Category Archives: Mind Uploading

Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous two weeks or so. Today I have a new streaming app for the Discovery Channel and its many subsidiaries, a wellness app that offers meme customization for its alerts, and the early arrival of OnePlus's Health app. So without further ado, here are all of the new and notable Android apps released on the Play Store in the last two weeks.

Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

Android Police coverage: Discovery's new streaming service launches today and here's where you'll find it

With the plethora of streaming apps that have launched in the last few years, I find it surprising that Discovery didn't offer one up until this week. Well, that's the past because discovery+ is here, and it's available on just about every platform you can think of, including Android. Users are free to test the service thanks to a one-week free trial, and it includes content from Discovery and its subsidiaries, such as HGTV, TLC, TRVL, and the Food Network. However, after the first week, a subscription is required, which will run users $4.99/month with ads and $6.99 without.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $4.99 - $6.99

Android Police coverage: Mind Leak shows you the stupid face you make when you doomscroll

Mind Leak takes the usefulness of a wellness app and adds in memes for something that's pretty unique. So here's the deal. If you feel you use certain apps too much throughout the day and would like to alert yourself whenever you're wasting your time on these time killers, then you can use Mind Leak to set up these kinds of alerts, and you can even attach gifs to these notifications for some meme-worthy pop-ups. So if you're looking for a sense of humor from your wellness app, then you should definitely check out Mind Leak.

Monetization: free / no ads / IAPs from $2.99 - $8.99

Touch Lock is a simple app designed to lock your device's screen with a single tap on the screen. So say you're watching a video, but while you're holding the device you keep pulling up the video's menu by accidentally touching the screen. Well, you can use this app to lock the screen while a video plays. This way, you won't have to worry about accidental touches anymore.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $1.99

Colorize - Color to Old Photos is a photo editing app that offers precisely what its name implies. You can easily scan your old photos with your device's camera, and then you can use this app to colorize those photos through AI photo-colorization. Having tested the app, it delivers on its promise, though like most photo editors, there's an optional subscription available, because why get paid once for an app in a flooded market when you can ensure monthly payments.

Monetization: free / no ads / IAPs from $5.99 - $19.99

Dark screen filter is a dark mode app that also offers a blue light filter. Sure, both of these utilities are offered in many different apps, but how many can boast both options are available in one? So if you're like to save your eyes from stress at night and don't have any built-in options to turn on a dark mode or a blue light filter, then perhaps Dark screen filter will fill this need for you within a single app. There's evena free version availableif you'd like to take a look without going out of pocket.

Monetization: $0.99 / no ads / no IAPs

Simple Notepad for android is the third release from Yogesh Dama this week, and as you can see, this is a simple app for taking notes. As you would expect, you can create, edit, and share your notes, and there's even a couple of widget that simply the process of creating or editing notes. Notes even save automatically as you close the app, ensuring you won't lose your work if you get interrupted when creating a note.

Monetization: free / contains ads / no IAPs

Android Police coverage: OnePlus Health app shows up on Play Store ahead of OnePlus Band's launch

OnePlus Health looks to have arrived a little early, as it's a tie-in app for the company's upcoming smartwatch. As you can see in the screens below, this app offers the typical features you would expect of a fitness app designed to sync with a smartwatch. You can even generate your own personal exercise reports to make it easier to understand your fitness progress. Sadly the app is only available to those whoenroll in the public beta. Just keep in mind this beta is regional, so you may not get in.

Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Android Police coverage: HMD Global publishes its new camera app to the Play Store for easy updates

Camera is the latest release from HMD Global, and this is a system app for Nokia devices, but it was only recently uploaded to the Play Store, most likely so Nokia can easily update this app without having to worry about the carriers. So if you own a Nokia device, you more than likely already have this camera app installed, and now that it's on the Play Store, you'll receive updates with ease.

Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

OnePlus has been busy uploading many of its apps to the Play Store over the last year, and OnePlus Icon Pack - Hydrogen is the latest to arrive. As you can see, this is a minimal icon pack that offers square shapes with rounded corners, and now that the pack is available on the Play Store, OnePlus can easily push out updates.

Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Maxelus.net has been on a roll offering more than a few quality live wallpapers, and so I'm happy to see a new release from the studio that offers tons of color as well as many customization options. Of course, if you'd like to get the most out of this release, you'll have to pay to unlock the more impressive customization features. Luckily they are well worth the asking price.

Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $0.99 - $1.99

If you have an application in mind for the next issue of the roundup, feel free to send us an email and let us know.

Important: there are 2 requirements in order for the app to be considered, listed below.

Now, if and only if the above requirements have been satisfied, fire up an email to this address: [emailprotected].

1 sponsored placement per week is available (your app would be featured at the top and marked as sponsored) - please contact us for details.

Read the original here:

10 new and notable Android apps and live wallpapers from the last two weeks including discovery+, Mind Leak, and OnePlus Health (12/26/20 - 1/9/21) -...

Eric Williams|Cape Cod Times

TRURO I was uploading my latest TikTok dance video (The Oyster Shuck Two-Step) when the disco ball began flashing Morse Code. Shocked, I dropped a sequined razor clam, grabbed a quill and scratched down the message:

"I came across your recent article about the deep woods shooting range in Truro. We hiked that 'Great Dunes Trail' today and made a wrong turn and came across the warning sign for the shooting range. More so, though, our curiosity was about the abandoned building right there. It has a high fence topped with barbed wire, graffiti on some parts of the building, and strange demolished foundations for something outside the building but within the fence line. You skipped over the strange abandoned building in your article to focus on the shooting range warning sign, but do you have any idea what that abandoned building is?"

Oh boy! I knew then that I would be returning to the woods off Collins Road in the southern part of Truro perhaps the most mysterious place on Cape Cod. There's a lot to love out there: the Featherbed Swamp (a genuine quaking bog), giant sand cliffs and intriguing trails that spider-web across the forest.

And yes, the area is home to weird, creepy ruins that seem like something out of a science fiction movie!

I summoned the household staff and told them of my plans to head to Truro. "You're doomed," said Randall, my butler and astrologer. Then he went back to his Sudoku and I noticed he was wearing my slippers. Zelda, my executive chef, packed a box lunch (crispy tarantulas, jellied moose nose) and pushed me out the door. "Take your time," she said, and I could hear them giggling as I walked to the Curious Prius.

Undeterred, I sped north and parked near the intersection of Collins Road and Fox Bottom Road. While this was official business, I did take time to chuckle at the name "Fox Bottom."

Fox Bottom Road is paved but chained off to vehicles. Hikers will find not one, but three dilapidated buildings in the area each protected by chain-link fences. They seem out of place gnarly ruins in a lovely natural setting. There are signs that indicate the buildings were once used by the Cape Cod National Seashore's Atlantic Coastal Laboratory now located in North Truro at the old Air Force base.

One of the buildings is festooned with graffiti and it looks like folks might have been rummaging around in there. Or maybe zombie scientists are still carrying out their work in a sloppy zombie way, dropping clipboards and waving rusty instruments. And waiting for doofus rubberneckers like me to wander into their clutches!

But the question remained: what the heck went on out here? Flummoxed, I returned home, poured a wee snifter of Zelda's asparagus cognac and got to work. That's when I remembered an email I received back when I wrote about the nearby shooting range.

It read: "Fox Bottom Road in South Truro is where the Internet began in the early 1950s."

Gadzooks! I immediately reached out to the writer, Richard M. Smith, a noted computer history expert, described in a 2001 New York Times article as "perhaps the nation's most vocal authority on data privacy." Even better, he has a place in Truro and loves hiking around the Seashore just like me!

I asked Richard to further explain his mind-blowing email. Kindly, he responded:

"Back in the early 50s, MITRE Corporation was given a contract by the U.S. Defense Department to design a radar system to detect incoming Russian bombers. The prototype for the system was constructed in South Truro along Fox Bottom Road. There were three radar units along the road. All three units were dismantled long ago. The only thing left behind from the prototype system are the (Cape Cod National Seashore) lab buildings and cement footingsfor the radar units.

"The 3 radar units in South Truro were connected by digital modems to the Whirlwind computer at MIT. This was one of the first times a modem was used to send digital data to a digital computer. Thats why I say the Internet was born in South Truro. Others may disagree.

"I think the modems ran at 300 baud back in the 50s. A modem in a modern cellphone is easily 10,000 faster when used today along Fox Bottom Road."

Conflicting emotions swirled in my brain like a sweet and sour smoothie. On one hand, I was delighted that an expert had reached out to me with amazing Cold War information! On the other hand, do we now have to blame Truro for cranking up our crazy computer culture all of us curled around our cellphones, gawking and tapping away with crazy flipper fingers?

I shelved the inner turmoil for another day. After all, I had a dance video to upload to TikTok!

What do you want to know about Cape Cod? To ask a Curious Cape Cod question, email me at ewilliams@capecodonline.com. I'll do my best to figure things out!

Still Curious? Check out these Cape Cod tales:

More: Curious Cape Cod: Does a Sasquatch live in Marstons Mills?

More: Curious Cape Cod: Big guns over the canal

More: Curious Cape Cod: A soggy Sandwich ruin

More: Curious Cape Cod: A wild turkey tale, starring the Kennedys

More: CuriousCape Cod: The loneliest grave recalls earlier epidemic

More: Curious Cape Cod: a strange seaside ruin in Truro

More: Curious Cape Cod: Fruit that looks like brains in Dennis

More: Curious Cape Cod: A shooting range, deep in the woods of Truro

Originally posted here:

Curious Cape Cod: Internet invented in Truro? - Cape Cod Times

C S Karnan, former High Court judge, has told the Madras High Court that he has been "suffering from serious and severe depression after his retirement", while seeking regular bail in a case relating to uploading of abusive online videos.

The former judge of the Madras High Court has been under custody in the case since his arrest by the Chennai police on December 2.

In the bail plea, Karnan has said that he had been suffering from serious depression for some time, which aggravated after he underwent treatment for COVID19, causing him to act in an "improper manner".

"The petitioner during such time was under severe trauma and not of proper mind set and due such severe depression the petitioner without full comprehension of his certain actions has been done by him and such actions were done without realizing its consequences. The petitioner is undergoing treatment for the same", he said in the bail plea.

He also pointed out that he has not uploaded any 'obscene or abusive video' following his undertaking given to the police after he was served Section 41A notice on November 26 last year.

The petition added that Karnan, being in a state of depression and serious health issues, is finding it difficult to cope up with the situation.

In this backdrop, he urged the Court for bail, undertaking to co-operate with the police investigation and to abide by any condition that the Court may impose.

The FIR was registered against Karnan on the complaint by Advocate Devika over his objectionable videos threatening sexual crimes against women relations of High Court and Supreme Court judges. The police invoked Sections 228,294B,506(ii),509 IPC and section 67A of Information technology Act 1988 and section 4 of Tamil Nadu Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act 1986 in the FIR.

Subsequently, the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu filed a petition in the Madras High Court seeking action against the ex-judge.

On November 10, the High Court had ordered the blocking of the objectionable video links. Taking strong exception to the "tirades" of the ex-judge, a division bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and R Hemalatha said:

"It is rather unfortunate to note that the ninth respondent (Karnan), who held an important constitutional post, has gone to such a level to repeatedly make scandalous, obscene, vituperative & unparliamentary remarks against former & sitting judges of SC & HC and their family members, especially women."

In May 2017, CS Karnan became the first sitting High Court judge to be held guilty of criminal contempt of court. A constitution bench of the Supreme Court sentenced him to six months imprisonment for his multiple acts of public utterances against judges and interference with the administration of justice. As a judge, Karnan had also extraordinary acts like passing a judicial order to stay his own transfer and issuing an arrest warrant against Supreme Court judges.

After the sentence, he went into hiding. He was arrested a month later and was sent to Presidency Jail in Kolkata, where he underwent imprisonment till December 2017

Read the rest here:

Suffering From Severe Depression After Retirement : CS Karnan In Bail Plea Before Madras HC In Abusive... - Live Law - Indian Legal News

Yes, you heard right, Swagger is a tag given to young, talented and one of the awesome YouTuber Shivam Sharma aka the one and only Swagger Sharma. These days he is one of the frequently searched YouTuber on Google because of his famous YouTube videos making rounds on social media. Swagger Sharma is a rising star on YouTube and within a year he has achieved popularity amongst the teens.

Swagger Sharma was born and brought in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, Swagger Sharma is currently trending on YouTube with whopping 4.1 million subscribers.

Well, YouTube is the best platform for various talents and creators to showcase their ideas beyond imagination. Presently, if we talk about comedy content, Swagger Sharma is one of the name that comes to everyones mind.

Swagger Sharma is the perfect example of passion and dedication. Who have imagined that an Engineer could believe his passion and become the known YouTuber? Yep, Shivam Sharma is an Engineer by qualification. He completed his BTech degree and could have easily got a reputed job in some multinational company, but Shivam chose passion over reputation. He realized that engineering is not his passion and that he wants to do something very different, really very different which would surely soothe his soul and mind.

Thus, Swagger Sharma born! In February, 2017 Shivam Sharma started his own YouTube channel by uploading a simple video he has created/recorded in Manali with his best friend. To our wonders, the video soon got immense response from the audiences which eventually motivated Shivam to upload more and more videos.

Initially the family was not supportive and wanted him to work for a multinational company which offered him heavy salary. After getting the high packaged job, Shivams parents were proud of him but he himself was not happy and satisfied by doing that job. At that time, life gave only 2 options to Shivam, either to continue the job in Bangalore or return to Delhi and follow his passion of becoming a YouTuber.

This was really a life changing decision for him but he chose happiness over everything and here are the results, Shivam Sharma is the well-known YouTuber today!

The channel Swagger Sharma is like a dream come true to Shivam. His sole aim is to make people happy and contented with his unique style of storytelling. Later on he grasped the technique of creating web series. Meri IIT Vali GF is amongst the most-popular web series of Shivam Sharma.

Today Swagger Sharma is one of the popular YouTube channel. His core team members are the true pillars of the channel that have sacrificed their personal choices and contributed with their hard work to make the channel successful all over. The main vision of Shivam Sharma is to take his channel o the next level by creating best digital content for his viewers. With the help of his team, he is continuing to win the hearts of the people all around.

Read more from the original source:

Swagger Sharma: The Upcoming YouTuber Having Amazing Genes of creativity - The Statesman

In Conversation: 'On The Topic' PodcastAuthor: Leah HolfordPublished: 8th January 2021 12:30Leah Holford talks to Alex and Dan - the duo behind local podcast On The Topic - about all things podcasting, pop culture, and how they've kept the show going throughout the last year.

Podcasting - whose initial roots date back to the 1980s under the term audioblogging' - really began in 2004 with people uploading their digital broadcasts to the internet, and most would listen in on their Apple iPods. These days, you can listen to Podcasts on pretty much any computer or mobile device, and it's opened up a world of multitasking opportunities. The diversity in the genre of Podcasts available nowadays means there's something for everyone; whether you're looking for something intellectual and informational, or something more light-hearted to enjoy while you're relaxing.

The On The Topic' team started their Podcast on 20th May 2018, originally named The Weekly Roundup With Alex and Dan.' After meeting at a house party through Dan's long-term partner, Claire, the two became friends. Soon after meeting, Alex (who volunteers on hospital radio at St Richard's in Chichester) suggested starting up a Podcast after Infinity War' was released, wanting a similar platform to his radio show where he could discuss it.

"I remember feeling a bit awkward recording that first episode," Dan says. "It's something I've never done creatively. I come from a musical background as I used to be in a band, so just talking about stuff was a new concept for me."

Initially, the Podcast was - as the name suggests - a weekly roundup of pop culture news, film and TV reviews, with a focus on Marvel. However, as the pandemic made weekly casting harder, a friend of the podcast and creative force behind the logo Joey Casey suggested a name change might open up the opportunity to target a wider audience. He thought that a change in direction would make the show more accessible by adding more subject freedom and room to be creative.

Since the name change, On The Topic' have hosted episodes based on conspiracy theories, celebrity divas, paranormal goings-on, and Urban Legends - making it a truly diverse and entertaining Podcast to tune into. Both Dan and Alex have enjoyed being able to sink their teeth into some research for each episode, and have loved the engagement and contributions that their listeners have given.

The pair have found that podcasting isn't as simple as recording a broadcast and uploading it, and with restrictions in place across the nation it's become even more of a challenge. However, Alex and Dan have risen to the challenge and remain working hard to bring entertainment to people's lives on a regular basis.

Keen to please, they are always looking out for episode suggestions from listeners via their social media channels, and will often ask for input from people, whether it be from comments on a post or from a voice clip they can use in the episode.

"We always take feedback from our listeners; good, bad and otherwise," Alex says.

At present, they are unable to sit together with a cup of tea and record their episode as they usually would, but through trial and error, found that they were still able to deliver a good quality podcast through Zoom. Making sure the audio quality was clear enough and that they could record together for long enough were just a couple of the issues they had to resolve, but now they've found themselves in a comfortable routine and delivering regular content.

On The Topic plans to invite more guests onto the show as soon as current restrictions on social distancing allows, and were disappointed in 2020 when some of their planned guest slots were unable to go ahead. They have previously invited people onto the show to contribute to episodes they are considered to have expert knowledge in, and plans are being made to have more welcomed, including our very own Peter Hopkinson, Editor of About My Area Portsmouth, the owners of Solent Sky Services, and Strong Island Recordings, who were originally due to be on the show during 2020. They are also keen to hear from local creatives, shop owners, and anyone looking for a way to tell their stories.

"We love the interaction with other people," Dan says. "And it's great to take people's minds off the current situations they're in," Alex adds. "You feel like you're in the pub with us!

"Whether there's a pandemic or not, we all go through different walks of life and different experiences. To take someone's mind away from things they're going through just blows my mind," Dan concludes.

Their dreams for the future of the podcast include adding to the guestlist, releasing some merch, and having more interaction with listeners as they hope to rise higher in the world of Podcasting.

"We'd love to be able to interview some celebrities; interviewing The Gospel Youth would be a dream for me. And to be paid to do what we love," Dan says. Alex adding, "There's nothing wrong with aiming high".

On The Topic have recorded an episode based on the questions from this interview, which will be aired soon. Both Alex and Dan are keen to involve their listeners and to keep people connected, united and entertained, particularly during these hard times - actively encouraging user interactivity to contribute to the podcast. The podcast is available to listen to here. To get involved, you can also visit them at @onthetopicpod on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Report this article as inappropriate

You need to log in before you can do that! It's only a quick registration process to join the AMA network and completely free.

Visit link:

News - Reviews & Features: Fareham and Gosport (Fareham and Gosport) - AboutMyArea

This weeks FAQ Friday on the tech behind the COVIDaware MN app is sponsored by The Jed Mahonis Group. Read more about the company and its services at the bottom of this post.

Theres been a lot of recent coverage on the COVIDaware MN app developed to help slow the spread of COVID-19 in Minnesota by anonymously notifying users if theyve been in close contact with the virus.

While this technology has been embraced by many (myself included), KSTP reported in mid-December only 7% of Minnesotas estimated 4.4 million cell phone users have downloaded the app, and Minnesotas IT Commissioner Tarek Tomes says this number needs to be between the 10-15% range to maximize effectiveness of slowing the spread.

Obviously, the more people who download and use the app, the better it works, but the app has met resistance from people concerned about privacy.

Understanding how the technology works (and how it isnt a form of contract tracing) can help clear the air about its safety and importance.

The app uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology to notify you if youve been near someone who has a positive test for COVID-19.

BLE is the same technology that powers many of the smart devices you may use today. Headphones, watches, heart rate monitors, speakers, washing machines you get the picture.

When you install the COVIDaware MN app, the app uses BLE to frequently check for other COVIDaware MN app users. Think of it like a lighthouse out at sea: the app is constantly sending out signals saying, Here I am!

At the same time, the app is also listening for other users who are sending the same signal.

Using that metaphor, when two devices can hear each other, they exchange a small bit of information. This information comes in the form of a secure, unique key.

As you continue to pass next to other people, the app continues to collect these keys and tracks how long and how close you were to the other user.

Now, lets say youve tested positive for COVID-19. When you test positive, the lab reports that information to the states public health department. The department reaches out to you to discuss next steps regarding your diagnosis. During this call, they give you a test verification code. You are then able to go into the app and enter this code.

Once youve entered the code, the app takes the key youve passed to other users over the last couple weeks and sends a message to a central list of keys saying, Hey, just a heads up, this key is associated with a user who has a confirmed positive test.

Lets say your co-worker that youve been in close contact with also has the app. Remember how we talked about the app constantly sending signals out and receiving them? One of the signals it receives doesnt come from BLE, but it comes over the internet from that central list of keys discussed in the previous paragraph.

When their app receives an update of new exposed keys, it goes through all the keys theyve collected over the past two weeks and looks for matches.

If it finds a match, it does a check on the device to determine how long they were exposed to that key. If they were closer than 6 feet for more than 15 minutes, the app sends them a notification letting them know they were exposed and information on what to do next.

Ill emphasize this later, but keep in mind that COVIDawareMN is *not* a contact tracing app.

Contact tracing takes this whole process a step further by logging location information. A contact tracing app remembers every place youve visited in a certain period of time.

Lets envision a different app that does use contact tracing. If a user received a positive test, a central health department could pull up a list of all the places that person visited in the past 14 days and let those establishments know that they were visited by a person who tested positive.

This can be a much more effective way of stopping the virus because it allows health officials to directly reach out to establishments and notify patrons who might not have the app installed.

However, there are clear privacy concerns in a case like this. Would you feel comfortable giving the government a list of each and every place you have ever visited? Would you feel comfortable giving anybody such a list?

Engineers at Apple and Google felt the same way, so they designed their exposure notification systems to account for this concern. COVIDaware MN takes advantage of these specially designed systems to ensure they never actually track your location. It only tracks who youve come into contact with via those randomly generated keys.

Some cell phone users have expressed concerns about the apps safety, fearing its a way for the government to track citizens. In reality, no personal information is shared with the State of Minnesota.

The apps tracking is done anonymously using exposure notification technology developed by Apple and Google.

When a COVIDaware MN app user comes into close contact with another COVIDaware MN app user, the phones exchange Bluetooth keys that are randomly generated by the app. No personal data or location information is collected, stored, or exchanged.

Even if an individual tests positive for COVID-19 and consents to uploading their positive test result into the exposure notification system, no personal information about the user is collected. The app anonymously sends a notification to any Bluetooth keys its collected in the last 14 days to warn them they may have been exposed to the virus.

This is best summed up by Shashi Shekhar, a University of Minnesota computer science professor who has studied the use of these apps in the pandemic.

Its a pull-in app, which means the data can come to your smartphone but nothing of value leaves your smartphone, Shekhar said. The only thing that leaves your phone is a random number, which cannot be traced back to the phone that generated it.

The app can be used in English, Spanish, Somali and Hmong and is available on the App Store and Google Play Store. If you have friends, family, or neighbors concerned about how the app works, share this article with them. The COVIDaware MN site does a really good job of addressing concerns and answering questions on its FAQ page.

More About Our Sponsor

Tim Bornholdt

This weeks FAQ Friday is sponsored by The Jed Mahonis Group. The Jed Mahonis Group helps businesses strategize, design, develop, and deploy custom iOS and Android mobile applications. The company has partnered with many startups and large brands over the years to deliver software that is used by millions of people around the world, including companies such as Great Clips, Green Mill, VSI Labs, and Kwikly.

Tim Bornholdt, Partner at The Jed Mahonis Group | @timbornholdt

Tim got his start in web development in the first grade, so hes been building websites and apps for more than 20 years. In addition to being an accomplished software developer, Tim is also an award-winning videographer and podcaster. He currently edits the C Tolle Run podcast hosted by Olympian Carrie Tollefson, and he hosts the Constant Variables podcast where he breaks down complex mobile app development topics for entrepreneurs and product managers.

Looking for more Android development tips and information? Ask Tim and The Jed Mahonis Group team questions on privacy and more on Twitter at @timbornholdt.

View original post here:

FAQ Friday: The Tech Behind the COVIDaware MN App - TECHdotMN

New Delhi, January 8, 2021: Amidst the corona epidemic, the second phase of the dry run of corona vaccination was successful today in 736 districts in 33 states of the country. Its purpose is to analyze what problems can occur before starting the actual vaccination. Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan is on a visit to Tamil Nadu today to take stock of the dry run. He has said that in the next few days they will be able to start giving the corona vaccine to the people of the country.

Dry run:The process of dry run involves four stages apart from vaccination. These include 1. Beneficiary (people who have to be given a dummy vaccine), 2. Details of the place where the vaccine is to be given, 3. Verification of documents on the spot and 4. Uploading of mock drill and reporting information on the vaccine. The dummy vaccine is being given to those involved in the dry run list. During this time, necessary arrangements are being reviewed to start vaccination. Three rooms have been built at each centre. The first room for waiting. In this, the demo of the complete information of the health worker is being given. The vaccine is being given in another room. The vaccine will be kept in the third room for 30 minutes.

Vaccination can start from 13-14 January:The central government is fully prepared to protect the country against the coronavirus. It has asked the states and union territories to prepare for the delivery of the vaccine at the earliest. Looking at the preparations of the Central Government, it seems that vaccination can start from January 13-14, which was indicated last week. The dry run was conducted all over the country except two states on 8 January. Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said that the four states in which the dry run took place earlier, has taught a lot of lessons. Keeping them in mind, dry runs are being conducted all over the country.

What is the governments vaccination plan?

The government has divided the entire vaccination into three phases. The vaccine will be delivered to the Primary Health Center in the first phase. In the second phase, the beneficiary will be identified and the third phase will be followed by vaccination monitoring. Guidelines have been issued to explain the entire process in detail to each state. The Union Health Ministry has written a letter to all states and Union Territories on January 5 asking them to receive the delivery of the vaccine.

How and when will the vaccine be transported?

According to the central government, the transportation of the corona vaccine will begin in a day or two. Pune will be its central hub. This is where the vaccine will be distributed. Passenger aircraft will be used for vaccine delivery. Presently, 41 destinations (airports) have been identified across the country, where the vaccine will be delivered. Delhi and Karnal will be made mini hubs in northern India. Kolkata and Guwahati will be made mini hubs in the eastern region. Guwahati is the nodal point for the entire North-East. Chennai and Hyderabad will be the points marked for South India.

Who will get the vaccine and when?

The government has released a detailed plan for the Corona vaccine. 300 million people have been identified in the primary group. According to the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, first, the healthcare workers, frontline workers, and those above 50 years of age will be vaccinated. Apart from this, people below 50 years of age will also be eligible to apply for the vaccine, who have some diseases like diabetes, blood pressure. Health workers and front line workers will not require registration, as they are in the high priority group and their data is already on the Covid vaccine delivery management system. This work was assigned by the Center to the state governments.

Be able to register yourself for the vaccine

Census registers and voter lists are being used to identify eligible people. Soon, a system will also be released with which people will be able to register themselves for the vaccine. States have been directed to identify such people. The digital platform COVIN (Co-WIN) has been created to track and monitor the vaccination process. Individuals will not be vaccinated without registration.

Excerpt from:

Dry run in 736 districts before corona vaccination, know when vaccination will start, what will be the process - Punekar News

Pilar Olivares / Reuters

Men gather at Rio de Janeiro's Ipanema beach in Brazil on Dec. 31, 2020.

The journalists at BuzzFeed News are proud to bring you trustworthy and relevant reporting about the coronavirus. To help keep this news free, become a member and sign up for our newsletter, Incoming.

For four days, he eschewed sleep to obsessively scroll through social media and sort through hundreds of tips hes received as part of his secret mission: use Instagram to name and shame other gay men who are partying during the pandemic.

No part of it is anger on my end, said the man behind @TheGayRona, a California tech industry worker, who like others in this story asked not to be identified, fearing he would become a social media target himself. Its a sense of acting ethically and having a moral compass. I want accountability.

@TheGayRona is one of several recent so-called COVID vigilante accounts aimed at self-policing the behavior of the gay community during the coronavirus pandemic. As they social-distance at home, the people behind these anonymous accounts are sharing images to thousands of followers of muscular, mostly white men gathering in Speedos on beaches or dancing shirtless at parties in the US and abroad. The accounts highlight the mens identities, their usernames, and often their job details, sometimes encouraging users to contact the partygoers employers. Hunker Downers, steer clear, @TheGayRona wrote in one Instagram post tagging a shirtless influencer. He has had a recklessly busy few weeks. Was just in Miami last week > Rio > LA the following week.

commented one follower. He's like COVID Santa!

Most of the drama has been cataloged on the Instagram account @GaysOverCovid, which has amassed more than 115,000 followers and spawned several smaller imitators. A public forum is better because it sparks change, or at least attempts to, the gay man in his late twenties running the account told reporters Taylor Lorenz and Alex Hawgood. (He did not respond to requests from BuzzFeed News.) In recent weeks, @GaysOverCovid played detective by checking peoples Facebook location and even Venmo history to place them in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which over the New Years Eve period hosted circuit parties all-night raves with a reputation for drug use and few sexual boundaries i.e., the opposite of proper social distancing.

Part of it is the public persona of what theyre doing. Theyre going out on Instagram, posting stories, flaunting them flouting guidelines, said a mid-thirties healthcare industry worker who is one of the four people behind @BostonGaysOverCovid, which has been exposing the behavior of that citys gay community. The brashness by which they push against it, by which they flaunt it, versus folks like us who are just sitting at home.

But the accounts have caused tension in the gay community. One man offered a $500 reward on a circuit party Facebook group for the identity of whoevers behind @GaysOverCovid, telling Lorenz and Hawgood the account was like Salem Witch hunting. Many who have been shamed by the account are now sharing their theories as to who is behind it. There was briefly even a @GaysOverGaysOverCovid account set up to hit back at public shaming, cyberbullying, and stigma. (That account naturally prompted a @GaysOverGaysOverGaysOverCovid.)

We know who the guy is, insisted Jasson Jerez, a Los Angelesbased influencer with 177,000 Instagram followers who has been called out by the account. Jerez, however, provided no evidence for the claim.

I let people talk on social media. Honestly, I dont feed into that. Too much negativity in the world. I dont need it from social media so Im staying away, Jerez wrote in a series of Instagram messages that he later deleted. The news and the world is already enough. Social media should be an escape from reality for us to just be stupid and silly. This isnt real life. Its all facade; its not our life.

Vox reporter Alex Abad-Santos has been the most prominent chronicler of the drama on Twitter where he has shared a series of viral updates about what he jokes has been a Gay Civil War. Many of the updates are laced with schadenfreude from those staying home. When a party boat carrying some of the men traveling in Puerto Vallarta sank without passengers being injured, video of the incident was viewed 2 million times and became the subject of memes. When Brazilian police shut down a circuit party, gay men reveled in their counterparts wasted money.

Abad-Santos told BuzzFeed News gay men were transfixed by the saga because of the prominent place circuit parties hold in the community and the horror from some that they might continue in a deadly pandemic.

The civil war stuff is mostly making fun of the way this messiness is being framed, he said. I mean, I think there's definitely other issues that this fight is touching on when it comes to the way gay men look at ourselves, what we value, and how we look at other gay men.

It's kinda not a surprise that one of the common responses from partygoers is that they're jealous of us, he said.

"It's kinda not a surprise that one of the common responses from partygoers is that they're jealous of us.'"

Zack Ford, the press secretary for the Alliance for Justice and a former LGBTQ editor for Think Progress whose own take on the parties went viral, told BuzzFeed News the debate touches on issues of male body image and social media that can cause depression in the gay community.

In a way these influencers, these people whose bodies are in the foreground, theyre kind of like our royalty, he said. But when your royalty, the people who exhibit the glamour and the prestige of your community betray you and betray the respect you give them, it can be really disconcerting.

Its really not about circuit parties, he added. Its about a universal experience weve all had: weighing the sacrifices were all making and trying to process the people who arent making those sacrifices.

There are real-world concerns, too. Palm Springs Mayor Christy Holstege told BuzzFeed News dozens of residents of her California city, long a haven and travel destination for the LGBTQ community, had contacted her office concerned by what theyve seen posted by @GaysOverCovidPage. Palm Springs residents are extremely at risk. We have people who lived through the height of the HIV pandemic, she said. People are really afraid of others coming back with the virus after partying, and it doesnt reflect well on the values of Palm Springs.

The tech industry worker behind @TheGayRona said his account has been particularly focused on exposing medical practitioners who have been preaching safe COVID-19 practices or uploading photos of themselves receiving a coronavirus vaccine, only to then share party pics. (The CDC says vaccinated people should still wear masks and social-distance.) He said hes concerned they will return to their clinics and hospitals without a proper quarantine period and potentially endanger their patients.

I get it theyre frustrated. Theyre overworked. Its been a difficult year for them. I empathize, he said. But I think there needs to be ethical behavior from this group.

Jerez, the Los Angeles influencer, said hes a medical worker in a clinic and wanted to vacation and party because the pandemic had been so stressful. Honestly, I dont mind [being featured by the account]. I know we arent doing things we are supposed to do [But] its been almost a year of going insane with the pandemic, and clearly its not controllable in my clinic with staff and patients, he said. Im going insane, and if I didnt get away for some sort of break, I swear I would probably have punched somebody in the face and gotten fired.

As for why these men would go on vacation and flaunt themselves defying coronavirus safety measures, @TheGayRona believes some users simply cant help themselves. Theres so much currency in posting nowadays, its inevitable, he said. I feel like people are addicted to getting that validation.

But that status and prominence make it more important to scrutinize those who have influence via their large following, argued Ford, the former LGBTQ editor.

Certainly when the target group is a group that relies on popularity that is what fuels influencers and people who capitalize on their bodies and their appearance we have a duty to hold them accountable and hold them to a higher standard, he said. Just because youre hot, doesnt give you permission to be an asshole.

"Just because youre hot, doesnt give you permission to be an asshole."

Mike Schultz, a 43-year-old San Francisco nurse who contracted the COVID-19 at a circuit party in Miami in March, knows firsthand what that extra level of scrutiny can bring. At least 38 people became ill after attending the party, with three men dying. BuzzFeed News interviewed Schultz in May after he spent six weeks intubated in a Boston hospital and had shared a shocking before-and-after photo of how his muscular frame had shriveled. I wanted to show it can happen to anyone, he said at the time. It doesn't matter if you're young or old, have preexisting conditions or not. It can affect you."

But in December, screenshots began circulating from Schultzs social media accounts in which he said he was excited to go to Puerto Vallarta. He also applauded another post by a man who complained of fucking bitter queens and who described COVID-19 as survival of the fittest.

Schultz was blasted for his behavior, especially since had received more than $20,000 via a GoFundMe established to cover his medical expenses. But Schultz, who declined to be interviewed over the phone, told BuzzFeed News in a series of text messages he did not ultimately visit Mexico and that the GoFundMe had been established by a friend while he was in a coma. I never once asked for a penny, he wrote.

Mike Schultz in the before-and-after photo he posted to Instagram in May after being intubated with COVID-19.

Schultz also said he had been targeted by online monsters who had called his employer and tried to get him fired. He said he wanted to take legal action against @GaysOverCovid and other sites posting false defamatory information, but later said he could not afford a lawyer.

These monsters believe what they want to believe no matter what I say. I didnt go to PV and it honestly is no one's business, he wrote. Im sick of getting death threats and hate mail from these people that think theyre doing good.

He denied ever endangering his patients or coworkers as a result of his social activities during the pandemic. But asked if he could understand why people were angry when they assumed he would be traveling, Schultz wrote, I can tell you that I do understand why theyre upset.

"Im sick of getting death threats and hate mail from these people that think theyre doing good."

Leo Herrera, an activist, writer, and artist based in San Francisco and New Orleans, said hes been troubled by the images of people partying in his native Mexico, where hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.

But Herrera, who has produced a multimedia project on the AIDS crisis, said hes been most upset by members of his community seemingly forgetting their own history. A lot of this younger generation dont understand what it was like to live through HIV before PREP. They dont see what a lot of our own went through, he said. This is about a group of people and a culture that has already lived through a pandemic, so in very real, tangible ways we should know better.

Not everyone agrees with the AIDS comparisons, though. Abad-Santos, the Vox writer, said public health experts he has spoken with feel the diseases are too dissimilar. Its also an incredibly delicate issue. The @BostonGaysOverCovid account was suspended Tuesday night after one of the administrators posted a story alleging a man had been lying about his HIV status to sexual partners.

We (minus that person) are trying to see if we can get it up and running again without them obviously, one of the men running it told BuzzFeed News. Shaming people about HIV is one step too far.

"This is about a group of people and a culture that has already lived through a pandemic, so in very real, tangible ways we should know better."

Detractors of the COVID vigilante accounts contend theyre also unfairly magnifying the behavior of the LGBTQ community in a manner that is not applied to straight people. But Abad-Santos said there are plenty of critical videos of straight people ignoring health guidelines at political rallies or churches. I feel like circuit parties are, by their nature, ridiculous, he said, and so there's an edge of that when you compare, like, a bunch of shirtless sweaty men rubbing pecs to devout churchgoers.

But whether it be men partying on Fire Island for the 4th of July or vacationing on a private island with friends, the gay community has been policing their own throughout the pandemic. I do think we hold our community to a higher standard, said @TheGayRona. Were a tight-knit community.

Herrera added that the vigilante accounts are also a reflection of the governments failed response to the pandemic, forcing the gay community to police their own, which is a really dangerous and ethically vague position, but its the only one we have.

I think we have sort of developed this knee-jerk reaction that all shaming is bad. A lot of people confuse public accountability with shaming, he added. We have to remind our people that you need to read the room.

See the article here:

Meet The Guys Exposing Other Gay Men Partying During The Pandemic - BuzzFeed News

When Broadway is dark, all that it takes is one little rat and a team of up-and-coming theatre makers to save the day. Last weekend, the Actors Fund revealed that, on its premiere night, Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical generated more than $1 million in ticket sales, to benefit The Actors Fund.

Presented by the Tony Award-winning theatrical production company Seaview, in association with TodayTix Presents and TikTok, Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical streamed for 72 hours only over the weekend, featuring content created by members of TikTok's #RatatouilleMusical Community, whose collective work has earned the engagement of more than 200 million fans around the globe.

Check out what the critics had to say about the incredible musical event and catch up on what Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical is all about!

Below, BroadwayWorld is catching up with one of the creators, Gabbi Bolt, who wrote Django's big number, "Trash Is Our Treasure"!

The response to this project has been insane from the beginning- what has it been like taking it all in on your end?

This project has changed my life. It's overwhelming! It has been absolutely bizarre to sit and watch the musical from my town of Bathurst NSW Australia, and know that I helped work on it! People have been so supportive, they're making me consider a career in composing!

Can you tell us more about your inspiration and the work that went into getting it to the finish line?

I wrote the song "Trash is our Treasure" for Remy's dad Django. When I initially wrote it, the first little verse and chorus you see on the TikTok was very quickly made! It blew up overnight and so I felt a little nagging voice to finish it. I ended up writing a demo (that ended up becoming what Wayne Brady (!) sang) and uploading it to YouTube. There was also a little voice saying "make the piano/vocal sheet music" so I did! I am very glad too, because then when I found out about the musical, the bare bones of my song had already been notated!

The team were incredibly kind and allowed me to co-orchestrate my song. I learnt a lot through that process and wrote down what I could hear in my head. I was very happy to hear that they had taken what I notated and tweaked it to make it sound incredible with a real orchestra. I will forever thank the music team for the work they put in on the song!

What are your hopes for the future of Ratatouille?

I hope it inspires others! I hope people feed off the collaborative energy and want to built and devise shows with each other! It truly is so much fun and I felt super supported by my TikTok creative peers.

What do you think about the future of TikTok as a starting point for other musicals? Do you think this is wake-up call for producers and other theatre makers to take content on this medium and other social media seriously?

I think producers, while not having to exclusively use TikTok etc. should DEFINITELY scout for talent on these apps more. SO MANY creative young people reside online and their talent is mind blowing. I think if producers went looking, they would find HOARDS of worthy contenders in the theatre industry who have just been waiting for their shot. It would give hope to people in regional areas or lower socioeconomic backgrounds to know that they CAN have a creative career, no matter where they come from.

As someone in Bathurst, Australia, I certainly feel like I have way more of a drive to work with Broadway!

What else are you working on right now?

I've actually been writing my album for the past couple of years. I'm hoping to record it with my band this year! My sound is actually far more soul/pop influenced than say my rat song was but I am very excited for people to hear my new stuff!

Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical starred Wayne Brady (Django), Tituss Burgess (Remy), Kevin Chamberlin (Gusteau), Tony Award winner Andr De Shields (Ego), Andrew Barth Feldman (Linguini), Grammy Award nominee Adam Lambert (Emile), Tony winner Priscilla Lopez (Mabel), Tony nominee Ashley Park (Colette), Owen Tabaka (Young Ego), and three-time Tony nominee Mary Testa (Skinner), with Cori Jaskier, Talia Suskauer, Nikisha Williams, JJ Niemann, John Michael Lyles, Raymond J. Lee, and Joy Woods as the ensemble.

For more information, please visit Ratatousical.com.

See more here:

BWW Exclusive: Meet the Makers of RATATOUILLE: The TikTok Musical- Gabbi Bolt - Broadway World

Last semester, editor in chief Nicole Dan discussed broadband policy with Lukas Pietrzak, a second year MPP student and policy associate at Next Century Cities.

Follow Lukas on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Ltpietrzak

New Americas Cost of Connectivity Report: https://www.newamerica.org/oti/reports/cost-connectivity-2020/

Check out more from the Georgetown Public Policy Review: http://www.gppreview.com/

Theme Music by Russell Lawrence

Podcast transcript:

Nicole Dan: Hi, My name is Nicole Dan and Im the editor in chief of the Georgetown Public Policy Review. With the increasing importance of an internet connection during this pandemic, I thought now would be a great time to discuss broadband policy with Lukas Pietrzak, a second year Master of Public Policy student at McCourt.

Lukas Pietrzak: Yeah. Hi, my name is Lukas Pietrzak and I am a second year MPP student in the McCourt school and I also am a policy associate at Next Century Cities.

Dan: Great. So just for our audience, can you define broadband?

Pietrzak: Yeah so broadband according to the federal government and the Federal Communications Commission is a connection to The World Wide Web, or the internet backbone thats coming into someones home at speeds that are 25 megabits per second downloading and three megabits per second uploading.

Dan: So does everybody agree about that or is there a little disagreement there?

Pietrzak: So thats a great question. Actually, and that was very much a technical definition of broadband itself as a technology. There is some conversation right now because its actually been a number of years since the Federal Communications Commission addressed what broadband is obviously to the everyday person when you ask them whats broadband, they simply say its the internet connection thats coming into my house. And most people dont think about speeds outside of when theyre buying their first package or subscribing and deciding what they think they need. But in terms of that government definition, there has been some heated debate between Commissioners on the FCC which theres five of them, four that are currently serving and one seat thats about to become vacant and internet providers who are actually providing the service and advocates and private citizens.

Its been interesting because as technologies have advanced and weve hooked up more and more things to our internet connections in our home, advocates, local government officials, everyday citizens have really pushed the government to increase that definition possibly up to 100 megabits per second download and 25 or even 50 megabits per second, upload speeds, whereas many internet providers have said, Why are we going to do that what were serving right now is getting the job done for people? And some listeners who may not know anything about broadband policy up to this point might be asking, why does it matter how we define broadband at the end of the day, if the government says its one thing I may still pay for more. But what we have to remember is whats available to us here in Washington or, you know, New York City or Chicago or even where Im from Virginia Beach, which is a well developed suburb, we have the opportunity to subscribe, all the way up to a gigabit speed for our internet but in some of these communities that still dont have a broadband connection of which theres many they are being given what the government is defining because when the government gives funding to private internet companies to lay fiber optic cable or coax or put up some sort of wireless solution there are requirements in the grants that say you as a provider have to provide this minimum speed. And until we increase that we may be having gigabit speeds here in Washington, DC, or I personally have, I believe, 600 megabits per second that I pay for someone else in rural Iowa may just be getting 25/3 and they may not actually even be receiving what the company says theyre providing.

Dan: So what drew you to broadband as a policy niche?

Pietrzak: So in college, I went to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. I actually took a class called media policy and law by a professor, his name is Christopher Ali. He is a big academic in the broadband policy field. And he spent a unit talking about rural broadband and specifically talking about precision agriculture, which for those who dont know, precision agriculture is this fascinating thing where farmers can use wireless technology to run their combines with remote control, you know, measure nutrients in the soil, measure water in the soil, oxygenation sort of all of these things that used to have to be done by hand. Andafter he taught us this unit, I actually went to him and it piqued my interest into the broadband world more broadly. And then in my fourth year at UVA I undertook an independent study with him, where I looked at Albemarle County, which surrounds the University of Virginia, and looked at their broadband availability, because they are a semi rural farming semi developed county, which actually is a lot of counties in Virginia and was able to spend some time investigating down and working with their county government. And from there, when I arrived in DC, the academic and professional opportunities presented themselves, and then I just fell absolutely in love with the field.

Dan: Actually Albemarle County is one that we always talk about at NTIA So for those that are listening I interned there, so.

Pietrzak: Look at that, its a very interesting county. Its very wealthy, but they still really struggle with getting broadband out and knowing where all of their broadband is. I was in a meeting one time, and it was their advisory board for broadband and something had happened and they didnt even know which telephone poles the county owned and which ones were privately owned so it was fascinating.

Dan: I know that youve done a lot of work relating to digital redlining, can you explain what that is and why that can be problematic?

Pietrzak: Yeah so digital redlining is something that the National Digital Inclusion Alliance spends a lot of time working on there, another organization based here in Washington, DC. And they actually have looked at some historically racially and socioeconomically segregated cities across the country, specifically places like Cleveland and Detroit. And they have looked at whether or not private internet companies are doing two things: whether they are a) deploying their network infrastructure so coax cables fiber optic cables to neighborhoods based off of racial demographics. So basically, are they deploying it at faster rates and more effectively to rich white neighborhoods, as compared to lower income majority minority neighborhoods.

And the second thing that were starting to notice more now is what does network upgrades look like? So a lot of communities that are technically served according to the government are still served over copper cables, which were put in the ground decades ago and or on telephone poles decades ago and NDIA is starting to look at yes at AT&T or Verizon or Comcast say that they have service here. But when is the last time that that infrastructure was upgraded? And, you know, the way reporting works for the federal government is they just have to say in ideal conditions what speeds can be delivered over that wire.

But obviously a piece of copper thats been in the ground for 30 years is not going to perform at ideal conditions, just your wear and tear and other environmental factors and so redlining is really looking at what decisions are being made. And obviously, these may be business decisions because in some communities, you know that your subscribers are going to pay for faster speeds. So you give it to them. Thats a simple business decision. But, in turn, how much are we hurting is lower income and historically overlooked communities as we sort of plan for the future.

Dan: So I feel like you mentioned another kind of buzzword there digital inclusion. So what is that, and does that also involve devices or is it just broadband?

Pietrzak: Yeah so digital inclusion is actually something thats probably been talked about more recently, or rather the conversation has become larger recently. And it involves both broadband and devices and it starts with firstly, everyone needs to have cables in the ground, period. End of discussion. You need to have the connectivity, whether its through cable fiber optics sort of any of those fixed terrestrial options like we call them. That has to be there otherwise someone quite literally cannot be digitally included because they dont have the connection.

But then the second step of broadband that we talked a lot about at the organization I work for is the adoption piece. And yes, there may be a fiber optic cable running to my house, but can I afford to turn it on. And thats something thats overlooked by certain organizations and certain government agencies and talked about by others. Again, very much debated, especially in the midst of COVID but its making sure that everyone has the financial means and the knowledge of what broadband can bring them to be able to invest in turning it on because, as you know, Im sure, Nicole, broadband isnt cheap, its not. Its probably one of my most expensive bills, and people have to understand that its a big investment. And the Pew Research Group if youve seen things from them they find time and time again that cost is most likely the number one barrier to adoption for most American families.

So once we get the cables to them, once we get the cables turned on, the question then becomes the devices. And you know, its great to have an internet connection to your home, but you need a computer, you need a tablet, you need a cell phone you need something that youre sort of going off of your Wi Fi or off your Ethernet connection. And thats sort of when that second step kicks in. And we have to get devices to students, which a lot of school districts have done, especially with distance learning, and we have to get devices to people applying for jobs or hoping to get government services. And we have to teach them how to use them because, you know, putting a laptop in the hand of a studentis great in theory but if they dont know how to use it. Who are they going to ask for help? Their parents. And if their parents have never had a laptop before they dont know what theyre doing. And oftentimes it leads to frustration and then students dont complete their homework, you know, parents cant apply for new jobs that theyve lost their job during COVID.So that digital inclusion sort of umbrella includes that literacy piece at the very end. And although its at the end, I like to say its probably the most important because its when you teach people how to get online and sort of the benefits of what that device and what that connection can do for them.

Dan: So Ive noticed that you also talk a lot about universal broadband. Do you think that with COVID and how everybody kind of needs broadband now, do you think thats opened up the discussion for that? And where do you think thats headed?

Pietrzak: I think it is absolutely opened up the conversation. I actually read a piece this morning from the Benton Institute for Society and Broadband or Broadband and Society I think I got that flipped. And one of their fellows was talking about the fact that the problems were seeing right now, during COVID have always been there. The digital divide, as you know well, has been there for years, you know, the lack of digital literacy has been there since the advent of the internet in the 90s.

And its just now that members of Congress are having to work from home that people are seeing it. And its just now that you know, sadly, thousands of people are dying across the country because they dont have access to good health care to fight COVID, that people are realizing: wow, telemedicine actually matters. And these are conversations that advocates have been having for a very long time and even dedicated members of the, you know, federal government whove been working on this for decades. Everybody has been talking but its finally that the right people are listening.

And there was an iconic moment earlier this year, during one of the Senate Commerce hearings about COVID and universal broadband and Senator Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee was actually mid sentence talking about universal broadband in her state and her connection cut out because she had spotty connections at her state office. And so I think more people are paying attention, because we have tech CEOs or just any sort of, you know, often well-off, wealthy, well-connected businessmen and women across the country who are working from home and realizing that they pay a lot of money for their internet and its still bad. And theyre realizing I can afford a good connection and I live, you know, in midtown Manhattan I cant imagine what its like for someone who lives in Kansas or North Dakota, South Dakota, or even in Washington DC here. Those of us who live in wards, you know, two, three sort of you know, around downtown live well and were finally having our eyes opened up to the fact that in our same city, in wards seven and eight, people cant connect to the internet. Its just not feasible. So I think it has given us a lot of motivation to really fight for universal broadband.

And Im hoping that you know its good news that the vaccine is coming for COVID and were going to be able to sort of dig ourselves out of this. But I hope that the conversation doesnt end as soon as everyone goes back to the office and I dont think it will. I think peoples eyes have really been opened, and, you know, the next question and I dont know if were talking about this later, but we really dont know how many people lack broadband. It could be anywhere between 10 million and Microsoft says it could be closer to 150 million. So really the conversation needs to keep happening because people need to recognize that this problem is larger than anything we could have imagined.

Dan: You mentioned, we dont know who doesnt have broadband. Do we know anything about the affordability of broadband? How many people are not connecting because they just cant afford to versus having it because they dont have the infrastructure for it?

Pietrzak: Yeah, thats a great question. And to address your second part first, the number I gave earlier the somewhere between 10 million and 150 million is about how many we think cant connect simply because they dont have the service available to them. The number range probably seems huge to anyone who is hearing it for the first time and thats mostly because the 10 million number is given to us by the government through self-reporting process for internet companies say this is who we serve. And the Microsoft number was taken from measuring upload and download speeds during updates to computers that run Windows. And so we sort of have to figure that out. And there are people in Congress and across the country who are trying to get better data collection to figure out the answer to that question.

And were sort of waiting on that now, but for the affordability piece, we really dont know. I actually last summer, was it last summer. Yes. Last summer, I was a Google policy fellow at Open Technology Institute thats housed at New America a nonprofit here in Washington. And we embarked on what they call the Cost of Connectivity and its a report that new America and OCI put together a few years ago they published it three years in a row during the Obama administration and then discontinued it just because the manpower was you know, sort of overwhelming for a nonprofit of their size and it was something that at the time President Obama and his administration looked at they used those numbers to push for universal broadband funding. And then last summer in 2019 the Open Technology team said we want to bring this back. You know, theres so much going on in the world of broadband now things have changed in the last five or six years, we need to see whats happening. So I, the lowly fellow, was tasked with starting data collection. Because currently, the federal government does not collect pricing data for internet companies. Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle that pushed for it and time and time again private providers and trade groups, such as the US Telecom, have said that its proprietary information and that it would hurt competition and hurt innovation and sort of investment and entrepreneurship, if they had to divulge what they were charging for broadband across the country.

Now mind you, any person in the US, regardless of who you are, can go online and look up what it would cost to subscribe to Comcast or Verizon or AT&T right now for your address. Its available, you can search and pull it right up. But theyve said that if all this was put into one sort of data reservoir, it would hurt all of them. And so I had to start from scratch because there wasnt information anywhere. And I started digging through countless internet service provider websites some easier than others and I eventually came across an issue.

Since the original publication of the first Cost of Connectivity reports during the second Obama term, these companies have added requirements to their website user agreements that data cannot be collected from their websites except for the explicit purpose of subscribing or considering subscription to their internet.

And so we sort of faced this legal roadblock where we now had to decide, was it newsworthy enough for us to continue down this venture that could possibly land the organization in some hot water. And I just need to clarify for clarity sake I am no longer and with OTI I was with them until April when my, basically my job requirements were met. And so I wont talk about too much with what that looked like. But I will say that, you know, this past summer OTI, and actually one of my colleagues from the time Claire Park, who became the primary author on the report published the Cost of Connectivity. And they had pulled together thousands of data values over the course of the year to see exactly what Americans were paying across the country for broadband and then comparing it to European and Asian counterparts to see what we pay compared to the rest of the world and it is astounding how much higher Americans pay for internet. Honestly, how much higher we pay for lower speeds.

So I encourage anyone whos listening to this to go to the Open Technology Institute website and read the report. It currently is the only holistic and sort of comprehensive pricing data report that exists. I think that answered your question, I hope.

Dan: Yes, it did. And also we can include a link to the report in the show notes for this. So what would you recommend for people who want to get more involved in broadband and want to learn more?

Pietrzak: Yeah, so if you want to learn more about broadband. I would definitely tell you a great place to start is actually the Benton Institute, they are based out of Illinois, but they put out a phenomenal newsletter every single morning, along with weekly things, other things, that sort of gives you a digest of this is the broadband world in a nutshell. I will tell you, it is a very deep policy field that covers a lot of things. And Ive been going at this now for I guess its probably my fourth or fifth year thinking about broadband and reading about broadband and there are still conversations that I walk into and have no idea whats happening.

Because if we had hours for the two of us to talk, we could get into satellite policy, cell phone policy, monopolies, everything sort of along those lines. And I tell people broadband is probably a very unique policy field and that it touches almost every other policy field that exists. So if youre listening to this and you right now study health policy or youre interested in environmental policy or something along those lines, Im sorry, my dog is making noise behind me now. If youre interested in health policy or environmental policy or even, you know, national security policy, one thing you can definitely do is look for the intersection between broadband and what youre doing. Its a great place to start, because you will be able to figure out what interests you first and broadband and go from there. So definitely start with the Benton Society, come to our website next century cities or literally just start googling it theres so much information out there and so many articles have been published since March with the pandemic that you are bound to find something in this field that you find interesting.

Dan: Cool. Is there anything else that you wanted to talk about?

Pietrzak: Really my last thing is just keep having the conversation look up what youre paying for your internet and look up who in your city or your hometown still doesnt have internet. And honestly, go on to the FCC website and look at the broadband availability map. I get lost in it sometimes because Im a nerd and just dig and swipe and dig and swipe further and further, and see whats going on. See what Nicoles old office is doing at BroadbandUSA and the way that states are trying to battle this by coming together and just keep paying attention and the best piece of advice I like to give people is: hold your internet company accountable because the only way that we really elicit change. And this is gonna sound so cliche and I already know it, but its from the bottom up. At the end of the day they serve the consumers and our government serves their constituents. So be a thorn in their side and make it happen.

Dan: Thank you, do you want people to follow you on Twitter?

Pietrzak: People can follow me on Twitter if they want. I will say maybe 30% to 50% of my feed is broadband related, the rest is just my dog. So if you want to follow me, you can. Its just ltpietrzak my last name. So if you follow me, Ill tweet some fun broadband articles and some fun facts. Nicole follows me so she knows its a fun hodgepodge of an adventure.

Dan: Thanks again for doing this.

Pietrzak: Thanks, Nicole

Dan: I think it would be really great to educate people on broadband.

Pietrzak: Im telling you, its something that affects it is the most impactful and least talked about policy issue, in my opinion.

Dan: Thanks for listening to the Georgetown Public Policy Review podcast. Im hoping to make this a series on McCourt students who are working on interesting projects or have a unique policy niche. If this is you, or someone you know would be a good fit, please email me at editorinchief@gppreview.com. Please subscribe, and check out more, including details on how to submit to our spring edition at gppreview.com

See more here:

Broadband and Digital Inclusion with Lukas Pietrzak - Georgetown Public Policy Review - Georgetown Public Policy Review