A REACH medical evacuation helicopter crashed into the Pacific while departing Catalina Island. Of the five people aboard, two have died; two were taken to hospitals, and the patient is missing.

Catalina Island is a beautiful and remote place to live. — Read the rest

The post Catalina medevac crashes into the sea after picking up a patient for a flight to the mainland appeared first on Boing Boing.

A young rabbit was having a terrible time attempting a flyout at the local skatepark. Stuck in the bowl and unable to escape, the cottontail made a new friend.

This kind, patient skater pulled off an amazing tailgrab and eventually helped his new bunny buddy escape. — Read the rest

The post Watch a skater befriend a rabbit at the skatepark appeared first on Boing Boing.

"I wish it was AI. It's in my backyard, and it's scary," said a man who used AI to create an image of a venomous Gaboon viper and had teams of police and reptile hunters searching for the dangerous creature.

Santa Ana Police called in experts to help them find a four- to five-foot-long Gaboon viper after a gentleman shared photos of one in his neighbor's yard. — Read the rest

The post Officers search Santa Ana for a deadly but AI-generated African viper appeared first on Boing Boing.

France's Académie Goncourt has withdrawn Canadian-Haitian author Thélyson Orélien's novel C'était ça ou mourir (It Was That or Die) from consideration for its top literary prize. The book shows signs of being written by AI, reports The Guardian.

A lyrical first-person account of how a history and geography teacher flees a home country mired in gang violence… Published in France by Grasset in August, it has sold about 35,000 copies and won the Prix du roman Fnac, with translation rights sold to more than 20 countries.

— Read the rest

The post Novel withdrawn from running for France's top literary prize after AI claims appeared first on Boing Boing.

Newly-installed traffic lights at a busy corner in Stretford, England, keep failing and leaving motorists fightened and confused. Part of a £17.6m (about $24m) redevelopment of the town center, the new lights have gone out three times, reports the Manchester Evening News, a pattern one local councillor described as "very odd." — Read the rest

The post Slugs blamed for broken traffic lights appeared first on Boing Boing.

A school principal is on leave after voicemail caught her making ill-considered remarks about the parents of a 5-year-old girl who reported that she was inappropriately touched by a classmate. The parents of the girl, attending Grand Oaks Elementary school in Harris County, Texas, called to report the incident on September 25. — Read the rest

The post School principal on leave after calling parents crazy on voicemail appeared first on Boing Boing.

Freckle is a small, square smartphone aimed at youngsters aged 7-13, designed to give them "independence" without providing features that encourage prolonged or repetetive use.

The $199 device has a 3.1", 720 × 720 touchscreen and runs a proprietary operating system, ClayOS, with no app store, web browser or social media apps—and definitely no YouTube. — Read the rest

The post Freckle is a kid's phone that sends them on real-world quests appeared first on Boing Boing.

Back in the day, when writing on the Internet was new and cool, I wanted a keyboard that had specialized keys for useful tasks such as multiple copy/paste, blockquote wrapping, and the all-important Curators' Code symbols. In essence, a Bloomberg Terminal for blogging. — Read the rest

The post Bloomberg Terminals in repose appeared first on Boing Boing.

An AI-generated image of a crocodile, depicted lurking in a reservoir popular with joggers and boaters, may land its creator in jail.

Ye Lin, 30, from Burma, was charged in Singapore with transmitting a false message after allegedly using Google's Gemini service to create the image, depicting a saltwater crocodile at Pandan Reservoir. — Read the rest

The post AI-generated crocodile lands its creator in court appeared first on Boing Boing.

Last month's flooding in Carmel, Indiana, saw the White River burst its banks and destroy a number of homes—and caused a highway overpass to collapse. Eleven inches of rain fell in two days, raising the river to a record 24.6 feet crest. — Read the rest

The post Wild footage of Indiana's White River flooding a massive quarry appeared first on Boing Boing.

A movie featuring the SCP Foundation mythos proved controversial after the studio paying for the production, A24, implied in marketing that it would own the material. The problem is that the SCP Foundation is a sprawling collaborate project of unclear origins. — Read the rest

The post Rival SCP Foundation movie will have Creative Commons license appeared first on Boing Boing.

Contractors working for the city of Sheffield, England, have repainted the street sign for Pool Square at least eight times since being awarded a highway maintenance contract there, reports The Star. It's more likely than not they will do so on any given year. — Read the rest

The post Pool Square street sign regularly painted over to read Poo Square appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Design and analyze 3D building models with a one-year Autodesk Revit subscription for $399 (reg. $3,005).

Designing a building usually means managing separate files for the architecture, the structure, and the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems. Autodesk Revit is a 3D building design tool that keeps all of those models on one platform, and a one-year subscription is on sale for $399 right now (reg. — Read the rest

The post One 3D design tool can model your whole building, and it's on sale for $399 (reg. $3,005) appeared first on Boing Boing.

The $500 Dyson CameraJet toothbrush (previously at Boing Boing) takes 28 images of your mouth per second to better direct its flossing jet at your dirty choppers. The tiny, low-resolution sensor is fit for that purpose, but All The Gear, No Skill on Instagram decided to put it to use on the street: "I never would have thought a vacuum cleaner would create the most fun camera of 2026." — Read the rest

The post Street photography with Dyson's CameraJet toothbrush appeared first on Boing Boing.

Chat Pile definitely isn't easy listening. The Oklahoma City sludge and noise rock band tackles lyrical topics as heavy as they get: families falling apart, homelessness, and, on their latest album, the climate crisis. This year Chat Pile released their third full-length album, Who Loves the Sun, to wide acclaim from fans (myself included) and critics like Anthony Fantano, who gave it a rare 9/10. — Read the rest

The post Chat Pile's songs are bleak, but their live show is a blast appeared first on Boing Boing.