During the heyday of Second Life, numerous universities set up their own online campuses in the virtual world, which have slowly become ghost towns—and artifacts of an earlier digital era. Read the rest

Our guest on the Cool Tools Show podcast is Jimmy DiResta. He is a maker, toy designer, and TV show host. He’s been the host of a number of DIY shows including Dirty Money, Trash to Cash, Against the Grain, and Hammered with John and Jimmy DiResta. He co-hosts the Making It Podcast, and has a fantastic YouTube channel called DiResta with videos on his latest builds and handy tool tips. Read the rest

We've written about Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) on Boing Boing several times in the past couple of years. (See "The brain-tingling world of ASMR collides with science fiction" and "The whispery world of ASMR enters virtual reality"). Read the rest

Earlier this month, Spencer Seabrooke broke the world record for the longest free solo slackline ever. He walked 209 feet, 1000 feet above a canyon in Canada. He slipped off the rope twice and had to catch himself.The soles of my feet start to hurt when I watch videos of people doing crazy high-elevation stunts. Does that happen to anyone else?

Dutch engineer and artist Theo Jansen has created the most amazing kinematic sculptures, which he refers to as life forms. The incredibly ingenious mechanical linkages are powered by compressed air, harvested from the wind. Read the rest

Amazon is selling Dash Buttons for $5. They contain a Wi-Fi radio and a battery. You are supposed to stick them to your washing machine, inside a cabinet door, etc, and when you run out of Tide, Gatorade, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, etc., you just push the button and Amazon will ship you more. Read the rest

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“Straight Outta Compton.” A terrific read before listening to the original album or seeing the film. Read the rest

I remember the Cola Wars, I lost so many friends. Nick Cole offers a fantastic look at the future of advertising.Read the rest

KTVU-Oakland weatherman Steve Paulson was mid-forecast as a magnitude 4.0 earthquake hit Oakland early this morning. (Thanks, Matthew!)

Fathers react to hidden video footage of their daughters being catcalled in in New York City.

"Pleezus more beezus," writes the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist. At his Los Angeles home, he's keeping three hives with 60,000 bees each. Read the rest

Not everyone loves spiders, but these diligent, curious and graceful creatures just want to keep pests out of your mansion and solve mysteries. Give this one a shot. Read the rest

Good morning! As shot, iPhone 6.

Perfect for getting anything I'm baking on my baking stone into or out of the oven, this aluminum pizza peel really comes in handy.Read the rest

Over at AskReddit: What does a $300,000 house look like where you are from? Above, Dallas. Below, London (not really a house, but still).

Who is that dark blue line shooting wildly upwards? To find out, you'll have to read Phil Edwards' explainer at Vox!

They know who is weak and why they are weak, and they have a brand for them: "seed faith."

The New York Times exposes a brutal, cultlike environment of midnight phone calls, mind-numbing jargon and sadistic management. Read the rest

Peanuts was an often-mordant strip about childhood angst. Over the years—like many other newspaper comics subjected to the relentless burden of production—it was sanded smooth and soft, and Kevin Wong blames Snoopy. (more…)

Even when money is shoveled at making their methods more scientifically serious and rigorous, police "rarely cooperate with outside researchers" whose work might expose their failures. Read the rest

Another Indonesian passenger jet went down, this time with 54 people on board. Read the rest

National Geographic reporter Bryan Christy commissioned two fake elephant tusks embedded with GPS, then planted them to track ivory smuggling routes from the Central African Republic into Sudan. Read the rest

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory just released a video of their latest adhesion technologies designed for use in space. Read the rest

Feeling left out because Donald Trump hasn't insulted you by name on Twitter yet? The Trump Generator lets anyone create a customized insult from the rich lexicon of Donald disses, then they'll post it on social media. Read the rest

You probably already have all the stuff you need to make this nifty paper cannon that fires at a surprisingly high muzzle velocity. Read the rest

This week's reflection: Is it just us, or have we been virtually gardening, like, a lot? Also, our friends get up to some amazing things. Read the rest

"There's just no getting over you."

Poverty traps its victims in intellectual dead zones. I don't pirate games anymore, but when I needed it, it gave me access to the literature and artistic inspiration of my generation. Read the rest

The Beatles performed on the Ed Sullivan Show for the fourth and final time on August 14, 1965. Over 70 million people tuned in to watch. Read the rest

I wanted to play like Dick Dale. These books help me pretend. They are quite good.Read the rest

Most cameras capture the position of light rays, producing your average static 2D image. The Lytro dares to be different. Its cutting-edge technology records the direction of these rays, generating images you can later refocus, change perspective within, or view in 3D. Read the rest

If you’ve ever been to a Disney theme park, you’ve undoubtedly seen the large posters showcasing some of the popular rides and attractions. Read the rest

Jargon for the XXIth C. [via Sarah Jeong]

James Risner constructed a bi-directional spiral of track and crammed it full of HO-scale model train cars and engines, so it goes around and around in a metaphor for _________.(via Geeks Are Sexy)

In Matthew Mather's new novel, Nomad, an anomaly 100 times more dense than the sun is headed directly for the Earth. There is nothing we can do, no where to hide, humanity grasps at straws at the end draws near.Read the rest

The LithiumCard Wallet Battery ($29.99) is an engineering marvel, packing 1200mAh in a package no thicker than 5 credit cards. Beautifully crafted from a luxurious billet aluminum housing, it charges devices at up to a lightning-fast 1% of battery life per minute. Read the rest

Bear attacks on humans are rare, but the drought has driven wild animals closer to civilization as food and water in the wild dry up. Read the rest

Andrew Mayne's Name of the Devil is available from Amazon.Andrew Mayne is a magician, author, and TV show host. He's also coming to our Weekend of Wonder (September 18-20) to teach us all how to escape from a straitjacket. Read the rest

Takenoko (which means bamboo shoots in Japanese) is a light, colorful board game in which players take on the role of Japanese court members to take care of a panda and gain points by completing tasks. Read the rest

The largely aboriginal youth club -- historically called upon to fight forest fires and volunteer in parks -- is now part of the Canadian Prime Minister's "arctic soveriegnty" plan. Read the rest

The best thing on the internet, so far.

In this video Julie Galef, host of the Rationally Speaking podcast (about philosophy, rationality, science) presents one of my favorite paradoxes - Newcomb's Problem (and the related and "Parfit's Hitchhiker" dilemma). Read the rest

There's a wonderful little corner of YouTube where stoic burly men wander deep into the woods and chop down tall trees with chainsaws. Read the rest

A great cover. They are having fun, son.