The Latest from Boing Boing

Music: "Boogie Oogie Oogie," A Taste of Honey (1978) Boogie no more. Read the rest... Russia bans trans people from driving Under an insane new Russian "safety law," people with "mental disorders" may not drive. These "disorders" include pathological gambling, stealing, "fetishism, exhibitionism and voyeurism," as well as being trans. Read the rest... To-do lists are evil. Schedule everything. Cal Newport is the author of the excellent career advice book, So Good They Can't Ignore You(Read Kevin Kelly's review). Read the rest... Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to publish Mycroft Holmes novel N.B.A. All-Star Abdul-Jabbar has been a Sherlock fan for 40 years, reports the NYT's Alexandra Alter. "British Secretary of State for War. Read the rest... Corrupt cop caught after driving Ferrari to work Protip for bent officers: don't drive to your day job in $250,000 cars.Ch Insp Martin Brennan said [Osman] Iqbal's "greed had been his downfall". Read the rest... Punk band solves art crime The BBC: "Members of punk band Stereo Fire Empire have found and returned a $250,000 (£166,000) painting hours after it was stolen from a New Orleans gallery." Read the rest... Fourth-graders "plot teacher's death" The nine- and ten-year-olds were overheard by others, ultimately foiling their "plan" to "put antibiotics around the classroom," where their allergic teacher might come into contact with them.Read the rest... Fox anchor wonders how we can identify bad guys if we don't know their skin color "BREAM: That's my question about these guys. If we know they were speaking unaccented French and they had ski masks on, do we even know what color they were, what the tone of their skin was? I mean, what if they didn't look like typical bad guys? As we define them when we think about terror groups."Choose now, America! Racism or mass surveillance? Read the rest... Vegas-area brothel booms during CES Nellie Bowles on the Unofficial Brothel of CES, which has mastered social media: "While it’s legal for the women to work at Sheri’s, it’s illegal to advertise... Read the rest... Rock stars of the 70s, and their parents In 1971, John Olson photographed rock stars at home with their parents for LIFE Magazine. Above, Zappa and his folks. Below, David Crosby and dad. Read the rest... 16-bit game-controller doormat What says "Speak friend, and enter" more than a $20, 16-bit game-controller doormat? (nonskid, 13.75" x 30") Read the rest... Video: Montage of Hitchock's staircases, shoes, poisonings, etc. A montage of familiar themes and sequences used by Alfred Hitchcock across 40 films and 42 years. The compiler Steven Benedict writes: Of the several themes on display here (falling, ascending and descending staircases, opening curtains, reading newspapers, poisoning drinks, women's hairstyles, shoes, train compartments, sleeping and dreaming, pulling away from and dollying in on the action, overhead shots and characters looking directly into the camera), there are yet others for fellow essayists to examine further (looking through and climbing in and out of windows, nuns and clergymen, eating food, kissing in the countryside, women wearing glasses and people playing games such as tennis, hide-and-seek, fancy-dress and blindman's bluff). "The Hitchcock Gallery" Read the rest... The Afghan Whigs' infectiously fun new music video The wonderful new video for The Afghan Whigs' "The Lottery" was self-shot by the band's stage monitor engineer Ryan O'Hara, a man who clearly loves his job. Read the rest... Rebooted Cluetrain Manifesto Doc Searls and David Weinberger, two of the original Cluetrain Manifesto authors, have revisited their canonical work of Internet wisdom, publishing a new, remix-friendly document called New Clues; it's funny, sad, humble and inspiring. Read the rest... Perpetual motion device unveiled at CES I was sad that Steorn stopped boasting about its Orbo perpetual motion machine a few years ago. But I'm happy now that AuroraTek announced its perpetual motion machine. Read the rest... Secrets of sea otter fur How do sea otters stay lean yet keep warm? (KQED's Deep Look) Read the rest... MP wants to ban email disclaimers Tory International Development Minister Alan Duncan wants to get rid of long email disclaimers, but only secondarily because they're ridiculous: primarily, he's worried about the "forests' worth of paper" wasted by bizarre people from the past (e.g. lawyers) who print all their email. Read the rest... The Autobiography of Pac-Man Chapters from the life of gaming's most famous yellow blob. Read the rest... Monkeys, money, and the primate origins of human irrationality Psychologist Laurie Santos trains monkeys how to use money, and has learned that they attempt to solve the same sort of financial problems humans have attempted. Read the rest... WATCH: 3D-printed robotic spider dress teases the future of responsive fashion If you're at CES, Friday is the last day to see this 3D-printed robotic spider dress in action. The dress provides an extension of the wearers intuition: It uses proximity sensors as well as a respiration sensor to both define and protecting the personal space of the wearer. Read the rest... Map of how French genders countries of the world Redditor afrofagne created an interesting map of how countries are gendered in French globally. Some interesting patterns: • North America and the Western Hemisphere is largely masculine. • Most of the central Asian -stan countries are masculine. • Much of the Central Africa Congo basin is masculine. • Much of the Amazon basin is masculine. • The most diverse area is the Caribbean, where the French had colonial influence. Read the rest... WATCH: Musicless MacGyver opening credits YouTuber Mario Wienerroither has done another great Foley reimagining, this time withmusicless MacGyver. Foley artist? More like FAUXley artist, amirite? Read the rest... LISTEN: Lateral Thinking Puzzles Here are eight new lateral thinking puzzles that you can try on your friends and family -- see who can make sense of these odd scenarios using only yes-or-no questions. Read the rest... Sharpening the contradictions: why jihadis attack cartoonists France has one of the least politicized, least religious Muslim populations in Europe, millions who, by and large, don't really think about faith or politics (just like most other people) -- but if the horrific death of cartoonists can inspire reprisals against the rank-and-file, perhaps they will find sympathy for the extremists' cause. Read the rest... Collapsible silicone kitchen strainer This silicone kitchen strainer is an absolutely awesome kitchen tool! This strainer is super easy to store, use and clean. Made of heat resistant silicone, you can both strain hot food items or use it as a steaming basket inside a pot. Read the rest... Porn companies carpetbomb Google with sloppy takedowns, remove tons of Github projects Takedown Piracy is a copyright enforcement outfit that works on behalf of porn companies; they sent thousands of takedown notices to Google demanding the censorship of search-results for links to pages that contained the word "pure," "rebound," "lipstick," and other common words, including several Github pages that had nothing to do with their clients' movies. Read the rest... Wear these sunglasses over your prescription glasses I wear glasses. Mine are good ones, and I have little clippy sunglass “covers” for them that are polarized and work pretty well too. Read the rest... A work of art that reproduces 100 woodblock prints of Edo by artist Hiroshige Without question, Hiroshige: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo is the bookiest book I own. It is a museum-quality artifact, which in a few more years will cease to be made, or at least made affordably. Read the rest...