The Latest from Boing Boing

What happens inside a dishwasher: a gopro finds out I don't really know what I expected. [Video Link, via Seth Porges] Read the rest... NSA facial recognition: combining national ID cards, Internet intercepts, and commercial facial databases for millions of people A newly released set of slides from the Snowden leaks reveals that the NSA is harvesting millions of facial images from the Web for use in facial recognition algorithms through a program called "Identity Intelligence." James Risen and Laura Poitras's NYT piece shows that the NSA is linking these facial images with other biometrics, identity data, and "behavioral" data including "travel, financial, behaviors, social network." The NSA's goal -- in which it has been moderately successful -- is to match images from disparate databases, including databases of intercepted videoconferences (in February 2014, another Snowden publication revealed that NSA partner GCHQ had intercepted millions of Yahoo video chat stills), images captured by airports of fliers, and hacked national identity card databases from other countries. Read the rest... What is color? Join Maggie to watch a livestream and chat about a panel from The World Science Festival, starting at 3:00 Central/4:00 Eastern. Read the rest... Blind Eye Sees All: surveillance sculptures that benefit EFF Jud Turner's latest sculpture is the haunting "Blind Eye Sees All (No Secrets Anymore)" (above); he's produced 50 miniatures (right) based on it whose sale benefits the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Read the rest... Orphan Black turns into a high-stakes comedy of errors this week [S2E7] Caroleine Siede reviews the latest episode of the BBC's clone drama Read the rest... This Day in Blogging History: Spelling-error bomber foiled by typos; Stephanie Meyer v 4chan; The problem with contextual advertising One year ago today Bomber enraged by spelling error can't blow up sign because his bomb instructions were riddled with typos: A 50-year-old man was upset that the sign in front of the Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission read "Oregon Teacher Standards an Practices Commission" (the D had fallen off the sign or been worn away), so he resolved to explode it with a pressure-cooker bomb. Read the rest... Women who'd never seen their vulvas given a mirror and a modesty screen Women who'd never seen their vulvas were offered a modesty screen and a hand mirror and given the chance to have a peek. Read the rest... Florida senior prank found offensive, engorged by social media Via the Tampa Bay Times: "Spanning nearly the width of the field was a prankster's rendition of the male anatomy." Shocking! I am sure a graduation has never been 'ruined' by this before. Read the rest... Wind up flashlights When foggy nights and frequent power outages make things pitch black, I reach for one of these low-cost, wind up flashlights. Read the rest... Four things you didn't know about seasonal allergies Maggie Koerth-Baker on the science of the snuffles of spring. Relief may not be at hand without drugs, but knowledge has its comforts. Read the rest... Engineering our way out of mass surveillance Smári "Mailpile" McCarthy's lecture Engineering Our Way Out of Fascism sets out a set of technical, legal and social interventions we can undertake to make mass surveillance impossible, starting with this: "The goal of those interested in protecting human rights should be to raise the average cost of surveillance to $10.000 per person per day within the next five years." First, let's talk about litigation options. Read the rest... Ballet-dancers' hardest moves in slow-motion Six dancers from the Washington Ballet were asked to demonstrate the most physically challenging dance-moves in their repertoires; the slow-motion video of the performances yields up an unworldly sort of bullet-time version of these extreme feats of grace. (via Kottke) Read the rest... Harvard Bluebook: more threats to those who would cite the law Carl Malamud writes, "On May 16, Boing Boing brought us the story of five years of intimidation on the Uniform System of Citaiton required in the United States, a system otherwise known as The Bluebook. Read the rest... House approves 'media shield' amendment, as reporter reveals 2011 subpoena fight The House of Representatives today voted 225-183 to approve an appropriations bill amendment that bars the Justice Department from forcing reporters to testify about their confidential sources. Read the rest... Tauntaun charcuterie poster Super 7's $50 limited edition Tauntaun meat-cuts poster goes on sale tomorrow -- 16"x20". Tauntaun Cuts Print (via Super Punch) Read the rest... Bob Mould (Hüsker Dü, Sugar) coming soon to Boing Boing! Above, a trailer for our exclusive Boing Boing video interview and solo performance from legendary musician Bob Mould of Hüsker Dü and Sugar whose magnificent new album Beauty and Ruin drops June 3; our video premieres shortly after! Read the rest... Majority of Americans think Snowden was right to leak A forthcoming Yougov survey found that 55 percent of Americans believe Edward Snowden was right to leak the details of Prism (it's not clear whether they were surveyed on other leaks). Read the rest... Clarion SF/F writeathon: write, sponsor writers, help a new generation Once again, it's time for the Clarion Writers Workshop writeathon - we need writers and sponsors to help fund the Clarion Workshop, the respected, long-running science fiction writers' bootcamp. Read the rest... The dream of libertarian technotopia floating startup nations From Bloomberg's Edward Robinson, a feature on the nonprofit Seasteading Institute. "The five-year-old organization is pursuing an ambitious aquatic mission: to develop floating microcountries that will dwell in international waters with the same sovereign status enjoyed by cruise ships. Think secessionist, do-it-yourself nation building meets the 1995 post-apocalyptic science-fiction stinker 'Waterworld.'" They're based in Oakland, CA, and operating on $1.2 million in seed cash from PayPal billionaire Peter Thiel. Read the rest... Neil DeGrasse Tyson: This is the difference between weather and climate change This Cosmos clip of Neil DeGrasse Tyson is going viral, and for good reason. It's a terrific explainer of the difference between weather and climate change, and the role we humans play in warming the earth's oceans. Read the rest... Chocolate thief caught in Thailand Amid the very serious military coup in Thailand, an even more serious piece of news: Police have nabbed this brazen chocolate thief. Read the rest... These entries in a NASA kid space art contest are the best thing ever The NASA Langley Research Center held a space art contest for kids K-23 in the Hampton Roads, VA region, and their Flickr Pool of entries provide me with endless happy web browsing. Read the rest... Violent birth of a star, as seen from NASA Hubble Space Telescope An image released from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows IRAS 14568-6304, a young star shrouded in golden gas and dust. It appears to be embedded within an intriguing swoosh of dark sky, which curves through the image and obscures the sky behind. Read the rest... Say Hi - "Hurt in the Morning" (free MP3) A new Say Hi record is reason for celebration in my home, and a new (and free) song should make you happy as well. Read the rest... NSA can't find any emails from Snowden, then it can (convenient, no?) Yesterday, the NSA released an email from Edward Snowden to his superiors asking about the legality of NSA spying, claiming it was the only evidence they had that he ever tried to go through channels before turning leaker; on its face, this is pretty damning. Read the rest... Transgender tipping point: Laverne Cox on the cover of TIME This TIME cover story, the first to feature a transgender person, is a very big deal. Not just for trans folks, but for all of us. Read the rest... David J (Bauhaus, Love and Rockets) plays a house party David J of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets performs "No New Tale To Tell" at a private house party in Springville, Utah, a Kickstarter reward tied to his new album release. (Thanks, Dave Gill!) Read the rest... How to massage and feed strawberries to your opossum [Video Link] This is an old internet gem, but it's still fabulous. More possum care tips: mepearl.com. Below, a delightful classic we've shared before, well worth watching: Possum Eating Strawberries. Read the rest... White guy gets plastic surgery to look Korean The Korea Herald reports that a young man of European heritage from Brazil has had plastic surgery so that he might look Korean. Read the rest... Lovely film of frolicking octopuses Dustin Adamson's wonderful short film of "Octupuses of the Night" with footage he shot in the Philippines (via Laughing Squid). Read the rest... Follow us online:   forward to a friend   unsubscribe from this list

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