On March 17, Amazon employees complained that not enough safety precautions were in place to protect them from COVID-19. Cut to a week later, and Amazon employees from ten different warehouses in the United States have now tested positive with the coronavirus.

From The Washington Post:

In the past few days, Amazon workers tested positive for covid-19, the disease caused by the novel virus, two in New York City; Shepherdsville, Ky.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Katy, Tex.; Brownstown, Mich.; Oklahoma City; Moreno Valley, Calif.; Joliet, Ill.; and Wallingford, Conn., according to Amazon and local media reports. In some cases, Amazon shut down facilities for cleaning, and some co-workers who were in close contact with their infected colleagues have been quarantined.

At least 1,500 Amazon workers globally signed a petition within the last week asking for more regulations to prevent the spread of the disease after company employees in Spain and Italy had been infected. They complained that "Amazon pushes them to meet the per-hour rate at which it wants orders fulfilled, a practice that they worry discourages safe sanitary practices such as washing hands after a cough or sneeze. Others have complained about “stand-up” meetings, where workers stand shoulder-to-shoulder at the start of each shift," according to The Washington Post.

Amazon has increased pay by $2/hour until May and is currently looking to hire 100,000 new workers to help with the staggering demands that have erupted since the outbreak. Let's hope they have an endless supply of face masks and gloves to last through the season. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/amazon-workers-have-been-infec.html

This dad in China created a 'baby pod' suit to protect his child from coronavirus. His ingenious DIY design was reportedly based on the action game "Death Stranding."

Cao Junjie, who is 30 and lives in Shanghai with wife and baby, used a cat carrier to make the sealable pod that includes an air-quality monitor that displays how much carbon dioxide is inside.

“Because of the epidemic, I spent a month making this baby safety pod for my kid,” he said. “It can provide a safe and comfortable environment for the baby,”

From Ruptly:

A father from Shanghai designed a safety cabin to protect his child from coronavirus, as footage filmed on Friday shows.

The special suit, inspired by the popular action game 'Death Stranding', is made of a cabin with a filter inside and a screen showing the air quality. A special entry with gloves allows the parents to reach the baby anytime.

"Because I like scientific movies and games, the structure of the safety cabin is similar to the game Death Stranding, I checked the character in the game," explained the father.

Cao Junjie also said he developed the pod to carry his baby outside, and that the special suit allows him and the whole family to take a stroll outside despite the outbreak of coronavirus.

And from Reuters, where a reporter spoke to Cao Junjie:

Cao Junjie, 30, refashioned a cat carrier to make the sealable pod that includes an air-quality monitor displaying the concentration of carbon dioxide inside.

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/coronavirus-dad-made-suit-fro.html

just a reminder that if your fellow self quarantining neighbors are being too loud you might be able to connect to their Bluetooth speaker pic.twitter.com/6zi0ozJoWc

 Matt O'Brien (@matt_obrien) March 24, 2020

Love thy neighbor! To a point, anyway. Matt O'Brien suggests that if your neighbors are playing their music too loud for you to handle, you might be able to hijack their Bluetooth speaker with the below song he recorded just for that occasion. It's pretty catchy!

(Thanks, Jeff Cross!) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/harsh-but-funny-way-to-get-you.html

Turkey's interior minister said today the government has arrested 410 people for making “provocative” posts on social media about the coronavirus outbreak, which continues to worsen in the country and around the world.

From Reuters:

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu praised Turks for complying with social distancing measures imposed so far to curtail the spread of the disease, and said this meant tighter controls such as a curfew may be unnecessary.

Turkey has shut schools, cafes and bars, banned mass prayers, postponed sports matches and suspended flights. The number of confirmed cases of the virus in Turkey rose by 343 to 1,872 on Tuesday. Forty-four people have died.

Soylu noted that since the restrictions were put in place, the number of passengers on inter-city buses had fallen 83% and traffic intensity within 15 major cities had fallen 65%.

Turkey rounds up hundreds for social media posts about coronavirus Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/turkey-arrests-410-citizens-fo.html

Dan Denegre (Space Race Studio) used his DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone to shoot this eerie yet beautiful video of San Francisco on pause. The soundtrack is "La Guitarra Triste" by Cast of Characters.

"Thankfully few people are outside (I wasn't even close to a person), but seeing the shops boarded up is tough to see," Denegre writes. "I made sure the drone wasn't a nuisance to anyone while shooting this short documentary of this...very weird time in San Francisco."

(Thanks, Imaginary Foundation!) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/an-eerily-beautiful-drone-vide.html

Today I learned that Pee-wee's Picture Phone was inspired by MAD Magazine!

So, there's this story going around about a guy who fooled his coworkers into thinking he lived in a luxury apartment. By sitting in front a backdrop he printed out and taped together of an "apartment interior," he made them believe he was living in a nicer, and cleaner, place than he actually does.

Ok, so, the man, software engineer Andrew Ecklel, said he was inspired by the Picture Phone from Pee-wee's Playhouse. If you remember, Pee-wee would answer calls from his Picture Phone in front of a variety of backdrops, usually in a coordinating costume.

Well, Pee-wee heard Andrew's story and wrote a blog post about it. In it, he reveals his own inspiration for the Picture Phone — MAD Magazine!

He writes, "This was featured in a 1957 issue. I saw it years later and was inspired to bring it into my Playhouse!! I bet you didn’t know that!! We used a different backdrop for every call for all five seasons. We never repeated one. Many times I had a hat or some kind of prop or both that went with the backdrop. True story!"

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image via Andrew Eckel/Imgur, screengrabs via Pee-wee's Playhouse, MAD Magazine image via Steve Bellovin Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/pee-wee-herman-reveals-the-ins.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/britney-spears-calls-for-wealt.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/how-to-look-cute-on-your-webca.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/24/after-a-japanese-grade-school.html

It was announced today on the Facebook pages of Robert Fripp of King Crimson, KMFDM, and several other bands, that celebrated industrial and progressive rock drummer, Bill Rieflin, has died. He apparently died of influenza.

Robert Fripp posted to his Facebook page:

Call from Tracy Rieflin in Seattle. Bill Rieflin flew from this world c. 18.50 Pacific, 18.50 UK. Tracy told Toyah and me that the day was grey, and as Bill flew away, the clouds opened and the skies were blue for about fifteen minutes. Fly well, Brother Bill! My life is immeasurably richer for knowing you.

Ministry posted to their page:

Today we lost a wonderful artist, tremendous human being, and an integral part of Ministry’s developments and success… Safe travels my brother on the way to your next universal gig.

Jared Louche of the band Chemlab (and a Pigface) wrote:

Bill Rieflin, one of the most fascinating, complicated, and creative drummers we’ve had the pleasure of watching evolve, has just died, confirmed by his friend Robert Fripp. As if 2020 wasn’t bad enough already. Fuck me.

Here is Bill and Chris Connelly performing Robert Wyatt's Sea Song.

Sail on, Bill.

Image: Jeff Henry, NC 2.0 Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/24/rip-bill-rieflin-drummer-for.html

Cocaine, as they say, is one hell of a drug. In fact, it was recently shown in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science to have greatly helped the re-wilding a good chunk of Columbia.

How you might ask?

Pablo Escobar's hippos, which are still hanging around breeding in Columbia today, were bought with cash made from selling massive amounts of nose candy. Instead of simply shitting in the water and troubling anything that moves, they've been busy fulfilling the role of long-absent megafauna in Columbia's ecosystem.

From Gizmodo:

“While we found that some introduced herbivores are perfect ecological matches for extinct ones, in others cases the introduced species represents a mix of traits seen in extinct species,” study co-author John Rowan, a study co-author and biology researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said in a statement.

Pablo’s hippos, for instance, are similar in diet and size to the now-extinct giant llamas that once roamed the area. They’re also similar in size and semiaquatic behavior to another extinct species, notoungulates, which have been gone for thousands of years. That allows them to fill two long-vacated roles in the Colombian ecosystem they were introduced to after Escobar died and they began to roam the countryside.

According to Gizmodo, it's not just hippos jazzing up local ecosystems where they don't belong. The study also looked at 72 other invasive species to see if their introduction to an ecosystem had been a boon or a blight. In 64% of the cases that the study examined, the introduced species showed the potential to fulfill the roles of long extinct animals in a given ecosystem that could have a effect on the ecosystem's overall health. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/24/scientists-drug-hippos-are.html

While all of us face the daily challenges and major concerns surrounding the coronavirus epidemic and accompanying societal lockdown measures, there are also handfuls of smaller-scale crises sparked by the outbreak. Like...what do I do if I can’t go to the gym?

Gyms and workout facilities in many areas are already closed until further notice, so how do you keep from comfort-binging mint chocolate chip ice cream and watching your fitness goals fall off a cliff in the meantime?

Well, these six workouts and full-body wellness programs might help do the trick. And right now, you can also save an additional 15 percent by entering the code SPRINGSAVE15 during checkout. We’re all in this together, people. Stay strong.

From the weight room to the living room, iBodyFit workouts can help keep you toned up, no matter where you do the work. Ranked no. 1 in online fitness by TopTenReviews.com, this premium plan includes the entire iBody package, including all 400 online workouts, all 40 custom diet plans and all the daily support and feedback you need from the iBodyFit team. So whether you want to do a 4-week Fat Burner plan, an 8-week Muscle Toner plan or the 12-week Beach Bod Shredder plan, you’re covered.

Maybe the best way to maintain all your lofty fitness goals is to just become a trainer yourself. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/24/home-fitness-has-never-been-mo.html

CBS All Access has announced that they are making the entire first season of Picard free to non-subscribers of the streaming service. You get it for free if you register and use the coupon code: GIFT.

There are nine episodes in the season so far and the season finale will air this Thursday.

ENGAGE!

Update: The coupon code unlocks all of CBS All Access, free for a month.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/24/cbs-all-access-makes-star-trek.html

An unidentified priest in Italy didn't let the coronavirus situation stop him from doing mass. He simply live-streamed the service instead. Amusingly though, he left on his camera's filters which overlayed a space helmet, some glitter, dumbbells (?), and a Walter White hat and sunglasses get-up onto his otherwise serious broadcast.

Twitter user Gavin Shoebridge shared the footage:

In Italy today, a priest decided to live-stream a mass due to COVID-19. Unfortunately he activated the video filters by mistake. pic.twitter.com/zu2qwAlCyT

 Gavin Shoebridge (@KiwiEV) March 24, 2020

screengrab via Gavin Shoebridge/Twitter Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/24/priest-in-italy-accidentally-l.html

During today's complete shitshow of a White House coronavirus task force briefing, impeached and obviously bonkers president Donald John Trump said the U.S. is “near the end of our historic battle” with COVID-19 and has begun to see "the light at the end of the tunnel.”

That's wrong.

That light is an oncoming train.

The death toll continues to rise.

Today was the deadliest day of the outbreak yet in America.

Pres Trump just said: "As we near the end of our historic battle" with the coronavirus and that there is now "light at the end of the tunnel."

FACT CHECK: Government's own plan warned pandemic "will last 18 months or longer." Trump himself said this could last until August.

 Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) March 24, 2020

also, "the light at the end of the tunnel"https://t.co/5iDlvuanK4

 Tom McCarthy (@TeeMcSee) March 24, 2020

Today is already the US' deadliest day yet in the coronavirus crisis, surpassing yesterday.

The President just said we are starting to "see the light at the end of the tunnel" as we "near the end of our historic battle with the invisible enemy."

 Kyle "Please Mute Your Line" Feldscher (@Kyle_Feldscher) March 24, 2020

"I can tell you that there's tremendous hope as we look forward and we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel," Trump says, even though the U.S. death toll is continuing to rise.

 Felicia Sonmez (@feliciasonmez) March 24, 2020

"We can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel," says @POTUS.

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/24/trump-lies-about-coronavirus.html

NASA's STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) research platform consists of two orbiting spacecraft that collect stereoscopic data about the sun and the eruptions of magnetized plasma during coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Last month, UFO buffs spotted a strange object in data acquired by STEREO, specifically what appears to be a wheel-shaped UFO. The footage made the rounds online (example above) spurring NASA to explain the anomaly. Turns out, it's... Venus. Bummer. From NASA:

Some people have noticed an odd shape, sort of a cross inside a circle, entering the field-of-view of the HI2 telescope on STEREO Ahead around February 20,2020. Eventually there is a cone shape that appears next to it. You can see the feature in question in this movie moving from right-to-left, just below the trapezoidal occulter on the right side of the image. The answer lies on the exact opposite side of the image. At the same time as this strange-looking feature starts being visible, the very bright planet Venus enters the HI2-A field-of-view from the left. Notice that Venus and the feature stay in step almost exactly opposite each other across the middle of the detector. This is not a coincidence. The strange looking geometrical "object" is actually an internal reflection of the planet Venus within the telescope optics. This effect has been seen many times before. Here's a particularly striking example of internal reflections caused by the planet Earth as seen early in the STEREO mission, taken from our image artifacts pages.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/24/nasa-no-that-ufo-plainly-see.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/24/playwright-terrence-mcnally-di.html

Reality, people.

Kentucky governor Andy Beshear says the state now has 163 confirmed coronavirus cases, including one person who attended a “coronavirus party.” That individual may well have infected many others before later testing positive for the virus that causes COVID-19.

And now we know that “coronavirus party” is a thing some people are doing.

Beshear says there is a positive from someone who attended a "coronavirus party."

 Kevin Wheatley (@KevinWheatleyKY) March 24, 2020

Andy Beshear just announced a new Coronavirus case in Kentucky is someone who went to a "Coronavirus Party." He looked like he wanted to punch his podium as he said it.

 Cole Claybourn (@ColeClaybourn) March 24, 2020

.@GovAndyBeshear says that one person in Kentucky has tested positive after attending a coronavirus party

 Ben Tobin (@TobinBen) March 24, 2020

Beshear said there is a positive case today "from someone who attended a coronavirus party." He's a little fired up: "Anyone who goes to something like this may think they're indestructible..." but it's someone else's loved one who's life might be at stake.

 Daniel Desrochers (@drdesrochers) March 24, 2020

"This is one that makes me mad. And it should make you mad." Said we should forgive the person, but these things shouldn't happen.

 Daniel Desrochers (@drdesrochers) March 24, 2020

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/24/kentucky-reports-163-coronavir.html

• Trump demands economy reopen by Easter amid pandemic • Medical experts & disaster movies tell us this would be bad

“I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter," is a thing that Donald Trump just said during a Fox News virtual town hall.

This is contrary to what officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization, as well as economists, have advised.

"Easter is a very special day for me ... Easter Sunday, and you'll have packed churches all over our country."

A “very special day for me”?

Packing them into churches?

The man is nuts and he could get a lot of people killed.

Trump on why he picked Easter as the day he wants to end strict social distancing and reopen American businesses: "Easter is a very special day for me ... Easter Sunday, and you'll have packed churches all over our country." pic.twitter.com/6cXEtW8LmR

 Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 24, 2020

Trump explains why Easter Sunday is a "beautiful time" for Americans to be working again pic.twitter.com/lwg5cayiKB

 Talking Points Memo (@TPM) March 24, 2020

Trump, asked why he chose Easter as the date to end the shutdown, says it's because it'd be beautiful to have packed churches all around the nation.

 Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) March 24, 2020

Trump: "And I say, wouldn't it be great to have all of the churches full? You know the churches aren't allowed essentially to have much of a congregation now...

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/24/trump-i-would-love-to-have.html

Today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced its largest gain in a single day since 1933.

From the Wall Street Journal:

U.S. stocks rallied sharply Tuesday, with the Dow surging to its biggest one-day gain in more than 85 years on signs that lawmakers and the Trump administration were nearing a deal on a giant stimulus package aimed at limiting the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2,113 points, or 11.4%, as of 4 p.m. Eastern time. That represented its largest gain in a single day since 1933.

More: Dow Soars More Than 11% In Biggest One-Day Jump Since 1933 [WSJ, Alexander Osipovich, Caitlin Ostroff, and Joanne Chiu]

US stocks ended in the green on Tuesday, recouping all of Monday’s losses as investors grew optimistic about the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis.

The Dow closed up 11.4%. The S&P 500 finished up 9.4%. The Nasdaq Composite rose 8.1%. https://t.co/f8KFYyk5AL

 CNN Business (@CNNBusiness) March 24, 2020

BREAKING: This morning, Pres. Trump and VP Pence held an investor call with Wall Street heavyweights to discuss the markets, the Federal Reserve, and economic reopening.

 Kayla Tausche (@kaylatausche) March 24, 2020

“Dow surges 2,100 points as Congress nears deal on virus aid” https://t.co/hSmZd6Rt7k

 Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) March 24, 2020

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/24/dow-jumps-over-11-in-largest.html