In April 1951, Jack Kerouac taped together sheets of tracing paper to avoid the interruption of changing pages, then typed the first draft of On the Road in a three-week burst. The scroll — 121 feet of continuous typescript with no paragraph breaks, using the real names of his friends before the publisher made him change them — goes to auction at Christie's on March 12, with an estimate of $2.5 to $4 million, reports The Guardian. — Read the rest

The post Kerouac's 121-foot scroll of On the Road goes to auction for up to $4M appeared first on Boing Boing.

In 2007, Ibrahim Diallo switched to Dish Network and got an RF remote — the kind that doesn't need line-of-sight. A few months later, his loud neighbor switched to Dish as well. Same remote, same frequency.

"One day, I was in the living room watching TV when the channel just flipped," Diallo writes. — Read the rest

The post His neighbor was too noisy, so he used an RF remote to train him like a circus animal appeared first on Boing Boing.

Trump announced Sunday that he plans to close the Kennedy Center for roughly two years for construction, with the closure beginning on July 4 — America's 250th anniversary. "I have determined that The Trump Kennedy Center, if temporarily closed for Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding, can be, without question, the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World," he wrote on Truth Social, reports The Washington Post. — Read the rest

The post Trump shuts down Kennedy Center; nearly all programming heads have quit appeared first on Boing Boing.

The newly released Epstein documents include over 1,000 files naming Vladimir Putin and nearly 10,000 mentioning Moscow, reports the Daily Mail. Intelligence sources told the paper they believe Epstein was running "the world's largest honeytrap operation" on behalf of the KGB when he procured women for his network of associates — and that he secured audiences with Putin even after his 2008 conviction for procuring a child for prostitution. — Read the rest

The post Epstein files contain 1,056 documents mentioning Putin and 9,629 mentioning Moscow appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Get a Microsoft 365 1-year subscription on sale for $69.99 (MSRP $99.99).

We don't need to sell you on Microsoft Word. Or Excel. You've used them for years, probably most of your life, and now, you can get them all at a steep discount with this Microsoft 365 deal. — Read the rest

The post 30% off Microsoft 365 is productivity, but slightly less soul-crushing appeared first on Boing Boing.

In January 1962, three girls at a mission boarding school in Kashasha, Tanganyika, started laughing. They couldn't stop. Within weeks, 95 of the school's 159 students were incapacitated by fits of laughter that lasted hours or even days. The school closed. — Read the rest

The post In 1962, a laughing fit spread through Tanzania for 18 months appeared first on Boing Boing.

Want to feel cosmically insignificant? Wikipedia's "Timeline of the far future" catalogs scientific predictions stretching from the year 3001 to incomprehensibly distant timescales — 10^106 years and beyond.

Some highlights from the itinerary: In about 10,000 years, the red supergiant Antares will go supernova, visible in daylight from Earth. — Read the rest

The post Earth falls into the Sun in 7.59 billion years, and it gets worse from there appeared first on Boing Boing.

Wikipedia has thousands of list articles. Some of those lists catalog other lists. And one article, "List of lists of lists," catalogs the lists of lists. It's exactly as recursive as it sounds: the page includes itself in its own index. — Read the rest

The post Wikipedia's "List of lists of lists" contains itself appeared first on Boing Boing.

You've seen it in exam booklets, government forms, and technical manuals: a page that says "This page intentionally left blank." But the moment those words appear, the page is no longer blank. It's a small paradox, like a Cretan declaring all Cretans to be liars. — Read the rest

The post "This page intentionally left blank" has a 500-year history appeared first on Boing Boing.

In 1986, Italian authorities built a fortified bunker inside a Palermo prison to hold the largest mafia trial in history. Among the 471 defendants rattling their cages was the entire leadership of the Sicilian Mob. In the press gallery sat Leonardo Sciascia, a novelist whose detective stories had done more to expose the mafia's reality than any official effort. — Read the rest

The post A new biography of the novelist who exposed the Sicilian mafia appeared first on Boing Boing.

New York Rep. Tom Suozzi was one of a handful of House Democrats who voted for the DHS funding bill that expanded ICE's budget. Walter Masterson, the comedian and political activist best known for turning MAGA talking points against themselves, decided to pay him a visit and explain how his constituents really feel. — Read the rest

The post Comedian Walter Masterson gives diaper to ICE-supporting Democratic congressman appeared first on Boing Boing.

A mistakenly updated PlayStation Store listing suggests the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Warhorse's sprawling, mind-boggingly deep historical RPG, is getting a next-gen upgrade. Eagle-eyed Reddit users spotted the altered page before it was reverted. It read:

"The PS5 version of Kingdom Come: Deliverance now features graphical updates including 4K resolution, improved framerate, high-resolution textures and many more.

— Read the rest

The post "Kingdom Come: Deliverance" may get a surprise PS5 remaster appeared first on Boing Boing.

We've gotten plenty of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies recently, including one that made a certain sect of culture warriors really, really mad, but how many have featured John Wick-style fight choreography? Not enough.

Indie animator John Likens has filled the gap. — Read the rest

The post Fan-made Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles test footage is really cool appeared first on Boing Boing.

If you ever find yourself in need of a poem, I've got great news for you: Dial-A-Poem is back! These days, the arts of all kinds, including protest music, are providing much-appreciated balms for our collective wounds and voices for our collective outrage, so Dial-A-Poem's return couldn't have been better timed. — Read the rest

The post Dial-A-Poem is back, with the revolutionary poetry we all need right now appeared first on Boing Boing.

We now have yet another reason to love Dr. Bronner's soap company, home of the "Original All-One Magic Soap" and much more — the family-owned company is now a Certified Living Wage employer. The company explains that being Living Wage Certified this means that "every member of our staff earns a wage that ensures a decent quality of life, not just the minimum it takes to survive."  — Read the rest

The post Yet another reason to love Dr. Bronner's soap company: They're now Living Wage Certified! appeared first on Boing Boing.

The only ice I ever want to witness is the ice being obliterated by Levi, an extraordinary goat who lives at "No Regrets Farm" in Monroe, Oregon, and was the winner of "Jenny's Top Animal Video of 2025." That winning video featured Levi enjoying a mind-blowingly long slurp of water that still leaves me stunned every time I see it. — Read the rest

The post Watch an extraordinary goat absolutely obliterating ice appeared first on Boing Boing.

Congressman Nick Begich, a Republican representative from Alaska, introduced a bill in July 2025 that'll drastically weaken the fifty year old Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act was not written because whales, seals, and dolphins were thriving. It exists because industrial fishing, shipping, sonar, and offshore development were killing them at scale. — Read the rest

The post An attempt to gut the Marine Mammal Protection Act appeared first on Boing Boing.

The most powerful dialect in America isn't loud, it's default.

The California dialect isn't about drawls or dropped consonants. It's about vowels sliding sideways, uptalk sneaking into declarative sentences, "like" doing an unreasonable amount of labor, and a vocal cadence that sounds relaxed even when someone is delivering bad news. — Read the rest

The post The persistent myth of the California accent appeared first on Boing Boing.

Mount Baldy is a 10,000 ft mountain in the Los Angeles area that takes more lives than something so small should.

Winter and early Spring see Mount San Antonio, better known as Mount Baldy, covered in snow and ice. Hikers often underestimate the mountain, especially as weather patterns change unexpectedly. — Read the rest

The post Mount Baldy is another deceptively deadly mountain appeared first on Boing Boing.

While 2025 started with a large and deadly measles outbreak in Texas, South Carolina is already outpacing it for 2026. The United States is likely to lose its "eradication" qualification for this easily preventable disease.

The measles outbreak in South Carolina is showing little sign of slowing down.

— Read the rest

The post Measles spreading faster than last year appeared first on Boing Boing.

More shades of Nazi Germany from the Department of Homeland Security, this time of the "benefit from reporting on your neighbors" sort.

While the Orange Menace does backflips trying to make excuses for his extremely disliked goon Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security is doing all it can to remain unpopular. — Read the rest

The post A very ICE housing plan: snitch on your neighbors appeared first on Boing Boing.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was the first to visit China in eight years, taking the opportunity to warm up frosty relations in meetings with Xi Jinping and announce £2.2bn in export deals. He brought Scottish Whisky, and in return brings home an army of Labubus, the fuzzy, snaggletoothed elves in high demand in the west. — Read the rest

The post Seven Labubu-infested Pop Mart shops opening in UK appeared first on Boing Boing.

Brett Ratner, the director of "Melania," the "documentary" about Melania Trump now in theaters, appears in photos released in the latest batch of documents from the Epstein Files. Billionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein died in jail awaiting trial in 2019. — Read the rest

The post Director of "Melania" in the latest Epstein Files drop appeared first on Boing Boing.

A bright blue jet of plasma captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, the "cosmic blowtorch" in the image above has been traced 3,000 light years through space by the Event Horizon Telescope. Its source: the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy Messier 87, 55 million light years from earth. — Read the rest

The post "Cosmic blowtorch" blasts from black hole appeared first on Boing Boing.

Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol field leader removed last week from Minneapolis, made antisemitic remarks about U.S. attorney Daniel N. Rosen, reports The New York Times, citing several anonymous sources who heard him.

Mr. Bovino, who has been the face of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, used the term "chosen people" in a mocking way, according to the people with knowledge of the call.

— Read the rest

The post NYT: Bovino made antisemitic remarks about Jewish prosecutor appeared first on Boing Boing.

Watch the multi-step process of repairing a hole in a leather car seat. What starts as a darkened hole (it looks like a cigarette burn) ends up looking good as new.

The hole is the kind of thing that would drive me crazy if I had one in my own car. — Read the rest

The post Watch a hole in a leather car seat get repaired step by step (oddly satisfying transformation) appeared first on Boing Boing.

A farm in Saxony, Germany, is offering free potatoes after spud surplus left it with unsold inventory. The bumper crop resulted in nearly 9 million pounds (4500 U.S. tons) of them; the alternative is that it goes to waste.

While one might think free potatoes for all could only be considered a universal boon, famers' organization, the Brandenburg Farmers' Association, called the initiative a "disgusting PR stunt," claiming it would "destroy regional markets."

— Read the rest

The post Farm gives away potatoes after growing too many appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Microsoft Office 2024 Home and Business refines the tools many people already rely on, adding performance improvements, modern design updates, and low-key AI features without taking over the experience for $99.97 (reg. $249.99).

If you still use Microsoft Office daily but feel like it's been quietly aging alongside you, Microsoft Office 2024 Home and Business might be the makeover you actually notice. — Read the rest

The post Microsoft Office 2024 fixes a few things you've been side-eyeing for years appeared first on Boing Boing.

This person rides a bicycle, plays a Stylophone, paints a picture, and talks to the camera — all at the same time. The painting is a still life of what he's looking at as he bikes.

The Stylophone is a compact electronic instrument that produces a distinctive buzzing tone when a stylus touches its metal keyboard. — Read the rest

The post Watch a man bike, paint, and play Stylophone at once appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Get a UPDF lifetime subscription for $59.99, a single payment that you can use across your desktop and mobile devices.

Let's face it — nobody wants to buy PDF software. But when that deadline hits, the form needs filling, or the scanned document has to be redacted now, you'll be glad you've got UPDF at the ready. — Read the rest

The post Properly redact files and a heck of a lot more with 60% off this PDF app appeared first on Boing Boing.

Despite his conviction for procuring a child for prostitution in 2008, financier Jeffrey Epstein didn't want for human companionship: from Prince Andrew to Elon Musk, there was always a steady stream of pals, associates, courtiers and outstretched palms coming his way. — Read the rest

The post Jeffrey Epstein was banned by Xbox Live appeared first on Boing Boing.

Prototype turned a Smith-Corona 210 Automatic into a modern personal computer, with the only obvious addition being the external display, which sits on the slide, and is indeed slidden by it.

"We'll have to build each component from scratch!" he says, and he means it—it's a very technical conversion. — Read the rest

The post Typewriter turned into a PC appeared first on Boing Boing.

The Cosmic Odometer calculates how far you've traveled through space just by being alive. Even if you've never left Earth, you've orbited the sun, rotated with the planet, and embarked on both solar and galactic travel — all while sitting on your couch. — Read the rest

The post This website calculates how far you've traveled through space just by being alive appeared first on Boing Boing.

The upcoming special episode of The Muppet Show, which may or may not signal a reboot for the beloved show, has stirred up controversy with fans. Kevin Vogel will be the muppeteer behind Kermit, and not everyone is thrilled. Steve Whitmire, the previous man behind the Muppet, is among them, and woof does he have some thoughts. — Read the rest

The post Long-time voice of Kermit calls the current Muppets a tribute band appeared first on Boing Boing.

Jeffrey Epstein gifted Steve Bannon an Apple Watch in January 2019, months before Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges. "Steve has been given his Apple Watch!" read an email to Epstein after the gift was delivered, according to the Washington Free Beacon. — Read the rest

The post Epstein gave Bannon an Apple Watch, emails show appeared first on Boing Boing.

"There's no drama to it. It should have been called 'Day of the Living Tradwife.'" That's Variety's Owen Gleiberman reviewing Melania, Brett Ratner's documentary about the First Lady, which cost $40 million to make (plus $35 million on marketing) and is projected to gross around $1 million in its first week. — Read the rest

The post Variety's review of Melania: a "Cheeseball Infomercial of Staggering Inertia" appeared first on Boing Boing.

Disneyland Handcrafted is a new documentary about the construction of Disneyland from July 16, 1954 to its opening date on July 17, 1955. The fact that this groundbreaking park was built in one year is mind-boggling. Today, it can take five years to construct one Disney theme park ride! — Read the rest

The post A great new documentary about the breakneck construction of Disneyland in just one year appeared first on Boing Boing.

ICE can now arrest virtually anyone without a warrant, according to a new internal memo that redefines what "likely to escape" means. The phrase used to mean someone unlikely to show up for immigration hearings. Now it means anyone unlikely to remain at the scene of the encounter, according to The New York Times. — Read the rest

The post ICE expands power to arrest people without warrants appeared first on Boing Boing.

In the 1930s and 1940s, comic book publishers fought dirty wars over titles. If you wanted to lock down a name like "Thrill Comics" or "Sensation Comics," you needed to convince the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office that you'd actually published a comic with that title. — Read the rest

The post How comic publishers tricked the trademark office with garbage comics appeared first on Boing Boing.

A Nashville family rushed out to buy a generator after electrical blackouts threw their home into freezing darkness. No sooner than they set it up, though, than the homeowner association for their Wedgewood-Houston townhome threatened them with fines if they did not immediately remove it. — Read the rest

The post HOA orders removal of emergency generator during ice storm blackout because it isn't "aesthetic" appeared first on Boing Boing.

Earlier this month, a bedraggled, tired coyote pulled itself out of San Francisco Bay onto Alcatraz Island. The coyote was exhausted after the swim through rough waters, and it was unclear if he would survive on the island. Those concerns proved unfounded, as he not only survived but appears to be thriving, according to The San Francisco Standard. — Read the rest

The post Wayward coyote living large on Alcatraz appeared first on Boing Boing.

Why, in a mirror, is the writing on your t-shirt backwards but your head and feet where they belong? The puzzle of why mirrors appear to reverse left and right — but not up and down — has confused people since at least Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. — Read the rest

The post Why mirrors seem to reverse left and right but not up and down appeared first on Boing Boing.

Ubisoft's tactical competitive shooter Rainbow Six Siege, best known for inspiring real-life crimes and tie-in glasses, is nevertheless one of the few unambiguous successes the troubled games company has going for it of late. As is the story we've seen a thousand times with every live service game under the sun, however, it's taking its first steps toward becoming the Fortnite-esque morass of recognizable IP that awaits each of them. — Read the rest

The post Metal Gear Solid's Snake joins Rainbow Six Siege as playable operator appeared first on Boing Boing.

When I posted last month about the death of Cindy the Baboon, beloved beast and internet celebrity, I heard from many people that they were deeply saddened by her passing. The funny, grumpy, sweet, tender, rambunctious, and mischievous Queen of the Farm seemed to be universally loved, and her death on December 28, 2025, at the age of 31, hit many of us hard. — Read the rest

The post The celebration of the life of Cindy the Baboon will be live-streamed on February 1 appeared first on Boing Boing.

Vice City? Never heard of her. There's only one tropical paradise I'm interested in visiting next year: the island that takes center stage in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, the unlikely continuation of Nintendo's quirky little life-sim series.

As I noted when the game was first revealed, its 2013 predecessor — just Tomodachi Life — is one of my favorite Nintendo games ever. — Read the rest

The post Nintendo's "Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream" looks wonderfully strange appeared first on Boing Boing.

Ch-ch-chia! The pottery that grows! Coming to a theatre near you!

Long before Americans realized that chia seeds, a staple food crop of the Aztecs, were a nutritional powerhouse, there was the Chia Pet. The original ram statue that grew "hair" was eventually joined by everything from Grogu to Hello Kitty. — Read the rest

The post Get ready for a Chia Pet movie appeared first on Boing Boing.

The heirs of the great Hall of Fame cartoonist Will Eisner are putting his entire intellectual property up for sale. Included are his many graphic novels — he's considered by many to be a pioneer of the form — his children's books, and the stories and character of his most famous creation, the Spirit. — Read the rest

The post Legendary cartoonist Will Eisner's life's work, including The Spirit, is up for sale appeared first on Boing Boing.

My new favorite internet animal star is Alvin, an adorable Shetland pony who has perfected the art of skipping and might just be the best skipper I've ever encountered. Just watch him skipping through the snow, happy as can be. He stars in dozens of videos, skipping along happily, on his social media page, and while they are all terrific, I think this one, where his skipping is set to the music of Dr. — Read the rest

The post Meet Alvin, an adorable Guinness World Record-holding Shetland pony who has perfected the art of skipping appeared first on Boing Boing.

A couple years ago, it was my distinct displeasure to inform you about the advent of Sora AI-generated video just before the resulting tidal wave of slop rendered truth a luxury. It's my even more distinct displeasure to inform you that we could be standing at the edge of a similar precipice — at least, according to a few investors. — Read the rest

The post Investors panic over Google's AI game generator, tank gaming stocks appeared first on Boing Boing.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said at a news conference Thursday that the LAPD will not enforce recently enacted state and local laws prohibiting federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks. "It's not a good public policy decision, and it wasn't well thought-out, in my opinion," he said. — Read the rest

The post LAPD chief says enforcing ICE mask ban could cause "armed conflict" between cops and federal agents appeared first on Boing Boing.