In 1964 a bar band called The Ardells grew moptops and renamed themselves The American Beetles. According to the BBC, an Argentinian impresario saw them play in a club in Miami and decided to book them on a South American tour. He conveniently forgot to tell everyone that they weren't the English Beatles. And when they arrived in Buenos Aires, they received the full Hard Day's Night treatment of hysterical fans who mistook them for the genuine article -- until they got a good look at their faces.From Ed Prideaux's article in the BBC:They were the main act booked on a programme called The Laughter Festival, and an excited assembly of wide-eyed teenagers filed neatly into the stands. The American Beetles waited behind the camera, guitars and sticks at the ready, as the host issued his opening proclamation. Carlos Santino’s cousin was, again, "going nuts". Then the camera turned towards the band. "When she saw it wasn’t Paul McCartney who was coming out from behind the curtain, she started to cry inconsolably" he said. Roberto Monfort, the Channel 9 employee who had been amazed at the first announcement, recalls that disillusionment set in fast. "When they went on air, yes – the people realised that they were not the real Beatles, but the fake Beatles."When the band return to the United States, they had trouble getting airplay with the name the American Beetles, though they did make an appearance on American Bandstand:They changed their name to The Razor's Edge and cut one single called "Let's Call It A Day Girl." Read the rest

In the interest of reducing the chances of exposure to the coronavirus, Osaka, Japan mayor Ichiro Matsuimen thinks men should be entrusted with buying groceries, because women "take a long time as they browse around and hesitate about this and that," according to Channel News Asia. "Men can snap up things they are told (to buy) and go, so I think it's good that they go shopping, avoiding human contact."Photo by Cleyton Ewerton on Unsplash Read the rest

Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy captured this amazing, rather alarming photograph of the International Space Station transiting the sun yesterday. Managed to catch the @Space_Station as it transited the sun today. #astrophotography #space #nasa #opteam pic.twitter.com/MMPKEXnk8O— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) April 24, 2020 Read the rest

KOSMusic performs Sylvester Levay's theme from 1980s's TV hit Airwolf on a 1990s Yamaha synth. His HD recreations of the show's animated video titles are a nice touch, too. KOS specializes in detailed, accurate yet evolutionary recreations of synthy classics, complete with perfect homages to titles, graphics and type.To recreate this version, I took inspiration from the original and the extended version of this fantastic track. I wanted to give a more "synthesized" impression compared to the original by replacing the "French Horn" with classic 80s synth brass and other typical sounds of those years.In the future, I will try to recreate the original version of the opening theme and maybe even the extended version of this MASTERPIECE.Here's his Terminator theme: Read the rest

Johns Hopkins' tracker of reported deaths from Covid-19 stands at 49,963; include Americans who died on cruise liners and the total stands at 50,451. The Wall Street Journal reports on the significance of numbers, with the U.S. now accounting for a third of the world's total.Confirmed coronavirus cases world-wide Friday exceeded 2.7 million, with more than 190,000 dead, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. accounted for nearly a third of the cases, exceeding 869,000, and more than a quarter of the deaths, at 49,963. The pandemic's true death toll is somewhat higher, and will be reavealed over time by the discounting of the normal number of deaths in the U.S. population from the actual number of deaths since the pandemic began. Conservatives insist, maliciously, that the death toll as it stands is in fact inflated, if not an outright hoax. Read the rest

PutterBall is the game America needs right now.NBA arenas are dark. Baseball stadiums remain locked tight. And there’s no way of knowing if your favorite NFL team’s pursuit of a Super Bowl will happen as scheduled this year. It may not be one of life’s biggest concerns right now, but American sports are just one facet of our lives left in utter disarray by the current global upheaval.All of which might just clear the way for PutterBall to become America’s new sport of choice.Ok, maybe that’s a stretch, but it’s hard not to agree that this goofy, unique combination of golf and beer pong is opening up a whole new realm of backyard sports. And if you’ve got 12 feet of space inside, it’s even a fun, entertaining way to burn an hour — or several hours — while you’re under quarantine.PutterBall plays much like the college perennial beer pong. Just roll out the board made of high-quality, high-density, durable, lightweight foam, grab a putter and be the first team to sink a shot into all six cups. Of course, there are some twists and turns along the way, but if you understand golf...or mini-golf...or just drinking and having some fun, the game should fall into place pretty easily.We’ll even let you in on a secret — you don’t need to be any good at golf to become a PutterBall king or queen. Of course, a short game doesn’t hurt, but whether you’re playing on the beach, in the park, in your backyard, at a tailgate or even at your workplace, enthusiasm, a little practice and some liquid courage could be all you need to unlock the heart of a champion. Read the rest

A project near and dear to me is back. Coming May 1 to 3 is The Deconstruction!From my pal Jason Naumoff, co-founder of New Creatures, the group hosting the event: The Deconstruction is open to artists, makers, creators, students, parents, and everyone, everywhere. Over the course of the event weekend, create something new that reimagines the idea of distance. The results can be a game, a piece of art, an invention, a song, a solution, a poem, a pizza. Really just about anything goes. It can be fun, it can be serious, it can be both those things.Just come up with an idea and give it a go. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, even better!He also shared that they're hoping middle and high school students, as well as parents and their younger kids, will get involved this year. And why not? Talk about a great teaching moment during this time of being sheltered in place.He writes, "It’s been a ton of work in not much time, as always, but it should be a lot of fun" and that the "un-competition mindset still stands, but this year the 'awards' winners will win a cash donation to a COVID-19 relief organization of their choosing." One of the projects from the last Deconstruction in 2016 was this complicated, multi-state Rube Goldberg machine. Read the rest

At a press conference yesterday afternoon, Trump suggested that injecting or consuming disinfectant might be an effective way to rid oneself of coronavirus. It isn't, and doing so will likely kill you. He added: "I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that."He didn't specify the kind of disinfectant.The company that makes Lysol hurriedly issued a warning not to put it inside a human being.Due to recent speculation and social media activity, RB (the makers of Lysol and Dettol) has been asked whether internal administration of disinfectants may be appropriate for investigation or use as a treatment for coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route). As with all products, our disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as intended and in line with usage guidelines. Please read the label and safety information.We have a responsibility in providing consumers with access to accurate, up-to-date information as advised by leading public health experts. For this and other myth-busting facts, please visit Covid-19facts.com.Eager to see the New York Times headline.Here's Dr. Read the rest

It’s infuriating to think of how much of our important, often sensitive personal information we just casually give away online. When you’re unprotected as you surf, you’re volunteering your IP address, which can help an experienced cyber snoop or web criminal identify you, your home, your family and more. They can also mine those details to ultimately crack your whole system wide open, exposing your financial details and anything else you don’t want the world to know.VPN protection with a trusted provider like Surfshark is one of your first and best defenses against the efforts of bad actors on the web.As a long-time service provider with a 4.4 out of 5-star rating from more than 10,000 Apple App Store and Google Play consumers, Surfshark offers true browsing freedom as well as peace of mind.With more than 1,200 servers in over 60 countries worldwide, you can log in from virtually anywhere and receive ultra-fast, completely anonymous web surfing and downloading protection. All your traffic is shielded behind military-grade AES-256-GCM encryption and IKEv2 and OpenVPN protocols, even when you’re logged into often dodgy public WiFi networks.And whether you’re online shopping, downloading torrents or anything else, no one will be able to trace your activities, even Surfshark. Their no-logging policy assures you complete anonymity, 24/7/365. Of course, Surfshark also offers optimized online streaming and torrent-friendly servers, in case you’re into that sort of thing.While protection is always the key to VPN service, access is another major selling point — and Surfshark delivers, helping you get around global geo-restrictions that can block off content or your favorite streaming service in various locations. Read the rest

As the editor-in-chief of the Make: website, I got to help develop column ideas and work with some amazing contributors. One of these was the brilliant George Hart (father of Vi Hart) from the Museum of Mathematics. After George left the museum, Glen Whitney took over the column. They both did an amazing job at demonstrating mathematical concepts in the most entertaining ways, using everyday objects and maker-made creations. You can see all of the installments of the series here.Here is the briefest of samplings. The column ran (on and off) for eight years.Math Monday, September 26, 2011A mathematical haircut makes an unambiguous statement to the world that you love math. Here, Nick Sayers is sporting a rhombic coiffure with interesting geometric properties.The obtuse angles of each rhombus meet in groups of three, but the acute angles meet in groups of five, six, or seven, depending on the curvature. In the flatter areas, they meet in groups of six, like equilateral triangles, and in the areas of strong positive curvature they meet in groups of five, but in the negatively curved saddle at the back of the neck, there is a group of seven.To make your own, Nick suggests you use a rhombic paper template starting at the crown, work outwards, and make aesthetic decisions about the 5-, 6-, or 7-way joints depending on local curvature. This instance of the design was cut by Hannah Barker after a test version a couple of months earlier by Summer Makepeace. Read the rest

As a miniature modeler and painter, I am obsessed with any type of tiny world-building: model train boards, dioramas, dollhouses, and the like. So, naturally, I adore the work of "micro-mechanician" Bill Robertson. You can learn more about Bill and his amazing work in this piece on the TED Ideas blog and in his TED talk.When you look at a miniature, you can see so much more,” he says. “You can see the whole thing with one eye. When you look at a little desk in your hand, it’s all right there in front of your eyes. There’s a fascination with seeing it all at once.To give you a sense of the extremes to which Robertson goes, consider his reproduction of a microscope that had been made for King Louis XV. Robertson’s version consists of 125 infinitesimally small parts of metal, wood and glass. To match the microscope’s bronze shade, he melted Canadian gold coins and applied the metal to the frame. The original’s barrel was wrapped in shagreen, or sharkskin, and Robertson knew that he needed baby-shark skin for it to be more to scale, so the nodules and grain would be the correct size. He found the sharkskin at a shop outside Paris that had been serving cabinet makers for five generations. In the original text about the microscope, the builder said to polish the metal with the tooth of a wolf; Robertson got creative and used a puppy tooth instead.Oh, and this microscope is fully functional, something that is very important to Robertson. Read the rest

After The Markup revealed that Facebook users were being targeted with bad ads for garbage products, Facebook has now agreed to remove “pseudoscience” as an ad targeting option for advertisers.Yes, this was allowed during the coronavirus pandemic, until a news website shamed Facebook into eliminating it. “Pseudoscience” was available until this week, The Markup reported, even as Facebook vowed to curb COVID-19 disinformation.From The Markup:But at the very same time, The Markup found, Facebook was allowing advertisers to profit from ads targeting people that the company believes are interested in “pseudoscience.” According to Facebook’s ad portal, the pseudoscience interest category contained more than 78 million people.This week, The Markup paid to advertise a post targeting people interested in pseudoscience, and the ad was approved by Facebook. Using the same tool, The Markup boosted a post targeting people interested in pseudoscience on Instagram, the Facebook-owned platform that is incredibly popular with Americans under 30. The ad was approved in minutes.We reached out to Facebook asking about the targeting category on Monday morning. After asking for multiple extensions to formulate a response, company spokesperson Devon Kearns emailed The Markup on Wednesday evening to say that Facebook had eliminated the pseudoscience interest category. Read the rest:Want to Find a Misinformed Public? Facebook’s Already Done It[themarkup.orgMore at Reuters. Read the rest

In Russia, two human rights groups say Vladimir Putin's government has vastly expanded surveillance to enforce the nation's coronavirus lockdown, using facial recognition technology and collection of personal data. The groups say regulation is required to ensure that surveillance measures are both temporary and proportionate.From Reuters:Police say Moscow’s 178,000 facial recognition cameras had caught 200 people breaking coronavirus lockdown restrictions by mid-March. The cameras are capable of tracking individuals using just their silhouette and of detecting groups standing too close to each other, according to the firm which supplied them.The Russian capital has also introduced digital passes which are mandatory for anyone wanting to use public or private transport, a system that authorities say 21 of Russia’s more than 80 regions will soon copy in some form.Agora, a Moscow-based human rights group, and Roskomsvoboda, a digital rights campaign group, said the unprecedented nature of the pandemic meant some curbing of citizens’ rights and freedoms was justified.But in a joint appeal to regional governors they said the expanding surveillance measures had to be regulated to ensure they were legal, proportionate and temporary in nature.“The authorities ... are actively developing technologies to collect personal data including photographs, videos, geolocations, home addresses, car number plates and medical diagnoses,” said Pavel Chikov, a lawyer who heads Agora.Go read the rest of the piece. The quote in the last graf is a stunner.Russia's lockdown surveillance measures need regulating, rights groups say[reuters] Read the rest

Hope you like cats and cat hair.From the delightful Instagram account of @rojiman and their Scottish Fold Cats, a series of cat portraits in which these kitties are wearing hats made from their own cat hair.Go see the rest here, and they've been cross-posted on IMGUR as well.Cats wearing hats made from their own hair Read the rest

After a few weeks under the same roof all day long, your kids might be clamoring for something new to do. And while you’re probably loath to unleash more video game or YouTube time on their developing minds, you might have run out of fun, yet educational diversions to keep them busy.However, fun, yet educational is pretty much the calling card of the fascinating AstroReality EARTH Augmented Reality Earth Model. This 3D-printed globe and accompanying app make it incredibly easy for kids and adults alike to understand more about the state of our planet today, all with unique interactivity that teaches and expands minds without ever feeling like some dry lecture.The globe comes in 3.5 or 5-inch sizes, each intricately printed with polyresin density and hand-painted with precise paint pigment ratios to bring all the surface details of the planet’s oceans, mountains, and land masses to vivid life.While the globe is a work of art in itself, the true magic happens when you open the AstroReality AR app and point your smartphone camera at the globe. Through the app, you can then explore how our planet actually works in precise detail, tracking Earth’s geological changes, wildlife, weather patterns and more.You can follow exactly how humans have populated and transformed the globe, then shift to see how plants and animals create the biopersity and ecosystems that we depend on.You can examine how geography, climate, and weather drive the migration of animals and the distribution of those ecosystems; how rocks and heat drive volcanoes, mountains and rivers; how clouds, gases, storms, and other sky phenomena keep life on Earth possible; and even the ocean’s impactful role in keeping the planet stable. Read the rest

Researchers at a top Paris hospital examined 343 coronavirus patients, "Among these patients, only five percent were smokers"

Parents who brought kids to playground for staged event were told to move on before arrest for breaking public health order

If you enter Indonesia and don't immediately self-quarantine for 14 days, beware: you might be locked up in a haunted house.With 647 Covid-19 deaths so far in Indonesia, an area of Java is taking this peculiar measure to make sure people follow the social distancing rules. According to The Jakarta Post:Sragen regency head Kusdinar Untung Yuni Sukowati says she issued the unusual edict this week to deal with an influx of people to the area after lockdowns in the capital Jakarta and other major cities...Sukowati instructed communities to repurpose abandoned houses that were feared to be haunted -- tapping widespread beliefs in the supernatural, which play a key role in Indonesian folklore."If there's an empty and haunted house in the village, put people in there and lock them up," Sukowati told AFP Tuesday when asked about the rule.Officials in Sepat village chose a long-abandoned house and outfitted it with beds placed at a distance and separated by curtains.So far, five victims, er, people have been scared straight with the haunted house treatment. Image: PickPik Read the rest

Michael Caputo, the GOP media operative hired last week as a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has an unusually clean and boring twitter feed for a Trump crony. This is because he deleted his Twitter archives after observers noted the long history of hysterical attacks and conspiracy theorizing there, including a racist rant about the Chinese posted last month.In one recent conversation he described Trump critics as "the enemy of the people" and "carrying water for the Chinese Communist Party", suggested a criticism of Trump "rhymes with sedition", described the Covid-19 outbreak as a "national pandemic tragedy for the Democrats to win", and said that "millions of Chinese suck the blood of rabid bats as an appetizer and eat the ass out of anteaters but some foriegner snuck in a bottle of the good stuff."Not content with his remarks about the Chinese, Caputo accused George Soros of "requiring" a pandemic for his "political agenda" and posted the hashtag "#ChineseVirus" twenty times in a row, as many as Twitter would permit.Caputo, a prolific user who often tweeted insults and profanity, recently erased nearly his entire Twitter history from before April 12. CNN's KFile used the Internet Archive's Way Back Machine to review more than 1300 deleted tweets and retweets from late February to early April many, of which were regarding the rapidly spreading coronavirus.Caputo's ascent is another remindrt there is no bottom. CNN collects all his conspiracy theory stuff from March in one item. Read the rest

A TikTok investigation pic.twitter.com/raBSfI6Zg3— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) April 22, 2020It seems like everyone on the planet has seen this gray-rooted coronavirus protester complaining that she can't go to a hairdresser. But someone on Tik Tok looked at the length of her roots and determined that she has not had her hair done since October, many months before they stay at home order went into effect. Read the rest

I was already intimidated by his bloodcurling yell. (I just learned that's called a k'ihap in Korean or a kiai in Japanese.) Read the rest

I'm always suspicious when people say canned food lasts forever, and @DinosaurDracula proves my fear. Granted, the can was rusted, which may have caused more damage to the food than a can in pristine condition would do. Still, this can of Chef Boyardee Spider-Man pasta from 1995 emitted "noxious fumes" after the first twist of the can opener, and what was revealed inside will have me inspecting the expiration dates on all my pantry cans as soon as I'm finished with this post.I put the can opener to work, unsettled by the rust, but emboldened by the lack of noxious fumes. I turn the knob and wince, unable to rule out the possibility that the contents have mutated into something alive & malevolent. (2/5) pic.twitter.com/IBmJXBWZI2— Dinosaur Dracula (@DinosaurDracula) April 16, 2020 They say tragedy plus time equals comedy, but there's nothing funny about 15 ounces of Spider-Man Pasta reduced to a rotted 3-ounce chunk. Recalling the fate of Jordy Verrill in Creepshow, I'm thankful for my rubber gloves. (3/5) pic.twitter.com/W5WqQ7wEHs— Dinosaur Dracula (@DinosaurDracula) April 16, 2020 I think I notice something, but consult the label on the can to be sure. Indeed, there's poor Spider-Man, trapped in this godforsaken toxic monstrosity. I'm sorry, Peter. With old pasta comes great instability.Thank you all for taking this journey with me. (5/5) pic.twitter.com/6UcfRcN9tz— Dinosaur Dracula (@DinosaurDracula) April 16, 2020 [Via Mental Floss] Read the rest

Jaguar Health makes Mytesi, an antidiarrheal medication for people with HIV/AIDS. A 60-pill bottle used to cost $668.52. That was before the drugmaker ask the FDA to give it an emergency authorization to use Mytesi for people with the coronavirus. On April 9, Jaguar Health more than tripled the price of the drug to $2,206.52.According to Axios, "Jaguar Health isn't the only drug company that has raised prices amid the outbreak. The U.S. drugmaker of chloroquine doubled the price of its product last month, the Financial Times reported."On April 7 the FDA denied Jaguar Health's request, but the drugmaker is still talking to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to evaluate the effectiveness of Mytesi.Photo by Hal Gatewood on Unsplash Read the rest

In 1993, Trekkers took to public access cable television channel Citytv in Toronto with Ten Forward, a talk show all about Star Trek. In the above collection of clips, the hosts calmly deal with "weenoid" prank callers who apparently plagued the show. Note the fellow's finger expertly poised on the phone's "disconnect" button.(via r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest

In this video, The Q Cut a small hole in a cardboard box and placed a small piece of meat in it for his cat to take. Then, he put a new piece of meat in the box, a little farther away, to see if the cat would be able to reach it. He repeated the experiment several times, increasing resistance each time.Image: YouTube Read the rest

Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that suspends some residency applications, a measure far short of his earlier promise to block all immigration. It even fails to end the guest visa program for foreign laborers, the hot button he was attempting to press in the first place.The measure is expected to stop the practice of green card holders sponsoring their extended families for permanent US residency, which the president calls chain migration. But it makes an exception for American citizens' spouses and unmarried children under the age of 21. ... Also exempt are the hundreds of thousands of green card applicants already living and working in the US, and those seeking entry to work as doctors, nurses or other healthcare professionals. Another exception is the hundreds of thousands of temporary guest visas issued each year to such applicants as farm labourers and skilled workers in the H-1B visa programme.Some media just ran with their hurriedly recast "immigration banned!" headlines and stories, leading with the White House claims and barely touching upon (or simply not finding out about) the array of exemptions. The deepest problem with media is not false balance, bias or fake news. It is the speed and frequency at which things must be posted. Read the rest

If you purchased a smart phone app that doesn't meet your expectations, Popular Science has a guide for how to get your money back. The first thing to try is contacting Google or Apple and explaining why you want your money back. The last resort is complaining on Twitter. One thing not to do is give the app a one star review before you try to get your money back, or you will lose any leverage you might have.Similarly, the terms and conditions on iTunes and the Google Play Store also include refund requests, although in the case of Apple’s store terms are rather opaque. You have to log in to the Report a Problem portal, find the app you have an issue with, request a refund selecting what you feel is a valid and appropriate reason, briefly explain why, and hope it gets approved by the inner-bureaucracy.Google’s policies are a bit clearer, although hedged with ifs and maybes. Within 48 hours of purchasing an app you can request a refund from Google by logging into your Play Store account, going to Order History, selecting Request a Refund on the app you want to return, and explaining why. If you miss that 48-hour window, you have to contact the developers directly.Photo by Rami Al-zayat on Unsplash Read the rest

At least 4.4m workers claimed unemployment benefits for the first time in the week ending April 18. Unemployment Insurance Weekly ClaimsInitial claims were 4,427,000 for the week ending 4/18 (-810,000).Insured unemployment was 15,976,000 for the week ending 4/11 (+4,064,000).https://t.co/ys7Eg5LKAW— US Labor Department (@USDOL) April 23, 2020The numbers of new filers are down from the previous week, which saw 5.2m new claimants, and the 6.9m and 6.6m claims the two weeks previous to that. The numbers are nonetheless astronomical, and suggest that the total unemployment figure will soon exceed 30m, about 20% of the workforce.Roughly 26 million people have now filed for jobless aid in the five weeks since the coronavirus outbreak began forcing millions of employers to close their doors. About one in six American workers have now lost their jobs since mid-March, by far the worst string of layoffs on record. Economists have forecast that the unemployment rate for April could go as high as 20%. The enormous magnitude of job cuts has plunged the U.S. economy into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Some economists say the nation’s output could shrink by twice the amount that it did during the Great Recession, which ended in 2009. Read the rest

William Sun Petrus hacked an old Remington Portable typewriter to become a EDM dance box. For real though, whenever a hammer contacts with the "live plate", it will send a signal to the arduino. The arduino recognises which hammer has been pressed and fires a signal into my PC via the cable, and into Ableton. Ableton sees some MIDI information and understands that it needs to trigger that specific sound. This song is composed of 17 difference sounds, played live for you, right here, right now. This typewriter is actually just a small part of a much bigger project, so there's still a lot more to come! Read the rest

An old man in Japan owns a vintage topological puzzle, a little monster so difficult to solve that it ended up on Knight Scoop being taken to a physics professor, a professional magician and a chimpanzee in an effort to figure it out. Eventually a ring puzzle master shows how it's done (10:40 if you're pressed for time).UPDATE: This is clearly the same puzzle Rusty blogged back in 2017 in a post that's lost its YouTube. It's now so famous there's a website about the puzzle which sells replicas of it on Amazon. Read the rest

It was bound to happen. As soon as hoarders started scarfing up every square of toilet paper on store shelves last month, leaving the rest of us to nervously hope that more was on the way, savvy shoppers started considering an alternative.The alternative is a bidet. And with TP shortages coupled with pandemic-infused hygiene concerns, bum washer sales are skyrocketing. In fact, one manufacturer reported a 300 percent jump in sales over one week at the height of the craziness.While it took a global crisis to get many Americans onboard the bidet train, clean freaks and freshness fiends have been hip to the bidet’s unique talents for years. Now, models like the X-Clean Bidet Dual Nozzle Sprayer are giving the rest of us a chance to try it out for ourselves.This add-on bidet attachment hooks to your current bowl with an easy 10-step process that connects right to your current water supply and shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes to set up. Once online, the X-Clean’s front and rear spray nozzles promote better hygiene with warm thorough spritzes to keep everything down there clean without reams of toilet paper.The unit’s dual dials allow easy control of the water pressure, including the gentler front-facing nozzle designed for a woman’s comfort.While the X-Clean does a full-service job cleaning you, it does a pretty complete job cleaning itself as well. The nozzles retract in its self-cleaning mode, as internal mechanisms surge water through the system, allowing the X-Clean to expel foreign matter and effectively keep itself sterling clean every time. Read the rest

YouTube says it will remove "unsubstantiated medical content", taking aim at quacks, conspiracy theorists and grifters using the platform to exploit the Covid-19 pandemic.Chief executive Susan Wojcicki said the media giant wanted to stamp out "misinformation on the platform". Mrs Wojcicki made the remarks on Wednesday during her first interview since the global coronavirus lockdown began."So people saying, ‘Take vitamin C, take turmeric, we’ll cure you,’ those are the examples of things that would be a violation of our policy,” she told CNN.“Anything that would go against World Health Organization recommendations would be a violation of our policy.”YouTube has never cared about "misinformation on the platform" before and Wojcicki herself made a big show of readmitting previously-banned hate speech for vague free-speech reasons that nonetheless correspond to commercial incentives. This move suggests that the brightest legal minds conclude that platforming Covid-19 misinformation will come with a high price tag. Read the rest

“The bottom line is simply that we REFUSE to risk even ONE juggalo life by hosting a Gathering during these troubling times,” writes the Insane Clown Posse, demonstrating a greater empathy and concern for its fanbase than a lot of politicians.Stale News Break... pic.twitter.com/IeYQwOMjr9— Insane Clown Posse (@icp) April 22, 2020Photo: Nate Igor Smith Read the rest

Nothing more punk than releasing your first album in 35 years — during a global pandemic — by surprise. You can stream X's Alphabetland now in this very post:“When your heart is broken you think every song is about that. These songs were written in the last 18 months & it blows my mind how timely they are,” explained John Doe. “We all want our family, friends & fans to hear our records as soon as it’s finished. This time we could do that. Thanks to Fat Possum & our audience.”Stereogum:Today happens to be the 40th anniversary of Los Angeles, the classic debut album from the great California punk band X. And with absolutely no advance warning, X’s reunited original lineup have chosen today to release Alphabetland, their first studio album in 35 years.This cover art sure does look like the work of Wayne Whiteimages via X Read the rest

Google Apps Script might be one of the most popular “cheat codes” in all of programming. Of course, it’s not really a cheat, per se. It’s actually just a lightweight, simplified coding method for integrating the vast wealth of data in Google’s suite of apps, everything from Google Sheets to Gmail to Google Docs to YouTube, right into your own build.If you’re building an app and want to access import data from a CSV file into a Google Sheet spreadsheet, or you want to automate mailings from a Gmail account or any of dozens of simple, yet efficient processes, then Google Apps Script should be in your skillset. The training in The Increase Your Google App Productivity with Google Script Bundle can show you all you need to know to navigate the entire scene like a pro.The training starts the introductory level Google Apps Script Complete Course: Beginner to Advanced. Here, even first time users get a velvet glove experience learning Script, how it operates and the ways you can use it to power up your app projects immediately.Three follow-up courses take that baseline knowledge and offer up different Script projects to highlight the wealth of abilities available to users. In Google Apps Script Projects, students follow the steps for creating virtual databases within a Google spreadsheet. Then Google Apps Script 2020: Build 16+ Fun Projects Sites takes the learning further with easy-to-follow projects like creating auto-response emails, incorporating YouTube Video and more.Finally, Google Apps Google Script: Content System Web App Project focuses on bringing in other coding staples, including source code from HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and Bootstrap that can add multiple layers of extra productivity to any app. Read the rest

I'm listening to X's new album, released today on Bandcamp, and it's amazingly good -- loaded with energy and Billy Zoom's mind-warping guitar. It's the original line-up and the band's first album in 35 years. It's called Alphabetland and the cover is by artist Wayne White.From Rolling Stone:In interviews, the band members have expressed mixed emotions about making a new album. All of them except for Zoom said they would want to make a new one in a 2017 Rolling Stone profile of the group.“Families are complicated,” Doe said at the time, carefully choosing his words. “There’s certain … Yeah, I’m not gonna go there.”“It wouldn’t work,” Zoom said. “The chemistry wouldn’t be right. [Some band members] are in different places and stubborn, and I don’t want to go into detail, but it wouldn’t sound like an X record.” The band has yet to explain the change of heart.. Read the rest

Carla ordered these cheap Bic mechanical pencils. I tried one out and I actually like it a lot. The lead diameter is 0.9 mm and it has a number 2 lead inside. It also contains one extra lead in the barrel. A 24-pack sells for about $.25 a pencil. They are supposed to be disposable, but why not buy a bunch of 9 mm lead for cheap and keep using the pencil? You can even get colored leads! Read the rest

After 22 days of being hospitalized with symptoms of COVID-19, and developing pneumonia, singer and counter-cultural icon, Marianne Faithfull, has been released from the hospital. Her official Facebook page writes:We are really happy to say that Marianne has been discharged from hospital today, 22 days after being admitted suffering from the symptoms of Covid-19. She will continue to recuperate in London. Marianne thanks you all for your kind messages of concern which have meant a great deal through what is a such a difficult time for so many. She is also very grateful to all the NHS staff who cared for her at the hospital and, without doubt, saved her life.In celebration, enjoy this tribute song that Marianne wrote upon the passing of her lifelong friend, Anita Richards (Keith's ex)."Forever loving you," Marianne.Image: YouTube Read the rest

Speaking of Gary Numan, I just discovered these basement session videos from 2014 on the YouTubes. I especially like this version of "Are Friends Electric?"There only seems to be three performances available. I assume there are more.Image: YouTube Read the rest

Doctors say the disease caused by the novel coronavirus appears to be causing strokes in young adult patients, some who didn't even know they were infected.If these early reports bear out, it is possible that this could cause the official known toll of the pandemic to be lower than reality -- if patients in their 30s and 40s are dying of stroke, they may not be counted as having died of COVID-19, the thinking goes.From CNN's Maggie Fox:Dr. Thomas Oxley, a neurosurgeon at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, and colleagues gave details of five people they treated. All were under the age of 50, and all had either mild symptoms of Covid-19 infection or no symptoms at all."The virus seems to be causing increased clotting in the large arteries, leading to severe stroke," Oxley told CNN."Our report shows a seven-fold increase in incidence of sudden stroke in young patients during the past two weeks. Most of these patients have no past medical history and were at home with either mild symptoms (or in two cases, no symptoms) of Covid," he added."All tested positive. Two of them delayed calling an ambulance."Other doctors have also reported that people are reluctant to call 911 or go to emergency rooms because of the pandemic. It is not common for people so young to have strokes, especially strokes in the large vessels in the brain."For comparison, our service, over the previous 12 months, has treated on average 0.73 Read the rest

You might say she was willing to gamble with their lives.It's been quite a week for politicians saying awful things that reveal how little they care about the human beings they govern. Latest case in point, the mayor of Las Vegas.In this CNN clip with Anderson Cooper, Mayor Carolyn Goodman of Las Vegas, Nevada offers her city as a “control group” -- she says, "we offer to be a control group" (!!!) -- to find out how many people will become infected with coronavirus and die without social distancing.She is a supporter of impeached president Donald Trump, who is pushing states and mayors to lift social distancing guidelines. Trump is also tweeting erratic commands to his armed supporters about liberating states, and it's all very weird.Watch the clip:Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman calls for businesses to reopen, while saying she won't provide social distancing guidelines on how to do so safely."They better figure it out. That's their job. That's not the mayor's job." https://t.co/lx4A6WuB0P pic.twitter.com/fEedR19LYX— CNN (@CNN) April 22, 2020The brouhaha over her televised comments may be for naught -- there are reports she has no such jurisdiction, anyway.The Las Vegas Strip is not in the City of Las Vegas.She is the mayor of the City of Las Vegas, not the Las Vegas Strip.Turns out the mayor has no control over the Las Vegas strip. From @ThisAlexTin: "City of Las Vegas doesn't actually have any jurisdiction over the Las Vegas Strip. Read the rest

• Dr. Rick Bright, head of the agency responsible for vaccines in the Trump administration, released a statement Wednesday that blames political motives for his abrupt reassignment.• "I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science – not politics or cronyism – has to lead the way."WASHINGTON: Dr. Rick Bright, a leading official at the United States Department of Health and Human Services, says he was demoted for fighting efforts to “fund potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections,” and for opposing hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug touted by Trump as a coronavirus treatment. Bright says he wants an investigation by the Inspector general, and has hired a whistleblower lawyer. Here is the full statement from Bright:"Yesterday, I was removed from my positions as the Director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response by the Administration and involuntarily transferred to a more limited and less impactful position at the National Institutes of Health. I believe this transfer was in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the COVID-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit. I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science -- not politics or cronyism -- has to lead the way."I have spent my entire career in vaccine development, in the government with CDC and BARDA and also in the biotechnology industry. Read the rest

Impeached U.S. president Donald Trump says his administration plans to soon reopen the country's national parks and other public lands, with details to be announced on specific sites in coming days.“We will begin to open our national parks and public lands for the American people to enjoy,” Trump announced at an Earth Day event at the White House, offering no further information. Some national parks have actually remained open throughout the whole COVID-19 pandemic, but many have been closed.Here is the White House announcement. We're committed to conserving the wonders of God's creation by protecting our national parks and public lands! pic.twitter.com/0gGl245a7S— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 22, 2020Gotta get some God in there.Here is a statement from Trump's acting secretary of the Interior.President @realDonaldTrump, @VP and I are committed to working with governors and local public health officials to gradually reopen our National Parks in a safe manner for the American people to once again enjoy. #NationalParkWeek pic.twitter.com/MaUObBJtRK— Secretary David Bernhardt (@SecBernhardt) April 22, 2020From Reuters:Representatives for the White House referred questions to the Department of Interior, which oversees public lands, including federal parks.“More details will be provided in the coming days on plans for the reopening of specific parks following guidance from OMB (Office of Management and Budget) and the President’s plan for Opening Up America Again,” representatives for the department said in a statement.Trump’s comment comes as some U.S. states move forward with plans to restart economic activity as soon as this week despite concern from public health officials and others about the potential for a spike in coronavirus cases. Read the rest

On Wednesday, Facebook said it will label posts from popular accounts to reveal their geographic origin, an attempt to limit election-year political misinformation by foreign entities. Often, such accounts attempt to trick the user into believing they are legitimate groups and political parties based in the United States.Today we're beginning to show the location of high-reach Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts on *every post they share.* Really proud of the teams continuing to increase transparency like this. https://t.co/jwFg34bttp pic.twitter.com/w3UdYkQ1NS— Nathaniel Gleicher (@ngleicher) April 22, 2020Here is the official announcement from Facebook.More from AP:The new policy will apply to popular pages about elections, entertainment and other topics and will stamp every post they make on Facebook and Instagram with its origin. For instance, an Instagram account targeting U.S. voters but based in Brazil will have every post labeled with “Based in Brazil.” Users then can swipe to find out more information about the account.It’s the social network’s latest attempt to fight election-related misinformation. Russia and other countries have been using social media to try to influence political discourse in the U.S. and elsewhere, often by masquerading as local interest groups.Facebook will initially target pages based outside of the U.S. that reach a large number of people inside the U.S. The labels, the company says, will help people “gauge the reliability and authenticity” of what they see.Read the rest:Facebook to label national origin of popular posts Read the rest

More than 12 government-backed hacker groups are exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic as cover for digital reconnaissance and espionage, a new report by Google's Threat Analysis Group finds.An excerpt from reporting by Lily Hay Newman at Wired:On Wednesday, Google's Threat Analysis Group published findings about two of the state-sponsored campaigns it's been tracking. One "notable" effort, according to the researchers, targeted US government employees through their personal email accounts with phishing messages posing as coronavirus-related updates from fast food chains. TAG says that some of the emails included coupons or free meal offers framed as pandemic specials, and others promoted malicious links as portals to order food online. If victims clicked the links, they were taken to phishing pages aimed at collecting their Google login credentials. TAG says that Gmail automatically marked the vast majority of these emails as spam and blocked the malicious links."Hackers frequently look at crises as an opportunity, and COVID-19 is no different," TAG director Shane Huntley wrote in a blog post about the findings. "Across Google products, we’re seeing bad actors use COVID-related themes to create urgency so that people respond to phishing attacks and scams.… TAG has specifically identified over a dozen government-backed attacker groups using COVID-19 themes as lure for phishing and malware attempts—trying to get their targets to click malicious links and download files."TAG says it isn't aware of any accounts that were compromised as a result of the fast food campaign, and Google notified all the targeted users with its standard "government-backed attacker" warning. Read the rest

"Beth" is Kiss's biggest hit ever and, interestingly, was co-written and sung by the band's drummer Peter Criss. It's arguably one of the most iconic power ballads of the 1970s. (Full song below.) But what was the song really about? Director Brian Billow shows that there's always two sides to every story. And if there isn't, you can just make one up. "Beth" the film stars Lilli Birdsell as Beth and Steven Olson as Peter.(via Dangerous Minds) Read the rest

A large majority of people surveyed say they are concerned that restrictions on social distancing will be lifted too soon. Even before cities and states issued stay at home orders, people were avoiding restaurants and other crowded places, according to Matthew Iglesias of Vox. There's no reason to think that "reopening" the economy is certainly going to make people think it's OK to mingle in crowds again.This week, governors in states like Florida and Georgia are moving to reopen bowling alleys, nail salons, and dine-in restaurants in an effort to get economic life moving again. And an organized campaign by conservative economic interests is underway to lift restrictions faster in more places.This will be an experiment, of course, but the best available evidence casts doubt on the idea that enough customers will return to make it possible for small businesses to stay viable without additional government assistance.For example, we know customers began abandoning America’s restaurants before they were ordered closed, that the handful of states that have avoided broad lockdown orders are still feeling economic pain, and that huge swaths of the economy that have not been shut down are nonetheless experiencing a precipitous decline in sales.It's also hard to imagine that a lot of people who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic are going to get them back if the economy is "reopened." And it's unlikely people are going to get on planes, take vacations, stay in hotels, or buy cars and other expensive items. Read the rest

Amid the news that hydroxychloroquine is actually more dangerous than beneficial, this video might come in handy when the lawsuits start rolling in.pic.twitter.com/nC4Ve1NBNQ— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) April 21, 2020Hydroxychloroquine, a word that spilled like honey from the lips of her lovers at Fox News, is no longer welcome at the channel. Shunned like a Roger Ailes victim who complained about being assaulted, the chemical has been forgotten by its formerly infatuated swains, including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham.Maybe the rift began after those studies came out showing hydroxychloroquine didn't work against coronavirus and in fact caused higher death rates then coronavirus patients who did not take the drug.We'll never know, because Fox News doesn't want to talk about it."Will anyone who breathlessly pitched hydroxychloroquine as a miracle drug show a modicum of regret or even self-awareness over this? Doubtful," tweeted Sam Stein of The Daily Beast. "More likely is they’ll ignore the study entirely."Fox News is past it. Can't we do the same and respect their privacy in this personal matter between former lovers? Read the rest

In 1977, Steve "Woz" Wozniak used a neat hack to bring color to the Apple II computer. According to IEEE Spectrum, the obscure trick, called NTSC artifact color, "allows digital systems without specialized graphics hardware to produce color images by exploiting quirks in how TVs decode analog video signals." That hack later was employed by the IBM PC, Radio Shack TRS-80, and other early home computers. But how did Woz learn about it? Turns out, videogame legend Al Alcorn, inventor of Pong, turned Woz onto the hack. From IEEE Spectrum:Stephen Cass: Analog NTSC televisions generate color by looking at the phase of a signal relative to a reference frequency. So how did you come across this color test tool, and how did it work? Al Alcorn: When I was 13, 14, my neighbor across the street had a television repair shop. I would go down there and at the same time, I had my father sign me up for an RCA correspondence course on radio and television repair. So, by the time I got to Berkeley, I was a journeyman TV repairman and actually paid my way through college through television. In one repair shop, there was a real cheap, sleazy color bar generator [for testing televisions]. And instead of doing color properly by synthesizing the phases and stuff like that, it simply used a crystal that was 3.58 megahertz [the carrier frequency for the color signal] minus 15.750 kilohertz, which was the horizontal scan frequency. So it slipped one phase, 360 degrees, every scan line. Read the rest

YouTuber 3Blue1Brown has started a video series called "lockdown math." In his latest episode he goes over the fundamentals of trigonometry in a way that is accessible and enjoyable. Read the rest