A judge has ordered Huntington Beach to adopt ranked-choice voting after finding that the city's at-large elections diluted Latino voting power, which means Surf City's latest culture-war adventure may end with voters being allowed to rank candidates instead of just picking one. — Read the rest

The post Judge orders Huntington Beach to add more democracy to its democracy appeared first on Boing Boing.

Daniel Sanchez-Estrada didn't attend the Fourth of July protest at the Prairieland ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas. His wife called him from a prison phone afterward and asked him to move some boxes. The boxes contained leftwing zines. A federal judge sentenced him to 30 years, and federal prosecutor Frank Gatto explained why: "People with that kind of extremist beliefs need extra time in prison. — Read the rest

The post A man got 30 years for moving boxes of left-wing zines appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Gary Fadden incident is one of those American folk tales that sounds like it was generated by a gun-store campfire: road rage, a 17-mile chase, a 6'8" weapons salesman named Gary, the Ruger AC-556 made famous by The A-Team, and a jury that ultimately decided the machine-gun shooting was self-defense. — Read the rest

The post That time road rage met a 6'8" guy named Gary with a machine gun appeared first on Boing Boing.

House Oversight's Epstein probe took a turn Friday when Chairman James Comer issued two subpoenas to billionaire Leon Black during questioning, after lawmakers said Black refused to answer questions about nondisclosure agreements.

This is the Epstein universe doing what it always does: important men, enormous sums of money, sealed agreements, lawyers saying everything is misunderstood, and Congress trying to pry open the drawer marked "please do not open." — Read the rest

The post Leon Black's Epstein testimony ends with Congress demanding receipts appeared first on Boing Boing.

A woman lying on the sand at Half Moon Bay's Francis Beach was struck and run over by a lifeguard vehicle, because apparently even relaxing on the beach now requires checking for traffic.

A 20-year-old beachgoer was taken to the hospital after being struck and run over by a lifeguard driving a vehicle on a popular beach in Half Moon Bay on Wednesday, according to a statement by the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office. 

— Read the rest

The post Woman lying on beach run over by the person theoretically guarding lives appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Great American State Fair, Trump's 16-day National Mall celebration of America's 250th birthday, reportedly began with empty stalls, electrical chaos, and a cow named Melania, which may be the most honest exhibit the administration has produced all year.

Adding to that, the centerpiece Ferris wheel offering free rides with views of the mall, operated only "intermittently due to a faulty generator," with workers acknowledging the ride's unreliability as frustrated fairgoers waited in line.

— Read the rest

The post Trump's "Great American" state fair opens with busted rides and a cow named Melania appeared first on Boing Boing.

Landing somewhere between a smartphone and a dumbphone, the upcoming Commodore Callback 8020 breaks the social media addiction.

Commodore went from selling the best-selling computer of all time, the Commodore 64, to bankruptcy, killed off by PC compatibles and the Apple Macintosh. — Read the rest

The post The Commodore Callback 8020 is a retro cool audio-centric flip phone that blocks social media apps appeared first on Boing Boing.

OS9Map is a new OpenStreetMap browser for Mac OS 9, which was last updated 24 years ago: three years before the volunteer-maintained mapping service was even founded. The app requires a PowerPC processor, an internet connection, and 16 megabytes of RAM. — Read the rest

The post A new map app for Mac OS 9 appeared first on Boing Boing.

A few years back, Jason told me that my body has the marks of an interesting life. It's a nice way of saying that I've had the crap beaten out of me and survived to talk about it and complain whenever a thunderstorm is incoming. — Read the rest

The post Man lives with a knife blade in his chest for 8 years appeared first on Boing Boing.

The same coffee that kicks your ass into gear every morning may soon be able to power the espresso machine that made it. The South Korean National Research Council of Science and Technology announced that a Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) research team has figured out how to turn used coffee grounds into biochar: a type of high-quality charcoal that can be used in power generation. — Read the rest

The post Used coffee grounds can now be turned into fuel in 90 seconds appeared first on Boing Boing.

I've been enjoying the hell out of Ethan Hawke's work over the past few years. His turns in The Good Lord Bird, The Lowdown, and First Reformed have been powerful, entertaining stuff that makes me glad I put down the book I'm reading long enough to enjoy them. — Read the rest

The post The Weight looks like a heavy-duty thriller appeared first on Boing Boing.

Dust mites eat your dead skin, leave behind microscopic fecal pellets loaded with allergens, and those allergens have a half-life upward of ten years. They are in mattresses, curtains, and carpets. 84% of American homes have detectable levels.

The Dust Mite Guide lays out the biology and the fix: Dust mites can't drink water. — Read the rest

The post Dust mite allergens have a half-life of 10 years, but a $40 dehumidifier fixes it appeared first on Boing Boing.

A 19-year-old man from Wales admitted to deliberately fouling a public swimming pool 18 times, forcing staff to close it repeatedly to collect the matter and sanitize the water. Dyfed-Powys Police said the man was identified through security footage and, when interviewed, fully admitted to being the source of the feces. — Read the rest

The post Man shat in public swimming pool 18 times appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: The MagTag Ultra Slim Tracker Card works with Apple's Find My app, fits inside wallets and luggage, and is on sale for $19.99 (reg. $59.99).

One of the most useful pieces of modern technology might not be a smartphone or smartwatch. — Read the rest

The post This tiny tracker card can help you find your stuff for $20 appeared first on Boing Boing.

In 1997, Robert J. Bradbury proposed the matrioshka brain — a hypothetical megastructure of "immense computational capacity powered by a Dyson sphere." The name comes from matryoshka nesting dolls. The idea: wrap a star in multiple concentric Dyson spheres, each one computing with the waste heat of the sphere inside it. — Read the rest

The post A computer the size of a star would nest Dyson spheres like Russian dolls appeared first on Boing Boing.

In 1971, Ron Morehead and Al Berry set up camp in the Sierra Nevada mountains to record evidence of Bigfoot. Morehead was a believer. Berry was a skeptic looking to debunk a hoax. On the tape, the two can be heard whispering to each other before distant howls begin. — Read the rest

The post In 1971 two campers recorded what a Navy linguist calls a nonhuman language in the Sierra Nevadas appeared first on Boing Boing.

At 2:25 a.m. on February 25, 1942 — less than three months after Pearl Harbor — air raid sirens sounded across Los Angeles County. A total blackout was ordered. At 3:16 a.m., the 37th Coast Artillery Brigade opened fire with .50-caliber machine guns and anti-aircraft shells. — Read the rest

The post In 1942 Los Angeles fired 1,440 anti-aircraft rounds at nothing appeared first on Boing Boing.

Russia currently has 44 publicly acknowledged closed cities with a combined population of approximately 1.5 million people. The government calls them "closed administrative-territorial formations," or ZATO. Seventy-five percent are run by the Ministry of Defense; the rest are administered by Rosatom, the state nuclear agency. — Read the rest

The post Russia has 44 secret cities with 1.5 million people that don't appear on public maps appeared first on Boing Boing.

JPMorgan Chase has terminated a senior executive seen on video taking a city trash can during the New York Knicks' championship parade, TMZ reported.

The bank told the New York Post it fired Angie Báez after reviewing footage from the June parade. — Read the rest

The post JPMorgan Chase cans executive who stole trash can appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Cigar Galaxy is a cosmic mess: warped, dusty, furiously making stars, and apparently photogenic enough that Webb stared at it for nearly three days and produced a 223-megapixel glamour shot.

The new image combines Webb's ability to peer through dust with Hubble's view of glowing gas and dusty structure. — Read the rest

The post Webb spent three days photographing one beautiful galactic mess appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Katanning All Ages Playground in Western Australia looks like so much fun. It features a large, free outdoor play space designed for visitors of every age, not just children. Some of the equipment looks more like a human-powered ride than a typical play structure, and I wish I could go visit right now. — Read the rest

The post Free all-ages playground in Western Australia has a 35-meter walkway and flying fox appeared first on Boing Boing.

This kitty roller coaster is completely virtual, and hilarious. The coaster involves a POV video on a TV of a ride down a part indoor, part outdoor track. The coaster is slow moving, and passes by other cats while Led Zeppelin plays. — Read the rest

The post Cat goes full rider mode watching POV roller coaster on TV appeared first on Boing Boing.

This video of a hot pot restaurant in Taiwan shows a video of a fan playing on a TV while people eat. The digital fan rotates back and forth in a way that is somehow convincing, even knowing it's just a video. — Read the rest

The post Taiwan hot pot restaurant plays a fan video instead of running AC appeared first on Boing Boing.

And they were doing so well, too! This must be part of that brand revitalization Xbox — oh, sorry, XBOX — has been bragging about since getting a new CEO. Stop me if you've heard this one before: the rising cost of components, propelled by the completely pointless AI boom, is forcing consumer hardware manufacturers to up their prices. — Read the rest

The post Xbox raises console prices by up to $150 starting August appeared first on Boing Boing.

I can't pretend I'm immune to Nintendo DS nostalgia, okay? Nintendo's little clamshell that could was the last true handheld console we ever got (well, to be technical, its eventual upgrade the 3DS was), and just looking at mine in its eternal closet prison is enough to transport me back to a simpler time when one device was for one thing. — Read the rest

The post Make your phone look and feel like a Nintendo DS appeared first on Boing Boing.

Truly, the turning of the seasons can be best measured by the rotating Steam sales. More than anything else, it feels like these are the factor most responsible for Valve becoming so powerful they feel like they can charge a thousand dollars for their underpowered cube: whoever you are, and wherever you are on the planet, you can get games for cheap on Steam. — Read the rest

The post Steam Summer Sale is back with Witcher 3 at $4, Cyberpunk under $20 appeared first on Boing Boing.

In 1897, The Strand Magazine — the London monthly best known as the home of Sherlock Holmes — published a photograph of a polished green jade specimen under the heading "The Price of a Man." The caption described it as "of very considerable interest, not only on account of its beauty as a fine specimen of the green jade, now so rare, but also from the fact of its representing the price paid by cannibals of the Mare Islands, Polynesia, for a fat man for eating purposes." — Read the rest

The post The Strand once published a jade specimen worth exactly one fat man appeared first on Boing Boing.

In April 1993, Aum Shinrikyo — the cult that would gas the Tokyo subway two years later — purchased Banjawarn Station, a remote sheep ranch covering 404,680 hectares (about a million acres) in Western Australia, 500 miles northeast of Perth. — Read the rest

The post A Japanese doomsday cult bought a million-acre Australian sheep ranch to test sarin gas appeared first on Boing Boing.

Om Malik was a great tech blogger in the times when tech was fun. "Blogging is not about opinion but it is about viewing the world in a certain way and sharing it with others how you look at things," he once wrote, celebrating a decade at the console. — Read the rest

The post Om Malik, 1966-2026 appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: For just $21.97 (reg. $49.99), you can get a portable charging tool that fits right on your keyring. Get the GoCable: 8-in-1 Keyring Cable before the sale ends tomorrow! 

Traveling with baggage is already a hassle before you add in the multiple security checks you have to go through at airports. — Read the rest

The post Cut cable clutter with this 8-in-1 keyring charging tool for $22 during Deal Days appeared first on Boing Boing.