Kevin Curry, founder of the Fit Men Cook fitness and food community, graduated from Harvard's Kennedy School in 2008 right into the recession and couldn't find work. He signed up for SNAP — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — and the caseworker's response stuck with him: "Don't be ashamed. — Read the rest

The post 9 ways to stretch your food budget when SNAP benefits get cut appeared first on Boing Boing.

PEN America counted 3,743 unique titles pulled from school libraries in the latest academic year — and nonfiction is now a front-line target. According to PEN's Facts & Fiction report, nonfiction's share of banned titles doubled — from 14% to 29%, which works out to more than 1,100 books. — Read the rest

The post Why are school boards banning books on ancient Egypt and digestion? appeared first on Boing Boing.

Software engineer Rupaj Soni spent months chasing inconsistent espresso shots from his Breville Bambino before a visit to a friend in Amsterdam cracked the problem. His friend had the same machine and the same beans, but his shots were predictable and good. — Read the rest

The post A burr grinder beats a $2,000 espresso machine appeared first on Boing Boing.

As per California's e-bike law, anything faster than pedal-assist Class 3 bikes (which are capped at 28 mph) is legally a moped or motorcycle and requires a license, registration, insurance, and a minimum age. Amazon was selling plenty of things that weren't any of those — electric two-wheelers advertised at 40-plus mph, including one listing claiming 43 mph from a 5-horsepower (4,000-watt) motor, some with motorcycle-style frames. — Read the rest

The post Amazon will stop selling 40 mph "hooligan bikes" in California appeared first on Boing Boing.

The July 1958 issue of Argosy Magazine ran "Live Now—Pay Later" by Carlton Brown, capturing the moment America gleefully abandoned its Puritan thrift hangover for installment plans.

By 1958, Brown reports, between 60 and 75 percent of new cars and half of major household appliances were being bought on time, with deferred payments hitting roughly $40 billion — nearly 13 percent of every worker's after-tax income. — Read the rest

The post How a 1958 magazine cheered America's slide into installment debt appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Internet: How does it work? It's not a question that the Utah state government bothered to ask before attempting to enact its Online Age Verification law (Bill 73). Not asking this question could prove to be a massive digital autonomy and privacy issue for all of us, down the line. — Read the rest

The post This Utah law is a risk to everyone's digital liberty appeared first on Boing Boing.

While everyone was justifiably losing their minds over Israel, Russia, and the United States of America's empire-building bullshit, the Trump administration released some more alleged UFO videos captured by the American military. I would have thought that Trump's more or less writing a Dummies Guide to War Crimes would be enough to distract us from talking about his involvement in the Epstein files, but Aliens are always cool. — Read the rest

The post JD Vance believes demons responsible for UFOs appeared first on Boing Boing.

You know how it is. You're just sitting on the couch relaxing when you suddenly get a text from a prison out of the blue, warning you that your daughter has been detained and needs your help. In a second, you go from an ordinary day to starring in Taken…

…Before you realize you don't actually have a daughter. — Read the rest

The post What to do when scammers kidnap your daughter appeared first on Boing Boing.

They say the devil never sleeps. The same must be true of game modders. Just last week, I wrote about a truly first-of-its-kind mod allowing you to play The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind — yes, all of Morrowind — in Fallout 4 by inserting it as a functional holotape game. — Read the rest

The post Playing Fallout 1 inside Fallout 4 appeared first on Boing Boing.

Ahh, Twilight Princess. None of the Legend of Zelda games are particularly mature, but Twilight Princess feels like the most earnest attempt at it. After initial fan complaints about the bright and cartoony The Wind Waker, Nintendo overcorrected in the most comically over-the-top way possible, giving us a dark and gritty tale about Link transforming into a badass feral werewolf that was only missing a score by Evanescence. — Read the rest

The post Twilight Princess now has a native PC port appeared first on Boing Boing.

I can't get enough of a silly alpaca named Bake, who loves food so much that he shimmies every time he takes a bite. His perfect full-body shimmy after trying new foods — figs, carrots, peas, mango, kumquats, and so much more — is absolutely adorable, and has quickly helped catapult him to the top of my list of favorite internet animals. — Read the rest

The post This silly alpaca has shimmied his way into my heart! appeared first on Boing Boing.

In case you missed it — which is completely understandable if you're not a Sony shareholder — PlayStation put out another earnings report today. While these documents often go overlooked, which is understandable as they're not really meant for the general public, in the game industry they often contain exciting insider info and a sense of what to expect from the future of any given company. — Read the rest

The post The PlayStation earnings report has some uncomfortable bombshells appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Kodak Charmera (previously at Boing Boing) is a 30-gram keychain digicam built around a 1/4-inch 1.6MP CMOS sensor and a fixed 35mm-equivalent f/2.4 plastic lens. It shoots 1440 × 1080 stills and 30fps AVI video to microSD, runs on a 200mAh USB-C battery, and adds a viewfinder for retro appeal. — Read the rest

The post Design awards charmed by Kodak's $35 Charmera appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Get Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2026 for $34.97 (MSRP $499.99) through May 17 and upgrade your coding workflow with a professional-grade IDE built for debugging, testing, and managing complex projects.

Coding has a way of spiraling fast. One second everything compiles perfectly, and the next you're staring at an error that somehow broke five unrelated things at once. — Read the rest

The post Massive codebase? Dwindling patience? This $35 Visual Studio deal was made for you appeared first on Boing Boing.

A video from the Spring 2026 Commencement ceremony at the University of Central Florida's Nicholson School of Communication and Media perfectly encapsulates the information divides around AI. Speaker Gloria Caulfield, vice president of strategic alliances at a Bahamas-based private equity fund, blithely hypes AI only to find, to her astonishment, that new media grads do not agree. — Read the rest

The post Clueless graduation speaker astonished to find that media students hate AI appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Upgrade to Microsoft Windows 11 Pro for just $9.97 through May 18 and get a faster, smarter, more secure PC experience with built-in AI tools and productivity upgrades.

There comes a point in every PC's life where opening a browser tab feels like asking it to run a marathon in jeans. — Read the rest

The post Your PC can be saved—Windows 11 Pro is just $9.97 through May 18 appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Stop paying monthly for Microsoft apps you use every day. Get a one-time purchase of Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows for $29.97 (reg. $219.99) through May 18.

Microsoft 365 now costs $99.99 a year, which means you're essentially renting Word, Excel, and PowerPoint indefinitely. — Read the rest

The post Why pay for Microsoft 365 every month when you can pay $30 once and get Microsoft Office forever? appeared first on Boing Boing.

Star Wars, as George Lucas is quick to point out is, you know, for kids. But kids grow up. What seemed cool when you were 12 and Empire Strikes Back popped feels more like Elan Sleazebaggano by the time you hit 40. — Read the rest

The post This fan edit corrects the continuty problems of a Star Wars favorite appeared first on Boing Boing.

I'm genuinely amazed that the fake ICE tipline set up by comedian Ben Palmer — who specializes in pretending to be what he's not — is still operational. Of course, that fact is a pretty damning indictment of this country. Comedic value aside, it's extremely interesting to get a firsthand view into the mindset of people who hear their neighbors speak Spanish and immediately try to get them deported. — Read the rest

The post Ben Palmer's fake ICE hotline is still getting hits appeared first on Boing Boing.

I've been glued to the news about the Andes virus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius. If somehow you've not yet heard of Andes virus, it's the only type of hantavirus that has been shown to spread from human to human, while most other hantaviruses spread only from direct contact with rodent droppings. — Read the rest

The post Here are some terrific resources tracking the "Andes" hantavirus outbreak appeared first on Boing Boing.

Hey, do you remember when the Switch 2 first launched and all anyone could talk about was how expensive it was? Don't worry, because Nintendo heard you loud and clear: the price of their hardware is going up once again. — Read the rest

The post Another day, another gaming price hike appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: This refurbished 2019 Gen 2 Chromebook is the perfect midyear gift for students and professionals looking for a hassle-free laptop. Grab one now at 70% off.

Investing in an expensive, premium-grade laptop doesn't make sense if you're buying for young school-aged children. — Read the rest

The post This 2019 Chromebook is a schoolwork machine—get it now for just $60 appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: With the Dr. Buho Mac Utility Lifetime License, you'll be able to remove leftover application files, duplicate files, large files, and cache junk with ease. Get coverage for up to 3 devices for just $29.99 (reg. $241.96).

When it comes to longevity, you'll struggle to find a better laptop than a MacBook. — Read the rest

The post Clear out storage for up to 3 Macs with BuhoCleaner for just $30 appeared first on Boing Boing.

For roughly two decades, a battered 1970s Coca-Cola machine sat on the sidewalk outside Broadway Locksmith on East John Street in Seattle's Capitol Hill, and nobody seemed to own it. Drinks cost 55 cents back in 2002, climbed to 75 cents by 2014, and reached a buck right when Seattle rolled out its sweetened-beverage tax in early 2018. — Read the rest

The post Seattle's mystery soda machine vanished in 2018 with a goodbye note appeared first on Boing Boing.

On January 9, 1643, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Riccioli pointed his telescope at Venus and noticed a faint glow on the planet's unlit side. Riccioli figured it was an artifact of his glass — the same trick that makes a prism throw rainbows. — Read the rest

The post No one knows why dark side of Venus has a faint glow appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Save on upgrading your laptop with this deal on an Apple MacBook Pro (2020) 13″. Get this sleek and speedy device for just $399.99 (Reg. $1,580) when you buy refurbished.

Time to upgrade your laptop? Don't waste your time wincing at the price on Apple's website. — Read the rest

The post 75% off a MacBook Pro? Upgrade your laptop for just $400 appeared first on Boing Boing.

Karen Aitchison, a senior who has shopped the Diamond Heights Boulevard Safeway for 30 years, lives three flights up. When her grocery store stopped stocking paper bags with handles last month, she did what any sensible person would do — she hoarded the old ones and started reinforcing them with strapping tape. — Read the rest

The post Safeway blames a "wood pulp shortage" for its handleless paper bags appeared first on Boing Boing.

When Carlo Rovelli's bicycle chain comes off, he calls a bike-shop mechanic, never a particle physicist — even though particle physics technically governs every bolt on the thing. The Italian quantum-gravity theorist uses that fact to swat away one of the loudest arguments in philosophy of mind, in a long essay for Noema titled "There Is No 'Hard Problem Of Consciousness.'" — Read the rest

The post Physicist says the 'hard problem of consciousness' isn't real appeared first on Boing Boing.

Daily active users across Meta's properties slipped from 3.58 billion to 3.56 billion last quarter, the first decline the company has ever reported. Julia Angwin, writing in a New York Times opinion piece, says Meta has caught the same stink that AOL did in 2003 and that Yahoo did in 2015. — Read the rest

The post Meta's daily user count just dropped for the first time ever appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Data Drop releases one interactive visual essay every week, and the latest is a collection of startup sounds from 1977 to the present, covering everything from the Apple II to the Vision Pro. Along with the actual startup sound, or lack thereof, in the case of early tech like the 2600, the drop includes the story behind the sound. — Read the rest

The post Listen to almost 50 years of startup sounds appeared first on Boing Boing.