My pal Shalaco sent me this video he made with the following message:

As a photographer I lost 100% of my income due to the Covid-19 crisis. I applied to every form of financial support out there and recently had a lot of success. I want to share what I've learned with the community with these tips for applying for financial resources for photographers, creatives, or really anyone.

The amount of epic resource lists out there can be overwhelming, this video focuses on walking people through the process.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/22/artist-shares-11-tips-to-apply.html

"NVIDIA GameGAN is a powerful new AI model created by NVIDIA Research and was trained on 50,000 episodes of PAC-MAN to produce a fully functional version of the classic without an underlying game engine." Read the article about it was done here.

Image: Nvidia Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/22/this-ai-re-created-it-playable.html

On the same night that he fired State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, a watchdog who was allegedly investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over any number of potentially corrupt activities, Trump also terminated a watchdog working for the Department of Transportation. As Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington explains:

At DOT, the acting IG was overseeing a high profile investigation of Secretary Chao’s alleged favoritism benefiting her husband Senator Mitch McConnell’s political prospects, but has now been replaced with a political appointee from within the agency. The acting IG’s ouster calls into question the future of the Chao-McConnell investigation, other critical oversight, and whether the watchdog was dismissed for unearthing damaging information.

[…]

Trump’s decision to sideline DOT acting IG Mitch Behm (who has 17 years of experience with OIG) was lost in the shuffle of outrage following the announcement that Trump planned to fire the State Department IG, but potential conflicts of interest abound. The most high profile is the DOT OIG’s review of allegations that Secretary Chao gave Senator McConnell’s constituents special treatment and helped steer millions of federal dollars to Kentucky as he is facing low approval ratings and a tough reelection bid.

Secretary Chao also served as Deputy Secretary of Transportation under President George HW Bush and Secretary of Labor under President George W Bush. Her father is a wealthy and successful Chinese-American shipping magnate who has donated tens of millions of dollars to Senator Mitch McConnell, even before he married Chao in 1993 (McConnell's first wife, Sherrill Redmon, is a feminist scholar at Smith; neither she or their Democrat daughters discuss their relationship with McConnell). Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/22/trump-also-fired-another-watch.html

Floating out of your body and looking down on it. The story of your life flashing by before your eyes. Seeing a bright light at the end of a dark tunnel. These are just two of the most common experiences that people report after a near-death experience (NDE). For some people, NDEs are a transformative spiritual or mystical experience. But what's the source of the phenomena? That's a question that fascinates Dr. Christof Koch is president and chief scientist of the Allen Institute for Brain Science who studies the neuroscience of consciousness. In Scientific American, Koch surveys the science of near-death experiences and what they can tell us about how our brains work under extreme duress. From Scientific American:

Modern death requires irreversible loss of brain function. When the brain is starved of blood flow (ischemia) and oxygen (anoxia), the patient faints in a fraction of a minute and his or her electroencephalogram, or EEG, becomes isoelectric—in other words, flat. This implies that large-scale, spatially distributed electrical activity within the cortex, the outermost layer of the brain, has broken down. Like a town that loses power one neighborhood at a time, local regions of the brain go offline one after another. The mind, whose substrate is whichever neurons remain capable of generating electrical activity, does what it always does: it tells a story shaped by the person’s experience, memory and cultural expectations.

Given these power outages, this experience may produce the rather strange and idiosyncratic stories that make up the corpus of NDE reports.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/22/what-near-death-experiences-ca.html

It annoys me that the nail's owner keeps trimming it. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/22/time-lapse-of-a-fingernail-gro.html

In 2017, musician/activist Toshi Reagon began creating an operatic stage adaptation of Octavia Butler's The Parable of the Sower  — the 1993 Afrofuturist sci-fi novel about an America in the year 2020 that's ravaged by climate change and income inequality and greedy politicians who appeal to imaginary racists pasts while also promising to build a wall around the wealthy.

Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower: A Concert Experience received renowned productions from Boston to New York to Los Angeles. And now — since it is 2020, and we're living in an America ravaged by climate change and income inequality and greedy politicians who appeal to imaginary racists pasts while also promising to build a wall around the wealthy — the arts program at Emerson College (my alma mater) has announced a year-long residency with Reagon called Parable Path Boston, which will continue to explore Butler's work alongside real-time climate activism in Boston.

To kick off the program, ArtsEmerson will be hosting a one-night screening of the show on Friday, May 22 at 6pm, followed by an online talkback with Toshi Reagon. I'm pretty sure it's free, but you have to register ahead of time for a link.

I have some friends who were involved in the early workshops of the play, who still talk about it as one of their most formative artistic experiences. I know what I'm doing Friday night; but if you're not convinced to join me yet, there's more links below.

Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower [Toshi Reagon / ArtsEmerson]

Parable of the Songwriter: Toshi Reagon Explains Why an Octavia Butler-Inspired Opera Is More Relevant Than Ever [Maiysha Kai / The Root]

A Prescient Sci-Fi ‘Parable’ Gets Set to Music [Jeremy D. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/22/watch-this-opera-adaptation-of.html

this is the greatest thing ive seen all day pic.twitter.com/f4wSSPFHoG

 glitch! @ tired (@GlitchyFur) May 20, 2020

I hereby dub this genre: "Appliancewave." Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/22/delightful-cover-of-a-has.html

David Lynch has finally uploaded FIRE (POZAR), the experimental animated short he did in 2015, to his new David Lynch Theater on YouTube.

To create it, Lynch shared the still drawings he'd done for the piece with composer Marek Zebrowski (who did the music for Lynch's Inland Empire) and didn't share any further details. After Zebrowski had composed the music, animator Noriko Miyakawa put together the final animated short.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/22/david-lynchs-latest-10-minut.html

It's been over a hundred years since the Titanic sank, and its wreckage in the North Atlantic Ocean has been protected by an  International Agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom. But since 2000, that agreement has specifically forbidden anyone from cutting into the wreckage or detaching any part of it. In other words, the wreckage itself must be preserved, even as researchers explore and salvage around it.

From CNN:

Virginia's eastern district court amended that order "for a unique opportunity to recover an artifact that will contribute to the legacy left by the indelible loss of the Titanic, those who survived and those who gave their lives in the sinking," Judge Rebecca Beach Smith wrote.

[…]

The Marconi device and the artifacts associated with it face "significant threat of permanent loss," the judge said in her approval of the expedition.

The radio isn't a blackbox, per se — it's not like modern planes that record the final fates of people on board. But it certainly has historical significance. Even though, on the surface, "Rescuing the radio but the Titanic" sounds like a depressing metaphor for watching the world fall apart all around you.

Radio used by the Titanic to call for help can be salvaged, judge rules [Kay Jones, Sheena Jones and Theresa Waldrop / CNN] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/22/researchers-are-about-to-rescu.html

Screenwriter Jack Barth wrote the original script for Yesterday, the movie about a world where only one man remembers The Beatles. Richard Curtis (of Love Actually fame) liked the script and bought it, but on the proviso that Barth would not be named as the screenwriter. Curtis rewrote it as a rom-com, gave it a happy ending, but kept some key scenes. When the film came out, however, he claimed to have never read Barth's script, saying instead that all Barth came up with was a "one-sentence" idea. Barth is sick of hearing it; Curtis's alleged behavior was exposed yesterday in an interview at Uproxx.

“I didn’t realize Richard was going to do this to me until the week that the film was released,” Barth says. “Then all the publicity hit all at once and I could see that he was taking credit for everything. I think I could have done something then but I didn’t want to jeopardize the film. I got lawyers to contact Richard’s lawyers and they just dragged it out.”

“By the time I realized I needed to get the story out there myself, it was really hard to pitch something that was for a film that had come out eight months earlier. Most of the media is concerned with just promoting the current films, they’re not interested in a story about the abuse of the powerless by the powerful.”

Note that there is no claim here of copyright infringement. Curtis bought the rights to Barth's script and paid well for it. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/22/original-yesterday-screenw.html

Okay, now THIS is a quarantine crafting project.

An amazing terrarium coffee table, shared by IMGURian @timsterrariums206.

Go see the entire gallery.

I made a terrarium coffee table

[source: IMGUR] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/22/terrarium-coffee-table.html

Pro-democracy lawmakers denounced the plans as “the end of Hong Kong”.

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/22/beijing-to-base-china-security.html

We’ve all been cooped up in the house for way too long. Even though we’re all trying to be more health-conscious these days, the confinement is likely doing a number on both the physical and psychological health of millions.

Young or old, male or female, it’s time for many to take some proactive steps toward the sound and healthy mind and body that we all need. That wide-ranging focus on all aspects of healthy living is at the center of a universe of wellness programs found in the Shilpa Shetty Yoga and Fitness app.

If you’ve never heard of Shilpa Shetty, then you aren’t a fan of Indian cinema. For the past 25 years, she’s been a huge Bollywood superstar, model, businesswoman, and fitness enthusiast. With the Shilpa Shetty app, she’s attempting to reach millions worldwide with a simple philosophy she’s made into a personal mantra and a household phrase in her native country: swasth raho mast raho, translated as stay healthy, stay happy.

The app features customized, goal-based yoga and fitness routines mentored by experts and performed by Shilpa Shetty herself, all tailored to different audiences. Their goal: to help users lose weight, improve flexibility, strengthen core muscles, toned arms and legs, and more, all through easy, home-based workouts. 

If you’re suffering medically, there are also special aliment-based programs that focus on diabetes, low and high blood pressure, and sleep issues. There are even programs aimed at boosting your immunity system to help stave off illnesses.

While most programs can show benefits for men and women, there are also several specially curated exercises just for women working through pregnancy, attempting post-pregnancy weight loss, or even combating menstrual pain. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/bollywood-star-shilpa-shetty-h.html

These two little bear cubs are play-fighting, but they look beary serious.

Scary up close bear fighting!! pic.twitter.com/hKRka6A6Gd

 Josh (@Pasta_Josh) May 21, 2020

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/cute-bear-cubs-play-fight-at-s.html

• Ruairi O Leoch'ain of Athlone Wildlife Apiaries decided to make a lego beehive "just for a bit of craic"

A beekeeper in Ireland put their coronavirus quarantine time to good use by crafting an elaborate, fully functioning beehive out of LEGOs.

Here's the original story published by Westmeath Independent:

A beehive which an Athlone schoolteacher and wildlife activist made out of lego has been creating a real buzz since video footage of it was shared online in recent days.

Ruairi O Leoch'ain of Athlone Wildlife Apiaries decided to make a lego beehive "just for a bit of craic", but a video clip he shared of the bees in their colourful new home has been hugely popular and is about to surpass 100,000 views on Facebook.

"To be honest, I wasn't expecting such a big reaction," he said.

"I have had people getting in touch with me from China, America, and elsewhere saying that they love the idea."

LEGO Beehive

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/irish-beekeepers-covid-lego.html

Your concerns about the privacy and security risks of using state-run coronavirus contact tracing apps? They're reasonable concerns.

This new report from mobile privacy firm Jumbo Privacy says the official North Dakota contact-tracing app is sharing location data with Foursquare and an advertising ID with Google.

Writes Steven Melendez for Fast Company:

The app, called Care19, and produced by a company called ProudCrowd that also makes a location-based social networking app for North Dakota State sports fans, generates a random ID number for each person who uses it. Then, it can “anonymously cache the individual’s locations throughout the day,” storing information about where people spent at least 10 minutes at a time, according to the state website. If users test positive for the coronavirus, they can provide that information to the North Dakota Department of Health for contact-tracing purposes so that other people who spent time near virus patients can potentially be notified.

According to the app’s privacy policy, “location data is private to you and is stored securely on ProudCrowd, LLC servers” and won’t be shared with third parties “unless you consent or ProudCrowd is compelled under federal regulations.”

But according to the Jumbo report, the app sends the random ID number, along with a phone ID used for advertising purposes and apparent latitudes and longitudes of places visited by the user, to Foursquare, a leading location-data provider. The app also sends the random ID to servers run by Bugfender, a Barcelona-based service used by app makers to track and diagnose software malfunctions, according to Jumbo, which monitored internet traffic generated by the app.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/north-dakotas-covid-19-conta.html

Trump's pick follows 9/11 truther and QAnon conspiracies

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/senate-approves-john-ratcliffe.html

William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. charged with Felony Murder & Criminal Attempt to Commit False Imprisonment.

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/man-who-filmed-the-fatal-shoot.html

At some point in the future, global communications networks will likely reach one standardized protocol that everyone uses. If you look back over the past few decades, there’s a decent chance that when the story of digital networking is finally settled once and for all, it’s Cisco and Cisco-based systems that the globe will be using.

As a worldwide leader in network technology, Cisco hardware and software are everywhere. If you’re an IT professional or an aspiring IT professional, a strong familiarity with how to manage and administrate Cisco systems, particularly with some certification credentials to back you up, could go a long way to ensuring your value in any organization. With the training in The Premium Cisco CCNA and CCNP Lifetime Certification Prep Bundle, you’ll be well on your way to being a respected networking pro.

Including seven courses packed with almost 100 hours of instruction, this training is focused on getting you ready to take and pass the Cisco CCNA and CCNP certification, two of the most sought-after credentials in the field.

With Cisco CCNA 200-301 Bootcamp and New Cisco CCNA (200-301) Volume 1: The Complete Course, you’ll first get some training in passing the Cisco CCNA 200-301 exam, the test created earlier this year by Cisco consolidating several previous training areas into one all-encompassing networking basics exam.

Through hands-on labs and other exercises, students will learn how routing and switching technologies work under real work conditions to help you build your knowledge to install, manage, and grow networks using Cisco routers and switchers. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/heres-how-to-get-certificat.html

Last weekend, the Schantz family was on a drive in Caroline County, Virgina when the car in front of them swerved to avoid a bag in the middle of the road. The Schantzes stopped to pick up the bag and noticed another in a nearby ditch. Assuming the bags were garbage, they tossed them in the back of their truck to throw away later. They eventually discovered that the bags contained nearly $1 million in cash. From CNN:

Within the two larger bags were smaller ones, each containing some information on where the money should have been deposited.

"Inside of the bag, there were plastic baggies and they were addressed with something that said 'cash vault,'" Emily Schantz told CNN affiliate WTVR.

The Sheriff's department conducted its own investigation before turning it over the United States Postal Service, which is now looking into the matter [...]

"It's really a credit to just the character and fiber of the family," [Caroline County Sheriff's Department Maj. Scott] Moser said. "I'm sure it'd be difficult to make that decision. It's almost $1 million in cash. But they did the right thing."

image: Caroline County Sheriff's Department Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/05/21/virginia-family-found-1-milli.html