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.

Before we had HowToBasic, there was Count Etienne Louis Philippe Ścibor-Rylski.

Back in 1930, this tutorial trailblazer created what could very well be the first how-to video in history, asking the viewer one simple question: Would you like to wear a monocle? — Read the rest

The post 1930 film may be the first how-to video in history appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Orange Menace says he "had a conversation with Theodore Roosevelt" about the Panama Canal, which is a neat trick since Roosevelt died in 1919 and Trump was not born until 1946.

So, now we're at the President openly describing recent conversations with a 107-year-dead person yet remaining in command of the world's largest, yet quickly shrinking in effectiveness, military. — Read the rest

The post Grandpa Pudding Brains describes recent chat with President Theodore Roosevelt, who died before he was born appeared first on Boing Boing.

Somatoparaphrenia is a rare delusion in which a person denies that one of their limbs, or an entire side of their body, belongs to them — even when shown direct proof. Patients don't just forget the limb is theirs; they invent an explanation for whose it actually is, sometimes elaborate enough that they'll treat the limb as if it belonged to a separate being. — Read the rest

The post This neurological condition makes people deny their own limbs appeared first on Boing Boing.

Catherine the Great, who modernized Russia during her reign, took about 22 lovers over her lifetime — enough to fuel a legend that outlived her by centuries: that she died attempting intercourse with a horse, crushed when the harness suspending the animal above her snapped. — Read the rest

The post The myth that Catherine the Great died having sex with a horse, debunked appeared first on Boing Boing.

On September 13, 2005, Blizzard added a raid to World of Warcraft with a boss, Hakkar the Soulflayer, who cast a debuff called Corrupted Blood that spread between nearby players. It was only meant to last inside that one dungeon. A programming oversight let it escape into the rest of the game world instead. — Read the rest

The post A World of Warcraft bug accidentally created a virtual pandemic appeared first on Boing Boing.

In 2007, an Australian film collective called Alrugo Entertainment shot a trailer for a movie that didn't exist. Italian Spiderman, a parody of 1960s and '70s Italian action films, was filmed on a single roll of 16mm film in one day. — Read the rest

The post Marvel wouldn't let Italian Spiderman into a real Spider-Man movie appeared first on Boing Boing.

On October 14, 1888, French inventor Louis Le Prince filmed his family walking in circles in a garden in Roundhay, Leeds — and the result, Roundhay Garden Scene, is believed to be the oldest surviving film. It runs about two seconds. — Read the rest

The post The oldest surviving film is two seconds of a family walking in a garden appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: This bundle includes lifetime licenses for Windows 11 Pro and Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for $39.19 (reg. $418.99) with code JULY30.

A productive Windows computer usually starts with two things: Windows and Office. This bundle includes lifetime licenses for Windows 11 Pro and Microsoft Office Professional 2021, covering the software many people install before doing anything else. — Read the rest

The post This Microsoft bundle gets your PC ready for work for $39 appeared first on Boing Boing.

In 1943, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles had lost so many players to World War II that the NFL forced the two teams to merge into one roster for a single season. Pittsburgh had only six men left under contract; Philadelphia had sixteen. — Read the rest

The post In 1943, the NFL forced the Eagles and Steelers to merge into one team appeared first on Boing Boing.

Grandpa Pudding Brains is back on the "Y.M.C.A." beat, explaining that the Village People classic became a "monster" hit again "30 years after its original launch," which is adorable if you believe 1978 was in the Clinton administration.

"Y.M.C.A." came out in 1978, but Grandpa Pudding Brains says it was 30 years ago, because numbers are just little flags you wave while the band plays you off. — Read the rest

The post The Village People wrote a disco anthem. Grandpa Pudding Brains found a mirror appeared first on Boing Boing.

Flabbergasted that even a majority MAGA Supreme Court can't turn away children born on US soil, America's angriest white supremacist, Stephen Miller, is back on camera explaining that the country must end birthright citizenship for children born to undocumented immigrants because he says so. — Read the rest

The post Trump's immigration ghoul is back to explaining why some babies don't count appeared first on Boing Boing.

Thieves hit a Los Angeles Pokémon shop again, smashing their way in and stealing another pile of valuable cardboard with monsters on it, because capitalism eventually turns childhood into a smash-and-grab category.

The funny-sad thing here is that Pokémon cards have completed the full American lifecycle: children's obsession, collector bubble, investment vehicle, insured retail asset, smash-and-grab loot. — Read the rest

The post Gotta steal 'em all! Thieves rob Pokémon shop again appeared first on Boing Boing.

JD Vance tried to make a Biden joke in front of troops and got the kind of silence usually reserved for a smoke alarm chirping during a funeral.

Remember, Vance proudly tells a story about yelling "shut the hell up" at his child so JD could kiss Trump's ass and get the job. — Read the rest

The post Not a single laugh: JD Vance tells another joke appeared first on Boing Boing.

A Fresno County farmer says a legal dispute over his nectarines left 125,000 pounds of fruit sitting in the orchard, unsellable and waiting to rot. His solution was beautifully simple: if he can't sell them, people can eat them.

The farmer grows the fruit. — Read the rest

The post Farmer gives away 125,000 pounds of nectarines rather than let Big Ag rot them appeared first on Boing Boing.

Whoa! Time travel's just been invented! Quick question, though: are you a plucky teenager being mentored by an eccentric scientist? What about an ancient alien with a cool box? No?

Then sorry, you're going to have to join the rest of the public in queuing for… dramatic sting… the Time Travel Department. — Read the rest

The post The one thing scarier than getting stuck in ancient Mesopotamia appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: The refurbished Lenovo ThinkPad L15 Gen 3 features a Ryzen 5 Pro processor, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, a 15.6-inch touchscreen, and Windows 11 Pro for $439.99 (reg. $799).

It's almost unheard of for business laptops to have a cult following, yet ThinkPads somehow managed it. — Read the rest

The post This refurbished Lenovo ThinkPad is down to $440 appeared first on Boing Boing.

Do you have a petty grievance you'd like to broadcast across the globe? If so, PettyMillion is the website for you. You can type your own petty grievances and send them off for strangers to read here. You can also read other people's entries, and vote/react to them. — Read the rest

The post PettyMillion lets you anonymously share your pettiest complaints appeared first on Boing Boing.

This "poop dog" firework is the only thing I'm interested in purchasing this year for the 4th. It says everything that needs to be said. It's also incredibly entertaining to watch.

Before this version existed, when I was a child, there was the classic black snake firework. — Read the rest

The post This poop dog firework puts a funny twist on the classic black snake appeared first on Boing Boing.

This tortoise has a passion for interior design, and nobody is going to stop her. In this funny video the tortoise begins moving heavy furniture around the house by simply wedging her shell underneath it and walking away. If you stumbled upon this scene in the dark and didn't see the tortoise, it would seem like a poltergeist was taking place, causing the furniture to drift around by itself. — Read the rest

The post Tortoise rearranges furniture like a tiny interior designer appeared first on Boing Boing.

I must genuinely applaud investigative YouTuber Eddy Burback's willingness to get out there and find the hard truths himself, even if the lengths he goes to are at times genuinely concerning. Compared to his last long-form project, though, in which he deliberately gave himself AI psychosis to show how devastating it could be to the average, less-informed person, this one seems a little less dangerous. — Read the rest

The post Turn's out RFK's carnivore diet is unhealthy. Who would have guessed? appeared first on Boing Boing.

Tom the Dancing Bug: Super-Fun-Pak Comix, feat. Lester the Jester, Actually-Man, The Truth About 1969, and MORE!

-> Please join the team that makes it possible for your friendly neighborhood comic strip Tom the Dancing Bug to exist in this hostile Trumpverse! — Read the rest

The post Tom the Dancing Bug: Super-Fun-Pak Comix, feat. Lester the Jester, The Truth About 1969 and MORE! appeared first on Boing Boing.

After years of T9 texting on a Motorola Star Tac, seeing a BlackBerry phone with its comparatively ample physical QWERTY keyboard felt like a revelation. Texting and email had been a part of my job since the late 1990s. Being able to do both? — Read the rest

The post Clicks Communicator brings back the physical keyboard for $500 appeared first on Boing Boing.

You can find anything on the dark web if you know how to look. Ghost guns, suicide kits, leaked credit card credentials, malware for rent and, according to Apple Insider, schematics detailing the logic board design of Apple's upcoming iPhone 18 Pro. — Read the rest

The post Hackers stole iPhone 18 Pro schematics from Apple supplier Tata appeared first on Boing Boing.

The journal Nature has posted a simplified but surprisingly entertaining and informative Mars terraforming simulation. For each of the five steps in the process: heat the planet, make a water plan, clean the dirt, start to farm, and make an atmosphere safe for people, you select an option from a list of choices. — Read the rest

The post Nature's Mars simulator scores your terraforming skills appeared first on Boing Boing.

The AI Compass [via] is an online quiz that polls your thoughts on AI, then sorts you into one of thirty archetypes mapped across a chart like the ones libertarians use to audit people.

There's something just perfect about the combination of AI, the Political Compass and Myers-Briggs style Jungian dichotomies. — Read the rest

The post The AI Compass tells you what flavor Basilisk food you are appeared first on Boing Boing.

Jason Kottke designed the perfect tee shirt for an age of monsters: "Maybe it will happen today," tastefully typeset in Free Lunch on various dark shades of cotton in nine sizes.

A promotion. Making a new friend. Or the big cork-popping event; you know the one.

— Read the rest

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Americans will lose about $250 billion gambling this year, reports Joey Politano, a number that's up 60% in half a decade. And that doesn't include "prediction markets" and cryptocurrencies, both mostly vehicles for more gambling. Politicians are well-greased by the industry lobbyists, personal debt is soaring out of sight, and there's no immediate prospect of anyone taking control. — Read the rest

The post Americans now lose a quarter of a trillion dollars a year gambling appeared first on Boing Boing.

FloodMap shows maps depicting the outcome of raised (or lowered) sea levels on the world's coastlines. It uses OpenStreetMap data, has a box to enter how many meters of water you'd like added or removed, and has topical forecasts of flooding and a newfangled 3D visualizer. — Read the rest

The post Floodmap shows the world without ice appeared first on Boing Boing.