10 years ago we decluttered our garage and Carla bought several Gorilla Rack shelving units from Amazon. They are awesome. I've assembled shelving units before, and they required either nuts and bolts or little brackets, but the Gorilla Rack units have parts that fit together without extra hardware. I built the first shelving unit in about 30 minutes. The second one took me 15 minutes, and the third one was done in 10 minutes. The pieces fit together without any fussing and the unit is free of sharp edges. It's very sturdy, too. Read the rest

Enjoy the microscopy in this video ab0ut adorable tardigrades (aka water bears or moss piglets). One cool fact about these hardy 500 micron critters: each of their eyes is a single photoreceptive cell.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro boasted that his citizens are immune to the coronavirus because they have the magical ability to wallow in human waste “and nothing happens,” reports The Guardian. “They never catch anything. You see some bloke jumping into the sewage, he gets out, has a dive, right? And nothing happens to him,” he told reporters.

Unfortunately, Bolsonaro's magical thinking appears to be immune to the wily virus:

On Thursday Brazil’s health ministry said that its coronavirus death toll had risen to 77, up from 46 on Tuesday. So far 2,915 cases have been confirmed.

A report in the Folha de São Paulo, a leading Brazilian broadsheet, suggested there had been a “vertiginous” rise in the number of people being admitted to hospital with severe respiratory failure since late February when the Covid-19 case was detected.

Image: By Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil - http://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/politica/foto/2014-02/congresso-promulga-emenda-constitucional-77?id=78867, CC BY 3.0 br, Link Read the rest

 

Maybe it's just me, but when Bill Gates talks about how to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, I trust him more than Donald Trump, Rush Limbaugh, or Ann Coulter.

Here @AnnCoulter I fixed it for you: pic.twitter.com/4ZTr5LJKCg

— Teapot Dome was Amateur Hour! (@HarrenGWarding) March 24, 2020

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Stray cats follows you into the store and guides you to his fav cat food from r/funny

Lacking money and hands, this cat was waiting for someone with both to come along and offer assistance. I hope this little gal or feller gets adopted soon. Read the rest

Yesterday Bob Dylan released his first original song in 8 years. "Murder Most Foul" is a 17-minute murder ballad about the assassination of President John Kennedy. Read the rest

holy shit this @JoeBiden ad is good. pic.twitter.com/CAgIrt2Zua

— Florida Chris (@chrislongview) March 26, 2020

This Biden campaign ad needs no narration. Trump sinks himself. Read the rest

Does anyone ever read the introductory paragraph preceding a listicle like this? I sure don't. I always skip straight to the numbered list. So without further ado, here are the 5 types of villains making the pandemic worse for everyone else:

1. DENIERS

People who are hostile to science, evangelical Christians, sociopaths, members of Trump's loyalty cult, social media toilet lickers, and those whose investment portfolios are under threat.

Credo: "Coronavirus is George Soros / Bill Gates / libtard-concocted fake news designed to hurt God Emperor Trump."

Exemplars:

Bloviator / racist hatemonger Rush Limbaugh: "The coronavirus is the common cold, folks.” Disgraced failed senate candidate Roy Moore: "Businesses are closed, our economy is destroyed and churches are closed by tyrants who pander fear in the place of faith in God and our U S Constitution" Unfairly photo-shopped Jerry Falwell Jr: “Shame on the media for trying to fan [coronavirus] up and destroy the American economy. They’re willing to destroy the economy just to hurt Trump.” Former Ms. Nevada State 2019 Katie Williams: "I just went to a crowded Red Robin and I'm 30. It was delicious, and I took my sweet time eating my meal. Because this is America. And I'll do what I want." Attorney Scott A. McMillan: "The fundamental problem is whether we are going to tank the entire economy to save 2.5% of the population which is (1) generally expensive to maintain, and (2) not productive."

2. HOARDERS

People who buy up vast amounts of toilet paper, particle masks, disinfectant wipes, and food, either out of fear or to seize an opportunity to profit through price gouging. Read the rest

A woman thought it would be good fun to enter a Pennsylvania grocery store and cough on produce, meat, and other fresh food. As a result, the store threw all the food (worth $35,000) she came in contact with away. Read the rest

Ed Yong's article in The Atlantic, "How the Pandemic Will End," is the best piece I've read about why we were so unprepared for the covid-19 pandemic, how it will end, and what life after the pandemic will be like for everyone, including the newly-coined Generation C cohort (people born after February 2020).

Yong writes that there are three endgame possibilities: "one that’s very unlikely, one that’s very dangerous, and one that’s very long."

The first is that every nation manages to simultaneously bring the virus to heel, as with the original SARS in 2003. Given how widespread the coronavirus pandemic is, and how badly many countries are faring, the odds of worldwide synchronous control seem vanishingly small.

The second is that the virus does what past flu pandemics have done: It burns through the world and leaves behind enough immune survivors that it eventually struggles to find viable hosts. This “herd immunity” scenario would be quick, and thus tempting. But it would also come at a terrible cost: SARS-CoV-2 is more transmissible and fatal than the flu, and it would likely leave behind many millions of corpses and a trail of devastated health systems. The United Kingdom initially seemed to consider this herd-immunity strategy, before backtracking when models revealed the dire consequences. The U.S. now seems to be considering it too.

The third scenario is that the world plays a protracted game of whack-a-mole with the virus, stamping out outbreaks here and there until a vaccine can be produced.

Read the rest

This is probably the simplest set of instructions Ikea has ever made, and yet I suspect many won't be able to follow it.

<em>[<a href="https://www.facebook.com/IKEAIL/">via Ikea Israel</a>]</em> Read the rest

The sounds of 93 KHJ "Boss" radio coming from car speakers in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was a great highlight from the movie. If you want to hear more KHJ from its heyday, here are two segments from The Real Don Steele's show on KHJ Los Angeles, from June 15 and July 4, 1968.

And here's a YouTube video the sights and sounds of KHJ:

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KUOW, a public radio station in Washington state announced on Twitter that it will no longer air live Trump briefings because the gentleman in the oval office is a prevaricator:

"KUOW is monitoring White House briefings for the latest news on the coronavirus — and we will continue to share all news relevant to Washington State with our listeners. However, we will not be airing the briefings live due to a pattern of false or misleading information provided that cannot be fact checked in real time."

A member of Trump's loyalty cult demonstrated his blind fealty to the liar-in-chief by telling The Hill:

“It’s not surprising, but also a failure of their duty to the American people, that some media outlets would choose to block their audiences from receiving accurate, up-to-date information on President Trump’s whole-of-government approach to slowing the spread of COVID-19,” Judd Deere, a White House spokesperson, told The Hill.

He added that “no other Administration has been as transparent and as accessible as this one, and we will continue to make sure this Nation hears from its leaders and top health experts during this global pandemic.”

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Make is kicking off Family Maker Camp this week, and the timing couldn't be better for this free, at-home guided week of fun activities that families can enjoy together.

Dale Dougherty, founder of Make, says:

Family Maker Camp encourages making and hands-on learning at home. Making is fun and engaging for kids as well as adults.

What is making? It can be many things and use all kinds of materials and tools. Making is usually defined as a project shaped by your ideas and interests. Making is as much about the process of taking an idea and bringing it to life. Making integrates science and technology as well as arts and crafts.

Family Maker Camp provides inspiration, guidance and an opportunity to share what you do with others online. We have many projects that will help you get started and continue to develop new skills and a maker mindset.

Most importantly, Family Maker Camp will connect you with a community of makers of all ages who have a broad range of interests and skills. We will introduce you to makers online and have them talk about their projects and their process.

Read the rest

My friend and Cool Tools partner, Kevin Kelly created a 36-part lecture series about the future for China Mobile. He's running them on his YouTube channel. The first one is about the future of the Internet in China.

There are three big challenges in the Internet space that all countries must face in the near future. China's approach to the challenges will impact not only Chinese Internet users, but potentially all Internet users. What interface follows the smart hone, whether it be AR-enabled glasses, foldable screens, or wearable projectors, will not only be influenced by China's substantial Internet-using population, but also by their manufacturing. Privacy, as it relates to online information collecting and sale, has consequences for broader community standards, and there is no one-size fits all approach to this issue. China must engage their own ethicists, community, government and technologists to develop a solution that works for China. Finally, globalization. Most of China's internet success has been within China, but as China begins to consider how it might attract users from outside its borders, it will need to consider dialing back the protections that have held foreign Internet companies at bay.

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CNN spoke to psychologists to find out why some people refuse to practice physical distancing during an epidemic. They give 6 reasons:

They think they are invulnerable. "They aren't following social distancing because they believe they won't get sick, even though it could prevent more vulnerable people from becoming infected." They won't let a virus boss them around. "Exercising their defiance makes the virus seem smaller." They think it's not their problem. "People who live in communities where infection isn't widespread or officials haven't imposed lockdowns may be less willing to distance themselves from others." They're numbed by info overload. "When people's media diets, social media feeds and conversations with loved ones consist of nothing but Covid-19, they may become desensitized to its severity." They favor individual freedom over the good of society. " The Western world, and the US in particular, has long prized individual freedoms -- sometimes even over community benefit." They're lonely. "Human beings crave connection, and being denied social interaction for extended periods can sting."

Image: Twitter/@realkatiewilliams Read the rest

Sunbathers at Galheta Beach in Brazil were treated to sandstorm created by helicopter police tasked with enforcing public distancing rules.

Image: YouTube Read the rest