SeinWave by Abelard

In recent weeks, I've shared the joy of Seinfeld with my teenage son. To reciprocate, he's been turning me on to the myriad incarnations of vaporwave, vaporfunk, chillwave, and other desktop electronica microgenres of the last decade. Finally, today, he decided the time was right to reveal an unholy hauntological overlap of our interests: "Seinwave" (2015) by Abelard. Listen above. From Abelard:

Seinwave is a rework of the iconic slap bass infused pop-click theme of the classic Seinfeld sitcom TV show. Created on a whim, Seinwave holds its own as a funky, danceable track, exploring new melodies, sounds and hooks, whilst retaining the faded sitcom hues and tones that we all remember.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/seinwave-a-vaporfunk-rewo.html

As many of us all settle into our new home office situations, there’s a distinct possibility this could be the new status quo for quite some time. A bad chair or a less than ergonomically supportive posture might have been passable when you sat at your home office desk for an hour or two here and there, but now that it’s your home base for 8-plus hours a day, you need to be thinking about long-term comfort as well.

If you’ve never experienced carpal tunnel syndrome, it’s very real — and can be very painful. Luckily, using a mouse designed to mitigate that and other awkward work postures like the Sinji Ergonomic Mouse can make that one of the new order concerns that won’t plague your day.

Rather than the traditional mouse shape, the Sinji is designed vertically, a patented shape that supports your hand in an upright neutral position, reducing the rotation in your lower arm and makes your whole arm more relaxed. With that kind of support, you avoid the pain and damage that comes from the overextending and twisting that natural mouse movements put on your wrist and forearm.

Created for both Mac and PC users, the wireless, battery-operated Sinji also sports adjustable buttons and LED light-emitting edging so you can see in low light situations. It even lets you adjust the speed of your cursor in case you need to speed up or low down your pace.

While cars are redesigned every year with more user-friendly features, the old-school mouse design is 40 years old and played out for function, efficiency and user comfort. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/is-your-home-office-giving-you.html

When I was in junior high school, I joined the Science Fiction Book Club. One of the books I got from the club was an anthology that included several stories by Fredric Brown (who was primarily a mystery writer but occasionally delved into science fiction). Some of Brown's stories in the anthology were a mere page or two, and I loved their humor and surprise endings. As soon as I could, I went to the Boulder Public Library to load up on as much Brown as I could find. It turned out the library had just two of his science fiction novels: Martians, Go Home (1955), and What Mad Universe (1949). They were both terrific.

In Martians, Go Home a race of cartoonish little green men invade Earth for the sole purpose of being hideously bothersome pests, behaving very much like Internet trolls and Second Life griefers. (Artist Kelly Freas perfectly captured the personality of the martians in his cover painting for Astounding Science Fiction.) In What Mad Universe a man gets thrown into a parallel universe and has to figure out how to get back home. Both books are semi-parodies of science fiction novels (the protagonists in each novel are science fiction writers), with plenty of Brown's signature wry humor. If you've not read these novels, I highly recommend them both.

It wasn't until I was in high school that I scored a copy of The Mind Thing (1961), which is probably my favorite Brown novel, even though it is not as well-known as the other two novels, and could be arguably be classified a horror novel. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/the-mind-thing-by-fredric-bro.html

For tips on making your own sourdough starter, start here!

My new pandemic starter has had a couple of weeks to settle down and it is performing pretty much how I would expect.

Feeding your starter every day really helps it out. I've been feeding this blob since 3/16. I have reduced the amount I keep going on my counter and only feed 1/4 cup of flour and slightly less than 1/4 cup of water per feeding. This saves me 1/2 cup a day of precious flour.

Feeding the starter twice on bread baking day really increases my chances of turning out a good loaf. I've learned that unlike my former, trusty Muir Beach starter this new Dog Town starter has an hour shorter cycle after feeding for when it is truly ready to be used, but I am figuring it out.

You will find many related posts on Sourdough and baking here! Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/pandemic-sourdough-the-bread.html

"When they were putting a chip in your brain they sunk it deep, didn’t they?"

With the help of an insider, Conan O'Brien crashed an online strategy meeting for TIBCO Software in Silicon Valley, surprising its attendees. The late-night host then proceeded to troll the Palo Alto-based company by ruthlessly roasts its CEO, its team members, and its website's corporate doublespeak. Savage! Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/conan-obrien-zoom-bombs-a-te.html

In the 1990s, Australian urologist Helen O'Connell performed the first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans on aroused women's clitorises. She found that the clitoris is 10 times larger than most anyone suspected. In this video, science journalist Rachel Gross, who is currently writing a book called Lady Anatomy, shares some medical history and takes us on a tour of the "clitoral complex."

"The Clitoris, Uncovered: An Intimate History" (Scientific American) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/it-took-science-2000-years-to.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/how-do-you-like-this-animatron.html

Military.com reports that a study of Chloroquine, the president's favorite quack remedy for Covid-19, didn't just fail to help sufferers. "About 28% who were given hydroxychloroquine plus usual care died, versus 11% of those getting routine care alone."

Researchers analyzed medical records of 368 male veterans hospitalized with confirmed coronavirus infection at Veterans Health Administration medical centers who died or were discharged by April 11. ... Hydroxychloroquine made no difference in the need for a breathing machine, either. Researchers did not track side effects, but noted hints that hydroxychloroquine might have damaged other organs. The drug has long been known to have potentially serious side effects, including altering the heartbeat in a way that could lead to sudden death.

A chloroquine study in Brazil was reportedly canceled after 11 patients died.

The physicians in Brazil noticed arrhythmia (significant extension of the so-called QT interval) within two to three days in patients receiving the high dose. On the sixth day of the trial, 11 patients died and the phase II trial was stopped immediately.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/study-finds-chloroquine-useles.html

This could've been prevented with a single modafinil tablet. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/gentleman-attempts-to-sleep-an.html

“They want us to where a face mask??? I DONT THANK SO.”

“I'm not gonna be ruled by common sense precautions to keep everyone safe and healthy!”

Brent Terhune does a very good Southern Redneck Guy Who Watches Fox News, and he's recently taken on the MAGA/White Nationalist/???? types gathering in weird astroturfy rallies around the U.S., which may or may not be funded by some political group or something.

More of Brent's very spot-on recent work below.

‘I’m not going to be ruled by commonsense precautions’ — Comedian @BrentTerhune hilariously spoofed Trump supporters who refuse to wear masks pic.twitter.com/CIiBDsXWAj

 NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 20, 2020

This stay at home order is BULLSHIT pic.twitter.com/bvDvD3pbBt

 Brent Terhune (@BrentTerhune) April 16, 2020

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/20/im-not-going-to-be-ruled.html

According to the suggestions of a professional golfer whose video was tweeted today by Donald Trump's companies, drinking an entire bottle of vodka every day will 'kill' coronavirus. There's only one problem with this advice: it is not true, and may harm you.

Here's the original video.

A big thank you to @PGA_JohnDaly who has always been one of our biggest fans. John thank you for the friendship. Everyone at @TrumpGolf truly loves you! #StaySafe #AmericaTogether pic.twitter.com/coWifMSa3W

 Trump Golf (@TrumpGolf) April 9, 2020

Drinking alcohol does not provide any protection against coronavirus and COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization. Heavy drinking can weaken the immune system, says the WHO.

Excerpt:

Trump’s golf business has been posting videos to Twitter in which home-bound pro golfers, including Daly, praise Trump’s courses as their “home away from home.” Daly played golf with the president in the summer and visited the White House in 2017.

In his video, first reported by Golfweek, the famously hard-living and hard-drinking golfer said he hoped that viewers would “be healthy and be smart,” and that they could return to playing golf again soon.

Then Daly continued: “But I kind of got a cure for this. I only drink one drink a day, it just happens to be a bottle. Of good old Belvedere.” He showed the camera a full bottle of the Polish vodka.

“You know, you just drink one of these a day — you know, sippy-sippy on a little McDonald’s Diet Coke, you know, wash it down pretty good.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/20/trumps-biz-tweets-video-of-p.html

I really don't know what to say here. This is so demented, and so awful, I just can't even.

Natalie Allison, who reports on state politics for The Tennessean and USA TODAY, attended one of those weird astroturfy coronavirus rallies where MAGA types and white nationalists are fighting against the stay-at-home measures intended to slow the spread of COVID-19.

This one guy:

Today’s reopen rally organizer Steve Hasty of Murfreesboro says what he misses most is sitting in restaurants and getting free drink refills.

“I hate having to get two iced teas in the drive thru,” he says

WOW.

Today’s reopen rally organizer Steve Hasty of Murfreesboro says what he misses most is sitting in restaurants and getting free drink refills.

“I hate having to get two iced teas in the drive thru,” he says. pic.twitter.com/373qBIeHof

 Natalie Allison (@natalie_allison) April 20, 2020

Here's her thread, and these are all her photos.

Much smaller crowd at the Tennessee Capitol today for the reopen rally, but @RepMartinDaniel is in attendance. He’s one of at least 2 other legislators who have sent letters to @GovBillLee asking him to lift restrictions. (Lee has set May 1 as tentative start date for that) pic.twitter.com/rxRGrIC1x6

 Natalie Allison (@natalie_allison) April 20, 2020

This woman, Misty Smith, is a home health nurse in Nashville but she is announcing that “all our hospitals are sitting empty.” (Tennessee reports there have been 724 coronavirus hospitalizations) pic.twitter.com/ht0vwktIPe

 Natalie Allison (@natalie_allison) April 20, 2020

This lady is yelling toward the Tennessee Capitol at @GovBillLee, trying to compare the coronavirus shutdown to the Holocaust.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/20/what-some-of-the-geniuses-at-t.html

Your “work routine” is likely in shambles. Between working from home and all that entails and the broken habits you built before while heading into the office every day, your work rhythm probably looks a lot different than it did two months ago.

So if you’re already making changes, it might be time to consider another colossal shift in your status quo. Like...have you ever thought about getting a standing desk? Standing at a desk while working rather than sitting for three hours has been shown to burn almost 170 extra calories. There’s also evidence standing can lower your blood sugar, lower your risk of heart disease, and significantly reduce back pain. 

Armed with all that knowledge, the Stan Desk Adjustable Standing Desk could not only be a great way to shake up your workspace but actually improve your overall health and well-being.

The Stan Desk is designed for laptop users with a variety of height adjustments and shelving slots to help you achieve your ideal posture. The whole thing comes together in about 30 seconds, and once you perch it on top of a regular office desk, you can hit just the configuration that works best for you.

The sturdy wooden construction ensures you’ll get years of use out of your Stan Desk and its signature minimalist hourglass design. At just 11 pounds, it’s ultra-portable, so whether you’re at home or back in the office one day, your standing desk can start becoming your new normal.

Beyond the physical health benefits, the standing desk allows oxygen-rich blood to flow to the areas of your brain that release endorphins and serotonin. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/20/a-standing-desk-could-change-e.html

Fandango dang sure isn't selling movie theater tickets anymore. And Walmart appears to be easing out of the video-on-demand business, and into... something else.

On Monday, Walmart's video-on-demand service Vudu announced it will be acquired by Fandango Media, the online movie ticketing service owned by beloathed cable and internet access behemoth Comcast.

Here's the official announcement on the Vudu Customer Help website: “Fandango to Purchase Vudu.”

From Reuters:

Walmart bought Vudu over a decade ago, but the service, which allows customers to either buy or rent movies and TV shows, still lags far behind the monthly viewership numbers that competitors Netflix Inc and Hulu pull in.

But Comcast is betting it can give the site a boost with Fandango, as the loss of cable TV subscribers forces it to focus its future around its internet business.

(...)Vudu, which also offers a free ad-supported streaming option, said here it will not be shutting down and will still operate separately from the FandangoNow pay-per-view service.

More at Reuters.

Observations from reporters and links to related early news coverage, below.

Fandango plans to maintain a Vudu office in the Sunnyvale, Calif., area and Fandango will be making job offers to the majority of Vudu employees https://t.co/W81O3Yj9T1

 Todd Spangler (@xpangler) April 20, 2020

There’s no indication yet if, or how, Comcast’s various streaming platforms (Peacock, FandangoNow, Xumo and now Vudu) will coexist https://t.co/yRVDnZw3UV

 Jason Lynch (@jasonlynch) April 20, 2020

Fandango will buy Vudu, Walmart's movies-on-demand service https://t.co/ugthnHl4QS

 LAT Entertainment (@latimesent) April 20, 2020

Fandango can't sell you movie tickets right now but it can rent you digital movies.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/20/vudu-walmarts-streaming-ser.html

We are in the upside down.

A bizarre thing just happened: futures on U.S. crude oil went negative for the first time ever, as billions of people stay at home to slow the spread of coronavirus.

The anti-COVID measures have led to a global oil supply glut that in turn has led to storage space filling up. The price of oil is negative. It's like they'd be willing to pay you to take it off their hands. Wild.

From Reuters:

The May U.S. WTI contract fell $19.06, or 104.3%, to a discount of 79 cents a barrel at 2:09 p.m (1809 GMT) after touching an all-time low of -$1.43 a barrel. Brent was down $1.85, or 6.6%, at $26.23 a barrel.

The June WTI contract is trading more actively at a much higher level of $21.6 a barrel. The spread between May and June was more than $23, the widest in history for the two nearest monthly contracts.

Investors bailed out of the May contract ahead of expiry later on Monday because of lack of demand for the actual oil. When a futures contract expires, traders must decide whether to take delivery of the oil or roll their positions into another futures contract for a later month.

Read the rest here. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/20/price-of-u-s-crude-oil-crashe.html

Samaritan's Purse is the Evangelical humanitarian aid organization behind the emergency pop-up coronavirus hospital that's set up shop in Central Park to help with overflow from other health facilities, specifically New York's Mount Sinai. In addition to the 14 tent, 68-bed field hospital in New York, the group also dispatched 60 disaster response specialists with 20 tons of medical equipment to help address the disaster response in Cremona, Italy.

On the surface level, this is largely good; hospitals are crowded and medical workers are overwhelmed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But it gets complicated when you factor in the group's founder: Franklin Graham, son of the infamous Evangelical fire-and-brimstone preacher Billy Graham. And lest you were hoping that the Graham apple had fallen far from the tree, Franklin is in fact a bit of an Endtimes Obsessive, who of course has a history of saying terrible things about Islam (particularly as it relates to Barack Obama) as well as Hinduism. Unsurprisingly, he's a hardcore Trumper, too, as well as an advocate for the s0-called gay conversion therapy that is unquestionably a form a psychological abuse. He's even praised Putin's anti-LGBTQ authoritarianism. In Franklin Graham's own words from 2014:

It’s obvious that President Obama and his administration are pushing the gay-lesbian agenda in America today and have sold themselves completely to that which is contrary to God’s teaching.

[…]

Isn’t it sad, though, that America’s own morality has fallen so far that on this issue—protecting children from any homosexual agenda or propaganda—Russia’s standard is higher than our own?

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/20/the-makeshift-coronavirus-hosp.html

Creativity has no bounds when you're shut in your house for weeks on end. I only wonder how he has three rolls of toilet paper to spare. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/20/watch-this-guy-win-a-slot-mach.html

Spoken Word with Electronics is an audio series delivering to you a two side recording of unusual stories paired with vintage modular electronic sounds

Greetings, all. To make this more like a proper series, I've expanded these posts into a more traditional radio segment format. You'll find a completely audio version in the playlist.

In 1942, Mel Blanc screamed about food hoarding in a Warner Brothers animated short, "Foney Fables". I was pleased to see the cartoon is in the public domain – Meaning you can do whatever you'd like with much of it.

THIS WEEK: Episode 6, "Food Hoarding with Mel Blanc"

I'll post the download links for the "Food Hoarder" sample in the comments.

Back next week. Have a happy hoarding, Ethan (Bandcamp/Soundcloud) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/20/hear-mel-blanc-scream-shes.html

Science fiction author and futurist, David Brin, has put together an excellent list of sci-fi books to read. He posted this list years ago, but has re-surfaced it to remind people that now is a great time to READ.

He has the books divided up into interesting categories, like Harbingers of Hope, Sci-Fi for Kids, the Hard Stuff, Fantasy - with Brains, etc. Hundreds of great recommendations here.

Image: Glogger CC BY-SA 3.0 Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/20/sci-fi-author-david-brins-re.html

My favorite comedic maker, Simone Giertz, brings another silly robot into the world as she builds a robotic parent that will pat her on the back and say: "Good job, son" -- after she feeds it a quarter.

As always, there are some genuinely funny moments here, like when she looks into the camera and says:

"Isn't this fun?, she says into a completely empty room while building a machine that will show her affection."

There is also a reveal towards the end as to who voices the dad. Appropriate. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/20/simone-giertz-makes-a-parent-r.html