The Latest from Boing Boing

Video: swirly ink weirdness in 4K slow motion Psychedelic ink physics in 4K, if you have an ultra-high-definition TV that is. I don't, but it's still spectacular. (The Slow Mo Guys) Read the rest... Erotica author says Amazon is hurting her $10 million yearly sales Jaid Black, a 43 year old writer of self-published erotica ebooks, says Amazon is needling into her market: hardcore erotica for women. Read the rest... Anarchist Cookbook author's decades-long struggle to bury his book In 1971 William Powell, then 19 years old, wrote a how-to guide to making explosives, weapons, and drugs called The Anarchist Cookbook. Read the rest... Why auction winners are losers The winner’s curse: "The winner of an auction tends to be one of those who form the highest estimate of an item’s value — and hence one of those most at risk of overpaying." Read the rest... Parents upset over child's toy that says "Fuck you" A defective Peppa Pig toy has taught a three-year-old to say "Fuck you." It appears Peppa has taught the boy's father to say the forbidden word in front of his child, as well. [via] Read the rest... San Francisco's drug geography Data scientist Lance Martin used 12 years of crime data from San Francisco's Police Department to map the city based on incidents involving specific drugs, from hallucinogens and marijuana to crack, meth, and heroin. Read the rest... China's immense marketplace of colorful crap In China's eastern Zhejiang Province lies Commodity City, a massive 46 million square foot wholesale market of 62,000 booths where you can see samples of inflatable toys, Christmas decorations, chintzy jewelry, stuffed animals artificial flowers, kitchen gadgets, and tons of other crap that fills our lives with the rainbow colors of consumerism. Read the rest... Create your own Ice Light-style LED lamp for photography For an even, controllable light source for shooting video and still shots, one option is the high quality Ice Light for $450. Read the rest... Learn the sign language for "screengrab" and "SMH" Online mag Hopes & Fears asked an educator in American Sign Language and his young assistant to demonstrate various internet jargon such as "emoji" and "photobomb". Read the rest... Noir and horror for your kindergartner Caldecott winner Jon Klassen, is one of the most respected and beloved contemporary children's book authors and illustrators. Kids love him—and adults do, too. Read the rest... A little girl fed some crows and now they bring her wonderful presents Crows, as we all know, are terrifyingly smart. In the latest episode of a podcast called The Bittersweet Life, we hear from a young girl named Gabi who started feeding a group of crows, and her feathered friends started bringing her delightfully shiny presents in return, including earrings, paper clips, and even a light bulb. Her favorite gift so part is a piece of metal that says BEST. "I don't know if they have the part that says FRIEND," says Gabi. Listen to a preview below and head to the website for the full episode, where you can learn how you can make your own crow friends too. Read the rest... Photographing hyperrealistic babydolls and their adult companions Photographer Jamie Diamond explored the deepest crevices of the uncanny valley of Reborn baby dolls and the adults who care for them. Read the rest... Bruce Schneier's Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World No one explains security, privacy, crypto and safety better than Bruce Schneier, and while he's been talking about this subject for decades, it's never been more relevant, as his new guide to the post-Snowden world Data and Goliath demonstrates. Read the rest... Ideas for better custom cookie cutters For a friend's birthday last night, we made cookies (below) using a custom cookie cutter we bought from an online service. Read the rest... Why are (some) transhumanists such dicks? In December on the forum biohack.me, there was a fascinating discussion entitled "Why are transhumanists such dicks?" What came out of it was this. Read the rest... Stare at the letters of the GIF alphabet. Forever. Graphic designer, Florian Schommer, created a bunch of animated letters of the alphabet! If only I could read German, so I could know more about what he was thinking. Read the rest... If Star Trek comms were as crappy as cell phones The Verizon guy would have made an endearing science officer. Plus, I still miss Zaboo, so. It's always nice to see Sandeep Parikh. Read the rest... Unpersuasive 1955 US propaganda film about the draft Jesse Walker of Reason has kindly watched this ripe-for-taunting 1955 propaganda film about the draft and provided highlights. At 1:20, a young man makes a novel pitch for the military life: "I don't think time in the service ever hurt anybody." At 1:56, the narrator praises the people who work for the local draft board: "none of them have to do the job if they don't want to." That may be true, but it might not be the best angle to take in a movie about conscription. At 11:12: You know who's against the draft? Women, that's who. Read the rest... Taco Bell's new Cap'n Crunch donut holes dessert Now being tested at Taco Bell, a dessert named Cap'n Crunch Delights that are donut holes coated with Cap'n Crunch Berries cereal and oozing with a milky icing. Read the rest... America's growing gangs of armed, arrest-making, untrained rent-a-cops With just a (very) little training and some paperwork, you can become a "special conservator of the peace," empowered to carry a gun, wear a badge and arrest your fellow citizens, all while wearing a POLICE vest, even though you're not a cop. Read the rest... Pot-smoking moms birth crack babies, says Fox News medical expert "Now we have crack babies coming in because pregnant women are smoking this whole marijuana business," said Dr. David Samadi of the Fox News Medical A-Team. Read the rest... Man's bad wooden HOV lane dummy Police pulled over James Campbell, 56, for speeding on New York's Long Island Expressway but when they asked the passenger for ID, they noticed that Campbell's companion had a, well, wooden smile Campbell embarrassingly admitted that he had made the dummy so he could drive in the HOV lane. Read the rest... The secret life of a public library security guard In between the rare maps and historical stacks, fishing out fornicators and nixing narcotics transactions are all in a day’s work for one of Portland’s finest. Illustrations by Alex Nallis Read the rest... North Korean defectors undermine totalitarianism with smuggled pirate sitcoms In an amazing, long, in-depth investigative piece, Wired's Andy Greenberg recounts the story of North Korean dissidents who have escaped, but who mastermind ambitious smuggling efforts that send thousands of USB sticks and SD cards over the border stuffed with pirate media:sitcoms, raunchy teen comedies and ebooks -- as well as homemade documentaries explaining democracy and the gap between North Korea's official doctrine and reality. Read the rest... 20,000mAh USB external battery for $29 External batteries keep getting cheaper. Amazon is selling a Limefuel 20,000mAh battery for $29. The 15,000mAh sells for $25. Both models have 1A and 2.1A output ports. Read the rest...