Boing Boing

During the White House press briefing on Tuesday, April 7, Trump was asked about mail-in voting. He answeredPresident Trump: "I think mail-in voting is horrible, it's corrupt."Reporter: "You voted by mail in Florida's election last month, didn't you?"Trump: "Sure. I can vote by mail"Reporter: "How do you reconcile with that?"Trump: "Because I'm allowed to." pic.twitter.com/Es8ZNyB3O1— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 7, 2020Early this week, the Supreme Court had rejected a request to extend the mail-in ballot deadline for Wisconsin's primary election. With coronavirus shelter-in-place policies in effect, in-person voting is potentially dangerous, especially for people who are already immunocompromised. As a result of the chaos of the last few weeks, people who requested mail-in ballots may not have received them; and some ballots that were mailed ahead of time may not have reached polling office in time, thanks to the general shipping slowdowns affecting everything right now.In the Press Room exchange, Trump said:Mail-in voting is horrible. It's corrupt. […] You get thousands and thousands of people sitting in someone's living room signing ballots all over the place. No, I think that mail-in voting is a terrible thing.In reality, mail-in voter fraud like the kind that Trump described is only slightly more common than in-person voter fraud, which has by all estimates happened less than 100 times total in the last 20 years. Across all elections, across the entire country. Which makes it pretty much a moot point. Individual people are not directly frauding elections; and considering that only about 60% of people even vote in US Presidential elections, there is absolutely no logical reason to make it even harder to get people to vote, "just in case" these next-to-never instances of so-called voter fraud ever actually occur. Read the rest

Kenneth Copeland is one of the worst: a private-jetting prosperity-gospel slime who, for his latest trick, falsely claims to heal people of coronavirus through their televisions.Today, however, he is the star of the hottest track since that time Barney the purple dinosaur sang Straight Outta Compton. Read the rest

I'm not sure that we deserve a happy ending. But like the rest of you, right now, I'm hoping like hell for one. Read the rest

This YouTube video was posted by Staffan Söderlund, and features the call of the Eider duck. Read the rest

IMissTheOffice is a ambient noise generator specializing in recreating the pre-coronavirus audial world of flourescent lights, watercooler hubbub and beeping office electronics. You can click specific items to make them go, or just specify a number of colleagues and let it run. It's by a creative agency called The Kids. Read the rest

Over at Slate, Shannon Paulus kindly reminds us that correlation is not causation — especially when it comes to a novel coronavirus for which we have very little knowledge, let alone enough scientific controls to do an accurate study of a fully representative sample set.“A small but important subset of people with the coronavirus also really hate puppies.” That’s what I keep thinking to myself as I see story after story linking various, so-called surprising symptoms to COVID-19: pinkeye, loss of hearing, loss of smell, brain impairments, and “staring off into space.” These pieces provide varying levels of evidence, from a Twitter dispatch to a patient to surveys conducted by researchers to propose that the mere correlations their authors are writing about might actually have some sort of firm, causative relationship.Each of these symptoms lacks substantial peer-reviewed evidence connecting them to the novel coronavirus; at best, there are a couple studies.So look, it's an upper respiratory infection. Leave it there until we know more, and stop talking about that drug that Donald Trump keeps pushing because he has a financial stake in the company that makes it.The Supposed Symptoms of the Coronavirus [Shannon Paulus / Slate]Image: U.S. Air Force Graphic by Rosario "Charo" Gutierrez (Public Domain) Read the rest

CCMixter is a free music discovery service with more than 1M tracks, for use in your games, movies, even commercial projects. Tracks are licensed under the Creative Commons, there's a wealth of filtering options to find exactly what you need, and I'm listening to the top instrumentals right now -- good stuff! Read the rest

One company that operates red-light cameras, posted at intersections to generate automatic traffic tickets, reports that revenue is down due to the coronavirus pandemic.Shares of Redflex, which trade in Australia, are down 46% since the beginning of the year.On a call with investors Monday, Redflex CEO Mark Talbot warned that further travel restrictions could delay new installations and therefore impact revenues.Fascinating that a business that's as close to a license to print money as it gets is wrecked after a few weeks of people not driving their cars. Everything is leveraged up to the eyeballs.Red light cameras are now illegal in many places because the revenue-generation incentive inevitably leads to corruption, spurious fines, dangerous placements and unconstitutional searches. Read the rest

I haven't received an advance copy of Labyrinth: The ABC Storybook [Amazon] so will have to preorder it just like you. The ToughPigs Muppet fan site posted a sneak preview.Sometimes Muppet fans get really lucky. Not only are we getting a new book based on Jim Henson’s classic film Labyrinth, but the whole thing is written and illustrated by one of the best artistic talents in the business.Luke Flowers, who recently illustrated the gorgeous storybook adaptation of The Muppet Christmas Carol, will be releasing a brand new storybook recounting the story of Labyrinth in alphabetical order!The book will be in stores and online on September 29th, retailing for $18.99. Read the rest

If you've ever wanted to catch a fish with a trap designed to catch other edible, living things, your time has arrived. I'm not sure if this is a technique that's common knowledge in outdoor circles, but it's frigging brilliant.Also, what's the deal with the guy in the top left corner of the video, two minutes, fifty-five seconds in? He just kind of melts into the tree. Creepy. Read the rest

In this video, a black man complains that a cop followed him into the Walmart in Wood River, Illinois, demanded he and a friend remove their coronavirus masks, then ordered them to leave the store. Wood River Police Chief Brad Wells on Tuesday said the department will conduct an internal investigation involving an incident last month in which two men in surgical masks say they were racially profiled by a police officer who approached them in Walmart.One of the men, Jermon Best, of Belleville, took cellphone video of the exchange as the officer followed the men out of the store, and posted it to social media.Wells says the officer felt the men were acting suspicious."Reality once again running laps around The Onion," writes Andray.Reality, once again running laps on The Onionpic.twitter.com/53Q8k9ppUK https://t.co/YiMrua007N— Andray #GeneralStrike2020 (@andraydomise) April 7, 2020 Read the rest

While the separation of church and state is typically the way we prefer to roll in much of the western world, it seems that in times of tragedy their collision in unavoidable. According to The New York Times, Manhattan's Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine is preparing to do duty as a coronavirus field hospital.From The New York Times:The cathedral, which describes itself as the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, said on Monday that its 600-foot-long nave and equally large subterranean crypt would be turned into an emergency hospital as part of the fight against the pandemic.Nine climate-controlled medical tents capable of holding a total of at least 200 patients will be erected inside the cathedral by the end of the week, said the Rt. Rev. Clifton Daniel III, the dean of the cathedral.The crypt, which is primarily accessible via a series of winding staircases, will be used as “a staging area” for medical personnel, he said. It is the first time the cathedral, which is the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, will have been used for such a task, he said.It's a decidedly old school move: in times of plague, war and other massive humanitarian disasters, religious structures across a wide variety of faiths have been used to treat the sick and shelter them from harm.It's expected that patients will begin to be sent to the cathedral within the next week, if not sooner. Personnel from Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital which, for those unfamiliar with Manhattan, is located right next to the cathedral, will be staffing the field hospital once it's in operation. Read the rest

Punk rock bard, Henry Rollins, and KCRW have launched The Cool Quarantine, a new online radio program where Henry goes through his record collection and shares stories. The idea is to recreate that vibe of hanging out with friends, spinning some sides, and talking about music, shows, and whatever else pops to mind.One of my favorite things about music is that often, there’s a good story about any one album or song. I specifically put tracks into this show so I could tell you the story before we play the song. A couple of examples from this show would include a live Cramps track from 1979 that was recorded by Ian MacKaye and also, the first cassette I ever copied. Another would be a live Led Zeppelin track from the time Ian and I saw them play.We will be playing different songs from different bands of course but we’ll also be listening to entire albums, EPs, and singles. At four hours, this is lonnnnnnnnng-form programming!Cool out here.Image: ceedub13, CC 2.0 Read the rest

We are sad to report that, according to John Prine's family, he has finally succumbed to the COVID-19 virus that he'd been battling for the past nine days. Rolling Stone writes of Prine's career:As a songwriter, Prine was admired by Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, and others, known for his ability to mine seemingly ordinary experiences — he wrote many of his classics as a mailman in Maywood, Illinois — for revelatory songs that covered the full spectrum of the human experience. There’s “Hello in There,” about the devastating loneliness of an elderly couple; “Sam Stone,” a portrait of a drug-addicted Vietnam soldier suffering from PTSD; and “Paradise,” an ode to his parents’ strip-mined hometown of Paradise, Kentucky, which became an environmental anthem. Prine tackled these subjects with empathy and humor, with an eye for “the in-between spaces,” the moments people don’t talk about, he told Rolling Stone in 2017. “Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism,” Dylan said in 2009. “Midwestern mind-trips to the nth degree.”We say goodbye to this great American songwriter with this performance of "Angel from Montgomery," recorded for Austin City Limits, in 2018.Fly, Mr. Prine. Fly.Image: YouTube Read the rest

While all the downsides of stay-at-home orders and social distancing are evident, there are at least a few small silver linings to come out of all this. For many, this time spent indoors has meant a happy reintroduction to your very own kitchen.You know your kitchen. It’s usually the place that holds all your leftovers. And it’s where the oven lives, the appliance that handles all your one-step frozen dinner heat-ups.Of course, that’s not really cooking, is it? But for as long as we’re sticking close to home, it’s a great opportunity to try some culinary explorations we may never have attempted overwise. Cooking for real means ingredients and measurements and likely a cascade of spoons and measuring cups to get it right.However, reinvigorated cooks can now ditch all of those extra utensils and containers for simplified ease of The Kitchen Cube All-in-One Measuring Device.At first glance, it almost looks like a basic toddler toy, just a 3.5-inch plastic block. But this single instrument is actually an all-purpose gadget to handle up to 19 different US and metric measurements in seconds. From cups to tablespoons to milliliters of virtually all cooking sizes, the Kitchen Cube’s got you covered.Just flip the cube to your preferred measurement, pour in your ingredient to the fill point, and dump. It’s stunningly simple, yet this basic cube just eliminated the need for all those other measuring spoons and cups that clutter your drawers and countertops and seem to end up everywhere while you’re trying to cook. Read the rest

While people talk a lot about what they see in their dreams, and the visual language of dreams is well-studied by psychologists, what we hear when dreaming is rarely discussed or scientifically explored. Recently though, researchers at Norway's Vestre Viken Hospital Trust and the University of Bergen conducted a small study to quantify the auditory experience of dreamers. Why? Because they wanted to "assess the relevance of dreaming as a model for psychosis." Throughout history, they write, psychologists have considered dreamstates to be a model for psychosis, yet people experiencing psychosis usually suffer from auditory hallucinations far more than visual ones. Basically, what the researchers determined is that the reason so little is known about auditory sensations while dreaming is because, well, nobody asks what people's dreams sound like. From their scientific paper in PLOS ONE:The participants reported auditory impressions in 93.9% of their dreams on average. The most prevalent auditory type was other people speaking (83.9% of participants’ dreams), followed by the dreamer speaking (60.0%), and other types of sounds (e.g. music, 33.1%). Of altogether 407 instances of auditory impressions in the 130 dreams, auditory quality was judged comparable to waking in 46.4%, indeterminate in 50.6%, and absent or only thought-like in 2.9%....The internal generation of auditory sensations, most notably of speech, may be a typical, integrated characteristic of dreaming. The findings on auditory impressions in dreams contribute to making clear the comparative phenomenology that models of common underlying mechanisms in dreaming and psychosis must account for. Read the rest

I’m glad this silly bike took what it deserved from r/IdiotsFightingThingsThis grim fellow has no patience for machines that aim to make sport of him. As a bonus, he almost removes a pedestrian's ear with the trusty machete he keeps in a sheath to inflict well-deserved punishment on his disobedient velocipede. Read the rest

DC has made images of a number of iconic comic book locations available for use as virtual backgrounds for Zoom and other video conferencing services."Whether it's for work, school or just keeping in touch with your friends, you've likely found yourself video chatting with a lot of people over the past couple of weeks. After all, it's a great way to stay connected in this time of social distancing," the DC press release reads. "But why take video calls from your living room or bedroom when you could take them from the Batcave, the Fortress of Solitude, Themyscira, or the Hall of Justice?"Read the rest on Bleeding Cool.[H/t Bruce Dykes]Image: Fortress of Solitude virtual backdrop from DC Comics Read the rest

Jimmy DiResta was sitting on a plane, looking at his clasped hands, when he wondered if he could possibly create a joint that worked on a similar principle of interleaving fingers clasping two pieces of material together. The result of that inspiration is this steel stool connected together by CNC-cut finger joints.Image: YouTube Read the rest

EraseCOVID is what happens when creative folks join forces for the greater good. A fantastic gang of artists and designers (including Ruben Bolling) have joined forces to create some really terrific "Public Safety Art," which is all available to purchase as posters, greeting cards, and more! Proceeds benefit chosen charity MusiCares, the artists, and the ongoing work of EraseCOVID.The art is aces — I've already spent $50 there today. One awesome thing to note: If you buy a "single poster set" ($30), you actually get TEN posters! They encourage you to share. Thanks, Tweedlebop! Read the rest

I've been enjoying this new YouTube series that Dan Shapiro (Glowforge founder) and Ari Shapiro (NPR) have created to help kids learn at home. In this episode, we hear from Dr. Philip Costanzo, Duke Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, who teaches Dan's twins "about social psychology, peer pressure, how kids' attitudes develop, and psychology experiments you'd never believe." Read the rest

Tonight's full Moon is a "Pink Moon" aka "Passover Moon" aka "Paschal Moon" aka "Hanuman Jayanti" aka supermoon, the largest full moon of 2020. From NASA:The term "supermoon" was coined by the astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979 and refers to either a new or full Moon that occurs within 90% of perigee, its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit. Under this definition, in a typical year there can be 3 or 4 full Supermoons in a row and (about half a year apart) 3 or 4 new Supermoons in a row. In practice, what catches the public's attention are the full Moons that appear biggest and brightest each year. For 2020, the four full Moons from February to May meet this 90% threshold, with the full Moons in March and April nearly tied in size and brightness. This full Moon will be slightly closer to the Earth (about 0.1%) than the March full Moon was, so this will be the "most super" of the full supermoons this year.image: NASA/Bill Dunford Read the rest

“Big Brother, it turned out, was wearing a MAGA cap”

A federal judge in New York on Tuesday denied a request that accused serial sexual abuser R. Kelly be released from jail, rejecting claims by his lawyers that he is at high risk of contracting COVID-19.READ THE DECISION: [PDF]In her opinion, Ann M. Donnelly, United States District Judge in Brooklyn, NY, wrote that lawyers for R. Kelly failed to prove their client is no longer “a flight risk or a danger to the community.” News reports say 'at least 2' workers at the Chicago jail where R. Kelly is housed have tested positive for coronavirus.Judge rejects R Kelly's request to be released due to COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak pic.twitter.com/b0sftq9fY9— Charlie De Mar (@CharlieDeMar) April 7, 2020From reporting by Marina Fang for HuffPo:On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly rejected the attempt, pointing out that Kelly, 53, is younger than the age group that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consider to be at high risk. His alleged history of abuse means that he continues to be “a flight risk or a danger to the community,” she wrote in a court filing, and his lawyers have failed to prove that has not changed.In addition, Donnelly said his surgery in January, which was reportedly to repair a hernia, has been completed, and he “does not explain how his surgical history places him at a higher risk of severe illness.” “While I am sympathetic to the defendant’s understandable anxiety about COVID-19, he has not established compelling reasons warranting his release,” she wrote Tuesday. Read the rest

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, will be staying in a London hospital's intensive care unit for the second night in a row, officials tell various news reporters late Tuesday U.S. time.Johnson is receiving oxygen support but is in 'stable' medical condition, in good spirits, and is not on a ventilator, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told a daily news conference. Raab is standing in for Johnson.From Reuters:Johnson, 55, was admitted to St Thomas’ Hospital, across the River Thames from parliament, late on Sunday after suffering symptoms including a fever and a cough for more than 10 days.His condition deteriorated, and he was moved on Monday to an intensive care unit in case he needed to be put on a ventilator.In an update on Tuesday evening, his Downing Street office said he would remain there for close monitoring and no further update was expected before Wednesday. Read more:UK PM Johnson, battling coronavirus, set for second night in intensive care[Reuters, William James, Costas Pitas] Read the rest

She did not.

According to the latest figures from NBC News, Wyoming is the only U.S. state or territory not to have marked a single death from Covid-19.... the White House’s best-picture scenario of 100,000 to 240,000 deaths ... predicts the U.S. will hit a peak death rate of more than 2,000 deaths per day in mid-April. President Donald Trump warned that this week in particular would be the "toughest."Finland has a number of deaths, but had an even better day than Wyoming yesterday, tallying "-1" deaths. "Es beggint", writes Marina WeisbandEs beginnt. pic.twitter.com/JTtfcsgon7— Marina Weisband (@Afelia) April 6, 2020 Read the rest

Have you ever had more time to hone in on fine details than right now? Sure, at first glance, this might not seem like the time to get tripped up on the nitty-gritty of minutia. But how often are you ever going to have this much time to really stop and think about hows and whys and make a truly informed, truly considered decision about anything?Like which Adobe photo editing app do you need, Photoshop or Lightroom?The debate has raged for years — but since they’re both hugely popular with their own idiosyncratic skill sets, now’s the time to be a real imaging expert in both with the training in The Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop for Beginner Designers Bundle.The collection spans nine courses over 27 hours of instruction, all coming from one trusted authority you can count on to explain these elite apps. In fact, Marcin Mikus has legions of former students endorsing his curriculum, notching a 4.3-out-of-5 star rating for over 250,000 reviewers.While both Adobe programs get plenty of attention here, the lion’s share of your training will naturally fall on learning Photoshop, the undisputed king of image editing software. Mikus’ beginner-friendly coursework will get you familiar with all the app’s basic controls, then get you started working on a batch of projects to hone your skills, including retouching landscapes and adjusting portraits.Once you’re up and running with Photoshop, various courses focus in on more specific, yet highly useful training practice, helping students work with layers, curves and masks as well as LUT color fixes. Read the rest

Spoken Word with Electronics is an audio series delivering to you a two side recording of unusual stories paired with vintage modular electronic sounds THIS WEEK:Episode #4: "To Forget to Remember"Welcome back to Spoken Word with Electronics. I hope this week has gone well for you, all things considered. Here's some audio theater:This week we lead off with an uncommon recording of E.E.Cummings. One of my favorite poems of his is anyone lived in a pretty how town. It was first published in 1940 and has some interesting resonance today. He has a beautiful speaking voice, which surprised me, a blend of Oscar Wilde with Truman Capote, just with no capital letters. (E.E.'s name was often capitalized, unlike his poems)Here's the track:Side A: E.E. Cummings Reads 'anyone lived in a pretty how town' — with a Yamaha Loop and a Metasonix R55 VCOMusic for this track is a blend of a few things, but primarily a loop from a Yamaha Reface CP (GREAT FUN) along with other yamaha-based loops recorded over the last few years, and a Metasonix Voltage Controlled Oscillator, specifically the R55. The R55 (and its current version, the RK7) is based on a very unpredictable thyratron tube and is a wonderfully unpredictable source of noise and completely unique. It's not unlike a tesla coil with sound. You can hear it floating through this isolated track at a gentle dissipating scrape about halfway through. Plugging an LFO into its VCA can produce a wonderful snoring sound; this is audible in the ending third of the track. Read the rest

Dr. Drew is a snake oil salesman. Really terrible stuff here. What a disgrace. pic.twitter.com/Eh35Ky8yVO— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) April 4, 2020Someone with the handle @DroopsDr posted a supercut of celebrity doctor Drew Pinsky downplaying the severity of the coronavirus epidemic ("way less serious than influenza") and then later claiming that he had always taken it seriously ("We predicted from the beginning that this was going to be worse than the flu.")Dr. Drew contacted YouTube and made them remove the video, citing copyright.Then Dr. Drew went after people on Twitter who retweeted the video, with the warning: "Infringing copywrite [sic] laws is a crime. Hang on to your retweets. Or erase to be safe."Ars Technica reports that lawyers jumped into let people know they could safely retweet the video:[Preet] Bharara, a former US attorney, and Boutrous, a high-profile attorney, were among the many who replied to defend or amplify Ali."You are safe from any 'copywrite' lawsuit, @yashar," Bharara tweeted. "Know your writes.""Truth and fair use got you," Boutrous added in a tweet that quoted Pinsky's now-deleted threat.It appears that either Pinsky or YouTube was inclined to agree. Sometime around noon Monday, give or take an hour, the YouTube video listing very quietly started working once again. Similarly, every message on Pinsky's @drdrew Twitter account relating to the video has been deleted.Watch on #Periscope: #DoseOfDrDrew 4/4/2020 (Take 1) Apology.https://t.co/jLJU779hb5— Dr Drew (@drdrew) April 5, 2020On April 4 Dr. Read the rest

While using a bandanna is one excellent way to craft a face mask, this jock strap hack takes only three easy steps and doesn't require anything extra. I made a Jockstrap Mask Tutorial, because I’m ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/JiYhV3K8uh— Emerson Collins (@ActuallyEmerson) April 3, 2020 Read the rest

A U-Haul parking lot burst into flame after a man threw a lit firework at his girlfriend, unknowingly disturbing a gasoline thief. All sorts of antics are captured on camera. Read the rest

This would be that thing.Today's installment of the hottest thing on local TV: "What Day Is It?" by @fox8news in Cleveland pic.twitter.com/YfOxbxn9q5— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) April 7, 2020 Read the rest

In 1994, exercise equipment maker Life Fitness partnered with Nintendo on the Life Fitness Exertainment System with games designed for the Exertainment bike. Above is a promotional video for this short-lived product.The footage shows how the system works and also alludes to Tetris and Pac-Man being made for the system as footage was even shown, but the only games to come out for the system were Mountain Bike Rally and Mountain Bike Rally/Speed Racer combo for the Lifecyle 9XS gym version.And here's a description of the the Exertainment System Mountain Bike Rally/Speed Racer cartridge that now sells for more than $1300 on the collector market:Welcome To The Exertainment System Game Pak! In this one Game Pak you can select from three exciting game titles: Program Manager Your Very Own On-Screen Trainer! Life Fitness Program Manager is your electronic personal trainer. It sets your personal workout goals and retains personal workout information for up to four members of your family. Program Manager is perfect for motivating you to get in shape and for tracking workouts - all while you're having fun on the Exertainment system! Mountain Bike Rally Wow! What a ride! Hop on your Lifecycle trainer and race against riders bent on winning at all costs. Watch out for punches and strike back at those cycling foes. But keep one eye on road obstacles. They're at every turn. Quick, choose the ramp routes and leave your opponent in the dust! Speed Racer Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines. Read the rest

The new BBC documentary Scotland — Contains Strong Language explores the Bannatyne Manuscript from 1568. Written by Edinburgh Merchant George Bannatyne while he was quarantined during — appropriately enough — a plague, the collection includes a poem titled "The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy," an account of a duel between two poets said to have been conducted before the court of King James IV.As Ars Technica explains:Flyting is a poetic genre in Scotland—essentially a poetry slam or rap battle, in which participants exchange creative insults with as much verbal pyrotechnics (doubling and tripling of rhymes, lots of alliteration) as they can muster. (It's a safe bet Shakespeare excelled at this art form.)And it is in that poem that these words were found, amidst the barbs shot back-and-forth between these poets: "wan fukkit funling."According to Dr Joanna Kopaczyk, a historical linguistics expert from Glasgow University, that makes it the first recorded use of the word "fuck."To me, that looks more like Scots than Middle English, although both languages were derived from Olde English. There are also some people who insist that Scots is merely a dialect of English, rather than its own language. Scots should also not be confused with Scottish Gaelic. That being said: is anyone surprised that Scotland would be home to the first "fuck?"Scotland's claim to fame as birthplace of the F-word revealed [Brian Ferguson / The Scotsman]500-year-old manuscript contains earliest known use of the “F-word” [Jennifer Ouelette / Ars Technica]Image: Gareth E. Read the rest

Ironically, Ramsey Lewis' 'Dancing in the Street' has been the song most at play during the few short trips I've had to make around Venice and Santa Monica.Very little dancing on the streets of Los Angeles. Read the rest

No change in hospitalized UK PM Boris Johnson's condition, say government officials.An update on the coronavirus patient Boris Johnson from No. 10: “The Prime Minister’s condition is stable and he remains in intensive care for close monitoring. He is in good spirits.”No further update from Downing Street expected today.No10 update: No change in Boris Johnson's condition“The Prime Minister’s condition is stable and he remains in intensive care for close monitoring. He is in good spirits.”— John Stevens (@johnestevens) April 7, 2020 Read the rest

There are plenty of productive ways to spend time while stuck indoors. While it’s undoubtedly fun to binge all 15 seasons of Supernatural or sink days of playtime into an Overwatch campaign, learning something new is definitely a more meaningful and long-term beneficial use of open hours.And if you’re going to invest time in learning something new, you better make sure it sticks. More than half a million Apple App and Google Play users have given the Babbel Language Learning system a 4.6 out of 5-star rating for its innovative and impactful methods in helping students learn a new language. So you know it works.Right now, they’re making their award-winning services available again at 60 percent off the regular lifetime subscription price, just $159.With this deal, you can learn 14 of the world’s most popular languages at your own pace with Babbel, the top-grossing language learning app around the globe.Developed by over 100 linguistic experts, Babbel even says they’ll help you start speaking confidently in your new language in only 30 days. Just choose the language you’d like to learn, and you’ll immediately get access to more than 8,500 hours of high-quality language education.Before you get overwhelmed, all those hours are broken down into easily digestible 10- to 15-minute lessons, so you can also find time to fit them into your day naturally.The focus of the Babbel method is building your basic conversational skills, working you through real-world scenarios on real-world subjects like your family, your business, ordering a meal, booking transportation and more. Read the rest

Enjoy this important reminder that the internet is intimately attuned to our problems and seeks out new ones for us to experience together.Embedded below is a cleaner extended mix. Read the rest

1952 Vincent Black Lightning is a song that makes me think about fresh starts, old habits, love and loss—topics that we all currently have way too much time to ponder, just now. Read the rest

This news segment from WSAV-TV in Savannah, Georgia, reports on fraudulent coronavirus tests being hawked at pop-up drive-through sites. Both worried patients and medicaid are being defrauded.[Taylor Durden WSAV-TV] Broadway Metro Council President David James says it's a scam. [Tara Bassett, Activist] If they're your insurance was not on the list ... they charged them two hundred and forty dollars. [Durden] There are two companies running these BXK Marketing and Community Outreach Marketing Group. When we called a Florida number supposedly associated with BCK Marketing the woman who answered said she'd never heard of BCK Marketing. We talked to two men from Community Outreach Marketing Group who said they were overseeing this pop-up test site on 17th and Broadway. ... When they were confronted, they tore everything down and left.The venture capitalist Paul Graham recently wrote a blog post marveling at Fox News hosts who had no idea their lies about coronavirus would be exposed.They didn't realize there was any danger in making false predictions. These people constantly make false predictions, and get away with it, because the things they make predictions about either have mushy enough outcomes that they can bluster their way out of trouble, or happen so far in the future that few remember what they said.An epidemic is different. It falsifies your predictions rapidly and unequivocally.There's a moment in this footage when they're interviewing the scammers and you can see something flicker in the interviewee's eyes. A sudden awareness that the consequence of the thing he's doing is about to move from "LLC gets sued" to "beaten to death in the street." Read the rest

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be installing a number of upgrades into my shotgun and converting my iPod classic to use SD cards for storage and a 3,000 mAh battery. Both projects will allow me to get a lot more use out of the stuff that I already own. That said, I'm feeling kind of bummed that I don't have the parts on hand to build my own motorized drift trike. Read the rest

From Nature.com (emphasis added):Here, we describe easily deployable hardware and software for the long-term analysis of a user’s excreta through data collection and models of human health. The ‘smart’ toilet, which is self-contained and operates autonomously by leveraging pressure and motion sensors, analyses the user’s urine using a standard-of-care colorimetric assay that traces red–green–blue values from images of urinalysis strips, calculates the flow rate and volume of urine using computer vision as a uroflowmeter, and classifies stool according to the Bristol stool form scale using deep learning, with performance that is comparable to the performance of trained medical personnel. Each user of the toilet is identified through their fingerprint and the distinctive features of their anoderm, and the data are securely stored and analysed in an encrypted cloud server. The toilet may find uses in the screening, diagnosis and longitudinal monitoring of specific patient populations.tl;dr — Data gathering for toilets using biometrics of your anus. Got it? Okay cool. The article itself is paywalled, as far too many academic articles are, but one Twitter user shared screenshots of this screening, diagnosis, and longitudinal monitoring technology:In other news Stanford has made a toilet that identifies you based on your butthole https://t.co/JKSuLk4lD7 pic.twitter.com/RHbMa59ZPO— quaranbean (@christapeterso) April 6, 2020THREE CAMERAS in the toilet! pic.twitter.com/C0ao0ISzpf— quaranbean (@christapeterso) April 6, 2020Other pages explain:We performed 410 fingerprinting [Ed note: butthole] trials from 10 participants … Among 11 participants, two video clips of the anus per participants were acquired from 7 participants, whereas one video clip of the anus per participant was acquired from 4 participants … As an input, individual frames of the anus from participant 1 were used for identification purposes. Read the rest

It brings me, and my future sheltered-in-place mail art projects, a lot of joy that Ruth Asawa postage stamps have been announced. Sadly, USPS hasn't revealed the release date just yet. So, instead, I'll just be over here clicking "refresh."Showcasing Asawa’s wire sculptures, the pane includes 20 stamps, with two each of 10 designs, featuring photographs by Dan Bradica and Laurence Cuneo. The selvage features a photograph of Asawa taken by Nat Farbman in 1954 for Life magazine. Ethel Kessler served as art director and designer.(Ruth Asawa Facebook page) Read the rest

In a live broadcast Sunday, Queen Elizabeth II spoke about the coronavirus situation. It was a serious and reassuring speech. But, she wore a green dress, a green-screen-green dress. The internet, starting with Peter Chiykowski, took it from there.A few of you said my queenscreen photoshops are disrespectful, and you're right.The Queen is definitely a corgis > cats lady. pic.twitter.com/XmQI5jJ5Ao— Peter Chiykowski respects the Queen, I promise (@rockpapercynic) April 5, 2020Okay 2020 let's break the Internet pic.twitter.com/dBgi7IgEae— Peter Chiykowski respects the Queen, I promise (@rockpapercynic) April 5, 2020One commenter quipped that the dress was the Queen's "'Easter egg' to provide entertainment to the quarantined masses." Unlikely, but fun to think about.THIS ONE:This canvas speaks to me pic.twitter.com/iWk6FuGsPM— Ned Pyle (@NerdPyle) April 6, 2020green-screen-screengrab via Peter Chiykowski/Twitter Read the rest

From the Washington Post:During a time of global crisis, climbing death tolls and widespread uncertainty, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been hailed globally for her compassionate handling of the coronavirus pandemic.She continued to win hearts Monday when she clarified who exactly has made a list of “essential workers.”“You’ll be pleased to know that we do consider both the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny to be essential workers,” she said, smiling. “But as you can imagine, at this time they’re going to be potentially quite busy at home with their family as well and their own bunnies.”New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern confirms Easter Bunny is classed as an “essential worker” but it might be “difficult for the bunny to get everywhere” in current circumstances.Tooth fairy also confirmed as an essential worker. pic.twitter.com/Jv6o4t2tkG— Daniel Rosney (@DanielRosney) April 6, 2020It's not clear if these essential workers are also deserving of a living wage like all other essential workers, or if trickle-down economics will impact the income of Tooth Faeries across the globe. In my humble opinion, even immortal cryptids deserve fair compensation for their labor.Tooth fairy and Easter Bunny are ‘essential workers,’ New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern confirms [Jennifer Hassan / Washington Post]Image: Public Domain via NeedPix Read the rest

ICYMI, Actor John Krasinski has a new web show made up entirely of positive news stories aptly called, Some Good News. It's resonating with folks, its first episode came out a week ago and already has 13M views. Episode 2 dropped Sunday and included a big surprise for Aubrey, a 9-year-old girl who missed out on going to see Hamilton for her birthday because of the coronavirus situation. I won't spoil it, but it's a lot of fun and totally 100% heartwarming. I may have cried.screengrab via Some Good News/YouTube Read the rest

Yoga studios are closed nationwide. The irony is that between the anxieties of the outside world and those popping up inside your very own home with everyone trapped indoors, there’s probably never been a time where yoga’s calming zen was more vital and needed.Rather than just throwing in the yoga mat and subjecting family members to very un-zen-like displays, a one-year subscription to YogaDownload can help restore the relaxed, centered you that you need to be to survive all this.Offering up everything from increased muscle strength and athleticism and improved energy and vitality to a more balanced metabolism and a more ordered, peaceful mind, the healthy benefits of yoga were established literally centuries ago.With Yogadownload, you can achieve all those benefits right from home with access to over 1,5000 top-rated online yoga and fitness classes to help tone up your body and tune up your mind whenever you need the attention.Whether you’re a beginner or already an experienced practitioner, you’ll find a course that syncs with your skill level anytime you could use a session. And the sessions really do run the gamut, including courses in nearly 20 different disciplines.You can choose from the synchronizing breathing and physical demands of Anusara yoga to the strength training of power yoga to the calm of restorative yoga to more specialized training like prenatal or beginner’s yoga. Heck, there’s even kids yoga to help those tiny terrors burn off some of that excess energy with a hearty, kid-centric routine. Read the rest

Coronavirus outbreak fears are not sufficient reason for the governor of Wisconsin to postpone the state's Tuesday primary election, a state supreme court ruled late Monday.Gov. Tony Evers said the risk to the health and lives of Wisconsinites was too great, and this is why he wanted to postpone the election.The GOP-led state court denied his authority, public health concerns be damned. Further court challenges are likely.Good luck and stay safe, Wisconsin voters.JUST IN: Wisconsin's presidential primary election will proceed Tuesday under an order from the state Supreme Court that came just hours after Gov. Tony Evers tried to postpone voting as part of a last-ditch effort amid growing fears over the coronavirus. https://t.co/i1BExKBRjA— Star Tribune (@StarTribune) April 6, 2020BREAKING: Wisconsin Supreme Court blocks Gov. Evers’ executive order suspending all in-person voting for Tuesday's primary. pic.twitter.com/50L3E1vdcU— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 6, 2020NEW: Wisconsin's Supreme Court has ordered the state's primary on Tuesday to proceed, overruling the governor's order to postpone the election. Further court challenges are likely.https://t.co/crUL2sa1pl— NPR (@NPR) April 6, 2020As the @POTUS boasts of the value of mitigation, the Rs in Wisconsin, supported by the @GOP-dominated supporter state Supreme Court, are pressing ahead with Tuesday’s primary, overruling the governor’s emergency public health order.— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) April 6, 2020BREAKING: Wisconsin Supreme Court blocks Gov. Evers’ executive order suspending all in-person voting for Tuesday's primary. pic.twitter.com/ZVsPe2tqLu— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) April 6, 2020Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signs an executive order suspending in-person voting for tomorrow’s primary election: “... Read the rest

President Trump says that there is "light at the end of the tunnel" in the coronavirus pandemic. Optimism from Dr Birx and Mr Trump contrasted with other leading US experts, including top advisor Dr Anthony Fauci, who earlier said the short-term outlook was "really bad". The US surgeon general, meanwhile, warned that this will be "the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans' lives". Read the rest