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

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.

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

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

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 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

Diplomacy in 2026 increasingly resembles two raccoons fighting inside a dumpster while insisting they are "de-escalating," and the latest US-Iran ceasefire appears to follow Israel's favorite template: keep firing, but call it a "ceasefire."

Yellowstone's wildlife brochure probably mentions the geysers first, but this week a mother grizzly reminded two hikers that the park's unofficial mascot still has claws, teeth, and very strong opinions about strangers approaching her cubs.

According to new reporting from Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian, already paranoid-looking FBI Director Kash Patel has reportedly ordered polygraph tests for more than two dozen current and former staffers as leak paranoia and internal panic spread through his office.

This animation by Philippa Rice uses an innovative technique I haven't seen before: paper cutouts. The video shows the technique used in different ways, and it's fun to see the possibilities that come from simply cutting paper and animating it. — Read the rest