Too much happens in a week. Our lives all move so fast that it’s basically impossible to stay on top of everything that crosses our paths over a seven-day period. 

That’s why we want to give you a do-over. We’ve gathered together 40 killer items, including many at discounts of almost $170, and we’re giving you another shot to pick them up. From your car to your tech to your kitchen to you, there are a bunch of life hacks here to help get your fast-approaching summer started in the right direction.

You can get the quarantine look under control with The Cut Buddy Beard-Shaping and Hair-Trimming Guide ($11.99; originally $14.99), a Shark Tank winning tool that helps you perfectly trim and shape your hairlines. 

The Barb 'Xpert by Franck Provost Beard and Moustache Tool ($10.99; originally $15) is a highly sharpened soft-touch pair of mustache scissors that let you easily even out the hair of your mustache and beard, while The Barb 'Xpert by Franck Provost Beard Grooming Shampoo ($14.99; originally $29) is specially developed with a non-greasy feel to cleanse and revitalize all beard types.

But if you need to attack on all fronts, this 4-in-1 Men's Electric Razor ($39.99; originally $99.99) can do it all, packing advanced 4D floating technology so the precision blades adapt to the contours of your face, neck, and jawline.

If you had a rough night drinking, the DHM Detox Herbal Supplement ($22.99 for a 10-pack; originally $33.99) is a formula of herbal extracts and natural ingredients that helps break up the “hangover feeling” by reducing the negative after-effects, including nausea, brain fog, and headaches. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/17/these-are-40-of-the-coolest-th.html

Eduardo Morales collects enamel pins. Back in 2015, he was frustrated that there was no way on Instagram to easily find the best new pins he wanted to buy. So he built his own. Within a few years, his @pinlord Instagram page had over 145,000 followers and, as a true Instagram influencer, was making Morales $3,500 a month.

Morales put in the work, but he wasn’t special. There are dozens of ways to market a business on Instagram and create a revenue stream unique to their platform. You can learn those ways of the Gram with the training found in the 10 Instagram Growth Secrets from Celebrities and Influencers course.

The training is led by entrepreneur and marketing innovator Ben Wilson, who’s helped over 200,000 students spot the differences between success and failure on the image-based platform. His course delves into those hidden secrets used by top influencers and celebrities to maximize their audiences and engage them into action.

Through easy to follow step by step techniques, students can learn how to grow a following from scratch, best market their products, master the algorithms that dictate how Instagram features content, and essentially run an Instagram account efficiently and effectively to generate income. 

The course helps explain who to forge trustworthy relationships with your followers, how to tag and position your posts to rank in search, and what celebrity examples can teach about what works and what doesn’t in trying to influence a large web fanbase. There’s a reason celebs drive commerce on Instagram — and it isn’t just because they are celebrities. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/16/learn-10-growth-secrets-from-i.html

In Search of Tomorrow is slated to be a four-hour-long love letter to the sci-fi films of the 1980s. It is currently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter and has raised almost $470,000 dollars to date, with 32 hours left to go. It is being produced by the same folks who crowdfunded and produced the documentary on 80s horror films, In Search of Darkness.

In Search of Tomorrow will take viewers on a year-by-year deep dive into the many awe-inspiring worlds of ‘80s Sci-Fi movies, breaking down the most iconic and eccentric films you know and love (and many you may have forgotten or missed), and examining the science, technology, and artistry behind the fiction.

The completed feature will be more than four hours long and feature insights and anecdotes from an extensive collection of experts and iconic talent, including filmmakers, actors, special-effects and visual effects masters, tech advisors, authors, influencers, and visionaries. Not only will they tell their own stories, but they will share opinions about their own favorite Sci-Fi movies.

Learn more of their Kickstarter page. Image: Promotional poster Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/16/crowdfunding-in-search-of-to.html

Blogger Dave Strickson has been keeping an up-to-date list of all of the BBC 1 Peel Sessions that are currently available online.

There is nearly a thousand sessions of music to date. Some of the artists include David Bowie and The Spiders from Mars, Roxy Music, Joy Division, New Order, The Cure, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Smiths, The Fall, Echo & The Bunnymen, Nirvana, Hole, Jack White, Elvis Costello, Cocteau Twins, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Sonic Youth, The Wedding Present, The Raincoats, Nick Drake, T-Rex, Buzzcocks, Can, Billy Bragg, Fairport Convention, Pulp, The Breeders, The Fugees, The Kinks, The Specials, The Slits, and Thin Lizzy.

[Via Brooklyn Vegan]

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/16/nearly-1000-peel-sessions-now.html

Not too many years ago, talking to the air and expecting a response was either the sign of a hardcore Trekkie or someone with an over-developed or diluted imagination. Now, of course, voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are not only commonplace, they’re actually now in use by more than half of the world’s smartphone users.

And Alexa and Google can do far more than cue up your favorite song or tell you the weather. In fact, you can create your own apps for controlling a smart home, managing a business, or just keeping yourself entertained with the training in The Learn Amazon Alexa Development Bundle.

This package features 10 courses and more than 25 hours of training in all things Amazon Alexa as well as Google Assistant, from creating simple skills to highly specialized customization that can make your voice assistant the true center of your universe at home or in the office.

A majority of the courses in this collection center around Alexa, starting with a pair of introductory sessions in Mastering Alexa and Learn Alexa the Fun Way. 

But you’ll soon find that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Step by Step Alexa Skill Development and Building Voice Apps Using Amazon Alexa advance your training, offering ways with the use of the Alexa Skill Development Kit to develop skills for creating your own task lists, controlling webcams and LEDs, even running your own home-based server just through the power of your own voice. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/16/learn-how-you-can-build-versat.html

Kudos to Mike Upchurch for his latest YouTube video: Freeway to Hell. It's 22 minutes, with voiceovers by Mike Judge, and starring Chris Fairbanks, Jon Dore, Ron Lynch, and Emily Maya Mills.

Electric Television Presents... (1967) Lost motorbike gang film. "Freeway to Hell," A shocking and wrenchingly violent morality tale in which a technological worker quits his job, joins a gang, and takes a wild ride through a seedy underworld of rowdy men, wild women, and motorbikes.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/16/watch-this-great-60s-biker-mov.html

The EDC ethos has been around for...well, forever. But it’s entirely possible that you’ve never heard the term EDC before. Of course, the idea that some items are part of your Every Day Carry assortment isn’t new, but in recent years, the thought of each person assembling their own unique version of Batman’s utility belt has taken on new meaning.

It’s not enough to just have your keys, an old pocket knife and a few loose slips of paper down at the bottom of your pocket anymore. We’ve each got a bunch of items we’ve got to tote around each day -- so our EDC stuff has to be compact, important, and rugged enough to survive the knock-around world we all find ourselves in.

That’s the philosophy behind the Anywhere Tools Everyday Carry Bundle, a 12-in-1 collection of portable, streamlined, and highly functional hand tools that we may not necessarily need every day -- but the day you DO need them, you’ll be really glad they’re there.

Anywhere Tools are created by Keyport, a company dedicated to fashioning customizable, modular tech and tool items that all fit within the Anywhere Pocket Clip. Like a Swiss Army knife, the Keyport system is all about solving as many common daily problems as a tightly-packed EDC can solve.

Crafted from steel, anodized aluminum and polycarbonate, the modules include a traditional pocket knife; a multi-function tool that serves as a bottle opener, a flathead and Phillips head screwdriver, a cord cutter, or a box opener; a pocket flare featuring a 27-lumen flashlight with a bright front beam and one-of-a-kind lamp mode; and Anywhere Pocket Clips that can hold cash or keep your items secured. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/16/save-over-30-on-the-ultimate.html

AI can't flow, but Biggie somehow has it from beyond the grave.

Join the subreddit associated with this channel at https://reddit.com/r/VocalSynthesis

The voice in this video was entirely computer-generated using a text-to-speech model trained on the speech patterns of The Notorious B.I.G.

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/16/voicefake-biggie-raps-i-am-th.html

Andrew Cotter, who has found lockdown fame narrating the mundane adventures of his two dogs Olive and Mabel as if they were golfers at the apex of a tense match, went for a walk.

"No point in shaking yet, you're still in the water." Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/16/golf-announcers-dogs-go-for.html

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs said Friday that it will not stop use of hydroxychloroquine, an unproven malaria drug pushed by Trump, on veterans with COVID-19.

“VA has not endorsed nor discouraged the use of hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 patients and has left those decisions to providers and their patients,” the VA told The Associated Press:

As of Friday, 11,883 veterans are confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus and 985 have died of COVID-19, according to VA statistics.

From The Associated Press:

In responses provided to Congress and obtained by The Associated Press, the VA said it never “encouraged or discouraged” its government-run hospitals to use hydroxychloroquine on patients even as President Donald Trump heavily promoted the drug for months without scientific evidence of its effectiveness.

Still, it acknowledged that VA Secretary Robert Wilkie had wrongly asserted publicly without evidence that the drug had been shown to benefit younger veterans. The VA, the nation’s largest hospital system, also agreed more study was needed on the drug and suggested its use was now limited to extenuating circumstances, such as last-ditch efforts to save a coronavirus patient’s life.

In the first week of May, 17 patients had received the drug for COVID-19, according to VA data obtained by the AP. The department declined to say how many patients had been treated with hydroxychloroquine for the coronavirus since January, but a recent analysis of VA hospital data showed that hundreds of veterans had taken it by early April.

“VA has not endorsed nor discouraged the use of hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 patients and has left those decisions to providers and their patients,” the VA said.

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/16/va-still-using-hydroxychloroqu.html

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that federal and state regulators in the U.S. are preparing to file antitrust lawsuits against Google, saying the company abused its dominance of online search and advertising to crush competition and maximize profit.

Both the federal and state investigations are said to be focused on Google’s ad business.

The WSJ report cites unidentified people familiar with the probes in a story about the upcoming offensive by the U.S. Justice Department and the attorneys general in several states.

From the Associated Press (not paywalled):

The Justice Department may file its case as early as this summer while Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton may take action in the fall, along with his peers in other states, according to the Journal.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr has previously said he hoped to decide whether to pursue an antitrust case against Google by the summer. Texas and other states announced they were looking into Google’s business practices last September.

Google acknowledged it has ongoing discussions with the Justice Department and Paxton without elaborating on the nature of the talks. “Our focus is firmly on providing services that help consumers, support thousands of businesses, and enable increased choice and competition,” the company said in a statement.

READ MORE:

Justice Department, State Attorneys General Likely to Bring Antitrust Lawsuits Against Google [WSJ]

Report: Google facing onslaught of antitrust cases in US Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/16/google-is-about-to-be-hit-with.html

Tom Nook himself made a special announcement on Twitter Friday. The real-life musicians who play the in-game theme music for Animal Crossings: New Horizons had come together for a virtual performance of it!

Best comment: "What do you mean 'The musicians behind the main theme', where is that dog with the guitar?"

My reaction to the concert?

[Announcement]The musicians behind the main theme of #AnimalCrossing: New Horizons have come together virtually for this special performance! We hope you enjoy it! #ACNH pic.twitter.com/QP8nLbyD1U

 Tom Nook (@animalcrossing) May 15, 2020

screengrab via Nintendo/YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/16/the-real-musicians-behind-the.html

Want to try an interesting little science experiment at home?

This looks fun.

Alka Seltzer, oil and water in a glass become a lava lamp of sorts.

Alka Seltzer, oil and water

Looks like some food coloring may have been involved, too. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/16/when-you-put-alka-seltzer-oil.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/16/trump-brags-of-new-super-du.html

• “Miss Piggy,” “Kermit The Frog,” and all your favorite Muppets will be there.

The beloved humans behind The Muppets are gathering for a special live internet broadcast today to honor the late Jim Henson, who died 30 years ago today.

TUNE IN, FREE! TODAY, May 16, Saturday, 4pm ET. https://muppetguystalking.com/jim/

Frank Oz tells Boing Boing:

We’ll be answering questions about Jim and his work because that day is the 30th anniversary of Jim's passing and we just want to talk about him.

THE INFO: May 16, Saturday, 4pm ET. It will be live-streamed and free. It’s also going to be a fundraiser for those non-medical hospital workers battling Covid 19.

You gotta be there.

May 16, Saturday is the 30th anniversary of Jim Henson’s passing. We can’t let this day go by without remembering him. At 4 pm ET the Muppet Guys will be talking about Jim and his work . Go to https://t.co/NOH0VE8aQI. It’ll be live-stream. I think it’ll be worth your time.

 Frank Oz (@TheFrankOzJam) May 16, 2020

IMAGES courtesy The Jim Henson Company and Disney Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/16/watch-muppet-guys-live-honor.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/16/facebook-is-buying-giphy-in-de.html

A criminal hacker group that breached a major entertainment law firm says it will release documents on President Donald Trump if it doesn’t receive $42 million in ransom.

The hackers are identified as a known criminal gang. They did not offer proof that they have damaging information about Trump. But they released a large set of stolen files from the law firm, Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, which are reported to be legitimate by NBC News.

The law firm said that Trump is not a client and has never been. A spokesperson for the firm said it wasn't clear which of its clients have been compromised.

The group uses ransomware — a type of malicious software — to break into a victim’s networks and encrypt them, demanding a fee to unlock them. If the victim doesn’t pay up, the group slowly leaks out unencrypted versions of files stolen from those networks to prompt payment.

The criminal group posted on its blog a threat to publish files related to Trump.

“The next person we'll be publishing is Donald Trump. There's an election race going on, and we found a ton of dirty laundry on time,” the group wrote, giving a one-week deadline. “And to you voters, we can let you know that after such a publication, you certainly don't want to see him as president.”

Read More: Criminal group that hacked law firm threatens to release Trump documents [NBC News] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/16/criminal-hackers-breach-law-fi.html

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.

IMGURian @steenerbeener has been observing this sweet little robin wiggling on her birdie babies in the nest:

Our Robin stayed on her nest for most of the day today. She only darts off to get a bite to eat. I think that must mean she has eggs in there, but we can’t see them with this camera angle. She checked on the eggs a couple of times. Lots of that cute wiggling too!

Love to see the wiggles.

More of those wiggles

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/15/mother-robin-wiggles-on-her-ne.html

Delightfully weird and lovingly crafted. I love this.

“I have been putting dollhouse doors as outlet covers around my house,” says IMGURian cristinaf.

I have been putting dollhouse doors as outlet covers around my house

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/15/dollhouse-doors-as-electrical.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/15/state-dept-ig-fired-hmm-weird.html