Boing Boing

Legendary physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson, whose mind-blowing work ranged from quantum electrodynamics to nuclear engineering to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, died last week at 96-years-old. Tim O'Reilly just published a tribute to Dyson's genius, curiosity, kindness and unique lens on, well, everything. From O'Reilly Radar:When I interviewed Freeman on stage at OSCON in 2004, along with his son George, the subject strayed to digital preservation. I lamented how much would be lost due to incompatible standards for information storage, and he said, “Oh no, forgetting is so important! It is what gives room for new ideas to come in.” This was such a typical Freeman moment: bringing a profoundly fresh perspective to any discussion. Perhaps the most famous example is the paper he wrote in 1949 at the age of 25 making the case that the visualizations of Richard Feynman were mathematically equivalent to the calculations of the more conventional physicists Julian Schwinger and Shin’ichirō Tomonaga, a paper that led to Feynman, Schwinger, and Tomonaga receiving the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics for the theory of quantum electrodynamics...After George sent an email to a group of friends about Freeman’s death, Danny Hillis replied with a story that seems to perfectly encapsulate this gift of Freeman’s for seeing things that others missed. “I visited him recently,” Danny wrote, “and we got into a conversation about self-organizing systems. After lunch we climbed up the long stairs to his office, and when we sat down he seemed a bit distracted. Read the rest

A man will go to jail for the crime of videoing himself licking ice cream and then returning the beslobbered dessert to the freezer, despite checking it out afterwards. The social media stunt earned D’Adrien Anderson, 24, much attention online, but now it's earned him 30 days in jail. He'll also have to pay a $1000 fine and reimburse Blue Bell Creameries, which apparently destroyed the entire freezerful of products.Security footage proved that after the video ends, Anderson took and paid for the ice cream he licked. But it was to no avail.The incident happened Aug. 26 at a Walmart in Port Arthur. Store surveillance cameras showed that he finally took the Blue Bell ice cream from the freezer and bought it, which wasn’t captured in the social media video, authorities said. Anderson could have been sentenced to up to a year in jail and fined $4,000 for misdemeanor criminal mischief.From the reporting and the charges, it's clear the crime here was partially consuming a product before checking it out -- something a lot of people do every day. But it also seems likely he was prosecuted because his gross video made people who look like District Attorney Bob Wortham even more angry and resentful than usual. Read the rest

It was the early 1980s; MTV was in its infancy, the New Music scene was beginning to hit national airwaves, and Josie Cotton was having a moment. She had an international hit with the infamous Johnny Are You Queer (decried by some as homophobic and banned in Amsterdam, but also simultaneously embraced as an anthem played in heavy rotation at Pride parades), brought her inimitable style to the 1983 movie Valley Girl, and was making charts with the marginal hits He Could Be the One, and with the early music video, Jimmy Loves Maryann.Just before she was to complete what would have been her third album, Cotton was dropped by her label, Elektra records. She finished the album nonetheless, but later chose to step back from the music industry altogether, and the tracks were packed away, divided, and lost in storage.Although less-visible than her contemporaries of the L.A. music scene (Josie Cotton is the invention of Kathleen Josey, who is rumored to be a Texas oil heiress whose grandfather was a business partner of J. Paul Getty), Cotton remained a prolific songwriter and singer, releasing several excellent albums over the years, adeptly exploring a variety of genres and reinventing herself with each project, but on independent labels and without much hoopla. A lot of her later work is top notch: Rabbit Hole, Beautiful But Deadly from Movie Disaster Music. See The New Hong Kong, If a Lie Was Love, All I Can See is the Face of Bruce Lee, Super 8 from Pussycat Babylon, and her inspired, under-the-radar collection of exploitation movie themes, Invasion of the B-Girls. Read the rest

You've probably seen this triangle before: Fast, Cheap, Good -- Pick Two. Here's a new bridge-building technique from Austria that seems to allow the customer to get a bridge that's faster, cheaper, better than traditional bridges.From Popular Mechanics:The umbrella method is a completely new way to construct a static final bridge. This TU Wien team first worked on the idea in 2006, and it’s been experimenting and fine tuning since then. Instead of traditional kinds of bridge building—i.e. putting up long-term scaffolding as rebar is laid and concrete is filled into structures—this mechanism is built like a “closed” umbrella and then unfolded into its final position. From there, its hollow girders are filled with concrete and the rest of the structural elements are completed.“Erecting bridges using scaffolding usually takes months,” designer Johann Kollegger said in a statement. “The elements for the balanced lowering method, on the other hand, can be set up in two to three days, and the lowering process takes around three hours.” But this process, he says, is less invasive for bridges through protected or uneven terrain. The team's sample bridge over the Lafnitz River touches a nature preserve.Image: YouTube Read the rest

By not touching your face, you reduce the chances of getting sick from a virus or bacteria. This website, called Do Not Touch Your Face, uses your webcam to analyze your face and alert you with a tone if it catches you touching your face.From the FAQHow does this work?Using your webcam, you train a machine learning algorithm (specifically Tensorflow.js) to recognize you touching your face and not touching your face. Once it's trained, it watches and alerts you when you touch your face.Why shouldn't I touch my face?The CDC recommends not touching your face as one action you can take to prevent getting COVID-19. Other things you should do: stay home if you're sick and avoid contact with other sick people. But you probably knew that already.The alerts aren't working!Try refreshing the page and trying again. Every time you reload the page, the algorithm retrains itself.Do you keep my information?Nope. This entire site runs locally—all the calculations from your webcam and alerts are done on your computer and are never sent over the internet.Will this stop me from getting COVID-19?Not for sure, but it might help.Who made this?This was made with love and fear by Mike Bodge, Brian Moore, and Isaac Blankensmith. Be safe out there. Read the rest

When you go to Radiooooo you see a map of the world. You click on any country on the map, and select a decade beginning with 1900. It will start playing music from that country and decade. I love it! You can also register to post songs that are not yet in the database. Read the rest

In the late 1960 NASA engineers were tasked with developing a digital flight computer that took up just one cubic foot of space on the Apollo 11 capsule and the software to guide the crew to the Moon. This TED-Ed video explains how it was done.From YouTube:The Apollo 11 moon landing was about the astronauts, mission control, software and hardware all working together as a seamless integrated system. None of which would have been possible without the contributions of one engineer: Margaret Hamilton. Who was this pioneer? Matt Porter and Margaret Hamilton detail how a woman and her team launched the software that took mankind to the Moon. Read the rest

Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren is dropping out of the race to challenge President Trump in november's general election. After a disappointing Super Tuesday saw Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders split the lions' share of delegates, no path to the nomination remained for the last woman in contention.It leaves what was once a historically diverse Democratic field essentially narrowed to two white men in their seventies. Sanders is 78 and Biden is 77. The trajectory of the race has rapidly shifted in recent days, with Biden gaining momentum in the contests that voted on Super Tuesday. Biden won at least 10 states on Tuesday, a dramatic turnaround for a candidacy that very recently looked doomed.Warren’s dismal showing the same day included a third-place result in her own state of Massachusetts, which Biden won, and where she finished five percentage points behind the Vermont independent Sanders.In an interview last night with Rachel Maddow, Sanders repudiated supporters who attacked Warren and said he'd "love to sit down and talk to her about what kind of role she could pay in our administration.” Read the rest

Fans of Ozark, a TV drama about a pair of criminal parents who must launder money for a scary drug cartel in order to keep their family from being rubbed out, here's the trailer for season 3, which will premiere on Netflix March 27, 2020.It's six months later, the casino is up and running, but Marty and Wendy are fighting for control of the family's destiny. Marty preaches keeping the status quo. Aided by an alliance with Helen and drug cartel leader Omar Navarro, Wendy plots for expansion. But when Wendy's brother Ben comes into town, everyone's lives are thrown into chaos.The new season stars Emmy Award Winner Jason Bateman, Emmy Award Winner Laura Linney, Emmy Award Winner Julia Garner, Emmy Award nominee Janet McTeer, Tom Pelphrey, Sofia Hublitz, Skylar Gaertner, Charlie Tahan, Lisa Emery and Jessica Frances Dukes. The series from MRC Television was created by Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams who executive produce alongside Jason Bateman, Chris Mundy and John Shiban. Read the rest

Bug bounties are making some hackers rich — and the companies they’re hacking are more than happy to pay them. More than 600,000 white hat hackers are members of the bug bounty site HackerOne, a community connecting those hackers with companies paying them to find security holes in their vital digital systems.And it’s working. Last year, bounties of over $40 million were paid out, including some awards of over $1 million. Ethical hacking is now a tech industry mainstream and a career option for computer-savvy students -- and training like The 2020 Premium Ethical Hacking Certification Bundle can light the way to a career working to protect sensitive information.This collection includes eight courses that help learners understand the latest methods of cyber infiltration, the tools of the hacking trade and how a trained hacker can be a vital asset to any company’s cybersecurity team.A pair of courses — Complete Ethical Hacking and Cyber Security Masterclass Course and All-in-One Hacking Guide: From Zero to Hero —show new hackers the basics from accessing a server to bypassing security methods to ways to virtually take control of a website or network.Penetration testing is the focus of the Web Penetration Tester: Jump Up a Level in Your Career course, challenging students to find and fix security breaches in any network. Meanwhile, key tools used in pen testing get introduced in PenTesting with OWASP ZAP: Mastery Course; and Learn Server Security with BitNinja. There’s even training in how to protect WordPress sites (WordPress Hacking & Hardening in Simple Steps), which account for more than a third of all active websites worldwide. Read the rest

Denis Shiryaev took footage, originally shot by the Swedish company Svenska Biografteatern in New York City in 1911, and ups upscaled it using DeOldify, a deep learning application that colorizes and restores old film.FPS boosted to 60 frames per second;Image resolution boosted up to 4k;Resorted video sharpness;Colorized – I'am still unsure about this, but regarding to high request from the subscribers decided to test DeOldify NN on this video. Read the rest

Britons were told that leaving the European Union would allow them to go back to using traditional "blue" passports instead of the supposedly EU-mandated brown ones. One of the stranger lies of Brexit (the EU "harmonized" passport designs but Britain could have had blue ones if it wanted) it's now falling in on itself, because the new passports are actually black. It turns out the traditional "blue" passports were always black, but as Marshall McLuhan said the English remember nothing. Now everyone's angry again.There is some right Emperors New Clothes going on with this 'blue' passport that actually looks black https://t.co/Nb4eRJkz0I— Smith (@AnotherSmith909) March 2, 2020The Home Office, which issues the passports, claims it is "close to, if not exactly" Pantone 5395C, listed as "Dark Navy" by the color company.Isn't black cooler than blue anyway? They're TACTICAL passports. Read the rest

A detailed and inviting view of Mars comes today from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, stitched together from images sent by Curiosity rover on the planet's surface.This panorama showcases "Glen Torridon," a region on the side of Mount Sharp that Curiosity is exploring. The panorama was taken between Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, 2019, when the Curiosity team was out for the Thanksgiving holiday. Since the rover would be sitting still with few other tasks to do while it waited for the team to return and provide its next commands, the rover had a rare chance to image its surroundings several days in a row without moving. Composed of more than 1,000 images and carefully assembled over the ensuing months, the larger version of this composite contains nearly 1.8 billion pixels of Martian landscape.And here's the 360, below. Read the rest

Reality hacking wizard Danielle Baskin has been busy changing up signs at her local Costco. What was once an empty toilet paper shelf, now holds zero bags of runes.She explains:I went to Costco today and replaced the signs for sold out items like toilet paper and bottled water with signs for magical items like: health potions, dowsing rods, tarot decks, summoning orbs, soul gems, healing crystals, and invisibility amulets. Epidemic panic essentials. 🔮I went to my local Costco today and replaced the signs for sold out items like toilet paper and bottled water with signs for magical items like: health potions, dowsing rods, tarot decks, summoning orbs, soul gems, healing crystals, and invisibility amulets.🧻—>🔮 pic.twitter.com/aWykBHFNOH— Danielle Baskin (@djbaskin) March 4, 2020Costco is SOLD OUT OF TAROT DECKS too? Ugh. pic.twitter.com/lmdtpIDLRk— Danielle Baskin (@djbaskin) March 4, 2020BAG OF RUNES. Omg so hard to find right now. pic.twitter.com/3vCcBhEBPB— Danielle Baskin (@djbaskin) March 4, 2020Delighted that so many wizards, witches, mages, and dungeon masters are following me now. Divination is important. LARPing is too. If you have good intentions, I encourage learning magical practices and finding tools to expand your ideas of what is possible. At a Costco near you.— Danielle Baskin (@djbaskin) March 4, 2020-- Danielle Baskin is always up to something goodimage via Danielle Baskin Read the rest

Nobody wants to get bogged down in the details. These days, there’s too much going on to get lost in the weeds of endless exposition and meandering digressions. We’re all in a hurry. We’re all racing the clock. Boil it down. Give me the bullet.That’s the heart of the getAbstract philosophy. Among the mountains of valuable non-fiction books out there, getAbstract is committed to cutting right to their hearts and offering all the most critical information those tomes have to offer. You can try out getAbstract for yourself right now with a three-year starter subscription at only $99.99, two-thirds off the regular price.With getAbstract, you instantly gain access to over 5,000 summaries of books from more than 300 different categories.Whether you’re interested in self improvement, politics, science, technology, economics, history or more, each book in the getAbstract library has a 10-minute abstract ready for you to consume.Created by getAbstract’s world-class team of business writers and editors, each written or audio abstract summarizes the main points of each work and its significant takeaways. These are no flimsy, book-report-style summaries either. Many of these encapsulations have seen print around the world in publications like The New York Times, Fortune, Financial Times, BusinessWeek, and other leading US and European outlets.You’ll also find an overall rating for each book and even recommendations for the type of audience the book might appeal to as well as what interested readers might want to examine next.The getAbstract experience has already captured loads of online users, who have given the service a nearly 4 out of 5 star grade in reviews compiled by Google Play and the Apple App Store. Read the rest

Matt Reeves, director of The Batman, just tweeted images of the new Batmobile and it looks like a souped-up 1970s muscle car. Less military, more Mopar. Nice ride, Bruce. Read the rest

Between November 24 and December 1, 2020, NASA's Curiosity rover captured the above image on the surface of Mars. The image contains nearly 1.8 billion pixels composed of more than 1,000 images. From NASA:The rover's Mast Camera, or Mastcam, used its telephoto lens to produce the panorama and relied on its medium-angle lens to produce a lower-resolution panorama that includes the rover's deck and robotic arm. Read the rest

Federal officials say a medical screener at Los Angeles International Airport has tested positive for coronavirus.The DHS contractor was performing CDC medical screenings at LAX airport, and became sick. They have now tested positive for COVID-19. The patient first exhibited symptoms Saturday, February 29. Their last shift at LAX was on February 21.From NBC News:The person last worked screening air travelers for illness on Feb. 21, the DHS said in a statement, which also said the medical professional had worn the proper protective gear while working. The internal email described the person as a "contract medical screener" for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The email also said "these screeners are predominantly assigned to the CDC in-transit lounge and a few support jetway screening on direct flights from China."In its statement, the DHS said: "Late last night, DHS headquarters was alerted to a situation where one of our contracted medical professionals conducting screenings at LAX international airport had tested positive for COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus. This individual is currently under self-quarantine at home with mild symptoms and under medical supervision. Their immediate family is also under home quarantine."According to DHS, the individual began to exhibit cold-like symptoms on Saturday and visited a primary care doctor on Sunday and was tested for COVID-19, which came back positive on Tuesday. The individual's last shift at LAX was Feb. 21, more than a week before the appearance of symptoms. According to the internal email, the screener worked at LAX from Feb. Read the rest

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a $8.3 billion bill to address the coronavirus outbreak in a bipartisan vote late Wednesday.A Senate vote is expected Thursday.The U.S. House has passed an $8.3 billion measure to battle the coronavirus outbreak. The Senate is likely to pass the measure Thursday and send it to the White House for President Trump's signature. https://t.co/bg3hXA7kGu— The Associated Press (@AP) March 4, 2020NEWS: House passes $8 billion #coronavirus supplemental on vote of 415 to 2. Next stop: Senate for Thursday vote. pic.twitter.com/m3Q35LM621— Nancy Ognanovich (@NOgnanovich) March 4, 2020Today, the House passed an $8.3 billion package, funding a robust response to the coronavirus.This includes funds for vaccine development as well as ensuring those vaccines are affordable to all.This package fully addresses the scale & seriousness posed by this health crisis.— James E. Clyburn (@WhipClyburn) March 4, 2020I just voted on the House floor to pass a #coronavirus spending package to ensure that our public health officials have the resources they need to combat the virus. Here's a reminder of what you can do to stop the spread of germs. pic.twitter.com/jV9lo783Cg— Rep. Blunt Rochester (@RepLBR) March 4, 2020NEW: US House passes $8B in emergency funding for coronavirus preparedness; measure moves to the Senate. pic.twitter.com/5BdtUycWjv— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 4, 2020 Read the rest

No, not problem celebrities. Is it canceled yet? keeps track of events, conferences and gatherings that may or may not have been canceled due to coronavirus fears. Read the rest

We’ve been hearing about them for years — literally. We even got some leaked video a few weeks ago of this latest iteration. And now, we may finally have the folding smartphone that buyers are ready to truly embrace.Samsung has dropped its brand new foldable Galaxy Z Flip, and outlets, as esteemed as CNN, are already calling it “the best foldable smartphone.” Of course, you want to check that out for yourself...so if you win the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 256GB Giveaway, we’ll give you one for free.It should come as no surprise that the Flip’s compact size and design have everybody talking. The 6.7-inch Infinity Flex glass display on the Flip is about the width of a human hair, yet is reportedly stronger than plastic for the toughest, most durable folding phone yet.The full-size unit folds just like one of those flip phones from the early 2000s, offering a tight, compact design that slides easily into your pocket.Of course, it isn’t all about convenience with a smartphone. The Flip is almost sporting all the bells and whistles used expected from a Samsung flagship phone, including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ processor, 8GBs of RAM, 256GB of storage and a full camera array that will stand toe-to-toe with any other smartphone.It’s a $1,380 value that you have a chance to own just by heading to the contest page and signing up. Just fill out the quickie form and you’re automatically placed in the drawing. Read the rest

My car tire had a dry-wall screw in it. I bought a cheap tire plug repair kit at the local Pep Boys for about $12. It was hard to use because I had to apply a lot of force to the plastic handle and it was painful. A month later I found another screw in my tire. I left the screw in until I ordered a heavy duty tire plug repair kit on Amazon. The all metal handles were a pleasure to use. Since then I've used it a couple more times and the tires have not started leaking again Read the rest

Elle O'Brien says: "Created with the NVIDIA StyleGAN model; retrained with 7000 images of myself."[via Bruce Sterling] Read the rest

This imaginative aquarium and train fanatic aquascaped a railroad for fishies.Very cool aquascaping, dude.Railroad Less Travelled, by IMGURIAN @AquariumForADream.Check out the entire photo gallery for gloriously detailed step-by-step photos that show how things are constructed and fixed in place.Railroad Less Travelled Read the rest

None of the LA cases are connected to “community spread”

CNN reports that the spread of the coronavirus has greatly reduced demand for oil, "as schools and offices close, airlines cancel flights worldwide and a growing number of people hunker down at home." "This is a sudden, instant demand shock — and the scale of the decline is unprecedented," said Jim Burkhard, vice president and head of oil markets at IHS Markit.The warning comes ahead of a critical meeting Thursday for OPEC members and allied producers in Vienna. The cartel, is under pressure to announce yet another round of coordinated production cuts, its preferred method of propping up prices.Coronavirus fears have already driven oil into a bear market, with Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, trading at $52.65 per barrel, more than 23% below their recent peak in early January. US oil is trading at $48.22, nearly 24% below recent highs. Read the rest

The CDC just broadened coronavirus testing guidelines. Anyone with COVID-19 symptoms and their doctor's approval can now get tested — but there are still not enough kits.Today's CDC change greatly expands the pool of patients who can now qualify for diagnostic testing, even though testing capacity remains limited. From the New York Times:Doctors were encouraged to first rule out other causes of respiratory illness, like influenza, and to take into consideration whether there are other local coronavirus cases, officials said.Previous guidelines required a patient to have symptoms of respiratory illness as well as a clear route of exposure, such as recent travel to China or a number of other affected countries, contact with a known coronavirus patient, or hospitalization with a severe and unexplained respiratory illness.[PHOTO: CDC] Read the rest

In 2013 Mats Järlström's wife got a red light camera ticket at an intersection in Oregon. Järlström, an electrical engineer by training, investigated the formula used to time yellow lights. Järlström found flaws with the formula and e-mailed the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying to let them know. Here's what happened next, according to the Institute for Justice:The Board told Mats it had no interest in hearing about his ideas. Fair enough. But the Board didn’t stop there. After a two-year investigation, it fined him $500 for publicly criticizing the timing of traffic lights without having a Professional Engineer license. The Board also forbid him from continuing to discuss his research.With the aid of the Institute for Justice, Järlström sued the board. In late 2018, the federal court ruled in Järlström's favor. Järlström submitted his idea to the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), which assembled a panel to consider it. In late February, the ITE panel "found that the current equation for yellow light timing should be reconsidered and as of today [Feb 28, 2020], the Institute has voted to recommend Mats’s formula as a recommended practice." Read the rest

Very few people enjoy the process of buying a new or used car from a dealer. ("Let me check with my sales manager." "How much can you afford per month? I'll make it work.") But while those tactics are obvious and annoying, some dealers will run schemes that are downright illegal just to close the sale. Over at Jalopnik, professional car shopper Tom McParland reveals some of those activities as reported by two consumer protection attorneys. Here's one thing attorney Steve Lehto says to watch out for: Dealers that curbstone. They have a hard time moving the car off their lot so they advertise it on craigslist and pretend it is a private sale. (This may be legal in some states but it certainly is shady). The key? Beware of a private seller claiming they have a dealer doing the paperwork as a favor.And attorney Daniel Whitney calls out these dealership tricks:Inflating income and deflating monthly rent on the credit application. Finance managers are notorious for inflating income so a consumer will qualify for a car that they cannot afford. At the same time, they decrease the consumer’s monthly rent for the same reason. I have seen many consumers with credit applications that say they pay no rent because they “live with family,” who also are stated as making double or triple their actual monthly salary...The dealership steals the GAP (guaranteed auto protection) and/or extended warranty money.The fraud here is simple. The customer pays for GAP and an extended warranty, but the dealership never pays the premiums. Read the rest

The owner of a ramen shop in Japan thinks non-Japanese people are more likely to have and spread coronavirus, so he put a hand drawn sign in front of his restaurant that says "Sorry!! Japanese Only Sorry!!!" In this video Yuta, host of the YouTube channel That Japanese Man Yuta, interviewed Japanese people to find out what they think about this. As you might guess, some people are in favor of banning foreigners from the shop, while others think it's wrong. Read the rest

Iggy Pop's "We Are the People" is based on a poem penned in 1970 by his old friend, the great Lou Reed. About the poem, Pop told the BBC back in September, "My God, this is the country today as I understand it, or at least one legitimate portrayal of the country today." Last week, Pop performed "We Are the People" with Reed's widow Laurie Anderson at Carnegie Hall for the Tibet House Benefit and now he's released this striking video performance. The song appears on Pop's latest album Free. From "We Are the People:"We are the people without land / We are the people without tradition...We are the people without sorrow who have moved beyond national pride and indifference to a parody of instinct / We are the people who are desperate beyond emotion because it defies thought / We are the people who conceive our destruction and carry it out lawfully Read the rest

Prog-turned-pop band Genesis will hit the road later this year for their first tour since 2007. As usual, this will be the Genesis of the late 1970s and 1980s, after Peter Gabriel left the band. Phil Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford will be joined by Collins' son Nic on drums and guitarist/bassist Daryl Suermer. The Last Domino Tour 2020 begins in Dublin on November 16 before heading to England. No US dates have been announced. Yet.(Billboard) Read the rest

This past September, I discovered that I had a heart condition that could have dropped me dead at any time. An 80% blockage of some fairly important plumbing and, as an added bonus, heart disease caused by shitty genetics and aggravated by the anxiety and frequent panic attacks I get down with thanks to my PTSD. My cardiologists told me that I was lucky: normally, this was the sort of thing that folks typically don’t find out about until after they’ve suffered a heart attack. My medical team got invasive. They plopped a stent in me.Finally, a piece of metal in my body that I actually want there.I was awake and hopped up on fentanyl during the procedure. During the course of the angioplasty, the surgeon bumped up against the inside of my heart: it caused the first angina pain that I had ever experienced. I was filled with fear of not having more time with my partner; that I hadn’t finished my novel; I had not traveled far enough to understand the world in a satisfactory manner. I had always wanted to step foot in the Sahara. Angina pain removed from the equation, I found my heart absolutely aching for it. After they got me settled into the hospital’s CCU for the night and leaned on my groin for 30 minutes to stop an arterial bleed that was definitely trying to kill me, I told my wife that I wanted to go to Morocco.“Why?” She asked.“The desert. Read the rest

After spending more than $500m on advertising, organizing and bizarre online media stunts involving anything-for-money influencers, billionaire Mike Bloomberg is suspending his campaign. His dismal performance on Super Tuesday, writes Axios's Alexi McCammond, led to a quick endorsement of Joe Biden, the centrist candidate he had hoped to displace.The big picture: Bloomberg's self-funding drew backlash from an increasingly progressive party that is skeptical of the role of big money in politics. Bloomberg was one of two billionaires in the race, joined by Tom Steyer, who dropped out over the weekend.Bloomberg will continue paying his campaign workers through to november, however, and pledged to put them to use supporting whomever wins the Democratic Party's nomination to take on President Trump in the general election. Read the rest

If you ever find yourself hungry in the wild, with only a single can of ravioli and a stream of molten rock at hand, you might be tempted to try using the lava to heat and cook the food. Let this footage serve as a warning to you: the lava also wants to eat the ravioli and retreiving your well-heated dinner might prove a challenge in its own right. Read the rest

Her training regimen stops for nothing, not falling branches, downed power lines, gas leaks, loose dogs, dangerous debris in pitch darkness, and certainly not for the tornadoes that tore through Tennessee earlier this week, killing 24. Read the rest

This police bodycam footage begins in mundane form, with a pulled-over motorist being issued a ticket for some traffic infraction or other. A loud crash is heard, and while we can't see it, we know it's trouble because the cop lets the motorist off and dashes back to his car. He races to the scene of the accident and we see the box truck wrecked in the highway, flames dancing around the windshield and tires. The officer and another rescuer haul the disoriented driver from the fire. Barely a second or two later, a roaring noise is recorded and we soon see that the entire cabin is engulfed.The driver suffered minor injuries, according to New Jersey State Police, and they don't know what caused the crash. Read the rest

The secret to project management is that there really is no secret. In fact, with so many popular and well-proven methodologies around for shepherding a company’s biggest initiatives from concept to completion, leaders are better served following some battle-testing paths rather than trying to build one of their own.It’s a lucrative career option for those willing to learn the ropes from the pros. The Complete 2020 PMP Training Bundle includes all the training needed to get familiar with the basics of project management and start carving your way toward becoming your company’s ultimate go-to ace in the hole.Not only does this 10-course, 150-plus hour package introduces the principles of PMP, Agile, Six Sigma and more, but the training is structured to help students get certified in each of those varied disciplines.That includes PMP certification from the world-acknowledged authority in the subject, the Project Management Institute (PMI). A pair of courses unlock industry standards found in the Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBOK, around scheduling, costs, resource allocation and other major areas any good PM has to know.Meanwhile, four more courses tackle the popular Agile and Agile Scrum approaches, which rely heavily on the teamwork, self-organization and accountability of team members. Finally, the Six Sigma methodology is the subject of an additional two courses dedicated to a process that values streamlining variation and cutting down on errors to keep a project focused and on track.Finally, students will also be introduced to ITIL, the well-used IT framework of best practices for making IT issues more manageable and responsive to a company and a customer’s needs. Read the rest

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH Super Medical Force must track down a catastrophically dangerous illness to save the U.S., and even the world!

Cleethorpes is a faded northern English resort town whose inherent grimness is leavened by low rainfall and a nice sandy beach. And now it is to become home to a giant white metal palm tree, to the dismay of some locals. Artist Wolfgang Weileder has said the sculpture will serve as a "warning for the future" on climate change. It will feature a black shadow underneath, partly made from recycled material collected from Cleethorpes beach. The project, due to be installed by the end of the year, attracted mixed reactions from residents, with some describing the sculpture as a "laughing stock". North East Lincolnshire Council's planning committee approved the sculpture by six votes to four, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported.They should call it The Tree of Brexit as it will warn off invading Danes.Illustration: North East Lincolnshire Council Read the rest

Joe Biden took most of the states voting yesterday for a Democratic candidate to challenge President Trump, including an unexpected win in Texas. Rival Bernie Sanders, however, overwhelmed Biden in California to grab the night's biggest haul of delegates. The results confirm the scale of Biden's comeback, which kicked off with a big win last week in South Carolina, and suggest a two-man slog for the job.For his $500m+ investment, billionaire Mike Bloomberg won a single race -- American Samoa -- and indicated that his vanity campaign might soon be over. Elizabeth Warren could only manage third place in Massachussets, trailing across the map.With many close races, Biden and Sanders nonetheless split the haul between them. According to the BBC, with several races yet to declare, Biden has 453 convention delegates, Sanders 382, Warren 50 and Bloomberg 44. Read the rest

My colleague Jon Chase has a great new piece up on Wirecutter detailing some of the delightful ways he's found to lean into his Dad Joke-ness and use Alexa to screw with his kids:I happen to be content with the number of times I’ve heard the song “Baby Shark,” and I feel no need to hear it ever again in this life or the next. So I whipped up a quick Routine in about 30 seconds, and now, should anyone dare to utter the command “Alexa, play ‘Baby Shark,’” Alexa will reply, “Ooh, not in this house, sucker!” and then play Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train.”You can use that trick for any other tune, podcast, or really any Alexa query that has worn out its welcome.I suppose my own future child is still a ways away from verbalizing Alexa commands, but this does make me strangely look forward to that moment. Still, it's kind of refreshing to remember the wonderfully stupid potential of something Alexa, without having to stain it all with security concerns. (Shit, I just ruined it, didn't I?)How I use Alexa to dunk on my kids [Jon Chase / Wirecutter]Image: PetraGrey / Wikimedia Commons (CC 4.0) Read the rest

The United States "liberated" Guam and the Marianas Islands from 1898 during the Spanish-American War. As is usually the case with American Liberation, this meant further colonization, conversion into military outposts, and a forced re-education of the native Chamorros. To be fair, those indigenous inhabitants had already endured some 300 years of Spanish colonialism by then. By the time the US showed up, most Chammoros spoke in Spanish. But they also had their own language, called CHamoru.But, as the Guardian tells it, the imperialist force that famously boasts about its firm belief in the freedom of speech (from a country that doesn't even have an official language) tried to stomp out the language at all costs:The US navy banned CHamoru in 1917 “except for official interpreting”. The naval administration even burned CHamoru-English dictionaries.It wasn’t until the mid-1970s that the ban on speaking CHamoru in schools was lifted, says Michael Bevacqua, a CHamoru language educator on Guam. Until then, schoolchildren who spoke CHamoru were punished, and their parents were sometimes even fined.[…]A decade ago, the US census estimated there were about 25,827 CHamoru speakers on Guam, just 2,394 of whom were under the age of 18, and only 14,176 CHamoru speakers in the rest of the island chain.Robert Underwood, the former president of the University of Guam, says most of the fluent speakers are likely to be over the age of 50.“In another 20 to 30 years there may not be any real first-language speakers of CHamoru,” he says. Read the rest

WATCH: Security footage shows a man using a fishing rod to remove a Versace necklace from a mannequin within the store just after 2am. pic.twitter.com/9S103jZjv4— Victoria Police (@VictoriaPolice) March 3, 2020In the surveillance footage above, a fellow is seen using a fishing rod to snatch a designer necklace from a mannequin's neck inside a Melbourne, Australia shop. Police are asking for help identifying the suspect. From CNN:Authorities believe the man made a hole in the storefront glass window, then slid the fishing rod through the hole into the store to lift the necklace from the mannequin inside, according to CNN affiliate Nine News."It appears that the burglar was fishing for about three hours before landing his catch," said police in the statement. Read the rest

This purrito cat is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and she is a Ragdoll/British Short mixed Munchkin Female who was adopted 3 years ago.Follow @Littlemunchiepooky on Instagram. View this post on Instagram Pooky Burrito! . . For any licensing requests please contact liscensing@break.comA post shared by Pooky the Munchkin (@littlemunchiepooky) on Feb 9, 2017 at 7:34am PST [via r/Purrito] Read the rest

In San Antonio, Texas -- Federal health officials were planning to drop off some of the evacuated cruise ship passengers at a local shopping mall, after the coronavirus-exposed patients got out of a two-week quarantine at a Texas air base. This is one reason the city declared a public health emergency over COVID-19, said a city spokeswoman on Tuesday.San Antonio filed a lawsuit yesterday to stop the Trump administration's plan, after a woman was mistakenly released from quarantine at Lackland Air Force Base over the weekend despite testing positive for coronavirus. The woman had visited the North Star Mall, where the others were to be dropped off, before that mistake was discovered. The mall shut down for deep cleaning.From AP:Mayes said 122 passengers were released Tuesday, while seven remained in quarantine. Many passengers were bused to San Antonio International Airport, where they were escorted to ticket counters and through security. Others who live in Texas were escorted to car rental counters.Passenger Terri Feil of Houston said a CDC official told them in a conference call Sunday that the mall, about 17 miles (27 kilometers) from the base, was chosen to avoid the media.Feil said only people who were not going to the airport were to be dropped off at the mall. The Feils showed The Associated Press a text message they said was from the CDC indicating they were to be dropped off at the entrance by The Cheesecake Factory.“My husband was asking, ‘who made this decision?’” Read the rest

A person who works at Amazon.com's corporate headquarters in Seattle, Washington, has tested positive for COVID-19, said the company.At least 20 people in the Seattle region have tested positive for COVID-19, and eight have died, state health officials said Tuesday. This area of Washington state has become the U.S. outbreak's epicenter.Writes Monica Nickelsburg at GeekWire:The employee went home sick on Tuesday, Feb. 25 and later tested positive for COVID-19. Amazon notified employees who came into close contact with the individual. The employee is based out of Amazon’s Brazil building at 400 9th Ave N, near downtown Seattle. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the news and said the company is “supporting the affected employee who is in quarantine.”Amazon is advising employees who are experiencing symptoms of the coronavirus to stay home and seek medical attention. The company is conducting “enhanced deep cleaning and sanitization” at the office. Amazon employs more than 50,000 people in the Seattle region, most of whom are clustered at the headquarters in South Lake Union.[via techmeme]Amazon employee in Seattle tests positive for coronavirus https://t.co/6Q2CSKVrzz— Monica Nickelsburg (@mnickelsburg) March 4, 2020Amazon employee in Seattle has tested positive for illness caused by coronavirus, @bromano reports. https://t.co/d17P5fC6zm via @seattletimes— Rami Grunbaum (@rgrunbaum) March 4, 2020An Amazon employee in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, according to a message sent to Amazon employees Tuesday in Seattle and Bellevue. (via @bromano)https://t.co/M6w5YG4zvf Read the rest

In a little over a month, golf fans will get an answer to the big question they’ve been asking for almost a year: can Tiger do it again? After his improbable return to majors form with a stunning victory at last year’s Masters in Augusta, everybody’s anxious to see what happens this time around in April.Of course, most of our most pressing golf questions are a little closer to home. Like...when am I finally going to be able to sink a putt consistently? Or, how am I going to be able to get in some practice this week? Or just, what the heck happened to my ball?Legit questions, all. Thankfully, we’ve got a whole host of golf accessories to fill out your bag, improve your time on the links and maybe just shave a stroke or two off your game.RangefindersHow do you know how far to hit it if you don’t know how far it is? That’s where this trio of rangefinders can help accurately gauge out your shots when yardage markers are tough to come by.The NX7 Pro Slope: Golf Rangefinder ($199; originally $249) uses laser technology and a pulse vibration feature to give you precise measurement to the flag, not everything around it.With the Callaway 200s Laser Rangefinder ($169.99; originally $219), its Pin Acquisition tech will lock on to the pin from up to 275 yards away and give you up to 6x magnification to scope out every element of your shot before you swing. Read the rest

• Coronavirus fears can't stop the fromageIn Wisconsin today, the world's largest technical cheese, butter and yogurt competition kicked off with a record 3,667 entries from 26 nations.Some 55 judges will inspect, sniff, and eat samples of 132 classes of dairy products during the World Championship Cheese Contest.Judges include cheese graders, cheese buyers, dairy science professors, and researchers from 19 nations and 14 states, AP reports:The last time the competition was held in 2018, a hard sheep’s milk cheese called Esquirrou made in France at Mauleon Fromagerie won top honors. It is imported by Savencia Cheese USA. This year’s winner will be announced Thursday.One judge and 30 people from a Japanese university could not attend because the university didn’t allow international travel due to the new coronavirus, Sweeney said.There will be extra hand-washing stations and hand sanitizers for the judges “out of an abundance of good intention,” she said. Otherwise, the virus was not expected to affect the competition, she said. More at AP:Wisconsin hosts largest technical dairy competition in world Read the rest

I'm gonna need some pepto bismol to cure the headache that I have from trying to think about this logic.Medical experts at the White House have to patiently explain to Trump that his idea of using the flu vaccine to address the coronavirus will not work. pic.twitter.com/acghVStSvK— Oliver Willis (@owillis) March 2, 2020The crucial part:You take a solid flu vaccine, you don't think that would have an impact or much have an impact on corona?Speaking of coronavirus and vaccines, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn has claimed that US medical will have performed close to a million coronavirus tests by the end of this week. That's good news! What's not good news is that some test kits have already been contaminated, after the CDC had already sent out hundreds of flawed test kits in the first place. So far, the US has tested has tested about 500 people total; according to the Association of Public Health Laboratories (via Politico), we'd still only be able to run about 10,000 tests per day across the country under ideal conditions. As such, it's not clear how Hahn reached that conclusion of one million test kits. Maybe he was using Trump inauguration math?FDA chief's claim of 1M coronavirus tests by end of week stirs controversy [David Lim / Politico]Image: White House / Public Domain Read the rest