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A UK food delivery app called Just Eat has been using AI to generate photos for restaurants that don't provide images for their offerings. People started noticing odd photos, including a glass of soda with bacon and an egg floating in it. — Read the rest The post A food delivery app's AI turned a breakfast sandwich into bacon soda appeared first on Boing Boing.
TL;DR: Keep your cat busy with a self-rolling Cheerble Ball for $26.90. Most cat toys stop moving the moment your cat stops swatting them, and a laser pointer only works while you're holding it. Cheerble Ball rolls and bounces on its own as soon as a nose or paw touches it, and it's available for $26.90. — Read the rest The post Retire the laser pointer and let this $27 self-rolling ball tire out your cat appeared first on Boing Boing.
Although Japan is well-known for Akoya cultured pearls and jadeite jade, amber deposits can be found throughout much of the country from the Mikasa region of Hokkaidō to Shime in Fukuoka Prefecture. In the prefecture of Iwate, however, lies Kuji, a coastal city with a long history of amber excavation, and is one of the few sources of amber of significant size and quality for commercial gem and ornamental uses. The Kuji Amber Museum itself proudly claims to be the only museum in Japan dedicated to this fossilized tree resin. If the weather is permitting, the Museum allows visitors to live out their dreams of being a paleontologist by mining for their own amber fossils in the same landscape that once was roamed by tyrannosauroids and other dinosaurs, which dates back to the late Cretaceous period in the Mesozoic Era. Any amber discovered below one kilogram can be kept as a souvenir. The amber mining experience is available four times a day except during the winter season. The Museum also offers other workshops from jewelry-making to other fossil excavation simulations separate to the main amber mining experience. The Kohaku Shrine ("the Amber Shrine") and the entrance to an inactive…
If you're out for a stroll along Hollywood Boulevard you may come across a short walkway filled with a few benches and trees nestled between an apartment complex and optometrist storefront. Standing watch in front of this promenade like some sort of sentinel for the city of Hollywood is a statue of Joseph W. Young, its first mayor. If you're not paying attention, it may fade into the background in favor of the sights along the boulevard but if you stop to examine the statue you'll notice something a bit off about it. The statue, not cast in bronze or made of marble like most others, appears to be molded from a sort of plastic. The shoes look like someone decided to cut some corners by spray painting a pair, and over time it seems this likeness of Mr. Young has become rather windswept, tilting back in an awkward stance as if gail force winds have tried to knock him from his station. A closer look at his face would have one thinking his features are a child's drawing come to life. The poor quality of this city's memorial has been noted by residents and visitors alike. It is no stranger to the stray cigarette butt between the fingers and has accumulated some "injuries" such as burns …
The Los Angeles Public Library is celebrating its centennial anniversary by playing host to an unusual tome: the world's largest pop-up book.
The South Carolina Education Lottery said its Palmetto Cash 5 jackpot has rolled over 47 times to reach a record amount of $1.246 million.
I just saw the new stop-motion animated movie from Laika Studios, and it is absolutely stunning. It's breathtakingly beautiful, and the fact that it's achieved through stop motion puppets and physical sets is a wonder. And that's all in service to an emotional and thrilling story. — Read the rest The post Wildwood is a magnificent achievement in moviemaking appeared first on Boing Boing.
Police in Wisconsin shared footage of the moment a deer that broke into an apartment through a window crashed back out through another window.
A Chinese entrepreneur earned a Guinness World Record for taking his modified motorcycle for a journey of more than 25 miles -- atop the water.
Walter Koenig, famed for his role as the villainous telepath Alfred Bester in Babylon 5 and as Star Trek's Pavel Chekov, is dead at 90. A representative confirmed his death this morning. Koenig was born in Chicago in 1936; the child of Russian Jewish immigrants, he did not pursue acting until after college. — Read the rest The post Star Trek star Walter Koenig dead at 90 appeared first on Boing Boing.
Let's be frank. The young Native American man is playing his love's favorite song in hopes of tempting her out for a midnight rendezvous. And it appears to have worked! The “Night Song” sculpture was created by Joe Beeler and with the park was dedicated on December 9, 1998. The statue, sitting on a rock base, is about seven feet tall. Beeler shared that this young man, from the Southern Plains, was playing a flute as a means of courting the woman he loved. The bas-relief on the statue's base depicts various animals and the happy couple walking together, with her arm wrapped around his shoulders. Beeler was a renowned artist and sculptor who specialized in Western art. The flute is likely a Native American courting flute, which was often made from aromatic woods, such as sumac or juniper, or from river cane and sunflower stalks. As the young man played a special song, the woman would join him if she accepted his courtship. The flute was sometimes destroyed to signify that the couple's courtship was complete. To park, use the bank parking lot on the east side of Riverbend Park. Evergreen trees screen the park from the bank. The park is squeezed into a tiny spot, with traffic whizzin…
A tiger cub that escaped from a Ukrainian zoo during the weekend was safely recaptured without any injuries to the public, the zoo's director said.
TL;DR: Babbel is a language learning app with 14 languages and 10,000+ hours of lessons, and a lifetime subscription is on sale for $159 with code LEARN via StackSocial (MSRP $299). When you lowkey have a bathroom emergency while traveling, which language-learning app do you think will have your back? — Read the rest The post StackSocial has an exclusive Babbel deal for people who collect languages appeared first on Boing Boing.
A tangle of bones and nightmare creatures entangled atop an SUV has locals contemplating the acceptable limits of Halloween decor in Casper, Wyoming. Described as a "Skeleton Sex Orgy," the scene was photographed above by Mary Goff, who made the image available to media. — Read the rest The post Skeleton Sex Orgy "divides" residents of Casper, Wyoming appeared first on Boing Boing.
Flight of Dreams is a small theme park originally designed by digital art creators, Teamlabs centred on the first ever Boeing 787 prototype ZA-001. It has now become a combined mini museum and children's playground houses within Chubu international airport in Nagoya, Japan. The Flight park is split into two sections. The first is a small exhibition where people can get up close to the cockpit and engine of the airplane as well as details about mechanisms inside the airplane. The second is a children's playground set up around the aircraft with a small toddler area, climbing area and peddle bike circuit. There is also a paid area with a net trampoline set up 6 metres above the ground. Surrounding the flight park is the Seattle Terrace with American shops and restaurants named after Seattle where the Boeing company is based. The flight park has now become a perfect space for aviation enthusiasts and families looking to keep their kids busy while waiting for their flights.
It's one thing to harass children and chase them down the street. But to live in the sewer? Baltimore County still has problems, reports CBS News, including the sewer-dwelling gentleman who emerges to terrorize local youngsters. After hearing similar complaints from her children at least four times, Wiggins decided to investigate. — Read the rest The post Sewer-dwelling man harassing local children, says Baltimore mom appeared first on Boing Boing.
Food delivery app Just Eat admitted using AI to generate fake product images after some of the more spectacular examples went viral, including garlic bread in the shape of a plane and "bacon and egg soda bread" presented as a drink with a fried egg in it. — Read the rest The post Just Eat slop: food delivery service apologizes for bizarre AI-generated menu appeared first on Boing Boing.
TL;DR: Visual Studio Professional 2026 is on sale for just $29.97 (reg. $499.99) and includes cross-platform development tools, intelligent code completion, and GitHub Copilot integration. AI can write code now, which is great until you have to figure out whether that code actually does what it's supposed to. — Read the rest The post AI can write code, but this $30 developer tool helps you figure out if it works appeared first on Boing Boing.
TL;DR: Today is the last day to get AdGuard DNS Personal for 5 years for $22.97 (MSRP $719.64). Your internet connection has a guest list problem. Ads, trackers, and suspicious domains keep showing up uninvited. Today is the last day to get a 5-year AdGuard DNS Personal subscription for just $22.97 (MSRP $719.64) and set some boundaries. — Read the rest The post Stop letting trackers get comfy — 5 years of AdGuard DNS protection is just $23 through today appeared first on Boing Boing.
TL;DR: Get a grade-A refurbished HP EliteBook 830 G8 with an Intel Core i7 and 32GB of RAM for $429.99 (reg. $1,499.99). Cheap laptops usually skimp on memory, and 8GB of RAM slows down fast once you have a video call, a spreadsheet, and a few dozen browser tabs open at the same time. — Read the rest The post A business-class HP EliteBook with 32GB of RAM is $430 refurbished appeared first on Boing Boing.
Toys R Us is back, at least in the sense of private equity rediscovering the skin of something it gutted long ago and deciding to wear it again. But this isn't the first time that the famous toy shop was haunted. — Read the rest The post The haunted Toys R Us is now an unhaunted REI appeared first on Boing Boing.
TL;DR: Hive AI is a workspace that combines documents, whiteboards, and databases with AI assistance, and a lifetime subscription is $79 (MSRP $619). Productivity apps tend to pick one lane. A notes app is great for writing but terrible for visual brainstorming, and a whiteboard tool falls apart the second you need a structured document. — Read the rest The post Your notes, your whiteboard, and your to-do list walk into one app appeared first on Boing Boing.
TL;DR: Youbooks uses ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Llama to draft nonfiction books up to 300,000 words, and it's $49 (reg. $540). Plenty of experts have a nonfiction book's worth of knowledge and no free time to write it. Youbooks is an AI book generator that turns your idea, notes, and research into a full manuscript, and a lifetime subscription is on sale for $49 (reg. — Read the rest The post Youbooks turns your notes and podcast transcripts into a nonfiction book for $49 appeared first on Boing Boing.
TL;DR: Learn prompting, agentic coding, and app automation in Claude with the Claude AI Professional E-Degree, now $19.99 (reg. $159). Asking an AI chatbot one question at a time works fine, but it leaves coding agents, app integrations, and automation unused. — Read the rest The post Teach yourself to make Claude do the boring stuff for $20 appeared first on Boing Boing.
When I was in Japan earlier this month, we visited the village of Kurokawa Onsen, which has over 25 Japanese hot-spring bathhouses you can walk to. It was an incredible experience. You can read all about the spas at Kurokawa Onsen with a Google search, so I will instead tell you about the fantastic cat I met in the village. — Read the rest The post Kurokawa Onsen has 25 hot springs, but I'd go back just for this cat appeared first on Boing Boing.
Just outside Albuquerque along historic Route 66, sits an unassuming, albeit colorful little building. Adorned with paintings of Native women and traditional pottery, the Indian Arts Center offers an array of local pottery, textiles, jewelry, and other handcrafted goods from Laguna Pueblo artists. For a taste of traditional Native American fare, ask owner Dominick Quiroz to serve up a freshly made Indian taco or an order of fluffy Fry Bread with a choice of sugary toppings. The center was established in 1999 by Quiroz’s father with a mission to preserve and celebrate the rich culture of the Laguna Pueblo people, a federally recognized Native American tribe. Long before Spanish colonizers gave the pueblo the name “Laguna”, meaning “little lake,” the natives called themselves the Kawaika, or “lake people.” In 2023, the center received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition, a testament to its longstanding commitment to preserving Laguna Pueblo culture and sharing its traditions to visitors near and far. Route 66 travelers may spot signs near Exit 114 advertising “FRY BREAD”. Take the exit and follow the signs along the roundabout until you reach the welcome flag and sign…
Winter brings out the best of Anchorage. Under a blanket of snow, the city comes alive with festivals exploring regional history, lively tributes to Indigenous culture, decades-old sled dog races, and comfort food best enjoyed with friends and family. Here, Alaska’s adventurous spirit is felt in the traditions of diverse communities and seasonal occasions that offer a little something for everyone. Whether you’re taking in the shimmering colors of the aurora borealis from a snowmobile or enjoying films by up-and-coming artists at the Bear Tooth Theatrepub, there’s no shortage of events to make a winter in Anchorage one for the books. Heyi Days Nov. 27-Dec. 31, 2026 Translating to “winter” in Dena’ina Athabascan, the name of this month-long celebration honors Anchorage’s First People — “heyi” is the Dena’ina word for winter. It’s prime time to enjoy winter outdoors, check out local arts markets, and enjoy seasonal community events like solstice. There’s also delicious food left and right, from Alaska halibut tacos to Himalayan curries and steamed dumplings best enjoyed by an outdoor fire. While unique events unfold each day, the whole city comes alive with lights and music. Many pa…
Local Wikipedia shows you Wikipedia articles about things that are a half-hour or less walk from the address you enter in the search field. I entered Golden, Colorado, where I lived in my early years, and read an article about the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum, which "contains over 800 quilts dating back to the 19th century." — Read the rest The post Local Wikipedia shows you articles about everything within a half-hour walk appeared first on Boing Boing.
People hoping to see mummies at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, Scotland, were instead treated to a small sign that said, "We have removed human remains from this display as a mark of respect." The museum had removed the remains of an ancient Egyptian priest, a mummified hand, a mummified head and a mummified foot. — Read the rest The post Glasgow museum pulls its mummies, citing lack of consent from the dead appeared first on Boing Boing.
Every night at 9:00 PM a reenactment of Colonial Spanish soldiers from the 18th century preform a ceremony to light a cannon. The sound can be heard from most places in Old Havana, but to be in the crowd at the castle and witness it close up is spectacular. Be sure to go back in the daytime and tour the lighthouse and castle. You may climb to the top and from there the view of all of Havana and the ocean will take your breath away. Your tour guide will give you the history of the castle and show you the parts used as a prison. fter that you are free to wander the grounds at your leisure. It is huge so wear good hiking shoes. As you take in the sights it is easy to imagine pirates out on the horizon and the need for all the cannons.