If ever there was a warhorse of an 80s New Wave anthem, it is Modern English's 1983 (and 1990) "I Melt with You."

Frontman Robbie Grey says of the new video version of the track:

We were all at our homes in the U.K. apart from Daniel (Jakubovic), who was in Los Angeles, and decided to film ‘I Melt With You’ to put a smile on people’s faces. We are aware of how much the song is loved and just thought a lockdown version would make people happy in these crazy times.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/modern-english-performs-i-me.html

Denis Shiryaev took film footage of Tokyo from 1913 to 1915 and upscaled it, deflickered it, removed the noise, enhanced the faces, added ambient sound, and converted it to 60 frames per second. The result is pretty remarkable. Very few cars and horses - it's all rickshaws and handcarts.

One YouTuber commented: "The way they stare at the camera reminds me of the way people stare at the Google maps car in street view."

It's like a retro version of the Nippon Wandering TV YouTube channel I'm enamored with.

Also, I learned that Beedle from Zelda is based guys like this:

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/incredible-restored-video-of-t.html

As someone who spends a few hours today in Zoom meetings, this new "virtual camera" looks interesting. It's called mmhmm and it gives you a bunch of presentation capabilities that you can use in Zoom and Google Meet. It's in private beta right now, so I haven't had a chance to use it, but this video demonstration by Phil Libin (former CEO of Evernote) shows some of its interesting features, like being able to show slides as a picture-in-picture atop a real or virtual background. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/mmhmm-turns-zoom-chats-into-sn.html

How does a neural network connect perceptions to concepts? In other words, how can you make something that accepts an array of pixels as an input and correctly outputs "dog" or "cat?" This video from Art of the Problem does a good job of explaining how neural networks are able to do this, and why it's important to have neural networks with many layers. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/how-neural-networks-work-a-g.html

Yahoo News reports that a team of doctors in Britain is warning that people with mild cases of COVID-19 could suffer from "potentially fatal complications in the brain including delirium, nerve damage, and stroke." The doctors examined 43 hospitalized patients and found that 10 suffered from temporary brain dysfunction, 12 had brain inflammation, 8 experienced strokes, and 8 had nerve damage.

"Given that the disease has only been around for a matter of months, we might not yet know what long-term damage COVID-19 can cause," said Ross Paterson from UCL's Queen Square Institute of Neurology.

"Doctors need to be aware of possible neurological effects, as early diagnosis can improve patient outcomes."

With more than 11 million confirmed infections worldwide, COVID-19 is known to cause a variety of health complications in addition to lung infection.

Image: Jumpstory / CC0 Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/even-mild-coronavirus-cases-ca.html

I loved Cory Doctorow's 2008 novel, Little Brother, and its 2013, sequel Homeland. Today, Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/new-edition-of-corys-doctoro.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/tech-ceo-in-racist-restaurant.html

Schoolteacher Mary Kay Letourneau raped a 12-year-old student, gave birth to his child and later married him, ensuring a lifetime of notoriety long after her 7½-year jail sentence was up. That life is now over, reports CNN.

Letourneau died fairly suddenly in her home late Monday, her former attorney David Gehrke told CNN. Most of her family was with her, including Vili Fualaau, her former student and ex-husband who was giving her 24-hour care the last month of her life.

A part of the Letourneau media phenomenon was the lurid and insistent suggestion that her victim was old enough to know what he wanted. To this day, their marriage remains a mirror that reveals who in media haven't quite figured out that fucking children is rape.

People Magazine describes her as "the controversial Washington middle school teacher who began a sexual relationship with a student when he was just 12."

E! News: "Mary Kay Letourneau, the controversial public figure who made headlines for having a relationship with her then 13-year-old student, has died."

NBC News explicitly euphemizes the rape conviction as "engaging in sexual relations": "Mary Kay Letourneau, the former teacher who was convicted of 2nd-degree rape of a child after engaging in sexual relations with her then 12-year-old student, has died of cancer."

Seattle's KOMO News writes that Letourneau "made headlines in the 1990s for an affair with her underage student."

KSNV News 3 in Nevada: "Letourneau generated international headlines when she admitted to a relationship with Vili Fualaau, who was her sixth-grade student at the time." Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/child-rapist-mary-kay-letourne.html

In 2011, someone sold their Bode 7702 vocoder on ebay. They made this excellent video to show off its sound and features. I'm sure the buyer was very pleased with their purchase, but I'm here for the remixes.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/vocoder-for-sale.html

Brooks Brothers is the latest casualty of the Covid pandemic, filing for bankruptcy protection in New York today. The upscale clothiers, one of the last to make garments in the U.S., has been in business for 200 years.

The closely held company, which is owned by Italian businessman Claudio Del Vecchio, filed for bankruptcy protection in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday. One of the few brands to make clothes domestically, it warned in June that it could close its three U.S. factories. It operates roughly 250 North America stores.

Looking forward to seeing large numbers of lawyers hovering outside Macys, queasily glaring at the mannequins as clothiers try to coax them inside with swatches of pinstripe and fine-wale corduroy. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/brooks-brothers-bankrupt.html

It is amazing to see some of the quality and ingenuity coming out of the indie roleplaying game community these days. Innovative ideas are bankrolled by crowdfunding campaigns and turned into beautiful books, games, and miniatures. Some of these efforts are truly unique and inspired.

Such is the case with Tim Hutchings' Thousand Year Old Vampire. Just as a piece of book art, this $45 book is something to behold ($10 PDFs are also available). It is absolutely gorgeous.

Thousand Year Old Vampire is a solo roleplaying game. It is basically an exercise in dreaming up a vampire character and then imagining and journaling their transition from mortal to immortal, their likely long, ugly, and undead existence, and their inevitable demise.

This is a very rules-light game. The skills your character uses? I spent several minutes trying to find the Skills list in the book. There isn't one. You make up the skills your vampire possess. And what resources they have. And who their friends are. And who the immortal is who turned them. You even get to dream up your vampire's Mark which is something that betrays their true nature (a wound that never heals, glowing red eyes, a nimbus of gloom that surrounds their head, etc.) that must be concealed from mortals.

The main engine of the game is a series of Prompts that you have to resolve. You navigate these by rolling dice (1d10 and 1d6) to see which prompt you have to resolve. There are three prompts on each page of the Prompts section. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/solo-roleplaying-a-thousand-ye.html

Here's some crazy news: Big Boy restaurants are swapping out their iconic mascot "Bob" for a little blonde girl named "Dolly." She is an obscure sidekick-type character from the "Adventures of Big Boy" comic book. The "Big Boy" will remain in the name though.

The company told a Michigan TV station:

"We are rolling out a brand-new chicken sandwich. We’re calling it the best cluckin’ chicken sandwich around and Dolly, who has been with Big Boys since the 1950 as far as we can go back with our comic books, We decided that she’s going to be the star of this sandwich as Big Boy was the star of his double decker sandwich...

It is Dolly’s time to shine now with our chicken sandwich. So, she’s taken the forefront right now. She’s in charge. The name will always be Big Boy but as far as the logo, she’s leading the charge and we’ll see when he comes back if he does."

Something seems off here. Ditch your 90-year-old namesake mascot for a secondary character? Doubtful. I suspect Big Boy's is taking a page from the IHOP playbook. Make a big -- but ultimately a temporary change -- to get some media attention. Oh darnit, it worked.

View this post on Instagram

The Dolly Chicken Sandwich is HERE on 7/6! To celebrate we are giving away free chicken sandwiches and a free #chickensandwich a week for the rest of the year to the first 20 in line at 11 AM at each Big Boy Restaurant.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/hello-dolly-and-goodbye-b.html

Sexy Italian pop star Rita Pavone has a playful and flirty duet with an animated potato in this 1977 classic. This novelty song has been in my head all day. Now it can be in yours, too!

Fun fact: this spud stud was animated my the late great Guido Manuli, whose reel can be seen below:

Image: YouTube / urbaniak (thanks, pensketch!) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/my-name-is-potato.html

Having produced 2,400 offspring in one of the most successful captive breeding programs of all time, Diego and other giant tortoises have been moved from their breeding facility back to their native Espa~nola Island.

Diego was the star of the bunch. Born before 1920, he was captured and shipped to San Diego Zoo in the late 1920s or early 1930s. He ended up having hundreds of offpsring as part of the effort.

Via Galapagos Conservancy:

On June 15, 2020, the Galapagos National Park Directorate and Galapagos Conservancy returned 15 giant tortoises to Espa~nola Island (including the famous tortoise dubbed “Diego”) -- an island where tortoises nearly went extinct due to exploitation by mariners in the 1800’s. For the past 55 years, these tortoises were part of a successful captive breeding program that produced approximately 2,000 offspring and saved their species from extinction. This brief video documents the return of the 15 original Espa~nola tortoises to their home island to live out the rest of their long lives, formally marking the closure of one of the most successful endangered species breeding, repatriation and restoration programs in the history of conservation.

Image: YouTube / GalapagosConservancy Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/diego-and-other-giant-tortoise.html

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH the spunky little hero Donald and his imaginary publicist John must boldly battle the evil international organization Antifa.

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/a-calvinesque-and-hobbesian-lo-11.html

Did you know that in 1978 a San Francisco band called Little Roger & the Goosebumps recorded a mashup song that blends Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" with the theme to the sixties TV sitcom about seven castaways? I sure didn't! Well, that 6'8" clown Puddles Pity Party did and now he's performed this cover of it — yay! Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/stairway-to-gilligans-isla.html

This humorous New Yorker video, "A Father's Newfound Feminism," turns stereotypes about a dad meeting his teen daughter's boyfriend upside down. (The "Sorry, I've Benedict Lately" greeting card is a nice touch at the 1:40 mark.)

The dialogue, voiced by John Hamm, is an adaptation from a 2018 New Yorker piece by Sophie Kohn, "If You Ever Hurt My Daughter, I Swear To God I'll Let Her Navigate Her Own Emotional Growth":

Jaxsen, is it? Fine. Whatever. Look here, PAL, I’ve got something to say. I, TOO, was a sixteen-year-old boy once. I’m not an idiot. I know how this works. I’m glad that you and Raina are having fun together. But listen up, buddy, and LISTEN GOOD—it’s 2018, and if you do ANYTHING to hurt my daughter, I swear to GOD, I will be concerned and disappointed but ultimately step back and let her navigate her own emotional GROWTH.

Thanks, Andie!

screengrab via The New Yorker

(And sorry for the autoplay video, it's the only way The New Yorker offered it to included in a post!) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/feminist-father-if-you-ever.html

NPR profiles the 800 Himalayan Buddhist nuns of Amitabha Drukpa Nunnery in Kathmandu Valley. The nuns have taken up the practice of kung fu.

The practice came out of their leader's desire to promote more gender equity in their faith. Via NPR:

For centuries, women in the Himalayas who sought to practice spirituality equally with men have risked being ostracized. They are forbidden from leading prayers, singing or being fully ordained. Tasked with the chores of cooking and cleaning, nuns are told if they're "well behaved" they can come back in their next lifetime as monks — and only then can they become enlightened.

About ten years ago, [sect leader] Gyalwang Drukpa set out to change that. Inspired by his mother, who worked to break down gender stereotypes, he put the nuns in leadership roles. He encouraged the nuns to take part in religious rituals traditionally reserved for their male counterparts and gave them the highest level of teachings, called Mahamudra. Monks in his sect then had to ingratiate themselves to the nuns (or more accurately, formally request the teachings from the nuns). This shifted the power dynamic.

The Kung Fu Nuns Of Kathmandu (NPR)

Image: YouTube / BBC Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/the-kung-fu-nuns-of-kathmandu.html

For all their amazing growth over the past 25 years, the most impressive thing about the monumental rise of Amazon might be the speed and sophistication of their lightning-fast delivery network.  Sometimes it doesn’t even take 24 hours for the idea you ordered to be perched right on your front porch, ready for use.

The only thing better than the click-to-door speed of an Amazon purchase is when hungry storeowners can also take advantage of Amazon’s well-oiled system. With a Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) business, you take orders, but Amazon does most of the work, storing all your product, then shipping to happy customers through their stellar system.

The guidebook to starting up a successful FBA business isn’t rocket science — and the training in The Ultimate Amazon FBA and Dropship Master Class Bundle not only lays out the basics for the first-time entrepreneur, but it also examines the methods for dropshipping and its role as a major modern-day selling method that has revolutionized the standard supply chain.

This bundle features eight courses with more than 40 hours of training that works, offering every detail you need to know about starting up a business in the Amazon eco-system. From assembling a business plan to set up an eCommerce website to marketing and promotion, these courses offer detailed instructions and step-by-step guides to ramp up and grow an Amazon FBA outlet.

After a complete A-to-Z course in all the basic ins and outs of being an Amazon FBA retailer, two other courses expand your knowledge: Product Sourcing: 33 Ways to Source Products for Amazon FBA and eBay to help find the most profitable goods for sale; and Launch a Successful Amazon FBA Brand in 2020, with detailed steps for creating, sourcing, stocking and marketing your own unique boutique FBA brand. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/07/make-serious-cash-as-an-amazon.html

Unsealed court documents reveal the identity of Fxmsp, a hacker from Kazakhstan who is blamed for information theft from more than 300 companies and governments, in 44 different countries around the world.

Patrick O'Neill at MIT Technology Review reports on the hacker identified as a 37-year-old man from Kazakhstan.

Known as Fxmsp, the hacker became famous in 2019 when that he advertised access and source code for leading cybersecurity companies, amid claims he could make an individual “the invisible god of networks.” His identity and techniques remained largely not known, however.

But today an American court unsealed criminal charges that named a single Kazakh national, Andrey Turchin, as the man behind the attacks, and detailed five felony charges against him. The charges date back again to 2018, when American investigators say they uncovered Turchin’s real identity, but had remained sealed—which is typical in cases involving foreign hackers. But a judge in the Western District of Washington ruled to unseal the charges in large part because a cybersecurity company, Group-IB, had publicly revealed Turchin’s identity in a report last month.

Fxmsp first emerged in 2016 as a hacker with plenty of technical capabilities and a string of data breaches under his belt, but little business expertise, based on Group-IB. Within a year, that he was advertising access to the corporate networks of banks and hotels around the world, an indication of rapid success and a growing criminal business.

Read more at MIT Tech Review: Criminal charges reveal the identity of the “invisible god” hacker

[via techmeme] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/07/finally-revealed-identity-of.html