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Human activity has drastically slowed over the past few weeks giving us a glimpse into what the world might look like if we weren’t around. One of the most dramatic changes that we can see with the naked eye is an improvement in air quality over major metropolitan areas.

People around the world are truly excited to see clear skies and vistas that were previously obscured by pollution.

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Improved visibility is a wonderful gift but what’s more important is a reduction in what we usually don’t see in the air: atmospheric particulate matter or PM2.5.

Atmospheric particulate matter has a diameter of fewer than 2.5 micrometers, which is about 3% the diameter of a human hair. It is produced by cars, power plants, agricultural burning, airplanes, and volcanic eruptions.

The pollutant is a major health risk because it can lodge deep inside the lungs and pass into the organs and bloodstream causing damage that can be fatal.

Air pollution, in general, is a major health risk. According to the World Health Organization, it kills seven million people a year.

Researchers from IQAir — a global air quality information and tech company — studied ten major cities around the world that had COVID-19 outbreaks and stringent lockdown measures, to see how those policies affected the air quality.

The cities it studied are: Delhi, London, Los Angeles, Milan, Mumbai, New York City, Rome, São Paulo, Seoul, and Wuhan.

The study found that cities with the world’s worst air pollution saw a reduction in deadly particulate matter by up to 60%. To get an accurate gauge of the lockdown’s effects, researchers studied three-week periods that coincided with the peak number of daily reported coronavirus cases.

via IQAir

New Delhi, India, one of the world’s most polluted cities, saw a 60% reduction in dangerous particulate matter from March 23 to April 13 from the same period in 2019.

Los Angeles, which is known for its oppressive traffic and notorious smog, saw its longest stretch of clean air on record. Particulate levels were down by 31% from the same time last year, and down 51% from the average of the previous four years.

Some estimates suggest that COVID-19 restrictions have taken about 80% of passenger cars off the roads in Tinseltown.

IQAir hopes that after people across the world have experienced the joy of living with clean air they’ll fight to keep it that way.

“In our recovery from the pandemic, it’s important that we strive to preserve the cleaner environment, which protects our health from another invisible killer, air pollution,” IQAir’s marketing specialist Kelsey Duskasaid said according to CNN.

“We hope that the urgency in tackling this global pandemic may be matched in addressing air pollution.”

Tonight on the WWE Friday Night Smackdown open discussion thread:

All hail The King of Kings!

Friday Night SmackDown is set to celebrate Triple H’s 25th Anniversary with WWE this week. From the early days as Jean-Paul Lévesque, to the iconic days in the DX stable, mind-blowing WrestleMania main events and every stop in between, it’s time to play The Game and look back at some of the most memorable moments.

What will the blue brand have in store to honor one of the greatest WWE Superstars in history?

Tune in to SmackDown at 8/7 C on FOX to celebrate the incredible milestone. (via WWE.com)

Do you feel like you’re not appreciating Triple H enough? Then make sure you’re here for Triple H appreciation week, part one of many, and look back on all of those great Triple H moments. Also on the show: Lacey Evans vs. Sasha Banks, Drew Gulak vs. King Corbin, and a Women’s Tag Team Championship match.

As always, give a thumbs up to any comments from tonight’s open thread you enjoy and we’ll include 10 of the best in tomorrow’s Best and Worst of Friday Night Smackdown on Fox report. Make sure to flip your comments to “newest” in the drop down menu under “discussion,” and enjoy the show!

By now, you should have spent at least some of your time in quarantine ordering and restocking your liquor cabinet (or maybe just emptying it). But if you still have a few spots open, you should definitely fill them with whiskey. And not just any whiskey. You’re stuck at home so you’re going to want to enjoy what your drinking. You should be on the lookout for a well-balanced juice that pairs the optimal amount of heat with the perfect level of corn sweetness and plenty of velvety smoothness.

Since you can’t just take a leisurely stroll around your local liquor store looking at labels and chatting with clerks, you’re going to have to get your info from someone else. Lucky for you, we’ve already done the legwork for you. Or… we delegated the legwork by asking our favorite bartenders to select their favorite perfectly balanced bottles of whiskey.

Michter’s American Whiskey

Peter Ruppert, beverage director at Short Stories in New York City

My go-to has always been Michter’s American and it’s because it tastes like bourbon. There’s a lot of good whiskey out there but when I want to drink good, old fashioned, well-balanced American flavored juice that’s the most reliable blend.

Wyoming Whiskey

Jordan David Smith, spirits director and head bartender at HALL in New York City

I’m pretty partial to Wyoming Whiskey. I’m a sucker for bourbons that use wheat as the second most voluminous product in the mash, and the wheat here clocks in around 20%. And at around $40, it’s exceedingly affordable — especially considering that it’s got such an amazing balance of sweet and savory notes, richness and heat, structure and finish. Add in the fact that it’s bottled at 44% ABV as a nod to Wyoming’s status as the 44th State in the Union and the history nerd in me says: “get me to The Suffrage State (Wyoming was actually the first state to grant women the right to vote, in 1869. Bet you wouldn’t have guessed!).”

Buffalo Trace Bourbon

James Arensault, director of food & beverage at Harbor View Hotel on Martha’s Vineyard

It’s really hard to beat the perfection of Buffalo Trace bourbon. Much of the appeal is because it has smoky aspects as well as being known for its smoothness.

Jim Beam Bourbon

Everson Rawlings, mixologist at Scrub Island Resort Spa and Marina in the British Virgin Islands

My go-to bourbon is Jim Beam. As a mixologist, some like to call me a “cheftender” and Jim Beam pairs the perfect heat and flavor for my signature smoked mango bourbon sauce. It’s also perfectly balanced on its own. There’s a reason it’s one of the most popular bourbons.

Maker’s Mark Cask Strength Bourbon

Scott Daniel, bartender at The Ballantyne in Charlotte, North Carolina

Maker’s Mark in its Cask Strength expression. The higher, straight-from-the-barrel proof of between 108-113 gives the right amount of heat, while the inclusion of red winter wheat in the mash bill allows the lush vanilla and caramel flavors to stand out. We proudly offer two of our own Ballantyne Hotel Private Selection Maker’s Mark expressions, which we personally designed at the distillery in 2017 and 2019.

Old Forester 1920 Bourbon

Zac Johnson, general manager at JJ’s Wine, Spirits, and Cigars in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Old Forester 1920 without a doubt. For something that is 115 proof, it carries rich, dark fruit, while not overwhelming you with bite. It’s a go-to everyday bottle for me because as long as I have a glass, I can drink it. What makes it my favorite in the Whiskey Row series is how much you can change it just by adding some water. At 115 proof, I get a lot of cherries and dark chocolate notes, at 100 proof I get more caramel and toffee, and at 90 proof, it’s all vanilla and brown sugar. It really morphs and creates an incredible drinking experience from beginning to end.

Belle Meade Sherry Cask Bourbon

Brandon Carter, chef at FARM in Bluffton, South Carolina

I’m a big fan of the Sherry Cask finished Belle Meade. Pound for pound it’s one of the best ones out there right now. In my opinion, it’s a perfect balance between heat and smooth, corn sweetness.

Hudson Baby Bourbon

Sebastien Derbomez, brand advocacy manager of William Grant & Sons

My go-to will be Hudson Baby Bourbon. It’s the first legal pot-still whiskey to be produced in New York since prohibition. Hudson pairs the perfect amount of heat with smoothness due to its aging process and its raw ingredient. It is made at the Tuthilltown Distillery from 100% New York corn and aged in tiny barrels which gives this whiskey a long finish, slightly hot.

WhistlePig Straight Rye

Jon Joseph, bartender at JL Bar Ranch, Resort & Spa in Sonora, Texas

One of the resort favorites is WhistlePig Straight Rye Whiskey. It has the perfect amount of spice and smoothness. When the whiskey hits your tongue, one gets the perfect amount of spicy right off the bat. Then you start to get cocoa and the classic leather flavors. When the finish starts to develop, the beautiful vanilla and citrus round out this great whiskey.

Old Grand-Dad Bonded Bourbon

Hayden Miller, head bartender at Bodega Taqueria y Tequila in Miami, Florida

Old Grand-Dad Bonded has always been a standby of mine. This go-to definitely relates back to post-shift drinks in Chicago, paired best with a cold beer. While it is not my cocktail bourbon of choice, it has the proof to pinch-hit in an old fashioned and hold its own.

Redemption High Rye Bourbon

Nicole Quist, beverage director at Bartaco in Aventura, Florida

I’ve been enjoying Redemption High Rye Bourbon. It’s full of sweet notes with just enough strong rye to spice it up. All on all, a perfectly balanced, hard to forget whiskey.

Tory Lanez’s Quarantine Radio Instagram Live stream is one of the delights of the current lockdown era, as fans tune in to see which of Tory’s famous friends will call in for a chat and how closely the Torontonian can toe the line of Instagram’s decency guidelines without getting suspended… again. However, during the last episode of the show, fans were upset to see that he and his latest guest had violated social distancing rules, when Tory broadcasted live from Megan Thee Stallion’s account — and from her house.

Megan herself seemed a bit annoyed by her co-star as well, but for different reasons. As she tried to teach him the dance from the TikTok Out West Challenge based on the Jackboys song of the same name featuring Young Thug and Travis Scott, Tory seemed unable to commit to one of the moves, prompting her to wonder, “Tory, what you doing!?”

Fans on Twitter, though, were quick to chime in, wondering what both artists were doing breaking quarantine for their impromptu hangout. With coronavirus’ spread curbing, it seemed to viewers that the pair were taking an unnecessary risk by sharing space. It’s a sentiment that’s popped up in other Live streams as well, including several editions of the Verzuz battle series where participants brought in engineers, musicians, and hype men to fluff up their elaborate indoor performances when only a decent speaker was needed.

The comments in the Shade Room post of their stream are also littered with fans upset that the two beloved artists would risk spreading the virus. The moral of the story is, as always, stay indoors and six feet away, because you’d hate it if you were responsible for someone being bedridden or worse.

Check out the responses and a snippet of the live stream above.

HBO has just released an official teaser for its upcoming series, I May Destroy You. Created by, written, and starring BAFTA Award Winner Michaela Cole, the British-based series is described as a “fearless, frank and provocative” exploration of “sexual consent in contemporary life and how, in our modern landscape of dating and relationships, we make the distinction between liberation and exploitation.”

Judging by the suspenseful trailer, viewers will follow Cole’s character as she tries to piece together the events of a night out that goes horribly wrong, and a frank depiction of the aftermath it afflicts on her life as she navigates a gauntlet of police, medical examinations, and friends and family who are trying to make sense of it all.

Here’s the official synopsis from the HBO and BBC co-production:

Following triumph from a piece of writing that garnered internet acclaim, Arabella Essiuedu (Coel) – easily distracted, non-committal and carefree – finds herself feted as the ‘voice of her generation,’ with an agent, a book commission and a helluva lot of pressure. After being sexually assaulted in a nightclub, her life changes irreversibly and Arabella is forced to reassess everything: her career, her friends, even her family. As Arabella struggles to come to terms with what has happened, she begins a journey of self-discovery.

The series also stars Weruche Opia (Inside No9), Paapa Essiedu (Kiri), Aml Ameen (Yardie), Adam James (Belgravia), Sarah Niles (Catastrophe), Ann Akin (Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams), Harriet Webb (Plebs), Ellie James (Giri/Haji), Franc Ashman (Peep Show), Karan Gill (Flesh & Blood), Natalie Walter (Horrible Histories), and Samson Ajewole.

I Will Destroy You will debut on HBO NOW, HBO GO, and HBO on Demand in June.

With a dearth of sports content to consume right now, anticipation for the NFL Draft was high and the ratings did not disappoint, with more than 15 million people tuning in across ABC, ESPN and the NFL Network for the first round. Officially, the viewership came in at 15.6 million fans who got to see Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa and the rest of the 32 picks stream in their reactions from home.

That marks a 37 percent increase over last year, when the NFL got to pull out all the usual stops in Nashville and there was more of a debate about who might go first overall.

Not surprisingly, Columbus, Ohio, the hometown of No. 1 overall pick Joe Burrow, had the highest ratings, followed by Cleveland, then Cincinnati, where Burrow will now play.

This comes after the debut of “The Last Dance” grabbed 6.1 million viewers for ESPN and the WNBA Draft the Friday prior was up 123 percent over 2019, with 387,000 viewers. The simulated NASCAR iRaces also drew over a million viewers during opening weekend.

Anyone hypothesizing that leagues that can pull off live sports content right now will bring in a heap of viewers seem to be right. With America desperate to be entertained and distracted, the few sports events that have been televised over the past month have been great for TV and likely signal more to come.

Kobe Bryant hired a personal film crew to capture behind-the-scenes action during the Lakers star’s last season in the NBA, ESPN reported on Friday. Bryant’s 20th and final season with the Lakers was in 2015-16 and it culminated with his 60-point performance in a 101-96 victory over the Utah Jazz. The Lakers’ all-time scoring leader pushed through injury and pain that season, was voted to his 18th All-Star Game and was greeted with standing ovations and immense love from basketball fans at every stadium he visited.

The crew was granted unprecedented access to Bryant and the Lakers that season, similar to how Michael Jordan’s “The Last Dance” documentary footage was filmed. “The Last Dance,” a 10-part ESPN documentary on Jordan’s last season with the Chicago Bulls, was highly anticipated by fans and the broadcast of the first two episodes averaged a record 6.1 million viewers. The next two episodes will air on Sunday night. Of course, the 1997-98 Bulls had a very different experience than the 2015-16 Lakers, namely in that the Bulls won their sixth NBA Championship while the Lakers endured their worst-ever season, finishing with a 17-65 overall record and missing out on the playoffs for the third consecutive season.

“Just watching them and being able to view what the cameras were doing to [capture] Jordan’s pregame routine, I mean, it’s the same thing,” said Marco Nunez, a former Lakers’ assistant athletic trainer during Bryant’s final season told ESPN. “Just flash forward … take out No. 23 with the Bulls and insert No. 24 with the Lakers. Yeah, I mean, it’s pretty much identical.”

According to ESPN, the footage gathered by Bryant’s film crew had been in the editing stages for a future documentary, although there was no timetable specified for its release. Following Bryant’s tragic death along with eight others in a helicopter crash in January, it is “unlikely” that the plans for the documentary have changed, per an ESPN source.

An earlier documentary about Bryant’s 18-year career, “Muse,” was released in February 2015. While Bryant produced that film, however, he was reportedly much more involved in the process of gathering and editing footage for the unfinished documentary which focuses on his last season. The soon-to-be Hall of Famer’s camera crew was everywhere during that final season, present in locker rooms, at both home and away games, on the team charter plane and even in the athletic training room. One anonymous former staffer even told ESPN that they weren’t able to tell Bryant’s camera crew to stop filming if the footage was deemed inappropriate like they could with Spectrum SportsNet’s crew, which also had an all-access TV deal with the Lakers.

Joe Burrow became the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft on Thursday night. It’s a move that everyone saw coming, as the now-former LSU quarterback put forth an historic 2019 campaign en route to the Heisman Trophy and a national championship. Now, Burrow is headed home, as the Ohio native was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals.

But while Burrow’s NFL team is tucked away in the southeast corner of Ohio, his NBA team plays in the northeast portion of the state. Burrow is a Cleveland Cavaliers fan, as evidenced by this tweet, which served as a victory lap after he called how the 2016 NBA Finals would play out.

This isn’t a particularly huge surprise. Burrow was a kid when the Cavaliers first drafted LeBron James and he got the chance to watch the best player in franchise history lead the club to unparalleled heights. As a 19-year-old at Ohio State, Burrow watched as the Cavs won their first championship in franchise history.

Of course, a quick skim of Burrow’s Twitter account indicates that he loves the Cleveland players who you would imagine — he loves James and was hurt when Kyrie Irving requested a trade, which led to him getting flipped to the Boston Celtics for Isaiah Thomas, which made Burrow tear up (he swore it was allergies). But those do not seem to be the Cavaliers players who have captured Burrow’s heart the strongest. Instead, that goes to reserve guard Matthew Dellavedova.

Burrow, in an interview with Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report, spoke a bit about his game on the basketball court. At one point, he was asked who his NBA comp is, and without hesitation, he picked Dellavedova.

Now, it is possible that this was a joke — Burrow said he’d stand in the corner and shoot threes en route to 12-15 points a game, while a teammate like LeBron or Chris Paul goes to work, which is a bit more productive than Dellavedova has been during his NBA career — but a dive into his Twitter account indicates that Burrow really, really loves the journeyman guard. An example:

In fact, after James joined the Los Angeles Lakers, Burrow believed the solution was to bring Dellavedova — a member of the Milwaukee Bucks at the time — home. This, of course, came to fruition that December.

Advocating for Dellavedova, who left the team following their title in 2016, to return to Cleveland was nothing new for Burrow.

Burrow’s first apparent sign of love for Dellavedova came during Game 1 of the 2015 NBA Finals. While it is unclear exactly when in the game he tweeted this — my assumptions is it came right after Iman Shumpert missed a wild shot that would have won the game for Cleveland (they lost to the Warriors in overtime) — Burrow wanted Delly to have the ball in his hands with the game on the line.

His next tweets came after Game 2 of those Finals. Dellavedova was inserted into the starting lineup after Kyrie Irving suffered a series-ending knee injury, and he responded by scoring nine points, pulling in five rebounds, forcing three steals, and being a general pest en route to a Cavaliers win. He also put Cleveland ahead at the end of the game by hitting a pair of free throws, something that led to Burrow dreaming about the guard that evening.

Game 3 ended up being the best postseason performance of Dellavedova’s tenure with the Cavs. He went for 20 points, five rebounds, four assists, and got the hometown fans chanting his name as Cleveland went up in the series, 2-1.

In fact, Burrow saw some apparent similarities between himself and his favorite player after the game.

For Game 4, which Cleveland would go on to lose, Burrow was upset with how ABC’s Mark Jackson referred to Dellavedova at some point in the first quarter.

In the name of journalism, I went back and tried to find this quote. The game’s listed start time was 9 p.m. EST and Burrow tweeted that 20 minutes later. While I could not identify exactly what he meant, at the 3:01 mark of the first quarter, Dellavedova tries to back down Steph Curry, fails, tries to do the Dirk Nowitzki elbow fadeaway (2015 was wild, man), and fires up an airball. J.R. Smith gets the rebound and lays it in to beat the shot clock, but Jackson was unhappy.

“Mike, I understand trying to get a second foul on Steph Curry,” Jackson says to Mike Breen. “But that’s not gonna win you jewelry, that’s not gonna get you a championship.”

However, further research indicates that the Cavaliers’ starting lineup was announced around 9:11 p.m., leading me to believe that this came earlier in the game. The team’s official Twitter account praised a scoop shot that Dellavedova hit at the 8:42 mark of the first quarter around 9:18 p.m., so we can reasonably assume the perceived disrespectful moment was related to this. After it went in, Jeff Van Gundy said that Delly “looked like Mark Jackson,” to which Jackson replied by saying “don’t do that” twice.

Anyway, back to this. The Cavaliers lost this game, and would go on to lose the Finals, so Burrow laid low for a bit. He spent a few months without posts about the former guard, right up until he expressed some sadness over his Delly shirt being dirty.

Thanks to Kyle Irving of Sporting News, we learned that this is the Delly shirt. It’s a good shirt!

The shirt popped back up on the day Irving requested a trade.

Fans always love stars, but sometimes, the strongest love they feel is directed towards the scrappy role players who fill in gaps and make life easier for the best players on a team. That even applies to the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft. The two follow one another on Twitter, and it is my sincere hope that they become best friends as soon as possible.

During yesterday’s White House COVID-19 press conference, President Donald Trump seemed to suggest that sunlight or disinfectant might help unlock potential cures for the coronavirus. In the 24 or so house since, the internet has been talking about Lysol and other cleaning products across social media nonstop and roasting the President. To be completely fair to Trump, he never said that injecting Lysol or bleach could possibly act as a means to fight the virus. But… he implied it pretty hard.

Responding to recent experiments shared by the acting undersecretary of science and technology for the Department of Homeland Security, Bill Bryan, that suggested that the coronavirus faired worse in high temperatures and direct sunlight, and exhibited a strong weakness to bleach and isopropyl alcohol, Trump wondered aloud:

So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or very powerful light… supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do, either through the skin or in some other way… and then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs.

For the record, UV light therapy is a thing — whereas saying “we can do something like that” in regard to injecting disinfectant directly into your body sounds like a pretty wild suggestion from a US President. Check out how people on Twitter (and the brand Lysol) are reacting to the news below.

According to NBC News, during a bill signing on Friday morning, the President characterized his comments as sarcasm, saying, “I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters just like you, just to see what would happen… I was asking a sarcastic and a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside. But it does kill it and it would kill it on the hands, and it would make things much better.”