Forbes reports that in a world filled with school closings and social isolation, gaming has surged: - Steam, the most popular digital PC gaming marketplace, reached new heights Sunday, drawing a record 20,313,451 concurrent users to the 16-year-old service, according to third-party database SteamDB - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, released by Steam-owner Valve in 2012, seems to be the top beneficiary of the increased engagement, breaking it's all-time peak on Sunday with 1,023,2290 concurrent players, topping its previous peak last month by a million, which itself beat the record set in April 2016... - Activision Blizzard's new free-to-play battle royale spinoff Call of Duty: Warzone, launched March 10 on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, is also likely benefiting, drawing in a staggering 15 million in three days, besting the record 10 million in three days by last year's battle royale sensation Apex Legends. Polygon adds: Gaming saw a 75% increase, week over week, in data usage this March, Verizon said. Video games are proving to be a popular way to pass the time during lockdown -- though we're also starting to see the strain this is placing on various networks and services... Recently, Nintendo experienced a nine-hour network outage. Over the weekend, Xbox Live also went down, preventing users from online play. Gaming adjacent tools and services are also seeing a surge. As our sibling site The Verge reports, live streaming platform Twitch had a 10% jump in viewership. The popular communication app Discord, meanwhile, recently saw server outages that coincided days after it expanded its screen sharing limit for users. The games that people are playing themselves are changing in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, too. Pokemon Go, for instance, has tweaked its mechanics to make it easier for people to play from home, while also changing its events to make it easier for people to play solo. And in an effort to entice its players to stay home, Rockstar vowed to add fun bonuses to the MMO for players who are "spending a little extra time at home." Elsewhere, game developers are starting to give out their games for free in an effort to help people stay indoors. It's no wonder we're seeing changes in usage, playtime, and outages across the board.

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This is a copy of a Michael Backes post on Facebook, yesterday.

Michael Backes studies and writes about cannabis. Here's his best advice about using it "during the 2020 Covid-19 World Tour."

1. Moderation - Cannabis interacts with your body's endocannabinoid system, which the body uses to regulate physiological function- from immune response to memory. Regular high-dose use reduces the density of your endocannabinoid receptors. That's a really poor choice at the moment. Three days of abstinence can restore a significant part of that lost receptor density. Good time to consider a short break. Trust me, cannabis will be there when you get back.
2. Find your MED - MED stands for minimum effective dose. There are still folks that think that huge doses of cannabis are a demonstration of their expertise. Sorry, Cheech. The cool folks know that massive doses quickly lead to the disappearance of the subtlest and most interesting effects of cannabis. Find the smallest MED that moves your needle and stick with it.
3. Freeze your stash - Cannabis is more than its THC or CBD content. Cannabis flower is perishable and room temperatures degrade its essential oil content. Freeze and just take what you're going to consume. Make sure the freezer container is airtight (I recommend mason jars, as they come in many sizes and are non-reactive with cannabis.)
4. Inhale with care - Cannabis smoke and cannabis concentrates can irritate your lungs and suppress your pulmonary immune function and response. Consider mixing it up by taking cannabis orally or switching to a flower vaporizer. An occasional puff is okay, but only if your lungs are in good shape and you're symptom free. Don't inhale if you have symptoms or have been exposed. Period.

2018: Facebook is a system for figuring out what kind of bullshit you like and then giving it to you.

A wonderful and literate story of how CV infects your body. No spoilers, I won't say how the story ends. It's really well-written, the title doesn't do it justice.

"If you act quickly, both the gritty Tomb Raider origin story and 2014's Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris are free for the taking on Steam," reports CNET: We've already told you about a slew of free stuff you can get while you're stuck at home. I don't know if this particular deal has anything to do with the coronavirus, but right now you can not one, but two Tomb Raider games for free. You'll need to download them right now though, because these return to their regular price tomorrow. The free games are 2013's Tomb Raider ("Lara Croft's intense, gritty origin story...there's no question it's worth downloading for zero dollars") and the follow-up game Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris ("the first-ever four-player co-op experience.")

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I've been calling it CV, not Coronavirus or whatever.

An anonymous reader quotes the Associated Press: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has gone into quarantine after being informed that a doctor who administered a vaccine to her has tested positive for the new coronavirus. Merkel's spokesman said the German chancellor was informed about the doctor's test shortly after holding a news conference Sunday announcing new measures to curb the spread of the virus. The 65-year-old Chancellor will continue her work from home.

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This week Politico published predictions from 34 "big thinkers" about what the future will be like after the coronavirus pandemic. (An associate professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland argues that "The Reagan era is over. The widely accepted idea that government is inherently bad won't persist after coronavirus.") Others predict a future with voting from mobile devices (and possibly higher voter turnout), and one author even predicts a society that accepts "restraints on mass consumer culture as a reasonable price to pay to defend ourselves against future contagions and climate disasters alike." But several also predict the rise of telemedicine, including the editor-in-chief of Reason, who also argues that the epidemic "will sweep away many of the artificial barriers to moving more of our lives online." The resistance -- led by teachers' unions and the politicians beholden to them -- to allowing partial homeschooling or online learning for K-12 kids has been swept away by necessity. It will be near-impossible to put that genie back in the bottle in the fall, with many families finding that they prefer full or partial homeschooling or online homework. For many college students, returning to an expensive dorm room on a depopulated campus will not be appealing, forcing massive changes in a sector that has been ripe for innovation for a long time. And while not every job can be done remotely, many people are learning that the difference between having to put on a tie and commute for an hour or working efficiently at home was always just the ability to download one or two apps plus permission from their boss. Once companies sort out their remote work dance steps, it will be harder -- and more expensive -- to deny employees those options. In other words, it turns out, an awful lot of meetings (and doctors' appointments and classes) really could have been an email. And now they will be. Not everyone agrees. Author Sonia Shah argues that "The hype around online education will be abandoned, as a generation of young people forced into seclusion will reshape the culture around a contrarian appreciation for communal life." But the president of Vassar College even wonders if the pandemic will be a boon to virtual reality, hoping for a program that helps self-isolated people socialize. "Imagine putting on glasses, and suddenly you are in a classroom or another communal setting, or even a positive psychology intervention."

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These two tweets were one above the other in my timeline.

Rand Paul getting CV is going to rock the government.

An anonymous reader writes: 57-year-old U.S. Senator Rand Paul has tested positive for the coronavirus, reports CNN, citing a tweet from the senator's Twitter account. "He is feeling fine and is in quarantine," the tweet reports. "He is asymptomatic and was tested out of an abundance of caution due to his extensive travel and events. He was not aware of any direct contact with any infected person." Another tweet adds that "Ten days ago, our D.C. office began operating remotely, hence virtually no staff has had contact with Senator Rand Paul." Paul plans to continue working while in quarantine, and hopes to return to the Senate after his quarantine period ends.

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I went to New Orleans in December 2005 after Katrina to see what it was like. To see what an American city was like after it was half-destroyed. What I learned would inform the people making financial decisions in DC. They're not understanding what's going to be left when this is done. Saving corporations is not a possibility. We should be focused on surviving as people and a country. In Katrina people had somewhere to evacuate to. This time we don't. On the other hand nothing we made will be destroyed. It should mostly be here when we emerge. I suppose pirates could hijack airplanes, or occupy skyscrapers in Manhattan. A question I learned to ask from New Orleans. Who's going to supply the supply chain? They had trouble rebuilding because there was no place for the builders to sleep, and no food for them to eat, and no one to prepare it because they had nowhere to live. We need really smart people there thinking and planning. Yet this is the fog of war. We have very little data on the enemy.

I think we're all slowly coming to the realization that none of us have the imagination to cope with what's coming. It's a slow motion disaster of unprecedented proportion.

Teachers parade through school neighborhoods so the students could see them.

"Thousands of full-time rideshare drivers are still out on the streets trying to carve out a living," notes The Hustle, interviewing more than 50 full-time rideshare drivers facing a difficult choice: "Stay home and sacrifice a livelihood, or keep driving in a depressed market and risk contracting the virus." As independent contractors, rideshare drivers don't receive sick leave, unemployment insurance, or the many other benefits enjoyed by W-2 employees. During a pandemic, this has proven to be especially problematic... [Uber and Lyft are now offering 14 days of paid sick leave, but only to drivers who have contracted COVID-19 or are quarantined by a public health authority] Deemed "essential" workers, Uber and Lyft drivers have been encouraged to continue business as usual. But the current state of affairs has polarized drivers: In a survey of nearly 400 full-time Uber and Lyft drivers The Hustle conducted last week, 57% said they will continue to work at the peril of their health, while 43% have decided to stay home and sacrifice their sole source of income. Many drivers told us that, while aware of the inherent exposure risks in carting strangers around in an enclosed metal box all day, they have no choice but to work... "I have a 6-month-old daughter, a family, and apartment rent on my head. I have bills to pay. I've been making about $40 a day since last Monday..." "They are vectors for this disease," Veena Dubal, a professor of law at U.C. Hastings, says of the drivers. "And they have no training in health and safety." In early March, Uber and Lyft pledged to do their best to provide drivers with basic sanitation products like hand sanitizer and wipes. But the companies have struggled to find supplies during a global shortage and have since closed down the driver hubs where they were meant to be dispensed. (Uber and Lyft told us they are actively working to change this.) Many drivers we spoke with have turned to fellow drivers for help, using WhatsApp groups to swap Lysol cans, gloves, and masks. With more potential passengers staying home, the drivers' real earnings are now averaging around $5.50 an hour. (One Uber driver, who rents his car, tells the site that "I'm not even breaking even.") Yet they're still braving the risks. One New York City driver admits "I've literally been driving people to the hospital. I had one guy get into my car who was hacking for 10 minutes straight. I pulled over and cleaned my car for 20 minutes after."

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