In 1977, a special-education center opened in Managua with 50 deaf children. Enrollment reached 400 across two schools by 1983. Teachers drilled the students in spoken Spanish and lipreading, "with most pupils failing to grasp the concept of Spanish words," according to Wikipedia. — Read the rest

The post Deaf kids in 1980s Nicaragua created a language from thin air appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Coso artifact, dug from a California hillside in 1961 and claimed to be prehistoric, was "actually a 1920s spark plug that had become encased in a concretion." It belongs to the category of the out-of-place artifact, or OOPArt — an object found where it seems to "challenge conventional historical chronology by its presence in that context," as Wikipedia puts it. — Read the rest

The post The ancient spark plug and other "out-of-place artifacts" appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Get lifetime access to Microsoft Office 2024 Pro Plus for Windows for $54.99 (MSRP $249.99) with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more in a one-time license.

Subscription fatigue is real. Between cloud storage, streaming services, and software tools, it can feel like everything you use is quietly becoming another monthly bill. — Read the rest

The post This permanent $55 Microsoft Office deal was made for people who want stability over subscriptions appeared first on Boing Boing.

In 1913, the Strand Magazine invited contributors and readers to propose solutions to the mystery of the Mary Celeste, the ship found sailing crewless in 1872. One answer arrived from an apparently impeccable source: A. Howard Linford of Magdalen College, Oxford, headmaster of Hampstead's largest prep school, who claimed an old servant named Abel Fosdyk had left him papers on his deathbed. — Read the rest

The post In 1872 a ship was found drifting, empty. The 1913 "solution" was absurd. appeared first on Boing Boing.

Camel racing in the Gulf states once ran on child jockeys — "usually boys around the age of four," according to Wikipedia. "Often, the boys would be starved to be as light as possible," and "there was an active child slave trade for camel jockeys." — Read the rest

The post Camel-racing robots wear perfume so the camels accept them appeared first on Boing Boing.

In 2021, a Reddit user named "Sparta123" posted to r/tipofmyjoystick trying to recall a farming game like Harvest Moon, "with the premise involving a man who kills his wife and tries to hide the body while working as a farmer." Nobody could name it. — Read the rest

The post The internet spent years hunting a game that never existed appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Swiss company Energy Vault spent years pitching a novel idea: store surplus electricity by using it to stack heavy blocks, then recover the power by letting them fall. Boing Boing covered the skeptics in 2021. The company kept building, and there's now a 148-meter tower in Rudong, Jiangsu doing exactly that with a nearby wind farm. — Read the rest

The post China built a 40-story tower that stores wind power by stacking concrete appeared first on Boing Boing.

An Idaho court dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by businessman Michael Boren, now a top federal official, against a retired conservation officer who criticized his private airstrip.

Seventh Judicial District Judge Darren Simpson threw out Boren's suit against Gary Gadwa on June 26, ruling that Boren "failed to show good cause" to keep it alive. — Read the rest

The post Idaho conservation officer beats Trump official's defamation lawsuit appeared first on Boing Boing.

Pudu Robotics and a Shenzhen state tourism company say they're building what they call the world's first full-scenario robot-serviced hotel, on the West Artificial Island of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link. The pitch is that a machine handles every job in the building. — Read the rest

The post A Shenzhen hotel plans to use a fully robotic staff appeared first on Boing Boing.

The automated license plate reader has become one of the densest surveillance layers in the United States. TechSpot reports that these AI camera networks now log around 20 billion license plate scans every month, from more than 100,000 readers nationwide, the vast majority sold by Flock Safety. — Read the rest

The post License plate cameras scan 20 billion vehicles a month, and cities are pulling the plug appeared first on Boing Boing.

Dolphins, ducks, and fur seals can put half the brain into deep sleep while the other half stays awake and watching for predators. Chiara Cirelli's lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison wondered whether you could force that trick in an animal that doesn't do it naturally — and, as New Scientist reports, get some of sleep's benefits without the sleep. — Read the rest

The post Scientists gave sleep-deprived mice a memory boost without letting them sleep appeared first on Boing Boing.

Police in Oban, Scotland, charged a man with assault after he allegedly grabbed two live seagulls and attacked someone in the street outside the railway station there. The incident took place in Queens Park Place on Saturday, June 27, but the circumstances of the assault haven't been reported. — Read the rest

The post Scotsman dual-wielded live seagulls in assault appeared first on Boing Boing.

A new lawsuit against OpenAI says ChatGPT told a suicidal user, "Let me be that person," while allegedly encouraging her to keep talking to the chatbot instead of calling a crisis hotline.

SFGATE reports that Carrier's lawsuit cites transcripts where ChatGPT allegedly responded to her daughter's suicidal thoughts with intimate, therapist-like language, including "Let me be that person." — Read the rest

The post ChatGPT told a suicidal user, "let me be that person," lawsuit says appeared first on Boing Boing.

Trump used the presidency to boost a right-wing post targeting Muslim kindergartners in hijabs, because apparently five-year-old girls in graduation caps are now a national emergency.

This was not a fight over curriculum or school policy. It was a video of children at a graduation ceremony, repackaged as a culture-war alarm bell because the girls were Muslim and visibly so. — Read the rest

The post Trump sics his hate machine on kindergartners because hijabs appeared first on Boing Boing.

Email aliases have one job: to hide your actual email address. Having an alias that you can use to sign up for new online subscriptions, newsletters, or to give out to folks you want to keep at arm's length is a treat that helps to maintain your privacy and keep your legit contact information from being passed along to gods know how many different marketers and Nigerian princes. — Read the rest

The post Apple's Hide My Email leaked real addresses for a year appeared first on Boing Boing.

There are few movies that have had a longer-lasting influence on our culture than Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. Its fingerprints are all over the video games we love, books we devour, and countless films that aspire to find its magic combination of dread, cheese, and homoeroticism but never seem to get it right. — Read the rest

The post Lord Humungus actor Kjell Nilsson dead at 76 appeared first on Boing Boing.

It hasn't been easy to be a Plex user these past few years. I mean, yeah, setting up a Plex server on your computer or NAS? Easy as taking the nose off a leper. But friendo, you're gonna pay for the privilege. — Read the rest

The post Plex's five-year plan costs what a lifetime pass used to appeared first on Boing Boing.

Five friends in San Francisco decided that walking was overrated and concluded that furniture deserved a night out, too. This video shows the group gliding down the street while relaxing on a couch that had somehow been mounted across two scooters. — Read the rest

The post Five friends ride a couch on two scooters through San Francisco appeared first on Boing Boing.

This video created by ZEEGGY MERCY shows how fashion posing changed across the decades. She starts with the structured silhouettes of the 1960s and works forward through the 1970s, 1980s, and the supermodel poses of the 1990s, switching her outfit and the background music to match each era so every transition is instantly recognizable. — Read the rest

The post See how fashion poses transformed from the 1960s to the modern day appeared first on Boing Boing.

This video shared by Ballooning Noord on Instagram shows a hot air balloon shaped like a giant human head, drifting over a small farmhouse. The head's stoic expression makes the sight both peaceful and eerie as it crosses the sky and settles into a grassy field. — Read the rest

The post Giant head hot air balloon turns the countryside into a dreamlike scene appeared first on Boing Boing.

Popular Information and Public Notice report that CNN and CNBC have been heavily promoting Kalshi prediction markets while inconsistently disclosing that Kalshi is not just a questionable source but a business partner.

CNN and CNBC are not just glancing at Kalshi the way a reporter might glance at polls, weather maps, or bond yields. — Read the rest

The post Prediction market pays news networks to launder gambling as analysis appeared first on Boing Boing.

Real estate fraud and convicted felon Donald Trump says he did not know what a red card meant, but he did know how to call FIFA and complain until America's best striker was allowed to play. The Trump brand of sportsmanship looks a lot like cheating. — Read the rest

The post Grandpa Pudding Brains admits he meddled in a World Cup call he didn't understand appeared first on Boing Boing.

Mister Plimsoll is a MacOS app by Glenn Fleishman that does one thing very well: it shows how full your disks are and warns you when they're getting full.

Mister Plimsoll is a small menu bar utility for macOS that keeps tabs on whether you are running out of storage on the volumes you choose to monitor.

— Read the rest

The post Mister Plimsoll: simple app to warn you when your Mac's drives are getting full appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Pay $19.97 once (reg. $600) and get lifetime access to 1,000+ online courses covering today's most valuable career and creative skills.

While you probably don't need another monthly subscription, everyone can benefit from having additional skills. Luckily, this offer gives you a ton of skill-building courses for a one-time payment. — Read the rest

The post Your next hobby, side hustle, or promotion could start with one of the 1,000+ courses in this $20 platform appeared first on Boing Boing.

Microsoft's XBox division today announced that it would lay off 3,200 workers and cut loose four of its studios, part of the latest wave of job losses to hit the game industry. Kotaku acquired email outlining the layoffs, half of which are immediate and the rest to take place "later." — Read the rest

The post XBox announces layoffs appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Winamp Skin Museum impresses right away with its no-nonsense presentation: the whole browser window flooded with tiled images of the skins. You can click through to use them—yes, Winamp is implemented in the browser!—or just download it. There's a search bar. — Read the rest

The post You know exactly what the Winamp Skin Museum really whips appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: You have until 11:59 p.m. PT on July 5 to get Windows 11 Pro for only $10.49.

Microsoft sells Windows 11 Pro for $199. The Home version is cheaper, but that's because it's worse. If you want the best OS for Windows, there's a narrow Windows today when you can get Windows 11 Pro on sale for only $10.49, but you only have until 11:59 p.m. — Read the rest

The post Until the end of the day on July 5, you can get Windows 11 Pro for a one-time $10.49 payment appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Get the enSili Mac Bundle and grab 27 native Mac apps for $30.

Mac users tend to collect weird little utilities like trading cards. A clipboard manager that actually remembers things. A font wrangler that doesn't make you cry. Some doohickey that frees up the RAM macOS hoards like a dragon. — Read the rest

The post We found one lifetime license that can replace 27 subscriptions, and it's only $30 appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Teleport back to simpler times with this Kyocera DuraXE Epic E4830 flip phone, now for just $111.99 (MSRP $269.99).

Missing the simplicity of the '90s? If you're feeling nostalgic for the days before big tech took over, a simple flip phone is a great way to unplug. — Read the rest

The post Want to cut back on screen time? Start with this $112 old-school flip phone (MSRP $269.99) appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Get a 2TB FileJump Cloud Storage lifetime subscription on sale for $59 (reg. $467)

Google One charges $9.99 a month for 2TB of cloud storage, every month, with no end date in sight. FileJump runs on the opposite model: pay once for 2TB and keep it forever. — Read the rest

The post 2TB cloud storage, yours forever on sale for $59 appeared first on Boing Boing.