As we face an invasion of murder hornets, we can look to our alien protectors, the praying mantis, to save us.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/watch-a-praying-mantis-enjoy-a.html

• Fox News personality who once proudly boasted on TV of not having washed hands in 10 years tells Americans to go out and get coronavirus on purpose

In this clip, Fox News' Pete Hegseth calls for people to go out and get infected by coronavirus.

“Now that we are learning more, herd immunity is our friend. Healthy people getting out there -- they are going to have to have some courage.”

Fox News' Pete Hegseth calls for people to go out and get infected by coronavirus: "Now that we are learning more, herd immunity is our friend. Healthy people getting out there -- they are going to have to have some courage." pic.twitter.com/PCSHm9yUAW

 Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) May 7, 2020

Notes Justin Baragona of The Daily Beast, who shared this nutty clip -- “Remember, Pete Hegseth is also the guy who proudly admitted last year that he hasn't washed his hands in 10 years.”

Because there are likely to be waves of infection, and Trump makes rash decisions on the basis of his changing political interests, and bottom-feeders like @PeteHegseth will say whatever Trump wants them to, we’re in for a few more turns on the “it’s the enemy/it’s the flu” ride. https://t.co/Q1z4zfX46h

 Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) May 7, 2020

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/fox-news-anchor-tells-people-t.html

• Justice Dept. asked justices to temporarily halt lower-court order, saying executive branch would suffer irreparable harm if the evidence is disclosed.

“The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to block Congress from seeing grand jury secrets gathered in the Russia investigation by Mueller, saying the executive branch would suffer irreparable harm if lawmakers see the evidence,” writes Charlie Savage at the New York Times.

Excerpt:

In a 35-page filing, Noel J. Francisco, the solicitor general, asked the justices to halt an order by a federal appeals court that imposed a May 11 deadline on the Justice Department to turn over the evidence to the House Judiciary Committee. He said the Justice Department should first get a chance to fully litigate an appeal of the ruling before the Supreme Court.

“The government will suffer irreparable harm absent a stay. Once the government discloses the secret grand-jury records, their secrecy will irrevocably be lost,” Mr. Francisco wrote, adding, “That is particularly so when, as here, they are disclosed to a congressional committee and its staff.”

Nothing could stop House Democrats, he added, from publicly releasing the evidence Mr. Mueller gathered by a simple-majority vote in the Judiciary Committee.

READ MORE: Supreme Court Is Asked to Block House From Seeing Mueller’s Grand Jury Secrets

[May 7, 2020, 1:59 p.m. ET] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/trump-white-house-asks-supreme.html

In 1976 someone shot 8mm footage of New York City and added a soundtrack to make a nice little Christmas vacation movie. It's a treat to see the kind of New York Travis Bickle drove his taxi around in.

[via Dooby Brain] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/this-tourist-shot-8mm-film-sho.html

James Hoffman, "the weird coffee guy," looks at the benefits of adding salt to your coffee. Usually you shouldn't do it, he says, unless your coffee has the bad kind of bitterness. That's because ordinary table salt can mitigate bitter flavors. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/should-you-put-salt-in-your-co.html

"You've probably heard that America's billionaires have gotten at least $282 billion richer during the pandemic," writes Rain Noe on Core77. "What will they spend that extra cash on, once this is all over?" Rain recommends the Aviro Business Jet Explorer, a private jet with an outdoor deck. It's just a concept design for BAE by Design Q, but I'm sure they would be happy to make it for any customer willing to pay for it.

Image: Design Q Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/heres-a-jet-with-an-outdoor.html

This is 100% how they found Buck Rogers.

Also, I imagine Space Force must be pronounced as if Space Ghoooooooost is yelling it.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/space-force-recruitment-commer.html

CNN reported today that one of Trump's personal valets has come down with Covid-19. Valets are in close contact with the president, doing things like them serving food and drinks and traveling with them.

After hearing the news, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence supposedly got tested for the virus, and the tests came back negative.

According to CNN:

A White House source said the valet, a man who has not been identified, exhibited "symptoms" Wednesday morning, and said the news that someone close to Trump had tested positive for coronavirus was "hitting the fan" in the West Wing.

Trump, who is a self-described germophobe, has chastised aides before who coughed or sneezed in his presence. He has claimed to rarely get sick himself.

Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and the senior staffers who regularly interact with them are still being tested weekly for coronavirus, two people familiar told CNN.

Still, the White House has not enforced strict social distancing guidelines for staffers and few people inside the building wear masks during the day, including valets.

Image: GPA Photo Archive / Flickr Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/trumps-personal-valet-just-c.html

Dr. Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s state epidemiologist who leads the country's no-lockdown plan, said Sweden's high death rate from Covid-19 compared to neighboring countries has "come as a surprise."

From Business Insider:

Dr. Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s state epidemiologist, appeared on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” on Tuesday, when he described the country’s controversial approach.

“We never really calculated with a high death toll initially, I must say,” he said.

“We calculated on more people being sick, but the death toll really came as a surprise to us.”

As of Tuesday, Sweden reported more than 2,700 COVID-19 deaths and more than 23,000 infections. That death toll is far higher than its Nordic neighbours’ and many other countries that locked down.

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/architect-of-swedens-no-lock.html

On May 6, 1937, LZ 129 Hindenburg burst into flames. 36 lives were lost as the horrific event was caught on camera. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/watch-the-hindenburg-disaster.html

South Dakota has asset trusts that allow people to hide and shield their wealth. According to CNBC, the world's global elite use these trusts, including Chinese and European billionaires who want to avoid paying taxes and keep their money away from governments who would otherwise seize their fortunes for one reason or another. For the ultra rich, South Dakota is becoming a kind of mini-Switzerland.

The public became aware of these secretive South Dakota trusts when a billionaire couple recently divorced. While they were married, the husband transferred almost all of their assets into a South Dakota trust that she was not made a beneficiary of. The ex-wife is now suing her ex-husband, but the ex-husband's lawyers say the assets are controlled by the trust so they are not marital property.

Trusts in South Dakota are perpetual, meaning a wealthy family can put assets into a trust that are held in perpetuity, rather than for a limited period of time. The state also gives trusts sweeping privacy and asset-protections against creditors, business partners, lawsuits or ex-spouses. Adding to its attraction, South Dakota has no inheritance or capital gains or income taxes.

Photo by Jason Dent on Unsplash Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/south-dakota-is-becoming-a-m.html

Paper airplane enthusiast Mahir Cave teaches you how to make two different types of paper planes (5 minutes each) in this video. These are some of his easier folds – if you like them, check out his YouTube page, where he shares a new design (some this easy, some more advanced) every Friday. He says his specialty is "paper airplanes that fly far," and his goal is "to make the best paper airplane in the world." Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/07/learn-to-make-a-paper-airplane.html

If you're already an IT pro or you're looking to make the move and become one, one of the best ways to boost your career is by getting certified in Amazon Web Services. And why's that? Because AWS—a variety of cloud computing products and services—is pretty much running the show behind the scenes. And by "the show" we mean "basically the whole internet." In fact, it's the third-largest enterprise software business in the world.

Both because you've likely got some spare hours on your hands and because the industry is booming, there's no better time than now to work on getting your piece of that pie with the help of the 2020 Ultimate AWS Certification Training Bundle.

Earning an AWS certification shows the world (or at least whoever's looking at your LinkedIn profile) that you're an expert in the space, which will help you stand out among job applicants when applying to new roles and put you in a better position to command a higher salary. For real. In a recent survey, 70% of AWS professionals interviewed reported a salary increase of up to 20% after earning their certifications.

Passing the exams isn't the easiest thing in the world though, which is why you'll benefit from the 249 lessons in this 6-course online training that includes content for absolute beginners with no prior experience and more advanced students. Go at your own pace through 89 hours of prep that includes an in-depth look at developing software and applications for AWS; the skill set, tools, and services needed for big data specializations; cloud concepts, security, architecture, pricing, and support; the advanced aspects of AWS for a systems operations administrator; what it takes to get certified as an associate solutions architect; and the principal concepts and practices behind the DevOps methodology. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/06/earning-your-aws-certification.html

These harm reduction based practices, which are not unique to San Francisco, and are not paid for with taxpayer money, help guests successfully complete isolation and quarantine and have significant individual and public health benefits in the COVID-19 pandemic.

 SFDPH (@SF_DPH) May 5, 2020

Harm reduction is a good thing, and giving homeless drug addicts hotels and drugs that they are addicted to is a good thing during a pandemic, but some people don't get it, such as Twitter commentator T Wolf. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/06/city-of-san-francisco-delivers.html

Esteemed Beat poet Michael McClure has died of complications from a stroke he suffered last year. He was 87 years old. A key figure in the 1950s San Francisco scene that formed around Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter Martin's City Lights Bookstore, McClure was a contemporary of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Philip Lamantia. Along with his ecstatic, rhythmic poems, McClure also penned plays, songs, novels, and journalism for the likes of Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. Above, McClure reads his poetry to lions in 1966 for the USA: Poetry television series. From the New York Times:

A then 22-year-old McClure helped organize the famous Six Gallery beat poetry reading on Oct. 7, 1955, and later read at the Human Be-In at Golden Gate Park that launched the Summer of Love in 1967 and at The Band’s “Last Waltz” concert at Winterland in 1976[...]

In McClure’s 1982 nonfiction account of the Six Gallery reading, “Scratching the Surface of the Beats,” he set the stage for the revolution that was to follow in the mid-1950s:

“The world that we tremblingly stepped out into in that decade was a bitter, gray one," he wrote. “We saw that the art of poetry was essentially dead — killed by war, by academies, by neglect, by lack of love, and by disinterest. We knew we could bring it back to life.”

With great sadness, City Lights wishes to note the death of our friend, the legendary beat poet Michael McClure, who passed away May 4 due to complications from a stroke he suffered last year.

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/06/beat-poet-michael-mcclure-rip.html

The head of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday that the risk of returning to coronavirus lockdowns remains ‘very real’ if countries don’t manage their transitions extremely carefully.

“Government-ordered lockdowns have become increasingly unpopular as countries suffer rising unemployment and economic activity grinds to a halt,” report John Revill and Emma Farge at Reuters:

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said countries needed to ensure they had adequate measures to control the spread of the COVID-19 respiratory disease like tracking systems and quarantine provision.

“The risk of returning to lockdown remains very real if countries do not manage the transition extremely carefully and in a phased approach,” he said at a virtual briefing in Geneva.

WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove supported his concerns about the disease which has infected 3.71 million globally and killed more than 258,000 people, according to a Reuters tally.

“If lockdown measures are lifted too quickly, the virus can take off,” Van Kerkhove told the briefing.

READ MORE: WHO warns against rushed end to coronavirus lockdowns

World Health Organization chief @drtedros warned that the risk of returning to lockdown remains ‘very real’ if countries don’t manage the transition from restrictions extremely carefully https://t.co/EOolL869o4 pic.twitter.com/KDKvHrH7rA

 Reuters (@Reuters) May 6, 2020

Testing, identifying who has the virus, & finding all cases — this will enable countries to control & suppress the #COVID19 pandemic (which is why @DrTedros has said for months, “test, test, test.”) https://t.co/Ck9Y2uQfmf

 Gabby Stern (@gabbystern) May 6, 2020

Pls look at the date on this speech by @DrTedros https://t.co/poVX0ak622

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/06/who-chief-risk-of-returning-t.html

At least all we heard was the flush.

From CNN:

The case at issue concerned the Telephone Consumer Protection Act that prohibits unwanted calls to cellphones by use of an automated system. Challengers say one provision violates the Constitution. Lawyer Ramon Martinez, representing political groups challenging the law, was pressing his point when the offending flush occurred.

Martinez did not seem fazed or publicly notice the interruption.

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/06/someone-flushed-the-toilet-dur.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/06/coronavirus-the-notion-that.html

Why do otters juggle? It sounds like the opening to a joke, but many otters are frequently seen shifting pebbles back and forth between their hands, an activity referred to by scientists as "juggling." While animal behaviorists have thought that the juggling is a way for the animals to practice pulling meat from crustaceans and mollusks, a task that requires fine motor skills and coordination. However, researcher Mari-Lisa Allison and colleagues from the University of Exeter found that otters who frequently juggled didn't exhibit any better food-picking skills. Turns out they're probably just doing it because it's fun. From Science News:

The possible disconnect between play and real-life skills doesn’t startle Gordon Burghardt of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Over decades, he has analyzed play behavior, refining definitions and even reporting play in such unexpected animals as a turtle romping with a basketball in a zoo. The thinking about the evolution of play has by now expanded beyond simple notions of the benefits of instinctive practice, he says[...]

Otters that juggle may be doing so “for pleasure, out of boredom, or both,” he says.

"The drivers and functions of rock juggling in otters" (Royal Society Open Science) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/06/why-do-otters-juggle.html

Sophia Thomas, the head of the Natl. Assoc. of Nurse Practitioners: 'PPE has been sporadic, but it's been manageable'

Donald Trump, a president: 'Sporadic for you, but not sporadic for a lot of other people.'

Guess who was correct? The impeached and manifestly wacko tweeter-in-chief, or the nurse who is actually treating Americans who are sick with the novel coronavirus?

A Louisiana nurse who serves as the leader of the National Association of Nurse Practitioners told Trump in the Oval Office today, National Nurse Day, that coronavirus protective gear access is 'sporadic.'

At an event marking National Nurse Day at the Oval Office, acting U.S. President Donald Trump contradicted a nurse during an exchange about COVID-19 protective gear, which hospitals around the nation are begging for, while the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner flies around in private jets wheeling and dealing over.

There is no bottom, there is nothing so deranged he won't do.

Trump reproves nurse after she departs from party line on plentiful PPE. She quickly agrees the President is right. pic.twitter.com/YM9UBsMbBm

 Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) May 6, 2020

At an event marking National Nurse Day at the Oval Office, Pres. Trump told a nurse he’s "heard the opposite" when she said the availability of personal protective gear has been "sporadic"

"Sporadic for you,” he said https://t.co/yR3ttA4W2g pic.twitter.com/GwgPJ7Yd92

 CBS News (@CBSNews) May 6, 2020

NEW | Louisiana nurse tells Trump that coronavirus protective gear is 'sporadic.' He pushes back.STORY: https://t.co/aYzaCbqiYN

Sophia Thomas: "PPE has been sporadic, but it's been manageable"Donald Trump: "Sporadic for you, but not sporadic for a lot of other people."

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/06/trump-lies-to-and-contradicts.html