TL;DR: Teleport back to simpler times with this Kyocera DuraXE Epic E4830 flip phone, now for just $111.99 (MSRP $269.99).

Missing the simplicity of the '90s? If you're feeling nostalgic for the days before big tech took over, a simple flip phone is a great way to unplug. — Read the rest

The post Want to cut back on screen time? Start with this $112 old-school flip phone (MSRP $269.99) appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Get a 2TB FileJump Cloud Storage lifetime subscription on sale for $59 (reg. $467)

Google One charges $9.99 a month for 2TB of cloud storage, every month, with no end date in sight. FileJump runs on the opposite model: pay once for 2TB and keep it forever. — Read the rest

The post 2TB cloud storage, yours forever on sale for $59 appeared first on Boing Boing.

A new analysis from FutureSearch's wealth study of AI billionaires counts 57 AI billionaires worldwide, worth a combined $320 billion — and almost none of that fortune has anything to do with a PhD. Chip designer Chen Tianshi of Cambricon Technologies tops the list at $40 billion, followed by OpenAI president Greg Brockman ($28 billion) and DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng ($27 billion). — Read the rest

The post 57 AI billionaires are worth $320 billion combined appeared first on Boing Boing.

Mirror life — synthetic organisms built from molecules with reversed chirality, the opposite handedness of every natural protein and DNA strand on Earth — would be essentially invisible to the immune systems of humans, animals, and plants, according to Noema's look at the fight to ban mirror life before it exists. — Read the rest

The post 38 scientists want to ban "mirror life" appeared first on Boing Boing.

I can't say I didn't see this coming after Rockstar announced that GTA 6 wouldn't get a physical release. Or, to be honest, after the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles charged an extra fee for a disc drive.

I at least thought that they'd wait until the next generation, though. — Read the rest

The post The age of physical games begins to come to a close as PlayStation discontinues discs appeared first on Boing Boing.

"Weird Al" Yankovic pulled out of his participation in a commercial for a business software company when he found out it is an artificial intelligence company.

In Syracuse, NY for his "Bigger and Weirder" tour, he told Geoff Herbert of Syracuse.com — Read the rest

The post No AI for Al. "Weird Al" Yankovic yanks AI commercial appeared first on Boing Boing.

The original Rattler (see video) at Six Flags Fiesta Texas opened in 1992 and was once one of the biggest wooden roller coasters in the country. In this wild old video, you can see the tracks bend and wobble as the coaster sped along. — Read the rest

The post Rare footage shows how rough Six Flags' wooden Rattler coaster was appeared first on Boing Boing.

Twin Pines ice cream was one of many regional dairy brands that once filled American grocery store freezers in the mid-to-late 20th century. Like other small dairy companies of the era, it leaned heavily on simple, memorable packaging to stand out in a crowded local market. — Read the rest

The post Twin Pines' vintage ice cream clown is deliciously unsettling appeared first on Boing Boing.

Time and time again, I count myself lucky that The Good Liars are willing to wade into the backwoods of MAGA country so I don't have to. They've made an extremely stable career out of showing up at Trump-centric events and documenting them in their attendees' own words, and it doesn't get much more Trump-centric than the Great American State Fair. — Read the rest

The post The Good Liars find state fair MAGA fans who rank Trump over God appeared first on Boing Boing.

What does a city sound like when you turn its transit system into a musical instrument? This clever web project answers that question by transforming the live movements of Los Angeles Metro trains and buses into an evolving ambient soundtrack. Every note is triggered by a real vehicle arriving at a real station, so the composition is constantly changing throughout the day. — Read the rest

The post This site turns LA Metro trains into ambient music appeared first on Boing Boing.

Escherllate is a fun browser sketchbook built around tessellation. You draw on a central tile, and your lines instantly repeat across surrounding copies. The result is a living pattern that updates in real time as you sketch.

The system makes symmetry feel natural instead of technical. — Read the rest

The post This interactive sketchbook turns your drawings into tessellating patterns appeared first on Boing Boing.

This video of a cat and his adorable favorite toy took me on an emotional rollercoaster (with a very happy ending). The video shows a cat named Milo who is deeply attached to a little green pom pom (the kind used for arts and crafts). — Read the rest

The post Milo the cat lost his favorite pom pom, so he got 200 more appeared first on Boing Boing.

AI is coming for all our jobs, it seems, even those of phone scammers. What is the world coming to when we can't even get swindled by good, honest (well, not really) humans anymore?

The advent of AI has massively improved the scalability of these kinds of scams, to the point where a human doesn't even need to be involved in the process. — Read the rest

The post AI scam callers can be broken with a few simple commands appeared first on Boing Boing.

Andrew Judson has read every Caldecott Medal winner and honor book his local library owns, mostly out loud to his daughter, and ranked the worst ones by their words, not their art — since the Caldecott is awarded "based solely on the art," even the most troubling books look gorgeous. — Read the rest

The post The worst Caldecott winning book — Rumpelstiltskin appeared first on Boing Boing.

Nashville International Airport's control tower has 27 certified air traffic controllers, according to NPR's report on the U.S. air travel crunch — the FAA's target is 52. It's one symptom of a national bottleneck: airlines fly more passengers than ever on fewer flights than 20 years ago, and TSA expects to screen over 18 million travelers during Fourth of July week alone. — Read the rest

The post Nashville's control tower has 27 controllers; the FAA wants 52 appeared first on Boing Boing.

This cute video from Australia shows a baby kangaroo reacting to a persistent magpie that keeps swooping and circling nearby. Instead of being scared, the joey starts batting at the air in quick, clumsy little motions, as if trying to join in the game. — Read the rest

The post Baby kangaroo swats at swooping magpie in playful Australia video appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Learn piano through interactive lessons, AI feedback, and guided songs at your own pace with lifetime access to Skoove Premium for $104.99 (MSRP $299.99) with promo code JULY30 until July 5.

Learning piano usually comes down to two options — traditional lessons or trying to figure it out alone.  — Read the rest

The post This app makes learning piano feel less like practice and more like progress — on sale for $104.99 for life appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Browse, stream, and download safely with the 5-year AdGuard VPN subscription for $34.99 (reg. $359.40) with code July30.

If you're looking for a good VPN that provides solid security along with relief from geo-restrictions, why not choose the one created by a trusted developer renowned for its computer privacy and security? — Read the rest

The post AdGuard VPN is now just $35 for 5 years of access  appeared first on Boing Boing.

A newly described spider in North Queensland rainforest hunts exactly one prey species — the green tree ant, an insect so aggressive most predators avoid it — by building a silk trap that flings the ant into its web. Macquarie University researchers, writing in Current Biology, found the spider builds a cone of 15 to 60 bundled silk lines near the ground, coats it with a pheromone that lures worker ants into biting it, then retreats. — Read the rest

The post This spider flings ants 30 centimeters into its trap appeared first on Boing Boing.

A synthetic cell built from scratch — no living components, just liposomes, DNA, and 36 commercial enzymes standing in for protein synthesis — grew, copied its own DNA, and split into two, according to Quanta's report on this synthetic-cell milestone: the first time researchers have watched an artificial cell complete a full division cycle. — Read the rest

The post A synthetic cell grew, copied its DNA, and split in two appeared first on Boing Boing.

Starting in November 2000, a poster using the handle TimeTravel_0 showed up on an internet forum called the Time Travel Institute claiming to be an American soldier from the year 2036. He said he'd been sent back to 1975 to retrieve an IBM 5100 computer, needed in his time to debug legacy code, because his grandfather had helped build the machine. — Read the rest

The post John Titor, the internet's most famous time traveler, vanished in 2001 appeared first on Boing Boing.

Amber George, longtime spokeswoman of a store chain, saw an advertisement featuring her that she did not remember recording. If there was a moment of confusion, it was soon obvious what Fred's Appliance had done: run old ads through AI to generate new ones featuring her. — Read the rest

The post Spokeswoman sues company after it uses AI to make new ads featuring her appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Get a lifetime subscription to Microsoft Project Professional 2024 for $48.99 (reg. $1,129.99). 

If you're looking for reliable software that'll take care of all your management needs and requirements, Microsoft Project Professional 2024 is a sure bet. Not only does it come from an extremely reputable company, but this software also helps you plan, execute, and complete projects efficiently, all on one platform. — Read the rest

The post Manage projects like a pro with Microsoft Project 2024 for just $49 appeared first on Boing Boing.

Starlog, the science fiction magazine that ended its 33 year run in 2009, will return this fall with a new print edition, a weekly podcast and a newsletter. And it will be edited by Annalee Newitz!

"Fifty years ago, STARLOG went behind the scenes of alternate worlds for the first time.

— Read the rest

The post Starlog returns in November after 17 years out of print appeared first on Boing Boing.

You've heard of graveyards, where we ceremonially store human remains. But did you know that Ben & Jerry's ice cream company has a Flavor Graveyard for discontinued lines of its popular dairy snacks?

Even the best Ben & Jerry's flavors eventually melt away.

— Read the rest

The post Ben & Jerry's maintains a Flavor Graveyard of discontinued ice cream products appeared first on Boing Boing.

After Apollo 11, Richard Nixon had NASA make 250 commemorative plaques, each holding about four rice-sized specks of moon dust mounted next to a flag that had flown to the moon and back. In 1970, one went to Cyprus, along with all 135 other countries, all 50 US states, and the UN. — Read the rest

The post Nixon gave Cyprus a piece of the moon. Then a coup made it disappear. appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Get MS Office Pro Plus 2019 and Windows 11 Pro for just $25.99 (reg. $428).

If your PC is due for a system upgrade, why not also give your software a new look with The All-in-One Microsoft Office Pro 2019 for Windows: Lifetime License + Windows 11 Pro Bundle for just $25.99 (reg. — Read the rest

The post Upgrade your PC with MS Office Pro Plus 2019 and Windows 11 Pro for just $26 appeared first on Boing Boing.

Henrico County, Virginia, has asked its schools and government offices to cut power use as the local grid struggles to meet the power demands of its 37 data centers and considers the impact of 17 more under proposal.

Matthew Gault of 404 Media acquired email sent by County Manager John Vithoulkas to thousands of county employees on June 26, warning that the rate Henrico pays for electricity in all county and school facilities was about to rise by 25%, adding an estimated $5 million to costs in the coming fiscal year. — Read the rest

The post County with 37 data centers tells schools to turn off lights to save electricity appeared first on Boing Boing.

In October 2015, a Swedish tech blogger named Johny Krahbichler opened a package mailed from Warsaw: a DVD with a long alphanumeric code written on it, no return address, no explanation. When he played it, he found a two-minute black-and-white video of a figure in a plague doctor costume, standing in a ruined building, holding up a hand with a blinking light — set to loud, discordant buzzing. — Read the rest

The post A mystery DVD mailed from Poland hid coded threats in a plague doctor video appeared first on Boing Boing.

In 1681, women walking alone through the alleys around London's Fleet Street began getting attacked by a man who moved so fast, and vanished so completely, that people believed he had supernatural powers. He'd grab a woman, bend her over his knee, lift her skirt, and spank her before disappearing. — Read the rest

The post In 1681, a mystery attacker who vanished instantly terrorized London appeared first on Boing Boing.