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"I am Error" was never a mistranslation — it was a programmer's joke
Early in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1987), the player walks into a house in the town of Ruto, where a bearded man in a purple tunic announces: “I…
7 hrs ago
•
Boing Boing
2
France once had a king who reigned for four days — his entire life
John I of France, called the Posthumous, was born on November 15, 1316, and died on November 19, 1316.
7 hrs ago
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Ellsworth Toohey
4
The legend of India's "breast tax" and the woman who defied it
In the 19th-century Kingdom of Travancore, in what is now Kerala, India, every lower-caste person owed a poll tax starting around age 14.
7 hrs ago
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Ellsworth Toohey
3
Renaissance painters kept adding a realistic fly to their portraits
Look closely at a lot of 15th- and 16th-century European portraits and you’ll find a housefly sitting on the frame, the sitter’s sleeve, or a page of an…
15 hrs ago
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Boing Boing
5
1
The math-solving horse who fooled scientists still haunts AI research
In early 1900s Germany, a math teacher named Wilhelm von Osten toured the country with Clever Hans, a horse who could apparently add, subtract…
15 hrs ago
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Boing Boing
3
2
The time two guys bolted a Ford Pinto to a Cessna and called it a flying car
In 1971 two Northrop-trained engineers in Van Nuys set out to build a flying car called the AVE Mizar, and the design was about as literal as it sounds…
Jul 26
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Boing Boing
8
2
The stubborn old belief that certain weather precedes earthquakes
The idea that a particular kind of weather — hot, still, and heavy — arrives just before an earthquake is old and stubborn.
Jul 26
•
Ellsworth Toohey
2
Canadian politician mindlessly reads AI-generated speech, prompt and all
Bill Oliver, a Progressive Conservative Party legislator in New Brunswick, Canada, delivered a rousing speech last week.
Jul 25
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Rob Beschizza
10
1
The newest bipartisan issue: not wanting an AI data center next door
The first job AI replaces may be party loyalty.
Jul 25
•
Jason Weisberger
6
2
Half the sea lion pups died at La Jolla Cove. People are arguing about cones
Half the sea lion pups born this season at La Jolla Cove have died, according to the Sierra Club Seal Society, compared with 10% in the nearby area…
Jul 25
•
Jason Weisberger
6
5
Book Corners is a growing map of places to leave or grab a free book
Book Corners maps more than 37,000 neighborhood libraries, mostly of the little free kind but also indoor book exchanges at cafés and the like: “The…
Jul 25
•
Rob Beschizza
7
1
Grandpa Pudding Brains encounters the concept of elapsed time
The teleprompter had, in fact, supplied all the necessary information.
Jul 25
•
Jason Weisberger
8
5
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