The Latest from Boing Boing

WATCH: time-lapse origami turns a dollar bill into a koi fish YouTuber TheOrigamiVoyueur filmed himself as he transformed a dollar bill into a koi, based on a instructions by expert Won Park. Read the rest... Read the statement Barrett Brown read to the court in his sentencing hearing Activist and intel/security journalist Barrett Brown criticizes the government that wants to put him in jail for eight-and-a-half more years in his sentencing speech, while also expressing "sincere regret" for threatening an FBI agent and his family. Read the rest... To do in LA, for free: Flux indie shorts screening, Jan. 29, 2015 We love Flux, a creative showcase where we discover wonderful new filmmakers, animators, and music video directors. The Los Angeles-based group will be doing their first screening of the new year next Thursday night at the Hammer Museum. Read the rest... Journalist Barrett Brown to be sentenced today Barrett Brown's sentencing hearing is taking place now behind closed court doors, as we publish this blog post.Brown is activist, author, and freelance writer/journalist who focused on matters related to intelligence and internet security. Read the rest... Magic Trick: Wonder Bubbles For around $13 Wonder Bubbles is a great trick. With a simple sleight of hand you can change a soap bubble into a solid clear ball. Read the rest... Elliott Smith, animated interview Elliott Smith, animated, talks depression, freaks, Elvis Costello, and Paul Simon. (Blank on Blank) Read the rest... Cool $59 pocket synthesizers from Teenage Engineering Teenage Engineering, makers of the amazing $850 OP-1 synthesizer, have designed three nifty $59 pocket synths: the PO-12 "rhythm" drum machine, the PO-14 "sub" bass synth, and the PO-16 "factory" melody synth. Read the rest... Someone at ESPN copy and pasted the wrong link Someone should make a utility that prevents you from copying and pasting links to porn. [via] Read the rest... Music: "Shake your rump to the funk," The Bar-Kays (1976) From their Mercury Records album Too Hot To Stop. Read the rest... The Apocalypse (The Undead World Series Book 1) I'm back to reading about zombies! Peter Meredith's The Apocalypse is a very different take on the standard zombie story. Rather than scare you with the zombies, Peter Meredith does a wonderful job of showing the social, economic and political structures in the United States fall apart under the zombie menace. Read the rest... Ready Player Two? A sci-fi sequel is in the works. Join Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont for the Sword and Laser Podcast. Read the rest... They put a Pirate Party MEP in charge of EU copyright reform: you won't believe awesomesauce that followed Julia Reda, the sharp-as-a-tack Member of the European Parliament for the German Pirate Party, has just tendered her draft report on copyright reform in the EU. Read the rest... Bobcat Goldthwait does the impossible in his latest film — again “Call Me Lucky” is a bold and moving documentary about volatile comedian and abuse survivor Barry Crimmins Read the rest... Gweek 167: How to 3D print your family, Crossy Road review, and more Our guest this week is Maggie Tokuda Hall. She writes books for children and stories for adults, and also reviews books with her series of videos, Review in Doodle. Her debut children’s book,And Also An Octopus, is due out from Candlewick Press. Read the rest... eBoy is making a San Francisco Pixel Poster Our pixel pushing friends at eBoy are making one of their famous city Pixel Posters for San Francisco. It's long overdue! They are funding it via Kickstarter. (Above: eBoy's Tokyo Pixorama from 2007) Read the rest... Varidesk - excellent adjustable standing desk I've been using a Varidesk review unit for the past four weeks, and I love it. It's a platform that sits on your existing desk, and allows you to easily raise and lower your computer and keyboard, so you can sit and stand throughout the day. Read the rest... An automatic smart driving assistant that streams car data to your phone The "quantified self" personal measurement tools all seem too constricting to me, at least at this point in my life. But, as one who cringed when I needed to buy my late-model Mazda3 for a commute, the concept of a "quantified car" makes a lot more sense. Read the rest... “The Facebook” in a TV commercial from 1995 that never actually was “The Facebook” was in fact Facebook's original name. Read the rest... U.S. gives lamest non-apology ever to wrongly imprisoned former war-on-terror detainee Abdullah al-Kidd is a U.S. citizen who was arrested in 2003 and detained as a material witness in another case. He was innocent, and the government knew it. Read the rest... Report: Justice Department will clear Ferguson police officer who shot Mike Brown Color us shocked. The New York Times reports that The Justice Department will soon close its investigation into the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, clearing the white police officer involved of civil rights charges. Federal prosecutors have begun work on a legal memo recommending no civil rights charges against the officer, Darren Wilson, law enforcement officials said. Read the rest... R.I.P. Negativland's Ian Allen Sad news from Mark of Negativland: Past Negativland member, and long time friend of the group, Ian Allen, died on January 17, 2015 from unexpected complications and infections following heart valve replacement surgery at Stanford Hospital in California. Read the rest... Stand Up Paddler captures amazing encounters with blue whale, orcas, dolphins on video "I recently captured this footage of blue whales from my paddle board with my GoPro," says Rich German. "I was about 2 miles off the coast of Laguna Beach CA. Read the rest... Don't watch this helicopter car chase video if you're easily spooked. Helicopter pilot Jonathan Benson has a pretty cool job, and captures video of it to share with the world. In this clip, he chases an off-road truck from a helicopter. Read the rest... U.S. tries to convict Jeffrey Sterling for retroactively classified documents about rotary phones After a week of ominous language about the dangers of leaking classified documents, the 14 jurors in the Jeffrey Sterling trial Tuesday got their first look at purportedly classified documents.Read the rest... British spy agency intercepted emails of journalists, considers them 'threats' alongside terrorists and hackers Newly published Edward Snowden leak shows British spy agency (and close NSA partner) GCHQ intercepted emails from many of the US and UK’s most respected news organizations.Read the rest... Watch hours of intricate kaleidoscopic color in HD If you're looking for something to have on screen while relaxing with friends or by yourself, these hypnotic kaleidoscopes by HDCOLORS are sure to make your day a little more chill. Read the rest... Album covers of imaginary soul superstar "Mingering Mike" to be exhibited at Smithsonian His brilliant work might never have been seen by anyone, let alone shown at a great museum, were it not for dedicated crate-digger and vinyl hoarder, Dori Hadar. Read the rest... Oh, super! Mario is slowly becoming self-aware via AI A front-runner for People’s Choice Award at this year's AI Video Competition is Mario Lives! The University of Tübingen project is working to make video game character Mario self-aware. Read the rest... PSAs for movie theatre jerks from a century ago These lantern slides on silent movie theatre etiquette from the 1910s show that inconsiderate audience members have existed since the dawn of cinema. Read the rest... Animator Jonathan Monaghan's trippy futurescapes are the weirdest video you'll see for a long time What the hell did we just watch? And can we watch it again? Read the rest...