of the $200 ticket-change fees that U.S. airline travelers have hated for at least a decade. Delta Air Lines and American Airlines both said Monday they will drop the $200 fee that applied to changes on most tickets for most […]

The government of Donald Trump says it has recovered about 70% of those $1200 federal pandemic relief checks that were mistakenly sent to dead people. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Monday the Treasury Department told GAO that roughly 70% of the $1.6 billion in economic stimulus checks mailed to dead people has now been […]

U.S. regulatory approval for UAV delivery tests brings Amazon Prime Air closer to goal of delivery times under 30 minutes Amazon.com said Monday its drone-based delivery service has received approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that allows the company to start testing commercial deliveries with its UAV fleet. Amazon Prime Air is the […]

It's just been revealed in a (must-read) Los Angeles Times article that Devo cofounder Mark Mothersbaugh spent his summer battling COVID-19. He was not only isolated from his family for three months but the virus caused him to have delusions while hospitalized. Los Angeles Times: Mothersbaugh's delusions lasted more than two weeks during his time […]

Porn actor Ron Jeremy was charged with rape and sexual assault earlier this year. Today he was charged with 17 more counts along similar lines, including one alleged victim who was only 15 years old. The number of charges and their severity could send Jeremy, 67, to jail for the rest of his life. The […]

You may not be a fan of paper straws. And honestly, we don't blame you. They're almost universally ill-equipped to handle their one job. But as sub-par as most paper straws are, most of us would agree they're better than the usual alternative. Single-use plastic straws are part of a plastic scourge that has landfills […]

Police come out, hand woman an inflatable sausage, then arrest her. pic.twitter.com/zTa8ht8rED — Soundtrack to the End (@_WhatRiot) August 31, 2020 In this footage, police approach a protestor in the street. One offers her a large inflatable sausage. When she accepts it, she is arrested.

I really like my Wera slotted screwdriver. I get plenty of torque with the grippy, well-shaped handle, and the hard tip shows no signs of wear. The little one I bought is very cheap, too!

Monopoly is just such a beautifully designed game. The orange and yellow cards with the iconic temporarily embarrassed millionaire. The cast metal player tokens, the green houses and red hotels. The attractively colored currency. What a shame the game is not very much fun to play. Has anyone created a set of rules that makes […]

If you use Blender, "give your textures and models a knitted yarn look" with the new "Wooly" shader that makes anything fluffy. A shader changes the surface appearance of an object or scene; procedural refers to a programming technique that creates a convincing illusion of natural or random origin. Here's video of it in action:

I watch a lot of explaining videos, and Technology Connections makes some of the best. The host is knowledgeable, explains things clearly, and is funny, to boot. And this episode he talks about retroreflectors, which are reflective surfaces that send light back to its source with very little scattering. This is very useful for road […]

Paramecia are tiny near-animals that feed on algae, yeast, and bacteria. Journey to the Microcosmos put its new microscope to good use making a short film about one of paramecia's foes, a bacteria called Holospora, which infect paramecia and make their way to its nuclei.