- newSci-Hub and Libgen descend from a Soviet tradition of smuggled science
Today's enormous shadow libraries — Sci-Hub, Library Genesis, and the rest — trace back to Soviet samizdat, the underground practice of typing forbidden books onto carbon paper and passing the copies hand to hand. Russian scholars who grew up inside that culture started digitizing texts in the 1990s, and the through-line from clandestine typewriters to today's gigantic online archives is direct. — Read the rest The post Sci-Hub and Libgen descend from a Soviet tradition of smuggled science appeared first on Boing Boing.
- 7 hours ago 19 May 26, 11:59pm -
- newOccupy Wall Street co-founder built an AI organizing mentor that runs offline
Most AI assistants send your conversations to someone else's server. Outcry, a free app from Micah Bornfree, PhD, takes the opposite tack: the model lives on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple silicon Mac, and nothing it discusses with you is ever transmitted anywhere. — Read the rest The post Occupy Wall Street co-founder built an AI organizing mentor that runs offline appeared first on Boing Boing.
- 8 hours ago 19 May 26, 11:43pm -
- newMicrosoft 365 is almost $100/year, but you can get Microsoft Office and Windows 11 Pro for life for only $135
TL;DR: Get Microsoft Office 2024 Home and Business and Windows 11 Pro for life for $134.97.Microsoft 365 costs around $100 a year, which means if you've been subscribing since it launched, you've probably spent more on it than a decent piece of furniture. — Read the rest The post Microsoft 365 is almost $100/year, but you can get Microsoft Office and Windows 11 Pro for life for only $135 appeared first on Boing Boing.
- 10 hours ago 19 May 26, 9:00pm -
- newIn 1997, NOAA recorded a sound louder than any known animal
In the summer of 1997, NOAA's underwater microphone network — a Cold War-era array of hydrophones originally built to track Soviet submarines and later repurposed to monitor earthquakes and whale migrations — picked up something strange off the coast of southern Chile. — Read the rest The post In 1997, NOAA recorded a sound louder than any known animal appeared first on Boing Boing.
- 11 hours ago 19 May 26, 8:27pm -
- newGranta published a likely AI-written story as a prize finalist
Ethan Mollick, the Wharton professor who studies AI adoption, ran "The Serpent in the Grove" through Pangram — an AI-detection tool that claims 99% accuracy — and got 100% red flags. The story had been selected from 7,806 entries as a Caribbean regional finalist for the Commonwealth Foundation Short Story Prize and published in Granta. — Read the rest The post Granta published a likely AI-written story as a prize finalist appeared first on Boing Boing.
- 11 hours ago 19 May 26, 8:16pm -
- newTesla Cybertruck owner, intending to test "wade mode," learns about "sink mode"
"Numerous water safety violations" is a spectacular phrase when discussing a pickup truck.A Texas man reportedly looked at Tesla's "wade mode" feature, absorbed whatever meaning he wished from those two words, and drove his Cybertruck directly into Grapevine Lake, where the vehicle promptly demonstrated its lesser-known "become expensive artificial reef" setting. — Read the rest The post Tesla Cybertruck owner, intending to test "wade mode," learns about "sink mode" appeared first on Boing Boing.
- 12 hours ago 19 May 26, 7:27pm -
- newGreenlanders offer Trump envoy the universally understood finger gesture for "no to annexation"
In what appears to have been a pilot program for "colonialism, but make it weirdly condescending," Trump emissary Jeff Landry reportedly tried to win over Greenlanders with MAGA merch and cookie promises, receiving in return a remarkably clear statement of local sovereignty. — Read the rest The post Greenlanders offer Trump envoy the universally understood finger gesture for "no to annexation" appeared first on Boing Boing.
- 12 hours ago 19 May 26, 7:16pm -
- newThe 1960 blob that gave all mystery blobs their name
In August 1960, something washed ashore on a remote beach in western Tasmania, about two miles north of the Interview River. It was 20 feet wide, 18 feet long, weighed somewhere between five and ten tons, and had no eyes. Instead of a mouth, it had what witnesses described as soft, tusk-like protuberances. — Read the rest The post The 1960 blob that gave all mystery blobs their name appeared first on Boing Boing.
- 12 hours ago 19 May 26, 6:59pm -
- newAI's giant rural job machine mostly appears to manufacture hype
The AI boom has discovered rural America, where struggling towns are being promised salvation in the form of enormous data centers, industrial temples to machine learning that reportedly create far fewer permanent jobs and more heat than the factories and mills they replace. — Read the rest The post AI's giant rural job machine mostly appears to manufacture hype appeared first on Boing Boing.
- 13 hours ago 19 May 26, 6:08pm -
- newThe UK has formally declared Badger Badger Badger worthy of preservation
In a move that confirms the internet is no longer a youthful experiment but a fully historicized source of collective psychic damage, the British Film Institute has officially preserved Badger Badger Badger, the hypnotic early-web earworm featuring crudely animated mustelids, occasional mushrooms, and whatever passed for humor in our flash-animation era. — Read the rest The post The UK has formally declared Badger Badger Badger worthy of preservation appeared first on Boing Boing.
- 13 hours ago 19 May 26, 5:59pm -