The Treble, an alt-rock band out of Winnipeg, has taken inspiration from iconic music videos from the 1980s. Their recently released music video, for the single "No Secrets (There For You)," features shot-by-shot re-creations of a bunch of them. Probably the ones that will be most familiar are a-Ha's "Take on Me" and DEVO's "Whip it" but it took me a moment to figure some of them out... and I was watched MTV religiously in my youth!

(The Awesomer) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/28/band-pays-tribute-to-classic.html

We love our dogs. But even the most devoted and dedicated dog owners will admit they can be demanding little beasts sometimes.

Dogs require a lot of human attention. It’s not their fault. It’s just the way they are. But on a busy day packed with work and family responsibilities and everything else that requires our focus every day, it isn’t always easy to carve out some serious one-on-one time with man’s best friend.

Thankfully, technology has come to the rescue, with the Wickedbone serving as humankind’s attempt at righting that natural imbalance.

The world’s first interactive smart dog toy, the Wickedbone has one job: to keep your dog engaged and entertained for hours. This bone-shaped device comes with nine different interactive modes to get your dog’s attention and encourage play.

Once it’s connected via the Wickedbone app, you can either control it through your smartphone or tablet; or set it up to go 100 percent automatic to keep your dog busy when you’re too busy. From skittering across the ground, nudging up next to your dog, and just prompting a good old game of tag, the Wickedbone works to get the interest of any pup. It’ll roll, turn, shake, hop and even do backflips to keep your dog focused.

The Wickedbone even has its own AI-driven emotional programming system, allowing it to read how your dog is reacting, then adjust itself accordingly. When your dog runs, Wickedbone runs after them. When your dog chases it, it turns around and runs away. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/28/wickedbone-is-a-smart-dog-toy.html

Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 presedential election to Donald Trump, today endorsed Joe Biden, his Democratic rival this time around.

“I am thrilled to be part of your campaign – to not only endorse you but to help highlight a lot of the issues that are at stake in this presidential election,” she told Biden in a joint live stream.

Clinton also recounted her relationship with Biden from their time together in the Senate to their work in the Obama administration.

“I’ve been in the lobby of the Senate. I’ve been in the Cloak Room and I’ve watched Joe bring people together,” she said. “We need a leader – a president – like Joe Biden.”

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/28/hillary-clinton-endorses-joe-b.html

The Bank of Nook cut the interest it pays on bell savings from .5% to .05%, or next to nothing. According to the Financial Times, the Bank of Nook was responding to a trick players discovered in which they could deposit a large sum of bells and then time travel into the future by adjusting their Switch's clock. From the Financial Times:

The total interest available on any amount of savings has now been capped at 9,999 bells — the in-game currency that can be bought online at a rate of about $1 per 1.9m bells.[...]

“Now that the [Bank of Nook] has cut interest rates to near zero, their next logical step is quantitative easing. It’s essential that players try to hook their game up to their printers as it might start churning out money,” [Albert Edwards, a strategist at Soci'et'e G'en'erale,] joked. [...]

As many users pointed out online, the much lower interest rate means that the most effective way of making money is now to gamble on the game’s internal “stalk” market — a bourse in which the only commodity is turnips, sold to investors during a single session on Sundays. The root vegetables rot and their value drops to zero after a week.

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/28/financial-times-animal-crossi.html

About five years ago my sister introduced me to these Pilot Varsity fountain pens. You can buy them in an inexpensive pack of seven. Each pen is in a different color. The ink flows smoothly and looks great in my notebook and even on cheap printer paper. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/28/pilot-varsity-low-cost-smoo.html

Over 200,000 people subscribe to Drain Addict, a YouTube channel devoted exclusively to an Australian plumber's adventures unclogging drains. In the video above, titled Blocked Drain 448, the Drain Addict goes to work on a pipe completely clogged with tree roots.

Doobybrain says:

Drain Addict is my new obsession, and with over 400 videos on this channel, I think I know what I’m gonna be watching for the duration of this quarantine period.

This channel is not for those who are squeamish because, as the title suggests, the man is a DRAIN ADDICT. As in, he unclogs drains and LOVES IT. And not just water drains. Mostly sewer drains! So tons of poop, tissue, and other things that go down the toilet.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/28/drain-addict-is-a-popular-yout.html

Tomorrow, an asteroid that's at least a mile wide will pass by Earth. While NASA considers the object, named 1998 Or2, to be "potentially hazardous," it won't hit us. This time. It won't get closer than around four million miles away. Above is a time lapse of the asteroid captured through a telescope by amateur astronomer Ingvars Tomsons in Riga, Latvia. As the asteroid and Earth continue to orbit our sun, it'll continue to be a risk. And this rock is not the only one that could someday sock it to us. At National Geographic, Nadia Drake explains the risk of a catastrophic astronaut impact and NASA's fascinating planetary defense plan, including their Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) planned for next year. From National Geographic:

“[The object that will pass us tomorrow] just a whopping big asteroid,” says Amy Mainzer of the University of Arizona, one of the planet’s leading scientists in asteroid detection and planetary defense. “It’s smaller than the thing thought to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, but it is easily capable of causing a lot of damage.”

An asteroid passing relatively close to Earth is more common than most people realize. Every year, dozens of asteroids that are big enough to cause regional devastation pass within five million miles of Earth—the cutoff for potentially hazardous asteroids. On average, one or two space rocks large enough to cataclysmically impact a continent pass by each year.

Earth will almost certainly confront a space rock large enough to obliterate a city, or worse, at some point in its future.

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/28/enormous-and-potentially-ha.html

Holy smokes!

View this post on Instagram

The guys @santamonicaairlines blew our @jlw ‘s mind with this awesome @oscarputdowntheknife & @burritobreath collab.

A post shared by Boing Boing (@boingboing) on Apr 28, 2020 at 10:19am PDT

I grew up in Santa Monica, CA in the 1970s and 80s. While I had and have friends who attained the levels of awesome required to get free stuff from a skate team, I was certainly too much a kook.

As a kid, Santa Monica Airlines played a huge role in helping me define 'COOL' and they still do. For 'Support Your Local Skateshop day' I had Rip City set up my re-issue 'THINK CRIME' deck with a set of Independent Trucks, Slimeballs, and ACER Racing hardware and bearings. No one does as nice a job on grip tape as those dudes at Rip City.

Imagine my surprise when repeated fan posts about legendary street skater Natas Kaupas resulted in the folks at Santa Monica Airlines sending this awesome deck!

I could not be more thrilled to receive this awesome Natas/Burrito Breath deck! My daughter has already asked if we can set it up for her. She will not be getting those ACER bearings, they are far too fast and I have to run off all the damn time.

She will be getting pads and introduced to GrlSwrl. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/28/santa-monica-airlines-sent-me.html

I think this is the best restoration video I've seen. This person took a rusty, dirty toy truck and used a sandblaster, an ultrasonic cleaner, and a powder coat oven turn it into a pristine looking specimen.

Image: YouTube

[via Doobybrain] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/28/extremely-satisfying-1960s-ton.html

"It's all very well to use an influenza mask. But what if you want to smoke? Edward T. Duncan has supplied the answer. First, buy two-corn plasters at the drugstore. You may not see the relationship between a corn plaster and the influenza. Wait a minute. Hasn't the plaster an opening for a corn? Well, that whole can be made to fit a cigar or a cigarette."

[via Bruce Sterling] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/28/vintage-instructions-for-makin.html

Almost every night for the last week, I've been listening to my vinyl copy of Sade's 1985 masterpiece "Promise." Sade's deeply sexy, jazzy soul stands the test of time. This morning, I was surprised and delighted to see this stunning 1985 TV performance of "Is It A Crime" on The Old Grey Whistle Test that Reddit user castigamat posted to r/LiveIsBetter. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/28/watch-sades-stunning-tv-perf.html

For those still plodding along with some ancient, plug-in, standup vacuum cleaner like your parents used to use, you need to step into modern society.

Look, we’re not even trying to talk you into programmable, autonomous vacuum bots or anything. We’re just talking about upgrading to a modern, proficient multi-purpose cleaning tool that handles all your business efficiently and doesn’t make you look like you should be tidying up in the Brady residence.

By that criteria, the JASHEN V12 Cordless Stick Vacuum can definitely help you ditch the old Hoover and start cleaning up to 21st century standards. 

The JASHEN has a built-in 180-watt motor that serves up to 40 minutes of cordless vacuuming so you can deep clean the whole house on a single charge. The upgraded motorized brush works with the JASHEN's power suction to thoroughly pick up anything you don’t want on your carpets and floors, from pet hair and dirt to debris and tough-to-handle messes.

It’s also packing a high-efficiency filtration system with a washable filter and an extra hygienic HEPA filter that locks in small particles with no leakage, trapping filter dust while expelling only fresh, purified air.

Also unlike the old-school models, the JASHEN easily converts from the traditional stand-up configuration to a handheld vac, capable of cleaning furniture, upholstery and even ceilings. And at less than 7.5 pounds, it’s light enough for just about anyone to maneuver simply.

As another plus over the old-style vacs, the JASHEN also runs super quietly, applying even more suction and power as models from back in the day, all without sounding like you’re pushing an aircraft carrier through your living room. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/27/this-vacuum-is-cordless-provi.html

Diamond and Silk are sibling vloggers famous for supporting Trump. They often appear on Fox News, a TV network that currently offers a round-the-clock diet of conspiracy theories and pseudoscience about the coronavirus pandemic. After relentlessly hyping a deadly quack remedy, chloroquine, that killed a number of covid-19 sufferers in quickly-abandoned trials, Fox News is feeling the heat. So today it fired Diamond and Silk, blaming them for the tenor of coverage it expected of them and duly received.

The sudden split comes after the Trump-boosting siblings have come under fire for promoting conspiracy theories and disinformation about the coronavirus. “After what they’ve said and tweeted you won’t be seeing them on Fox Nation or Fox News anytime soon,” a source with knowledge of the matter told The Daily Beast. ... “Kudos if you make your vaccines for people and you want to help people,” Diamond exclaimed. “But I have a problem receiving any vaccine from any entity, especially anybody like Bill Gates who pushed for population control. The same thing that Margaret Sanger pushed for.”

“Abortions! Genocide!” Silk shouted in response.

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/27/fox-news-fires-diamond-and-sil.html

“Zooopah.” 

A guy and his German Shepherd, just playing the flute, like you do.

good girl plays the flute

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/27/good-dog-plays-flute.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/27/tucker-carlson-says-there-is-n.html

On Monday, Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc., the two largest U.S. wireless carriers, and US cable giant Comcast all said they have agreed that through June 30, they won't cancel service or charge late fees to customers who can't pay their bills because of the coronavirus pandemic.

More from Reuters:

In March, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said major wireless and internet providers - including Verizon, Comcast, AT&T, T-Mobile US Inc (TMUS.O) and Alphabet’s Google Fiber (GOOGL.O) - had agreed not to terminate service for subscribers for 60 days. In total, more than 700 companies have now agreed to the voluntary measures.

In March, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said carriers had also agreed to open Wi-Fi hotspots to anyone who needs them. A group of 24 state attorneys general last week asked carriers to extend the voluntary commitment until Aug. 11.

Cox Communications also said on Monday it was extending its commitment not to cancel service or charge late fees through June 30 and to keep open its Cox Wi-Fi hotspots.

Comcast said in addition to extending the commitment through June 30 and making its Wi-Fi hotspots available for anyone who needs them, it would extend a pause in its data plans to give all customers unlimited data for no additional charge.

Read more:

Verizon, AT&T, Comcast won't cancel service through June due to coronavirus [David Shepardson] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/27/verizon-att-comcast-wont.html

That's what I'm talking about.

New York Magazine's Washington Correspondent Olivia Nuzzi asked this question of impeached and manifestly unfit President Donald John Trump at a press briefing today:

“If an American President loses more Americans over the course of six weeks than died in the entirety of the Vietnam War, does he deserve to be re-elected?”

Watch his slurred response.

Question: If an American President loses more Americans over the course of six weeks than died in the entirety of the Vietnam War, does he deserve to be re-elected? pic.twitter.com/JCgmrxLAuB

 Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) April 27, 2020

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/27/coronavirus-deathlord.html

Spoken Word with Electronics is an audio series delivering to you a two side recording of unusual stories paired with vintage modular electronic sounds

Welcome back. A few years ago, in 2010, the radio station WFMU posted a wonderful set of songs on its incredible blog.

Both songs had the identical title, "Marijuana, the Devil's Flower", or "MTDF" for short. I fell in love with both of these tracks and have pined for an opportunity to do something fun with them. For this week's program, hear MTDF turned into a shortwave radio broadcast signal, using an RF Nomad and an AModulator. Then hear MTDF looped oddly through a set of samplers. Here's a set of soundcloud links:

I was going to call this one "The Bong Bunker" but thought better of it.

Back next week and may all marijuana temptations only be heard, never consumed! - Ethan (Bandcamp/Soundcloud) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/27/how-marijuana-the-devils.html

'Tryin' Times,' Roberta Flack.

Producer: Joel Dorn Guitar: John Pizzarelli Drums: Ray Lucas Piano: Robert Flack Vocals: Roberta Flack Bass Guitar: Ron Carter Composer: Donny Hathaway Composer: Leroy Hutson

Lyrics:

Tryin' times, what the world is talkin' about You got confusion all over the land, yeah You got mother against daughter, you got father against son You know the whole thing is getting out of hand Then maybe folks wouldn't have to suffer If there was more love for your brother But these are tryin' times, yeah, yeah You got the riots in the ghetto, it's all around A whole lot of things that's wrong is going down, yes, it is I can't understand it from my point of view 'Cause I think you should do unto others As you'd have them do unto you Then maybe folks wouldn't have to suffer If there was more love for your brother But these are tryin' times, yes, it is I said man is always talking 'bout it's inhumanity to man But what is he tryin' to do to make it a better man? Oh, just read the paper, turn on your TV You see folks demonstrating about equality But maybe folks wouldn't have to suffer If there was more love for your brother But these are tryin' times Tryin' times, yeah, that's what the world is talkin' about You got confusion all over the land

Source: LyricFind Songwriters: Donny Hathaway / Leroy Hutson Tryin' Times lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/27/music-trying-times-rober.html

Tribonet explains why sharp knives are better than dull ones when it comes to cutting tomatoes. It's because dull knives are smooth so they can't grab the tomato skin to pull and tear it.

The easiest and safest way to slice a tomato is to use a sharp knife. The counterintuitive reason a sharp knife slices more easily through a tomato is that it has higher friction, albeit only on the knife’s edge.

Slicing is actually stretching the tomato and, like most materials, a tomato is weaker when stretched than when compressed. Stretching the tomato skin creates a tearing force that opens a crack in the skin, thus beginning the slice.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

[via The Browser] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/27/sharp-knives-are-better-at-sli.html