Boing Boing

For those who have spent years lamenting the fact that they never seem to have any time for simple pleasures like putting together a home-cooked meal...we introduce you to home quarantine.Granted, this probably isn’t the way you wanted to find your way back to the kitchen, but while you’ve got this time, maybe you should invest in an appliance that can tackle about as many different cooking options as you can dream up.The SOUS°V Pot Precision Sous Vide Multi-Cooker has the look and feel of an appliance you’d find a chef’s kitchen, yet with all its sneaky packed-in utility, it’s actually versatile enough to justify its counter space by handling a variety of culinary tasks.In case you’ve never tried sous vide cooking, it’s the process of dropping vacuum-sealed food in a plastic bag into a very precisely heated water bath, usually for a long, slow cook. The process, a favorite in restaurants, helps retain the food’s natural flavors while ensuring consistent results every time. The SOUS°V handles those duties like a champ, including Dual Accutemp Technology, a top-mounted high precision temperature probe that automatically drops down in sous vide mode to take the water temperature directly and accurately.With all the control options on the front panel, it’s easy to set the cooking temperature and time so your meal will be done when you want it -- and cooked your way.But in case you always wanted to try sous vide cooking, but couldn’t justify the expense for a device that specialized, the SOUS°V lists sous vide as just one of its many talents. Read the rest

This is a perfect popcorn machine to make for your next camping trip. Or a fun project to craft during yet another day at home, for which you might want to use Corona beer cans just for grins. One thing to possibly tweak is the size of the popcorn bowl. Read the rest

Last week, we lost famed music impresario, Hal Willner, likely to COVID-19. Willner was a beloved figure throughout the music community, and in the wake of his death, there have been many touching tributes and people have been resurfacing all sorts of obscure wonders that demonstrate Willner's tremendous range and his talent for putting together unique and inspiring productions. Yesterday, American Songwriter posted this letter that Tom Waits wrote in tribute to Willner.Hal. Dear Hal. Brother. Uncle. Father. Son. Husband. Godfather. Friend. Wise and reckless. Lamb and black sheep. Lover of the afflicted and the blessed. More than kin and more than kind, more than friend and more than fiendish in his daunting and devoted pursuit of the lost and the buried, long may his coattails run and long may we now ride, and those that follow us continue to ride upon them.Hal was the wry and soulful and mysterious historical rememberer. He specialized in staging strange musical bedfellows like Betty Carter and the Replacements or The Residents backing up Conway Twitty. Oh, the wild seeds of Impresario Hal. He was drawn equally to the danger of a fiasco and the magical power of illumination that his legendary productions held.Read the rest on American Songwriter.Bonus tracks:A couple of videos from the documentary film, September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill. Hal Willner produced the soundtrack to the film.Image: CC BY-SA 3.0 Read the rest

Janus is a darling goat born on April 5 at Nueske Farms in Wittenberg, Wisconsin. He was named after the Roman god with two faces for obvious reasons. Jocelyn Nuesks is posting updates about Janus on the farm's Facebook page. A vet examined Janus this week and apparently the kid is doing pretty well, all things considered. "He's a normal goat," Nueske told Fox11 News. "We just have to help him. We try to help him as much as we can, and give him a break when he gets tired." Read the rest

Paul McCartney is admittedly biased, but here he is on The Howard Stern Show on Tuesday explaining why he thinks The Beatles were a better band than the Rolling Stones. "Their stuff is rooted in the blues. When they're kinda writing stuff, it's to do with the blues, y'know. We had a little more influences[...]“We started to notice that whatever we did, the Stones sort of did it shortly thereafter. So, like we went to America and we had huge success.Then the Stones went to America. And then we did Sgt. Pepper, the Stones did a psychedelic album. There was a lot of that. But we were great friends, still are, kind of a thing. We admire each other." Read the rest

In 1962, Andy Warhol exhibited his famous Campbell's Soup Cans paintings for the first time and cemented his place as a Pop Art powerhouse. Previously, Warhol had bridged his commercial and fine art efforts with paintings based on comic strips and advertisements, but he (rightly) felt that style had already been done by Lichtenstein and others. So why soup cans? Smithsonian has the story in an excerpt from Blake Gopnik's new book Warhol. From Smithsonian: Warhol’s final breakthrough into ’60s Pop came through an accidental inspiration from a minor dealer on the New York scene named Muriel Latow. She was a flamboyant decorator, three years younger than Warhol, and had hopes of becoming a serious art dealer. Latow has gone down in history as Pop Art’s most important, if accidental, muse. As the story is told—in one of its many, mostly incompatible versions—Latow went to a dinner at Warhol’s house in the fall of ’61 to console him for having been one-upped by Oldenburg and Lichtenstein and others. “The cartoon paintings...it’s too late,” Warhol is supposed to have said. “I’ve got to do something that really will have a lot of impact, that will be different enough from Lichtenstein.” He begged his guests for ideas, and Latow came up with one, but wouldn’t deliver until Warhol handed over a check for $50. “You’ve got to find something that’s recognizable to almost everybody,” she said. “Something you see every day that everybody would recognize. Something like a can of Campbell’s Soup.” Read the rest

I'm currently re-discovering Jeff Van Der Meer's Area X / Southern Reach Trilogy via Audible, because I thought a familiar Weird Sci-Fi story about an invisible lifeform that kind of ambiently inhabits the world around us, changing things in imperceptible ways until it's too late, would be a relaxing respite from the chaotic news of COVID-19.That may have been a bad decision. I'm even more terrified now. Then I learned about this in Newsweek:A team aboard the RV Falkor—the flagship research vessel of the Schmidt Ocean Institute (SOI)—spotted the organism, a type of siphonophore known as Apolemia, using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) in a deep-sea environment known as the Ningaloo Canyons.[…]Resembling a long piece of string, siphonophores—a group of creatures related to jellyfish and corals—may look like one organism, but they are actually made up of many thousands of individual, specialized clones that come together to form a single entity.With the help of lasers mounted onto their ROV—known as SuBastian—the Falkor scientists estimated that this siphonophore's outer ring measured 49 feet in diameter, suggesting that this section alone is 154 foot in length, or about as tall as an 11-story building.Check out this beautiful *giant* siphonophore Apolemia recorded on #NingalooCanyons expedition. It seems likely that this specimen is the largest ever recorded, and in strange UFO-like feeding posture. Thanks @Caseywdunn for info @wamuseum @GeoscienceAus @CurtinUni @Scripps_Ocean pic.twitter.com/QirkIWDu6S— Schmidt Ocean (@SchmidtOcean) April 6, 2020As I've now learned, these things are in fact "colonial organisms," rather than individual beings. Read the rest

A few hours after a mayor in Australia told everyone via Facebook to keep washing their hands, social distancing, and staying at home, the gentleman was fined (USD) $1,043 for chatting with a group of people on a sidewalk. In other words, for not following his own rules on social distancing. Police also issued him a warning for drinking in public..@WarrnamboolCity mayor Tony Herbert has been fined by @VictoriaPolice for breaching COVID-19 laws. Was snapped drinking a beer on the city's main street last week. Herbert says he thought engaging with business owners as part of mayoral role was within law @abcmelbourne pic.twitter.com/pGbXn8TNM0— Daniel Miles (@danielmiles) April 16, 2020 Oops. Mayor Tony Herbert apologized for his "mistake.""I realize that I had inadvertently breached the new laws to keep the community safe. I am genuinely sorry for my actions."Read the full story at BBC. Read the rest

Love and Rockets' creators Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez have mentioned in interviews that they loved Little Archie comic books when they were growing up. Little Archie was started in the 1950s and stars the characters from Archie comics as little kids. The earlier stories were written and drawn by Bob Bolling, and they're regarded by people who know and love comic books as some of the best stories in comic book history.The Big Blog of Kids' Comics has two excellent Little Archie stories. Mykal Banta, who runs the blog, says:Bob Bolling has that rare gift few cartoonists have -- his character design is just funny on sight. Howie Post (of Harvey fame) and Milt Gross had it, as does modern animation master, John Kricfalusi. It's a quality that can't be taught. Throw great scripting and wonderful layouts into the bargain, and you have classic stuff. Last time I checked, Mr. Bolling was still turning out high-caliber Little Archie stories for Archie Comics! These two Bolling stories come from Little Archie No. 3 (Summer 1957).Read the stories here.If you like these stories and want more, I recommend The Adventures Of Little Archie Volume 1 and Volume 2 Read the rest

U.S. telecommunications giant Verizon is today reported to be acquiring the videoconferencing company Blue Jeans Network in a transaction valued somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 million dollars. Today @VerizonBusiness entered into an agreement to acquire cloud-based video conferencing and event platform @BlueJeansNet. More details here: https://t.co/iXhQC7FUoA pic.twitter.com/VorUSPzcwL— Verizon News (@VerizonNews) April 16, 2020Since the coronavirus pandemic struck the United States with full force about a month ago, the use of videoconferencing app Zoom has skyrocketed, but not without widely reported security and privacy issues, and a new word: "zoom-bombing," when malintents crash into your chat.Verizon buying Blue Jeans? I don't know, but I can only think of bad things happening to a pretty good product that had advantages over its suddenly popular number one competitor.More at the Wall Street Journal:"Verizon Buys Zoom Conferencing Rival BlueJeans, Acquisition comes as the coronavirus spurs unprecedented work-from-home arrangements"[via techmeme.com]Observations from Twitter by reporters and others, below."Buy Zoom!""Ok but it would cost like $80B. That's 34% of our market cap.""What?""OK BUY BLUEJEANS"https://t.co/oGhmVEElL4— Jason ✨InItTogether✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) April 16, 2020In our work from home study we just completed, we surveyed a number of industries and companies large and small and could not find many BlueJeans users. https://t.co/FefURc7uMK— Ben Bajarin (@BenBajarin) April 16, 2020Gotta wonder: was this deal sealed ON BlueJeans? https://t.co/AmMAPMJ6nr— Leslie Josephs (@lesliejosephs) April 16, 2020I am super excited to lose signal 2-3 times during our weekly team meetings AND to get notifications about new @TechCrunch articles during video calls. Read the rest

Multimillionaire treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin (yeah, this guy) says that $1200 stimulus check some people are getting should be enough to live on for 10 weeks. Let's see you try it, Steve. Read the rest

Paralysis by analysis. It’s the phenomenon that happens when you’re so stuck on thinking through all the ramifications of your actions that you don’t actually take action in the first place.That can happen with all this free time you’re spending stuck inside your house. With literally every home-bound option available to you, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by your choices and just watch Dr Pimple Popper from morning til night.Resist that urge, people. In fact, we’ve got three ways your time indoors could actually end up being time well spent -- and you can knock out all three with The Social Distancing Lifetime Subscription Bundle ft. Rosetta Stone.Learn a languageHalf the world is bilingual. Literally. So if you’re locked in on English and only English, you can broaden your communication horizons with a lifetime subscription learning up to 24 different languages at your own pace with Rosetta Stone. They’ve spent decades refining their intuitive learning method that’s been the online gold standard for language learning for 30 years. Their immersive system ramps up vocabulary, conversation, and writing skills naturally while their TruAccent speech recognition technology is there with instant feedback on how well your spoken language skills are progressing.Read a book...or dozens of booksSince you can’t go to the library, you can bring the library to you with lifetime access to 12min Premium Micro Book Library. Just scroll through hundreds of different nonfiction titles in more than 20 different categories and make your choice. Read the rest

Pizza Rat has got nothing on this Philadelphia groundhog who casually walked up to a glass door and casually munched on a slice, apparently for more than an hour, as two dogs looked on with delight. (6ABC) Read the rest

French classical musician Florent Ghys brings us what might very well be the silliest cover of Erik Satie's "Gymnopédies." The Cats & friends Choir is proud to present their first interpretation of Erik Satie's Gymnopédies. The three movements of this deep and soulful piece have been virtually recorded by more than 500 enthusiastic participants in isolation from their homes and farms. 00:00 Gymnopédie 1: Slowly and painfully02:54 Gymnopédie 2: Slowly and sadly05:05 Gymnopédie 3: Slowly and gravely Bravo, critters!screengrab via YouTube Read the rest

Input Magazine's Mehreen Kasana reports on a Ukrainian designer's custom keyboard, which turns Photoshop's toolbar into a mechanical masterpiece of bland yet slightly weird design.Playing around with brightness, contrast or any other function is a breeze when you don't have to mess about with on-screen icons. And undoing things with a single button press certainly beats having to hit CTRL + Z. You can also use the number pad to open or save files.Whichever keyboard you choose, you can get it in one of three colors: black, white, or metallic. You'll just need to wait around three weeks for delivery. But considering how much time you'll save in the long-run, that's a small price to pay. Besides, we hear that patience is a virtue. Yours for $200 at Etsy. Read the rest

New shots from the set of Denis Villeneuve's forthcoming Dune movie depict the hardy Fremen, natives of the desert planet at the heart of the sprawling spice opera. Those gloves Chani is wearing are Oakley Factories [CHOAM referrer link] (or knockoffs thereof), available for fifty Imperial solaris or so.Oakley Factory gloves [CHOAM] Read the rest

A Boston-area police department issued a request to locals to remember to wear pants when picking up their mail, but the posting appears to have someone in particular in mind. "You know who you are," Taneytown police wrote on Facebook. "This is your last warning." Read the rest

This dashcam video captures the moment a paper mill exploded in Maine. (Previously.) No-one was hurt, according to reports, but the driver's radio was on and captured nearby truckers' sweary reactions to the unfolding disaster. Read the rest

5.2 million more Americans joined the ranks of the jobless, as the coronavirus crisis continues to decimate the economy.Economists had predicted that this week's loss would be roughly 5.1 million.We're now at well over 22 million Americans who have filed for unemployment over the last 5 weeks.In just one month, all jobs gained since the 2008 U.S. financial crisis ("Great Recession") have been wiped out.Weekly jobless claims, past month, for the week ending:March 14th: 282,000March 21st: 3.3 MillionMarch 28th: 6.9 MillionApril 4th: 6.6 MillionApril 11th: 5.2 MillionMore than 20 million Americans have been made unemployed by the pandemic.— Justin Hendrix | wash your hands & stay at home (@justinhendrix) April 16, 2020BREAKING: Another 5.2 million workers filed for their first week of unemployment benefits last week, according to the US Department of Labor, bringing the total number of Americans who have filed initial jobless claims to around 22 million since March 14.https://t.co/J5j19cwoFU pic.twitter.com/7fPNri8KgV— New Day (@NewDay) April 16, 2020 Read the rest

In their upcoming study, so far published on the preprint server arXiv and submitted to Physical Review Letters, Linden and his colleagues examined a decade’s worth of data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to better analyze the sun’s emission of gamma rays—the universe’s most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation. To their surprise, the researchers found the most intense gamma rays appear strangely synced with the quietest part of the solar cycle. During the last solar minimum, from 2008 to 2009, Fermi detected eight high-energy gamma rays (each with energies greater than 100 giga–electron volts, or GeV) emitted by the sun. But over the next eight years, as solar activity built to a peak and then regressed back toward quiescence, the sun emitted no high-energy gamma rays at all. The chances of that occurring at random, Linden says, are extremely low. Most likely the gamma rays are triggered by some aspect of the sun’s activity cycle, but the details remain unclear.The team speculates these gamma rays are likely emitted when powerful cosmic rays—produced throughout the universe by violent astrophysical events like supernovae and colliding neutron stars—slam into the sun’s surface. If a single cosmic ray collides with a particle in the solar atmosphere, it creates a shower of secondary particles and radiation, including gamma rays. Such showers would usually be wholly absorbed by the sun, however. But according to a hypothesis dating back to the 1990s, some of these secondary showers can be bounced out and away from our star by strong fluctuations in its magnetic field. Read the rest

Zero reason to be "bored" out there, people. Take inspiration from the Heller family who made --in their "spare time" -- a shot-by-shot recreation of Journey's "Separate Ways" music video! It's SO GOOD.TODAY:The lip-sync performance, which was shot entirely on iPhones in Maple Valley, Washington, stars Steven and Jana Heller and their children, Lily, 15, Jackson, 14, Asher, 12, and Violet, 9...The Hellers worked hard to nail every move — including the legendary air keyboard and four-person head turn. On Facebook, Steven wrote that they "copied 100% shot for shot."“We wanted to be able to 10 years from now, say, ‘Remember when we were stuck in our home and we did this crazy thing and it was so much fun?’” Steven said.(Geek Girl Authority)screengrab via Vimeo Read the rest

Jim Starlin has drawn classic issues of many major comic book characters since the early 1970s, including Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Legion of Super Heroes, and more. But his real claim to fame is his artistic obsession — both as an artist, and a writer — with exploring mythological archetypes on a meta-galactic scale. Starlin pioneered characters like Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock, and also created Thanos, Drax, Gamora, and many other characters that were thematically fascinating but never commercially successful until the recent explosion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.One of Starlin's pet projects in the early 80s was a book called Dreadstar. Dreadstar existed in its own universe outside of Marvel and DC, and gave Starlin a vessel through which he could continue to explore the philosophical implications of literary classics with a shameless embrace of pulpy space opera, and this time without (too much) corporate meddling.Nearly four decades later, Starlin is returning to the Dreadstar universe with a new Kickstarter-funded original graphic novel that already raised more than $50,000 in the first few days — a testament to the cross-generational appeal of Starlin's work. From the campaign page:The original, long-running Dreadstar series centered on the exploits of Vanth Dreadstar, newly arrived in the Empirical Galaxy after the necessary destruction of the Milky Way. Vanth attempts to live a pastoral existence on a planet populated by peaceful cat-people. That peace is quickly disturbed when Dreadstar and the crew he assembles are thrust into the conflict between the two major forces in the galaxy: The Monarchy and the Theocratical Instrumentality and its Lord High Papal. Read the rest

In 1946, Australian engineer Ben Carlin decided to circle the world in an amphibious jeep. He would spend 10 years in the attempt, which he called an "exercise in technology, masochism, and chance." In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe Carlin's unlikely odyssey and the determination that drove him.We'll also salute the Kentucky navy and puzzle over some surprising winners.Show notesPlease support us on Patreon! Read the rest

"My wife hates it when I work from home," writes Banksy on Instagram. Read the rest

Murray Berrill Constructions in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia created this wonderful "easy access wine cellar" in the dead space under a stairway. With a few modifications to the design, it could be entirely secret storage! (via Laughing Squid) Read the rest

While many people are taking this strange "time off" to unplug, decompress, and practice mindfulness, some instead are making the most of their extra hours to tackle goals ranging from odd jobs, like finally fixing that leaky shower head, to lifelong dreams—like actually writing that book they've always wanted to. If you fancy yourself a literary social distancing superstar, then this Digital Creative Fiction Writing Certification Bundle is perfect for you.Now is a particularly good time to rekindle your love of writing, because having a creative outlet during a crisis can help your overall wellness and decrease anxiety by giving your wildly-running imagination something to better focus on. As Deepak Chopra said, “The best use of imagination is creativity. The worst use of imagination is anxiety.” Even when you're not in the midst of a pandemic, creativity can improve your health.With this bundle of 4 online courses, you'll get reacquainted with the basics of what makes good fiction writing good, get your creative juices flowing in the right direction, and learn the steps involved in getting your book published. In total, there are 128 hours of training content from Write Academy that over 200k students have gone through. The Academy features an elite team of bestselling authors, editors, and publishers that have designed courses to help you get on the path to your own professional fiction writing career.Write Fiction Online CourseTo start, you'll cover the key facets of fiction writing: character, plot, setting, dialogue, narrative voice, and genre via 14 interactive online modules that encourage you to start work on your novel from day one. Read the rest

From BB contributor Gareth Branwyn's excellent Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales e-newsletter:In this video a fan rescued from the old MythBusters site on Discovery, Jamie goes through his essential toolkit, the tools he doesn’t let anyone else touch... He recommends several somewhat unusual tools, several that bear pointing out, a unibit, a telescoping inspection mirror, and Knipex cutters. Read the rest

A few months ago, my son bought a cute mini-zine from the Zine Machine vending machine at The Bindery in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury. What we noticed right away is that the 8-page zine was ingeniously folded from just a single sheet of paper. In the above video, Austin Kleon, author of the wonderful Steal Like An Artist, explains how it's done. And Umami Design posted a layout template here. In the video clip, Austin recommends this book by Esther Watson and Mark Todd that looks like fun: Whatcha Mean, What's A Zine? The Art of Making Zines and Mini-Comics. Read the rest

I would have completely lost it.On a road in the Far East of Russia, a driver is reported to have spotted of the world’s most endangered big cats, an Amur tiger, and captured this amazing video. Here's that video via the Siberian Times of Russia.A road in the Far East of Russia, a driver who kept good distance and one of the world’s most endangered big cats, an Amur tiger pic.twitter.com/Me6SHn0IlP— The Siberian Times (@siberian_times) April 15, 2020In Russia's Far East, a driver bumped into an Amur Tiger, and managed to get some decent footage. Due to a big conservation effort, there are now around 550 of the endangered cats in the wild, mostly in Russia's Primorye region. Up from about 350 in 2005. pic.twitter.com/7K5saHrXG8— Bryan MacDonald (@27khv) April 15, 2020Nature is the calming force we all need right now. Enjoy this little moment with an Amur tiger from the Russian Far East! pic.twitter.com/XEAnRi1L2r— wwf_tigers (@WWF_tigers) March 28, 2020 Read the rest

In the late 1960s, the US Department of Agriculture released this LP titled "How To Buy Meat." The voice is that of Sandra Brookover, Consumer Meat Specialist. The record, a collection of public service announcements, was meant for radio stations and never saw a commercial release. Due its scarcity, I expect the imminent release of a 180 gram, gatefold reissue of the record. Limited edition, 'natch.Have a listen: "How can you tell a blade chuck roast from an arm chuck roast?" (MP3)(Weird Universe) Read the rest

By ‘grace of God,’ no one was injured in a massive explosion at the Androscoggin Mill in Jay, Maine, earlier today, reports the Bangor News.A bystander's video can be viewed in its original form here on Facebook.Excerpt:A large explosion severely damaged the Androscoggin Mill in Jay on Wednesday morning, causing wood pulp to rain down on the surrounding area.Amazingly, no bystanders were harmed in the incident, which sent a large plume of smoke and debris into the sky that was visible for miles around.“It’s nothing short of a miracle,” Androscoggin Mill spokeswoman Roxie Lassetter said Wednesday at a press briefing.There was no one near the site of the explosion, Lassetter said. Some people on site were experiencing respiratory issues following the explosion, but were treated and released, according to Joel Davis from the fire marshal’s office. The explosion occurred inside of the mill’s digester, which is where wood is broken down using water and a chemical to create pulp. Lassetter said it is not immediately clear what caused the malfunction that led to the explosion.And from the Associated Press:A rising cloud of smoke that was recorded by a bystander was followed by raining debris that made bullet-like noise as it struck cars in the area. Video recorded after the explosion showed extensive damage to the mill, which employs about 500 people and is a key piece of rural Maine’s economy.Emergency responders rushed to the mill, and the state fire marshal planned an investigation. Read the rest

Check out these GLORIOUS images of a wonderful 1980s robot-space-tech themed watch with little pop-out mechanical arms. There's a cool Reddit discussion about exactly what brand it is, and the consensus seems to be that it's a bad knockoff of the Kronoform watch.From the comments: A Kronoform would have had Takara’s name and Kronoform on the face of the watch. Kronoform was the outside Japan release of their brand Microchange which was a line of realistic items that changed into robots. One of the original toy lines Hasbro used to create the Transformers brand in 84. It included toys that would become the characters of Soundwave, Megatron, Blaster, and Perceptor.More at the OP:Vintage '80s watch - I had It when i was a kid[r/interestingasfuck/]Vintage 80s watch Read the rest

Wow, man. Some of us take on more extreme projects during the Great Coronavirus Quarantine than others. This ambitious fellow shows you how to build a Nintendo Switch, with a beautiful and wholesome purpose: “to Starve Online Price Gougers” who are jacking up the prices because demand is high for Nintendo Switch, and availability is nil. Here's their introduction to the HOWTO gallery, which is amazing and stupendous.After playing New Horizons and hyping it up to my friends, they decided they wanted a Switch. They called around to different retailers every day for a week with no luck finding anyone who had one in stock. No one knew when the next shipment would be. This led to an online search like Craigslist, OfferUp, and Ebay. Unfortunately everyone knows the rest. Upwards of $450 to $600 in the Seattle area for a used Switch. Some with and without all the accessories. This enraged me to the point of telling them I could build one cheaper out of spare parts. So they hired me to do just that. If anyone is interested in doing the same here is my step by step buying guide along with assembly instructions and a pricing guide. 1. Game Cartridge Card Slot Socket Board w/Headphones Port - $152. NS Console Micro SD TF Memory Card Slot Port Socket Reader - $53. Nintendo Switch HAC-001 CPU Cooling Heatsink - $74. Game Cartridge Card Plastic Cover - $15. Console Speaker Replacement Parts For Nintendo Switch Built in speaker - $86. Read the rest

Back in the day, sometime after the first assumed vaporizer invention but before modern e-cigarettes were a thing, people used to use lighters to smoke solids instead of batteries to smoke liquids. Wild, right? Well, if retro vibes are your kind of thing or if you simply prefer herbs, flowers, and resins to cartridges of concentrates, you're going to love the Hippie Pipe Analog Vape Pen.The ideal little vaporizer for on-the-go smoking, this brown rosewood or ebony blackwood device offers a hands-on element that adds an extra level of satisfaction to the whole experience. As user, Justin L. tells it, "This right here is a great product. Took mine to the TOOL concert in San Diego — perfect for rockin' out and on the go!!"With the Hippie, you'll get the clean smoke and convenience of a vape pen without the need for batteries, chargers, cartridges, atomizers, cartomizers, or clearomizers — no more worrying about losing parts. The new design is pretty to look at and nice to hold, with stunning carbon fiber, wood, and stainless steel build. Plus, it's highly efficient, manufactured with the highest grade of materials. It features a manual telescopic heating chamber that you push out to fill; once you slide the chamber back in place, simply heat it with a double jet flame torch lighter and let the magic happen. Once the ideal temperature is reached, the indicator slot changes color from black to chrome, and you'll know it's time to indulge.Measuring just 1" x 5" x 2", each non-electronic Hippie Pipe includes a brush and packing tool. Read the rest

"I feel so brain dead I can't even speak." Find out what happens when two editors from Popular Science quit their six-cup-a-day coffee habit for two weeks.From the YouTube description:Caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive drug on the planet. Like all good things in this world, it should be consumed in moderation—but PopSci editors Jess Boddy and Claire Maldarelli were definitely not following that unwritten rule, guzzling between six and ten cups of coffee per day. That put them at risk for disrupted sleep, heart palpitations, unusual nervousness, and more. So they decided to detox. Will their torturous 14-day cut regulate their sleep patterns and teach them to respect caffeine for the powerful drug that it is? Find out on this week's episode of Test Dummy. Read the rest

The person who posted this video to YouTube said, "I was waiting for my suitcase at Lynden Pindling International Airport in the Bahamas when one of the iceboxes opened when falling down with the suitcases. People blocked and caught the crabs."<em>Image: YouTube</em> Read the rest

Every musician has been trying their hand at livestreaming from quarantine. But of all the ones I've watched, none of them have filled me with as much joy as Swedish folk singer/songwriter Kristian Matsson AKA The Tallest Man On Earth celebrating the 10th anniversary of his album, The Wild Hunt.There's so much to love here, from Matsson's confusion about buffering speeds, to his partner's helpful advice about commenters. Then of course there are the songs themselves, delivered with such adorable energy by Matsson. Ellen Johnson of Paste said that, "Matsson makes the acoustic guitar sound like an orchestra," and I think that accurately describes this video, and everything I love about The Wild Hunt as an album. As far as I can tell, Mattson is just performing straight into the camera, with no additional audio setup — yet it sounds exactly as it does on the record. This is impressive, but also impressive to Matsson's brilliant guitar work and charismatic voice. The record is raw, using clever open tunings to fill out the sound, and the same goes for the performance in the video.If you're a fan of folk music and Dylan-esque crooning (but more on key), check it out.The Wild Hunt Turns 10: How The Tallest Man On Earth Changed Indie-Folk For The Better [Ellen Johnson / Paste]Image: Matt Perich / Flickr (CC 2.0) Read the rest

I've been a great admirer of the design work of House Industries since the early 90s. They're famous for their logos and font designs (like the one they did for Jimmy Kimmel's show). I just got my copy of the brand new House Industries Lettering Manual and I'm looking forward to doing the exercises in the book.The book itself is beautifully designed, and makes great use of hand-lettered type as a design element for the book. (I love self referentiality like that.) Read the rest

Richard Kadrey is a novelist and screenwriter living in San Francisco. His books include Sandman Slim, The Everything Box, Butcher Bird, and the forthcoming, Ballistic Kiss. Cool Tools asked him to describe four things he keeps in his bag, which include a Roku streaming TV player, a portable hard drive, Ultimate Ears MEGABOOMs, QuietComfort 35 Bluetooth headphones, and Pocket Travelers notebook. Read about them here, or better yet, sign up for the weekly What's in my bag? newsletter. Read the rest

Reporting TV news from home can make for a much more colorful broadcast. Take this Welsh BBC weather forecaster, Owain Wyn Evans, who ends his segment by giving us an awesome drum performance. His motivation? As he says on YouTube, "When they said try working from home, I didn't realize they'd expect me to do the music too." Read the rest

Someone keeps writing "Steve & Lacy were here" on rocks in Death Valley National Park. Park rangers suspect "Steve" is a gentleman from Grand Forks, British Columbia and that Lacey is his unwitting canine companion.From National Parks Traveler:Graffiti and other forms of damage to parks is illegal. The “Steve & Lacy” graffiti was found on rocks and historic structures in Echo Canyon, Butte Valley, Homestake Dry Camp, and Crankshaft Junction. Defacing any part of the national park degrades the experience of other visitors. Repair of vandalized sites is costly and time consuming, and often cannot restore the site to its former condition in some cases permanently defacing unique historic sites or natural features.“It is heartbreaking to see treasures like Death Valley National Park get damaged by intentional acts such as these,” said Superintendent Mike Reynolds. “We ask park visitors to help us find those who should be held responsible, and thank hard working park rangers for efforts to prevent further damage.”The National Park Service has a tip line: call or text: 888-653-0009; visit www.nps.gov/ISB and click “Submit a Tip,” or email nps_isb@nps.gov.Images: National Park Service Read the rest

The guy who runs the Nippon Wandering TV YouTube channel hopped on his bike and took a video of Tokyo's Shinjuku ward six days after the Japanese government declared a state of emergency. The video was shot at 7:30 at night, which is usually a busy time for this area. Many of the businesses still have bright lights on but the number of pedestrians is much lower than usual.Image: YouTube Read the rest

I still have an iPhone SE, replaced twice in the last four years because I don't fancy any of the gigantic modern models from Apple or leading Android brands. (Anything less is, frankly, impractical.) While the new iPhone SE is superficially a warmed-over iPhone 8, and so still too big, it is at least smaller than other models and comes with the latest CPU and camera. Best of all, it's cheap for what it is, at $300. It'll do. It comes in black, white and red and preorders start Friday.1. The 2G networks used by older dumbphones are being turned off and don't carry modern MMS-format text messages. Recent 4G dumbphones generally have poor compatibility with U.S. LTE bands and come with hinky, bloatware-infested KaiOS installations I don't have time to root and santize. Read the rest

Elizabeth Warren today backed Joe Biden as the Democratic Party's candidate in the 2020 presidential election, capping a three-day endorsement extravaganza featuring former rival Bernie Sanders and president Barack Obama."Empathy matters. And, in this moment of crisis, it's more important than ever that the next president restores Americans' faith in good, effective government," Warren says. "Joe Biden has spent nearly his entire life in public service. He knows that a government run with integrity, competence, and heart will save lives and save livelihoods. And we can't afford to let Donald Trump continue to endanger the lives and livelihoods of every American.""That's why I'm proud to endorse Joe Biden as president of the United States," she added. Read the rest

This delightful cover was released a while ago, but I only just discovered it via Vanyland. The 3-song EP by the B-69s also includes B-52-esque covers of Billie Eilish's "bad guy" and Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road," which are all just as fun. I'm just a big fan of anything "Mr. Brightside."Image: raph_ph / Flickr (CC 2.0) Read the rest

Viral again this week is the casting wishlist for Star Trek: The Next Generation, which reveals that Denise Crosby was originally to be cast as Counselor Troi, not Lt. Tasha Yar, and Predator's Kevin Peter Hall was considered for both Lt. Cmdr. Data and Lt. Geordi LaForge.Best of all, Bond and Alien legend Yaphet Kotto was close to being cast as captain Jean-Luc Picard, a part that ultimately went to Patrick Stewart. I've shooped how the big fella might have looked in the role: take me to that timeline!From an interview:You also turned down the role of Captain Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation?I think I made some wrong decisions in my life, man. I should have done that but I walked away. When you’re making movies, you’d tend to say no to TV. It’s like when you’re in college and someone asks you to the high school dance. You say no. Read the rest

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH the mischievous imp little Donald is warned of a coming alien virus invasion and leaps into inaction

Already among the richest people in the world, Jeff Bezos and the Walton family are even richer thanks to the lockdown. The BBC reports that Amazon founder Bezos's money mountain surged $24bn to $138bn in the last few weeks. And between them, the Walton family, owners of Wal-Mart, now share a growing $168m fortune. But other billionaires are out of luck, according to Bloomberg, with the pandemic wiping half a trillion dollars of the top 500's collective wealth. With millions now working from home, online meeting site Zoom has seen founder Eric Yuan's fortune more than double to $7.4bn.The Bloomberg Billionaires Index said the world's 500 richest people lost $553bn so far this year.Investors in the global oil and gas industries have seen sharp drops in net worth as crude prices plunged on reduced global demand and a row - now resolved - about oil production between Saudi Arabia and Russia. Read the rest

To the uplifting eternal disco of Miki Matsubara [Amazon], talented drivers drift their boxy early-1990s automobiles around the curves and corners of Japan. Read the rest