The Zen Products Blog.: September 2020

Wednesday 30 September 2020

Green shoots: Rooftop farming takes off in Singapore

On the rooftop of a Singapore shopping mall, a sprawling patch of eggplants, rosemary, bananas and papayas stand in colourful contrast to the grey skyscrapers of the city-state's business district.

Belgium coronavirus death toll passes 10,000

Belgium, one of the European countries hardest hit by the coronavirus, on Wednesday reported its death toll from the pandemic had surpassed 10,000.

Even before pandemic struck, more US adults were uninsured

About 2.5 million more working-age Americans were uninsured last year, even before the coronavirus pandemic struck, according to a government report issued Wednesday.

Walmart looks to airports as inspiration of new store layout

Walmart is getting inspiration from the airport terminal as it revamps the layout and signage of its stores to speed up shopping and better cater to smartphone-armed customers.

Virus-hit Shell says cutting up to 9,000 jobs by 2022

Energy major Shell unleashed Wednesday a major restructuring to combat plunging oil prices driven by the coronavirus pandemic, warning it will also spark more asset writedowns in the third quarter.

Germany puts first auto boss on trial over 'dieselgate' fraud

Five years after "dieselgate" emissions cheating revelations rocked the car industry, ex-Audi CEO Rupert Stadler on Wednesday became the first top executive to stand trial in Germany.

Tuesday 29 September 2020

US capital starts to come back to life after virus shutdown

Life is slowly restarting in Washington as many major attractions, including the Washington Monument, begin to reopen after a six-month closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Testing drive unveiled as virus deaths pass one million

Coronavirus tests that deliver results in 15-30 minutes are to be rolled out across the United States and in scores of poorer countries, as health authorities worldwide try to get a handle on a disease that has now killed more than a million people.

New clampdowns for Montreal, Quebec City as Covid-19 cases soar

Quebec, the province hardest hit by the pandemic in Canada, on Monday reintroduced restrictions to limit the spread of the COVID-19 illness in three regions including Montreal and Quebec City.

Millions in Chile capital emerge from lockdown

Chile on Monday lifted strict coronavirus lockdown measures for millions of people in the capital Santiago, a month ahead of a key referendum to amend the dictatorship-era constitution.

Mexico ups COVID-19 'estimate' to 89,612 deaths

Mexico upped its "estimated" COVID-19 deaths to 89,612 on Monday, and boosted estimates of its total number of cases to 870,699, almost 137,000 more than it previously recognized.

Brazil revokes mangrove protections, triggering alarm

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's government on Monday revoked regulations protecting mangroves and other fragile coastal ecosystems, in a measure environmentalists condemned as a "crime" that would lead to their destruction.

Google clamps down on apps dodging Play Store 30% cut

Google said Monday it plans to start enforcing a rule requiring Android apps in its Play store to use its payment system, which takes a 30 percent cut of transactions.

Weibo parent Sina to delist US stocks in $2.6 bn deal

Chinese internet giant Sina Corp, the parent company of the country's vast Twitter-like Weibo platform, plans to delist its US shares and go private, making it the latest mainland firm to withdraw from Wall Street as relations between Beijing and Washington sour.

A viral march across the planet, tracked by a map in motion

On a Thursday night in early January, the disease that would become known as COVID-19 claimed its first victim, a 61-year-old man who succumbed to the newly identified coronavirus in the city of Wuhan, in the People's Republic of China.

NYC elementary schools reopen in big back-to-school test

Hundreds of thousands of elementary school students are heading back to classrooms Tuesday as New York City enters a high-stakes stage of resuming in-person learning during the coronavirus pandemic, which is keeping students at home in many other big U.S. school systems.

Purging water system of brain-eating microbe to take 60 days

A Houston-area official said Monday it will take 60 days to ensure a city drinking water system is purged of a deadly, microscopic parasite that doctors believed killed a boy and that led to warnings for others not to drink tap water.

United Arab Emirates to launch spacecraft to moon in 2024

A top official in the United Arab Emirates said Tuesday his country plans to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon in 2024.

500 years ago, another epidemic swept Mexico: smallpox

There were mass cremations of bodies; entire families died and the inhabitants of the city, afraid to pull their bodies out, simply collapsed their homes on top of them to bury them on the spot.

Dying winds give crews hope in Northern California fires

Firefighters say they hoped dying winds would enable them to bear down on a wildfire that exploded in the Northern California wine country, prompting tens of thousands of evacuations while a second blaze killed at least three people.

Cyberattack hobbles major hospital chain's US facilities

A computer outage at a major hospital chain thrust healthcare facilities across the U.S. into chaos Monday, with treatment impeded as doctors and nurses already burdened by the coronavirus pandemic were forced to rely on paper backup systems.

EPA ridicules California's proposed ban of new gas cars

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler on Monday ridiculed California Gov. Gavin Newsom's plan to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, saying the proposal raises "significant questions of legality."

Preventing heart disease could keep more people employed and save billions for the economy

Preventing 10 years of coronary heart disease would save nearly USD $15 billion in gross domestic product (GDP) by keeping people gainfully employed. That's the finding of a study published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

China's air pollutant reduction success could make it tougher to control climate change

China's success in improving air quality by cutting polluting emissions may have a negative knock-on effect on climate change overall, a new study has found.

Plant droplets serve as nutrient-rich food for insects

Small watery droplets on the edges of blueberry bush leaves are loaded with nutrients for many insects, including bees, wasps and flies, according to a Rutgers-led study, the first of its kind.

Lung cancer screening a step closer to reality following combined study

Newly released study results present a strong case for lung cancer screening in New Zealand—particularly for Māori whose mortality rates are between three and four times higher than other ethnic groups.

New drug targeting DNA repair shows promise in range of advanced cancers

A new precision drug which stops cancer from repairing its DNA has shown promise in an early-stage clinical trial—highlighting the potential of a new class of drugs known as ATR inhibitors.

Understanding ghost particle interactions

Scientists often refer to the neutrino as the "ghost particle." Neutrinos were one of the most abundant particles at the origin of the universe and remain so today. Fusion reactions in the sun produce vast armies of them, which pour down on the Earth every day. Trillions pass through our bodies every second, then fly through the Earth as though it were not there.

Girls benefit from doing sports

Girls—but not boys—who participate actively in school sports activities in middle childhood show improved behavior and attentiveness in early adolescence, suggests a new Canadian study published in Preventative Medicine.

Tuesday 22 September 2020

Nearly 20 percent of Americans don't have enough to eat

More than 18 percent of U.S. adults do not know whether they will have enough to eat from day to day, and the numbers are worse for Hispanics, Blacks, people with obesity, and women, a new report shows.

'Best' hospitals should be required to deliver tobacco treatment

A UCLA-led report published today in the JAMA Internal Medicine exposes what the authors call a weakness in the high-profile "Best Hospitals Honor Roll" published annually by U.S. News and World Report.

Suspension of fertility treatments during COVID-19 has mental health impacts

The suspension of fertility treatments due to the COVID-19 pandemic has had a variety of psychological impacts on women whose treatments were cancelled, but there are several protective factors that can be fostered to help in the future, according to a new study by Jennifer Gordon and Ashley Balsom of University of Regina, Canada, published 18 September in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

Diabetes dramatically reduces the kidney's ability clean itself

The kidneys often become bulky and dysfunctional in diabetes, and now scientists have found that one path to this damage dramatically reduces the kidney's ability to clean up after itself.