Boing Boing

10 Years Of Progress In The Boston Dynamics Robotics from r/nextfuckinglevelOn the left, a tethered robot from 2009 hobbles on a treadmill. On the right, an untethered 2019 version agiley bounds over a pyramid of crates.Image: Reddit Read the rest

Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau is self-isolating at home after his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau began displaying flu-like symptoms, and took a test for coronavirus.They are awaiting results from COVID-19 tests, which are free in Canada, and widely available, unlike the United States.Here is the official statement from the government of Canada [via]. Read the rest

“There’s normally a lot of tourists here to feed the monkeys but now there are not as many, because of the coronavirus,” a person in Lopburi, Thailand told a News Parliament reporter. As a results hundreds of the ravenous animals are "terrorising" the city "in search of food."From the article:Even locals who’re used to the animals’ behaviour appear stunned through their ferocity.Onlooker Sasaluk Rattanachai, who captured the scene from out of doors a store the place she works, mentioned: ”They seemed extra like wild canines than monkeys.“They went loopy for the one piece of food. I’ve by no means noticed them this competitive.”I believe the monkeys had been very, very hungry.Photo by Audronė Locaitytė on Unsplash Read the rest

Check out this collection of 30 PDF templates for cut-and-fold paper mechanisms and 3D optical illusions. Some of these will be familiar to readers of pop-up books, but many look like new innovations.[via @kellianderson] Read the rest

📷 Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s communications secretary, Fabio Wajngarten [RIGHT] instagrammed this selfie of himself hanging out with Trump and Pence before he tested positive for coronavirus.Bolsonaro's press secretary hung out with Trump and Pence on Saturday and today tested positive for coronavirus.U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence both met this week with a government official from Brazil who has since tested positive for coronavirus. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s communications secretary, Fabio Wajngarten, was at an official meeting with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Saturday. Wajngarten also attended Kimberly Guilfoyle's birthday party and dinner at Mar-a-Lago, and had dinner with Trump.This means they had plenty of time within one meter of each other. The Estado de S.Paulo newspaper said on Thursday Wajngarten has tested positive for coronavirus, and is now awaiting the results of a second confirmation test.If confirmed, this means the president of the United States was exposed to a coronavirus carrier, almost certainly. We do not know Trump's true health status or his coronavirus testing status.The office of Brazil’s president Bolsonaro did not respond to requests for comment. More at Reuters.WATCH: @jairbolsonaro’s Press Secretary, Fabio Wajngarten, who has tested positive for #coronavirus was very close to Trump on Saturday. How close? He took this video of the President at @kimguilfoyle’s bday party at Mar a Lago. Trump just said he “isn’t concerned” about it. pic.twitter.com/62nutphdRW— Weijia Jiang (@weijia) March 12, 2020 Read the rest

The New York Stock Exchange suspended trading shortly after opening today as markets fell hard and fast over the European travel ban announced last night by President Donald Trump. The Dow Jones fell 1700 points (7%), a drop matched by the S&P 500 and NASDAQ indexes.US stocks sold off sharply for the second straight day after President Donald Trump banned European travel to the United States. Wall Street investors are worried about the scale of the coronavirus pandemic and its economic consequences. ...Trading is halted for 15 minutes when when the index hits first two circuit breakers: a drop of 7% and again when it falls 13%. A circuit breaker can be triggered only once per day, so if the S&P drops 7% upon the re-open, the market doesn't close again.If the index falls 20%, trading is suspended for the rest of the day.Trump announced the 30-day ban on travel from Europe in a televised address to the nation as a response to the coronavirus pandemic, but he seems to have been confused on some of the details and exemptions as described in the formal announcement. Chaos reigns.Let this sink in. During a worldwide pandemic creating ongoing economic shock Trump ACCIDENTALLY ANNOUNCED A BAN OF CARGO SHIPMENTS FROM EUROPE This is an absolute circus.https://t.co/syU1XhJHYf— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 12, 2020 Read the rest

Kaci the Homicidal Homemaker made this deliciously sinister cake inspired by the carpet at the Overlook Hotel. [via Marshall Julius]Also, Hellraiser brownies: Read the rest

Spring may not officially start for a few more days in the northern hemisphere, but Microsoft has been getting a jump on spring cleaning in recent weeks. The tech giant has been blowing out truckloads of factory recertified products at big discounts off their regular price, so it’s a great way to bolster your device arsenal while keeping more dollars in your pocket.This time around, Seattle’s own is offering up a true gem, a fully certified Microsoft Surface Pro 4 tablet that’s actually even got enough juice to potentially replace your trusty old laptop. And at $912.99, it’s almost 50 percent off its retail price of $1,699.99.TechRadar just called the Surface Pro 4 an influential device that, despite its elder statesmen status in the Surface family, is still an “excellent device” when placed shoulder-to-shoulder with Microsoft’s latest releases and “a brilliant first choice for creative professionals on the go.”A look at the specs makes that claim understandable, with a powerful 6th gen Intel Core i7 processor that’s more than capable of sizzling through projects even with multiple apps in use.Probably the Surface Pro 4’s most distinctive feature is its crystal clear 12.3-inch PixelSense display offering ultra HD resolution and a super-responsive touch screen that still blows away many newer tablets. Couple that screen with the stereo front-firing speakers and it’s a fabulous alternative for those who love to devour movies and other web content for hours.With a spacious 512GB hard drive and up to 9 hours of battery life, this is a top-quality tablet-laptop hybrid that will have you looking pretty smart, especially if someone knows how much you paid. Read the rest

Amid the virus outbreak, the very wealthy are "self-isolating" in well-equipped doomsday bunkers, some in far-off places such as New Zealand. The world’s richest people are chartering private jets to set off for holiday homes or specially prepared disaster bunkers in countries that, so far, appear to have avoided the worst of the Covid-19 outbreak.Many are understood to be taking personal doctors or nurses on their flights to treat them and their families in the event that they become infected. The wealthy are also besieging doctors in private clinics in Harley Street, London, and across the world, demanding private coronavirus tests.They're also being grifted raw:Ali said his clinic was also offering the worried wealthy an intravenous infusion of vitamins and minerals to boost their immune systems. “We know that 90% of adults have a deficiency in vitamins – what better to improve that than an IV immune boost? An intravenous infusion ensures instant and optimal delivery of these nutrients to the body’s cells and the nutrients should include vitamins such as vitamin C, vitamin B12 complex, glutathione, zinc and essential amino acids such as arginine, taurine, lysine and citrulline.” The treatment costs £350.One billionaire will be staying put, though, as the death toll climbs into the hundreds: Elon Musk, twitter epidemiologist. Read the rest

British comedy duo Mitchell and Webb created their "The Quiz" sketch format years ago, depicting a dilapidated and miserable TV game show broadcast in the wake of an apocalyptic "event" that means you really should stay indoors. Prophetic! Read the rest

The release of All of Me is Illustrated, Stories by Ray Bradury, celebrates the author’s Centennial with the stories, “The Illustrated Man,” and “The Illustrated Woman,” published together in a 272-page hardcover book featuring over 100 contemporary photographs of illustrated bodies by some of the leading tattoo artists of the 21 Century.“Bradbury’s tattooed-person tales embedded within this glorious parade of contemporary inked bodies breathes new life into his notions about how tattoo meanings can change, how the viewer of a tattoo can see something different from what the owner might have intended, and how psychology intersects with the desire to permanently inscribe one’s skin.” —from the Introduction by tattoo historian Anna Felicity FriedmanThis is not merely a pairing of Bradbury stories sandwiched between a collection of garden variety tattoo photography. Photographer Peter Roessler invites an atypical intimacy between his subjects—or "collectors” as they’re referenced in the book—and their viewers. The collectors featured among these pages are revealing more than the body; they’re sharing the stories those bodies have to tell. As Friedman states in her introduction, it’s the intersection of psychology and the desire to permanently inscribe not just one’s skin, but in these cases the entire body, that ultimately makes this book so compelling.All of Me is Illustrated is published by RosettaBooks in cooperation with Inked magazine. Featured artists include Paul Booth, Steve Butcher, Jessa Bigelow, Ryan Ashley Malarkey, Yomico Moreno, Andy Pho, TeeJ Poole, Duke Riley, DJ Tambe, Tatu Baby, Carlos Torres, Dmitry Troshin, Jess Yen and Popo Zhang, with photography by Peter Roessler. Read the rest

my teenage daughter edited together a version of trump's address with only heavy breathing moments and I honestly don't think I've ever been prouder of herparental discretion advised @dyl_seidel pic.twitter.com/m8U8B1ZMcK— ǝpᴉuɥɔs (@schnd) March 12, 2020Last night, Trump addressed the nation. His solution to the coronavirus pandemic was to announce a European travel ban and then describe its terms inaccurately. Everyone's confused and angry as a result, but everyone knew something like this would happen, so here we are. For those of us wanting to catch up with the important parts without listening to the nonsense, @schnd posted an edit of the address put together by his dauighter.It's embedded above; linked here. Read the rest

In this Sky News clip, British chancellor Rishi Sunak's binder is seen to change color from burgundy to green. Theories about fancy iridescent leather were floated, but the consensus seems to be that it's an impossible change and an ill-conceived attempt at editorial humor by Sky News to reflect the "green" aspects of his newly-announced budget. Read the rest

"America's #1 lubricant brand" K-Y has a new look. Intentionally designed to represent a vulva, the brand's new logo is described as follows by its creator, Design Bridge New York:A strong symbol of female sexual power was placed right at the heart of the new brand identity – the ruby. Framed perfectly by the newly crafted K & Y, the ruby is a celebration of the vulva and a symbol of uncompromising passion and enjoyment. This new, unapologetic distinctive asset transforms across touchpoints to talk to the different forms of sexual pleasure that the brand wants to encourage.Claire Parker, Executive Creative Director at Design Bridge New York, explained, “We’ve unleashed a distinctive brand asset that was always there, it just never had any strength or purpose. By making it intentional, we’ve loaded it with meaning and brought a sensuality and confidence to the brand that was lacking before. An enormous step for a brand that was previously at best asexual, at worst clinical.”The Design Bridge team came up with the simple yet powerful creative idea of “Let’s talk about sex”, and were inspired by the brand’s curious and sensual, yet uncompromising and expert new personality. With the vulva now so clearly celebrated at the heart of the brand, the surrounding brand world and assets were developed to further normalize female pleasure and build confidence between the sheets.On pack, bespoke typography and iconography bring this creative idea and personality to life through playful, conversational messaging about each product, which in turn helps women to find the right product for them. Read the rest

The Social Network. X-Men Origins: Wolverine. 300. No Country for Old Men.Other than the fact that these were all giant movies with either massive critical or box office appeal, these films don’t appear to have a lot in common on the surface.But once you scratch that surface, you’ll find that all four, as well as hundreds of other major motion pictures, were entirely cut and edited using Final Cut Pro. In fact, two of those films actually received Academy Awards for their editing work (we’ll let you try to figure out which ones).Final Cut Pro has been and remains a Hollywood staple for everyone from students to award-winning professionals. Now, we don’t expect you to win an Oscar for your work, but The Complete Final Cut Pro X Course - Beginner to Intermediate can give even first-time editors the experience needed to use this vastly power software to its ultimate potential.The training starts from the absolute beginning as new editors get familiar with importing footage, timelines, hotkeys, and all the basics to start assembling a video. However, it won’t take long before new users are skilled enough to start adding transitions, basic visual effects, music and a host of other artistic touches to start making your film look and feel like a professional production.From there, learners can begin to really elevate their game, using some of the same advanced Final Cut Pro X functions that those multi-million dollar blockbusters use. Training in color grading, exposures, masks and even how to build your own key-frame animation can help you replicate virtually any tone you want to create for your video. Read the rest

Whistleblower Chelsea Manning attempted suicide while in jail today, say her lawyers. She is recovering in a hospitalFrom Axios:Manning is still scheduled to appear on Friday for a previously calendared hearing, her lawyers said. "Judge Anthony Trenga will rule on a motion to terminate the civil contempt sanctions stemming from her May 2019 refusal to give testimony before a grand jury investigating the publication of her 2010 disclosures," [the statement] added. "In spite of those sanctions — which have so far included over a year of so-called 'coercive' incarceration and nearly half a million dollars in threatened fines — she remains unwavering in her refusal to participate in a secret grand jury process that she sees as highly susceptible to abuse. ... Ms. Manning has previously indicated that she will not betray her principles, even at risk of grave harm to herself."After serving seven years in prison for providing documents to Wikileaks, Manning was released in 2017 by then President Obama. In May she was jailed again for refusing to comply with a grand jury subpoena. Read the rest

Frissons and solid information about coronavirus at the same time. What more could you ask for? Read the rest

The fellers who posted this video wrote: "The 4 wheeler was rolled over the day previous and the steering shaft had bent. In the video, we were trying to straighten the steering shaft by pulling it straight with the tree. The throttle ended up sticking and the steering shaft bent a little too far..."Image: YouTube Read the rest

If you think it is possible for consecrated bread or wine to give you an infectious disease, you are a blasphemer, according to the Church of Cyprus, which issued the following announcement:"Regarding the offering of the Holy Communion, the position of the Church is known. The Holy Communion does not symbolize but it is the Body and Blood of Christ. It would be blasphemous to think that Christ’s Body and Blood could transmit any disease or virus."That settles the matter![via Orthodox Times] Read the rest

Manisha Bharade (47) of New Jersey was arrested this week on charges of endangering the welfare of a child and deceptive business practices. Bharade, owner of a 7-Eleven, is accused of selling a homemade spray sanitizer from her convenience store that caused skin burns on four children who used her product.From RLS Media:The ensuing investigation revealed that Bharade had mixed commercially available foaming sanitizer, which was not meant for resale, with water and packaged it in aftermarket bottles to be sold at the 7-Eleven on Rivervale Road.An apparent chemical reaction from the mixture caused the burns. Fourteen bottles in total were sold at the 7- 11.Police say five bottles were turned over to the River Vale Police Department and nine bottles are unaccounted for at this time.Further analysis will be performed to determine the exact make-up of the chemical mixture. Read the rest

Spotify and Warner Bros are in trouble over ads for It: Chapter Two that played between songs on a childrens' lullaby playlist curated by the streaming audio company.The advert for the film It: Chapter Two featured the voice of killer clown Pennywise talking and giggling over scary music. ... "For 27 years, I dreamt of you. I craved you. Oh, I missed you," he says, before a siren, drums and other discordant sound effects are played.The regulator said that it believed this was likely to distress young audiences.The BBC reports that Spotify claimed that the playlist wasn't for children, despite including "Children's Music", music "For Children" and "English Nursery Tunes". Read the rest

Another day, another data breach affecting thousands, another giant international company apologizing and wondering publicly about what went wrong with their cybersecurity.The latest victim: Virgin Media, who saw someone illegally access user information for about 900,000 Virgin customers. There was no evidence of hacking or compromised financial information here, but every company fears to leave vital customer data vulnerable to theft.Cybersecurity experts make six-figure salaries for a reason. They are the front line and best defense against the ultimate betrayal of customer loyalty and they’re paid handsomely for their talents. You can start constructing your own career in IT protection with The Cybersecurity Expert Certification Training Bundle. This collection of four prep courses is training with a purpose. Across almost four dozen lectures, this training in all aspects of cybersecurity and web-connected systems is geared toward earning you five prime IT security certifications. Those qualifications can be a major resume item to help get you employed as a well-paid cyber defense expert.Your certification training starts with the responsibilities of a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), entrusted with monitoring and guiding enterprise IT and doing effective security audits to guarantee a well-protected network.Meanwhile, Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) training elevates those skills as you dig deeper into the management, design, and oversight of an entire interconnected IT system. Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification covers all areas of IT security, while the PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP) training hones in on identifying and eliminating project risk. Read the rest

The tiny skull, about the size of a thumbnail, trapped in amber may belong to the smallest dinosaur scientists have ever discovered. Paleontologist Lida Xing of the China University of Geosciences spotted the skull in a 99-million-year-old chunk of amber from northern Myanmar. From the New York Times:[Xing, Chinese Academy of Sciences paleontologist Jingmai O’Connor, and their colleagues] called the bird Oculudentavis khaungraae — a name that comes from the Latin words for eye, teeth and bird. The dinosaur’s skull is only 14.25 millimeters, or a little more than half an inch, from its beak to the end of its skull. The animal had bulbous eyes that looked out from the sides of its head, rather than straight ahead like the eyes of an owl or a human.“We were able to show that this skull is even smaller than that of a bee hummingbird, which is the smallest dinosaur of all time — also the smallest bird,” O’Connor said. “This is a tiny skull, and it’s just preserved absolutely pristinely"....Most scientists now believe that birds are theropods, dinosaurs of a group that included tyrannosaurus and spinosaurus, but that birds were on their own evolutionary branch from a common ancestor. Paleontologists have long assumed that as birds evolved away from other dinosaurs, having teeth was a trait that was in the process of disappearing altogether. “But this specimen strongly shows that evolution’s really going in all different directions,” Dr. O’Connor said.More at Nature: "Tiny bird fossil might be the world’s smallest dinosaur"image: Lida Xing Read the rest

Washington College anthropologist Bill Schindler who specializes in "primitive technologies":"Even though you may never find yourself in a survival situation, I firmly believe that learning and practicing these primitive skills are an essential part of connecting to your past, your environment, and everything it means to be human."(Wired) Read the rest

With unfortunate frequency, elderly patients go to the hospital for a surgery or other treatment and quickly become confused, bewildered, and sometimes agitated or totally disoriented. This is called delirium and while it apparently affects between 10 and 50 percent of patients over 65, it's only recently been studied in depth. Sharon K. Inouye, director of Harvard's Aging Brain Center, is leading the charge to understand delirium, its impact on patients' longterm cognitive faculties, and how to prevent it. From Scientific American:[Delirium] is the phenomenon, sadly familiar to many families, of Grandpa never being quite the same after an operation...The consequences of delirium, if it lasts more than a few days and especially if it is followed by cognitive decline, are enormous. “It’s a house of cards,” Inouye says. “Patients start getting treated with medications for agitation or disruptive behavior, and those medications lead to complications. Or they are very sedated, and that leads to complications.” Delirious patients may choke on their food or pills and die of aspiration pneumonia. They may wind up in bed for long periods and suffer fatal blood clots. Once up, they are prone to falling. It’s a downward spiral and a costly one. Delirium adds more than $183 billion a year to U.S. health care costs, outstripping congestive heart failure.Fortunately, basic steps can be taken to prevent delirium or shorten its course, such as making sure the patient is well hydrated, has access to eyeglasses and hearing aids if he or she uses them, gets out of bed and walks as soon as possible, has adequate sleep, and is socially engaged by hospital staff and loved ones. Read the rest

In 1962, Mel Brooks attended a screening of an abstract animation by Norman McLaren. He overheard an older fellow chattering and complaining through the whole thing. Inspired, Brooks and director Ernest Pintoff created this wonderful short film, "The Critic." Amazingly, Brooks improvised the narration while watching the animation. The film won a 1964 Academy Award in the category of Short Subjects (Cartoon). Read the rest

Katie and Josh Camarena of Portervilla, California came up an excellent theft deterrent during a rash of crime in their neighborhood. From LADbible: In a post on Facebook, she explained: "We have been having issues with people coming into our neighborhood to try and steal tools out of vehicles (And anything else they can get their hands on)."Our flood light didn't seem to scare them off, so we decided to have a little fun with a motion activated sprinkler that has an impressive amount of pressure." Read the rest

A woman New Mexico faces criminal charges after police say she stole a car and then attempted to pass herself off as Beyoncé Knowles.The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that Surena Henry was arrested last Saturday in Las Cruces, New Mexico, when a police officer noticed her vehicle resembled one that recently had been reported stolen. Cops say she also told them she didn’t stop driving when she saw the emergency lights because she didn’t feel like it. Relatable.From Las Cruces local TV news station KTSM:According to court documents obtained by KTSM, the victim contacted LCPD around 7 a.m. reporting his gold 2000 Saturn 4-door car was missing from his apartment complex. About two hours later, an officer spotted the car being driven by a woman and tried to pull her over.The driver of the Saturn refused to stop and was eventually found by a different LCPD officer in the 1400 block of Alamo Street.When the officer asked the woman to identify herself, and she said her name was Beyoncé Knowles. Unfortunately for Henry, the arresting officer previously interacted with Henry and knew her true identity.Henry eventually admitted to finding the keys inside the Saturn and taking it on a joyride, according to court documents. Via the Associated Press. Read the rest

COVID19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has killed ~30 people in the U.S. and infected over 1,000

The Pembroke Pines Police Department tweeted: “Wanted: Unknown Cow.”“Description: Female cow. Brown with a white head. Faster than it looks. Talented fence jumper. Enjoys pools.”They weren't joking. A mysterious brown cow is now the loose in South Florida. She is neither armed nor dangerous, but police have been trying to corral her for weeks. She's all, DON'T FENCE ME IN.The roaming mooster has been seen near I-75 in southern Broward County, and has somehow managed not to be captured since late January.Excerpt from AP:Police also say the cow is guilty of “MOOving violations, uddering false checks, and fleeing and eluding police.” These are direct quotes.Moore at The Associated Press. Read the rest

"Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death"-@DrTedros The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.The shift to “pandemic” means that slowing coronavirus spread is the goal, not stopping it-- we are beyond any hope of containment, despite Donald Trump's lies.From today's WHO briefing with Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, video embedded below:Media briefing on #COVID19 with @DrTedros. #coronavirus https://t.co/aPFXT3ex5y— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 11, 2020 "In the past two weeks, the number of cases of #COVID19 outside 🇨🇳 has increased 13-fold & the number of affected countries has tripled. There are now more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries, & 4,291 people have lost their lives"-@DrTedros #coronavirus— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 11, 2020"Thousands more are fighting for their lives in hospitals.In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of #COVID19 cases, the number of deaths, and the number of affected countries climb even higher"-@DrTedros #coronavirus— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 11, 2020"WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction"-@DrTedros #COVID19— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 11, 2020🚨 BREAKING 🚨"We have therefore made the assessment that #COVID19 can be characterized as a pandemic"-@DrTedros #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/JqdsM2051A Read the rest

NPR's Throughline had a great recent episode about what's essentially the branding of the American Empire. Host Rund Abdelfatah speaks with Daniel Immerwahr, a history professor at Northwestern University, who the changing ways that America has identified itself over the years.I always found it kind of strange to say "America" (even though I do it), as it also refers to two entire continents. And I've similarly found it interesting when I hear Europeans refer to the country as "the States." But Immerwahr took things a step further, and traced the history of self-reference through American presidential speeches. Prior to 1898 — the time of our rarely-mentioned war with Spain, which saw American expansionism grow beyond the continental borders and into the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Cuba and so on — it was rare to hear a President refer to the country as "America." It could be the Republic, or the Union, or the United States, sometimes even Columbia or Freedonia (like "land of the free people," yes that was apparently a real thing at one time).Immerwahr smartly connects this to curiosity to the country's intrinsic relationship (and subsequent, neverending identity crises) with imperialism. We were founded on conquered land, and though we aspired to be a union of independent nation-states with open borders and shared currency, that never actually happened. The "free" people of the United States distinguished themselves from the black slaves who tilled their fields, and the various Native American nations with whom they sometimes shared the land. Read the rest

Every so often I have to return to this wonderful performance of the Chairman of the Bored on the 4/24/1979 episode of Old Grey Whistle Test. The band (Iggy, Scott Thurston, Glen Matlock, Jackie Clark, Klaus Kruger) played four tracks that night: The Fortune Teller, New Values, I'm Bored, and I Wanna Be Your Dog. An iconic Iggy moment with an amazing band line-up from the New Values period.Bonus track: Here's Iggy last week, doing a tribute duet to Serge Gainsbourg with Jane Birkin (Gainsbourg's former collaborator and partner) on The Tonight Show. What can we say, the man has serious staying power and range.Image: YouTube Read the rest

Donald Trump loves to test the waters about abolishing Presidential term limits. As much as he might fantasize about becoming dictator-in-chief, it would take a lot to actually make it happen, so I wouldn't hold my breath worrying about it.That being said, Vladimir Putin just found a sneaky way to lock himself into power until at least 2036: tacking a rider onto another, humongous bill, just hours before the Parliament votes on it.In the past, Mr. Putin proceeded cautiously, seeking to preserve a veneer of legitimacy. Confronting term limits in 2008, Mr. Putin opted for a four-year hiatus as prime minister while his protégé, Dmitri A. Medvedev, became the caretaker president.In January he proposed some nebulous constitutional changes that analysts said pointed to his intention to stay beyond the end of his current term.But with his proposal on Tuesday, Mr. Putin seemed to prefer something bolder, saying he supported the legislation for the good of the country. The president is the guarantor “of the security of our state, of its internal stability — its internal, evolutionary stability,” Mr. Putin said. “And I mean evolutionary. We’ve had enough revolutions.”[…]“No one is saying” Mr. Putin will run again in 2024, one lawmaker, Aleksandr Khinshtein, said in a televised interview. “But the possibility of doing so must exist for the head of state in order to maintain stability in society.”I guess bad faith arguments for implausible deniability are totally fine when your country is run for decades by a famously guileful spymaster. Read the rest

In this video, posted by Kentfield Kennels Labrador Retrievers, a number of puppies are observed to coalesce within a single medium-sized bucket. Though it appears the puppies are becoming more organized over time, the outcome in fact reflects the lowest energy state for the puppies. If too much energy (flops, boops, snoots, mlems) were introduced to the local system, the puppies would continue to bounce around randomly. Their coming to rest in parallel and orthogonal repose within the bucket, though apparently a complex and ordered result, in fact represents increased entropy within the available thermodynamic envelope and its approach to a maximum value at equilibrium.PREVIOUSLY: How to organize nails. Read the rest

Not for much longer, sure, but here's a map of American counties whose residents enjoy a life expectancy of more than eighty years. It was drafted by Spooderman89 on Reddit using mapchart.com.I believe the only states with not a single long-lived county are Mississippi and Delaware. Read the rest

As part of the content for "Ordinary Man," Ozzy Obsourne's most recent record (released January 21, 2020), last night saw the release of this video for the title track. It features Osbourne sitting in a home theater watching a biographical video of his life flashing before him. And we watch Ozzy reacting. The video is unflinching, showing the good, the bad, and the ugly of Osbourne's life and career. We see images of his Birmingham boyhood, lots of Sabbath and solo career stage and publicity shots, moments of sadness (The Osbournes reality TV lows), tragedy and death (band members' plane crash), and out-of-control drinking and drugging. Throughout, Ozzy watches. And smiles, grimaces, smirks, and cries. It's hard not to listen to this song, and watch this video, and not think of Bowie's "Where Are We Now?" from The Next Day and Johnny Cash's "Hurt" video. "Ordinary Man" (the song and video) definitely has that life-arc swan song quality to it. As one YouTube viewer commented, this video is us watching Ozzy reacting to something that might be played at his own funeral. Some might find this morose. I found it moving and sweet. YMMV.The track "Ordinary Man" features Elton John on piano and vocals and Slash on guitar. Guns & Roses bassist, Duff McKagan, plays throughout the record and co-wrote many of its songs.Image: YouTube Read the rest

HD. 4K. LED. Smart sets. It really is a new age for those in the market for a new TV. I mean, could you even have imagined you could affordably bring home a screen over seven feet across even just a few years ago? No, you were probably too busy trying to eke a few more years out of that 24-incher with the rabbit ears.Well then, it’s well past time to step up your game. And the good news is with all the competition in the TV market, you can buy some truly stellar TV models loaded with cool features at a lot less than you’d probably think. On top of that, we’ve also pulled together five TVs with discounts from $40 to $850.LG 86" 4K HDR Smart LED UHD TV with AI ThinQ - $2,149.99; originally $2,999.99Clear off the entire living room wall, because this behemoth is truly massive. Despite this 86-inch monster screen offering a movie theater-esque experience in your home, it’s actually less than 4 inches thick. With 4K ultra-high-definition (UHD) and HDR support, you’ll get epic picture quality here. It’s also sporting LG’s own AI ThinQ system with built-in Google Assistant, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa features, so you can also use your voice to control compatible smart home devices.Pick the VIZIO that’s right for youMeanwhile, VIZIO has four models on sale, all sized to fit your space with each offering full HD and 4K resolution.First, both the 75-inch and 60-inch VIZIO SmartCast E-Series Ultra HDR Home Theater Display come equipped with VIZIO’s SmartCast system, which allows you to browse and launch top apps like Netflix and Hulu right off your big screen so you’ll never be at a loss for something to watch. Read the rest

The Second Amendment is perhaps the most controversial part of the U.S. Bill of Rights. But that's not just because of our grander cultural debate around gun rights and gun violence — it's 'cause the damn thing is such a grammatical clusterfuck.A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.27 words in 4 dependent clauses with no clear anything to link them. It's not clear if the thing that shall not be infringed is the well-regulated militia, or the right of the people to keep and bear arms, or if it's all dependent upon what is or is not necessary to the security of a free State. And anyone can make any one of those arguments, and have evidence to back it up that can't be definitively refuted, either.Over at The Atlantic, James C. Phillips, a Fellow with the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford University, and Josh Blackman, a Constitutional law professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston, discuss a novel approach to figuring out what, exactly, the Founding Fathers were actually trying to say: by creating and scanning through a massive database full of more than a billion words culled from formal American and British texts from 1475 to 1800. They specifically searched for instances where phrases such as "bear arms" and "keep arms" were used, and noted the context, the context, and adjacent language that accompanied the phrases to better understand how these terms were actually being used in their historical context. Read the rest

Pictures of Earth by Planetary Spacecraft is, as you have perhaps already surmised, a collection of photos of our homeworld not taken by human beings.The image above comes from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Earth is the little dot to the top left of Saturn, shining through the rings. Read the rest

Talking smack about bits of your anatomy that you've got no control over. Delighting generations with his clever arrangements and often hilarious, heartfelt lyrics. Showing modern musicians what a showman looks like. These are but a few of the services that Fat Waller has provided to humanity over the years.Image via Wikipedia Commons Read the rest

The world's busy shitting its pants over an impending pandemic, oil production slap-fights and the arse dropping out of the stock market right into the lap of a recession that's just a-waiting in the wings. So, Russia, being Russia, does what Russia does best: fucks with people.Earlier today, I received an emailed statement from your pals and mine at NORAD:NORAD intercepts Russian aircraft entering Air Defense Identification ZonePETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. – North American Aerospace Defense Command F-22s, CF-18s, supported by KC-135 Stratotanker and E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft, intercepted two Russian Tu-142 maritime reconnaissance aircraft entering the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone on Monday, March 9th.The Russian aircraft entered the ADIZ north of Alaska and remained within it for approximately 4 hours. NORAD fighter aircraft escorted the TU-142s for the duration of their time in the ADIZ. The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace over the Beaufort Sea, and came as close as 50 nautical miles to the Alaskan coast. The Russian aircraft did not enter United States or Canadian sovereign airspace.If you're like me, or NORAD, you probably don't dig on unexpected company. So that pair of TU-142s can go ahead and jog on.It's pretty common for Russia to mess with the warships of other countries in international waters, send submarines to scope out undersea communication cables and buzz NATO-aligned nations. They're jerks like that. However, given the freshly rehashed bickering over sovereignty in the Arctic, thanks to global warming's opening up of once frozen shipping lanes and potential oil windfalls, having a pair of their aircraft bop by to say hi feels a little bit pushier than usual. Read the rest

An event titled "Doing Business under Coronavirus" was scheduled, but it turns out that coronavirus has other plans: the conference day has beencanceled due to the spread of the illness. Bloomberg News reports that The Council on Foreign Relations has also nixed the rest of its roundtable agenda for the immediate future.Across the U.S., the spread of the novel virus has so far scuttled more than 50 major corporate events with an estimated attendance of almost 1 million people, according to data collected by Bloomberg News. Read the rest

I've written here before to mention that I perform lengthy sets of Irish folk music around St. Patrick's Day*, and there are quite a few of those popular pub songs that include (well-deserved, IMHO) shout-outs to James Connolly, a stalwart champion of workers' rights who was executed by British soldiers after the 1916 Easter Rising. As I get older, I haven't found myself getting more conservative, like the Boomers told me I would; instead, I find myself realizing more and more that James Connolly was right about a damn lot of things.One of my favorite writings of his — which I find I reference in casual conversation more than I should probably admit — is this piece on the differences between "state monopolies" and "socialism." Originally published in the June 10, 1899 issue of Workers’ Republic, this short essay impressively articulates the differences between centralized government control of a society, and what it means to actually put that ownership into collective public hands.Socialism properly implies above all things the co-operative control by the workers of the machinery of production; without this co-operative control the public ownership by the State is not Socialism – it is only State capitalism. The demands of the middle-class reformers, from the Railway Reform League down, are simply plans to facilitate the business transactions of the capitalist class. State Telephones – to cheapen messages in the interest of the middle class who are the principal users of the telephone system; State Railways – to cheapen carriage of goods in the interest of the middle-class trader; State-construction of piers, docks, etc. Read the rest

In Ashland, Louisiana, a woman has been arrested on drug charges when police decided the $5,000 cash she used to post an inmate’s bail carried the “strong odor of marijuana.” The Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office started nosing around Stormy Lynn Parfait, 33, last Friday after she showed up to pay bond for an inmate jailed on drug charges.From the Associated Press:After catching a whiff of the cash, a detective searched her car while she was still at the jail and found nearly $40,000 more inside, along with about 100 Klonopin pills and a food stamp card that wasn’t registered to Parfait, according to the sheriff’s statement.Investigators found hundreds of additional pills and cash as well as marijuana, cocaine and paraphernalia, during a search of Parfait’s home later, news outlets reported. Four unattended children there were turned over to a relative.Parfait was charged with multiple counts of possession with intent to distribute drugs, four counts of illegal use of a controlled drug in the presence of persons under 17, taking contraband to or into a correctional institution and other related charges, authorities said.More at AP:Police jail woman who paid bail with marijuana-scented cash Read the rest

He tried to smuggle an electric drill out of a Walmart in his pants. She faces drug charges. It's a match made in Louisiana.A couple accused of stealing over $1,000 worth of beer from 6 different Target stores over the span of a week was arrested Sunday on theft charges, Baton Rouge sheriff’s office records show.From the Louisiana Advocate:On March 1, the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's retail/organized theft division began investigating a series of beer thefts that began on Feb. 24 at the Target store on Siegen Lane and the Target on Millerville Road.Security video shows that the thefts were all committed by the same man and woman, arrest records say. During the store trips, the couple filled their shopping basket with cases of beer, then left the store without paying. From AP:Authorities said the two were arrested Sunday after they attempted to steal additional merchandise from other stores, including a drill that Matthew Forbes tried to smuggle out in his pants at a Walmart, according to WBRZ-TV. Ashley Forbes was also reportedly caught returning items she hadn’t paid for at a Walmart, the station said. The two had been banned from similar stores previously, according to news outlets.The couple was booked into jail on theft charges, and Ashley Forbes also faces drug charges, records show.MUGSHOT: East Baton Rouge Sheriffs Department Read the rest

Not too long ago, if you wanted to get employed as an IT cloud systems expert, that meant learning Amazon Web Services (AWS). That made sense back when Amazon’s market share was nearly double that of all their closest competitors combined.But 2020 is a new day. And while AWS is still the undisputed no. 1 cloud services provider in the world, there’s now little question about who’s a solid — and gaining — no. 2. Microsoft Azure has posted big gains in recent years, including scoring a major win over its rival with a massive $10 billion contract to provide cloud services for the U.S. Department of Defense.While that contract is now tied up in court, it doesn’t diminish Azure’s rapid growth as a respected cloud provider. Right now, you can make sure this new realm is a part of your IT skillset with the training found in The Ultimate Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification Prep Courses and Mock Exams Bundle.Microsoft currently offers 11 different certification exams to test a user’s knowledge with Azure. This collection of training and practice tests can get you ready to pass most of them.Whether you’d like to get in as an Azure developer, administrator or architect, coursework will make sure you’re trained in all the right areas while the practice tests get you comfortable with the actual exam.Through dozens of lectures and scenario-based lab exercises, the courses offer a complete overview on all the benefits and considerations of using cloud services from developing data processing to implementing and optimizing data storage solutions to DevOps processes to security to creating secure, scalable, and reliable business technology solutions. Read the rest

Bad night for Bernie Sanders

Everyone in my family has stolen my no-show socks. They have little rubber stripes to keep the socks from slipping off your heel. Interestingly, the photo on the Amazon page shows the socks being work inside out. If you wear them as shown, the rubber stripes will come in contact with your shoe and pull the sock off your heel. I bought six more pair at a great price using discount code 3M4HRN68. Read the rest

Like any machine, your computer sometimes needs a tune-up, and the more you use it, the more likely it needs some TLC. Although, with plenty of rarely-used and obsolete files, tons of cache storage, extensions, and other power-hogs living on the hard drive, it's difficult to know what's safe to touch (i.e., delete) or even where to find things you'd want to get rid of.Instead of taking chances with your all-important laptop or desktop computer, call in some professional help that doesn't actually involve making any calls. With a safe all-in-one solution utility, you can effortlessly run a scan of the disk and browsers to clean things up, manage sensitive files, and boost your CPU's speed and performance. This highly-reviewed offering from MacPaw is available for Mac and PC and will have your machine running like new in no time.CleanMyPC: Junk Cleaner for Windows 7 & HigherCleanMyPC will do exactly what its name implies. It gets rid of junk files, removes malware, keeps the Windows registry clean, shows you all the auto-run items so you can disable them, disables Hibernation mode to save gigabytes, and shreds sensitive files so they can't be recovered. It even scans your browsers to gather online activity for your review.CleanMyPC is available now for $67.99, a savings of 24% on MSRP.CleanMyMac X: Junk Cleaner for Mac 10.10 & HigherThe Mac version of this software is impressive. It frees up to 5 times more disk space, offers 2.5 times more optimized apps, and boasts 4 times faster boot time. Read the rest