British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who tested positive for coronavirus 10 days ago and has remained in isolation since, was today hospitalized for treatment of "persistent symptoms." He is still formally in charge of the government, but the BBC reports that Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will be chairing Monday's cabinet meeting. Read the rest

Gather round, young and old — and hear tales of bygone days. Back in olden times, citizens would mass at a house of coffee, wherein skilled java alchemists would concoct special blends and apply artisanal wizardry to make each steaming chalice an appointment for the taste buds.Granted, said wizards, once known as baristas, were ungifted in the art of immaculate spelling —but their inspired, almost supernatural ways of the bean were legend.People are sequestered in their homes now, but the myth of the fabled barista lives on. Assembled below, find assorted relics of the dark art of brewing, each dedicated to keeping the time-honored practice of drinkable beans alive for future generations. Spread the word of this epic saga and own such artifacts in your own home.Gourmia Coffee MakersHeadquartered in Brooklyn, New York, upstart small appliance maker Gourmia has spent the past few years establishing itself as a name player in the boutique coffee making field and now have an array of makers available for all shades of coffee-loving activity.For the basic set-it-and-forget-it crowd, the Gourmia GCM2865 12-Cup Programmable Coffee Maker ($49.99; originally $59.99) is equipped with a programmable timer to have up to 12 cups of steaming hot coffee ready the minute you get up each morning. And the Gourmia GCM3600 Single Serve Coffee and Tea Maker ($59.99; originally $119.99) easily brews either coffee or tea at the push of a button as well as serving up single-serve k cups as well.If your tastes run toward the more pure, 12-hour slow soak of cold brew coffee, the Gourmia GCM6850 Digital Accelerated Cold Brew Coffee Maker ($59.99; Read the rest

"What We Do in the Shadows," Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi's beautifully stupid vampire comedy, is out for more blood in season 2. The second season of the screwy, sharp-witted docu-satire premiers on FX on April 15, 10pmOver the course of the season, the vampires will try to find their way in a world of human Super Bowl parties, internet trolls, an energy vampire who gets a promotion and becomes drunk on power and of course, all the ghosts, witches, necromancers, zombies and shadowy cloaked assassins who roam freely in the Tri-State area. Is Guillermo destined to be a vampire or a vampire hunter? Or maybe just a familiar for the rest of his life?"Bat!"Image: Screengrab Read the rest

Gets none more relevant. Read the rest

The last few weeks have given us all a lot to think about. As we watched stores close, Costco lines snake through parking lots and items like hand sanitizer and toilet paper disappear everywhere like they were Lady Gaga tickets, there’s one significant takeaway it’s safe to say we all can agree on.We should all be better prepared.From disaster go bags to water and food stockpiles to emergency communications, we could almost all stand to be a little better equipped to handle a disaster or prolonged break in our normal day-to-day lives.Whether it’s facing nature’s fury like a tornado, hurricane or earthquake or a medical crisis like our current problem, a quality first aid kit needs to be at the top of anyone’s emergency supply list.If you’re looking for an assortment of life-saving supplies that extend beyond simple bandages and gauze, The Solo ($42.99; originally $50) stands ready. Lightweight, flight-approved and perfectly sized to stash in a suitcase, car trunk or even a tote bag, it unfurls into a true mini triage kit, including shears, medication, bandages, a suture kit, creams and ointments and more.For treating anything from bleeding to a blocked airway, sprains, burns or even just surviving against the elements, The Solo has the basic necessities to help get everyone through.However, if your medical needs should go beyond the basics, The Recon ($199; originally $250) is like having a stocked ER whenever you need it. A durable, heavy-duty medium-sized bag packed with multiple compartments, the Recon is fully stocked with a collection of some of the best medical emergency supplies you’ll find anywhere. Read the rest

View this post on Instagram The pleasure is mine. Tomorrow, 9pm PST, Right here on InstagramLive. Thank YOU! #almightyoppA post shared by jeffrey's human persona (@almightyopp) on Apr 3, 2020 at 9:17pm PDT This comes late but if you catch it you will be glad you did.almighty Opp is livestreaming a special extra installment of their usual once monthly amazing, absurdist puppet ritual.jeffrey can help us all hold it together. Read the rest

Whether it was Bach or Chopin, Ray Charles or Jerry Lee Lewis, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Alicia Keys or Norah Jones, there was someone whose mastery on the piano made you think, wow, I wish I knew how to do that.It’s a singular, almost timeless skill — and if you love music, there’s no better place to start a formal education than in front of those 88 keys. And...hey, whattaya know, you just happen to have a little extra free time lately, right?Now’s the time to take the plunge you’ve been thinking about for years with the training found in The Learn to Play the Piano and Music Composition Bundle. Even if you think you’ve never had a musical bone in your body, this five-course collection might make you rethink that since it takes an innovative new approach to get you playing immediately.And Pianoforall is definitely not memorizing Chopsticks. Designed for adult players who want to start playing now, this system that already helped more than 160,000 students learn the ways of the keys starts with a flourish of popular rhythm style piano not unlike Billy Joel, John Lennon or Chris Martin.Over 200 lectures and 10 hours of content, students employ the Pianoforall method across all genres ranging from blues to jazz to ballads to improv, all with an eye toward ultimately creating melodies of your own.Of course, being able to play the piano is one half the experience. The remaining four courses in this package round out your education, including in-depth examinations of music theory, arrangements, employing chords, triads and other advanced composing tricks and even a Music Production 101 courses that will have you composing, arranging, recording and producing a song from scratch while you document the entire process. Read the rest

Amazon.com is in touch with CEOs of two companies that produce coronavirus tests about plans to screen workers to reduce the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks at its warehouses, Reuters reports, citing leaked internal meeting notes. Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer, and has become an essential distributor of critical medical supplies in the U.S. and elsewhere. Amazon is also rolling out face masks and temperature checks for workers at all its U.S. and European warehouses by next week. From Reuters:The chief executives of Abbott Laboratories and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc have told Amazon they would like to work with the e-commerce company, though the U.S. government is taking up all of their testing capacity at present, the notes said.The company also discussed whether it could start such tests in at least one warehouse near its Seattle headquarters, the status of which was unclear. The nature of Amazon’s conversations with the test makers and the exact assistance they might offer were unclear.The document separately indicated Amazon is looking into the ability to screen more than one person at a time for the virus, and it also wants to partner with a medical organization in its testing efforts. It did not give further details on multi-person testing or name a partner.In a statement on Saturday, Abbott Laboratories confirmed it has been contacted by Amazon and other companies to provide testing for their workforces.No comment from Thermo Fisher or Amazon.Read more:Exclusive: Amazon in contact with coronavirus test makers for potential screenings on employees[Jeffrey Dastin, Krystal Hu] Read the rest

'"Who ever heard of 180 million masks?",' Trump asked of the urgent face mask requests by FEMA and HHS.

Scientists say that traces of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material -- viral RNA -- in the poo we flush down the toilet and into the sewage system might reveal how badly coronavirus has hit a given community.Analyzing sewage could show the true scale of an outbreak, in the absence of available testing, they say.Looking for outbreak markers in wastewater could also be used to detect the coronavirus ifit comes back to communities, reports Nature. Using this method, researchers have found traces of the virus the Netherlands, the USA and Sweden, and correlated their findings with known outbreaks.Excerpt:One treatment plant can capture wastewater from more than one million people, says Gertjan Medema, a microbiologist at KWR Water Research Institute in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands. Monitoring effluent at this scale could provide better estimates for how widespread the coronavirus is than testing because wastewater surveillance can account for those who have not been tested and have only mild or no symptoms, says Medema, who has detected SARS-CoV-2 genetic material -- viral RNA -- in several treatment plants in the Netherlands: "Health authorities are only seeing the tip of the iceberg."But to quantify the scale of infection in a population from wastewater samples, researchers say the groups will need to find out how much viral RNA is excreted in faeces and extrapolate the number of infected people in a population from concentrations of viral RNA in wastewatersamples. Researchers will also need to ensure that they are looking at a representative sample of what is being excreted by the population and not just one snapshot in time, and that their tests can detect thevirus at low levels. Read the rest

With everything happening now, even the most jaded among us are bound to feel some pangs of anxiety now and again. It’s a crazy time. When we crawl into bed each night, it’s common for our brains to go into overdrive and start thinking — and worrying — about what’s going on and what’s to come.Under those conditions, anything that offers some calm and soothes our rattled psyches is worth a look. And as strange as it sounds, getting underneath a weighted anti-anxiety blanket actually has been shown to help. In one study, 63 percent of people said they felt lower anxiety after five minutes under a 30-pound blanket. Even 60 percent of those hospitalized after a mental health crisis reported calming effects after using a weighted blanket.There’s a reason Linus lugged around that blanket all those years. Right now, check out a selection of weighted and other anti-anxiety blankets that can help offer you a more relaxed sleep during these troubled times.Under $100Sometimes, even just snuggling up with something ultra-soft is enough to be calming. Both the Bibb Home Luxury Cotton Thermal Throw Blanket ($24.99; originally $79) and even the wearable CMFY Hoodie: 2-in-1 Hoodie and Blanket ($39.99; originally $69.99) can offer both protection from a chill and some restful, positive vibes.However, the soothing results of deep pressure touch (DPT), the science of firm, hands-on pressure reducing chronic stress, can’t be ignored. For about the price of a regular blanket, these three — the Kathy Ireland Weighted Blanket ($49.99; Read the rest

Happy mutants Andy Cowitt and Michael Wertz have collaborated on a song that tells the story of Golden Gate Park -- San Francisco's three-mile-long stretch of man-made natural space -- from its sandy start to "skaters on streets." It was created to coincide with the park's 150th anniversary (Saturday, April 4!) and the release of Marta Lindsey's new children's book (illustrated by Wertz), Golden Gate Park, an A to Z Adventure ($17.99).Look at how stunning the book is!-- Michael Wertz previously on BB Read the rest

On Electric Lit, Halimah Marcus, interviews speculative fiction author Ted Chiang (Exhalation, Arrival) on the current global pandemic and whether there will ever be a "normal" for us to return to.HM: What’s the relationship between disruption and doom? Would “the disruption is resolved and nothing is ever the same” qualify as a doom narrative? Or is doom a third kind of story, in which the disruption is never resolved?TC: A lot of dystopian stories posit variations on a Mad Max world where marauders roam the wasteland. That’s a kind of change no one wants to see. I think those qualify as doom. What I mean by disruption is not the end of civilization, but the end of a particular way of life. Aristocrats might have thought the world was ending when feudalism was abolished during the French Revolution, but the world didn’t end; the world changed. (The critic John Clute has said that the French Revolution was one of the things that gave rise to science fiction.)HM: Do you see aspects of science fiction (your own work or others) in the coronavirus pandemic? In how it is being handled, or how it has spread?TC: While there has been plenty of fiction written about pandemics, I think the biggest difference between those scenarios and our reality is how poorly our government has handled it. If your goal is to dramatize the threat posed by an unknown virus, there’s no advantage in depicting the officials responding as incompetent, because that minimizes the threat; it leads the reader to conclude that the virus wouldn’t be dangerous if competent people were on the job. Read the rest

Even tho they are only updated once a day (at most) I check, check and re-check 91-divoc and the IHME COVID-19 Projections. The linear scale graphs on 91-divoc have given me the best picture of 'is the curve flattening' for the regions I watch. Tribalism runs rampant during Trump's Pandemic and I am naturally more focused on the regions where my loved ones live.IHME's projections give me an idea about what to expect based on data and models they've explained and I can trust. What comes out of the Orange one's mouth is useless.Please help me add to my list... Read the rest

Whether it's your boss, your old high school friends or your over-critical family you're looking to impress, having your background looking as put together as possible during hours of Zoom calls is a must. You might not realize it in the moment, but that unmade bed in the back of your video chat shot says a lot about you — so start sending a better message.With production quality greenscreen app XSplit VCam, they’ll never see anything you don’t want them to see. XSplit VCam is tailored to create a background for any video production, conferencing or vlog that is simple to use and looks great.With XSplit, users just include the app as a camera source, fire up their webcam and start recording. For some light adjustments, a soft blur to the background can smooth out distractions and draw viewer attention to the crystal clear focal image in the video.If you just don’t have a physical space that you like as a video background, no problem -- with XSplit, you can create one. Upload the jpg, gif or png image you want to use and that image is now your backdrop, offering a look that’s almost indistinguishable from a news broadcast or other high-production video. You can also insert a web page, YouTube video or another video of your choice as your background, making sure you never give viewers a chance to get bored with your video.XSplit is compatible with all the major video chat apps and conferencing solutions, so it’s perfect for remote work, virtual interviews, meetings, or teaching. Read the rest

If you’ve never heard of WooCommerce, it’s essential the way small businesses operate in WordPress, the world’s most popular web content management system. With WooCommerce, web entrepreneurs can set up and run an e-commerce store, selling products, accepting payments and safeguarding privacy for both buyers and sellers.As the engine behind 35 percent of all websites, it should be no surprise that WooCommerce is also a dominating force in the world of online business. So the training found in The Build Your Own Business with WordPress and WooCommerce Bundle can serve as a brilliant blueprint for anyone looking to quickly get an e-commerce business started and running smoothly.This collection features 11 beginner-friendly courses aimed at helping any potential web business get off the ground.Since few startup business owners are also experts in digital operations, half of your courses -- including WordPress for Beginners, How to Make a Professional WordPress Website & Free Domain, and WooCommerce Membership/Courseware Site -- focus on the basics of understanding and using WordPress, engaging with the WooCommerce interface and getting a working, efficient web-based storefront live for online customers.There are also loads of e-commerce templates available here with themes and plugins to help new users get a WooCommerce-enabled website together in about 90 minutes. There’s even a course to help you start a business building WooCommerce sites for other entrepreneurs.From there, courses delve into all types of specialized facets for helping your business succeed. You’ll learn how blogging and online content creation is crucial to growing a new business, particularly those working on a shoestring marketing budget. Read the rest

I love the work that the Italian DIY ambient punk and dungeon drone label, Heimat Der Katastrophe, is doing. They release cassette tapes and digital albums via Bandcamp that are sonic-based old-school D&D adventures. Every cassette comes with a folded tray card with maps, dungeon and character descriptions, and background on the adventure depicted in the music and on the card. You can just listen and enjoy the music, or follow along with the action outlined in the adventure, or play an actual D&D adventure using the music and material provided. HDK's latest offering is artist Kobold's "The village in the frozen mountains." The music is described as "short dungeon-pop compositions in a 16-bit style with magic melodies that will transport you straight to when you were young and carefree."The limited edition cassettes sell out immediately. Today's release is already gone. But you can listen to the music free on Bandcamp or buy the digital album which comes with all of the adventure materials.Image: Promo photo Read the rest

NEW: After weeks of internal White House debate, finally the U.S. Centers for Disease control will 'recommend,' but not require, that people wear face coverings or improvised cloth masks if they go out in public. The CDC will soon advise the American people to wear masks in public to stem the spread of coronavirus. This is a complete reversal of policy change, well into an still-uncontrolled disease outbreak. Lives will be lost because of this policy bungling.President Donald Trump said on Friday that the Centers for Disease Control will soon officially begin recommending the public use of non-medical, non-surgical grade masks to slow the spread of COVID-19. "You don't have to do it. ... I don't think I am going to be doing it,” Trump said about wearing a face mask, during his announcement that the CDC now recommends people wear face masks. “We’re healing,” the president added, without evidence.President Trump says the CDC is officially recommending Americans wear simple cloth masks in public, though this is only voluntary — and he says he won't be doing it https://t.co/b9FtmY5sM4 pic.twitter.com/ZX5W6IWcxA— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 3, 2020CDC recommends people should wear simple cloth masks in public to reduce spread of coronavirus.Our story: https://t.co/yemiedkVrN— James Hohmann (@jameshohmann) April 3, 2020CDC recommends that people wear masks in public, and Trump immediately undermines them by stressing that the call is "voluntary" and saying "I don't think I am going to be doing it." https://t.co/b4V0iRYicD— David Lauter (@DavidLauter) April 3, 2020VIRUS UPDATE: CDC to recommend Americans cover faces when outside, but President Trump says he won't wear one. Read the rest

Today I made a Zoom background of myself accidentally walking in on myself in a Zoom meeting. pic.twitter.com/Rl2AsjfZ7V— Dan Crowd (@itsdancrowd) April 3, 2020Prankster creativity from video producer Dan Crowd (above) and motion graphics designer Metehan Korkmazel. I had the same like multiple instances of me hanging around. pic.twitter.com/05G4KDXNGY— Metehan Korkmazel (@korkmazelm) April 3, 2020 Read the rest

What a fantastic project.“I made a 'banned-book' bookshelf with a hidden compartment,” says IMGURian @honestworkdesigns.“Sliding dado door serves as hidden compartment at the back of bottom shelf.”Brilliant. I made a "banned-book" bookshelf with a hidden compartment Read the rest

Wow. That's all I can manage to get out of my keyboard, I'm so astonished by how gorgeous and dedicated this wonderful crafted popsicle stick house is. IMGURian @dawilah is taking this to a completely different level. I love it. The build video is glorious. I feel a real fondness for the medium, as a GenXer who was taught to do craft projects in the 1970s. Oh yeah we used popsicle sticks.Popsicle stick house Read the rest

The wonderful weird alt.folk noise pop band Thao & The Get Down Stay Down released a new music video today shot entirely using Zoom videoconferencing. It's a radically creative clip for an equally rad tune, "Phenom." Thao & The Get Down Stay Down's new album Temple is out next month. Read the rest

Is the coronavirus behind the fevered imaginations supplying the plots for this week’s tawdry tabloids?

Can't sit still during the pandemic? You're not alone. Many folks are using their social distancing time to decompress and zone out on Tiger King, some even pushing back against the idea of being productive. But plenty of others find themselves bored, restless, and in need of projects and goals, somewhere to direct their energy. If productivity is what you crave, there is surely no time like the present to make the most of that urge: You've got hours to fill and over 1000 premium online classes (and counting) are available now for only $59.Join over 550k satisfied students on the StackSkills platform where you'll get access to courses that will help you master today's most in-demand skills. Subject matter runs from beginner to advanced and covers IT, coding, graphic design, blockchain, growth hacking, iOS development, finance, business, marketing, and much more, with new classes added every month.Use StackSkills to teach yourself something that will make you first in line for a promotion or send your resume to the top of the pile when applying for jobs. Thanks to up-to-date information in courses most relevant to today's markets and excellent teachers leading the way (350+ of the web's top instructors, all experts in their fields), you can even leverage your StackSkills access into a side hustle in an area you currently know very little about.As you move through the platform and individual lessons, you'll find easy-to-use progress tracking, course certifications, quarterly instructor Q&A webinars, real-life applications and examples of theoretical skills, sample projects, and more. Read the rest

Photographer Lucas Zimmerman captured these dreamy long-exposure shots on foggy streets near Weimar, Germany. He followed up on the original 2013 series a few years later with Traffic Lights 2.0."...Photography shows us things we otherwise overlook, such as a simple traffic light on the street," Zimmerman says. "An all-known object, which produces a strong effect in an unnatural situation with a simple photographic setup."(via Kottke) Read the rest

Here's another musical round-up to keep you occupied while holed up in your pandemic command bunker. The Pitchfork title of this piece is "The 33 Best Industrial Albums of All Time," but homey don't play that horse race. Your mileage may vary. My mileage varies. What would you add to this list?27Chris and CoseyHeartbeat1981“Industrial music for us was about being industrious,” Cosey Fanni Tutti reflected of her time in the pioneering group Throbbing Gristle. “It wasn’t about industrial sounds.” Her point was proven when she and bandmate/partner Chris Carter formed a new duo after TG’s dissolution, veering away from the group’s harsh textures into lighter, more melodic territory. The music that comprises Heartbeat, their debut album, spans multiple genres—minimalist techno, spacey synth-pop, stretches of eerie ambience—while maintaining a rough, corroded edge. From the grinding pulse of opener “Put Yourself in Los Angeles” to the dazzling sci-fi title track, its vision and melding of textures influenced scores of electronic artists; it also provided a path for fellow industrial musicians to maintain their intensity while learning to lighten up and evolve. –Sam Sodomsky20SwansGreed/Holy Money1986Desecration, self-loathing, flesh, power: This is the scripture of Swans, the infamously loud and transgressive New York noise band led for decades by Michael Gira. By Greed/Holy Money, they had blown up their sound—two bassists, three drummers, the vocalist Jarboe—to become a chamber group of hulking, post-industrial aggression, marching against the bull market of New York’s cocaine decadence in the mid-’80s. Read the rest

If you care about The Simpsons with the same intensity that I don't care about the Simpsons, you'll be happy to hear that that Disney has finally sorted out how to stream the long-running cartoon sitcom in its proper 4:3 ratio. Disney+ will start kicking it old school, by the end of May.In a message posted to Disney+'s Twitter account yesterday, the company's reps stated:"We appreciate our fans’ patience and are working to make the first 19 Seasons (and part of 20) of The Simpsons available in 4:3 versions on DisneyPlus. We expect to accomplish this by the end of May."So that's nice.If you keep track of such things, you'll recall that, a few months ago, Simpsons fans lost their shit over Disney+'s streaming earlier seasons of the show, which were originally broadcast in a 4:3 aspect ratio, in 16:9. While this might fill up a modern wide screen television's display quite nicely, the forced 16:9 aspect ratio cut out a lot of what was going on, on screen. This left many elements of some of the series' best sight gags, unseen.I know that many films suffered from the pan-and-scan nonsense they were put through before televisions moved to a wider aspect ratio. While I'm not personally invested in The Simpsons being shown as each episode was intended to be seen, I have to wonder how many other television shows from the 1990's on back are currently being ruined by being shown in 16:9.Image via Wikipedia Read the rest

If humans ever hope to colonize Mars, the settlers will need to manufacture on-planet a huge range of organic compounds, from fuels to drugs, that are too expensive to ship from Earth.University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) chemists have a plan for that.For the past eight years, the researchers have been working on a hybrid system combining bacteria and nanowires that can capture the energy of sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into building blocks for organic molecules. Nanowires are thin silicon wires about one-hundredth the width of a human hair, used as electronic components, and also as sensors and solar cells.“On Mars, about 96% of the atmosphere is CO2. Basically, all you need is these silicon semiconductor nanowires to take in the solar energy and pass it on to these bugs to do the chemistry for you,” said project leader Peidong Yang, professor of chemistry and the S. K. and Angela Chan Distinguished Chair in Energy at UC Berkeley....Read the rest of the piece on Berkeley News.[H/t Alberto Gaitán]Image: UC Berkeley image by Peidong Yang Read the rest

Wow. Breakfast burritos are WAY better when working and cooking from home.Now I am hungry.So THIS is how you make a perfect breakfast burrito. The technique is not something that ever would have occurred to me, but now it seems so obvious. This looks so much more delicious than anything I've ever grabbed from a shack or a truck while on the way to the office.IMGURian and pandemic stay-at-homer @jelzic tried one of those “YOU'VE BEEN COOKING IT WRONG” Facebook video tip recipe video thingies out and it worked great. Breakfast is better at the home officeMore: Breakfast is better at the home office [IMGUR] Read the rest

This is a very funny short story, told in a crappy overly compressed GIF and some doodle overlays. It's brilliant. Wait for it.Bird with Arms'Bird with Arms' Read the rest

Amazon will delay its annual marketing and money-making Prime Day due to the coronavirus pandemic.Citing 'internal meeting notes,' Reuters reports that Amazon.com will postpone its major summer shopping event Prime Day at least until August, and expects up to a $100 million hit from excess items it may now have to sell at a discount. Excerpt:Amazon declined to comment. Prime Day, a marketing event Amazon started in 2015 to drum up sales during the summer shopping lulls, typically occurs in July, though the company never publishes the date far in advance. Read more:Exclusive: Amazon to delay marketing event Prime Day due to coronavirus Read the rest

Impeached president and serial liar Donald John Trump said on Thursday that he has been tested for COVID-19 for a second time, and again received negative results. Trump this time took the newer, rapid point-of-care test and called it "more pleasant" than the first.Seems legit.President Trump says he tested negative for coronavirus using a rapid diagnostic that produced a result in less than 15 minutes https://t.co/p55evbARs2 pic.twitter.com/YRBhhz5LUs— Reuters (@Reuters) April 3, 2020"I think I took it really out of curiosity to see how quickly it worked." President Donald Trump said he tested negative for Covid-19 for the second time yesterday. He used a rapid test that gave a result in less than 15 minutes. pic.twitter.com/FhafxC5TYI— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) April 3, 2020More at NBC News. Read the rest

Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau says the country has signed an agreement with Amazon.com for the distribution of critical emergency medical supplies such as masks, face shields, gowns, ventilators, and test kits in the COVID-19 crisis.Prime Minister Trudeau says the federal government has a deal with Amazon Canada to distribute personal protective equipment to the provinces and territories. More here: https://t.co/FWDEyCnScw pic.twitter.com/CzOKGpZVJ5— CTV News (@CTVNews) April 3, 2020Alicja Siekierska at Yahoo Finance:The federal government has tapped the online behemoth to manage the distribution of medical supplies, including masks, face shields, gowns, ventilators, and test kits.“For the past few weeks, our government has been working closely with industry to produce the supplies our healthcare workers need like masks, face shields, gowns, ventilators, and test kits,” Trudeau said at his daily press conference on Friday.“Today, I can announce that our government has signed an agreement with Amazon Canada to manage the distribution of this equipment to the provinces and territories.”Earlier this week, Trudeau announced that the federal government will spend $2 billion on protective personal equipment, including masks, face shields, gowns, along with ventilators, test kits and swabs and hand sanitizer as the country fights the COVID-19 pandemic.READ MORE:Canada signs deal with Amazon to distribute medical suppliesAlicja SiekierskaApril 3, 2020[via techmeme]Justin Trudeau says Canada has signed an agreement with Amazon to distribute critical medical supplies across the country (@alicjawithaj / Yahoo Finance)https://t.co/enZWXyRYH4https://t.co/MO6iwzlSfU— Techmeme (@Techmeme) April 3, 2020 Read the rest

“Researchers conclude that Zoom uses non-industry-standard cryptographic techniques with identifiable weaknesses and is not suitable for sensitive communications.”

Here's a new ad, from the GOP anti-Trump group Republicans for Law, showing GOP voters who no longer support Trump because of his incompetent response to the coronavirus. Summed up: “Even though I’ve been a Republican all my life, I can’t support Trump and his response to the coronavirus is exactly why...He says he puts America first, but it’s clear he only knows how to put Trump first...This is a crisis, and we need real leadership. Donald Trump is incapable of it.”The ad will air during Fox & Friends on Tuesday in the D.C. area, according to HuffPost. Republicans for Law is the group who also put this ad out less than three weeks ago:Via HuffPost Read the rest

The suddenly popular videoconferencing app Zoom has issued a patch for a vulnerability in its Windows client that allowed attackers to steal the user's Windows login credentials from malicious chat links.Hi @zoom_us & @NCSC - here is an example of exploiting the Zoom Windows client using UNC path injection to expose credentials for use in SMBRelay attacks. The screen shot below shows an example UNC path link and the credentials being exposed (redacted). pic.twitter.com/gjWXas7TMO— Hacker Fantastic (@hackerfantastic) March 31, 2020I made a simple demo of the latest Zoom UNC Path Injection Vulnerability, Take care and don't click on ANY UNC Path hyperlinks!P.S. I used putty as a payload.exe which could be ANY_THING_ELSE.exePoC: https://t.co/fatA6R7Kuq— Mohamed A. Baset (@SymbianSyMoh) April 1, 2020“Zoom issued a fix for this and other bugs, promising better transparency going forward,” reports Mark Hachman at PCWorld:An unpatched vulnerability within Zoom allows an attacker to drop a malicious link into a chat window and use it to steal a Windows password, according to reports.A hacker could use an attack called a UNC path injection to expose credentials, according to an attack posted on Twitter and subsequently followed up with an additional video. According to The Hacker News, that's because Windows exposes a user's login name and password to a remote server when attempting to connect to it and download a file.----Update: After this story and others went live April 1, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan addressed Zoom security and other issues in a blog post. Read the rest

Everyone is using Zoom for everything from pandemic family gatherings to A.A. meetings to therapy sessions to teaching college classes, but the app has newly revealed and very concerning security vulnerabilities.The contents of thousands of video calls made on the app Zoom were exposed on the open web, and easily available via common web search tools. The Washington Post reports that many of the videos, which callers assumed were private, include personally identifiable information and deeply intimate conversations, recorded in people’s homes.Drew Harwell for the Washington Post:Many of the videos appear to have been recorded through Zoom’s software and saved onto separate online storage space without a password. But because Zoom names every video recording in an identical way, a simple online search can reveal a long stream of videos that anyone can download and watch.Zoom videos are not recorded by default, though call hosts can choose to save them to Zoom servers or their own computers. There’s no indication that live-streamed videos or videos saved onto Zoom’s servers are publicly visible.But many participants in Zoom calls may be surprised to find their faces, voices and personal information exposed because a call host can record a large group call without participants’ consent. (Call participants are given a notification when a host starts to record.) The Washington Post is not revealing the naming convention that Zoom uses, and Zoom was alerted to the issue before this story was published.Read more:Thousands of Zoom video calls left exposed on open WebAnd here was another previously-revealed and purportedly-now-fixed security vulnerability with Zoom:Zoom shares your information with Facebook, lawsuit says Read the rest

Mavis Staples (most famously of the Staples Singers) and Jeff Tweedy (most famously of Jeff Tweedy of Wilco) have a new song out — the latest in their decade-long collaboration together.Staples explained the origins of the song in a press release:The song speaks to what we’re going through now—everyone is in this together, whether you like it or not. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, what race or sex you are, where you live... it can still touch you. It’s hit so many people in our country and around the world in such a horrible way and I just hope this song can bring a little light to the darkness. We will get through this but we're going to have to do it together. If this song is able to bring any happiness or relief to anyone out there in even the smallest way, I wanted to make sure that I helped to do that.I'll be honest: it's a little hokier than the usual output by Staples or Tweedy. But Tweedy's honky-tonk production under Staples' smooth-as-ever vocals makes the saccharine message go down with a smooth, steady, folksy groove. And that was enough to pick me up in these strange times.Proceeds from the song My Block, My Hood, My City, a Chicago-based organization that helps senior citizens with supplies and care during the coronavirus quarantine.All In It Together [Mavis Staples] Read the rest

Since its launch three years ago, Donald Bell's Maker Update has been one of my favorite weekly YouTube...well, maker updates. I always find inspiring projects, tool reviews, and tips of interest.As you can imagine, more COVID-19 maker response content has been showing up on the show. This week, almost all of the episode is dedicated to maker responses to the pandemic. There's a project for building a Raspberry Pi-powered soap dispenser that plays 20 seconds of Spotify to time proper hand washing, the MIT's $100 open source ventilator, face shield design improvements, and a ventilator mask made from snorkeling gear. There is also news of a virus pom pom tutorial (to make COVID-19 more warm and fuzzy for the kids?), a timely video on safe tools for kids, and two virtual event calendars (one from MIT, one from Hackaday).Image: YouTube Read the rest

No, it won't ensure you don't catch covid-19, but some face coverage is better than none when making a trip out of the house. Tora Smart's a how-to vid walks us through a quick and easy way to create a face mask with materials you already have at hand:"Let’s all make our own masks and let front line health workers get first dibs on the real ones. If we all wear our own when we leave the house, there will be less spread. New information is revealing that some face coverage is better than no face coverage. BUT, please allow care workers to get the real ones first!" Read the rest

To keep active through this, let’s dance together. pic.twitter.com/oLy7RgKogE— Joe Tracini (@joetracini) March 24, 2020Joe Trancini is the dance instructor the world needs right now: "if you were one of the 2 million people across the internet that chose to watch this in a day, thank you from the bottom of my leotard. " Read the rest

Watching these videos got me thinking about the hazmat suits and heavy-duty disinfections you see in footage of victim transports. It makes me suspect that the 6ft/2m social distancing benchmark and "masks do nothing" policies are forms of epidemiology theater that we will soon come to regret. A single cough generates thousands of microdroplets that remain suspended in air for hours, reports Esquire. It "doesn't meant we're doomed," writes Sharon Begley. Read the rest

Even if you don’t miss much else about the office right now, there's a good chance your home laptop is making you nostalgic for the added efficiency of that pair of monitors on your desk at work to spread out your workflow.There’s no telling how long the new normal may continue to be the new normal, so it’s worth considering who to best replicate some of your favorite productivity aids in your new, more mobile setting. You can start with the Mobile Pixels DUEX Pro Portable Dual Monitor, which offers up the complete second screen experience for a laptop in a way that feels 100 percent organic and compatible with how most of us work.Created by a pair of MIT students and launched with $1 million in IndieGoGo funding, the DUEX uses magnetic adhesives to clip seamlessly to the back of your laptop monitor. With a sliding, 270-degree rotation and a simple USB connection, users just shift the screen to the side and they have a working dual-screen desktop.With studies showing the dual monitor format boosting productivity by over 40 percent, the DUEX can be an absolute game-changer for those whose fingers routinely outpace their computer’s ability to keep up.When not in use, the lightweight and durable DUEX slides back into position behind your primary monitor, so it always remains protected, even during transport.In addition to adding a second full HD-capable 1080p monitor to your work environment, the screen can also be turned 180 degrees into presentation mode. Read the rest

According to studies in the early 1990s, up to 40% of police officer families experienced domestic violence, a figure that includes officers themselves. Recent studies focusing on officers' behavior suggest a far higher rate of abuse than the general population, exacerbated by underrporting and favorable treatment by colleagues in law enforcement.Officer Jeffrey Wharton, however, is out of uniform--literally removed from him with scissors. He arrived at work to find there was a felony warrant issued out for his arrest after his girlfriend was hospitalized earlier that day.When Officer Wharton arrived for his shift at an area substation Rio Rancho Police officers were waiting for him armed with a felony warrant. At one point you'll see they removed his duty belt and searched him. After the search they are seen on lapel video cutting off his fully marked uniform shirt. Wharton was lead out of the substation to a waiting cruiser. He was booked into the Sandoval County Detention Center on charges of Kidnapping (First Degree) (NO Intent to Commit Sex Offense), Aggravated Battery (great bodily harm) (household member), Aggravated Battery Against a Household Member (Strangulation or Suffocation), Aggravated Battery (great bodily harm) (household member), Tampering with Evidence (Highest Crime a Capital, First or Second Degree and Negligent Use of a Deadly Weapon (Unsafe Handling).In the video, the deshirting commences 3 minutes in.Wharton didn't get bailed and awaits his trial in the slammer. Read the rest

After a tipoff, police raided a house in Brooklyn and carted off boxes said to contain close to a million N95 masks. CBS News: "Authorities remove close to one million N95 respirator masks, gloves, gowns and other medical supplies after a Brooklyn man was caught allegedly hoarding the equipment."I've seen a few articles saying he was arrested for the hoarding, but the report says he was arrested for lying to the FBI and coughing on them. Read the rest

A UK man from Stevenage, Herts was spotted making his way around his neighborhood dressed as a bush. The couple next door caught the man on video and assumed that he was trying to avoid lockdown in a most ridiculous fashion. Turns out, it was all just a prank, the man trying to bring a laugh to neighbors stuck indoors. It's unclear whether the next door neighbors were in on the gag.Later he returned with his two kids disguised as garbage bags.[H/t Kaine Delay]Image: Screengrab Read the rest

NIH 3D Print Exchange was developed to allow for the distributed design, testing, approval, and sharing of scientifically-accurate models related to the biomedical sciences. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, they have created a COVID-19 supply chain response section on their website. Here, designers of PPE (personal protection equipment) and other necessary equipment related to the pandemic can upload their designs for testing, and if approved, for clinical use. You can scan and download the approved 3D print designs and you can do the same with the prototype designs under review. A section called "Designs Optimized for Community Use" is for things that anyone can make use of, like contactless door openers. There is also a section with designs with serious safety implications. As you might imagine, most of these are for ventilator components.Image: Prototype N95 respirator design Read the rest

If you're looking to become a software engineer or it's an idea you've tossed around half-seriously, there may be no better time than now to take the leap. It's one of the fastest-growing, most in-demand roles already. And in the midst of the pandemic, between the extra hours you likely have in your day, and the added value of possessing a skill that can be utilized from anywhere in the world, remotely, it's not hard to see the benefit of diving in.The Complete Introduction to Software Engineering Bundle is beginner-friendly, yet comprehensive. Over 24 hours, 13 courses, and 219 lessons, you'll learn the basics of programming, app development, electronics, and SEO to name a few.Areas covered include Java, Ruby, Perl, Rust, the powerful JavaScript engine NodeJS, JavaScript framework library AngularJS, Google Go (the open-source language developed at Google to simplify programming tasks), an introduction to electronics for makers, building Private Blog Networks, making your first mobile app with PhoneGap dev framework, Lua programming for game modding, scripting, or library writing, building user interfaces with React Native, developing interactive sites that adapt to any device, and more.Each course is created by an expert developer and a trained mentor in that area of expertise. And the entire bundle is produced by EDUmobile Academy, which was founded by Vishal Lamba, a mathematics and computer science graduate with experience in multiple areas of digital design, mobile development and design, web technologies and digital marketing. These are high-quality video training courses that offer real education. Read the rest

Danny DeVito is having a moment. Break out the gel pens and ride the wave with this "Mermanny DeVito" coloring sheet by Oakland Illustrator Shannon Taylor. It's available to download for free on her website. Read the rest