Amazon says it will deploy an artificial intelligence surveillance system in warehouses that tells workers if they are too close to colleagues, as the coronavirus pandemic rages on and workers are placed at risk.

New challenges lead to new innovations. This is Distance Assistant – a magic-mirror-like tool that helps our employees practice physical distancing. Read more: https://t.co/4cR5D3AlWC pic.twitter.com/Dq0sfwUZIp

 Amazon News (@amazonnews) June 16, 2020

Workers who fail to keep a safe distance will be circled in red.

Matt Day at Bloomberg News reports that this is the latest effort by Amazon.com to adjust workers' conditions to the unabated threat of coronavirus.

The new software, called Distance Assistant, displays camera footage on a television monitor, with annotations noting which employees are following social distancing guidelines. Employees keeping a safe distance are circled in green, and those the software determines are within 6 feet of someone else are circled in red, offering workers immediate visual feedback.

Brad Porter, a vice president who oversees much of Amazon’s robotics engineering work, likened the new tool to highway speed check signs. In a corporate blog post published on Tuesday, he said the system was already in use in high-traffic areas at a handful of Amazon facilities, and that Amazon planned to install hundreds of more units in the next few weeks.

The company intends to make its new software freely available to other businesses, Porter said. A spokeswoman didn’t say when it would be available.

Read more: Amazon Deploys New Social-Distancing Software at U.S. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/16/amazon-to-enforce-social-dista.html

Yesterday it was reported that three new York City police officers were sickened and sent to a hospital after drinking poisoned milkshakes from a Shake Shack restaurant. After investigating, the New York Police Department found that the milkshakes were not intentionally spiked with detergent, but that the milkshake machine was not properly drained of cleaning solution before the milkshake mixture was added to it.

From The New York Post:

Police Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch wrote that several officers who had been assigned to a protest detail stopped at the Shake Shack.

“At some point during their meal period, the (officers) discovered that a toxic substance, believed to be bleach, had been placed in their beverages,” he wrote.

“The contamination was not discovered until the (officers) had already ingested a portion of their beverages,” Lynch continued. “They are currently at the hospital receiving treatment and are expected to recover.”

He added: “When New York City police officers cannot even take meal without coming under attack, it is clear that environment in which we work has deteriorated to a critical level. We cannot afford to let our guard down for even a moment.”

Image: Jumpstory / CC0 Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/16/nypd-says-shake-shack-did-not.html

This unusual chicken enjoys joining their human for a relaxing bike ride.

Turns out that chicken is not the only chicken who enjoys a bit of cycling. Here's one in Denmark. They're a silkie chicken.

Look at that cute blue helmet.

Chicken on a bicycle!

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/15/chicken-on-a-bicycle.html

We know Coronavirus is impacting Black, Latinx, and Native Americans at rates far higher than whites. New data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control shows the racial gap is far worse than previously known. [Read the CDC report here.]

“Racial disparities in this pandemic are nothing new, but a massive collection of test results is the surest evidence yet of a horrifying trend,” reports Olivia Messer at Daily Beast:

In a new, massive federal survey of novel coronavirus cases in the United States, a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers an in-depth breakdown by gender, race, ethnicity, and health factors.

Among 1,320,488 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases considered by the CDC between January 22 and May 30, 2020—of which only 45 percent had race or ethnicity data—33 percent were Hispanic or Latino of any race and 22 percent of infections were among Black Americans, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released Monday found. For context, those communities account for about 18 percent and 13 percent of the U.S. population, respectively.

The numbers amount to the best evidence yet that the deadly pandemic has had an outsized impact on communities of color.

Read more: • Coronavirus Is Hitting Black and Hispanic Americans Harder. CDC Data Shows How Much. [dailybeast] • Coronavirus Disease 2019 Case Surveillance — United States, January 22–May 30, 2020 [cdc.gov] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/15/racial-disparity-in-covid-case.html

UPDATE, 6:50pm PT: AT&T tells Boing Boing, “We do not have an issue with our network,” and points us to this @ATTNEWS tweet: “Our network is operating normally, but it’s possible some customers are unable to reach people on other carriers’ networks.”

Cellular provider T-Mobile has been having a very large service outage today, Monday June 15. The service interruptions were reported by Verizon users starting around 10amPT/1pm ET. It's affecting thousands of customers in several states.

T-Mobile said it's working to fix the situation, and blames a widespread "voice and data issue."

There is no evidence, and despite rumormongers there are no credible reports, of a DDoS attack or other cyberattack being the cause for the T-Mobile network failure or related impact on users of AT&T and Verizon today.

A Verizon company spokesperson told this Boing Boing writer that a routing problem was blamed.

T-Mobile's president of technology said later in the day that some users are still having problems with calls and texts, and recommended customers using WhatsApp, iMessage and other communications tools instead.

Our engineers are working to resolve a voice and data issue that has been affecting customers around the country. We’re sorry for the inconvenience and hope to have this fixed shortly.

 Neville (@NevilleRay) June 15, 2020

From TechCrunch:

In our own tests in New York and Seattle, we found that making calls from a T-Mobile phone would fail almost immediately after placing the call. We also found that the cell service on our phones was intermittent, with bars occasionally dropping to zero or losing access to high-speed data.

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/15/t-mobile-att-and-verizon-hi.html

• Voice of America's director and assistant director resign

• White House April 10 newsletter falsely accused VOA of using taxpayer dollars to "promote foreign propaganda"

• Two miserably failed right-wing filmmakers are taking control of VOA, four months before the 2020 election, and they're bringing Sebastian Gorka in. What could possibly go wrong?

Two top officials at Voice of America have resigned after Trump's pick for CEO Michael Pack took over the federally funded international news network.

Behind the scenes, Steve Bannon is said to be more or less taking charge of VOA now, and just in time for the 2020 U.S. elections, if they even happen.

CNN reports that "a well-placed VOA employee said there are internal discussions about a sizable shakeup coming to the agency that may include former White House official and conservative radio host Sebastian Gorka taking on a leadership position."

VOA director Amanda Bennett and deputy director Sandy Sugawara, both veteran journalists, bid farewell to the staff on Monday morning.

Referencing Pack, they said, "as the Senate-confirmed CEO, he has the right to replace us with his own VOA leadership. We depart with the gratitude and joy that has marked our time together, with a dedication to our mission and admiration for each one of you."

Some journalists at VOA fear that Pack — best known for making films with a conservative bent -- will interfere with the organization's independent newsroom and turn it into a pro-Trump messaging machine. Trump has repeatedly railed against VOA and accused it of disseminating Chinese propaganda — charges that Bennett strongly denied.

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/15/voa-to-be-controlled-by-trump.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/15/trump-on-coronavirus-if-we-st.html

The comedy duo known as The Good Liars has placed these caution signs around Brooklyn to thoughtfully alert residents to the great hazards of slightly slopping (and very slippery and scary) ramps.

We put some caution signs up on ramps around Brooklyn on behalf of Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/ALOpw2F7ev

 The Good Liars (@TheGoodLiars) June 14, 2020

Bonus track:

Their exorcism of Ted Cruz. "He's possessed by a demon. That's why his body is so disgusting to look at!"

Anyone wake up today hoping to see someone perform an exorcism on Ted Cruz? Well, here ya go! pic.twitter.com/US0fqN52XK

 The Good Liars (@TheGoodLiars) June 15, 2020

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/15/slight-incline-very-scary.html

This original, 300-year-old pair of nerd eyeglasses were destined for a Wellington, New Zealand landfill. Fortunately, the operators of a Wellington City Council thrift shop pulled the frames, an ancestor of Le corbusier's classic specs, from the trash and listed them for auction. The frames, a style called Martin's Margins designed in 1756 by Benjamin Martin, sold for more than $5,282. I eagerly await an Oliver Peoples knock-off. From UPI:

The winning bidder, Aaron Smylie, said he bought the glasses as a tribute to his partner, Helen Hammond, who died May 28 after a fight with cancer.

Smylie said he and Hammond would often use FaceTime to video chat, and the glasses reminded him of a screenshot he kept showing Hammond using a filter that gave her round glasses and whiskers.

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/15/original-nerd-glasses-from-175.html

Someone left a package of gold bars worth $190,000 on a Swiss Federal Railways train on its from St Gallen to Lucerne. Authorities have spent nine months trying to find the rightful owner to no avail. Now, the public prosecutors office is seeking the public's help in finding the absent-minded individual who left them behind. From CNN:

In a bulletin dated June 2, officials said the owner has five years to make a claim for the treasure.

A spokesperson for the prosecutor's office told CNN that several inquiries had been made about the gold and were being checked. Not details about the nature of the checks were given.

image: Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited (CC0) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/15/lost-and-found-200000-in-go.html

I bought a set of four of these 8 x 11" flexible cutting boards a few years ago, and they've held up very well considering how much I use them every day to chop carrots, cabbage, turnips. and rutabagas. I discovered they're on sale, so I thought it would be a good time to replace them. Flexible cutting boards are nice because you can flex them to pour chopped ingredients into bowls. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/15/excellent-flexible-cutting-boa.html

CNBC reports that the FBI and federal prosecutors in Boston charged six former members of eBay’s global security team with cyberstalking the publisher of an email newsletter that said critical things about the company.

“Among other things, several of the defendants ordered anonymous and disturbing deliveries to the victims’ home, including a preserved fetal pig, a bloody pig Halloween mask, a funeral wreath, a book on surviving the loss of a spouse, and pornography – the last of these addressed to the newsletter’s publisher but sent to his neighbors’ homes,” the Department of Justice said on Monday.

The group also posted on Craigslist that the couples were swingers and were looking for sexual partners, according to the lawsuit.

The Justice Department said that it charged James Baugh, eBay’s former senior director of safety and security, and David Harville, eBay’s former director of global resiliency, with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses.

“In addition the following defendants were charged in an Information unsealed today: Stephanie Popp, 32, of San Jose, eBay’s former Senior Manager of Global Intelligence; Stephanie Stockwell, 26, of Redwood City, Calif., the former manager of eBay’s Global Intelligence Center (GIC); Veronica Zea, 26, of San Jose, a former eBay contractor who worked as an intelligence analyst in the GIC; and Brian Gilbert, 51, of San Jose, a former Senior Manager of Special Operations for eBay’s Global Security Team,” the Department of Justice said.

“They are each charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses and will make appearances in federal court in Boston at a later date.”

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/15/six-members-of-ebays-global.html

Compare and contrast: Trump speaking during his June 2015 campaign launch speech vs. Trump speaking at West Point today, almost exactly five years later pic.twitter.com/qDFmkNBVmj

 Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 13, 2020

With each passing day, Trump becomes more like his cult followers. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/15/compare-the-way-trump-spoke-in.html

The International Space Station will be outfitted with a new toilet later this fall. The current commode is based on 1990s technology used on the Space Shuttle. From Space.com:

It can be clunky to use, particularly for women, and it is "sensitive to crew alignment on the seat," sometimes resulting in messes, according to [a new NASA review of the waste management system].

So NASA has tried to keep the aspects that have gotten positive reviews while trimming mass and volume and making some design changes, like adjusting the shape of the seat and replacing the apparatus that compresses the waste.

Another change mimics a feature of the toilet on the Russian side of the space station, where astronauts simply hook their feet into toe bars, rather than the thigh bars used on the American equivalent to anchor the astronaut in the microgravity environment.

"Development of a Universal Waste Management System" (NASA) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/15/the-space-station-is-getting-a.html

On Saturday night I drove down Ventura Blvd, the main drag of Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley. As I passed through Sherman Oaks, I was surprised to see very crowded restaurants. No one was wearing a mask. For a lot of people, the pandemic is over. This graph suggests otherwise. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/15/animated-chart-shows-rise-of-d.html

Squadron based X-Wing vs TIE Interceptor combat? Count me in. I have pre-ordered via Steam. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/15/squadrons-is-the-star-wars-gam.html

In this clip from a 1971 episode of The Dick Cavett Show, Sammy Davis Jr. talks about his money troubles and impersonates James Stewart and Laurence Olivier. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/15/watch-sammy-davis-jr-imperson.html

Spoken Word with Electronics is an audio series delivering to you a two side recording of unusual stories paired with vintage modular electronic sounds

Headline: Space Aliens no longer visit Earth because our technology now drives them crazy. They are allergic to our EMF Radiation.

Welcome back to Spoken Word with Electronics. Episode fourteen greets us with some real news. Important stuff. Humans have long benefited from help from alien lifeforms. They taught us how to make fire, possibly introduced the virus that gave us the consciousness, and even invented Febreeze. These are all alien gifts to us.

Recently, however, we haven't been seeing much proof of alien life. Our race of humans have insisted on making our own technology. Like any kid in the kitchen, we've made quite a mess, too. Our bodies don't have the development to perceive our mess, but Space Aliens sure sense it. It's EMF Radiation, or Electromagnetic Fields, and our planet is now covered in it. It's gotten so noisy Aliens don't ever visit. They are allergic to our progress.

Jump into our spacecraft and spin around the planet for an hour as we discuss this phenomenon, including a basic primer on alien allergies, the flaws of human hubris, and how insects are much more advanced as creatures than any human (or any human technology, for that matter).

This episode includes ACTUAL EMF RADIATION, as captured by a Soma Labs Ether. All sounds of static, feedback, glitchy clicking and comfortable washes of noise have been received from the air around us through this wonderful Russian device. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/15/space-aliens-are-no-longer-vis.html

British comedy legend John Cleese tweeted a timely message Friday that was recorded some 30 years ago. The footage riffs on extremists, "Extremism makes you feel good, because it provides you with enemies..." Watch:

Hard to tell if I recorded this 30 years or 10 minutes ago... pic.twitter.com/GPDURhYIJL

 John Cleese (@JohnCleese) June 12, 2020

In related news, BBC-owned UKTV pulled a different Fawlty Towers episode out of streaming services for being racially insensitive (N-word usage). Cleese criticized the decision and it was later reinstated with "extra guidance."

Speaking to Australian newspaper The Age, Cleese had said: “The Major was an old fossil left over from decades before. We were not supporting his views, we were making fun of them. If they can’t see that, if people are too stupid to see that, what can one say?”

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/15/john-cleeses-30-year-old-ran.html

Self-proclaimed white nationalist and alleged domestic abuser Richard Spencer has been bogged down in a civil lawsuit for his part in helping to organize the "Unite The Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virgina, which resulted in much calamity, including the tragic death of activist Heather Heyers at the hands of another proud self-proclaimed white nationalist. Spencer is — perhaps, sadly, fittingly — the heir to a cotton farm fortune, and that privilege has helped him to finance his campaign of hate. But increasing legal (and marital) pressures have finally started to milk his racist wallet dry. From Huffington Post:

Richard Spencer’s attorney has asked for the court’s permission to withdraw from representing him in the civil case. The lawyer, John DiNucci, said Spencer owes him a significant amount of money in legal fees and hasn’t been cooperating adequately.

Spencer told U.S. Magistrate Judge Joel Hoppe that the lawsuit over the “Unite the Right” white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017 has been “extremely expensive” and a “huge burden” for him.

“This case has been financially crippling for a long time,” said Spencer, who popularized the term “alt-right” to describe a loosely connected fringe movement of white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other far-right extremists.

Huffington Post goes on to note that Spencer has also (allegedly) failed to turn over numerous documents for the trial, including thousands of photos and video files.

The trustfund Neo-Nazi baby runs a "nonprofit" called the National Policy Institute, which had previously raised nearly $500,000 in tax-deductible contributions between 2007 and 2012. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/15/noted-white-nationalist-and-gu.html