Look on the bright side
Corona has us all in a weird state of uncertainty and negative news (including Covidiots).
So let’s have a look at what positive side effects Corona and other disasters might bring. (I’ll start with mindfulness training and some new fancy yoga thing soon.)
Open office: Corona maybe finally stop that awful open office & hot desking trend. About time. The open office has so many flaws (flaws, flaws, flaws) it’s a wonder that it’s still a thing. And don’t get me started on hot-desking (fancy some germs?). But less space for more people = more money.
Source: NYT
Wine up north: Due to climate change, we might soon have more wine from Sweden. Cheers!
Sports: Since coronavirus shut down all sports, it’s been a bit quiet. Though, thanks to John Oliver we can now enjoy marble runs. Great fun.
Travel: Picking travel destinations is becoming a lot easier. Here are the last countries without coronavirus.
Inequality: Apparently, a pandemic can be a great equalizer. Well, we will see what the robber barons 2.0 have to say about it.
Media: Small magazines and niche publications are becoming more popular again. For a change: thanks, Corona.
Mood: Corona time
You can't touch this (oh-oh oh oh oh-oh-oh)
Segments
🙅♀️ You did Nazi me coming
[against right-wing politics]
Wanna join the dictators and despots? Here’s a field guide to tyranny.
Trump is giving the media shit on purpose (zone-flooding). “The act of communicating the ‘information’ has the effect of normalizing it.” As usual, less is more.
🕵️ I have nothing to hide
[privacy]
Contact-tracing app/database (NSO). Unprotected and without a password. Cool.
Zoom bought Keybase in order to integrate the end-to-end encryption which it claimed to have all along.
US Senate voted to let NSA warrantlessly collect your browsing history.
Surveillance company NSO pitched phone hacking tech to the police. The police. Sure.
Xiaomi recording private web and phone use. Let the data flowww.
Email addresses can be easily picked up by trackers when the site does not protect it. Happen to JetBlue and many others. (I’d know a few in Switzerland as well.)
When your freedom depends on an app.
🔥 It’s getting hot out there
[climate change]
Much fun: melting glaciers could result in tsunamis.
And much more might come. It’s all about the unknown unknowns.
📈 Fantastic data and where to find them
[data, data visualization, data journalism]
“It’s the pandemic, stupid.” Lockdowns had only little impact on economic activity. Non-lockdown states (Iowa) have about the same decrease in consumer spending as lockdown states (Minnesota). Even if we assume spillover effects (business across borders), it shows it’s a societal issue.
And one thing is even worse: turning countries inward.
Since it’s all about the numbers, some countries and states try to manipulate data to appear more positive. Virginia is the latest example.
This and that
Insider Trading: Remember those US politicians that sold stock while receiving Coronavirus briefings (Burr, Loeffler)? The FBI is now looking into it.
For all aspiring conspiracy theorists: Bill Gates is soon going to publish Covid-20. A new 5G-driven hoax to force vaccination.
A hacker saved the internet (the world) from the WannaCry virus. But got arrested by the FBI. Important read.
Something so good I wished I wrote it myself: “Why we at $FAMOUS_COMPANY Switched to $HYPED_TECHNOLOGY”
Cryptocurrency, the great equalizer. Creating a better world… by hacking computers to mine it. Better: shady dudes trapped in a pyramid scheme.
Those $270bn that Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Facebook have in net cash, sure might help some countries and regions. But they’d rather not pay taxes instead.
The NYT print frontpage is still designed with pen and pencil.