News
In 1987 Kowloon Walled City packed 33, 000 people into six and a half acres
11+ hour, 22+ min ago (206+ words) According to the record of the 1452/1453 mystery eruption, a volcano erupted somewhere on Earth powerful enough to inject about 11 megatons of sulfur into the stratosphere " "roughly one-third" READ THE REST The Coso artifact, dug from a California hillside in 1961 and…...
Stop PDF headaches " convert, merge, and edit files in minutes with Ace PDF for a one-time $24
7+ hour, 58+ min ago (466+ words) Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL; DR: Convert, edit, and unlock PDFs into Word, Excel, and more with Ace PDF Converter & Editor for $23. 99 (MSRP $99. 99) with promo code EXTRA20until July 19, including OCR and…...
Poet's copyright lawsuit against Taylor Swift tossed again
9+ hour, 38+ min ago (406+ words) A federal judge in Florida dismissed with prejudice a copyright lawsuit brought against Taylor Swift by self-published poet Kimberly Marasco, ruling (not for the first time!) that the material Marasco claimed Swift stole is not protected by copyright at all....
Scientists gave sleep-deprived mice a memory boost without letting them sleep
1+ day, 10+ hour ago (301+ words) During deep NREM sleep, the cortex fires in unison and then goes quiet, a slow-wave pattern tied to the brain's overnight decluttering of neural connections. The researchers engineered mice whose neurons could be switched with light, kept them awake for…...
You know exactly what the Winamp Skin Museum really whips
1+ day, 14+ hour ago (247+ words) Winamp still exists as a mobile app. You can even download the Windows-compatible "legacy app," which still works and is made available for those willing to rawdog whatever ancient dlls it comes with. Some folks online suggest using Windows's built-in…...
A Shenzhen hotel plans to use a fully robotic staff
1+ day, 9+ hour ago (256+ words) 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…...
The ancient spark plug and other "out-of-place artifacts"
1+ day, 6+ hour ago (264+ words) From Wikipedia: "most purported OOPArts which are not hoaxes are the result of mistaken interpretation and wishful thinking." The Klerksdorp spheres are not perfect spheres, the Wolfsegg Iron is not a perfect cube, and the famously "rust-proof" Iron pillar of…...
Deaf kids in 1980s Nicaragua created a language from thin air
1+ day, 6+ hour ago (251+ words) Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct, said "it's the only time that we've seen a language being created out of thin air." Since 1996, deaf Nicaraguans have written the language using Sign Writing " there are now reading textbooks, story collections,…...
This permanent $55 Microsoft Office deal was made for people who want stability over subscriptions
1+ day, 7+ hour ago (463+ words) Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL; DR: Get lifetime access to Microsoft Office 2024 Pro Plus for Windows for $54. 99 (MSRP $249. 99) with Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook, and more in a one-time license....
Idaho conservation officer beats Trump official's defamation lawsuit
1+ day, 9+ hour ago (270+ words) 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. Gadwa, a conservation officer and EMT in the region for nearly four decades,…...