The Latest from Boing Boing

NASA's Orion launch a success: "There's your new spacecraft, America!" NASA's new Orion spacecraft made a flawless launch, a glorious flight to space, and a "bull's-eye" splashdown today. The journey was "the most perfect flight you could ever imagine," said Mission Control commentator Rob Navias. Read the rest... Senator Ron Wyden introduces a bill banning FBI backdoors It's a legislative shot across the bow of the FBI, who are demanding back-doors in phones and other devices, claiming "children will die" unless our pocket supercomputers are designed to allow untrusted parties to secretly take them over. Read the rest... Aussie science chief touts "80% accuracy" for dowsers The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports that the incoming chief of Australia’s leading scientific research agency suggests public money should be used to investigating dowsing and divining: "I’ve seen people do this with close to 80% accuracy, and I’ve no idea how they do it"Read the rest... Puppies with guns calendar Yours for $20. Read the rest... Road safety campaign donkey killed by car The BBC reports that a foal who helped teach youngsters to drive safely in England's New Foresthas been killed by a car. Read the rest... Why no one wants to hear from James Watson The co-recipient of the Nobel for revealing the double-helix structure of DNA is selling his medal because "no one really wants to admit" he exists -- but why is that? Read the rest... 50 party horns in an exhaust pipe If you are dumb enough to try this at home, send us video. Read the rest... AT&T throttles "unlimited" data speeds during offpeak hours Jon Brodkin reports that the carrier, unable to force longtime unlimited-data plans onto metered contracts, instead slows their Internet use to a crawl. Read the rest... Electric eel are like living TASERs Vanderbilt University biologists studied how electric eels can zap their prey with 600 volts from even a few meters away. Turns out, the fish are like living TASERs. Read the rest... Hour documentary about the nature of reality From BBC One, an episode of Horizon exploring that good ol' mindfucking question "What is reality?" Clues have been pieced together from deep within the atom, from the event horizon of black holes, and from the far reaches of the cosmos. Read the rest... Terminator Genisys trailer He'll be back. Read the rest... LISTEN: Interview with Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror Gweek is brought to you by Crunchyroll, offering 1080p streaming anime with English subtitles. Try it free for a month by signing up at Crunchyroll.com/gweek Read the rest... What military gear did the Pentagon give to America's cops? Michael from Muckrock says, "After months of legal wrangling, MuckRock has finally received the complete list of military gear given to local police departments under the Pentagon's 1033 program, including bomb disposal robots, infrared gun sights, small aircraft and rocket launchers." "Explore what equipment your town was given, and see which agencies joined the 'Million Dollar Club.'" You may have heard that the image-conscious Los Angeles Unified School District chose to return the grenade launchers it received from the Defense Department’s surplus equipment program. Read the rest... Perfect toilet-paper dispensing machine Helps ensure that you get precisely three squares per portion, by means of a GIANT CLEAVER ON A MOTORIZED ARM. (via Metafilter) Read the rest... AT&T hates telcoms regulations, except when it insists on them The company that says that the gubmint should stay out of its business and let it destroy Net Neutrality also says the government should clobber Kansas towns with no broadband who have the audacity to run their own networks. Read the rest... WATCH: Adam Savage and Kevin Kelly talk about starter tools everyone should have My friend and Cool Tools partner Kevin Kelly went into Adam Savage's man cave to talk about some of the 1,500 tools reviewed in his Cool Tools Catalog. Read the rest... Physics, or sorcery? This table is being held up by the weight of the buckets that are resting on it! When I first saw this, I immediately dismissed it as easy to understand, but the more I think about it, the more my intuition fails me. Read the rest... Innovation in lockpicks: the "hall pass" and the EOD speed-picking set The Hall Pass is a stainless steel, credit-card-sized pick designed to be slid between the door and the jamb (saving you from cracking your credit cards); the EOD is an extensive speed-pick set that is nevertheless optimized for portability and compactness. Read the rest... LISTEN: "Change, the album," by Fred Kaz "Change, the album" is a fantastic, previously unpublished, collection of soul touching jazz and storytelling by the legendary Fred Kaz. Earlier this year Fred Kaz passed away. Read the rest... White Arizona cop, mistaking pill bottle for gun, shoots and kills unarmed black man Yet another case of a white police officer who felt threatened by an unarmed black person and used lethal force when none was needed. Read the rest... “Journey for Justice” marchers protesting police murders of black men are met with Confederate flags “A display of fried chicken, a melon and a 40-ounce beer bottle had been placed in the street.”Read the rest... Do the Right Thing: Spike Lee juxtaposes “Radio Raheem” and “Gentle Giant” Eric Garner in short film Warning: disturbing content. Read the rest... The art of Yo Az The Paris-based artist's work reminds me of an updated Peter Max. Read the rest... Fable of suicidal lemmings traced to Disney An article from the BBC clarifies the popular notion about lemmings. On the back of the animated classic Bambi, Disney undertook a series of ground-breaking, feature-length nature documentaries known as The True-Life Adventures. Read the rest... Turn a balloon into a phone case in seconds Woosung An demonstrates an excellent technique for adding a layer of rubber protection to your phone in seconds, by deflating a balloon around it. Read the rest... Pip, new minimalist messaging app, promises easy update to friends The app's developers promise iOS and Android handset owners the ability to send messages and share status info like location or weather with “just a couple taps.” Read the rest... Merry Christmas from Groot and Rocket This is the single most amazing Christmas tree idea I have even seen. It had to be done and Wolfen Moondaughter was the one to do it. Read the rest... Amazon mails conveyor belt roller instead of gift Glenn Fleishman reports that a goat dairy farmer was not expecting to receive a mysterious green cylinder. Read the rest... Justice Department: Cleveland police systematically uses excessive force Results of a federal review of policing in Cleveland, Ohio were released today, and they underscore what many residents of that city undoubtedly know first-hand: the use of unreasonable force by police officers there is part of pattern of behavior that is in some cases endorsed by supervisors. Read the rest... Animation: Robin Williams on masks and humanity Robin Williams, 1991: "“Comedy is there to basically show us we fart, we laugh. To make us realize we still are part animal.... Read the rest...