Space. The final frontier. There's a reason that Star Trek tagline has endured for almost 60 years. It's because there is no human pursuit that feeds our desire to know the unknown and expand our idea of what the cosmos and mankind's place in it can be, quite like space exploration. — Read the rest
More and more people every day are taking the leap and working for themselves or turning their side hustles into a cash crop. Skills such as productivity, social media management, and how to create income streams are essential to surviving the entrepreneurial landscape. — Read the rest
You have a lot on your to-do list, from remembering to log on to that Zoom meeting after lunch to stopping by the grocery store before you completely run out of milk. And in between all of these seemingly neverending tasks, you can't forget to juice up your must-have devices, like your iPhone, otherwise, things can get even more complicated. — Read the rest
Starting this winter, students at universities in Berlin will be enjoying a larger array of meat-free food options at on-campus canteens. The 34 canteens across 4 campuses that cater to Berlin's student population will offer a menu that is 68% vegan, 28% vegetarian, and 2% fish-based, with a single meat option that will be offered four days a week. — Read the rest
Give rave.dj two songs and it'll try and mash the two together. The results are good, if often absurd and uncanny in the artificially-intelligent way we'll perhaps never quite get used to. Its melding of Seven Nation Army and Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This is a perfect example. — Read the rest
Somehow ESPN aired a football game between a real and very good football team and a faked up team from a fake high school.
There are allegations of child endangerment, fraud, and all sort of awfulness in the background. Naturally, social media is upset. — Read the rest
San Francisco's homicide rate has risen, from 14 in 2019 to 21 so far this year. According to a government report, the majority of people involved in gun violence (as shooters or victims) are directly associated with twelve "high risk social networks" (aka gangs). — Read the rest
I am Rich was a 2008 app that cost $999.99 and had just one function: displaying the mantra: "I am rich. I deserv it. I am good, healthy & successful." Yes, deserve was spelled wrong. Before Apple removed it from the App Store the day after its release, eight people had bought it, and two angry reviews stated that the purchase had been a mistake. — Read the rest
A fellow was hospitalized in Xinghua, China after attempting to relieve his constipation by, er, encouraging a 20 centimeter long eel to wiggle into his rectum. Unsurprisingly, it didn't go well. The eel reportedly forced its way deeper into his body and into his abdomen. — Read the rest
Red delicious apples, notorious for their grainy texture and bland flavor, were the country's best-selling apple until 2018. After Iowa farmer Jesse Hiatt discovered the variety in his orchard in the 1880s, he paid attention to its sweet taste. He eventually submitted it into a contest. — Read the rest
Sorry Antivaxxer is a list of stories that never needed to be written. Obituaries, tales of death, and near death, caused by COVID-19 upon those who adamantly refused vaccination.
It is heartbreaking to scroll through this list that seems endless. The number of times you see phrases like "left two kids behind" or "son still refuses to get vaccinated" has made me cry once already today. — Read the rest
Practicing mindfulness can benefit your mental state in numerous ways, from increasing creativity to alleviating stress and helping lift depression. But sometimes, a moment of mindlessness is what you need, like when you're performing a well-practiced skill like chopping vegetables, performing a well-rehearsed piece of music, or swinging a golf club. — Read the rest
Republican lawmaker Lauren Boebert failed to disclose her husband's lucrative financial interests, but she also failed to disclose something else about Jayson Stephen Boebert: his jail time for whippin' it out at a bowling alley. The alley dealt with them as a pair, reportedly banning both from the venue. — Read the rest
Is there anything better than getting started on a brand new computer? It's like having a digital fresh start, with updated apps and programs, a crisp, clean keyboard, and a shiny new screen. But all those good feels go right down the drain once you realize you have to transfer all of your old PC's data onto your new gadget. — Read the rest
In Port Alberni, British Columbia, a man angry at being asked to wear a mask while ordering food whipped out his penis and urinated on the counter as Dairy Queen team members screamed in horror. Graham Hughes, apparently a friend of the customer who filmed the incident, posted the footage to his Facebook page. — Read the rest
Algeria, the last country on earth where you could still fill up your car with leaded gasoline, finally banned its sale last month. Lead additives improve the performance of gasoline and lubricate it to prevent engine wear, but the toxic fumes it produces are held to have caused millions of deaths. — Read the rest
Because captive pandas tend to show little interest in mating, scientists who are concerned about their waning populations have resorted to unusual measures like pornography and Viagra. In 2006, 31 cubs were born over a ten-month period following the panda pornography experiment. — Read the rest
School boards meetings are being turned into chaotic shouting matches dominated by angry, threatening right-wing mobs. So the members are quitting, reports the AP.
— Read the restIn Vail, Arizona, speakers at a recent meeting took turns blasting school board members over masks, vaccines and discussions of race in schools — even though the board had no plans to act on, or even discuss, any of those topics.
If you find yourself in Pittsburgh, PA, be sure to take a trip to a magical place called Randyland. Randyland is an incredible DIY art museum that a man named Randy Gilson constructed in his own yard. I had an awesome time there over the weekend, and I'll be back again as soon as I can. — Read the rest
Today in the humble history of the internet: the very first webcam was invented in 1991 because computer science researchers at the University of Cambridge just wanted to see if there was coffee in the break room. Quentin Stafford-Fraser wrote software dubbed "XCoffee" to save his coworkers the disappointment of walking all the way to the break room to find an empty pot. — Read the rest
Ed Asner took a shot at me and my shoes in a very Don Rickles type of move, that I absolutely loved but more about that later, as the celebrated actor has passed away at the age 91.
Ed Asner's career spanned six decades, where he won seven Emmys, which is the Emmy record for a male actor but he also received five Golden Globes and was the president of the Screen Actors Guild for two terms. — Read the rest
"Floracil50 contains the only living bacteria that can solve the problem of small balls."
That's what it says on the manufacturer's website, anyway. A one-month supply of this probiotic dietary supplement will cost you just under $50 on Amazon, and there are plenty of people willing to shell out that money, according to a recent Wired investigation. — Read the rest
It seems that all the time we've spent staring at ourselves in Zoom during the pandemic is affecting our perception of ourselves.
When plastic surgeons began reopening for business in 2021, they found an increased demand from people newly worried about the shape of their noses, sagging skin in their necks, and the tone and color of their skin. — Read the rest
Before you drag in the fall decor from the closet, it's always nice to give your home a good thorough cleaning after summer. But when it comes to a deep clean that gets the most stubborn dust hiding in every nook and cranny and deep in your rugs, a regular, run-of-the-mill vacuum simply isn't going to cut it. — Read the rest
In an attempt to get her daughter, who was removed from a school sports team for broadcasting an underage drinking binge on Snapchat, put back on the school sports team, a mother sued that the school was violating the kid's right to free speech. — Read the rest
Cad Bane remains my favorite non-Force wielder in Star Wars canon. Trained to be a bounty hunter by none other than Jango Fett, Cad Bane just doesn't give a shit about anything but getting paid and getting the hell out.
Until recently Cad Bane was pretty unstoppable, but in The Bad Batch, a young Fennec Shand was able to shut him down. — Read the rest
A vocally anti-vax and pro-Ivermectin police captain in Georgia is now dead from COVID-19 and the same misinformation he was spreading.
— Read the restA Georgia police officer who frequently posted anti-vaxx messages on Facebook and took an anti-parasitic drug instead of a vaccine has died of COVID-19.
I frequently miss messages from folks who try to use Google's tools. Sometimes the messaging feature hidden in the sidebar of some of my Google apps comes to life and I suddenly get last year's desperate request for help from a friend! — Read the rest
The former beachfront HQ of Snapchat is for sale, along with a lovely themed apartment court turned into commercial space.
Immediately following the massive program to house the hundreds of homeless folks on the Venice Beach boardwalk, the property that formerly housed Snapchat, along with its darling gingerbread-themed neighbor, has been put up for sale. — Read the rest
A camera mounted on a dock in Port Fourchon, Louisiana captured the moment that Hurricane Ida made landfall. Watch the eye-opening video below:
Kid Rock is being forced to cancel shows after Kid Rocking out at Sturgis, a super spreader event.
— Read the restKid Rock on Twitter has been forced to cancel two shows in Fort Worth, Texas, because "over half the band has f covid", he has said.
André Silva, striker for Bundesliga club RB Leipzig, could have a second career as a pratfall comedian. His acting in the scene below is fantastic!
Gavin Grimm, assigned female at birth but identifying as a man, was refused access to the boys' bathroom at his Virginia high school. Grimm sued, and now the Gloucester County School Board must pay $1.3m for breaking gender discrimination law after the U.S. — Read the rest
That I'm linking to the subreddit r/CatastrophicFailure isn't necessarily a spoiler. Will the stuck truck, carrying a giant wind turbine blade, make it across the tracks in time? Note that there is loud sweary language from the outset of the video. — Read the rest
Ivermectin, a medication of little use to you in its readily-available form (unless you weigh 1,400 pounds and suffer from intestinal parasites), is sold out everywhere. You can't even buy the famously delicious apple-flavor horse paste anymore. No shipments until October! — Read the rest
Aside from the rain, nothing ruins outdoor summertime hangouts quite like mosquitoes. And the painful, itchy welts they leave behind can leave you scratching for days. Sure, you can douse yourself in repellent before hanging out in the outdoors, but the many chemicals they contain are hardly appealing. — Read the rest
When my country band the Delorean Sisters was recording our second album, our phenomenal audio engineer Drew Guido set up a mic stand to record my acoustic guitar—and pulled out the weirdest-looking microphone I'd ever seen.
It was one of the ones you see here, made by Brad Martin of "12 Gauge Microphones". — Read the rest
At a school board meeting in Henrico County, Virginia, a number of people were put on the agenda to be called by board chariman Roscoe D. Cooper III during the public speaking time. Sadly, Phil McCracken, Eileen Dover, Wayne Kerr and other interestingly-named individuals didn't make it. — Read the rest
It's all in a name. Historically, German people have had negative preconceptions about people with certain trendy Anglo-American names like Kevin, Mandy, and Peggy—so much that there's a Wikipedia page about "Kevinism."
— Read the restAccording to a master's thesis authored at the University of Oldenburg in 2009, certain given names of students can indeed lead to prejudices on the part of teachers.
A common mistake I used to make was to take my calf, or sometimes calves, through the drive-through at McDonald's and have them lecture me from the backseat about how hamburgers and McNuggets are evil. I learned my lesson, but apparently some Wisconsin bloke has not. — Read the rest
Hurricane Ida lashed the Louisiana coastline and devastated cities miles inland before slowing and heading into Mississippi late Sunday, according to reports. The category 4 storm was among the strongest ever to hit the Gulf Coast, creating millions of evacuees.
While fears of death and injury on a scale similar to 2004's Hurricane Katrina did not materialize, one person died when a tree fell on their house, power was cut to the city of New Orleans, and insurers anticipate up to a quarter of a trillion dollars of property damage. — Read the rest
A company called HourOne is paying people to "hire out their faces". HourOne will scan you talking and emoting, then use deepfake-style AI to create videos for its corporate customers, making the synthetic version of you say whatever the customer needs you to say. — Read the rest
Five schools in Cullman, Alabama, are closing their doors for two weeks due to rising Covid cases. According to the Cullman County school district, one-third of the students in the district's 29 campuses were reported absent due to positive Covid tests or contact tracing, and the Cullman Times reported that the district has 107 reported positive cases of Covid among students. — Read the rest
In December of 2020 Xbox broke the Guinness Book of World Records for the biggest video game projected on the side of a building with Destiny 2: Beyond Light and 19,090 square-feet of video game projection. That record has been surpassed by more than double now. — Read the rest
Explore "nested shows", the stories-in-the-story created as gags or plotlines in real shows. You can browse Nestflix and contribute shows or movies it's missing.
— Read the restThe platform for your favorite nested films and shows. Fictional movies within movies? Got 'em. Fake shows within shows?
Jake Brown at Glorious Noise took an interesting challenge upon himself: make a playlist that tells the story of rock & roll history, featuring only one song from each year of rock & roll history.
— Read the restI started wondering how far back we could go and find stuff that could reasonably be considered rock and roll.
Back in October 2020, it was reported that the Washington State Department of Agriculture had attempted to glue a tracking device to the head of an Asian giant hornet, colloquially known as the "murder hornet." The goal was to let the invasive bug lead them back to its nest, in hopes that they could eradicate the beasts right at the source. — Read the rest
Last spring, Guillaume Cabanac—a computer scientist at the University of Toulouse—and two colleagues noticed a weird trend: A surge of published comp-sci academic papers that were using weird phrases in place of well-established ones (previously at Boing Boing).
For example, instead of "artificial intelligence", the authors would write "counterfeit consciousness". — Read the rest
Tossing produce into your cart with reckless abandon as you walk up and down the aisles at your go-to grocery store may feel satisfying, but it's hardly practical. You'll lose track of what you've covered on your list, you can damage sensitive packaging, and it's just plain messy. — Read the rest
Legendary reggae musician, visionary producer, and master of the mixing board Lee Scratch Perry has died at 85 years-old. He was a pioneer of roots reggae and dub whose essential releases with his band The Upsetters and relentless studio experimentation influenced musical genres from post-punk to hip hop, experimental ambient, and electronic dance music. — Read the rest
The electronic vehicle has evolved from a phase to a full-fledged industry as it seems companies are introducing their take on the future of transportation with each passing day. In a market that was once deemed monopolized by Tesla, Chevrolet, Nissan, and even Volkswagen have trotted out electronic vehicles to consumers. — Read the rest
This 2018 commercial shows the perils that one may face if they don't use a Zazoo condom. I found this commercial to be both hilarious and terrifying as it reaffirmed my belief that I could not handle having children. Although it's important to use protection, I feel like seeing this little boy's temper tantrum and exhausted look on his father's face is a pretty solid method of birth control itself. — Read the rest
We've covered a number of art vending machine projects here on Boing Boing, but most of them have been a single-machine installation.
In Portland, OR, Taylor Valdés has made a business out of machines scattered throughout the city that dispense art, used books, mystery bags of goodness, and other productized whimsy. — Read the rest
To watch this guy prep to play his song gives you time to take in what you're about to see and hear. How is a person so ingenious to design this perfectly functioning self-contained rhythm section and then also be the same person who can play it masterfully, you might think? — Read the rest
Everywhere, every day, babies get owned by this simple trick. I've got your nose is the practice of jokingly stealing children's noses — a timeless dad prank. It has its own Wikipedia article which describes it as an example of "teaching pro-social lying or playful deception to children." — Read the rest