How does Google Maps account for plate tectonics? That's the seemingly simple question that led George Musser to unearth some fascinating facts about map-making, history, and the accuracy of modern GPS systems. Turns out, not only does the crust of the Earth, itself, move, but so do the locations of lines of latitude and longitude. Both those things contribute to small errors when your GPS tries to pinpoint exactly where you are.
Why Google Maps is often wrong about your exact location
The stubborn old belief that certain weather precedes earthquakes
The idea that a particular kind of weather — hot, still, and heavy — arrives just before an earthquake is old and stubborn. One geologist has called earthquake weather one of the… READ THE REST
A chemist invented a fake Frenchman to justify capital L for liters
The International System of Units capitalizes a unit's symbol only when the unit is named for a person, which leaves the liter with a lowercase l that is easy to… READ THE REST
Britain's £36 million peanut farm harvested less than it planted
In 1946, with Britain still on wartime rationing and short of cooking fat, Clement Attlee's government approved a plan to plant peanuts across 3 million acres of Tanganyika, a stretch… READ THE REST
Microsoft Office Pro 2021 is down to $29.97, plus free training
Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL;DR: Pay once for Microsoft Office Pro 2021 and get Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, and more —… READ THE REST
Make ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI tools work better for you with this $30 prompt tool
Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL;DR: Go from idea to an optimized prompt in seconds with this lifetime subscription to Prompting Systems,… READ THE REST
Make an old PC feel new again with this $10 Windows 11 Pro deal
Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL;DR: Give your PC a major productivity boost with this Microsoft Windows 11 Pro license, now just… READ THE REST
