Boing Boing

CBS News reports that Kellie Chauvin, wife of the police officer who killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nearly 9 consecutive minutes, has filed for divorce.Sekula Law Offices, the law firm representing Mrs. Chauvin, posted this on Facebook:This evening, I spoke with Kellie Chauvin and her family. She is devastated by Mr. Floyd’s death and her utmost sympathy lies with his family, with his loved ones and with everyone who is grieving this tragedy. She has filed for dissolution of her marriage to Derek Chauvin.While Ms. Chauvin has no children from her current marriage, she respectfully requests that her children, her elder parents, and her extended family be given safety and privacy during this difficult time.According to International Business News, Mrs. Chauvin was born in Thailand in 1974, and spent the first several years of her life in a refugee camp before her family moved to Wisconsin. She entered in an arranged marriage in 1991, and had 2 children before leaving that first husband after a decade for alleged abuse. In 2018, she became the first woman of Hmong descent to be crowned Mrs. Minnesota. She met the man who killed George Floyd when he came in on a work shift while she was working at Hennepin County Medical Center — by which he already had an established record of violent conduct that went unpenalized — and married him in 2010.The Chauvins also own property in Orange County, Florida — where the officer who killed George Floyd cast his voting ballots in 2016 and 2018, despite presumably being a Minnesota permanent resident in order to serve as a police officer (although only 8 percent of Minneapolis police actually live in Minneapolis). Read the rest

Twitter rants and various online ugliness aside, social media has actually grown up a bit over the past 15 years. In general, users are warier of their interactions on platforms like Facebook or Instagram — and marketers have taken note.In fact, if you felt retailers you saw on social media were only looking to jam products down your throat, that’s not marketing in 2020. Of marketers surveyed in a recent study, the clear no. 1 goal for brands in the social media realm — a commanding 69 percent — was to build brand awareness. In case you’re curious, driving sales was a lowly fifth place on the list.So how do products build that awareness and engage with the audience they seek? The training in The 2020 Social Media Marketing Bootcamp Certification Bundle lays out the plan for any company looking to make the most of a social media presence, drive brand success and make you an in-demand social media manager.Since no two social media platforms are truly alike, this seven-course, 34-plus hour collection aims to help marketers create strategies customized to work on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more.The fundamentals are explained in the Digital Marketing Foundations 101 course, a nuts-and-bolts walkthrough that hammers home the most critical decision for any social media manager: crafting a clear digital strategy. This course digs into email marketing, building a website, SEO, digital advertising, measurement, analytics, and all the latest trends in the digital marketing game.While that course lays out the basics, Social Media Foundations 101 and Social Media Strategy advance your learning into practical steps for bringing that digital marketing plan to life. Read the rest

Virus quarantines and shuttered restaurants sent millions of Americans back to their homes, only to rediscover the joys of firing up an oven and cooking something special for themselves. Whether by desire, necessity, or both, many of us have certainly been spending more time in the kitchen these last few months. And we haven’t just been hungry for the food itself. Americans have also been hungry for new ways to make it. Case in point, the Allrecipes Alexa skill saw recipe requests surge by 67 percent during March and April, while new users skyrocketed by 80 percent.Pizza is an eternal crowd-pleaser, but plenty of chefs get intimidated at the thought of making crust and sauce from scratch. Thankfully, professional chef Tim Cunningham is on the case — and his 1-hour crash course Pizza Making: Bake the Best Sourdough Pizza at Home! seeks to prove that anyone with basic kitchen skills is more than capable of baking up a delicious pie.The Australian-born Cunningham is a veteran of rustic Italian and Mediterranean cuisine -- and over this step-by-step instruction, students learn the fundamentals for making a world-class pizza that doesn’t require expensive equipment or ingredients. Over these seven lectures, Cunningham starts by explaining how to make your own sourdough starter from yeast and bacteria so your handmade crust will always be absolutely stellar. From there, he walks students through the creation of a Napoli sauce for pizza bases. Then armed with your crust and sauce, you’re already more than halfway to a homemade pizza that will put anything you have delivered from Grubhub to shame. Read the rest

Now that the world is starting to re-emerge from its self-imposed COVID-19 quarantine, we’re all going to have to start making some adjustments to both short-term and long-term changes. And the questions… Should customers be hounded out of a store if they aren’t wearing a face mask? Are crocheted face masks safe or not? And will face masks be required everywhere, even the Happiest Place on Earth?It’s still too early to know the answers to many of these face mask-related questions, but there’s one we already know the answer to. Who wants to wear a boring plain white N95 mask anyway?Answer: No one. Therefore, you can start assembling your too-cool-for-the-room face wear wardrobe now with a two-pack of these two-ply statement face masks. Each one is made from a premium, washable poly span stretchy fabric that covers your nose and mouth comfortably while containing and blocking any airborne pathogens.And thankfully, they’ve created these short, direct commentaries for the wide variety of personality types out there. For the concernedIn two words, an entire conversation path is established. In an instant, you express your clean-as-a-whistle health status, all while inquiring about everyone else’s state.For the huggerThis period of social distancing is hard on those who thrive in other people’s personal space. For them, this simple four-letter declaration says everything their empty arms cannot these days.For the non-committalLook, make your statement out in the world, but there’s no reason to tip your hand, right? Hello is about as tacitly friendly, yet socially ambiguous a greeting as possible. Read the rest

Maybe you had a piano teacher as a kid that drove you off the instrument forever. Or maybe you always wished for some serious training, but never found the time.Whether you have dreams of tossing off a Beethoven or Chopin piece at the drop of a hat or you have visions of being the next Ray Charles, The Ultimate Piano Bundle: From Beginner to Advanced course bundle was created to turn an interested, invested novice into a functioning, then studied master of the keys in record time.This collection includes 10 courses with a massive 140-plus hours of training dedicated to helping you not only learn to play the piano but understand the instrument, read music, compose and generally become a real, honest-to-goodness musician.Nobody was to get buried in scholastics before they ever touch the keys, so this training kicks off with the Ultimate Piano Course: Go from a Beginner/Average to an Advanced Pianist. Starting from the beginning, the class can make you a proficient player through over 30 hours of training. The course explains the hows and whys of music theory, walks students through the entire keypad, including chord progressions, and generally immerses first-timers in a world of music.The next step is the Intermediate/Advanced Piano Course: Enhance Your Musical/Piano Skills as your basic skills are tested with an expanded variety of lessons to push your abilities even further. But since playing is only a piece of the piano experience, the collection includes courses in learning to tackle the music pages themselves. Read the rest

When you see that curved arrow on the side of a cardboard box, you instantly know that box came from Amazon. The unfurled rainbow feathers of a peacock immediately scream NBC. And a partially eaten piece of fruit in the profile is a world-recognized symbol of tech titan Apple.Icons are powerful symbols, condensing volumes of connection and meaning into a compact, simple image that conveys all that history and significance. For a web designer, those tiny icons are important navigation and information signifiers that form a critical unwritten shorthand with site visitors. Rather than trying to create those icons yourself, designers can get a serious leg-up in their creation by having all those icons created for you. With an Iconscout subscription, all that aid is available in a simple download.Curators of their own design research marketplace, Iconscout is home to more than 2 million high-quality, royalty-free icons, each lovingly created by one of more than 300 top designers for use in virtually any type of web project you could envision.With that many available options (and literally thousands more added to the Iconscout library every single day), your project can find just the graphic look to mesh with your creation, whether your icons should represent tech, education, entertainment, and sports or relationships, business, science or food and drink, to name just a few. Each is available in a broad range of sizes and styles contoured to find the look and feel of any design project.If you’d like to modify an icon to include something different, such as your brand’s colors, for example, no problem. Read the rest

As Japanese musician Masami Akita (aka Merzbow) performs live in Taipei in 2013, one concertgoer demonstrates that enjoying noise music does not preclude you from practicing good dental hygiene. Full clip below. Read the rest

Call it retro. Call it a throwback. Even call it kitsch. But the 80s are still a singular time in pop culture history. From Ghostbusters and Back to the Future to your neighborhood arcade and the Atari 2600, artifacts of that seminal decade still resonate, evoking audible excitement and sighs of pleasant yesteryear remembrance.But out of that neon-saturated, spandex-infused, go-go-decade, there may be no more symbolically fitting encapsulation of the entire era than the device that revolutionized music back in the day: the Sony Walkman and the dawn of personal audio players.Even if you weren’t around to see that revolution firsthand in 1980, getting your hands on the Replitronics Hotline 16000 Power Bank will convince everybody that you were — even though it serves a very 2020 function.It’s designed to look exactly like an early 80s vintage personal cassette player, right down to the old-school buttons and that plastic cover window that lets you watch your tape spin round and round. But beyond being a cool conversation piece, the Replitronics Hotline 16000 is a modern-day beast, offering enough juice to power up to three devices back to full strength all at once. With a mighty 16,000 mAh battery inside, this unit can feed power via USB 3.0, USB-C, and even wireless Qi charging all at the same time. Just plug in your iPhone and the Hotline will get you from dead to fully powered in just over an hour or in just under three if you’re charging wirelessly. Read the rest

At Reddit, mtietje posted this remarkable photo of their lockdown project: an iPad stand made using an old Macintosh SE/30. The display size is perfect for the 9.7" iPad, and now that iPadOS can use mice they work much better as "normal" computers. Se/30 shells turn up on eBay now and again. One's there now with bidding at $15. Shipping tends to really bloat the price of even a broken model with the bits still inside. I doubt you could reasonably shave down the SE/30 display housing to fit an iPad Pro, unfortunately: you'd lose all the beveling. Now, the iMac G4 (below) came with a 15" screen that a 12.7" iPad Pro might hack into without looking too small. Maybe you could even just remove the display entirely and magnet the iPad on the arm? Read the rest

In the footage below, broadcast live by an NBC affiliate and posted to Twitter by Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, a news crew moves into the street near a line of riot police. Protestors are not nearby in significant numbers and the police are not engaging them. A cop steps forward from the line and opens fire on the news crew with what appear to be pepper rounds.Police firing pepper bullets at our local NBC affiliate news crew live on TV. pic.twitter.com/aGBzl4WAA4— Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons (@GuthrieGF) May 30, 2020Video of the encounter shows Kaitlin Rust, a reporter for CBS affiliate WAVE 3 News, narrating as she walks around the area of the protest before suddenly screaming: "I'm getting shot!" Rust appears shocked but continues reporting, explaining what's happening as the camera focuses in on an officer pointing a gun with pepper bullets at the cameraman. ... The incident took place as police were reportedly trying to clear the area of large groups of protesters. It is unclear why the police chose to open fire on the reporters.When policing is this violent and contemptuous of constitutional rights, it seems pointless to single out specific aspects of the problem. The shooter's immediate goal for opening fire on the news crew is stop the filming. He didn't get what he wanted, but he won't face any consequences, either. Read the rest

The Supreme Court ruled friday that lockdown rules during the Covid-19 pandemic do not place an unconstitutional burden on free speech. The court's four liberals were joined by chief justice John Roberts to form a 5-4 majority over the other conservative justices; the case concerned a church's right to fill the pews after California governor Gavin Newsome imposed a 25%-or-100-person occupancy limit.Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court's liberals in rejecting a San Diego church's request for relief from Gov. Gavin Newsom's most recent directive limiting churches to 25% of their normal maximum capacity, with an absolute maximum of 100 people at any service.In a three-page opinion issued just before the stroke of midnight Washington time, Roberts said it would be unwise for the court to intervene on an emergency basis as state officials try to grapple with the ebb and flow of a pandemic caused by a highly infectious and sometimes deadly virus. Read the rest

Jarkan deepfaked Leonard Nimoy into the 2009 Star Trek movie, replacing Zachary Quinto in the scene where he meets an older version of himself from a parallel universe. This is surely going to be entering the regular toolkit of cinema soon enough, resurrecting the dead for new films. It's already more natural and convincing than CG--compare to digital Moff Tarkin, for example, which just looked like a videogame cutscene to me. But it also fails more completely; it's still Quinto at odd angles. Read the rest

With millions out of work, the global economy in a sharp recession, and legitimate fears for the future abound, you might think this is absolutely the worst time to strike out on your own and be your own boss as a work-for-hire freelancer.But according to numbers compiled by financial services company Payoneer, the current state of the freelance market might not be as dire as you think. While some freelancers have reported a downturn in demand, almost 40 percent said they’ve seen no change or even an increase in business over the past three months. A resounding 75 percent said their rates were still unchanged by the pandemic; and the average 2020 freelance hourly rate remained higher than it was just two years ago.If you can get past the fear, the opportunity is still there for those looking to make it on their own. And the training in the Kickstart Your Freelance Career Course Bundle can help you chart your path toward independence and prosperity working remotely as a skilled freelancer.Over these eight courses, students earn a thorough understanding of what it takes to carve out a profitable living working for yourself as well as step-by-step guides and tips on launching a fulfilling freelance career.The Freelance Kickstart: Start a Successful Business You Love and Sales and Marketing for Freelancers courses cut right to the heart of the matter by laying out how to achieve the twin pillars of a successful freelance lifestyle: handling assignments and clients like a true business, and forging the right mindset to succeed in that often competitive space. Read the rest

Protests over the police killing of George Floyd continue in Minneapolis tonight, in defiance of a curfew imposed by the mayor. Protesters have now overtaken the westbound interstate 35 freeway in Minneapolis.Protest disrupts traffic on I-35W at University in Minneapolis https://t.co/5GeqUKKadr— FOX 9 (@FOX9) May 29, 2020Protesters are shutting down interstate 35 in Minneapolis #Minneapolis #GeorgeFloydProtests pic.twitter.com/v7evgaVmfj— Zach Boyden-Holmes (@Boydenphoto) May 29, 2020BREAKING: A group of protesters in downtown Minneapolis have now started marching north down southbound 35W lane. | WATCH LIVE: https://t.co/VeTHVZ0EuO pic.twitter.com/7GzZfYo8RX— WCCO - CBS Minnesota (@WCCO) May 29, 2020Protest is blocking all of I35W in Minneapolis, crossing the Mississippi. pic.twitter.com/YTiepwYWrB— robertklemko (@RobertKlemko) May 29, 2020 Read the rest

• One Trump fundraising event in Dallas next month has a price tag of $580,600 per couple.Impeached president Donald Trump is scheduled to headline in-person fundraisers as early as June, which would be his first since the coronavirus outbreak stopped campaign events in March.Alex Isenstadt at Politico was first to break the news late on Friday.NEWS: Trump is resuming in-person fundraising events — the most concrete move yet by the president to restart typical election-year activities halted by the coronavirus. https://t.co/y7tAryCZA9— Alex Isenstadt (@politicoalex) May 29, 2020“Trump plans to headline a gathering at a private home in Dallas on June 11, and an outdoor event at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., on June 13,” reports Michelle Ye Hee Lee at the Washington Post:Both events will be geared toward wealthy donors, charging $580,600 per couple for the Dallas event and $250,000 per person for the New Jersey event. The money will go to Trump Victory, a committee that raises money for the Trump campaign, the Republican Party and 22 state parties.Party officials said they plan to take safety measures to ensure the health of the president and attendees. About 25 people are expected to attend each event, which is a smaller gathering than many other Trump Victory fundraisers. The events were first reported Friday by Politico.The White House Medical Unit and U.S. Secret Service will evaluate all attendees to decide whether they can attend the event, according to a party official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss security measures. Read the rest

Buzzfeed News reporters obtained the explanation offered by United States Department of Homeland Security's CBP to congressional staffers who asked why it decided to fly a Predator Drone over Minneapolis during the protests over the killing of George Floyd.The drone flown over Minneapolis today is reported to be an unarmed version of the unmanned Predator aircraft.Excerpt:Minneapolis could also be subject to surveillance at the federal level as the protests unfold. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) flew a Predator drone over the city on Friday, according to Jason Paladino, an investigative reporter at the Project on Government Oversight.In a statement given to congressional staffers on Friday that was obtained by BuzzFeed News, CBP officials said the agency's Air and Marine Operations was "preparing to provide live video to aid in situational awareness at the request of our federal law enforcement partners in Minneapolis." The agency said drones are often deployed around the country to "augment law enforcement and humanitarian relief efforts.""After arriving into the Minneapolis airspace, the requesting agency determined that the aircraft was no longer needed for operational awareness and departed back to Grand Forks," the statement read.Scary times. Read more:Here Are The Minneapolis Police's Tools To Identify Protesters[ Caroline Haskins, Ryan Mac, Hamed Aleaziz, May 29, 2020, at 6:02 p.m. ET, IMAGE: US Air Force, public domain ]More from observers and reporters on Twitter, below.correction: the Customs and Border Protection Predator B drone that flew over Minneapolis today actually appears to have been outside of the 100 air mile zone where CBP craft are allowed to operate. Read the rest

Donald Trump on Friday afternoon claimed to be completely ignorant of the racist history of the phrase 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts,' which he tweeted, and the White House retweeted, and which was also posted on the Presidential Facebook account.The phrase was made famous by a Miami police chief in 1967.JUST IN: President Trump addresses tweet (and WH retweet) that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”....claims he didn’t know the racially charged history. @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/hrByVLXgsS— Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCBS) May 29, 2020Trump on Friday told reporters he believed the phrase means "when there's looting, people get shot and they die." He says that's very accurate and "we don't want that to happen."Trump denied knowing the origins of the phrase “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” saying he has heard the phrase “for a long time.”When a reporter noted it was said by Miami police chief in 1967, Trump said he “has also heard from many other places.”@JasonHoffman93— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 29, 2020"That's the way that was meant, and that's the way I think it was supposed to be meant, but I don't know where it came from."President Trump says he didn't know where the term "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."It originates from a Miami police chief whose aggressive policies in black neighborhoods led to violence in the late 1960s.https://t.co/QoVGt6ce5Y— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) May 29, 2020"I've heard that phrase for a long time. Read the rest

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has had it with Donald Trump's bullshit threats of violence against Americans."Being black in America should not be a death sentence," she said at a press conference today, regarding the police killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd.“I will encode what I really want to say to Donald Trump,” Lightfoot said. “It's two words: It begins with F and it ends with U." For those looking for the clip of @chicagosmayor Lori Lightfoot telling President @realDonaldTrump "f--- you," here ya go. pic.twitter.com/bbGCxXZ09U— Kelly Bauer (@BauerJournalism) May 29, 2020The mayor was addressing Trump's "When the looting starts, the shooting starts" social media posts.Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot censors herself but says "fuck you" to President @realDonaldTrump over his comments implying people will be shot in Minneapolis. https://t.co/hjDlIjc0Kz— Kelly Bauer (@BauerJournalism) May 29, 2020Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has two words for Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/kBNlsJi84s— BallerAlert (@balleralert) May 29, 2020"I pray for the day we can eradicate two plagues in our face; COVID19 and racism," the Mayor continued. Here's what Facebook employees are saying about Zuckerberg's decision not to take action against Trump's threatening postsCop who killed George Floyd arrestedTwitter hides Trump tweet calling for "THUGS" to be shot Read the rest

• You'll never guess how much the computer originally cost.“Scratch build, no 3D printing allowed here!”Amazing work by IMGURian 6502b, a painstakingly accurate scale model of an IBM 1401 computer, in teeny-tiny size. This is an IBM 1401 scaled model I am working on, part of a diorama. It is a scratch build made of polystyrene mostly. I make everything by hand, no 3D printing involved.The IBM 1401 is a computer from 1959, considered to be the first successful mass produced computer. I have been working on this miniature diorama since December last year, to celebrate its 60th anniversary. Here is a close-up of the mini CPU unit SMS transistor card. The IBM 1401, build in 1959, didn't have a dedicated processor like in modern computers, it was made up of thousands of single transistors build on what they called SMS card that were all wire wrapped by hand. The whole unit was what consist of the processor.About the original upon which this miniature is based, from Wikipedia:The IBM 1401 is a variable-wordlength decimal computer that was announced by IBM on October 5, 1959. The first member of the highly successful IBM 1400 series, it was aimed at replacing unit record equipment for processing data stored on punched cards and at providing peripheral services for larger computers.Here's the full gallery!I am making a miniature IBM 1401 scale model. Scratch build, no 3D printing allowed here! OC Read the rest

The Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, has declared a curfew for the city following protests over impunity in the killing of George Floyd.An 8 p.m. curfew imposed by the mayor late Friday will extend through the weekend.Mayor Frey has issued Emergency Regulation No. 2020-2-1 which imposes a curfew throughout the City of Minneapolis beginning at 8 p.m. tonight (Fri., May 29) and extends through the weekend.See the posted regulation for details at: https://t.co/iebgleKnyx pic.twitter.com/7l61oURPtc— Minneapolis Clerk (@mplsclerk) May 29, 2020Minneapolis mayor announces a curfew beginning 8 p.m. tonight until 6 a.m. tomorrow and another 8 p.m. Saturday through 6 a.m. Sunday. People are banned from public streets + public places in Minneapolis with some exceptions (police, fire, National Guard, the homeless) pic.twitter.com/yuTD0QmCqm— Mark Berman (@markberman) May 29, 2020PREVIOUSLY ON BOING BOING:• Cop who killed George Floyd arrested• Minneapolis ablaze after prosecutor suggests no crime was committed by cops who killed George Floyd• The cop who killed George Floyd has a long record of police brutality Read the rest

Impeached President Donald Trump announced on a Friday afternoon in the middle of a pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 that he is terminating the relationship between the United States and the World Health Organization.President Trump: We will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization.— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) May 29, 2020The President announces he’s terminating the relationship with the WHO pic.twitter.com/FDLwv9VVE9— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) May 29, 2020In responding to Trump's reckless attacks on public health, the American Medical Association did not mince words.The American Medical Association is not mincing words about Trump quitting the World Health Organization. pic.twitter.com/Vqq1sllVRQ— Jeffrey Young (@JeffYoung) May 29, 2020Nor did medical professionals on Twitter, like Jeremy Konyndyk of the Center for Global Development and Georgetown University.The bottom line is that none of this is about WHO's performance. It's purely about deflecting accountability for 100k dead Americans, and counting, on Trump's watch. I dove into the merits along with @TomBollyky here: https://t.co/4dNEgob7iU— Jeremy TEST/TRACE/ISOLATE Konyndyk (@JeremyKonyndyk) May 29, 2020 Read the rest

The letter from 4 senators was addressed to Zhang Yiming, founder and CEO of TikTok owner ByteDance.

For years, dirty countertops, appliances, or bathroom fixtures were just kind of gross. But unkempt corners of your kitchen and bathroom aren’t just a sign of laziness anymore. Now, they’re a potential breeding ground for infectious disease. You can’t just limp through cleaning these days. You’ve gotta get rigorous about it, which means it’s no longer acceptable to bring a knife to a gunfight. The Drill Brush Cleaning Supply Kit not only ups the ante on your household cleaning regimen, but it handles the task by repurposing one of your toolkit favorites, your trusty power drill.This set included four different brush heads, each designed with unique shapes and bristle stiffnesses to attach to your cordless drill for specific cleaning jobs. Snap on the 5-inch medium stiffness brush for getting stubborn dirt off your kitchen countertops or bathroom flat surfaces. Or switch out to the 5-inch soft brush to apply a lighter touch for items like carpet, upholstery, glass, leather, wheels, and more.However, if you need to go big, this kit comes prepared. The 4-inch stiff brush really digs in, attacking dirt and other built-up filth on areas like tile walls and floors or even linoleum. Finally, the 4-inch scrub pad stands ready to step in when you need to clean stainless steel, porcelain, or composites like fiberglass or carbon fiber. The brushes are all even color-coded to help avoid the threat of any cross-contamination.You’ll also get a backer attachment to connect your scrub pads as well as a 4-ounce bottle of Drill-Tergent, a non-toxic clean solution that obliterates 99 percent of germs on all of your household surfaces. Read the rest

RIP Starship SN4 ?https://t.co/klPMtZHxjW pic.twitter.com/hrrElBXmSC— Chris B - NSF (@NASASpaceflight) May 29, 2020SpaceX's Starship SN4 prototype launch vehicle just exploded in a huge fireball during a static fire test in Boca Chica, Texas. While the Starship spacecraft is still early in development, the explosion doesn't feel great leading up to the SpaceX-NASA historic launch now scheduled for tomorrow. Scrubbed on Wednesday due to weather, it'll be the first time humans will launch to space from the United States since 2011 and the first time a private company will take humans offworld. Read the rest

The Hood Internet cut up bits of 50+ music videos from 1988 and mashed them into a four minute video. It would make the perfect soundtrack to a montage of 80s movie montages.(via Laughing Squid) Read the rest

Miramar, Florida police arrested Matthew Crandall, 21, for allegedly breaking into Miramar High School and smashing up the place. He wore only a hat and headphones as he destroyed computers and TVs and apparently caused major flooding. The total wreckage is estimated at $100,000. Crandall was identified from surveillance footage. According to the Associated Press, "it’s not known whether he has ties to the school."(Thanks to our Florida bureau chief, Charles Pescovitz!) Read the rest

Derek Chauvin, the cop who killed George Floyd, was arrested today and taken into custody. The arrest follows three days of growing unrest in Minneapolis, where Floyd, suspected of passing a fake $20 bill for a pack of cigarettes, was filmed gasping for his life while Chauvin kneeled on his neck.Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said state investigators arrested Derek Chauvin, who was one of four officers fired this week, but he did not provide details. The state attorney who would oversee any prosecution on state charges, whose home was also the site of protests, was scheduled to provide an update later Friday.News of the arrest came moments after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz acknowledged the “abject failure” of the response to this week’s protests and called for swift justice for officers involved. Derek Chauvin, the police officer who murdered George Floyd, was arrested.This is not enough. We have much further to go — including swift, independent prosecution conducted by the Attorney General's office.The fight to dismantle a violent, oppressive system has just begun. https://t.co/46o1tx0Cqo— ACLU (@ACLU) May 29, 2020 Read the rest

The badly written dystopian fiction that is our global pandemic continues.Sky News:A gang of monkeys attacked a laboratory assistant and escaped with a batch of coronavirus blood test samples, it has been reported.The bizarre incident saw the troop of primates launch their assault near Meerut Medical College in Delhi, India.According to local media, the animals then snatched COVID-19 blood test samples that had been taken from three patients and fled. Read the rest

I have long been a fan of pan-searing steaks and finishing their roast in the oven. Previously, I'd either thaw the steaks in the fridge overnight or I would sous vide them instead of using the oven, and sear them at the end.This technique: thawing the surface of the steak enough to hold seasoning and then starting the pan sear is wonderful. I have found that sous vide from frozen to be ok but not my favorite. Read the rest

A $350 USB device claiming to block 5G radio signals is just a cheap unbranded thumbdrive, report security researchers. The makers of the “5GBioShield” claim their USB stick can block electrical waves through a “proprietary holographic nano-layer catalyst” technology. It purportedly does this by “balancing” all the existing radiations around you to create a protective bubble 8 meters in diameter, even when the USB drive is unplugged.The website for the product goes on to make dubious references to “quantum oscillation,” “life force frequencies,” and “cardiac coherence” in an attempt to convince consumers the science behind the 5GBioShield is legit. But you’ll be pretty disappointed if you actually buy the product, according to Pen Test Partners.The device (sold as the 5GBioShield) is aimed at people who believe conspiracy theories about 5G radio waves—a market whose credulity and susceptibility to unproven or pseudoscientific products is already guaranteed.That it's something you can buy on Amazon for a fraction of the price[Amazon link] just shows how little work went into the wheeze. The website selling the thumbdrives is based in the UK. Local regulators and fraud police are on the case: "We consider it to be a scam," Stephen Knight, operations director for London Trading Standards, told the BBC. Read the rest

"Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. YEAH YEAH YEAHYEAHYEAHYEAH" — Blue the husky. Read the rest

It's easy to become inured to Trump's ceaseless depravity, which is why I'm glad I read Joe Scarborough's Op-Ed in The Washington Post about Trump's sociopathic obsession about a false story that is causing great pain to a dead woman's family.One is a politician so obsessed with a morning cable news show that he has sought retribution by repeatedly defaming a dead woman’s memory.The other is a soft-spoken Air Force engineer who has worked on projects for 32 years with the singular goal of protecting and defending the United States. The 6-foot-3 Florida resident is still mourning the death of a wife he lost 19 years ago. He holds on to cherished memories of Lori Klausutis as a lifelong Republican, a devoted Catholic who sang in her church choir and an avid runner so perpetually cheerful that people called her “Little Miss Mary Sunshine.” After Lori’s death, T.J. Klausutis returned alone to the home the couple had just bought in Niceville, Fla., and faced an almost immediate barrage of Internet conspiracy theories about the “murder” of his wife.The pace of those hateful lies ebbed and flowed with the years, until they swelled recently into a slimy tsunami of bilge spewing from President Trump’s 80-million-strong Twitter feed. I have never been able to grasp Trump’s bizarre fixation with “Morning Joe,” but that sad obsession has driven him to weaponize Lori’s memory in an attempt to settle some perceived grievance against me. Or perhaps to deflect from the 100,000 Americans lost to a disease he once dismissed as “one person coming in from China.” Read the rest

Hunting around for an outlet or a power battery when you’re trying to charge your phone or tablet is always an annoyance. But when you’re out in the world hiking or camping or traveling, finding an outlet might be more than a minor inconvenience...it might be downright impossible.Running low on battery power isn’t an option anybody looks forward to these days, especially if you’re out and about and may need that phone in the event of any emergency. Thankfully, the RAVPower 24W 3-Port Solar Charger takes advantage of the fact that the world’s most powerful battery is almost always right there overhead: the Sun.Actually, the RAVPower is really more than a traditional charger. Unlike bulky brick-style chargers, the RAVPower is its own solar panel, half the weight of other chargers. Just unfold it from its tiny, compact carrier and aim it at the Sun as its high-efficiency solar cells start juicing up.Converting nearly a quarter of available solar power into free energy, the RAVPower is a fast, effective, lightweight charger for use in almost any condition. In fact, you can even throw the RAVPower over the back of your pack, plug in your phone, and watch your device power up while you keep moving.It charges up to two USB-powered devices simultaneously and can take a smartphone’s battery from zero to fully charged in the space of about 3 to 4 hours. The RAVPower uses iSmart technology to automatically adjust to your connected devices, serving up the optimal charging current evenly to everything you have plugged in in the shortest possible charging time. Read the rest

a group of young black entrepreneurs have owned a office building in uptown minneapolis for over a year& got racially profiled at the private gym today??‍♀️smh pic.twitter.com/iKmAuW5Tli— nisa (@anisalrh) May 27, 2020Tom Austin, AKA "Venture Kapitalist Karen," had his office lease terminated after a video showed him calling the building manager to complain about a group of black men in the office gym.From The Hill:The incident comes just days after a video of a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd until he died of asphyxiation went viral. The death of Floyd, an African American man, led to massive protests in the city and calls for an investigation into the officers' behavior.Stuart Ackerberg, CEO of Ackerberg Group, which owns the MoZaic East building, said he was still heartbroken from seeing the video of Floyd when he decided to terminate the lease.“My heart hurts,” he told the Tribune. “This is not how we do business. ... I’m alarmed by what I saw.” Read the rest

Twitter last night hid one of President Trump's tweet behind a warning, saying that it broke the company's policy against glorifying violence. In the tweet, Trump branded protestors in Minneapolis 'THUGS' and suggested they should be shot.....These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!Floyd was an unarmed black man killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Minneapolis has seen two nights of unrest as local authorities refuse to release unredacted footage of the incident or to charge Chauvin with a crime. "Thug" is a storied euphemism for black people.The warning notice comes three days after Twitter placed a fact-check warning on another of Trump's tweets and a day after Trump signed an executive order denouncing the company.'A riot is the language of the unheard.' —Rev. Dr. Martin Luther KingUPDATE: Trump posted it again, from the official White House account, and Twitter has applied the same warning to it. Read the rest

There's still magic in the world, as evidenced by this fairy's-eye view of Children's Fairyland, that charming 70-year-old storybook theme park in Oakland, California.You might remember that when I'm not blogging, I work with Fairyland. WELL... months before we were mandated to shelter in place, a local photographer, Stephen Loewinsohn, contacted our team at Fairyland. He wanted to know if he could come in and capture the park by drone. He showed us some of his work samples (um, wow) and told us he was a lifelong fan of the park. He also told us the finished product would be a gift to us, no strings attached. OF COURSE we said yes! Naturally, none of us realized at the time that it would be the first comprehensive look our community would get from inside the park for months. But that's part of what makes it extra special. We premiered the video on Thursday evening, with great success, as the "cherry on top" to our reopening fundraising announcement.At my request, Stephen shared his inspiration and thoughts on creating this video:I grew up in Oakland and went to Fairyland as a kid. Now I have two young kids of my own, so Fairyland is a really special place for me and my family. I've been working as a professional photographer and filmmaker in the Bay Area for many years, and lately I've been experimenting with building and flying custom camera drones with amazing acrobatic capabilities for specialized filming applications. Read the rest

John Waters was slated to give the New York's School of Visual Arts' commencement speech at Radio City Music Hall. Instead, he gave a different version of that keynote in front of a green screen, quarantined in his Baltimore home. Of course, it was still hilarious ("Tiger King" porno knockoff, anyone?) and still full of hard-earned wisdom. "Artists are magicians: you can see what others can not, have a secret language, the power to make others follow... and you can change history with one ludicrous idea. While you’re still young, maybe it’s time to become a virus yourself—a good kind of virus, one fueled by the years of hard work you put in at the incubator known as the School of Visual Arts. Artists, you are the cure, too. The only people that can inspire the world to notice and then alter its destructive behavior.”Congrats, "coronavirus class of 2020," all of you, everywhere!screengrab via SVA/YouTube Read the rest

Fires rage in Minneapolis after the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by local cop Derek Chauvin.Though four officers were immediately fired, local prosecutor Mike Freeman said that there is 'other evidence that does not support a criminal charge' even as police refused to release unredacted footage of the incident. Video of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck as he gasped for breath was taken by a bystander; Chauvin's long history of violent conduct soon surfaced.Minnesota's Attorney General said he nonetheless "anticipated" charges against the officers who killed Floyd. Another potential avenue for justice: the FBI is investigating whether Floyd's rights were violated, though its request for "more video" was excoriated by commentator Don Lemon.Police abandoned a precinct during clashes Thursday night, and it became the first to be destroyed during unrest in modern U.S. history. Among those detained was a black CNN reporter and his crew, live on air.On social media, President Trump branded those protesting "THUGS" and suggested they should be shot; Twitter hid his tweet per its policy against glorifying violence, another first.Photo: Hungryogrephotos (Public Domain)CORRECTION: CNN's reporter was detained Friday morning, not Thursday night. Read the rest

A 46-year old black man named George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis on Monday, May 25, 2020. A police officer named Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck, after vaguely accusing him of forgery and/or public intoxication. He pressed his knee down so hard — and kept it there — that it cut off the air to Floyd's lungs, suffocating him. Three police officers stood around and watched as Floyd used his last breaths to cry for help; several bystanders filmed the scene, and tried to get the cops to stop, but to no avail.Those 4 police officers were fired shortly after the video was released (by their official account, Floyd had been "resisting arrest," something which is a physically impossible to do while also dying under restraint). That sounds like good news on the surface — but thanks to Police Union rules, bad cops who get fired for misconduct usually just get re-hired in a nearby precinct. Their past behavior — even repeated, established patterns of violent misconduct — are left off their permanent record, or otherwise ignored.And that's exactly how the police officer who killed George Floyd was in the position to do so in the first place. As Insider reports, Derek Chauvin had a long and ugly history of police brutality, long before he killed George Floyd:[Chauvin] was involved in violent incidents before, including three police shootings. And he has been the subject of 10 complaints filed to the city's Civilian Review Authority and the Office of Police Conduct. Read the rest

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever” – Mahatma GandhiOf all the skills you feel like you should probably know, yet likely don’t, coding might be one of the most intimidating. From the varied programming languages to the range of platforms to the sheer discomfort of trying to decipher all that seemingly incomprehensible text, doing your own coding can feel like a learning curve that goes straight up.But like anything else, how you learn a skill can make all the difference in the world. Learnable is an e-learning platform that strives to help students retain the most information possible in the shortest possible time. With its highly curated curriculum, Learnable offers courses in all of the most important programming languages and functions, depending on your learning goals. From core disciplines like Java, PHP, and SQL to more specialized training in C#, C++, Python, Swift, and more, you’ll always find a carefully designed program ready to build your knowledge.Whether you want to dig in from your desktop browser or via iOS or Android, you’ll find interactive lessons aimed at demystifying programming and pointing the way toward coding mastery.As you work your way through each skill, you’ll earn progress points, level up, and earn badges as you go. In fact, learning to build apps, websites and other important projects with Learnable doesn’t feel like learning as much as it often feels like playing a game. But rather than beating a friend or notching a high score, a win here means a bankable skill recognized worldwide as a vital 21st-century talent. Read the rest

Two men hired to break into their client's house, menace him with machetes, tie him up, then tickle him with a broom, have been acquitted of armed break-in after hitting the wrong address. The unsuspecting victim awoke to find the men looming over his bed armed with the knives.The role play was arranged over Facebook by a man near Griffith, New South Wales, who provided his address to the hired pair."He was willing to pay A$5,000 if it was 'really good'," the judge said. However, the client moved to another address 50km (30 miles) away without updating the two men. They then entered a home on the street of the original address. ... When they realised their error, one of the pair said "Sorry, mate" and shook the resident's hand, according to local reports. Could happen to anyone. Read the rest

Even though it feels like Amazon is a singular retail juggernaut crushing everybody else, you might be surprised to learn that half of Amazon’s $280 billion in revenue last year came from third-party sellers.According to numbers compiled by JungleScout, 86 percent of Amazon’s Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) sellers were profitable last year, more than doubling the profitability rate for all small businesses in general in 2019. On top of that, two-thirds of FBA sellers said they were profitable in their first year.And that was before our new pandemic-tinged economy shifted even more toward online retail outlets. If you want to start a business and make sure you’re among those happy etailers, then training like that found in The Complete 2020 Fulfillment By Amazon Mastery Bundle can help make sure you end up in that profit-rich group.The bundle includes four courses, all dedicated to helping you get a thriving, revenue-generating business off the ground utilizing all the resources of Amazon’s FBA program.It all starts with The Complete Amazon FBA Masterclass, a practical training session that promises to help you get your own FBA business up and running in a matter of hours. The beginner-friendly training covers all the basics for working in the FBA system, from choosing the right products to setting up your supply chain to branding and marketing. You’ll also get access to all the secret hacks FBA vets use to drive traffic to your storefront and goose sales.In case settling on the product you want to sell is a problem, the Amazon FBA and eBay: 33 Hot Product Sourcing Strategies course can help. Read the rest

Paper Mate introduced the Flair felt tip pen in the 1960s. I liked them when I was a kid because the lines were so clean and you could vary the line width. I kind of forgot about them until I was at Maker Faire and my toy inventor friend, Bob Knetzger, said he uses them to produce his wonderful sketches. They are also cheap! You can buy a dozen black Flair pens or a set of 12 colored ones. Read the rest

Thought you were smarter than a queue? Enjoy the shame!The video does not show the circumstances that led up to this situation, in which a driver is backing up from oncoming traffic on a narrow mountain road. In any case, she does not seem to be pleased about it.Image: Imgur Read the rest

Wow. This is a thing of great beauty. A giant 3D topographic wood map of Westeros, the world of Game of Thrones, by IMGURian @ARUNK55. It's 60"x35".The maker, @ArunK55, explains:I am a maker/engineer/cartographer with a passion for maps and woodworking. With my laser cutter in my garage, I have been making wood maps over the last year. Each map is custom made and tells a story. Here i am going though my process of making these maps. These maps are made from three layers of Birch Wood with a layer of Maple as Backing. They are wood burnt with a LASER and hand assembled.If you want something unique on your wall, that tells a story, or just reminds you of some place then please check out my Kickstarter, and help bring these maps to life. Read the rest

Amidst all the deadly serious concern and fallout from our global battle against COVID-19, you’ve likely been forced to confront more than a few moments that you never expected to face.And you likely never felt sillier during this scary time than when you were racing all over town hoping desperately that some store had finally received a toilet paper shipment. Hoarders cleared off store shelves in early March, leaving 70 percent of stores without stock and causing a shortage that still isn’t completely under control.Americans use 3 million tons of TP every year. And between the supply issue and the startling fact that we require 54 million trees to fall to feed our bathroom need...well, it’s no surprise the bidet option has seen renewed popularity the past several weeks.Of course, replacing your entire bathroom throne is no small — or inexpensive — task. However, the Aim to Wash bidet attachment is a perfect middle-ground for those tired of TP hunts and looking for a better way.The Aim to Wash easily attaches to your existing toilet set in about 10 minutes and doesn’t require any power to operate. Once you’re connected, the unit sports an adjustable nozzle head that angles into a position to apply a cleansing wash that puts “the wipe” to shame.The attachment has easy to use dial knobs to adjust your cleaning to just the right level — and the nozzle even has its own self-cleaning regimen to keep the whole thing sterling clean before and after each use. Read the rest

A postcard mailer that went out all American homes to highlight President Donald Trump’s role in the stimulus check program cost the government $28 million. Which means it cost us $28 million.The taxpayers.Trump's coronavirus postcard was mailed to every single American home, and prominently featured his name in an election year.We paid for a campaign ad.Nothing matters.Read more at USA Today:Coronavirus post card that featured Trump's name cost struggling Postal Service $28 millionNeither the White House nor the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention immediately responded to a request for comment. The post card, which was dated March 16, carried logos of both the CDC and the White House.— USA TODAY Politics (@usatodayDC) May 28, 2020Remember that coronavirus post card the government sent to every American household back in March that prominently featured Trump's name? It cost $28 million. https://t.co/2GAPSo1y01— John Fritze (@jfritze) May 28, 2020 Read the rest

Teen Vogue posted a useful guide for what to do and what not to do when videotaping police.5. Try to provide evidence that your footage is realIn an era of fake news and rampant misinformation online, you want to make sure that your footage is as verifiable as possible. To do this:Film street signs, landmarks, or exteriors of buildings to help determine the location.Film a clock, phone home screen, newspaper, or something that helps verify the time and date.It could be helpful to also state the time, date, and location out loud on camera, or write it down on a piece of paper and hold it up to the screen.You can turn on GPS location services to help verify your location.Film continuously instead of stopping and starting your camera; this will help fight against claims that footage was edited or manipulated.Image: Jumpstory / CC0 Read the rest

Three years after "I Have a Dream" and the March on Washington, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King spoke with Mike Wallace of CBS News about change within the Civil Rights movement.Excerpt: I contend that the cry of "black power" is, at bottom, a reaction to the reluctance of white power to make the kind of changes necessary to make justice a reality for the Negro. I think that we've got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard.FULL VIDEO at CBS News:September 27, 1966: MLK—A riot is the language of the unheard[more here]“In the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear?” pic.twitter.com/Als3jhxaGH— The King Center (@TheKingCenter) May 28, 2020IMAGE, top: via Flickr, courtesy @rumorweaver, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) Read the rest

I felt sorry for this fellow, whose minor forklift mishap creates a domino effect that sends everything sprawling to the floor. But the perfect cartoon-farmer hat-stomping reaction deserves full marks for form and execution. Read the rest