Quantum suicide is a thought experiment that takes Schrödinger's cat and puts you inside the box. The setup: a device kills you based on a quantum measurement with a 50/50 chance. Under the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, every possible outcome actually happens — so there's always a branch where you survive. — Read the rest

The post The thought experiment that says you can't die (from your own perspective) appeared first on Boing Boing.

I've used Roku since 2014, when a friend explained why this weird little purple box was the best way to escape cable. He was right. Now Fox is buying it.

Roku works because it is boring in the best possible way. — Read the rest

The post Fox buys the henhouse appeared first on Boing Boing.

Robert Wadlow of Alton, Illinois, was born on February 22, 1918, at a typical 8 pounds 5 ounces. By age eight, he was taller than his father. By his 1936 high school graduation, he was 8 feet 4 inches. When doctors measured him on June 27, 1940 — eighteen days before his death — he had reached 8 feet 11.1 inches and 439 pounds, making him the tallest person in recorded history. — Read the rest

The post Robert Wadlow stood 8 feet 11 inches tall and refused to be a sideshow act appeared first on Boing Boing.

On January 13, 532 AD, fans of Constantinople's chariot racing factions — the Blues and the Greens — stopped fighting each other and turned on Emperor Justinian I. The Nika riots started when two convicted murderers, one from each faction, survived their executions after "the scaffolding and wood broke on them." — Read the rest

The post In 532 AD, a chariot racing riot nearly toppled the Byzantine Empire appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: The Ultimate Microsoft Office Professional 2021 + Windows 11 Pro Bundle includes lifetime licenses for both products and is on sale for $34.97 (reg. $418.99) through June 28 during Deal Days.

We live in an age where your movies, music, groceries, and even your spreadsheets require a subscription. — Read the rest

The post Buy Office and Windows once, then stop thinking about them for $35 appeared first on Boing Boing.

On October 3, 1955, the motor vessel Joyita left Apia, Western Samoa, bound for the Tokelau Islands with 25 people aboard — 16 crew and 9 passengers, including a government medical officer carrying a supply of surgical instruments and drugs. The 69-foot wooden ship never arrived. — Read the rest

The post A ship found drifting in the Pacific was still afloat but all 25 passengers had vanished appeared first on Boing Boing.

On August 16, 1942, the Navy blimp L-8 lifted off from Treasure Island, San Francisco, on a routine antisubmarine patrol with Lieutenant Ernest DeWitt Cody, 27, and Ensign Charles Adams, 35 — Adams's first flight as a commissioned officer. At 7:38 a.m., — Read the rest

The post A Navy blimp landed in San Francisco with its engines running and its crew gone appeared first on Boing Boing.

In 1832, a 14-year-old crew member named Otokichi left Japan on a rice transport ship bound for Edo. A storm blew the vessel off course, and it drifted across the northern Pacific for 14 months without a mast or rudder. The crew survived on desalinated seawater and their rice cargo. — Read the rest

The post A 14-year-old Japanese sailor drifted across the Pacific for 14 months and could never go home appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Get the best prompts for your AI needs with this lifetime subscription to VibeFarm AI Prompt Composition Workspace, on sale now for just $29.99 (MSRP $179) through June 14 with code SAVE25.

Your go-to AI model is only as good as your prompt. — Read the rest

The post Get better results from your favorite AI models with this $30 prompt tool (MSRP $179) appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: 1min.AI Advanced Business Plan is $59.97 (reg. $540) through June 14 at 11:59PM — lifetime access, no subscription.

Most people paying monthly for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini separately don't realize there's a better way. 1min.AI puts them all into a single dashboard for a single payment. — Read the rest

The post GPT, Claude and Gemini for life — all for $60 during Deal Days appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Lost Cosmonauts theory alleges that the Soviet Union launched humans into space before Yuri Gagarin's 1961 flight — and that the cosmonauts onboard died. The strongest piece of supposed evidence came from Italian brothers Achille and Giovanni Battista Judica-Cordiglia, amateur radio operators in Turin who claimed to have intercepted transmissions from doomed Soviet spacecraft between 1960 and 1964. — Read the rest

The post Two Italian brothers claimed to have recorded dying Soviet cosmonauts that Moscow erased from history appeared first on Boing Boing.

In September 1944, nine American pilots were shot down during bombing raids on Chichijima, the largest island in the Bonin chain. Eight were captured. The ninth, who evaded capture, was 20-year-old George H. W. Bush.

The eight captured airmen — Lloyd Woellhof, Grady York, James Dye, Glenn Frazier Jr., — Read the rest

The post Japanese officers cannibalized four American POWs on a Pacific island in 1944 appeared first on Boing Boing.

The John Frum movement arose on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu no later than the late 1930s. Followers believe John Frum — often depicted as an American serviceman — will one day return bringing wealth and prosperity. In some versions, a native man named Manehivi appeared dressed in a Western-style coat using the alias "John Frum," promising houses, clothes, food, and transport. — Read the rest

The post A cargo cult in Vanuatu has been waiting for an American named John Frum since the 1930s appeared first on Boing Boing.

Emojli launched on August 29, 2014 — a social media app that restricted usernames and messages to emoji only. No letters, no numbers, no punctuation. YouTubers Tom Scott and Matt Gray built it after seeing the success of Yo, an app whose entire function was sending the word "Yo" to your contacts. — Read the rest

The post Emojli was a social network where the only language allowed was emoji appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Feast of the Ass was a medieval Christian celebration held on January 14, honoring the donkey that carried the Holy Family into Egypt. A girl and a child riding a real donkey would be led through town to the church, where the animal stood beside the altar during the sermon. — Read the rest

The post At a medieval church festival, the priest brayed like a donkey and the congregation brayed back appeared first on Boing Boing.

At some point, free tools and good-enough alternatives like Pages and Google Docs stop being scrappy and start being annoying. You know what actually works? The real Microsoft Office.

Microsoft Office 2024 Home & Business is $104.97 (reg. $249.99) as a one-time purchase for Mac or PC — no subscription, no monthly charges, no renewal reminders. — Read the rest

The post Microsoft Office 2024 is $105 for life—that's less than one year of 365 appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Undetectable Humanizer Basic is $39.99 (reg. $1,080) through June 28 at 11:59 PM as part of Deal Days — lifetime access, no subscription.

AI text has a tell. It's not always wrong, but it reads a certain way — overly tidy, slightly stiff.  — Read the rest

The post ChatGPT writes it, this $40 tool makes it sound like you did appeared first on Boing Boing.

John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill — nicknamed "Fighting Jack" and "Mad Jack" — fought through the entire Second World War armed with a Scottish broadsword, a longbow, and a set of bagpipes. He graduated from Sandhurst in 1926, left the army a decade later to work as a newspaper editor and film extra, then re-enlisted when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. — Read the rest

The post The WWII commando who fought with a broadsword, longbow, and bagpipes appeared first on Boing Boing.

Surely, you've seen the old movie trope where our plucky heroes duck into an abandoned car to flee from some encroaching danger, fold down the visor, and have the keys drop right into their laps. Have you ever seen anyone do that in real life? — Read the rest

The post Why are car keys always kept in the visor in movies? appeared first on Boing Boing.

Kingdom Hearts is one of those weird franchises I've never understood, and which becomes more obscure every time I've attempted to do so.

So it's like Final Fantasy, but there are also a bunch of Disney characters there, along with a bunch of original characters that look like they've tumbled through a shared costume warehouse serving both franchises and a vat of hair gel. — Read the rest

The post I still don't know what Kingdom Hearts is about, but there's a new one coming appeared first on Boing Boing.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Larry David has been the master of awkward, people-talking-over-each-other comedy since Seinfeld, a talent he later honed on his long-running series Curb Your Enthusiasm.

With Curb officially over since 2024, I and many others have wondered what Larry is going to do next — and the answer seems to be "more Curb, but this time in a funny wig." — Read the rest

The post Larry David's new HBO show is basically historical Curb appeared first on Boing Boing.

If you were fired or excluded from a job due to your race, age, or other demographics unrelated to the work you're being paid to do, it's called discrimination. But in our late capitalist world, the yacht-owning powers-that-be call it surveillance pricing. — Read the rest

The post Washington Post sued over alleged surveillance pricing appeared first on Boing Boing.

Zack Snyder is known for many things. He brought an innovative, visually provocative rendition of Frank Miller's 300 to theatres! He was responsible for bringing Superman back to the big screen (again). He completely misunderstood the canonical role Pa Kent played in Clark Kent becoming Superman. — Read the rest

The post Jason Momoa won't touch the Escape from New York remake appeared first on Boing Boing.

Lowtein is a simple website that geolocates you and tells you about the cheapest proteins available in your location. Here in Pittsburgh, for example, it informs me that Giant Eagle has a special on pork chops (56% blow the regional average price), Martin's Food Market has inexpensive bacon, and that you can't easily go wrong at Aldis. — Read the rest

The post Website tracks protein meal deals for 171 cities in U.S. and Canada appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Information reports that Microsoft is considering several ways to set loose its XBox gaming division, including spinning it out as a separate company, restructuring it as a subsidiary, or establishing a joint venture. Reuters echoes the paywalled report, which is clear about the intended conclusion: selling it off. — Read the rest

The post Microsoft may spin off struggling XBox division appeared first on Boing Boing.

An early, sticker-sealed copy of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. sold for $3m at auction today, stomping the record set in 2021. Chris Kohler writes on Bluesky that it's the first sticker-sealed copy (from Nintendo's earliest production runs) to go under the hammer. — Read the rest

The post Sealed 1985 Super Mario Bros game fetches record $3m at auction appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: If you're in the market for a budget-friendly alternative for desk-based work, this refurbished 2019 21.5-inch iMac offers a 4K display, solid everyday performance, and 1TB of storage for just $339.99 (reg. $1,499). 

If you think MacBooks are great, you aren't prepared for how much better iMacs are. — Read the rest

The post Turn your desk into a 4K workstation with this iMac for under $350 appeared first on Boing Boing.

The president of Taipei's Shih Hsin University told graduates to end their own lives if they couldn't handle the workforce, remarks that led to widespread anger. Yang Mien-chieh and Jake Chung of The Taipei Times add that he subsequently requested a two-month suspension of his duties and pay to atone. — Read the rest

The post College president suggests graduates "put a quick end" to themselves in commencement speech appeared first on Boing Boing.

Lake Powell is still more than 150 feet above dead pool, but it is only about 38 feet above minimum power pool, the line where Glen Canyon Dam stops generating hydropower. That is close enough to make the old "drain Lake Powell" debate feel less theoretical and more like reading the manual after the warning light comes on. — Read the rest

The post Lake Powell is approaching the line where Glen Canyon Dam stops making power appeared first on Boing Boing.

Grandpa Pudding Brains has found another election he may not respect: a Democratic mayoral primary in Washington, D.C., may serve as a reason to impose martial law.

Clearly, this man of the people has no respect for the will of the people. — Read the rest

The post Grandpa Pudding Brains set to invade Washington, D.C. appeared first on Boing Boing.