Boing Boing

The two famous Chicagoans joined forces to remind everyone that December 15 is the deadline to get covered for healthcare for 2017. (more…)

(more…)

Lalah lives at the Boulbaka Bouldering Gym in Naha, Okinawa, Japan. (more…)

Lish Laynette posted her amazing Prince-themed Christmas tree on YouTube and Facebook. (more…)

We are given many things in our childhood, most of which are lost along the way. When I was six months old my uncle, Alan Soffin, gave me (well, my parents) a copy of The World of Pooh by A.A. Milne bearing the following inscription:November 1958For RichardOn his .6th birthday: To be read to him until his 6th birthday, whereupon he should undertake the project himself, reading aloud occasionally to his parents’ general enlightenment.That I still possess the book is surprising; that it is my most valued possession is not. I read it to my daughter when she was young, and thereafter she read it on her own many times. One day she will inherit my copy and, if she decides to have kids, she will read “Grandpa’s copy” to them.I’m a neither a literary critic, nor an expert on the intellectual subtexts of the Pooh stories, except that I feel and know there are deep rumblings under the activities which occur in the Hundred Acre Wood. A near equivalent seems to me to be the undercurrent of melancholy that runs through Charles Schultz’s Peanuts. They’re different, of course, because the characters in Peanuts never age; whereas the tales of Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin, et al., move inexorably toward the day when Christopher Robin must go to school and leave his friends behind. If you haven’t read the stories in years, you’ve probably forgotten that’s where it all ends—the sadness is there for an adult, but goes right over the heads of kids. When we are young we can’t wait to grow up, and when we are older we cannot help but long for the simplicity of childhood.Far from being a decrepit senior citizen at age 90, Winnie-the-Pooh is being celebrated around the world, something that most likely would have surprised his creator A.A. Milne. The deceptively simple illustrations by Ernest Shephard are inseparable from the deceptively simple prose. The drawings are charming without being treacly (a good Britishism for something super sweet).There is cause for great celebration in his anniversary year, for our friends can been visited anew with a most special book titled The Best Bear in All the World, which contains four stories, each written by a different author, and revolves around the seasons.My friend, the immensely talented Brian Sibley (author, historian, raconteur, writer of radio plays too numerous to mention—yes, they still engage in that civilized practice in England) has written the story which takes place in winter and introduces a new character to the Hundred Acre Wood: a penguin. As Brian writes in one of the U.K.’s premier newspapers, The Guardian:Reading Winnie-the-Pooh, it may be tempting to think that A.A. Milne’s charming and insouciant tales about the Bear of Little Brain and his companions in the Hundred Acre Wood tripped easily on to the page with scarcely any authorial involvement. That is not quite the case, as I discovered in contributing to the official sequel, The Best Bear in All the World, which was published … for Pooh’s 90th anniversary.Today, Milne’s reputation is as a writer for children, but before Christopher Robin and Pooh he was an acclaimed playwright and an accomplished essayist, novelist and writer of light verse. A 1920s polymath, his lighter-than-air wit caught and reflected the gaiety of the decade.This was the skill set that Milne brought to his books for young readers: a consummate knack for creating pin-sharp characterizations that makes Pooh, Piglet, et al so memorable, and droll, occasionally sardonic, dialogue that appeals to readers of all ages. This is the work of a playwright at play.Attempting to capture some of those qualities was a challenge, as was trying to replicate Milne’s verbal and stylistic tricks, such as Occasional Flurries of Capital Letters. And as if that wasn’t enough, I took the risky liberty, in my story, “Winter”, of inviting a newcomer to Pooh Corner. Penguin was inspired by a long-overlooked photograph of Milne playing with his son, Christopher Robin, with the teddy bear who would become Pooh, and a toy penguin.While my colleagues–Paul Bright, Kate Saunders, Jeanne Willis–and I have been engaged on our Milne “impoohsonations”, illustrator Mark Burgess has been busily capturing the illustrative style of the original decorations by E.H. Shepard.At 90 years young, Winnie-the-Pooh is still—in the words of Christopher Robin—the Best Bear in All the World.You can listen to an entertaining BBC radio interview with Sibley here.Brian SibleyAnd you must buy several copies of the book and gift them this holiday season. Adults included! (It’s a mere $14.)If you enjoy Sibley’s tale, then I highly recommend his 2001 book Three Cheers for Pooh, about which the publisher writes:To commemorate Pooh's 75th anniversary, Brian Sibley has written this richly detailed yet exceedingly readable account that celebrates Just What Pooh Did! Lavishly illustrated with Ernest Shepard's full-color artwork and original sketches, as well as photographs, newspaper reports, and manuscript pages in Milne’s own handwriting, this beautifully designed book is perfect for both seasoned Pooh admirers and those eager to get better acquainted with the Best Bear in All the World—Winnie-the-Pooh.And finally, if you don’t have a copy of the original stories by Milne (is that even possible?), then put hand to mouse and give yourself a gift in time for the holidays.

The Department of Energy has rebuffed Donald Trump's demand for the names of employees and contractors involved in shaping and executing government climate policy -- which was widely viewed as a prelude to a politicized purge, to be carried out by Trump's climate-denying DoE leadership. (more…)

Last night, Dan Jackson shot video of a mysterious, gigantic game of Super Mario Bros being projected onto the side of a building over a store in San Francisco's Lower Haight. (more…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI2N6fsPjjgI bought a Kinekt fidget-ring when I first learned about them in 2010; I've since logged many thousands of miles worth of aimless spinning (ZOMG escalator handrails are fun) on mine; now designers Rachel and Glen Liberman have released their first updated product since the 2014 geared heart necklace: new versions of the ring in gold, rose gold, and gunmetal.

A state appeals-court judge in Florida has broken with the precedent that the courts may not compel suspects to reveal the unlock codes for their devices as this would violate the Fifth Amendment's prohibition against forced self-incrimination. (more…)

Los Angeles-based graphic designer Holly Fox combines her love of baking and design with these amazing iced sugar cookies. You can see more of her designs on Instagram and even order some cookies for yourself on Etsy—although, unfortunately, Fox is already sold out through 2016. Here are some of my favorite designs:https://www.instagram.com/p/BN8HuhvgTk_/?taken-by=hol_foxhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BN25tx_AXb-/?taken-by=hol_foxhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BNdOrz5A5Ld/?taken-by=hol_foxhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BNSw2m2gE6K/?taken-by=hol_foxhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BNIniAcARn3/?taken-by=hol_foxhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BNLSEPHgtDd/?taken-by=hol_foxhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BM-SknqA9K4/?taken-by=hol_foxhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BMu0sHBg02B/?taken-by=hol_foxhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BMScYtagcF3/?taken-by=hol_foxhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BKzKi1CgxAB/?taken-by=hol_foxhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BI8uupwh0rO/?taken-by=hol_foxhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BHyDOhchU0i/?taken-by=hol_foxhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BE9yWgOLsYA/?taken-by=hol_fox[via Bored Panda]

Libby Prison was one of the most infamous prison camps of the Civil War -- thousands of Union prisoners were packed together in a converted warehouse, facing months or years of starvation and abuse. The Confederates thought the prison was escape-proof, and in this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll show how a determined group of prisoners set out to prove them wrong.We'll also duel with a barrel and puzzle over why an admitted forger would be found innocent.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon!

The sad, misguided former heroes who make Eggo brand frozen waffles took a left turn and ruined it all. I recently tried their Sausage, Egg and Cheese Breakfast Sandwich and lived to regret it. (more…)

I'm pleased with this cheap Suaoki K12's ability to jump start smaller cars and motorcycles.I gave my last USB battery kit away, a young lady was needing her car jumpstarted an awful lot and seemed it seemed the nice thing to do, (and I didn't need all the laptop dongles that were included.) I decided to try this low-cost 8000mah replacement, and it works. Suaoki K12 USB jumpstart battery via Amazon

Besides white supremacy, one of the key drivers of the last election was trade, with outsourcing being the main scapegoat (even though any economist able to count to 10 will tell you that it was technology rather than bad trade deals that really created the Rust Belt). But back in the Depression, one group of Ohio factory workers were delighted to have all their jobs outsourced, and some of them even went along for the ride. They were the workers of the bankrupt Dueber-Hampden Watch Company, which was bought in 1930 by the Soviet Union. At the time, the Soviets were keen to create from scratch a watchmaking industry to rival Switzerland's. In his latest story for Collectors Weekly, Hunter Oatman-Stanford interviewed a collector of Soviet watches (who happens to be Oatman-Stanford's younger brother) on this suddenly timely topic.Here's a snip:Three Soviets traveled to Canton, Ohio, where these two companies were based, to pack up all the manufacturing equipment, leftover watch movements, and pieces to ship back to Russia. Twenty-one former Dueber-Hampden employees from Ohio sailed with them to help set up this new facility in Russia, which was aptly named the First State Watch Factory. They began making 7- and 15-jewel pocket-watch movements made with parts from Ohio. The Soviets changed all the lettering to Cyrillic to signify their new ownership, and there were slight design modifications, all very minor. Starting around 1935, they began taking ownership a bit more, using different insignias that said “First State Watch Factory,” and as the years progressed, they began customizing their pocket watches to be a bit more Soviet-specific.When World War II began, the demand for watches was unprecedented, and the Soviets went into overdrive. By the end of the 1940s, the Soviets had nearly a dozen factories producing watches, though some had been relocated during the war. They were still using the same movement designs from Ohio, but putting them into new forms.These original so-called “Type-1” movements are still available today, and I have several dozen in my collection in various dial patterns. A wristwatch Type-1 variant was also produced, though a pocket-watch movement on your wrist makes for an enormous wristwatch, and it was very outdated with a noisy ticking sound. The old joke was that during the war, the Germans didn’t have to seek out any Soviets—all they had to do was listen for their ticking watches and shoot in that direction.

From the 1930s to the 1970s, Aerolux Light Corporation manufactured "artful gas-discharge light bulbs," lightbulbs containing tiny sculptures that glowed when switched on. From Wikipedia:Aerolux gas discharge light bulbs contained low pressure gas, either neon or argon, or a mixture of the two. Also within the bulb were metal sculptures coated with phosphors. These phosphors fluoresced when excited by glow discharge. Because glow discharge occurs readily at 110-120 volts AC, one could use these bulbs in standard household lamps in the United States.(via This is Colossal)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KvIzyij4P8

Skitt’s Law says that “any post correcting an error in another post will contain at least one error itself.” I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to spot the typo on this angry grammar scold's mug.

Jess shows the host of Real Future what a vishing call is by taking over his mobile phone account in 30 seconds. It involves a recording of a crying baby.

At a market in northern Myanmar (Burma), China University scientist Lida Xing found a piece of amber containing a remarkably well-preserved dinosaur tail, complete with feathers. It likely belonged to a coelurosaur, a birdlike beast that lived about 99 million years ago. National Geographic video above. Plans for future research below.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMsJe3TymqY

Now how the hell are Starbucks cups in the news again and no one's talking about a guy spreading his cheeks open on McDonald's cups pic.twitter.com/QmIuZiDJst— Sam Sykes (@SamSykesSwears) December 11, 2016Warmest greetings.

A Charlie Brown Christmas won the 1966 Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program. Half of US viewers watched it when it aired. But the project was under threat of being killed every step of the way. From Jennings Brown's article in The Vindicated:Lyrics or not, the CBS executives didn’t think jazz belonged in a cartoon. They also challenged Schulz’s decision to use untrained children instead of professional adult voice actors. They especially couldn’t understand why children would use such big words. (Lucy: “We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. It’s run by a big Eastern syndicate, you know.” Charlie Brown: “Don’t think of it as dust. Think of it as maybe the soil of some great past civilization. Maybe the soil of ancient Babylon. It staggers the imagination. Maybe carrying soil that was trod upon by Solomon, or even Nebuchadnezzar.”) This, despite the fact that for about 15 years, “Peanuts” characters had spoken with advanced vocabularies.Schulz even got pushback from his own team. Mendelson suggested a laugh track would save the show and Schulz responded by standing up and walking out of the room. When Schulz, a Sunday school teacher, said Linus should recite from the Gospel of Luke, Mendelson and Melendez protested. “We looked at each other and said, ‘Well, there goes our careers right down the drain,’” Mendelson recalls. “Nobody had ever animated anything from the Bible before, and we knew it probably wouldn’t work. We were flabbergasted by it.”Of course, now Mendelson realizes that Linus’s segment probably made the entire project work. “That 10-year-old kid who recited that speech from the Bible was as good as any scene from Hamlet,” he says.

The Macro Room sliced numerous objects in half -- from a toothpaste tube to a seashell to a digital camera -- to reveal the beautiful mysteries inside. (via Laughing Squid)

ArkadiusBear posted this photo to Reddit, saying:This thing is 40 years old. It looks like it was thrown away yesterday. When you throw away plastic, it will basically never go away, ever. IF it breaks down, it breaks down into smaller and smaller micro plastic beads. It may even end up back on your plate some day when ingested by fish.Again, this thing is 40 years old, and it will look almost the same in another 40 years. In fact, some types plastic trash can take up to 450(!) years to decompose.This piece of plastic, thrown into the sea in 1976, still hasn't degraded at all

It's been a week since the Army Corps of Engineers announced that they would not grant a permit for the Dakota Access Pipeline to cross the river that the indigenous Sioux people relied upon for their drinking, farming and washing. (more…)

"No President" is an unsigned editorial in N+1, and is, along with Ta-Nehisi Coates's My President Was Black, the best postmortem on the events of November 8 yet published: it begins with the door-to-door canvas of voters in the runup to the election and the strange ideological contradictions on display on America's doorsteps, reflects on the questions of gender and Clinton's election outcomes, and moves on to a realistic, but firm and inspiring, call for resistance in the years to come. (more…)

The European Parliament's Chief Negotiator plans to offer British nationals the right to opt into "associate citizenship" in the EU, with the right to travel and work in the continent. (more…)

Public Citizen's extraordinary new 74-second political ad features audio of Donald Trump promising to end the role of big money, lobbyists, and special interests in politics, contrasted with headlines describing the industrial big-money ties of his transition team and cabinet picks, packed with billionaires, notorious CEOs of corrupt companies, offshoring specialists, and other looters. (more…)

FOLLOW @RubenBolling on the Twitters and a Face Book.JOIN Tom the Dancing Bug's subscription club, the a href="http://bit.ly/1EikWTm">INNER HIVE, for exclusive early access to comics, extra comics, and more. JOIN TODAY, and a donation will be made to The Committee to Protect Journalists, to help defend Freedom of Speech. Information here. More Tom the Dancing Bug comics on Boing Boing! (more…)

This 3-pack of 10-ft Samsung-certified cables is one of the best deals I've seen on micro USB cables. For the price of one regular length cable, you get three quality, extra long cables. Most importantly, they’re certified by Samsung, meaning they won't overheat or damage your devices. They can be used to charge your smartphones, tablets, cameras, and any other micro-USB compatible devices you have.With this trio of cables, I'm able to keep one at home, one in the car, and one at my office. Plus with 10 feet of slack to work with, I can charge and use my phone without having to get out of bed or cross the room.For a limited time, get the 10-Ft Samsung-Certified Micro-USB Cable: 3-Pack for 80% off the retail price, just $24.99.Also check out the Boing Boing Store's 2016 Holiday Gift Guide to treat yourself or someone close to you.

If you don't live in a state that allows recreational marijuana yet, perhaps this fabulous Hopalong Orbits Visualizer by Iacopo Sassarini will tide you over till then. (more…)

Much of San Francisco's Financial District used to be Yerba Buena Cove, where Gold Rush ships were abandoned in such numbers that many just rotted away till they sank. (more…)

In the 1950s, car enthusiasts began playing around with illuminated tires made of translucent synthetic rubber that could be tinted any color. Goodyear soon got in the game in case it took off, which unfortunately never happened. (more…)

Rogue archivist Carl Malamud writes, "In keeping with best practices for major Internet providers to issue periodic transparency reports, Public Resource would like to issue two reports. (more…)

Continuing in his totally consistent and predictable pattern of wacky authoritarian behavior, President-elect Donald Trump said today he'll postpone telling America how he plans to deal with a wide array of conflicts of interest until after he is sworn in as President in January, 2017. That's one month away. (more…)

“This is what happens when a terminally ill child dies in Santa’s arms.” (more…)

Many thanks to J. Kenji López-Alt for "boiling and peeling hundreds of eggs" to learn the best way to make a boiled egg so the shell doesn't stick. His finding: "For the most evenly cooked, tender hard boiled eggs, forget the boiling water, use a steamer instead."

Thom Leavy of PopSci shows how to make a wind-powered record player. (more…)

As I've posted previously, Under The Weather is a single-person pop-up shelter to sit inside that my big brother Rick came up with a while back. (He was sick of getting soaked at his kids' soccer games and was inspired by a portable toilet he saw by the field.) Late last night, he had me cracking up at this new video of him pitching his product (literally). "Bet I can't do it blindfolded? Let's see."Under The Weather is designed for spectator sports, fishing, and other outdoor events where it's raining, windy, or cold, but you are either obligated to watch or having so much fun you don't want to leave. No doubt it's an odd invention but he's selling a slew of them!You can buy the pods directly here: Under the Weather Pods

All Trump's words. (more…)

In 1945, police initiated a campaign to stop people from beeping their car horns in Morse Code to "signal out 'vile and filthy language,'" according to the Ottawa Journal on January 18. Amazing that back then enough people recognized the encoded vulgarities to convince the police to take action, and the media to cover it. (Weird Universe)

This fellow, possibly inebriated, messed with the wrong cone. (more…)

If you’ve ever wondered how to build a computer, how the brain functions, or any number of other things about how the world works, this bundle of courses is for you: The Scientific Essentials Bundle.This package of courses dives into the science that drives the world around us with 41 hours of hands-on instruction. Everything from game theory to how cars work under the hood is covered. Here's a taste of what's included:From 0 to 1: Raspberry Pi and the Internet of Things - Learn the core principles behind internet-connected objects, dive into the Internet of Things, and focus on home automation using Raspberry Pi. At the end of the course, you’ll know specific uses for IoT applications and have the skills to actually build and implement them. Economics: Game Theory, Competition, Elasticity - Get a crash course on the competitive theories of economics: learn how to think about markets, finance, and the economic drivers that guide all of our decisions. With these and five additional courses, the Scientific Essentials Bundle makes the perfect gift for your favorite inquisitive person—just in time for the holidays. Or maybe that person is actually you. Either way, get it today for 91% off retail.Also check out the Boing Boing Store's 2016 Holiday Gift Guide to treat yourself or someone close to you.

Our friends at Noise Pop and Another Planet Entertainment are co-hosting a benefit concert headlined by Primus on December 14 to support the Oakland Fire Relief Fund raising money for victims of the devastating Ghost Ship warehouse fire. The artist community tragically burned during an electronic music party earlier this month, killing 36 people and destroying the lives of so many more in the Bay Area creative community. The concert, taking place at Oakland's Fox Theater and will also feature Dan Deacon, Geographer, Hieroglyphics, Jay Som, Rogue Wave, Sidecar Tommy, Thao Nguyen, The Coup, tUnE-yArDs, and Tycho. Buy tickets here. More info in this Billboard article.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCuXMiu2184&feature=youtu.beDJ Cummerbund's latest mashup does real justice to Rick James's "Superfreak": Featuring Rick James, Foo Fighters, The Beach Boys, and Led Zeppelin. And Rick James.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbS0oHXZ8LoUniversal Health Services (UHS) is the largest chain of psychiatric facilities in the USA, with 2.5x more beds than its closest competitor, and dozens of whistleblowers from inside the company told a Buzzfeed reporter that they were pressured to find pretenses to lock up people who voluntarily presented for assessments, holding them against their will until their insurance ran out, with massive bonuses for executives who increased profits (and much smaller bonuses for execs who improved health outcomes for patients). (more…)

The AirJamz Bluetooth Air Pick & Music Toy creates music out of thin air—literally. It looks like a big, electronic guitar pick, but the accompanying iOS/Android app packs over 100 instruments and sounds. All you have to do is connect to your device via Bluetooth, pick a song, and get playing that air guitar (or piano, or flute…). The app will register the physical guitar strums or finger movements, and play the sounds just like as if you were playing the instrument. I prefer to download songs via the app to add background music to my amateur instrument playing, but you can play solo, too.I hear toy and think of kids, but this gadget is just as much made for adults. The best part is that the AirJamz Bluetooth Air Pick & Music Toy is on sale for 20% off the retail price, just $39.99.Also check out the Boing Boing Store's 2016 Holiday Gift Guide to treat yourself or someone close to you.

The Trump administration will put a fox in every henhouse, from the Goldman Sachs execs who'll run the treasury to the working conditions repeat offender who'll run the Department of Labor to the public school abolitionist who'll run the Department of Education, but when it comes to climate and energy, the Trump administration is pulling out all the stops. (more…)

This 2012 performance of “Carol Of The Bells” should be redubbed “Carol Of The Balls.”

30 years ago, the Just Say No anti-drug campaign launched. In response, Cliff Roth created one of the first analog viral videos passed around on VHS: The Reagans Speak Out on Drugs. (more…)