With Hollywood shuttered, movie and TV production shut down, red carpet events cancelled and coronavirus keeping celebrities behind closed doors, there’s not a lot of material for the tabloids to be working with this week - but that doesn’t stop them from making it all up.

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/09/his-royal-high-ness-prince-har.html

Introverts were enjoying the lockdown. Suddenly they had no social obligations nor the social anxiety that goes along with declining invitations, canceling them, or attending them. Introverts were reading, gardening, baking, making things, learning languages, sharpening skills, and basking in quietude.

The extroverts, however, took note of this new state of affairs and declared it intolerable. Invitations for online gatherings began pouring in and, for introverts, social anxiety is creeping back.

From Abby Ohlheiser's article in Technology Review:

Calendars that had been cleared by social distancing suddenly refilled as friends, family, and acquaintances made plans to sip “quarantinis” at Zoom happy hours, hold Netflix viewing parties, or just catch up over Google hangouts.

...

Turning down invitations to talk to people during a global pandemic can simultaneously be needed self-care and something that makes you feel like a bad friend. After all, how do you tell your group chat of college friends that you just need a night alone at home when you’re alone at home all the time?

“There’s no way you can pass that off as having other plans,” says Jaya Saxena, a staff writer at Eater, who is currently socially distancing with her spouse in her apartment in Queens, New York. “The only excuse is ‘I don’t want to,’ and no one wants to hear that right now.”

It was too good to last.

Photo by Miguel Teirlinck on Unsplash Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/09/introverts-joy-of-lockdown-g.html

JB Rhine (1895-1980), the founder of parapsychology, spent the bulk of his career attempting to scientifically investigate ESP, psychokinesis, and clairvoyance at Duke University. While Rhine debunked numerous claims, he also reported on many experiments that he argued were evidence of psi phenomena. In 1952, the US Army consulted with Rhine on their idea to use psychic powers to detect landmines. The psychics weren't people though; they were German Shepherds named Tessie and Binnie. From author Nick Redfern's retelling of the weird tale over at Mysterious Universe:

Although Fort Belvoir was the place from where the work was coordinated, the actual tests took place on stretches of quiet California beaches. A contingent of soldiers, Rhine, Binnie and Tessie hit the beach and the work began. The role of the troops was to bury dummy mines (thankfully!) at varying depths in the sand and to see if the dogs could locate them. To begin with, both dogs were kept in the back of a covered, military truck – to ensure that they couldn’t see what was going on at that same stretch of beach. That is, until it was time for the operations to begin.

Incredibly, it didn’t take Binnie and Tessie long to find the fake mines. The work progressed and the military was impressed. But, was it all coincidence and random luck? To ensure that wasn’t the case, the Army began to make it more and more difficult for Tessie and Binnie to find the mines. Instead of just burying the bogus mines deep in the sand, they took the devices into the water – to depths of about six or seven feet – and had the pair try and find them.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/09/tessie-and-binnie-the-us-army.html

In 2018, Barry Lawrence Ruderman, a rare map dealer from California, bought a folder of documents and blueprints related to the Statue of Liberty. What they didn't realize is that the lot contained almost two dozen original engineering drawings for the Statue produced by Gustav Eiffel's workshop. Ruderman and Alex Clausen, director of Ruderman's gallery, hope to eventually show the drawings at a museum but for now you can inspect scans they posted online. Greg Miller writes in Smithsonian:

Berenson thinks the drawings may nail down something that historians have long suspected but not been able to prove: that Bartholdi disregarded Eiffel's engineering plans when it came to the statue's upraised arm, electing to make it thinner and tilted outward for dramatic and aesthetic appeal. Several drawings appear to depict a bulkier shoulder and more vertical arm—a more structurally sound arrangement. But one of these sketches (below) was marked up by an unidentified hand with red ink that tilts the arm outward, as Bartholdi wanted. “This could be evidence for a change in the angle that we ended up with in the real Statue of Liberty,” Berenson says. “It looks like somebody is trying to figure out how to change the angle of the arm without wrecking the support.”

The date on that sketch, July 28, 1882, as well as dates on several pages of handwritten calculations and diagrams pertaining to the arm, suggest that this change was made after much of the statue had already been built. “It’s really late in the game,” Berenson says.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/09/recently-discovered-eiffels.html

Have you ever read about an interesting app, only to click the link and find yourself on a GitHub page? If you're a coder, then you will be happy about it, but if you're like me, you will scratch your head for a while, open the readme file, and start copying and pasting linux commands into a terminal window with fingers crossed. Even after watching this video I will keep doing this, but at least I know what GitHub is now. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/09/what-the-hell-are-git-and-gith.html

Japan is under a state of emergency. Nippon wandering TV took an hour long bike ride through Tokyo's Akihabara district to reveal the nearly empty streets and sidewalks.

Compare to this short video of Akihabara I shot in the the summer of 2018:

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/09/video-of-desolate-tokyo-street.html

Swedish artist Daniel Bj"ork is the mad mind behind these wonderfully evil visions of classic horror films reimagined as Disney's Wonderful World of Reading vintage children's books. My wish upon a star is that they were real! See more at Bj"ork's Instagram.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/09/artist-reimagines-classic-horr.html

The majestic image below of the Eagle Nebula's "Pillars of Creation," captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, has become an iconic astronomical photograph. It depicts the visible light, meaning the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that the human eye can see. In this new take above, NASA scientists present the same view of the pillars but in infrared light "which pierces through obscuring dust and gas." From NASA:

In this ethereal view the entire frame is peppered with bright stars and baby stars are revealed being formed within the pillars themselves. The ghostly outlines of the pillars seem much more delicate, and are silhouetted against an eerie blue haze.

Image credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/08/the-eagle-nebulas-astonishin.html

If you've had your fill of board games, puzzles, crafting, and Master classes and have extra minutes to kill before another stay-at-home day is over, here's a challenge: climb around a table - not around its edges, but under and back over from one side to the other. Yes, some of us are bored enough to try it, while others are even boreder enough just to sit and watch someone else do it on YouTube. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/08/kill-part-of-an-hour-with-this.html

“The whole point of a programming language is to get the most out of the computer and the developer...This is why I like Python so much...few Python developers write code that is difficult to pass on to another developer.”

With so much in tech so inherently complicated, that comment from Thomas Hatch, CTO and co-founder of SaltStack to TechRadar, really boils down Python’s universal appeal to its purest root.

Coders like Python because it’s stripped-down, adapts to everything and doesn’t require all manner of interpretation, no matter when you jump into a project. You can add Python to your skillset or just sharpen your skills with the instruction in the Coding with Python: The Ultimate Training for Aspiring Developers Bundle. 

This six-course bundle starts with a full Python overview with the Complete Python Course: Learn Python by Doing. From first-timer basics to expert-level advanced coding tips, this training involves hands-on instruction that aimed at getting students employed as a Python programmer.

From best practices and object-oriented programming to GUI development, unit testing and more, this foundational training paves the way for all things Python, those newfound talents are tested by the Complete Python Web Course: Build 8 Python Web Apps, where students really get their hands dirty, assembling projects like a blog using user registration to publish posts as well as creating an online price tracker for your favorite digital storefront.

The training also covers app building as the REST APIs with Flask and Python and Advanced REST APIs with Flask and Python courses explore how to create resource-based, production-ready REST APIs using Python, Flask, and other popular Flask extensions. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/08/python-is-the-simplicity-devel.html

Replying to a question from ScienceInsider about impeached US President Donald Trump's anti-World Heath Organization comments, the WHO's Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus replied, “Please quarantine politicizing COVID.”

“We will have many body bags in front of us if we don’t behave,” Dr. Tedros added.

From Jon Cohen's story for ScienceInsider:

Tedros also indirectly addressed Trump’s criticisms of China’s early handling of the pandemic and claims that WHO is too accommodating to the Chinese government. “The United States and China should come together and fight this dangerous enemy,” he said, urging politicians not to exploit global political differences. “It’s like playing with fire,” he said. “When there are cracks at national level and global level that’s when the virus succeeds. For God’s sake, we have lost more than 60,000 citizens of the world.”

WHO will be reviewing its strengths and weaknesses in its pandemic response, Tedros added. He stressed there were many unknowns when the outbreak surfaced—and that many unknowns remain. “We shouldn’t waste time pointing fingers,” he said. “Unity is the only option to defeat this virus. If you don’t believe in unity and don’t do unity, please prepare for the worst to come.”

Tedros’s remarks come 1 day after Trump, speaking at a White House Coronavirus Taskforce press conference, threatened to cut funding to WHO. “We’re going to put a very powerful hold on it,” Trump said. When later questioned by a journalist, Trump backpedaled and insisted that he didn’t say this. “I said we’re going to look at it, we’re going to investigate it,” he said.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/08/please-quarantine-politicizi.html

Cannabis use in America reportedly reached an all-time high in March, 2020, as lockdown measures aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus went into effect in many communities throughout the country.

Free time, furloughed or laid off, and less to do. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

From Bloomberg News, reporting on a Cowen & Co survey out Wednesday:

A March survey of 2,500 consumers by Cowen & Co. found that 33% had tried cannabis at some point in their lives, a record high. For the past month, 12.8% of respondents said they’d used pot, above the 12.5% average in 2019.

Sales spiked in mid-March as people rushed to stock up ahead of potential dispensary closures, Cowen said, using data from cannabis analytics firm Headset Inc. Weekly sales growth peaked at 64% in the week ended March 16, the highest rate of increase since at least the beginning of 2019.

However, sales decelerated during the last two weeks of the month to the mid- to high-single-digit range. This may be linked to a “more pronounced deterioration in job security for past-month cannabis consumers relative to the general population,” according to analysts led by Vivien Azer.

The survey found that the percentage of cannabis consumers working full time fell by 290 basis points to 42.4% in March from February, a bigger decline than the general population. They also tended to be less comfortable with their financial situation.

Read more:

Pot Use Reached All-Time High in March Amid Lockdown Measures

[bloomberg/Kristine Owram/April 8, 2020] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/08/kush.html

Years ago, I read a bit of advice in The Whole Earth Catalog, which said a great way to get up to speed on a subject you are interested in is to read a children's book about it. It's excellent advice, and I've made use of it many times over the years.

The best children's books are the ones that were published before 1970. After that, the illustrations started to get crappy, and the writing took a nosedive, too. There are exceptions, but I find it to be the rule.

Here's a winner from 1964: Why Satellites Stay in Orbit, by Sune Engelbrekston and illustrated by Lee Ames. It's a very short book that does a terrific job of explaining precisely one thing: why satellites stay in orbit. This is the kind of book an eight-year-old can read and appreciate.

Why Satellites Stay in Orbit is out-of-print, but copies can be found on Amazon Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/08/why-satellites-stay.html

In Rob Walker's fantastic newsletter, The Art of Noticing, he recommends an activity called "Narrate A Piece of Quotidian Footage" which is from his book:

Basically, find or make a short, random, totally banal video of people or objects moving around; study

it closely; and invent a potential voiceover that makes it seem as if you are directing the action. This (weird? but fun!) idea was inspired by a John Smith’s wonderful short art film: The Girl With The Chewing Gum. I’m not going to try to explain it, check it out:

Of course, Rob did this in 2012:

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/08/a-fun-activity-to-do-at-home.html

I'm a lifelong fan of Radiohead, and I feel like so much of their music foresaw the emotional tone of the moment we're in now.

Now that you have no choice whether or not you fancy a quiet night in, we hereby present the first of several weekly live shows coming to Radiohead’s @YouTube channel.

Starting tomorrow 10pm UK/2pm PT/5pm ET with Live From a Tent In Dublin: https://t.co/oQYIJXFDCz pic.twitter.com/84TSWMPDLV

 Radiohead (@radiohead) April 8, 2020

“IN LIEU OF EMPTINESS, some entertainments to assist with the passage of time,” an email to their fan mailing list began:

Now that you have no choice whether or not you fancy a quiet night in, may we draw your attention to these entertainments?

We hereby present the first of several LIVE SHOWS from the Radiohead Public Library, now coming to Radiohead’s YouTube channel.

Starting tomorrow (Thursday) at 10pm UK/2pm PT/5pm ET with Live From a Tent In Dublin - October 2000, we will be releasing one a week until either the restrictions resulting from current situation are eased, or we run out of shows. Which will be first? No-one knows.

Next, Ed’s new EOB track Cloak of the Night will be available to stream tomorrow. Featuring vocals from Laura Marling, it is taken from his debut album Earth, released on April 17th. Pre-order the album now here.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/08/radiohead-to-stream-concerts-f.html

[NSFW] The Spice Channel was a softcore pornography cable TV offering in the 1990s. If you didn't pay for a subscription, you could still see scrambled video, which elevated the original video into psychedelic deep dream abstract art experiments. Here are a few clips.

From the YouTube description:

Signal bleed, or scrambling was a filter used by TV providers to partially block premium channels. This loophole was used as a form of advertisement. In 2000, United States v. Playboy Entertainment Group "required that cable television operators completely scramble or block channels that are "primarily dedicated to sexually-oriented programming" from 10 pm to 6 am."

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/08/clips-of-scrambled-cable-tv-er.html

Nine teens partying at a park near Louisville, Kentucky were accosted by a man, angry that they were not social distancing. First he shoves a few kids, then straddles a a girl who was sitting on the ground and begins to strangle her.

The man, John Rademaker, is a 57-year-old doctor who has been charged with "first-degree strangulation and three counts of harassment with physical contact," according to The Daily Beast.

Rademaker, a physician for Southern Indiana Anesthesia Consultants, has been placed on administrative leave pending further investigation. According to online records, he was released from jail Tuesday.

According to witness and a 26-second video of the incident that later went viral, the altercation began Friday at about 8:30 p.m. when Rademaker and a woman approached nine teenagers who were sitting at the lakefront amphitheater about 20 minutes outside of Louisville.

The teenagers, who were defying the state’s stay-at-home order established to curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus, immediately tried to wave off the two adults who were cursing at them for not adhering to the CDC’s social-distancing recommendations.

According to an arrest warrant obtained by WDRB, Rademaker choked the 18-year-old for several seconds before other bystanders intervened and pulled him off. The teenager, who has not been identified, suffered a red mark on her neck but did not require hospitalization.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/08/watch-man-strangles-girl-at-p.html

In celebration of Passover, I suggest watching The Ten Commandments, Cecil B. DeMille's 1923 epic silent film version of the biblical Exodus story (plus a related modern story that I never bothered to watch.) The parting of the Red Sea sequence is absolutely magnificent and worth the cost of admission alone.

As you may recall, just a few years ago archaeologists excavated the "Lost City of DeMille," the Egyptian set for the film buried for almost 100 years in the sand dunes of Santa Barbara County, California.

(Thanks, Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie!) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/08/watch-the-epic-silent-film-the.html

Martin Shkreli, the universally despised ex-pharmaceutical internet troll, says he can cure coronavirus if he is released from prison early, reports Ars Technica:

“I am one of the few executives experienced in ALL aspects of drug development from molecule creation and hypothesis generation, to preclinical assessments and clinical trial design/target engagement demonstration, and manufacturing/synthesis and global logistics and deployment of medicines,” he writes in a note at the end of the document.

In short, he needs to be sprung from the pokey so he can save the world.

“I am asking for a brief furlough (3 months) to assist in research work on COVID-19,” he writes, adding that this temporary freedom won’t be a treat. “Being released to the post-COVID world is no solace to even the incarcerated.”

Image: By House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform - https://www.flickr.com/photos/oversight/25044779546/in/photostream/, Public Domain, Link Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/08/incarcerated-fraudster-martin.html

Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, the incarcerated corrupt law enforcement chief who was fond of giving himself awards, campaigning against marijuana legalization, encouraging prison rape, wrongfully imprisoning people, locking up nonviolent people who possessed drugs, and horribly mistreating inmates, asked a judge to release him from federal prison in Texas because of coronavirus. Baca also thought it was a good time to ask to have his conviction and sentence vacated. But U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson denied the request, according to Los Angeles Times. “Sadly, there is no safe location,” said the judge.

From LA Times:

Federal prosecutors had opposed Baca’s release while fighting to have his conviction and sentence vacated. In a filing last week, the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles reminded Anderson of his own comments when handing down a prison sentence: The once-respected sheriff had committed a “‘gross abuse of the public trust,’ ‘blind obedience to a corrupt culture’ and betrayal of the ‘core values’” he once espoused.” The prosecutors were unswayed by Baca’s bid for exceptional treatment.

Image: By ScottMLiebenson - Own work, CC0, Link Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/08/judge-denies-former-la-sheriff.html