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Thursday, 30 April 2020

The 'Parks and Recreation' reunion song was the most beautiful thing since Lil' Sebastian

The 'Parks and Recreation' reunion song was the most beautiful thing since Lil' Sebastian

Communities and friends band together in tough times — if anyone knows that, it's the former employees of the Parks and Recreation department of Pawnee, Indiana. The core cast of Parks and Recreation reunited for a socially distant special on Thursday to raise money for Feeding America.

When Leslie (Amy Poehler) lets on that phone trees and media outreach might be slightly tiring her out both mentally and emotionally, Ron (Nick Offerman) knows exactly what to do. He merges their video call to include all of Leslie's best friends as they join in a chorus of "5,000 Candles In The Wind." The rendition quickly put a smile on Leslie's face and ours as well. Sometimes a quick singalong with friends — even fictitious ones — is all you need for a little uplift.  Read more...

More about Entertainment, Parks And Recreation, Entertainment, and Movies Tv Shows

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Quibi leaked users' emails to Google, Facebook, and Twitter

Quibi leaked users' emails to Google, Facebook, and Twitter

Mobile streaming service Quibi is less than a month old, but it's already shoving its sticky little fingers where they don't belong. 

A new report by Victory Medium researcher Zach Edwards has revealed Quibi leaked user's signup emails to multiple third-party advertisers, including Google, Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter. 

In order to create a Quibi account, new users were asked to provide an email address to which the company would send a confirmation link. However, unbeknownst to said users, clicking the link sent their email address to third-party advertisers and analytics companies in plain text. Read more...

More about Security, Streaming Services, Data Breach, Data Leaks, and Quibi

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It's Playtime! Golden Retriever Tries to Pat Its Cat Friend

People who own both cats and dogs know that they have completely different personalities, but in the end they can overcome their difficulties and even become best friends! All it takes is some playtime, so the animals can learn that their different games are very fun and that there is nothing to be afraid of.

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Newly Released DOJ Docs Show Senior FBI Agent Peter Strzok Wanted Michael Flynn's Case Open

Former national security advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI about his talk with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition in the United States.

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Highest Covid19 Deaths in Europe – Johnson Is Criminally Negligent

At his first Covid19 press briefing in weeks UK’s part-time Prime Minister, Boris Johnson should have announced his immediate resignation from office and issued a series of apologies.

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Rural India Embracing Digital Transactions Amid Covid-19, Says Paytm Vice-President

New Delhi (Sputnik): India is currently under a lockdown till 3 May as part of measures to stop the spread of Covid-19 contagion. The pandemic has claimed 1,074 lives in India, according to the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

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This training includes more than 100 life skills for assuring career success

So what the heck is a soft skill, anyway? Well, by contrast, hard skills are teachable, quantifiable abilities like the basics you learned in school — reading, writing, arithmetic, and the like. They may not always be easy, but hard skills are usually fairly simple to identify and measure.

Which means soft skills are the talents that are often a lot tougher to grade. It’s your emotional intelligence. It’s your leadership ability. It’s how well you listen and understand what co-workers are telling you. With a name like soft skills, these attributes sound...well, soft. And maybe not as critical as hard talents.

But these intangibles are often the real difference makers in any organization — or in the course of a career. The Ultimate 2020 Soft Skills Career Hacker Bundle not only can help you shore up those areas of your professional game, but it’s as comprehensive and deep a training package as you’ll find anywhere.

This collection brings together a massive 128 courses that dig into every facet of improving your shot at a successful career, regardless of the industry. It’s all here -- nearly 2,900 lectures covering more than 150 hours of instruction.  

Business ethics and etiquette? Covered. Attention management and anger management? Covered. Courses to develop your office support skills, likability, problem-solving and critical thinking are all included. So are goal setting, coaching, customer relations, and communication strategies. And once you’re through with all those courses, you’ve still got dozens and dozens more, enough to keep you busy for months....literally.

The coursework has all been prepared by Stone River eLearning, one of the largest and most influential online teaching institutions anywhere with over 500,000 former students under its belt.

Access to all this training with the pedigree of Stone River would normally cost more than $6,600 in digital tuition, but all this coursework is available now with a lifetime of access for just $39.99.



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Latest hoarding sim: Manic Toilet Paper Shopping Simulator

Too soon? By way of Donald Bell's Maker Update comes this game where you send a shopping cart into a market in search of TP.

The simulation was designed by Jelle Vermandere. You can either play the game in a browser or Jelle shows you how he used an Arduino Uno and motion sensing to create a shopping cart handle controller for that true invisible zombie apocalypse adrenaline rush.

Image: YouTube



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Why tabloid reporters are like Donald Trump

Donald Trump has proudly proclaimed that he knows “more than anybody” about the economy, the US government, campaign finance, ISIS, social media, TV ratings, lawsuits, politicians, technology, infrastructure and drones, among his many talents.

He knows more than “any human being on Earth” about renewable energy, and more about taxes than anyone “in the history of the world.”

This week’s tabloids prove that like the president, reporters can know more than anyone about a subject without having to concern themselves with petty details like facts.

“Coronavirus Is Chinese Bioweapon!” screams the cover of the ‘National Enquirer,’ more than two months after its cover last featured the headline: “China created killer virus to destroy America.” Back then, an inside spread declared: “Coronavirus Is Chinese Bioweapon Gone Rogue!”

So why is the same old story back on their front page? Because last time they were just making it up, but now there’s actually a complaint that has been filed with the International Criminal Court in the Hague against the People’s Republic of China claiming that the coronavirus is a Chinese-produced bioweapon.

The complaint is coincidentally filed by the same American attorney who went to court in Dallas, Texas, to sue China for $20 trillion in damages for unleashing coronavirus. Good luck collecting that.

The only problem: none of the supporting “evidence” offered to the ICC in any way proves that coronavirus was a bioweapon, nor was released from a lab near Wuhan.

But who needs evidence when you’ve got a headline?

The British Royal Family, as ever, make easy targets for the tabloids who clearly know more about the Royals than anyone who ever set foot in Buckingham Palace.

“No More Kids For Heartbroken Kate!” reports the ‘Enquirer.’ "Why Queen Ordered William’s Wife to Stop At Three!”

Duchess Kate has allegedly “been forced to abandon her life-long dream of having six children!” Evidently Kate recently said, in a passing comment to a member of the great unwashed, that her husband doesn’t want more children, happy with the three they already have.

The ‘Enquirer' isn’t taking this lying down.

"The Duchess has been BANNED from adding to their brood,” claims an unnamed courtier, who would naturally be privy to any birth control advice given by the Queen to her daughter-in-law. It seems reasonable to assume that Her Majesty would be dispensing regular prophylactic advice to her grandsons’ wives.

But why has the Queen forbidden William and Kate to have any more children? Are the Royal coffers really so depleted that they cannot afford to support another aristocratic welfare case?

No. The all-knowing tabloids realize that the Royal Family is nothing more than an elaborate soap opera, and like the cast of any long-running show are more concerned with audience ratings and popularity,

As the ‘Enquirer’ explains: “Queen Elizabeth’s told them the family’s future survival rests on their shoulders - and Kate is so popular, they can’t afford her to be off the public stage for months n maternity leave.”

That’s the sort of insight you only get from reporters with years of true inside knowledge.

Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan dominate the cover of this week’s ‘Globe,’ which reveals: “Harry’s New Nightmare! Meghan Divorce Ultimatum. Forbids him to make peace with the royals.”

The Royal renegades are famously self-isolating at their new rental home in a gated community in Los Angeles, venturing out only to walk their dogs and make charity food deliveries, and yet the tabloids, with Trump-like knowledge beyond normal human capabilities, can tell us of the drama unfolding behind closed doors.

Meghan has allegedly issued an ultimatum to Harry, who hopes to reconcile with his estranged Royal family: My Way or the Highway!” Harry is desperate to “make peace with the royal family,” but Meghan told him: “It’s me or them!” according to “a high-level source" (maybe a Venice Beach stilt-walker?) Prince Harry reportedly “fears she’ll take away his little boy!”

Just in case it’s unclear what the ‘Globe' thinks of the Duchess, the mag reports: “Queen Meghan’s in total control.”

It may sound like bullshit, but that’s exactly what the ‘Globe’ brings us with its next Royal story about Prince Charles’ plans for his British cattle ranch: “Charles’ Bullcrap Stings William!”

Charles reportedly has plans for a herd of 500 beef cattle, producing 4.8 million pounds of manure to use on his organic farm, which evidently “stinks” for William and Kate who live nearby, according to the ‘Globe.’

But as any farmer can tell you, an average 1,100 lb beef steer produces on average 106 lbs of manure daily, or 38,690 lbs a year, which means that 500 steer will produce 19.345 million pounds of manure annually - four times the amount that William and Kate are supposedly worried about. Who’s full of bull now?

“Meghan’s Mercy Missions Backfire!” reports the ‘Enquirer.’ "Duchess flaunts designer duds & fancy rides doing ‘charity’ gigs.”

The rag claims that Harry & Meghan’s “first charm offensive exposed them as phonies,” according to unnamed sources (i.e. whoever is in the ‘Enquirer’ break-room making coffee) because Meghan wore a designer shirt and shoes while distributing charity food and being driven in a luxury Porsche SUV. The nerve! As any self-respecting tabloid journalist knows, the appropriate form of dress when doing charity work is sackcloth and ashes.

Perennial tabloid victim Angelina Jolie is targeted by the ‘Enquirer’ with an unsubstantiated claim that she aims to write a book, reporting: “Angie’s Tell-All Rocks Hollywood!”

The ‘Enquirer,’ armed with the sort of insight and expert knowledge that is only acquired through decades of intimacy with the actress, concludes she must be planning to write about ex-husband Brad Pitt's boozy brawl on a private jet, her “best sex ever with a woman,” her “often bitter estrangement from her Oscar-winning dad, Jon Voight,” her “weight woes”and “cancer fears.”

How do they know that? Because Jolie couldn’t possibly be writing a book about her decades of humanitarian work, the joys of adopting children, or the environmental causes she espouses, could she?

The world’s media are in the dark (as of writing) about what precisely has happened to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, allegedly clinging to life after what has variously been reported as a heart attack or a medical procedure gone wrong.

But the ‘Enquirer’ has succeeded where the CIA has failed, and penetrated Ryongsong Palace to reveal to its geopolitically astute readers: “North Korea’s Kim Targeted For Death - By His Sister! Tyrant fights for life after poisoning.”

Thanks to the incredible ‘Enquirer’ undercover team of reporters embedded deep within the Royal Palace, we now know that: "Kim Jong Un is fighting for his life after an assassination attempt engineered by his cruel and calculating sister!”

Why does the US government waste billions each year on the CIA, when the ‘Enquirer' can do a better job at a fraction of the cost?

Surely if anyone deserves a Noble Prize for journalism, it’s these guys?

The ‘Globe’ promises readers the secret story of the "“Booze Horror Brian Dennehy Took To Grave.”

But the actor, who died on April 15, never took his hard-drinking past “to the grave” like some untold secret. In fact, Dennehy discussed his past alcoholism frequently, after revealing his struggles in an interview with Life magazine in 1990, and notably after quitting booze in 2001. Sober for almost two decades, it was one thing he certainly didn’t take with hm to the grave.

Thankfully we have the uncannily accurate ‘Globe’ team of guess-your weight reporters who know just by looking at celebrities how much they weigh, to the precise pound. And like Donald Trump, they’re never wrong.

Amazingly, the stars seem to love to weigh nice round numbers: Chrissy Metz - 300 lbs. George Wendt - 450 lbs. Lizzo - 250 lbs. Jack Nicholson - 350 lbs. Garth Brooks - 300 lbs. Trisha Yearwood - 200 lbs.

It’s as if the stars have all got together and are having a private bet on the side who can maintain their weight at the nearest round figure.

Not that they’re encouraged to have round figures if they’re celebrities.

The Globe isn't about to let anyone gain an extra pound or two, and hurls the headline: “Thunder Thighs” above a photo of Amy Poehler in black jeans. It’s accompanied by the equally sensitive caption: “There’s a fat chance skinny jeans will ever look good on pudgy Amy Poehler.”

No fat-shaming to see here, move along.

‘People’ magazine devotes its cover to “HGTV’s Ben & Erin Napier - Small-Town Sweethearts to Superstars.”

Seriously - Who are these people? Since when did restoring houses make one a superstar?

Fortunately we have ‘Us’ mag to bring us the inside scoop of one of Britain’s youngest royals in its cover story: “Louis Turns 2! Inside the Life of a Little Prince!”

Sex! Drugs!! Teletubbies!!!

No such luck.

Louis’s life is every bit as exciting as you’d expect from a two-year-old: "playdates, painting, baking with the Queen,” promises a headline, as if Her Majesty routinely settles down in the kitchen with a Magimix and a roll of Pillsbury dough.

Worse yet, the story is yet another of ‘Us’ mag’s trademark bait-and-switch stories, where the content hopelessly fails to match the enticing headline.

Despite its prime billing, the story amount to just one modest-sized paragraph, revealing next-to-nothing of the prince’s private life. Louis hasn’t even baked so much as a chocolate chip cookie with the Queen - it’s just something “Louis will be introduced to” once he’s old enough. Along with fox-hunting and pheasant shooting, though ‘Us’ somehow failed to include those in the list of Louis’s activities.

An actual fact somehow slipped into the story - probably an editing mistake - revealing that Louis has “been raised to eat healthy” but was allowed cake for his birthday on April 23. Like most two-year-olds, and a certain unnamed current occupant of the White House, Louis lives a life of blissful ignorance in the lap of luxury.

But despair not - we have ‘Us’ mag’s crack investigative team to tell us that Brooke Burke wore it best, that Nikki Bella sets out crystals beneath every full moon “to restore their beautiful energy,” and that the stars are just like us: they walk their dogs, take out the garbage, and clean the house. Three things that Donald Trump almost certainly never does, though I’d wager that he knows more about those subjects than any human that ever walked the planet.

Onwards and downward . . .



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US Stock Futures Drop Following Stocks' Best Month in Thirty Years

Stocks experienced their best month in terms of percent change, with the S&P rising the most — 12.7 percent — fueled by the earnings of major tech companies during the coronavirus lockdown.

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Germany's Decision to Prohibit Hezbollah Movement Activities Slammed by Iran

TEHRAN (Sputnik) - Tehran condemns Germany's decision to designate the Lebanese Hezbollah movement as a terrorist organization and ban its activities, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Thursday.

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WHO Says Still Not Invited to Join China's Investigation Into Origins of COVID-19

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Chinese authorities refused to let the World Health Organisation (WHO) join the probe into causes of the COVID-19 outbreak, a WHO representative in China told the Sky News broadcaster.

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‘Screwed Up Priorities’: US Space Industry Gets Unneeded Bailout As Unemployment Hits 12%

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus, told Sputnik Thursday that the US government’s priorities aren’t in order as it looks to “provide support” to the space industrial base while millions of Americans are unemployed.

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Apple Revenues Flat in Q2 Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

The company also avoided releasing its guidance for the quarter ending in June, though it usually does, explaining it is due to the global uncertainty amid COVID-19.

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iPhone sales may be down, but business is booming for Apple Music and the App Store

iPhone sales may be down, but business is booming for Apple Music and the App Store

Consumers aren't rushing to buy as many iPhones, iPads, or other Apple products as before the pandemic, but the company's services seem to be doing just fine. 

During Thursday's earnings call, Apple disclosed that its services category, which includes the App Store and Apple TV+, hit an all-time revenue record of $13.3 billion for the second quarter.

The company saw strong performance within the App Store (for both downloads and search ads), Apple Music, video, and cloud services. App Store revenue also grew by double digits, as people continue to make in-app purchases and opt into subscriptions.  Read more...

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Reddit VP: 'Ya, we f*cked up.'

Reddit VP: 'Ya, we f*cked up.'

Reddit botched the rollout of a new feature that could have endangered some vulnerable users — and now it is eating crow.

On Wednesday, Reddit announced that it was initiating a limited rollout of a new group chat feature called "Start Chatting" that would allow subreddit members to speak directly with each other in chatrooms. It was originally positioned as a way for Redditors to connect with people during COVID-19 social distancing.

The problem? Not only was there no way for communities to opt out of the feature, but moderators also would not be able to, well, moderate them. In the over 1,500 comments to the original announcement, many mods quickly pointed out that this made the chat function ripe for abuse by trolls. Read more...

More about Reddit, Cyberbullying, Moderators, Tech, and Social Media Companies

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Okinawa Airport Uncovers Third Unexploded Bomb Likely Linked to US’ WWII Campaign

A second round of runway closures has been ordered by Japanese officials at Naha Airport in Okinawa Prefecture after workers discovered a third unexploded, 550-pound bomb that is suspected to have been dropped by US forces during World War II.

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Pentagon Awards Lockheed Martin $6 Billion Patriot Missile Interceptor Contract

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Lockheed Martin has won more than $6 billion to produce interceptors and other equipment for the Patriot anti-aircraft and anti-missile defence system, the US Department of Defence said in a press release.

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NATO Says Intercepted Russian Planes in Northern Europe 3 Times in Past 2 Days

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) - NATO air forces in northern Europe were scrambled on three occasions in the past two days to intercept Russian military planes, the alliance's press office said Thursday.

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Wile E. Coyote Files a Product Liability Lawsuit Against Acme Company

Coyote V Acme

In a classic New Yorker article from 1990, Ian Frazier writes about an imagined lawsuit filed by Wile E. Coyote against the Acme Company in which he “seeks compensation for personal injuries, loss of business income, and mental suffering” due to the company’s defective products.

Mr. Coyote states that on December 13th he received of Defendant via parcel post one Acme Rocket Sled. The intention of Mr. Coyote was to use the Rocket Sled to aid him in pursuit of his prey. Upon receipt of the Rocket Sled Mr. Coyote removed it from its wooden shipping crate and, sighting his prey in the distance, activated the ignition. As Mr. Coyote gripped the handlebars, the Rocket Sled accelerated with such sudden and precipitate force as to stretch Mr. Coyote’s forelimbs to a length of fifty feet. Subsequently, the rest of Mr. Coyote’s body shot forward with a violent jolt, causing severe strain to his back and neck and placing him unexpectedly astride the Rocket Sled. Disappearing over the horizon at such speed as to leave a diminishing jet trail along its path, the Rocket Sled soon brought Mr. Coyote abreast of his prey. At that moment the animal he was pursuing veered sharply to the right. Mr. Coyote vigorously attempted to follow this maneuver but was unable to, due to poorly designed steering on the Rocket Sled and a faulty or nonexistent braking system. Shortly thereafter, the unchecked progress of the Rocket Sled brought it and Mr. Coyote into collision with the side of a mesa.

See also the rules followed by animator Chuck Jones and his team while making the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoons.

Tags: cartoons   Ian Frazier   legal

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Animated short with the words of Alan Watts: UNTIL THERE WAS NOTHING [by Paul Trillo]

Enjoy this wonderful short animated film by Paul Trillo, based on the words of Alan Watts.

"Until There Was Nothing"

...or "How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Black Hole"

Someday this will pass and there will be nothing left. The inevitable spaghettification of it all. That's not something to fear "because we come from nothing" as Alan Watts puts it... and from nothing comes something new. Similarly to a much lesser degree, this project was pieced together repurposing old and unused material to create something new.

Watch full screen, volume up, la-z-boy reclined.

Film by Paul Trillo
Words by Alan Watts
Drone Pilot - James Sykes, Paul Trillo


[Thanks, Joe Sabia!]



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American Airlines & Delta join JetBlue in requiring facial masks on U.S. flights

Two of the largest U.S. airlines, American Airlines and Delta, said Thursday they will require travelers to wear face masks on U.S. flights, joining JetBlue to address coronavirus.

Excerpt:

Delta’s new rules start May 4, while Frontier’s start May 8 and American’s requirements begin May 11. The policies exempt young children from wearing masks or other facial coverings. Other airlines like United Airlines (UAL.O) are providing masks to travelers, but not requiring their use. Many U.S. airlines are also requiring pilots and flight attendants to use facial coverings while on board aircraft.

(...) Delta said the airline will require face coverings “starting in the check-in lobby” and at “Delta Sky Clubs, boarding gate areas, jet bridges and on board the aircraft for the duration of the flight – except during meal service.”

Delta added their use “is also strongly encouraged in high-traffic areas, including security lines and restrooms. People unable to keep a face covering in place, including children, are exempt.”

American said the rules will prioritize “customer and team member well-being.”

Read more:

American Airlines, Delta to require facial coverings on U.S. flights

[reporting by David Shepardson, Tracy Rucinski]



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United Nations app to help socially distance for coronavirus 'does not work'

The United Nations announced its app 1point5 to help people social distance this week.

Motherboard reporter Joseph Cox took a close look at the app, and found that “doesn’t perform the most basic of tasks.”

“We tested the app on multiple phones. It didn't detect them even when well within range. Literally does not do its one job.”

Excerpt:

When users download 1point5, the app is supposed to alert them when another Bluetooth device comes within 1.5 metres of their own phone, or a user can choose to increase the range slightly. The app is then supposed to display a message saying "Please keep your distance" if it detects other nearby devices.

But when Motherboard downloaded the app earlier this week before the UN's official announcement, the app didn't even successfully perform this most basic of actions. Motherboard tested the app on two separate Android devices, and held them next to other phones with Bluetooth enabled. The app did not detect any other devices in either test.

Multiple other users appear to have encountered the same issue, according to reviews left on the app's Google Play Store page.

"Waste of time.. This application is not working," one apparent user wrote.

"Waste app please don't download time wa[s]te," added another.

The app has another design flaw as well. Independent researcher and consultant Ashkan Soltani noticed the app's description says the software is designed to alert a user to the presence of any nearby Bluetooth device, rather than just phones. All sorts of gadgets use Bluetooth, from Playstations, to computers, to speakers, to smart home and internet of things devices.

"I get that an important part of pandemic response is to help individuals maintain awareness and vigilance in their social distancing efforts—but I'm not sure having your phone alert you anytime you pass by another Bluetooth signal is going to help much beyond annoying people; especially those in densely populated apartment buildings or workplaces," Soltani told Motherboard.

Read more at VICE Motherboard:

The New United Nations Coronavirus Social Distancing App Doesn’t Even Work
[Image: Apple/United Nations]



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Wednesday, 29 April 2020

NASA Helicopter Joins Next Mars Mission for Test Flights in Thin Atmosphere

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A tiny helicopter consisting of a single two-bladed rotor mounted on a four-leg frame will test whether the Martian atmosphere can support flight during the next Mars rover mission scheduled for a July 2020 launch, NASA said in a press release.

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Tu-142 Military Jets Perform Training Flights Over Barents, Norwegian, North Seas

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Two Tu-142 anti-submarine jets of Russia's Northern Fleet have carried out training flights over the Sea of Barents, the Norwegian Sea and the North Sea, the fleet's press service said.

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Tesla Posts Another Profit as Musk Slams Virus Restrictions

The CEO has criticized shelter-in-place orders, which have forced the closure of the company's California assembly plant.

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Tesla Posts Another Profit as Musk Slams Virus Restrictions

The CEO has criticized shelter-in-place orders, which have forced the closure of the company's California assembly plant.

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Teracube is the gutsy new smartphone with a 4-year warranty—and it’s under $300

There’s nothing worse than being trapped in a bad system when you can’t see the way out. And while the world loves its smartphones, many already feel like they’re stuck in a now repeating pattern.

Smartphones tend to last only 2 to 3 years. We all realize they’re basically designed that way. Under those conditions, users are all but forced to remain part of the upgrade cycle, dropping several hundred dollars, even a grand or more to get a desperately needed new phone to replace their dying model every year or so.

It’s a racket. We all know it. Worst of all, those smartphones get thrown away and contribute to the staggering amounts of e-waste generated worldwide.

Teracube wants to smash that system, so they’re putting their money where their mouth is. Their new Teracube Smartphone is designed to last you four years. If your phone breaks down, that warranty covers all parts, performance, labor and two-way shipping with no out of pocket cost. 

And even if it was something you did? Repairs are only $39. Cracked screen? $39. Accidentally drop it in a lake? $39. That’s your all-in price to get the phone back in your pocket ASAP.

With their revolutionary business model, it’s easy to assume Teracube might not measure up in the features department, but that's not true. Powered by a Mediatek P60 octa-core processor with AI accelerated technology, this Android phone has a 6.2-inch Full HD display, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, a 12-megapixel rear camera, an 8-megapixel front-facing camera, and even NFC. It’s more than powerful enough to take great pictures, play games, text, surf the web, and basically do all the things a smartphone is supposed to do.

With a 3,400 mAh battery, Teracube will stay charged all day long. And since it arrives completely unlocked, you’ll be ready to get on the network and get connected instantly no matter whether your carrier is AT&T, T-Mobile, MetroPCS, or others.

After raising $125,000 on Kickstarter, the Teracube revolution is now underway -- and maybe the best selling point is its final price. Unlike all those expensive phones, Teracube is available now for only $298.99, over $50 off the retail price. It’ll not only help the planet, but it’ll also do your wallet a few favors too.



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Maryland Governor Says COVID-19 Outbreaks at US Meat Plants Poses Threat to Essential Food Supplies

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The outbreaks of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has had a very significant effect on US meat processing facilities and represents a threat to the essential food supply chain in the United States, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan said during a press conference.

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'Give People Back Their Goddamn Freedom': Elon Musk Calls Stay-At-Home Orders 'Fascist'

Musk also expressed concerns that due to the quarantine measures, he is not able to resume production at Tesla's vehicle factory in Fremont, California, where most of the company's cars are made.

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Toyota Postpones Reopening of North America Production Until 11 May

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Toyota announced in a news release on Wednesday that it is delaying the reopening of its automobile production operations across all of North America for an additional week until 11 May.

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Kremlin Says Russia Managed to Avoid Catastrophic Scenario of Coronavirus Spread

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia has managed to avoid a "catastrophic scenario" through its response to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

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Video: Trump Can’t Explain Claim COVID-19 Will be ‘Eradicated’ Even Without Vaccine

In lieu of “alternative facts” or a lie, US President Donald Trump used repetition as a defense on Wednesday after making the unsubstantiated and wildly optimistic assertion that the COVID-19 novel coronavirus will be “eradicated,” even without a vaccine.

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‘He Can’t Fake It Anymore’: Trump Left ‘Vulnerable’ in Election by Tanking Economy - Journo

The coronavirus outbreak in the US and the economic downturn caused by the deadly disease could greatly impact US President Donald Trump’s bid for a second term, Joe Lauria, the editor-in-chief of Consortium News and the author of the book "How I Lost, By Hillary Clinton,” told Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear.

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'Bon voyage': Elon Musk tells Twitter followers to get lost following meltdown

'Bon voyage': Elon Musk tells Twitter followers to get lost following meltdown

Elon Musk is having a rough 24 hours, and if his Twitter followers don't like it, then they can just get bent. 

The Tesla CEO made waves late last night for a bizarre rant about "freedom," only to completely melt down during a Wednesday Tesla earnings call when asked about Bay Area shelter-in-place orders. 

Musk's appetite for self-righteousness apparently wasn't sated, however, and following the call he hopped on Twitter to tell his 33.4 million followers that if they didn't like his misrepresentation of facts then they should get lost. 

Notably, Musk claimed incorrectly (among other things) that Bay Area officials are "forcibly imprisoning people in their homes." To be clear, they are not.  Read more...

More about Twitter, Tesla, Elon Musk, Coronavirus, and Tech

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Ad Dollars Keep Flowing Into Google and Facebook—for Now

The two online ad giants say business fell sharply amid the Covid-19 lockdowns in March, but has stabilized in April. 

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Ex-Maharshtra Finance Minister: Blanket Tax Cut May Not Serve as Stimulus Against Covid-19 Impact

New Delhi (Sputnik): To curb spreading of contagious Covid-19 virus, India is under national lockdown till 3 May, as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Owing to the lockdown, all sectors of the economy are facing severe loss. The government has announced a $22.36 billion relief package for the poor and a stimulus package is in the making.

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Trump Claims China 'Will Do Anything They Can' to Sabotage His 2020 Reelection

In a Reuters interview Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said that China “will do anything they can to have [him] lose” the 2020 presidential election.

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US Troops With Brain Injuries From Iran Missile Attack Expected to Get Purple Heart Medals

The US Department of Defense has revealed that a number of American troops injured in the January 8 missile strike in Iraq carried out by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) will receive Purple Heart medals following the conclusion of an ongoing review process.

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Ad Dollars Keep Flowing Into Google and Facebook—for Now

The two online ad giants say business fell sharply amid the Covid-19 lockdowns in March, but has stabilized in April. 

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Facebook sees a spike in monthly active users in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak

Facebook sees a spike in monthly active users in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak

It probably comes as a shock to no one that people are using Facebook, and its additional social media platforms, more than ever under lockdown due to the coronavirus. 

During Wednesday's earnings call, the company announced its seen a huge spike in its monthly active users with a 10 percent year over year increase.

On the call, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, revealed that for the first time ever more than three billion people have been using Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, or Messenger each month.

This includes 2.6 billion people using Facebook alone and more than 2.3 billion people using at least one of its services each day. Read more...

More about Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, and Tech

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TikTok surpasses 2 billion global downloads

TikTok surpasses 2 billion global downloads

Quarantine + addictive dance videos = app domination.

TikTok has surpassed 2 billion downloads, mobile app analytics company Sensor Tower reported Wednesday. (April 29). The 315 million installs it gained in Q1 of 2020 alone also reportedly give it the title of "most downloads for any app ever in a quarter."

Mashable has reached out to TikTok to confirm Sensor Tower's data, and will update this story if and when we hear back.

Sensor Tower is attributing the burst in downloads at least in part to the global pandemic. While it notes that TikTok has been consistently on the rise, Sensor Tower views the spike in downloads over the last two months as a consequence of people being confined to their homes and, frankly, bored.  Read more...

More about Tiktok, Tech, and Social Media Companies

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Elon Musk calls stay-at-home order ‘fascist’ during Tesla earnings call

Elon Musk calls stay-at-home order ‘fascist’ during Tesla earnings call

Elon Musk had even more to say about social distancing measures after he rage-tweeted on the topic Wednesday morning.

Tesla's first quarter earnings call Wednesday afternoon (April 29) started with prepared marks from CEO Elon Musk that noticeably and awkwardly avoided mentioning coronavirus or anything about the pandemic. 

But as the call progressed, Musk's true feelings about shelter-in-place requirements, like those in the Bay Area that are keeping his Fremont, California car plant shut down until at least June, surfaced. He could barely contain himself as he used profanity to describe his thoughts on shelter-in-place efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19.  Read more...

More about Tesla, Electric Vehicles, Tech, Elon Musk, and Transportation

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Tesla to reduce price of standard range Model 3 in China

Tesla said it will reduce the price of its standard range Model 3 vehicle in China to meet the government’s new eligibility requirements for subsidies.

This marks the second time this year that the automaker has reduced the price. Several months ago, the base version of China-made Model 3 was lowered by 9%.

Tesla has to cut the price of the vehicle to continue to qualify for government rebates on electric vehicles. The Chinese government instituted new regulations that require prices below 300,000 yuan for electric vehicles to qualify for subsidies.

The base price of the standard range Model 3 made in China is 323,800 yuan, or $45,754 before subsidies.

The price reduction will go into effect tomorrow in China, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a earnings call Wednesday. Musk, who didn’t provide a specific figure, said he is confident the vehicle will deliver a gross margin despite the reduction in price.

Tesla chief financial officer Zachary Kirkhorn added that the cost of vehicles produced at its Shanghai factory in the first quarter is already lower than the cost to produce the Model 3 in the United States. That margin should improve as the company improves its local supply chain in China. Tesla still ships some parts from the U.S. to build cars at its Shanghai factory.



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He tweeted once at Trump, then got $69 Million from New York for ventilators that were never delivered


“The Silicon Valley engineer, who had no background in medical supplies but was recommended by the White House, never delivered the ventilators.”


So much shadiness going on during the COVID-19 pandemic. This report by Rosalind Adams and Ken Bensinger of BuzzFeed News on what seems to be a massive coronavirus medical equipment scam is bananas.

Excerpt:

On March 27, as emergency rooms in New York and across the country began filling with coronavirus patients struggling to breathe, President Donald Trump posted on Twitter to urge Ford and General Motors to “START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!”

One of the thousands of replies that the tweet attracted struck an equally urgent tone: “We can supply ICU Ventilators, invasive and noninvasive. Have someone call me URGENT.”

Its author was Yaron Oren-Pines, an electrical engineer in Silicon Valley. A specialist in mobile phone technology, he currently has just 75 followers on Twitter and no apparent experience in government contracting or medical devices.

Not a single ventilator ever arrived.

A state official, speaking on background because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the terms of the deal, said New York entered into the contract with Oren-Pines at the direct recommendation of the White House coronavirus task force.

Nearly a month later, New York has terminated the contract, and the state is now trying to recover all of the money it paid the Silicon Valley electrical engineer. Officials refused to say how much the state had been able to claw back. “We are in discussions on a few remaining issues,” said Heather Groll, a spokesperson for the New York Office of General Services, part of the interagency effort to help New York get supplies.

Buzzfeed got a hold of him by telephone, and Oren-Pines said, “neither me nor my company is providing any comment on this,” and then hung up -- then, didn't respond to later text messages.

Read more:

After One Tweet To President Trump, This Man Got $69 Million From New York For Ventilators



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Arcadia brings more clean energy to your home — and it may actually lower your bill

Most of us would like to see our homes powered entirely by renewable energy. Most of us would like to reduce our carbon footprint. Most of us want to pay less for our electric bill each month. And most of us would like to see all those things happen without making each individual homeowner go through a ridiculous maze of bureaucracy, half-truths, and confusion to get it done.

Arcadia is fighting that good fight. Their platform will help you make a difference in the global push for clean power while making your house a paragon of renewable resources. There’s also a good chance you can save a decent chunk of change each month in the process — and you don’t even have to change energy providers or jump through hoops to do it.

By spending two minutes setting up an Arcadia account and linking it to your current energy company, you can get underway. Arcadia purchases renewable energy certificates on your behalf to match your power usage with renewable energy at no cost to you. And as a residential energy broker, Arcadia also leverages the might of their growing member base in states with open energy markets to negotiate better energy rates.

There are no guarantees in the ever-volatile energy markets, but some Arcadia customers save about 20 percent over their previous contract rates. Since there are no cancellation fees with Arcadia, you can give it a try and check out the savings for yourself.

And with the Arcadia dashboard, that's easy to do — users can track their savings as well as the direct impact they’re making in the fight for renewable energy in every household on Earth.

Even while you watch your carbon footprint shrink with each passing month, Arcadia never slows down, constantly checking with your energy provider for cost-saving programs and energy-efficiency improvements that can lower your bills even further.

Right now, if you sign up for a free Arcadia account, they’ll sweeten the deal even further by sending you a $20 Amazon gift card just for joining. Or if you really want to show your commitment to the cause, they’ll instead send you four standard LED light bulbs to continue your march toward a clean-burning, energy-efficient, economically savvy home.



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Tuesday, 28 April 2020

Experts on India Receiving 1.5 Billion Loan From Asian Development Bank: 'Timely & Reassuring'

New Delhi (Sputnik): Amid the unprecedented health crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic, the International Monetary Fund forecast that India’s growth rate will tumble to 1.9 percent in 2020. The Indian government has taken several steps, including freezing the allowances of 11 million government employees, to generate funds to fight COVID-19.

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Russian Tu-160 Strategic Bombers Perform Regular Flight Over Baltic Sea

The Tu-160 is a supersonic strategic bomber designed to defeat the most important targets in the enemy’s rear lines with nuclear and conventional weapons and is capable of carrying 12 cruise missiles on board.

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US Stock Futures Rise Pointing to Gains in Morning Trade

Investors are now waiting for the Federal Reserve to release guidance on future interest rates, as the United States is preparing to gradually reopen its economy after the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Asia Pacific Stocks Gain Ground Ahead of US Federal Reserve's Interest Rate Decision

Stocks in the Asian-Pacific region are climbing up amid the expectations of a US Federal Reserve decision on interest rates, which is to be announced at 6 pm GMT on Wednesday.

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Australia Says Inquiry Into COVID-19 Origins Is 'Reasonable', 'Not Targeted' at Any State

The first cases of the new coronavirus were registered in China's Hubei province last December, and more than 3 million people have been infected with the disease, as of now.

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Can API vendors solve healthcare’s data woes?

A functioning healthcare system depends on caregivers having the right data at the right time to make the right decision about what course of treatment a patient needs.

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 epidemic and the acceleration of the consumer adoption of telemedicine, along with the fragmentation of care to a number of different low-cost providers, access to a patient’s medical records to get an accurate picture of their health becomes even more important.

Opening access to developers also could unlock new, integrated services that could give consumers a better window into their own health and consumer product companies opportunities to develop new tools to improve health.

While hospitals, urgent care facilities and health systems have stored patient records electronically for years thanks to laws passed under the Clinton administration, those records were difficult for patients themselves to access. The way the system has been historically structured has made it nearly impossible for an individual to access their entire medical history.

It’s a huge impediment to ensuring that patients receive the best care they possibly can, and until now it’s been a boulder that companies have long tried to roll uphill, only to have it roll over them.

Now, new regulations are requiring that the developers of electronic health records can’t obstruct interoperability and access by applications. Those new rules may unlock a wave of new digital services.

At least that’s what companies like the New York-based startup Particle Health are hoping to see. The startup was founded by a former emergency medical technician and consultant, Troy Bannister, and longtime software engineer for companies like Palantir and Google, Dan Horbatt.

Particle Health is stepping into the breach with an API-based solution that borrows heavily from the work that Plaid and Stripe have done in the world of financial services. It’s a gambit that’s receiving support from investors including Menlo Ventures, Startup Health, Collaborative Fund, Story Ventures and Company Ventures, as well as angel investors from the leadership of Flatiron Health, Clover Health, Plaid, Petal and Hometeam.

Image via Getty Images / OstapenkoOlena

“My first reaction when I met Troy, and he was describing what they’re doing, was that it couldn’t be done,” said Greg Yap, a partner with Menlo Ventures, who leads the firm’s life sciences investments. “We’ve understood how much of a challenge and how much of a tax the lack of easy portability of data puts on the healthcare system, but the problem has always felt like there are so many obstacles that it is too difficult to solve.”

What convinced Yap’s firm, Menlo Ventures, and the company’s other backers, was an ability to provide both data portability and privacy in a way that put patients’ choice at the center of how data is used and accessed, the investor said.

“[A service] has to be portable for it to be useful, but it has to be private for it to be well-used,” says Yap. 

The company isn’t the first business to raise money for a data integration service. Last year, Redox, a Madison, Wis.-based developer of API services for hospitals, raised $33 million in a later-stage round of funding. Meanwhile, Innovaccer, another API developer, has raised more than $100 million from investors for its own take.

Each of these companies is solving a different problem that the information silos in the medical industry presents, according to Patterson. “Their integrations are focused one-to-one on hospitals,” he said. Application developers can use Redox’s services to gain access to medical records from a particular hospital network, he explained. Whereas using Particle Health’s technology, developers can get access to an entire network.

“They get contracts and agreements with the hospitals. We go up the food chain and get contracts with the [electronic medical records],” said Patterson.

One of the things that’s given Particle Health a greater degree of freedom to acquire and integrate with existing healthcare systems is the passage of the 21st Century Cures Act in 2016. That law required that the providers of electronic medical records like Cerner and EPIC had to remove any roadblocks that would keep patient data siloed. Another is the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, which was just enacted in the past month.

“We don’t like betting on companies that require a change in law to become successful,” said Yap of the circumstances surrounding Particle’s ability to leapfrog well-funded competitors. But the opportunity to finance a company that could solve a core problem in digital healthcare was too compelling.

“What we’re really saying is that consumers should have access to their medical records,” he said.

Isometric Healthcare and technology concept banner. Medical exams and online consultation concept. Medicine. Vector illustration

This access can make consumer wearables more useful by potentially linking them — and the health data they collect — with clinical data used by physicians to actually make care and treatment decisions. Most devices today are not clinically recognized and don’t have any real integration into the healthcare system. Access to better data could change that on both sides.

“Digital health application might be far more effective if it can take into context information in the medical record today,” said Yap. “That’s one example where the patient will get much greater impact from the digital health applications if the digital health applications can access all of the information that the medical system collected.” 

With the investment, which values Particle Health at roughly $48 million, Bannister and his team are looking to move aggressively into more areas of digital healthcare services.

“Right now, we’re focusing on telemedicine,” said Bannister. “We’re moving into the payer space… As it stands today we’re really servicing the third parties that need the records. Our core belief is that patients want control of their data but they don’t want the stewardship.”

The company’s reach is impressive. Bannister estimates that Particle Health can hit somewhere between 250 and 300 million of the patient records that have been generated in the U.S. “We have more or less solved the fragmentation problem. We have one API that can pull information from almost everywhere.”

So far, Particle Health has eight live contracts with telemedicine and virtual health companies using its API, which have pulled 1.4 million patient records to date.

The way it works right now, when you give them permission to access your data it’s for a very specific purpose of use… they can only use it for that one thing. Let’s say you were using a telemedicine service. I allow this doctor to view my records for the purpose of treatment only. After that we have built a way for you to revoke access after the point,” Bannister said.

Particle Health’s peers in the world of API development also see the power in better, more open access to data. “A lot of money has been spent and a lot of blood and sweat went into putting [electronic medical records] out there,” said Innovaccer chief digital officer Mike Sutten.

The former chief technology officer of Kaiser Permanente, Sutten knows healthcare technology. “The next decade is about ‘let’s take advantage of all of this data.’ Let’s give back to physicians and give them access to all that data and think about the consumers and the patients,” Sutten said.

Innovaccer is angling to provide its own tools to centralize data for physicians and consumers. “The less friction there is in getting that data extracted, the more benefit we can provide to consumers and clinicians,” said Sutten.

Already, Particle Health is thinking about ways its API can help application developers create tools to help with the management of COVID-19 populations and potentially finding ways to ease the current lockdowns in place due to the disease’s outbreak.

“If you’ve had an antibody test or PCR test in the past… we should have access to that data and we should be able to provide that data at scale,” said Bannister. 

“There’s probably other risk-indicating factors that could at least help triage or clear groups as well… has this person been quarantined has this person been to the hospital in the past month or two… things like that can help bridge the gap,” between the definitive solution of universal testing and the lack of testing capacity to make that a reality, he said. 

“We’re definitely working on these public health initiatives,” Bannister said. Soon, the company’s technology — and other services like it — could be working behind the scenes in private healthcare initiatives from some of the nation’s biggest companies as software finally begins to take bigger bites out of the consumer health industry.



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Canadian Province of Quebec to Begin Lifting Restrictions on 4 May

TORONTO (Sputnik) - The Canadian province of Quebec announced that it will begin phasing out some of the restrictions implemented to fight the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on 4 May.

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Annual Meeting of Chinese Parliament Postponed Due to COVID-19, Will Take Place on 22 May

China, where the virus was first registered last December, has seen a significant decline in the number of new coronavirus infections and has started to gradually return to its daily routine.

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Saudi Arabia's Budget Deficit Reaches About $9 Bln in First Quarter - Report

The Kingdom, one of the world's major crude producers, also suffered a dropped in oil revenues, as oil prices have been extremely volatile due to the new coronavirus pandemic.

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Thuan Pham, who fled Vietnam as a child and became Uber’s CTO in 2013, is leaving the company

Thuan Pham, hired as Uber’s chief technology officer by former CEO Travis Kalanick back in 2013, is leaving the company in three weeks, the ride-share giant revealed today in an SEC filing that came out as a piece in The Information reported that massive layoffs at Uber are being proposed to preserve some of the company’s dwindling capital reserves.

The outlet suggests the discussed cuts could impact upwards of 20 percent of Uber’s 27,000 employees, roughly 800 of whom could theoretically come from Pham’s engineering team, which currently comprises 3,800 people.

Said an Uber spokesman to The Information’s Amir Efrati: “As you would expect, the company is looking at every possible scenario to ensure we get to the other side of this crisis in a stronger position than ever.”

Uber has been hard hit as much of the country and world remains at home, awaiting a vaccine for — or at least more testing around — COVID-19. Last Thursday, Uber said it expects an impairment charge of up to $2.2 billion in the first quarter due to the outbreak and for revenue to nosedive by $17 million to $22 million in the quarter. (The company will report its first quarter results next Thursday.)

Pham has meanwhile become the longest-serving top executive at Uber, outlasting not just Kalanick, who was forced to resign as CEO back in 2018, but also the members of Kalanick’s so-called “A team” of trusted advisors. Included in this circle: Ryan Graves, who was one of Uber’s first employees a board member of the company until last May; Uber’s former head of product, Daniel Graf, who has since started his own company; Eric Alexander, who was Uber’s president of business in Asia and was fired in 2017 over his handling of a rape investigation in India; and Emil Michael, Uber’s controversial former SVP of business who left the company in 2017, though it remains unknown if he resigned or was fired.

Pham — who was recruited by Kalanick from VMWare, where he’d spent the previous eight years — stood to make more than $200 million from Uber’s IPO last year, according to Business Insider. At the time, he owned 5.4 million shares.

It’s a true American success story. At age 12, Pham escaped Vietnam with his mother and brother in a fishing boat that was reportedly carrying dozens of other refugees. After first spending 10 months at camp in Indonesia that he has described as having no sanitation and offering only a carp over their heads, his family later arrived in Maryland and Pham, an excellent student, wound up studying at MIT.

Pham would go on to nab a master’s degree in electrical engineering before being drawn to job in Silicon Valley, where his first job was at Hewlett Packard. He said after three years, he “got bored” and joined Silicon Graphics, whose cofounder, Jim Clark, would later cofound Netscape with a young Marc Andreessen.

Pham spoke at a startup event early last month, before the Bay Area instituted its shelter-in-place rules. You can check out the talk below.



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Decompress with the world’s first drop-in meditation studio

Maybe you’re frustrated about work. Maybe the kids have you climbing the walls. Or maybe the fact there’s a worldwide pandemic trapping you inside your home has you a little off your game.

In these scary, off-kilter times, anxiety in some form can be found on almost everyone’s doorstep. There’s no shame in admitting you could use a little help calming your mind and soothing daily concerns that can get any of us wound up.

Unplug Meditation is the world’s first drop-in meditation studio, offers relaxation and meditation guidance 24/7/365 to more than 250,000 online students in their full-service app. 

No matter what method works best for centering your thoughts and quieting the outside noise, Unplug’s library includes over 700 guided meditation sessions available, all tailored to virtually any situation. 

From mindfulness exercises to guided imagery, soundbaths, hypnosis, breathwork, and more, the expansive offerings from Unplug’s stable of experts are vast. Custom playlists and programs can be built around your specific issue, from destressing and work satisfaction to facilitating better sleep. And with sessions as short as one minute or as long as an hour, you can schedule accordingly to receive just the right level of emotional healing to satisfy your need.

Sessions that include daily positive quotes and 10-minute inspiration meditations can even be delivered right into your email box every day.

Unplug’s expert instructors conduct their courses from actual meditation studios in Los Angeles, giving each the authentic focus and experience of attending a real-life class.

With over 2,600 reviews in the Apple App Store, Unplug holds an astoundingly high 4.9 out of 5-star rating, so customers are definitely responding to Unplug’s content.

Right now, you can try it out for yourself with a one-year subscription to the full roster of Unplug Meditation services at more than a third off its regular price, only $39.



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Sean Hannity says U.S. should give the U.N. to China, which Russia's Vladimir Putin also believes

Hey, that's kind of weird, right?

Fox News host Sean Hannity seems to know the jig is up.

In a segment tonight, noted shitweasel Sean Hannity parroted a favorite Russian foreign policy objective in line with Vladimir Putin's goals for the U.S.

Just the weirdest thing.

The United States should give the United Nations to China.

Sure, Sean.

[via @Acyn]



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Damien Patton, CEO of tech surveillance company Banjo, once helped KKK shoot up a synagogue: Report

“We believe that the Blacks and the Jews are taking over America, and it’s our job to take America back for the White race,” Patton testified at trial, describing his beliefs while carrying out the crime — beliefs he said he no longer held.

Banjo CEO Damien Patton has admitted to being a Neo-Nazi skinhead in his youth. But until today, the extent of his activity had not yet been reported, in part because of multiple spellings of his name used over the years.

At Medium.com's One Zero, a report claims that Patton, CEO of a Softbank-backed surveillance technology firm, has in the past identified as a Nazi, and was involved in a drive-by synagogue shooting with a KKK leader.

“Patton’s association with racist groups extended into adulthood; in testimony he provided against Brown, Patton admitted to fraternizing with skinheads while serving in the U.S. Navy.”

Clients including the state of Utah ditched Banjo today after the revelations were published.

Maybe we shouldn't have U.S. city, state, and federal law enforcement agencies entering into multimillion dollar contracts

with sketchy extreme right wing figures who run dystopian spyware and machine intelligence firms [AHEM CLEARVIEW AI] to built a vast panopticon and pandemic surveillance system?

Just a thought.

Excerpt:

In grand jury testimony that ultimately led to the conviction of two of his associates, Patton revealed that, as a 17-year-old, he was involved with the Dixie Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. On the evening of June 9, 1990 — a month before Patton turned 18 — Patton and a Klan leader took a semi-automatic TEC-9 pistol and drove to a synagogue in a Nashville suburb. With Patton at the wheel, the Ku Klux Klan member fired onto the synagogue, destroying a street-facing window and spraying bullets and shattered glass near the building’s administrative offices, which were next to that of the congregation’s rabbi. No one was struck or killed in the shooting. Afterward, Patton hid on the grounds of a white supremacist paramilitary training camp under construction before fleeing the state with the help of a second Klan member.

Patton was charged with — and pled guilty to—acts of juvenile delinquency in connection to the incident, while the two Klansmen were charged with conspiracy to “prevent or hinder” the free exercise of another person’s constitutional rights, which is a federal hate crime, and accessory after the fact. One of the Klansmen, Leonard William Armstrong, took a plea agreement. Another, Jonathan David Brown, went to trial and was convicted of accessory after the fact to a conspiracy to violate civil rights, as well as two counts of lying to the grand jury. During testimony prior to Brown’s trial, Patton admitted to having been a member of the Nashville-area Dixie Knights. He also admitted to being a skinhead, a group that acted as “the foot soldiers for groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nations,” Patton said.

Patton also admitted to participating in white supremacist talks and meetings, where, according to his own testimony, speakers advocated for the elimination of Blacks and Jews, among other beliefs built around racism and religious discrimination.

Read more at onezero.medium.com:

CEO of Surveillance Firm Banjo Once Helped KKK Leader Shoot Up a Synagogue

[Matt Stroud, Apr 28, via Techmeme]



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Netizens Get Lulz After 'Good Morning America' Reporter Forgets to Wear Pants During Home Broadcast

Following federal COVID-19 guidelines like a responsible citizen, the correspondent was delivering news from home and apparently hoped the camera would not capture the absence of bottom clothes.

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General Electric Wins $707 Million Engines Export Deal With 4 US Allies

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - General Electric Aviation has won $707 million to construct F110 engines for US allies Slovakia, Bulgaria, Taiwan, and Qatar, the Department of Defence said in a press release.

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How 'Star Wars' characters drink their coffee, according to a fanfiction writer

How 'Star Wars' characters drink their coffee, according to a fanfiction writer

You think the wildly diverse characters of the Star Wars universe drink their coffee the same way?

Not at all, according to popular Archive of Our Own author Violet Wilson. The fanfiction writer tweeted a thread of the different ways characters from all three Star Wars trilogies — and the various standalone movies — would consume their caffeine. 

Obi-Wan Kenobi, for one, would take pride in his well-balanced brew. 

Star Wars Characters and how they make their coffee: a thread

Obi Wan makes French press coffee and gently uses just the weight of his hand to lower the filter, so that the sediment isn’t overly disturbed and the acidity is controlledpic.twitter.com/2q3ca0Ei2I

— Violet Wilson (@ViWiWrites) April 28, 2020 Read more...

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