Through the DC arts and music scene, I have had the great pleasure of getting to know Kid Congo Powers, legendary guitarist for The Gun Club, The Cramps, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and his own Pink Monkey Birds. Kid is as kind, generous, and down-to-earth, as he is ridiculously talented.Given his talent and artistic pedigree, it's a shame that he doesn't get the level of respect and exposure that he deserves. So, it's always heartening to see when he does get a little love. Here is a wonderful KC Powers tribute and set from XRAY FM in Portland, OR. The set nicely covers the arc of Kid's career and includes tracks from his various guitar stints and solo work.Kid Congo also stars in I AM RAY, a special episode of the currently-running HORSE HEAD: SEASON ZERO. Horse Head is a unique and strange web-based film project by award-winning DC filmmaker, Rob Parrish. The series mixes science fiction, dreamy, Lynchian high-weirdness, and queer aesthetics.Rob writes:The special film is called “I AM RAY: Fair Warning Motion Picture #1 (A Horse Head Short Film).” In the film, Horse Head (a body/gender-fluid, super-intelligent, extra-dimensional alien-super-being) is captured and imprisoned by Ray, a super-being with personal space issues. Ray puts Horse Head inside of a stuffed Elf as a form of torture. After a decade of torment, Ray gives Horse Head a mental breather by allowing for the creation of a simulation of charismatic rock star Kid Congo Powers. Read the rest

Jim Bakker is now selling "medicinal seed" bundles from which you can grow plants to "make your own medicine." pic.twitter.com/nAWC5rh2Az— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) March 19, 2020I have very little sympathy for anyone who believes anything convicted fraudster* Jim Bakker says on his infomercials. A couple of weeks ago the New York DA sent Bakker a cease-and-desists to force to him to stop selling colloidal silver as a coronavirus cure. Now Bakker is selling "medicinal seed" bundles to grow plants so you can "make your own medicine." And it cost $99!*From Wikipedia: "Bakker was indicted in 1988 on eight counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy. In 1989, after a five-week trial which began on August 28 in Charlotte, North Carolina, a jury found him guilty on all 24 counts. Judge Robert Daniel Potter sentenced Bakker to 45 years in federal prison and imposed a $500,000 fine." Read the rest

Spoken Word with Electronics is an audio series delivering to you a two side recording of unusual stories paired with vintage modular electronic soundsTHIS WEEK:Welcome, fellow occupant of Quarantonia! A few months back I posted the first installment of Spoken Word with Electronics, an audio history series. The first episode was a tribute to David Berman of the Silver Jews/Purple Mountains. Since then I've been finishing up a lot of the separate selections from interviews and other recorded vocals.Here's Spoken Word with Electronics Issue #2, with a lot more to come.Think of each installment as a two-sided record, a Side A and a Side B.SIDE A: Paul Krassner recalls the day JFK was shot. Audio comes from a comprehensive interview I did with Paul in 2017, mixed in with a lot of electronic accompaniment. The printed piece ended up in The American Bystander, Issue #4. There was a huge amount of information recorded that couldn't fit in the printed piece, though, and these audio pieces will provide a much denser portrait of P.K. - Often going into territory he rarely discussed.Future installments will have five or six other focused memories of Paul's on a variety of wonderful topics. Stay tuned for some fun stuff.SIDE B: Our flip-side track of the album is an apocalyptic carnival ride called "Earth, Take Four" — I'd completed this a few months back but it feels timely. Watch out for the volcanoes!The wind in "Earth, Take Four" is a combination of different colors of noise. Read the rest

From BioSpace via Alberto Gaitán:ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- 20/20 BioResponse, a business unit of 20/20 GeneSystems, Inc. announced today that it will begin taking orders for its CoronaCheck COVID-19 Rapid Antibody Test Kit. (The test is intended to identify persons having an immune response against SARS-CoV-2.) The company’s action follows discussions with officials from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) this week after the agency’s March 16 Guidance issued to “expand the number and variety of diagnostic tests” as the “severity and scope of the current COVID-19 situation around the globe necessitates greater testing capacity than is currently available.”Alberto comments:"Low cost" 15-minute COVID-19 antibody test has been cleared for use in the USA by the FDA. "Rapid Antibody Test Generates Results in under 15 minutes from Blood Drop without Laboratory Equipment or Personnel"Standard error is ±10%, which is kinda high (i.e., you're positive but get a negative result and think you're okay so you do stuff you shouldn't, and the opposite case is also problematic).Read the rest on BioSpace.[Thanks, Alberto!]Image: Photo by CDC on Unsplash Read the rest

Metropolis Kid by Model DecoyI've known Doron Monk Flake and Ari Sadowitz since high school, and it's been an honor to watch their musical prowess grow and grow and grow. Their current project, Model Decoy, pumps out Prince-like post-punk jams, full of sick rock riffs and soaring jazzy vocals that bring gravitas to clever lyrics that are mostly about their favorite nerdy comic books and movies.Their newest single, "Metropolis Kid," is a perfect example of this. It makes you want to tap your feet as you croon along with Superboy (being young Kon-El, the misfit clone of Superman and Lex Luthor, not that cranky bastard Superboy-PrimeYou can find the band's back catalog on Spotify, but they just released "Metropolis Kid" and two other new songs exclusively on Bandcamp, which is waiving their fee today (March 20) so that struggling bands can get 100% of the proceeds of their music during this quarantine.(If you're feeling generous, you can buy some tunes from my own band, the Roland High Life, too — we're not as funky as Model Decoy, but we do have some good banger about Spider-Man and, uhh, conspiracy theorists.)Model Decoy on BandcampImage: Pat Loika / Flickr (CC 2.0) Read the rest

The number of coronavirus cases in New York sharply increased to nearly 8,000 cases on Friday, a result of increased testing and the continuing uncontrolled spread of the virus that causes the respiratory illness COVID-19. This is 10 times higher than what was reported earlier in the week.New York now has half of all coronavirus cases in the US. In a startlingly quick ascent, New York was closing in on 8,000 positive tests, about 1/2 the cases in the country. The # was 10x higher than what was reported earlier in the week. The sharp increase is thrusting the medical system toward a crisis point. https://t.co/SPPe5PESWT— Adam Goldman (@adamgoldmanNYT) March 20, 2020“The healthcare system is already getting overrun. Hospitals are running out of ventilators. Doctors are reusing masks,” says the New York Times' Brian Rosenthal.Excerpt:The sharp increase is thrusting the medical system toward a crisis point, officials said.In the Bronx, doctors at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center say they have only a few remaining ventilators for patients who need them to breathe. In Brooklyn, doctors at Kings County Hospital Center say they are so low on supplies that they are reusing masks for up to a week, slathering them with hand sanitizer between shifts.Some of the jump in New York’s cases can be traced to significantly increased testing, which the state began this week. But the escalation, and the response, could offer other states a glimpse of what might be in store if the virus continues to spread. Read the rest

About a million of the people who are members of the Reddit discussion group r/coronavirus joined in just the past week. The subreddit is getting some recognition now as a pretty reliably good source of community-moderated news and information about the COVID-19 pandemic.Probably helps that the subreddit's team of volunteer content moderators include people like Emerson Boggs, 25, a Ph.D. student and virologist at the University of Pittsburgh.Other members of that volunteer mod group include “researchers of infectious diseases, virologists, computer scientists, doctors and nurses, spending hours policing the more than 50,000 daily comments posted by the community for misinformation, trolls and off-topic political discussions,” report Olivia Solon and April Glaser for NBC News:The coronavirus community is now the third-most active subreddit, according to Redditlist, a website that tracks Reddit, and one of the fastest growing subreddits ever.Every day, Boggs and the other moderators work through a queue of thousands of comments and posts that have been flagged for review. They coordinate via the messaging platform Discord to ensure they aren't duplicating work or to settle any disagreements. Some spend time developing tools to automate or improve their workflow, inviting high-profile scientists and doctors to participate in "Ask Me Anything" Q&A sessions and recruiting more moderators. NBC News' medical correspondent, Dr. John Torres recently participated in one.The moderators play to their strengths. In Boggs' case, that's making sure posts submitted by users are scientifically accurate. This involves checking the sources of information and deleting posts if they rely on flimsy or poorly interpreted evidence and adding labels to posts linking to scientific papers that aren't peer reviewed. Read the rest

As a game design hobbyist, Mark Yohalem has worked both on his own projects and as an offsite senior or lead writer for BioWare, inXile Entertainment, TimeGate Studios, S2 Games, Nikitova Games, and Affinix Software. As co-founder of Wormwood Studios with two friends (artist Victor Pflug and programmer James Spanos) in 2010, he developed Primordia, a classical point-and-click adventure game that has sold about a quarter million copies and was, for years, the highest-rated adventure game on Steam. The same trio is currently working on Strangeland, another adventure game. Mark is also developing Fallen Gods, a role-playing game inspired by the Icelandic sagas and folklore, the board game Barbarian Prince, and game books like Lone Wolf. By profession, Mark is an attorney. In 2018, he was recognized in the Daily Journal as one of the top 40 lawyers under the age of 40 in California.This interview features conversation about the aesthetics of point-and-click adventure games, classic and modern adventure games, game writing and design, and ways in which stories connect with both learning and play.Jeffery Klaehn: [Imagine] you’re addressing an audience comprised primarily of non-gamers, and your talk is entitled, “The aesthetics of classic point-and-click adventure games.” You begin …Mark Yohalem: The wonder of the classics is that they don’t just let us hear the voice of the past, they also allow us to listen with the ears of the past. We commune not only with those who created the art but also those who consumed it -- not just Beethoven but Beethoven’s audience. Read the rest

You won’t find many Python programming fans who aren’t vocal Python programming fans. And after years of steadily rising up the list of the web’s most popular programming disciplines, the user-friendly language notched a major milestone earlier this year, tying with Java as the second-most-used language among coders.So why the steady rise toward the deepest part of programmers’ hearts? It all comes back to the utility of Python and the key role that versatility has played in shaping some of the fastest expanding new fields in IT, particularly machine learning and artificial intelligence.Obviously, rankings like this aren’t etched in stone, but it’s just another indicator that if Python coding isn’t already in your IT skill set, it should be. Right now, you can leap into the Python fray with an intensive crash course into it all with The Absolute Python Programming Certification Bundle.This three-course collection is a sound introduction for anyone who’s never dealt with Python before, explaining all the basics before delving into more advanced areas that flesh out why it’s become such a coding heavyweight.Introduction to Python Training starts by building that familiarity, explaining why the all-purpose language has become such a favorite in web and app development This beginner-centric training outlines how to get started with Python, its most popular uses and some of the language’s most central tools.After understanding some of the math, flow controls, and file processing abilities of Python, the Python Data Analysis with NumPy and Pandas course expands that knowledge to see how significant Python libraries expand Python’s usefulness. Read the rest

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Hayabusa2 spacecraft fired a copper cannonball into Ryugu, an 850 meter-wide near-Earth asteroid. The 2 kilogram "Small Carry-on Impactor," a bit larger than a tennis ball, hit the asteroid at approximately 7,200 kilometers/hour and blew out a 14.5 meter wide crater with a depth of .6 meters. After a year of analysis, scientists have reported their analysis of the plume created by the impact and properties of the crater. From Space.com:The number and size of craters that pockmark asteroids such as Ryugu can help scientists estimate the age and properties of asteroid surfaces. These analyses are based on models of how such craters form, and data from artificial impacts like that on Ryugu can help test those models...Features of the artificial crater and the plume suggested that the growth of a crater was limited mostly by the asteroid's gravity and not by the strength of the space rock's surface. This, in turn, suggested that Ryugu has a relatively weak surface, one only about as strong as loose sand, which is consistent with recent findings that Ryugu is made of porous, fragile material.These new findings suggest that Ryugu's surface is about 8.9 million years old, while other models suggested that the asteroid's surface might be up to about 158 million years old. All in all, while Ryugu is made of materials up to 4.6 billion years old, the asteroid might have coalesced from the remains of other broken-apart asteroids only about 10 million years ago, Arakawa said. Read the rest

Tenyo is a Japanese magic trick company that's been around since 1960. They are well known for making clever props. (My friend Richard Kaufman, who often writes for Boing Boing, wrote a 1,400-page two-volume set about the company, called Tenyoism)Here's a Tenyo puzzle trick called The Perpetual Puzzle (It's available on Amazon). You start by showing a rectangle made from 5 pieces. The rectangle fits snugly in a black plastic frame. Next, you show a sixth piece and combine it to the other five to make a larger rectangle. This rectangle also fits perfectly inside the frame. Finally, you show an even larger seventh piece, add it to the other six to form a rectangle. It, too, fits into the frame. How is it done? (If you know, please don't reveal the secret in the comments.) Read the rest

“Wait a minute... Wait a minute... you ain’t heard nothin’ yet.”In 1927, Al Jolson spoke those words in The Jazz Singer, marking the end of the silent film age. (Of course, that film also featured Jolson in blackface which unfortunately was common at the time.) From The Guardian:Just a year before (The Jazz Singer), Warners had made Don Juan, starring Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Astor, which didn’t exactly set the Hudson river on fire, despite sound effects like the clash of swords or chairs being thrown – all to the accompaniment of the New York Philharmonic.The reason Sam Warner, the technical genius of the brothers, thought that adding a human voice would make all the difference was a series of shorts brought in as a late addition to the Don Juan programme. Giovanni Martinelli, principal tenor at the Metropolitan Opera, sang Pagliacci. The leader of the Philharmonic played his violin and Al Jolson sang When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ Along).They were a secret success. The New York press hardly noticed, but audiences did – and loved them. What would be known as “the talkies” were coming out of the fairground.It was Sam Warner’s idea to team up with the Western Electric company to buy its Vitaphone synchronising system. He had the faith that few others possessed, but sadly died of a mastoid infection of the brain the day before the hugely successful premiere of The Jazz Singer.(via r/TodayILearned) Read the rest

Shimon, the robotic maestro from Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology, is releasing an album and going on tour. To write lyrics, the robot employs deep learning combined with semantic knowledge and rhyme and rhythm. Shimon has also had a complete facelift giving it a much more expressive mug for singing. In IEEE Spectrum, Evan Ackerman interviewed Shimon's creators, professor Gil Weinberg and PhD student Richard Savery:IEEE Spectrum: What makes Shimon’s music fundamentally different from music that could have been written by a human? Richard Savery: Shimon’s musical knowledge is drawn from training on huge datasets of lyrics, around 20,000 prog rock songs and another 20,000 jazz songs. With this level of data Shimon is able to draw on far more sources of inspiration than than a human would ever be able to. At a fundamental level Shimon is able to take in huge amounts of new material very rapidly, so within a day it can change from focusing on jazz lyrics, to hip hop to prog rock, or a hybrid combination of them all. How much human adjustment is involved in developing coherent melodies and lyrics with Shimon?Savery: Just like working with a human collaborator, there’s many different ways Shimon can interact. Shimon can perform a range of musical tasks from composing a full song by itself or just playing a part composed by a human. For the new album we focused on human-robot collaboration so every song has some elements that were created by a human and some by Shimon. Read the rest

I bought this used paperback copy of Cowhand: The Story of a Working Cowboy, by Fred Gipson, many years ago at a used bookstore. I finally got around to reading it. Here is my book report.The author was born in 1908 on a farm in Texas. He went to the University of Texas at Austin and became a journalist. Gipson's best known for his novel Ole Yeller (1956) which won a Newbery prize and was adapted to a Disney movie of the same name. A few years before Ole Yeller, he wrote Cowhand - The Story of a Working Cowboy and it focuses on the life of his friend Ed "Fat" Alford, born in 1901 to rent-farming parents in Oklahoma. Here's how Gipson describes his friend Fat:By Hollywood standards, Fat is a far cry from being a typical cowhand. He never shot a man in his life. He never chased a rustler across the Rio Grande. He never rescued a beautiful girl from ruthless bandits and rode off into the sunset with his arm about her waist. He never carved a cattle empire out of a "howling wilderness."The truth is, he doesn't even look like a cowboy. He's too squat and heavy; he's too short-legged and bullnecked. He's so potbellied and yet so hipless that some consider it a minor miracle that his pants aren't forever slipping down to hang around his hocks. It is very doubtful that he could hire on as a Hollywood extra in the quickest of quickie Westerns. Read the rest

Vakis Demetrious posted this clip from Limassol, Cyprus. He writes:5th day quarantine.Stay Home Safe but don't forget your dog happiness..(And yes, I understand that if the dog wanted to run off, it could easily pull the drone right along with it.) Read the rest

Enjoy disco diva Donna Summer's incredible isolated vocal track from "Bad Girls" (1979). Toot toot, beep BEEP. The song is about sex work and the police. From Gavin Edwards' book "Is Tiny Dancer Really Elton’s Little John?":“I was in my office in the old Casablanca [records] building,” Summer told me. “I was the only artist allowed to have an office there -- [Casablanca head] Neil didn’t want me too far away. I sent out my secretary to do something, and the police stopped her on Sunset Boulevard. She was dressed in business attire, but they were trying to pick her up. That ticked me off. All day, I pondered why that would happen to innocent people–and then I developed compassion for the girls working on the street.” And the “toot-toot, beep-beep” that concluded the track? “I figured, what do guys do when they pick up girls? I had to emulate them tooting their horns.” Read the rest

I asked a friend how they were enjoying the Trump Pandemic. Their response?"Hanging tough."If I have this stuck in my head for however many weeks we are self-isolating I may not make it. Read the rest

Sure, he pretended it was all a "Democrat hoax" for the last 2 months; neglected to do anything but downplay the virus for those 2 months; repeatedly used the pandemic as an excuse for anti-Asian racism; and brought his own precious economy to a grinding halt as unemployment reached record highs.But according to a new ABC News / Ipsos poll, 55 percent of Americans think that President Trump is doing a good job with the COVID-19 outbreak.JUST IN: 55% of Americans approve of Pres. Trump's management of the coronavirus crisis, compared to 43% who disapprove, according to new @ABC News/Ipsos poll. https://t.co/oNg6ZipDN2 pic.twitter.com/yVcGO0CpbD— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 20, 2020Political Polls / Survey USA presents similar results:Do you approve or disapprove of way President Donald Trump is handling COVID-19, the Coronavirus?Among Republicans:Approve 90%Disapprove 6%Among Independents:Approve 48%Disapprove 38%Among Democrats:Approve 24%Disapprove 68%@surveyusa 3/18-19https://t.co/fmvn6vH2uv https://t.co/v8Z2D0LB9t— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) March 20, 2020I'd like to see ol' Donny wriggle his way out of this one, nevertheless, etc etc.Coronavirus upends nation, as three in four Americans' lives changed by pandemic: POLL [Kendall Karson / ABC News]Image: Public Domain via US Department of Defense and Gage Skidmore/Flickr via CC 2.0 Read the rest

The Las Vegas Review Journal reports that Little Darlings—the largest 18+ nude club in the US—is offering drive-through strip shows during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Review’s Mick Akers reports:Little Darlings strip club will begin offering drive-through strip shows for those who want to indulge in some adult entertainment, but do not want to enter the building, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending people keep 6 feet in distance between themselves and others.“We’re going to offer drive-up window strip shows,” said Ryan Carlson, director of operations for Little Darlings. “Guests can drive up to the front door and we’re going to have dancers separate by the 6-foot separation rule and they can enjoy a totally nude show right from the seat of their car.” Read the rest

Colin of Why is this interesting? has published a list of some of his favorite radio stations and programs from around the world. He writes:As we are all sitting at our desks at home, the ambiance and textures from far-flung places can usher in a bit of adventure, as well as a bit of relief. I’ve compiled an interesting (and evolving list) of ways you can tap into different sounds and nationalities. If you reply to this email, we can update this post with more of your favorites from around the world.The following, and by no means comprehensive, dig through the internet and terrestrial airwaves is a fun, wide-ranging spectrum of sounds from bleeding-edge East London bass music to very sincere college radio to global pop, autumnal cardigan jazz and beyond. Read the rest

Here's Andy Merrill in character as Brak, the cat-masked intergalactic pirate from Space Ghost, Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and The Brak Show, offering a timely lesson in respecting personal boundaries. Here's my favorite remix: Read the rest

Two of every three users recycle their computer passwords across multiple accounts. More than half -- 59 percent — use the same password everywhere. And 83 percent of Americans use weak passwords like their birthday, a hobby or even their own name.You are not shocked by these numbers. Because, as these statistics show, you’re probably part of these groups.It’s understandable. Between work, home, family and more, you’ve probably got literally dozens of password-protected devices and accounts demanding space in your memory. And unless you’re a super-computer yourself, you’re just not going to remember them all without some help.Instead of using password123 as your password on every account you use, you can let NordPass Password Manager carry the weight instead. Right now, their one-year subscriptions are half off, just $29.99.With NordPass Manager, you’ve got a smart, incredibly simple, ultra-secure means to assure your accounts are always safe. No less than PC Mag and TechRadar are among the outlets who say NordPass Manager absolutely passes their test for quality online protection of your access passwords.NordPass allows you to create a unique and totally secure password for each and every app or website you use. And rather than forcing you to keep all those in your head, NordPass does all your heavy lifting, allowing you to automatically populate your saved password every time, so logins are just one click away at all times.And NordPass doesn’t ever scrimp on security. They’re committed to following the latest security practices and industry protection standards, including XChaCha20, zero-knowledge architecture, two-factor authentication and more. Read the rest

View this post on Instagram Niblo is making sure I stay healthy and demands I entertain him in exchange... cats 🤷🏼‍♂️A post shared by Anthony Hopkins (@anthonyhopkins) on Mar 18, 2020 at 10:20am PDTSir Anthony is in self-isolation, but keeping his (and his cat's) spirits up during the pandemic by hitting the keys. I think that's one of Chopin's Nocturnes but Hopkins is an excellent composer and it might be a pastiche. CNN rounds up some of the better "isolated celebrity" performances:Coldplay's Chris Martin has been singing to an empty room, Justin Bieber has been dancing, David Spade has done a stand-up set in his living room, and Ellen DeGeneres has been watching herself on TV. Read the rest

Shaun of the Dead was and remains the seond-best zombie movie of all time. Here's some relevant advice for a very different scenario. Read the rest

In January, I covered the new season of NASA Explorers. This season (their fourth) focuses on space science and microgravity. In concert with the latest episode (inlined below), the NASA Explorers team posted, exclusively to their Facebook page, a behind-the-scenes interview with astronaut and space scientist, Don Pettit. Standing in a standard Earth gravity mock-up of the Destiny lab aboard the station, Pettit and NASA Explorers' Rachel Barry talk about the explorations of the past, present, and the future. There are some interesting moments here, like how long-term oceanic voyages of the past also taught us about the human body under such stressful conditions and how to better prepare it for future voyages. Understanding the blight of scurvy during such voyages opened up our whole understanding of vitamins and diet.Don also talks about future generations being born and growing up in space, in microgravity, and thus having a completely different perception of spatial relationships and how this might even change the way they think and solve problems. Image: Screengrab Read the rest

If I lived in Japan, I'd totally buy whatever cat food is being shilled in this (surprisingly suspenseful) "Cats and Domino" video. Bravo to the folks behind it!screengrab via Cat Navi Desk/YouTubeThanks, Julie! Read the rest

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C), reassured the public that America was prepared to fend off coronavirus. But being privy to decidedly non-public briefings, he knew otherwise, and sold off $1.5m in stocks before the markets crashed.Soon after he offered public assurances that the government was ready to battle the coronavirus, the powerful chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, sold off a significant percentage of his stocks, unloading between $628,000 and $1.72 million of his holdings on Feb. 13 in 33 separate transactions.As the head of the intelligence committee, Burr, a North Carolina Republican, has access to the government’s most highly classified information about threats to America’s security. His committee was receiving daily coronavirus briefings around this time, according to a Reuters story.It's remarkable how many pundits and public figures are making plausibly-deniable references to having Burr dealt with. The constitution endures, but civility is toast. Read the rest

photo by Julian MarkRestaurants and boutiques in San Francisco's Mission District -- a vibrant neighborhood at the heart of the City's struggle with gentrification and inequality -- are boarding up their windows apparently in fear of riots or robberies. The businesses are closed until at least April 7 due to the “shelter in place” mandate. From Julian Mark's story in Mission Local:“We actually don’t want to do it,” said Dylan MacNiven, the owner of West of Pecos. “I don’t think it’s good for the public to see this, but now that everyone else has done it, we’re going to be the only one on the street without it.” MacNiven was in the process of placing the final boards on his windows on Thursday afternoon, and he said the bar and restaurant was hesitant — but then a multitude of surrounding businesses had done the same[....]“We’re doing it so we can sleep at night,” said Needles and Pens owner Breezy Culbertson. Culbertson said she will be out $300 to board the windows. Just one of their front windows would cost $2,000 to replace. “It’s a bummer because it feels like it is bad for morale,” said a man named Scott who was helping Culbertson install the boards. "Apocalypse Chic: Valencia Street businesses board up their windows" (Mission Local, thanks Tim Daly!)“We’re doing it so we can sleep at night,” said Needles and Pens owner Breezy Culbertson.https://t.co/4h4XXViseD— Mission Local (@MLNow) March 20, 2020 Read the rest

The Q outfitted a bicycle with invisible wheels. It's a simple idea (while probably tricky to get right) with a rather wonderful effect. Read the rest

It’s the celebrity coronavirus edition in this week’s tabloids.

The great Al Jaffee turned 99 last week. He's been contributing to MAD for 64 years and is famous for his hidden-image-within-an-image MAD Fold-Ins on the inside back cover of the magazine. Happy belated birthday, Al! (Back in 2011, when Al was just a kid, Ruben Bolling and I interviewed him on my podcast, Gweek.)A couple of weeks ago I visited my parents and found a bunch of my old books and comic books in the attic. I found my copy of MAD's Al Jaffee Spews Out Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions, which I bought when I was 10 or 11 years old. I was surprised to see that I had filled in some snappy answers of my own to stupid questions."No, it's last year's hard-t0-melt snow.""No, I'm inspecting the quality of my pillow."[My 11-year-old self drew a blank for this one.]"No, but are you interested in buying some lizard coffins?"What are your snappy answers to these stupid questions? Read the rest

A group of celebrities, including Gal Gadot, Will Ferrell, Mark Ruffalo, James Marsden, Lynda Carter, Jamie Dornan, and Amy Adams, posted a video of each of them, in their isolation, signing lines from John Lennon's "Imagine." The attempted message was that we're all in this together, we will get through this, but the Twitter response was immediate and brutal.It was the line "imagine no possessions" that triggered the most vitriol. People seeing this tweet who are currently out of work and understandably nervous about it barked that they don't have to imagine it. Others shot back with sentiments like: We don't need you singing to us. How about you spending a million or two to buy ventilators and masks and donate them them to hospitals? One person posted the pay that each actor gets per film.“We are in this together, we will get through it together.”Gal Gadot just posted a video of her and other artists (who are also quarantined because of the COVID-19) singing Imagine by John Lennon on Instagram. pic.twitter.com/fRV6GhAF92— best of gal (@bestofgaI) March 19, 2020It's wonderful that everyone is at least trying to do the right thing in this very scary and trying time, but man was this ever an epic fail.Image: Screengrab Read the rest

IEEE Spectrum asked pioneering roboticist Rodney Brooks, co-founder of iRobot and former head of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the eternal engineering question: "What is a robot?" Inspired by computational neuroscientist Warren McCulloch who enjoyed writing sonnets, Brooks responded to the query in iambic pentameter. Here's the beginning:What Is a Robot?By Rodney BrooksShall I compare thee to creatures of God?Thou art more simple and yet more remote.You move about, but still today, a clod,You sense and act but don’t see or emote.You make fast maps with laser light all spread,Then compare shapes to object libraries,And quickly plan a path, to move ahead,Then roll and touch and grasp so clumsily.Read the rest: "What Is a Robot? Rodney Brooks Offers an Answer—in Sonnet Form" (IEEE Spectrum)image: Brooks led development of the COG robot seen in this photo by Rama (CC BY-SA 3.0 FR) Read the rest

If you don’t have to drive, why should you? For many, a car or truck is the only feasible way to get from place to place. But if you live in a mostly urban or suburban setting with your job, grocery store and most of your major destinations no more than a few miles away, the cost-effective and eco-friendly way to get there would be to leave the car at home.It’s a lot more doable than you might think, especially when you consider that the average car trip distance is actually less than six miles.We’re guessing you don’t want to walk everywhere, so the next best thing is a quick, easy transportation method for short jaunts around town — which brings us right to an option like the Levy Plus Electric Scooter.The Levy Plus is battery powered with a range of up to 16 miles on a single charge, well within the range to handle most simple round trips to the coffee shop, convenience store, doctor’s office or your friend’s house.Powered by a 350W motor, you can breeze along anywhere you need to go at around 18mph. When not in use, the Levy Plus is so ultra-portable that you can literally fold it up and stash it in the closet until you need it again.But in case you’re worried about running out of juice while you’re out in the world, the Levy Plus is one of the only scooters of its kind featuring a removable battery pack. Read the rest

To help entertain all of us while we hunker down in our domestic anti-viral combat bunkers, Rolling Stone is asking musicians to share performances from their bunkers. They kick off the series with the galactic treasure himself, Brian Wilson. Image: YouTube Read the rest

While there were certainly more people out than I expected to see … there weren't that many. Which somehow made it even weirder than the Boston Marathon Bombing Lockdown, when at least the shared sense of fear was more palpable. Read the rest

With food not always as readily available as it was a few weeks ago, Supercook is a recipe generator that might come in handy. Just check off the food you have in your kitchen and it dishes out a smorgasbord of recipes.The site lists food by categories, such as Dairy, Vegetables, Fruits, Meats, etc. So I checked off some of the stuff in my fridge -- potatoes, spinach, parsley, mint, and avocados -- and it found 59 recipes. I then added eggs, and the number of recipes jumped to 268.I haven't tried any of the recipes yet but this could be a good site to bookmark. Image: By Yoninah - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link Read the rest

In December I bought a pair of TaoTronics active noise cancelling bluetooth headphones for my two daughters to use on an 18-hour plane trip. They said they were excellent, and they also used them in the hotel to watch videos, play music, and play games. I tried them myself and was pleasantly surprised by how well they worked. They use them every day, and now that we are all cooped up together in the house, they use them all day. You can use L5G769UL to get them at a good discount on Amazon. Read the rest

I saw this tweet yesterday and though it might be a joke, but it's not. Conan O'Brien really is going to host his show remotely starting Monday, March 30. Guests will Skype in to be interviewed and the audience will be stuck-at-home, self-isolating types, like me (and maybe you?). The new episodes will air on TBS, as usual.The quality of my work will not go down because technically that’s not possible,” said O’Brien.“Our first priority is the health and well-being of everyone in the Team Coco family, and our second priority is to try and find a way that we can do our jobs safely, from home, and contribute some entertainment for our fans out there who may be hungry for silly distraction,” said Jeff Ross, Executive Producer.Speaking of a "silly distraction":screengrab via Conan/Twitter Read the rest

YouTuber Mark Rober got some powder with the delightful name Glo Germ, which glows when exposed to ultraviolet light. He then went to a 3rd grade classroom and put some of the powder on the hand of the teacher (the students were not told about the experiment). The teacher shook the hands of three kids. During recess Rober put more powder on the hands of a 3rd grader who agreed to allow it. Then at lunch he shined his UV flashlight on the kids and the the classroom. The dust was all over the place. Read the rest

Hand Mirror is a free one-click camera check. If you are about to join a Zoom or other video meeting, just click the icon on your menu bar and take a look at your beautiful face. Read the rest

A great video to help friends and family understand why these huge, early measures are necessary to stop the pandemic. “So far our new video about how to #FlattenTheCurve for COVID-19 has been translated into 26 languages,” says Dr. Joe Hanson and the team behind the PBS science show “It's Okay To Be Smart.”If you haven't watched it before, enjoy it now, in any one of those 26 languages.So far our new video about how to #FlattenTheCurve for COVID-19 has been translated into 26 languages. Thank you to everyone who has submitted subtitles in your language! https://t.co/cSV5OYI6uO— It's Okay to be Smart 🤓 (@okaytobesmart) March 18, 2020Out now on @okaytobesmart: A close look at what this curve really means for #COVID19 I hope this helps people learn why these huge, early measures are necessary. Watch here -> https://t.co/O1gDdFMzjJ pic.twitter.com/WWATWwRQy8— Joe Hanson (@DrJoeHanson) March 17, 2020 Read the rest

Impeached United States President Donald J. Trump said something awful again today that would end any other man's presidency in any timeline but this hellscape we're in.Anyway, here's what he said to a crowd of news reporters pressing him on the administration's feckless response to the worsening COVID-19 pandemic that has escalated to some 10,000 cases around the country. "We should get rid of about 75 or 80 percent of you. There's only two or three of you I like."Yep.President Trump just now on to reporters: "We should get rid of about 75 or 80 percent of you. There's only two or three of you I like."— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) March 19, 2020Trump, asked about any guidance for Congress re these positive tests among members, talks about reporters: "You're actually sitting too close. You should really -- we should probably get rid of another 75%, 80% of you. I'll have just two or three that I like in this room."— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 19, 2020TRUMP attacks reporters: "You're actually sitting too close. We should probably get rid of about another 75-80 percent of you. I'll have just two or three of you that I like in this room. I think that's a great way of doing it." pic.twitter.com/30ucSn9JSQ— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 19, 2020"You're actually sitting two close. We should really get rid of another 75 to 80 percent of you," Mr. Trump says to briefing room reporters, adding that he'd only have two or three reporters he likes in the briefing room. Read the rest

The Blue Sun (remastered) by Paul K & The WeathermenPaul Kopasz, the Lexington, Kentucky-based songwriter/guitarist best known as the leader of Paul K. and The Weatherman died this week. During the late 1980s and early 1990s in Cincinnati, Ohio, I had the fortune of catching Paul K's inimitable amplified post-punk blues several times and it was always an emotional punch to the gut. In an obituary in Lexington's Ace Weekly, Kakie Urch writes, "The music, from early days featuring an acoustic guitar with an electric pickup and effects, draws on influences ranging from The Who, The Velvet Underground, Big Star, Gram Parsons, The Kinks and Townes Van Zandt. The 1995 release, Love is a Gas, was produced by Mo Tucker of the Velvet Underground. 1997’s A Wilderness of Mirrors is the rock opera released on Alias and the basis of the “documentary/fairytale” movie. Other titles of note include Blues For Charlie Lucky, and the The Blue Sun, and, as the best place to start, the two-disc collection Stolen Gems."In 1990, the Afghan Whigs released a searing cover of Paul K's "Amphetamines & Coffee" (above) on their first Sub Pop full-length Up In It (1990). Here's their take on it. Upon hearing of Paul K's death, The Whigs' Greg Dulli wrote the following remembrance:John Curley and I walked into JR’s in Cincinnati one night back in 1986 and watched a gaunt and possessed singer/ guitarist manhandle a beat up acoustic guitar with a pickup and an overdrive pedal whilst leading his power trio thru an absolutely incendiary set that had our jaws on the floor. Read the rest

Americans abroad must return to US or prepare to shelter in place

A few days ago I started a sourdough starter because baking chills me out and provides stuff to eat.I took a look at the old French Press carafe I am using as a container a few hours after the 3rd time I fed said starter. The starter looked like it was READY TO GO but I figured I should probably feed it a few more times just to be sure. I did not, however, want to discard any of the starter, and as the off-gassing of the yeast was dangerously inflating towards the top of said carafe... I baked some pretzels.I use the same recipe and technique I do for commercially yeasted pretzels, simply replacing the 'one packet of active dry yeast' with ½ cup of sourdough starter AND reducing the flour and water additions by about ¼ cup each. I figure my starter is about 50/50 but maybe a little wet.I also used 1 cup of 'very old' whole wheat flour that my mother had in the back of the fridge. I replaced 1 cup of AP or bread flour with the WW and added a bit of water. Whole Wheat needs more h2o than white.I mix the starter, water, and brown sugar in a measuring cup and let them sit for 10-15 minutes before I combine with the other dry ingredients.Everything worked out just fine. I prefer the pretzels without the whole wheat but I was afraid I was wasting flour on a too young starter so all in all... Read the rest

The size and shape of a coffee cup has a factor in how people think the coffee in it tastes, reports Mental Floss.[R]esearchers showed 309 online participants images of eight different coffee mugs and asked them to rank the mugs on how aromatic, bitter, or sweet they would expect the coffee inside it to be. Participants hailed from China, Colombia, and the United Kingdom. Across the board, they said they expected that coffee in narrower cups would be more aromatic and taste more bitter, and they agreed that coffee in mugs with a wider diameter would taste sweeter.Photo by Louis Hansel @shotsoflouis on Unsplash Read the rest

Dark Matter is a time travel story that reminded me of a Tom Clancy 'Jack Ryan' adventure and beats all the tropes over the head.Blake Crouch sets up a blazingly paced adventure revolving around what happens if a human can be placed in Schröedinger's box, instead of damn cat. That human is Jason Dessen, the guy who built the damn box in the first place.Talk about screwing yourself up, Dessen's adventure takes the cake.A fast read that touches on heady subjects but doesn't force you down a rathole, Dark Matter was a welcome read during this odd time.Dark Matter by Black Crouch via Amazon Read the rest

I have been learning to draw with this set of affordable colored pencils!With the help of YouTube and this set of colored pencils, I am trying once again to draw a monkey that doesn't end up looking like a penis. Thats just how they look to me, but I swear its a monkey. I do wonder what a Rorschach test might uncover...50 pencils for under $8? OK.Sargent Art Premium Coloring Pencils, Pack of 50 Assorted Colors, 22-7251 via Amazon Read the rest

A few days ago, I wrote about the transformation of WWE Smackdown into a beautiful work of Beckett-esque absurdist theatre once the audience was removed for coronavirus safety. I didn't think it could get anymore gloriously weird.Then Twitter user @SIDEEYEmusic took it to the next level by adding the Twin Peaks score.i added twin peaks music to pro wrestling without an audience and it fits perfectly pic.twitter.com/OVauro8c7L— SIDEEYE (@SIDEEYEmusic) March 18, 2020Image: peaked/Vimeo and Shamsuddin Muhammad / Wikimedia Commons (CC 2.0) Read the rest