Camila's Tex-Mex, near St Louis, Missouri, installed a pi~nata in the shape of the Covid-19 virus with a caricaturized face of a Chinese man on it, reports The Riverfront Times. The backlash was swift and severe, and the restaurant took down its Facebook page in shame, but not before trying to pass off the caricature as being Hispanic:

According to the customer who originally posted the photos to Facebook, employees allowed people into the restaurant Monday night due to poor weather conditions, despite the fact it is located in St. Louis County and therefore remains under lockdown orders that prohibit dining in. The photos show a complete lack of social distancing, with at least fifteen people, some of them children, crowded around two tables in close proximity to one another.

Image: Facebook screengrab Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/12/mexican-restaurant-shamed-for.html

The tourist office of English resort town Blackpool tweets at "@visitBlackpool" but has changed its name to "DoNotVisitBlackpool" following confusing government advice concerning the coronavirus pandemic lockdown.

Visit Blackpool has rebranded as Do Not Visit Blackpool to discourage visitors as lockdown restrictions are eased.

The tourism body changed its name on social media after the prime minister outlined new guidance on Sunday.

Council leader Simon Blackburn said Boris Johnson's message meant there was "nothing we can do" to stop visitors, but he urged people to stay away.

The Cabinet Office said people "can travel to open space, irrespective of distance".

It's very Scarfolkian, isn't it? Looking forward to Clacton-On-Sea rebranding itself as "Fuck right off." Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/12/blackpool-tourist-office-begs.html

In the video above (via), an unmasked woman is pushed out of a Red Lobster somewhere in Pennsylvania by masked staff and/or patrons. Restrained from reentering the establishment, she attempts to negotiate a refund. She is unsuccessful. Ultimately, she strikes one of the people impeding her progress, who retaliates. An affray commences but dissipates without injury. As everyone goes their separate ways, an unseen party yells "I'm a paying customer, been waiting three hours for food!" Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/12/woman-doesnt-want-to-leave-r.html

A decade ago, many movies had a blue tint added to them, apparently meant to convey a spooky or thrilling vibe. But there's also an extreme yellow tint to certain films, the latest example being the new Netflix movie Extraction. (Trailer above.) What's the deal with the mustard-colored movies? At the Matador Network, Elizabeth Sherman writes about the "yellow filter" and why some people find it offensive:

[...] It’s almost always used in movies that take place in India, Mexico, or Southeast Asia. Oversaturated yellow tones are supposed to depict warm, tropical, dry climates. But it makes the landscape in question look jaundiced and unhealthy, adding an almost dirty or grimy sheen to the scene. Yellow filter seems to intentionally make places the West has deemed dangerous or even primitive uglier than is necessary or even appropriate, especially when all these countries are filled with natural wonders that don’t make it to our screens quite as often as depictions of violence and poverty [...]

Yellow filter goes hand in hand with films that depict mostly negative stereotypes about living in the country in question, all while centering the journey of a white hero: Some combination of gangs, extreme poverty, drug use, and war seems to pop up in most of the movies that use yellow filter. Not only is it ugly and overused, but it reinforces stereotypes about people in countries that Americans still tend to think of as the “developing world.”

"Why does ‘yellow filter’ keep popping up in American movies? Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/12/why-some-movies-and-tv-shows-n.html

Somecomputerguy says: "I go from cold boot to playing Lunar Lander on my recently repaired SEL 810A computer. This computer was released in 1967, and was used by the CIA, research facilities, and large corporations. My SEL 810A ran a natural gas pipeline station from 1969 to 2006, so 37 years." Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/12/guy-plays-games-on-his-restore.html