"I've got another great bunch of ideas from Richie the other day."

The post JUDAS PRIEST Working On New Music In Quarantine appeared first on Metal Injection.

What else are you supposed to do?

The post Music Gear Sales Are Way Up While Everyone Is Quarantined appeared first on Metal Injection.

But she’s got an exciting new project to focus on.

Did Melo make the cut?

She and her man are riding out lockdown in separate states.

Punkie Johnson has a few words for the virus.

'RHOA' star and wig-line owner rocks a natural.

This is highly relatable.

The actor was slammed by Wendy Williams and many others.

The talk show host is taking no dating risks.

Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington sent hugs.

He’s back on the 1s.

She and her band were separated by walls.

We can relate.

The actors discuss how they're spending their time at home.

The former basketball star was tested for the coronavirus

He also addresses his teammate Rudy Gobert.

Many accused him of not abiding by social distancing laws.

How Serena Williams Is Dealing With Peak Quarantine Boredom

Hello Internet! In This Episode: Erin and Weer’d discuss the increasing desperation of anti-gunners as they react to mass firearm purchases by Americans of all walks of life; Weer’d fisks a stand-up routine by Steve Hofstetter; David tells us how … Continue reading →

Ohioans bought 1.36 million gallons of liquor in March, a nearly 25 percent increase over the same period last year. More of us are leaning on alcohol to beat quarantine doldrums and stress, but experts warn that extended overindulging could make it harder to put down the bottle when the lockdown is lifted.

This seems to be something of a thing. Our last "Tales From the Quarantine" post focused on how television celebrities had taken to offering people help on Twitter with their virtual home decor in the latest Animal Crossing game. This post also involves Animal Crossing, but in a much more direct way. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there are enormous numbers of people who have suddenly found themselves without jobs or regular income. And, so, they've turned to irregular sources of income instead.

Ars Technica has an interesting interview with one of many people who have taken to the internet to indirectly sell Animal Crossing's "bells", the currency of the game.

In the midst of COVID-19, some New Horizons players are turning to World of Warcraft-style gold farming methods to make ends meet. In early April, Lexy, a 23-year-old recent college grad, created a Twitter account offering up bells (Animal Crossing’s in-game currency) for real-world cash (she requested we refer to her by a nickname to avoid potential reprisal from Nintendo). “I got laid off due to COVID so I'm farming bells in ACNH,” she wrote. “I really need to make rent this month so I'm selling 2 mil bells per $5, please message me if interested, I'll give you a discount the more you buy.”

Before setting up this unorthodox income stream, Lexy had been working at a supermarket while developing her animation portfolio. She began exploring the idea of turning bells into cash after showing friends just how much in-game income she’d been making. “One of them asked to legitimately buy some for me,” she recalled in a Twitter interview. “I did some research and found some people selling bells on sites such as eBay, but for pretty ridiculous prices.” (Current prices on eBay seem more competitive, with some sellers offering rare gold tools and gold nuggets to sweeten the deal).

The threat from Nintendo is probably real. After all, unlike some other games where people do this sort of thing, Nintendo's game doesn't include any method for selling in-game resources for real currency. Nintendo is also notoriously prudish about things like this. And, finally, to make an effective go at this sort of thing, it takes some manipulation of the console in a way that is somewhat controversial with gamers generally.

Understandably, Lexy adjusts the clock on her Nintendo Switch to speed up the game’s slow, “natural” money-making cycle of harvesting daily fruit, digging up bells from the ground, and planting a daily “money tree” that can yield big profits. This kind of in-game “time traveling” is controversial practice among casual Animal Crossing players, but it's a practical necessity to maximize real-world bell-farming profits.

As for how much money people like Lexy are bringing in, it's in the four figures, but she wasn't any more specific than that. Payments are made through digital apps like PayPal, after which she visits the game islands of others and deposits the bells.

That all of this is going on during a global pandemic that has some folks farming bells to make ends meet and others with apparently enough disposable income to be buyers is all, of course, deeply strange. But it's also just yet another way technology is having an impact on our lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At Let Grow, a wise mom named Kate Sundquist admits that while her kids were already good at playing, they certainly weren’t good at filling hours and hours of free time, playing by themselves. (Read the piece here.) So she her and boys created a schedule. “While these routines might seem restrictive or even the […]

At least for some kids, yes, being flung from the stress of a super-structured, super-supervised existence is having a calming, life-expanding effect. I discuss this amazing phenom in this Big Think article, including six short essays by kids themselves, and also in this interview with Bored Panda,  the  pop culture site, where I note that […]

The publisher is adding videos of their creators entertaining themselves while sheltering in place.

The post SHUT IN THEATER: What are Dynamite creators in quarantine up to? appeared first on The Beat.

Moving was always stressful, but to be placed in a nationwide lockdown only a few weeks after moving was just too much for Ginny to think about. At least she had a fit neighbor keep her company... from two meters away, of course.

musicisart magazine Quarantine Music: Bonobo

Perhaps there’s no better time than now to discover Quarantine Music to relax and escape to. Bonobo (AKA Simon Green) has been creating beautiful waves of downtempo, sensually instrumental music for over twenty years. His music incorporates heavy bass, programmed drums, and layers of electronics. Bonobo is a recognized pioneer in the ways he can […]

The post Quarantine Music: Bonobo appeared first on musicisart magazine.

Gerson Monje holds up his cellphone to proudly show off his online sex shop. A red banner reading "sold out!" is plastered across half of the products.

It was inspired by her current habit of wearing old sweatshirts and sweatpants left behind by childhood friends. READ MORE...

We asked what you wanted us to talk about, and here are the results, yet more Potter silliness while we're all in lockdown!

Reminders!
CHECK OUT OUR MERCH, omg it's so good. http://mischiefmerch.com

Join our patreon! http://patreon.com/pottercast - Now, you can also join our Discord community there!

When Donald Trump thinks you’re Looney Tunes, time to get professional help, Mr. Kemp.
But in the storm over Kemp's goofball “opening,” Kemp's other threat to Georgians has gone unnoticed

The post We Won’t Lift the Quarantine on Kemp appeared first on Greg Palast.

I admit that sometimes I feel I want something more than I want it. Boy was I mad at NBC went Conan O’Brien didn’t get The Tonight Show spot. I may not have lost sleep over it, but I gasped, I cried, I raged, and, if Facebook had this react at that time, I would […]

I don’t know about you, but giving daily make-up a rest has been doing wonders for my skin. But in case we’ve never met before — hi, I’m Gala! — I like to maximize things. My train of thought goes something like, ‘Sure, my skin looks good… But what if I came out of quarantine looking better than […]

The post Quarantine Beauty: The Tools And Techniques That Have Me Glowing! appeared first on Gala Darling.

Trapped at home. Many if not most ranges closed, depending where you are. How can shooter folk get some trigger time for skill maintenance, recreation, and the all-important boredom prevention? Airgun fun is quiet…don’t forget eye protection. Well, for one … Read more

HEYO! FOLLOW @LAMEBOOK ON INSTAGRAM! PLEASE AND THANK YOU! (WE HAVE MANNERS)

I found a fun game to play. It’s a pale substitute for actually being at conventions and hanging out with my friends, but it’s something. Question: What new character can I pull together to cosplay with stuff I already have at home? Answer:

We'll have to wait for Sunday's statement from Boris

This is a challenging time for everyone. But nothing is as challenging as being trapped in another country...literally. I was planning to fly home for a week at the end of March. I was so convinced I would be there that I extended by a week so I could run

Sunday 5 April 2020Even though I can only see a sliver of the park and street from my windows that sliver includes two park benches. These past three weeks Ive only seen one person sit there. After last weeks scolding on Monday I have

Sunday 12 April 202028 days of quarantine down 14 more to goLike every Sunday in the new world of Peru under quarantine nobody is allowed to leave their homes today except for emergency medical services. All grocery stores pharmacies a

What a life changing experience. More so for some than others. Our personal situation is doable. We arent struggling by any means. It is those with family friends or even themselves who have become ill with this coronavirus that are the ones dealt the

Sunday 19 April 202035 days down 7 more to goIve been looking forward to today all week My housemates and I have been planning a picnic on the roof today. I chose Sunday because were not allowed to leave the house and I wanted to h

Sunday 26 April 202042 days down 14 to goToday is my mothers 71st birthday. I called her in the morning and was glad to hear that she has a beautiful sunny day in Boise and plans to go outside. Social distancing rules in Boise and com

We construct a quantitative model of an economy hit by an epidemic. People differ by age and skill, and choose occupations and whether to commute to work or work from home, to maximize their income and minimize their fear of infection. Occupations differ by wage, infection risk, and the productivity loss when working from home. By setting the model parameters to replicate the progression of COVID-19 in South Korea and the United Kingdom, we obtain three key results. First, government-imposed lock-downs may not present a clear trade-off between GDP and public health, as commonly believed, even though its immediate effect is to reduce GDP and infections by forcing people to work from home. A premature lifting of the lock-down raises GDP temporarily, but infections rise over the next months to a level at which many people choose to work from home, where they are less productive, driven by the fear of infection. A longer lock-down eventually mitigates the GDP loss as well as flattens the infection curve. Second, if the UK had adopted South Korean policies, its GDP loss and infections would have been substantially smaller both in the short and the long run. This is not because Korea implemented policies sooner, but because aggressive testing and tracking more effectively reduce infections and disrupt the economy less than a blanket lock-down. Finally, low-skill workers and self-employed lose the most from the epidemic and also from the government policies. However, the policy of issuing “visas” to those who have antibodies will disproportionately benefit the low-skilled, by relieving them of the fear of infection and also by allowing them to get back to work.

The teacher recently traveled to Italy and came back to class before noticing the symptoms, according to a source familiar with the situation.

What's worse than power shutoffs during the coronavirus quarantine? An unplanned outage that sparks a wildfire.

Four players on the Brooklyn Nets, whose last game was played versus the Lakers, have tested positive for the coronavirus, the team announced Tuesday.