Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 196

It feels like we're in an altered reality right now, but this is real -- a World Health Organization (WHO) official has said that they may have to "enter homes and remove family members" because of the novel coronavirus. Watch it with your own eyes:

Carlson says: "In response to the spread of coronavirus, authorities may have to enter peoples' homes and remove family members -- presumably, by force". On March 30, Dr. Michael Ryan who is an Executive Director at the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, said something that I'm not seeing much coverage of.

The WHO official said: "in most parts of the world, due to lockdown, most of the transmission that's actually happening in many countries now is happening in the household, at family level. In some senses, transmission has been taken off the streets and pushed back into family units, now we need to go and look in families and find those people who may be sick and remove them, and isolate them, in a safe and dignified manner".

China is leading the way in pushing out new technologies amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic bringing the world to its knees, with a new robotic 5G car that scans faces, checks for a fever, and it even makes deliveries.

In a world where we're all pretty much forced to stay inside of our homes, the Beijing Institute of Technology has deployed a robotic 5G monitoring car that is roaming its campus. Remote operators then control the 5G-powered car from a facility, while remotely driving the car to make deliveries and check your temperature.

When it's in basic delivery mode, the robotic 5G car can carry packages from one location to another -- with 1 out of its 4 side-mounted locker doors opening up so people can collect their packages. But wait, because there's a top-mounted camera that will turn around and identify you through facial recognition, and thermally scanning you to see if you have a temperature.

UK prime minister Boris Johnson has been moved to intensive care, shortly after being admitted to hospital in London on Sunday night with "persistent symptoms" of coronavirus. These symptoms have now worsened.

The Queen herself is being updated on Johnson's health, with BBC political correspondent Chris Mason saying he had been given oxygen on late Monday afternoon before he was taken into intensive care. A No 10 statement explains: "The prime minister has been under the care of doctors at St Thomas' Hospital, in London, after being admitted with persistent symptoms of coronavirus".

The statement continues: "Over the course of [Monday] afternoon, the condition of the prime minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the intensive care unit at the hospital. The PM is receiving excellent care, and thanks all NHS staff for their hard work and dedication".

Iceland lab testing is suggesting that 50% of coronavirus cases have absolutely no symptoms at all.

The 360,000 people in Iceland has seen around 5% of its population tested so far, with 17,900 people tested for coronavirus. Out of these 17,900 people, Icelandic officials noticed around 50% of them had no COVID-19 coronavirus symptoms whatsoever.

Nearly half of Iceland's tests for coronavirus have been completed by biopharma company deCODE Genetics, where their screen program "accepts everybody who is not showing symptoms and not currently in quarantine".

It was barely a week ago that I reported that the first pet cat had been infected with coronavirus in Belgium, and now a Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York has tested positive for coronavirus.

The 4-year-old Malayan tiger is called Nadia, the first tiger to test positive for COVID-19 coronavirus -- is the first known infection in an animal in the US, or a tiger anywhere. 6 other tigers and lions have also been struck down with coronavirus, with a zoo employee (who isn't showing signs yet) reportedly infecting the tigers and lions at the Bronx Zoo.

Zoo Director Jim Breheny said in a statement: "These are extremely hard days for all of us -- no matter where we live and work". The US Department of Agriculture confirmed Nadia's test results at its veterinary lab, adding that there were no other known cases of coronavirus in US pets or livestock, yet.

I thought this was an April Fools Day joke before I wrote it, but it's not -- there are real coronavirus action figures that have been on the market for weeks now, shown off on Death by Toys on Facebook.

Yeah, there's real coronavirus action figures and I'm pretty sure I'm still in this reality and haven't skipped over a few hertz. It all started with the 'coronavirus action figures' in some Novelty Sick Action Figures, which you can buy from Death by Toys right here.

The Novelty Sick Action Figures let you "recreate the classic global pandemic" with "custom made Action Figures". You will get a set of 3, which are mounted on a single-sided cardback. Death by Toys notes that covering the puff balls with tiny red dots was a "complete pain".

President Trump has said that the US government is expecting up to 240,000 deaths in relation to COVID-19, with Bloomberg now reporting that the Pentagon has placed an order for 100,000 body bags for FEMA.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has requested 100,000 body bags, requesting the "Human Remains Pouches" as their known, from the Pentagon. The Pentagon will provide 50,000 body bags from its stockpiles right now, while 50,000 more will be acquired in the coming weeks.

The Defense Logistics Agency's Troop Support unit handles the stockpile of body bags for the Pentagon, with the 94-inch by 38-inch body bags normally deployed into war zones. During his speech at the White House on Tuesday, President Trump said: "This is going to be a painful two weeks. Our strength will be tested, our endurance will be tried".

Can you imagine the COVID-19 coronavirus situation getting any worse? Well, let's hope not -- as the Henan province in central China has just gone into full lockdown.

Politico reports that the Henan province in central China is in a full lockdown as "authorities try to fend off a second coronavirus wave in the midst of a push to revive the economy". Starting yesterday were curfew-like measures in Jia county, which is near the city of Pingdingshan.

600,000 residents were told to stay at home, with special approval required for any movmenet outside of your home, a rule forced by the government on the country's official microblog account. But then there's the question that COVID-19 coronavirus is the "worst cover-up in human history" and that it could've originated in a new biosafety lab (BSL-4) in Wuhan -- where the virus began. You can read more on that here.

It looks like the current COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak is about to be blown wide open, with Rep. Michael T. McCaul, Texas Republican and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee saying "This is one of the worst cover-ups in human history, and now the world is facing a global pandemic".

Well, they're some fighting words. It is being reported that the current coronavirus has mutated from bats that reportedly infected animals and people at a wild animal market in Wuhan, China -- but the origin of the virus itself is still unknown.

There were "conspiracy theories" that COVID-19 coronavirus was a bioweapon, and came from an animal that had the disease tested on them and then sold to local Wuhan markets. From there, it began spreading quickly through Wuhan and then eventually, the world. To the point where the entire global economy has come to a grinding halt, and billions of people are in lockdown or quarantined to their homes.

President Trump's coronavirus task force warns that up to 240,000 U.S. citizens could die from coronavirus exposure--and that's part of the best case scenario.

In yesterday's press briefing, the Trump administration delivered some sobering messages. President Trump warned Americans the next two weeks would be "very painful" as coronavirus deaths are expected to peak in mid-April. The best case scenario for total coronavirus deaths is in the hundreds thousands. The task force expects at least 100,000 people to die from the coronavirus in the United States, and deaths are expected to hit over 2,000 on April 15.

Without mitigation guidelines like social distancing, that number skyrockets to the millions.

Astronomers have released a paper revealing that they have discovered the exact diameter of the Milky Way galaxy.

The paper has been released by astronomers from Durham University in England, and more specifically, astrophysicist Alis Deason and her colleagues released the paper on arXiv.org. According to the paper, the Milky Way's exact diameter is 1.9 million light-years, with a margin of error of 0.4 million light-years. Rosemary Wyze, a fellow astronomer at Johns Hopkins University, spoke to ScienceNews in regards to the Milky Way's new diameter measurement.

Here's what was said, "help astronomers tease out other galactic properties." The new measurement of the Milky Way should help astronomers gain a much more precise understanding of how many more galaxies are revolving around the Milky Way. At the moment, there are about 60 known galaxies surrounding the Milky Way, but since this new measurement has been made, that number is likely to grow. If you are interested in reading more on this discovery, check out this link here.

If you thought a couple of weeks being forced to stay inside over COVID-19 coronavirus, then what about 12 months? Yeah, an entire year of social distancing might be the next step worldwide.

According to freshly-released documents, the only real way of controlling the outbreak of coronavirus and preventing intensive care workers and hospitals to be completely overwhelmed, a new push of social distancing will need to happen. The consensus statement released by the UK-based Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling suggests social distancing restrictions will need to last for up to 12 months.

A panel of experts was put together by the Department of Health and Social Care, where they advised on the response by the UK to the coronavirus pandemic -- based on infectious disease modelling and epidemiology. It said: "It was agreed that a policy of alternating between periods of more and less strict social distancing measures could plausibly be effective at keeping the number of critical care cases within capacity".

If you thought you were bored being forced to stay-at-home over COVID-19 coronavirus lockdowns, then you might want to pull out your DVDs of Stargate SG-1.

Air Force General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, who is the head of U.S. Northern Command and NORAD, announced during a recent Facebook Live town hall with others under his command, that they've moved part of the U.S. Army's Northern Command in charge of homeland security in the US into the Cheyenne Mountain bunker in Colorado to be isolated from coronavirus.

O'Shaughnessy explained: "To ensure that we can defend the homeland despite this pandemic, our command and control watch teams here in the headquarters split into multiple shifts and portions of our watch team began working from Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, creating a third team at an alternate location as well".

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, is the leading authority in the United States for COVID-19 coronavirus and he has some scary new estimates.

During CNN's State of the Union Sunday, Dr. Fauci said that they estimate between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths in the US alone from COVID-19. Fauci said that there will be millions of cases, and he has helped out during other crises of viral diseases, leading the federal response of SARS, MERS, Ebola, and now COVID-19.

The warnings of 100,000 to 200,000 deaths over COVID-19 are based on estimates on models, with the most-extreme, worst-case scenario would see COVID-19 killing millions of Americans. Fauci commented on millions of Americans dying over COVID-19, saying that it is "not impossible, but very, very unlikely".

We all know the panic that COVID-19 coronavirus is having on the world, and with more time spent at home -- pet owners would be cuddling their bundles of love all day long, right? Remember you can be more protected from COVID-19 coronavirus with this Catface N95 mask.

Well, over in Belgium a cat owner has infected their beloved pet with coronavirus according to Belgium health authorities. Dr Emmanuel Andre, a government spokesperson on COVID-19 coronavirus said that this was "an isolated case" that happens after "close contact between animals and infected humans".

He added that coronavirus can be transmitted between humans and animals, but "there is no reason to think that animals can be vectors of the epidemic in our society".

If you want to protect yourself from COVID-19 coronavirus in a little bit of style, here's a handy guide on how to make your own "Catface" N95 mask, and it even has whiskers.

Grassy Knoll Industries have put the work into making some instructions and a guide on how to make a Catface N95 mask, with the company considering its new cat-styled mask as "Quarantine Couture". But it's not just a boring old guide, it is filled with some laughs and is worth a look on that alone. Meow.

Just to give you an idea of what Grassy Knoll Industries has in its guide to the Catface N95 mask: "Welcome to the Future. This design is easy to make with materials found around the house. Are you in quarantine for two or more weeks? Are you slowly losing your mind from boredom? Are you worried about having to appear in public in a dreary white mask? This design is free to use, share, mash up or make in a factory in China. We don't care what you do with it. We do care that you have fun and attempt to amuse your fellow citizens".

New York could be completely quarantined over the current COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, with President Trump tweeting that is thinking about quarantine the entire city. The news of a full quarantine of New York comes just 3 weeks after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo established a containment zone over COVID-19 coronavirus.

In a tweet, President Trump said: "I am giving consideration to a QUARANTINE of developing 'hot spots', New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. A decision will be made, one way or another, shortly". With over 115,000 coronavirus cases in the United States alone, it stands as the highest amount in a country in the world.

The tri-state area of New York State, New Jersey, and Connecticut have seen 65,000 cases of COVID-19, alongside 1056 deaths so far. New York City is accounting for most of the increasing numbers of cases and deaths of COVID-19 coronavirus. It's not just President Trump that is concerned, but New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who has said that President Trump's proposal is a "civil war-kind of discussion".

The US Space Force is about to launch its first National Security Mission. The mission will put a next-gen military communications satellite in orbit.

The satellite is a Lockheed Martin Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF-6), and will be launching into orbit on the back of a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. According to Lockheed Martin, the satellite will provide "vastly improved global, survivable, protected communications capabilities for strategic command and tactical warfighters operating on ground, sea and air platforms."

The AEHF-6 satellite will orbit Earth at about 22,200 miles above the planet and will be providing vital information to the US military force, as well as international partners such as Canada, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The AEHF-6 is one of six satellites that are currently circling Earth; the first five were launched in August 2010, May 2012, September 2013, October 2018 and August 2019. If you are interested in more information regarding the satellite, check out this link here.

The Folding@Home project has now reached a new power level, as both the public and companies have given their spare compute power to the project in an attempt to combat the coronavirus COVID-19.

If you don't know what Folding@Home is, it's a project run by Stanford University that allows the public to donate spare GPU/CPU compute power into a single force to be reckoned with. Just last week, Folding@Home received donated compute power from more than 400,000 volunteers, bringing its power level to an astonishing 470 petaFLOPS of computing performance.

To put that number into context, the world's most powerful supercomputer, IBM's 'Summit' has a peak compute of 200 petaFLOPS. Now, a recent announcement from the Folding@Home Twitter page has revealed that the project has hit another milestone - "Thanks to our AMAZING community, we've crossed the exaFLOP barrier! That's over a 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 operations per second making us ~10x faster than the IBM Summit!" In fact, according to the stat page for Folding@Home, the project has crossed over to 1.5 ExaFLOPS, or 1,500,000,000,000,000,000 operations per second. The power of Folding@Home is being aimed directly at uncovering the mysteries of the coronavirus COVID-19.

Some would argue Nintendo has already done enough for coronavirus relief by releasing Animal Crossing: New Horizons. But the Big N isn't done yet.

Nintendo of America is donating 9,500 N95 respirator masks to its local Eastside Fire & Rescue division to help protect responders against the growing coronavirus pandemic. North Bend, Washington's official community site reports Nintendo rep Jerry Danson initiated the donation. The company stockpiled a surplus of masks for its employees in case of a crisis, but now that everyone's working from home, the highly sought after masks are better used for health workers on the front lines.

Eastside Fire & Rescue plans to dole out the masks to the community as needed to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, including hospitals, doctor's offices, and more. Nintendo's generosity hasn't gone unnoticed and the community of North Bend is thankful for the billion-dollar games-maker's donation.