Amazon has publicly promised to pay workers who test positive for or are quarantined because of the coronavirus, but some say they haven’t received that money.
Black Mirror is an award-winning anthology series that serves as some of the finest content you can currently find on Netflix. It also might be a little much right now, especially if you’re looking for a gentle distraction from the stresses of your current existence.
It’s that lack of consumer demand that just might keep new episodes of Black Mirror from hitting the streaming service anytime soon. According to an interview with Radio Times, showrunner and creator Charlie Brooker said he’s not sure fans have the “stomach” for more dystopia given the current world climate.
“At the moment, I don’t know what stomach there would be for stories about societies falling apart, so I’m not working away on one of those. I’m sort of keen to revisit my comic skill set, so I’ve been writing scripts aimed at making myself laugh.”
It certainly makes sense, as the show has consistently explored societal decay and concerning trends extrapolated to an endpoint that may hit too close to home as people shelter in place and try to avoid making a global pandemic worse. The latest installment of Black Mirror hit Netflix last June, but while Brooker said he’s been busy, it seems pretty clear that he’s not been working on Black Mirror episodes.
“I’ve been busy, doing things. I don’t know what I can say about what I’m doing and not doing.”
Die-hard fans of the series were likely hoping for new episodes as soon as possible. But given the circumstances, the rest of us are certainly willing to wait while Brooker keeps himself entertained with other work.
To honor the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and he 20th anniversary of NASA’s Earth Observatory, the agency asked the public to pick our all-time best image on Earth. After five a five-round tournament and more than 56,000 votes, the readers chose Ocean Sand, Bahamas as their favorite.
We’ve posted 16 of the other top entrants. You can see the complete tournament results at Earth Observatory.
Ocean Sand, Bahamas (2001)
via NASA
Though the above image may resemble a new age painting straight out of an art gallery in Venice Beach, California, it is in fact a satellite image of the sands and seaweed in the Bahamas.
The image was taken by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) instrument aboard the Landsat 7 satellite. Tides and ocean currents in the Bahamas sculpted the sand and seaweed beds into these multicolored, fluted patterns in much the same way that winds sculpted the vast sand dunes in the Sahara Desert.
Raikoke Erupts (2019)
via NASA
An unexpected series of blasts from a remote volcano in the Kuril Islands sent ash and volcanic gases streaming high over the North Pacific Ocean.
“What a spectacular image. It reminds me of the classic Sarychev Peak astronaut photograph of an eruption in the Kuriles from about ten years ago,” said Simon Carn, a volcanologist at Michigan Tech. “The ring of white puffy clouds at the base of the column might be a sign of ambient air being drawn into the column and the condensation of water vapor. Or it could be a rising plume from interaction between magma and seawater because Raikoke is a small island and flows likely entered the water.”
Where the Dunes End (2019)
via NASA
Mountains of sand, some as tall as 300 meters (1000 feet), reach from the floor of Africa’s Namib Desert toward the sky. Driven by wind, these dunes march across the desert, bordered to the west by the Atlantic Ocean and in other directions by solid, rocky land.
The abrupt transition from sand to land is visible in these images, acquired on November 13, 2019, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8. They show the northern extent of the Namib Sand Sea—a field of sand dunes spanning more than 3 million hectares (more than 10,000 square miles) within the Namib-Naukluft Park, which was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2013. Sand appears red, painted by a layer of iron oxide.
Twin Blue Marbles (2007)
via NASA
This view of Earth from space is a fusion of science and art, drawing on data from multiple satellite missions and the talents of NASA scientists and graphic artists. The twin images are a composite of multiple images taken between 1994 and 2004.
Fire in the Sky and on the Ground (2011)
via NASA
Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) used a digital camera to capture several hundred photographs of the aurora australis, or “southern lights,” while passing over the Indian Ocean on September 17, 2011.
Retreat of the Columbia Glacier (2014)
via NASA
Scientists have long studied Alaska’s fast-moving Columbia Glacier, a tidewater glacier that descends through the Chugach Mountains into Prince William Sound. Yet the river of ice continues to deliver new surprises.
Preliminary results show that both the West Branch and the East Branch (which feeds into the Main Branch) are now moving between 5 and 10 meters (16 and 33 feet) per day. That’s slow for Columbia, but fast compared to other glaciers.
View of Earth from Saturn (2006)
via NASA
via NASA
Seen from a billion kilometers away, through the ice and dust particles of Saturn’s rings, Earth appears as a tiny, bright dot. The image is a composite (layered image) made from 165 images taken by the wide-angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft over nearly three hours on September 15, 2006.
The Dark Side and the Bright Side (2015)
via NASA
A NASA camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) has captured a unique view of the Moon as it passed between the spacecraft and Earth. A series of test images shows the fully illuminated “dark side” of the Moon that is not visible from Earth.
The images were taken over the course of five hours on July 16, 2015.
A Voyager Far From Home (1977)
The image of a crescent-shaped Earth and Moon was captured on September 18, 1977, when Voyager was a mere 11.66 million kilometers (7.25 million miles) from Earth and directly above Mount Everest (on the night side of the planet at 25 degrees north latitude).
On September 5, 1977, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a Titan-Centaur rocket. Thirty-five years later, the planetary probe is now an interstellar traveler, having traveled farther from Earth than any manmade object in history.
Roiling Flows on Holuhraun Lava Field (2014)
via NASA
On September 6, 2014, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this view of the ongoing eruption in Iceland.
Ice and the plume of steam and sulfur dioxide appear cyan and bright blue, while liquid water is navy blue. Bare or rocky ground around the Holuhraun lava field appears in shades of green or brown in this band combination. Fresh lava is bright orange and red.
Antarctica Melts Under Its Hottest Days on Record (2020)
via NASA
On February 6, 2020, weather stations recorded the hottest temperature on record for Antarctica. Thermometers at the Esperanza Base on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula reached 18.3°C (64.9°F)—around the same temperature as Los Angeles that day. The warm spell caused widespread melting on nearby glaciers.
The warm temperatures arrived on February 5 and continued until February 13, 2020. The images above show melting on the ice cap of Eagle Island and were acquired by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 on February 4 and February 13, 2020.
Atafu Atoll, Tokelau (2009)
via NASA
At roughly eight kilometers wide, Atafu Atoll is the smallest of three atolls and one island (Nukunonu and Fakaofo Atolls to the southeast and Swains Island to the south are not shown) comprising the Tokelau Islands group located in the southern Pacific Ocean.
Making Waves in the Andaman Sea (2020)
via NASA
The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured these images of the Andaman Sea on November 29, 2019. The reflection of the Sun on the ocean—sunglint—helps make the internal waves visible. The colors also have been slightly enhanced. The detailed swirls, fronts, and patterns are all quite real, but certain shades and tones in the data have been separated and filtered to make water features more visible.
Just Another Day on Aerosol Earth (2018)
via NASA
During one day in August, tropical cyclones, dust storms, and fires spread tiny particles throughout the atmosphere.
The Electric Eye of Cyclone Bansi (2015)
Bansi formed in the southwestern Indian Ocean on January 11, 2015. By the time this photo was taken on the following day, Bansi had achieved tropical cyclone strength, with sustained maximum winds over 185 kilometers (115 miles) per hour. The cyclone would reach category 4 strength before becoming a weak extra-tropical system on January 19.
Awesome, Frightening Views of Hurricane Florence (2018)
Satellites and astronauts observed the potent storm as it headed for landfall in the southeastern United States.
Now that we’re all (hopefully) getting used to wearing masks in public, it feels like time to add another layer to our pandemic routine doesn’t it?
Research out of Northeastern University indicates that adding a nylon layer outside of a homemade mask can boost its effectiveness. According to NPR, the nylon addition increases the masks ability to filter out small particles by creating a tighter seal around the mask. In fact, in some cases, adding the nylon layer made homemade face coverings more effective than medical-grade surgery masks.
The nylon even made surgical medical-grade surgical masks more effective, pushing a standard surgical mask from blocking 75% of small particles to 90%, rendering it nearly as effective as the N95 mask, which blocks 95%.
Loretta Fernandez, one of the scientists on the Northeastern University research team, told NPR that the key to the nylon working was the way it compressed the mask to the face, sealing off any leaks around the edges. “It really improved the performance of all of the masks,” she said, “and it brought several of them up and over the baseline mask we were using, which was a 3M surgical-type mask.”
The effectiveness of cloth masks vary widely, with some masks in the study only blocking 30% of small particles. Using a thicker weave cloth and adding more layers to a mask helps boost its ability to filter, though any face covering is better than nothing.
With improvements of 15% to 50%, however, the nylon trick is worth trying. Fernandez suggests using queen-sized pantyhose to keep the nylon from being uncomfortably tight. Simply cut 8-inch to 10-inch strip of pantyhose leg and place it over your mask so that it overlaps around all the edges.
Though the research has not yet been peer-reviewed, Ben Cowling, an epidemiology professor at the University of Hong Kong who has studied the efficacy of face masks, says that the study and its findings are “important” and “promising.”
“We need better information on what kind of homemade masks, what kind of fabric masks, are the best,” he told NPR, “and how we can improve or upgrade basic masks to make them better.”
The beauty of this upgrade is that it’s cheap, easy, and works with any kind of mask. For medical workers short on PPE, nylon rings may offer an increase in protection, especially when cloth masks are the only face coverings available.
Since the coronavirus isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and we’re still a long way from a vaccine, mask-wearing is going to have to be the new norm. Whether you sew your own, buy one from a seller, or use a no-sew mask, it looks like adding a layer of pantyhose to it might be wise.
ESPN has found a huge hit in The Last Dance, as their 10-hour documentary on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls has offered sports fans a two-hour escape each Sunday night as we await the return of live sporting events stateside.
In looking to continue the positive momentum from The Last Dance, ESPN announced plans to continue their Sunday night documentary programming with three more 30 for 30s that will be shown the four weeks after the end of The Last Dance. LANCE, Be Water, and Long Gone Summer will run from May 24 through June 14, with LANCE being a two-part, four-hour look into the rise and fall of Lance Armstrong running May 24 and 31 at 9 p.m. ET.
Be Water, which will premiere on June 7 at 9 p.m. ET, is a look at Bruce Lee as told by family, friends, and collaborators, along with tons of archival footage that will explore his journey to becoming a massive cultural icon in the world of film and martial arts, prior to his sudden death at the age of 32 as he was becoming a global star.
Long Gone Summer goes back to the 1998 home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa that made baseball the biggest story in sports for the entirety of their historic chase of Roger Maris’ 61 home run single season record. It will feature the first lengthy interviews with McGwire and Sosa on the subject in over two decades, and will be fascinating to revisit the pinnacle of the steroid era in baseball.