Boing Boing

Erik McClure spotted some 90s-vintage chiptunes swiped in an album being sold in all the usual places. Given new names and false attribution, it's evidently a plagiarized effort to make money from others' works. It's also likely, if not certain, that none of the songs were released to the public domain or under licensing terms that allow such redistribution.The point is that someone has stolen 11 classic demoscene tracker songs and is selling them on every major online music store. The album is called “H4x0r R007z” and it consists entirely of blatantly stolen tracker songs lazily renamed using 1337 text, which usually means finding the original song is pretty easy. Because it was published via DistroKid, you can find it on Spotify, Google Play, iTunes, Amazon, Deezer, iHeartRadio and it's been registered into the automatically populated copyrighted songs databases! That means the artist “H4x0r” could legally issue copyright takedowns for every other legitimate upload of the actual songs, or abuse Google's automatic fingerprinting system to force monetization on all of the videos and take all the income.The peculiarity of chiptunes has made a fool of a number of celebrity musicians and producers who appropriate them without realizing they will get caught — Timbaland perhaps the most notorious among them. But this is happening in the quiet margins, with no-name sellers trying to remain unseen, a game of careful scaling and obscurity. Read the rest

Big Clive ordered a product on eBay called a "ZPE Quantum Value Nano Wand Zero Point Energy Pen PU Pouch 2200+ Healing Power" for $13. What he got was a small metal wand in a fake leather pouch. He tested it with his geiger counter and found it to be "significantly radioactive." He says, "There's a certain irony when something is being sold as a way to protect yourself from harmful mobile phone radiation, when the device itself emits much more harmful radiation." Read the rest

On October 18, 1979, Kenny Rogers, who died on Friday, performed "The Gambler" on The Muppet Show. See the human hands on those muppets? This was one of the rare instances in which "the puppeteer lends his/her body parts," according to the Muppet Wiki. Read the rest

Remember the Senators who cashed out after private briefings held before the market collapse began? Similar games are afoot in conservative media: before Fox News called coronavirus a hoax and a Dem plot to destroy trump, they were disinfecting offices, installing hand sanitizer stations throughout the building, and canceling meetings and sales events. This exercise in contrasts is brought to you by Lachlan Murdoch, the media princeling who runs the place.... as the crisis took hold, there were more than two weeks of statements like Laura Ingraham’s assertion on Feb. 27 that Democratic criticism was “more unsettling” than the virus and Mr. Hannity’s allegation on March 9 that political opponents were trying to “bludgeon Trump with this new hoax.” Finally, after an obscure Fox Business host, Trish Regan, ranted that the coronavirus issue was “another attempt to impeach the president,” the network pivoted.The damage Fox did appears likely to extend beyond the typical media hits and misses. I asked Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Public Health Institute, who appeared on Fox News recently, whether he believes people will die because of Fox’s coverage.“Yes,” he said. “Some commentators in the right-wing media spread a very specific type of misinformation that I think has been very harmful.” Read the rest

The home office was kind of a joke for most of us. Sure, you called that room with a computer and a desk where you would very occasionally answer a work email or two “the home office.” But it was really just the room where you kept your receipts and saved junk you’d probably never need, only to straighten it up twice a year when your mother-in-law came for a visit.But now, it’s time to get serious. The home office is now really the home office. This could be your true, professional base of operations for the foreseeable future, so you probably better get comfortable and fortified.Right now, we’ve got 30 items that’ll turn your spare room into a true place of business. From furniture to computer accessories to cool blue light shades, you can also get an added 15 percent of each of these deals right now when you enter the codeword SPRINGSAVE15 during checkout.DesksThe desk is the true cornerstone of any office, but you’ll have to decide exactly how much desk is right for you, your work and your available space. This Black Steel Frame Wooden Table Top Desk ($79.04 after discount; originally $114.78) is compact, minimalist furnishing that provides a whole bunch of open work area. You could also try the X-Leg Table Top Writing Desk ($135.99 after discount; originally $209.99), which fits easily into a corner and even includes two shelves just below the desktop for sneaky storage of some literary favorites. Read the rest

Welcome to Okeechobee, Florida. In a meeting of the city fathers and mothers, commissioner Bryant Culpepper suggested you can prevent and cure coronavirus by blasting your sinuses with hot air: "you hold a blow dryer in front of your face, and inhale," he says solemly. Culpepper was soon informed he is mistaken and has apologized. ABC News:During the meeting on Friday, the commissioner said he watched a news show on One America News, which he described as the "new Fox News," where a "certified doctor" was on the show providing suggestions about how to kill the coronavirus. Commissioner Culpepper said the doctor on the show said that to kill the virus, it needs to be exposed to a high concentration of heat, about 163 degrees.43 seconds in, watch the man in the black shirt, center back, do a double facepalm with sinus massage after Culpepper says those wondrous words, "you hold a blow dryer in front of your face, and inhale." He's not following the coronavirus guidelines either. Read the rest

3M has announced that they are now producing 35 million N95 masks per month in the US and have 500,000 masks on the way to the critically impacted cities of New York and Seattle.The term respirator in the press release is throwing some readers on Twitter off, thinking they mean "ventilators." But it's good to know that they are cranking the N95s out and "have accelerated investments to expand our global capacity even more. We anticipate being able to nearly double our capacity again, to almost 2 billion respirators globally, within the next 12 months. We are working with the U.S. and other governments, investigating alternate manufacturing scenarios, and exploring coalitions with other companies to increase capacity further."Read the full PR here. [H/t Alberto Gaitán] Read the rest

Pro tip: You don’t have to be a five-star Michelin chef to impress in the kitchen. In fact, you don’t always have to have any cooking ability at all.If visitors take one look around your kitchen and spot a few upscale kitchen items, or even items that just look upscale, your standing as a person who knows their way around the culinary arts goes up.Forged from Damascus steel, Damascus knives have a unique and striking wavy, patterned design that instantly catches the eye and implies you’re a serious kitchen presence — even if your skills don’t extend beyond microwave popcorn.Whether you just want one as a showpiece or if you’re looking for a full set, you can take an extra 15 percent off the already discounted price by entering the code SPRINGSAVE15 during checkout.Solo knivesThere’s no more important weapon in a chef’s arsenal that a quality chef’s knife — and the Damascus Santoku style chef knife ($38.20 after discount; originally $129) just screams formidable. In addition to the Santoku-style blade capable of handling most kitchen activities, it also comes with a sophisticated leather sheath that makes it an instant attention-getter.Of course, a gorgeous handle can put an already premium Damascus blade over the top. The Damascus chef knife with buffalo horn, brass and rose wood handle ($50.95 after discount; originally $94) not only slices, chops and skins like a pro, but the stunning buffalo horn and rose wood handle looks amazing. As does the pakka and rose wood hilt on this chef knife ($29.70 Read the rest

Rebellion has released the critically- and fan-acclaimed Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol.5 free to download and view on the 2000 AD app.This 400-page collection includes classic Judge Dredd stories such as The Mega-Rackets, Judge Death Lives!, Diary of a Mad Citizen, The Hotdog Run, and the all-time great mega-epic Block Mania and The Apocalypse War!Written by John Wagner (A History of Violence) and Alan Grant (Batman), it features artwork by some of the titans of comics, including Brian Bolland (Batman: The Killing Joke), Carlos Ezquerra (Preacher), Colin Wilson (Blueberry), Ian Gibson (Halo Jones), Mick McMahon (The Last American), Ron Smith (Transformers), and Steve Dillon (Preacher)![H/t Rodney Orpheus] Read the rest

Artist and illustrator, Dan Meth, created this graphic years ago as part of his Pop Culture Charts series. Next stop: Soylent Green!Image: Used with permission Read the rest

The ever-clever and resourceful Danielle Baskin has created a site for the online coordination and distribution of DIY-produced filter masks, face shields and other PPE (personal protective equipment).In times of emergency, the CDC allows production for crisis capacity scenarios. Homemade supplies are an emergency supply for overwhelmed hospitals and we have to prepare right now for it. While factory capacity is limited, we are building a distributed factory of crafters, DIYers, and organizers across the country. Here's what we need to focus on first:Surgical masksGownsFace shieldsNote: Some hospitals will not accept DIY PPE supplies.Join the Mask Force here. Read the rest

After just a week being cooped up in his apartment, YouTube's "Average Pool Player" Rollie Williams has found a way to entertain himself using objects he already had. He jokes, "I converted our dining room table into a pool table and all it cost was my relationship with my roommates."I converted our dining room table into a pool table and all it cost was my relationship with my roommates. pic.twitter.com/vDHoAKOlt8— Rollie Williams (@RollieWilliams) March 21, 2020Want to make your own "quarantine pool table"? His video tutorial will show you how. But, keep in mind, you'll need to already be in possession of billiard balls. As he writes, "What kind of absolute lunatic doesn’t have a full set of billiard balls in their apartment?"In this time of staying at home and not being able to go outside, it's important to make the best of things. When that doesn't work, it's okay to make yourself a pool table. We made a DIY pool table out of a blanket, our kitchen table, some tape, clamps, rope, string, metal rods from a set of shelves I had in my room, and a set of billiard balls my dad gave me for Christmas a few years ago.screengrab via Rollie Williams/YouTube Read the rest

Everywhere you look, anxiety is high. We all know why. And let’s face it, we’ve got plenty of good reasons for all that concern.But we say it’s time to take a stand.There’s only one way to eat an elephant: one bite at a time. In that spirit, make one small move right now toward regaining some control in your world.Take back your bed.Hear us out on this. Rather than letting your bed become somewhere you either convalesce or hideaway in and cocoon from real-world problems, transform your bed into a sanctuary. Make it the place you want to retreat to each night in ultimate comfort.To help make your bed into a true oasis, consider these 30 items that’ll instantly upgrade your sleepy time. And when you enter the code SPRINGSAVE15 at checkout, you’ll get another 15 percent off the already discounted price.We’re on your side. Remake your bed — and change the world.Mattress and mattress accessoriesAny premium bed setup always starts with a brilliant cornerstone: the mattress. You can’t do much better as a foundation than the Yaasa ONE Mattress ($466.65 after discount; originally $899), packed full of cooling infinity foam that delivers contoured support, durability and a cool night’s sleep.Of course, keeping cool may not be on the top of your mind in the winter. So if you’d rather stay warm, the Sable Queen Size Electric Heated Mattress Pad ($50.14 after discount; originally $69.99) has 10 temperatures to choose from, an automatic timer and speedy warm-up times so you won’t have to shiver as you wait for your bed to warm up. Read the rest

Astronaut Scott Kelly, who spent a combined 520 days in space, including nearly a full, continuous year as part of NASA's One-Year Mission to the ISS, knows a thing or two about isolation, quarantine, and keeping sane in small places for extended periods.He has recently published an article on his recommendations for those of us on earth who now find ourselves isolated into our homes or similar small spaces, cut off from many of the comforts and connections that we are used to as a part of everyday life.When you are living and working in the same place for days on end, work can have a way of taking over everything if you let it. Living in space, I deliberately paced myself because I knew I was in it for the long haul — just like we all are today. Take time for fun activities: I met up with crewmates for movie nights, complete with snacks, and binge-watched all of “Game of Thrones” — twice.On what information to trust when experts speak about important things (like the pandemic):I’ve found that most problems aren’t rocket science, but when they are rocket science, you should ask a rocket scientist. Living in space taught me a lot about the importance of trusting the advice of people who knew more than I did about their subjects, whether it was science, engineering, medicine, or the design of the incredibly complex space station that was keeping me alive.Especially in a challenging moment like the one we are living through now, we have to seek out knowledge from those who know the most about it and listen to them. Read the rest

So very relatable.Like all of us, redditor Chris Ryan @KLGaviation is going slightly bonkers during the great american coronavirus shutdown.This right here is an excellent pandemic coping strategy.Another productive day working from home[link] Read the rest

I have always wanted to do this.My good friend Dan Olson shares this video he made while building his Warmoth Telecaster. Read the rest

March 19th is the first day of spring. That means it’s time to get off your butt, dig in and start getting serious about cleaning up the house that’s been tumbling into chaos all winter.If you’re like Snow White, you’ve probably already got a passel of forest creatures all lined up to help out, sweeping floors, washing windows and clearing away the debris of winter. But since this isn’t 1937, we’re going to assume you don’t have that woodland workforce. It’s 2020 — and you need robots. Powerful, healthy strapping robots. Robots who aren’t afraid of getting dirty to get your house clean.We’ve collected 20 different home cleaning aids, many from the R2-D2 family, to help. Best of all, if you get one right now, you can take an extra 15 percent off at checkout with the code SPRINGSAVE15. Happy cleaning!MoppersWith a powerful 5,700RPM built-in motor and a unique, rotating dual-spin mop, the Elicto Everybot RS500 Robotic Spin Mop & Polisher ($237.99 after discount; originally $279) goes everywhere with its soft little microfibers, getting into hard-to-reach corners and clearing out dust like a champ.In the event you’re willing to expel a little elbow grease of your own to save some money, you can still get deep effective cleaning with the Elicto ES-500 Electric Corded Spin Mop & Polisher ($101.99 after discount; originally $119). fully adjustable aluminum alloy handle, 180° swivel joint, and 25-foot long cord, you’ll never need to kneel or bend, which is probably just fine by you. Read the rest

Not all VPNs are created equal. This is actually a good thing when you take into account how many services are out there these days, offering you cloaked and protected access to the web.Something has to distinguish all these providers from each other. And in most cases, there is. For all 14 of the services included in this VPN Buyers Guide, each brings something to the consumer table that’s worthy of note. We’d never try to argue that features and capabilities of each VPN are exclusive to only that service, but we think this should help give you an idea about each provider’s priorities so you can see which ones best match up with you for a user-service match made in heaven.And just to sweeten the deal, you can sign up for any of these best VPN services now and get an additional 15 percent off your total price by using the code SPRINGSAVE15 at checkout. Considering most of these deals are lifetime coverage offers, you could stand to pick up a whole lot of protection for a surprisingly small final total.The biggestThere’s something to be said for size. While it isn’t always the ultimate barometer for a VPN’s performance and usefulness, the number of servers and global locations where you can access can be a strong indicator of what you can expect.By that criteria, NordVPN (2-year subscription - $81.59 after discount; originally $286.80) is a clear leader among these contenders. With over 3,500 worldwide server locations in 61 countries, its accessibility and reach is truly massive. Read the rest

Without live sports, what's a rugby commentator supposed to do during this coronavirus situation? If you're the brilliant Nick Heath of London, England, you bring your work skills to your everyday life. Over on Twitter, he's been sharing videos he shot around his neighborhood — made better with his hilarious commentary! (Buy this man a coffee.)Dogging.#LifeCommentary #LiveCommentary pic.twitter.com/BuRkVWAGjX— Nick Heath (@nickheathsport) March 21, 2020The Interminable Wait.#LifeCommentary #LiveCommentary pic.twitter.com/5nSAlnVq2c— Nick Heath (@nickheathsport) March 21, 2020Football. Live. Well, a football.#TootingCommon #LifeCommentary #LiveCommentary pic.twitter.com/Nvs92Etkz0— Nick Heath (@nickheathsport) March 17, 2020International 4x4 Pushchair Formation Final. Live. #LifeCommentary #LiveCommentary pic.twitter.com/BGGh01m1k1— Nick Heath (@nickheathsport) March 17, 2020Find A Bargain Steeplechase. Live.#LifeCommentary #LiveCommentary pic.twitter.com/ny3ru4XN8u— Nick Heath (@nickheathsport) March 18, 2020After the lunch break now...2020 Crossroad Dash. Live.#LifeCommentary #LiveCommentary pic.twitter.com/QFkW0SUqy8— Nick Heath (@nickheathsport) March 17, 2020Mundane Walk. #LifeCommentary #LiveCommentary pic.twitter.com/sDJCI5OVlW— Nick Heath (@nickheathsport) March 18, 2020Middle Class Arena. LIVE.#LifeCommentary #LiveCommentary https://t.co/jokricAmLd pic.twitter.com/KSlEbQezox— Nick Heath (@nickheathsport) March 18, 2020Well, Twitter you’ve only got yourselves to blame. 😋At 17 I wanted to be a broadcaster.At 22 I wanted to be a comedy writer.At 31 I wanted to be a commentator.This is what 29-31 looked like when comedy met sport in my hybrid of all sporting voices, "Nicholas Fumble" .— Nick Heath (@nickheathsport) March 19, 2020Thanks, Veek!(The Poke)image via Rugby Media Read the rest

Maker Camp, Make:’s annual virtual camp for kids has launched for 2020. Make: Community staffer, Keith Hammond writes:Cooped up with the kids like I am? Maker Camp 2020 is now live! Every kid can join because Maker Camp is online, and it’s free. Since 2012 over a million campers have connected through Maker Camp, learned to make stuff, and shared their experiences with other campers. As you build and make, share your pictures on social media with the hashtag #makeathome and they’ll appear on our site!The projects you’ll find at Maker Camp have been researched, tested, built, and thoroughly documented so we’re absolutely sure you can replicate them at home. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year we’ve focused on projects you can do with what you might have on-hand, already in your home. We’re sure there’s something there for you!Find out how to get started on the Maker Camp landing page. Read the rest

In case you thought the world was in the midst of a vast migration to cloud-based computing, we hate to break it to you, but...it’s already happened. Right now, 94 percent of all businesses and organizations use a cloud service. As for the operations of all those groups, 83 percent of their workload will be in the cloud this year.But even with stats like those, you aren’t wrong — the migration is still continuing. By 2023, the public cloud market is expected to be a $623 billion a year industry.If you envision any type of career in IT, a knowledge of how to properly manage, protect and grow a cloud-based system should be foundational to that vision. And that doesn’t just mean knowing industry leader Amazon Web Services (AWS). With instruction like The Complete 2020 Cloud Certification Training Bundle, you’ll go inside AWS as well as Azure and other major cloud players to be a multi-platform performer for your organization, no matter where their operations hang their hat.The bundle includes 12 courses that go deep into the advantages and features of each cloud environment, helping you determine which one will best serve your business’ specific needs.As the undisputed leader in cloud services, a full three-quarter of your coursework here revolves around Amazon’s robust AWS platform. This training will not only help you understand all of AWS’s terminologies, processes, and available options, but it will help you actually get started using Amazon S3 to store data, Route 53 to host your specific domains, and EC2 to find just the right scaling plan for your operation. Read the rest

In this footage, city commissioners in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, bicker over ad-hoc rules and hurdles that, as if by magic, make it virtually impossible to take emergency measures such as closing the beaches during the coronavirus pandemic. This is why the beaches haven't closed in Florida, and why they've had minimal COVID-19 prevention. Absolute dysfunction. pic.twitter.com/8x2tcQeg21— Farbod Esnaashari (@Farbod_E) March 21, 2020Commissioner Omari Hardy appears to be the hero of the piece, complaining about the city continuing to work on shutting off utilities for delinquent bills while doing nothing about coronavirus. But his futile explosion of anger at Mayor Pam Triolo and City Manager Michael Bornstein's procedural games is not a great sign of hope for Florida's containment efforts.City Manager Michael Bornstein said he appreciates Hardy’s “youthful exuberance” but added the 30-year-old commissioner “just needs to calm down.” Read the rest

Maybe they’ll donate to someone who needs it.. from r/PublicFreakoutA couple of people in Florida allegedly cleaned out a dollar store of toilet paper and paper towels. Maybe they have a big family at home. Read the rest

Do you like waffles?I am waiting for the sourdough starter, that I mixed up from flour and water last Monday, to be ready for bread baking. At the same time I am loath to waste ½ a cup or so of perfectly good starter at each feeding. Today I used the discard to make waffles for my parents.My very simple sourdough waffle or pancake batter recipe is as follows:Simple Sourdough Waffle and Pancake BatterIngredients:½ cup unfed starter½ cup flour½ cup milk1 egg¼ cup oil or butter1 ½ tsp baking soda1 Tbs brown sugara splash of Grand MarnierMix the starter, flour, and milk in a large bowl. You can let them sit overnight if you want to be fancy. You may also use the sort of milk known as buttermilk for the milk addition and have buttermilk sourdough waffles.Add the egg, oil, baking soda, and brown sugar. If you like, and I certainly do, I recommend adding a splash of Grand Marnier liquor to the batter.The EtOH cooks out and you get a very nice, sweeter than savory flavor. This is important to note as I do not suggest adding the liquor if you are making the waffles to accompany fried chicken! When made with buttermilk and all the overnight rests these are the most awesome waffles for Fried Chicken and Waffles. Sometimes I top them with eggs benedict, hollandaise and a chili pepper-infused maple syrup. Read the rest

Kenny Rogers is dead at 81. The famed country singer was one of the best-selling music artists of all time, developing his signature song The Gambler into an enduring media franchise and even a restaurant chain.Rogers passed away peacefully at home from natural causes under the care of hospice and surrounded by his family.In a career that spanned more than six decades, Kenny Rogers left an indelible mark on the history of American music. His songs have endeared music lovers and touched the lives of millions around the world. Chart-topping hits like "The Gambler," "Lady," "Islands In The Stream," "Lucille," "She Believes In Me," and "Through the Years" are just a handful of Kenny Rogers' songs that have inspired generations of artists and fans alike. Rogers, with twenty-four number-one hits, was a Country Music Hall of Fame member, six-time CMA Awards winner, three-time GRAMMY® Award winner, recipient of the CMA Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013, CMT Artist of a Lifetime Award honoree in 2015 and has been voted the "Favorite Singer of All Time" in a joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People. The family is planning a small private service at this time out of concern for the national COVID-19 emergency. They look forward to celebrating Kenny’s life publicly with his friends and fans at a later date. Read the rest

According to this NYT interactive map. Judith Basin County, Montana, will be the last unravaged county in the worst-case coronavirus scenario. Zillow shows very few homes on offer, but this 520-acre ranch looks like a great place to take a stand! Anyone who wants to join my postapocalyptic anarchocommunist elf sex death cult get in touch -- I'm putting in an offer -- and we can start planning our raid on The Others in Lemhi County, Idaho. Read the rest

KFC closed its restaurants to all but drive-through customers and deliveries days ago. According to this video, however, the company is quietly ordering managers to keep lobbies open to serve walk-in takeout customers. I've come up with this plan to protect my employees because they're trying to force us to open the lobby again.Looks like we're already at the point where companies are testing the ability of government to enforce crisis measures. Read the rest

• 'Fronton' is the FSB's IoT botnet project

'For the first time in our history, the government is going to step in and help pay people's wages,' Rishi Sunak announcesThe UK government will pay up to 80% of wages for workers who are at risk of being laid off due to the coronavirus pandemic, the chancellor has announced.The United States is not doing anything like this, or discussing anything like this. Why isn't the purportedly richest and most powerful and most awesomest country in the world, ours, doing the same -- or something close -- for the millions of suddenly jobless workers? Oh yeah, a corporate tax cut instead. And a single thousand-dollar check, or something. Thanks, GOP Senate.From the UK Independent: Any employer in the country will be able to apply to HMRC for payments of up to £2,500 per worker per month - just above the median UK income - Rishi Sunak said on Friday. The unprecedented move means the government will guarantee a proportion of the salaries of millions of workers, if employers keep them on their payrolls rather than laying them off.The scheme will be open for three months initially but will be extended if required, the chancellor said, before laying out a raft of additional measures designed to support businesses and jobs. Grants will be available for "as many jobs as necessary" he said before also announcing £1bn of support for renters, tax relief for the self-employed and increases in universal credit payments.It came as pubs, bars, restaurants and leisure centres shut down in the latest intensification of social distancing measures designed to slow the spread of Covid-19. Read the rest

pic.twitter.com/fhA9Ykpqbz— Mike Judge (@MikeJudge) March 20, 2020Mike Judge, creator of the show, posted this reminder of the need for social distancing to limit the speed of the spread of coronavirus. References Read the rest

Britain's ancient, fatberg-infested sewers are already choked to the grates thanks to irresponsible flushings during the coronavirus crisis. People running out of (or hoarding) toilet paper are instead using paper towels, kitchen napkins, wet wipes, newsprint and other materials that won't break down. Northumbrian Water posted this handsome image of the random trash locals are shoving into the system, and told them to cut it out.The company said it understood people were "only improvising" but the consequences could be "devastating" to homes and the environment.Head of wastewater networks Simon Cyhanko said they should use the bin."We understand some people affected by the limited toilet roll availability may have no choice but to use alternative products," he said.The company also posted the following photo, which I presume is of the cleanest toilet in Berwick and the ideal that Northumbrian Water hopes all its customers maintain forthwith. Read the rest

Elon Musk is a huge asshole. COVID-19 has made him more so.

Four senators, including Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, have written a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to ask what measures are being taken to protect warehouse workers from COVID-19. The coronavirus outbreak that causes this deadly disease has now infected more than 20,000 people throughout America.“The senators sent the letter two days after the first US-based Amazon warehouse worker tested positive for COVID-19,” reports Jay Peters at The Verge:The group of senators is led by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and includes Sanders and Sherrod Brown (D-OH). “Any failure of Amazon to keep its workers safe does not just put their employees at risk, it puts the entire country at risk,” the group said in the letter. The senators are also asking Amazon to provide paid sick leave and time-and-a-half hazard pay, among other financial and health protections. “The virus that causes COVID-19 can live for up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to three days on plastic and stainless steel,” the letter says. “That means that Americans who are taking every precaution, staying home and practicing social distancing, might risk getting infected with COVID-19 because of Amazon’s decision to prioritize efficiency and profits over the safety and well-being of its workforce.”The letter also discussed reports of troubling conditions at Amazon warehouses, such as how Amazon warehouse managers have held regular stand-up meetings with staff, which likely put employees closer than the CDC-recommended six feet of distance away from one another, and a lack of hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes. Read the rest

If you've recently faced a major shift in where you work — as in, from an actual office to your home — you're probably in need of a little assistance to help you navigate that transition more smoothly. Or, maybe you’ve always worked from home, and now the rest of the world is catching up to how you normally live.No matter which camp you’re in, we’re all in this together. You’re home now — so better make the best of it. The business world may have slowed down, but it never stops entirely, which means you’ve got to stay on top of your work obligations.You’re a pro. You’ll get it done. But to help, we pulled together 15 apps and other digital helpers that can keep you focused even when you aren’t in front of your office keyboard. And to further incentivize, you can take an extra 15 percent off your already discounted total by adding SPRINGSAVE15 at checkout. Hunker down and dig in.Computer aidsEverything starts with a clean, tidy desktop, so with WorkspacePro Multiple App Launcher for Mac ($6.79 after discount; originally $9.99), you’ll have every needed app and file just a click away. Workspace Pro lets you regroup app, customize their position, and even launch or close a whole collection of macOS apps all with a single button press for a streamlined, efficient desktop.If your problem is your browser, with bookmarks saved in different places on different devices, a Qlearly Premium lifetime subscription ($16.99 Read the rest

Last week, I reported on Czech 3D printer company, Prusa Research, converting over some of their manufacturing capability to producing hand sanitizer. Now, the company has, within three days of prototyping, created a 3D printable face shield.Josef Prusa writes:We were notified on Facebook that doctors are in great need of face shields and that there is already a great face shield design available online. We took it as a starting point and decided that we would adjust it for easier and faster 3D printing – e.g. there shouldn’t be any supports required and we should fit as many of them onto a single print sheet as possible. So we started working on it immediately. After all, it is very important to keep the guys, who will take care of us in the darkest times, as healthy as possible. These shields will help protect their eyes and face from coughing and sneezing of their patients.In three days, we were able to go through dozens of prototypes, two verifications with the Czech Ministry of Health and we even met our minister of health Adam Vojtech. Today we are excited to share with you that we have started prototype production and the first units just went to the hospital for field testing and verification. I want to thank Martin Havrda from the University Hospital Vinohrady in Prague for taking the time to meet us. And also, when we have this design verified, we will move to design protective goggles. Read the rest

With schools closed during this COVID-19 situation, and with no real end in sight, some high school students are planning to take their prom celebrations online.TIME:And while schools in Los Angeles are only shut down for two weeks so far, students at the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies (LACES) are looking to technology for social distancing-friendly ways to celebrate the end of the school year with their friends.LACES seniors Zack Monterosso and Colin Wire and junior Wakie Haque tell TIME that they’re currently planning to host a virtual party on the video conferencing service Zoom, dubbed a “Zoom rager,” as a test run for virtual prom......in Struthers, Ohio, Jessica Ludovici, a senior at Struthers High School, tells TIME that she’s planning to host prom in her living room while FaceTiming her friends.“We’re all going to do a huge group FaceTime. I’ll put on music and we’ll go in the expensive dresses and tuxes that we already bought to get ready for prom,” she says. “I tweeted and was just like, ‘This is what’s going to happen. It’s going to be in my living room, you guys can send me a song for the playlist and that will be your ticket. You can invite whoever, I don’t really care because we’re all just going to be on a group FaceTime.'”photo by hundrednorth/Flickr Read the rest

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