Have you ever read about an interesting app, only to click the link and find yourself on a GitHub page? If you're a coder, then you will be happy about it, but if you're like me, you will scratch your head for a while, open the readme file, and start copying and pasting linux commands into a terminal window with fingers crossed. Even after watching this video I will keep doing this, but at least I know what GitHub is now. Read the rest

Japan is under a state of emergency. Nippon wandering TV took an hour long bike ride through Tokyo's Akihabara district to reveal the nearly empty streets and sidewalks.Compare to this short video of Akihabara I shot in the the summer of 2018: Read the rest

View this post on Instagram TAG A FRIEND IF U AGREE 😩A post shared by Danny Casale (@coolman_coffeedan) on Apr 7, 2020 at 10:05am PDTDanny Casale, coolman_coffeedan on Instagram, made this perfect animated song to summarize his experience of life under rona lockdown. Read the rest

More often than not, the solutions for slowing the roll of our planet into an untenable ball of environmental disasters is right under our noses—protect green spaces. End the use fossil fuels. Recycle, repair or up-cycle the living shit out of everything we own or consume.Also, be certain to check in piles of dead leaves for scientific breakthroughs.From The Guardian:A mutant bacterial enzyme that breaks down plastic bottles for recycling in hours has been created by scientists.The enzyme, originally discovered in a compost heap of leaves, reduced the bottles to chemical building blocks that were then used to make high-quality new bottles. Existing recycling technologies usually produce plastic only good enough for clothing and carpets.The company behind the breakthrough, Carbios, said it was aiming for industrial-scale recycling within five years. It has partnered with major companies including Pepsi and L’Oréal to accelerate development. Independent experts called the new enzyme a major advance.Considering the fact that we've found plastic waste damn near everywhere we've gone looking for it, Carbios' breakthrough has the potential to become a huge deal in our fight to save our home.While the enzyme only made its debut to the scientific community, this month, as a potential plastic-goggling miracle, it was originally discovered back in 2012. Sometimes, it takes the scientific community a while to get traction. But, once they have their shit together (along with the support of our institutions, applicable laws and the cash they need in order to do their research) what can be achieved is, sometimes, astonishing. Read the rest

This is a wonderful thing. Author and Librarian Joel A. Sutherland posted this video, with the following message, on Twitter:Social Isolation, Day 23Kids: We're booooored! What can we do?Wife *cleaning basement*: What are we ever going to do with these Simpsons Halloween costumes we only wore once?Me:How great is that?!Social Isolation, Day 23Kids: We're booooored! What can we do?Wife *cleaning basement*: What are we ever going to do with these Simpsons Halloween costumes we only wore once?Me: pic.twitter.com/6oLiyvdcWu— Joel A. Sutherland (@joelasutherland) April 8, 2020Thanks, Bub! Read the rest

It's easy to get bored, sheltering in place, or worse, being confined to one room in your home under quarantine. I've played my fair share of video games over the past few days and, I'm sure that many of y'all have been getting down with a bit of pew-pew, too.However, don't already own a gaming console or a computer with a decent video card, you might be shit out of luck: the Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbox One are all reportedly becoming harder to find in stores and online. If you're having trouble nailing down a gaming system to blow away the hours with, Google announced today that they have a new offer to see you through the dull times.From The Verge:Google is launching the free version of its Stadia game streaming service today. Anyone with a Gmail address can sign up, and Google is even providing a free two-month trial of Stadia Pro as part of the launch. It comes just two months after Google promised a free tier was imminent, and it will mean anyone can get access to nine titles, including GRID, Destiny 2: The Collection, and Thumper, free of charge.Google is also making some changes to Stadia to accommodate the influx of new users. “To reduce load on the internet further, we’re working toward a temporary feature that changes the default screen resolution from 4k to 1080p,” explains Phil Harrison, Google’s Stadia chief. “The vast majority of people on a desktop or laptop won’t notice a significant drop in gameplay quality, but you can choose your data usage options in the Stadia app.” Read the rest

One of the participants of the hit series Tiger King claims Netflix is about to drop a bonus episode, capitalizing on its runaway success. Moreover, the president is weighing in on the phenomenon, and the documentary-cum-reality show's coronavirus-stricken star might soon be celebrating his freedom.This news is so important that a writer from the New York Post asked a question about it at a White House coronavirus briefing, annoying nearby journalists and the twitterati. Trump promised to "look into" pardoning Joe Exotic, the animal-abusing roadsize zoo proprietor locked up after his endless threats to kill nemesis Carole Baskin began coming with cash handouts to his human menagerie. Exotic was jailed on federal charges, so Trump can uncage him if he pleases.The shoop of Trump's face on Joe Exotic's mugshot (below) is a viral hit, but I submit that the other way round (above) is more exquisitely dystopian.You shouldn’t. pic.twitter.com/69WMDVuO7K— GuillaumeTC (@GuillaumeTC) April 8, 2020 Read the rest

Let's take a moment to reflect upon the fact that, no matter how dire things are and, how more terrible they're expected to become, we're still able to issue some control over our lives. By staying indoors as often as we can, social distancing when we're out and, enacting strict quarantine procedures at the first sign of illness, we all have the ability to flatten the COVID-19 curve.That's one helluva a lot more than you can say about our ability as individuals to steer the course of disasters like a nuclear exchange, monsoon or earthquake. Read the rest

6.6m Americans signed on last week, bringing the unemployed total to 17m. The record week almost matches thew week before, when nearly 7m applied for benefits, and the week before that, when more than 3m lost their jobs. Experts had predicted a 5m jump, and the larger toll signals a worse economic downturn than expected.Economists are expecting job losses will continue, with the unemployment rate peaking in the double digits sometime in the next few months, up from 4.4% in March. Bank of America economists predict employers will cut between 16 million and 20 million jobs, with the unemployment rate peaking at 15.6% between now and June. If that's the case, it could take at least a couple years for unemployment to return to its pre-pandemic levels.The recoveries from both those downturns were painfully slow, dragging on for years. Economists are hoping the recovery from this downturn will be faster, but ultimately, that will depend on when the coronavirus outbreak is contained. Read the rest

Believe it or not, you can still score a new job in the midst of the pandemic. There are a bunch of industries under more demand stress than ever that have an immediate need to grow. Regardless of the specific role needed or company that's hiring, one skill that can only help you score an offer letter is knowing the ins and outs of Google Analytics. But plenty of people can say they know GA, so how do you get an edge? By getting certified.Having a certification in Google Analytics is more valuable than you may realize. It's the sort of thing that, when added to your resume or nonchalantly dropped into a cover letter, lets hiring managers know you're serious, dedicated, and seriously dedicated to data—that thing all businesses need to be their most successful. Employers will know that you're capable of using the web's premier analytics tool to glean actually useful information from every page on their website. We're talking about insights they can leverage to make better decisions about both day-to-day and big-picture operations and strategies. How's that for explaining why you're the best candidate for the role?In just 2 days of studying, this online Google Analytics Certification course will prepare you to ace the free exam. With 20 lectures led by Google Certified Marketer Daragh Walsh, you'll have all the material you need to earn your GA certification. Daragh has worked with over 300,000 students who've left more than 40,000 top-rated reviews, so you know you'll be in good hands. Read the rest

If you’ve ever tried to shoot your own videos, you know the equipment costs to do it right can mount up quickly.Even if you’re fine with capturing video on your trusty smartphone, you still need a mount to keep your phone in place. And you’ll need a mic to augment your smartphone’s not so fantastic audio capturing. And without proper lighting, your subject isn’t going to look great and your video will never stand up to many of the nearly expert-level home video productions now dominating YouTube and social media.To answer the call, the iRig Video Creator Tool Bundle was assembled to tackle all of those problems, a handy three-piece combination that will instantly elevate your phone video.The centerpiece is the iKlip Grip Pro, a multi-function iPhone and camera stand that can tackle virtually any shooting situation. Clamp in your iPhone or Android model phone and you can configure the Grip Pro to fit your needs. From shooting a stable video from a flat surface with the secure tabletop tripod mode, stabilize a handheld shot in the monopod mode, or use the integrated 2-foot telescopic extender pole to serve as a selfie stick, the iKlip has you covered.It also comes with a standard UNC ¼-inch universal mount to lock in small digital cameras and action video cameras like GoPros.Meanwhile, the iRig Mic Lav is an ultra-affordable and compact professional-quality mobile lavalier microphone that plugs right into the phone to record great sounding audio anytime and anywhere. Read the rest

Noah Wall, the artist and musician responsible for the highly-recommended Grotesque Tables II (and who has collaborated with David Byrne, St. Vincent, David Lynch, Maya Lin, and many others) wrote to tell us about his most recent project, an EP entitled Alloys.Like so many, I’ve been inside my apartment for almost a month, handling anything from outside with newfound prudence. But recently I was in the open, manipulating and resonating foreign objects with hands and mallets and microphones. The result is a new project called Alloys.Each of the ten songs is an audio portrait of an everyday public structure in New York. Made entirely of sounds derived from these structures, my subjects include bridges, an outdoor gymnasium, parks, playgrounds, piers, statues, an abandoned fairground, and a library bench.I recorded with high-definition contact microphones that capture sound waves moving through solid material (as opposed to through air which is how most microphones work). In addition to my own interventions, many structures were resonating due to environmental factors like being ridden over, leaned on, rained on, and generally blown about.Edited and arranged into ten compositions, Alloys is a rezoning of sound from public to private structures. All proceeds go to the NYC Low-Income Artist/Freelancer Relief Fund whose mission is to “provide support for low-income, BIPOC, trans/GNC/NB/Queer artists and freelancers whose livelihoods are being affected by this pandemic in NYC.”You can listen to and buy the digital album on Bandcamp.Image: Album cover art Read the rest

Eating Utensils reminds me of a site from the early Web, a minimally-designed collection of fascinating information about something we use every day but mostly ignore. The site has pages about the history of cutlery, chopsticks, skewers, toothpicks, and drinking straws, etiquette, and fun facts and statistics. For example:If we look back in history we can find out that some of the earliest drinking straws were created over 5000 years ago! In the ruins of the Sumerian cities and tombs, archeologist managed to find straws made from gold and the precious stone lapis lazuli. These expensive 3000 BC artifacts can give us the proof that the more simple designs were used far earlier than that, most probably created from carved wood or natural hollow plants. According to scientist, Sumerian used straws to drink their beer which was prepared in very simple fermentation cases that forced the solid byproducts to sink to the bottom, and leave drinkable fluid on top. On the other side of the world, in Argentina, natives used drinking straws for several thousand years. Their simple wooden designs were later on adapted in metallic device called "bombilla" which serves as both straw and sieve for drinking tea.Eating Utensils (via Metafilter)image: Hopefulromntic (CC BY-SA 3.0) Read the rest

Boris Johnson’s condition is improving after two nights on oxygen support in intensive care, and the British Prime Minister can now sit up in bed and talk with hospital staff, said the UK's finance minister Rishi Sunak Wednesday. The 55-year-old British leader has not been put on a mechanical ventilator. From Reuters:“The latest from the hospital is that the prime minister remains in intensive care where his condition is improving,” Sunak said at a daily government coronavirus news conference.“I can also tell you that he has been sitting up in bed and been engaging positively with the clinical team.”Later, Downing Street issued a brief statement, expected to be the last update on Johnson’s condition until Thursday. “The Prime Minister continues to make steady progress. He remains in intensive care,” it said. Read more:UK's Johnson 'improving' as he fights COVID-19 in intensive care Read the rest

An extraordinarily beautiful mask for “Plague Times,” by IMGURian @BelmontLeather1. “A Pandemic doesn't have to be all doom and gloom. If you're stuck in a global crisis, it's important to have fun.”Enjoy this extensive gallery with 'making of' shots aplenty.Plague Times Read the rest

The majestic image below of the Eagle Nebula's "Pillars of Creation," captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, has become an iconic astronomical photograph. It depicts the visible light, meaning the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that the human eye can see. In this new take above, NASA scientists present the same view of the pillars but in infrared light "which pierces through obscuring dust and gas." From NASA: In this ethereal view the entire frame is peppered with bright stars and baby stars are revealed being formed within the pillars themselves. The ghostly outlines of the pillars seem much more delicate, and are silhouetted against an eerie blue haze.Image credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team Read the rest

If you've had your fill of board games, puzzles, crafting, and Master classes and have extra minutes to kill before another stay-at-home day is over, here's a challenge: climb around a table - not around its edges, but under and back over from one side to the other. Yes, some of us are bored enough to try it, while others are even boreder enough just to sit and watch someone else do it on YouTube. Read the rest

“The whole point of a programming language is to get the most out of the computer and the developer...This is why I like Python so much...few Python developers write code that is difficult to pass on to another developer.”With so much in tech so inherently complicated, that comment from Thomas Hatch, CTO and co-founder of SaltStack to TechRadar, really boils down Python’s universal appeal to its purest root.Coders like Python because it’s stripped-down, adapts to everything and doesn’t require all manner of interpretation, no matter when you jump into a project. You can add Python to your skillset or just sharpen your skills with the instruction in the Coding with Python: The Ultimate Training for Aspiring Developers Bundle. This six-course bundle starts with a full Python overview with the Complete Python Course: Learn Python by Doing. From first-timer basics to expert-level advanced coding tips, this training involves hands-on instruction that aimed at getting students employed as a Python programmer.From best practices and object-oriented programming to GUI development, unit testing and more, this foundational training paves the way for all things Python, those newfound talents are tested by the Complete Python Web Course: Build 8 Python Web Apps, where students really get their hands dirty, assembling projects like a blog using user registration to publish posts as well as creating an online price tracker for your favorite digital storefront.The training also covers app building as the REST APIs with Flask and Python and Advanced REST APIs with Flask and Python courses explore how to create resource-based, production-ready REST APIs using Python, Flask, and other popular Flask extensions. Read the rest

Replying to a question from ScienceInsider about impeached US President Donald Trump's anti-World Heath Organization comments, the WHO's Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus replied, “Please quarantine politicizing COVID.”“We will have many body bags in front of us if we don’t behave,” Dr. Tedros added. From Jon Cohen's story for ScienceInsider:Tedros also indirectly addressed Trump’s criticisms of China’s early handling of the pandemic and claims that WHO is too accommodating to the Chinese government. “The United States and China should come together and fight this dangerous enemy,” he said, urging politicians not to exploit global political differences. “It’s like playing with fire,” he said. “When there are cracks at national level and global level that’s when the virus succeeds. For God’s sake, we have lost more than 60,000 citizens of the world.”WHO will be reviewing its strengths and weaknesses in its pandemic response, Tedros added. He stressed there were many unknowns when the outbreak surfaced—and that many unknowns remain. “We shouldn’t waste time pointing fingers,” he said. “Unity is the only option to defeat this virus. If you don’t believe in unity and don’t do unity, please prepare for the worst to come.”Tedros’s remarks come 1 day after Trump, speaking at a White House Coronavirus Taskforce press conference, threatened to cut funding to WHO. “We’re going to put a very powerful hold on it,” Trump said. When later questioned by a journalist, Trump backpedaled and insisted that he didn’t say this. “I said we’re going to look at it, we’re going to investigate it,” he said. Read the rest

Cannabis use in America reportedly reached an all-time high in March, 2020, as lockdown measures aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus went into effect in many communities throughout the country.Free time, furloughed or laid off, and less to do. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.From Bloomberg News, reporting on a Cowen & Co survey out Wednesday:A March survey of 2,500 consumers by Cowen & Co. found that 33% had tried cannabis at some point in their lives, a record high. For the past month, 12.8% of respondents said they’d used pot, above the 12.5% average in 2019.Sales spiked in mid-March as people rushed to stock up ahead of potential dispensary closures, Cowen said, using data from cannabis analytics firm Headset Inc. Weekly sales growth peaked at 64% in the week ended March 16, the highest rate of increase since at least the beginning of 2019.However, sales decelerated during the last two weeks of the month to the mid- to high-single-digit range. This may be linked to a “more pronounced deterioration in job security for past-month cannabis consumers relative to the general population,” according to analysts led by Vivien Azer.The survey found that the percentage of cannabis consumers working full time fell by 290 basis points to 42.4% in March from February, a bigger decline than the general population. They also tended to be less comfortable with their financial situation.Read more:Pot Use Reached All-Time High in March Amid Lockdown Measures[bloomberg/Kristine Owram/April 8, 2020] Read the rest

[NSFW] The Spice Channel was a softcore pornography cable TV offering in the 1990s. If you didn't pay for a subscription, you could still see scrambled video, which elevated the original video into psychedelic deep dream abstract art experiments. Here are a few clips.From the YouTube description:Signal bleed, or scrambling was a filter used by TV providers to partially block premium channels. This loophole was used as a form of advertisement. In 2000, United States v. Playboy Entertainment Group "required that cable television operators completely scramble or block channels that are "primarily dedicated to sexually-oriented programming" from 10 pm to 6 am."Image: YouTube Read the rest

Nine teens partying at a park near Louisville, Kentucky were accosted by a man, angry that they were not social distancing. First he shoves a few kids, then straddles a a girl who was sitting on the ground and begins to strangle her. The man, John Rademaker, is a 57-year-old doctor who has been charged with "first-degree strangulation and three counts of harassment with physical contact," according to The Daily Beast.Rademaker, a physician for Southern Indiana Anesthesia Consultants, has been placed on administrative leave pending further investigation. According to online records, he was released from jail Tuesday. According to witness and a 26-second video of the incident that later went viral, the altercation began Friday at about 8:30 p.m. when Rademaker and a woman approached nine teenagers who were sitting at the lakefront amphitheater about 20 minutes outside of Louisville. The teenagers, who were defying the state’s stay-at-home order established to curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus, immediately tried to wave off the two adults who were cursing at them for not adhering to the CDC’s social-distancing recommendations.According to an arrest warrant obtained by WDRB, Rademaker choked the 18-year-old for several seconds before other bystanders intervened and pulled him off. The teenager, who has not been identified, suffered a red mark on her neck but did not require hospitalization. Read the rest

In celebration of Passover, I suggest watching The Ten Commandments, Cecil B. DeMille's 1923 epic silent film version of the biblical Exodus story (plus a related modern story that I never bothered to watch.) The parting of the Red Sea sequence is absolutely magnificent and worth the cost of admission alone.As you may recall, just a few years ago archaeologists excavated the "Lost City of DeMille," the Egyptian set for the film buried for almost 100 years in the sand dunes of Santa Barbara County, California.(Thanks, Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie!) Read the rest

Martin Shkreli, the universally despised ex-pharmaceutical internet troll, says he can cure coronavirus if he is released from prison early, reports Ars Technica:“I am one of the few executives experienced in ALL aspects of drug development from molecule creation and hypothesis generation, to preclinical assessments and clinical trial design/target engagement demonstration, and manufacturing/synthesis and global logistics and deployment of medicines,” he writes in a note at the end of the document.In short, he needs to be sprung from the pokey so he can save the world.“I am asking for a brief furlough (3 months) to assist in research work on COVID-19,” he writes, adding that this temporary freedom won’t be a treat. “Being released to the post-COVID world is no solace to even the incarcerated.”Image: By House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform - https://www.flickr.com/photos/oversight/25044779546/in/photostream/, Public Domain, Link Read the rest

Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, the incarcerated corrupt law enforcement chief who was fond of giving himself awards, campaigning against marijuana legalization, encouraging prison rape, wrongfully imprisoning people, locking up nonviolent people who possessed drugs, and horribly mistreating inmates, asked a judge to release him from federal prison in Texas because of coronavirus. Baca also thought it was a good time to ask to have his conviction and sentence vacated. But U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson denied the request, according to Los Angeles Times. “Sadly, there is no safe location,” said the judge.From LA Times:Federal prosecutors had opposed Baca’s release while fighting to have his conviction and sentence vacated. In a filing last week, the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles reminded Anderson of his own comments when handing down a prison sentence: The once-respected sheriff had committed a “‘gross abuse of the public trust,’ ‘blind obedience to a corrupt culture’ and betrayal of the ‘core values’” he once espoused.” The prosecutors were unswayed by Baca’s bid for exceptional treatment.Image: By ScottMLiebenson - Own work, CC0, Link Read the rest

The Daily Mail ran leaked a March 2015 audio recording' of medics looking for Johnny Depp's severed fingertip. In a 2018 deposition Depp says his wife at the time, Amber Heard, threw a vodka bottle at him and it shattered, cutting off his finger.From Vanity Fair:Heard’s story, which she told in her own deposition at the time, differs dramatically. She said that the fight was sparked over her former co-star Billy Bob Thornton. While she alleged that Depp hit her with one hand, he was “slamming a hard plastic phone against a wall with his other until it was smashed into smithereens. While he was smashing the phone, Johnny severely injured his finger, cutting off the tip of it.” At some point later that night, Depp had written on the walls with a mixture of paint and the bloody finger, “Billy Bob” and “Easy Amber.” (Depp reportedly denies all of her account, except for the writing on the wall).Image: By gdcgraphics, CC BY 2.0, Link Read the rest

A gentleman racing his very "rare Gemballa-tuned Porsche Carrera GT" through the streets of New York yesterday morning collided into a parked van, then tried to get away. But the car, now blinking its tail lights, sounds like a sick animal as it leaves the van, hits a few more cars, and finally stalls down the road. Turns out the hot shot was car collector and Gold Rush Rally founder Ben Chen, 33, who was charged with "with drugged driving." Via The Drive. Read the rest

"When the #coronavirus lockdown is lifted, we'll be closer to living in the world envisioned in the 1990s by the likes of @EFF, @WIRED, @stewartbrand, @rossetto, @janemetcalfe, @kevin2kelly, @2000_mondo, and others," says Nick Gillespie of Reason. Here's a video he made to explore the idea that "we may realize that life is mostly better in the cloud, where it's possible to learn faster, work better, and generally get what you really want delivered directly to your door, and for less money."I definitely agree with learning faster online part. For me, video learning is the best thing to come out of the Internet. My 16-year-old daughter devours coding, math, and science videos, and when I watch some of them with her, I realize they quality of the teaching is superior to any class I took in high school.Image: YouTube Read the rest

During the White House press briefing on Tuesday, April 7, Trump was asked about mail-in voting. He answeredPresident Trump: "I think mail-in voting is horrible, it's corrupt."Reporter: "You voted by mail in Florida's election last month, didn't you?"Trump: "Sure. I can vote by mail"Reporter: "How do you reconcile with that?"Trump: "Because I'm allowed to." pic.twitter.com/Es8ZNyB3O1— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 7, 2020Early this week, the Supreme Court had rejected a request to extend the mail-in ballot deadline for Wisconsin's primary election. With coronavirus shelter-in-place policies in effect, in-person voting is potentially dangerous, especially for people who are already immunocompromised. As a result of the chaos of the last few weeks, people who requested mail-in ballots may not have received them; and some ballots that were mailed ahead of time may not have reached polling office in time, thanks to the general shipping slowdowns affecting everything right now.In the Press Room exchange, Trump said:Mail-in voting is horrible. It's corrupt. […] You get thousands and thousands of people sitting in someone's living room signing ballots all over the place. No, I think that mail-in voting is a terrible thing.In reality, mail-in voter fraud like the kind that Trump described is only slightly more common than in-person voter fraud, which has by all estimates happened less than 100 times total in the last 20 years. Across all elections, across the entire country. Which makes it pretty much a moot point. Individual people are not directly frauding elections; and considering that only about 60% of people even vote in US Presidential elections, there is absolutely no logical reason to make it even harder to get people to vote, "just in case" these next-to-never instances of so-called voter fraud ever actually occur. Read the rest

Kenneth Copeland is one of the worst: a private-jetting prosperity-gospel slime who, for his latest trick, falsely claims to heal people of coronavirus through their televisions.Today, however, he is the star of the hottest track since that time Barney the purple dinosaur sang Straight Outta Compton. Read the rest

I'm not sure that we deserve a happy ending. But like the rest of you, right now, I'm hoping like hell for one. Read the rest

This YouTube video was posted by Staffan Söderlund, and features the call of the Eider duck. Read the rest

IMissTheOffice is a ambient noise generator specializing in recreating the pre-coronavirus audial world of flourescent lights, watercooler hubbub and beeping office electronics. You can click specific items to make them go, or just specify a number of colleagues and let it run. It's by a creative agency called The Kids. Read the rest

Over at Slate, Shannon Paulus kindly reminds us that correlation is not causation — especially when it comes to a novel coronavirus for which we have very little knowledge, let alone enough scientific controls to do an accurate study of a fully representative sample set.“A small but important subset of people with the coronavirus also really hate puppies.” That’s what I keep thinking to myself as I see story after story linking various, so-called surprising symptoms to COVID-19: pinkeye, loss of hearing, loss of smell, brain impairments, and “staring off into space.” These pieces provide varying levels of evidence, from a Twitter dispatch to a patient to surveys conducted by researchers to propose that the mere correlations their authors are writing about might actually have some sort of firm, causative relationship.Each of these symptoms lacks substantial peer-reviewed evidence connecting them to the novel coronavirus; at best, there are a couple studies.So look, it's an upper respiratory infection. Leave it there until we know more, and stop talking about that drug that Donald Trump keeps pushing because he has a financial stake in the company that makes it.The Supposed Symptoms of the Coronavirus [Shannon Paulus / Slate]Image: U.S. Air Force Graphic by Rosario "Charo" Gutierrez (Public Domain) Read the rest

CCMixter is a free music discovery service with more than 1M tracks, for use in your games, movies, even commercial projects. Tracks are licensed under the Creative Commons, there's a wealth of filtering options to find exactly what you need, and I'm listening to the top instrumentals right now -- good stuff! Read the rest

One company that operates red-light cameras, posted at intersections to generate automatic traffic tickets, reports that revenue is down due to the coronavirus pandemic.Shares of Redflex, which trade in Australia, are down 46% since the beginning of the year.On a call with investors Monday, Redflex CEO Mark Talbot warned that further travel restrictions could delay new installations and therefore impact revenues.Fascinating that a business that's as close to a license to print money as it gets is wrecked after a few weeks of people not driving their cars. Everything is leveraged up to the eyeballs.Red light cameras are now illegal in many places because the revenue-generation incentive inevitably leads to corruption, spurious fines, dangerous placements and unconstitutional searches. Read the rest

I haven't received an advance copy of Labyrinth: The ABC Storybook [Amazon] so will have to preorder it just like you. The ToughPigs Muppet fan site posted a sneak preview.Sometimes Muppet fans get really lucky. Not only are we getting a new book based on Jim Henson’s classic film Labyrinth, but the whole thing is written and illustrated by one of the best artistic talents in the business.Luke Flowers, who recently illustrated the gorgeous storybook adaptation of The Muppet Christmas Carol, will be releasing a brand new storybook recounting the story of Labyrinth in alphabetical order!The book will be in stores and online on September 29th, retailing for $18.99. Read the rest

If you've ever wanted to catch a fish with a trap designed to catch other edible, living things, your time has arrived. I'm not sure if this is a technique that's common knowledge in outdoor circles, but it's frigging brilliant.Also, what's the deal with the guy in the top left corner of the video, two minutes, fifty-five seconds in? He just kind of melts into the tree. Creepy. Read the rest

In this video, a black man complains that a cop followed him into the Walmart in Wood River, Illinois, demanded he and a friend remove their coronavirus masks, then ordered them to leave the store. Wood River Police Chief Brad Wells on Tuesday said the department will conduct an internal investigation involving an incident last month in which two men in surgical masks say they were racially profiled by a police officer who approached them in Walmart.One of the men, Jermon Best, of Belleville, took cellphone video of the exchange as the officer followed the men out of the store, and posted it to social media.Wells says the officer felt the men were acting suspicious."Reality once again running laps around The Onion," writes Andray.Reality, once again running laps on The Onionpic.twitter.com/53Q8k9ppUK https://t.co/YiMrua007N— Andray #GeneralStrike2020 (@andraydomise) April 7, 2020 Read the rest

While the separation of church and state is typically the way we prefer to roll in much of the western world, it seems that in times of tragedy their collision in unavoidable. According to The New York Times, Manhattan's Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine is preparing to do duty as a coronavirus field hospital.From The New York Times:The cathedral, which describes itself as the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, said on Monday that its 600-foot-long nave and equally large subterranean crypt would be turned into an emergency hospital as part of the fight against the pandemic.Nine climate-controlled medical tents capable of holding a total of at least 200 patients will be erected inside the cathedral by the end of the week, said the Rt. Rev. Clifton Daniel III, the dean of the cathedral.The crypt, which is primarily accessible via a series of winding staircases, will be used as “a staging area” for medical personnel, he said. It is the first time the cathedral, which is the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, will have been used for such a task, he said.It's a decidedly old school move: in times of plague, war and other massive humanitarian disasters, religious structures across a wide variety of faiths have been used to treat the sick and shelter them from harm.It's expected that patients will begin to be sent to the cathedral within the next week, if not sooner. Personnel from Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital which, for those unfamiliar with Manhattan, is located right next to the cathedral, will be staffing the field hospital once it's in operation. Read the rest

Punk rock bard, Henry Rollins, and KCRW have launched The Cool Quarantine, a new online radio program where Henry goes through his record collection and shares stories. The idea is to recreate that vibe of hanging out with friends, spinning some sides, and talking about music, shows, and whatever else pops to mind.One of my favorite things about music is that often, there’s a good story about any one album or song. I specifically put tracks into this show so I could tell you the story before we play the song. A couple of examples from this show would include a live Cramps track from 1979 that was recorded by Ian MacKaye and also, the first cassette I ever copied. Another would be a live Led Zeppelin track from the time Ian and I saw them play.We will be playing different songs from different bands of course but we’ll also be listening to entire albums, EPs, and singles. At four hours, this is lonnnnnnnnng-form programming!Cool out here.Image: ceedub13, CC 2.0 Read the rest

We are sad to report that, according to John Prine's family, he has finally succumbed to the COVID-19 virus that he'd been battling for the past nine days. Rolling Stone writes of Prine's career:As a songwriter, Prine was admired by Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, and others, known for his ability to mine seemingly ordinary experiences — he wrote many of his classics as a mailman in Maywood, Illinois — for revelatory songs that covered the full spectrum of the human experience. There’s “Hello in There,” about the devastating loneliness of an elderly couple; “Sam Stone,” a portrait of a drug-addicted Vietnam soldier suffering from PTSD; and “Paradise,” an ode to his parents’ strip-mined hometown of Paradise, Kentucky, which became an environmental anthem. Prine tackled these subjects with empathy and humor, with an eye for “the in-between spaces,” the moments people don’t talk about, he told Rolling Stone in 2017. “Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism,” Dylan said in 2009. “Midwestern mind-trips to the nth degree.”We say goodbye to this great American songwriter with this performance of "Angel from Montgomery," recorded for Austin City Limits, in 2018.Fly, Mr. Prine. Fly.Image: YouTube Read the rest

While all the downsides of stay-at-home orders and social distancing are evident, there are at least a few small silver linings to come out of all this. For many, this time spent indoors has meant a happy reintroduction to your very own kitchen.You know your kitchen. It’s usually the place that holds all your leftovers. And it’s where the oven lives, the appliance that handles all your one-step frozen dinner heat-ups.Of course, that’s not really cooking, is it? But for as long as we’re sticking close to home, it’s a great opportunity to try some culinary explorations we may never have attempted overwise. Cooking for real means ingredients and measurements and likely a cascade of spoons and measuring cups to get it right.However, reinvigorated cooks can now ditch all of those extra utensils and containers for simplified ease of The Kitchen Cube All-in-One Measuring Device.At first glance, it almost looks like a basic toddler toy, just a 3.5-inch plastic block. But this single instrument is actually an all-purpose gadget to handle up to 19 different US and metric measurements in seconds. From cups to tablespoons to milliliters of virtually all cooking sizes, the Kitchen Cube’s got you covered.Just flip the cube to your preferred measurement, pour in your ingredient to the fill point, and dump. It’s stunningly simple, yet this basic cube just eliminated the need for all those other measuring spoons and cups that clutter your drawers and countertops and seem to end up everywhere while you’re trying to cook. Read the rest

While people talk a lot about what they see in their dreams, and the visual language of dreams is well-studied by psychologists, what we hear when dreaming is rarely discussed or scientifically explored. Recently though, researchers at Norway's Vestre Viken Hospital Trust and the University of Bergen conducted a small study to quantify the auditory experience of dreamers. Why? Because they wanted to "assess the relevance of dreaming as a model for psychosis." Throughout history, they write, psychologists have considered dreamstates to be a model for psychosis, yet people experiencing psychosis usually suffer from auditory hallucinations far more than visual ones. Basically, what the researchers determined is that the reason so little is known about auditory sensations while dreaming is because, well, nobody asks what people's dreams sound like. From their scientific paper in PLOS ONE:The participants reported auditory impressions in 93.9% of their dreams on average. The most prevalent auditory type was other people speaking (83.9% of participants’ dreams), followed by the dreamer speaking (60.0%), and other types of sounds (e.g. music, 33.1%). Of altogether 407 instances of auditory impressions in the 130 dreams, auditory quality was judged comparable to waking in 46.4%, indeterminate in 50.6%, and absent or only thought-like in 2.9%....The internal generation of auditory sensations, most notably of speech, may be a typical, integrated characteristic of dreaming. The findings on auditory impressions in dreams contribute to making clear the comparative phenomenology that models of common underlying mechanisms in dreaming and psychosis must account for. Read the rest

I’m glad this silly bike took what it deserved from r/IdiotsFightingThingsThis grim fellow has no patience for machines that aim to make sport of him. As a bonus, he almost removes a pedestrian's ear with the trusty machete he keeps in a sheath to inflict well-deserved punishment on his disobedient velocipede. Read the rest

DC has made images of a number of iconic comic book locations available for use as virtual backgrounds for Zoom and other video conferencing services."Whether it's for work, school or just keeping in touch with your friends, you've likely found yourself video chatting with a lot of people over the past couple of weeks. After all, it's a great way to stay connected in this time of social distancing," the DC press release reads. "But why take video calls from your living room or bedroom when you could take them from the Batcave, the Fortress of Solitude, Themyscira, or the Hall of Justice?"Read the rest on Bleeding Cool.[H/t Bruce Dykes]Image: Fortress of Solitude virtual backdrop from DC Comics Read the rest

Jimmy DiResta was sitting on a plane, looking at his clasped hands, when he wondered if he could possibly create a joint that worked on a similar principle of interleaving fingers clasping two pieces of material together. The result of that inspiration is this steel stool connected together by CNC-cut finger joints.Image: YouTube Read the rest

EraseCOVID is what happens when creative folks join forces for the greater good. A fantastic gang of artists and designers (including Ruben Bolling) have joined forces to create some really terrific "Public Safety Art," which is all available to purchase as posters, greeting cards, and more! Proceeds benefit chosen charity MusiCares, the artists, and the ongoing work of EraseCOVID.The art is aces — I've already spent $50 there today. One awesome thing to note: If you buy a "single poster set" ($30), you actually get TEN posters! They encourage you to share. Thanks, Tweedlebop! Read the rest

I've been enjoying this new YouTube series that Dan Shapiro (Glowforge founder) and Ari Shapiro (NPR) have created to help kids learn at home. In this episode, we hear from Dr. Philip Costanzo, Duke Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, who teaches Dan's twins "about social psychology, peer pressure, how kids' attitudes develop, and psychology experiments you'd never believe." Read the rest

Tonight's full Moon is a "Pink Moon" aka "Passover Moon" aka "Paschal Moon" aka "Hanuman Jayanti" aka supermoon, the largest full moon of 2020. From NASA:The term "supermoon" was coined by the astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979 and refers to either a new or full Moon that occurs within 90% of perigee, its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit. Under this definition, in a typical year there can be 3 or 4 full Supermoons in a row and (about half a year apart) 3 or 4 new Supermoons in a row. In practice, what catches the public's attention are the full Moons that appear biggest and brightest each year. For 2020, the four full Moons from February to May meet this 90% threshold, with the full Moons in March and April nearly tied in size and brightness. This full Moon will be slightly closer to the Earth (about 0.1%) than the March full Moon was, so this will be the "most super" of the full supermoons this year.image: NASA/Bill Dunford Read the rest