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Updated 2026-08-31 23:53
Never lose your wallet again with this $32 smart tracker
TL;DR: Never lose your wallet or ID cards again with thisGen 3, 1-pack KeySmart SmartCardfor just $31.99 (reg. $39.99).TheKeySmart SmartCard is a credit-card-thin, IPX8 waterproof, rechargeable smartcardthat works with Apple Find My or Google Find to help you keep track of your belongings. - Read the rest The post Never lose your wallet again with this $32 smart tracker appeared first on Boing Boing.
Meta pays 16.2 million accounts, including neo-Nazi-linked pages
Meta is paying for posts that appear to break its own rules, according to an ABC (Australia) New Verify investigation by Lucy Carter. The report cites four accounts that have received payment from Facebook's invitation-only Content Monetization program, including a white nationalist with neo-Nazi links and an anti-vaccine campaigner. - Read the rest The post Meta pays 16.2 million accounts, including neo-Nazi-linked pages appeared first on Boing Boing.
Mark Twain wrote a story in 1898 that describes the internet
"From The 'London Times' in 1904" is an 1898 Mark Twain short story set six years in the future, and it describes something very close to the internet. It opens as a murder mystery. Clayton, a hot-tempered army officer, is accused of killing Szczepanik, the inventor of a machine called the telelectroscope. - Read the rest The post Mark Twain wrote a story in 1898 that describes the internet appeared first on Boing Boing.
A Dutch doctor translated acupuncture through four languages
De Acupunctura is a 1683 book by the Dutch physician Willem ten Rhijne, and it came out of one of the most roundabout translation jobs on record. Ten Rhijne was living at Dejima, the artificial island off Nagasaki that was the only piece of Japan open to Europeans during the Edo period. - Read the rest The post A Dutch doctor translated acupuncture through four languages appeared first on Boing Boing.
A Kentucky water tower says "Y'all" because of a legal problem
The Florence Y'all Water Tower stands beside Interstate 75 in Florence, Kentucky, and it says "Y'all" because of a paperwork problem. When it went up in 1974 it read FLORENCE MALL. The developers had given the city the land for the tower on the condition that the mall's name be painted where interstate drivers would see it, and the mall itself was still two years from opening. - Read the rest The post A Kentucky water tower says "Y'all" because of a legal problem appeared first on Boing Boing.
Take a seat and watch the trailer to Primetime
There's been some speculation about exactly what Primetime, A24's movie about the hit show To Catch A Predator, is going to say. Having seen the trailer, I figure that if you were skeptical of host Chris Hansen's motives and character, this movie shares those concerns and might even be entirely about them. - Read the rest The post Take a seat and watch the trailer to Primetime appeared first on Boing Boing.
Hear what the Odyssey may have sounded like as a song
Georg Danek and Stefan Hagel have worked out a way to sing Homer, and Open Culture has their recording. Danek teaches at the University of Vienna and Hagel is at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. What they recorded is lines 267 to 366 of book 8 of the Odyssey, the passage where the bard Demodocus sings about the love of Ares and Aphrodite. - Read the rest The post Hear what the Odyssey may have sounded like as a song appeared first on Boing Boing.
Cancel your AI subscriptions—get a lifetime of ChatGPT, Claude & a ton of other tools for just $70
Remember when having three browser tabs open felt excessive? Now it's ChatGPT in one tab, Claude in another, Gemini somewhere else, plus an image generator, a PDF tool, and whatever you use to summarize YouTube videos. You deserve better.That's exactly why 1min.AI - Read the rest The post Cancel your AI subscriptions-get a lifetime of ChatGPT, Claude & a ton of other tools for just $70 appeared first on Boing Boing.
When five men tried to murder "Iron Mike" with increasingly poisonous drinks
In January 1933, five Bronx acquaintances - the press later called them "the Murder Trust" - took out life insurance policies on Michael Malloy, a homeless Irish former firefighter, and set out to collect the $3,500 (about $87,000 today) by getting him to drink himself to death. - Read the rest The post When five men tried to murder "Iron Mike" with increasingly poisonous drinks appeared first on Boing Boing.
The world's most dangerous golf hole is surrounded by minefields
Camp Bonifas, the United Nations Command post 400 meters south of the Korean Demilitarized Zone, has a golf course. One hole, par 3, with an AstroTurf green - and minefields on three sides. Sports Illustrated called it "the most dangerous hole in golf," and there are reports that at least one shot detonated a land mine. - Read the rest The post The world's most dangerous golf hole is surrounded by minefields appeared first on Boing Boing.
The thin blue line encounters an unfamiliar last name
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo said the name "Officer Abdelnabi." Trump supporters booed. Lombardo had to explain that Abdelnabi was the Las Vegas police officer killed the day before.So much for "back the blue." Lombardo was paying tribute to Austin Abdelnabi when someone in the audience began booing loudly. - Read the rest The post The thin blue line encounters an unfamiliar last name appeared first on Boing Boing.
AI self-checkout bills a snack run at $8.5 billion
A Circle K shopper posted a screenshot of an AI self-checkout screen that listed a few flavors of Gatorade at a few dollars apiece, then a line item of $8.5 billion for the American Red Cross, according to the New York Post. - Read the rest The post AI self-checkout bills a snack run at $8.5 billion appeared first on Boing Boing.
A whaling museum printed its worst review on a hoodie. It sold out
In 2020 the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts picked up a one-star review that read "worst aquarium ever." It is a museum about the history of whaling, and it keeps no live whales. Six years later, the museum has printed the line on hoodies, T-shirts, crew necks, and bags, according to Boston 25 News. - Read the rest The post A whaling museum printed its worst review on a hoodie. It sold out appeared first on Boing Boing.
In 1982, a 27-year-old man lost a gunfight with a cactus
On February 4, 1982, Arizonan David Grundman shot a 27-foot saguaro with a shotgun. The saguaro dropped 23 feet of itself on him.The story is Grundman and his roommate drove into the desert near Lake Pleasant on February 4, 1982. - Read the rest The post In 1982, a 27-year-old man lost a gunfight with a cactus appeared first on Boing Boing.
Tesla headlights were twice as bright as legal
Tesla told federal regulators that the headlights on 19,900 Model 3 and Model Y cars were up to nearly twice as bright as the law allows, then argued it shouldn't have to fix them because the defect was "inconsequential" to safety. - Read the rest The post Tesla headlights were twice as bright as legal appeared first on Boing Boing.
Swedish shipowner says Odyssey filmmaker won't pay $6,000 damage bill
The Glad av Gillberga is a Swedish replica of a warship pulled from Denmark's Roskilde fjord and dated to around 1040. In nearly 30 years it has crossed the North Sea and sailed to Canada. Universal borrowed it for six months for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, where it played one of the escort ships in Odysseus's flotilla - the Greek boats are thought to have resembled Nordic longships. - Read the rest The post Swedish shipowner says Odyssey filmmaker won't pay $6,000 damage bill appeared first on Boing Boing.
Ever stood and watched boats work a lock? There's a job for you
A gongoozler is someone who stands beside a canal and watches the boats. According to Wikipedia, the word may have begun as canal workers' slang for a person loitering on the towpath, and The Times has described it as meaning "someone who hung around bridges to laugh at the inept efforts of less experienced barge folk as they struggled to pass through locks." - Read the rest The post Ever stood and watched boats work a lock? There's a job for you appeared first on Boing Boing.
A 937 eruption at Mount Fuji left a cave shaped like a womb
In the year 937, Mount Fuji erupted and sent the Ken-Marubi lava flow down its northern slopes and over a stand of fallen trees. The lava hardened around the trunks while the wood inside burned away, leaving long hollow tubes in the ground. - Read the rest The post A 937 eruption at Mount Fuji left a cave shaped like a womb appeared first on Boing Boing.
Own your PDF software outright with this $80 Mac tool
TL;DR:Edit, convert, merge, split, rotate, crop, delete, and reorganize PDFswith ease with this lifetime subscription to PDF Expert's Premium Plan while it's on sale for 43% off.After forking out a pretty penny for a MacBook, the last thing you want to do is spend even more on software. - Read the rest The post Own your PDF software outright with this $80 Mac tool appeared first on Boing Boing.
France bans cold-calling telemarketers
France's ban on unsolicited solicitations comes into effect next week, protecting consumers from telemarketers and other intrusive sales pitches. Acknowledging that its "opt-out" system (as found in other countries) had only served the hucksters, the Fourth Republic is trying something new: actually stopping them. - Read the rest The post France bans cold-calling telemarketers appeared first on Boing Boing.
DuckDuckGo's "Normal F***ing Sunglasses" sell out in a day
DuckDuckGo is well-known for its privacy-oriented search engine, but a pivot into fashion proved a big hit this week. Its "Normal Fucking Sunglasses," posted yesterday here at Boing Boing, sold out right away despite being otherwise unremarkable Paso Robles from Knockaround. - Read the rest The post DuckDuckGo's "Normal F***ing Sunglasses" sell out in a day appeared first on Boing Boing.
There's now a $69 pair of shoes designed only for using the toilet
For those who find the Squatty Potty gauche but want to spend less time in the bathroom, there is a new option: Sh*t Shoes.The way people in most Western countries sit on the toilet isn't great. Squatting is common in non-Western countries and likely contributes to a lower incidence of hemorrhoids, which can be caused by straining. - Read the rest The post There's now a $69 pair of shoes designed only for using the toilet appeared first on Boing Boing.
This winning design looks like it wandered out of a fantasy film
A spectacular complex is about to emerge in Rotterdam, and it looks like it belongs in Middle-earth or Thra instead of the Netherlands.Award-winning international architectural firm MVRDV was declared the winner in a competition to design a mixed-use, eco-friendly Embassy for Shift. - Read the rest The post This winning design looks like it wandered out of a fantasy film appeared first on Boing Boing.
Trailer drops for X-Files: I Want to Believe's R-rated cut
It's suddenly a great time to be an X-Files fan. Just days after the release of the first LEGO X-Files set, a new X-Files movie trailer drops.Sadly, it is not a trailer for the mythical third X-Files movie, but rather a director's cut of 2008's X-Files: I Want to Believe. - Read the rest The post Trailer drops for X-Files: I Want to Believe's R-rated cut appeared first on Boing Boing.
This phone keyboard attachment is well-made but still too heavy
When I head out for the day, my pack is heavy with EDC nonsense: my laptop or word processor, a CLS medical kit, phone, earphones - you get the idea. If I feel the urge to add anything to my load out, it needs to be lightweight, well-made and, most importantly, feel essential. - Read the rest The post This phone keyboard attachment is well-made but still too heavy appeared first on Boing Boing.
BMWs are showing a commercial at startup
Late-model BMW owners are starting up their cars to find a commercial for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.Responding to a request for information about the ad from The Autopian, BMW confirmed the animation is part of a broader partnership with the film:
MagSafe battery packs can charge AirPods and other earbuds too
Do you recall the stunned feeling in your thinky bits the moment that you discovered that the holes in many pasta serving spoons are designed to measure portion size? Did that moment just come after reading that first sentence? Anyway, it could well be that I'm the last fella on the planet to realize this, but you can use a wireless battery pack to charge many models of true wireless earphones. - Read the rest The post MagSafe battery packs can charge AirPods and other earbuds too appeared first on Boing Boing.
Grim Reaper fined £200 for standing on hospital roof staring at people
A man who stood on the roof of a hospital dressed like the Grim Reaper (or a crow, as he claims) has pleaded guilty to being a nuisance on NHS premises. Leon Gillespie, 26, of Deganwy, was fined 200 (~$270) over the stunt, writes Matthew Chandler with The North Wales Pioneer. - Read the rest The post Grim Reaper fined 200 for standing on hospital roof staring at people appeared first on Boing Boing.
Signal now works on more than one phone at once
Testing smartphones as part of your living is a pain in the ass when you're a heavy Signal user. The secure messaging service has traditionally gotten pissy when you attempt to log into it on a new device, logging you out of the app on any other handset you've installed it on. - Read the rest The post Signal now works on more than one phone at once appeared first on Boing Boing.
Man fined for dressing as Grim Reaper outside Welsh hospital
The Man sucks the joy out of everything. Just take a look at this crap in Wales a few months ago: 26-year-old Leon Gillespie was standing on the roof of Ysbyty Glan Clwyd hospital in St Asaph, Denbighshire, dressed as The Grim Reaper and minding his own business, when the police and fire department forced him to stop staring into patient room windows. - Read the rest The post Man fined for dressing as Grim Reaper outside Welsh hospital appeared first on Boing Boing.
Tom the Dancing Bug: The Top-Secret Truth about Trump and the Reflecting Pool
Tom the Dancing Bug: The Top-Secret Truth About Trump and the Reflecting Pool-> 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 Top-Secret Truth about Trump and the Reflecting Pool appeared first on Boing Boing.
He disclosed ketamine therapy in a trust exercise. Netflix fired him.
Netflix billed the January retreat as a "Vulnerability-Trust exercise," held at Sendero Ranch, a company property in Northern California. Kevin Baillie, then head of creative at Netflix's Eyeline Studios, used his turn to disclose that he'd taken supervised ketamine at a Santa Barbara clinic in late 2022 to treat clinical depression after his mother's death. - Read the rest The post He disclosed ketamine therapy in a trust exercise. Netflix fired him. appeared first on Boing Boing.
DuckDuckGo's answer to Meta's smart glasses is regular sunglasses
DuckDuckGo, the search engine that built its whole pitch on not tracking you, now sells a pair of sunglasses. The $35 Paso Robles never needs charging, skips the smartphone app, and works with no internet connection. DuckDuckGo says that's by design, so the person standing next to you doesn't have to wonder if they're being filmed. - Read the rest The post DuckDuckGo's answer to Meta's smart glasses is regular sunglasses appeared first on Boing Boing.
Your brain guesses at reality instead of recording it
Your brain isn't showing you the world so much as guessing at it. That's the argument from psychologist Daniel Yon, who runs the Uncertainty Lab at Birkbeck, University of London. The brain, Yon writes, works "like a scientist," constantly forming hypotheses about what's out there rather than passively recording it - a habit that explains everything from mangled song lyrics to why you don't quite trust your own reflection. - Read the rest The post Your brain guesses at reality instead of recording it appeared first on Boing Boing.
Turns out, people really like paying for cloud storage only once—get 1TB for just $159.99
TL;DR:Pay $159.99 once (reg. $810) with code KOOFR by 11:59 p.m. PT today and get1TB of Koofr cloud storage for life-no monthly storage bill required.Cloud storage has become one of those subscriptions most of us forget we're paying for-until the renewal email shows up. - Read the rest The post Turns out, people really like paying for cloud storage only once-get 1TB for just $159.99 appeared first on Boing Boing.
"I'm allowed to do this": how attackers talk past AI safeguards
Getting an AI model to launch a cyberattackusually just takes asking the right way. Cisco Talos researchers say that claiming you own the servers you are attacking often works, and so does calling the job a capture-the-flag contest or a bug bounty. - Read the rest The post "I'm allowed to do this": how attackers talk past AI safeguards appeared first on Boing Boing.
Buckminster Fuller explains his life's work in 42 hours
Over the last two weeks of January 1975, Buckminster Fuller, the designer who popularized the geodesic dome, gave a series of lectures walking through his entire life's work. "Everything I Know" runs 42 hours. The Buckminster Fuller Institute has posted the full transcript, and the video is at the Internet Archive. - Read the rest The post Buckminster Fuller explains his life's work in 42 hours appeared first on Boing Boing.
Apple wants a judge to stop OpenAI from building its AI device
Apple told a court this week that 11 other former employees may have been witnesses or otherwise involved in its trade secrets case against OpenAI, on top of the two it named in the original complaint. Apple is also asking the judge to stop OpenAI from building an AI device based on its technology. - Read the rest The post Apple wants a judge to stop OpenAI from building its AI device appeared first on Boing Boing.
Grokipedia already an abandoned slagheap of slop
Grokipedia, representing Elon Musk's committment and dedication to countering Wikipedia's supposedly leftist bias, stopped reviewing edits in April. Lawfare Media writes that "as far as we can tell, no entry has changed in more than three months," and that it has become "a case study in how an AI-generated reference system governs its own content." - Read the rest The post Grokipedia already an abandoned slagheap of slop appeared first on Boing Boing.
The 1885 book that graphed the human face into 81 expressions
The Delsarte System of Dramatic Expression is an acting manual, first published in 1885, that set out to chart every movement a human body can make. Genevieve Stebbins, an American actress, wrote it after training under Steele MacKaye, who had studied in Paris with Francois Delsarte, a French singer and orator who died in 1871 without publishing his method. - Read the rest The post The 1885 book that graphed the human face into 81 expressions appeared first on Boing Boing.
Police charged the trans couple who said a mob beat them outside a park bathroom
Aurora Rush and Shae Sanders say a crowd surrounded them outside a Louisiana park restroom, shouted threats and slurs, and beat Sanders unconscious. Police charged Rush and Sanders, and asked the town council to pass a law banning their bathroom use. - Read the rest The post Police charged the trans couple who said a mob beat them outside a park bathroom appeared first on Boing Boing.
Susan Collins would like Maine to notice this principled vote
Facing a difficult reelection campaign, Susan Collins has located a line she says she will not cross: confirming Donald Trump's former personal lawyer as attorney general. She has made abrupt about-faces over controversial votes in the past, saddling us with a terrible Supreme Court, among other things. - Read the rest The post Susan Collins would like Maine to notice this principled vote appeared first on Boing Boing.
"Exact punishment" in April, "not my business" in August: MAGA Mike Johnson's ethics policy
In April, Mike Johnson promised "exact punishment" for congressional predators. With Ohio's Max Miller facing domestic-abuse allegations, Johnson has settled on "let the process play out."The comparison is not exact. Johnson's April remarks came after Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzales resigned, and Gonzales had admitted an affair with a staffer. - Read the rest The post "Exact punishment" in April, "not my business" in August: MAGA Mike Johnson's ethics policy appeared first on Boing Boing.
Trump says coal is "a great business." One in three veteran Appalachian miners has black lung
Black lung among veteran Appalachian miners is back to 1978 levels, at the same time the Trump administration has put stronger silica-dust protections on hold.After a century of mining, accessing Appalachia's remaining thin coal seams requires cutting through far more quartz-rich rock. - Read the rest The post Trump says coal is "a great business." One in three veteran Appalachian miners has black lung appeared first on Boing Boing.
California makes AI companies leave fingerprints on their slop
A new law in California requires AI generators to sign their work. The first phase of its transparency law requires difficult-to-remove provenance data to be embedded in the slop.California has begun requiring generative AI services with more than 1 million monthly users to embed machine-readable provenance data in images, audio, and video they create. - Read the rest The post California makes AI companies leave fingerprints on their slop appeared first on Boing Boing.
Fly over ancient Rome as it looked in the second century
Manuel Bravo makes video tours of ancient places, and his "Virtual Rome" reconstructs the city as it stood in the second century AD, when its buildings were at their height. The camera flies over the rooftops, moving the way drone footage does, so the views are ones no Roman ever had. - Read the rest The post Fly over ancient Rome as it looked in the second century appeared first on Boing Boing.
The startup selling proof that a human wrote your manuscript
Unpublished author Dylan Reed createda service that cryptographically seals manuscript draftsas evidence that a human wrote them.Vellumproof stamps each version with the time, then cryptographically links it to its predecessor. If you slip a draft in later or alter its date, it will break the chain of hashes. - Read the rest The post The startup selling proof that a human wrote your manuscript appeared first on Boing Boing.
Baby monitors now want to predict who your kid will become
Nanit's flagship product is a camera bolted above a crib, logging the exact moment a baby's eyes open and close and scoring each night's sleep from zero to 100. The firm that built its brand identity described the job, per Sapna Maheshwari in The New York Times, as "transcending the negative connotations of 'surveillance.'" - Read the rest The post Baby monitors now want to predict who your kid will become appeared first on Boing Boing.
This AI writing tool humanizes your drafts before anyone notices a bot wrote them
TL;DR:UmanWrite is anAI writing platformthat humanizes AI-generated content, checks it against AI detectors, and adapts to your voice, now $79 for the Unlimited Plan, down from $1,799.Anyone who has leaned on AI to draft an email, blog post, or school assignment knows the results can read a little stiff, a little robotic, and sometimes a little obvious. - Read the rest The post This AI writing tool humanizes your drafts before anyone notices a bot wrote them appeared first on Boing Boing.
China cut its oil imports in half. No one knows why.
When Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz five months ago, experts predicted oil could spike to $150 or $200 a barrel. It has barely topped $100. According to Roge Karma, writing in The Atlantic, the reason may be China, which abruptly cut its oil imports by half. - Read the rest The post China cut its oil imports in half. No one knows why. appeared first on Boing Boing.
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