ScienceHealth

Tucker Carlson Defends Doctor Who Says Demons Steal Semen From People While They Sleep

Fox News host Tucker Carlson lashed out at tech companies and reporters Tuesday night, insisting that a pro-Trump group called “America’s Frontlines Doctors” was being censored and improperly ridiculed for their beliefs. Carlson, of course, is full of shit. The part Carlson didn’t mention on his show is that the beliefs being “censored” by platforms … Continued

ScienceHealth

Health Experts Call for Second U.S. Shutdown to Halt Coronavirus Spread

A group of public health experts and medical professionals in the U.S. made a simple plead to the country’s leaders via an open letter this week: Bring back the shutdowns that helped slow the spread of covid-19 earlier in the year, and build up the resources that will allow the country to reopen safely once … Continued

Tech News

New York Times Casually Drops Another Story About How Aliens Are Probably Real

The New York Times published a story Thursday night about the likelihood that aliens have visited Earth. The main takeaway? Aliens could be real and the U.S. government has been conducting classified briefings in recent years about things left behind by “off-world vehicles.” Naturally, the new article appears on the 17th page of today’s paper … Continued

io9Games

Steven Universe Rocks Out and Hello Neighbor Does Hidden Identity in the Latest Gaming News

Welcome back to Gaming Shelf, io9’s column all about board games and tabletop roleplaying games. San Diego Comic-Con at Home and Gen Con Online 2020 are right around the corner, and with those events we might see some new announcements and releases. In the meantime, there’s plenty of cool stuff on the horizon, including a … Continued

ScienceHealth

Kidneys, Brain, Skin: New Study Highlights the Whole-Body Damage Caused by Covid-19

A recent research paper provides a better picture of the serious damage that covid-19 can cause throughout the body, not just in the lungs. It highlights heart, kidney, liver, and neurological complications, among others. This long list of symptoms may be the result of direct damage caused by the virus, as well as by a … Continued

ScienceHealth

Latest Coronavirus Science: Hopeful Evidence for Longer-Lasting Immunity

In this roundup of the latest research into the covid-19 pandemic, we cover encouraging evidence for immunity, why the virus may not be very airborne, and an unexpected effect of the pandemic on our weather forecasts. Immunity hopes A study out this week seems to offer a ray of sunlight amidst concerns that immunity to … Continued

ScienceHealth

Unreleased Coronavirus Task Force Report Shows 18 States Are in the ‘Red Zone’

As the U.S. shattered records on Thursday with over 77,000 newly confirmed cases and the nation’s death toll has exploded to nearly 139,000, an unpublished White House coronavirus task force report obtained by the Center for Public Integrity warned that 18 states are now in the “red zone” and should roll back their mangled reopenings. … Continued

ScienceHealth

Why Isn’t Summer Stopping the Coronavirus?

The U.S. is now firmly in the middle of a second peak of the covid-19 pandemic, if still nestled inside its first wave. But given the rapid spread of the coronavirus during a time of the year when many similar diseases tend to lay low, it’s worth exploring: Why isn’t the summer stopping or at … Continued

io9

In The Rain’s Season 3 Trailer, Humanity Will Either Survive or Become the Virus

Talk about an untested vaccine. In the debut trailer for the third and final season of Netflix’s The Rain, the man who controls the most deadly virus in history plans to infect the rest of the world so they can all be like him. But is succumbing to the disease actually a cure, or does … Continued

ScienceHealth

White House Tells Hospitals to Skip CDC and Send Coronavirus Data Straight to HHS

The White House has issued a directive to the nation’s hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and “send all coronavirus patient information” straight to a non-public Health and Human Services database in D.C., the New York Times reported on Tuesday. This appears to have generally alarmed many public health experts paying … Continued

Tech News

ICE Backs Down on Inhuman Threat to Strip Visas From International Students in Online Classes

After being sued by dozens of institutions, Donald Trump’s administration has backed off its bullshit plan to deny entry to international students (or require they leave the country) if their institutions switch to online-only instruction during the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Washington Post, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has reversed a July 6 policy that … Continued

Tech News

Report: Apple Likely Won’t Reopen in Full Until 2021, Many Retail Staff Asked to Switch to Online Roles

With over 90 of Apple’s 271 outlets across the U.S. closed down once again due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the company is asking retail staff who are unable to show up to a physical location to instead work from home, according to a Monday report in Bloomberg. Apple reportedly also expects that its plan … Continued

ScienceHealth

Ted Cruz’s Office Says He Was Just Enjoying a Delicious Beverage, Not Violating Mandatory Airline Mask Policy or Anything

American Airlines has said it is investigating after Senator Ted Cruz was photographed in apparent violation of its policy mandating use of face masks during the coronavirus pandemic by all passengers and crew on Sunday, per CBS News. Scientists believe flying on a passenger airline is relatively risky during the pandemic due to close proximity … Continued

ScienceHealth

Anti-Mask Idiots Rally at Florida Restaurant as State Becomes Covid-19 Epicenter

Anti-mask advocates rallied over the weekend at a restaurant in Florida, the current covid-19 capital of the world, insisting that no one should wear a mask to fight the spread of the deadly disease. The rally proves yet again that no amount of infection or death will convince some people to do the right thing … Continued

Tech News

Dozens of U.S. Marines Test Positive For Covid-19 in Japan, Angering Local Authorities

At least 62 U.S. Marines have tested positive for coronavirus at American military bases in Japan, according to a new report from the Japan Times. It’s not yet clear whether the U.S. service members brought covid-19 with them from overseas or if they were infected while in Japan. But either way, authorities in Japan are … Continued

io9

Of Course Disney World’s Reopening Video Works as Horror

In celebration of Disney World’s reopening after shutting down earlier this year in response to the still ongoing coronavirus pandemic that’s killed over 130,000 people in the U.S. alone, the Disney Parks and Jobs dropped a video over the weekend enthusiastically welcoming park guests “home.” Here, “home” refers to a theme park owned by a … Continued

ScienceHealth

One-Third of All Coronavirus Tests Came Back Positive in Miami-Dade County on Thursday

One-third of coronavirus tests came back positive for the novel virus in Miami-Dade County, Florida on Thursday, with a 14-day average of 24.87 percent, according to CBS News. Even 20 percent would be considered very high. The U.S. has set record-high rates for newly confirmed cases of the virus six out of the past 10 … Continued

io9Games

Travel to the Golden Age of The Witcher and See Pandemic’s Newest Legacy in Gaming News

Welcome back to Gaming Shelf, io9’s column all about board games and tabletop roleplaying games. This week, Gen Con Online gets things in full swing with its events schedule for the digital convention experience. Plus, a look at Pandemic Legacy’s upcoming season and a special anniversary edition for The Lord of the Rings: The Board … Continued

ScienceHealth

Why There’s No Simple Answer to Whether the Coronavirus Is Airborne

Hundreds of scientists across the world have just petitioned the World Health Organization via an open letter with one demand: Acknowledge publicly that the coronavirus behind covid-19 can be airborne, meaning it can spread through the air (and linger there) via tiny aerosols emitted by the breath of infected people, not just large droplets. But … Continued

ScienceHealth

OK, Sure, Let’s Just Add Some Bubonic Plague to the Mix

On Sunday, officials in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China, recorded a case of bubonic plague, otherwise known as the Black Death, while another case was reportedly detected in neighboring Mongolia. Thankfully there’s no need to freak out about a pandemic yet—other than the one we are currently facing and from which the U.S. has … Continued