The Latest from Boing Boing

WATCH: Japanese people who live in Internet cafes because they can't afford apartments Part one of the three part series called "Japan's Disposable Workers." Internet cafes have existed in Japan for over a decade, but in the mid 2000’s, customers began using these spaces as living quarters. Internet cafe refugees are mostly temporary employees; their salary too low to rent their own apartments. Read the rest... A Night In The Lonesome October, Zelazny's last published book A Night In The Lonesome October is Roger Zelazny's final, addicting tale. Thirty one chapters on what really happens on Halloween! Read the rest... 95-year-old man breaks 200m sprinting world record for his age group Charles Eugster, 95, beat the previous record that was set in 2013. Read the rest... Animals in Heaven: televangelist explains dead dogs and cats (then asks for your money) Televangelist Jack Van Impe and Rexella Van Impe impersonate cats and discuss animals in Heaven and talk "arthritis in whales." She pronounces "gerbil" with a hard "G," which makes me wonder how she'd pronounce "GIF." [via Christian Nightmares] Read the rest... Fastest increase in U.S. oil inventories on record The United States is producing so much oil that analysts are "beginning to wonder if the U.S. has enough room to store all its oil." The [Cushing, Oklahoma crude oil hub] will run out of room by Memorial Day, says Stephen Schork, who runs energy consulting company Schork Group. Read the rest... LED lamp made from real dandelion fluff Studio Drift's Dandelight uses a "stem" of copper that mounts directly to a 9V battery, and its halo of dandelion seeds are hand-plucked from a real plant and glued, one at a time, to the business-end. Read the rest... RIP, Terry Pratchett Terry Pratchett, a treasure of a writer, a gem of a human being, and a credit to our species, has died, far too soon, at the age of 66. Read the rest... Awe-inspiring finalists of Smithsonian's photo contest Smithsonian posted the finalists in its 12th Annual Photo Contest! Above, Nicolas Reusens's photo of a snake and its meal of frog legs (and the rest of the frog) at the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica. Read the rest... How Harper's "anti-terror" bill ends privacy in Canada Michael Geist writes, "Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is fast-tracking a bill that eviscerates privacy protections within the public sector that represents the most significant reduction in public sector privacy protection in Canadian history -- he' blocking the Privacy Commissioner of Canada from appearing as a witness at the committee studying the bill." Professors Craig Forcese and Kent Roach offer a detailed examination of the privacy implications of the massive expansion of government sharing of information. Read the rest... Video: Louis Armstrong, baby doll pitchman (1964) Read the rest... You can play the Hitchhiker's Guide game right now Yesterday, March 11, was Douglas Adams' birthday. Did you know you can celebrate by playing the 1984 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game in your browser at work this instant? Read the rest... Manhattan stereotypes subway map The most judgmental map of New York City yet is at its most judgmental when no name is given at all. Read the rest... Two in five subscribe to streaming video service According to Nielsen, 36 percent of American households get Netflix, 13 percent Amazon Prime, and 6.5 percent Hulu Plus. [NYT] Read the rest... Who is your favorite complex black female antihero? Latonya Pennington wants more of them: "Why can’t strong female characters just be complex?" Besides sheroes like Korra and Noni, we also need more anti-sheroes. Read the rest... How the color purple was defined Purple dye, so expensive as to connote imperial power, was made from the mucous of sea snails. Then a teenage chemist sat down and tried to make synthetic quinine. Read the rest... Minimalist posters: "lack of nuance disguised as insight" Dis you see "Return of the Jedi" in this image before you were told that's what it was? John Brownlee lets the hate flow through him: "minimalist posters can help us gain new insight into complicated subjects...but they rarely do, because that sort of focus is difficult for any but the most talented designers to attain." Read the rest... Meet an artist doing provocative work with a VR headset Want to be less popular at cocktail parties on the West Coast? Try being a virtual reality skeptic. I can't help but feel validated, though, by this post from Wagner James Au looking back at 1992, just one of a few times in history we've been exactly as excited about VR as we are about the Oculus Rift now. Read the rest... Beautiful, cold ruins of World War II The ghostly WWII ruins of Europe’s northern coasts [Wired] Read the rest... Twitter bans revenge porn New rules forbid the posting of " intimate photos or videos that were taken or distributed without the subject's consent." Read the rest... Golf course home to mighty gators The Myakka Pines Golf Course in Englewood, Florida is home to massive alligators. This one is apparently 12 to 13 feet long. Read the rest... Smells of the past Stuart Eve created Dead Man's Eyes, an "augmented reality and heritage app" to bring the sights, sounds and smells of the past into the present. At The Atlantic, he Read the rest... We have a memory problem Video games have an issue with memory. Sometimes development and culture within the medium ends up locked in obeisance to nostalgia, an assumed audience of pixel art and chiptune fans who really just want a Final Fantasy VII remake or yet another Legend of Zelda. Read the rest... Watch Mad Men co-producer draw Don Draper Watch Josh Weltman, co-producer of Mad Men and author of Seducing Strangers, draw Don Draper. From Weltman's Medium post: I read Matt Weiner’s script for Mad Men before he filmed it. Read the rest... Video: Trailer for new Kurt Cobain documentary Watch this powerful extended trailer for Montage of Heck, the Kurt Cobain documentary airing May 4 on HBO. Complementing the film is a new hardcover book, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, and also a soundtrack of unreleased Cobain music. The name "Montage of Heck" comes from this bizarre mixtape Cobain made in 1988. Read the rest... Laptop killing booby-trapped USB drive The USB Killer is a booby-trapped, hand-made USB drive that will "burn down" your laptop if you insert it into your USB slot. Read the rest... Breaking Bad creator: no more tossing pizzas on Walter's house! Vince Gilligan has a message for obnoxious Breaking Bad fans visiting the private Albuquerque, N.M residence used as Walter White's house in Breaking Bad: "Let me tell ya, there is nothing original, funny, or cool about throwing pizzas on this lady's roof. Read the rest... Things got heavy when I played this animal-mothering game I haven't decided whether or not I'll become a mother. I'm at the age where I think a lot about it, and a lot of times, it frightens me. Read the rest... What should the next Aaron Swartz do when the DOJ knocks? Aaron Swartz found out the hard way that you can't expect justice from the Department of Justice: what should the next Aaron Swartz do when facing decades in prison for information activism? Read the rest... The radical games event where the next speaker is you Game makers find inspiration at Lost Levels, an intimate and involving gathering where anything seems possible Read the rest... A conversation about privacy and trust in open education For Open Education Week, Jonathan Worth convened a conversation about privacy and trust in open education called Speaking Openly in which educators and scholars recorded a series of videos responding to one another's thoughts on the subject. Read the rest...