Simon Niklaus, Long Mai, Jimei Yang, and Feng Liu developed software that gives a 3D Ken Burns effect to still images.

From their paper:

Experiments with a wide variety of image content show that our method enables realistic synthesis results. Our study demonstrates that our system allows users to achieve better results while requiring little effort compared to existing solutions for the 3D Ken Burns effect creation.

Photo by Pontus Wellgraf on Unsplash

[via Bruce Sterling] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/06/neural-network-makes-3d-images.html

Jack Nitzsche was a legend in his own time; an arranger, producer, songwriter, and Academy Award-winning composer. His disparate discography includes collaborations with Phil Spector, the iconic 1966 Batman theme, titles by The Rolling Stones, Doris Day, Ike & Tina Turner, The Monkees, Glen Campbell, and the Ronettes, as well as several film soundtracks, including Performance, The Exorcist, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and An Officer and a Gentleman. But one of his earliest known arrangements was for a song so unlistenable it isn’t even named on any of his published discographies.

The title dates from 1963, when a hit song that doubled as a dance craze was the holy grail of the Top 10. But not even the hand of Jack Nitzsche could get this eminently abrasive earworm, "The Fuddy Duddy Walk" by The Entertainers, to join the ranks of "The Twist," "The Mashed Potato," or "The Watusi." "The Fuddy Duddy Walk" is more like proto-punk dance craze anarchy, and it’s not hard to imagine a crowd of pencil-skirted and flat-topped teens covering their ears in buzzkill horror, stampeding from the dance floor and fighting their way to the nearest exit. It’s an aural assault strictly for music masochists, with a nearly unintelligible vocal that codes neither male or female, rock or soul, black or white. Just sweetly painful. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/06/the-fuddy-duddy-walk-is-t.html

it's a spaceship until you see the picture upside down.

This is cool - someone took a photo of UFO hovering over the scene of an accident. If you rotate the photo 180 degrees, it almost looks like the UFO is a car in a lake. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/06/if-you-rotate-this-photo-of-a.html

As a 1970s kid "researching" high weirdness like Bigfoot, ESP, and UFOs at the library, I'd also pick up a bit of background Bermuda Triangle lore. Also known as the "Devil's Triangle," this is roughly the region of the Atlantic ocean between Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and the tip of Florida where aircraft and ships reportedly have mysteriously vanished or crashed in disproportionate numbers. (For the classic 1970s TV take on this, watch the episode above of "In Search Of...") While there have been proposed scientific/natural explanations for the phenomena, ranging from compass errors to methane eruptions sinking ships, the Bermuda Triangle remains a fascinating piece of paranormal history. And it looks like Hollywood is finally preparing to fuel the mystery with a big new movie, "Bermuda," directed by Scott Derrickson, best known as the director of Dr. Strange, which I found to be wonderfully weird and psychedelic. From Variety:

(Skydance) studio has been working on getting the project off the ground for some time, with Sam Raimi at one point circling the director’s chair. Derrickson will rewrite the script with his writing partner C. Robert Cargill and Derrickson will also exec produce. David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Bonnie Curtis and Julie Lynn will produce.

Plot details are being kept under wraps, except for the fact that it will be set in the mysterious patch of the Caribbean where planes and ships have gone missing over the years...

The most recent version of the draft was written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers (“Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp).

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/06/dr-strange-director-to-helm-n.html

What is wrong with these people? This would be right here if there were 327 people in the US. And this reflects horribly on the NY Times too. Can someone stop and think for two seconds? pic.twitter.com/kZJYYoC6gD

 Michael Salfino (@MichaelSalfino) March 6, 2020

Maybe being on live TV and having to put on a good show short circuits part of your brain. That's the only way I can think of to explain why Brian Williams and his guest didn't stop to think for a second how ludicrous it was to accept a tweet at face value claiming that Michael Bloomberg spent over $1,000,000 per person living in the United States on his presidential bid.

As for the original tweeter? She has been informed of her mistake:

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/06/look-at-this-colossal-math-blu.html

This is absolutely horrifying.

Rick Santelli on @CNBC says we should consider giving coronavirus to everybody to just get it over with.

That way it won’t wreak so much havoc on the economy.

This is your brain on capitalism.pic.twitter.com/Uv5UYyKtxy

 Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) March 5, 2020

Once in a while, our reptilian shadow overloads forget their cover story for a moment. CNBC analyst Rick Santelli accidentally revealed his nictitating membranes when he said on TV yesterday:

"All I know is, I think about how the world would be if you tried to quarantine everybody because of the generic-type flu, Now, I'm not saying this is the generic-type flu—but maybe we'd be just better off if we gave it to everybody. And then in a month, it would be over because the mortality rate of this probably isn't going to be any different if we did it that way than the long-term picture, but the difference is we're wreaking havoc on global and domestic economies."

Political science professor Seth Masket's response on Twitter is on-target:

I sometimes worry after doing TV interviews that I may have gotten a fact wrong, or over-simplified an argument, or advocated for a Darwinian genocide to protect the stock market like this gentleman did.

I sometimes worry after doing TV interviews that I may have gotten a fact wrong, or over-simplified an argument, or advocated for a Darwinian genocide to protect the stock market like this gentleman did. https://t.co/AeFT0cSdYT

 Seth Masket (@smotus) March 6, 2020

[via Common Dreams] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/06/cnbc-analyst-rick-santelli-wan.html

Promobot created an Arnold Schwarzenegger robot -- an animatronic head, really -- and told journos they had permission from the actor and former California governor. They didn't, Schwarzenegger says, and he's suing them.

The actor’s team hit Promobot with a cease-and-desist after CES and was reportedly assured the company would stop touring its Arnold bot. That didn’t happen, though. Promobot showed off the lifelike replica again the following month at the New York Toy Fair. And, to top it all off, this all comes after Promobot was personally shut down by Schwarzenegger in St. Petersburg in 2019. According to TMZ, the company attended a speech he was delivering and asked the actor to pose for a photo with the robot. He flat-out declined.

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/06/arnold-schwarzenegger-wants-to.html

I prefer this to the real thing. The cartoon fun is infectious and, well, nobody dies.

More thrills at 3Dbotmaker, home to 1:64 Diecast Sports Action Racing!

(Jalopnik) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/06/watch-wild-hyperreal-hot-whee.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/06/ecce-tympanista.html

What falls under the heading of digital marketing these days? Well, frankly...a heck of a lot. Once you start factoring in everything from search engines and social media to emails and the vast network of websites out there and before you know it, it’s easy for new digital media creators to get overwhelmed quickly.

But with retail eCommerce expected to amount to $4.5 trillion next year, it’s way too important to ignore. So with that much at stake, it’s vital to know your stuff. The massive block of training available in The 2020 Complete Digital Marketing for Beginners Bundle will go a long way toward helping growing digital professionals understand the landscape and get their arms around everything it entails.

And trust in this...this collection is absolutely comprehensive.  Featuring a whopping 14 courses packed with more than 100 hours of instruction, your digital marketing career will start the right way with full introductions to social media marketing, SEO, email outreach, paid ads, content creation and more.

After courses in the fine art of sales and negotiating as well as digital media basic learning covering blogging and creating the right content around your marketing efforts, the coursework starts to delve into all the most important venues for your messaging.

Since social media is where so many modern shoppers live, you’ll get in-depth guides to reaching audiences on some of the most vital platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. You’ll even get training in using the exploding viral video environment of TikTok to maximize your reach. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/05/kickstart-your-digital-marketi.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/05/neighbor-accused-of-stealing-t.html

In Port Arthur, Texas, a 24-year-old man was sentenced to 30 days in jail for posting a video last August to social media of himself taking ice cream out of a Walmart freezer, licking the ice cream like a complete jerk, then returning the container to the freezer.

From AP:

D’Adrien Anderson, 24, also was sentenced to an additional six-month jail term probated for two years and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and $1,565 in restitution to Blue Bell Creameries, which had to replace all of its products in the freezer.

Anderson began serving his jail term immediately after sentencing.

Here is the original story with the gross video. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/05/texas-ice-cream-licker-gets-ja.html

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control said Thursday that more than 200 people are infected with coronavirus in the country, and 12 people have died of the respiratory disease it causes, COVID-19.

Some 70 of those U.S. cases are in Washington state, which has become a hotspot in the global outbreak.

Vice President Mike Pence, whom president Trump named coronavirus czar, today said “we don't have enough test today” to meet imminent coronavirus screening needs.

“The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed and sent to President Donald Trump an $8.3 billion funding bill to help state and local governments combat the spreading coronavirus, as public health experts outlined efforts to rapidly accelerate testing for the disease,” Reuters reports late this afternoon:

By a vote of 96-1, the Senate approved legislation that was overwhelmingly passed on Wednesday by the House of Representatives.

Republican Senator Rand Paul, who objected to spending the money without first reducing federal spending elsewhere, was the lone dissenter.

Trump is expected to sign the bill into law so that the billions of dollars can flow toward developing vaccines against the highly contagious coronavirus and aiding international efforts to control transmission. Trump initially requested $2.5 billion, with much of that coming from previously appropriated funds.

the stories around authorities in the US failing to test for the coronavirus are just astonishing https://t.co/Ries8858DO pic.twitter.com/4t8tg0Rkaw

 Rob Price (@robaeprice) March 5, 2020

Psssst ... @seattletimes ... maybe change this? pic.twitter.com/Wb1tHlLS1U

 Gabby Deutch (@GSDeutch) March 5, 2020

NEW: Washington state asked the U.S.

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/05/coronavirus-12-deaths-in-us.html

No COVID-19 shaming, please.

Twitter announced Thursday it will ban tweets that “dehumanize” people because they have a disease, disability, or because of their age, which happens to correspond to a spike in the number of tweets about the fast-spreading global coronavirus outbreak.

Read the announcement on the company blog: “Updating our rules against hateful conduct” Twitter Safety, Thursday, 5 March 2020

Excerpt:

We create our rules to keep people safe on Twitter, and they continuously evolve to reflect the realities of the world we operate within. Our primary focus is on addressing the risks of offline harm, and research* shows that dehumanizing language increases that risk. As a result, of months of conversations and feedback from the public and conversations with bothand, external experts and our own teams, in July 2019, we expanded our rules against hateful conduct to include language that dehumanizes others on the basis of religion. Today, we are further expanding this rule to include language that dehumanizes on the basis of age, disability or disease.

We will require Tweets like these to be removed from Twitter when they’re reported to us:

If reported, Tweets that break this rule pertaining to age, disease and/or disability, sent before today will need to be deleted, but will not directly result in any account suspensions because they were Tweeted before the rule was in place.

“We couldn’t have predicted that this would happen in terms of the coronavirus,” Jerrel Peterson, Twitter’s head of trust and safety policy, told Reuters. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/05/twitter-bans-posts-that-dehu.html

Awful news. A 10-year-old boy with a gun was the center of a SWAT standoff, after opening fire on police, several media outlets reported on Thursday.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the child hid in a shed behind his home in San Diego, firing rounds from a shotgun before he turned himself in. The standoff lasted about two hours.

#BREAKING per @SanDiegoPD SWAT standoff in Southcrest over, 10yr boy hiding in shed fired 2 rounds at officers, no one hit, now in custody - updates @fox5sandiego pic.twitter.com/9BKMetCFEX

 Jason Sloss (@JasonSlossFOX5) March 5, 2020

More from the Sacramento Bee's roundup of reporting by San Diego local news [FOX-5, CBS-8] today:

Lt. Shawn Takeuchi told the Union-Tribune that the boy’s parents called police at about 9:10 a.m. because the boy was having “an emotional and mental crisis.”

“We have a juvenile who barricaded himself in a shed,” Officer Billy Hernandez told FOX 5. “He has a knife and a shotgun.”

Officials called for the boy to come out of the shed after blocking off the road, FOX 5 reported. Eventually the SWAT team was called, according to the news outlet.

The boy refused to come out, Officer Scott Lockwood told CBS 8.

He eventually surrendered to officers shortly after 11 a.m., according to CBS8. No one was injured in the standoff, according to the outlet.

Read the full story:

10-year-old fires shotgun at officers in two-hour SWAT standoff, California police say [sacbee.com, By Maddie Capron, March 05, 2020 01:13 PM]

IMAGE: Screengrab from San Diego Fox 5 TV coverage. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/05/boy-10-years-old-fires-gun.html

Last week I posted about a Anker PowerCore Slim 10000 portable charger, which can be recharged with a USB-C or Micro USB cable. I included a promo code but some people had trouble with it. Here's a similar Anker charger, the Anker PowerCore Lite 10000mAh,* which has a coupon on the Amazon product page for a great discount. Note that the power input it USB-C only.

(This link takes you to a  page with a button that lets you buy the charger on Amazon.) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/05/good-discount-on-anker-powerco.html

Playlists, podcasts, audiobooks, IGTV vids—you consume it all. You'd just as soon miss the train and be late for work than commute without your headphones, but what your audio experience is lacking is comfort. Whether it's obnoxious wires that are always tangled and somehow simultaneously too short and too long or annoying earbuds that fall out constantly, your whole vibe could use improvement.

Instead of shelling out for Beats or Bose, consider these over-the-head Sony headphones that all come in under $60, thanks to their open-box status. Each set comes from excess inventory or store-to-warehouse returns and is verified in new condition, so you can be sure that even if the box is looking a little worn, the item inside is good to go.

Sony ZX110AP Extra Bass™ Headphones with Mic - Black (Open Box)

If you want something that doesn't cost a ton but isn't quite no-frills, check out the Sony ZX110AP. Comfort is paired with functionality in this set of smartphone-compatible over-the-head wireless headphones. You'll get impressive bass, dynamic 1.38" dome drivers, integrated mic and controls, and cushioned earpads that help seal in sound. As a bonus, the swivel folding design makes easy work of storage on those rare occasions you're not wearing them.

These folding headphones are normally $29.99, but right now you can get them for 43% off and pay just $16.99.

Sony MDR-XB450AP Extra Bass™ Headphones (Open Box)

For some extra functionality and a great value, this set integrates with the Smart Key app, allowing you to adjust track and volume on your smartphone and offers a durable, finely-grooved serrated cable to reduce tangling plus the ability to lay your headphones flat. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/05/get-high-end-audio-without-the.html

Many of today's bionic limbs are "myoelectric," controlled by electrodes attached to theresidual limb that pick up impulses generated when the wearer consciously contracts that muscle. Those systems aren't without their challenges though, such as a disruption in the signal when the wearer sweats or the prosthetic and sensors shift around on the skin. Now, University of Michigan bioengineer Paul Cederna and his colleagues have developed what may be a more durable approach: they implant the wearer with new "minimuscles," tiny muscle grafts from their own tissue that are monitored by electrodes inserted into the skin. From Science:

The researchers isolate bundles of fibers from each of the major nerves in the arm and wrap each bundle in a chunk of muscle tissue roughly the size of a paper clip, often harvested from the thigh. The process basically creates a new set of finger muscles inside a person’s forearm or bicep.

Because wrapping nerves this way also relieves certain types of pain common after an amputation, hundreds of people have already had the procedure—but without the wire implants that could record from the muscles to control a prosthesis. In a new study out today in Science Translational Medicine, Cederna and UM neural engineer Cynthia Chestek describe the first test of that control step.

In three participants with amputations at different points along the arm who already had muscle implants, wires inserted through the skin near the muscle grafts could easily pick up their electrical signals, the researchers report. Even with an amputation up near the shoulder, a computer could interpret which tiny muscles were contracting, and by how much, to isolate different intended movements—a flex of the pointer finger versus the thumb, for example.

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/05/bionic-hands-controlled-by-new.html

If you're interested in "Adorable Deplorable" T-shirts, coffee mugs commemorating the USA-Mexico border wall, and "No More Bullshit" Trump campaign posters, then head over to Bensalem, Pennsylvania, home of the Trump Store, which carries nothing but Donald Trump-themed merchandise.

Image: YouTube/AP Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/05/if-you-love-donald-trump-the.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/05/artist-makes-travel-posters-fo.html