Here are today's Boing Boing storie!
No Swastikars! Tesla owners abandon the brand
Jason Weisberger / 11:25 am PT Mon Mar 3, 2025
Tesla owners are finding they do not want to advertise for Elon Musk, or what he stands for.
As Tesla sales continue to nosedive overseas, American drivers are also ditching the brand. Rockstar Sheryl Crow, and Cassandra Peterson, best known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, have ditched theirs. Regular folks are also ditching Tesla, with one gentleman saying he was happy to only $4,000 getting rid of his. Others just take photos of themselves flipping the car off.
"I started looking back at some of the things he said, and I started to feel guilty that I didn't do more research beforehand," said Ron, who lives in Los Angeles and is only going by his first name for fear of retribution. "I always just assumed he was a quirky, nerdy, you know, space-first exploration technology type of guy."
As time progressed and Musk became more outspoken, Ron said he grew increasingly embarrassed to drive the Tesla. "I felt like I was driving a billboard that supported his endeavors and his thoughts and ideologies," he said.
Tesla and Elon are too intertwined. The Board of Directors will never peep, even if the stock craters. In order to have any hope of winning back the old customer base, Tesla would have to step away from Elon and reaffirm its commitment to diversity and inclusion. I see many Police Departments announcing Cybertruck patrol cars, but I don't think that'll bridge the gap Elon's politics have created.
Trump's "Have fun!" may ring hollow to farmers
Jason Weisberger / 11:05 am PT Mon Mar 3, 2025
Convicted felon and President of the United States Donald Trump told US farmers to suck it up, he's starting a trade war.
With a tweet that I am sure will reassure no farmers, Donald Trump encouraged them to find domestic customers for the $179 billion or so in agriculture exports he plans to jeopardize. China is reportedly considering targeting agriculture to reciprocate for Trump's anticipated "new" tariffs. Mexico, who knows? Trump is violating a trade agreement he bragged about a few years ago.
On Feb. 11, Trump issued a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum to go into effect on March 12, a move that Mexico Secretary of Economy Marcelo Ebrard said violated the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The agreement replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement on July 1, 2020, and is up for review next year.
On Feb. 3, Mexico and the U.S. reached a deal that delayed a raise on tariffs on all Mexican imports. Part of the deal stated that Mexico needs to beef up its security to decrease the flow of drugs into the U.S. while the U.S. will investigate its part in trafficking guns to Mexico.
Mexico respected its part of the deal and on Feb. 5, began "Operation Frontera Norte," sending the first of 10,000 Mexican National Guard and Army troops to northern border states.
According to Mexican government data, between the beginning of the operation on Feb. 5 and Feb. 27, 914 people were arrested and 896 firearms and 36,702 pounds of drugs seized.
Star Trek: Khaaaaan! An official podcast is set to launch
Jason Weisberger / 10:26 am PT Mon Mar 3, 2025
CBS has announced a podcast audio drama telling the origin story of Star Trek's greatest (recast) villain: Khan Noonien Singh.
Screaming KHAAAAAAAAAN at the top of my lungs while stuck in traffic or other frustrating spots is pretty cathartic. I am excited to learn the true story behind Khan's rise to power, and I guess his fall told from Khan's POV in more detail than we heard in Star Trek II. CBS has announced that Naveen Andrews will play the titular Khan, tho there is no release date scheduled as yet.
According to the new announcement from CBS, the new audio series will tell another side of Khan's story.
Here's the full synopsis:
"History remembers Khan Noonien Singh as a villain, the product of a failed attempt to perfect humanity through genetic engineering whose quest to avenge himself on Admiral James T. Kirk led to unimaginable tragedy and loss. But the truth has been buried for too long beneath the sands of Ceti Alpha V. How did Khan go from a beneficent tyrant and superhuman visionary with a new world at his fingertips to the monster we think we know so well? Recently unearthed, the rest of Khan's story will finally be told in Star Trek: Khan."
The series itself is written by longtime Star Trek writers Kirsten Beyer and David Mack, based on a story by Nicholas Meyer.
Vengeful Florida woman vandalizes wrong car
Jason Weisberger / 9:55 am PT Mon Mar 3, 2025
An 18-year-old woman was very angry with her former boyfriend, and apparently under the influence. Mistakes were made.
The young woman admitted to deputies that it was a revenge plan against her ex-boyfriend.
She was upset when she hatched a plan to throw eggs at his car and spray paint on it.
However, the vehicle that was vandalized actually belonged to a neighbor; it was not the ex-boyfriend's vehicle.
The woman now faces criminal charges related to mischief and alcohol.
Like the scene from The Big Lebowski where Walter teaches Larry a lesson, a Florida woman picked the wrong car. I wonder if her ex-boyfriend did something to a stranger's rearend.
Statistically speaking, this is when you should quit a TV Show
Jason Weisberger / 9:35 am PT Mon Mar 3, 2025
A dilemma we've all faced: how far into that series should you watch before giving up?
I have a hard time committing to new TV series these days. Most of the things I start, I find I've given up before I pass the minimum recommended by this statistical study. The study also covers another problem I've run into: how long we should stick with a struggling series. I recently watched the last season of Cobra Kai, and having enjoyed the first five, I found season six to be stupid.
These findings offer reassurance to any creator whose show was abruptly canceled. This elite pool of Hollywood producers can sleep easy knowing their masterwork was simply misunderstood, yanked from the airwaves by antsy executives catering to a horde of impatient viewers. If your show was canceled before episode six, you've essentially created a cult classic minus the "cult" part. Congratulations.
Yet these figures only cover one half of the TV Watcher's Dilemma. After all, people can quit a show following a handful of episodes or after several seasons of fandom. Recently, I've been slogging through the third season of Yellowjackets, unsure whether I should consciously uncouple from this show.
Given all my complaints thus far, I know what you're thinking: watching TV is hard!
via Slashdot
Give our ad-free Boing Boing Premium a try with a free trial
Mark Frauenfelder / 7:14 am PT Mon Mar 3, 2025
Last November, we launched Boing Boing Premium, an ad-free version of Boing Boing. A lot of you subscribed, and we're grateful for your support.
When I want to read my Boing Boing colleagues' posts, I always do so at premium.boingboing.net because it's so much nicer reading them without ads.
If you haven't subscribed yet, here's a link to a 7-day free trial. You can cancel anytime before the trial period is up and not get charged. And if you ever do want to cancel you can easily do so and receive a pro-rated refund.
I really hope you give it a try — I think you'll like it!
Man rowing from California to Australia rescued after cyclone leaves him stranded for 3 days (video)
Carla Sinclair / 6:30 am PT Mon Mar 3, 2025
An adventurous Lithuanian man trying to row a boat from California to Australia was rescued today by the Australian navy after a tropical cyclone blew him off course on Friday.
After more than four months at sea, 44-year-old Aurimas Mockus was only days away (460 miles shy) from Brisbane before 50-mph winds cut his trip short. Once he was thrown off his path, he "activated an emergency beacon," reports NBC News.
Mockus was stranded at sea for three days before rescuers found him and transferred him onto an Australian warship, along with his oars and a few of his personal things. His boat, however, was left at sea. (See footage of the rescue, supplied by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and posted by Guardian Australia.)
From NBC News:
Aurimas Mockus was taken aboard Royal Australian Navy landing ship HMAS Choules, where he was undergoing a medical assessment, Vice Adm. Justin Jones said in a statement.
The 44-year-old adventurer had been stranded for three days in the Coral Sea about 460 miles east of the Queensland state coastal city of Mackay. He had rowed there in an enclosed boat nonstop from San Diego headed for the Queensland capital, Brisbane. …
The authority sent a plane that made radio contact with Mockus on Saturday. Mockus reported he was "fatigued," the authority said.
The warship is taking Mockus south beyond Brisbane to Sydney in New South Wales, the navy said.
Mockus would have been one of only a few people who have rowed across the Pacific Ocean's 7,500-mile stretch nonstop had he completed his journey.
Previously: Coastguard rescues real dummy from UK sea
DoorDash execs discover one weird trick to steal tips from drivers (it's just regular stealing)
Ellsworth Toohey / 6:09 am PT Mon Mar 3, 2025
New York Attorney General Letitia James just made DoorDash cough up $16.75 million for stealing drivers' tip, reports Courthouse News.
Here's how these sneaky bastards pulled it off: Let's say a driver was guaranteed $10 for schlepping your pad thai across town. If you, being a decent human, added a $5 tip, DoorDash would be like "Cool, now we only need to pay $5 to hit that $10 minimum!" Meanwhile, customers thought their tips were extra money on top of the base pay that's how tips work everywhere else on planet Earth.
"It was basically a bait-and-switch where customers thought they were supporting delivery workers, but instead they were subsidizing DoorDash instead," James said at a press conference. Of course, if you or I stole from our employer's till, we'd be doing the perp walk. But steal millions from gig workers while wearing a Patagonia vest? That'll just cost you a fraction of last quarter's profits. No third vacation home in Aspen for you this year!
DoorDash, which processed $21.3 billion in orders last year, is doing the corporate equivalent of "that was so four years ago," swearing that they ditched this shadiness back in 2019. "While we believe that our practices properly represented how Dashers were paid during this period," they said in the most corporate-speak ever, basically translating to "we're not sorry but here's your money back."
And thus concludes another heartwarming tale of American capitalism, where calling robbery an "old pay model that was retired" is a stay-of-out-jail card.
Weight loss drugs will reshape the $100 trillion global economy
Ellsworth Toohey / 4:59 am PT Mon Mar 3, 2025
While Silicon Valley obsesses over AI, Wildfire Labs founder Todd Gagne argues that GLP-1 medications represent a much greater economic disruptor — the first drugs regulating human impulse control in a consumption-driven economy.
Gagne argues that these medications will transform industries built on impulse purchases, from restaurants and retail to advertising and entertainment. "When you change how hundreds of millions of people make decisions, the economic impact is incalculable."
In 2021, Lisa Chen, a software engineer, started a new weight-loss medication. Then, something interesting happened at her local coffee shop, her employer's healthcare costs, and the global economy.
In six months, Lisa stopped buying her daily morning muffin, causing the coffee shop to lose $600 in annual revenue from one customer. Within a year, she canceled her beer-of-the-month subscription and stopped ordering late-night DoorDash. By 2023, her grocery bill dropped 40%, alcohol spending fell 85%, and impulse Amazon purchases plunged 60%.
Lisa is one person. Her story will become the story of hundreds of millions.
Gagne writes, "Madison Avenue is quietly panicking. One major agency (which asked not to be named) estimates that 50% of their current advertising strategies will be obsolete by 2027. They are right to worry."
Late passengers hurl coffee at American Airlines worker to get on flight — their plan backfires (video)
Carla Sinclair / 4:36 am PT Mon Mar 3, 2025
A man and woman about to miss a flight to Mexico at Miami International Airport yesterday thought they could speed things along by hurling a cup of coffee at the face of an American Airlines worker. When their coffee tantrum didn't work, they tried to force their way onto the plane. But much to their surprise, the would-be passengers were arrested instead.
From NBC Miami:
A couple was arrested at Miami International Airport on Sunday after they tried to force their way onto a plane and attacked staff, deputies said. … Deputies said the two also got into an altercation with staff at the airport and even threw coffee into an employee's face.
The couple were identified as Rafael Seirafe-Novaes and Beatriz Rapoport De Campos Maia.
Seirafe-Novaes was charged with resisting an officer without violence, and trespassing, while Maia was charged with two counts of battery and trespassing.
A spokesperson for MIA told NBC6 MDSO is handling the investigation but confirmed the employee involved in the coffee incident was an American Air employee.
Six deputies from the Miami Dade Sheriff's Office showed up at the airport, with at least one ordering the woman to sit down in a chair while others tackled the gentleman to the ground before escorting him to the back of a police car.
(via OnlyinDade).
Previously: Farting airplane passenger forces flight to turn back
Ex-Amazon VP explains why rich a-holes with helicopters and personal assistants don't get why you hate your commute
Ellsworth Toohey / 4:07 am PT Mon Mar 3, 2025
This Gizmodo headline is a sign of the times: "Google's Sergey Brin Says Engineers Should Work 60-Hour Weeks in Office to Build AI That Could Replace Them."
Why are mega-rich executives demanding peasants return to their cubicle farms?
Because your corporate overlords' lives are absolutely nothing like yours, says a former Amazon VP who witnessed first-hand how the 0.001% live.
Ethan Andrews' Twitter post exposes the alternate reality where top executives live — one where private jets (or "PJs" in rich-speak) are just casual transportation, and personal assistants handle all those pesky life tasks that eat up normal humans' time. While Andrews admits he's pretty cushioned himself with his maid service and never having to touch a lawnmower, he paints an even more jarring picture of his former bosses' lifestyle:
Multiple staffed vacation homes, with caretakers
Private jets (PJs in the lingo)
Personal assistants. Never pay a bill, get groceries, or pick up a kid when you are busy. The PA handles it all.
Drivers (security and efficiency)
Breathtakingly expensive and exclusive private schools for their kids
They live wherever they want. Cost is not an obstacle
Must be nice! When you've got a pilot handling your helicopter commute while you keybump ketamine and draft tweets about how remote workers lack 'hustle culture' in the backseat, and your PA manager is overseeing your team of PAs who handle everything from your kid's therapy appointments to your next ayahuasca retreat in Peru, heading to the office probably does sound like a delightful way to spend the day.
Of course these executives, who "place work and career success very highly in their lives," are completely mystified why their workforce isn't thrilled about spending two hours a day in traffic just to sit in an office. With these circumstances, returning to the office feels very 'worth it.'"
As Andrews puts it, "Remember, they live literally in another world. This doesn't necessarily make them evil, just disconnected."
"Not evil, just disconnected" is a weird way to spell "hoarding wealth while demanding sacrifices from others," but we're not the ones with a fleet of servants and private jets. We're just the poors who barely have time to buy an $8 dozen of eggs on the way home.
Geothermal energy potential could power US thousands of times over
Ellsworth Toohey / 2:53 am PT Mon Mar 3, 2025
"Its superheated interior burns with an estimated forty-four trillion watts of power," reports Brent Crane in his New Yorker piece about the future of geothermal energy.
At Utah's Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE), geologist Joseph Moore leads a $300 million quest to tap this immense underground heat source, drilling L-shaped holes miles into scalding rock to create artificial reservoirs that could provide limitless clean power.
While geothermal currently supplies less than 1% of global energy, the potential is huge — just 2% of heat from the top four miles of U.S. soil could meet the country's needs 2,000 times over.
Major tech companies are already taking notice, with Google, Meta and Microsoft incorporating geothermal into their AI data centers, while startup Fervo Energy plans to begin providing round-the-clock geothermal power to Southern California utilities by 2026.
Moore told The New Yorker, "We need to continue. I encourage this in every way possible."
Trump trashes Europe as land of "rape gangs" and "murderers"
Carla Sinclair / 2:53 am PT Mon Mar 3, 2025
Donald Trump continues to betray longtime U.S. allies by shamefully comparing Europe to gang rapists and murderers.
"We should spend less time worrying about Putin, and more time worrying about migrant rape gangs, drug lords, murderers, and people from mental institutions entering our Country – So that we don't end up like Europe!" the Putin-aligned president said in a ludicrous Truth Social post on Sunday, two days after he and Vice President JD Vance despicably ambushed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
While American lawmakers snooze away, Trump is tirelessly working to eradicate the most important global alliance since World War II, all for a seat at the dictators' table — ignorant to the fact that Vladimir Putin in not his friend.
