In from the min-1990s, right through into the early years of the new millennium, Toshiba churned out some pretty solid laptop hardware. I've used a number of their lappy's in the past, across various industries. No matter what I threw at them, be it text, Photoshop, or a bit of gaming when the boss wasn't looking, Toshiba's hardware always proved capable of standing its ground.

In recent years, Toshiba's taken a number of quiet steps away from their laptop business. This week, however, they dropped everything and ran like like hell from it: In a less-than-well-publicized press release, Toshiba announced that what little they had left to do with making laptops has been handed over to other, more interested companies.

From Toshiba:

TOKYO—Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) hereby announces that it has transferred the 19.9% of the outstanding shares in Dynabook Inc. that it held to Sharp Corporation. As a result of this transfer, Dynabook has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sharp.

Under the terms of a June 2018 share purchase agreement between Toshiba and Sharp, Toshiba transferred to Sharp 80.1% of the outstanding shares of Toshiba Client Solutions Co., Ltd (hereinafter TCS), then Toshiba’s wholly-owned subsidiary in the personal computer business. That transfer closed in October 2018, and TCS changed its name to Dynabook in January 2019. On June 30, 2020, under the terms of the share purchase agreement, Sharp exercised a call option for the remaining outstanding shares of Dynabook held by Toshiba, and Toshiba has completed procedures for their transfer.

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/11/toshibas-laptop-business-shu.html

Ceramic artist Richard Notkin is famed for his clay teapots, inspired by the traditional Yixing style from China but forming a vehicle for political commentary in the west. In the interview above, you can see him work: "the vessel is the primary canvas of ceramics and the teapot is the most complex of vessels." [via Abigail Larson] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/11/richard-notkins-teapots.html

Personal Life Coach Adele Landauer was enjoying a relaxing afternoon by a lake near Berlin, when a group of wild boars approached the beach. I'll let her tell the rest of it, according to her Instagram post:

A female wild boar with two babies came out of the forest in order to search for food.

In Berlin we are free people - we love to bathe in the sun and lake like we are born.

So, there were many people laying on their towels completely naked.

Many of us were scared but the wild boars seemed to be peaceful.

After they ate a pizza from a backpack of a man who was taking a swim in the lake they were looking for a dessert.

They found this yellow bag and decided to take it away.

But the man who owned it realized it was the bag with his laptop. So, he was very focused and run behind the boars in order to get it back.

Everyone of us adored him how focused he stayed and when he came back with his yellow bag in the hand we all clapped and congratulated him for his success.

This happens when you’re focused on your goals.

Don't worry; Landauer told The Guardian that the running naked German man gave her permission to post the photos of his butt, and that everyone had a good laugh when the crisis was over.

Still, I can't help but wonder what the 30-50 feral hogs guy would think about this. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/11/wild-boar-steals-laptop-gets.html

Most of us aren’t constantly beset by poor posture. But all it takes is some subtle misalignment while you’re doing serious hours behind the wheel driving or working away at a desk to do a real number on your back. In fact, most of us are so unaware of the mechanics of good posture that our bodies even find them a little alien when they’re forced upon you. 

Thankfully, products like the Backshield Ergonomic Back Support are around to remind your body what good posture actually feels like. 

Crafted from a unique three-layer design, the Backshield can be strapped to a vehicle seat or an office chair and actually start training your back to expect good posture. The Backshield gently lifts the backbone through a patented combination of stiffness, materials, and design, alleviating spinal compression in a manner other lumbar support devices don’t really handle.

As it supports the natural curvature of your spine, it keeps your spine, hips, and legs in optimal alignment, which promotes the proper blood flow that reduces inflammation that leads to back pain. 

The Backshield is made from three layers, with a firm, scientifically engineered ergonomic frame made from extra thick ABS plastic for equal parts flexibility and rigidity, an ultra-soft, plush foam layer providing an extra measure of comfort and a textured exterior layer of PopFoam for an attractive, ultra-durable, non-slip virtually indestructible surface that cleans easily and combines to offer back support that isn’t too soft and isn’t too hard.

While many users report using the Backshield feels slightly awkward or uncomfortable at first, once your back adjusts to regular use after a couple of days, those same users say they feel notable improvement and a happier, healthier back within two to three weeks. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/11/the-backshield-doesnt-just.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/11/imperial-marching-geese.html

Robin's Wish explores beloved comedian Robin Williams' final days as he struggled with the devastating effects of Lewy Body Dementia.

Via EW, his widow Susan Schneider Williams explained her motive in making the film:

Armed with the name of a brain disease I’d never heard of, I set out on a mission to understand it, and that led me down my unchosen path of advocacy. With invaluable help from leading medical experts, I saw that what Robin and I had gone through, finally made sense — our experience matched up with the science. And what I discovered along the way was bigger than me, and bigger than Robin. The full story was revealed during the making of this film and it holds the truth that Robin and I had been searching for.

The title comes from Robin's wish for what his legacy would be. He said, "I want to help people be less afraid."

Image: YouTube / IGN Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/11/watch-the-trailer-about-robin.html

According to a recently published paper in Nature Astronomy, NASA scientists have "developed a new prediction of the shape of the bubble surrounding our solar system using a model developed with data from NASA missions."

We already knew that solar winds from our sun created a sort of magnetic bubble around the planets in our solar system, separating them from the interstellar medium — the rest of the space in Outer Space. Scientists have tried to understand the shape of this solar wind bubble, to better understand its relationship to the Sun's orbit and its position within the greater galaxy. In the past, they've usually understood this directional force to be somewhat comet-like, with a rounded leading edge or "nose" that casts solar wind trails in its wake.

But thanks to new advancements, they now think the solar system is a — and I quote — "deflated croissant." From NASA (emphasis added):

NASA’s New Horizons mission has provided measurements of pick-up ions, particles that are ionized out in space and are picked up and move along with the solar wind. Because of their distinct origins from the solar wind particles streaming out from the Sun, pick-up ions are much hotter than other solar wind particles — and it’s this fact that Opher’s work hinges on.

“There are two fluids mixed together. You have one component that is very cold and one component that is much hotter, the pick-up ions,” said Opher, a professor of astronomy at Boston University. “If you have some cold fluid and hot fluid, and you put them in space, they won’t mix — they will evolve mostly separately.

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/11/we-all-live-in-a-deflated-croi.html

“The U.S. has reached a landmark of sorts in its so far not very successful battle with the virus that causes Covid-19 — most Americans now know someone who has been infected,” writes Justin Fox at Bloomberg, about coronavirus social data from Navigator Research, shown above.

From Navigator Research:

Key takeaways:

• Trump’s approval ratings on handling the pandemic remain deeply underwater.

• For the first time since the pandemic began, a majority of Americans know someone who has been infected with coronavirus.

• More than three in four Americans support states requiring people to wear masks.

“We’ve now reached a point where most Americans have a personal link to the disease, which makes such denial a lot harder,” writes Justin Fox at Bloomberg:

Given what we know about the spread of the disease from other sources, it sounds about right. Although it is sad news, it may also mark something of a positive turning point. More than anything else, the key to keeping Covid-19 under control seems to be taking it seriously, and knowing someone with the disease can do a lot to focus a person on the risks it poses.

That it had to come to this is of course tragic. A key enabler of the spread of the coronavirus, especially in affluent countries with the resources to stop it, has been an inability to imagine that what happened somewhere else might happen closer to home. Italians saw what transpired in China, and failed to act on the early signs that they might be next.

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/10/most-americans-now-know-some.html

A U.S. Secret Service officer shot a man dead near the White House today. Authorities interrupted a briefing by President Trump that was happening at the time and escorted him from the press room.

The moment Trump was escorted out of the briefing room by Secret Service - agent seems to say, “We have shots fired outside.” pic.twitter.com/cJkkxwYLXm

 Peter Stevenson (@PeterStevenson) August 10, 2020

As TPM's Josh Marshall tweeted, “Hours later and we appear to know almost nothing about what happened. Who the person is, whether they were armed, what actually happened.”

Statement from U.S. Secret Service on officer involved shooting: pic.twitter.com/vMP9ypuNh5

 U.S. Secret Service (@SecretService) August 11, 2020

On Twitter, the Secret Service wrote that the White House complex wasn't breached and none of those under the service’s protection were ever in danger.

A 51-year-old man approached an officer posted near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW around 5:50 p.m. and said he had a weapon, reports the Washington Post:

He said the man ran aggressively toward the officer and withdrew an object from his clothing.

Sullivan said the man then crouched in a “shooter’s stance” as if about to fire. The officer shot him, striking him in the torso, Sullivan said.

The man was not identified. The Secret Service said he and the officer were taken to a hospital.

Sullivan did not take questions from reporters late Monday and did not say whether a weapon had been recovered.

Trump, who spoke about the shooting after he returned to the White House briefing room, said he understood that the person was armed.

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/10/secret-service-shot-a-man-near.html

The aluminum can is a great invention. And for 60 years, it and its crafty little addition, the pull tab, have made transporting and drinking all of our favorite beers, soft drinks and other beverages about 1,000 percent easier. 

Of course, evolution continues -- and even an innovation as awesome as the aluminum can is could probably use some improvements over a solid first half-century in use.

Draft Top thinks that innovation already has a name: topless drinking. The Draft Top Easy Can Opener  literally lobs off the top of your can, turning it into a sweet convertible of liquid joy with a smooth-edged rim.

The Draft Top was created because, for all of the can’s advantages, one of its biggest detractors is that it essentially blocks the aroma of your beverage. The senses of smell and taste are related, both using your taste buds as receptors. So when the smell of your drink is blocked, it impacts the taste.

The Draft Top removes that barrier, allowing your drink to breathe and actually makes the drink taste better.

The Draft Top’s patented design uses four rotational blades that pierce the can, then split and fold the lid back as you turn the device. After a half-turn, the lid is off, leaving a smooth, safe edge to most 8 to 16oz aluminum beverage cans and some 19oz cans with standard tops. 

With the top gone, you’re free to spruce up your drink any way you like. Add some ice, maybe a dash of Jack to your Coke, or even some garnish. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/10/the-draft-top-turns-your-alumi.html

Dungeons & Dragons is great. It also, unfortunately, has long-fed into the inherently colonialist tropes that have long dominated the fantasy genre. Wizards of the Coast has recently made some strides to disentangle their tabletop role playing games from these harmful stereotypes — things like the essential racial traits of Orcs, which peg them as dark-skinned savages that are inherently evil and dumb.

This is a great step. But the folks at Arcanist Press have taken it even further by introducing a homebrewed alternative to "racial" traits for fantasy characters by replacing them with "Ancestry" and "Culture." Eugene Marshall's short book, Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5e, offers guidance on how to create characters of one ancestry raised in a different culture (an orc raised by elves, for examples) as well as characters of mixed ancestry (the child of a gnome and a Tiefling) — ultimately allowing you to create a fantasy world that is more inclusive and diverse, like our own, but in different ways.

You can see writer Eugene Marshall using his Ancestry & Culture guide to roll a new character in the video above. Essentially, the guide breaks down things like Age, Size, Speed, Keen Senses, Fey Ancestry and Trance as genetic traits inherited through ancestry, while other traits like alignment, special skills, or languages can be passed down through one's culture. This makes for more well-rounded and interesting characters, and arguably enhances the game overall.

For example, a dwarf who grows up among other dwarves would possess all of the traits from both dwarf ancestry and dwarven culture, whereas an elf who grew up among dwarves would possess elf ancestral traits, such as Keen Senses, Fey Ancestry, and Trance, but dwarven cultural traits, such as Combat Training, Tool Proficiency, Stonecunning, and proficiency in the Dwarvish language.

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/10/racial-traits-in-dd-are-prett.html

Facebook took out one of its largest Qanon groups this weekend, deleting the 200,000-member "Official Q/Qanon" page citing "repeated violations of the company’s policies."

Numerous posts in the group had already been removed for violating Facebook's policies on bullying, harassment, hate speech, and false information that could lead to harm, Facebook told Reuters.

QAnon followers espouse an intertwined series of beliefs based on anonymous web postings from someone claiming special insider knowledge of the Trump administration. The core tenet is that President Donald Trump is secretly fighting a cabal of child-sex predators including prominent Democrats.

This hardly begins to capture how demented the QAnon conspiracy cult is, or its growing popularity among Republican politicians desperate for levers to keep Trump in power. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/10/facecbook-kills-200000-member.html

If you're anything like me, you're already worried about how we're going to do Halloween during the pandemic. Distantly dispersing trick-or-treat candy via t-shirt cannon? Kids dress as the cast of ER in surgical masks or wear 6 ft. inner tubes around their waists? Most of us are still figuring this out as we go, but there's one haunted house production company in Tokyo who is already well ahead of the game.

Kowagarasetai in Tokyo has created a drive-through haunt experience where, according to their website, "A large number of dead people attack your car. Can you beat the fear coming at you from all directions?". Visitors to the unique haunt drive in to a warehouse and honk three times to start the show. While ghouls and zombies attack the car, showering it with fake blood (by request), sound effects and the haunt's storyline ("This is a garage where a horrible incident occurred long ago...") plays through the car radio.

The website proudly proclaims that the staff will "disinfect your car" and wash off the fake blood after the performance, but then in slightly smaller print below ("blood cannot be completely wiped off").  Show your true devotion to Halloween by staining your car in fake blood forever!

In the U.S., there have been at least two "haunted car washes" (in Ohio and Texas, respectively) over the past few years. Here's hoping they ramp it up and create a drive-in experience as immersive as Kowagerasetai's and save the only holiday that matters. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/10/this-drive-through-haunted-hou.html

I don't know what this fellow is saying, but I surmise that it's along the lines of "Unfortunately I have missed the train to Stockholm! Now I shall have to wait for the next departure."

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/10/man-in-background-of-live-news.html

Folk Horror? In a rural seaside setting? With a stellar cast and, at first glance, some stellar cinematography? Where do I sign up? Unfortunately, The Third Day won't pop until this winter, so I suppose that I'll have to wait until then to find out. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/10/hbos-the-third-day-is-bringi.html

The official result of Belarus's presidential election was never in doubt, with President Aleksandr Lukashenko often described as "Europe's last dictator" and opposition ruthlessly suppressed. But it's clear yesterday's poll—officially won with 79% of the vote—went as badly for him as it could have, with protestors swarming into the streets as soon as the cooked numbers were announced.

Earlier, the central election commission said Lukashenko, in power for more than a quarter of a century, won 80% of the vote in Sunday’s election, while Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, who emerged from obscurity to become his main rival, took just 9.9%.

“The authorities are not listening to us. The authorities need to think about peaceful ways to hand over power,” said Tikhanouskaya, a former English teacher who entered the race after her blogger husband was jailed. Related Coverage

“Of course we do not recognise the results.”

Foreign observers have not judged an election to be free and fair in Belarus since 1995, and the run-up to the vote saw authorities jail Lukashenko’s rivals and open criminal investigations into others who voiced opposition.

Footage from the streets is spectacular and alarming: vast crowds and violent cops.

Amazing sight tonight in #Minsk. Best wishes to those on the streets this evening. pic.twitter.com/lornW6kNhe

 The Intel Crab (@IntelCrab) August 9, 2020

2:30 in Belarus. There are mixed reports about what's going on, esp. in the regions but it seems that both sides decided to call it a day. It is clear for everyone that Lukashenko lost the election but he's not going to give in the power without a fight.

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/10/protests-erupt-in-belarus-afte.html

The ever-prolific former Republican anti-Trumpers, the Lincoln Project, have another ad that stabs deep into the heart of the insanity of Trump support. It features audio from comedian David Cross' stand-up act.

When you’re starting to regret your vote for Trump pic.twitter.com/hAofMi7qOz

 The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) August 8, 2020

Here's the Cross routine with the list of Trumpian transgressions that supporters were seemingly OK with that's minutes longer than what appears in the Lincoln ad. Along with the punchline of what was finally a bridge too far.

Image: Twitter Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/10/i-am-starting-to-regret-my-v.html

In movies of yesteryear, characters knew they were at a low point in their lives if Jay Leno is discussing them, brilliantly shown in this Buck LePard supercut.

Movie characters watching Jay Leno talk about what is happening in the movie pic.twitter.com/fWpOeOLSm5

 Buck LePard (@BuckLePard) August 5, 2020

Luckily, it usually means the film's third act is about to start. So if you see Jay, one of the Jimmys, or a news anchor in a film, it's a good time to get in a bathroom or popcorn break, because things are about to get resolved in a thrilling denouement.

Gene Hackman speaks for all film characters and watchers when he notes, "This is unbearable."

Twitter / Buck LePard Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/10/supercut-of-movie-characters-w.html

In a story about South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, by Jonathan Martin and Maggie Haberman for the New York Times:

"I started laughing. He wasn't laughing, so he was totally serious. He said, 'Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand, and so I shook his hand, and I said, 'Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore.' And he goes, 'Do you know it's my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?'"

Trump has floated this idea before. Now it makes him look needy and creepy, he wants to deny it. But he desperately wants it, so attention given to that desire is a drug he cannot refuse. So we get a typical Trumpism, denying it and admitting it in the same breath.

This is Fake News by the failing @nytimes & bad ratings @CNN. Never suggested it although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me!

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/10/nyt-trump-inquired-about-addi.html

Look up! The Perseids meteor showers are putting on their annual "shooting star" show in the sky, which will peak pre-dawn on August 12.

NASA:

The last-quarter moon will interfere with visibility of most fainter Perseid meteors this year, but you'll still be able to see a few brighter ones, including the occasional "fireball." The best time to look is in the pre-dawn hours on Aug. 12, but midnight to dawn any morning the week before or after should produce a few meteors. The Perseids generally appear to radiate from a point high in the north, called the "radiant." But you need only point yourself generally toward the north and look up.

And while we're talking meteors, did you know many of these "shooting stars" come from comets? Most of the annual meteor showers we observe take place as Earth passes through trails of debris left behind by active comets orbiting the Sun, casting off little bits of dusty debris in their long tails. The Perseid meteors come from a comet called Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the Sun every 133 years.

In July, a comet that was just discovered this spring by NASA's NEOWISE mission made an appearance in our skies, wowing observers on the ground and even in space! This comet has a nearly 7,000-year orbit around the Sun, so it won't be back this way for a long time, but it's possible a meteor you see some night in the future might just be a little reminder of comet "NEOWISE."

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/10/make-a-wish-perseids-meteor-s.html