In 2014, an author calling herself Grace Ann Parsons, username "proudhousewife," began serializing Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles on FanFiction.Net. Her version recast Harry as an American orphan raised by his atheist, career-driven aunt Petunia. Hagrid arrives as an evangelical missionary who knocks on the Dursleys' door, and Harry heads off to a Hogwarts where Headmaster Dumbledore — now married, with a daughter named Hermione — teaches prayer instead of spells. — Read the rest

The post The fan fiction that rewrote Harry Potter as an evangelical tract appeared first on Boing Boing.

When the WS Game Company got hit with a seven-figure tariff bill on the board games it imports from China, CEO Jonathan Silva decided to find out whether he could make one in America instead. He picked a 250th-birthday edition called Monopoly: The Americana Edition and, according to NPR, hit a wall almost immediately: he couldn't find anyone in the United States to make him 10,000 dice. — Read the rest

The post A company tried to make Monopoly in America and couldn't get dice appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Get lifetime access to the uTalk language learning app and learn from native speakers for $69.97 (reg. $300), its best price yet through July 31 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Most language apps can handle Spanish, Italian, or French. But things can get trickier if you want to learn Urdu, Swahili, Icelandic, or one of the many other languages that rarely make the app-store shortlist.  — Read the rest

The post Learn 150+ languages for life for $70 with uTalk appeared first on Boing Boing.

On June 3, 1929, a Treasury official named A.E. Banham authorized the Office Keeper at 10 Downing Street "to spend 1d a day from petty cash towards the maintenance of an efficient cat." The job remains to this day. Britain's official resident cat now carries the title Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, and the current officeholder, Larry — a Battersea rescue picked out by David Cameron's family in 2011 after TV cameras caught rats running across the front steps of Number 10 — is the first cat to hold it officially. — Read the rest

The post The British government has kept a cat on the payroll since 1929 appeared first on Boing Boing.

Los Angeles police are ending their three-year agreement with Flock Safety after privacy and civil liberties concerns, which is what happens when "neighborhood safety camera" starts sounding a lot like "citywide photographic dragnet."

KABC reports that LAPD will allow its agreement with Flock Safety to expire Saturday, ending a three-year relationship with the company. — Read the rest

The post Los Angeles police pause Flock's surveillance of everyday life appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: New members can score a 1-year Sam's Club membership for just $25 for a limited time.

Warehouse clubs get a bad rap for feeling like a chore, but Sam's Club has quietly become one of the easiest ways to cut your grocery bill without changing how you shop. — Read the rest

The post You should get a Sam's Club Membership for $25 appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: A lifetime license to Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows is available now for only $29.97 (MSRP $219.99).

Another subscription bites the dust — get the classic 2021 Microsoft Office suite for a one-time purchase to own Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and 5 more programs for life. — Read the rest

The post Kill a subscription and own Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for life for just $30 appeared first on Boing Boing.

Anthony Hopkins, famed for his Oscar-winning performance as serial killer Hannibal Lecter among many other movie and television roles, has his first album coming out at 88 years of age. A lifelong composer, but busy with other work ("Music was my first desire," he says) Hopkins took 60 years to complete Life is a Dream. — Read the rest

The post Anthony Hopkins releases first album at 88 appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Asian swamp eel (Monopterus albus) is an unusual freshwater fish with a snake-like body and no scales. Native to East and Southeast Asia, it lives in wetlands, rice paddies, canals, and slow-moving streams. It can breathe through its skin and the lining of its mouth, allowing it to survive in oxygen-poor water and even spend days out of water when conditions require it. — Read the rest

The post Watch Asian swamp eels emerge from the mud for feeding time appeared first on Boing Boing.

Hastings, Nebraska, is the birthplace of Kool-Aid, and the city's museum has a permanent exhibit dedicated to the powdered drink's history. You can see photos of it here on Atlas Obscura. The display follows inventor Edwin Perkins, who transformed an earlier liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack into the easier-to-ship powdered mix that became Kool-Aid in 1927. — Read the rest

The post The Hastings Museum celebrates Kool-Aid's origins with a permanent exhibit appeared first on Boing Boing.

Nine months into a ceasefire, Israel now controls nearly 70% of Gaza, up from 50% before the "ceasefire," because apparently the "cease" part was more of a branding exercise.

NPR reports that when the ceasefire began in October, Israel controlled about half of Gaza along the "yellow line." — Read the rest

The post Gaza's ceasefire has somehow expanded Israel's control to nearly 70% appeared first on Boing Boing.

SleepScroll is a free browser toy that offers an alternative to the endless social media feed. Instead, you are invited to interact with something designed to help you fall asleep rather than keep you awake. You scroll through a night sky where every familiar gesture works differently. — Read the rest

The post SleepScroll is the anti-feed your brain has been waiting for appeared first on Boing Boing.

Since North Carolina's famed 11-foot-8-inch can-opener bridge was raised to 12 feet and 4 inches, the bridge's steady flow of victims has slowed to a trickle. Thanks to a major road closure, an overpass in Louisville, Kentucky, has stepped up its game, averaging one victim a day. — Read the rest

The post Louisville's Can Opener gives 11foot8 a run for its money, peeling open trucks at a rate of about 1 per day appeared first on Boing Boing.

A single developer working under the name Novatetsu Games has built a train simulator that Steam reviewers are calling the best ever made. Running Train, an $18 Early Access release, recreates two fictional Japanese lines in obsessive detail — 42 routes across 40 kilometers of track, with rain, snow, and seasonal shifts you can watch roll past from a free camera if you would rather ride than drive. — Read the rest

The post One person built what players call the best train sim ever appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Cancel your monthly license and get Visual Studio Pro 2026 for life on sale for $35 (reg. $499.99).

Good development software isn't cheap, but it's probably not as expensive as you think. Visual Studio Pro is one of the most popular IDEs in the world, and instead of paying a monthly license, you can get it for life on sale for $34.97 (reg. — Read the rest

The post Did anybody expect Microsoft to drop Visual Studio Pro 2026 lifetime licenses for $35? appeared first on Boing Boing.

For most of the twentieth century, if you needed an ambulance in America, a funeral home sent one — the only vehicle built to carry someone lying flat was the hearse. David Oks traces the whole expensive mess back to that arrangement: funeral homes ran cars that carried patients and coffins alike and barely charged, because "the family that called you for the ride to the hospital was likely to also call you for the funeral." — Read the rest

The post Why an ambulance ride can cost $12,873 – blame the hearse appeared first on Boing Boing.

British politician and novelist Ann Widdecombe, a former minister of prisons known for her dogmatic conservative views, was found dead Thursday at her home in Devon, England. Long out of parliament and 78 years old, it was initially assumed she had died naturally, but it soon emerged she was beaten to death and that police had arrested a 26 year-old man on suspicion of her murder. — Read the rest

The post UK politician Ann Widdecombe beaten to death in own home appeared first on Boing Boing.

Estonia is the one country that can say it beat fentanyl. By 2018, its overdose deaths had fallen more than 70 percent after fifteen years of raids, new laws, and dismantled labs. Then something worse arrived. Reporting for The New York Times, in a story carried by the Seattle Times, Azam Ahmed finds a chief organized-crime prosecutor who now says, "We wish we still had a fentanyl problem." — Read the rest

The post Estonia beat fentanyl, then lost to stronger drugs appeared first on Boing Boing.

A window came off a Ryanair jet mid-flight over North Macedonia on Thursday, and a passenger was partly pulled through the hole before others hauled him back by his seat belt. The flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen turned back after debris — Greek media said it came off an engine — struck and detached one of the cabin windows, decompressing the plane and dropping the oxygen masks. — Read the rest

The post Passenger nearly pulled out a Ryanair window in mid-air appeared first on Boing Boing.

Sony announced the RX10 V this week, an all-in-one superzoom camera with a 24-600mm-equivalent ZEISS lens and a 20-megapixel 1-inch sensor. If that's unchanged from the nearly decade-old RX10 IV, the rest of the spec sheet has significant upgrades: a dedicated "AI" chip for subject recognition and tracking that works for people, birds, animals, vehicles and insects; quicker autofocus; and 10-bit 4K/60fps oversampled, uncropped video (up from 8-bit 4K/30). — Read the rest

The post Sony updates its decade-old RX10 superzoom appeared first on Boing Boing.

Simply Good's "The Brewer" is a drip machine with a simple pitch to the coffee addict: it has no plastic parts that come into contact with coffee. It's mostly glass and stainless steel, looks like a Moccamaster, is dishwasher safe, and has bloom and pourover functions. — Read the rest

The post Coffee machines with no plastics in the brew path appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Get $150 travel data credit usable in 200+ countries for just $69.99 (reg. $150) with aloSIM.

In a world filled with AI, it doesn't make sense to be fumbling for a pin to swap out your SIM card. The great thing about aloSIM is that it's an eSIM card that effectively doubles the money you put in. — Read the rest

The post Earn $150 credit with this $70 eSIM appeared first on Boing Boing.

Hannah Montana Linux, released in 2009, was themed around Disney Channel sitcom character Hannah Montana, the in-world alter ego of Miley Stewart, as performed by Miley Cyrus. The bizarre and extremely memey distribution had not been updated since—until now! Developer Noah Cagle this week announced Hannah Montana Linux v26.0, bringing nearly two decades of enhancements to functionality, user experience and security. — Read the rest

The post Hannah Montana Linux updated after 18 years appeared first on Boing Boing.

It can be so hard to keep kids entertained during the summer break. There's only so much swimming, trips to the trampoline park, and sleepovers that parents can afford both spiritually and financially. Sometimes, you just want to sit your kiddos the hell down in a darkened theater in front of a flickering screen for a couple of hours. — Read the rest

The post The first trailer for Buddy isn't, you know, for kids appeared first on Boing Boing.

For a long while now, farmers using John Deere tractors to plow their fields have been getting plowed by John Deere. The storied heavy equipment company decided that selling farmers their hardware to help them in their hard work wasn't making them quite enough. — Read the rest

The post FTC deal forces John Deere to share repair tools for 10 years appeared first on Boing Boing.

You may have noticed that it's a bit warm out. As good as the sun can feel after a long winter, the temperatures that the majority of the western hemisphere has been experiencing have been a bit… extra, these past few weeks. — Read the rest

The post Watch this classic John Ford western for absolutely free appeared first on Boing Boing.

There's so much shitty stuff happening in the United States, Iran, and Europe that it's easy to forget there's really shitty stuff still going on in Gaza that the United States is complicit in. But hey, that's the 24-hour news cycle and the Trump administration's deal: fill our days with so much terror that we can't keep the bespoke horrors they've unleashed on the world straight in our heads. — Read the rest

The post Israeli soldier shot an unarmed Gaza aid driver, witnesses say appeared first on Boing Boing.

A parasite that usually causes about 50 illnesses a year in Michigan has now sickened nearly 1,000 people there, part of a nationwide spike that hasn't been traced to a source.

According to a state-by-state map at The Hill, more than a thousand Americans have come down with cyclosporiasis, an intestinal infection that can trigger "explosive" diarrhea. — Read the rest

The post A parasite is giving 1,000+ Americans 'explosive' diarrhea appeared first on Boing Boing.

European regulators just approved a food additive designed to keep you from gaining weight. It's inulin propionate ester, or IPE, cleared for sale in the EU after 15 years of work by researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Glasgow. — Read the rest

The post The EU just approved a food additive that curbs weight gain appeared first on Boing Boing.

Meta has patented a wearable that listens to you all day and guesses how you feel. As 404 Media reports, the device would continuously record audio and surroundings, then use AI to read your emotional state from "sighs, laughter" and other vocal cues, ostensibly to fine-tune workout suggestions. — Read the rest

The post Meta patented a wearable that listens all day to guess your feelings appeared first on Boing Boing.