New Yorkers spending time at a park on Saturday were told to "maintain a social distance" by a mysterious drone flying overhead.

“This is the Anti-COVID-19 volunteer drone task force. Please maintain a social distance of at least six feet. Again, please maintain social distancing," said the drone. "Please help stop the spread of this virus. Reduce the death toll and save lives. For your own safety and your family's safety, please maintain social distancing. Thank you for your cooperation. We are all in this together."

WATCH: A drone was seen flying over a Manhattan park on Saturday, urging pedestrians to “maintain social distancing.” https://t.co/5J9DLlunRB pic.twitter.com/VuNu1etBnW

— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 5, 2020

According to The Hill, nobody seems to know who was behind the drone's "volunteer task force."

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating whether a drone filmed telling New Yorkers to socially distance over the weekend was violating aviation regulations, an official for the agency told The Hill on Monday.

The Hill was not able to determine whether such a "volunteer drone task force" exists, and it appears no party has come forward to claim responsibility.

An official for the New York Police Department told The Hill that it was not behind the drone.

They also noted that it is illegal to fly drones in NYC except for in a few areas authorized by the FAA.

Although not as creepy as the drones who scolded unmasked folks in China back in January, it's always unsettling when a drone has something to say. Read the rest

I fell for the BuzzFeed bait – "Sorry, but you won’t be able to pass this quiz if you’re over 30" – and took the quiz with a fair amount of confidence. And they got me – I failed miserably. I only got a couple of questions correct, including the free pass about a magazine that goes back to the 1970s (mistake on their part).

What about you? Are you over or under 30? Take the quiz and find out!

And don't look at this YouTube video until after the quiz - they might consider it cheating. Read the rest

A gentleman in Quebec has fun purposely coughing on a debit machine at a drive-thru restaurant window, and his passenger laughs at his witty behavior. It was posted on Facebook, which is how the video ended up in the hands of police, but has since been deleted. The police have yet to approach the fellow. Although the coronavirus brings out the best in most people, there are always a few morons amongst us.

Jeune homme qui tousse sur un terminal Interac avant de le remettre au commis: la police de Repentigny affirme avoir transféré ce dossier à la Sûreté du Québec. #Covid_19 pic.twitter.com/JYjEqv0Mlg

— Félix Séguin (@felixseguin) April 5, 2020

Via Vice Read the rest

Here's a new ad, from the GOP anti-Trump group Republicans for Law, showing GOP voters who no longer support Trump because of his incompetent response to the coronavirus.

Summed up: “Even though I’ve been a Republican all my life, I can’t support Trump and his response to the coronavirus is exactly why...He says he puts America first, but it’s clear he only knows how to put Trump first...This is a crisis, and we need real leadership. Donald Trump is incapable of it.”

The ad will air during Fox & Friends on Tuesday in the D.C. area, according to HuffPost.

Republicans for Law is the group who also put this ad out less than three weeks ago:

Via HuffPost Read the rest

On March 21, Detroit bus driver Jason Hargrove, 50, posted this video on Facebook. He was frustrated that a woman had openly coughed on his bus without thinking about others. "I ain't blaming nobody, nobody but the woman who did this shit," he said. "For us to get through this and over this, y'all need to take this shit seriously...there's folks dying from this, listen, there's folks dying out here 'cause of this shit."

Sadly, four days later Hargrove came down with the coronavirus, and then died from it yesterday.

From The Washington Post:

In between shifts last month, Hargrove, a city bus driver with the Detroit Department of Transportation, recounted in an obscenity-laden Facebook video how a woman onboard had just coughed in front of him and other passengers, even as the novel coronavirus continued to spread across the United States.

“We out here as public workers, doing our job, trying to make an honest living to take care of our families,” he said on March 21, “but for you to get on the bus and stand on the bus and cough several times without covering up your mouth, and you know we’re in the middle of a pandemic, that lets me know that some folks don’t care.”

On Thursday, the head of the Detroit bus drivers’ union announced that Hargrove had died of covid-19 on Wednesday. Glenn Tolbert, the head of the union, told the Detroit News that Hargrove started to feel ill on March 25, four days after the incident with the coughing passenger.

A group of skydivers jump at the same time, when one is accidentally kicked in the head by his buddy. He goes unconscious, but is miraculously saved when one of his partners is able to catch him and activate his chute.

From Digg:

The terrifying footage was shared recently by Ben Pigeon, the unfortunate diver who took a fellow diver's "femur [to the] head at 200 plus mph." Pigeon writes that he lost 3 days of memory due to the concussion, but it could have been a lot worse — luckily, another diver was able to reach Pigeon and activate his chute and he was not further injured upon landing.

From another camera: Read the rest

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp admitted yesterday he was unaware that coronavirus could be spread by infected people who don't show any symptoms —– a common fact he knew nothing about "until the last 24 hours." Where has this so-called leader been for the last two months since this basic information was first made public? My guess is in front of Fox News, but it's just a hunch.

According to Gizmodo:

On January 31, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters, “there’s no doubt [...] that asymptomatic transmission is occurring.”

As February continued, and the number of cases started to rise in the U.S., we learned more and more about asymptomatic transmission. There were still questions, but the CDC director confirmed by mid-February that people without symptoms were spreading the disease.

Read the rest

If your pantry is dwindling down to the dregs, fear not. Host Alton Brown from the Food Network comes to the rescue with this Saltine crackers hack –– using just the crackers, along with butter, hot sauce, and mustard –– that looks easy and yes, even tasty.

And if your pantry is actually doing just fine but you want another Saltine cracker hack, here's one we posted in 2018 that uses "saltines, Ritz crackers, ramen, tomato sauce, cheese, pepperoni, Slim Jims, and pickles."

How to make prison pizza

Via Mashable Read the rest

A bored astrophysicist trying to keep busy throughout these days of social distancing thought he had a great idea. Dr. Daniel Reardon thought he might invent a necklace that would set off an alarm whenever someone touched their face. Instead, he was hospitalized for getting four magnets stuck in his nostrils.

According to The Guardian:

The 27 year-old astrophysicist, who studies pulsars and gravitational waves, said he was trying to liven up the boredom of self-isolation with the four powerful neodymium magnets.

“I had a part that detects magnetic fields. I thought that if I built a circuit that could detect the magnetic field, and we wore magnets on our wrists, then it could set off an alarm if you brought it too close to your face. A bit of boredom in isolation made me think of that.”

However, the academic realised the electronic part he had did the opposite – and would only complete a circuit when there was no magnetic field present.

“I accidentally invented a necklace that buzzes continuously unless you move your hand close to your face,” he said.

Reardon realized his idea wasn't going to work, but, still bored, continued to play around with the magnets. First he attached them to both sides of his ears, as many of us have done, and then to the inside and outside of his nostrils. It was funny, until he realized he couldn't pry them out, not even with a pair of pliers.

“At this point, my partner who works at a hospital was laughing at me,” he told The Guardian. Read the rest

Actor Mark Blum, famous for his roles in Crocodile Dundee and my favorite — the memorable uptight nerd-yuppie husband in Desperately Seeking Susan, which starred Madonna and Roseanne Arquette, has died of COVID-19.

From CNN:

Mark Blum, a veteran stage actor known for films including "Desperately Seeking Susan" and "Crocodile Dundee," has died due to complications from Covid-19, according to a statement released by the Screen Actors Guild.

Blum was 69.

Though he was perhaps best known for the 1985 film "Desperately Seeking Susan," in which he starred alongside Madonna and Rosanna Arquette, he most recently appeared in supporting TV roles on the HBO series "Succession," the Netflix drama "You" and Amazon's "Mozart in the Jungle."

He was a staple in the New York theater community, frequently appearing on Broadway, including the revival of "Twelve Angry Men," though he appeared off Broadway much more often. Blum was a regular player with Playwrights Horizons, an off-Broadway theater in New York. The company remembered him on Twitter.

With love and heavy hearts, Playwrights Horizons pays tribute to Mark Blum, a dear longtime friend and a consummate artist who passed this week. Thank you, Mark, for all you brought to our theater, and to theaters and audiences across the world. We will miss you. pic.twitter.com/NMVZFB5hPb

— Playwrights Horizons (@phnyc) March 26, 2020

Read the rest

There are those who don't take coronavirus seriously enough, and then there is this gentleman. Could he not have taken the cup with a gloved hand, and then drenched it in whatever solution he's using once the cup was in his car? Instead, he showers the cup with his spray, which also squirts into the drive-thru window. As if he isn't rude enough, he then tosses the lid into the window as well before driving off. Read the rest

NBC's Montana reporter Deion Broxton had a real scare this morning when he noticed – not a group of coughing hikers – but few bison looking for a snack. Once he made it to safety he was able to catch them on video as they leisurely munched on some weeds. Phew, close call!

Here's the video of the bison I shot once I got a safe distance away lol pic.twitter.com/uL3XiR2ISR

— Deion Broxton KTVM (@DeionNBCMT) March 26, 2020

Via Digg Read the rest

Chef Floyd Cardoz, age 59, known for his NYC restaurants Tabla, Bombay Bread Bar, and Pao Walla (and former winner of Bravo's Top Chef Masters) died today of COVID-19.

According to CNN:

"It is with deep sorrow that we inform you of the passing away of Chef Floyd Cardoz," according to a statement from Hunger Inc. Hospitality, where Cardoz was the culinary director.

Cardoz tested positive for Covid-19 on March 18 and was being treated for it at Mountainside Medical Center in New Jersey, the statement said...

Cardoz admitted himself to the hospital on March 17 after feeling feverish. He had recently returned from India, where he was filming the Netflix series, "Ugly Delicious" with actor Aziz Ansari. He posted a selfie on Instagram that day.

Cardoz posted this on March 17 from a hospital in New York on Instagram after panicked fans had heard that he was hospitalized for the coronavirus:

View this post on Instagram

Sincere apologies everyone. I am sorry for causing undue panic around my earlier post. I was feeling feverish and hence as a precautionary measure, admitted myself into hospital in New York. I was hugely anxious about my state of health and my post was highly irresponsible causing panic in several quarters. I returned to New York on March 8th via Frankfurt

A post shared by Floyd Cardoz (@floydcardoz) on Mar 17, 2020 at 1:34pm PDT

Unfortunately the world has lost a pioneering chef who had many decades ahead of him. RIP Chef Cardoz. Read the rest

On March 17, Amazon employees complained that not enough safety precautions were in place to protect them from COVID-19. Cut to a week later, and Amazon employees from ten different warehouses in the United States have now tested positive with the coronavirus. Read the rest

With food not always as readily available as it was a few weeks ago, Supercook is a recipe generator that might come in handy. Just check off the food you have in your kitchen and it dishes out a smorgasbord of recipes.

The site lists food by categories, such as Dairy, Vegetables, Fruits, Meats, etc. So I checked off some of the stuff in my fridge -- potatoes, spinach, parsley, mint, and avocados -- and it found 59 recipes. I then added eggs, and the number of recipes jumped to 268.

I haven't tried any of the recipes yet but this could be a good site to bookmark.

Image: By Yoninah - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link Read the rest

Can farts spread disease? That's the question Mental Floss poses, and after having looked at a small bit of science, their conclusion: "If you're wearing pants, you should be fine." Actually, even if you are butt naked you should be fine, unless, perhaps, you're within five centimeters of another human.

Searching for an answer, Mental Floss dug up a 2014 Discovery article that describes an experiment that involved farts in petri dishes. As described by science author Karl Kruszelnicki on Discovery:

“I contacted Luke Tennent, a microbiologist in Canberra, and together we devised an experiment. He asked a colleague to break wind directly onto two Petri dishes from a distance of 5 centimetres, first fully clothed, then with his trousers down. Then he observed what happened. Overnight, the second Petri dish sprouted visible lumps of two types of bacteria that are usually found only in the gut and on the skin. But the flatus which had passed through clothing caused no bacteria to sprout, which suggests that clothing acts as a filter.

Our deduction is that the enteric zone in the second Petri dish was caused by the flatus itself, and the splatter ring around that was caused by the sheer velocity of the fart, which blew skin bacteria from the cheeks and blasted it onto the dish. It seems, therefore, that flatus can cause infection if the emitter is naked, but not if he or she is clothed..."

Cut to 2020 and the coronavirus, and Mental Floss says: "Earlier this year, a Beijing district office for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced that pants should be an effective barrier against farts that might carry the novel coronavirus. Read the rest

Here's a humorous PSA (or Public Information Film, as it was made in the UK) from 1946 that teaches us the proper way to sneeze. The actor and director, Richard Massingham, was known for his roles as a bumbler in PSAs during the 1940s and '50s. Posted on YouTube by UK's National Health Service, they have a disclaimer: "This is a historical video. This video is not subject to any ongoing clinical review, and information in it may not be clinically accurate. This video does not constitute current medical advice." Still, a hankie is better than a hand. Read the rest