Boing Boing

Boing Boing

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Boing Boing, July 6, 2026
Surveillance pullbacks, seagull assaults, and Winamp nostalgia
 • Boing Boing
Deaf kids in 1980s Nicaragua created a language from thin air
In 1977, a special-education center opened in Managua with 50 deaf children.
 • Ellsworth Toohey
The ancient spark plug and other “out-of-place artifacts”
The Coso artifact, dug from a California hillside in 1961 and claimed to be prehistoric, was “actually a 1920s spark plug that had become encased in a…
 • Ellsworth Toohey
In 1872 a ship was found drifting, empty. The 1913 “solution” was absurd.
In 1913, the Strand Magazine invited contributors and readers to propose solutions to the mystery of the Mary Celeste, the ship found sailing crewless…
 • Ellsworth Toohey
Camel-racing robots wear perfume so the camels accept them
Camel racing in the Gulf states once ran on child jockeys — “usually boys around the age of four,” according to Wikipedia.
 • Ellsworth Toohey
The internet spent years hunting a game that never existed
In 2021, a Reddit user named “Sparta123” posted to r/tipofmyjoystick trying to recall a farming game like Harvest Moon, “with the premise involving a…
 • Ellsworth Toohey
China built a 40-story tower that stores wind power by stacking concrete
The Swiss company Energy Vault spent years pitching a novel idea: store surplus electricity by using it to stack heavy blocks, then recover the power by…
 • Ellsworth Toohey
A Shenzhen hotel plans to use a fully robotic staff
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…
 • Ellsworth Toohey
License plate cameras scan 20 billion vehicles a month, and cities are pulling the plug
The automated license plate reader has become one of the densest surveillance layers in the United States.
 • Ellsworth Toohey
Scientists gave sleep-deprived mice a memory boost without letting them sleep
Dolphins, ducks, and fur seals can put half the brain into deep sleep while the other half stays awake and watching for predators.
 • Ellsworth Toohey
Idaho conservation officer beats Trump official’s defamation lawsuit
An Idaho court dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by businessman Michael Boren, now a top federal official, against a retired conservation officer who…
 • Rob Beschizza
Scotsman dual-wielded live seagulls in assault
Police in Oban, Scotland, charged a man with assault after he allegedly grabbed two live seagulls and attacked someone in the street outside the railway…
 • Rob Beschizza
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