So very relatable.

Like all of us, redditor Chris Ryan @KLGaviation is going slightly bonkers during the great american coronavirus shutdown.

This right here is an excellent pandemic coping strategy.

Another productive day working from home

[link] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/22/corona-quarantine-funtime.html

I have always wanted to do this.

My good friend Dan Olson shares this video he made while building his Warmoth Telecaster. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/22/enjoy-the-pandemic-by-building.html

March 19th is the first day of spring. That means it’s time to get off your butt, dig in and start getting serious about cleaning up the house that’s been tumbling into chaos all winter.

If you’re like Snow White, you’ve probably already got a passel of forest creatures all lined up to help out, sweeping floors, washing windows and clearing away the debris of winter. But since this isn’t 1937, we’re going to assume you don’t have that woodland workforce. It’s 2020 — and you need robots. Powerful, healthy strapping robots. Robots who aren’t afraid of getting dirty to get your house clean.

We’ve collected 20 different home cleaning aids, many from the R2-D2 family, to help. Best of all, if you get one right now, you can take an extra 15 percent off at checkout with the code SPRINGSAVE15. Happy cleaning!

With a powerful 5,700RPM built-in motor and a unique, rotating dual-spin mop, the Elicto Everybot RS500 Robotic Spin Mop & Polisher ($237.99 after discount; originally $279) goes everywhere with its soft little microfibers, getting into hard-to-reach corners and clearing out dust like a champ.

In the event you’re willing to expel a little elbow grease of your own to save some money, you can still get deep effective cleaning with the Elicto ES-500 Electric Corded Spin Mop & Polisher ($101.99 after discount; originally $119).  fully adjustable aluminum alloy handle, 180° swivel joint, and 25-foot long cord, you’ll never need to kneel or bend, which is probably just fine by you. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/22/let-a-bunch-of-robots-help-you.html

Not all VPNs are created equal. This is actually a good thing when you take into account how many services are out there these days, offering you cloaked and protected access to the web.

Something has to distinguish all these providers from each other. And in most cases, there is. For all 14 of the services included in this VPN Buyers Guide, each brings something to the consumer table that’s worthy of note. We’d never try to argue that features and capabilities of each VPN are exclusive to only that service, but we think this should help give you an idea about each provider’s priorities so you can see which ones best match up with you for a user-service match made in heaven.

And just to sweeten the deal, you can sign up for any of these best VPN services now and get an additional 15 percent off your total price by using the code SPRINGSAVE15 at checkout. Considering most of these deals are lifetime coverage offers, you could stand to pick up a whole lot of protection for a surprisingly small final total.

There’s something to be said for size. While it isn’t always the ultimate barometer for a VPN’s performance and usefulness, the number of servers and global locations where you can access can be a strong indicator of what you can expect.

By that criteria, NordVPN (2-year subscription - $81.59 after discount; originally $286.80) is a clear leader among these contenders. With over 3,500 worldwide server locations in 61 countries, its accessibility and reach is truly massive. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/21/which-vpn-is-right-for-you-we.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/21/furloughed-sports-commentator.html

Maker Camp, Make:’s annual virtual camp for kids has launched for 2020. Make: Community staffer, Keith Hammond writes:

Cooped up with the kids like I am? Maker Camp 2020 is now live! Every kid can join because Maker Camp is online, and it’s free. Since 2012 over a million campers have connected through Maker Camp, learned to make stuff, and shared their experiences with other campers. As you build and make, share your pictures on social media with the hashtag #makeathome and they’ll appear on our site!

The projects you’ll find at Maker Camp have been researched, tested, built, and thoroughly documented so we’re absolutely sure you can replicate them at home. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year we’ve focused on projects you can do with what you might have on-hand, already in your home. We’re sure there’s something there for you!

Find out how to get started on the Maker Camp landing page. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/21/heres-something-fun-and-prod.html

In case you thought the world was in the midst of a vast migration to cloud-based computing, we hate to break it to you, but...it’s already happened. Right now, 94 percent of all businesses and organizations use a cloud service. As for the operations of all those groups, 83 percent of their workload will be in the cloud this year.

But even with stats like those, you aren’t wrong — the migration is still continuing. By 2023, the public cloud market is expected to be a $623 billion a year industry.

If you envision any type of career in IT, a knowledge of how to properly manage, protect and grow a cloud-based system should be foundational to that vision. And that doesn’t just mean knowing industry leader Amazon Web Services (AWS). With instruction like The Complete 2020 Cloud Certification Training Bundle, you’ll go inside AWS as well as Azure and other major cloud players to be a multi-platform performer for your organization, no matter where their operations hang their hat.

The bundle includes 12 courses that go deep into the advantages and features of each cloud environment, helping you determine which one will best serve your business’ specific needs.

As the undisputed leader in cloud services, a full three-quarter of your coursework here revolves around Amazon’s robust AWS platform. This training will not only help you understand all of AWS’s terminologies, processes, and available options, but it will help you actually get started using Amazon S3 to store data, Route 53 to host your specific domains, and EC2 to find just the right scaling plan for your operation. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/21/learn-cloud-service-administra.html

In this footage, city commissioners in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, bicker over ad-hoc rules and hurdles that, as if by magic, make it virtually impossible to take emergency measures such as closing the beaches during the coronavirus pandemic.

This is why the beaches haven't closed in Florida, and why they've had minimal COVID-19 prevention. Absolute dysfunction. pic.twitter.com/8x2tcQeg21

 Farbod Esnaashari (@Farbod_E) March 21, 2020

Commissioner Omari Hardy appears to be the hero of the piece, complaining about the city continuing to work on shutting off utilities for delinquent bills while doing nothing about coronavirus. But his futile explosion of anger at Mayor Pam Triolo and City Manager Michael Bornstein's procedural games is not a great sign of hope for Florida's containment efforts.

City Manager Michael Bornstein said he appreciates Hardy’s “youthful exuberance” but added the 30-year-old commissioner “just needs to calm down.”

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/21/watch-a-florida-city-commissio.html

Maybe they’ll donate to someone who needs it.. from r/PublicFreakout

A couple of people in Florida allegedly cleaned out a dollar store of toilet paper and paper towels. Maybe they have a big family at home. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/21/are-you-out-of-toilet-paper-b.html

Do you like waffles?

I am waiting for the sourdough starter, that I mixed up from flour and water last Monday, to be ready for bread baking. At the same time I am loath to waste 1/2 a cup or so of perfectly good starter at each feeding. Today I used the discard to make waffles for my parents.

My very simple sourdough waffle or pancake batter recipe is as follows:

Simple Sourdough Waffle and Pancake Batter

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unfed starter 1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup milk 1 egg 1/4 cup oil or butter 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 Tbs brown sugar a splash of Grand Marnier

Mix the starter, flour, and milk in a large bowl. You can let them sit overnight if you want to be fancy. You may also use the sort of milk known as buttermilk for the milk addition and have buttermilk sourdough waffles.

Add the egg, oil, baking soda, and brown sugar. If you like, and I certainly do, I recommend adding a splash of Grand Marnier liquor to the batter.

The EtOH cooks out and you get a very nice, sweeter than savory flavor. This is important to note as I do not suggest adding the liquor if you are making the waffles to accompany fried chicken! When made with buttermilk and all the overnight rests these are the most awesome waffles for Fried Chicken and Waffles. Sometimes I top them with eggs benedict, hollandaise and a chili pepper-infused maple syrup.

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/21/pandemic-sourdough-waffles.html

Kenny Rogers is dead at 81. The famed country singer was one of the best-selling music artists of all time, developing his signature song The Gambler into an enduring media franchise and even a restaurant chain.

Rogers passed away peacefully at home from natural causes under the care of hospice and surrounded by his family.

In a career that spanned more than six decades, Kenny Rogers left an indelible mark on the history of American music. His songs have endeared music lovers and touched the lives of millions around the world. Chart-topping hits like "The Gambler," "Lady," "Islands In The Stream," "Lucille," "She Believes In Me," and "Through the Years" are just a handful of Kenny Rogers' songs that have inspired generations of artists and fans alike. Rogers, with twenty-four number-one hits, was a Country Music Hall of Fame member, six-time CMA Awards winner, three-time GRAMMY® Award winner, recipient of the CMA Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013, CMT Artist of a Lifetime Award honoree in 2015 and has been voted the "Favorite Singer of All Time" in a joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People.

The family is planning a small private service at this time out of concern for the national COVID-19 emergency. They look forward to celebrating Kenny’s life publicly with his friends and fans at a later date.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/21/kenny-rogers-1938-2020.html

According to this NYT interactive map. Judith Basin County, Montana, will be the last unravaged county in the worst-case coronavirus scenario. Zillow shows very few homes on offer, but this 520-acre ranch looks like a great place to take a stand! Anyone who wants to join my postapocalyptic anarchocommunist elf sex death cult get in touch -- I'm putting in an offer -- and we can start planning our raid on The Others in Lemhi County, Idaho.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/21/worst-case-scenario-places-jud.html

KFC closed its restaurants to all but drive-through customers and deliveries days ago. According to this video, however, the company is quietly ordering managers to keep lobbies open to serve walk-in takeout customers.

I've come up with this plan to protect my employees because they're trying to force us to open the lobby again.

Looks like we're already at the point where companies are testing the ability of government to enforce crisis measures. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/21/kfc-manager-complains-company.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/21/hackers-say-they-breached-russ.html

'For the first time in our history, the government is going to step in and help pay people's wages,' Rishi Sunak announces

The UK government will pay up to 80% of wages for workers who are at risk of being laid off due to the coronavirus pandemic, the chancellor has announced.

The United States is not doing anything like this, or discussing anything like this.

Why isn't the purportedly richest and most powerful and most awesomest country in the world, ours, doing the same -- or something close -- for the millions of suddenly jobless workers? Oh yeah, a corporate tax cut instead. And a single thousand-dollar check, or something. Thanks, GOP Senate.

From the UK Independent:

Any employer in the country will be able to apply to HMRC for payments of up to lb2,500 per worker per month - just above the median UK income - Rishi Sunak said on Friday. The unprecedented move means the government will guarantee a proportion of the salaries of millions of workers, if employers keep them on their payrolls rather than laying them off.

The scheme will be open for three months initially but will be extended if required, the chancellor said, before laying out a raft of additional measures designed to support businesses and jobs. Grants will be available for "as many jobs as necessary" he said before also announcing lb1bn of support for renters, tax relief for the self-employed and increases in universal credit payments.

It came as pubs, bars, restaurants and leisure centres shut down in the latest intensification of social distancing measures designed to slow the spread of Covid-19.

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/21/coronavirus-uk-will-pay-80-o.html

pic.twitter.com/fhA9Ykpqbz

 Mike Judge (@MikeJudge) March 20, 2020

Mike Judge, creator of the show, posted this reminder of the need for social distancing to limit the speed of the spread of coronavirus.

References

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/21/hank-hill-will-not-be-kicking.html

Britain's ancient, fatberg-infested sewers are already choked to the grates thanks to irresponsible flushings during the coronavirus crisis. People running out of (or hoarding) toilet paper are instead using paper towels, kitchen napkins, wet wipes, newsprint and other materials that won't break down. Northumbrian Water posted this handsome image of the random trash locals are shoving into the system, and told them to cut it out.

The company said it understood people were "only improvising" but the consequences could be "devastating" to homes and the environment.

Head of wastewater networks Simon Cyhanko said they should use the bin.

"We understand some people affected by the limited toilet roll availability may have no choice but to use alternative products," he said.

The company also posted the following photo, which I presume is of the cleanest toilet in Berwick and the ideal that Northumbrian Water hopes all its customers maintain forthwith.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/21/britains-sewers-blocked.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/21/twitter-gives-elon-musk-a-pass.html

Four senators, including Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, have written a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to ask what measures are being taken to protect warehouse workers from COVID-19. The coronavirus outbreak that causes this deadly disease has now infected more than 20,000 people throughout America.

“The senators sent the letter two days after the first US-based Amazon warehouse worker tested positive for COVID-19,” reports Jay Peters at The Verge:

The group of senators is led by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and includes Sanders and Sherrod Brown (D-OH). “Any failure of Amazon to keep its workers safe does not just put their employees at risk, it puts the entire country at risk,” the group said in the letter. The senators are also asking Amazon to provide paid sick leave and time-and-a-half hazard pay, among other financial and health protections.

“The virus that causes COVID-19 can live for up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to three days on plastic and stainless steel,” the letter says. “That means that Americans who are taking every precaution, staying home and practicing social distancing, might risk getting infected with COVID-19 because of Amazon’s decision to prioritize efficiency and profits over the safety and well-being of its workforce.”

The letter also discussed reports of troubling conditions at Amazon warehouses, such as how Amazon warehouse managers have held regular stand-up meetings with staff, which likely put employees closer than the CDC-recommended six feet of distance away from one another, and a lack of hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes.

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/21/amazon-covid19.html

For many, the results of a basic DNA test done by one of the major genealogy companies will satisfy their curiosity. Those findings give users the chance to see where they’re from, maybe discover basic health markers they should know and possibly learn about a 4th or 5th cousin or two.  And that’s usually as far as many users need to go.

However, some users are looking for even more precise reading of their genes for an ultra-detailed picture of their family’s origins. When finding out about your genealogical ethnic percentages just isn’t enough, you may want to step up to a more comprehensive DNA analysis from a company like Living DNA.

Devised through a collaboration of more than 100 scientists, researchers and genetic experts, Living DNA touts their tests as the “most advanced DNA test” around -- and when a company promises to trace your roots back 80,000 years, that’s a tough claim to refute.

With one of their specialist ancestry tests, Living DNA zeroes in on you, spanning over 150 regions across the globe to trace your most likely lineage from your ancestors’ migration from Africa thousands of years ago right up to the present time.

And by the present time, we mean the past 500 years, which includes sub-regional breakdowns to present all the extra detail on you available.

Delivered through an intuitive interactive online platform, you can go deep on every aspect of your history. The 3-in-1 test not only allows you to trace your own direct ancestry back at least 10 generations but also get a complete look at full bloodlines dating back centuries on both maternal and paternal sides of your family. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/21/save-over-20-on-living-dna-on.html