The Latest from Boing Boing

Salon discourages good samaritans from returning lost pets to their owner In a post about a Seattle dog who rides the bus on his own, Salon insults people for trying to help reunite a dog with its owner. Read the rest... How to win at rock, paper, scissors In 2005 a Japanese electronics firm decided to sell its collection of four French impressionist paintings. Christie’s and Sotheby’s courted the company. Read the rest... Teens' use of social media is significantly shaped by race, class, geography, cultural background danah boyd responds to A Teenager’s View on Social Media (written by an actual teen), pointing out that what white, affluent boys do with social media is not a full account of "how teens use the Internet. Read the rest... WATCH: Funny woman reviews "As Seen on TV" junk products Last night my 11-year-old daughter showed me videos of her favorite YouTube stars. My favorite of her favorites is Bunny Meyer, a young woman from Pearland, Texas who buys gadgets advertised on TV and demonstrates them on her video series "Does This Thing Really Work?Read the rest... How housewives configured with PERCEPTION ANALYZERS decide what music gets on the radio Medium reposts Wired's 2008 article about the numbing levels of technical polish used to optimize pop music recordings. "Playlists of Hot Adult Contemporary stations are determined by a computer, most likely running Google-owned Scott SS32 radio automation suite, which shuffles the playlist of 400 to 500 tracks, inserts ads and idents and tells the DJ when to talk. Read the rest... Watch this four-finned underwater robot swim like a cuttlefish through an ocean forest "By copying the undulating swimming skills of cuttlefish, a low-key underwater robot is able to tackle obstacles in its way." From the New Scientist story the video accompanies: Created by Pascal Buholzer and fellow students from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, the copycat robot, named Sepios, demonstrates that its finned design can be an environmentally friendly alternative to propellers. Read the rest... KRS ONE meets his future DJ and doesn't know it. Introducing Boogie Down Productions DJ Scott La Rock into the fold in this week's Hip Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor. Read the rest... How to honor Aaron Swartz’s life Today is two years and a day after the suicide of Aaron Swartz. Aaron was one of my closest friends. That night was the worst of my life. Read the rest... Paris: Comedian who made joke on Facebook investigated for “defending terrorism” France, land of free speech: The Paris prosecutor’s office said Monday it has opened an investigation on comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, after he posted a joke to Facebook. Read the rest... 50 years of David Bowie's hairstyles Helen Green drew and compiled this fantastic GIF of Bowie's hairstyles. (h/t Kottke.org) Read the rest... 'Piglet,' a creepy 'found' video from Memory Hole Deeply disturbing. And yet, I can't stop watching. Read the rest... Jo Walton's "The Just City" Time-travelling godess Athena assembles on a volcanic island every man and woman in history who has ever prayed to her to live in Plato's Republic, and sets in motion a social experiment that shows just how heartrending, exciting, and satisfying philosophical inquiry can be. Read the rest... Two grown men arguing about how many days are in a week This exchange from a bodybuilding web forum about how many days there are in a week is hilarious. It's a great example of why I love internet forums. Read the rest... Watch this baby bulldog get his bed back from cat who keeps stealing it Pixel, a 10-week-old french bulldog, wrangles his bed back from the cat, who keeps stealing it--even though she has her own. Read the rest... Gentleman with 94 iPhones strapped to his body caught at Chinese border An entrepreneurial fellow from Hong Kong tried to cross over the Chinese border with 94 iPhones strapped to his person. He failed to do so. Read the rest... The new 'Avengers' trailer is pretty sick. Is it May yet? Looks pretty great. Read the rest... Obama to press for new law encouraging companies to share hacker threat data with government President Obama is expected to announce new legislation on Tuesday that would shield businesses from lawsuits when they share data on cyberattack threats with the government. Read the rest... The 9-month Vine This was one of the most-watched Vines of 2014, at 25 million loops--and it's a good one. [Ian Padgham] Read the rest... How you can hack credit cards for cheaper travel Travel credit cards are crucial to reducing your travel costs and making life easier. These credit cards can get you free stuff and cheap flights, help you save on exchange rates, avoid fees, and make you money. Read the rest... Freedom of speech is now compulsory A timely reminder from Scarfolk town council. Read the rest... What David Cameron just proposed would endanger every Briton and destroy the IT industry David Cameron says there should be no "means of communication" which "we cannot read" -- and no doubt many in his party will agree with him, politically. But if they understood the technology, they would be shocked to their boots. Read the rest... Photo: Adorable tiny baby's foot is adorable, tiny "My son's foot in my hand," shared by Alexandros Maragos in our Flickr Pool. Read the rest... #CharlieHebdo irony: Zuckerberg champions free speech while Facebook actively censors When the Facebook founder praised free speech, users cried hypocrisy, pointing to a recent post by a Pakistani actor Facebook censored. Read the rest... Keysweeper: creepy keystroke logger camouflaged as USB charger Keysweeper is a super-creepy keystroke logger disguised as a USB wall charger that piggybacks on GSM networks. Its developer, Samy Kamkar, describes it as a "stealthy Arduino-based device, camouflaged as a functioning USB wall charger, that wirelessly and passively sniffs, decrypts, logs and reports back (over GSM) all keystrokes from any Microsoft wireless keyboard in the vicinity." It logs keystrokes online and locally, and the user can set up SMS alerts to be sent when certain trigger words, usernames or URLs are sent, to better identify passwords. "If unplugged, KeySweeper continues to operate using its internal battery and auto-recharges upon repowering. A web based tool allows live keystroke monitoring." More: Keysweeper [Samy Kamkar via Robert Caruso] Read the rest... Amplified speaker for smartphones doesn't need pairing My sister gave me the BoostPlus Near Field Audio speaker for Christmas. I was happy for the kind thought, but since I already have three or four Bluetooth speakers, I wasn't overly excited about getting another one. Read the rest... A ray of hope for the nearly extinct California condor "Biologists with the Ventana Wildlife Society (VWS) were taken by happy surprise, with their recent discovery of a previously unknown juvenile condor alongside a known breeding pair of adults in Big Sur, Calif." (via) Read the rest... From our BBS: An amazingly metal cat In response to our earlier Metal Cats post, BBS community member endotoxin shared this masterpiece. Read the rest... Paris #JeSuisCharlie protest crowd reacts to John Lennon's 'Imagine' "I live in Paris, next to the center of the march. Yesterday, we put music on our window, especially peace songs. Read the rest... Each day's top-viewed Wikipedia article in 2014 What do Laverne Cox, Crimea, and Malware have in common? Each was a top-viewed Wikipedia article for at least one day in 2014. Read the rest... Government declares monopoly on right to call journalist James Risen as witness The government has just asked the judge in the Jeffrey Sterling whistleblower trial, Leonie Brinkema, to declare James Risen unavailable as a witness. Read the rest...