OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, xAI, and Perplexity all say the same thing in their terms of service: children under 13 cannot use their products unsupervised. Then they license the same technology to toymakers, who drop it into stuffed animals and plastic robots and hand them to kids. — Read the rest

The post Congressman wants AI out of kids' toys after chatbots got weird with children appeared first on Boing Boing.

That Linux kernel bug Anthropic highlighted as proof of Mythos's hacking prowess? Researcher Devansh found it was actually discovered by Claude Opus 4.6 — Anthropic's publicly available model — not by the restricted Mythos. The find is buried in a 244-page system card that independent researchers have been dissecting since the April 7 announcement, and it's one of several places where the hype doesn't hold up, according to The Register. — Read the rest

The post Anthropic's "too dangerous" AI was accessed by guessing the URL appeared first on Boing Boing.

Florida Republicans, never ones to leave a map untouched, are considering another round of redistricting in response to Democratic gains elsewhere. The catch: push the lines too far, and a strategy meant to lock in seats could instead make more of them competitive, turning a power play into a potential self-own. — Read the rest

The post Florida tries to gerrymander harder, may end up helping Democrats appeared first on Boing Boing.

A shot of espresso is roughly twice as concentrated by volume as drip coffee, yet a typical espresso delivers 60–110mg of caffeine, while a mug of filtered drip can carry 80–280mg. The espresso drinker is sipping something stronger — but less of it, which is what actually determines the dose. — Read the rest

The post Your drip coffee has more caffeine than your espresso — here's why appeared first on Boing Boing.

Headlines today are swirling around Whiskey Pete Hegseth and FBI Director K$H Patel's fears of being next thrown out of office and scapegoated. Everyone fears becoming the next several-day distraction from an Epstein file or TACO crisis.

Hegseth, who fired Navy Secretary John Phelan on Wednesday, has apparently started to show signs of paranoia over whether he will remain in the top Pentagon position, Tom Nichols, staff writer for The Atlantic, told MS NOW.

— Read the rest

The post Trump returns to his reality TV roots. Who gets fired next? appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Battle of Trafalgar is generally considered settled history: a decisive British victory over Napoleon's fleet. But in 1949, the Royal Navy found one last loose end in HMS Implacable, a rebadged, captured French warship that had survived for nearly a century and a half. — Read the rest

The post 1949: Unable to resist the irony, Britain defeats Napoleon one more time appeared first on Boing Boing.

A record marine heat wave stretching along the California coast is loading the Pacific with extra energy. The kind of energy that doesn't just sit there, but eventually shows up as stronger storms, disrupted ecosystems, and a cascade of effects already hitting marine life. — Read the rest

The post More heat means more energy. More energy means bigger storms appeared first on Boing Boing.

A hiker in the Angeles National Forest danced in to face off with a charging bear, utilizing that time-honored wilderness survival strategy of jumping around and jingling bells. This approach, contrary to expectations, did not end badly but may have served as the watershed moment between "saw a bear" and "was chased by a bear." — Read the rest

The post Hiker tries jingling bells to stop charging bear, miraculously not dead (video) appeared first on Boing Boing.

This beautiful passageway in Sequoia National Park is known as Tunnel Rock. This naturally occurring granite boulder was incorporated into the road construction beneath it. I'm so glad that it wasn't removed, and instead has become a beloved landmark.

The rock is part of the ancient Sierra Nevada batholith, a massive granite formation created roughly 100 million years ago when molten rock slowly cooled deep underground. — Read the rest

The post Workers routed a highway through this boulder rather than blast it appeared first on Boing Boing.

Going to the bathroom in Medieval Europe wasn't a very fancy activity. People often had to use a hole in the ground, a communal outhouse, or a chamber pot. If you were very rich, though, you might have gotten to poop inside a small room on the side of the castle called a garderobe. — Read the rest

The post Medieval castle toilets doubled as assassination shafts appeared first on Boing Boing.

Never underestimate the power of a lame Internet trend. Skibidi Toilet is a million-dollar franchise, I can't see the numbers six and seven near each other without having an aneurysm, and the Church of Scientology is getting mobbed by Gen Alpha — although not for the reasons they may hope. — Read the rest

The post Teens are speedrunning the Scientology building in LA appeared first on Boing Boing.

Mathieu Bablet builds intricate, believable worlds and then plops you into the middle of them without a map. Silent Jenny, his latest feat of confident dystopian worldbuilding, is finally getting a U.S. edition via Magnetic Press and Oni Press, via a Kickstarter campaign. — Read the rest

The post Mathieu Bablet's "Silent Jenny" explores what's left of us when the bees are gone appeared first on Boing Boing.

With all of the writing I do about my love of animal ASMR, I can't believe I haven't featured the dependable, tried-and-true OG snacking and smacking: cats crunching dry food. I apologize for neglecting this incredibly obvious yet oh-so-satisfying sub-genre, but I'm here to remedy that oversight! — Read the rest

The post Cats crunching dry food is an incredibly satisfying animal ASMR sub-genre appeared first on Boing Boing.

We're one movie and a TV show into James Gunn's new DC cinematic universe, and it's already miles better than the last one. Superman completely disavowed the grumbly grittiness that Zack Snyder's DC Extended Universe reveled in, which was a massive breath of fresh air — but not bathing everything in muted lighting and slow motion means the project can't go dark on occasion. — Read the rest

The post James Gunn's DC does body horror with Clayface appeared first on Boing Boing.

In a just world, Fredrik Knudsen, the creator of Down the Rabbit Hole, would have the same kind of Netflix docuseries money we give to other directors with such worthwhile visions as "Hey, Wasn't Jeffrey Dahmer Kind of Hot, Actually?" But this is not a just world, unfortunately. — Read the rest

The post Down the Rabbit Hole profiles pseudoscience's most reasonable-sounding perpetual motion crank appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Get lifetime access to flight and hotel deals—and let OneAir Elite track price drops so you don't have to—for a one-time $99.99 payment (MSRP $790)

Booking travel is weirdly stressful for something that's supposed to be fun. You compare tabs, check prices, wait a day, check again, and somehow it's more expensive. — Read the rest

The post Those vacay photos will hit different when you pay less appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: If your PC is running slow, the problem might not be your hardware but the system itself. So, why not upgrade to Windows 11 Pro for just $12.97 (reg. $199) and enjoy the return of peak efficiency?

What is there to say about Windows 11 Pro that wasn't covered by Windows 10? — Read the rest

The post Give your PC a makeover with Windows 11—now just $13 appeared first on Boing Boing.

On the morning of March 5, 1884, Dr. Frank Dudley Beane of New York dosed himself with 7½ minims of cannabis indica alongside 22½ minims of ergot, both from Parke, Davis & Co. He was trying to treat chronic pelvic pain. — Read the rest

The post In 1884, a doctor ate too much cannabis and his arms shrank to five inches  appeared first on Boing Boing.

A scientist described in the September 1946 issue of True: The Men's Magazine kept a chart on his lab wall that looked like a stock graph. The peaks and valleys represented his mood cycle. High weeks, he'd "feel equal to tackling tigers with his bare hands." — Read the rest

The post 1946 mood chart: know your bad weeks two months in advance appeared first on Boing Boing.

Alfred M. Thomsen had spent years at his San Francisco lab trying to grow edible yeast. The yeast grew, but every batch came out terrible. Then one day, a brew that should have been especially nasty boiled over onto his hand. — Read the rest

The post A 1946 plan to feed a billion people with sawdust appeared first on Boing Boing.

Deep in the taiga of eastern Siberia stands a 40-meter-high mound of shattered limestone, 160 meters across at its base, with a ring-shaped crown and a smaller peak rising from inside the ring. It weighs roughly a million tons. Locals knew about it long before a Russian geologist named Vadim Kolpakov described it in 1949. — Read the rest

The post What is this weird huge mound in Siberia? appeared first on Boing Boing.

Rick Lenssen, a data analyst at ASML — the Dutch company that makes the machines that print the chips in every phone and laptop — has designed Lego versions of his employer's $400 million extreme ultraviolet lithography tools. ASML sold 1,355 of his latest model. — Read the rest

The post Why is a $200 Lego set harder to buy than a $400M machine? appeared first on Boing Boing.

Comedian Shane Mauss thinks he's dating a woman in another dimension, and she gets jealous of his real-world girlfriend. The comedian has encountered the same purple dancing figure five or six times on DMT trips, always in the same carnival setting with a Ferris wheel and a guy playing piano. — Read the rest

The post Shane Mauss's DMT "girlfriend" showed up in his friend's trip too appeared first on Boing Boing.

In late February, retired Air Force Major General Neil McCasland stepped out for a walk from his New Mexico home and didn't return. His wife has said he'd been struggling with brain fog and physical decline and had told her more than once that he "didn't want to live like that." — Read the rest

The post Atlantic calls missing-scientists panic 2026's dumbest conspiracy appeared first on Boing Boing.

Coyote vs. ACME, the forthcoming live-action animated comedy from Warner Bros., ran a strange road to release: shot and animated years ago, it was shelved by WB in 2023 to use as a tax write-off. This led to outrage among those who made it and wanted to watch it. — Read the rest

The post Coyote vs. ACME trailer runs off precipice, hovers, drops appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Scan your ID, passport, and any other sensitive document once, and get digital access to them whenever needed with this iScanner lifetime license for just $26.

There's nothing quite like handing in your documents, only to be told you've missed one. — Read the rest

The post Make those thumby documents a thing of the past with iScanner, now $26 appeared first on Boing Boing.

After whispers in the shaded corners of the 'net, then the first upload to its channel in a year, Boards of Canada today announced its forthcoming new album, Inferno. The duo's first since 2013's Tomorrow's Harvest, it will be available on May 29; you can pre-order now on vinyl (with a deluxe transparent red limited edition), CD and digital. — Read the rest

The post Inferno, Boards of Canada's first album since 2013, is out in May appeared first on Boing Boing.

If nothing else, I respect a long-running franchise that knows what it is. The Evil Dead film series has always been not-particularly-good campy horror for those who are interested in vibes above all else, even as it's expanded into a multimedia franchise encompassing TV shows, video games, and, briefly, a stage musical. — Read the rest

The post Evil Dead continues to be neither evil nor dead appeared first on Boing Boing.

I read today that humans are more sensitive to the smell of an impending rainstorm than sharks are to the scent of blood. However, the funky odor that we associate with rain a-comin' isn't in the rain itself, nor is it the smell of wet asphalt, as I used to believe as a kid. — Read the rest

The post The fascinating reason why rain smells the way that it does appeared first on Boing Boing.

Tom the Dancing Bug: The Secret Origin of Justice Roberts's Shadow Docket

-> Please join the team that makes it possible for your friendly neighborhood comic strip Tom the Dancing Bug to exist in this hostile Trumpverse! JOIN US IN THE INNER HIVE, and be the first kid on your block to get each week's Tom the Dancing Bug comic – before it's published anywhere. — Read the rest

The post Tom the Dancing Bug: The Secret Origin of Justice Roberts's Shadow Docket appeared first on Boing Boing.