Border Agents Now Checking Phones For Proper Trump Worship, Just Like The Founders Intended: Boing Boing Digest
Plus, Trump's Defense Secretary Just Group-Texted War Plans To A Reporter
Happy Monday, Mutants! Remember when accidentally texting classified war plans to journalists was a career-ender? Well, Trump's Pentagon thinks it's perfectly fine when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth does it! Meanwhile, Warner Bros decided childhood joy is too expensive and murdered Bugs Bunny, the Tree Police got fired for being too "woke," and border agents are now checking phones for insufficient MAGA enthusiasm. But hey, at least Bigfoot showed up in a weather photo to remind us that some American institutions are eternal!
Inept: Pete Hegseth accidentally texts U.S. war plans to Atlantic editor, says new report
By Carla Sinclair / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
On March 15, the U.S. bombed Houthi rebels in Yemen — but Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg knew specific details about its "secret" war plans hours beforehand, thanks to an extremely careless text he received by controversial Trump-pick Pete Hegseth.
"The world found out shortly before 2 p.m.
Bigfoot spotted in National Weather Service storm damage photo
By Allan Rose Hill / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
Last week, the National Weather Service released photos from a survey of weather damage following a storm in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Look carefully in the background and you'll see Bigfoot in the brush.
The mysterious creature has been spotted previously in the Allegheny Mountains so it's not entirely unexpected that it would have come down from the hills following the storm.
That's all folks! Warner Bros CEO murders Bugs Bunny for fun and profit
By Ellsworth Toohey / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
The soulless corporate ghouls at Warner Bros. Discovery just tossed 40 years of beloved Looney Tunes shorts into the digital void, because bringing joy to children isn't a profitable enough business model in 2025.
CEO David Zaslav, who never met a beloved cultural institution he couldn't monetize into oblivion, has pulled the entire 1930-1969 catalog from Max streaming.
Trump bashes Democratic Gov. Polis over "bad" portrait of himself — even though Republicans commissioned it in 2018
By Carla Sinclair / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
A rabid Donald Trump unleashed his fury at Colorado Gov. Jared Polis last night for allowing a "bad picture" of himself to hang in the state Capitol — even though the portrait was commissioned by Republicans in 2018, before the governor took office.
The Lorax is out of a job: Trump chops nationwide tree-planting program as "DEI"
By Jason Weisberger / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
The Trump administration's DEI policy change resulted in the cancellation of a $75 million nationwide tree-planting program to enhance urban environments by reducing heat.
Neighborhoods across the United States suffer from a lack of tree canopy, and the U.S. government was trying to help.
Crypto developer faces 40 years in prison for creating privacy software
By Mark Frauenfelder / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
Roman Storm, a 35-year-old software developer in Seattle, Washington, created a cryptocurrency mixer to help people keep their transactions private. For example, the service allowed people to donate bitcoin to Ukraine without Russian authorities being able to track them.
But after North Korea used Tornado Cash to launder a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin, federal agents raided Storm's home in 2023 and arrested him.
AMC introduces foreign language films dubbed using A.I.
By Séamus Bellamy / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
If you dislike artificial in any shape or form, this story should make your rump crawl: According to Variety, AMC Theatres is tinkering with using AI to make it look like English is pouring out of actors' mouths in foreign language films.
Trump appoints lawyer behind massive legal losses as interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey
By Jason Weisberger / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
Trump's biggest loser, Alina Habba, has been appointed interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey.
Alina Habba's lawyering has helped Trump lose more than 450 million dollars, so it comes as a bit of a shock that he's giving her any additional, real responsibility.
Gen X: from Grunge to Gated Communities—is this how we go out?
By Jason Weisberger / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
Gen Xers trading in their angst for active adult living: rock on!
The forgotten generation is not so forgotten when it comes to marketing. Of all the things Gen X could have been known for, the pickleball demographic really hurts. I guess I had hoped we'd not want to rot out our waning years in craptastic communities like The Villages, but it appears that is where we are headed.
Bloodborne is ten years old, and fans aren't letting Sony forget it
By Grant St. Clair / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
Bloodborne, the 2015 PS4 exclusive by Elden Ring developers From Software, is one of the best video games ever made. There's simply no way of getting around that. Its dark, moody world, its razor's-edge gameplay, its unsettling cosmic horror – other games have tried to capture each of these aspects with mixed success, but Bloodborne remains a thoroughly unique beast.
Learn to sneeze more quietly with these science-backed techniques
By Mark Frauenfelder / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
"A thunderous sneeze is a learned behavior," says Mas Takashima, chair of the otolaryngology department at Houston Methodist. He told The Washington Post that "you hardly ever hear anybody sneezing boisterously in Japan. It's frowned upon to create such a loud noise, to bother the public."
Fox News' Brian Kilmeade just shrugged at the Constitution and said due process is optional now (video)
By Jason Weisberger / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
"It's not practical to think we can do due process for 8 million people," says a born US citizen who reads the news for a living.
As if discussing returning a product to Costco, Fox host Brian Kilmeade determined due process of the law to be cumbersome and thus not applicable to people currently facing deportation.
Master languages in your spare time with Babbel — now at a special StackSocial price
By Boing Boing's Shop / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
TL;DR: This lifetime subscription to Babbel Language Learning lets you master 14 different languages at your own pace, and now it's on sale exclusively through StackSocial for just $124.99 with code LEARN through March 31.
Is learning a new language on your bucket list?
White House turns Easter Egg Roll into ad space for corporations
By Jason Weisberger / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
Unsurprisingly, the Trump Administration is openly taking corporate sponsorships.
The White House Easter Egg Roll has long been funded by the American Egg Board, which is funded by a "self-tax" on cases of eggs by their producers and authorized by Congress under the Egg Research and Consumer Information Act of 1974.
23andMe files for bankruptcy
By Rob Beschizza / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
23andMe, the company that provides a tentative review of your ethnic history in return for drinking your family's genetic milkshake, is bankrupt. CEO Anne Wojcicki is out.
23andMe is using the Chapter 11 proceedings to facilitate a sale process to maximize the value of its business.
Crossing U.S. border with your devices may be unsafe
By Rob Beschizza / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
Detentions of tourists, often in unpleasant conditions for extended periods, are in the news. One academic was denied entry to the U.S. because his phone reportedly contained comments critical of Donald Trump. Is it safe to travel into the U.S with your devices?
Minecraft's "Vibrant Visuals" update brings new polish to game's old look
By Rob Beschizza / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
Minecraft can be made more beautiful with shaders, but it can be quite a chore to set them up and the game's default look is long in the tooth. The forthcoming "Vibrant Visuals" update promises to bring the latest graphical trickery to the blocky world without losing the franchise's locked-in aesthetics.
European gaming history often ignored in US-centric retrospectives
By Rob Beschizza / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
The tone is angry ("Poorly Analyzed US-Centric Garbage") but the point is a salient one: the European world of 8-bit and 16-bit computer gaming is improbably excluded from retrospectives. Put simply, American journalists think nothing was going in in Europe because so few game consoles and IBM-compatible PCs were sold there in the 1980s.
The amazing art techniques of 1999's Homeworld
By Rob Beschizza / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
Homeworld, the slow-burning deep space strategy game, is one of my favorites of all time. Coldly evocative of the artwork of Chris Foss, Peter Elson, John Harris and others, the art stuck with me longest. I remember noticing the odd style of the backgrounds, technical yet painterly, and thanks to Simon Schreibt now I know how they did it: it was vector art with vertex shading, an object lesson in how to generate flawless sky-spheres around the play area with the technology available to developers in the late 1990s.
Amid intense controversy, Kanye releases album to relatively modest fanfare
By Grant St. Clair / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
Three million views in two days might sound like a lot – until you remember this is Kanye we're talking about. Avowed Nazi and acclaimed rapper/producer Kanye West's reputation has utterly tanked recently, likely due to that 'avowed Nazi' thing – if you haven't scrolled through his Twitter lately, just save yourself the trouble and imagine a string of the worst slurs you can imagine.
Building an adorable, fully functional "Playstacean"
By Grant St. Clair / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
Sometimes art imitates life in the most beautiful ways. When artist Anh Dang first drew a cute little one-off piece of a crab-shaped Playstation console – or maybe a crab shaped like a PlayStation console – she likely expected it to stop there.
Maine lobster fisherman goes viral for his "claw spa"
By Grant St. Clair / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
There are a surprising amount of rules and regulations on lobster fishing – at least in Maine, which has been the forefront of the industry for decades. Egg-bearing females, as well as lobsters over or under a certain weight, have to be thrown back by law, but of course there's no way to keep from catching them in the first place.
Free music in They Might Be Giants' refurbished "Dial-A-Song" app
By Jennifer Sandlin / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
It's my pleasure to share the news that the They Might Be Giants "Dial-A-Song" app is up and running, and delivering sweet music to your ears, free of charge!
In a recent email to their fans, TMBG announced:
THE DIAL-A-SONG APP!
Back to cheer you up, our Dial-A-Song app has been refreshed and de-loused .
"Control" follow-up sees you taking on sentient sticky notes with friends
By Grant St. Clair / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
2019's Control (read our review here) was an excellent singleplayer experience from Remedy, a studio specializing in excellent singleplayer experiences. Their trademark (and weakness, to some detractors) is the way they put storytelling first, weaving together gameplay, live-action footage, and in the sublime Alan Wake 2's case, an extended rock opera to immerse the player into the world they've created.
Does the adorable American woodcock "peent" or "meep"?
By Jennifer Sandlin / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
I fell in love with the American woodcock—what CornellLab's All About Birds website describes as a "plump little shorebird"—at the beginning of the year, after seeing this video of the charming bird strutting its stuff, which was taken by Keith Ramos at Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge and posted by the US Department of the Interior.
Male proboscis monkeys show off their "large fleshy noses"
By Jennifer Sandlin / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
The proboscis monkey doesn't get enough attention, in my opinion, so I'm here to spread some long-nosed love!
I recently heard some of the noises that male proboscis monkeys make, and boy, I was NOT prepared. Have you heard them? Sometimes they sound like they're saying "Hey!
Unfairly maligned blobfish named Fish of the Year
By Gail Sherman / Mon, 24 Mar 2025
Psychrolutes microporos, a deep-sea fish with the unflattering nickname "blobfish," has gone from being called the World's Ugliest Animal to Fish of the Year. The fish gained internet fame when a photo of a pink ball of goo with a big nose called Mr.
Bernie Sanders and AOC rally tens of thousands in Denver for progressive agenda (video)
By Jason Weisberger / Sun, 23 Mar 2025
AOC joined Bernie on his "Fighting Oligarchy" tour and drew a record-breaking crowd together.
An estimated 34,000 people gathered in Denver's Civic Center Park to hear US Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) advocate progressive policies and reject the abuses of the Trump Administration.
Reading between the lines: Trump restricts access to border-straddling library (video)
By Jason Weisberger / Sun, 23 Mar 2025
For over 100 years, Canadians and Americans have shared the Haskell Free Library and Opera House. The Trump Administration is aggressively ending this harmony.
Established by the Haskell family in 1904 to serve both Canadians and Americans, the library and opera house are fantastic examples of the friendship and allegiance formed between the two countries since settling their differences in the War of 1812.
Rep. Crockett drags AG Bondi, questions her intellect
By Jason Weisberger / Sun, 23 Mar 2025
Attorney General and notional head of Tesla security Pam Bondi took some inaccurate shots at Congressperson Jasmine Crockett. Crockett offered a no-nonsense response.
Congressperson Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) was told to "tread carefully" by Attorney General Bondi, who singled her out for participating in a peaceful Tesla Takedown rally.