A cyberdeck is a homemade portable computer in the cyberpunk mold (utilitarian, DIY) and NickZero's Ultra Minimal Cyberdeck [instructables.com] is exemplary: just a single-board computer, a tiny keyboard (cf. my "Cormac" board, useful only for writing novels by Cormac McCarthy), a small screen, and a battery laced together inside a 3D-printed shell. — Read the rest

The post Cyberdeck with punishingly minimal 30% keyboard appeared first on Boing Boing.

Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields [airfields-freeman.com] collects America's half-forgotten strips and reconstructs each one's history from old aeronautical charts, topographic maps, aerial photographs, and tips from readers who flew or lived nearby. Every airfield gets its own dated, illustrated entry showing how it appeared, changed, and slipped into history. — Read the rest

The post The obscure airfields of America appeared first on Boing Boing.

When astronomers first observed iPTF14hls in September 2014, they identified it as a supernova and expected it to dim within 100 days. Instead, it kept erupting. Over approximately 1,000 days, its brightness peaked at least five times, varying by as much as 50 percent. — Read the rest

The post A star discovered in 2014 has exploded six times and none of the theories explain it appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Honjō Masamune, forged in the 13th or 14th century and passed from shōgun to shōgun as a symbol of the Tokugawa dynasty, is considered one of the finest Japanese swords ever made. It was designated a National Treasure in 1939. — Read the rest

The post Japan's greatest sword was surrendered to a US sergeant in 1946. Nobody knows where it is. appeared first on Boing Boing.

In February 1985, a 29-year-old woman from Tokyo's Suginami neighborhood sent a letter to the Japanese magazine Book Magazine. "I'm not sure why," she wrote, "but since about two or three years ago, whenever I go to a bookstore I am struck by an urge to move my bowels." — Read the rest

The post In 1985, a Japanese woman wrote a letter about bookstores making her need to use the bathroom. It became a phenomenon. appeared first on Boing Boing.

From 1970 to 1974, the Varosha district of Famagusta, Cyprus, was "one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world," a favorite of Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Raquel Welch, and Brigitte Bardot. When Turkish forces invaded Cyprus in August 1974, every Greek Cypriot resident fled. — Read the rest

The post In 1974, Turkish forces fenced off a Cyprus beach resort. It's still empty. appeared first on Boing Boing.

John Lahr, writing in the London Review of Books, offers the sharpest piece I've read on Sid Caesar — ostensibly a review of David Margolick's new biography When Caesar Was King, but really a psychological autopsy of American comedy's first TV star and the culture he shaped. — Read the rest

The post Sid Caesar built the writers' room that taught Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Carl Reiner, and Woody Allen how to be funny appeared first on Boing Boing.

A study published in Neuroscience by researchers at Spain's University of Zaragoza scanned the brains of 100 young adults and found structural differences in those who hold authoritarian beliefs — on both the left and the right. Right-wing authoritarians had lower grey matter volume in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, a region involved in understanding other people's thoughts and perspectives. — Read the rest

The post Brain scans of authoritarians show reduced grey matter in regions for empathy and social reasoning appeared first on Boing Boing.

I'm a huge fan of street art, and this recent piece in Naples, Italy by World Press Photo Award winner and acclaimed photojournalist Eduardo Castaldo is one of the best I've ever seen. The piece, titled "Donald Dump," is a black and white stencil painting of Donald Trump. — Read the rest

The post "Donald Dump" depicts Trump with sludge oozing out of his mouth appeared first on Boing Boing.

I've previously written about the glorious ASMR videos starring King Bumi, a long-snouted, toothless, bushy-tailed, coarse-haired giant anteater who lives at the North Florida Wildlife Center in Lamont, Florida, a nonprofit rehabilitation and education center whose focus is on caring for rare and endangered species. — Read the rest

The post This giant anteater uses his dancing tongue to keep cool in the summer's sweltering heat appeared first on Boing Boing.

Science fiction aficionados and fans of practical effects will want to pour one out today: Brian Johnson, a man responsible for building some of the most iconic sci-fi craft in movies and television history, has died at the age of 87. — Read the rest

The post The man who built the spaceships for 2001, Alien, and Empire has died appeared first on Boing Boing.

With so much going sideways since… forever, it can be hard to recall that some great stuff has happened. This week marked 43 years since Sally Ride strapped her ass to a rocket for NASA's seventh space shuttle mission, STS-7. As mission specialist and flight engineer on Space Shuttle Challenger, she became the first American woman in space on June 18, 1983. — Read the rest

The post Sally Ride flew to space 43 years ago today. She still has the best astronaut name. appeared first on Boing Boing.

A dude who goes by Marketplace Builds on Instagram uploaded this hilarious video of a pink toy car that has been hacked to go much faster than normal. This is the kind of toy car that a kid can drive themselves, usually at snail pace for safety reasons. — Read the rest

The post Man supercharges a child's pink ride-on car, sends it flying appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Indri is the largest living lemur and one of the most distinctive primates in Madagascar. It lives only in the eastern rainforests of the island and is known for its striking black-and-white fur pattern and its nearly tailless body. It makes an alarming sound when communicating with others. — Read the rest

The post Lemur makes an alarming sound when communicating appeared first on Boing Boing.

This powerful storm rolled through near Lorenzo, Nebraska, on June 7th, 2026. It ended up being one of those rare setups that looks almost unreal on camera. It started building late in the afternoon and quickly took on a structure that caught attention. — Read the rest

The post Nebraska supercell near Lorenzo looked almost too perfect to be real appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Old English Wordhord unlocks one medieval word a day, pairing each term with its definition, pronunciation and, often, a manuscript illustration. The site's creator (or should it be wordwyrm?) Dr. Hana Videen frames the project around the fabulous name: "word-hoard describes the collection of words and phrases that a poet may draw upon while crafting tales." — Read the rest

The post Old English word of the day appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: For $129.97 (reg. $999), you can get lifetime access to MagellanTV, an ad-free documentary streaming service with over 4,000 high-quality documentary movies and TV series from around the globe.

Deal Days is Stack Social's answer to Prime Day, so you can expect some good savings. — Read the rest

The post Get smarter on your downtime with lifetime documentary streaming for $130 during Deal Days appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Get Drime's 6TB of lifetime encrypted cloud storage, compliance tracking, and collaboration tools for $189.97 (reg. $599) during Deal Days through June 28.

Nobody ever deletes anything anymore. Screenshots from 2018. PDFs you'll definitely read someday. Videos from phones you no longer own. — Read the rest

The post This Deal Days discount gets you 6TB of secure cloud storage for $190 appeared first on Boing Boing.

The lining of the Reflecting Pool at Washington D.C.'s Lincoln Memorial was painted blue to please Trump: a no-bid $14.7m contract that went to a company that had worked on one of his swimming pools. Within days of the pool being refilled, it was full of algae. — Read the rest

The post New blue paint under Reflecting Pool already peeling appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: This 1-year Intuit QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus 2024 subscription for Windows gives you all the financial tools you need to manage your business in one place for just $299.99 (reg. $536). 

With Deal Days, the gifts keep coming, and this QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus 2024 for Windows is just one example. — Read the rest

The post Centralize essential accounting tasks with QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus for $300 during Deal Days appeared first on Boing Boing.

On the night of 21 August 1986, Lake Nyos in northwestern Cameroon released between 100,000 and 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide in a single outgassing event. The cloud rose at nearly 100 km/h, then sank — carbon dioxide is 50 percent more dense than air — and moved downvalley at 20 to 50 kilometers per hour. — Read the rest

The post In 1986, a Cameroonian lake released a CO2 cloud that killed 1,746 people overnight appeared first on Boing Boing.

According to the Bencao Gangmu, a 16th-century Chinese medical compendium, elderly men in Arabia would voluntarily mummify themselves in honey. The donor would stop eating all food except honey, bathing in it as well, "till after a month his excreta are nothing but honey; then death ensues." — Read the rest

The post The ancient practice of mummifying a man in honey to sell as medicine appeared first on Boing Boing.

Watching a cow eat grass probably sounds boring, but this video proves that it can be made into something fabulous. Thanks to the right angle and sounds, this cow video is addictive to watch. My only complaint is that it's not longer. — Read the rest

The post Cow chewing grass through a fish-eye lens becomes strangely addictive appeared first on Boing Boing.

Severe storms in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood sent several pool chairs flying off a high-rise balcony and into the traffic below. The video of the incident shows the lightweight lounge chairs being pushed across a rooftop pool deck by powerful winds. — Read the rest

The post Chicago storm hurls rooftop pool chairs into Lincoln Park traffic appeared first on Boing Boing.

This sweet video shows a honeybee curled up inside of a flower bed. The timelapse shows the bee wrapped around the inner part of the flower, as the petals slowly close inward. I can't imagine a more enchanting place to lay down than inside the cozy bed of this orange flower. — Read the rest

The post Honeybee curls up inside closing flower in timelapse video appeared first on Boing Boing.

As I've stated, I did not watch Donald Trump's masturbatory UFC Freedom 250 fight. I spent the day kicking my heels and giggling over Bob Odenkirk returning to his most iconic character for his American anniversary celebration instead. If I have to watch a narcissist, I'd like him to at least be a well-written one! — Read the rest

The post The Good Liars went to Freedom 250 so the rest of us didn't have to appeared first on Boing Boing.

In colorful, funny, and appealing comics, Perrin Roosevelt Ireland's new book Poking the Squid describes the incredible, diverse array of sexual behaviors and anatomies in the animal kingdom.

— Read the rest

The post A new book, Poking the Squid, tells the scandalous, salacious truth about animal sex, in comics form appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Vatican Observatory has operated continuously since 1774, when the Papacy established the Observatory of the Roman College in Rome. The Church's interest in astronomy predates that: the Gregorian Calendar, issued in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, required precise astronomical data to calculate the date of Easter. — Read the rest

The post The Vatican has run an astronomical observatory since 1774 appeared first on Boing Boing.

While chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan developed what economist Alan Blinder called "a turgid dialect of English" — deliberate obscurantism designed to prevent financial markets from overreacting to his words. He admitted as much in a 2007 interview with 60 Minutes's Lesley Stahl: "I would engage in some form of syntax destruction which sounded as though I were answering the question, but in fact, had not." — Read the rest

The post Fed Chair Alan Greenspan intentionally babbled meaningless slop and got away with it appeared first on Boing Boing.

Between 1993 and 2009, investigators across Austria, France, and Germany found DNA from the same unknown woman at 40 crime scenes — murders, burglaries, a police officer shot in Heilbronn. A special task force codenamed Parkplatz worked the case for years; by January 2009, the reward had reached €300,000. — Read the rest

The post The 'Phantom of Heilbronn' serial killer turned out to be a cotton swab factory worker appeared first on Boing Boing.