The Daily Valet. - 3/26/20, Thursday
✔️ The Internet Is Actually Slowing
Thursday, March 26th Edition
I hope you’re all being safe ... in all the ways you can be.
Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf
↦ During such a wild time, we're hoping to distill the chatter into exactly what you need to know, along with some good news and uplifting motivation.
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Today’s Big Story
The Race to Respond
In the US, more than 69,000 people have tested positive and over 1,000 have died from COVID-19
The US death toll from coronavirus topped 1,000 Wednesday evening, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins. There are now more than 69,000 confirmed cases in the country.
A makeshift morgue was set up in New York, the nation’s biggest coronavirus hot spot, which has become something of a cautionary tale. The city’s police, their ranks dwindling as more fall ill, were told to patrol the eerily empty streets to enforce social distancing.
According to the Associated Press, public health officials are hunting down beds and medical equipment while putting out a call for more doctors and nurses for they fear the number of sick will explode in a matter of weeks, overwhelming hospitals like what happened in Italy and Spain.
And the virus is spreading rapidly in the South, as Louisiana, Florida and Georgia report alarming rises in confirmed cases. There are now more cases in the New Orleans area than there are in Los Angeles County—and Los Angeles County is 25 times larger. At all of Atlanta’s four major hospitals, every ICU bed is taken, reports CBS News.
Perhaps even more disturbing, is that doctors and nurses say that more people are dying from the coronavirus than we know. “The numbers are grossly under-reported. I know for a fact that we’ve had three deaths in one county where only one is listed on the website,” one California ER doctor told BuzzFeed News.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, pleading for help in dealing with the onslaught, perhaps put it best when he said Wednesday: “We’re still on the way up the mountain.”
↦ Dig Deeper: Monitor the spread (and recoveries) in real-time with DOMO's visual tracker, updated every 10 minutes from such trusted sources including WHO, CDC and Johns Hopkins University.
Can the Internet Keep Up With Us?
YouTube, Netflix begin slowing services to handle the quarantine strain
As millions of Americans hunker down to slow the spread of COVID-19, gaming, teleconferencing and video streaming services are putting an added stress on the internet, reports Vice.
And while telecom executives told Motherboard that US internet services could weather the storm, many content providers are taking extra precautions to make sure that's true. Personally, I've noticed some slowing and outages—usually during the most inconvenient of times, too.
According to Bloomberg, YouTube will be taking steps around the world to limit bandwidth consumption. And Netflix announced that it would be slowing down customer bit rates to reduce overall network traffic by 25% to help avoid any potential congestion.
But for most of us, experts say the biggest problem is on the "last mile" due to slow home broadband speeds. Of particular note could be the slow upstream speeds on aging DSL lines that have been long neglected by American telecom monopolies.
↦ FYI: Here's how to make video calls more tolerable for you and your colleagues.
We Know Who’s Not Social Distancing
The smartphone data doesn’t lie
If you have a smartphone, you’re probably contributing to a massive coronavirus surveillance system, reports the Washington Post.
And it's giving the cold hard truth about who's really being responsible with their social distancing ... and who's not.
A company called Unacast that collects and analyzes phone GPS location data launched a Social Distancing Scoreboard that grades, county by county, which residents are changing behavior at the urging of health officials. It uses the reduction in the total distance we travel as a rough index for whether we're staying put at home.
And while many states are doing well, there are those (*cough* Utah) that are failing miserably. Currently, this is purely academic. But there is a chance the government could use such tracking, like South Korea has, to ensure people stay put.
↦ FYI: If you don’t want your phone’s location showing up on a social distancing map, review the apps you have installed or just turn off your phone’s location services.
Intimacy Increases During Isolation
A company is giving away 250,000 condoms to help make quarantines a bit safer
As we round the corner on another week of social distancing and self-isolation, some couples are finding the close quarters challenging. Others, however, are taking advantage of the extra time together.
So much so that there's talk of these quarantines leading to a coronavirus baby boom. Especially if condoms go the way of hand sanitizer and toilet paper. In Asia, quarantine measures fueled a jump in sales of condoms, leading many stores and brands to sellout.
According to the Mercury News, condom sales have been increasing here in the States since coronavirus cases were first diagnosed on the West Coast, where a growing number of shelter-in-place orders are in place.
But here's some good news: If you're a couple self-isolating together, Promescent—the popular delay spray—is offering to ship you a pack of condoms for free. "In times of uncertainty, it’s natural to seek physical and emotional intimacy," Promescent CEO Jeff Abraham said in a statement. "We want to do our part to ensure people are continuing to practice safe sex and have adequate access to birth control in a time of social distancing."
↦ FYI: According to The Week, pharmacies and e-commerce sites have seen a huge spike in sales of condoms since the beginning of the outbreak.
In Other News
Other Things We’re Talking About Today
+
Examining Tesla’s “Bioweapon Defense” Mode
Here’s what the electric car’s large HEPA filter really does
Tesla has become known for their wild features and recently made a big deal about the fact that its cars have an enormous HEPA filter and an impressive-sounding Bioweapon Defense Mode. But Sharp wondered, what do these things actually do?
High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters work by forcing air through a very fine mesh filter. "This type of air filter can theoretically remove at least 99.97% of dust, pollen, mold, bacteria and any airborne particles with a size of 0.3 microns," according to the EPA. For comparison, an N95 mask only removes, "at least 95% of airborne particles," according to the CDC.
Could this really protect a driver from an airborne chemical attack or say, coronavirus droplets? Apparently, it could—considering that the droplets are large enough to be caught by the filter. And, according to Popular Mechanics, since the electric engine doesn't have an air intake, it allows the vehicle to be completely sealed.
Weekend Shopping Plans
From loungewear to smart watches, our picks from three can’t-miss sales going on this weekend.
An extra 15% off sale items
Longsleeve polo $145 / $73.95
An extra 20% off underwear w/code COZY
Classic trunks (5-pack) $59.50 / $33
An extra 20% off sale items
Fitbit Versa $199.97 / $103.98
Morning Motto
Ask yourself these before you get started today
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