Meta is paying for posts that appear to break its own rules, according to an ABC (Australia) New Verify investigation by Lucy Carter. The report cites four accounts that have received payment from Facebook's invitation-only Content Monetization program, including a white nationalist with neo-Nazi links and an anti-vaccine campaigner. — Read the rest

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"From The 'London Times' in 1904" is an 1898 Mark Twain short story set six years in the future, and it describes something very close to the internet. It opens as a murder mystery. Clayton, a hot-tempered army officer, is accused of killing Szczepanik, the inventor of a machine called the telelectroscope. — Read the rest

The post Mark Twain wrote a story in 1898 that describes the internet appeared first on Boing Boing.

De Acupunctura is a 1683 book by the Dutch physician Willem ten Rhijne, and it came out of one of the most roundabout translation jobs on record. Ten Rhijne was living at Dejima, the artificial island off Nagasaki that was the only piece of Japan open to Europeans during the Edo period. — Read the rest

The post A Dutch doctor translated acupuncture through four languages appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Florence Y'all Water Tower stands beside Interstate 75 in Florence, Kentucky, and it says "Y'all" because of a paperwork problem. When it went up in 1974 it read FLORENCE MALL. The developers had given the city the land for the tower on the condition that the mall's name be painted where interstate drivers would see it, and the mall itself was still two years from opening. — Read the rest

The post A Kentucky water tower says "Y'all" because of a legal problem appeared first on Boing Boing.

There's been some speculation about exactly what Primetime, A24's movie about the hit show To Catch A Predator, is going to say. Having seen the trailer, I figure that if you were skeptical of host Chris Hansen's motives and character, this movie shares those concerns and might even be entirely about them. — Read the rest

The post Take a seat and watch the trailer to Primetime appeared first on Boing Boing.

Georg Danek and Stefan Hagel have worked out a way to sing Homer, and Open Culture has their recording. Danek teaches at the University of Vienna and Hagel is at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. What they recorded is lines 267 to 366 of book 8 of the Odyssey, the passage where the bard Demodocus sings about the love of Ares and Aphrodite. — Read the rest

The post Hear what the Odyssey may have sounded like as a song appeared first on Boing Boing.

Remember when having three browser tabs open felt excessive? Now it's ChatGPT in one tab, Claude in another, Gemini somewhere else, plus an image generator, a PDF tool, and whatever you use to summarize YouTube videos. You deserve better.

That's exactly why 1min.AI — Read the rest

The post Cancel your AI subscriptions—get a lifetime of ChatGPT, Claude & a ton of other tools for just $70 appeared first on Boing Boing.

In January 1933, five Bronx acquaintances — the press later called them "the Murder Trust" — took out life insurance policies on Michael Malloy, a homeless Irish former firefighter, and set out to collect the $3,500 (about $87,000 today) by getting him to drink himself to death. — Read the rest

The post When five men tried to murder "Iron Mike" with increasingly poisonous drinks appeared first on Boing Boing.

Camp Bonifas, the United Nations Command post 400 meters south of the Korean Demilitarized Zone, has a golf course. One hole, par 3, with an AstroTurf green — and minefields on three sides. Sports Illustrated called it "the most dangerous hole in golf," and there are reports that at least one shot detonated a land mine. — Read the rest

The post The world's most dangerous golf hole is surrounded by minefields appeared first on Boing Boing.

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo said the name "Officer Abdelnabi." Trump supporters booed. Lombardo had to explain that Abdelnabi was the Las Vegas police officer killed the day before.

So much for "back the blue." Lombardo was paying tribute to Austin Abdelnabi when someone in the audience began booing loudly. — Read the rest

The post The thin blue line encounters an unfamiliar last name appeared first on Boing Boing.

A Circle K shopper posted a screenshot of an AI self-checkout screen that listed a few flavors of Gatorade at a few dollars apiece, then a line item of $8.5 billion for the American Red Cross, according to the New York Post. — Read the rest

The post AI self-checkout bills a snack run at $8.5 billion appeared first on Boing Boing.

In 2020 the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts picked up a one-star review that read "worst aquarium ever." It is a museum about the history of whaling, and it keeps no live whales. Six years later, the museum has printed the line on hoodies, T-shirts, crew necks, and bags, according to Boston 25 News. — Read the rest

The post A whaling museum printed its worst review on a hoodie. It sold out appeared first on Boing Boing.

On February 4, 1982, Arizonan David Grundman shot a 27-foot saguaro with a shotgun. The saguaro dropped 23 feet of itself on him.

The story is Grundman and his roommate drove into the desert near Lake Pleasant on February 4, 1982. — Read the rest

The post In 1982, a 27-year-old man lost a gunfight with a cactus appeared first on Boing Boing.

Tesla told federal regulators that the headlights on 19,900 Model 3 and Model Y cars were up to nearly twice as bright as the law allows, then argued it shouldn't have to fix them because the defect was "inconsequential" to safety. — Read the rest

The post Tesla headlights were twice as bright as legal appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Glad av Gillberga is a Swedish replica of a warship pulled from Denmark's Roskilde fjord and dated to around 1040. In nearly 30 years it has crossed the North Sea and sailed to Canada. Universal borrowed it for six months for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, where it played one of the escort ships in Odysseus's flotilla — the Greek boats are thought to have resembled Nordic longships. — Read the rest

The post Swedish shipowner says Odyssey filmmaker won't pay $6,000 damage bill appeared first on Boing Boing.

Grandpa Pudding Brains collected $166 billion in tariffs under a law the Supreme Court says does not authorize tariffs. The government has now returned $100 billion of it, but the refund doesn't reach the folks who paid higher prices.

The Orange Menace claimed tariffs are a machine for restoring factories, winning trade wars and shrinking the federal deficit. — Read the rest

The post Trump's $100 billion tariff refund skips the people who paid higher prices appeared first on Boing Boing.

A State Department slide that mislabeled every country on a map of Africa — Nigeria landlocked in the Sahara, Mozambique moved to the Horn — has drawn an apology, the Guardian reports. The department said it takes "full responsibility for the confusion and misrepresentation it caused for attendees, including our African partners." — Read the rest

The post Every country was wrong on the State Department's map of Africa appeared first on Boing Boing.

While Los Angeles burned, betting site Polymarket offered nearly 20 ways to bet on what the flames would do next, including whether the Palisades fire would reach Santa Monica. The potential for a bettor to help their wager along is horrifying. — Read the rest

The post Polymarket let gamblers bet on whether wildfire would reach Santa Monica appeared first on Boing Boing.

If you were moving diamonds across the Deccan Plateau in the 1830s, there were rules about when to set out. Leave on a Tuesday or a Thursday, on the 5th, 13th, or 28th day of the lunar month. Eat coriander seeds before a Tuesday departure and jaggery before a Thursday one. — Read the rest

The post An 1832 book explains how to pick a lucky day to travel appeared first on Boing Boing.

A gongoozler is someone who stands beside a canal and watches the boats. According to Wikipedia, the word may have begun as canal workers' slang for a person loitering on the towpath, and The Times has described it as meaning "someone who hung around bridges to laugh at the inept efforts of less experienced barge folk as they struggled to pass through locks." — Read the rest

The post Ever stood and watched boats work a lock? There's a job for you appeared first on Boing Boing.

In the year 937, Mount Fuji erupted and sent the Ken-Marubi lava flow down its northern slopes and over a stand of fallen trees. The lava hardened around the trunks while the wood inside burned away, leaving long hollow tubes in the ground. — Read the rest

The post A 937 eruption at Mount Fuji left a cave shaped like a womb appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Edit, convert, merge, split, rotate, crop, delete, and reorganize PDFs with ease with this lifetime subscription to PDF Expert's Premium Plan while it's on sale for 43% off. 

After forking out a pretty penny for a MacBook, the last thing you want to do is spend even more on software. — Read the rest

The post Own your PDF software outright with this $80 Mac tool appeared first on Boing Boing.

France's ban on unsolicited solicitations comes into effect next week, protecting consumers from telemarketers and other intrusive sales pitches. Acknowledging that its "opt-out" system (as found in other countries) had only served the hucksters, the Fourth Republic is trying something new: actually stopping them. — Read the rest

The post France bans cold-calling telemarketers appeared first on Boing Boing.

DuckDuckGo is well-known for its privacy-oriented search engine, but a pivot into fashion proved a big hit this week. Its "Normal Fucking Sunglasses," posted yesterday here at Boing Boing, sold out right away despite being otherwise unremarkable Paso Robles from Knockaround. — Read the rest

The post DuckDuckGo's "Normal F***ing Sunglasses" sell out in a day appeared first on Boing Boing.

For those who find the Squatty Potty gauche but want to spend less time in the bathroom, there is a new option: Sh*t Shoes.

The way people in most Western countries sit on the toilet isn't great. Squatting is common in non-Western countries and likely contributes to a lower incidence of hemorrhoids, which can be caused by straining. — Read the rest

The post There's now a $69 pair of shoes designed only for using the toilet appeared first on Boing Boing.

A spectacular complex is about to emerge in Rotterdam, and it looks like it belongs in Middle-earth or Thra instead of the Netherlands.

Award-winning international architectural firm MVRDV was declared the winner in a competition to design a mixed-use, eco-friendly Embassy for Shift. — Read the rest

The post This winning design looks like it wandered out of a fantasy film appeared first on Boing Boing.

It's suddenly a great time to be an X-Files fan. Just days after the release of the first LEGO X-Files set, a new X-Files movie trailer drops.

Sadly, it is not a trailer for the mythical third X-Files movie, but rather a director's cut of 2008's X-Files: I Want to Believe. — Read the rest

The post Trailer drops for X-Files: I Want to Believe's R-rated cut appeared first on Boing Boing.

When I head out for the day, my pack is heavy with EDC nonsense: my laptop or word processor, a CLS medical kit, phone, earphones — you get the idea. If I feel the urge to add anything to my load out, it needs to be lightweight, well-made and, most importantly, feel essential. — Read the rest

The post This phone keyboard attachment is well-made but still too heavy appeared first on Boing Boing.

Late-model BMW owners are starting up their cars to find a commercial for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Responding to a request for information about the ad from The Autopian, BMW confirmed the animation is part of a broader partnership with the film:

"A few of our vehicles – including the BMW iX3 – were in the film, and a special edition iX3 was featured on the red carpet during last night's premiere in Los Angeles."

— Read the rest

The post BMWs are showing a commercial at startup appeared first on Boing Boing.

Do you recall the stunned feeling in your thinky bits the moment that you discovered that the holes in many pasta serving spoons are designed to measure portion size? Did that moment just come after reading that first sentence? Anyway, it could well be that I'm the last fella on the planet to realize this, but you can use a wireless battery pack to charge many models of true wireless earphones. — Read the rest

The post MagSafe battery packs can charge AirPods and other earbuds too appeared first on Boing Boing.