MIT researchers outfitted a baby diaper with an RFID tag that emits a wireless signal when the surrounding material gets wet. The wetness "sensor" is actually a type of hydrogel that's commonly found in diapers to absorb liquid. As the hydrogel gets wet, it swells and its conductivity increases, triggering the RFID tag. The RFID tags are printed as stickers for around 2 cents each compared to other Internet-connected diapers in development with reusable sensors that cost as much as $40/each. From MIT News:

Over time, smart diapers may help record and identify certain health problems, such as signs of constipation or incontinence. The new sensor may be especially useful for nurses working in neonatal units and caring for multiple babies at a time...

(MIT AutoID Lab researcher Pankhuri Sen) envisions that an RFID reader connected to the internet could be placed in a baby’s room to detect wet diapers, at which point it could send a notification to a caregiver’s phone or computer that a change is needed. For geriatric patients who might also benefit from smart diapers, she says small RFID readers may even be attached to assistive devices, such as canes and wheelchairs to pick up a tag’s signals.

image: MIT News (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/16/mits-smart-diaper-alerts.html

You kill it at the gym all week, your nutrition is dialed in, and you're drinking so much water that your spare time is spent walking back and forth to the bathroom (way to get those steps in!)—so how do you take things to the next level? By focusing on recovery.

A proper post-workout routine, which includes deep-tissue massage, will help your muscles recover faster and more efficiently, leading to less DOMS and less time before you're ready for more box jumps. Since seeing a masseuse every day isn't an option, you need a massage gun, but some of them cost almost as much as those daily massages. Some — but not these. Here are 5 options that cover a range of budgets and are still way cheaper than a Theragun. Plus, right now you can use code PRESIDENT15 for an extra 15% off.

Evertone™ Prosage Deep Tissue Massager

This budget-friendly, 3-intensity-level model from Evertone is cordless and will give you up to 2 hours of professional-grade deep-tissue trigger-point massage per charge to ensure you don't lose power mid-session. It will help you reduce joint pain, increase circulation, and break up knots to regain mobility and improve recovery.

The Evertone Prosage Deep Tissue Massager is on sale for $96.99, but you'll get an extra 15% off when you use the coupon PRESIDENT15 at checkout, lowering the cost to $82.44!

Evertone™ Prosage Thermo: Percussion Massager with Warm-Up Technology

The Kickstarter-funded Thermo model of the Evertone Prosage takes things to the next level with its warming technology to ensure muscles are primed for treatment. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/16/5-massage-therapy-guns-that-wo.html

It is kind of hard to imagine that it's taken until 2020 for the identity of the woman on the cover of Black Sabbath's heavy metal masterpiece, Black Sabbath, to finally be known. The woman has been identified as Louisa Livingston. The image was shot by photographer and album designer, Keith "Keef" Macmillan.

The photographer opted for Oxfordshire's Mapledurham Watermill because it fit the band's sound in his opinion. Louisa told Rolling Stone:

"I remember it was freezing cold. I had to get up at about 4 o'clock in the morning. Keith was rushing around with dry ice, throwing it into the water. It didn't seem to be working very well, so he ended up using a smoke machine.

"It was just, 'Stand there and do that.' I'm sure he said it was for Black Sabbath, but I don't know if that meant anything much to me at the time."

As a teenage headbanger, I spent countless record-spinning hours poring over every inch of this haunting cover, completely enthralled by the creepy building and the beautiful green-skinned witch in front of it. It is probably a good thing that I (and every other pubescent teen listener) was ignorant of this fact:

"She wasn't wearing any clothes under that cloak because we were doing things that were slightly more risqu'e, but we decided none of that worked.

"Any kind of sexuality took away from the more foreboding mood. But she was a terrific model. She had amazing courage and understanding of what I was trying to do."

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/16/witchy-woman-on-the-cover-of-b.html

Everybody wears socks, even presidents, but not everybody wears sophisticated, ultra-comfortable socks made with bamboo yarn that offers softness, ventilation, and durability. So with all these DeadSoxy socks on sale for Presidents' Day, why not use this opportunity to make those hard-working feet of yours happier than they've ever been? With styles for work and play, you'll have everything you need for everyday life.

DeadSoxy No-Show Socks

Available in a variety of pack sizes (6 or 10) foot sizes (small or medium) and style packs (President 3 [no pun intended], Analyst 2, or Analyst 3), these unisex no-shows will make living the sockless life a little nicer. Made with 75% bamboo rayon, DeadSoxy pairs offer comfort that feels luxurious like cashmere but still performs. We're talking ventilation, arch support, durable elasticity—and a design that stays in place and out of sight.

These sets of no-show socks are on sale starting at $81.99, but you can get an extra 15% off when you use the coupon PRESIDENT15 at checkout, lowering the final price for a 6-pack to just $69.69!

DeadSoxy Jules No-Show Socks

Much like the President and Analyst packs (OK, exactly like the President and Analyst packs), these socks feature patented silicone in the welt to eliminate sock slippage, flat seams, a Y-heel, and 75% bamboo rayon for extremely comfortable wear. The men's and women's Jules (which is also available in some of the packs above) is great if you want to pick up just a pair or two.

These Jules no-show socks are on sale for $13.99, Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/15/upgrade-your-sock-drawer-with.html

According to a piece on Deadline, 70s prog rock behemoths, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, are having a movie made from their 30-minute sci-fi song suite, "Karn Evil 9", from 1973's Brain Salad Surgery.

Centered on a society that has drained all its blood with a dependence on technology, the film will explore the world controlled by a pervasive and dictatorial technocracy. The annual “Karn Evil” — a macabre rite of passage — is a young person’s once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience unbridled freedom, before subjugating themselves to the ruling class. When people stop returning from their Karn Evil experience, fear drives a revolution to topple the status quo and the artificial intelligence discovered at its heart.

The film is being produced by Radar Pictures, producers of the Jumanji films. The screenplay is being written by best-selling author Daniel H. Wilson:

Wilson, the author behind bestselling sci-fi novels Robopocalypse and The Andromeda Evolution, has adapted several of his works for the screen, most recently penning the script to Robopocalypse for DreamWorks and Michael Bay.

“I’m incredibly excited to partner with Ted and Radar to explore Karn Evil 9—a unique and thrilling world,” said Wilson. “I couldn’t ask for better collaborators and I can’t wait to help add the Karn Evil 9 franchise to the Radar family.”

Read the rest here.

Here is ELP performing "Karn Evil 9 Third Impression" at 1974's California Jam.

ELP fun-fact: "Karn Evil 9" was co-written by Peter Sinfield, the poet and lyricist best-known for his writing on the first four King Crimson records, including the hugely influential In the Court of the Crimson King and In the Wake of Poseidon. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/15/emerson-lake-palmers.html

If you're looking to read more in 2020, you probably wish you had more time to get that done. Well, we can't create more hours in the day (we're mad about it too), but we can help you maximize those hours. Catch up on that book list and get ahead of the game when you utilize these apps and speed reading techniques that are on sale for the holiday.

SumizeIt Book Summaries: Lifetime Membership

Featuring 5-minute, easy-to-digest, non-fiction book summaries, SumizeIt will help you tackle all those career-boosting books you keep meaning to read. Using clear and uncomplicated language, in text or audio, key insights from hundreds of book are revealed, helping you master small talk at networking events.

SumizeIt is on sale for $19, but you can get it for an extra 15% off when you use the coupon PRESIDENT15 at checkout, lowering the final price to only $16.15!

The Speed Reading Mastery Bundle

Through 6 courses and 226 lessons, you'll gain the speed-reading skills you need to take your life and memory to the next level. Taught by instructors with a varying history of success, this bundle will help you learn faster and more effectively in addition to speed reading and neuroscience-based memory-boosting techniques and mnemonics used by world champions.

The Speed Reading Mastery Bundle is on sale for $21, but you can get it for an extra 15% off when you use the coupon PRESIDENT15 at checkout, lowering the final price to just $17.85!

Become A Speed Reading Machine: Read 300 Books This Year

If reading almost a full book every day sounds like your idea of a good time, you won't want to skip this online course that teaches the secrets and techniques used by Elon Musk and Bill Gates to do just that. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/15/make-good-on-that-new-years.html

Bertolt Meyer wears a myoelectric prosthetic arm and hand controlled by electrodes attached to his residual limb that pick up impulses generated when he consciously contracts that muscle. Those impulses are then translated into control signals for the prosthetic hand. An electronic musician, Meyer had the idea to swap out the prosthetic hand for a DIY controller for his modular synthesizers so he can play music just by thinking about it. This is the SynLimb. Meyer writes:

Together with Chrisi from KOMA Elektronik and my husband Daniel, I am in the process of building a device (the "SynLimb") that attaches to my arm prosthesis instead of the prosthetic hand. The SynLimb converts the electrode signals that my prosthesis picks up from my residual limb into control voltages (CV) for controlling my modular synthesizer. The SynLimb thus allows me to plug my prosthesis directly into my snythesizer so that I can control its parameters with the signals from my body that normally control the hand. For me, this feels like controlling the synth with my thoughts.

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/15/man-hacks-his-prosthetic-arm-t.html

For the last couple years, my dear friend Mikael Jorgensen (Wilco, Quindar) and Isaac Koren (The Kin, Braves) have been exploring their shared passion for the great American songbook and electronic music. They call their act Expandards and have been making the SoCal scene to great acclaim. These two are the real deal. Above, Expandards' new video for the tune "Nature Boy," written by Eden Ahbez in 1947 and originally made famous by Nat King Cole.

This burns. It burns so good.

Shot on location at The Record Parlour in Los Angeles. Written and directed by Trevor Tuttle; Starring Tari Elegele and Isaac Koren Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/15/smoking-video-for-wilcos-mik.html

Grover Cleveland served as America’s 22nd President before being narrowly defeated for re-election by Benjamin Harrison in 1888. But the undeterred Cleveland roared back four years later, winning the 1892 election for his second term in the White House.

If the American people can give a president a second chance, don’t you think a gently-used MacBook should get that same shot at redemption too?

In honor of President’s Day, we’ve assembled current deals on 5 refurbished MacBook models, each fully tested to be in 100 percent working order — and each hundreds of dollars off their retail prices.

Best value:

Deciding the best value from this group sort of depends on your definition of value. The Apple MacBook Pro 13" Core i5 ($428.99) with a 500GB hard drive and a 7-hour battery life is the biggest discount (67%) of its $1,299 retail price. But if you’re just looking for the rock-bottom cheapest price, check out this Apple MacBook Air with an Intel Core i5 1.6GHz processor and 64GB of storage for just $329.99 (regularly $799).

Best for the executive:

Sometimes, nothing but the best will do. With that in mind, the Apple MacBook Pro 15" ($999.97, down from $1,999) sporting a 2.2GHz Intel Core i7 chip with Retina Display and 256GB is hands down the beefiest entry in this list.

Best for your students:

When picking up a laptop for your kids, two factors come into play: how portable is it to carry back and forth from school; and how much is it gonna cost to replace if they break it? Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/15/need-a-new-macbook-check-out.html

Engineers versed in the care and feeding of system development on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform are in an IT job sector so vital right now that they can practically set their own salaries. And a look at the annual Global Knowledge IT Skills and Salary Report suggests that might not be far from wrong.

According to the 2019 survey, the average AWS-certified IT pro is bringing home almost $130,000 annually, one of the best-paying certification jobs in all of North America.

The Complete AWS Dev and Ops Certification Training Bundle is a four-course fast track into building a career as an AWS DevOps expert. In fact, this nine-hour training bootcamp covers everything students are testing on for the AWS Certified Development and Operations Engineer Professional exam, a premier industry benchmark.

Each of these four courses covers a critical segment of exam prep training. Part 1 introduces students to continuous integration and delivery concepts as well as automation, while Part 2 delves into using Amazon CloudWatch for tasks like monitoring, custom metrics, and logging files.

Part 3 covers AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) so you’ll always know who’s authenticated and authorized to use and access AWS resources. Finally, Part 4 teaches elasticity and scalability on the platform with best practices building top-notch architectures and implementing groups that scale automatically.

The $796 training package to become a certified AWS pro is discounted now to just $29.96, a small price to pay to land a six-figure gig. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/14/what-does-it-take-to-land-a-1.html

As a magician and sleight-of-hand artist, I've been wrestling with the thorny and slippery notion of Art for a long time. A recent "magical project" rekindled my attention about this ongoing quest. Here follow my latest musings on this domain.

What is Art? Art can be seen as the lifeblood running through the veins of human history. From prelinguistic cave dweller to postmodern city dweller, art stands as a witness to the evolution of every culture, reflecting and participating in our views of reality, consciousness, and the cosmos. Art existed long before the word "art" itself existed; for most of history there were no museums, no galleries, no concert halls, and no special class of people to be known as "artists." As human societies developed and evolved, so did the category of art -- which now includes a boundless constellation of forms, languages, media, materials, technologies, and aesthetic theories. As a result, the contemporary discourse on art is a fascinating and intricate spectacle. Many players -- creators, critics, curators, merchants, collectors -- interact within a matrix of sociological, cultural, political, and economic forces. The interplay of unpredictable factors generates the perceived value of artists, as well as the price of their work, and ultimately what ends up being labelled as art. The art industry produces an unstoppable stream of innovative ideas and artifacts, never-seen-before contaminations, and all sorts of category-defying "artwork." On the inevitable flip side are all kinds of aberrant deviations and plainly Barnumesque stunts. Today, everyone is welcome to decide for themselves what is what, and consume any piece of the cake of their liking. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/14/art-in-the-age-of-artifice.html

Famed Columbia University Ob-Gyn Dr. Robert Hadden was arrested in 2012 for licking a patient's vagina, but prosecutors didn't press charges, so Dr. Hadden went back to work. In the following weeks, he allegedly assaulted two more women, including Evelyn Yang, wife of former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, reports CNN.

Dr. Hadden took a plea deal and was able to register as the lowest-level sex offender. He was given no prison sentence, no probation, and no community service.

From CNN:

This defied the recommendation of the State of New York Board of Examiners of Sex Offenders to label Hadden a Level 2 -- or moderate -- offender, which would require his inclusion in an online sex-offender registry for life.

Elie Honig, a former federal and state prosecutor and a CNN legal analyst, called the 2016 agreement "inexplicable."

"I cannot think of any legitimate reason why you would give this guy a plea deal that would not put him behind bars for one day," he said. "It is unjust."

Since Yang went public with the assault, Dr. Hadden had been accused by 42 more women of sexual assault. Unfortunately, Dr. Hadden's plea deal includes a stipulation that the New York district attorney can't prosecute him for any of the 19 "similar crimes" the DA knew about.

Manhattan's DA refused to speak with CNN.

Image: CNN Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/14/dozens-of-woman-now-accuse-pro.html

"Two men, one highly detailed resin fantasy village, and five days to paint it."

If you're a fantasy tabletop gamer, you likely know about Tabletop World, two Croatian terrain makers whose resin-cast buildings are the gold standard in tabletop gaming.

You may also know Goobertown Hobbies and Real Terrain Hobbies, two of the best painters and terrain crafters in the game.

Tabletop World sent them $2500 worth of buildings, a small Medieval village, and the two crafters challenged each other to paint the town in just five days.

Besides it being fun to watch these guys hang out and paint these jaw-dropping buildings together, there are a lot of cool terrain painting and weathering techniques you can pick up.

Image: YouYube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/14/two-well-known-youtube-game-cr.html

The UK's Far Out Magazine has posted the playlists of 27 songs that Lou Reed was listening to when he died in 2013 of liver disease.

Reed continually kept his finger on the pulse of contemporary and popular music. Taking a hands-on approach to the developing technology around him, Reed controlled his own Spotify account which hosted several different playlists of songs he liked from the radio, or, alternatively, general songs he was listening to at that time.

Entitled ‘What I’m listening to’, Reed’s final contributions to his creative Spotify account was to curate two playlists for his followers. Combining some more predictable selections with the likes of Roy Orbison, Prince, Tom Waits and more, Reed also managed to raise a few eyebrows when he includes artists such as Nicki Minaj, Robyn and more.

Read the rest of the piece and access the playlists here.

Image: Danny Norton, CC BY 2.0 Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/14/the-27-song-playlist-that-lou.html

In this video on Pask Makes, he fashions a really lovely utility knife out of brass using nothing more than common shop tools like a saw, drill, hacksaw, router, files, etc.

If you've ever made a tool yourself, you know what an inspired object that tool can become in your shop. Imagine making and gifting one of these to a friend or loved one. They would cherish it for life.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/14/making-your-own-utility-knife.html

Michael Avenatti, the pugnacious lawyer who rose to fame representing porn star and Trump mistress Stormy Daniels, is now a convicted criminal. A jury found him guilty today of trying to extort millions of dollars from fashion brand Nike by threatening to publicly accuse them of making illegal payments to amateur athletes. He'll be sentenced in June, and faces two other trials: one on a count of fraud, and another for allegedly stealing Daniels' book advance.

Avenatti made the sign of the cross prior to the verdict being read, stared at the jury and looked down at the table. He told the lawyers, "Great job, you guys," and hugged one of them as he was led away to a backroom. He was not handcuffed. "Of course there will be an appeal," Scott Srebnick, Avenatti's lead defense attorney, told CNN. Srebnick said he was going to meet with Avenatti before his cient was taken to the Metropolitan Correctional Center, where he's been in custody throughout the trial. ...

Nike lawyers who took the stand during the trial said Avenatti told them he would hold a press conference claiming the company illegally paid players. In exchange for not going public, Avenatti told the lawyers in one meeting Nike would have to pay Franklin $1.5 million for any claims he had and immediately pay Avenatti and another attorney $12 million, and guarantee $15 to $25 million in payments for an internal investigation, prosecutors said.

"An old fashioned shakedown," as the prosecutor put it. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/14/michael-avenatti-convicted-of.html

Outside of Black Friday, there may be no bigger shopping day than the often-overlooked, unassuming Presidents’ Day. Sure, we can spend the day honoring Washington, Lincoln, and the rest of the crew — or we can just celebrate by embracing good old fashion American capitalism.

Hewlett Packard knows which way you want to go. The tech giant is jumping into the fray with both feet this year, offering up to 60 percent off on over 130 items as part of their Presidents’ Day Sale. If you’ve had your heart set on a new desktop, laptop, or even some flashy new peripheries for your office, this may be the perfect time to strike.

Here are a few of the standout offers: the HP Pavilion Laptop 15z, featuring an AMD Ryzen 5 3500U processor and 16GB of SDRAM, is only $549.99, a huge $750 savings off its regular price.

If gaming is your thing, you can upgrade your setup with a built-to-your-specs HP OMEN Obelisk 875-1040st desktop, powered by the new NVIDIA Turing GPU and a GeForce RTX graphics card. Regularly $1,399, this gaming behemoth is $300 off, down to just $1,099.

Even if you’re good with your base computer, you can also check out dozens of similarly discounted items, including printers, monitors, headphones, keyboards, software, and more.

And on top of those deals, you can also throw in a special code at checkout for even bigger savings: use code 5PDS2020 to get an extra 5 percent off select configurable PCs and bundles priced at $599 or more, or use code 10PDS2020 to get an extra 10 percent off PCs and bundles over $999. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/14/hp-can-help-you-upgrade-your-t.html

Starting in 2007, photographer and visual effects artist Dimitris Tsalkanis has been building a digital 3D model of ancient Athens. The result is an immersive historical recreation where everyone online is invited. How did Tsalkanis handle this Herculean (rather, Heraklean) task? He learned as he went. From Sarah Rose Sharp's article about Ancient Athens 3D in Hyperallergic:

“I had no previous experience on 3D and I started experimenting in my spare time,” said Tsalkanis in an email interview with Hyperallergic. “I always liked archaeology and since I am from Athens, I was always interested in its monuments and history. During my research, I realised that up until then no one had attempted a complete 3D reconstruction of ancient Athens..."

Tsalkanis stays up to date with his fantasy city, updating reconstructions constantly for better quality of models and better archaeological and historical accuracy...

Visitors to the site can browse reconstructions that date back as early as 1200 BCE, the Mycenaean period — or Bronze Age — through Classical Athens, featuring the rebuilds made necessary by the Greco-Persian War, and ages of occupation by Romans and Ottomans.

"Explore Ancient Athens Online Through 3D Models, Created by One Animator Over 12 Years" (Hyperallergic, thanks Mark Dery!)

Images below: "Aerial view of the Library of Hadrian" and "Panoramic view of the Acropolis," Dimitris Tsalkanis/Ancient Athens 3D

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/14/for-13-years-this-photographe.html

This is a really cool homebuilt arcade game project.

“My hobby is designing and building unique arcade games from scratch,” says IMGURian @builtbyblatt.

“This is The Blatt Box.”

This is Speed mode. You have 45 seconds to score as many points as possible by stopping two lights in circular motion when they meet at a tangent point. Each time you score the circles and direction are randomly reset. There is a small time penalty for a wrong stop and a small time bonus for a hit. The speed increases each time you score.

Check out the entire gallery, and --“If you want to support a friendly arcade artist, and see other original games, you can find me on Instagram - @BuiltByBlatt.”

My hobby is designing and building unique arcade games from scratch. This is The Blatt Box.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/14/my-hobby-is-designing-and-bu.html

An orphaned black bear cub has been placed with a substitute bear mom this week after the little baby bear was saved by a family dog, and tenderly brought to safety.

The amazing images of the rescued black bear cub in this post are from the Wildlife Center of Virginia, you can donate to them here.

Meet Black Bear cub #20-0084.

From the Wildlife Center of Virginia:

On February 6, an infant male Black Bear cub was admitted to the Wildlife Center. The cub was found the evening before in Washington County when a family dog brought home the tiny cub. The homeowners were unsure where the cub came from, so they called the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF). A biologist transported the cub to the Center.

Dr. Claire, the Center’s veterinary intern, examined the cub when he arrived and found that the cub was bright and alert, and vocalizing readily. The cub weighed just 540 g – smaller than cub #20-0064 at admission – and was mildly dehydrated, though otherwise was healthy.

The cub was settled into an incubator, and the rehabilitation staff added him to their ‘round-the-clock bottle feeding schedule

The wildlife rehab staff described Black Bear cub #20-0084 as bright, alert and “vocalizing readily.” They say the cub was placed with a new bear mother who was already nursing three cubs of her own on Wednesday.

From Southwest Virginia Today:

Staff members soon plan to introduce the cub to another cub at the center.

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/14/this-foster-mom-bear-is-ra.html