Category: Worldwide

While most of us are stuck at home, the bears in Yosemite National Park are having a spring break rager as the near-empty park has allowed them to roam freely. The Los Angeles Times reports that park rangers have noticed an increased presence of bears, bobcats, and coyotes throughout the 7.5-mile valley, as just 100 to 200 park service employees tend to the park. April is generally a packed month for Yosemite, with last year seeing around 308,000 visitors.

According to CBS News, in a Facebook live stream a park ranger simply known as Ranger Katie, a biologist who has a decade of experience with black bears, explained that normally the high volume of visitors during spring would create walls of cars and traffic in the park, “For the bears, they normally have to pick through these little corridors that they have to move through in the valley to get from Point A to Point B… Now, that there are no people the bears are literally just walking down the road to get where they need to go, which is kind of cool to see.”

That sounds both beautiful and terrifying, especially considering the bears are definitely going to become fond of life without us around ruining things with our general human obnoxiousness. Ranger Katie explains that this abnormal absence of humans might be a problem when the park finally reopens, as typically bears are exposed to humans within the first year of their lives.

Check out Yosemite’s various social media accounts for some views of what the park looks like undisturbed. It’s a trip. Not literally, but you know, it’s either that or look out your window.

Most travel — especially international travel — is on a long hiatus. But that doesn’t mean you can’t go places. You just have to do it virtually now. Not being able to just hop on a plane and jet off whenever you want has created a boom in virtual tours. The U.S. National Parks Service, museums large and small, breweries and distilleries, and national tourism boards have all leaned into virtual travel over the past month, giving us a chance to scratch that wanderlust itch without putting anyone at risk.

While virtual tours might not feel quite like the real thing, they definitely inspire wanderlust and help you connect with a wider world that is currently out of reach. Sure, sitting in our beds or on our couches will never be a replacement for the sounds, smells, and energies of actually standing in front of the Mona Lisa or walking a distilling floor. But it’s something. A chance to escape the doldrums of the day-to-day during a lockdown. A chance to dream of travel again.

The ten virtual tours below offer a chance to stoke your travel dreams. We’ve tried to cover options from different sectors and brands. For instance, we only call out one Smithsonian museum because you can find the rest of the museum’s tours once you’re viewing the first one — same with the National Parks, art galleries, and so on.

Ready? Let’s hit that virtual road!

The Museum of Islamic Art — Doha, Qatar

Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art is one of the world’s coolest museums (I actually got to go last year and it was a highpoint of the entire year, culturally speaking). The museum covers thousands of years of science, history, and art in its expansive collection. Thousand-year-old Persian rugs hang next to gilden murals and detailed, hand-carved jewelry.

Then there are the astrophysics instruments. The museum’s collection of medieval Islamic astrolabes (a cosmic calculator) is stunning.

Museo Galileo — Florence, Italy

Speaking of astrolabes, the Museo Galileo in Florance is a must-stop if you ever get a chance to go to Firenze. The museum — next door to the Uffizi Gallery — has a massive collection of medieval maps, globes, scientific instruments, telescopes, old labs, and more throughout several floors. The whole experience is a fascinating look into the spread of European culture and people throughout the world in the 1400 and 1500s, how Europeans viewed space, and the massive impact European science has had on everyday life.

The National Palace Museum — Taipei City, Taiwan

The National Palace Museum offers a chance to learn about the 5,000 plus year history of Sino-focused culture in Taiwan. The lush museum grounds are worth a wander on their own. But it’s in the several exhibits peppered throughout the palace buildings where the real treasures reside. The tour will offer you a glimpse into an ancient and gorgeous world of history, art, and architecture.

Remarkable Redwoods Virtual Tour — Redwood National Parks, California

NPS.gov has a great interactive experience called “Find Your Virtual Park” that covers parks from coast-to-coast. There are interactive 360° virtual tours via YouTube, podcasts, webcams, and even kid-focused activities for those locked down with kids. One of our favorites is the Remarkable Redwoods tour — with Ranger Greg walking us through all aspects of the Ancients in California.

Google Earth Voyager — Worldwide

This one is a little more wide open to interpretation. Google Earth Voyager offers street-view virtual “walking tours” of cities, towns, and destinations all over the world. Simply hit the “Travel” section and you’ll be taken to street-view tours with points of interest ready to explore. It’s an interesting way to walk around a place from your phone or computer. There are also opportunities to hike volcanoes, wander through wildlife reserves, go diving, see the Arctic, and so much more.

Smithsonian National Museum Of The American Indian — Washington, D.C./New York City

The National Museum of the American Indian has some fantastic interactive and virtual art and historical installations. Their current exhibitions on Native American photographers, an overview of the cultures of the Americas called “Americans,” micro-installations like the Pacific Northwest History and Cultures: Why Do the Foods We Eat Matter?, and more are all available digitally right now.

It’s also worth noting that the Smithsonian has large selections from all their museums available online.

360° — Australia

If you’re in North America, Australia has probably never felt further away. Luckily for you, Tourism Australia has a collection of 360° videos that take you deep into every corner of the massive country. The theme of the videos is the coastlines, waterways, and beachside stretches of the continent. The videos are fully immersive and will leave you longing to finally go Down Under once the coast is clear.

Musée du Louvre Online Tours — Paris, France

Paris’ Louvre is probably one of the most well-known museums in the world. It’s also so massive that you’d be hard-pressed to see it all in one day. The museum has pivoted in the wake of the current pandemic and is offering four “Online Tours” through its The Advent of the Artist Exhibition, Egyptian Antiquities, Remains of the Louvre’s Moat, and Galerie d’Apollon (the model for Versailles Hall of Mirrors). You also have a chance to browse the overall collection through the “Search the Collection” option.

Buffalo Trace Distillery — Frankfort, Kentucky

Buffalo Trace was ahead of the curve on virtual distillery tours. The tour — launched early last year — is comprehensive and offers a chance to dive into all the labels under the Buffalo Trace roof while learning the history of bourbon and everything it takes to get a perfect dram.

A word of warning though, this interactive experience is a download and plays like a simple video game. Still, it’s a great distraction that’ll teach you little something about Kentucky bourbon.

7 Minutes in Saint Lucia — Saint Lucia

7 Minutes In Saint Lucia is an IG-focused virtual look at the Caribbean island through the eyes of locals. Every Tuesday and Thursday local chefs, tour guides, yogis, and DJs offer a window in the tropical paradise for seven minutes via Instagram. The stories are saved on Travel Saint Lucia’s IG page if you want to go back and dive in. Overall, this is a great way to get a small taste of a paradise from the comfort of your home.

If you want to see a version of WWE from an alternate universe, check out the company’s “first-ever WWE Community Impact Report,” a slideshow that promotes all the positive things the company does (and some it arguably doesn’t.) This report, and WWE’s coronavirus awareness PSA that doesn’t mention social distancing, have been released just as WWE started running live wrestling shows multiple times a week, circumventing a stay-at-home order by after deemed, along with other sports and media, an “essential business” by the state of Florida.

For anyone who follows WWE, this slideshow is incredible. The phrase “putting smiles on faces” is used so many times you’d think a wrestling fan wrote this as a parody. Alongside descriptions of their legitimate charity work with organizations like the Special Olympics, UNICEF, and The Make-A-Wish Foundation, WWE makes sure to mention their “in-kind media support” and the millions of views it has generated. There’s also a statement that WWE promotes “a culture of inclusion” for everyone, “regardless of age, race, religion, sexual orientation, or physical or intellectual ability” that recalls not only decades of angles that give a different impression, but that just last night Jerry Lawler said something so racist about a wrestler on Raw that it was edited out of the Hulu version of the show.

Even if it’s geared towards only people who don’t keep up with wrestling, the Community Impact Report is still a brazen PR move considering:

• WWE running live shows during a pandemic has been picked up by outlets like ESPN, CNN, NBC News, and many other major media outlets
• two of the biggest WWE-related stories to get mainstream media coverage over the past few years have been about its deal with the government of Saudi Arabia and how the company doesn’t give its wrestlers healthcare
• the Jimmy Snuka episode of Dark Side Of The Ring airs tonight

Did you know that before directing Whiplash, La La Land, and First Man, three of the finest films of the 2010s, Damien Chazelle co-wrote The Last Exorcism Part II, the heinous Eli Roth-produced sequel to The Last Exorcism (a misleading title, imo)? There’s a message in there about not letting your past mistakes define you. Or something! Chazelle has certainly moved on from his days as a credited screenwriter for terrible horror movies — he’s now making prestige Netflix series with Andre Holland.

Described as a “vibrant musical drama,” The Eddy follows Elliot Udo (Holland), a “once celebrated musician from New York, [who’s now] running a small Jazz club called The Eddy in a multicultural neighborhood in modern-day Paris. He is struggling to keep the club open, manage the house band and deal with his past. When he finds out that his partner is involved in questionable business practices things start to spin out of control,” according to the official plot synopsis. The series is only eight episodes long, so it’s like FX’s Devs from fellow acclaimed filmmaker Alex Garland, or Nicolas Winding Refn’s Too Old to Die Young for Amazon, but with more jazz. My man loves his jazz.

The Eddy — which also stars Joanna Kulig (who was so good in Cold War) as Elliot’s on-again, off-again girlfriend, alongside Amandla Stenberg (The Hate U Give) and Tahar Rahim (A Prophet) — premieres on Netflix on May 8.

Now that Black Widow has a November 2020 release date after global box office conditions forced the film to abandon its spring premiere, Kevin Smith took the time to explain to fans why they never should have got their hopes up that the Marvel movie would drop early on Disney+ or even video-on-demand.

During his Fatman Beyond Live broadcast, Smith got very blunt when co-host Marc Bernardin mentioned that Disney had already moved Artemis Fowl to Disney+ and Disney CEO Bob Iger has said other films could make a similar move. Smith made it very clear that shifting films like Artemis Fowl whose box-office draws aren’t a sure thing makes sense, but that would never be the case with Marvel “because those movies make f*cking money, man, legit f*cking money.”

Obviously, Smith is correct. The Marvel movies are box-office behemoths with many of them bringing in over a billion dollars during their theatrical runs. Disney isn’t about to lose that kind of money just to entice users to its streaming service. However, Smith does offer one scenario where putting Black Widow on VOD early could work, but it comes with one hell of a price tag. Via Comic Book:

“Honestly, the only way they could do it — and I bet you they could, I bet you this would work — you put out Black Widow on transactional video and you charge $100 a copy. People would still buy it, dude. We’re crazy, we’re stupid,” Smith said. “Think about it, it’s even a pretty good deal if you’ve got a big household. You’ve got five people in the house, that’s what you’d spend going to see it in a movie theater, you get to watch it in the privacy of your own home.”

Could Smith’s plan actually work? He seems to think so. In fact, he predicts it would force movie studios to abandon the theater model altogether. “If we all did that, that would change the world,” he said. “They’d be like, ‘F*ck movie theaters! Sell them these movies for $100 a pop.’” Considering the average movie ticket is $10 to $12, that’s a hefty price jump. Sure, people love the Marvel movies and flock to see them in droves. But do they love them enough to drop a cool hundred just to rent one? That’s a pretty big ask.

(Via Comic Book)

While Anthony Davis seemed destined to end up as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, a handful of other teams were in the market for the All-NBA big man’s services while he was still with the New Orleans Pelicans. One such franchise was the New York Knicks, and according to a report, Davis was legitimately interested in heading to the Big Apple.

That, of course, did not happen, as the Lakers paid a hefty price in order to land Davis, while the Knicks apparently had some reservations about giving up too much after giving up a ton in the Carmelo Anthony trade years earlier. It did not help that one such piece that would have presumably needed to be on the table was untouchable in trade talks.

According to Ian Begley of SNY, the Knicks had zero interest in parting ways with Mitchell Robinson in a Davis deal. That might no longer be the case now that the franchise’s top decision maker, Leon Rose, did not draft him, but under the front office’s previous regime, Robinson was staying in New York.

“Steve Mills and Scott Perry were not open to moving Robinson last year in any package that would have returned Anthony Davis, per sources,” Begley wrote. “But Mills and Perry also drafted Robinson. Generally speaking, executives who draft a player are more reluctant to trade the prospect.”

Begley did specify that any potential trade involving Robinson would be dependent on who the Knicks could get — he speculated that he would be surprised if Robinson wasn’t made available in a trade for a player the caliber of Karl-Anthony Towns. It is important to stress that Robinson is a good and very promising player, and he has the potential to be the centerpiece of a rebuild due to his ability to terrorize opponents near the rim on both ends of the floor. Still, while plenty of folks are high on what he can do, it appears New York’s old front office was higher than most.

Many parts of the country have been significantly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, and that includes New Jersey: The CDC notes the state has over 64,000 reported cases of COVID-19, meaning only neighboring New York has more cases than New Jersey. In an effort to help the state through this difficult time, the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund was recently formed, and they are gearing up to host a benefit livestream: “Jersey 4 Jersey” is set to go down on April 22 at 7 p.m. EST, and it has a big lineup featuring artists and celebrities who hail from New Jersey.

The event will be led by Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, SZA, Halsey, Charlie Puth, and Tony Bennett, as well as non-musical talent including Jon Stewart, Chelsea Handler, Danny DeVito, Whoopi Goldberg, Kelly Ripa, and Saquon Barkley.

Springsteen guested on Good Morning America today and shared the news, saying, “New Jersey has been hit especially hard by the coronavirus pandemic, and the people of New Jersey have always stepped up during difficult times. That’s why I’m pleased to announce that on April 22nd, I hope you’ll join me, Jon Bon Jovi, Tony Bennett, Jon Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg, Charlie Puth, SZA, Saquon Barkley, Danny DeVito, Chelsea Handler, and many more for this special event. […] This is our effort to do everything we can for our folks here in the Garden State, and I hope you’ll join us. Thanks.”

The show will be broadcast simultaneously on the Apple Music and Apple TV apps, as well as on SiriusXM’s E Street Radio. Additionally, also airing the show will be a bunch of local TV stations — WABC, WPVI, WPIX, News12 and NJTV — and radio stations — WINS, WCBS 880, CBS-FM, WFAN, New York’s Country 94.7, Alt 92.3 and Q104.3.

As countries around the world pay rapt attention to the rising number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths from COVID-19, some confusion about the mathematics of it all keep floating around.

I’ve seen countless comments from people who say things like:

“The virus has only killed 20,000 people. The seasonal flu kills 60,000 people each year and we don’t shut the country down for that!”

“Far more Americans die of flu/cancer/heart disease/etc. than will die from COVID-19 this year. Why aren’t we shutting down the economy for those things?”

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The idea that the coronavirus isn’t markedly different or worse than the seasonal flu got an early hold in some people’s consciousness when the virus first emerged. Part of the problem is that the virality and mortality of the virus hasn’t been totally clear. Even Dr. Fauci and colleagues wrote an editorial published February 28 in the New England Journal of Medicine stating that the coronavirus death rates “may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza.”

However, with a novel virus, things change quickly and experts’ knowledge and understanding change along with it. As we saw numbers begin to emerge from around the world, it became clear that this virus is more contagious and far deadlier than the seasonal flu. Dr. Fauci stated in an interview with Trevor Noah on March 26 that the coronavirus was actually at least twice as contagious and ten times as deadly as the seasonal flu. Though death rates vary widely by country so far, and we won’t have a clear picture of that rate for quite some time, it’s clear that this isn’t your average flu.

Additionally, normal flu seasons vary in severity, but the flue is largely a known quantity. We know there will be flu strains, and epidemiologists construct a vaccine each year based on their most informed guess as to which strains will be circulating the most. So we have vaccines and we have treatments to lessen flu severity, such as Tamiflu. And since flu-related deaths happen fairly evenly throughout flu season, our hospital system doesn’t get overwhelmed by them.

Let’s hold that thought about overwhelmed hospitals while we look at the other comment about various causes of death.

Yes, based on the numbers of deaths we’ve seen so far, more Americans die of things other than coronavirus each year. But there are some big “buts” here. Most of those causes of death are not communicable diseases. If shutting down the country for a period of time was guaranteed to save people’s lives from heart disease or cancer, I’m sure we’d do that. But we are already doing what we can to try to reduce deaths from things like heart disease, cancer, car accidents, and the seasonal flu.

A viral pandemic gone unchecked is an entirely different beast. We have been watching both the case numbers and the death numbers rise dramatically, even after enacting social distancing and locking down the country.

This chart shows a daily visualization of the increase in COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. compared to the average daily deaths from various causes from March 1 to April 18, 2020. GIve it 10 seconds or so, since the virus deaths start off slow, but then really start really taking off after March 20.

By April 8, you can see that the virus’s daily death toll overtakes every other cause of death in America.

This is called exponential growth. I’ve seen people say that coronavirus has killed 20,000 Americans in four months, making it sound like it was an average of 5,000 per month, but that’s not how this works. In January, we had no deaths. In February, just a few. By March 26, we had 1,000. Less than 3 weeks later, we’re at around 22,000. That’s what we mean by exponential growth. No other cause of death does that.

And again, this is with mitigation measures in place for the past month. Imagine what it would look like if we’d kept up business as usual during the past few weeks and let the virus spread unchecked. This kind of exponential growth in deaths is exactly why nations around the globe have shut down businesses and enacted social distancing guidelines.

This is not the seasonal flu. We don’t have a vaccine for this. We don’t have a cure for this. We don’t even have a sure-fire, reliable treatment for this.

The problem is that people see that numbers are not exploding as much as some models indicated they would and think “Oh, this has all been overblown!” They’re only seeing some overwhelmed hospitals in select areas and think that means all of the widespread preparations and shutdowns weren’t necessary. But that notion ignores the fact that the initial models provided an estimate for what would happen if we didn’t shut the country down, which was an absolutely catastrophic outcome with millions of deaths. Without these “extreme” measures, the death toll would be far higher, and more hospitals would be out of beds and ventilators. And it’s hard to predict beforehand where a big outbreak might spring up.

And we’re not even close to out of the woods yet. Our case and death numbers are still climbing, though experts indicate that we may be at a peak where we might plateau for a while.

But the bottom line is that this virus is not like something we’ve seen before. The death numbers we’ve seen so far can’t be compared to anything else. And we need to keep on doing what we’re doing to keep those exponential numbers under control.

Billie Eilish’s breakout 2019 secured her Grammys in every major category and opened up the possibility to collaborate with some of today’s biggest artists. The singer even became the youngest musician to record the theme song for a James Bond movie. Now, Eilish is making good on her new musical connections and recording a song with Latin pop icon Rosalía. In a recent interview, Rosalía revealed the collaboration will be unearthed very soon.

In an interview with Apple Music’s Beats 1, Rosalia talked about her quarantine routine and new music in the works. Specifically, Rosalía gave updates to her collaborative song with Eilish, which was rumored last June. While the singer is having difficulty focusing amidst the global pandemic, she’s making headway on finishing her song with Eilish:

“I feel like there’s so many things going on it’s hard to focus, but at the same time I feel blessed that I’m at home, that I’m safe, and that I can make music and I have all this time. I have this little studio here in one room. I have the basics like a midi keyboard, a computer, a mic, and I try to do all the vocal production for the next record. During these two last weeks I have been trying to finish the Billie Eilish collab. I think it’s getting quite closer. I think that the arrangements, I think that yesterday I finished the arrangements. I feel like the production, the sound design, is almost done, so I just need that Billie maybe sends the vocals and they send me the ideas that they want to add because we are there.”

Ahead of the interview, Rosalía recently debuted a reflective track she wrote in quarantine. Titled “Dolerme,” the guitar-driven ballad is a heartbreak anthem that showcases Rosalía’s powerful vocal range.

Atlanta-based rap due continues to explore their surreal Mirrorland world with the animated “Avenue” video. The second video in their animated series after “La La Challenge,” “Avenue” finds WowGr8 and Olu in the aftermath of their plane crash from the first video, pursued by flying monkeys and cruising in a hovercraft through a surreal cityscape with weirdly erotic posters on the walls and a giant tornado in the distance.

As in the previous video, the illustrations are created by McKay Felt, with direction by Strangeloop Studios, who have also created visual productions for Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus, and Tokimonsta. The psychedelic imagery continues to reflect the weird, Wizard Of Oz-inspired aesthetic the duo cooked up for their Dreamville debut, which encompassed videos like “Up” and “Swivel.”

The duo’s own releases have, of course, been sandwiched between their appearances on songs from the Dreamville compilation, Revenge Of The Dreamers III, leading them to pop up in videos like “Sacrifices” and “Down Bad,” but those appearances helped them secure their first platinum plaque, so they were probably worth taking some time off from promoting Mirrorland. Now that their animated videos have gotten a handle on revealing their mythical creation, the real fun will be seeing where they end up next.

Watch the “Avenue” video above.