The Latest from Boing Boing

Great polyhedral dice jewelry Polish jeweler Mage Studio offers a wide variety of extraordinary accessories made from polyhedral dice, a gamer's accessory that has become very ornamental in nature, perfectly complementing pieces like: the dragon/D20 necklace, the D12 cufflinks, and this pendant D20 necklace. Read the rest... Robotech: the Macross Saga As a kid I'd wake up extra early in the mornings to watch Robotech, which remains my favorite Americanized mecha anime adventure. Read the rest... What if the new Star Wars was a Wes Anderson film? A fantastic spoof. Read the rest... LISTEN: Systems thinking and medicine -- brilliant lecture on systemic problem-solving The lecturer for the BBC's 2014 Reith lectures is Dr Atul Gawande, a celebrated author and MD whose book The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right is a classic on how to think about systemic problem solving (which pays attention to how different people and activities come together to make and solve problems). Read the rest... Stats-based response to UK Tories' call for social media terrorism policing David Cameron wants social media companies to invent a terrorism-detection algorithm and send all the "bad guys" it detects to the police -- but this will fall prey to the well-known (to statisticians) "paradox of the false positive," producing tens of thousands of false leads that will drown the cops. Read the rest... Chinese government wants to ban puns Chinese media regulators have called on broadcasters to end the widespread, longstanding practice of using puns, idiom and wordplay in everyday communications, advertisement, jokes, and political speech. Read the rest... Dumping a huge bag of plastic balls onto an escalator It's almost a perpetual motion machine, and is absolutely a source of infinite amusement! (viaJWZ) Read the rest... Detoxing is bullshit It's true that people with substance abuse problems can "detox" when they get clean, but the kind of "detoxing" offered by stuff in the grocery store or pharmacy has no basis in science and is just a scammy way to scare you into opening your wallet (the companies that sell "detox" can't even say what "toxins" they're getting rid of). Read the rest... Senator Jay Rockefeller singlehandedly kills Freedom of Information Act reform The House unanimously passed a bill that would bring much-needed improvements to the Freedom of Information Act; the Senate had bi-partisan support for it, too -- but outgoing Sen Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) singlehandedly killed the bill in a closed-door committee meeting. Read the rest... No charges for Seattle cop who punched unarmed handcuffed woman, broke her eye socket In Washington state, a King County prosecutor says his office will not seek state felony charges against a 9-year police department veteran. Read the rest... The Christmas Tree, a classic internet short film “Who wants Baileys?” It's from 2006, but never gets old. “A mom and her christmas tree. Written by and starring John Roberts. Read the rest... “Rapist,” reads Bill Cosby's star on Hollywood Walk of Fame Someone wrote “rapist” all over the Hollywood star of a man whom many women have accused of being a rapist. Read the rest... Photography: What If Girls Were Browsers? What if Guys Were Social Networks? The concept fashion photo shoot attempts to answer the question, "What would popular social networks or web browsers look like if they were human?" Read the rest... How to make a NASA Orion crew vehicle paper model A fun project for kids, and for adults with a childlike curiosity about space. Read the rest... CCC website censored in the UK The Great Firewall of Cameron is supposed to block "extremist" websites, and somehow, the website of the respected, excellent Chaos Computer Club, one of Germany's foremost centers for technology research and political analysis, has been blocked. Read the rest...