Praveen chintu

In March, the virus gripping the world — COVID-19 — started to spread in Africa. In short order, actors across the continent’s tech ecosystem began to step up to stem the spread. Early in March Africa’s coronavirus cases by country were in the single digits, but by mid-month those numbers had spiked leading the World Health Organization to sound an alarm. “About 10 days ago we had 5 countries affected, now we’ve got 30,” WHO Regional Director  Dr Matshidiso Moeti said at a press conference on March 19. “It’s has been an extremely rapid…evolution.”  By the  World Health Organization’s stats Tuesday there were 3671 COVID-19 cases in Sub-Saharan Africa and 87 confirmed deaths related to the virus — up from 463 cases and 8 deaths on March 18. As the COVID-19 began to grow in major economies, governments and startups in Africa started measures to shift a greater volume of transactions toward digital payments and away from cash — which the World Health Organization flagged as a condui

If you are looking to download and use Zoom for meetings or for any other video conferencing purpose, here's an in-depth guide on where and how you can download the app and use it. The guide will also provide you details about other features of the app such as scheduling a meeting and screen sharing. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/2w7woeg

Horseshoe crabs are remarkable animals, beautiful in their weirdness. These "living fossils" evolved 450 million years ago and have lived through at least five mass extinctions fatal to the majority of multicellular lifeforms on Earth. Sea-dwelling relatives of spiders, horseshoe crabs can lay millions of eggs, have four pairs of eyes, and (importantly to us) have blue blood containing amoeba-like immune cells. These horseshoe crab immune cells are analogous to the white blood cells of in our bodies, which protect us against a wide range of pathogens. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2wKOyD0

The Common Nightingale, known for its beautiful song, breeds in Europe and parts of Asia and migrates to sub-Saharan Africa every winter. A new study published in The Auk: Ornithological Advances suggests that natural selection driven by climate change is causing these iconic birds to evolve shorter wings, which might make them less likely to survive their annual migration. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3aCgJT2

Coronavirus not only seems to discriminate by age but sex. The likelihood of death may come down to biology, lifestyle and behaviour from WIRED UK https://ift.tt/39w1PN2

The official guidance doesn’t match the text of the emergency laws. Does it matter? from WIRED UK https://ift.tt/2R0cIAg

It's likely that coronavirus will loom over us until we have an effective vaccine. We need to prepare ourselves for life to be really strange for a long, long time from WIRED UK https://ift.tt/2WXQJgZ

Big U.S. tech firms such as Google and Facebook plan to seek deferment of a new Indian digital tax, which has caught them off-guard as businesses battle the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, three industry sources told Reuters. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/2WZXTl6

President Donald Trump spoke with the biggest U.S. internet and mobile phone providers on Tuesday to talk about how the networks are holding up as tens of millions of Americans work from home. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/2R2ie5o

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp is seeing signs of a sales recovery in China, it said on Tuesday, as the country starts to return to normal following the coronavirus lockdown. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/3dK14mC

Xiaomi Corp reported a 27% jump in December-quarter revenue, its fourth consecutive quarter of growth, and above analyst expectations, in spite a weak outlook for the global smartphone sector. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/2JqWAnc

Huawei has warned that 2020 would be its most difficult year yet due to American trade restrictions which dealt a blow to its overseas sales in 2019, and predicted the Chinese government would retaliate against the United States. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/2R2i1z8

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Just three months after capping what was the best year for Indian startups, having raised a record $14.5 billion in 2019 , they are beginning to struggle to raise new capital as prominent investors urge them to “prepare for the worst”, cut spending and warn that it could be challenging to secure additional money for the next few months. In an open letter to startup founders in India, ten global and local private equity and venture capitalist firms including Accel, Lightspeed, Sequoia Capital, and Matrix Partners cautioned that the current changes to the macro environment could make it difficult for a startup to close their next fundraising deal. The firms, which included Kalaari Capital, SAIF Partners, and Nexus Venture Partners — some of the prominent names in India to back early-stage startups — asked founders to be prepared to not see their startups’ jump in the coming rounds and have a 12-18 month runway with what they raise. “Assumptions from bull market financings or even

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Today, team COMPAS (Compact Object Mergers: Population Astrophysics and Statistics) has announced the first public beta release of their rapid binary population synthesis code (available for download here). from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2QZcedE

This summer, while drought, heatwaves and bushfires ravaged Australia, Antarctica was also experiencing a summer of extreme weather. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2w58WhM

Shoot a rifle, and the recoil might knock you backward. Merge two black holes in a binary system, and the loss of momentum gives a similar recoil—a "kick"—to the merged black hole. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2QZWfvN

In a new paper, Thomas Russell and postdoctoral fellow Ganhua Xie, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, report that they have used capillary forces to develop a simple method for producing self-assembling hanging droplets of an aqueous polymer solution from the surface of a second aqueous polymer solution in well-ordered arrays. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2USpvpm

Scientists seeking to bring the fusion that powers the sun and stars to Earth must deal with sawtooth instabilities—up-and-down swings in the central pressure and temperature of the plasma that fuels fusion reactions, similar to the serrated blades of a saw. If these swings are large enough, they can lead to the sudden collapse of the entire discharge of the plasma. Such swings were first observed in 1974 and have so far eluded a widely accepted theory that explains experimental observations. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2Jqv7Cb

As the climate is changing, so too are the world's forests. From the misty redwoods in the west to the Blue Ridge forest of Appalachia, many sylvan ecosystems are adapting to drier conditions. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2UtyAGc

The mighty Calusa ruled South Florida for centuries, wielding military power, trading and collecting tribute along routes that sprawled hundreds of miles, creating shell islands, erecting enormous buildings and dredging canals wider than some highways. Unlike the Aztecs, Maya and Inca, who built their empires with the help of agriculture, the Calusa kingdom was founded on fishing. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3aw88Bv

French startup Qarnot has raised a $6.5 million (€6 million) funding round. The company manufactures heaters and boilers with a special trick — they pack computers as computers tend to generate a lot of heat. Qarnot then lets companies leverage that computing power by running tasks on those unusual servers. Banque des Territoires, Caisse des Dépôts, Engie Rassembleur d'Énergies, A/O PropTech and Groupe Casino are participating in today’s funding round. When you design a data center, you transform electricity into computing resources and heat. Data centers always have to find clever new ways to get rid of heat with powerful cooling mechanisms. Qarnot is designing alternative data centers by taking advantage of heat instead of fighting heat. The company first started with computing heaters , an electrical heater with a server. The company sells those devices to construction companies looking for heaters for their new buildings. People living or working in those buildings can

Delhi Police has recently warned against the fake UPI ID being used by scamsters to dupe citizens. If you are planning to make contributions to the national fund, then here is a safe way to donate without being duped. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/2yjG1al

A new fennel fungal disease caused by a new genus and species—Ochraceocephala foeniculi, was observed for the first time in 2017 on 5% of the "Apollo" fennel cultivar grown in the sampled localities in Catania province, Italy. Now, it has spread to 2 more cultivars: "Narciso" and "Pompeo", causing crop losses of around 20-30%. The new pathogen damages the fennel with necrotic lesions on the crown, root and stem. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2JtMAcW

Taking the evolutionary plunge into water and abandoning land for good, as some crocodilian ancestors did nearly 200 million years ago, is often framed as choosing freedom: from gravity, from territorial boundaries, from dietary constraints. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/39uVNvV

The idea of a complex spider society—in which thousands of spiders live, hunt, and raise their young together in a single colony—is unsettling to many of us. We are perhaps lucky then that this scene is relatively rare among arachnids. Among the 40,000 known species of spiders, the vast majority live solitary lives and will often show aggression toward other spiders they encounter, even within their own species. There are fewer than 25 known species of social spiders, distributed broadly across 6 different families and 9 different genera. Not only do these spiders live in social groups, but they produce populations that grow over time as new offspring are added to the nest, enabling the capture of increasingly large prey as the colony expands, and even give rise to new daughter colonies. As social creatures ourselves, humans have long been interested in the evolutionary innovations that enable social cooperation. In a new article in Genome Biology and Evolution titled "Comparative

A long-held mystery in the field of nuclear physics is why the universe is composed of the specific materials we see around us. In other words, why is it made of "this" stuff and not other stuff? from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/39susdJ

Zoom has become the video-calling app of choice. That doesn't mean it isn't slurping up your data from WIRED UK https://ift.tt/3az7naW

The coronavirus outbreak has precipitated Britain's agricultural labour crisis from WIRED UK https://ift.tt/2UuSsJ5

Endless photos of dogs, babies, food and office spaces. “Funny” videos. And endless talk of coronavirus from WIRED UK https://ift.tt/33WNqrX

As Wuhan goes back to work, China is ramping up its efforts to provide aid to the rest of the world from WIRED UK https://ift.tt/3dGJpMO

Meetup, a social network with 49 million members that encourages people to get together in person, was acquired by WeWork in 2017. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/3awkzx1

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India's health ministry on Monday invited doctors in Kashmir to an online training session on managing ventilators - critical equipment for patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/2WUQVxz

The Los Angeles-based digital challenger bank, HMBradley , opened its virtual doors to the public today, allowing the thousands of waitlisted would-be users to set up direct deposits and collect their sign-up bonuses. The company is offering banking customers an up to 3% return on their savings based on the percentage they save of their quarterly deposits. HMBradley also set up a new feature which allows users to save towards specific goals. Backed by PayPal founder Max Levchin’s HVF Labs, along with Walkabout Ventures, Mucker Capital, Index Ventures, and Accomplice, to the tune of $3.5 million, HMBradley was designed to benefit savers, the company said. Account holders with balances up to $100,000 can receive up to 3% annual percentage yields on their accounts. These account holders qualify by receiving one direct deposit and saving at least 5% of the total amount deposited in an account monthly. HMBradley accounts are held through Hatch Bank, which is FDIC insured. To qualif

Facebook has diverted from its policy of not fact-checking politicians in order to prevent the spread of potentially harmful coronavirus misinformation from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Facebook made the decisive choice to remove a video shared by Bolsonaro on Sunday where he claimed that “hydroxychloroquine is working in all places.” That’s despite the drug still undergoing testing to determine its effectiveness for treating COVID-19, which researchers and health authorities have not confirmed. “We remove content on Facebook and Instagram that violates our Community Standards, which do not allow misinformation that could lead to physical harm” a Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch. Facebook specifically prohibits false claims regarding cure, treatments, the availability of essential services, and the location or intensity of contagion outbreaks. BBC News Brazil first reported the takedown today in Portuguese. In the removed video , Bolsonaro had been speaking to a stree

Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson is partnering with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to fund over $1 billion in COVID-19 vaccine and antiviral treatment research and development , the company said on Monday. The partnership is an expansion of an existing agreement between BARDA and J&J’s Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies division. With the agreement, the company is setting a goal of providing a global supply of more than one billion doses of the vaccine, which J&J expects to have in clinical trials by September 2020 at the latest. The first batches of the vaccine may be available for emergency use by early 2021, the company said. BARDA’s partnership with J&J encompasses research and development of potential antiviral treatments in addition to the work that’s being done to develop a vaccine for the disease. Those efforts include development work J&J and BARDA are conducting with t

Any device that sends out a Wi-Fi signal also emits terahertz waves —electromagnetic waves with a frequency somewhere between microwaves and infrared light. These high-frequency radiation waves, known as "T-rays," are also produced by almost anything that registers a temperature, including our own bodies and the inanimate objects around us. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/33W9WB4

Devotees of electronic music are snapping up space-enabled creative content as they collect unique digital keepsakes and access the latest releases. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2QSe288

The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission takes us over part of the Mekong Delta—a major rice-producing region in southwest Vietnam. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2UNhxhq

The path of a light beam is bent by the presence of mass, as explained by General Relativity. A massive body can therefore act like a lens—a so called "gravitational lens"—to distort the image of an object seen behind it. Microlensing is a related phenomenon: a short flash of light is produced when a moving cosmic body, acting as a gravitational lens, modulates the intensity of light from a background star as it fortuitously passes in front of it. About fifty years ago scientists predicted that if it ever became possible to observe a microlensing flash from two well-separated vantage points, a parallax measurement would pin down the distance of the dark object. The Spitzer Space Telescope, orbiting the Sun at the distance of the Earth but trailing behind the Earth by about one-quarter of the orbital path, had been working with ground-based telescopes to do just that until it was shut down last month by NASA as a cost-savings measure. from Phys.org - latest science and techn

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have used machine learning to analyze spin models, which are used in physics to study phase transitions. Previous work showed that an image/handwriting classification model could be applied to distinguish states in the simplest models. The team showed the approach is applicable to more complex models and found that an AI trained on one model and applied to another could reveal key similarities between distinct phases in different systems. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2yl5fVZ

An international team with the participation of Prof. Dr. Michael Kues from the Cluster of Excellence PhoenixD at Leibniz University Hannover has developed a new method for generating quantum-entangled photons in a spectral range of light that was previously inaccessible. The discovery can make the encryption of satellite-based communications much more secure in the future. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2Ur8Mur

The modules that the major space agencies plan to erect on the moon could incorporate an element contributed by the human colonizers themselves: the urea in their pee. European researchers have found that it could be used as a plasticizer for concrete used to build structures. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2Us6TNU

Working in the Arctic Fram Strait, scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) have found microplastic throughout the water column with particularly high concentrations at the ocean floor. Using model-based simulations, they have also found an explanation for this high level of pollution. According to their findings, the two main ocean currents in Fram Strait transport the microscopically small plastic particles into the region between Greenland and Spitsbergen from both the Arctic and the North Atlantic. While passing through the Strait, many particles eventually drift to the seafloor, where they accumulate. The experts report on this phenomenon in a study just released in the esteemed journal Environmental Science & Technology. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/33XPdNf

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Telecom sector regulator Trai has asked telecom operators to extend the validity period of prepaid users to ensure that subscribers get uninterrupted services during the 21-day nationwide lockdown. "Under the circumstances, it is quite possible that some people may face hardships and/or disruption of services while renewing their packages," Trai said. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/2Jm9gM7

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, market demand is fragile but global smartphone sales in February declined only 14 per cent compared to last year, thus showing some resilience, a new report has said. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/2UNi0jr

Pathogenic fungi pose a huge and growing threat to global food security. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2xEkrNl

Air Doctor , the health tech startup that connects travellers with local doctors, has raised $7.8 million in Series A funding. The round is led by Kamet Ventures (the AXA-backed venture builder), and The Phoenix Insurance Company. Founded in 2016, Air Doctor aims to empower travellers who get sick when abroad and need non-emergency advice or treatment. It has created a network of local private physicians that travellers can access, typically via travel insurance or perks. The platform is available across 42 countries in 5 continents, and lets you search by location, language, specialty, and cost. “Air Doctor was born out of the founding team’s own travelling experiences, out of that terrible feeling you get when you fall ill in a foreign country and don’t know who to turn to or how to get the fast response you need,” says Jenny Cohen Derfler, CEO and co-founder of Air Doctor. “Yam [Derfler, Head of Product Innovation] came up with the idea after eight months of travelling around So

The phone app, which will keep track of people the user has come into close physical contact with and alert them if they subsequently test positive, is expected to be launched within 10 days, Ireland's Health Service Executive (HSE) said. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/2wKNdvG

West African lions are a critically endangered subpopulation, with an estimated 400 remaining and strong evidence of ongoing declines. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3auYbnV

Amazon offers online grocery services through Amazon Fresh from its own grocery warehouses, and Amazon Prime Now, which delivers from its Whole Foods stores. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/2X4pBgD

Google last year announced that it will roll out a new account switcher to its apps, which lets users easily manage all their Google settings, and now the company has begun rolling the feature on its Play Store. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/2wM5KYE

Telecom regulator TRAI has given six weeks additional time to telecom companies to file monthly and quarterly reports that are otherwise due in April, a senior official said. from Gadgets Now https://ift.tt/2QTehQi

There’s a coronavirus infodemic raging on social media. But there’s also a way out from WIRED UK https://ift.tt/3dDwjjb

The radical cost-cutting model was never built to withstand coronavirus, let alone panic-buying from WIRED UK https://ift.tt/2JlAVgb

Answering the phone went out of fashion years ago. But coronavirus could bring it back in a big way from WIRED UK https://ift.tt/3bt3ynE

BMW's new flagship electric vehicle is a near-perfect runabout that loses none of the fun. There's only one problem from WIRED UK https://ift.tt/2WPN7h7

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Hello folks, welcome back (or hi for the first time) to The Station, a weekly newsletter dedicated to the all the ways people and packages move around this world. I’m your host, Kirsten Korosec, senior transportation reporter at TechCrunch. I also have started to publish a shorter version of the newsletter on TechCrunch . That’s what you’re reading now. For the whole enchilada — which comes out every Saturday — you can subscribe to the newsletter by heading over here , and clicking “The Station.” It’s free! Before I get into the thick of things, how is everyone doing? This isn’t a rhetorical question; I’m being earnest. I want to hear from you (note my email below). Maybe you’re a startup founder, a safety driver at an autonomous vehicle developer, a venture capitalist, engineer or gig economy worker. I’m interested in how you are doing, what you’re doing to cope and how you’re getting around in your respective cities. Please reach out and email me at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com

Lawmakers and security experts have long warned of security flaws in the underbelly of the world’s cell networks. Now a whistleblower says the Saudi government is exploiting those flaws to track its citizens across the U.S. as part of a “systematic” surveillance campaign. It’s the latest tactic by the Saudi kingdom to spy on its citizens overseas. The kingdom has faced accusations of using powerful mobile spyware to hack into the phones of dissidents and activists to monitor their activities, including those close to Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist who was murdered by agents of the Saudi regime. The kingdom also allegedly planted spies at Twitter to surveil critics of the regime. The Guardian obtained a cache of data amounting to millions of locations on Saudi citizens over a four-month period beginning in November. The report says the location tracking requests were made by Saudi’s three largest cell carriers — believed to be at the behest of the Saudi government —

Only a few days after saying that he would like to see the country “opened up and raring to go by Easter” and maybe relax rules for at least some parts of the U.S. sooner than later, President Trump today announced that he is extending the government’s social distancing guidelines through April 30. “Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won. That would be the greatest loss of all,” he said. “Therefore, the next two weeks and during this period it’s very important that everyone strongly follows the guidelines — have to follow the guidelines that our great vice president holds up a lot. He’s holding that up a lot. He believes in it so strongly. 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.” He also noted that we can expect more data and information about the federal government’s strategy on Tuesday. “We’ll be having a very important statement made on Tuesday.” Ea

Microsoft is pulling out of an investment in an Israeli facial recognition technology developer as part of a broader policy shift to halt any minority investments in facial recognition startups, the company announced late last week . The decision to withdraw its investment from AnyVision, an Israeli company developing facial recognition software, came as a result of an investigation into reports that AnyVision’s technology was being used by the Israeli government to surveil residents in the West Bank. The investigation, conducted by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and his team at Covington & Burling, confirmed that AnyVision’s technology was used to monitor border crossings between the West Bank and Israel, but did not “power a mass surveillance program in the West Bank.” Microsoft’s venture capital arm, M12 Ventures, backed AnyVision as part of the company’s $74 million financing round which closed in June 2019 . Investors who continue to back the company include

As humans retreat into their homes as more and more countries go under coronavirus lockdown, wild animals are slipping cover to explore the empty streets of some of our biggest cities. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3dCeLUP

On CNN’s State of the Union Sunday , the leading U.S. authority on the COVID-19 pandemic made some grim predictions about the course of the novel coronavirus as it rages through communities within the United States. Dr. Anthony Fauci , the longtime director for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and emerging face of American leadership in the fight against the virus, estimated that the U.S. may see between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths from COVID-19, the deadly disease caused by the novel coronavirus. A deeply-respected authority on viral diseases, Fauci assisted in guiding the federal response to SARS, MERS, Ebola and now the novel coronavirus. Fauci cautioned that these estimates are based on models and a model is only as accurate as the assumptions that go into building it. An extreme worst-case situation in which the coronavirus causes millions of American deaths remains “not impossible but very, very unlikely.” “Whenever the models come in, they give a worst

Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren may have ended her 2020 presidential run, but the tech used to drive her campaign will live on. Members of her staff announced they would make public the top apps and digital tools developed in Warren’s bid to become the Democratic nominee for president. “In our work, we leaned heavily on open source technology — and want to contribute back to that community…[by] open-sourcing some of the most important projects of the Elizabeth Warren campaign for anyone to use,” the Warren for President Tech Team said. In a Medium post , members of the team — including chief technology strategist Mike Conlow and chief technology officer Nikki Sutton — previewed what would be available and why. “Our hope is that other Democratic candidates and progressive causes will use the ideas and code we developed to run stronger campaigns and help Democrats win,” the post said. Warren’s tech team listed several of the tools they’ve turned over to the open source univer

After the shutdown, the testing and tracing. “ Trace, test and treat is the mantra … no lockdowns, no roadblocks and no restriction on movement ” in South Korea. “ To suppress and control the epidemic, countries must isolate, test, treat and trace ,” say WHO. But what does “tracing” look like exactly? In Singapore , they use a “ TraceTogether ” app, which uses Bluetooth to track nearby phones (without location tracking), keeps local logs of those contacts, and only uploads them to the Ministry of Health when the user chooses/consents, presumably after a diagnosis, so those contacts can be alerted. Singapore plans to open-source the app. In South Korea, the government texts people to let them know if they were in the vicinity of a diagnosed individual. The information conveyed can include the person’s age, gender, and detailed location history . Subsequently, even more details may be made available : The level of detail provided by @Seoul_gov for each and every COVID-19 case in