May! We made it! This has been the strangest spring of all time, and I hope you’re doing well. I’ve picked out some of my favorite spring recipes so we can make the most of our fresh produce.
I’m working on some gardening and baking projects this weekend. I’ll be back soon with new recipes. Here are some links that I’ve found interesting lately:
There’s something delightfully in-fiction that, isn’t there? A rogue band of Destiny 2‘s space knights breaking through the physical boundaries of their home to discover an alternate space, unlocked from time? You could’ve plucked that straight out of the Grimoire. But these Guardians are very much real, a set of curious players who, through a glitch in the Tower’s geometry, may have caught a sneaky look at this season’s climax.
Sundays are mainly for videogames, nowadays, aren’t they? Don’t worry, you can spice things up by reading the best writing about them from the past week.
For Kotaku, Siddhartha Bajracharya wrote about his experiences working as a doctor during the current crisis, and the strangeness of devoting his evenings to The Division 2. It’s a heavy read, but packed with valuable insight into what life is like for those working inside hospitals.
(Colonel Croesus is an open-to-all game of Combat Mission: Fortress Italy in which Allied forces are orchestrated by commenters while German units are computer controlled. Each daily turn covers one minute of action. For a scenario outline and accounts of earlier turns, click here)(more…)
Disappointingly, there’s not too much munching going on in the trailer for Noita‘s Feast update. Unless, of course, developers Nolla Games are serving up a banquet of roast witch. But rather than sausages or salads, Noita’s platter is a deadly one. Released this week, Feast adds a bounty of spells, artefacts, environmental overhauls and more to the procedurally destructive dungeon-delver.
There are a hell of a lot of Warhammer games out there. But while we’ve got grimdark trash and genre-defining classics, there have been very few games set in Games Workshop’s newest setting. The Old World’s been dead a long time – and with few exceptions, nobody’s taken a real crack at Warhammer: Age Of Sigmar’s multi-dimensional mythos. Until this week, when Elite Dangerous and Planet Coaster devs Frontier revealed plans to release a Mortal Realms real-time strategy within the next few years.
What the hell is going on in Destiny 2? Is a question I ask myself pretty much every time I jump back into Bungie’s space-wizard adventure. So much has happened since I last played full-time, and worse, so much is locked to the annals of history – seasonal content that’ll never return to Destiny 2. But that impermanence may be about to end. To stop folks missing out in future, Destiny this week announced plans to keep seasonal events around year-round once Year 4 rolls around this Autumn.
Multiple bullets from North Korea hit a South Korean guard post inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), prompting the South to broadcast a warning and fire back, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
The gunshots hit the guard unit in the central border town of Cheorwon at around 7:41 a.m.. No casualties or damage to South Korean facilities were reported, according to the JCS.
Following the incident, the military issued broadcast warnings, and fired back twice, it added.
Royal Navy Trafalgar-class submarine HMS Trenchant during a passenger exchange during exercise Saxon Warrior 2017 with the US Navy, August 5, 2017. US Navy/MCS Seaman Zachary Wickline
* Commander Lewis relieved of command of the HMS Trenchant after barbecue * He will be assigned other duties after the Royal Navy investigation, reports claim * Barbecue 'one of a number of incidents in which judgement came into question'
Royal Navy nuclear submarine commander John Lewis has been sacked after he organised a barbecue for his crew amid the coronavirus lockdown.
Commander Lewis was relieved of his command of HMS Trenchant and will reportedly be assigned other duties after he was placed under 'administrative investigation' over concerns about his judgement.
The barbecue, which took place earlier this month amid the nationwide lockdown, was said to be just one of a number of incidents 'in which his judgement came into question', BBC Defence Correspondent Jonathan Beale said on Twitter.
The broadcaster also claimed it was not only senior officers ashore who advised against the barbecue and DJ set, but some of his own crew.
A Royal Navy spokeswoman confirmed Lewis' dismissal to MailOnline.
The photos you are about to see required intense planning, long off-trail hikes, and facing certain dangers to capture. The results are well worth it.
Arguably the most stunning military aviation images taken on terra firma these days are being shot by Christopher McGreevy, who goes by the handle Ohwiss on his must-follow Instagram page. They show America's greatest fighters and trainers blasting through incredibly rugged and beautiful terrain at very low-level. While the Mach Loop in the UK is famous for this kind of aviation photography and the now tragically restricted Star Wars Canyon was once a similar Mecca for aviation photographers, no well-defined vantage points exist today in the United States for capturing this kind of action. McGreevy, an adventurous spirit, didn't let that stop him. He decided to hunt down new perspectives to quench his military aviation low-level flying thirst and the results of his efforts are absolutely stunning.
* 'We are expecting the warmest day since March 20th, when it reached 77 in Central Park,' the National Weather Service in New York said on Saturday * In D.C., the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels and the Air Force Thunderbirds flew over the National Mall to honor frontline healthcare workers * Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered 1,000 cops into New York City's parks this weekend as temperatures are expected to rise into the 70s * The police will be enforcing a 'no tolerance for gatherings' policy for anyone gathering in groups in defiance of coronavirus social-distancing restrictions and face $1,000 fines for flouting rules * There are now more than 1,150,000 cases of coronavirus in the U.S. with more than 66,000 deaths * New York has 312,977 people infected with the coronavirus and 18,909 have died * In Washington D.C., 4,797 people have come down with COVID-19 and 240 people have died
Folks who have been locked down for weeks on the East Coast stepped out Saturday as they were greeted with a seemingly rare warm day, after a very gray April brought excessive rainfall.
'We are expecting the warmest day since March 20th, when it reached 77 in Central Park,' the National Weather Service in New York said on Twitter, Saturday. 'Still chilly on the ocean though.'
New Yorkers, some who have been holed up in their homes for almost two months, practiced social distancing as they enjoyed the warm weather in Central Park.
In D.C., the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels and the Air Force Thunderbirds flew over the National Mall to honor frontline healthcare workers. Spectators in Maryland also gathered to watch.
WNU Editor: I give it another week or two, and all of these restrictions are going to be ignored. My friends in Europe are telling me that there are exceptions, but the trend is to also "open up". Same in Asia. Russia is a different story. All my friends and family are telling me that the entire country is now under lock-down. Brazil and Ecuador are also being battered by this corinavirus.
Apple's Mobility Trends report shows that traffic in the US and other countries like Germany has pretty much doubled in the past three weeks. It had been down up to 72%. And location data provider Foursquare says that gas and fast food visits are back to pre-COVID-19 levels in the American Midwest.
Rural areas are following the same pattern.
"Gas station traffic has returned to pre-COVID-19 levels in the Midwest, and in rural areas throughout the country," Foursquare said yesterday in a blog post. "Foot traffic to quick service restaurants (QSRs) has risen over the past several weeks."
Whether governments, medical professionals, and scientists want it to or not, people seem tired of the shutdown and eager to get back to some semblance of normal life.
WNU editor: Had to drive to Montreal today to check-up on the house. The first thing that I noticed was how packed the drive-thru was for all the fast food restaurants. In front of my home is the Saint Lawrence River and a bike-path that runs alongside it. It was packed with people biking and walking. Had to pick up some stuff and do some errands. Nothing but traffic, people everywhere, and zero social-distancing. Bottom line. In spite of all the pleas from government officials and medical specialists for everyone to stay home and go out only if necessary, the general population made a collective decision to ignore them.
The Chinese Navy is building an incredible number of modern warships. New frigates, destroyers, cruisers and aircraft carriers will spearhead the world's largest Navy. But hiding behind the vast shipbuilding program is another pillar of the Chinese Navy's war-fighting capability; upgrading older warships with new weapons. These upgrades are less widely reported than the impressive new ships, but they are a significant factor in the Chinese Navy's overall firepower.
The first warship confirmed to be fitted with the YJ-12 supersonic anti-ship missile, dubbed a 'Carrier Killer' in some circles, is an older ship.
On Friday morning around 10:30 a.m., a B-52 bomber flying over New Orleans' medical facilities to honor the city's medical workers fighting the coronavirus epidemic lost a small access hatch mid-flight. The lost piece fell to the ground and neither harmed anyone nor endangered the bomber's airworthiness.
The B-52s were constructed around 1960 or 1961, making the aircraft nearly 60 years old. Local authorities reportedly collected the part and the bomber returned to its base. The incident has compelled the base to conduct a safety investigation before the plane is publicly flown again.
The plane was one of four military aircraft flying over hospitals in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The flyover—which was conducted by the U.S. Air Force, the Barksdale Air Force Base and the Louisiana National Guard—included the two B-52 Stratofortress bombers and two F-15 fighter jets, according to NOLA.com.
The latest Gallup survey found that 49% of adults approve of the president's job, up from 43% two weeks ago. Trump has never crossed 49% in the Gallup survey.
The pop came despite crushing media criticism of his fight against the coronavirus and push to reopen the economy.
But it also came as the stock market was signaling support, and many in the United States joined with his call to get the country back to work.
WNU Editor: President Trump's approval numbers at a record high ?!?!?!? That is not the impression I am getting from the overwhelmingly negative political coverage from the main stream media. I would not be surprised if his numbers are 5 - 10 points higher.
* A leaked 15-page dossier from the 'Five Eyes' intelligence alliance says China's secrecy over the pandemic is an 'assault on international transparency' * The US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand intelligence agencies have exposed a series of cover-ups * It claims Five Eyes found a 'deadly denial of human-to-human transmission' * Researchers who tried to raise the alarm have been silenced or disappeared and evidence of the outbreak was destroyed, it adds * Report shows China refused to hand over virus samples to develop vaccines and censored its internet * China also allegedly censored virus news on search engines from December * The leaked files show the nations have evidence the virus was leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology
China lied about the human-to-human transmission of coronavirus, made whistle-blowers disappear and refused to help nations develop a vaccine, a leaked intelligence dossier reveals.
The 15-page document drawn up by the Five Eyes security alliance brands Beijing's secrecy over the pandemic an 'assault on international transparency' and points to cover-up tactics deployed by the regime.
It claims that the Chinese government silenced its most vocal critics and scrubbed any online scepticism about its handling of the health emergency from the internet.
China has roundly come under fire for suppressing the scale of its early outbreak which did not afford other nations time to react before the disease hit their shores.
Five Eyes - the pooling of intelligence by the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - laid bare its scathing assessment of the Xi Jinping administration in a memo obtained by the Australian Saturday Telegraph.
WNU Editor: I know about the Chinese government's lie on "human-to-human" transmission and whistle blowers disappearing. I also read that they were refusing to help other countries to develop a vaccine. Now it looks like that refusal to help is confirmed. This Daily Telegraph report is a must read .... Coronavirus NSW: Dossier lays out case against China bat virus program (Daily Telegraph).
More News On the Leaked Five Eyes Intelligence Report Outlining How China Deceived The World About Covid-19
A Senior Intelligence Source tells me there is agreement among most of the 17 Intelligence agencies that COVID-19 originated in the Wuhan lab. The source stressed that the release is believed to be a MISTAKE, and was not intentional.
A US Air Force RC-135U in international airspace over the Baltic Sea is intercepted by a Russian Su-27 Flanker fighter, June 19, 2017. Master Sgt. Charles Larkin Sr./US Air Force
* US Navy aircraft had several close encounters with Russian fighters in April, part of a pattern of what US officials call unsafe behavior by Russian pilots. * Experts say that despite the risks inherent in those encounters, they're likely to continue as long as Russia sees them as beneficial, experts say.
The US Navy last week watched a single-seat Russian Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker-E come within 25 feet of a P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft while at high speed and inverted, causing wake turbulence and putting the US "pilots and crew at risk" over the Mediterranean Sea.
Days later, another Flanker mimicked the move over the same waters, zooming in front of a P-8 and exposing the sub hunter aircraft to its jet exhaust.
Top US officials in Europe and the Defense Department said the incidents involved Russian pilots behaving in an unsafe, unprofessional manner. Experts argue that, while the intercepts expose a pattern of behavior from the Russian military, they also show that Russia is willing to capitalize on the publicity the aerial maneuvers bring, even during a global pandemic.
The impressive display of support for those on the front lines of the pandemic was the largest of its kind so far.
What started with the Air Force's Thunderbirds flying over their hometown of Las Vegas in a show of support for those on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, has spread across the nation. Although the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels have gotten the most attention with their massive 12 ship, twin-formation flyovers, flying units throughout the country are doing the same with a wide mix of aircraft, from jet trainers to B-2 bombers. Air Force airpower based in Arizona, namely F-16 and F-35 fighters from Luke Air Force Base's 56th Fighter Wing, along with a KC-135 tanker from the 161st Air Refueling Wing based out of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, executed what just may be the biggest 'hold my beer' moment imaginable by putting an absolutely massive formation into the air that included 15 core aircraft, with as many as 18 being involved for portions of the flight.
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 238,810 people since the outbreak first emerged in China in December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Saturdayhttps://t.co/NNnyEKgNdjpic.twitter.com/MRwpTXNUsv
Here are the latest Asia coronavirus developments: - Singapore to ease restrictions as community spread slows - Hong Kongers hit the beach - Philippines releases inmates as virus hits jails - New infections spike in Malaysia - North Korea's Kim reappearshttps://t.co/kOt6YmQ0NZpic.twitter.com/P4grsOQGEG
TENSIONS in Italy have triggered a furious response from citizens who fear mass starvation and financial collapse in the third biggest economy in the eurozone.
EU BREXIT negotiator Michel Barnier authorised the creation of the secretive Wuhan lab when he was France's foreign secretary as part of a co-operation deal with China, Express.co.uk can reveal.
PICTURES apparently proving North Korea's Kim Jong-un is alive and well may not be all they seem, an expert in the secretive country has said, pointing out there is no way of verifying when the photographs were actually taken.
A HEAVILY guarded room in the bowels of the Workers' Party building in Pyongyang is the centre of a global network of illegal trading that ensures Kim Jong-un retains his luxurious lifestyle of yachts and Cognac through the funnelling of one billion dollars per year.
CORONAVIRUS has killed more than 240,000 people so far and has drastically affected the lives of countless others during this deadly outbreak - but one expert warns that even when it has passed another virus could easily ravage the world within 36 hours.
Social media is a great tool used to interact with and meet others. There are times when you or someone else may be ‘blocked’ by another user. This feature is open for anyone to use for any reason.
To protect users’ privacy or the feelings of others, Facebook does not show you who blocked you. There isn’t a notification that you’ve been blocked nor is there a list of users who’ve blocked your account.
You may wonder how can you tell if someone has blocked you?
How do you know if someone has blocked you on Facebook or deactivated their account?
Unfortunately, the blocking feature acts similarly to when someone deactivates their account. Each goes beyond unanswered Facebook messages and no longer seeing their posts every day.
Breaking down how Facebook works in regards to friends, blocks and everything in between will help you understand whether someone has blocked you.
Blocked or Unfriended?
First of all, let’s understand that there is a big difference between being blocked and being unfriended. If someone unfriends you, they’ve simply taken you off of their friend’s list. You can still find them and see their comments in posts by mutual friends, and you can still see whatever portions of their profile or their feed that are open to the public.
However, if someone blocks you, they disappear entirely. You won’t be able to find anything they write on the site. Old comments from them on your own page will still be visible, but you won’t be able to see anything they do or say in real-time going forward from the time of the block.
In short, they effectively disappear from Facebook, as far as you know. So if you don’t see them in your Friends list but can still see them on the site, you haven’t been blocked, you’ve been unfriended.
How do you know if you have been blocked on Facebook?
Try searching for the friend in question. If their profile doesn’t pop up when you search for them, there’s a good chance you’ve been blocked, but it’s not a guarantee. To ensure they haven’t deactivated their account, have another Facebook user search for their profile. If it appears, it is confirmed that the profile has blocked yours.
In this way, you can rule out whether they’ve simply adjusted their privacy settings to prevent anyone from searching for their profile. If you can’t find them, but someone else can, then you’ve been blocked.
Check Posts and Comments
If you’ve just been unfriended, then you’ll still be able to see your former friend’s activity on your wall. Have they ever posted anything to your wall? Have they ever commented on any of your posts? How about posts from mutual friends?
Their posts and comments won’t disappear from your page. However, instead of their name appearing as a clickable link, it will appear just as black bold text. This is a sure sign that you’ve been blocked.
Can you tell if someone blocked you on Messenger?
Facebook Messenger can provide insight into your predicament. When you suspect that you’ve been blocked you can search for the messages the two of you have shared. Although they’ll appear, rather than their profile, you’ll see Facebook User.
If you try to send them a message, you will receive a message that this person isn’t accepting Facebook messages. The “This person isn’t available” is a key indicator that you’re online relationship has ended.
Check Their Other Social Media Accounts
Facebook owns Instagram so similar principles apply. While it’s unlikely that someone deactivated all of their social media accounts, it is likely that someone who’s no longer interested in communicating with you would block you on all of their accounts.
If you go to Instagram, Snapchat, or any other site and their profile does not appear, it’s probably because you’ve been blocked. If you find them there, feel free to send a message asking them if they deactivated their Facebook account.
When you block someone on Messenger What do they see?
When you block someone on Facebook, they will no longer be able to see your messages, profile, or past comments you’ve made whether it’s on their posts or someone else’s. They won’t be notified when you block them, so it won’t be immediately obvious to them, but they’ll be able to figure it out once they try to search you or attempt to message you.
It won’t directly say on Facebook messenger that you’ve blocked them, but it will say the person is “unavailable” immediately after. If you’re worried they’ll get mad at you after you block them, there’s another alternative to blocking.
You can either unfriend them, spend less time on Facebook, or tell them directly that you still want to remain friends in person and do the slow fade until they leave you alone.
Consider More Than One Approach
There are other explanations for many of the above strategies. We’ve already mentioned that someone could disappear from your friend’s list simply because they unfriended you. We also talked about how someone could be unsearchable because they changed their privacy settings. Accounts can also be suspended or deleted.
Since you won’t see their profile, you won’t be able to block them in return. Their profile may show back up at some point, if you have still hold ill will, you can return the block at that point.
If you’re concerned about your online friendship with another person, you can always ask them if they’ve deactivated their account. The response, or lack of response, will enlighten you to what is actually going on rather than worrying about it.
Unblocking Someone
If someone has blocked you in error, like your grandmother playing with Facebook and its gone too far, you can follow these steps to unblock someone:
Go to the Facebook settings from the app or browser
Scroll down and click or tap on ‘Privacy’
Scroll down and click or tap ‘Blocking’
Locate the profile in question and click ‘Unblock’
Confirm
Keep in mind, doing this action means you will have to wait to block them again for a short time. If you’re unblocking someone to snoop at their profile, they’ll be able to see yours as well until you’re able to block them again.
WhatsApp is one of the most popular chat apps in the world, with more than 1.5 billion users as of July 2019. One common question about the app is whether it is possible to tell who has viewed your profile.
Can you see if anyone is checking you out or stalking you on the app? Can you control who sees your status, updates or who can contact you? In this article, I will answer these questions and more.
Controlling Your Privacy on WhatsApp
As with any social network, there are people who you don’t want to communicate with online. How much control does WhatsApp give you over who can see your information?
In fact, you have a great deal of control over this information. WhatsApp lets you control who can see when you were last online, who can see your profile photo, who can see your “About” information, who can see your status, whether or not you send read receipts upon request, and whether you share your live location.
Depending on how your settings are programmed determines who can see what information about your WhatsApp profile. You can authorize your viewing audience for everyone, contacts only, or no one.
Changing these settings is very easy.
Go into the Settings.
Select “Account.”
Select “Privacy.”
Make the changes you wish to your privacy settings.
Can I see who Viewed my WhatsApp Profile??
If you’re wondering who is viewing your WhatsApp profile, you won’t be able to see that information.
WhatsApp does not maintain logs of who has viewed whose profile. Profile visits aren’t counted or displayed. There are apps (banned from the app store that you have to sideload onto your phone, which should tell you something) that claim to be able to provide this information, but they aren’t telling the truth.
In all honesty, there are no apps for this because WhatsApp is such a basic use app. You can have a status, but it is not like you post photos or are trying to garner likes from the outside world. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your views on privacy), it’s simply not possible to see if someone has viewed your profile or not.
Can I See who is Stalking me on Whatsapp?
Yes, and no. You can only see who is stalking you if they’ve added you already. WhatsApp is a straightforward app. If someone wants to talk to you, they can call or send you a text if they have you in their contacts or if you can find you via a search. The most anyone can do to stalk you on WhatsApp short of getting in touch with you (at which point you know they’re a stalker, obviously) is to check your profile out for changes.
But WhatsApp isn’t a social media app in the way that things like Facebook are; generally, you put your status information on your profile and then forget about it. Other than watching your status, there isn’t any information for a stalker to collect, and there’s no way for you to see that they’re paying attention.
If you are really worried about a stalker, then you can always try to figure out who it would be, stalkers are usually known to you, or you can just not use your status as a real-time update on what you are doing. No stalker is going to be able to use “Feeling Great Today!” to find out anything about you other than you’re in a great mood.
Controlling Who Sees Your WhatsApp Info
Although WhatsApp doesn’t notify you who is viewing your information, they do give you a lot of control over who is able to see it. If you’re concerned about someone viewing your WhatsApp profile, you can set your privacy settings so no one can see your information or contacts only.
WhatsApp can automatically upload all of your contacts from your phone. If you’d like to check these for privacy you can tap on the new chat icon in the lower left-hand corner of the screen and scroll through the list.
If you’d like to block one, here’s how:
Tap on the contact you’d like to block
Click on the three vertical dots in the upper right-hand corner.
Then tap ‘More’.
From here you can report or block the contact. Once this is done, they’ll no longer be able to view your WhatsApp profile.
Will Someone Know if I Check their Last Seen on WhatsApp?
No, currently, no one can check if you’ve looked at their Last Seen on WhatsApp, and there are now no apps that let you track this. This is good news if you want to check who has also seen the other person’s story but isn’t useful for anything else.
All you can see is who saw it, not how many times or the different features on the App. Only the person who put the photos on their story can see that information. If you keep checking their story, watch out because if you have receipts turned on, they can see how many times you viewed it.
Can you see When Someone Has Viewed your WhatsApp Story?
Absolutely, If you and the other person has turned on their receipts. Whatsapp works on the “it’s only fair” mantra. If they can see who’s viewed your story, you can see theirs. On the flip side, if you want to stay private, don’t turn this option on.
Go to your “Privacy Settings” by going to your “Settings” tab.
Go to the bottom of the page and click “Read receipts.”
After turning on “Read receipts,” both you and the other person who has turned on receipts will be able to see each other’s WhatsApp story. This can be handy if you are worried about a stalker because if the other person has their read receipts on you can see how often they are looking at your story.
Can I see Someone’s WhatsApp Status Without them Knowing?
No, every time you see someone’s status, they will be able to tell who’s seen it, and how many times they’ve seen in. To check who has viewed your status follow these steps.
Click status in the bottom left-hand corner.
Then, click the status you want to view.
You can then click on the eye icon to view who has seen the status.
Can You Control Who Can Contact You on WhatsApp?
The basic way to control being contacted on WhatsApp is to keep your phone number private. If someone you don’t want to be contacted by gets your phone number somehow, you can block them. It’s straightforward and works right away.
Since its launch in 2011, Snapchat has become one of the most popular platforms to share photos and videos alongside Instagram and TikTok. Recent statistics reveal that there are more than 210 million active daily users in Snapchat. Snapchat’s unique photo filters, short-term and disappearing chat messages, and its overall quirkiness makes it stand out, especially to the younger generation.
One of the fundamental features of Snapchat from the very beginning was the idea that shared content and messaging would all disappear 24 hours after being read by the recipient.
Although the platform is no longer purely faithful to this concept, with some forms of content being archivable, message privacy is still a core promise of the app. However, other Snapchat may still attempt to make screen recordings of the snaps. This leads to the question whether the app can detect whenever another participant in a chat records anything within the app.
Whether you want to sneakily grab a screenshot of someone’s Snap, or you want to make sure no one is archiving your messages, you may be interested in learning the answer to this burning question.
In this article, we will discuss the various ways users have attempted to breach Snapchat’s privacy system.
Does Snapchat Know When You Screen Record?
Snapchat was founded on the idea of being able to send disappearing messages, videos, and pictures. This, of course, doesn’t work if people are able to screenshot your messages.
As such, the Snapchat app does attempt to detect the use of screen capturing programs by people using the app. If the Snapchat program detects a screen capture (either of a shared image or from a chat session), it will place a notification icon in the chat log in the Friends page to alert the other member(s) of the conversation that someone took a screenshot of the Snap.
There are three icons that Snapchat uses to display this information.
The notification in the Friends list will have one of these icons plus the word “Screenshotted.”
This could serve as a pretty effective deterrent to taking screenshots if it were completely reliable, but that isn’t always the case.
Here’s the problem: Snapchat’s detection of screenshots is spotty, at best. Let’s take a look at the two platforms Snapchat runs on.
Screen Capture with Android
We often speak of “Android smartphones” as though this was just one type of machine running one operating system. But, in fact, there are many versions and releases of the Android operating system itself, coupled with literally thousands of different physical smartphones and tablets capable of running the Android OS.
In addition to the sheer variety of possible Android configurations, the Android OS itself is fairly wide-open; any phone manufacturer can start their own Android fork and heavily modify whatever code they wish (and many phone makers have done exactly that).
On top of that, the Android OS is extremely easy to write powerful applications on, and those applications generally have permission to do whatever they want on the device.
This means that Snapchat’s efforts to detect screenshots made on Android phones were basically doomed from the very beginning. The app is able to detect if the normal control combination used to trigger a screenshot (volume down + power button) has been used, and it can detect whether the built-in operating system screenshot software is being used. The problem is, there are literally hundreds of other ways an app can take a screenshot and Snapchat finds it tricky to detect every single one of them.
The bottom line is that it is easy to take an undetected screenshot on an Android phone; this is certainly a great loophole.
Screen Capture with iPhone
Screenshotting with an iPhone, on the other hand, is a different story, as Apple has complete control over the iOS operating system. iOS itself is much more tightly controlled than Android.
This has the benefit of giving developers a reliable and stable platform on which to release apps. Its downside, however is that many functions that can be done on Android phones difficult or even impossible to perform with an iPhone. Among those tasks: taking a screenshot other than by using the official Apple screenshot program (which, naturally, Snapchat can detect).
Older models of the iPhone can be broken out of the software prison that Apple so carefully designs for its products via a process known as jailbreaking. An iPhone which has been so liberated can install apps from outside the official Apple ecosystem, including some apps that can take screenshots without being detected by Snapchat.
However, the newest models of the iPhone cannot be jailbroken, so there is essentially no easy software method for bypassing Snapchat security on recent iPhone models.
Can I Screen Record on Snapchat Without Them Knowing?
If for whatever reason you would like to take a screenshot of a Snapchat conversation/video without being detected, there are a few ways to do it.
Use another phone. The simplest and the safest way is to use another phone to record the screen of your main phone. Quality won’t be perfect, but you can get a usable image by taking a picture of a phone screen.
Go offline. Open the Snapchat app and find the post you would like to take a screenshot of. Wait until it fully loads, then turn off the WiFi and mobile data. Also, switch your phone to airplane mode to prevent it from automatically reconnecting. Take the screenshot, and then go to System settings and find Snapchat in the Apps folder. Go into Snapchat’s Storage and clear both cache and data. Turn the WiFi back on and log back into Snapchat. This works only on Android.
QuickTime. This one is for iPhone users. Install QuickTime on the computer and connect your iPhone to it. Open QuickTime and choose “File” then “New Movie Recording.” Hover the mouse over the recording button and a menu with additional recording options will appear. Choose your iPhone as movie recording input.
Google Assistant. This one is for Android users. Open Snapchat and find the message or photo you want to save. After that, activate the Google Assistant and ask it to take a screenshot. Then, save the screenshot to the cloud or upload it to Google Photos. You can’t save the screenshot to your phone’s gallery.
Use an app. On Android or a jailbroken iPhone, there are many free third-party screenshot and screen recorder apps. You can easily find one that bypasses Snapchat’s detection. Just install an app, take a screenshot in a conversation with a friend who you’ve explained the situation too, and see if Snapchat detects the screen capture.
Conclusion
There is a permanent conflict here between Snapchat’s desire to have their app function in a certain social environment and the desire of many Snapchat users to take screenshots of good content regardless of undermining the app’s security policies.
While Snapchat does try to deter screenshotting via in-app notifications, there are still ways to screenshot in Snapchat without being detected by the app.
Have you found another way to take a Snapchat screenshot undetected? Let us know in the comments below.
We’ve got plenty of Snapchat resources to help you get more out of your snaps.
The great thing about torrenting is that you can download and share all kinds of different content. Once you start discovering what uTorrent can do, you’ll be tempted to line up many downloads at once.
But unless you queue them up in a specific order, you never know for sure which one will finish first. It can depend on several factors, some of which are a bit random.
Also, you can prioritize the order of files in each of the uTorrent downloads. In this article, we’ll explain how queueing torrents and prioritizing files works.
How to Queue uTorrent Downloads
The size of torrent downloads can vary considerably. And that’s the most crucial factor that will influence how quickly your download will be completed. But there are other things to consider as well.
The speed at which a torrent will move depends on how many peers and seeders it has. And then there’s the bandwidth allocation as well. If you have several torrent downloads going at the same time, they’re active simultaneously.
However, if you want your uTorrent downloads to finish in a specific order, you can easily make that happen. All you need to do is make sure that there’s only one active uTorrent download at any given time.
To set up uTorrent for queueing, follow these steps:
Launch uTorrent and select “Options”.
From the drop-down menu, select “Preferences”.
A new window will open. On the left, from the list of options, select “Queueing”.
Next to the “Maximum number of active downloads” type in 1.
You can also type in 1 next to the “Maximum number of active torrents (upload or download)”.
Click, “OK”.
Next time you add torrent links for uTorrent downloading, they’ll be in the order you added them, and download one at a time. And if you change your mind about the order, just right-click the download and select “Move Up Queue” or “Move Down Queue”, or navigate the up and down arrows on the uTorrent toolbar.
How to Prioritize Files in uTorrent Downloads
Most uTorrent downloads consist of more than one file. Often a single torrent will have dozens or even hundreds of files. But here’s the thing, often you might not need all the files.
Or you might need them, but you prefer to download them consecutively. There’s a simple way to make that happen in uTorrent. Just follow these steps:
Launch uTorrent and select the torrent download you want.
From the bottom window of uTorrent, switch to the “Files” tab.
You’ll see the list of all files your uTorrent download contains.
Right-click on the first file and select “Prioritize by File Order”.
Once you do that, the files will start downloading one at a time. And the order in which they’ll download will depend on how they’re arranged. If you’re not happy with the default order, you can make your own settings.
For example, if there’s a file you don’t want at all, just right-click on it and select “Don’t Download”. You can even select all the files at once, except for one, and choose not to download them. You can also allocate bandwidth to each file to make sure some of them are downloaded faster.
This won’t prevent them from downloading, speed them up or slow them down. All you have to do is right-click the file and then select “Priority”. Then opt for “High,” “Normal,” or “Low”.
There’s a lot of you can do with uTorrent in terms of having your downloads delivered in the order you want. Once you start testing all these options, you’ll be able to optimize the way to download your files.
Choose Your uTorrent Download Preferences
If you’re the kind of person who sets up dozens of downloads and then leaves them like that, that’s great. You might check on the percentages from time to time, and that’s it.
But if you’re very particular on how you want your files to download, queueing and prioritization are your go-to features.
Having those options means that you can a cleaner and organized uTorrent experience. Hopefully, this article helped you apply these options and make the most of them.
How do you use uTorrent? Do you prioritize or add files randomly? Let us know in the comments section below.
The rise of technology has brought new threats to your personal data and its security. Identity theft is a crime that strikes at the heart of a modern citizen’s wealth, employment, social services, and more. Our identity – specifically, the electronically-encoded identity that serves as the gateway to our bank accounts, to our home security systems, to our e-mail and network resources – can be stolen by unscrupulous people and used for crimes great and small.
At best, an identity thief may use part of your identity as the launchpad for some phony persona that they are using to commit acts of fraud and light scams. At worst, they can drain your bank accounts, destroy your credit rating, and wipe out your hard-earned retirement benefits. Identity theft is not a minor crime – in 2018, more than 60 million Americans reported that they were affected by identity theft.
Someone May Be Using Your SSN
People can use your Social Security Number to access bank accounts, open new accounts (normally utilities like cell phone accounts), and more. If this is happening it may go undetected.
A lot of times there are indications that something is amiss. These are the top five signs your information has been compromised.
Checking Your Credit Score
The most common way to catch unauthorized activity is by checking your credit information. If an account appears that you did not initiate, someone is using your Social Security number.
If you’re applying for a new line of credit and get turned down, this could mean that there are fraudulent accounts or activities that are affecting your credit score.
Inaccurate Banking Info
When you’re looking through your bank statements, you may notice charges or subscriptions that you didn’t make. If this is the case, someone either gained access to your debit card number, or they’re accessing your bank account with your stolen Social Security Number.
Checking your banking statements and credit card statements regularly will keep you updated on what’s happening with your personal information.
Your Mail Changes
Whether you’ve stopped receiving bills and correspondence in the mail, or you’re receiving bills for accounts and products you did not purchase, this is another sign that your Social Security Number has been compromised.
Scammers attempting to steal your personal information may watch your mailbox and steal the items from it.
Letters from the IRS
It’s important to mention the IRS does not call people, they just don’t. If the IRS is trying to get in touch with you, they’ll send a letter in the mail. Assuming you haven’t had any tax woes, receiving a letter from the IRS may indicate something is happening with your SSN.
Calls from Credit Agencies
This one may seem obvious, but if creditors are calling you regarding accounts you know are not yours, someone has used your SSN to open a new line of credit.
Other signs
Your employer informs you there is a problem with your Social Security Number when they are doing their paperwork and tax filings
You get two-factor authorization requests that you did not submit
You see small “test charges” on your credit or debit accounts
You start getting advertisements for high-end items like cars, boats, and home improvement loans because there has been high-ticket activity on your accounts that you don’t recognize
How Do Scammers Get Your SSN?
You may wonder how people get your Social Security Number. There are several ways this information can be obtained.
Data Breach
Although rare, a company’s data breach may result in your personal information getting into the hands of a scammer. Companies will usually notify you if this has been an issue and in many cases will pay for a subscription service to an anti-identity theft software.
Even rarer is the information being obtained by someone hacking your personal computer, phone, or other tech devices. It is advised that you shouldn’t access private accounts from public wifi networks where others can easily gain access.
Phone Call Scams
Lately, one of the more prominent issues with SSN piracy has been phone call scams. These are designed to play on people’s fear and build urgency so that you will provide private information over the phone.
They often come from strange phone numbers (Spoofed numbers) and the speaker makes threats like: “you’ll be taken to jail” or “your SSN has been compromised.” If you receive one of these calls disconnect the phone immediately and check your credit, bank statements, and other accounts. Although these scammers rarely have any of your personal information, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on personal information.
Your Social Security Card
Whether you’ve lost your social security card or someone who knows you used the number, this is another common way that someone has obtained this information. Keeping this card safe, not keeping in your wallet, and making sure that no one can get to it is another way to protect your identity.
What If Someone Steals My Social Security Number?
All of this is of course very interesting, but let’s bring it back to the point of this article: what if some bad guy steals, obtains, guesses at, or otherwise gets hold of your Social Security Number? As it happens, all kinds of bad things!
With your Social Security Number, a crook can apply for credit cards in your name, which will be a mess for you to clean up once they fail to make payments after maxing out the card. Worse yet, they could use your Social Security Number to get a job, causing incredible confusion to your tax account and your Social Security account once their employer files taxes.
Speaking of which, a crook could also file taxes in your name – and won’t the IRS be delighted to help you straighten that out… after you press 1, press 3, and please hold for the next available representative.
Because you have to have a Social Security Number to get a job in the United States (at least, any job above the table), crooks are very fond of stealing SSNs specifically for the purpose of selling them to people who do not already have permission to work in the United States, so that those people can get a job.
Nothing wrong with people getting jobs, of course, but if they are using your Social Security Number, it can cause untold confusion and issues with your taxes and your Social Security benefits. You could even LOSE your Social Security benefits – and that can be hundreds of thousands of dollars.
As you can see, it is very important for you to be able to tell whether someone is using your Social Security Number without your permission. In this article, I will show you several methods of detecting whether your Social Security Number has been compromised.
Directly Check Your Social Security Number
There are three ways to directly check for activity relating to your Social Security Number.
Get a Social Security Statement
The Social Security Administration maintains an online service that lets you find out what you have paid into Social Security, how many hours of work your employers have reported each quarter, and what your expected benefits would be if you were to retire or go on disability in the near future.
By requesting your Social Security statement, you can check these figures against your last statement and against what paid work you have been doing recently, to quickly see if someone else has been logging hours to your Social Security account.
You may think that would be wonderful since the worker reporting hours to your Social Security account is moving you closer to vesting your Social Security benefit, but in fact, you can have your expected Social Security payments greatly reduced if someone is reporting low-wage labor to your account. So you want to clear up any double-dipping of your Social Security account.
Requesting your statement is straightforward. You will need to create a “my Social Security” account if you don’t already have one. You can access the sign-in/account creation page here. Once logged in, you can request a Social Security statement to print out from your account. If you prefer a low-tech approach, you can fill out a request form and mail it in, and get a statement mailed to you in 4 to 6 weeks.
Get a Tax Transcript
Another way of detecting activity on your Social Security number is to request your most recent tax transcript. If someone has filed tax documents using your Social Security Number, the transcript will show activity that you know you didn’t originate, and you’ll have a definite answer.
Getting your most recent tax transcript is quite simple. Just use the tax transcript tool on the IRS website. You can also call the IRS and request one directly at 1-800-908-9946. Or you can print and mail in Form 4506-T to request transcripts for your various tax documents by mail.
Check Your Credit Report
The Social Security Administration can tell you if someone is working on your SSN and the IRS can tell you if someone is filing taxes on it, but only your credit agencies can tell you if someone is using your SSN to acquire and use credit in your name.
There are three major credit reporting agencies in the United States: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. They each have slightly different methodologies and scoring programs, but they all more or less provide the same service.
You are entitled to a free copy of your credit report every 12 months (you should be getting them every year anyway because they are your lifeline to good credit). By contacting each service and requesting your report, you can immediately spot any suspicious activity on your credit accounts. Look for credit card applications, loan applications, and any debt you don’t recognize.
You may also want to subscribe to one of the many monthly update services which will give you a free credit report each month, basically in exchange for looking at the occasional advertisement.
CreditKarma is a reputable service, and if you sign up for it (or one of the many others doing the same thing) you can keep a monthly eye on your credit score and your credit history, making it very difficult for an identity thief to put one over you in the long run.
Someone’s Got Your Number – What Can You Do?
Figuring out that someone has your Social Security Number is one thing. Fixing the problem is another. If you think someone is using your Social Security Number, you need to move quickly.
You have four things you need to do. You need to contact the Federal Trade Commission to report identity theft, contact the credit reference agencies to report the theft, contact the Social Security Administration, and contact your local police.
Contact the three credit reference agencies and ask them to place a freeze on your credit report. This will prevent any new applications being created in your name. This will stop more debt from piling up.
Optionally, but recommended, alert the Internet Crime Complaints Center at http://www.ic3.gov/. They alert other agencies that your SSN has been compromised.
Once all that has been done, report the crime to your local police. If you know how the theft took place, for example, you had your wallet stolen, the police will want to know where the theft would have happened, and what transpired.
If someone else is using your Social Security Number, it is absolutely crucial to act quickly. Any delay can mean more debt and another lender you have to work with to get things sorted out. The longer a fraud has been going on, the less likely you are to get an expeditious reversal of the charges from the merchants and vendors that the thief has run up accounts with.
Fortunately, most institutions are well-practiced in handling identity theft and have teams and processes in place to help. It will take time and a lot of work on your part, but it is possible to get yourself back to the position you were in before the theft happened.
Anyone who has used their computer to do extensive web browsing knows that the data collected by your computer during those web browsing sessions is immense. If you’ve ever performed a system cleanup, you’ve most likely noticed that the browser data usually take up the most storage space.
If hard drive space is at a premium, or if you just want to avoid ten years worth of embarrassing keywords piling up in your web browser folder, then you can configure the browser to do a cleanup every time you shut it down.
In this article, I’m going to show you how to do that with Google Chrome. There are a lot of ways to accomplish this task using browser extensions as well as built-in Chrome options.
Delete History Automatically in Google Chrome
There used to be a large number of extensions that handled deleting your Chrome history automatically. Chrome is an easy browsing platform to develop extensions on, but the platform is also still relatively young and subject to rather sweeping architectural modifications.
Two notable extensions persevered and are now the main extensions that fulfill this need. They are Auto History Wipe and History AutoDelete. Both of them work, although they have different design philosophies and it’s likely that one or the other will suit you better.
Installing Chrome extensions is simple. By visiting the Chrome Web Store you can search and browse hundreds of add-ons that make your online experience easier. Simply clicking the “Add to Chrome” option will install the new add-on.
Once installed, a small icon will appear in the upper right-hand corner of Chrome. We’ll review two of the best extensions for auto-deleting web history.
History Autodelete
History Autodelete follows a model of allowing the user to define the domain names that should be auto-cleansed. Not many reading this article may understand why you would want certain domain names to be auto-cleansed, but rest assured, there are some valid and legitimate reasons for this.
This extension gives you the ability to not only delete upon exit but offers a few other features as well. You can set it up to delete your history after a certain number of days, say you want to keep everything over the weekend but want your browser history gone by Monday. Set up the extension to delete anything older than 3 days and you’re all set.
Auto History Wipe
Auto History Wipe behaves just as one would expect from an app with its name. It can also be configured to delete other browsing data types such as cookies, cache, etc.
One potential problem – if your current Chrome environment has you syncing data across multiple computers, then Auto History Wipe may not function correctly. This extension wipes your Chrome when you close as has no other features, so if you want one with no bells and whistles to confuse you, well, there are none.
How to Delete Your History Manually
Google Chrome does not have an auto-delete option built-in. If you want to delete your history automatically every time you exit the browser, you’ll have to install one of the extensions we’ve listed above.
If you’d like to delete the history manually you can.
The Old-Fashioned Way
Chrome’s default way isn’t all that bad, actually. It’s just the execution speed that’s the issue. However, did you know that it can help you clean other browser data as well? Here’s how:
Inside Google Chrome, click on the three dots located in the top-right corner, then go to History and click History in the adjacent drop-down menu. Alternatively, you can just press Ctrl + H (Cmd + Y on Mac) to quickly access the History menu. Note: Don’t worry History always opens in a new tab. It only swaps out a blank tab, so whatever you’re doing, it won’t bother you.
In your history tab, there’s a “Clear browsing data” button to the left. Click on it. You’ll be taken to the Settings menu and a “Clear browsing data” window will appear on top of it.
If you’re content with deleting just the browsing history, cookies, and cached files, stick to the “Basic” tab; if you’re looking to delete additional site data, such as autofill forms and passwords, take a look at the “Advanced” tab.
Use the “Time range” menu and see how much of your browsing data you would like deleted.
When you’re finished, click on the “Clear data” button.
Deleting Cookies on Program Exit
Some people think that internet cookies are even worse than any other part of browsing data. In a nutshell, internet cookies are small pieces of data kept by your web browser for purposes such as marketing and keeping track of your browsing history.
Despite them being useful for the latter, the former makes them annoying and may make your device more vulnerable, so you might want to delete them anyway. If you think it’s worth sacrificing website load and login speeds for the sake of security, follow these steps to delete them each time you close Chrome:
In Google Chrome, click on the three dots in the top-right corner.
In the menu that appears, select “Settings.”
Scroll all the way down and click the “Advanced” button.
Find the “Privacy and security” section and click on “Site Settings.”
Click on “Cookies.”
If the “Keep local data only until you quit your browser” option is disabled, as it should be by default, enable it.
Note: If there are sites you visit frequently, consider whitelisting them by adding them to the “Allow” list.
Remembering Things
Before you proceed to enable browsing history (if it happens to work for you, that is) or cookie deletion every time you close Google Chrome, remember that there are both pros and cons to such extensions. It’s up to you to decide.
One other tip – if it’s just one site’s contribution to your browser history that you’d like to whitewash from history, Chrome does have techniques for taking care of just one web site at a time.
Rather than deleting history from your web browser, this allows you to choose select websites.
When it comes to organizing a work team, no matter how big or small, Slack is an excellent choice. With Slack, online collaboration flows efficiently with the help of channels, bots, and other tools.
When you want to improve your team’s communication, a poll or survey can be a great idea. That’s where the Polly app for Slack comes in.
You can use Polly to safely gather information and make decisions faster. But where can you find Polly in Slack? And what’s the best way to make the most of the app in your workplace?
How to Find Polly in Slack?
You can download and install Polly in two different ways. You can either go directly to the Slack App Directory page and install it from there. Or you can get it from the Polly home page.
Before you commit to an annual fee, you can request a demo to see how Polly works. If you choose to go with one of the plans for Teams or Enterprise, you can start creating polls and surveys.
How to Create a Poll in Slack Using Polly
To create a poll in Slack using the Polly app, you need to remember the /polly command. After you type in that command, you can proceed with the question. You separate the options in your poll with quotations. And then just hit the enter button.
You’ll receive the link you need to use in the Polly web app to create the poll. Also, you can access more poll options from the web app. But another way to author a poll from scratch is to start from the web app. You can use your Dashboard and make the most of the “Create Poll” button.
When you want to create a survey, which is a bit more complicated, it’s highly recommended to use the web app directly. Keep in mind that you can make your polls and surveys anonymous if you want to. And you can even hide the voting results from the rest of the team.
Polly Question Types
Unlike surveys that contain more than one question, polls are all about one question and several answer options. But not all polls are the same. There are several different types of poll questions you can use in Slack.
When you first create a poll, Polly will automatically start with the multiple-choice answer type. You can have up to 10 different answers. If you want more, you’ll need a Polly plan upgrade. Here are some other types of poll questions you can have with Polly.
Open-Ended Questions
Polls can be so much more than multiple choice answers. You can use Polly to get more constructive feedback from your Slack team. Instead of listing options, you can just ask for their ideas directly.
It’s a less quantitative form of polling, and it’s a fantastic way to gather ideas. You can ask everyone how they feel about a certain project or what they think should be the next one.
Your team members can then answer and submit a response. Just like with other polls and surveys, you can choose to make it anonymous.
Ranking Questions
When you know that your teammates will have a hard time choosing just one option from the multiple-choice poll, you can use a ranking poll instead.
You can add up to 10 options but can only rank up to five per poll. This is a great way to learn about your employees’ top priorities. Just because someone cares more about vacation time, doesn’t mean they don’t care about getting new office chairs.
Image Polls
Instead of going from one member of your team to another to ask which image they prefer, you can just use the Image Poll option. That way, you get the feedback much faster and move on.
At the moment, you can’t upload an image via the Polly web app, but you can add an image URL. You can use the GIF, PNG, and JPG file formats, but Polly promises that they will expand the list soon.
Polly Helps Your Slack Team in Many Ways
Once you start using Polly in Slack, you’re likely never going to stop. There are so many useful ways to put Polly to work. If your Slack workspace consists of people who need to work together closely, Polly will be a life-saver.
When you can’t agree on something, just do a quick survey or ask a yes or no question. It’s democracy in the workplace in action. You can think of Polly as Slack’s faithful sidekick. Together, they’ll make your workdays run more smoothly.
Have you ever used Polly in Slack? Let us know in the comments section below.
Duet is surely one of the features that make TikTok stand out from the rest of the similar video-sharing social networks. It allows you to create a short clip with a person you hold dear, a friend, or even a celebrity. And the final result is a funny side-by-side video of you lip-syncing to whatever tune or video you like.
However, this feature might not be working for some users or it doesn’t appear at all. There is no need to worry since you can get Duet up and running with a few simple software tweaks. The following sections will provide you with all the tips and tricks you’ll need to fix a faulty Duet.
How to Repair Duet in TikTok
TikTok duet errors include the option not showing up or a message ‘Duet is not allowed for this video.’ If you’re seeing either of these issues, we have compiled a list of things that will fix the errors.
App Update
Since Duet is a relatively new feature, it might not work or be available if you are running an older TikTok version. To check for updates, launch Google Play or App Store and tap on the Updates tab.
Browse for TikTok and hit the Update button, if the app appears under Updates. Once you install the latest software, re-launch the app, and try to make a duet.
You can also go to the search option and type in “TikTok.” If an update is available, the App Store or Google Play Store will give you the option.
In-App Duet Settings
For most users, this is where the problem with Duet lies. To be precise, TikTok has very specific privacy settings and Duet might be disabled or limited from the get-go.
To make the necessary changes, tap on the profile icon at the bottom right and select three horizontal dots to access the More menu.
Tap on Privacy and Safety in the following window, navigate to “Who Can Duet with Me”, and make sure it’s on. There are three options, Everyone, Friends, and Off. If you want some additional safety you can put the settings to Friends.
Note: If the other party has Duet set to Off, you won’t be able to duet with that user. If it is set to Friends only, make sure you’re friends with them beforehand.
Good Old Restart
What happens if you’ve updated the app and got all the settings right but Duet still doesn’t work? In this case, it’s best to restart your smartphone to see if it helps.
A simple restart or soft reset resolves minor software issues and bugs that might be preventing you from making a duet. In addition, it also clears the app cache data that could be the culprit.
The restart/soft reset method depends on the device you are using. In general, you need to press the Power button and/or one of the volume rockers. For example, it’s Side button plus one of the volume rockers on newer iPhone models.
Clear App Cache
If all else fails, you might need to clear the app cache to make Duet work again. The method is a bit different on Android and iOS, check out the necessary actions below.
Android
Launch Settings and select Storage to access more menus. Tap on Other Apps to preview the list of all installed apps and navigate to TikTok. Once you access the TikTok window, hit the “Clear cache” button and you’re done. You should know that this doesn’t remove your login information and saved data.
iOS
Tap the Settings app, select General, then iPhone Storage. This gives you a list of the apps and the amount of data they use. Swipe down and tap on TikTok to access the settings window. Select the “Offload App” to remove all the cached data from the app.
This basically uninstalls TikTok but saves all the important data. Once you finish, head over to the App Store and reinstall the app. You can also do it from the same window immediately after the offload.
Important Notes
The previous steps apply for the latest iOS and Android software. Those who use Android Oreo need to access App Manager from Settings and proceed from there.
If you have saved videos as drafts clearing the cache or uninstalling them will delete the files. Be sure to save the video to your phone before performing either of these options.
Network Connection
TikTok requires a stable internet connection to work properly. If your TikTok duet option is stuck in loading, it’s likely your internet connection.
Most of the time turning your phone off and back on will iron out network issues unless there’s an outage. Whether you’re using iOS or Android, you’ll want to check that TikTop has access to cellular data in the settings.
If you’re using wifi, try turning wifi off and using cellular data if possible. Depending on your bandwidth, you may have issues creating a strong enough connection that TikTok duet won’t work properly.
How to Duet on TikTok
Hopefully, the tips and tricks helped you fix the Duet feature, and now is the time to create some cool looking side-by-side videos.
Step 1
Browse the TikTok main screen to find a video you’d like to duet with. Tap on the Share button on the right side of the screen and select the Duet option from the pop-up window.
Step 2
The screen splits in two and you can now record your video next to the one you’ve selected. The other one will play on auto while you record.
Step 3
Add some stickers and filters to make your recording stand out and chose a cover for it. When you finish, hit Post and it’s on air.
Always Duet in Perfect Pitch
Assuming you’ve fixed Duet, here are some tips on how to make it viral. Adding tags to your duet increases the chances for more likes and the same goes for sharing it on Instagram. Feel free to comment and like other duets as well because it attracts more attention to your profile.
Whether you need to establish an alibi or jog your memory, it would be convenient to see data stamped directly on the photo. Unfortunately, Apple does not have a built-in timestamp for photos on the iPhone or iPad.
That’s not the end of the story, though, on adding a date and time stamp to your iPhone photos. There are a few apps available that can help you out with the process. Some of these apps are free while others are paid and offer more features.
Date and Time Stamp Apps for iPhone and iPad
If you prefer to see your information stamped directly on your photos, here are a few apps you can try. Each one is going to be a little different, but the overall goal of time and date stamping your photos will be achieved.
We’ve provided some of the walk-through steps, so consider which option would be easiest for you to operate quickly and efficiently.
PhotoMarks App for – $4.99
Although this app is not free, it is very highly rated on the App Store, mainly for being SUPER user-friendly. This app will let you stamp your photos will all sorts of notes. This app also allows you to post directly to your favorite social network platforms, taking out all sorts of extra steps when you’re trying to share special memories with distant family.
Photomarks was created to make it easy to watermark your photos to provide some protection for your photos. This is especially useful if you’re a web designer or otherwise just want to put a watermark to protect your photos from being used on websites and social media without your permission.
Bear in mind: PhotoMarks is only available on devices that have iOS 9.0 or later.
Step 1 – Pay and Download
First, pay and install PhotoMarks from the Apple App Store.
Step 2 – Add a Stamp
Next, load an image from your phone and tap on the Text icon. Additionally, you can also take a new photo and tap on Text from the preview.
Tapping on the Text icon allows you to add the time/date stamp, as well as customize the stamp. You might want to play around with some of the options to see what works best for your photos, or for sharing them with others! Customization options may include:
Position
Rotation
Scale
Font
Colors
Transparency
Special Effects
2. The DateStamper App for iPhone – Free
If you prefer to try a free app or feel like trying a few different apps before you make your final selection, you may want to check out DateStamper.
Available for iOS 10.0 and later, it allows stamping in bulk. It also uses non-destructive editing, which means you can always get back to your original photo.
Step 1 – Install App on Your iPhone
First, go to the App Store and download DateStamper. Install it on your iPhone and give all the necessary permissions.
Step 2 – Stamp your Photos with Dates and Times
Now it’s time to stamp your photos with a time and date. Choose a single photo or an entire album to apply the stamp to. You may also want to use the app plug-in which allows you to apply the stamp directly from your camera app, as you’re taking pictures.
You can personalize the stamps with color, font, size, and position options. Furthermore, you can also edit time/date stamps that were already applied to photos.
The Timestamp Camera for iPhone – Free
If you would like access to a wide array of personalization options, you can get it with the Timestamp app. It’s free to install but may require in-app purchases to access some features beyond the basic time/date stamping feature.
If you have iOS 8.0 or later, you may want to give this stylish app a try.
Step 1 – Install App on Your iPhone
First, search and download Timestamp from the App Store. Install the app as directed and allow permission for this app to access your device.
Step 2 – Personalize and Apply Stamps
Now that you have the app, it’s time to stamp your photos. You’ll have the option to choose from a large variety of stamp designs, so take a moment to scroll around and check out your options. You may want to personalize your stamps in accordance with the activities shown in the photos like food, working out, or taking notes.
Additionally, this app allows you to modify the time manually instead of simply reading metadata from the photo. You can also apply the date stamp to multiple photos using this app.
The Auto Stamper App for iPhone and iPad – $4.99
Auto Stamper allows you to track all sorts of significant life events with an easy-to-use stamp app. This app lets you make all sorts of personalized notes on your photos, but it’s not free. Still, if you have iOS 8.0 or later and want to give it a try, check out the steps below.
Step 1 – Install the App on Your iPhone or iPad
First, head to the App Store and download Auto Stamper. As mentioned before, you will have to pay a small fee to use this app.
Follow the installation instructions to get started and give the necessary permissions for the app to access your iPhone’s files.
Step 2 – Set Your Stamp Parameters
Next, set up your photo stamp. It automatically inserts the current date and time as reflected on your phone, but you can also add additional stamps into the same photo. You can add three other watermark types: GPS location, signature text, and logo.
Furthermore, you can also customize your stamp(s) by choosing the position, size, font, color, and opacity for each stamp. You can add event stamps in a variety of font styles on one side, while subtly stamping the date on another portion of the photo– this app truly lets you customize the experience! When you’re done, the Live feature will give you a preview of the photo with your customized stamps.
Timestamp Camera Basic – The “Free & Simple” option
If you’re looking for a free, no-hassle, basic timestamp option, this is the app for you. You can download this from the Apple App Store at no charge and instantly get timestamps on your photos.
Step 1 – Download from the App Store
Tap ‘Get’ and follow the iCloud verification prompts (Fingerprint, Face ID, or password) then allow your permissions. This app will ask for permission to access your photos, cameras, and GPS location.
You can deny it the option to track your location but it won’t work without access to your photos and camera.
Step 2 – Take You Pictures
All you have to do to get started is take your photos. If you’ve denied access to your GPS location you may need to update your timezone but you’ll only have to do this once. To do this:
Tap the clock icon in the lower left-hand corner and scroll to your current time/date preferences.
Step 3 – Access the Timestamped Photo in your Photos App
The great thing about this app is it automatically timestamps your images and puts them in the Photos apps. There’s nothing you need to do. The Timestamp Camera Basic app acts just like your phone’s built-in camera.
Downloading a third-party app isn’t always fun, especially for something as simple as a timestamp. Each of the options listed in this article is fairly easy to use and works well.
If you want to create a new Gmail account, Google may ask you for a phone number verification. This was optional in the past, but recently Google has made it mandatory. If you don’t want Google to have it or maybe you’re just not into sharing your phone number. You’re probably looking for another way to create an account that will keep your phone number off the google grid.
If you’re looking for more Gmail tutorials, we have them available here.
Luckily for you, there are still many ways to bypass this and create a new Gmail without the use of your phone number. So, if for some reason you don’t want to enter your phone number, you may use one of these solutions.
How Can I Create a Gmail Account Without Verification?
There are multiple ways you can create a Gmail account without verification. One of the easiest ways to do this is through the Gmail app because no matter how you sign up you can opt-out of giving a phone number for verification. Another way is to input your age as 15, as Gmail will assume you don’t have your own phone number yet.
Keep in mind that although these steps do work, sometimes when you sign in to another computer, or if you sign in for a second time, the app will ask you for your phone number. To avoid this, add another e-mail for verification before you sign-in again so it can ask for that e-mail. Add another e-mail with the age being 15 – and you’re good to go!
When all else fails, you can use a phone number duping software. This way, Gmail has a phone number that isn’t yours.
Below are the steps you can use to sign up for Gmail without a phone number.
Create a Gmail on Your Android or IOS Device
If you have an Android or iPhone device, you can create a new Gmail account via the ‘Settings’ app. This way you can bypass Google asking you for your phone number. To do so, you have to:
Go to the “Settings app” from the app menu.
Find the “Accounts” menu (or Clouds & Accounts, depending on the system version).
Tap “Accounts”.
Select “Add Account” on the bottom of the list.
Choose Google from the list. A Google screen should open.
Click “Create account” on the bottom-left of the screen.
Input your first and last name and hit the ‘Next’ button.
Add your date of birth and gender and tap ‘Next’.
Choose a new Gmail address, or make one of your own.
Enter the password.
Google will ask if you want to add a phone number
Click either ‘Skip’ to bypass this step, or click ‘More options’
If you clicked ‘More options,’ you can now choose to put in a phone number
Select ‘No, don’t add my phone number’
Now it will ask to review your account info, click ‘next’
Accept the Terms of Service.
After this, you won’t have to add any further information. You can use your new email and you won’t need to verify any phone numbers.
Set Your Age to 15
This is another useful trick to bypass phone verification. If you’re 15 years or younger, Google would assume that you still don’t have a cell phone of your own. You’ll just have to set up a different birth year. To do so, you should:
Open your browser.
Go to Gmail.
Click on the ‘Create account’ option at the bottom of the screen.
Choose ‘For Myself’ or ‘For Business’.
Enter your account information and a new email address.
‘Click ‘Next’.
Set your birth year to 15 years before the current. For example, if its 2019, you should set your birth year to 2004.
Leave the mobile phone bar blank.
Agree to terms and conditions.
This does work, but make sure you keep your age under 18 or they may ask you for a phone number in the future. Also, if you want to add a security option like another e-mail, create another e-mail where you’re under 15 and add that one instead.
NOTE: This option will only work if you sign out of your other g-mail accounts. If you don’t, it won’t ask your birthday and assume your birthday is the same as your previous e-mails. You could also use another browser.
Use a Dummy Number
A dummy number is an online service that you can use to verify your accounts via mobile number. You can use one of the phone numbers from these websites instead of your own.
Then, Gmail will send a verifying key to this number and you’ll be able to read it and type it in.
Keep in mind that you’ll be able to use this phone number just once. So, if you set your phone number to be your only recovery option, you might permanently lose your email account.
Can you use the Same Phone Number for Multiple Gmail Accounts?
Yes. If you’re signing up with a real number you can use it multiple times to sign up for different Gmail accounts. If you are using one of the spoofed tactics we’ve listed above you may not be able to use that phone number multiple times.
Troubleshooting
Although adding your phone number to your Gmail account has several benefits, if you’re having issues with the above-listed steps there are a few things to consider trying.
Assuming you have a phone number but you don’t want it attached to your Gmail you can remove it in the settings once the account is set up –
Visit your account settings and click on your profile icon in the upper right-hand corner. Click ‘Manage Your Google Account’ then click ‘Personal Info’ located on the left-hand side. Once there you can click the trash can and remove your phone number.
Ensure you’re name and username are legitimate –
Google introduced phone number verification to keep robots and spammers from creating accounts. If you’re using Imarobot123 as a username, the above-listed tactics may not work.
Ensure that you are following the above-listed steps –
Many users have reported that these methods are not working for them. It may be as simple as scrolling down and selecting ‘Skip’ from the phone number page.
Adding your phone number to your Gmail account adds security and Google doesn’t sell your personal information. If you don’t have a phone number or you don’t want to use yours, these options will work for you.
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April 28, 2020. It's 4 am in India. It's been over an hour since the millennials running covid19india. org last updated their dashboard tracking the pandemic outbreak in the country. Many of the site's 90,000-odd Twitter followers are frantically tagging it in their tweets. Vijendra Rana sounds restless. "Uttarakhand update not good," he tweets to @covid19indiaorg. "The district-wise data (in Gujarat) is not updating. Only the active cases are increasing," posts Kabir Khan. "Please put up a column for doubling rate and five-daysmoving-average of active cases. The picture will be clearer. Won't take too much to code," suggests Diptendu Bhatacharya in his tweet. It's half past 4 now. The home page still says, "Last updated at 3:01 am." Rana, Khan and Bhatacharya barely have 100 Twitter followers between them, but they mirror the sentiments of thousands in their anxiety and inquisitiveness in these Covid-19 days. Over the last six weeks, dashboards like covid19india. org, covindia.com and againstcovid19.com/india have become the first port of call for people looking for up-todate data on the outbreak in India. Among those tracking global numbers, the likes of ourworldindata.org/coronavirus, covid19stats.live and ncov2019.live have gained traction with millions of users worldwide. From ordinary folk to policymakers, corporates to research firms and even government agencies, many are actively seeking authentic information on Covid-19's impact on human lives — to stay updated and avoid misinformation-induced panic. 75509803"They are the best source of data available right now since the government doesn't give granular data in one place," says Sid Rupani, 36, a Delhi-based supply chain consultant, who actively follows two dashboards for professional and personal reasons. Without the dashboards, Vaidehi Tandel won't be able to do half her work. Tandel is an economist with the Mumbai based think tank IDFC Institute. Her job requires processing data across several metrics in real-time, in order to give inputs to governments and other stakeholders. "Having access to these dashboards eliminates one giant step in our process as we don't have to approach individual government bodies for data anymore," says the 32-year-old Mumbaikar. In Delhi, Aparna Jain follows dashboards to assess whether we are being responsible citizens and practising social distancing. She tracks the numbers to ensure that we are not putting pressure on our healthcare system. "I'm not a data scientist, just an involved citizen," says the corporate leadership coach. 75509814Created by self- or peer-motivated volunteers across different age-groups and disciplines, these dashboards collate data round the clock from different government agencies, health institutions and other reliable sources, and present them in simple, easy-to-understand infographics. Most dashboards are built as open-source platforms so that anyone can access their code to build one for their region. Kerala-focused Covid19kerala.info, which went live on March 22, adapts the framework of a dashboard created by a few techies for Japan in February this year. Most of them rely on the same big names in the software industry — like GitHub and Netlify — to host their sites, maps, etc. Given the special nature of these projects, many tech companies offer their services pro bono, bringing the cost of running dashboards down to zero in most cases. The creators are also finding solutions to the same problem, more or less. Yet, every dashboard has a different origin story. Covid19kerala.info, for instance, was cofounded by Jijo P Ulahannan, a physicist based in the state, along with Nishad Thalhath, a metadata researcher based in Japan. "During the 2018 floods in Kerala, Nishad told me that Japan keeps a metadata repository for every calamity. He encouraged me to document the flood's impact so that future generations can be better prepared for a crisis like this," recalls Ulahannan. Coronavirus: Case fatality rates by age 75510011(Case fatality rate (CFR) is calculated by dividing the total number of confirmed deaths due to COVID-19 by the number of confirmed cases.Two of the main limitations to keep in mind when interpreting the CFR:1)many cases within the population are unconfirmed due to lack of testing2)some indiviuals who are infected will eventually die from the disease, but are still alive at the time of recording)Two years later, when Covid hit Kerala, Thalhath — already exposed to the Japan dashboard by then — referred it to Ulahannan to develop it further. Ulahannan took his words literally. Shane Reustle, an American software developer based in Tokyo, who built the Japan dashboard called covid19japan.com with a bunch of design and tech partners, tells ET Magazine: "The team in Kerala took our code, changed it to their needs and made it better. Then they pushed us to adapt those improvements as well." In the case of covindia.com, the founders — Achal Agrawal, who teaches at Mahindra Ecole Centrale college of engineering in Hyderabad, and his student Raghav NS — were planning to visualise data on India's map for a hackathon scheduled in the first week of April. The hack they eventually devised was to visualise district-wise growth of the pandemic on India's map. The site gets roughly 30,000 page views per day. 75510026Now, these two dashboards are run by a team of about 20 people each. The millennials of covid19india.org, who refuse to share their identity, claim they have had help from at least 1,000 volunteers since going live in mid-March. In the vast tech universe, though, Covid dashboard creators are a tiny community. Even if they haven't met each other, they know of each other. And they have a mutual admiration society of sorts. Agrawal of covindia. com acknowledges the user interface of covidout.in. It was a popular dashboard, he notes, that abruptly shut down in late March. Rohan Daxini, founder of covidout.in, attributes the shutdown to domain provider and registrar issues. Instead of reviving the site on another server, Daxini chose to help others who had come up with their dashboards. "It was not a competition. If others were doing great work, we must acknowledge and offer help," says the founder of Mumbaibased software firm Kiprosh. Paying Agrawal's gratitude forward, Daxini praises programmer Zhi Peng Lee's dashboard for Singapore that initially inspired his layout. On March 31, Lee, founder of UpCode Academy, created againstcovid19.com/india along the same lines as the Singapore one. While most other dashboards use dark backgrounds and lots of reds and greens for text, againstcovid19.com/india uses tints (light colours). 75510044"It also does a deep dive into data while keeping the information hierarchy intact," says Himanshu Khanna, founder of Delhi-based design consultancy Sparklin. It starts with the most essential piece of information — total cases, active cases, deceased and discharged. "As you scroll down, the information keeps getting more nuanced, flush with pie charts and bar graphs," says Khanna. There is something unique to the design philosophy of each of these dashboards. "Having an option to switch to Malayalam instead of assuming everyone can understand English is a plus for the Kerala dashboard, for instance," says Rasagy Sharma, a Bengaluru-based designer, who specialises in information visualisation. Covindia.com uses annotations to humanise data, like "Be safe" for the number of cases, "Be calm" for recovered patients and "Stay informed" for the number of deaths. Delhi's Jain has been following a ProPublica dashboard for New York City since her brother lives there. This one visualises data across the city's 100-plus zip codes on a map. The dashboard highlights the uncertainty factor attached to all Covid data. "Only a minority of people who show symptoms are tested, so the actual number of positive cases is higher," reads the text under every zip code's Covid summary. 75510059This tiny dashboard stands tall amid many that leave things open to interpretation. Explaining the meaning and implication of each aspect can help avert multiple narratives among readers, says Sharma. Lee's India dashboard does that to an extent, notes Sparklin's Khanna, by adding percentage distributions next to all essential figures. It instantly shows that while 3-4% of total cases have resulted in deaths, over 25% have recovered. Another way to do it, says Sharma, is by showing cases per thousand of the population in a containment zone, as opposed to painting the whole town red on the map. This is about people dying, communities and industries suffering. Understanding the ethical responsibility of design is critical here, he adds. Ulahannan, co-creator of the Kerala dashboard, agrees that there's ample room for contextualisation of the Covid data. However, he points out that these are early days. Data scientists and data acquisition managers are struggling with the unavailability of complete data, or its availability in an unstructured manner, on most days. There's an ongoing debate on the use of red to determine containment zones, and on using a dark background for the site as a whole — although the covindia.com team makes the case for darker background being easier on the eyes. Adapting foreign frameworks isn't a cakewalk either. In Japan, a Covid-19 patient's hospital ID can be mapped without violating their privacy, says Ulahannan. "We had to be mindful of how to anonymise data to protect people's privacy in the Indian context," he says. Things haven't been smooth-sailing for Reustle in Japan, too. "When we started, our biggest challenge was that the government was releasing data in Japanese, with no visual indications." Before they could analyse the data, they had to translate it. Another problem facing many dashboards is the redaction of numbers. Reustle recalls an incident where certain people wrongly tested positive, "so they had to redact that data at once". 75510096An even bigger challenge: as numbers go up, dashboards can cause panic than reduce it. At a life stage where everyone is likely surrounded by more numbers than living beings, it is easier to go down the dashboard rabbit hole. "From a professional aspect, you may start seeing these numbers and trends with fascination," says Rupani from Delhi. "Once you zoom out a little, you realise the actual human toll it is taking. It can be emotionally challenging," he adds. In the beginning, Rupani spent three hours browsing these dashboards. Now he checks them once a day, for a total of 30 minutes. Constantly updating these numbers affects the creators, too. At one point, the influx of cases got to Agrawal and Raj Narayanan, a designer in the team. "It made us so anxious that we felt we had caught the virus. So we got ourselves tested," says Agrawal. These days, the team tries to keep the mood light on their 20-plus Slack channels to better cope with disturbing moments. "I hope no one else sees those chats though," he adds. After the call, Agrawal shares a screenshot of one such chat in confidence. Truly, unlike the Covid-19 data, some things are better left undisclosed.
During the lockdown, residents of Andhra Pradesh's Kurnool district came across a new home delivery service."Just give us a WhatsApp call, your Blenders Pride whisky bottle will be at your doorstep," the message read on many social media websites. One had to call a number, place the order and — then came the catch — pay in advance online.As it turned out, it was a fraudster scamming people desperate for a drink. Between March 22 and April 27, the Andhra Pradesh Police detected 154 incidents of cybercrimes compared with 135 and 120 cases in the corresponding period in 2019 and 2018 respectively. Meanwhile, the cases of brewing illicit liquor shot up to 2,584 as against 178 during the same period in 2019 — a staggering rise of 1,350%, according to the state's official data reviewed by ET Magazine. The data was collected from March 22 as it was the day of the Janata curfew, which was followed by a nationwide lockdown of 1.3 billion people, to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.Since the lockdown has forced people to stay at home, crime rates have reportedly fallen in some states. Yet, certain crimes, especially cybercrimes, are going up. For instance, Assam has seen a 40% rise in cybercrimes during the lockdown, and Andhra Pradesh 14%.ET Magazine looked at data from 58 districts in four states — Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Assam — to piece together this story of crime during the lockdown. 75511840Since the transportation of essential commodities is exempted from lockdown, criminals have devised a new modus operandi, such as hiding illegal items like gutka or ganja under vegetable crates or bottles of mustard oil. Police officers say smugglers might have presumed that law enforcement agencies might not do a thorough check of trucks carrying essential items to avert delays and avoid food shortages. The lawbreakers have been proven wrong.In Chhattisgarh's Bemetara district, the police seized 65 cartons of liquor bottles smuggled in two vegetable pickup vans in the first week of April. Vivekanand Sinha, IG of Durg range where Bemetara falls, confirms two such incidents. "But overall, in the first fortnight of April for which we have compiled data, there was zero robbery and loot in five districts under my range. Incidents of rape, kidnapping and theft dropped by over 50%. Housebreaking at night is the only category where a large number of cases have surfaced," he says.In Rajasthan's Barmer district, a huge consignment of gutka, hidden in a truck carrying electronic items, was seized on Sunday. The truck was coming from Gujarat. 75511864"In the first month of the lockdown, total cases under the Indian Penal Code dropped by 50% in the Jodhpur range (where Barmer and five other districts fall). We have not noticed any major cybercrime as yet, but there are concerns about unreported incidents of domestic violence. I have alerted the force to be more vigilant in this regard," says Jodhpur IGP Navajyoti Gogoi.In Assam and several other states, cannabis was hidden among essential items. "Last week, we seized 20 kg of ganja in a truck carrying mustard oil," says Rajen Singh, superintendent of police of Assam's Biswanath district. Soon after the lockdown began, heroin was seized from an ambulance in Lakhimpur district. "Most of the drug peddlers are now sitting idle. Their stockpile is growing. We anticipate a spike in drugs movement once the lockdown is eased. We are getting prepared," says Dr LR Bishnoi, ADGP, Assam.In a country like India where 1.5 lakh people die in road accidents every year,according to the 2018 data of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), stay-athome orders have meant fewer non-Covid deaths. In Andhra Pradesh, for example, fatal accidents have dropped by 73% during the lockdown. In Assam where about 2,700 people die in road accidents annually, only four such deaths were recorded between March 24 and April 27, according to the Assam Police.Police officers, however, suspect underreporting of domestic violence. "Assam received 552 cases of crime against women during the first 35 days of the lockdown as against 1,650 in the first 23 days of March. We suspect underreporting of cases of domestic violence as disputed parties are forced to live under the same roof due to the lockdown," says ADGP Bishnoi.In Andhra Pradesh, as many as 359 women distress calls and 1,501 family dispute cases were registered during the first 37 days of the lockdown. "Andhra Pradesh is better off, as we already have an app called Disha. If a woman shakes her mobile phone three times, we get an alert," says the state DGP, D Gautam Sawang, adding that each of the calls is being followed up.
April 28, 2020. It's 4 am in India. It's been over an hour since the millennials running covid19india. org last updated their dashboard tracking the pandemic outbreak in the country. Many of the site's 90,000-odd Twitter followers are frantically tagging it in their tweets. Vijendra Rana sounds restless. "Uttarakhand update not good," he tweets to @covid19indiaorg. "The district-wise data (in Gujarat) is not updating. Only the active cases are increasing," posts Kabir Khan. "Please put up a column for doubling rate and five-daysmoving-average of active cases. The picture will be clearer. Won't take too much to code," suggests Diptendu Bhatacharya in his tweet. It's half past 4 now. The home page still says, "Last updated at 3:01 am." Rana, Khan and Bhatacharya barely have 100 Twitter followers between them, but they mirror the sentiments of thousands in their anxiety and inquisitiveness in these Covid-19 days. Over the last six weeks, dashboards like covid19india. org, covindia.com and againstcovid19.com/india have become the first port of call for people looking for up-todate data on the outbreak in India. Among those tracking global numbers, the likes of ourworldindata.org/coronavirus, covid19stats.live and ncov2019.live have gained traction with millions of users worldwide. From ordinary folk to policymakers, corporates to research firms and even government agencies, many are actively seeking authentic information on Covid-19's impact on human lives — to stay updated and avoid misinformation-induced panic. 75509803"They are the best source of data available right now since the government doesn't give granular data in one place," says Sid Rupani, 36, a Delhi-based supply chain consultant, who actively follows two dashboards for professional and personal reasons. Without the dashboards, Vaidehi Tandel won't be able to do half her work. Tandel is an economist with the Mumbai based think tank IDFC Institute. Her job requires processing data across several metrics in real-time, in order to give inputs to governments and other stakeholders. "Having access to these dashboards eliminates one giant step in our process as we don't have to approach individual government bodies for data anymore," says the 32-year-old Mumbaikar. In Delhi, Aparna Jain follows dashboards to assess whether we are being responsible citizens and practising social distancing. She tracks the numbers to ensure that we are not putting pressure on our healthcare system. "I'm not a data scientist, just an involved citizen," says the corporate leadership coach. 75509814Created by self- or peer-motivated volunteers across different age-groups and disciplines, these dashboards collate data round the clock from different government agencies, health institutions and other reliable sources, and present them in simple, easy-to-understand infographics. Most dashboards are built as open-source platforms so that anyone can access their code to build one for their region. Kerala-focused Covid19kerala.info, which went live on March 22, adapts the framework of a dashboard created by a few techies for Japan in February this year. Most of them rely on the same big names in the software industry — like GitHub and Netlify — to host their sites, maps, etc. Given the special nature of these projects, many tech companies offer their services pro bono, bringing the cost of running dashboards down to zero in most cases. The creators are also finding solutions to the same problem, more or less. Yet, every dashboard has a different origin story. Covid19kerala.info, for instance, was cofounded by Jijo P Ulahannan, a physicist based in the state, along with Nishad Thalhath, a metadata researcher based in Japan. "During the 2018 floods in Kerala, Nishad told me that Japan keeps a metadata repository for every calamity. He encouraged me to document the flood's impact so that future generations can be better prepared for a crisis like this," recalls Ulahannan. Coronavirus: Case fatality rates by age 75510011(Case fatality rate (CFR) is calculated by dividing the total number of confirmed deaths due to COVID-19 by the number of confirmed cases.Two of the main limitations to keep in mind when interpreting the CFR:1)many cases within the population are unconfirmed due to lack of testing2)some indiviuals who are infected will eventually die from the disease, but are still alive at the time of recording)Two years later, when Covid hit Kerala, Thalhath — already exposed to the Japan dashboard by then — referred it to Ulahannan to develop it further. Ulahannan took his words literally. Shane Reustle, an American software developer based in Tokyo, who built the Japan dashboard called covid19japan.com with a bunch of design and tech partners, tells ET Magazine: "The team in Kerala took our code, changed it to their needs and made it better. Then they pushed us to adapt those improvements as well." In the case of covindia.com, the founders — Achal Agrawal, who teaches at Mahindra Ecole Centrale college of engineering in Hyderabad, and his student Raghav NS — were planning to visualise data on India's map for a hackathon scheduled in the first week of April. The hack they eventually devised was to visualise district-wise growth of the pandemic on India's map. The site gets roughly 30,000 page views per day. 75510026Now, these two dashboards are run by a team of about 20 people each. The millennials of covid19india.org, who refuse to share their identity, claim they have had help from at least 1,000 volunteers since going live in mid-March. In the vast tech universe, though, Covid dashboard creators are a tiny community. Even if they haven't met each other, they know of each other. And they have a mutual admiration society of sorts. Agrawal of covindia. com acknowledges the user interface of covidout.in. It was a popular dashboard, he notes, that abruptly shut down in late March. Rohan Daxini, founder of covidout.in, attributes the shutdown to domain provider and registrar issues. Instead of reviving the site on another server, Daxini chose to help others who had come up with their dashboards. "It was not a competition. If others were doing great work, we must acknowledge and offer help," says the founder of Mumbaibased software firm Kiprosh. Paying Agrawal's gratitude forward, Daxini praises programmer Zhi Peng Lee's dashboard for Singapore that initially inspired his layout. On March 31, Lee, founder of UpCode Academy, created againstcovid19.com/india along the same lines as the Singapore one. While most other dashboards use dark backgrounds and lots of reds and greens for text, againstcovid19.com/india uses tints (light colours). 75510044"It also does a deep dive into data while keeping the information hierarchy intact," says Himanshu Khanna, founder of Delhi-based design consultancy Sparklin. It starts with the most essential piece of information — total cases, active cases, deceased and discharged. "As you scroll down, the information keeps getting more nuanced, flush with pie charts and bar graphs," says Khanna. There is something unique to the design philosophy of each of these dashboards. "Having an option to switch to Malayalam instead of assuming everyone can understand English is a plus for the Kerala dashboard, for instance," says Rasagy Sharma, a Bengaluru-based designer, who specialises in information visualisation. Covindia.com uses annotations to humanise data, like "Be safe" for the number of cases, "Be calm" for recovered patients and "Stay informed" for the number of deaths. Delhi's Jain has been following a ProPublica dashboard for New York City since her brother lives there. This one visualises data across the city's 100-plus zip codes on a map. The dashboard highlights the uncertainty factor attached to all Covid data. "Only a minority of people who show symptoms are tested, so the actual number of positive cases is higher," reads the text under every zip code's Covid summary. 75510059This tiny dashboard stands tall amid many that leave things open to interpretation. Explaining the meaning and implication of each aspect can help avert multiple narratives among readers, says Sharma. Lee's India dashboard does that to an extent, notes Sparklin's Khanna, by adding percentage distributions next to all essential figures. It instantly shows that while 3-4% of total cases have resulted in deaths, over 25% have recovered. Another way to do it, says Sharma, is by showing cases per thousand of the population in a containment zone, as opposed to painting the whole town red on the map. This is about people dying, communities and industries suffering. Understanding the ethical responsibility of design is critical here, he adds. Ulahannan, co-creator of the Kerala dashboard, agrees that there's ample room for contextualisation of the Covid data. However, he points out that these are early days. Data scientists and data acquisition managers are struggling with the unavailability of complete data, or its availability in an unstructured manner, on most days. There's an ongoing debate on the use of red to determine containment zones, and on using a dark background for the site as a whole — although the covindia.com team makes the case for darker background being easier on the eyes. Adapting foreign frameworks isn't a cakewalk either. In Japan, a Covid-19 patient's hospital ID can be mapped without violating their privacy, says Ulahannan. "We had to be mindful of how to anonymise data to protect people's privacy in the Indian context," he says. Things haven't been smooth-sailing for Reustle in Japan, too. "When we started, our biggest challenge was that the government was releasing data in Japanese, with no visual indications." Before they could analyse the data, they had to translate it. Another problem facing many dashboards is the redaction of numbers. Reustle recalls an incident where certain people wrongly tested positive, "so they had to redact that data at once". 75510096An even bigger challenge: as numbers go up, dashboards can cause panic than reduce it. At a life stage where everyone is likely surrounded by more numbers than living beings, it is easier to go down the dashboard rabbit hole. "From a professional aspect, you may start seeing these numbers and trends with fascination," says Rupani from Delhi. "Once you zoom out a little, you realise the actual human toll it is taking. It can be emotionally challenging," he adds. In the beginning, Rupani spent three hours browsing these dashboards. Now he checks them once a day, for a total of 30 minutes. Constantly updating these numbers affects the creators, too. At one point, the influx of cases got to Agrawal and Raj Narayanan, a designer in the team. "It made us so anxious that we felt we had caught the virus. So we got ourselves tested," says Agrawal. These days, the team tries to keep the mood light on their 20-plus Slack channels to better cope with disturbing moments. "I hope no one else sees those chats though," he adds. After the call, Agrawal shares a screenshot of one such chat in confidence. Truly, unlike the Covid-19 data, some things are better left undisclosed.
NEW DELHI: Yes Bank on Saturday said it has appointed Neeraj Dhawan as its chief risk officer with immediate effect.The board of directors, vide their resolution dated May 1, 2020, appointed Neeraj Dhawan as the chief risk officer of the bank for a period of three years, Yes Bank said in a regulatory filing.He will assume charge from Saturday in place of Ashish Agarwal, the current chief risk officer, who will be transitioning to a new role in the bank, it added.Prior to this, Dhawan was holding the position of chief risk officer for retail and business banking at Yes Bank. He has 29 years of experience in financial services and banking industry.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Saturday held meetings with heads of domestic banks on the economic situation and credit flow to different sectors of the economy, among other issues, the central bank said in a release . "The governor held meetings with MDs/CEOs of major public and private sector banks today in two separate sessions through video conference. The meetings were attended by Deputy Governors and other senior officers of RBI," it said.Das discussed credit flows to different sectors of the economy, including availability of liquidity to NBFCs, microfinance institutions (MFIs), housing finance companies (HFCs) and mutual funds.NBFCs and MFIs have been demanding a moratorium on their bank obligations as they have been forced to give similar leeways to their lenders. They have been dealing with lack of liquidity, as banks and mutual funds have become wary of lending to them for fear of defaults. Independent estimates peg the funding gap for NBFCs at Rs 60,000 crore despite RBI's efforts to make funds available at cheaper rates. Das also reviewed the current economic situation, post-lockdown credit flow, including provisions for working capital, with special focus on credit flows to MSMEs and implementation of the three-month moratorium on repayment of loan installment announced by RBI.Medium and small enterprises (MSMEs) have been the worst hit as the extended lockdown has left them starved of cash. Industries have been waiting for a stimulus package from the government, which is yet to see the day of the light.The RBI Governor also deliberated on monitoring of overseas branches of banks in view of the slowdown in economies across the globe and stability of the financial sector during the meetings.
By Tara LachapelleWarren Buffett will address his followers on Saturday for the first time since the U.S. began implementing the state-by-state lockdowns that have upended the economy and life as we knew it. Technically, it's the annual Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholder meeting, though much will be missing from this year's event — people, for starters. Even so, the main draw of the weekend lives on: the chance to pick one of the most brilliant brains in business.In a live-streamed interview that evening, Buffett will answer questions submitted by investors, including presumably how the conglomerate's various lines of business have been affected by the pandemic. But what listeners are really tuning in for are the Oracle of Omaha's broader views on the world during a time like this. Here are five questions for him:1. Is it time to name a successor?Or has he essentially done so? For the first time, Buffett is doing the Q&A jointly with Greg Abel, a Berkshire vice chairman, rather than his usual sidekick, Charlie Munger, who is 96 years old and resides in California. Buffett, who will turn 90 in August, even joked in his February letter to shareholders that he and Munger are in "the urgent zone." All signs point to Abel being the next CEO of Berkshire, but Buffett hasn't spelled out the succession plan yet. It was going to be hard enough for shareholders to get comfortable with anyone other than him someday being the steward of their money. With all the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, now is a good time for Buffett to clarify why Abel is best suited to manage the conglomerate, even through a crisis like this.2. Could the concept of a "new normal" alter what kinds of investments Berkshire makes in the future?If Buffett isn't using his enforced isolation at home to hunt for another elephant-sized acquisition, is that because the Covid-19 shutdowns are causing him to reevaluate what types of businesses will recover? Or is he perhaps grappling with the potential for long-term changes in customer behavior? Taking a stake in the Kroger Co. supermarket chain late last year proved to be prescient; buying preferred stock in oil producer Occidental Petroleum Corp. not so much. Those circumstances would still seem to be temporary. Air travel, on the other hand, is an example of an industry where a return to normal could take awhile — or never even come. 3. Will the airline industry ever rebound? Buffett has a tormented history with airlines. After getting burned once by a US Airways investment, Buffett swore off the industry in 2001, saying: "Now if I get the urge to invest in airlines, I call an 800 number and I say: Hello, my name is Warren, and I'm an air-o-holic." Well, Buffett apparently lost that number and went all in on airline stocks in 2016. Berkshire is now the largest shareholder of Delta Air Lines Inc., the second-largest owner of United Airlines Holdings Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co., and has the third-biggest stake in American Airlines Group Inc. They've all plunged this year as the pandemic wreaked havoc on air travel — or any travel at all.On March 10, during a Yahoo Finance interview, Buffett said he "won't be selling airline stocks." That was before the shutdowns. A few weeks later, Berkshire reduced its Delta and Southwest positions, although it's still the No. 1 and No. 2 investor in each. An update on his thinking would be especially illuminating now.4. Covid-19 has forced the nation to reassess and recognize what it means to be an "essential" worker. Does that warrant new ideas for solving wealth inequality?Buffett himself employs a lot of essential workers: They're manning freight trains that are still pushing goods around the country, as well as manufacturing Duracell batteries. Lubrizol — which makes chemicals used for everything from coating car interiors to yoga pants — has helped to produce hand sanitizer, while Fruit of the Loom switched to making protective face masks. Berkshire is also the largest shareholder of food giant Kraft Heinz Co., one company helping to keep supermarkets stocked. In that same March interview, Buffett discussed the wealth gap, saying it's a reflection of the fact that workers are rewarded based on the skills that are valued by the market:You get this pushing of extreme rewards to people who are very, very good at something the market demands. And people demand entertainment. They demand people apparently that arbitrage securities. There's certain specialties.But they demand lots of basic things, too, as this pandemic has shown.Even though Buffett agrees with letting the system function the way it does, "we don't want people left behind," he said. The billionaire has often advocated for an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit as a better way of putting more money in the pockets of low-income families than through hiking the minimum wage. That's because the latter could backfire by increasing unemployment. The EITC just doesn't have the same ring to it as $15, and it's not as easily understood as earning more per hour. Buffett has also called for higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy, like himself. 5. Do America's best days still lie ahead?Buffett has seen his share of crises, and they've never seemed to shake his optimism that the U.S. will continue to prosper in the long run. "America's best days lie ahead," is a mantra he often repeats in his annual letters to shareholders. But Buffett has been unusually quiet during the pandemic — in terms of a lack of both TV appearances (perhaps due to virus fears) and deal activity. Investors could use a reminder of how the country's biggest cheerleader and hungriest dealmaker feels about its long-term prospects. Is it possible they are changing?
April 28, 2020. It's 4 am in India. It's been over an hour since the millennials running covid19india. org last updated their dashboard tracking the pandemic outbreak in the country. Many of the site's 90,000-odd Twitter followers are frantically tagging it in their tweets. Vijendra Rana sounds restless. "Uttarakhand update not good," he tweets to @covid19indiaorg. "The district-wise data (in Gujarat) is not updating. Only the active cases are increasing," posts Kabir Khan. "Please put up a column for doubling rate and five-daysmoving-average of active cases. The picture will be clearer. Won't take too much to code," suggests Diptendu Bhatacharya in his tweet. It's half past 4 now. The home page still says, "Last updated at 3:01 am." Rana, Khan and Bhatacharya barely have 100 Twitter followers between them, but they mirror the sentiments of thousands in their anxiety and inquisitiveness in these Covid-19 days. Over the last six weeks, dashboards like covid19india. org, covindia.com and againstcovid19.com/india have become the first port of call for people looking for up-todate data on the outbreak in India. Among those tracking global numbers, the likes of ourworldindata.org/coronavirus, covid19stats.live and ncov2019.live have gained traction with millions of users worldwide. From ordinary folk to policymakers, corporates to research firms and even government agencies, many are actively seeking authentic information on Covid-19's impact on human lives — to stay updated and avoid misinformation-induced panic. 75509803"They are the best source of data available right now since the government doesn't give granular data in one place," says Sid Rupani, 36, a Delhi-based supply chain consultant, who actively follows two dashboards for professional and personal reasons. Without the dashboards, Vaidehi Tandel won't be able to do half her work. Tandel is an economist with the Mumbai based think tank IDFC Institute. Her job requires processing data across several metrics in real-time, in order to give inputs to governments and other stakeholders. "Having access to these dashboards eliminates one giant step in our process as we don't have to approach individual government bodies for data anymore," says the 32-year-old Mumbaikar. In Delhi, Aparna Jain follows dashboards to assess whether we are being responsible citizens and practising social distancing. She tracks the numbers to ensure that we are not putting pressure on our healthcare system. "I'm not a data scientist, just an involved citizen," says the corporate leadership coach. 75509814Created by self- or peer-motivated volunteers across different age-groups and disciplines, these dashboards collate data round the clock from different government agencies, health institutions and other reliable sources, and present them in simple, easy-to-understand infographics. Most dashboards are built as open-source platforms so that anyone can access their code to build one for their region. Kerala-focused Covid19kerala.info, which went live on March 22, adapts the framework of a dashboard created by a few techies for Japan in February this year. Most of them rely on the same big names in the software industry — like GitHub and Netlify — to host their sites, maps, etc. Given the special nature of these projects, many tech companies offer their services pro bono, bringing the cost of running dashboards down to zero in most cases. The creators are also finding solutions to the same problem, more or less. Yet, every dashboard has a different origin story. Covid19kerala.info, for instance, was cofounded by Jijo P Ulahannan, a physicist based in the state, along with Nishad Thalhath, a metadata researcher based in Japan. "During the 2018 floods in Kerala, Nishad told me that Japan keeps a metadata repository for every calamity. He encouraged me to document the flood's impact so that future generations can be better prepared for a crisis like this," recalls Ulahannan. Coronavirus: Case fatality rates by age 75510011(Case fatality rate (CFR) is calculated by dividing the total number of confirmed deaths due to COVID-19 by the number of confirmed cases.Two of the main limitations to keep in mind when interpreting the CFR:1)many cases within the population are unconfirmed due to lack of testing2)some indiviuals who are infected will eventually die from the disease, but are still alive at the time of recording)Two years later, when Covid hit Kerala, Thalhath — already exposed to the Japan dashboard by then — referred it to Ulahannan to develop it further. Ulahannan took his words literally. Shane Reustle, an American software developer based in Tokyo, who built the Japan dashboard called covid19japan.com with a bunch of design and tech partners, tells ET Magazine: "The team in Kerala took our code, changed it to their needs and made it better. Then they pushed us to adapt those improvements as well." In the case of covindia.com, the founders — Achal Agrawal, who teaches at Mahindra Ecole Centrale college of engineering in Hyderabad, and his student Raghav NS — were planning to visualise data on India's map for a hackathon scheduled in the first week of April. The hack they eventually devised was to visualise district-wise growth of the pandemic on India's map. The site gets roughly 30,000 page views per day. 75510026Now, these two dashboards are run by a team of about 20 people each. The millennials of covid19india.org, who refuse to share their identity, claim they have had help from at least 1,000 volunteers since going live in mid-March. In the vast tech universe, though, Covid dashboard creators are a tiny community. Even if they haven't met each other, they know of each other. And they have a mutual admiration society of sorts. Agrawal of covindia. com acknowledges the user interface of covidout.in. It was a popular dashboard, he notes, that abruptly shut down in late March. Rohan Daxini, founder of covidout.in, attributes the shutdown to domain provider and registrar issues. Instead of reviving the site on another server, Daxini chose to help others who had come up with their dashboards. "It was not a competition. If others were doing great work, we must acknowledge and offer help," says the founder of Mumbaibased software firm Kiprosh. Paying Agrawal's gratitude forward, Daxini praises programmer Zhi Peng Lee's dashboard for Singapore that initially inspired his layout. On March 31, Lee, founder of UpCode Academy, created againstcovid19.com/india along the same lines as the Singapore one. While most other dashboards use dark backgrounds and lots of reds and greens for text, againstcovid19.com/india uses tints (light colours). 75510044"It also does a deep dive into data while keeping the information hierarchy intact," says Himanshu Khanna, founder of Delhi-based design consultancy Sparklin. It starts with the most essential piece of information — total cases, active cases, deceased and discharged. "As you scroll down, the information keeps getting more nuanced, flush with pie charts and bar graphs," says Khanna. There is something unique to the design philosophy of each of these dashboards. "Having an option to switch to Malayalam instead of assuming everyone can understand English is a plus for the Kerala dashboard, for instance," says Rasagy Sharma, a Bengaluru-based designer, who specialises in information visualisation. Covindia.com uses annotations to humanise data, like "Be safe" for the number of cases, "Be calm" for recovered patients and "Stay informed" for the number of deaths. Delhi's Jain has been following a ProPublica dashboard for New York City since her brother lives there. This one visualises data across the city's 100-plus zip codes on a map. The dashboard highlights the uncertainty factor attached to all Covid data. "Only a minority of people who show symptoms are tested, so the actual number of positive cases is higher," reads the text under every zip code's Covid summary. 75510059This tiny dashboard stands tall amid many that leave things open to interpretation. Explaining the meaning and implication of each aspect can help avert multiple narratives among readers, says Sharma. Lee's India dashboard does that to an extent, notes Sparklin's Khanna, by adding percentage distributions next to all essential figures. It instantly shows that while 3-4% of total cases have resulted in deaths, over 25% have recovered. Another way to do it, says Sharma, is by showing cases per thousand of the population in a containment zone, as opposed to painting the whole town red on the map. This is about people dying, communities and industries suffering. Understanding the ethical responsibility of design is critical here, he adds. Ulahannan, co-creator of the Kerala dashboard, agrees that there's ample room for contextualisation of the Covid data. However, he points out that these are early days. Data scientists and data acquisition managers are struggling with the unavailability of complete data, or its availability in an unstructured manner, on most days. There's an ongoing debate on the use of red to determine containment zones, and on using a dark background for the site as a whole — although the covindia.com team makes the case for darker background being easier on the eyes. Adapting foreign frameworks isn't a cakewalk either. In Japan, a Covid-19 patient's hospital ID can be mapped without violating their privacy, says Ulahannan. "We had to be mindful of how to anonymise data to protect people's privacy in the Indian context," he says. Things haven't been smooth-sailing for Reustle in Japan, too. "When we started, our biggest challenge was that the government was releasing data in Japanese, with no visual indications." Before they could analyse the data, they had to translate it. Another problem facing many dashboards is the redaction of numbers. Reustle recalls an incident where certain people wrongly tested positive, "so they had to redact that data at once". 75510096An even bigger challenge: as numbers go up, dashboards can cause panic than reduce it. At a life stage where everyone is likely surrounded by more numbers than living beings, it is easier to go down the dashboard rabbit hole. "From a professional aspect, you may start seeing these numbers and trends with fascination," says Rupani from Delhi. "Once you zoom out a little, you realise the actual human toll it is taking. It can be emotionally challenging," he adds. In the beginning, Rupani spent three hours browsing these dashboards. Now he checks them once a day, for a total of 30 minutes. Constantly updating these numbers affects the creators, too. At one point, the influx of cases got to Agrawal and Raj Narayanan, a designer in the team. "It made us so anxious that we felt we had caught the virus. So we got ourselves tested," says Agrawal. These days, the team tries to keep the mood light on their 20-plus Slack channels to better cope with disturbing moments. "I hope no one else sees those chats though," he adds. After the call, Agrawal shares a screenshot of one such chat in confidence. Truly, unlike the Covid-19 data, some things are better left undisclosed.
PM Modi tells ministries: Ensure farm credit is easy, review Essential Commodities Act The prime minister is said to have suggested exploring possibility of creating commodity specific Board or Council so that cluster/contract farming takes place as that will help increase agricultural exports from the country.
