The Observer The North Korean leader’s surprise freeze of his nuclear programme is less a genuine move than a diplomatic manoeuvre,...
California governor Gavin Newsom issued a state-wide "stay at home" order to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. Read more...
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Americans clearly have "corona" on their minds.
The top trending coronavirus-related search on Google's U.S. site in the past day is none other than an inquiry about the 2010 animated Disney movie Tangled.
The movie is about Rapunzel — you know, the girl with the long hair trapped in a tower — so, at first, it might seem like we're all commiserating with the Mandy Moore-voiced heroine's cabin fever. That would be a reasonable assumption. But that's not why it's trending. Apparently, it's related to a certain c-word we've been hearing often these days.
The top question is:
"What was the name of the kingdom in 'Tangled'?" Read more...
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One of the most discussed products during the coronavirus pandemic is toilet paper, which has become a panic buy item and a subsequent subject of ridicule, so much so that bars are selling them alongside cocktails and some Americans are pivoting to bidets.
But there is another sanitary product that could see the same empty-shelf fate as toilet paper: pads and tampons. As the reality of how long we will need to self-isolate hits us, those who menstruate may feel it necessary to stockpile these products. In fact, it has already started to happen:
Ordered Amazon Delivery and selected “replace item” with the closest thing they can find if they run out of stock..
We ordered tampons
And they sent the closest appropriate thing
Which right now, is a bag of 50 frozen sausage rolls.— Definitely not “Sausage Roll Girl” (@ClareBarry) March 18, 2020 Read more...
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The first teaser for Hulu's new historical comedy The Great has a lot going for it. Elle Fanning looking scheming and regal as the future Catherine the great, Nicholas Hoult as her bumbling husband Peter III of Russia, and most of all — the exact same energy of creator Tony McNamara's Oscar-nominated film The Favourite.
The Great looks tense and wacky even as the trailer displays how lavish its sets and costumes are, and should be on every historical series fan's watchlist this spring.
The Great premieres on Hulu May 15th. Read more...
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Tech is selling out everywhere due to the recent uptick in work-from-home professionals. It's hard out here for those who are just trying to get a laptop or tablet.
But, that didn't stop us from finding all the deals, of course. A few Microsoft Surface 2-in-1 computers are on sale, but there are a whole lot of other discounts you can take advantage of this week.
Check out what we found, and catch us back here again on Friday.
Asus Chromebook C423NA — $199 (list price $269)
Samsung Chromebook — $249 (list price $299)
Asus ImagineBook — $299.99 (list price $499.99)
HP 2-in-1 Chromebook — $339 (list price $419)
Lenovo Ideapad S340 — $389 (list price $469)
Dell Vostro 14 3490 Laptop — $529 (list price $898.57)
HP Pavilion 14 Laptop — $479 (list price $649) Read more...
TL;DR: As of March 23, Best Buy has a couple of AKRacing and Gamdias gaming chairs on sale for up to 46% off.
Aside from maybe crappy WiFi and a poorly stocked snack cabinet, few things sour the work-from-home experience faster than uncomfortable seating. (And that applies even if you're just running virtual errands for Tom Nook.) Oh, the stool at your kitchen counter doesn't provide ample back support? I never would've guessed.
Experts recommend resisting the temptation to spend the majority of the day on your couch or in bed — both arrangements can throw your alignment out of whack while putting your brain into relaxation mode, making it near impossible to get shit done. For the sake of your posture and your productivity, it's worth investing in a different kind of setup. Read more...
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Sophie Turner is starring in a new Quibi series called Survive, which, judging by the first trailer, seems very similar to the show Lost and the movie The Grey starring Liam Neeson.
Turner plays Jane, a woman who is about to attempt to overdose on pills when her plane crashes in a snowy environment. She has to do her best to survive alongside what looks like the only other person who lived through the crash, a man played by Corey Hawkins.
The show looks pretty fascinating and the scenery is spectacular. And of course, with the setup being that Jane possibly took a bunch of pills right before the crash, there could be a twist that not everything is as it seems... but we'll see. Read more...
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This time last year, we were gearing up for the premiere of the last season of Game of Thrones. Many of us were avoiding going outside, but it was only because we were squeezing in a rewatch of season 7 before the April 14 premiere. That was a simpler time.
George R.R. Martin must have known we were missing our comfort show, because a Westworld x GOT crossover happened Sunday night (and brought back one very important character).
If you haven't seen Westworld, snag a 4K and make it your new social distancing show NOW. If that's old news to you, consider reliving Game of Thrones on an OLED screen. Either way, it'll be nice to focus on literally any other world than our current one. Read more...
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A week or two ago, you may have been holding close the hope that this whole "WFH indefinitely" thing would be over within the 14 days. If you don't set up your home office, it's not real. Right?
This week, many of us are accepting that the privilege of working from home for the foreseeable future is reality —even those whose jobs were never the "working from home" type until now.
That means that it's probably time to replace your makeshift kitchen table desk with a legit computer desk and a comfortable, ergonomic chair. You'd be surprised at how your productivity can spike when your space feels professional. Read more...
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New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo, held a news conference on March 22 in which he advised New Yorkers to be prepared for a shutdown that could last up to nine months. If that's true, those who live in New York and other states with similar situations can say goodbye to summer weekend trips and backyard BBQs. But instead of dwelling on the negative, let's find other ways to do the things we have been waiting for.
If you have the space, there's actually nothing wrong with enjoying your own backyard and using the grill to bring in some perfectly made steaks and burgers — just be sure to practice social distancing. Yup, you're the head chef. There should be no sidekick by your side — or within six feet of you. Read more...
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With 2020's PaleyfestLA postponed indefinitely because of the coronavirus, the Paley Center for Media will share previously unreleased PaleyFest panels directly to YouTube. Each video will live on The Paley Center's YouTube page for 24 hours once live at 10 AM ET.
The full lineup includes PaleyFestLA programming around The Office, Parks and Recreation, This Is Us, The Walking Dead, and more. The Paley Center will upload one a day from March 23 - March 29. View the full schedule below:
3/23: Supernatural PaleyFest LA 2018
3/24: This Is Us PaleyFest LA 2017
3/25: Parks and Recreation Reunion PaleyFest LA 2019
3/26: The Daily Show with Trevor Noah PaleyFest NY 2016
3/27: Blue Bloods PaleyFest NY 2017
3/28: The Office PaleyFest LA 2007
3/29: The Walking Dead PaleyFest LA 2017 Read more...
This is a stressful time full of uncertainty, but over on the power washing porn subreddit, things are soothing as ever. People have more time at home, so they're taking it to finally do some deep cleaning.
If you want to join in on the oddly satisfying fun and your driveway, deck, or siding could use a good cleaning, grab a power or pressure washer for yourself — and don't forget to record all the action to post it on r/powerwashingporn. OK, you don't have to post anything, but you should check out these pressure washers on sale at Walmart. Read more...
Remember when the only thing we were all doing online together at the same time, except live-tweeting reality shows, was playing HQ Trivia?
The massively popular trivia game announced its return on Sunday night after a year of ups, downs, cancellations, firings, and contradictory statements. In a single week in February, the CEO stated that the company was out of cash after a failed acquisition and would shut down, then four days later, announced that there was, in fact, hope.
(Hey, fun fact: February was last month. Yeah.)
A push notification announcing the game would return for a live event at 9 p.m. ET went out to users with the app still installed, but no further details about regular scheduling were immediately available. A report from The Verge quotes an anonymous source who says that the company has been privately acquired and there will be regularly scheduled live games, but nothing's been officially confirmed yet beyond Sunday night's event. Read more...
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President Donald Trump speaks at a coronavirus press conference on March 29, 2020. | Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
“Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won,” Trump said Sunday.
President Donald Trump has spent many of his recent daily coronavirus press conferences bragging about his administration’s response, promoting unproven treatments, attacking the press, and suggesting he planned to stop recommending social distancing.
Sunday, he continued to do the first three things, but took a new and more sober stance on the timeline for ending social distancing — announcing plans to extend his support for the measure by one month.
“Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won. That would be the greatest loss of all,” Trump said. “The better you do, the faster this whole nightmare will end. Therefore, we will be extending our guidelines to April 30, to slow the spread.”
TRUMP: "The modeling estimates that the peak in death rate is likely to hit in 2 weeks. I will say it again. The peak, the highest point of death rates, remember this, is likely to hit in 2 weeks ... Therefore, we will be extending our guidelines to April 30, to slow the spread." pic.twitter.com/fPhtgmTchl
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 29, 2020
Originally, the Trump administration released a 15 day plan asking Americans to take more aggressive steps than had previously been recommended to limit the transmission of Covid-19.
It wasn’t clear what would happen when that 15 day period ended, as it is set to do this week. Last week, the president suggested several times that he would stop recommending that Americans stay home, telling Fox News hosts during a federal coronavirus task force town hall Tuesday that he hoped to have social distancing guidelines relaxed by Easter in order to “have packed churches all over our country.”
The president also suggested that he was concerned about social distancing’s effect on the economy. As Vox’s Matt Yglesias has explained, the US Department of Labor announced there were a record number of unemployment insurance claims filed last week — 3.3 million. The stock market has seen dramatic falls, with the Dow Jones dropping below where it was when Trump took office, erasing three years of gains.
Concerns over these indicators had Trump telling the public, “America will again, and soon, be open for business. ... A lot sooner than three or four months that somebody was suggesting. A lot sooner. We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself.”
But Sunday, as his top public health experts — Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx — appeared on television to say that models suggest 100,000-200,000 Americans could die of Covid-19 that all cities can expect to find themselves in situations similar to New York, a city whose hospitals are at risk of being overwhelmed by its nearly 60,000 confirmed cases as of March 28, Trump took a different approach.
Trump explained why, saying he asked both doctors what would happen “if we did nothing, just rode it out.”
“I think we got our most accurate study today or certainly most comprehensive,” the president said. “Think of the number, potentially 2.2 million people [would die] if we did nothing, if we didn’t do the distancing, if we didn’t do all the things we’re doing.”
Trump added, “And so if we can hold that down, as we’re saying to 100,000, it’s a horrible number, maybe even less, but to 100,000, so we have between 100 and 200,000, we all together have done a very good job.”
Thus far, the Trump administration hasn’t been lauded for the job it has done. And arguably, had it taken stronger steps earlier, far fewer than 100,000 people would be at risk of death from Covid-19. But on some points, the president appears to now be listening to his public health experts.
Sunday’s press conference was far from perfect, however. He still made unfounded claims, like when he claimed the coronavirus is going to lead to “people are going to be dying all over the place from drug addiction” and “tremendous suicides.” He pushed a conspiracy theory about disappearing masks, and attacked several reporters for asking him about his past statements by reading him his direct quotes, calling one quote a “lie.”
Trump also continued to set deadlines for a return to normal business experts have argued is unrealistic, saying, “We can expect that by June 1, we will be well on our way to recovery.” Experts have said it may take until September 2021 — but Fauci, Birx, and epidemiologists have said social distancing keeps the rate of infection down, meaning expanding the federal government’s social distancing guidelines is wise idea, and a good response to the current situation.
The world does not look the same as it did the last time we did one of these posts. Don't get us wrong, things weren't great in February, either. But, we weren't dealing with, you know, a pandemic.
And while we don't want to make light of a genuinely serious situation, we thought it might be nice to just take a moment away from the crushing anxiety about the state of our world to talk about the fun stuff we bought this month — mainly because we needed things to keep us occupied and mentally stable while we spend the foreseeable future mostly indoors.
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TL;DR: Ann Summers has extended its mid-season sale, with savings of up to 70% on list price.
Ann Summers knows how desperately we all need entertainment, and has extended its mid-season sale. You can now save up to 70% on the list price of sex toys, lingerie sets, nightwear, and more.
An Ann Summers Sale isn't going to solve all the world's problems right away, but it could help. At the very least, it's a welcome distraction.
Ann Summers offers free delivery on orders over £35, discreet packaging, and free returns. The discreet packaging is a nice touch, especially if you're concerned about a neighbour spotting your risqué order. Read more...
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