Kelsey Piper, a writer at Vox's Future Perfect, pasted 125 words of an unpublished political column into Claude Opus 4.7 last week and got her own name back. She hadn't logged in; the test was run in Incognito mode, confirmed through the API, and repeated on a friend's computer. — Read the rest

The post Claude Opus 4.7 identified a writer from 125 words she'd never published appeared first on Boing Boing.

A string of researchers connected to advanced weapons, space, and nuclear programs have turned up dead or vanished in recent years — and physicist Michio Kaku thinks treating each case in isolation is a mistake the government can't afford to keep making. — Read the rest

The post Michio Kaku calls clustering of dead scientists a national security issue appeared first on Boing Boing.

Desmond Morris, the English zoologist whose 1967 bestseller The Naked Ape argued that modern humans are basically fancy primates still running on Stone Age software, died Sunday near Dublin at 98, according to the New York Times. Twenty million copies and 23 translations later, the book is still in print — despite being pulled from shelves in a Long Island school district and denounced by professionals in roughly every relevant academic field. — Read the rest

The post Desmond Morris wrote The Naked Ape in four weeks to pay for a house appeared first on Boing Boing.

On CatRank, users can rank images of their favorite cats. When you use the site, you'll see pairs of cats under the "vote" tab. For each pair, you simply pick your favorite, then move on to rank the next pair, and so on. — Read the rest

The post CatRank turns your favorite felines into an online pageant appeared first on Boing Boing.

Legal Walls is a free global directory of spots where you can spray without getting arrested. The website plots each location on a world map with clickable markers — zoom in on any one to pull up a Google Street View, read community notes, and see whether the wall is still active. — Read the rest

The post Legal Walls maps out where you can graffiti without getting arrested appeared first on Boing Boing.

Sometimes a video like this one will make me look around my home and feel like I'm not using my free will to the fullest. Kala, who goes by Engineer Kala on Instagram and TikTok, decided to build an 80-foot-long, 30-foot-deep passage beneath her home in Virginia. — Read the rest

The post Woman dug 80 feet under her house — the city tried to stop her appeared first on Boing Boing.

For the past while, it's seemed like every time Xbox was in the news, it was the same old story: prices going up, offerings staying exactly the same. Whether it was hardware, software, or Game Pass, you'd be paying more for the same stuff — either as a result of the AI bubble impacting tech prices or reports of Microsoft ramping up internal profit margin goals to ludicrous levels. — Read the rest

The post Xbox finally cut Game Pass prices — here's the fine print appeared first on Boing Boing.

Brushing a cat is a tricky affair. Cats require consent for any kind of touching, and will attempt to murder you if you violate their bodily autonomy. This is essentially the core idea behind Brush Jjaemu, a free web game on itch.io. — Read the rest

The post This cat brushing game has Flappy Bird vibes but scarier appeared first on Boing Boing.

I really, really, like Splatoon's colorful postapocalyptic universe, its unbelievably slick form-shifting gameplay, and, weirdly enough, the awesome ink physics. I do not like getting my ass handed to me by 12-year-olds hopped up on Capri-Sun, though, which means I've always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Nintendo's online-focused movement shooter series. — Read the rest

The post Splatoon Raiders finally gets a release date — July 23 appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: This $79.97 1min.AI plan (reg. $540) combines a huge list of AI models and tools for writing, images, PDFs, audio, video, and team collaboration.

There is now a whole genre of digital life built around opening one AI tool for writing, another for images, another for PDFs, another for transcription, and then five more because apparently everyone on Earth needed their own dashboard.  — Read the rest

The post This $80 AI tool brings chat, image, audio, video, and docs together in one place appeared first on Boing Boing.

Space is hard. There's a lot of math involved, and no one has figured out how to get us up there without strapping their ass to a missile. Even when there are no people, dogs, or monkeys being fired out of the atmosphere, you gotta be careful: The other stuff that scientists and governments like to put up there (with few exceptions) can be worth a lotta cheddar. — Read the rest

The post Blue Origin delivered a satellite to the wrong orbit appeared first on Boing Boing.

City planning doesn't immediately come to mind when brainstorming ideas for a kids' book. New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia's Committee on City Planning saw an opportunity to educate its youngest citizens and created The ABC of City Planning. — Read the rest

The post This 1930s children's book on city planning is a delight appeared first on Boing Boing.

Valve's Steam Deck has had a hell of a run. Except for adding an OLED display into the mix, the wildly popular handheld hasn't changed a smidge mechanically. But Valve is great about pushing regular updates to the handheld's operating system, Steam OS — new code that (usually) stabilizes gameplay and allows its aging hardware to run a little more smoothly. — Read the rest

The post Valve's big Steam Deck update makes old hardware feel new appeared first on Boing Boing.

Bosch Limited bought Bosch Chassis Systems from Robert Bosch Investment Nederland B.V. and Robert Bosch LLC in a $970 million cash deal. The consolidation in India's auto sector has been described as the most confusing business deal of all time.

The boards of Bosch Limited, Bosch Chassis Systems India and the Bosch Group have approved the transaction, which remains subject to shareholder approval.

— Read the rest

The post Bosch buys Bosch from Bosch and Bosch appeared first on Boing Boing.

Glendale residents Ruben Tamrazian, Ararat Chirkinian and Vahe Muradkhanyan, and Alfiya Zuckerman of Valley Village, had a brilliant plan to commit insurance fraud: perhaps the best of all time. They faked a bear attack on a 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost–and two other fancy motors–by dressing up in a bear costume and mauling the vehicles' interiors. — Read the rest

The post Bear costume insurance scammers get 180 days in the den appeared first on Boing Boing.

"I go and answer the door. This guy's like, 'They just landed in your backyard!!!'" said Hunter Perrin. "And I'm like, 'What!?'"

Perrin and his wife, Jenna, who was in another room at the time, then went outside to see what had happened.

— Read the rest

The post Hot air balloon lands in a random backyard appeared first on Boing Boing.

Unless you're making it yourself or buying it from a local bakery, indulging in a loaf of the stuff is asking for trouble. The stuff you pick up at the grocery store is often loaded with chemical preservatives, which can make you feel hella bloated and spike your blood sugar levels. — Read the rest

The post Historian explains why modern bread sucks appeared first on Boing Boing.

"You have to carry the fire."

"I don't know how to."

"Yes, you do."

"Is the fire real? The fire?"

"Yes it is."

"Where is it? I don't know where it is."

"Yes you do. You just need the keys. You need to buy Cormac McCarthy's car."

— Read the rest

The post You can buy Cormac McCarthy's sports car appeared first on Boing Boing.

Hiding a screen inside a decorative panel is a clever design. Most smart home displays sit there blinking at you all day. The Mui Board just looks like a nice piece of wood until you need it.

This Japanese home controller combines technology with organic-looking materials so you can have the best of both worlds. — Read the rest

The post This wooden smart home panel hides its screen until you touch it appeared first on Boing Boing.

April 17 is National Bat Appreciation Day, and one of the best things to surface online was this close-up video of a gorgeous little bat cleaning its transparent wings with its tongue. Up close, the bat looks like an alien Furby creature, not what you'd typically picture when you think of bats. — Read the rest

The post Bat cleans its wing membrane in close-up video appeared first on Boing Boing.

Hunter Perrin of Temecula, California stepped into his backyard Saturday morning and found 13 people sitting in a hot air balloon basket staring back at him. His neighbor had knocked on the door — when they went outside together, there it was. — Read the rest

The post Hot air balloon with 13 passengers makes emergency landing in homeowner's backyard appeared first on Boing Boing.

Wild Gunman '74 was an electromechanical arcade game designed by Nintendo legend Gunpei Yokoi. Unlike its 1985 digital sequel, Wild Gunman, the original immersed the player in full-motion film footage of the opposing gunslinger. Shoot fast, and he goes down. — Read the rest

The post 52-year-old Nintendo full-motion film game restored appeared first on Boing Boing.

Everybody needs some cute animal videos sometimes. These were in my feed over the last day or so. Here is the Bundozer:

This is the polar bear Kallik, currently living in the Oregon Zoo, chilling out, literally:

Little bit of eye bleach for us all. — Read the rest

The post Some cute animal videos appeared first on Boing Boing.

For years, scientists have documented Southern California waters — especially around Santa Monica Bay — as a nursery habitat for juvenile great white sharks. But amazing new drone footage from The Malibu Artist suggests something broader is happening! Large, fully grown sharks are also moving through these same nearshore waters, using them less as a hangout and more as a coastal transit route. — Read the rest

The post Adult great white sharks quietly using SoCal beaches as a highway appeared first on Boing Boing.

Famous for promising everything is a mere two weeks away, convicted felon Donald Trump has been continuously reassuring the world that his little adventure in Iran is or will be over any minute now. Welcome to week six with no end in sight. — Read the rest

The post Grandpa Pudding Brains' "almost over" war now on week six appeared first on Boing Boing.

Time and again, traders appear to place massive, perfectly timed bets just minutes before the Orange Menace makes market-moving announcements. The pattern looks a lot like insider trading, or at the very least, the most impressive run of financial clairvoyance in modern history. — Read the rest

The post Someone always knows before Trump moves markets. And they're making millions appeared first on Boing Boing.

After Pope Leo XIV criticized the escalating war rhetoric around Iran, Sean Hannity responded, tho no one asked, by announcing he no longer considers himself Catholic, making clear that when forced to choose between the Vatican and Donald Trump, his allegiance isn't particularly complicated. — Read the rest

The post Hannity quits Catholicism after pope disagrees with Trump appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: This ChatGPT & Automation E-Degree is $14.97 (reg. $790) and includes 12 beginner-level courses with 25 hours of training on AI tools, automation, and workplace use cases.

There's now a whole category of workplace conversation where someone says, "We should probably use AI for that," and everyone else pretends they know exactly what that means. — Read the rest

The post This $15 ChatGPT course bundle can help you decode your way through AI appeared first on Boing Boing.

After Alex Jones declared bankruptcy to avoid paying the Sandy Hook parents defamed by his lies, InfoWars ended up on the block. When the auction was won by satirical news site The Onion, backed by many of the parents, a judge intervened to stop that happening. — Read the rest

The post The Onion reaches deal to take over InfoWars appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Right now, BJ's is treating new members to a 1-year Club Card membership for only $15 (reg. $60). Just ensure you fill up your tank by April 30th to take advantage of the savings.

With gas prices rising, there has never been a better time than the present to save cash where you can. — Read the rest

The post Save up to 20¢ per gallon on fuel with BJ's Wholesale Club for just $15 appeared first on Boing Boing.