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Tuesday May 26 2020

Never Go Home Again

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Sanity Break #1

SANITY BREAK The Kansas City Zoo took its bored penguins on a special outing to the… museum! According to , “They seemed, definitely, to react much better to Caravaggio than to Monet."

Sanity Break #1

Headlines that matter

HEADLINES THAT MATTER SHEER CHAOS AT THE AIRPORT Now we have takeoff! and 39,231 passengers took to the air yesterday, and 630 were cancelled. The reason: last-minute curbs on flights to Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad—and a flight ban imposed by Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. No, nobody told the passengers until they arrived at the airport. Moral of this story: Airlines are happy to send you multiple SMSes telling you when to report at the airport, but not a single one to let you know not to bother.   The most popular route: , followed by Delhi-Bagdogra, Mumbai-Varanasi, Bengaluru-Patna, Delhi-Srinagar. These are likely Tier 2 and 3 city residents going home after being stranded by the lockdown. Here’s a showing our somewhat busier skies.   Zero refunds: Passengers the option of either rebooking their flight or moving the money into a “credit shell” for a future flight. The airlines’ tech support was so bad that many passengers weren’t able to actually click on either option.   Social distanced flying: Arindam Majumder flew from Delhi to Bangalore, and kept a detailed photographic record on this . Point to note: Social distancing outside the airport… ! Here are some other images we put together.    Worst airline passenger: Union Minister Sadananda Gowda who flew to Bangalore from Delhi— the mandatory 7-day quarantine imposed by the state government on passengers who fly in from high-Covid count states.   Happiest airline clip: This between a mother and her 5-year-old son at Bangalore airport.   NINE MILLION TESTS IN 10 DAYS The original source of the global pandemic—the city of Wuhan—isn’t taking any chances. It has conducted swab tests on nine of its 11 million residents. The reason: the emergence of a handful of positive cases in a residential compound. The result: 218 asymptomatic carriers have been identified and quarantined. ()   JACINDA ARDERN KEEPS HER COOL The New Zealand PM was speaking live on TV when she was interrupted by a 5.8 magnitude earthquake. This was her reaction. We love her.   A ROUNDUP OF THE LATEST COVID GYAAN * Bye bye hydroxychloroquine: The World Health Organization is temporarily a trial of the drug as a potential treatment. Reason: a showed that it doesn’t help patients—and may even hurt them.  * Vaccines: this excellent infographic offers an elegant and clear summary of the 169 contenders under development—and how each of them work. * Pregnant women advisory: A shows that the virus damages the placenta, affecting blood flow to the foetus. Despite this, 14 of the 16 newborns were full-term and had a normal weight. * Bad news about heat waves: The rising cases in India show that really hot weather may have little impact on the spread of the virus. explains why. * A disease that baffles: A must-read from reveals the many ways that this pandemic has surprised frontline doctors who expected it would behave like a typical coronavirus: "We've never seen anything like this before."   THE COVID EFFECT: THE GLOBAL EDITION * reports on the devastation wreaked on garment factories and  workers across Asia. Hundreds of thousands are unemployed, and those that have returned to work are in a different kind of danger: “Just placing hand washing systems and checking temperatures at the entrances will not help. Inside the factories, when the workers work so closely, how will they maintain safe distancing?” * flags the severe shortage of beds in Mumbai. * Even big Tata execs aren’t immune to the pandemic. The CEOs and MDs are taking a for the first time in the company’s history. * Also hurt by the pandemic: robocalls from companies and scam calls from con artists. The reason: call centres have shut down in places like India and the Philippines. The volume of such calls nearly 50% the day after we went into lockdown. * A is now spraying customers with hypochlorous acid water—which has been strongly discouraged by the WHO. Other bizarre dining advice issued by Japanese authorities: “telling restaurant customers to sit outdoors, side-by-side while keeping conversation to a minimum.”  * The latest Covid-induced innovation in bridal wear. A handloom (see below) worn by a bride in Assam. Very pretty but may be not as effective. GERM ZAPPING ROBOTS IN HOLLYWOOD The movie industry is desperate to start production, and is looking toward increasingly bizarre solutions to social distancing. One such plan: using a lab-certified disinfecting robot that uses pulses of ultraviolet (UV) light to kill the virus. Apparently, the robot is able to deactivate 99.99% of the virus in two minutes with its LightStrike technology. ()   INDIA’S ‘BICYCLE GIRL’ SAYS ‘NO THANKS!’ Jyoti Kumari cycled more than 1,200 kilometres for seven days, carrying her injured father home. The Cycling Federation was so impressed that they invited her to try out for competitive cycling. The 15-year old has now turned down the offer, , “Earlier, I could not continue my school education because of my family problem and I was occupied with the domestic work…but now I wish to complete my matriculation first.”

Never Go Home Again

Sanity Break #2

SANITY BREAK Photographer Avinash Gowariker is spearheading a ‘Wear a mask... it’s safer campaign’ using throwback stock photos of celebs, and putting them in a face mask. You can check out the originals on .

Sanity Break #2

Smart & Curious

SMART & CURIOUS THE WORLD’S LARGEST VOLCANO IS HARD TO SEE! A new study has established that the Hawaiian volcano Pūhāhonu is the largest in the world. But it’s absurdly short, rising only 170 feet above sea level—which makes it a dwarf compared to its towering neighbour Mauna Loa. Turns out that most of it is hiding underwater, where it stretches across 171 miles in length and is 56 miles wide. According to the study, Pūhāhonu is so massive that it is causing the Earth's crust to sink. ()   THE LATEST WACKY PANDEMIC GIZMO… Is this hand sanitiser pump that would make Spiderman jealous. The Pumpix is good for 100 pumps and super easy to use. Too bad it’s as ugly as sin. ()  A LIST OF INTRIGUING THINGS  * An ambitious project in the Netherlands—backed by Coca Cola and Carlsberg beer, no less—will use plants to that will degrade within a year!  * Companies are making up a new pandemic-friendly measure of their performance: .  * A Toronto startup is to plant trees with super  speed. The machines will plant 40,000 saplings a month, and hit 1 billion by 2028.  * Britain has a smelly cheese problem. Sales of its homemade Stilton by 30% due to the pandemic, and cheesemakers are warning that it may soon be wiped out. Even Prince Charles has rushed to its rescue, sharing his own recipe for on Insta. * Did you know that ancient Egyptians were the first to diagnose pregnancy and predict the gender of a foetus? No, well you need to read this on how they used wheat barley grains—with surprising success! Below is one of the images of child delivery. (h/t surimana16)  

Smart & Curious

Weekend advisory

LIFE ADVISORY THE GREAT PERIL OF THE PUBLIC TOILET This piece looks at how the pandemic may force US companies to redesign shared bathrooms at the office. But this is the bit that caught our attention: > "[E]very time someone flushes, a “toilet plume” of droplets explodes into the air, coating the surrounding stall (and the person > standing in it) and aerosolizing the bowl’s contents, which can be breathed in and ingested by nearby parties (gross)... most > experts estimate a “plume” can travel six feet in every direction, including up and over any stall and into the next (more > gross). We also know that Covid-19 has been found in human poop, up to 33 days after infected people have recovered and tested > negative for the virus. No amount of handwashing will remove a virus sprayed all over your body."   Moral of this story: shut the damn lid before you flush a public toilet!   HOW THE CORONAVIRUS SPREADS IN OUR DAILY LIFE This is a very useful post-lockdown guide that assesses the risk level of locations we visit in our everyday lives—from the office to grocery stores to family gatherings. What we like best: it’s very clear-eyed and informative. No scaremongering here! ()   A SUMMER GUIDE TO HEAT EXHAUSTION Temperatures are  soaring, and heatwaves have already arrived (It’s not even June!). So here’s a good guide that explains heat exhaustion and how to prevent it from turning into a heat stroke. ()   SEVEN GRANDMA TRENDS JUST FOR YOU Yes, looking like an old biddy is a big fashion trend! Of course, all the old Indian biddies we know are exquisitely dressed in saris and salwars 🤷‍♀️ Minor quibbles aside, here’s an eye-popping array of knee socks, babushka scarves, pearls and tweed (?!!). ()  

Weekend advisory

Feel Good Place

THE FEEL GOOD PLACE doesn't need any comment or adjectives. got, er, a little peeved with the bunch of lathi-wielding bros with a need for speed. What happened next was 😂   got a cooling head bath from a wildlife conservationist! No baltis were hurt in the making of this clip.   in a Mumbai slum kept roza on the 27th day of Ramzan. The reason: to express gratitude toward their Muslim neighbours who gave them food and support during the lockdown.     , hear me roar!

Feel Good Place

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