Project Dragonfly is a secret Google plan to create an Android-based search tool (early versions were called "Maotai" and "Longfei") for use in China (where Google is currently blocked), in collaboration with the Chinese government, where search results related to human rights, democracy, protest, religion and other "sensitive" topics will be censored.

In the 1970s, the CIA created a dragonfly-shaped drone that carried a microphone, with the goal of using it to snoop on remote targets. It was a pretty ingenious piece of engineering: propelled by a liquid fuel and guided by a laser, it actually achieved flight in a few tests. — Read the rest

Hacker takeovers of power infrastructure have been seen in Ukraine (where they are reliably attributed to Russian state actors), but now the US power-grid has been compromised by hackers of unknown origin, who have "switch-flipping" control — that is, they can just turn it all off.

High Court judges ruled that the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (#DRIP) was inconsistent with the European convention on human rights.

"A dancing driver has been banned from the roads," report police in England, "after parking his car on a roundabout and claiming he was on his way to Stonehenge."

The adorably-named Dragonfly 44 is 70,000 light years across—about twice that of the Milky Way—and one of the most diffuse galaxies yet observed.

"If the Milky Way is a sea of stars, then these newly discovered galaxies are like wisps of clouds", said van Dokkum.

Neuroscientist have attached an electronic "backpack" to dragonflies that jack into the insect's brain and wirelessly transmit the data back to a base station. Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher Anthony Leonardo and his collaborators hope the telemetry will deepen our understanding of how dragonflies target and catch their pray. — Read the rest

“My father kept things. I mean, he didn’t like to throw things away. Nothing.” I looked into his eyes as I said these words. I’d said them before, to explain my spotless desk...

Welcome to this year's Boing Boing Gift Guide, a piling-high of our most loved stuff from 2012 and beyond. There are books, comics, games, gadgets and much else besides: click the categories at the top to filter what you're most interested in—and add your suggestions and links in the comments.

Artist Amy Crehore has two prints for sale. Check them both out on her website. Above: Krampus Silk Screen (3-color silk screen, only 18 prints in edition).

Makies, the 3D printed toy startup my wife quit her job to co-found last year, has opened its doors for a second batch of limited edition sales. The company is still working out its logistics and doll-making tools, so it is periodically opening up for limited sales of 100 toys at a time, then regrouping and refactoring based on what they've learned. — Read the rest

Happy Labor Day cookout, everyone! Maggots, worms, metal, plastic, a razor, and semen are but some of the many non-food substances callers claimed were in their hot dogs, in complaints lodged with the U.S. Department of Agriculture between 2007 and 2009. — Read the rest

Float Documentary Trailer from Phil Kibbe on Vimeo.

These beautiful dragonfly-like model planes can float for up to half an hour under the power of one single-wound rubber band. Check out the trailer for Float posted by Phil Kibbe. Amazing craftsmanship and techniques! — Read the rest

David Nickle, the Stoker-award-winning horror writer, has just posted a bunch of his short stories to his website under a Creative Commons license. Dave's one of my favorite horror writers — we workshopped together when I lived in Toronto — and these stories are some of his best (included in the lot is Swamp Witch and the Tea-Drinking Man, a story I liked so much that I bought it for Tesseracts 11, the Canadian sf/f/horror anthology I just co-edited with Holly Phillips). — Read the rest

After the jump: The BoingBoing email Q&A with ForBiddeN.

Her Wikipedia profile describes Christine Dolce as an "allegedly 24-year-old former Orange County cosmetologist." Vanity Fair meowed that she had "a housepainter's flair for eyeshadow." But a million of her closest "friends" on MySpace know her as ForBiddeN (though not everyone there is so kind), and today she debuts in the dead-tree pages of Playboy Magazine. — Read the rest

The Musée d'Orsay has an exhibition of the mind-blowing photographs by physician and physiologist Etienne-Jules Marey, whose research in the 19th century led directly to the invention of the movie camera. The image at left is a 1901 shot of a smoke machine. — Read the rest

Article about pro-anorexia and pro-bulemia websites that sell merchandise to foster solidarity among people with eating disorders.

Many of the homepages and forums have been disabled but a plethora of sites can still be easily found. Anorexics can now go online and for between $US3 ($4.30) and $US25 buy a red-beaded "ana" bracelet – a symbol of solidarity that identifies them to the rest of the community.