Stella, the dog who has been taught to 'speak' using pre-programmed buttons, has now learned to express when she's 'mad.' Watch the video to find out why she's upset — I don't want to spoil it for you.

One morning when I was working at home, Stella alertedly stood in front of me, whined, and wagged her tail. I could tell she was upset so I asked, “Stella what’s wrong?” Stella walked to her device, said “mad,” and let out her frustrated little bark.

I carried on the conversation by asking, “Why are you mad?” It was raining so I thought she was wanting to play outside more since she didn’t get to stay out as long as usual. Or I thought she might’ve wanted the blanket I was using...

(Digg) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/09/stella-the-talking-dog-is.html

Electra and Pretzel bounce around together.

View this post on Instagram

AM playtime is bouncy and fun #puppy #goldenretriever #cavalierkingcharlesspaniel @zuzupoos #yip #yap #cute #adorbs #fuzzo #fuzzy

A post shared by Electra (@electra___cute) on Jul 9, 2020 at 7:55am PDT

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/09/watch-my-puppy-play.html

These two skaters face-off an 80s style off-the-shelf style pool deck vs a new trick skateboard. It is tough to land today's tricks on yesterday's gear.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/09/old-sk00l-pool-deck-vs-new-pop.html

Under 1.5-inches long, the Streamlight Nano flashlight has a quick-release clip so you can easily keep it on a zipper pull or flashlight. It's powered by four button cells.

Here's a photo of it next to a tube of Chapstick:

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/09/nifty-itty-bitty-flashlight-fi.html

Back in the 50s and 60s, it was no big deal in most areas to make a call to your local liquor store and have beer, wine and spirits delivered right to your house with little to no restriction. However, that ease and simplicity certainly isn’t in place today. 

Alcohol delivery laws in 2020 are a mishmash of conflicting regulations that shift from state to state. Right now, only 12 states allow for some method of home delivery of all alcohol products. Out of all that uncertainty, services like Saucey have jumped in to fill those gaps, offering fast, reliable home delivery of everyone’s favorite alcoholic beverages. 

They want to get users to try out the service — so right now, first-time buyers can get a $50 gift card to the full roster of Saucey Liquor Delivery services for just $34.99, a savings of 30 percent.

Started in Los Angeles, Saucey works with local liquor stores in 20 metropolitan areas around the country. All you do is go to the Saucey website, create an account, pick out your beverages of choice, drop a pin on your address — and within 30 minutes, your order has arrived. From literally hundreds of beer, cider, and hard seltzer varieties to red, white, rose and sparkling wines and champagnes, the expanded options of a truly epic liquor store are all available to you, 24/7/365.

Of course, Saucey is also stocked with a full array of spirits as well, including whiskey and scotch, vodka, tequila, rum, gin — you name it, Saucey can get it to you. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/09/save-30-on-a-home-delivery-of.html

One third of US households failed to make a housing payment in the month of July, according to a survey by online rental platform Apartment List.

From CNBC:

About 19% of Americans made no housing payment at all during the first week of the month, and 13% paid only a portion of their rent or mortgage.

That’s the fourth month in a row that a “historically high” number of households were unable to pay their housing bill on time and in full, up from 30% in June and 31% in May. Renters, low-income and younger households were most likely to miss their payments, Apartment List found.

Image: Jumpstory / CC0 Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/09/in-an-ominous-sign-for-economy.html

With our smartphones serving as the vital tether that links us to the rest of our lives, it’s no wonder how low batteries and power emergencies can occasionally feel like a life-and-death situation. I mean, it’s usually not, of course...but darned if it doesn’t feel that way when your indicator is showing only 5 percent battery life left.

Power banks are a huge help in making sure you don’t run out of juice...but how often do you remember to charge up the power bank? And after leaving one in your backpack or glove box for months, is it going to be ready when you need that all-important boost?

With the iBose Foldable Solar Power Charger and 10,000mAh Power Bank, you won’t have to worry about that — because the solar panels can charge you up and get your phone or other devices back in the game in minutes.

This compact charger folds up to just about this size of the standard smartphone when it’s not in use. But whether you’re somewhere without an outlet or deep in the outside world and away from civilization, this monocrystalline array of four solar panels opens up for optimal solar power absorption and maximum efficiency.

All the sun’s rays pour right into the huge 10,000mAh Li-Polymer battery, with enough power to get your smartphone, tablet, and all your other USB-charged devices back to full strength quickly. The unit also features Smart IC technology, which automatically identifies your device and its charging speed to prevent any overcharging or short circuits. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/in-a-pinch-this-solar-powered.html

Unmute your volume, go into the kitchen, and make yourself some coffee now.

Enjoy.

If that one isn't to your liking, try this one.

And here's another popular one, just background noise.

Coffitivity: ambient "coffee shop" sound to plug into for enhanced creativity

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/coffee-shop-ambience-for-thos.html

Despite all of our most fervent hopes, it doesn’t appear the specter of COVID-19 will be leaving us anytime soon. If anything, the past few weeks seems to indicate the need for social distancing and other preventative measures will likely continue indefinitely from coast to coast for a very, very, very long time.

Of course, now that masks and facial coverings are becoming a more ingrained facet of our day-to-day lives, we’re also finding out some of the less-considered logistics issues surrounding covering your face at all times. Such as...do you take the whole thing off when you eat or drink? Do you slip it down? Or maybe you just wait until you’re back home to indulge.

Thankfully, some enterprising entrepreneurs like the folks at Shut Your Mouth are confronting those problems head-on. Their solution is a simple one: a zippered face cover that serves to handle anyone’s protection and refreshment needs, all at once.

Just like any mask worth its construction, this cotton fabric mask takes care of covering your nose and mouth to protect you and the world around you from the spread of infectious disease or other airborne pathogens.

But the true calling card of this mask is that small zippered opening right across the front. Just unzip and you’re immediately ready to enjoy a snack or a tasty beverage, all without actually removing the mask. Assuming you’re only unzipping to take in your food or drink, you’ll continue blocking harmful viruses and more from ever reaching you. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/you-can-still-enjoy-your-favor.html

Longtime Donald Trump consigliere Roger Stone is due in prison next week. Facebook on Wednesday took down 50 personal and professional pages connected to the U.S. President’s former adviser, about 10 years after it would do any good.

Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, wrote on the company blog that the Roger Stone takedowns should send a message that artificially inflating engagement for political use will be stopped.

“It doesn’t matter what they’re saying, and it doesn’t matter who they are,” Gleicher told Reuters before the announcement on the company's blog.

“We expect we’re going to see more political actors cross this line and use coordinated inauthentic behavior to try to influence public debate.”

Read more at Facebook: Removing Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior By Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Security Policy, July 8, 2020

Joe Menn and Jack Stubbs at Reuters report:

The social media platform said Stone and his associates, including a prominent supporter of the right-wing Proud Boys group in Stone’s home state of Florida, had used fake accounts and followers to promote Stone’s books and posts.

Facebook moved against Stone on the same day it took down accounts tied to employees of the family of Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro and two other networks connected to domestic political operations in Ecuador and Ukraine. [...]

Facebook officials said they took down Stone’s personal Facebook and Instagram pages and his Stone Cold Truth Facebook page, which had 141,000 followers. A total of 54 Facebook accounts and 50 pages were removed for misbehavior, including the creation of fake accounts.

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/facebook-removes-trump-ally-ro.html

The Joe Biden campaign just got a typeface upgrade.

Folks, it’s time to introduce you to our new typefaces: Decimal & Mercury.

Decimal finds its roots in wristwatches — it’s true as time. Mercury, with its roots in the written word.

Put simply, our typography is bound by the truth. https://t.co/1E406o2SYG

 Robyn Kanner (@robynkanner) July 4, 2020

Hunter Schwarz writes today at his Yello newsletter about the Democratic presidential campaign's design overhaul, as it pivots toward the general election in November.

From Hunter's newsletter Yello:

Biden campaign senior creative adviser Robyn Kanner tweeted on Saturday that the campaign was using two new typefaces: Decimal and Mercury. Their first prominent use was a Fourth of July video posted by former Vice President Biden, though they had previously been used in some smaller digital assets.

Decimal, a sans-serif typeface released in September 2019, was inspired by the type on vintage watches, while Mercury, a serif typeface released in 1999, was designed for newsprint and to be adapted for different printing presses.

In a statement to Yello, Kanner said these typefaces were chosen because of the message they send about truth.

“This campaign is about the battle for the soul of the nation,” she said. “That battle needs to be fought and won with the truth — the American people deserve that much. To that end, Decimal and Mercury were chosen based on their roots in the truth.”

[IMAGE CREDIT: @teamjoebiden/@joebiden/Instagram]

The campaign’s new typefaces:• Decimal - a sans serif released in September 2019 that was inspired by the type on vintage watches• Mercury - a serif released in 1999 that was designed for newsprint and to be adapted for different printing presses https://t.co/0rBdroUDGc

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/joe-biden-campaign-upgrades-ty.html

This is a lovely little video of cats lounging in a basket from Kagonekoshiro, one of the great cat blogs of Japan, still going after all these fuzzy scratchy years.

More at kagonekoshiro.com. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/cats-enjoy-lounging-in-their-b.html

This looks like a fantastic way to have some fun with electronics while safely staying at home during the coronavirus outbreak.

Says IMGURian @swachspress,

Finished project: here is a simple animation that has a moving block of green lights that leave a trail of random color behind them. Each RGB LED is individually addressable, so the possibilities for different light animations are endless. This ended up not looking at all like what I had intended to make when I began but I think it turned out pretty well and the total cost for materials was less than $15!

Origami LED Wall Art

IMGUR: Origami LED Wall Art Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/origami-led-wall-art-diy.html

On Friday evening my family and I watched a wildly original Japanese movie called We Are Little Zombies. We loved the 8-bit special effects and soundtrack, crazy colorful costumes, and original songs. It's written and directed by Makoto Nagahisa and was the winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Originality at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Here's the synopsis:

When four young orphans -- Hikari, Ikuko, Ishi, and Takemura -- first meet, their parents’ bodies are being turned into dust, like fine Parmesan atop a plate of spaghetti Bolognese, and yet none of them can shed a tear. They are like zombies; devoid of all emotion. With no family, no future, no dreams, and no way to move forward, the young teens decide that the first level of this new existence involves salvaging a gaming console, an old electric bass, and a charred wok from their former homes—just enough to start a band-and then conquer the world. Tragedy, comedy, music, social criticism, and teenage angst are all subsumed in this eccentric cinematic tsunami.

Here's how to see We Are Little Zombies in actual and virtual cinema

Here's an exclusive clip, provided to Boing Boing by Oscilloscope:

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/we-are-little-zombies-is-a-tre.html

Boing Boing presents these words from our sponsor: Real Tested CBD.

Forbes is reporting, “two Canadian researchers think that a special strain of cannabis might potentially be a valuable tool in the fight against COVID-19.” (Source: April issue of the online medical journal Preprints)

First, it is important to note that it would be very difficult to do such research in the US because the Federal government continues to block research on cannabis.

See: After 4-year delay, DEA will review dozens of requests to grow marijuana for research.

Second, the published information is limited because the research is based on proprietary strains of cannabis, plus the researchers do not yet seem certain about which ingredients and which ratios are key.

They do say, “Cannabis sativa, especially one high in the anti-inflammatory cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD), has been proposed to modulate gene expression and inflammation and harbour anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties... Working under the Health Canada research license, we have developed over 800 new Cannabis sativa lines and extracts and hypothesized that high-CBD C. sativa extracts may be used to modulate ACE2 expression in COVID-19 target tissues.”

They add, “The extracts of our most successful and novel high CBD C. sativa lines, pending further investigation, may become a useful and safe addition to the treatment of COVID-19 as an adjunct therapy… They can be used to develop easy-to-use preventative treatments in the form of mouthwash and throat gargle products for both clinical and at-home use. Such products ought to be tested for their potential to decrease viral entry via the oral mucosa. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/if-cannabis-is-a-potential.html

Goodwill Hunting is a fascinating data-driven exploration of trends at the thriftstore chain's online shop. It is quite exhaustive, breaking down regional trends, brands, prices and much else besides in a panoply of gorgeous interactive charts. Given that Goodwill deletes sold items and doesn't provide an API, it's an amazing work of data journalism.

Basically, after finding that data of old listings aren't available on the Goodwill website, I went rogue. I set up a script on my computer to crawl through sale item pages on the Goodwill website item id by item id and checked the page name and description to see if it was a women's top. This was a slow process, but I wasn't interested in overwhelming the Goodwill website, and, again, there is no real pressing need for statistics on Goodwill sales.

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/fashion-trends-at-goodwill.html

Try this code: 4KFIRETV to see if you can get the Fire TV Stick 4K for a large discount. It worked for me, so I bought it to replace my four- or five-year-old Fire TV stick, which does not have voice remote and was slower because it has less storage. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/good-deal-on-fire-tv-stick-4k.html

Japan has reopened its theme parks, but thrillseekers are being asked not to scream on the rides, as screaming spreads coronavirus.

A video showed the two executives, both clad in masks, sternly riding the coaster in complete silence. It ended with a message: “Please scream inside your heart.”

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/japan-parks-ban-screaming-on-r.html

Yesterday, Rob posted about a man in a Florida Costco who refused to wear a face mask and screamed and charged at a person who complained. I feel threatened!” he yelled, even though the man filming him was nowhere near him. He also screamed “Back up! Back the fuck up and put your fucking phone down!” as he charged toward the man.

The hollering gentleman has now been identified as Daniel Maples. Until yesterday he was employed by Ted Todd Insurance. His bio page on the company website said Maples “is currently the highest-producing sales agent in the company… Likes: Hot yoga, traveling, cooking and mentoring others.”

From USA Today:

By midday Tuesday, Maples' bio had been pulled from the site and the agency released a statement: It had fired Maples.

Law enforcement was not involved in the incident.

“Thank you to everyone for their comments and messages raising awareness about a former employee at Ted Todd Insurance,” the statement from Charley Todd said. “Their behavior in the video is in direct conflict with our company values and their employment has been terminated. Threatening behavior and intimidation go against our core mission to be trusted advisors in our community. We are also committed to immediately reviewing our internal existing culture at TTI.”

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/the-screaming-no-masker-was-fi.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/analog-tetris-the-homemade.html