With many people playing their part to flatten the COVID-19 case curve by staying home, Korg and Moog are doing their part to keep them occupied by giving away free versions of their synthesizer apps.

For a limited time Moog’s Minimoog Model D iOS app and Korg’s iKaossilator app for iOS and Android are free to download. I got them both and they are a lot of fun.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/16/korg-and-moog-have-made-their.html

The BBC reports that a stag beetle threw his girlfriend from the top of a 25-meter tree. He is alleged to have assaulted number of other a male stag beetles earlier in the day before throwing his partner out of the tree. It's not clear whether or not the female survived the fall. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/16/stag-beetle-throws-girlfriend.html

Please enjoy the underground classic "Rabbit Habit" by Steve Peck, who writes:

This is an animated cartoon I produced myself in 1975 to show what Bugs, Daffy and Elmer would be doing in Central Park 12 years after WB stopped making Looney Tunes.....I showed it to Tex Avery in 1975 when he was 80 and he loved it and said "I wish I had a job to give you." Showed it to Chuck Jones. He was very conservative and did not like what I had done to his characters and did not offer me a job.

(via r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/16/watch-a-looney-tunes-cartoon-w.html

U.S. health officials confirmed on Monday the first human trial testing a potential vaccine to prevent COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

Read about the coronavirus vaccine clinical trial at the NIH website.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, has been fast-tracking work with biotech company Moderna to develop a vaccine using the current strain of the new coronavirus, reports CNBC:

The trial is taking place at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle, Washington, where COVID-19 cases have surged and authorities have banned mass gatherings. The early-stage, or phase 1, trial will test the vaccine on 45 males and non-pregnant females between the ages of 18 and 55, according to trial details on NIH’s website.

As I understand it, this first phase is about determining whether the drug causes harm to humans. Testing the safety of any new drug comes first.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director, last week said that even in the best case scenario, a vaccine isn't likely for at least 12 to 18 months.

More from CNBC:

He said the potential vaccine by Moderna contains genetic material called messenger RNA, or mRNA, that was produced in a lab. The mRNA is a genetic code that tells cells how to make a protein and was found in the outer coat of the new coronavirus, according to researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute.

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/16/first-human-trial-for-coronavi.html

Major U.S. passenger and cargo airlines say they need more than $50 billion in federal bailout money as the coronavirus pandemic closes businesses and dramatically slows down air travel.

A lobbying group that represents 10 U.S. passenger and cargo airlines said Monday that in a worst-case scenario, the airlines will “run out of money completely sometime between June 30 and the end of the year.”

More from CNBC:

The aid, if received, would be the industry’s first broad bailout since the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. It is also the clearest sign yet of the financial damage coronavirus and the draconian measures governments are taking to stop it are having on American businesses.

Airlines for America, which represents carriers including Delta, United, American, and Southwest, recommended passenger carriers immediately receive up to $25 billion in grants to compensate for reduced liquidity and in the medium-term $25 billion in low- or zero-interest loans.

More: US airlines seek more than $50 billion in government assistance as coronavirus roils business Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/16/airlines-want-50-billion-fede.html

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena today reports new evidence of accelerating glacier melt in Antarctica.

“Observations from 11 satellite missions monitoring the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have revealed that the regions are losing ice six times faster than they were in the 1990s,” reads the NASA JPL announcement.

“If the current melting trend continues, the regions will be on track to match the "worst-case" scenario of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of an extra 6.7 inches (17 centimeters) of sea level rise by 2100.”

The two regions have lost 6.4 trillion tons of ice in three decades; unabated, this rate of melting could cause flooding that affects hundreds of millions of people by 2100.

More from the news announcement:

The findings, published online March 12 in the journal Nature from an international team of 89 polar scientists from 50 organizations, are the most comprehensive assessment to date of the changing ice sheets. The Ice Sheet Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise team combined 26 surveys to calculate changes in the mass of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets between 1992 and 2018.

The assessment was supported by NASA and the European Space Agency. The surveys used measurements from satellites including NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite and the joint NASA-German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment. Andrew Shepherd at the University of Leeds in England and Erik Ivins at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California led the study.

The team calculated that the two ice sheets together lost 81 billion tons per year in the 1990s, compared with 475 billion tons of ice per year in the 2010's - a sixfold increase.

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/16/greenland-and-antarctica-melti.html

The complete abandonment of any leadership whatsoever. That's what we are witnessing in Donald Trump's response to the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic that is now killing Americans at an exponentially increasing rate.

“Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment — try getting it yourselves,” Donald Trump told state governors on an emergency pandemic conference call.

Yes. He said that.

From the NYT's live coverage:

President Trump told a group of governors Monday morning that they should not wait for the federal government to fill the growing demand for respirators needed to help people diagnosed with coronavirus.

“Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment — try getting it yourselves,” Mr. Trump told the governors during the conference call, a recording of which was shared with The New York Times.

“We will be backing you, but try getting it yourselves. Point of sales, much better, much more direct if you can get it yourself.”

The suggestion surprised some of the governors, who have been scrambling to contain the outbreak and are increasingly looking to the federal government for help with equipment, personnel and financial aid.

Mr. Trump used much of the call to repeat the same upbeat rhetoric he has offered in public, assuring the governors: “We’re going to get it remedied and hopefully very quickly.”

I mean, wow.

Wow. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/16/trump-to-states-respirators.html

“We have a simple message for all countries: Test, test, test. Test every suspected case.”

“You cannot fight a fire blindfolded, and we cannot stop this pandemic if we don't know who is infected,” The World Health Organization's Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a coronavirus briefing on Monday, as the pandemic continues to shut down cities around the world.

Here is the full briefing at the W.H.O's website.

"We have seen a rapid escalation in social distancing measures, like closing schools and cancelling events and other gatherings,” said Tedros, “But we haven't seen enough escalation in testing, isolation, and contact tracing, which is the backbone of the COVID-19 response.”

“The most effective way to prevent infections & save lives is breaking the chains of COVID-19 transmission. To do that, you must test and isolate.”

FULL TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS.

WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 16 March 2020

16 March 2020

Good afternoon everyone.

In the past week, we have seen a rapid escalation of cases of COVID-19.

More cases and deaths have now been reported in the rest of the world than in China.

We have also seen a rapid escalation in social distancing measures, like closing schools and cancelling sporting events and other gatherings.

But we have not seen an urgent enough escalation in testing, isolation and contact tracing – which is the backbone of the response.

Social distancing measures can help to reduce transmission and enable health systems to cope.

Handwashing and coughing into your elbow can reduce the risk for yourself and others.

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/16/who-on-coronavirus-test-te.html

In 1960 during the early days of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson, who died last month, wrote an article titled "Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation" for the journal Science. He posited that "if extraterrestrial intelligent beings exist and have reached a high level of technical development, one by-product of their energy metabolism is likely to be the large-scale conversion of starlight into far-infrared radiation." One way to achieve that, he suggested, was by building an "artificial biosphere surrounding one star." And with that seed, the science fiction (science fact?) idea of an alien megastructure has grown, even making its way onto an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. From Elizabeth Howell's article in Space.com:

One of Dyson's daughters sent the physicist a videotape of a 1987 episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" called "Relics," Dyson said. The plot follows a distress call heard by the famous USS Enterprise starship; fans of the series may recall this as a crossover episode with "Star Trek: The Original Series" star Montgomery "Scotty" Scott (played by James Doohan).

The crew warps in space to the source of the call and discovers an immense Dyson sphere — which is indeed portrayed as a solid spherical object — surrounding a star. If we were to place this sphere in our own solar system, it would be so large that it would extend almost as far as the orbit of Venus, according to "Star Trek" fan site Memory Alpha.

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/16/physicist-freeman-dysons-ali.html

Telepathy. ESP. The ability to communicate thoughts, feelings, or experiences without using our known sensory channels is a timeless superpower. Soon, advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, and computer science will make some kinds of synthetic telepathy possible. Meanwhile though, methods to treat brain disorders through magnetic stimulation of brain circuits could enable crude (or eventually not-so-crude) mind control. National Institutes of Health neuroscientist R. Douglas Fields -- author of Electric Brain: How the New Science of Brainwaves Reads Minds, Tells Us How We Learn, and Helps Us Change for the Better -- wrote a brief essay for Scientific American surveying the present, past, and possible future of this strange field. From Scientific American:

Neuroscientist Marcel Just and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University are using fMRI brain imaging to decipher what a person is thinking. By using machine learning to analyze complex patterns of activity in a person’s brain when they think of a specific number or object, read a sentence, experience a particular emotion or learn a new type of information, the researchers can read minds and know the person’s specific thoughts and emotions. “Nothing is more private than a thought,” Just says, but that privacy is no longer sacrosanct....

...The prospect of “mind control” frightens many, and brain stimulation to modify behavior and treat mental illness has a sordid history. In the 1970s neuropsychologist Robert Heath at Tulane University inserted electrodes into a homosexual man’s brain to “cure” him of his homosexual nature by stimulating his brain’s pleasure center.

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/16/a-neuroscientists-take-on-sy.html

French conglomerate LVMH -- owner of Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, and Christian Dior, and other luxury brands -- is converting its perfume production lines to crank out hand sanitizer. And no, they won't be selling high ticket hand sanitizer bottles in their boutiques.

"These gels will be delivered free of charge to the health authorities," the company announced. "LVMH will continue to honour this commitment for as long as necessary, in connection with the French health authorities."

(BBC)

image: Louis Vuitton 200ML Travel Case Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/16/louis-vuitton-converting-perfu.html

In this charming video, a hoss enjoys dipping its head beneath the surface of a pond and blowing bubbles like a kid with a milkshake.

If you would like to enjoy another clip like this, turn to page G5P_oZFjrb. If you would like this clip ruined for you, turn to page lHytjEj7B9g. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/16/horse-blows-bubbles.html

In 2014, reddit user u/damburglar posted this abandoned recreation of Edward Hopper's 1942 painting Nighthawks. That it's a plainly-rendered 3D model seems to make it even creepier. [via]

Here's one from Maxim Leyzerovich:

pic.twitter.com/y2Rd8H6Mxx

 Maxim Leyzerovich (@round) March 16, 2020

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/16/nighthawks-in-quarantine.html

Thousands of runners participated in a half-marathon in Bath, England this weekend despite warnings from public health experts that it could expose runners to the novel coronavirus. Organizers of the event, which usually attracts crowds of more than 10,000, refused to cancel it despite hundreds of cases in the U.K. and a growing tally of the dead.

Bath's MP Wera Hobhouse was among thousands condemning the decision to go ahead.

She called for the event to be cancelled saying protecting "the most vulnerable in our city from a further spread of the infection must be the priority". On the Bath half marathon's Facebook page some 1,800 people left comments, with a large number against the decision to go ahead.

The newspapers over in the UK are presenting the pandemic as if it were The Blitz, an opportunity to show Wartime Spirit and to enact War Measures and indulge the immortal British boomer fantasy that life there was never better than when the Germans were making the rubble bounce.

So we end up with 10,000 people in a slow-moving crowd spending hours grinding their bodies to gasping exhaustion during a viral pandemic, all to show 2019-nCoV What For. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/16/half-marathon-goes-ahead-in-br.html

When it comes to DIY electronics, there are few brand names that carry more weight these days than Arduino and the Raspberry Pi. Over the past 15 years, Arduino has grown from a tool to teach electronics to the uninitiated into an environment of startling innovation where creative minds fashion their own Arduino slow-drip coffee makers, fully functioning LEGO Wall-Es and even a $100, open-source VR headset to serve as your own budget Oculus Rift.

Meanwhile, the single-board microcomputer known as the Raspberry Pi has been a creative hotbed of its own, prompting its devotees to use the Pi as the brain behind a home weather station, your own knockoff Gameboy, or your own version of Tony Stark’s JARVIS personal assistant.

With The 2020 Complete Raspberry Pi and Arduino A-Z Hero Maker Bundle, even users who have never dabbled in homespun electronics before can learn how to harness these two sneaky powerful tools to start crafting cool stuff you only dreamed about before.

And there’s plenty to catch up on here, including nine courses, two ebooks and almost 100 hours of instruction that’ll have you unleashing the mad inventor inside all of us.

Over six courses, you’ll unlock all the secrets of Arduino as you start building a whole mess of fun, mind-expanding projects. After two introductory courses give you a firm understanding of what a simple Arduino Uno circuit board can do from simple buttons to LEDs to environmental sensors, training dives in on how to create some truly amazing Arduino projects. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/16/become-a-master-of-raspberry-p.html

Learning to code can be intimidating. It always takes some time and attention to develop any new skill, but for one with as many approaches as programming, it can be particularly nerve-wracking, especially when you’ve never dipped into those murky waters before.

Even if you fall into that absolute beginner category, the package of training in The 2020 Comprehensive Programming Collection offers up some solid primers on the basic languages, tools, and methods for building websites, creating apps and basically becoming a one-person digital content machine.

Ask a hiring manager the no. 1 skill they want to see on the resume of an IT job applicant and it’s knowledge of JavaScript. So this collection of nine courses starts with The Complete Beginner's JavaScript Course, introducing you to the basics of this core programming language.

While JavaScript serves as the backbone of web page building, it’s also instrumental in creating apps. It’s training that will serve you well in the four bundle courses centered around creating your own working apps. iOS App Development for Beginners and Intro to Java for Android Development will get you familiar with Android Studio and Swift, the two primary platforms for tailoring an app specifically to Android and iOS users.

You’ll expand that foundation with Discover React for Web Applications as you use the React JavaScript library for building cool interactive user experiences; and Develop an AR App for the Retail Industry, where you actually build a working augmented reality app that will show you how virtual furniture will look in your very real-world settings. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/15/from-page-building-to-apps-to.html

And just like that a star was born—Egg McMuffin Rat #subwaycreatures pic.twitter.com/vCeVirHRUK

 Rick (@SubwayCreatures) March 13, 2020

He's lovin' it. And I have to say, what's not to love. (That's a rhetorical question.)

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/15/meet-mcmuffin-rat.html

Out of toilet paper? Incapable of cleaning your butt without it? Got a well-stocked woodworking shop? Make your own from wood pulp! Quilted Northern's funny advert for "artisanal" toilet paper was satire in 2016, but now suggests a quality method for keeping your rear end America-clean during the coronapocalypse.

In all seriousness, many of you can clean your butt with the water in the toilet using your hand, which you then wash separately and thoroughly with soap.

Or you can do what I do: eat a pound of psyllium husks and graphite dust every morning and poop mysterious gray cylinders.

They won't flush, to be sure, but work quite well as control rods in third-generation pressurized heavy water reactors. Hey, it's better than ending up in a no-candu situation. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/15/how-to-keep-your-anus-thorough.html

My BFF, Alberto Gait'an, posted this on Facebook.

Not medical advice, just a first-person account.

This, from a girl from Wuhan who took care of her mother without getting infected herself:

https://m.weibo.cn/1260881931/4470252005665688

February 10 02:56 from the iPhone edited

Yesterday morning, I went to the (Wuhan) Union Hospital West Campus for an examination (see the previous blog). CT showed that I did not get the new coronavirus.

The attending doctor praised my protection work after knowing that I had taken care of my mother for five days, and ran back and forth in various hospitals in the city for more than ten days without being infected.

So today I will tell you how I did it, and I hope to help people like me who have to take care of their sick families.

I wore a jacket with a smooth surface. I don't know if it's better. I just think that a smooth surface is easier to take care of, and it's easier to wipe the surface with alcohol. But there is also an article that says it's better to wear down clothes? ? I don't really know.

I wore a hoodie inside the jacket, a usual one with a hood. Every day when I go out, I tie my hair first, wrap it with a shower cap, then put on the hood of my sweatshirt, and fasten the girdle of the hood.

I wore two masks, with an inner layer of n95 and an outer layer of ordinary medical masks.

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/15/how-a-woman-from-wuhan-took-ca.html

From The Brick Experiment Channel comes this test: "Let's see how Lego-compatible stainless steel axle deforms or breaks when high torque is applied. The test bench is made using only plastic Lego parts. Enjoy!"

Spoiler: the steel piece barely holds form at 5 Newton metres of torque, gives slowly at 9, and twists like warm candy at 15. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/15/lego-makes-short-work-of-steel.html