In Reader's Digest, Megan Kennett writes about the time a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent at JFK asked her if she was bringing any fresh fruit or vegetables into the country. Instead of truthfully answering "no" she said told the agent she had gotten rid of a smashed banana and that's why her suitcase might smell like a banana. As soon as she said that, "the agent stood up, took my passport, and then started to walk away, looking at me only once to say, 'Follow me.' That was it. No explanation, no going back."

She was taken to a holding room:

The banana police then brought me to what I like to call “agriculture jail,” which is a holding room for the USDA. Here, as with the agent, no one spoke to me or explained what was happening—or gave me back my passport... After a while, an agent behind the desk called my name and handed me my passport. “Can you tell me what’s going on?” I inquired. “Take your bags to the secondary agriculture check,” was the reply. So, that was a “no.”

Kennett was finally cleared to go when a more thorough search revealed that she was not in possession of a banana. But she says she was added to a watch list of banana smugglers and every time she traveled for the next year she and her family were escorted to “agriculture jail” and sent through secondary screening.

Photo by Alberto Bigoni on Unsplash

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https://boingboing.net/2020/02/25/after-passenger-told-u-s-cus.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/25/if-you-lose-your-keys-phone.html

Italy coronavirus deaths now stand at 7, with 220 people infected. Italian villages are now on lockdown in Europe's worst flare-up of COVID-19.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus today says word “pandemic” does not yet fit the facts.

“We must focus on containment while preparing for a potential pandemic,” he told reporters in Geneva, and says the world is not yet seeing an uncontained spread or large-scale deaths.

The epidemic in China peaked between Jan. 23 and Feb. 2 and has been declining since, the WHO said.

Dr. Mike Ryan, head of WHO’s emergencies program, told reporters it was still possible to contain the virus and that it might appear each year like the flu.

“The virus may settle down into an endemic pattern of transmission, into a seasonal pattern of transmission, or it could accelerate into a full-blown global pandemic,” he said in Geneva on Monday. “And at this point, it is not possible to say which of those realities is going to happen.”

The outbreak has spread beyond China's Hubei province to at least 29 countries or territories, with two dozen confirmed deaths, according to a Reuters tally.

Read more: Coronavirus kills seventh person in Italy, pandemic fears grip Wall Street [reuters]

If true, this revelation by Conte ("mismanagement of security 'protocols' in one hospital") can maybe justify the astonishing outbreak and rapid death toll of #Coronavirus in Northern Italy. Hospitals and GPs surgeries are the perfect scenarios for the virus to spread (and kill).

 Antonello Guerrera (@antoguerrera) February 24, 2020

Coronavirus halts 'Mission: Impossible 7' filming in Venice, Italy https://t.co/pSw8XUC4dH

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https://boingboing.net/2020/02/24/italy-coronavirus-death-toll-n.html

As you shiver your way through February, you’re probably thinking about paying your heating bill. But in just a few short months, the summer sun is going to come calling — and the fear of pulling that energy bill out of your mailbox will start becoming very, very real.

Air conditioning accounts for about an eighth of a U.S. home’s total household energy costs, which translates to hundreds of dollars a year. Instead, invest now in driving those monthly bills down this summer with a Star Tripod 16-inch Stand Fan, now almost $100 off its regular price.

And no, this isn’t one of those cheap plastic air-swirlers you’d buy at Walmart that sounds like it could rattle apart at any minute.

This Star fan is solid construction, top to bottom. A full-metal, 120-volt, 60-watt fan built from die-cast parts, this is heavy-duty industrial-style equipment made to survive for the long haul.

The 3-speed oscillating head spreads cool air throughout the space with adjustable height and tilt from atop the well-balanced, 3-pronged hardwood legs. Standing up to 58 inches tall, the legs give this model a vintage, classic look that makes it just as style conscious as it is energy conscious.

Available in Matte Black or Satin Nickel finishes, you can get the Star Tripod Stand Fan now for $90 off its retail price, just $359.99. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/24/this-fan-looks-amazing-in-your.html

The large black bear in this video was observed ambling around a Monrovia, California neighborhood last Friday morning. The bear walked through residential lawns, driveways and rested in a nearby alley.

The Monrovia Police Department says officers observed the bear's activities, after people phoned in, and called state Department of Fish and Wildlife workers to the neighborhood.

From the Associated Press:

The bear was eventually tranquilized and taken to the nearest suitable forest habitat, said Tim Daly, a Fish and Wildlife spokesman. “One of our guys out on the scene described the bear as huge — about 400 pounds (181 kilograms) — female and older,” Daly said. “In the bear world, she would be described as elderly.”

The bear was otherwise fine, he said.

“It’s a little alarming how close and comfortable people were getting up next to this bear, but there were no incidents, so we’re happy about that,” he added. It was believed to be the same bear seen a day earlier in Monrovia, where it’s not uncommon for animals to wander out of the sprawling Angeles National Forest above the city.

Monrovia sits at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, and when the weather warms up the big mammals tend to come down and look for food each year, according to the Monrovia city bear safety page.

More: Bear takes stroll through California neighborhood (Feb. 21, YouTube) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/24/monrovia-bear.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/24/gentleman-drives-jeep-off-6-st.html

I was watching "Love Island" live on ITV2 the other day (don't judge) when this bizarre commercial flashed across the screen.

I live in the States, so I don't usually watch British television as it airs. I have no idea what the usual commercial content looks like. But apparently this Uncanny Valley Of Penis Fingers has been in circulation for about a year and a half. British television has always been less prude than American shows, but I still have to wonder how effective this advertising campaign has been to run for that long, and in such a prime slot. Maybe Vodafone just found the trick to profit off a sea of dicks. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/24/im-pretty-sure-this-british.html

Aparece extra~na criatura en playas mexicanas https://t.co/QksU4bFgWn pic.twitter.com/SdMVRS6LF3

 Revista Bohemia (@bohemiaonline) February 13, 2020

Vaguely-sourced and the toast of British tabloids, this unfortunate creature reportedly washed ashore on the beach at Destiladeras, Mexico. It has a dolphin-like head, but no eyes and a large eel-like body.

Local media confirmed that no one had been able to identify the strange animal, but there were also no reports in the media suggesting that it was a fake.

I love that they "confirmed" no-one knows anything about it. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/24/eyeless-dolphin-like-creature.html

Twentieth Century Flicks is the world's oldest surviving video rental store. The offer 20,000 films (yes, many on VHS too) and even have screening rooms. This shop embodies much of what I miss about how I experienced media growing up before the dark times... Before the modern Web.

Be kind, rewind.

Directed by Arthur Cauty.

Previously on Boing Boing:

• "Only one Blockbuster Video Store left standing"

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/24/a-visit-to-the-worlds-oldest.html

Gerald Corrigan, 74, went outside his house at midnight to check his satellite dish after the TV signal failed. It was a trap: he was shot in the dark with a crossbow bolt, which punctured internal organs and led to his death three weeks later from sepsis. His killer was Terence Whall, 39, convicted today of Corrigan's murder.

Police suspected Whall, a local with a crossbow collection, but had no evidence to tie him to the crime. How was he caught? His partner's car was mysteriously torched, which led police to contact its manufacturer, Jaguar Land Rover, which sent them its backed-up telematics records.

The vehicle was driven to Corrigan's house the day before the killing, then to a nearby beach, then back to Whall's residence. On the day itself, the car was driven to the beach an hour before the attack. It was next started about 12 minutes after it.

The system recorded the trunk being opened and closed twice, before and after Corrigan was shot.

Image: Family photo (handout) / Crown Prosecution Service Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/24/crossbow-killer-exposed-by-car.html

Researchers discover a potential new way in which diet influences aging-related diseases.

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/24/olive-oil-in-mediterranean-d.html

A lot of roleplaying gamers who are used to playing in "theater of the mind" mode (with nothing more than pencil, paper, dice, and vivid imaginations) are often intimidated by the idea of switching over to miniatures and terrain-based gaming. The idea of acquiring and painting the minis, building a gaming board, and making a bunch of terrain and props can be an overwhelming prospect. All of this "dungeon crafting" really is a hobby unto itself for many of us [raises hand].

So, I really like these projects on Dungeon Craft. Basically, you build a stone floor on top of a lazy Susan using insulation foam and some simple walls, doors, and other dungeon furnishings (also out of foam). Your main tool is a gel pen that you use to simply draw/carve the stones into the foam.

You don't need to create a complete dungeons and all of the furnishings to do mini-based RPGs. All you need is this little, moveable theater-in-the-round stage that you can change up with each encounter you're looking to represent to your players.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/24/a-great-non-intimidating-way.html

How does an owl's tail help it fly? To better see the role of the tail in raptor aerodynamics, researchers at the UK's Royal Veterinary College recorded birds of prey flying through clouds of tiny helium bubbles. According to the science journal Nature, analyzing the swirling motion of the bubbles enabled the scientists to discover "a new way in which birds use their tail to provide lift and so reduce drag while gliding... Their findings could provide a new way to improve the efficiency of small gliding aircraft."

More: "High aerodynamic lift from the tail reduces drag in gliding raptors" (Journal of Experimental Biology)

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/24/incredible-slo-mo-video-of-rap.html

Baby Yoda brought the internet together, its adorableness somehow overpowering the divisive animosity that has otherwise ruled over this pre-post-apocalyptic era.

And now the Army's branded the Child onto the cannon of an M1 Abrams tank.

https://twitter.com/USArmy/status/1230357926289846272/photo/1

You can re-appropriate the Punisher all you'd like, but please leave our sweet Baby Yoda out of it. In the famous words of Baby Yoda's older counterpart, "Wars not make one great."

We salute the Army crew that named their tank 'Baby Yoda' [Jared Keller / Task and Purpose]

Image: U.S. Army by PFC. Daniel Alkana Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/24/baby-yoda-has-finally-jumped-t.html

The great Katherine Johnson, one of the legendary African-American mathematicians who were essential to the Apollo 11 moon landing, has died at age 101. You'll recall that Johnson, who worked at NASA’s Flight Research Division for more than three decades, was the central character in the film Hidden Figures. From the New York Times:

Mrs. Johnson was one of several hundred rigorously educated, supremely capable yet largely unheralded women who, well before the modern feminist movement, worked as NASA mathematicians.

But it was not only her sex that kept her long marginalized and long unsung: Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson, a West Virginia native who began her scientific career in the age of Jim Crow, was also African-American.

In old age, Mrs. Johnson became the most celebrated of the small cadre of black women — perhaps three dozen — who at midcentury served as mathematicians for the space agency and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.

In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, proclaiming, “Katherine G. Johnson refused to be limited by society’s expectations of her gender and race while expanding the boundaries of humanity’s reach.”

In 2017, NASA dedicated a building in her honor, the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility, at its Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

More: Katherine Johnson (NASA)

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In balmy Edmonton, a woman was arrested for liberating a package from a front porch. Watch the exciting police action on YouTube!

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https://boingboing.net/2020/02/24/watch-porch-pirate-busted-in.html

Since my post about dead babies wearing other babies' skulls as hats went over so well, I thought I'd share several more videos from my favorite funeral director and "death enthusiast," Caitlin Doughty.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/24/more-fun-mortuary-history-with.html

I'm a big fan of Spotify's Daily Drive playlist, which is basically just Algorithmic Radio that delivers a custom mix of news and music based on my listening habits. That's how I ended listening to a podcast briefing from MarketWatch, warning about the negative impact that coronavirus is having on the luxury real estate market in the United States.

Local realtors in big cities like New York and San Francisco depend heavily on foreign investors (20 percent of whom are Chinese nationals) to buy up their inventory of recently-constructed overpriced luxury condos. And then those apartments just … kind of … sit there vacant, increasing the demand for housing and causing property values to rise, forcing out working-class families who can't afford to live in that (again, largely unoccupied) area, which spreads out the range of the greater metro areas, increasing commuter congestion and creating more opportunities for real estate investors to build more luxury condos in more remote areas to accommodate this artificially-inflated demand, which continues to be good for people who work in real estate and for foreign investors but for absolutely nobody else.

Except now, those foreign investors aren’t buying up properties as quickly as they used to, because they can't travel to the States to close the deal. And that's bad. For the economy, I mean. Or at least, for the handful of people who have been fortunate enough to profit while everyone else is slapped with higher rents and longer commutes.

But this information was of course presented with no sympathy for those who are affected by coronavirus, or by the housing crisis. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/24/how-coronavirus-impacts-climat.html

As of 12:35pm ET, the Dow Jones index is down nearly 1,000 points, due mainly to uncertainty about how Covid-15 will affect international trade. To balance the decline, here are two things that are going up: Gold, which is at at 7-year high, and seniors, who getting higher than ever.

From CNBC: "Spot gold climbed 2.1% at $1,677.24 per ounce. The session high, $1,688.66, was its highest since January 2013. U.S. gold futures jumped 2.2% to $1,684.30."

From CNN: "The numbers of American seniors over age 65 who now smoke marijuana or use edibles increased two-fold between 2015 and 2018, according to research published Monday in JAMA."

 

Images: Weed, CC0 Public Domain; Joyful elf, CC0 Public Domain. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/24/the-stock-market-is-plunging-t.html

I found this thread on Twitter pretty funny, where writer Nicole Najafi imagines what dates might be like with all of the Democratic candidates.

I went on a date with every presidential candidate so you don't have to. (thread 1/9) pic.twitter.com/v9Ou5eGcwn

 Nicole Najafi (@NicoleNajafi) February 22, 2020

pic.twitter.com/qCA8YfvI4E

 Nicole Najafi (@NicoleNajafi) February 22, 2020

pic.twitter.com/qfyFvxVVpa

 Nicole Najafi (@NicoleNajafi) February 22, 2020

pic.twitter.com/LsaRogI7UT

 Nicole Najafi (@NicoleNajafi) February 22, 2020

Image: Public Domain Read the rest

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