Lyndsay Tucker, 25, works at a beauty boutique in San Jose, California. Every day, her mobile phone rings or buzzes with texts, not for her but for Elon Musk. Tucker was randomly assigned Musk's old phone number that made its way online years ago and continues to spread. (It's not clear if Tucker's number is the one Musk accidentally Tweeted publicly back in 2017.) From Bobby Allyn's story on NPR:

One woman volunteered to go to space with SpaceX. Another person sent a blueprint for a bionic limb. "Which is, No. 1, really cool," Tucker said. "But I have no idea how it's built."

A South African businessman asked about buying 1,000 trucks. The Internal Revenue Service called about a complicated tax issue.

"I assumed I had messed something up," Tucker said about that call. "It was a huge relief they weren't looking for me."

[...] NPR reached out to Musk to see whether he knew about his long-lost number. He replied with a short email.

"Wow," Musk said. "That number is so old! I'm surprised it's still out there somewhere."

Some of those who texted Tucker said Musk himself provided the number to them. When NPR asked Musk whether he gave out that number to people he was trying to dodge, he did not respond.

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/this-woman-has-elon-musks-ol.html

Joni Mitchell's "River," from her 1971 masterpiece, Blue, has long been one of my favorites of her compositions. The sad, dreamy imagery of a wintertime love lost and the desire to skate away on an endless frozen river forever has got to be one of the most potent evocations in popular music.

In this isolated vocal from that track, we get to hear just how pure, powerful, and expressive Joni's vocals were on this recording.

[Via Far Out Magazine]

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/joni-mitchells-humblingly-be.html

Astronaut Chris Hadfield explains how astronauts wash their hands in the microgravity of space. Formerly the commander of the International Space Station, Hadfield spent nearly six months offworld.

(via The Kid Should See This) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/how-to-wash-your-hands-in-s.html

I bought a Durascoop cat litter scoop about five years ago because the little plastic scoop I’d been using for a couple of years had gotten flimsy from use and would often buckle at the handle.

The Durascoop is made from cast aluminum and will never bend. It easily shaves off hardened clumps of litter from that litter box that would cause a plastic scoop to fold in half. It’s actually a beautiful looking tool, too. If Raymond Loewy designed a scoop, it would look like this (except maybe the handle wouldn’t be covered with textured plastic). Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/this-is-the-cadillac-of-cat-li.html

The robot is your shepherd. In collaboration with cloud robotics firm Rocos, Boston Dynamics demonstrates how their robot dog Spot can herd sheep and handle other farming tasks. From the video description:

The use of autonomous robots in agriculture is increasing the efficiency of food production. Robots, like Spot from Boston Dynamics, increase accuracy in yield estimates, relieve the strain of worker shortages, and create precision in farming.

More on the Rocos/Boston Dynamics collaboration here.

And some context, albeit from 2018: "As Immigrant Farmworkers Become More Scarce, Robots Replace Humans" (New York Times) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/watch-this-robotic-sheepdog-ma.html

As part of HiloBrow's Movie Objects series of essays, Jonathan Lethem writes about Burt Lancaster's hammer in the 1958 movie adaptation of George R. Stewart’s almost last-man-on-earth novel, Earth Abides.

Earth Abides surrounds a feral-looking Burt Lancaster, fresh off the set of John Huston’s The Unforgiven, with a cast of New York stage actors and unknowns, among them a young Gena Rowlands and the unforgettably eccentric character actor Timothy Carey. The material of Stewart’s Earth Abides is a lot less doomy, actually, than the Shute — despite 95 percent of the world population being extinguished in a viral plague, as the title suggests, it’s a book about survival and contemplation. The main character, Ish (Lancaster), wanders the emptied streets scouting for food and companions, but also meditating on the profound and lyrical encroachment of the natural environment over humankind’s works, and the persistence of life and meaning in the absence of societal certainties.

Those who know don't ask, and those who ask don't know. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/jonathan-lethem-reviews-the-19.html

The inimitable Jimmy Slonina cloned himself four times to lip-sync The Temptations' "I Can't Get Next to You."

(Thanks, Pat!)

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/excellent-lip-sync-of-the-temp.html

"In lieu of flowers, please pay someone's open bar tab." That's the request to those mourning the loss of one Randall Jacobs of Phoenix, Arizona, who died at age 65. According to his obituary, RJ, aka Uncle Bunky, "told his last joke, which cannot be printed here, on May 4th, 2020." He sounds like a real character and will be greatly missed by those who knew him. From Legacy.com:

When the end drew near, he left us with a final Bunkyism: "I'm ready for the dirt nap, but you can't leave the party if you can't find the door."

He found the door, but the party will never be the same without him.

In lieu of flowers, please pay someone's open bar tab, smoke a bowl, and fearlessly carve out some fresh lines through the trees on the gnarliest side of the mountain.

(via Fark) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/in-lieu-of-flowers-please-p.html

"The glove remover is a simple device that reduces the risk of contamination when changing protective gloves while increasing efficiency and convenience."

The website has a link to the 3D model so you can print your own (if you have a 3D printer or access to one). Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/good-idea-3d-printed-glove-re.html

Kevin Kelly alerted me that Jamis MacNiven, owner of Buck's, the "famous and famously weird, restaurant in Woodside at the end of Sand Hill Road," has shut down the restaurant because of Covid-19. "Instead," says Kevin, "he is doing this weird newsletter/blog about all the exotic Pacific islands you will never visit." Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/enjoy-this-weird-newsletter-bl.html

My friend Nik Shulz (aka L-Dopa) creates beautiful designs and illustrations. I hired him when I was an editor at Wired and at Make. In recent years Nik has branched out into furniture making, and his work is just as beautiful as his illustrations.

In his newsletter, Nik linked to an article by Joshua Farnsworth on how to make a collapsible Viking camp chair.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/how-to-build-a-viking-camp-cha.html

A Volkswagen ad posted to its official Instagram account depicted an enormous disembodied white hand dragging a black man away from a Volkswagen Golf, then flicking him into a building signposted "Petit Colon", which translates as "little colonist". Volkswagen soon removed it an apologized.

"We posted a racist advertising video on Volkswagen's Instagram channel," the VW brand's head of sales and marketing J"urgen Stackmann and group head of diversity Elke Heitm"uller said in an apology posted on social media. "We understand the public outrage at this. Because we're horrified, too," they added.

How odd that through the whole process of commissioning the ad, filming and editing it, approving the results, transcoding it to mobile-friendly formats, and posting it to social media, no-one realized it was racist. But as soon as it went live, they say "we're horrified, too."

Last year, VW apologized after CEO Herbert Diess used the expression "Ebit macht frei," or "Ebit sets you free," at a management event. Ebit is short for earnings before interest and tax and is a measure of company profits. The phrase sounds similar to "Arbeit macht frei," which was inscribed on the gates of Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps during World War II.

There is a culture problem at VW. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/volkswagen-apologizes-for-raci.html

Spanish explorer Alvaro Cerezo emailed me about the recent Guardian story titled "The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months."

He said:

It was the most read article last weekend in The Guardian. But I actually got the document on video.

It's the real Lord of the Flies returning to his island where he was stranded for 15 months when he was a kid.

Kolo Fekitoa, one of the six castaways alive, had terminal cancer and a dying wish to survive again on his beloved island of Ata where he was shipwrecked with his five friends when he was a boy in 1965.

In 2015 I made the 24-hour boat journey to bring Kolo to his Island, and to maroon ourselves for 10 days with only limited food, water, and supplies – surviving in the same way Kolo did decades before.

Kolo finally passed away two years later in 2017. He was one of the last real castaways alive, and Ata is one of the only few real desert islands remaining on the planet.

Cerezo is launching a documentary about the Tongan castaways this summer.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/teaser-for-documentary-about-t.html

I have a soft spot for Wheatus's "Teenage Dirtbag," mostly as a fun karaoke song that namedrops Iron Maiden and a boyfriend who's a dick. But I've always been surprised by its lasting endure — it's even by covered by One Direction, and the band re-recorded a translation in Irish Gaelic. Not bad for a song that never even charted in the US.

But apparently — as I learned after reading this Rolling Stone article — there's a lot more going on in that tune than realized. Singer/writer Brendan B. Brown genuinely considers it to be his sort of magnum opus, loosely inspired by a horrific murder in his hometown, and he himself has never grown tired of it. In fact, he's been in the process of meticulously re-recording the band's entire first album — including "Teenage Dirtbag," with (ideally) all of the exact little cellphone trills — to make-up for the fact that the master tracks went missing. This isn't just about revisiting a 20-year-old album to make it sound better; it's about recreating it to exacting perfection (which is perhaps even more impressive when you realize that the album was recorded in Brown's mother's basement).

Brown’s re-recording project has cost him countless thousands of dollars, and hundreds of hours spent obsessing over bass lines and synth sounds fans almost certainly never noticed in the first place. His quest has sent him scouring the internet for gear that most closely resembles what the band originally used to record the album.

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/theres-actually-an-interesti.html

If the state of New York were a country, as of today it would have the world's fourth highest official Covid-19 death toll.

Chinese officials are censoring or falsifying its reporting of deaths and cases, the BBC reports. The same is also true in Florida. Other countries, such as Russia, are simply failing to track and tally the pandemic.

The Andrew Cuomo love in the media is drop-dead bonkers. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/new-yorks-covid-19-death-tol.html

I've always been a big fan of Caitlin Doughty and her Ask a Mortician YouTube channel, but I especially liked this almost 40-minute mini-doc she did on the disastrous voyage of the Essex, the Nantucket whaling ship which served as part of the inspiration for Herman Melville's classic, Moby Dick. I knew some of this story, but Caitlin provides all of the bone-chilling, marrow-sucking details.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/the-gory-details-of-the-whalin.html

Live long and prosper — by social distancing! Potter Tom Edwards knows what's up. His new "Kirk and Spock's Social Distancing Alert! Mug" ($40) sends the message of "stay away!" loud and clear in an old-school Star Trek way.

Be sure to check out his other wares, including this bowl ($35) that announces that there's LSD in the dip... a little too late.

(RED)

Thanks, Marcia! Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/mug-depicts-social-distancing.html

We’ve all grown accustomed to the new world order. And until we can go out and experience the world again like we used to, we’ll settle for the next best thing: bringing the world to our door.

And if ever there was a time for wine (and lots of it), it’s now.

So even if you don’t know a bung from a sommelier, you can get yourself fully versed on wine by sampling some of the world’s best with this $155 credit towards 12 bottles of wine delivered directly to you courtesy of Winc Wine Delivery.

Winc’s been up and running for almost a decade, curating a spectacular collection of the world’s top wines. But their stockpile isn’t what brings fans back over and over again — it’s Winc’s game-changing ability to determine the exact wines that you’ll actually like before you even taste a drop. 

Using a simple six-question survey, the wine experts at Winc customize choices that fit your exclusive tastes. Armed with Winc’s recommendations, you can let them curate a 12-bottle experience of wines you’re likely to love, or you can go rogue and pick ‘em all on your own.

Whether you’re a Chardonnay fan, a Pinot Noir devotee, or a connoisseur of the Merlot (unlike Paul Giamatti in “Sideways”), you’ll have over 100 different varieties to choose from. Whether you want a classic from France, a homegrown California specialty, or an adventurous vintage from Italy, Spain, or Argentina, they’re all here.

Meanwhile, Winc wants to offer a little education with your booze as well, including a host of flavor notes, vineyard backstories, and food pairing ideas to go along with each and every bottle.  Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/winc-will-hook-you-up-with-12.html

As everyday carry (EDC) items go, we’re all looking for the same thing. We want items that help us all the time, don’t take up much space and generally make us look smart and cool. Hey, we’re simple creatures...and impressions matter.

When you find an item that can check all three boxes, it’s worth a look —and the Keyport Pivot Minimalist Bundle not only covers all three areas, but it actually consolidates a few of those everyday carry items down into one super-compact, super-effective unit.

First, the Pivot replaces the bulky keychain jangling around in your pocket with a streamlined holder for anywhere from two to nine of your most important keys. The unit has a proprietary locking mechanism that puts just the right amount of tension on the keys to keep them in place while always ready for easy use. There’s even a swivel D-ring to clip on other important items like your car or truck key fob.

Next, the Pivot comes packing its own MOCA 10-in-1 multi-purpose keychain tool, ready to tackle any number of daily encounters with the world. Nestled snugly inside the Pivot, the MOCA is ready to be deployed for a variety of duties, including a bottle opener, flathead screwdriver, a cord cutter, a box opener, a multi-setting wrench and more.

Of course, with all those vital keys and a versatile multi-tool, a user would hate to lose a Pivot. So to make sure that never happens, the purchase also comes with a free two-year subscription to the KeyportID service, an online lost and found for your Pivot. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/20/the-pivot-organizes-your-keys.html

Four years ago I bought this inexpensive 8-inch Winco chef's knife. I'm still using it today, and it's my favorite kitchen knife. I like the heaviness of it, and it sharpens quickly and holds an edge for a long time. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/20/ive-had-this-inexpensive-che.html