Saturday, May 9, 2020

Saturday CoronaBuzz, May 9, 2020: 31 pointers to new resources, useful stuff, research news, and more.

Saturday CoronaBuzz, May 9, 2020: 31 pointers to new resources, useful stuff, research news, and more.
By ResearchBuzz

Added some new categories. Wash your hands and stay at home as much as you can. Please be careful. I love you.

NEW RESOURCES – EDUCATION/ENTERTAINMENT

Association of Children’s Museums: Announcing Children’s Museums at Home. “The Association of Children’s Museums (ACM) has launched Children’s Museums at Home. This new searchable online database shares the virtual activities and resources that more than 240 ACM members are creating for families at home.”

San Francisco Examiner: Jam-packed Asian Pacific American Heritage Month goes online. “May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and this year’s cultural and arts programming — presented by the APA Heritage Foundation, the Asian Art Museum, the San Francisco Public Library and Center for Asian American Media — is online.”

WVXU: Missing Your Reds? See New Digitized Photos And Instructional Videos. “The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum is making the most of its time during the COVID-19 closure, putting its collection online and uploading instructional videos from current and former players.”

Elite Daily: Spotify’s New “Listening Together” Website Connects You With Users Around The World. “When you visit Spotify’s new Listening Together website, which you can only access through the website link, you’ll see a 3-D globe with location markers. The markers represent users who are hitting play on the same song in different locations. Spotify bases the data that you see on what’s happening on the Spotify platform in the app and on the desktop version. Click on one of the markers and you’ll hear the song that both of these users, connected by music, are playing in real-time. So when you listen to it on the site, you’ll also be listening to the same song at the same time other users are.”

WyoFile: As COVID-19 closed Wyo venues, artists migrated online. “Arts — be it live performances, museum exhibits or theater shows — were among the first casualties of the COVID-19 outbreak as venues across Wyoming and the world abruptly shuttered. As the pandemic shut down bars and galleries, however, artists moved online. Wyoming artists and venues are no different, and have been offering a wide range of opportunities for viewers to enjoy music, painting and more via their devices. Here is a rundown of some of the online ways to see — or support — what Equality State artists are up to.”

Billboard: How to Watch All the Dance Music Livestreams This Weekend (May 8-10). “Another weekend, another lineup of big deal dance events to launch a browser for this weekend. Whether you want bass, techno, IDM, EDM or house, it’s all there for you via the world wide web.”

NEW RESOURCES – LEGAL / SECURITY / PRIVACY

MIT Technology Review: A flood of coronavirus apps are tracking us. Now it’s time to keep track of them.. “When we began comparing apps around the world, we realized there was no central repository of information; just incomplete, constantly changing data spread across a wide range of sources. Nor was there a single, standard approach being taken by developers and policymakers: citizens of different countries were seeing radically different levels of surveillance and transparency. So to help monitor this fast-evolving situation, we’re gathering the information into a single place for the first time with our Covid Tracing Tracker—a database to capture details of every significant automated contact tracing effort around the world.”

NEW RESOURCES – OTHER

IRI: IRI Launches IRI CPG Inflation Tracker to Track Price Changes Amid COVID-19 and Beyond. “IRI®, a global leader in innovative solutions and services for consumer, retail and media companies, today announced the launch of the IRI CPG Inflation Tracker™ on its free, online COVID-19 Data Dashboard. The new tool provides a standard metric for tracking weekly price-per-unit changes for consumer packaged goods compared to the year-ago period across departments, including fixed and random weight products, grocery aisles and retail formats. This resource allows CPG manufacturers and retailers to assess in real time the way pricing is evolving due to the supply chain and economic impacts of the pandemic and quickly adapt their strategies.”

FoodDive: Tracking coronavirus closures at food and beverage factories. “While food and beverage manufacturers scramble to keep up with demand as consumers stock their pantries, many now must also contend with coronavirus outbreaks in their factories. The reactions are varied. Some are shutting down plants indefinitely until all workers can be tested. Others have reduced production capacity. Several have temporarily closed to deep clean their facilities and configure their spaces for greater social distancing. Food Dive is tracking the status of operations of major manufacturers’ plants as they navigate the pandemic.”

Washingtonian: These Excellent Covid-19 Posters Are Both Beautiful and Beneficial. “The Viral Art Project is a virtual art gallery that invites graphic designers and artists to submit original poster designs that respond visually to the Covid-19 pandemic. The idea is to raise awareness of the challenges facing the world while also promoting messages of hope and security. The results so far have been striking—an ever-growing collection of posters that demonstrate how powerful typography and graphic design can be.”

USEFUL STUFF

ProPublica: I’m an Investigative Journalist. These Are the Questions I Asked About the Viral “Plandemic” Video.. “My brother is a pastor in Colorado and had someone he respects urge him to watch ‘Plandemic,’ a 26-minute video that promises to reveal the “hidden agenda” behind the COVID-19 pandemic. I called him and he shared his concern: People seem to be taking the conspiracy theories presented in ‘Plandemic’ seriously. He wondered if I could write something up that he could pass along to them, to help people distinguish between sound reporting and conspiracy thinking or propaganda So I watched ‘Plandemic.’ I did not find it credible, as I will explain below.”

UPDATES

Newsweek: South Korea, Hailed For Pandemic Response, Backtracks On Reopening After Covid-19 Cases Jump. “Despite recently reopening businesses amid an impressive decline in new coronavirus case, the South Korean government has issued a nationwide health advisory for bars and nightclubs to close down for 30 more days after health officials tracked 13 new cases to a single person who attended five nightclubs and bars in the country’s capital city of Seoul.”

HSJ: Frustration over new PPE tracking tool. “Trust procurement leads have expressed frustration over a new stock reporting tool introduced by NHS England/Improvement on Monday. The ‘NHS Foundry’ data collection system, created by Silicon Valley tech firm Palantir, is designed to track levels of PPE and other covid-19 related products at trusts. But procurement leads have told HSJ the system so far offers limited functionality and produces relatively little information for users.”

NBC News: 5-year-old is first child death from COVID-19-related inflammatory syndrome reported in U.S. “A 5-year-old boy in New York has become the first child in the United States to die from a condition called pediatric multisymptom inflammatory syndrome that is believed to be linked to COVID-19. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a briefing Friday that the state department of health is investigating several related cases in children.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

New York Times: ‘Found Unresponsive at Home’: Grim Records Recount Lonely Deaths. “The agony of how the coronavirus has killed at least 1,669 Floridians, many of them older, is brief and matter-of-fact in the unadorned language of medical examiners, who summarize death in sometimes less than 200 words. But a trove of short narratives from nearly all of the state’s deaths so far show that a substantial number of people have died suddenly after returning home from the hospital or visiting a doctor or a clinic. Many worsened, returned to the hospital and died there.”

Arizona Public Media: For students without internet access, the pandemic hits harder. “In Arizona, as many as 350,000 households — 13% of all households in the state — don’t have an internet subscription, according to the most recent estimates from the American Community Survey. Though Gov. Doug Ducey is beginning to lift restrictions on businesses, schools will remain closed at least through the summer. Leaders in education say the pandemic has revealed a stark digital divide among Arizona students, putting the promise of a public education out of reach for some.”

Philadelphia Tribune: AP Exclusive: 70% of U.S. Olympic sports applied for PPP funds. “The Associated Press surveyed 44 of the country’s national governing bodies (NGBs) — the organizations charged with operating programs from the grassroots through the Olympic levels in sports that run the gamut from badminton to basketball. All but four of the 36 NGBs that responded said they had applied for assistance from the Paycheck Protection Program. Not all the organizations revealed how much they received, but those who did have been approved for a cumulative total of about $12 million.”

ProPublica: The First 100: Covid-19 Took Black Lives First. It Didn’t Have To.. “In Chicago, 70 of the city’s 100 first recorded victims of COVID-19 were black. Their lives were rich, and their deaths cannot be dismissed as inevitable. Immediate factors could — and should — have been addressed.”

INSTITUTION / CORPORATE / GOVERNMENT

Reuters: Google announces company holiday on May 22 to stem virus burnout. “Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Friday it has asked employees to take a day off on May 22, to address work-from-home-related burnout during the coronavirus pandemic. Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai announced the move in a memo to employees on late Thursday, which was first reported by CNBC.”

Slate: Vietnam’s Government Is Using COVID-19 to Crack Down on Freedom of Expression. “Though many Asian nations are dealing with very serious outbreaks, Vietnam appears to be one of the most successful in halting the spread of the infection. As of May 8, it has reported just 288 cases, 241 recoveries, and a remarkable zero deaths. While there have been suspicions that China may be underreporting its infected and death rates, there have not been any major accusations of Vietnam doing the same. In fact, many media outlets have praised the Vietnamese government’s aggressive measures, which have included early restrictions on travel, quarantining affected villages, providing free masks, and even writing viral songs. However, the efforts to fight COVID-19 misinformation and fake news online, including with a law enacted in April, reveal the darker side to public awareness efforts in Vietnam—one that stems from a long history of censorship and authoritarianism.”

New York Times: Hidden Toll: Mexico Ignores Wave of Coronavirus Deaths in Capital. “The Mexican government is not reporting hundreds, possibly thousands, of deaths from the coronavirus in Mexico City, dismissing anxious officials who have tallied more than three times as many fatalities in the capital than the government publicly acknowledges, according to officials and confidential data.”

CNN: South Dakota governor tells Sioux tribes they have 48 hours to remove Covid-19 checkpoints. “The governor of South Dakota has given an ultimatum to two Sioux tribes: Remove checkpoints on state and US highways within 48 hours or risk legal action. Gov. Kristi Noem sent letters Friday to the leaders of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe demanding that checkpoints designed to prevent the spread of coronavirus on tribal land be removed, the governor’s office said in a statement.”

HEALTH

Philadelphia Inquirer: Coronavirus antibody testing is now easy to get. But it’s hard to be sure what you’re getting.. “Suddenly, getting a test to see if you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus and have antibodies to it is almost as easy as getting a flu test. Vybe urgent care centers are the latest to jump on the immune-response testing bandwagon. All you need is a telemedicine consultation, a blood draw at one of the nine centers in Philadelphia or Delaware County, and several days of patience for results to come back. But there are lots of caveats.”

The Atlantic: ‘COVID-19 Is a Delirium Factory’. “The respiratory failure that afflicts the most critically ill COVID-19 patients—acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)—requires mechanical ventilation. Eighty percent of patients on a ventilator suffer from a hallucinogenic state known as ICU delirium, during which they form false, and often frightening, memories. Because these delusional memories are based on real-life stimuli, they’re more vivid than a nightmare—according to Jesse Vanderhoof, they feel ‘as real as real can get.'”

Bloomberg: Virus Pushes America’s Hospitals to the Brink of Financial Ruin. “It’s one of the cruelest realities of the coronavirus pandemic. America’s already-ailing hospitals are being pushed even further into financial ruin, threatening to force a growing number of them to file for bankruptcy or even close. The onslaught could result in some $202.6 billion in losses for hospitals across the country by the end of June, according to the American Hospital Association. While even stronger facilities see revenue evaporate, the demands of the illness may hasten the demise of weak systems, and federal aid likely won’t be enough as millions lose the private insurance critical for hospitals to pay their bills.”

RESEARCH

Financial Times: Twitter failing to curb misinformation ‘superspreaders’, report warns. “Twitter is failing to rein in ‘superspreaders’ of coronavirus misinformation on its platform, according to research detailing dozens of posts shared by high-profile accounts apparently flouting the social media group’s rules.”

POLITICS AND SECURITY

Vice: Google’s Coronavirus Test Sites May Be Scooping Up People’s Sensitive Information. “Users can sign up by creating a Google account or using an existing account, then submit information on Verily’s website and be sent to an in-person testing site if they qualify for the test. But in the two months since Verily rolled out the testing sites in California, advocates and lawmakers have been warning the Alphabet subsidiary may not be in compliance with California’s strict new privacy law that requires companies to give detailed, clear information to consumers on what kind of information it’s collecting.”

Washington Post: White House’s pandemic relief effort Project Airbridge is swathed in secrecy and exaggerations. “Since the debut of Project Airbridge in March, the Trump administration has promoted the initiative as part of a historic mobilization ‘moving heaven and earth’ to source and deliver vast amounts of medical supplies from overseas to pandemic hot spots in the United States…. Almost six weeks after its launch, Project Airbridge has completed its 122nd flight, having cost taxpayers at least $91 million. But its impact on the pandemic is unclear and shrouded in secrecy: The White House, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the companies involved have declined to disclose where supplies have been delivered.”

Reuters: Exclusive: Iran-linked hackers recently targeted coronavirus drugmaker Gilead – sources. “Hackers linked to Iran have targeted staff at U.S. drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc in recent weeks, according to publicly-available web archives reviewed by Reuters and three cybersecurity researchers, as the company races to deploy a treatment for the COVID-19 virus.”

New York Times: Fight Over Virus’s Death Toll Opens Grim New Front in Election Battle. “The claim was tailor-made for President Trump’s most steadfast backers: Federal guidelines are coaching doctors to mark Covid-19 as the cause of death even when it is not, inflating the pandemic’s death toll. That the claim came from a doctor, Scott Jensen, who also happens to be a Republican state senator in Minnesota, made it all the more alluring to the president’s allies. Never mind the experts who said that, if anything, the death toll was being vastly undercounted.”

CNN: How does the government decide who gets remdesivir? Doctors have no idea. “It’s the first and only drug shown to be effective against the novel coronavirus in a rigorous trial. Its effects are modest but significant — shortening a patient’s hospital stay by about four days. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, has called it the new ‘standard of care’ for Covid-19. But as it stands now, there’s only enough remdesivir in the world for about 200,000 patients, according to the drug’s maker, Gilead Sciences. Who will those patients be? The US government, which is deciding where remdesivir goes, has offered few answers and little guidance since the drug was authorized for use on hospitalized patients a week ago.”

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May 9, 2020 at 07:19PM
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Friday, May 8, 2020

Altium takes PCB design to the cloud

Altium has released its Altium 365 cloud platform for PCB design, enabling easier and remote collaboration between design team stakeholders.



from Electronic Products Technology Center Articles https://ift.tt/3fxyHJq

Altium takes PCB design to the cloud

Altium has released its Altium 365 cloud platform for PCB design, enabling easier and remote collaboration between design team stakeholders.



source http://www.electronicproducts.com/Software/Development_Tools_and_Software/Altium_takes_PCB_design_to_the_cloud.aspx

Friday CoronaBuzz, May 8, 2020: 32 pointers to new resources, useful stuff, research news, and more.

Friday CoronaBuzz, May 8, 2020: 32 pointers to new resources, useful stuff, research news, and more.
By ResearchBuzz

Wash your hands and stay at home as much as you can. Please be careful. I love you.

NEW RESOURCES – MEDICAL/HEALTH

Denbighshire Free Press (UK): National bereavement service rolled out for mourners during coronavirus lockdown. “An end-of-life charity has launched a national bereavement service to support people struggling with losing loved ones during the coronavirus lockdown. People finding it difficult to grieve will be able to access up to six weeks of support over the phone from a dedicated volunteer trained by the Marie Curie charity.”

NEW RESOURCES – EDUCATION/ENTERTAINMENT

WOWT: Nebraska sets up new education portal; state making headway in COVID-19 unemployment claims. “Dr. Matthew Blomstedt, Nebraska’s commissioner of education, on Thursday unveiled of a new website… that will house all the new materials and resources for the upcoming academic year. He said the site will also have details about new protocols for schools and examples of how education will move forward for summer and fall. It will also provide professional learning tools as well as a webinar series on how teachers can make effective use of online learning tools.”

Hindustan Times: Milan’s La Scala opera house ‘re-opens’ via Google virtual tour during coronavirus lockdown. “Milan’s famed La Scala opera house on Thursday unveiled a virtual journey through its ornate premises and rich archives via Google Arts & Culture, with serendipitous timing as theaters throughout Italy and the western world remain closed due to the coronavirus.”

TechRadar: Google launches a new Read Along app to help you with homeschooling. “If you’re stuck at home trying to keep the kids entertained and educated, you’ve now got one more online resource to draw on – Google just launched a Read Along app for Android that helps kids over five with their reading. The app has previously been launched in India under the name Bolo, but is now available much more widely, across 180 countries and in nine languages.”

NEW RESOURCES – OTHER

Pacific Business Journal: Restaurant database now includes new section for farmers markets, local food producers. “Hawaii Agricultural Foundation continues to expand its efforts to support the food industry during the Covid-19 pandemic. Earlier this week, the nonprofit launched a new addition to its Food-A-Go-Go platform, Food-A-Go-Go Farms, in an effort to help local farmers, ranchers and fishermen. Just as Food-A-Go-Go lists restaurants that are open for take-out, delivery and pickup, the new database compiles info on farmers markets and local growers. Food-A-Go-Go Farms also features other food producers in two categories — Aloha Inside for food products made in Hawaii, and Local Inside, which refers to products made with local ingredients.”

Workday Minnesota: New Website Documents Accountability Track Records of CARES Act Recipients. “The non-profit Good Jobs First launched COVID Stimulus Watch. The website is a database of public traded companies awarded federal loans under the Paycheck Protection Program. The data collected shows that at least 16 of those corporations pay their workers less than the national median household income level. Five pay wages so low they fall below the poverty line for a family of four.”

ABC 11: Free legal clinic aids NC small businesses, nonprofits affected by COVID-19. “The N.C. Pro Bono Resource Center has partnered with law firms across the state and the nonprofit group, Lawyers for Good Government Foundation, to offer a remote legal clinic for pro bono legal consultations. Businesses are matched with an attorney who provides 45 minutes of free, confidential legal advice for issues dealing with the coronavirus crisis and small business.”

Harvard Gazette: Real-time data to address real-time problems. “Called the Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker, the tool was created as a public resource to help policymakers assess the effects of the downturn in different regions of the U.S. with the most up-to-date information possible. With a more complete and current picture of the nation’s economic standing, policymakers should then be able to make evidence-based decisions as they move to reopen the nation. The tool provides lawmakers real-time analysis of data such as consumer spending and job postings, which normally takes them several weeks to get.”

The Hindu: Calcutta University’s digital collection goes online. “In what can be seen as a sign of the times to come, when social distancing may just become the new normal, the University of Calcutta has placed the entire digital collection of its library online so that physical visits are no longer necessitated and the world at large benefits from it. The decision of the University, set up in 1857, has placed in public domain countless articles, journals and dissertations, including issues of The Calcutta Review dating back to 1844 and Tagore Law Lectures dating back to 1870. Now anybody, anywhere in the world, can access them any time.”

SunHerald: Mississippians can now buy meat, produce directly from farms amid COVID-19. Here’s how.. “Mississippi has a new website where people can buy a side of beef, a basket of blueberries or a jar of honey direct from the rancher, farmer or beekeeper. Department of Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson announced Thursday the Mississippi Farm Marketplace website and two other initiatives to make sure people in Mississippi can get fresh food during the coronavirus pandemic. He signed an order during the morning press conference that immediately allows farmers to sell a portion of an animal, such as a side of beef, directly to consumers.”

Federal Housing Finance Agency: FHFA Announces Tools to Help Renters Find Out if They are Protected from Eviction. “To help renters find out if they are protected from evictions during the COVID-19 national health emergency, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced today that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) have created online multifamily property lookup tools. The property lookup tools allow renters to find out if the multifamily property where they reside has an Enterprise-backed mortgage. Under the CARES Act, renters living in a property with an Enterprise-backed mortgage are covered by a temporary eviction moratorium.”

1060AM KYW: New website aims to showcase kids’ experience with pandemic through artwork. “The site, Quarantined Kids, was created by Lauren Rowello to give kids a space to express themselves through their art. ‘Sometimes I’m reading a little about what the kids are going through, but it’s always told from the adult’s perspective. It’s a parent or a grandparents or a reporter telling the story and this is really a space where the kids are going to tell it themselves,’ she said.”

USEFUL STUFF

First Draft: How to analyze Facebook data for misinformation trends and narratives. “There is a mountain of data that can help us examine topics such as the spread of 5G conspiracy theories or where false narratives around Covid-19 cures came from. It can help us analyze cross-border narratives and identify which online communities most frequently discuss certain issues. While Twitter’s public data is accessible through its Application Programming Interface (API), it can be much more complicated for researchers to access platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Facebook-owned platform CrowdTangle is the most easily accessible tool to handle three of the most important social networks — Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit — and it is free for journalists and researchers.”

UPDATES

NBC News: ‘What are we doing this for?’: Doctors are fed up with conspiracies ravaging ERs. “At the end of another long shift treating coronavirus patients, Dr. Hadi Halazun opened his Facebook page to find a man insisting to him that “no one’s dying” and that the coronavirus is “fake news” drummed up by the news media. Hadi tried to engage and explain his firsthand experience with the virus. In reply, another user insinuated that he wasn’t a real doctor, saying pictures from his profile showing him at concerts and music festivals proved it.”

CNET: Zoom eyes security boost, acquiring secure messaging platform Keybase. “In an effort to shore things up after a string of security issues, video conferencing platform Zoom has acquired secure messaging service Keybase.”

Ausdroid: Google introduces new features to Lens to especially help those working from home. “COVID-19 has caused businesses of the world to quickly adapt to the new way of life and as these businesses evolve and pivot into online spaces we, the consumers and users, are seeing some great new innovations. Google is one such company, fast tracking many features from virtually all of their products to help us all in our times of need. Google has today added new features yet again to one of their products, this time Google Lens has been enhanced with some handy additions. Today’s additions are designed to help users be more productive in their new work from home environments.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

NPR: ‘1st Time To See It Like This’: Petra Tourism Workers Long For Visitors To Return. “In the ancient city of Petra, Jordan’s best-known tourist destination, bird song echoes against the multicolored rock and the elaborate monuments instead of the din of tour groups and souvenir sellers. The coronavirus pandemic has done what war did not — bring this Middle Eastern country’s vital tourism industry to a dramatic halt, and with it, the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of workers.”

AdWeek: Social Media Is Providing a Sense of Community for Those Targeted by Racist Attacks During the Pandemic. “Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, I’ve felt fearful of a possible confrontation due to my ethnicity, to the point of holding in a cough to divert unwanted attention. And I am sure there are many others who share similar or worse experiences. With more incidents being shared online, Asian Americans are using social media more than ever to organize and fight against bigotry.”

INSTITUTION / CORPORATE / GOVERNMENT

Reuters: Exclusive: Iran hunts for grains as coronavirus compounds economic woes. “Iran is scrambling to buy millions of tonnes of wheat, corn and soybeans to shore up its reserves, Iranian officials and traders said, despite President Hassan Rouhani’s assertions that the coronavirus would not endanger food supplies to the Middle Eastern country worst hit by the pandemic.”

ABC4: Kroger to provide free COVID-19 testing to frontline associates. “Kroger Health announced Monday that the company will begin offering free COVID-19 testing to frontline associates based on their symptoms and medical need, according to a release.”

Washington Post: Faith activism amid pandemic spans causes and denominations. “One religious leader appeared with nursing home workers seeking safer conditions. Another broadcast a roundtable with colleagues in three states. Another talked about a campaign he helps lead that’s raised more than $1 million for masks and hand sanitizer. In one 24-hour period this week, three prominent people of faith from different denominations pushed for more aid to workers and areas most acutely affected by the coronavirus. All three are leaders in the black church –- underscoring the outsized pain the pandemic has exacted on communities of color -– but Christian advocacy on behalf of lower-income populations struggling with the virus is a diverse and nationwide cause.”

Hindustan Times: Facebook, Google will let most employees work from home through 2020. “Covid-19 outbreak forced employees working in companies across the globe, including the ones in Google and Facebook, to work from home. Now, the two companies have announced that they would let most of their employees work from home through 2020.”

RESEARCH

Reuters: Colombia’s coronavirus app troubles show rocky path without tech from Apple, Google. “Colombia has removed the contact-tracing feature in its official app for informing residents about the novel coronavirus after experiencing glitches, but aims to rebuild using potentially more reliable technology from Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google, a government official told Reuters.”

New York Times: Travel From New York City Seeded Wave of U.S. Outbreaks. “New York City’s coronavirus outbreak grew so large by early March that the city became the primary source of new infections in the United States, new research reveals, as thousands of infected people traveled from the city and seeded outbreaks around the country. The research indicates that a wave of infections swept from New York City through much of the country before the city began setting social distancing limits to stop the growth. That helped to fuel outbreaks in Louisiana, Texas, Arizona and as far away as the West Coast.”

BuzzFeed News: These Detailed Maps Show How COVID-19 Is Spreading In Five Major Cities. “COVID-19 has hit urban America hard. The country’s 15 largest metro areas account for just one-third of the nation’s population, but more than 60% of coronavirus cases and deaths. But even within hard-hit cities, the novel coronavirus has spread unequally — largely sparing some neighborhoods, while devastating others, according to a ZIP code-level analysis of case counts from five major cities by BuzzFeed News.”

FUNNY

Found on YouTube: one of those rare Mr. Rogers parodies that doesn’t go for salacious laughs but sticks to deadpan satire. Mr. Rogers’ voice is not great but Lady Elaine, X the Owl, Queen Saturday, and Henrietta are perfect. Extremely well done and highly recommended. Lady Elaine encourages panic buying during quarantine – Mister Rogers Neighborhood parody.

CRIME

People: Pa. Researcher Making ‘Very Significant Findings’ in Coronavirus Killed in Suspected Murder-Suicide. “A University of Pittsburgh researcher on the cusp of ‘very significant findings’ tied to COVID-19 infections was shot dead Saturday in what police say appears to be a murder-suicide. Ross Township police discovered the body of Bing Liu, 37, a research assistant professor in the university’s School of Medicine, in his home with gunshots to his head, neck, torso and extremities, according to a statement from the department obtained by PEOPLE.”

NBC News: 3 McDonald’s workers hurt after customer attack over coronavirus limits, Oklahoma police say. “Three workers at an Oklahoma City McDonald’s were injured Wednesday by gunfire and a scuffle that appeared to have started because the restaurant’s dining area was closed for social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, police said. Two of three were injured by gunfire and the third was hurt in a scuffle, said Lt. Michelle Henderson of the Oklahoma City Police Department.”

POLITICS AND SECURITY

MediaMatters: A coronavirus conspiracy theory film attacking vaccines has racked up million of views and engagements on YouTube and Facebook. “A film featuring a known anti-vaxxer pushing conspiracy theories and false claims about the novel coronavirus, including attacking vaccines, has racked up more than 9 million views on YouTube. Additionally, the video and its reuploads have tallied more than 16 million Facebook engagements. The spread of the film — called ‘Plandemic’ — through reuploads on YouTube shows the platform’s continuing issues with enforcing its policies against coronavirus misinformation during this public health crisis.”

Washington Post: Arizona halts partnership with experts predicting coronavirus cases would continue to mount. “Hours after Doug Ducey, the Republican governor of Arizona, accelerated plans to reopen businesses, saying the state was ‘headed in the right direction,’ his administration halted the work of a team of experts projecting it was on a different — and much grimmer — course. On Monday night, the eve of President Trump’s visit to the state, Ducey’s health department shut down the work of academic experts predicting the peak of the state’s coronavirus outbreak was still about two weeks away.”

Daily Beast: Trump Wants a Quick Reopening. Data His Own White House Is Examining Shows It Could Be a Disaster. “One of the studies that the Trump administration is relying on as it moves ahead with plans to reopen the U.S. economy warns that even if states take the necessary steps to ease social distancing restrictions, counties across the country—both big and small—will see a significant spread of coronavirus.”

New Hampshire Public Radio: Glitch On State’s New COVID-19 Testing Website Displayed Patient’s Personal Info. “The new state website where people can sign up for coronavirus tests got off to a rocky start today. Some visitors to the online portal Thursday morning found the form already filled in – with someone else’s personal info.”

CoronaBuzz is brought to you by ResearchBuzz. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment, send resource suggestions, or tag @buzz_corona on Twitter. Thanks!







May 8, 2020 at 06:43PM
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Thursday, May 7, 2020

Automotive SoC improves reliability, saves space

OmniVision’s 1.3-MP OX01E10 SoC for entry-level rearview cameras integrates a 3-micron image sensor and an advanced ISP on a single PCB, increasing reliability while reducing costs.



from Electronic Products Technology Center Articles https://ift.tt/2WcDKXU

Transformer module saves board space

Bourns’ Chip LAN 10/100 Base-T transformer module combines two Chip LAN transformers and two common-mode chip inductors on a PCB with a metal shield for greater design flexibility and board space savings.



from Electronic Products Technology Center Articles https://ift.tt/2SLBAg6

Thursday CoronaBuzz, May 7, 2020: 34 pointers to new resources, useful stuff, research news, and more.

Thursday CoronaBuzz, May 7, 2020: 34 pointers to new resources, useful stuff, research news, and more.
By ResearchBuzz

Wash your hands and stay at home as much as you can. Please be careful. I love you.

NEW RESOURCES – MEDICAL/HEALTH

KPIX: Coronavirus Update: California Gov. Newsom Announces New Testing Site Tool, Expanded Workers’ Compensation. “Keeping Californians working with confidence as they increasingly begin to return to a reopening economy was the focus of two new announcements by Gov. Gavin Newsom. During his daily press briefing on Wednesday, Newsom said the state health department’s COVID-19 website now features a link to find testing sites across the state. The tool allows users to enter their zip codes and be presented with testing sites in their area.”

University of Nebraska-Lincoln: New website aims to connect people with support systems. “Nebraska visitors to the website can sign up for a free 30-minute consultation with a therapist in the university’s marriage and family therapy program, find social media support groups, and discover other tips and resources to strengthen their mental health and resilience. Project leaders say they hope this website can be a resource for anyone needing assistance, but especially those in rural communities who may not have access to other mental health services.”

Newswise: New Tool Will Help Public Health Officials Estimate the Need for COVID-19 Contact Tracing. “Using data on the number of COVID-19 cases, the estimated number of contacts per infected persons and other information, the team of researchers at the Mullan Institute have created the Contact Tracing Workforce Estimator. The tool was developed in collaboration with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). Using the new estimator, state and local public health officials will be able to plug in the number of COVID-19 cases and other data to help them gauge the number of staff needed to effectively trace contacts of all infected people in their jurisdiction. In addition, the estimator helps public health officials understand the factors, such as the need for social services, which can impact the number of contact tracers needed to slow the spread of infection.”

ProPublica: How Safe Are Nursing Homes Near Me? This Tool Will Help You Find Out.. “We’re updating Nursing Home Inspect to include more information about nursing homes across the country, including past problems with infection control practices, and which ones have had cases of COVID-19 among residents or staff…. You can easily compare the nursing homes in your state based on how many times they have been cited for violating infection control protocols in the past three inspection cycles (roughly three years). We’ve also added data from The Washington Post on homes with COVID-19 cases.”

NEW RESOURCES – EDUCATION/ENTERTAINMENT

Asbury Park Press: Coronavirus in NJ: How to visit the boardwalk, aquarium and more from home. “We’re all doing our part to fight the global coronavirus pandemic by responsibly staying inside. But you can still experience plenty of New Jersey’s landmark destinations from the comforts of your own home. Concert venues, museums, educational institutions and amusement spots have all moved online, giving folks from New Jersey and beyond a virtual escape.”

Library of Congress: Spending a Lot of Time at Home? Take the Archive Challenge!. “At the American Folklife Center, we know it’s been hard for those of you who are cooped up at home in order to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Most of the staff live in areas under stay-at-home orders, and have been working from home for weeks. And although some cities and states are starting to open up a little, we have a feeling it will be a while before we’re going out to concerts, theaters, jams, or open mics to perform or enjoy live music and performing arts. But guess what? At the Library of Congress, we have an amazing online archive of folk music and folklife which you can explore right from home, and we’d like to offer a suggestion: why not learn a song, tune, poem, or story from the archive, make a recording or video of yourself performing it, and post it online? Or make a work of art based on one of our photos, or write a story or poem based on our materials. We’d love to see what you come up with! Folks from all genres and creators of all art forms are invited to interpret a field recording, video, photo, or manuscript from the AFC Archive. You don’t need to be a professional in order to participate!”

SportBusiness: FISU extends archive offering to streaming platforms. “The International University Sports Federation (FISU) has stepped up its offering of archive sports content during the Covid-19 shutdown of sports by launching the #UniSportsClassics venture. FISU has already opened its archive of television-quality content to broadcasters and member federations, but will now seek to reach audiences directly with full competition replays of medal events from the summer and winter Universiades, and World University Championship events.”

BBC: Coronavirus: Gollum actor Serkis to raise cash by reading entire Hobbit live online. “Andy Serkis will give a continuous live reading of The Hobbit online, to raise money for charity. The Gollum actor will read JRR Tolkien’s 1937 novel from start to finish with no breaks. Serkis played the corrupted character, originally known as Smeagol, in the The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. Money raised from the 56-year-old’s expected 10-12-hour performance will be split between NHS Charities Together and Best Beginnings.”

NEW RESOURCES – OTHER

Land Line: DHS launches route planning app to help truckers navigate COVID-19. “The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Idaho National Laboratory launched its Commercial Routing Assistance tool on Wednesday, May 6, for truckers and other commercial drivers in the U.S. This free app incorporates coordinated data streams and plots multiple routing options so commercial operators can plan and manage vehicle movements across multiple states quickly in times of disasters or other restrictions.”

USEFUL STUFF

CNET: Face mask hurting your ears? How to make your covering more comfortable. “Now that states are starting to reopen businesses, many are requiring that you wear face coverings when you go out in public to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that you wear one when social distancing isn’t possible. And now that summer is approaching, you may be wondering how you’ll stay comfortable while wearing a mask when the sun is hot and your face is sweating. Fortunately, we have some tips to help keep you comfortable while wearing your covering.”

NewScientist: How to sniff out the good coronavirus studies from the bad. “With researchers, journals, politicians, journalists and social media influencers all capable of espousing misleading or unverified scientific findings, it pays to be able to recognise the telltale signs of a study that might be poor. Here are seven potential warning flags.” A quick roundup of things to think about.

Campus Technology: Updated: Free and Discounted Ed Tech Tools for Online Learning During the Coronavirus Pandemic. “As more and more colleges and universities have shut down their campuses in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19, education technology companies have stepped forward to help move student learning to the virtual realm. Some companies are making their paid services free through the rest of the school year; others are lifting limits to services and/or adding premium features to what’s free. The following list will be updated regularly as announcements are made.”

UPDATES

Miami Herald: Months before Florida leaders had any clue, coronavirus was creeping through the state. “It was March 1 when Florida announced its first two cases of the novel coronavirus, a 29-year-old Hillsborough County woman who had traveled to Italy and a 63-year-old Manatee County man. But buried in data recently published by the Florida health department is an intriguing revelation: The spread of COVID-19 in Florida likely began in January, if not earlier. State health officials have documented at least 170 COVID-19 patients reporting symptoms between Dec. 31, 2019, and February 29, according to a Miami Herald analysis of state health data. Of them, 40 percent had no apparent contact with someone else with the virus. The majority had not traveled.”

Hollywood Reporter: Was Sundance a “First Petri Dish” of Coronavirus in the States?. “Industryites long have dubbed any illness caught while visiting the 10-day festival as ‘the Sundance flu,’ a byproduct of frigid temperatures, late-night partying and all that handshaking, in which everyone becomes an unknowing vector for spreading germs. But there was something different about Sundance 2020. A swath of attendees, including festival regulars and at least one high-profile actor, became sicker than ever before, leading some to later believe they had early, undocumented cases of COVID-19.”

Washington Post: Smartphone data shows out-of-state visitors flocked to Georgia as restaurants and other businesses reopened. “One week after Georgia allowed dine-in restaurants, hair salons and other businesses to reopen, an additional 62,440 visitors arrived there daily, most from surrounding states where such businesses remained shuttered, according to an analysis of smartphone location data. Researchers at the University of Maryland say the data provides some of the first hard evidence that reopening some state economies ahead of others could potentially worsen and prolong the spread of the novel coronavirus. Any impetus to travel, public health experts say, increases the number of people coming into contact with each other and raises the risk of transmission.”

BBC: Coronavirus: US unemployment claims hit 33.3 million amid virus. “A further 3.2 million Americans sought unemployment benefits last week as the economic toll from the coronavirus pandemic continued to mount. The new applications brought the total number of jobless claims since mid-March to 33.3 million. That amounts to more than 15% of the US workforce.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

BBC: Coronavirus: Photographers’ children’s lives in lockdown. “Unicef UK, a charity working for children in danger, has coordinated a photo-essay by their photographers, showing life in their households. Hundreds of millions of children have been affected by the lockdowns, with a potential negative impact on their education and mental wellbeing. The images, taken in March and April, show the constrained and resourceful way activities are being carried out in households, including home-schooling, exercise and playtime.”

New York Times: New York Lost These 5 Remarkable Characters to the Virus. “To live in New York is to know the city as a patchwork of tight-knit neighborhoods defined by local characters: the beloved bartender, the ‘mayor’ of the block, the habitual stoop-sitter, the chatty sidewalk vendor. And while the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 18,000 city residents, has claimed the lives of prominent figures, the wider toll has been on these lesser-known but no less distinctive citizens.”

Khmer Times: In Cambodia, learning during COVID-19. “Cambodia’s first confirmed case of Covid-19 occurred in late January. With a second case in early March in Siem Reap province, home of the renowned temples of Angkor Wat, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport (MoEYS), in an abundance of caution, closed the schools until further notice. Education in Cambodia ground to a halt, or so one might have imagined, but the MoEYS quickly found creative ways to promote learning outside the traditional school setting. The ministry worked with private companies to launch a new e-learning initiative. Lessons for students in grades one through 12 were prerecorded and offered online through the ministry’s Facebook page, YouTube channel, e-learning website and TV.”

AP: Face masks make a political statement in era of coronavirus. “The decision to wear a mask in public is becoming a political statement — a moment to pick sides in a brewing culture war over containing the coronavirus. While not yet as loaded as a ‘Make America Great Again’ hat, the mask is increasingly a visual shorthand for a debate pitting those willing to follow health officials’ guidance and cover their faces against those who feel it violates their freedom or buys into a threat they think is overblown.”

Reuters: ‘Whole new business’: Farmers innovate to get food from field to plate. “From Europe to Asia and across the Americas, farmers and others in the global food supply chain are innovating to keep the world fed when populations are told to stay home, street markets are closed and labourers cannot travel to work in the fields.”

Washington Post: Hispanics are almost twice as likely as whites to have lost their jobs amid pandemic, poll finds. “Hispanics are nearly twice as likely as whites to have lost their jobs amid the coronavirus shutdowns, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll, underlining that the pandemic is wreaking a disproportionate toll on some racial and ethnic groups. The poll finds that 20 percent of Hispanic adults and 16 percent of blacks report being laid off or furloughed since the outbreak began in the United States, compared with 11 percent of whites and 12 percent of workers of other races.”

INSTITUTION / CORPORATE / GOVERNMENT

GAO WatchBlog: Is FEMA Ready to Respond to Emergencies? “In today’s WatchBlog, we look at some of our latest work on FEMA’s readiness to respond to emergencies and how it could improve its efforts. You can also tune in to our podcast, the Watchdog Report, to learn more.”

ABC News: New bill would forgive medical school debt for COVID-19 health workers. “Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., introduced a bill Tuesday to forgive student loan debt for health care workers treating patients on the COVID-19 front line, many of whom still owe hundreds of thousands of dollars from medical school.”

CBS News: 3 USDA meat inspectors dead, about 145 diagnosed with COVID-19. “About 145 field employees were absent from work as of April 28 due to COVID-19 diagnoses, and another 130 were under self-quarantine due to exposure to the virus, a spokesperson for the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the federal agency that inspects the U.S. food supply, told CBS News on Monday. One FSIS inspector based out of the New York City area, one from the Chicago area and another from Mississippi have died due to the virus, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a union representing food inspectors, said Tuesday.”

CNET: Amazon warehouse worker in New York dies of COVID-19. “A number of Amazon warehouse workers have tested positive for the coronavirus, and at least five have died, according to news reports. Workers at Amazon warehouses in Hawthorne and Tracy, California, have died from COVID-19. Two employees of supermarket chain Whole Foods Market, which Amazon owns, have also died, one in Massachusetts and another in Portland, Oregon.”

Greensboro News & Record: From math to PE, teachers creating online video library for Guilford County Schools students. “Guilford County Schools is pulling together a new resource for parents and students, who are finishing the school year virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic. It is an online library of district-made videos explaining topics that students should or would be learning about in their grade levels. Teachers and others have been working for weeks to make the videos. This week, the district started uploading them to a special spot on its website for distance learning.”

The State: West Columbia chicken plant workers say they were fired for protesting pay, conditions. “About a dozen workers at a chicken processing plant in West Columbia were fired Wednesday after protesting for better pay and working conditions amid the coronavirus, according to some of those who said they were fired. Workers at the House of Raeford chicken plant refused to work under what they consider hazardous conditions without pay to compensate for the increased dangers of the coronavirus, the protesters told The State as they congregated on the sidewalk across Sunset Boulevard from the plant.”

Miami Herald: FDLE releases list of COVID-19 deaths. Top medical examiner calls it a sham.. “Acting under intense pressure from a coalition of Florida news organizations and open-government advocates, the state Wednesday evening released a list of every Florida fatality documented by a medical examiner resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. The information was so riddled with holes, however, that it sparked as many questions as answers. Missing from the data set were the names of those who have perished from COVID-19, the illness caused by coronavirus infections, the probable cause of death (there can be multiple factors) and the circumstances of the person’s demise.”

RESEARCH

AccuWeather: Severity of COVID-19 may depend on where you’re located on the map, new study suggests. “Vitamin D plays a critical role in preventing respiratory infections and boosting the immune system, and a study published by scientists in Ireland analyzed the correlation between vitamin D deficiency and the different mortality rates countries have seen in recent months. Dr. Eamon Laird and Professor Rose Anne Kenny from Trinity College Dublin in Ireland drew a link between vitamin D and the severity of coronavirus impacts in Ireland, including mortality rate, in a recently published study that focused on the implications of vitamin D deficiency on the severity of COVID-19.”

The Atlantic: The Problem With Stories About Dangerous Coronavirus Mutations. “As if the pandemic weren’t bad enough, on April 30, a team led by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory released a paper that purportedly described “the emergence of a more transmissible form” of the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. This new form, the team wrote, ‘began spreading in Europe in early February.’ Whenever it appeared in a new place, including the U.S., it rapidly rose to dominance. Its success, the team suggested, is likely due to a single mutation, which is now ‘of urgent concern.’ The paper has not yet been formally published or reviewed by other scientists. But on May 5, the Los Angeles Times wrote about it, claiming that ‘a now-dominant strain of the coronavirus could be more contagious than [the] original.’ That story quickly went … well … viral. But ‘the conclusions are overblown,’ says Lisa Gralinski of the University of North Carolina, who is one of the few scientists in the world who specializes in coronaviruses.”

Becker’s Hospital Review: How UT Health Austin is 3D printing N95 masks personalized for clinicians . “University of Texas at Austin is using facial scan and 3D printing technologies to create custom N95 masks based on the clinician’s facial shape. The mask, dubbed the Contour3D, is made of non-porous material that can be sterilized in an autoclave and features a screw-cap end that allows used filters to be swapped out for fresh inserts. UT Health Austin partnered with a team of engineers, medical professionals, software and IT experts and 3D printing specialists to create the mask. The entire process took about five weeks.”

POLITICS AND SECURITY

AP: AP Exclusive: Admin shelves CDC guide to reopening country. “A set of detailed documents created by the nation’s top disease investigators meant to give step-by-step advice to local leaders deciding when and how to reopen public places such as mass transit, day care centers and restaurants during the still-raging pandemic has been shelved by the Trump administration. The 17-page report by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team, titled ‘Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework,’ was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners, educators and state and local officials as they begin to reopen.”

The Guardian: Trump Death Clock seeks to bring ‘accountability for reckless leadership’. “Donald Trump has been accused of personally causing the deaths of 40,000 Americans through his ‘reckless’ handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, in a new website launched on Wednesday under the provocative title Trump Death Clock. The website, created by independent film-maker Eugene Jarecki, is a conscious echo of the National Debt Clock which since 1989 has given a running score near Times Square in Manhattan of total US borrowing. The Trump Death Clock extends the idea dramatically by providing a tracker measured not in dollars but in lives allegedly lost by the president’s own inept actions.”

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May 7, 2020 at 08:24PM
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