The Latest from Boing Boing

Strangely realistic graffiti portals The spray-painted portals created by Hamburg, Germany-based artist 1010 are rather inviting, aren't they? See many more on 1010's Facebook page. Read the rest... The UK's most eccentric library In this week's New Yorker, Adam Gopnik visits one of the more intriguing and strange European libraries, the Warburg Institute in London, a 115-year-old institution with a sadly uncertain future. Read the rest... Notorious Russian hacker on vacation nabbed by US agents Roman Seleznev, the 30-year-old son of a "prominent Russian lawmaker," has been on the U.S. Secret Service's radar for more than ten years. Read the rest... 75 year old woman strangles rabid raccoon that attacked her Cas Overton was walking in a Richmond, Virginia botanical garden on Saturday afternoon whenan enraged, rabid raccoon attacked her leg. Read the rest... C.R.E.A.M.: Cook Rules Everything Around Me Dolla Dolla [Apple Pay] Bill, Y'all. Read the rest... Unbelievable embroidered paintings of cars, planes, and an accelerated culture Netherlands-based artist Pauline MM Nijenhuis creates astonishing embroidered and acrylic paintings of cars, humans, and the built environment. From an interview: I’m imagining ‘speed’ in a very labor intensive and time consuming technique. Read the rest... Sunset Strip's rock billboards (and more proof that Paul McCartney is dead) From the 1960s to the 1980s, Robert Landau photographed the rock and roll billboards over Los Angeles's famed Sunset Strip, images collected in his book /www.amazon.com/gp/product/1883318394/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1883318394&linkCode=as2&tag=boingboing0e-20&linkId=7EJC4ASTZLPPU6E6">Rock ’n’ Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip. Read the rest... Prizewinning frozen hair Here's photos from the annual Takhini Hot Pools frozen hair competition, where bathers expose their hair to -20'C - -30'C Yukon air to freeze it into amazing ice-sculptures. Read the rest... Video games' "breast physics" issue Video game breasts are one of the video game industry's albatrosses. If you weren't aware of the commercial sector's long and storied history creating ways to make cartoonish and often unbelievable forms gyrate alarmingly (or milkshake oddly but gently in place), Patricia Hernandez has written a fascinating piece on the software, tools and cultural landscape around "breast physics" in game development. Read the rest... Proprietary vibes: a new dawn for copyright trolls? Yesterday, a jury decided that Blurred Lines infringed the copyright of Marvin Gaye's Got to Give It Up. The consensus seems to be that the ruling is a troublesome one, connecting the sheet music actually owned by Gaye's estate to the "feel" of its recording--and anything that sounds like it in future. Read the rest... Try getting lost in the underworld with Sunless Sea Failbetter Games' browser-based story game Fallen London has been very well-loved, especially by those who like slightly twee, Victorian alt-England steampunk stuff (I don't, but it is more than okay if you do). Read the rest... Comic about The Beatles on Ed Sullivan Over at Cuepoint, an excerpt from Vivek Tiwary and Andrew Robinson's terrific graphic novel,The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story. Below, a trailer for the book, apparently soon to be a film too. And here's Mark's review of the book at Wink! Read the rest... "Triumph of the Counterintuitive" Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH Hollingsworth Hound explains the counterintuitive ways in which he wants to help the lower and middle classes (SPOILER ALERT: they all happen to do so by helping the wealthy first). Read the rest... Why we need free hardware designs Richard Stallman, writing in Wired: "Users deserve control over these works, just as they deserve control over the software they use." Read the rest... Music: "Wishing Well," Terence Trent D'Arby (1987) A wishing well of crocodile cheers. Read the rest... Ferguson city manager resigns John Shaw is out of a job. After an uncompromising Justice Department report cited racial bias of city employees and police officers, city councillors unanimously agreed he should resign. Read the rest... Dutch scrap surveillance law over privacy concerns A data retention law mandating that ISPs retain customer data has been struck down by a court in The Hague. Assailed by privacy rights advocates, the dragnet allowed law enforcement easy access to customer records going back 12 months. Read the rest... "Back to the Future" documentary Filmmaker Jason Aron created a very compelling trailer for "Back in Time: A Back to the Future Documentary," including interviews with Michael J. Read the rest... News reporter mugged on camera The camera was rolling on SANC News reporter Vuyo Mvokoas as he was mugged while waiting to start a live segment on a street in Johannesburg, South Africa. Read the rest... Nightmare fuel Trix ad 1940s, before the rabbit got in on the act [Vintage Ads] Read the rest... UK foreign secretary: stop talking about Snowden, let spies get on with it Philip Hammond told an audience at the Royal United Services Institute that the debate about surveillance "cannot be allowed to run on forever." Hammond warned that debating surveillance for too long would result in spy agencies "become distracted from their task." "We need to have it, address the issues arising from it and move on, sooner rather than later, if our agencies are not to become distracted from their task." The minister added that he, the prime minister and the home secretary are already "determined to draw a line under the debate" with legislation. Read the rest... Edgy sex games highlight intimacy, not conquest Unconventional titles that focus on consent, care, and collaboration offer a softer future—even if the spanking is very, very hard. Read the rest... New ideas to address games' language barriers There are many ways to address the insularity and perceived inaccessibility of game creation. We continually insist that games are a massive global phenomenon, but many best practices are only available to the Western, English-speaking world. Read the rest... Cold-brew chocolate: advanced topics Ever since I blew my mind by cold-brewing ground cacao nibs, I've been experimenting with the process, and have discovered some amazing variations on the formula. Read the rest... Tim Burton will direct Dumbo movie Tim Burton signed on to direct the remake of Disney classic Dumbo. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film will likely be a mix of computer graphics and live action. Ehrekn Kruger (Transformers) wrote the script. The original Dumbo film premiered in 1941 and made us all believe an elephant could fly. Read the rest... Drones and the rise of the high-tech assassins How twenty-three innocent Afghani civilians were wiped out by self-deceiving drone operators seven and a half thousand miles away. Read the rest... Notably naïve Christian group names Alaska men’s shelter 'The Glory Hole' Oops. Read the rest... Images from a camera trap for bears National Geographic features the photographry of Drew Rush, who creates remotely triggered camera traps to shoot amazing images of grizzly bears. Read the rest... A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far a-gay: Star Wars gets first official LGBT character The first official LGBT character in the Star Wars universe is Moff Delian Mors, a character in Paul S. Kemp's upcoming Star Wars: Lords of the Sith novel. Read the rest... Anita Sarkeesian on what she couldn't say From Ideas at The House The global conversation about women’s lives has opened up, women’s voices are heard more than ever before, and social media has brought a huge range of public conversations to life. Read the rest...