The Latest from Boing Boing

Street Angel Xmas Special Santa Claus and Street Angel team-up to battle Christmas Ninjas in a snowstorm! Street Angel Xmas Special is by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca/. Read the rest... Algorithmic cruelty With its special end-of-year message, Facebook wants to show you, over and over, what your year "looked like"; in Eric Meyer's case, the photo was of his daughter, who died this year: "For those of us who lived through the death of loved ones, or spent extended time in the hospital, or were hit by divorce or losing a job or any one of a hundred crises, we might not want another look at this past year." To show me Rebecca’s face and say “Here’s what your year looked like!” is jarring. Read the rest... Why "smart cities" should be an Internet of People, not Things Adam Greenfield proves again that he's one of the best writers and thinkers on "smart cities," explaining how the top-down, expensive, tech-centered approach produces unlivable corporate dystopias in which people are just another "thing" to be shuffled around -- and showing that there's an alternative, low-tech, high-touch, human-centered version of the smart city that makes resilient, thriving communities. Read the rest... How Kazuo Ishiguro wrote "Remains of the Day" in 4 weeks In 1987, motivated by anxiety over his inability to produce a followup novel to his earlier sucesses, Ishiguru made a deal with his wife Lorna: he would write every day from 9h-2230h, with brief meal-breaks, 6 days a week: four weeks later, he finished Remains of the Day. Read the rest... Jesus Christ was an asylum seeker Across the rich world, this decade has seen the rise of increasingly fierce anti-immigrant sentiment, much of it from self-identified Christians -- as you recount the Christmas story this year, remember that Mary and Joseph fled religious persecution and sought asylum in a rich country, which took them in. Read the rest... Beautiful Japanese Firefox OS phone in a transparent case Al sends us the Fx0, a "beautiful mid-range phone running Firefox OS announced in Japan today by KDDI, one of Japan's largest mobile phone companies." Unlike earlier (disappointing) Firefox OS devices, this one has a much higher spec and might be powerful enough to actually run the OS. Read the rest... The best deleted political tweets from 2014 Nicko sez, With 2014 coming to close, it's that time of year to curl up by the fire and enjoy the biggest Twitter regrets from US politicians. Read the rest... Infectious disease squeeze-balls, full of buboes The coolest gross-out toy under our tree this year is the $5 infectious disease ball, a squeeze-ball wrapped in mesh that erupts into disquieting, vividly colored buboes when you squeeze it. Read the rest... Why arguing with a bus driver is a bad idea [via] Read the rest... North Korea did not hack Sony, says security researcher The FBI issued a press release on December 19 stating it has "enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible" for the Sony Pictures hack. Read the rest...