Boing Boing, June 03, 2025
Space toilets, Lovecraft's resurgence, and dancing grocery store robots
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Happy Tuesday! Here's today's stories: The rise of cosmic horror makes perfect sense as billionaire preppers discover their New Zealand bunkers might not save them from nuclear winter after all (Iceland's looking pretty good though). In retail news, Stew Leonard's psychedelic supermarket chain features singing animatronic produce, while MI5 gets caught lying to protect their violent Nazi spy. Plus: a groundbreaking Ukraine drone strike takes out a third of Russia's bombers, and Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein trailer promises Gothic greatness. See why Stack Overflow imploded before AI could finish it off, and catch the latest on Trump's newest culture war target — a California teen athlete.
Billionaire preppers picked wrong country to build apocalypse bunkers
Mark Frauenfelder / 11:11 am PT Tue Jun 3, 2025
The billionaires buying New Zealand bunkers to live luxuriously in the aftermath of global nuclear war probably should have read Mark Lynas's new book, Six Minutes to Winter: Nuclear War and How to Avoid It, before they bought their Kiwi citizenship, writes Oliver Bullough in Coda.
If they had, they would have learned that "68% of New Zealanders would be dead after two years of nuclear winter." While that's better than Russia, the United States, China, United Kingdom, Canada and France, Germany, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates —all of which would see 98 to 100% of their population die — there are better countries than New Zealand for billionaires to build their underground pleasure palaces:
Iceland, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Haiti and – painfully no doubt for Kiwis – Australia all have a 0 percent death rate. At present, Iceland does not sell visas, and Australia closed its investor visa programme last year, so it's no good to you even if you have the cash to flash. But there are plenty of options among the others: Uruguay's is a bit pricey, but Costa Rica will sell you residency for just $150,000, and Argentina is practically giving it away.:
Elon Musk, presumably without the assistance of cognition-altering drugs, thinks Mars is the best place to chill when 99 percent of the human race perishes. Bulloughs writes that it's "possible that Musk might want to claim Mars for himself. That would be in violation of Earth's treaties, and therefore bad. It would also – considering the havoc wreaked by Musk in his brief stint in government – be a pretty grim prospect on its own terms."
Andor Season 2 was fantastic
Jason Weisberger / 10:49 am PT Tue Jun 3, 2025
The second season of Disney+ streaming prequel to a prequel, "Andor," was fantastic.
"Rogue One" was my favorite Star Wars movie. I could not get enough of it when it was released, and I was unsurprised when Andor was announced. Admittedly, I was worried that landing the second series, and not having anything contradict Rogue One or the first movie, Star Wars, would be too much for them. The final product was better than I could have hoped. Outstanding performances, phenomenal writing, incredible production, camera work, and effects all come together to expand the entire Star Wars story.
Honest Trailers is always fun.
Sued for malicious prosecution, Alina Habba enters the "find out" phase
Jason Weisberger / 10:35 am PT Tue Jun 3, 2025
Unlike the woman Alina Habba pretended to represent, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka is unlikely to settle for an "undisclosed amount."
After her performative malicious prosecution and false arrest of Mayor Baraka, interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba has been sued for "false arrest and malicious prosecution." Habba's lawyering has thus far cost Trump personally, and while her performance thus far has certainly advanced his interests by shielding his brownshirts, ICE, it's unclear how long he'll stick by her appointment and if he can get it through. Aside from PR, Habba has been involved in some of Trump's most significant legal losses, both financial and criminal.
"Defendant Habba has made her biased political goals explicit," the suit continues. "Days before being sworn in as the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, Habba attacked Democratic United States Senator Cory Booker and Democratic Governor Phil Murphy, claiming they 'have failed the State of New Jersey.'"
When she was sworn in, the suit says, it was "to help one party, Republicans." It cited Habba's comments, "We could turn New Jersey red . . . Hopefully, while I'm there [in office], I can help that cause."
It goes on to say that Habba violated the mayor's Fourth Amendment Rights against malicious prosecution and New Jersey state laws against defamation against a defendant.
Habba has also been repeatedly warned by the courts in this case.
This cake takes the cake
Jason Weisberger / 9:57 am PT Tue Jun 3, 2025
This reddit post is fantastic. It is clear what is about to happen, and yet it remains a surprise nonetheless.
The celebrant's thumbs up is classic, and her disgust is obvious. I hope the creamy chocolate filling is delicious and she finds many occasions to wear that festive chapeau.
Trump screams about a California teenager to MAGA hordes
Jason Weisberger / 9:48 am PT Tue Jun 3, 2025
Unhappy that no one is listening to him, convicted felon #47, Donald Trump, rages on over a California teenager winning a contest.
The California Interscholastic Federation did attempt some last-minute appeasement, but it is not enough for bigot Donald Trump. A transgender teen was allowed to compete and to "share" their win with 2nd place, but Trump wants to cut funding and grind California to a halt over this ugly hill to take a stand on—performative abuse for the MAGA masses.
Former President Donald Trump lashed out early Tuesday after a transgender athlete took victory in a California high school track-and-field meet, vowing to impose "large-scale fines" on the state if it continues to allow transgender athletes to compete.
…
But Trump was far from satisfied, raging on his Truth Social platform that a "Biological Male competed in California Girls State Finals, WINNING BIG, despite the fact that they were warned by me not to do so."
Trump went on to claim that California Governor Gavin Newsom was "ILLEGALLY" allowing "MEN TO PLAY IN WOMEN'S SPORTS" based on a February executive order the former president had issued prohibiting transgender women and girls from competing in women's sports. However, the order appears to lack any actual legal authority over high school athletics.
Clearly, Trump needs people to pay more attention to him. Must be something else going on that Grouchy wants to keep the media away from.
How Musk went from tech hero to "one of the most hated men in America
Ellsworth Toohey / 9:18 am PT Tue Jun 3, 2025
"It is hard to imagine someone whose instincts for politics are worse than Elon Musk's," writes Francis Fukuyama in an anti-paean to self-immolating Elon Musk.
As the DOGE leader, "Neither he nor the engineers he hired (many of them in their twenties) had the faintest idea what the government actually did."
Trump cleverly played Musk, and when the departmental eviscerations were met with public outrage, a nonplussed Musk got the blame and was ejected from the White House inner circle. "He went from being the darling of almost everybody, including the pro-environmentalist left who loved his electric cars, to being one of the most hated men in America."
The damage has spread to Musk's "one outstanding creation, Tesla":
Trump's MAGA base is unlikely to shell out big bucks for an electric vehicle, a product category that Trump himself has trashed. The Chinese are building very competitive models far more advanced than Tesla's aging product line, and legacy car companies are catching up. Musk has lately implied that robotaxis and humanoid robots will take up the slack from Tesla's falling sales in the United States and Europe, but he has made repeated promises along these lines for many years now.
Lock manufacturer files lawsuit against social media lock picker
Ellsworth Toohey / 8:24 am PT Tue Jun 3, 2025
A Florida-based lock manufacturer, Proven Industries, has filed a lawsuit against Trevor McNally, a social media creator with millions of followers, after McNally posted videos appearing to show how easily Proven's locks could be opened using a piece of an aluminum can
According to court documents, McNally first published a video on April 3, 2025, that incorporated about 15 seconds from Proven's promotional video. In this video, McNally is seen demonstrating how to bypass the lock, which Proven claims creates a false impression that their product is trivially easy to defeat.
The video, titled ""$130 lock bypassed with a can" has been taken down from McNalley's social media accounts due to a copyright claim by Proven Industries, Inc. In its complaint, Proven Industries said, "The reproduction of Plaintiff's copyrighted material was not necessary to convey any legitimate message, and was instead included to improperly attract attention, ridicule Plaintiff, and frame the lock product as insecure and trivial."
The complaint states:
The McNally Video, with its editing, timing and context, gives consumers the false or at least misleading, impression that shimming Proven's lock is mere "child's play."
In the McNally Video, McNally appears swinging his legs and sipping from an apple juice box, conveying to the purchasing public that bypassing Plaintiff's lock is simple, trivial, and even comical.
Proven alleges that McNally failed to disclose critical information, such as "that successfully bypassing the lock required prior disassembly of the product to examine its internal components, including the position of the plunger, and to manufacture a custom-fit shim with precise notch dimensions."
After Proven filed DMCA takedown requests, McNally posted three additional videos targeting more of their products. Here's one.
And here's a response video from Proven Industries.
The conflict has escalated to the point where, according to a more recent filing, "Defendant's followers obtained the personal number of Plaintiff's President and published it on the comments of McNally's Videos. As a result, viewers have sent threatening texts, including racial slurs and hate speech to Proven's employees and their families."
The Lockpicking subreddit is all abuzz about the case.
"Medicaid cuts strengthen Medicaid" says GOP senator in bizarre MAGA speak (video)
Carla Sinclair / 8:06 am PT Tue Jun 3, 2025
After promising Medicaid would not be touched, Republicans are now in slash mode, because "Medicaid cuts are going to strengthen Meidicid," as one MAGA senator told Fox News.
"We've got folks that are afraid of the small Medicaid cuts that we made already," said millionaire Sen. Roger Marshall, who represents Kansas. "Medicaid cuts that are going to strengthen Medicaid and save it for those who need it the most." (See video, posted by Aaron Rupar.)
And for everyone else who needs it? "Well, we are all going to die," as Iowa's flippant Republican Sen. Joni Ernst so explicitly put it. Some just die a little more comfortably than others — like the billionaires reaping the benefits of Medicaid-slashing, which keeps their taxes nice and low.
Previously: Senator Joni Ernst smirks, shrugs off Medicaid concerns with morbid retort (video)
Watch: electric guitar built from colored pencils
Popkin / 7:09 am PT Tue Jun 3, 2025
The Burl's Art channel on YouTube just uploaded another incredible colored pencil guitar video. Burl's Art has shared videos of his colored pencil guitar creations in the past, and they all have different designs. His latest is wonderful as ever, and watching him build it was a lot of fun.
This colored pencil guitar has a fantastic and stylish design where the colored pencils are laid flat at an angle on each side of the guitar, creating an arrow-like pattern. In the video you can see him arrange all the pencils into the pieces of the guitar, glue them together, and then coat them in resin.
At the end of the video we get to hear the electric guitar, and it sounds as cool as it looks. From the front-view, you might not guess you're looking at a bunch of colored pencils, but just a really cool looking instrument. On the side of the guitar, though, you can see the tips of the colored pencils showing when you look closely – I love this aspect of the design.
See also: Elvis Costello explains how to play the guitar, philosophically
Stew Leonard's: singing, dancing grocery wonderland
Popkin / 6:55 am PT Tue Jun 3, 2025
Stew Leonard's is considered by many to be the Disneyland of grocery stores.
If you've ever dreamed of buying fresh milk and cheese while watching animatronic bananas dance and sing under the same roof — welcome to Stew Leonard's, America's most delightfully bizarre supermarket chain. What began as a modest dairy in Norwalk, Connecticut, in the 1920s transformed into a psychedelic retail wonderland in 1969, when the store filled its aisles with whimsical animatronics and interactive attractions.
The chain has expanded throughout Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, with its newest location opening in Clifton, NJ, in May 2024. Each store is part supermarket, part fever dream: animatronic cows belt out tunes, dancing fruit promotes healthy eating, and a 3,500-pound cheddar cheese sculpture once graced these legendary dairy aisles. One location even earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for generating the highest sales per square foot of any grocery store.
Stew Leonard's takes customer service seriously — so seriously that they've engraved their philosophy into a three-ton rock at each store entrance: Rule #1: The customer is always right. Rule #2: If the customer is ever wrong, reread Rule #1. I can't believe I'm just now discovering this magical grocery store filled with dancing fruits and vegetables. Can one please open near me?
See also: Life-size animatronic T-Rex bursts into flames at dinosaur theme park
Puerto Rico supreme court allows nonspecific gender choice on birth certificates
Rob Beschizza / 4:33 am PT Tue Jun 3, 2025
The Associated Press reports that the Puerto Rico Supreme Court will allow a third gender option on birth certificates. "X" marks the spot, covering anyone that the traditional two picks don't.
The ruling, which also allows nonbinary and gender-nonconforming individuals to update their birth certificates, results from a lawsuit filed by six nonbinary individuals against the territory's governor, health secretary, and other officials.
Pedro Julio Serrano, president of Puerto Rico's LGBTQ+ Federation, hailed the ruling as a historic step toward equality: "Celebramos este triunfo histórico para la comunidad no binaria y que no conforma el género," he posted on Instagram.
The ruling comes more than seven years after a U.S. federal court ordered Puerto Rico's government to allow transgender people to change their gender on birth certificates following a lawsuit if they so wished.
The U.S. territory's governor, Jenniffer González Colón, said she is awaiting recommendations from Puerto Rico's Justice Department regarding the implementation of the ruling.
Top UK judge tired of MI5 lying to him about its violent Nazi spy
Rob Beschizza / 4:17 am PT Tue Jun 3, 2025
A High Court judge has ordered the U.K. internal security service MI5 to hand over secret documents after saying he had "no confidence" in its explanation of how a senior officer gave false evidence to the court. The case concerns a violent Nazi MI5 agent who abused his girlfriend while under the service's protection and used his position there in making threats to her.
Tuesday's hearing comes four months after the BBC revealed MI5 had lied to three courts about a misogynistic agent known as X. The agent used his MI5 role to coerce and terrorise his girlfriend, attacking her with a machete. … There are a range of potential options, from accepting the conclusions of MI5's investigations to initiating contempt of court proceedings against MI5 itself or individual officers – or both.
The cover-up is extensive. Not only did senior offers at MI5 lie about the agent in court, but the government tried to obtain an injunction censoring coverage and successfully won the agent legal anonymity. The BBC published its report in 2022, and later realized that MI5 was lying in court to protect him.
The BBC can reveal:
• MI5 first lied in a court case where the government attempted to block the BBC from reporting on agent X's wrongdoing – and succeeded in banning us from naming the foreign national
• The Security Service then repeated the lie to a specialist court, where the woman attacked with a machete – known by the alias Beth – is seeking answers about MI5's handling of its agent
I• t repeated the lie again to a judicial review, where Beth was challenging the specialist court's decision
• A senior officer said he was legally authorised to tell me X was an agent – so MI5 had not stuck to its policy of not confirming or denying agents' identities
• The director general of MI5 phoned the BBC's director general to cast doubt on the corporation's original story about agent X, wrongly calling it "inaccurate"
A typical "neoliberal" endgame, in that it's quite unclear if the state is willing or even capable of restraining something previously given freedom to grow without regulation. Justice Chamberlain might want to buy one of these while he figures it out.
Dutch government collapses after far-right leader quits coalition
Rob Beschizza / 3:37 am PT Tue Jun 3, 2025
Geert Wilders, the flamboyant Islamophobe who leads the Dutch far right, today pulled his party from the governing coalition there after less than a year in power. The rift was caused by infighting over asylum applications and other immigration matters, but critics say Wilders got what he wanted and engineered his exit to trigger an election.
There was shock and anger among political leaders, many of whom pointed out that several of Wilders' demands are similar to policies already in the coalition agreement, and that they would not stand in the PVV's way to implement them. … Geert Wilders' anti-immigration, far-right PVV was the largest party. The other members – which are still technically in the coalition – are the conservative-liberal VVD, the Farmers' Citizen Movement (BBB) and the centrist New Social Contract. Wilders' former coalition partners accused him of engineering the crisis. VVD leader Dilan Yesilgoz said the move was "super irresponsible", adding: "This wasn't about asylum at all." "I think Wilders is betraying the Netherlands," said deputy Prime Minister Mona Keijzer from the BBB.
The centrists can't say they weren't warned about letting the PVV into government; history rhymes, etc. "New elections could be held in the autumn," reports the BBC.
Zelenskyy's Ukraine destroys over one-third of Russia's fighters and bombers
Séamus Bellamy / 9:11 pm PT Mon Jun 2, 2025
I love a good underdog story. Especially when it's an underdog story that makes a vein stick out in Vladimir Putin's forehead.
Earlier this week, the Ukrainian military rolled up on multiple Russian military airfields in three different time zones and blew the silly crap out of over a third of Russia's missile-capable aircraft in a coordinated drone strike. That's over 40 aircraft that can no longer shred Ukrainian hospitals and homes to pieces. That's at least six billion Euros' (over $6.8 billion U.S.) worth of damage. That my friends is a massive kick in the nuts to a kleptocratic nation that has thrown away over one million of its citizens in an effort to reclaim the glory of an empire that never was.
Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) reported on Sunday that over a third of all Russian missile carriers have been hit in a coordinated drone attack aimed at different airfields in Russia located thousands of kilometres apart.
…Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said "Operation Spiderweb" had made "an absolutely brilliant result" which was "achieved solely by Ukraine." The Ukrainian president also shared more details on how the operation was carried out, explaining that 117 drones had been used, each with its own pilot.
"The most interesting thing — and we can already say this publicly — is that the 'office' of our operation on Russian territory was located right next to the FSB (Federal Security Service) of Russia, in one of their regions," he said in a post on Telegram.
Well, there's some salt in the wound. What's more, in addition to successfully executing their mission, each and everyone of the drone operators involved in the operation were successfully exfiltrated out of Russia after they blew them planes up real good. According to President Zelenskyy, planning the operation took over a year and a half.
It'll be interesting to see how this massive blow to Russia's offensive power could affect potential cease fire talks being tinkered with by diplomats in Türkiye.
Testing a dual-purpose foot rest that doubles as a rocker
Ellsworth Toohey / 2:53 pm PT Mon Jun 2, 2025
After working at my desk with increasingly annoying lower back pain, I tried a memory foam foot rest pillow, and it's made a difference in my daily comfort.
Most days I use it as a standard foot rest, but when I'm feeling fidgety (which is often), I flip it over to use the curved side as a rocker.
I use in on a wooden floor, but it doesn't slide around because it has grippy silicone bumps on the bottom. It's got a washable cover, which a plus, because anything that sits on the floor collects dust. I've already tossed it in the washing machine once, and it came out looking new.
Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein trailer is everything we hoped for
Séamus Bellamy / 1:37 pm PT Mon Jun 2, 2025
A new movie from Guillermo del Toro is cause for celebration. With Netflix's release of the first trailer for the horror director's Frankenstein, we're ready to party.
While the film won't be streaming until November, from what's on offer here, it's a sure bet that we're in for a treat. A theatrical release would be nice, but we'll take what we can get.
Jonathan Joss shot dead in San Antonio at age 59
Séamus Bellamy / 1:33 pm PT Mon Jun 2, 2025
Some sad news out of San Antonio, Texas today: Jonathan Joss, best known for veining John Redcorn on King of the Hill and appearing on Parks and Recreation as Ken Hotate, has been shot dead.
According to a spokesperson for the San Antonio Police Department, officers were dispatched Sunday to a location on Dorsey Drive in San Antonio, Texas, for a reported shooting in progress. Officers found Joss "near the roadway of the location," where they "attempted life-saving measures" until paramedics arrived. The actor was pronounced dead by emergency service responders. A suspect has been arrested on suspicion of murder and an investigation is ongoing, police said.
Now, we're not suggesting that playing John Redcorn is cursed, but this is the second of two actors who have voiced the character to suffer an untimely death. Redcorn's original voice actor, Victor Aaron, died in car accident, back in 1996. Joss took over the role and was the voice of Redcorn right up until the series ended in 2009.
While Joss may be gone, he's left us with a gift of his acting to remember him by: in the reboot of King of the Hill, appearing on Hulu later this year, he'll be all up in John Redcorn's character again.
Why cosmic dread is making a comeback — the best H.P. Lovecraft books
Ellsworth Toohey / 1:24 pm PT Mon Jun 2, 2025
Are you struggling to make sense of today's overwhelming global challenges? You might find strange comfort in the work of H.P. Lovecraft, whose century-old tales of cosmic horror feel relevant to our modern anxieties. A new interview from Five Books explores why this old-timey pulp fiction writer has become a cultural phenomenon.
In the interview, scholar Carl Freedman discusses Lovecraft's enduring appeal and recommends five essential works that showcase the author's unique brand of existential dread. As Freedman explains, Lovecraft's philosophy of "cosmic indifferentism" — the idea that humans are insignificant against the vast expanse of space and time — resonates powerfully today:
It's the idea that in the larger scheme of things, in light of the vast expanse of deep time and interstellar space, we as human beings really don't amount to very much. That was a philosophy that's embedded within his fiction in the 1920s and the 1930s, and I think we may have caught up to that at this point, thinking about ourselves in relation to larger cosmic forces.
Among Freedman's recommendations is "The Call of Cthulhu," Lovecraft's most famous story, which introduced readers to the monstrous entity that would anchor his shared fictional universe. As Freedman describes it, Cthulhu is "a tentacle-faced extraterrestrial entity so powerful that human beings can't resist, so much as just try to keep our heads down and not attract its attention."
The interview doesn't shy away from addressing Lovecraft's notorious racism, which Freedman argues is unfortunately central to understanding the author's work. Rather than canceling Lovecraft, howeSergjver, many contemporary creators have chosen to engage critically with his legacy. Freedman points to works like Victor LaValle's "The Ballad of Black Tom" and HBO's "Lovecraft Country" as examples that "take that racism that was central to his fiction, and highlight that as being what the true horror actually is."
For those curious about Lovecraft's lighter side, Freedman also recommends "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," part of the author's fantasy-oriented Dream Cycle. Unlike the bleak cosmic horror of the Cthulhu Mythos, these Lord Dunsany-inspired tales have "a sense of whimsy to it that I think is really enjoyable."
Why has Lovecraft's star risen so dramatically in recent decades? Freedman suggests our growing awareness of existential threats like climate change may have made his cosmic perspective more relatable: "In Lovecraft's fiction, we are just the playthings of cosmic forces that we can't really comprehend fully or resist."
How Stack Overflow's moderation system led to its own downfall
Ellsworth Toohey / 12:57 pm PT Mon Jun 2, 2025
Matthew Tyson's iarticle on InfoWorld, "AI didn't kill Stack Overflow," is a post-mortem on what really happened to the once-thriving software developer Q&A community.
While generative AI delivered a blow to Stack Overflow, the platform had been in decline long before AI came along. The article includes a chart showing a gradual decline in questions beginning in 2014, followed by a catastrophic drop after ChatGPT's launch.
Tyson lays the blame on Stack Overflow's demise to its self-governance model and reputation system, which initially fueled its success but eventually became its undoing.
"What launched Stack Overflow into the stratosphere was human interaction and the vibrant culture that rose up around it," Tyson writes. "But then the experiment in self-moderation took on an oppressive tone, as its leaders systematically dismantled the very quality that made the platform great."
The article compares Stack Overflow to "a kind of Stanford Prison Experiment" where moderators earned reputation by "culling interactions they deemed irrelevant," destroying the welcoming atmosphere that once defined the platform.
Stack Overflow became notorious for its hostile, condescending responses to newcomers. Questions would be met with snarky comments without helpful information. This culture of mockery and elitism drove away inexperienced programmers who needed guidance. Instead of nurturing the next generation of developers, Stack Overflow's toxic atmosphere made many beginners vow never to return after being publicly shamed for their "stupid questions."
Tyson's advice for Stack Overflow to become useful: "It would have to fundamentally say: This is a place where the human side of software development lives, and everything that happens here is in support of that basic mission."