Before California's start-up culture gave us its own quasi-corporate pidgin, full of "circling back" and "thinking outside the box," a tiny town in Mendocino County decided to "shark" us all. If you don't get it, you're a "brightlighter."

Logging and farming town Boonville, in California's Anderson Valley, has its own language, "Boontling," a dense and private vocabulary of Pomo words, Spanish, Irish brogue, and pure inside jokes. — Read the rest

The post Northern California has its own regional language, and they are making fun of you appeared first on Boing Boing.

Every architect knows what a blueprint is. Fewer know the process behind it — cyanotype printing — was first used not for buildings but for algae.

In 1843, English botanist Anna Atkins began producing Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, now considered the first book illustrated entirely with photographs. — Read the rest

The post Anna Atkins' blue algae and the dawn of photography appeared first on Boing Boing.

Trump's "Border Czar" Tom Homan announced that, after months of mass arrests, slain citizens, and huge high-profile protests, ICE is already quietly slinking out of Minnesota.

Prepare for ol' Grandpa Puddin' Brains to declare he has reduced crime in Minneapolis by 1 billion percent. — Read the rest

The post ICE retreats from Minnesota after weeks of backlash appeared first on Boing Boing.

Gouache applied by airbrush — that was the secret behind the impossibly smooth, vivid covers Robert Tinney produced for Byte magazine across 80-plus issues from 1975 into the late 1980s. Each one took roughly a week to finish after phone calls with the editors about that month's theme. — Read the rest

The post Robert Tinney, who painted iconic Byte magazine covers, RIP appeared first on Boing Boing.

I've always loved these decorative indentations on book page edges but never knew what they were called. They're gauffered edges — gilt edges decorated by a finisher using heated tools to indent small repeating patterns into them. The style was popular in the 16th and 17th centuries, though it also appeared in medieval manuscripts and devotional books. — Read the rest

The post What are those decorative patterns on old book edges? appeared first on Boing Boing.

A herd of llamas assisted law enforcement in the UK, making a "citizen's arrest" of a fleeing suspect. The hapless thief hopped a fence to escape police, but found himself chased and surrounded by llamas.

After stealing some tobacco, a would-be thief fled into Heidi Price and Graham Oliver's Derbyshire field. — Read the rest

The post British crime-fighting llamas nab tobacco thief appeared first on Boing Boing.

Scott Shambaugh maintains matplotlib, a Python plotting library downloaded about 130 million times a month. Like many open source projects, matplotlib now requires human review of all submissions after a surge in low-quality AI-generated code. When an autonomous agent called MJ Rathbun submitted a pull request, Shambaugh closed it — standard procedure. — Read the rest

The post An AI agent published a hit piece on the developer who rejected it appeared first on Boing Boing.

This month, DinoLand USA, the dinosaur-themed land in Disney World's (Orlando) Animal Kingdom ceased all operations, to be torn down to make way for the construction of a Tropical Americas land.

It's been running since the Animal Kingdom park opened in 1998, and the lead designer of the park Joe Rohde took the occasion to write some interesting inside stories on Instagram about its creation. — Read the rest

The post DinoLand U.S.A., R.I.P. appeared first on Boing Boing.

Oni Press has just released a graphic biography on the origin story of Juneteenth, as told through the life of the woman most responsible for making it a national reality.

First Freedom: The Story of Opal Lee and Juneteenth tells the story of Opal Lee, who has come to be known as the "Grandmother of Juneteenth." — Read the rest

The post A graphic history of Juneteenth and the woman who refused to let it go appeared first on Boing Boing.

We don't have a cure for cancer, or personal jetpacks to use on our commute to work, and if they can actually get AI to work, millions will lose their jobs. But hey, at least one thing from the future is panning out: self-driving vehicles. — Read the rest

The post Those Waymo robotaxis? Humans in other countries drive them appeared first on Boing Boing.

She's thirteen, wears her hair long (forbidden by her peers), and has been standing taller than her father in state photos lately. Kim Ju Ae, the only publicly acknowledged child of Kim Jong Un, has been designated as his successor, South Korea's National Intelligence Service told lawmakers Thursday. — Read the rest

The post Kim Jong Un picks his 13-year-old daughter as successor appeared first on Boing Boing.

Whatsapp and Telegram were among the last encrypted communications platforms permitted in Russia, but that ended yesterday: the two apps are now blocked there, authorities confirmed. They encouraged people to use unencrypted domestic alternatives instead. Here's CNN on the Telegram block:

On Tuesday, the government said it was restricting access to Telegram for the "protection of Russian citizens," accusing the app of refusing to block content authorities consider "criminal and terrorist."

— Read the rest

The post Russia blocks Telegram and Whatsapp appeared first on Boing Boing.

David Nephi Johnson, 54, is the chairman of Wasatch County Republican Party in Utah. His teenage daughter, police say, failed to tidy her room "to his standards." Police are interested in this because Johnson allegedly punished his child by waterboarding her, and was charged with aggravated child abuse, a first-degree felony. — Read the rest

The post Republican county chairman accused of torturing own daughter for not cleaning room appeared first on Boing Boing.

Thanks largely to Roger Corman's craptacular 1976 movie Piranha and its sequels, flesh-eating fish were top of mind for many Generation X kids. They featured in pulp literature, Far Side cartoons, and on TV right into the mid-1990s. Then they kinda disappeared from the zeitgeist. — Read the rest

The post 46 swimmers hospitalized after piranha attack in Argentina appeared first on Boing Boing.

There are a lot of countries where the tap water is risky to drink and most tourists take the easy but destructive route of buying water daily in throwaway plastic bottles. If you don't want to carry a SteriPen (covered in issue #180), many water bottles have a built-in filtration or purification system. The three styles are a filter you suck through (like this Lifestraw one), a built-in filter you push down (from Grayl), or with a SteriPen-style UV light that's built into the cap (from LARQ). I've used all three kinds and if you drink a gallon+ daily, the last option gives you the most liquid for the bottle size.

Skyscanner crunched their booking numbers in an interesting way for this study, figuring out the cheapest domestic and international destination from every U.S. state in March '06. What makes this fun is how unpredictable and counter-intuitive the results are. Who would have thought that the cheapest place to fly from Wisconsin would be Madrid, that from Arkansas it would be Athens, from Georgia it would be Vancouver, or that from Los Angeles it would be San Salvador? If you want to take a vacation to Hawaii, it might be best to go to Antigua first: they found flights from Guatemala to Honolulu for $217 one way!

I was in Mazatlan a couple of years ago for the full solar eclipse that went through parts of North America. To see the next one, you'll need to visit part of a narrow band of options in Europe. Make those reservations soon though: the Expedia group says searches are way up already in some destinations. "For 2026, Greenland (+55%), Iceland (+445%), and several cities in Northern Spain (+125%) are expected to have the best views. Much of the totality will be over the ocean, so northern Spain is going to have the most populated areas for viewing. Check apartment rentals here.

Norway leads the world in a whole lot of civilized statistics, but they've really outdone themselves on the social engineering front with electric car adoption. "According to recent data from the Norwegian Road Traffic Information Council (OFV), electric cars accounted for 95.9 percent of all new passenger vehicle registrations in 2025." The next biggest category was hybrids. See the full story here.

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World's Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

Unless you're the kind of obsessive that scans the credits of your favourite shows, the name Andy Riley might not be familiar. However, as a professional script writer of many years standing, I guarantee you'll be familiar with his work.

He's written for such beloved comedies as The Armstrong & Miller Show, Big Train, Smack the Pony, Black Books, Trigger Happy TV, Veep, The 99p Show, Spitting Image, Harry Enfield and The Armando Ianucci Show, among many others, and also co-wrote an episode of recent Apple TV hit drama, Down Cemetery Road.

I asked Andy about his first writing success:

"My first writing success - which I'll define as the first thing I was paid for - was a sketch I wrote with my writing partner Kevin Cecil, for a topical show on Radio 4 called Week Ending, in the 1990s. It was about ram-raiding, the crime panic of the time. I can't remember much about the sketch we wrote, but when it aired on the radio Kev was driving, and I was the passenger, and he was so excited he nearly crashed twice." 

In his line of work, Andy has naturally worked with many big names. I think it says a lot about him when I ask him about the highlights of his career that he doesn't mention the 2015 Emmy for the US sitcom Veep or the two BAFTAs - one for Christmas Day BBC1 animation special, Robbie the Reindeer (2000), the other for an episode of Dylan Moran vehicle, Black Books (2005), but a childhood hero:

"In 2018 I was part of the writing team for Tracey Ullman's BBC1 show. One morning, I mentioned it was my birthday. Around lunchtime, Tracey walked into the room carrying a big cake with candles blazing on top, leading everyone as they sang Happy Birthday. To have a childhood hero go out to get you a cake on your birthday is a rare treat."

It's not all been TV comedies and radio, though. Andy also co-wrote the Aardman animated film The Pirates! and is the best-selling author of the Bunny Suicides books as well as draws cartoons for Private Eye!

So yes, Andy Riley is a very busy man indeed.

He will be appearing at the wonderful Sudbury Arts Centre on Friday 6 March, performing some of his hilarious micro-fiction. He performed at the venue in early 2025 and went down a storm!

Andy on his move to the stage and how it compares to being a "backroom guy":

"When you write scripts and books, or draw cartoons, the production time from you coming up with an idea to it eventually reaching the audience can be very long. Sometimes many years. But in a live show, you can perform something you wrote five minutes ago, and nobody can stop you! The connection to the audience is instant!"

Not only is this set to be a brilliant night out, but the setting could not be better. Sudbury Arts Centre is located in a magnificent medieval church which dominates the town's skyline. The stunning Victorian interior was restored in the mid-1800s, and in more recent times, a café, public toilets and wheelchair access have been added in a manner sympathetic to the building.

Arts Centre Project Manager, Alli Burke and her small and dedicated team, run many workshops and events for the local community, including the regular Dementia Support Café, Stitch & Sip Sewing Group, CLIP! Weekly Youth Sound and Music Club, and Advice Drop In 16-24, alongside art exhibitions, concerts and fairs.

Joining Andy on the bill are Sudbury's own James Domestic with his extremely funny "poetry for people who think they don't like poetry" for which he is garnering a solid reputation across the country, plus the brilliant Laura Bradley and Leon the Poet.

Click here for more info and tickets.

With a thematic issue on a vital topic - the rise child poverty, ending on a hopeful note. You will find sharp analyses on the effect of poverty on children's lives, with a spotlight on the communities that are on the front line of deprivation, with personal stories and shared solutions. Click on the image to gain access to it, or find us on Substack.

Journalism by the people, for the people.

The post You know the jokes - now meet the writer: Andy Riley live in Sudbury first appeared on East Anglia Bylines.

I did not hear about it at the time, but in 2019 the Philadelphia rock band Eye Flys released the EP Context. And as Bobby Campbell mentioned in his latest newsletter, the album includes the track "The Triumph of Hagbard Celine." As with most Bandcamp tracks, you can check out the song before deciding whether to buy it. I had trouble making out some of the lyrics, but I did hear "submarine" and "immantize the eschaton" and other words.

"This is an album of commanding, lean noise rock absolutely brimming with vitriol," says the band, describing its music. More information here.  

Recommendations?

My (guessing) seven-year-old LG 5K Ultrafine 27" display has become flaky. Repair estimates run into many hundreds, so I need a new monitor. Currently, I'm browsing Apple 5K Studio Displays on eBay. Saves me several hundred dollars from the $1599 Apple Store price.

I had the most intense time reading this book. Do you ever see the date of a famous event and notice that it is also the date of your birthday? When I do, my brain gets a fun jolt of recognition. This book is set perennially on the 18th of November - my birthday. My poor little brain was exhausted and satiated from the repeated mentions. A most curious experience.

It would be easy to dismiss this as "Groundhog Day" but French. Like the movie Palm Springs, it revitalises the "time loop" concept. Told through the diary of a woman trapped, we get an intimate sense of her claustrophobia and resentment.

The novel is quiet and contemplative. Much like "In Search of Lost Time", it revels in describing the mundane. Although the prose is much more captivating than Proust! It meanders in lovely an unhurried way as our protagonist attempts to first understand and then make peace with her predicament.

You could read it as a meditation on dementia - as her partner forgets every previous day. Or on divorce - as she attempts to hide in her own house. Perhaps it is an allegory for environmentalism as she tries to leave no mark on the world?

I got to the end stunned by the journey - and I completely understand why it has attracted such a passionate following. That said, it was so intense that I'm not sure I can handle reading the next six(!) in the series.

Know Your Acids There are four main powdered acids used in cocktails.

Citric Acid
Citric acid occurs naturally in lemons and limes, so it's an obvious choice when boosting, or approximating, citrus flavor. 

Malic Acid
Malic acid, which is found in berries, grapes and stone fruit, is sour, yet milder than citric acid, often described as crisp, and offers the tang of a Granny Smith apple.

Lactic Acid
Lactic acid is formed through fermentation and is the compound that gives yogurt its tanginess. Mixing with this acid brings a creaminess to drinks and makes them feel rounder and fuller.

Tartaric Acid
Tartaric acid, similar to the cream of tartar used in culinary applications, occurs naturally but also forms in the winemaking process. In cocktails, it can add brightness without the flavor of citrus.

In recent years, acid-adjusting—the method of adding powdered acids to cocktails—has followed in the footsteps of clarification and fat-washing: It's not just for the most high-tech bars, and it's everywhere now. Though powdered citric, malic, lactic and tartaric acids are not exactly pantry staples, they can be easily acquired online and take a lot of the prep out of home bartending. With a few in your arsenal, you can make a Daiquiri pop, easily brighten a batched drink or impart a rounder, silkier texture to sweeteners. To get started, here are three ways to use them in your home bar, and the recipes to try them in.

Acid-Adjusted Juice
While acids can stand in for lemon or lime in a pinch, some bartenders feel that replacing them altogether in citrusy drinks yields a cocktail that feels too thin. Instead, to achieve the right viscosity, combine powdered acids with less-tart juices to make them pop in a drink. For example, to make the Multiverse, a revamped take on the Universe from the 1970s, Shannan Lynch calls on acid-adjusted pineapple and orange juices to up their tanginess, while Garret Richard's Daiquiri-inspired Isle Delfino adjusts bittersweet grapefruit juice with citric acid. The technique can work for noncitrus juices, too, like cherry, watermelon, or lychee to balance fruit-forward recipes.

Once a year, on an otherwise ordinary morning in November, the nation performs a small but solemn miracle. It falls silent. For two minutes, the usual clatter of British life - kettles boiling, car horns sounding, someone in a queue muttering about the weather - gives way to a hush so complete it feels almost borrowed from another age. Armistice Day arrives, and with it the annual reminder that the present is built upon the forfeited futures of others.

In East Anglia, towns and villages see veterans and civic leaders gather by their war memorials, reading aloud the surnames of men who once lived in the community. People will remember, perhaps those lost in the great conflicts of the 20th century, or perhaps in more recent wars where the dust has yet to settle. The roll call stretches beyond Britain's own borders, encompassing the Commonwealth, European allies, and indelibly, America.

But remembrance, despite its calendrical anchoring, is not a creature that exists in November alone. Scattered across the region are memorials that do not wait for a sanctioned moment of national reflection. They stand in fields, on village greens, beside quiet roads, or in churchyards, marking the places where young men from small towns and villages and faraway US states could not fight anymore. They are not grand, most of them. They do not demand attention. They simply persist, as memory does, even when no one is looking.

East Anglia is dotted with these small monuments to the airmen of the United States Army Air Forces who arrived in their thousands during the Second World War. Some died in combat; others in the sorts of accidents that wartime urgency made tragically commonplace. Their stories rarely appear in history books, overshadowed by the sweep of campaigns and the names of generals. Yet they, too, shaped the outcome of the war. And they, too, deserve to be remembered.

One such story begins on Thursday, 26 April 1945, a date that now reads like the final page of a long and terrible chapter. Victory in Europe Day was less than a fortnight away, though no one could know it. The Russian advance on Berlin was tightening like a fist. Marshal Philippe Pétain, the disgraced figurehead of Vichy France, was being arrested as he attempted to slip into Switzerland. Hitler, in his bunker, was only 4 days away from ending his own life. History was accelerating, but for the crew of one B‑17G Flying Fortress, it was about to stop altogether.

The aircraft in question, B‑17G 44‑8687, had arrived in Britain the previous November. Built by Lockheed in the US, it had passed through Lincolnshire to Manchester before settling at Sudbury in Suffolk. It belonged to the 486th Bomb Group, 834th Bomb Squadron, and had flown multiple missions without yet earning a nickname.

Its pilot was First Lieutenant Clyde E. Simmons, accompanied by co‑pilot, First Lieutenant Donald L. Williamson. The navigator, Second Lieutenant Vincent T. Colletti, and the bombardier, Second Lieutenant Robert F. Bradley, occupied the nose. Engineer Sergeant John J. Hill tended the aircraft's mechanics and manned the top turret. Radio operator Sergeant Robert L. West, waist gunner Sergeant Edward G. Geron, and observer, First Lieutenant James G. Olson, completed the crew.

On that April morning, the Flying Fortress lifted into the air with the deep, confident roar of its four Wright Cyclone engines. The mission was not a bombing run but formation practice - an essential skill for the B-17, whose defensive strength lay, not in its individual firepower, but in the overlapping arcs of machine-gun fire created when dozens of aircraft flew in tight, disciplined patterns. Formation flying was both art and mathematics, requiring precision, trust, and a willingness to place one's life in the hands of pilots in neighbouring aircraft.

It was also perilous. Maintaining altitude and position was difficult enough in straight flight; during a turn, the margin for error narrowed to a sliver. A moment's drift, a fraction of lost height, and disaster could unfold with brutal speed.

At 11,700 feet, over the border between Norfolk and Lincolnshire, disaster did just that. As the formation banked, another B‑17, 43-38859, known as Miss‑B‑Havin, struck 44-8687 from behind, severing its tail. Lieutenant Simmons fought to keep the crippled aircraft steady long enough to sound the bail out bell, but the altitude was low, the damage catastrophic, and time pitilessly short.

Eight men had taken off that morning. Only two, Colletti and Bradley, survived to see the night.

The wreckage fell into farmland, where workers ran towards the smoke, hoping to help but finding little they could do. The following day, what remained of the aircraft was salvaged. Miss‑B‑Havin survived the war, only to be scrapped months later, its own story ending quietly.

Today, in a village so small it eludes most maps, a memorial at a nearby church is the only clue that 44-8687 came down. Each April, the locals gather to remember the crew.

Simmons, Williamson, Hill, West, Geron, and Olson never lived to see the war conclude, but their service helped bring that conclusion about.

If you find yourself travelling through East Anglia, it is worth pausing if you pass one of these modest memorials. They do not clamour for attention. They simply ask for a moment, an acknowledgement, that the freedoms we treat as ordinary were, for many, the last thing they ever fought for.

Remembrance need not be loud, or a display of flags on street furniture, but nor should it be confined to a single day. Sometimes it is enough to stop, to look, and to remember them, properly.

With a thematic issue on a vital topic - the rise child poverty, ending on a hopeful note. You will find sharp analyses on the effect of poverty on children's lives, with a spotlight on the communities that are on the front line of deprivation, with personal stories and shared solutions. Click on the image to gain access to it, or find us on Substack.

Journalism by the people, for the people.

The post Remembrance is not just for November first appeared on East Anglia Bylines.