Chris Nolan may be done making Batman movies, but you could be mistaken for thinking otherwise with how dark, gritty and full of black armor his upcoming The Odyssey movie is shaping up to be. Better-informed historians than I have torn into this movie for its lack of any real-world historical aesthetic. — Read the rest

The post Extended trailer for Christopher Nolan's Odyssey appeared first on Boing Boing.

Are humans just LLMs in meat suits? Arturo Nereu doesn't quite think so, but in a recent essay, he lays out the uncomfortable parallels between how large language models work and how he experiences his own thinking. The more he interacts with AI tools for research and development, the more he notices the overlap — and the more he wonders whether the comparison goes deeper than metaphor. — Read the rest

The post The case for thinking of yourself as a meat-based language model appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: The ultimate project management tool, Microsoft Project Professional 2024: Lifetime License for Windows, is available now for $54.97 (MSRP $1,129.99) until May 10 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Level up in the workplace with prime project management software from the GOAT. — Read the rest

The post Keep your projects on track with Microsoft Project Professional 2024 appeared first on Boing Boing.

Try to keep the idea of a white bear out of your head.

Daniel Wegner's 1987 experiment is now showing up in a critique of one of the most recognizable AI writing tics, the LinkedIn-saturated "It's not X, it's Y," by University of Guelph linguistics scholar Joshua Gonzales, writing for The Conversation. — Read the rest

The post Why the "It's not X, it's Y" AI tic backfires on its writers appeared first on Boing Boing.

A new paper in Nature Communications, covered by Ian Sample at the Guardian, claims a single 25mg dose may leave behind anatomical changes in the wiring itself, still visible 30 days on.

Researchers at UC San Francisco and Imperial College London recruited 28 psychedelic-naive adults and gave each of them a token 1mg primer, then a full 25mg session a month later. — Read the rest

The post One psilocybin dose may reshape brain wiring a month later appeared first on Boing Boing.

This Friday, May 8, Meta will turn off end-to-end encryption for Instagram DMs. The feature, added as opt-in in 2023, is being yanked because almost nobody used it — or at least, that's the official explanation, according to MacRumors, citing a Meta spokesperson who told The Guardian: "Very few people were opting in to end-to-end encrypted messaging in DMs, so we're removing this option from Instagram in the coming months. — Read the rest

The post After Friday, Meta can read your Instagram DMs again appeared first on Boing Boing.

Newly released 3D scans of the RMS Titanic wreck site reveal a sprawling debris field where everything from delicate tableware to massive machinery lies scattered across the ocean floor, presenting an unusually clear picture of how the ship broke apart during its final descent. — Read the rest

The post Stunning new scans reveal RMS Titanic debris field in eerie detail appeared first on Boing Boing.

Jeff Bezos may be looking to unload his record-setting sailing yacht Koru after discovering that a 417-foot floating monument to excess is, inconveniently, too large to dock in many of the places billionaires like to show them off.

Koru is one of the largest sailing yachts in the world, and the largest that moves under sail only.

— Read the rest

The post When your yacht is too big for Monaco, Italy, and reality appeared first on Boing Boing.

I never thought I'd see the day when HowToBasic, the unhinged YouTube chef most famous for adding an artery-clogging amount of raw eggs to the smoldering detritus he calls his food, went vegan. Not a single one of his recipes ends without something on fire or someone grievously injured, which is exactly what makes watching him so mesmerizing. — Read the rest

The post HowToBasic goes vegan with extremely cursed burger recipe appeared first on Boing Boing.

A nearly destroyed Nintendo 3DS gets a meticulous second life in this restoration video, and watching it is ASMR-level satisfying. The careful disassembly of wafer-thin circuit boards, the lineup of delicate specialized tools, the anti-yellowing washes — it's all extremely methodical in a way that scratches the brain in exactly the right spot. — Read the rest

The post This destroyed Nintendo 3DS restoration is supernaturally relaxing appeared first on Boing Boing.

Rejoice! It feels like it's taken way longer than it should, but the Steam Controller — the first of three brand-new hardware ventures Valve announced last year — is finally here. The price is a full hundred dollars before shipping and tax, more than either Xbox or PlayStation are asking for their flagship controllers. — Read the rest

The post Steam Controller launches at $100, sells out in under an hour appeared first on Boing Boing.

Cardboard Wars is the best fan-made Star Wars creation since Troops. The 52-minute Star Wars parody on YouTube is a worthy successor to Spaceballs and Hardware Wars. Cardboard Wars tells the entire story of Star Wars using practical effects and cardboard. — Read the rest

The post Cardboard Wars is a loving parody of Star Wars all in cardboard appeared first on Boing Boing.

This collection of photos celebrates trees growing on the sides of buildings, through small cracks, and in one case, straight out of a narrow slit in a brick wall. The trees aren't struggling — they look completely at home, roots anchored in mortar, branches spreading out like they own the place. — Read the rest

The post Trees that refused to be stopped by brick walls and cracks appeared first on Boing Boing.

Pam Bondi and the U.S. Department of Justice appear to be engaged in a carefully choreographed bit of procedural maneuvering: after declining to comply with a subpoena while in office, Bondi is now set to answer questions about Jeffrey Epstein as a "private citizen" but somehow potentially represented by a current DOJ official. — Read the rest

The post Bondi, DOJ continue procedural chicanery over Epstein questions appeared first on Boing Boing.

Magnified Sand is Robert Maronpot's ongoing microscopic photography project. He photographs individual sand grains up close, revealing shapes and colors that are completely invisible to the naked eye. The results look less like beach debris and more like abstract sculpture — angular, translucent, crystalline. — Read the rest

The post Magnified Sand reveals the hidden beauty of individual grains appeared first on Boing Boing.

Cursor Camp is a wholesome little website where you and everyone else visiting appear as small cursors. There's no chat, no usernames, no profiles — you can only interact by moving around the screen and watching each other do the same. — Read the rest

The post Cursor Camp is a wholesome no-chat online hangout spot appeared first on Boing Boing.

A retired Federal Bureau of Investigation employee is suing the Knoxville Police Department after she was arrested for DUI, jailed overnight, and forced to install an ignition interlock despite toxicology tests later confirming she had no alcohol or drugs in her system, the latest in a rash of so-called "sober DUI" cases in Tennessee. — Read the rest

The post Another Tennessee "DUI" case with no alcohol ends in lawsuit appeared first on Boing Boing.

This video discusses how the 2019 fire that almost destroyed Notre-dam "saved" it. In addition to all the interesting things the restoration taught us about the building, it evidently also provided the impetus to actually do something about a neglected, aging building that was waiting to collapse. — Read the rest

The post Did the fire "save" Notre-dam? appeared first on Boing Boing.

Real, stable genius Donald Trump is again touting his cognitive test results, this time describing a question involving a lion, a bear, an alligator, and a squirrel. The problem is this example that differs from the versions he offered just days earlier. — Read the rest

The post Grandpa Pudding Brains insists test was difficult, struggles to keep details straight appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Protect your web experience on up to 20 devices with a 5-year subscription to AdGuard DNS Personal for $29.99 (MSRP $719.64).

Wish you could say goodbye to ads and malware? Protect yourself from irritation and harm with AdGuard DNS, a personal privacy service that completely transforms your web experience. — Read the rest

The post Eliminate pop-ups, autoplay ads, and tracking on the web for just $30 appeared first on Boing Boing.

For the first time in half a century, humans visited the moon. If they did not land on it, that's coming soon, but they took a lot of photographs on the most epic sightseeing tour ever. The entire set is now to be found on the Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth website, an old-timey database which doesn't provide links to listings/categories, but does for individual images. — Read the rest

The post NASA posts thousands more Artemis II photos appeared first on Boing Boing.

USB-C was supposed to make things easy. But standardizing the connector didn't solve the problem of what the hardware was good for, not least the cables. And now they all look the same, making it a game of cable drawer roulette just to find the Good cable that will run enough power and data. — Read the rest

The post WhatCable tells you what that USB-C cable is good for appeared first on Boing Boing.

Supposedly to be found on the Springfield, Missouri Facebook Marketplace, this unusual vintage Dell laptop has an Intel Core 2 duo processor, 2GB of RAM, a 120GB hard drive, and Windows XP. Justifying the $850 price tag, perhaps, is an unusual power supply: a 2-stroke engine. — Read the rest

The post If only this gasoline-powered laptop were real appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Babbel teaches real-world language skills (built by actual linguists, not AI) with lifetime access for $159 using the StackSocial code LEARN.

Most of us have tried to learn a new language at least once. However, you often end up learning how to say something extremely specific, like "the cat drinks milk," which is fine, but not exactly what you need in a café in Paris. — Read the rest

The post Confidently order wine in another language with the help of Babbel's human-created lessons appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Typeframe PS-85 is a cyberdeck crafted by Jeff Merrick, inspired by Epson portable computers and the design language of 1979 science fiction-horror classic Alien. In the movie, the MU/TH/UR computer had its own room; here's a terminal to ask it desperate questions and receive unhelpful answers. — Read the rest

The post A cyberdeck to help you airlock the Alien appeared first on Boing Boing.

This lightning compilation video captures what happens when the atmosphere turns volatile. A storm rolls in, looking routine, and then, suddenly, a tree is vaporized, a building is on fire, and the power goes out. It's a reminder of just how extreme lightning can be — and why taking cover matters. — Read the rest

The post Lightning compilation video reveals how storms cause fires, explosions, and power loss appeared first on Boing Boing.

"Police do say they've seen the bear climb at least three different trees."

A large black bear wandered into Hansen Dam, a patch of green space that, from a bear's perspective, looks exactly like the kind of place a bear should be. — Read the rest

The post Bear spotted in tree, LAPD reacts appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Obama Presidential Center marked Star Wars Day with a quick, playful video. Leaning into the internet's favorite unofficial holiday with a wink to the galaxy far, far away, they used the opportunity to announce the opening of the center on May 6th. — Read the rest

The post The Force is strong at the Obama Presidential Center this Star Wars Day appeared first on Boing Boing.

Facing record-low levels in the Colorado River system, federal water managers are deliberately holding back water in Lake Powell to keep its hydroelectric turbines running even as downstream Lake Mead continues to fall. The strategy isn't about recovery so much as survival: preserving just enough elevation in both reservoirs to keep water and power moving through the system for another year. — Read the rest

The post The Colorado River's last buffers: officials juggle shrinking reservoirs to avoid system collapse appeared first on Boing Boing.

The creators of this super informative video also made it super entertaining.

Most Americans carry the familiar blue passport, but it turns out that's just one shade in a small but telling spectrum. From black diplomatic books to maroon emergency travel documents, the U.S. — Read the rest

The post This video on the complicated color codes of US passports cracked me up appeared first on Boing Boing.