The Latest from Boing Boing

Toys are more gendered now than they were 50 years ago Before Reagan's FCC deregulated kids' TV and allowed toy-makers to produce 22-minute commercials disguised as cartoons, there had been major strides in de-gendering toys, grouping them by interest, rather than by constraining who was "supposed" to play with them. Read the rest... A young boy plays through video game history At The Message, BB pal Andy Baio wrote a fantastic piece about the experiment he is running with his ten-year-old son: What happens when a 21st-century kid plays through video game history in chronological order? Read the rest... Weebles wobble but they don't fall down Remember Weebles? I had that airplane. Read the rest... Information Doesn't Want to Be Free: the audiobook, read by Wil Wheaton I've independently produced an audiobook edition of my nonfiction book Information Doesn't Want to Be Free: Laws for the Internet Age, paying Wil Wheaton to narrate it (he did such a great job on the Homeland audiobook, with a mixdown by the wonderful John Taylor Williams, and bed-music from Amanda Palmer and Dresden Dolls. Read the rest... Who are the sick bastards violently killing dolphins in the Northern Gulf of Mexico? Federal agents are hoping you can help them investigate the deaths of two dolphins violently killed by humans in the Northern Gulf of Mexico in the past two weeks. Read the rest... BOOK: Incredible LEGO Technic: Cars, Trucks, Robots & More! Pawel "Sariel" Kmiec's Incredible LEGO Technic: Cars, Trucks, Robots & More! is an inspiring gallery of amazing LEGO creations. Using the Technic system, and years of experience, Kmiec's work is stunning. Read the rest... Study: Online teachers get higher ratings when students think they're male Students who think they're being taught by women give lower evaluation scores for those teachers than students who think they are being taught by men -- no matter who was actually teaching them. Read the rest... TIME's Person of the Year: The Ebola Fighters For the 2014 Person of the Year, TIME Magazine honors “The Ebola Fighters.” This issue is published with five different covers, each featuring an Ebola Fighter who has worked on the ground in West Africa. Read the rest... Bodega cats, in their own words Bodega cats of New York City, voiced by the store owners whose little shops the cats live in.Read the rest... Meet James Mitchell, CIA's post-9/11 torture architect whose firm we paid $80 million “The purpose was to facilitate getting actionable intelligence by making a bad cop that was bad enough that the person would engage with the good cop.” Read the rest... 20 ways to describe Pantone's color of the year The color of the quivering heap of liver your Mom won't let you leave the table without eating.Read the rest... Game of Thrones sword-covered high-heels Shoe painter/modder Nixxi Rose made these Game of Thrones-themed shoes styled to look like the Iron Throne, covered in tiny swords. Read the rest... Improved Mid-Century Modern rocking chair My book Maker Dad has instructions for making this Mid-Century Modern rocking chair. The design is based on a chair that was built around 1950 by Alexey Brodovitch, a designer who was the art director at Harper's Bazaar from 1934 to 1958. Read the rest... TOM THE DANCING BUG: The Paleolithic Diet Craze, the PLIO DIET!! Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH we introduce the Paleolithic Diet Craze: THE PLIO DIET!! "If you survive, you're fit!" Read the rest... The emergence of science hacking in Madagascar Ariel Waldman reports on how one of the world's poorest countries is tackling developmental challenges. Read the rest... Cards for brainstorming product design Tina Aspiala's KnowCards are packs of cards with simple descriptions of components you can use to understand or design new products. Read the rest... Great Firewall of Cameron blocks Parliamentary committee on rendition/torture Thanks to the bullying of UK PM David Cameron, everyone who signs up for an Internet account is asked "Would you like to keep 'adult content' blocked on this connection?" It's a misleading question. Read the rest... Police, technology and bodycams The Electronic Frontier Foundation's got a nuanced view on the proposal to give cops body-cams, noting the ACLU's view that these cameras need to be carefully designed so that they don't violate the privacy of citizens or make it easy to cover up official corruption. Read the rest... NYC theater overrules MPAA rating for Snowden documentary Citizenfour, the acclaimed Laura Poitras documentary about Edward Snowden, has been given an R rating by the notoriously corrupt and opaque MPAA ratings board (see This Film Is Not Yet Rated). Read the rest... San Francisco Bay Area Super Mario World map, complete with BART trains Robert Bacon has created one hell of a mapsterpiece. I've been wanting to do the San Francisco/Oakland area for these maps for a while now. Read the rest... Brain-destroyingly great game: Entire Screen of One Game From @tom7, the Entire Screen of One Game game is a brilliant, unwinnable, instantly addicting, frustrating, recursive game that is something like the Eames's Powers of Ten and something like Snake, and not quite like anything I've ever played. (via Waxy) Read the rest... CIA torturers forced hummus, raisins, pasta and nuts into detainees' anuses "Daddy, what did you do when you were in the CIA?" "I raped detainees and stuffed food into their anuses, son." "I hope I don't grow up to be a CIA officer like you, Daddy." From the LA Times: At least five captives were subjected to painful rectal rehydration or rectal feeding, without documented medical necessity. Read the rest... Modern slavery: the Mexican megafarms that supply America's top grocers A four-part series in the LA Times explores the corrupt labor conditions in Mexico's biggest farms, where the produce, destined for American grocers like Walmart and Whole Foods, is treated with infinitely more care than the workers, who are subject to illegal, inhumane treatment, including indentured servitude. Read the rest... My collection of card presses I always have a deck of cards with me. If I am wearing one of my regular jackets, its highly likely I'll keep the deck in one of my beautiful card presses. Read the rest... A tiny phone that fits in an iPhone case The Talkase is a mini GSM standalone phone that snaps into an iPhone case. The $70 phone is described as a "must-have accessory for a mobile lifestyle." Talkase is a mini GSM standalone phone and iPhone case all in one that attaches to the phone you already have. Read the rest... Haunted Mansion tightrope girl figurine The golden age of Haunted Mansion merch continues to ripen, with this stretch gallery Tightrope Girl (AKA "Ballerina and Alligator"): $95 from the Disney Store. It's already sold out, but expect it on Ebay soon. (via Super Punch) Read the rest... 3D printed dress made from 2,279 triangles and 3,316 hinges Designer Jessica Rosenkrantz writes, "I made this 3D printed dress and the MoMA just acquired it. This video, filmed at Shapeways factory showing the printing and depowdering of the dress (there's also this one, documenting the dress's sounds and movements). Read the rest... New Futility Closet book - hairless trombonists, abusive New Zealanders, vengeful whales and more Futility Closet is Greg Ross' website (and podcast) of astounding and intriguing curiosities unearthed from old library books. Futility Closet 2 (the followup to last year's Futility Closet 1) is the second print collection of "entertaining oddities in history, literature, language, art, philosophy, and mathematics. Read the rest... Karate Cat t-shirt To this, we say yes. Designed by A-Lab, available at Zumiez. Read the rest...