Here's a good video that shows how the increase in the number of Covid-19 follows an exponential growth curve. Each day, says 3Blue1Brown, the number of coronavirus cases is "between 1.15 and 1.25 of the number of cases the previous day."

3Blue1Brown writes: "While this video uses COVID-19 (aka the Coronavirus) as a motivating example, the main goal is simply a math lesson on exponentials and logistic curves. If you're looking for a video more focused on COVID-19 itself, I'd recommend taking a look at this one from Osmosis:"

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/09/explainer-video-this-is-a-go.html

Cat videos. They’re almost like a universal language; even people who don't love cats love cat videos. And what better way to overindulge than with CatVideoFest 2020, coming soon to a theater near you. What started as an experiment at a Minneapolis art center eight years ago quickly grew into an international phenomenon, and it's sweeping the country, with a curated compilation of the latest and best cat videos culled from countless submissions including “sourced animations, music videos, and internet powerhouses.” The first festival was held outdoors in the summer of 2012 and drew a crowd of 10,000!

Image: Catvideofest.com Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/09/purrrre-genius-catvideofest-2.html

With the coronavirus pandemic tanking markets and hammering stocks, wise investors should consider putting their remaining funds in this charming unicorn piggy bank [Amazon], equipped with a 1.5 inch coin slot at the top and a firm but easily-removable stopper underneath.

Measuring 6.75 x 4 x 3.5 inches, the unicorn can hold about three dollars in pennies and far more in other denominations, allowing thrifty kids to ride out the apocalypse with plenty of cash for candy, comics and .223 Remington/5.56 NATO ammunition.

VANVEVE Lovely Unicorn Piggy Bank for Girls [Amazon] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/09/unicorn-money-bank.html

Max Von Sydow is dead at 90. The Swedish-born actor appeared in more than 100 films and TV shows, with famed roles playing chess with death in 1957's The Seventh Seal, dressing down demons in 1973's The Exorcist and dressing up as Ming the Merciless in 1980's Flash Gordon.

He was often typecast in Hollywood as the sophisticated villain, which the Associated Press said was down to him being "all and lanky, with sullen blue eyes, a narrow face, pale complexion and a deep and accented speaking voice".

But, he once said in an interview: "What I as an actor look for is a variety of parts. It is very boring to be stuck in more or less one type of character."

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/09/max-von-sydow-1929-2020.html

Just because you can do a thing, doesn't mean you should. This rule especially holds true where the removal of radiation safeguards are involved. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/09/you-can-use-a-microwave-withou.html

If you have a photo in need of foliage, fire up Photoshop and generate for a 3D rendered Sakura Cherry Blossom, Redwood, Young Maple, Palm, or nearly three dozen other trees. Just go to Filter Render Tree and let your creativity, er, take root. This curious feature even enables you to tweak the leaf sizes, branch height, and other variables. But what's the story behind this curious feature? From Input:

The trees, it turns out, came in response to architectural artists who wanted to be able to drop trees into their work but struggled to smoothly integrate them into the image. Before the tree filter was introduced in 2014, designers would have to cut out a preexisting image of a tree taken at the right angle and then paste it in. “We thought it would be convenient if you could generate customizable trees that fit illustrations,” says Daichi Ito, the technical research artist who developed the tree filter for Adobe. “By ‘fit,’ I mean it doesn’t have a strong style; it’s somewhat realistic, but not photorealistic.”

Ito created the project as part of the development of an engine, codenamed Deco, that would help Photoshop create generative patterns. “Daichi came to us and said, ‘I can actually write a bunch of interesting scripts that leverage that Deco engine and allow us to generate all kinds of things,’” recalls Stephen Nielson, director of product management for Photoshop at Adobe. Ito spent a month writing the algorithm that created the generative images. “Generating tree data took me some more time,” he adds.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/09/photoshop-has-a-curious-featur.html

Penalties include fines as high as $500,000 as well as jail time of up to a year.

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/09/cdc-may-ground-flights-if-airl.html

The CDC created a website to make it easy to keep track of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., but it hasn't been updated in several days and is stuck at the count from late last week, with 11 deaths and 161 infections. In fact, nearly twice this number are dead with more than 500 testing positive.

The government (least of all the Trump administration) isn't taking it seriously, but newsmedia is starting to. CNN:

Starting today, you will notice that CNN is using the term pandemic to describe the current coronavirus outbreak. It is not a decision we take lightly. While we know it sounds alarming, it should not cause panic. So why now? The World Health Organization hasn't called the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. Nor has the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But many epidemiologists and public health experts argue the world is already experiencing a pandemic because of the novel coronavirus. There are now over 100,000 cases and over 3,000 deaths attributed to this new virus. In one day last week, the number of new cases outside of China, where the virus originated, was nearly 9 times higher than the number of new cases in China. This virus has found a foothold on every continent except for Antarctica. In several countries, the number of cases continues to climb.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/09/cdc-coronavirus-daily-update.html

From the Dungeon Masters Guild:

Eat the Rich is a collection of explicitly anticapitalist adventures for  the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. Each original adventure dives into classic D&D tropes, and puts a new spin on them. Tackling issues of workers’ rights, health care, the prison industrial complex, the environment, animal rights, agriculture and more, these adventures will make you passionate to join the revolution.

Eat the Rich features 17 original adventures for tiers 1-4, in a 213 page colour PDF. Set in the Forgotten Realms, Ravnica, Eberron, or ready to be dropped into your own setting, the anthology features work by a global team of new and established designers and artists.

If you want to free the Goblins from the bonds of racial oppression and forge your dwarves together in an iron working union to face down the tyrannical production expectations of the rock giants, now's your chance.

Eat the Rich, Volume 1 [Dungeon Masters Guild]

Image: Huntleigh / Wikimedia Commons (CC 3.0) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/09/revolutionize-your-next-dungeo.html

From outlines to lists to freeform scrawl that tumbles and twists its way across a page, everybody’s got their own style for taking notes. That style often comes from years of scholastic and professional arenas, refining the process for retaining key information that works best for you. And, as you probably learned from borrowing your buddy’s chem notes, trying to decipher somebody else’s takeaways from a lecture or assignment often requires a cryptography course of its own.

Technology is now stepping in to help put some form to all that note-taking function with the help of tools like the NEWYES Smart Pen and Writing Pad, a mostly paperless method of automatically digitizing and saving every critical piece of data — and even all your idle doodles.

The pen actually works two ways, with both traditional paper and ink or with full digitization. With the ink pen cartridge, you just jot down your notes as you would with a typical pen. However, by using the special NEWYES paper with its unique microdot pattern, your writings are tracked like GPS, immediately transferring what you’re writing in ink to a digital file in your connected phone or other devices.

Of course, if you want to abandon the old-school method completely, you can by changing to the stylus attachment and using the pen on the accompanying LCD pad, which also translates every pen movement on to your device.

In addition to capturing all your notes in digital form in real-time, the NEWYES app also lets you transform handwriting into written text for easier reading, record audio to accompany your note or capture video as your note is being written if you’d like to actually watch as your work comes to life. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/09/transform-your-handwritten-not.html

In my experience, the beds in Morocco are generally hard. Bounce a coin on one and you’ll lose a fucking eye. They are also cool and pleasant to sleep on. It was still dark when I first heard it: a single voice assuring observant Muslims that prayer is better than sleep. Other men soon joined the call to the first prayers of the day. I felt a smile fall on my face as I strained to make out individual voices. In under a minute, so many mu’azzin had joined the call that what once could be made out became a melodic din.

It was not a message meant for me. I drifted back into the black as the undulating prompt to pray continued.

After being awake for close to 24 hours the day before, we slept in until 10am, our internal clocks synced, through misadventure, with Moroccan time. As we stumbled downstairs, our host made us breakfast. The features of the meal were ones that we’d come to know well over the next three weeks: A single scrambled egg, served with fresh-squeezed orange juice, an an assortment local breads and a pastry. Using my questionable Canadian French, our host Basal’s Belgian-accented French, and a smattering of assistance from Google Translate, we hash out some pleasant conversation about the surrounding area. When asked where we could find a local SIM card and where the nearest bank could be had, Basal threw on his shoes and offered to show us the way himself. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/09/my-life-on-the-road-marrakesh.html

Sign of the times. Unfortunately for the people hoarding toilet paper during the coronavirus outbreak, toilet paper does absolutely nothing to protect you from coronavirus.

Photo captured by @kyleivanblake via IMGUR. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/09/the-great-toilet-paper-shortag.html

First off, we wanted to give you one last reminder that we’re holding on to an iPhone 11, a pair of AirPods and a Belkin wireless charging pad, all with your name on them. They’re free — and they’re just waiting for you to make a move. All you’ve gotta do is enter the iPhone 11 giveaway by filling out the form and getting it back to us by March 9th. Be the randomly-selected winner -- and you’re instantly teched up. And it costs you nothing.

Of course, not every offer out there is basically something for nothing. Below are a handful of computer accessories that, while not being free, are all on sale at some pretty hefty discounts.

Keyboard and Mouse

If you want to upgrade your Mac setup, you can step up to a cool new Apple Magic Keyboard and mouse tandem and save over $50. The Apple Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad (Certified Refurbished, $99.99; originally $129.99) is wireless with scissor mechanisms beneath each key for added stabilization. And the Apple Magic Mouse 2 (Certified Refurbished, $54.99; originally $79.99) tracks easier and moves with less resistance for a perfect great combo.

Chargers

Power on the go is always a huge consideration, and each of these items can help make sure that’s never an issue, no matter where to travel.  If you’re short on outlets, the HyperGear 3-in-1 Multi-Charger, Holder and Nightlight ($19.99; originally $29.99) has two grounded outlets and 2 USB ports and it even holds your phone while it charges. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/08/heres-your-last-chance-to-w.html

After having a computer study the speech patterns of an American President famed for his public speaking one naturally has it recite Palpatine?

Alan Watts would be more fun. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/08/computer-generated-jfk-gives-t.html

In an age where blockbuster MMOs and aggressive action-adventure games dominate the landscape, there’s always something to be said for smart, atmospheric, slow-burn gaming that truly forces players to stretch their minds rather than their firepower to notch a victory.

That’s why the sci-fi themed, first-person puzzler Lightmatter has already started building a following as one of the most engaging and demanding new games of 2020.

A descendant of past puzzle classics like Myst and Portal, Lightmatter finds the player stuck in the halls of the seemingly abandoned Lightmatter Technologies building. The company’s mad scientist of a CEO has unleashed a new power source called Lightmatter. As always, scientific tampering has its downsides — and the unholy side-effect of this experiment are weaponized shadows.

Yes, all the shadows in this mostly darkened building can kill you dead. Unfortunately, there’s no simple light switch to be found either. You’re going to have to get creative and be resourceful to maintain constant access to life-sustaining light, solve the widening pool of mysteries found in the building and ultimately stop Lightmatter’s sinister plot before it’s too late.

In addition to surviving the trek through seemingly endless tunnels and rooms holding both hidden knowledge and doom, you’ll also be sucked in by the visual creativity of Lightmatter as various light tricks and tactics offer some eye-candy dazzle to this tightly-wound story.

Created by Tunnel Vision Games, Lightmatter is already kicking up a lot of attention in gaming circles, generating a host of very positive reviews on game platform Steam. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/08/in-the-ingenious-game-lightmat.html

Tech moves so fast that practically the minute you lift the latest, fastest, most tricked-out new laptop on the market off the store shelf, the staff is filling that space with a newer, faster, even more, tricked-out model.

That’s just the speed of advancement — and that march is unstoppable. So instead of paying a premium for a laptop that’ll be discounted in a few months, it pays to always consider the factory-certified route. That approach nets you a recent model with comparable features to models still in their boxes, all guaranteed to work like new at a savings of hundreds off their original sticker price.

Microsoft is moving some of that open-box stock right now with a sale on factory recertified Surface 2 laptops, now more than half off their original price at just $1,199.99.

Sleek and light, with improved speed and performance, the Surface 2 is designed for multitaskers. Powered by a super-fast 8th generation Intel Core i5 processor running at 1.6GHz, this laptop has the juice to juggle multiple active apps all running at once seamlessly. With 8GB of RAM and a spacious 256GB hard drive, this is more than enough machine to handle anything from basic web-surfing and emailing to more labor-intensive app work.

Rocking a 13.5-inch PixelSense Display with an interactive touchscreen and razor-sharp resolution, it’s perfectly suited for artists and other visual creators, not to mention anyone who likes to binge a whole show on Netflix in a single sitting. And with battery life approaching 15 hours, you probably won’t even have to plug in to finish the season. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/08/microsoft-is-offering-recertif.html

Erik Prince is the billionaire mercenary who behind the private military contracting empire of Blackwater and their many war crimes. He's also the brother of US education secretary Betsy Devos (who in turn is married to the guy who pioneered pyramid schemes) and has served as a kind of "shadow advisor" to Trump, including an effort to privatize the entire war in Afghanistan and an alleged secret trip to the Seychelles to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He's basically Destro from GI JOE, but in real life, and somehow more evil (and without the shiny head).

The Intercept had previously reported that the Trump Administration had considered using Prince's black-ops services to counter the made-up threat of the "Deep State." Now the New York Times has confirmed that this happened, in a way that's both shadier than I would've expected and somehow still not all that surprising:

One of the former spies, an ex-MI6 officer named Richard Seddon, helped run a 2017 operation to copy files and record conversations in a Michigan office of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers’ unions in the nation. Mr. Seddon directed an undercover operative to secretly tape the union’s local leaders and try to gather information that could be made public to damage the organization, documents show.

Using a different alias the next year, the same undercover operative infiltrated the congressional campaign of Abigail Spanberger, then a former C.I.A. officer who went on to win an important House seat in Virginia as a Democrat.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/08/blackwater-founder-erik-prince.html

Back in 2007, high schooler Mike Radenbaugh got tired of pumping his old bicycle back and forth to campus every day. Instead, he pulled together some parts, attached an electric motor to his bike — and his first e-bike was born.

It wouldn’t be his last. 13 years later, Radenbaugh heads up Seattle-based Rad Power Bikes, the largest and fastest-growing e-bike company in North America.

And before you dismiss e-bikes as cute, but inconsequential tech toys, consider this: 28 percent of e-bike buyers told a National Institute for Transportation and Communities survey that they bought their bike specifically to replace driving. And when you know that the average car trip is less than six miles, the prospect of zipping to your destination and back with an electrically-powered pedaling assist starts feeling a lot more realistic.

Factor in the dollar savings on gas, the reduced carbon footprint and just the enjoyment of being outside rather than sequestered in your car, and it isn’t hard to see why Rad is seeing their sales figures explode.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt to make a great product too. Rad Power Bikes launched with the exotic RadRover electric fat tire bike, a bold step away from traditional, more dainty e-bike models. Since then, Rad bikes are all designed with the same vision, combining function, power, comfort, and utility.

In addition to high-quality bikes with features head-and-shoulders above their competitors, each Rad model is also tailored to specific user needs. If you’re a busy parent, the RadWagon can haul kids around. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/07/rad-power-ebikes-might-be-the.html

I’ll admit to having been a CBD denier. I dismissed it as a bullshit trend; the second-most overrated after kombucha. The variety of products I’d tried always left me feeling somewhere between slightly nauseous and groggy. And mentally dull. It didn’t seem to matter what form the product took, or which sort of extra bells and whistles had been added to “enhance” the oil.

Add to that the dizzying variety of distinctions: hemp extract vs. hemp seed oil, full-spectrum vs. broad-spectrum, oils vs. tinctures, the addition of terpenes, the claims of “sustainably grown,” “lab tested,” and “pure,” and, most maddening, the all-over-the-map price points that make no clear sense.  Reading ingredient labels left me further confused, but more determined to sort it all out.

I wanted something simple, but my standards were high. A Google search for “organic CBD drops” was a rabbit hole of false leads and dead ends. So I created my own filters, and after researching about a trillion oils, winnowed down the options from there.

Filter #1: Organic

If I opt for organic vegetables, why shouldn’t my CBD oil rise to the same standards? This one simple step eliminated all but a handful of products.

Filter #2: Purity

I wanted plain CBD oil drops, not a Wiccan brew of essential oils, spices, and exotic immunity boosters preserved in alcohol. Furthermore, I’m a grown-up, I don’t need my CBD oil to taste like a candy cane or an orange popsicle, and I couldn’t find any good reason why it should contain another ingredient besides its carrier oil. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/07/not-all-cdb-drops-are-created.html

Moving forward in any career requires constant learning. The day you’re no longer open to new systems and new methods and new ways of improving how you go about your craft is the day someone else will learn those skills — and make you obsolete.

For decades, there’s been no more reliable arbiter of what IT professionals need to know than the non-profit trade association CompTIA. Recognition as a CompTIA-certified pro is among the highest designations a tech expert can achieve.

You can get the complete training needed to pass some of the most critical CompTIA certification exams with this Complete CompTIA Certification Training Bundle. Right now, the bundle is over 90 percent off, just $49.99.

This collection of 12 courses will take students over 200 hours to complete. But once they’re done, they’ll have all the knowledge needed to pass vital CompTIA testing, like the all-important core CompTIA A+ (220-1001) and (220-1002) courses. Over nearly 30 hours, this training gets into all aspects of IT service, including mobile devices, networking technology, hardware, cloud computing, network troubleshooting, security, operational procedures and more.

From there, students can go deep into more focused fields with the background to add extra certifications in more core IT disciplines. Learners can earn CompTIA PenTest+ qualifications with experience in network and system penetration testing; CompTIA Security+ certification with knowledge of different types of threats and attacks, networking technologies and tools, secure design architecture and more; and CompTIA Mobility+, with training in mobile device management, troubleshooting, security, and network infrastructure. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/07/get-200-hours-of-elite-compti.html