Entertainment Weekly: Stormtroopers are enforcing social distancing at Disney World. “‘Stay in your sector!’ one stormtrooper warns the other when he gets too close. Then she draws an imaginary line to separate them and he backs off. Later, one stormtrooper notes that male banthas (those large hairy creatures ridden by stormtroopers on the planet Tatooine in A New Hope) can reach 3.9 meters long, and the other warns again about getting too close.”
popular culture
SportsMole: BBC launches Programme Explorer tool
SportsMole: BBC launches Programme Explorer tool. “The BBC has launched a new service called ‘Programme Explorer’ to allow users to quickly search its archive of programming. The new feature scours more than 200,000 pieces of content across iPlayer, Sounds and News and allows results to be filtered according to media type and availability.”
Mashable: Social distancing on a reality TV show looks weird, but ‘MasterChef Australia’ is making it work
Mashable: Social distancing on a reality TV show looks weird, but ‘MasterChef Australia’ is making it work. “On Monday night, MasterChef Australia finally reached the point where social distancing rules came into effect during filming earlier this year. It made for a very different-looking kitchen than viewers were used to. The show’s 12th season has become a record of how reality television could navigate the coronavirus pandemic.”
The Tab: This is how to do that hilarious AI meme generator that everyone is doing on Twitter
The Tab: This is how to do that hilarious AI meme generator that everyone is doing on Twitter. “The generator, called This Meme Does Not Exist, is created by a site called site is called imgflip, who say on their site that the memes are generated by ‘a deep artificial neural network. Nothing about the text generation is hardcoded, except that the maximum text length is limited for sanity. The model uses character-level prediction, so you can specify prefix text of one or more characters to influence the text generated.'”
Mashable: This cellist is spending quarantine recording delightful retro multitracks
Mashable: This cellist is spending quarantine recording delightful retro multitracks. “Samara Ginsberg’s career as a session musician went on pause in March thanks to covid-19. Now, the London-based cellist is spending quarantine arranging elaborate covers of pop culture classics for her YouTube channel — including, most recently, the Knight Rider theme.”
CNET: Rock band Devo selling energy dome face shields for coronavirus protection
CNET: Rock band Devo selling energy dome face shields for coronavirus protection. “Is any band more prepped for a pandemic than Devo, the surreal, futuristic rockers famed for their yellow jumpsuits and red energy dome helmets? Now the group is selling coronavirus merchandise, including not just themed face masks, but Devo’s iconic red plastic energy dome, complete with clear plastic face shield.”
AJC: Bond with your children with online Nickelodeon cartoon drawing tutorial
AJC: Bond with your children with online Nickelodeon cartoon drawing tutorial. “Nickelodeon has a new way you can enjoy its cartoons that puts the power in your hands — and it could be a great way to bond with your children. The Viacom-owned network recently released a list of drawing tutorials being posted on the video streaming service Twitch throughout the summer.”
