The new Coronavirus that is spreading in China, which has infected around 300 people and has killed at least six, has just shown up in the US (as well as Japan, Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea). A man who had traveled from Wuhan, China, where the virus first appeared, came down with pneumonia last week and has just been tested positive for the virus, which is in the SARS family (SARS was the virus in 2003 that killed around 800 people).

From The New York Times:

The man is a resident of Snohomish County, Wash., who experienced symptoms after returning from a trip to the region around Wuhan, China, where the outbreak began. He was hospitalized with pneumonia last week, and infection with the coronavirus was confirmed on Monday afternoon.

The outbreak, which began in a seafood and poultry market in Wuhan, a city of 11 million, is spreading: Patients have been identified in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, as well as Taiwan, Japan, Thailand and South Korea.

Major airports in the US started screening for the virus on Friday, and the World Health Organization will decide tomorrow "whether to declare the outbreak an international public health emergency," according to NYT.

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At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, police removed two passengers from a GoJet/Delta Connection flight because they apparently wouldn't turn off a mobile phone that reportedly had a WiFi network name of "Remote Detonator." From the Detroit Free Press:

...Flight attendants announced that they’d be calling police if personal WiFi wasn’t turned off, (passenger Aaron) Greenberg said.

It was a nerve-racking moment when an estimated 10 emergency vehicles with flashing lights surrounded the plane, he said...

A flight attendant told him there was a personal WiFi called “remote detonator” that was never turned off.

(Wayne County Airport Authority spokesperson Lisa) Gass could not confirm the name of the WiFi hot spot, but said both removed passengers – a 42-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man, both from Quebec – were released following the incident, pending further investigation.

image: Kai Hendry/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) Read the rest

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CNN has the full 4-page organizing resolution for the Trump impeachment trial that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sent to the Senate on Monday.

As CNN notes, the impeachment trial for President Bill Clinton gave the defense and the House prosecution committee each 24-hours — spread out over a maximum of 4 days — to make their opening statements. For the Trump trial, however, each side only gets 2 days to make their statements. But on any given day, the hearings don't begin until 1pm, and will thus drag on late into the night.

After the opening statements, the Senate will have a total of 16 hours to question the House Committee or the White House Defense. Only then will the Senate vote on whether or not to subpoena witnesses or other evidence.

The GOP's defense strategy becomes painfully clear in the structure set forward on those pages: make sure no one has a chance to say or reveal anything beyond what's already known by the public, then force a vote as soon as possible. Which is why I'm expecting the White House's opening statement to be a full-on Chewbacca Defense but with Bidens instead of Wookies.

Impeachment resolution shortens trial's opening arguments to two days per side [Lauren Fox, Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb /  CNN]

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Vanity Fair just published a new excerpt from A Very Stable Genius, the new White House insider book from Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post staffers Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker. It explores the filming of the HBO documentary "The Words That Built America" at the White House, which took place shortly after the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

The idea of this documentary was to unite the country by presenting the words of the country's founding documents, as read by all living presidents and vice presidents, as well as other politicians and actors. Interestingly enough, it was directed by Alexandra Pelosi, who is indeed the child of the US Speaker of the House and frequent Trump nemesis Nancy Pelosi.

But according to the scene as relayed by Leonning and Rucker, Trump didn't know about or notice this familial connection:

Pelosi moved in to thank Trump for participating in this special history project, but he appeared to have no idea who she was, apparently not briefed on her political lineage or her role as the director. The president asked for some water, and with no staff bringing any to him, Pelosi handed him a bottle of Aquafina from her purse. “I’ve been into the White House,” Pelosi later said of visits to see previous presidents. “There are always protocols. Here there were no rules, no protocol.” She added, “There’s so much wrong with the whole thing. I’m thinking, Isn’t there someone who’s supposed to guard what he’s eating and drinking?”

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/ZZEBhtoPNwc/trump-tried-to-read-the-consti.html

Insect populations around the world are plummeting. The latest indicator of the insect apocalypse is the sharp decline in the number of mayflies, reports National Geographic. The winged insects can form swarms of up to 80 billion and are an important source of food for fish, birds, and bats.

According to a study published yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, mayfly populations throughout northern Mississippi and Lake Erie have dropped by over 50%.

NatGeo cites a number of possible reasons for the precipitous decline: an abundance of pesticide pollutants in freshwater systems, mayfly nymph-killing algae blooms caused from fertilizer runoff, and higher water temperatures brought on by climate change.

From the article:

Unfortunately, they’re not alone: Studies around the world have shown alarming declines of a wide variety of insects. A study published in the journal Biological Conservation in April suggested that 40 percent of all insect species are in decline and could die out in the coming decades. (Learn more: Why insect populations are plummeting, and why it matters.)

Image by Michael Palmer - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link Read the rest

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Dik-diks are basically tiny African deer whose name comes from the chirping sounds they make. And if that's not adorable enough, then just wait until learn that they mark their territory with their tears (okay technically it's a secretion from the preobital gland but still).

So here are some completely unsolicited dik-dik picks, courtesy of the UnsolicitedDiks Twitter page.

pic.twitter.com/TNk5CboSs6

 Unsolicited Dik-Diks (@UnsolicitedDiks) January 17, 2020

pic.twitter.com/AOZuqxDI77

 Unsolicited Dik-Diks (@UnsolicitedDiks) January 20, 2020

pic.twitter.com/DAa3RVeBYE

 Unsolicited Dik-Diks (@UnsolicitedDiks) January 13, 2020

pic.twitter.com/LXLXYqq2oG

 Unsolicited Dik-Diks (@UnsolicitedDiks) January 10, 2020

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The wonderful Brains On! science podcast for kids just completed a four part series on "Making Sense of Myths" and the final episode, "Aliens and UFOs," includes an interview with me about the Voyager Golden Record! Listen above! Of course the Voyager Golden Record is the iconic message for extraterrestrials attached to the Voyager I and II space probes launched by NASA in 1977. The Voyager Record tells a story of our planet expressed in sounds, music, images, and science, from Bach to Blind Willie Johnson to Chuck Berry, to greetings in dozens of human languages (and one whale language).

A few years ago, my friends Timothy Daly, Lawrence Azerrad, and I released the Voyager Golden Record on vinyl for the first time, as a lavish box set. Our project's resonance with the public, and the Grammy that we were honored to receive for it, are really a testament to the majesty of the original record and brilliance of its creators.

I hope the story of the Voyager Record included in this Brains On! episode sparks kids' imaginations and instills a sense of wonder about humanity's place in the universe! It certainly does for me.

The Voyager Golden Record 3xLP Vinyl Box Set and 2xCD-Book edition is available from Ozma Records.

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This @target manager Tori is not honoring the price of their items per massachusetts law pic.twitter.com/7IYMjCcutZ

 David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) January 17, 2020

David Leavitt, a self-described "award winning" journalist in Massachusetts, called the police after a Target employee refused to sell him an Oral B Pro 5000 electric toothbrush that had been mispriced at $0.01. The police told Leavitt he would have to sue Target if he wanted the toothbrush for a penny.

Leavitt called out the employee by name and posted her photo to Twitter. He also created a #TargetTori hashtag to encourage others to shame her. But Leavitt's plan backfired. Someone started a GoFundMe account for the employee and the donations have so far exceeded $30,000. Tori started a Twitter account, called @RealTargetTori.

#TargetTori #Tori #GoFundme pic.twitter.com/jbmdBq6mmT

 TargetTori (@RealTargetTori) January 19, 2020

This isn't the first time Leavitt tweeted something that wasn't well-received. In 2017, just hours after a suicide bombing left 23 people dead and 139 wounded at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, Leavitt tweeted: "MULTIPLE CONFIRMED FATALITIES at Manchester Arena. The last time I listened to Ariana Grande I almost died too."

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If you're on a road trip Wazing it to Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, you might want to double check your directions. When people click on an orange logo for the resort in an ad on the Waze app, a glitch is sending people onto unpaved roads in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens wilderness, 45 miles away from the casino. And many drivers have needed help after becoming stranded.

According to The Washington Post:

Jackson Township police posted on Facebook that officers in recent weeks have had to help motorists who followed the directions into the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area, where they became stuck on unpaved roads.

“The wildlife area is comprised of more than 12,000 acres, mainly located in Jackson and Plumsted townships, which is about 45 miles (72 kilometers) away from the actual Borgata Casino in Atlantic City,” police said...

The address on the ad is correct, police said, but the location pinned with the ad is actually in the Colliers Mills wildlife area, police said.

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Sam Elliott had the horses in the back with a wrangler on his booty before Lil Nas X was even in diapers.

(Adweek) Read the rest

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Yesterday in Kensginton, New Hampshire, Ian O’Reilly and his family were walking on a trail near a local pond when a coyote attacked his two-year-old son. After fighting with the animal for ten minutes, O'Reilly strangled it. According to police, the same coyote, likely sick, was responsible for other attacks earlier that day that apparently didn't result in injury. O'Reilly described the confrontation to Boston 25 News:

“There was no interest in (the coyote) going away. [I] ultimately had to make the decision to become the aggressor and jumped on it, attacked it and [got] it to the ground," O’Reilly said. “When I was able to get on top of it, I put my hand on its snout so it wasn’t able to attack me. There was quite a bit of snow on the ground, so I shoved the face into the snow and then eventually was able [to] put my hand on its snout and expire it through suffocation. Ultimately one hand on its windpipe and one hand on its snout did the trick.”

O’Reilly was apparently bitten in the arm and chest by the coyote. The child involved was also bitten, though the animal did not break the child’s skin due to the snowsuit he was wearing at the time. Since the incident, O’Reilly has already received his first round of rabies shots; he’ll have four more follow-up visits with doctors for more.

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/ZBvyrvkWD5k/man-wrestles-and-kills-coyote.html

On Good Morning America today, Ozzy Osbourne described 2019 as the "worst, longest, most painful, miserable year of my life" and revealed that he is suffering from a type of Parkinson's disease. From Gil Kaufman's report in Billboard:

"It wasn't really a problem for a long while," Osbourne says of why he waited so long to share the news about a horrible fall at home that re-aggravated an old injury and sidelined him for much of 2019. But, he says, wife/manager Sharon Osbourne told her husband he seemed different after the tumble and wondered what was going on.

“When I had the fall, it was pitch black. I went to the bathroom and I fell," explained Osbourne, 71, of a fall in his Los Angeles home that aggravated an old injury from a 2003 ATV accident that required surgery. "I just fell and landed like a slam on the floor and I remember lying there thinking, ‘Well, you’ve done it now,’ really calm. Sharon [called] an ambulance. After that, it was all downhill.”

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/BQUjs0Q9-Q8/ozzy-osbourne-reveals-he-has-p.html

A new study argues that it's "ethically permissible" for dead men to "register their desire to donate their sperm after death for use by strangers." Dr. Nathan Hodson of the University of Leicester and Dr. Joshua Parker of Manchester's Wythenshawe Hospital conducted their research as a response to a shortage of sperm donors in the United Kingdom. From CNN:

"If it is morally acceptable that individuals can donate their tissues to relieve the suffering of others in 'life-enhancing transplants' for diseases, we see no reason this cannot be extended to other forms of suffering like infertility, which may or may not also be considered a disease," the study says.

The mechanics of donating, they say, are entirely feasible through either electroejaculation or surgical methods.

Sperm would be cryopreserved following collection and thawed when chosen for reproduction, the authors said...

The process would address the ongoing shortage of donor sperm in the UK, argue the authors, which has led to Britain importing commercially donated sperm to cope with demand from couples struggling to conceive.

More: "The ethical case for non-directed postmortem sperm donation" (Journal of Medical Ethics)

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This PulseTech charger, and responsible behavior, has changed my life.

I used to kill the batteries in my cars and motorcycles on an almost annual basis. I would intend to ride the bike more, but it'd be rainy. I would keep telling myself to take the Vanagon out but it was parked behind my daily driver. Sometimes I'd park the daily driver behind the Vanagon and just use it... and suddenly two, three or six months had gone by.

I bought two of these PulseTech chargers and started rotating between three vehicles. Several times I have even resurrected nearly dead batteries and resurrected ones a battery tester showed as 'bad.'

The automatic desulfation feature constantly varies the voltage of the float charge. I believe it works as I am well over 6 years old on both my car batteries and each one still reads 12.8v when I test them. My 44-year-old motorcycle with an 8-year-old battery starts right up on the first press of the button, assuming I remember to turn on the choke.

Desulfation may be snake oil as just keeping the batteries topped up should extend their service life dramatically -- but I am bran-loyal to these chargers.

I put those little charging pigtails on each battery and swap two chargers between my current fleet of three vehicles.

XTREME CHARGE XC100-P - Charge 12V Battery Maintenance Charger Desulfator via Amazon Read the rest

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a roast of the 50 state flags pic.twitter.com/syhV8G0Wgh

 Matt Buechele (@mattbooshell) January 21, 2020

Here's one of the 50 insults Matt Buechele hurled towards the US state flags: "Nevada started this project, meant to finish it later, then they just had to submit it at the last second."

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A man has been captured on video attempting to jump between platforms at a subway station in Nara City. He has been identified as a Nara City official and faces punishment. pic.twitter.com/hroNYgAxBQ

 NHK WORLD News (@NHKWORLD_News) January 21, 2020

NHK World News reports the man in a subway platform jumper video has been identified as a Nara City official and "faces punishment."

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KFC started running this TV and online ad in Australia a few weeks ago, but they're now apologizing.

The ad shows a young woman adjusting her shorts and breasts while checking out her reflection in a car window, until the window rolls down and reveals two young shocked boys staring at her with their mouths open, along with a disapproving mom. After a few moments of silence, the young woman says, "Did someone say KFC?" Then we cut to her enjoying KFC's Zinger Popcorn Box with a bunch of friends.

The KFC ad was criticized by The Collective Shout, a group based in Australia. Spokeswoman Melinda Liszewski said: “Ads like this reinforce the false idea that we can’t expect better from boys. It is another manifestation of the "boys will be boys" trope, hampering our ability to challenge sexist ideas which contribute to harmful behavior towards women and girls...The research is solid: attitudes shape behavior. A growing number of reports show how reinforcing of gender stereotypes – including in advertising – contributes to a lesser view of women, resulting in their mistreatment.”

To which KFC responded: “We apologize if anyone was offended by our latest commercial. Our intention was not to stereotype women and young boys in a negative light.”

Source: The Guardian

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I always knew that Carl Switzer, Our Gang's "Alfalfa" had been shot dead, I had never heard the sad tale surrounding it.

Apparently a dog that Switzer was training for a relative got away. Switzer offered a $50 reward for the dog and paid it upon the animal's return. The owner of the dog, Switzer's uncle, did not want to reimburse Switzer and a fight broke out.

RIP Alfalfa.

Below is an excerpt from Picking.com's eyewitness account of the events:

"It was more like murder," said Corrigan, today a 56-year-old restaurateur who sports the 10-gallon hats of his late father, western movie star Ray "Crash" Corrigan.

Corrigan rarely speaks of the night of Jan. 21, 1959, but, surprised to hear the Internet brims with conspiracy theories about the death of the man he called Alfie, he agreed to go on the record. While Web postings claim Alfie used a police badge to bluff his way into the house and that he was killed over a drug deal, the truth is simpler and sadder.

Just before dark on that January day, Tom heard a knock on the front door. Then Alfie said, "Western Union for Bud Stiltz." Tom recognized the voice instantly. Although Alfie was 32, his voice deepened only slightly from the cracking twang of his Little Rascals days.

Alfie had been around Tom's family as long as he could remember. Crash Corrigan and Alfie had a mutual friend in TV cowboy Roy Rogers. Washed up as a child star at 14, Alfie tended bar and along with Rogers guided celebrities on bear hunts.

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/wwrIDPXSRpc/today-in-history-1959-carl-sw.html

From OneDrive to Slack, there are numerous ways to store files online. Because many platforms offer a certain amount of free storage, it makes sense to mix and match. However, spreading your files across multiple apps can make things very confusing.

Rethink Files offers a simple solution. By connecting to all your other cloud storage accounts, this platform offers access to every file in one slick interface. Better still, every user gets 2TB of secure cloud storage.

Even if you know where to look for any given file, skipping between different apps is a colossal waste of time. Working through a central hub makes for a much smoother workflow. Rethink Files works with a huge list of apps, including Google Drive, Dropbox OnDrive, Amazon S3, Slack, Box, Zoho, and many more.

The interface is reminiscent of Google Drive, with a clean design and colorful icons. The built-in search bar lets you find files quickly, and you can view rich previews of over 100 file types. 

For anyone with data stored in the cloud, Rethink Files is an invaluable productivity tool. A 10-year subscription is worth $3,117.60, but you can order now for $49 with the 2TB of storage included. Read the rest

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