Boing Boing

We often lavish upon "interactivity" as a defining quality of games, but from Progress Quest and Adventure Capitalist to Cookie Clicker and beyond, there are many games about idleness, games that play themselves. Read the rest

Aracnophobes can now play Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon as a tiny striped walrus. Find out how (it involves some candle rituals?) Read the rest

In keeping with Offworld's recent fixation on gardening games, I've been playing Viridi, a mysteriously-soothing game about taking care of different varieties of succulent plants. Read the rest

Yvonne Craig, the first and best Batgirl on television who also played the green-skinned alien Marta on the original Star Trek episode "Whom Gods Destroy," has died of breast cancer. Read the rest

As she requested before her death, Elaine Fydrych of Gloucester Township, New Jersey had the following line included in her obituary: “In lieu of flowers, please do not vote for Hillary Clinton." Read the rest

Police photograph and manually tag suspects' tattoos as part of the booking process, but the FBI says computers could classify them much better, leading to more "hits" when trying to identify criminals and also corpses. Read the rest

The Shark's Fin on Mount Meru is 21,000 feet above the Ganges River in Northern India. In this short video, climber-filmmaker Jimmy Chin gives a tour of his tent, which hangs on the side of a sheer cliff, and contains 200 pounds of stuff that he and his climbing partner have hauled with them. Read the rest

Don't let your child out of the house without this stylish pink bullet-proof backpack. It has been "tested against 2 types of ammunition, yet weighs just a few more ounces than non-armed backpacks. Read the rest

In 1983, Downtown NYC post-punk dance band Liquid Liquid released this Michael Sporn Animation Studios video for "Cavern," a killer track whose bassline became the foundation of Grandmaster Melle Mel's pioneering hip hop track "White Lines (Don't Do It)." The excellent Superior Viaduct label has just reissued Liquid Liquid's classic records including Optimo, the EP containing "Cavern." Read the rest

1972's Galaxy "light whiskey" was a low-point in American spirits.Ben Marks of Collectors Weekly says: "Hunter Oatman-Stanford just interviewed Noah Rothbaum about his new book, The Art of American Whiskey. Read the rest

Our friend Jenny Hart illustrated the cover to Penguin's re-issue of The Postmistress by Sarah Blake. It one of six books in the Penguin by Hand collection, "comprising six of Penguin's most popular women's fiction titles of recent years, all with new and beautiful craft-inspired jackets." Read the rest

We love our silicone kitchen tools, so I couldn't resist getting these. Regularly $35, Amazon is selling heat-resistant silicone BBQ gloves for just $9 a pair. Read the rest

My friend Alvin Buenaventura is the proprietor of Pigeon Press, which publishes excellent comic books and books. He has just released In the Garden of Evil, a book that combines the talents of Charles Burns, Killoffer, and Will Oldham (Bonnie 'Prince' Billie). Read the rest

If you've ever wanted to experience the romance, gossip, and tragic social misunderstandings of an Austen heroine, Regency Love is a visual novel made just for you. Read the rest

Subway has scrubbed its website of mentions of child sex suspect Jared Fogle—but it has not yet deleted a promo game site where SUBWAY KIDS catch candy using Jared's discarded pants. Read the rest

Cartoonist Tony Moore (co-creator of The Walking Dead comic book series) designed this very fun poster for the Cincy Comicon (September 12-13), which pays homages to the old comic book ads for novelties and practical jokes. He did such a good job that I asked him to write a bit about it. Read the rest

MUSACK's goal is simple: get guitars and instruction into the hands of inner-city and at-risk youth. It's not about turning kids into rock stars. Read the rest

From John Wilcock, New York Years.

An excerpt from Dennis' new book, Extra Good Stuff, published by Last Gasp. Illustrated by Tom Van Deusen Read the rest

I have a fairly large and ever growing collection of kites. This is the easiest to fly, never fail to have a good time, anyone can fly it kite you've been looking for. Read the rest

After making a mocking Facebook spoof and getting folks like us to link to it, thedatadrive.com is selling the "bespoke user data" gathered from visits—as a thumbdrive, on freakin' eBay. Read the rest

This was the first song that came to mind for "Greatest love song of the 80s." She cries on every tune. Every tune.

Bruce Campbell is wearing a face prosthetic, posing next to Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness (1992) assistant camera operator James Fitzgerald.

The Hollywood studios always claim to be "pro-fair-use" but when the US Trade Representative made a move to put fair use into the Trans Pacific Partnership, the MPAA sent a scathing, furious letter to the Obama administration condemning "the inclusion of fair use' in free trade agreements" as "extremely controversial and divisive." Read the rest

Sorry, but Taschen's $1000 four-part art book on the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey is already sold out. Console yourself with Wired's feature about the movie's most enduring and prescient imaginings. Read the rest

The Idaho Transportation Department installed this sign on US Highway 95 instead of the frequently stolen 420 milepost. (more…)

The documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed a division of British intelligence focused on the use of psychological science to influence, deceive, and infiltrate suspected terrorist cells, hostile states, criminal gangs, and activist groups. Vaughan "Mind Hacks" Bell investigates, and notes that some of their techniques draw heavily from the work of Robert Cialdini, author of Influence, an absolute must-read classic book about techniques of persuasion. Read the rest

It's not just about child pornography found on his computer, possession of which he reportedly will admit to in court. Read the rest

70 of the worst: "Men should be able to veto women's abortions", "Know your role and shut your mouth", "Women are victims of violence all the time-maybe they should make better decisions", etc.

Because "evildoers." Read the rest

Flash: a bloated, unstable, battery-slurping fountain of security problems to wrap video in. So why do so many big sites still require it? Read the rest

In honor of Britain's kooky decision to subject domestically-produced music videos (and only those) to its movie ratings system, Dazed picks its faves. Read the rest

Each screen requires its own kind of meditative patience, but as you draw a mental map of the world in your mind you start to feel the slow burn of pride that comes with having swept each moonlit corner. Read the rest

Themes & Variations, by Ziye Liu, is an animated short film, based upon the art of Yayoi Kusama and Ai Weiwei, which uses computer extrapolation techniques to create "new versions" of their work. There's more at blog.ziyeliu.com.

This awesome Game & Watch "demake" of Terry Cavanagh's Super Hexagon explores the pure essence of the vicious geometric game. If you're a slow-mo like me, you might actually have a chance of scoring well for once. Read the rest

Baby Tasmanian devils are called imps. There's a big push underway to breed the ornery marsupials in captivity due to a facial tumor epidemic ravaging wild populations. Upside: lots of baby pictures. Read the rest

This lifelike re-enactment of the Chicxulub impact event was meticulously researched prior to filming by Field Day and The Slow Mo Guys. Read the rest

AnimalRobot always does great mashups, and this timely version of Fozzie Bear doing N.W.A's "Express Yourself" taps into the moment's zeitgeist. Read the rest

Today in 1% villainy: UK property developer Kim Davies broke a bunch of laws when he used children's gravestones from a derelict church he owned to build an illegal patio at a historic home. Read the rest

Observe a 20-inch tongue in action.

These amazing guys look like living snowflakes!

A vast data dump, purportedly exposing millions of users of a hookup service for cheating spouses, has been confirmed.In a statement, Ashley Madison spokesman Anthony Macri (right) said the dump was a criminal act. Read the rest

Blackphone 2, an upgraded version of the privacy-centered smartphone from Silent Circle, is available for pre-order.The Swiss handset, designed by PGP inventor Phil Zimmerman, uses an Android fork named PrivatOS designed specifically to guard users' privacy and prevent data leakage. Read the rest

Dinosaur Comics creator Ryan North found himself stuck in a skateboarding pit with his dog, Chompsky, an umbrella, a leash, a t-shirt, and a pocket computer. To escape, he played Twitter like a text adventure. Read the rest

It's exactly what it seems to be: a twister formed over a fire's intense heat, drawing the blaze hundreds of feet into their air. Read the rest

...for the moment anyway.

Yamato Suzuki's adorable dog is yelping such a perfect imitation of the sound made by a passing ambulance. (more…)