Tag: America

  • Librarian delivers books via drone to kids stuck at home amid COVID-19

    Librarian delivers books via drone to kids stuck at home amid COVID-19

    Kelly Passek, who works as a librarian at a school in Virginia, America, made sure that kids still have books to keep them engaged during the pandemic. 

    “As a school librarian, it is extremely important to me to have connections with my students. So that I can make sure that they have got access to the resources that they need and the resources that will allow them to be successful – not just academically, but also in life,” said Passek according to MSN. 

    Due to the remote learning during coronavirus crisis, it became difficult for Passek to be in connection with her students. Then she came up with the idea of a drone to use it for book delivery. She took inspiration from her family as they often use a drone service from Google’s parent company Alphabet, to get essentials delivered to their doorstep.

    So, Passek asked for permission from the superintendent, Mark Miear, to deliver books using drone service.

    To get a book delivered, students need to request books online which is fulfilled by Passek who then packs the books up in special delivery boxes and delivers them using drone service Wing.

    The drone service started last week on a limited trial basis, but now students in Montgomery County can choose from the library’s more than 150,000 books.

  • Google faces $5 billion lawsuit for tracking users’ incognito browsing data

    Google faces $5 billion lawsuit for tracking users’ incognito browsing data

    Google has been sued for allegedly tracking users’ internet searches of browsers set on ‘incognito mode.’

    The lawsuit has accused the Alphabet unit of secretly collecting information about what people search online and seeks at least $5 billion in damages.

    According to the complaint, filed in the federal court in San Jose, California, Google gathers data through Google marketing tools which include Google Analytics, Google Ad Manager, and other applications and website plug-ins, including smartphone apps. 

    “The data collection helps Google learn about users’ friends, hobbies, shopping habits, favourite foods, and even the most intimate and potentially embarrassing things they search online,” said the complaint.

    “Google cannot continue to engage in the covert and unauthorised data collection from virtually every American with a computer or phone,” the complaint added.

    Google’s spokesman, Jose Castaneda said that the company will defend itself against the claims. 

    “As we clearly state each time you open a new incognito tab, websites might be able to collect information about your browsing activity,” he said. 

    The complaint seeks at least $5,000 of damages per user for violations of federal wiretapping and California privacy laws.

  • Man hides COVID-19 symptoms so he could be with his wife in the labour room

    Man hides COVID-19 symptoms so he could be with his wife in the labour room

    A man who was exposed to the coronavirus hid that he was feeling ill so he could visit his wife in the maternity unit of an upstate New York hospital and be with her when she delivers their child.

    According to NBC, the matter only came to light after his wife also began to show symptoms.

    The hospital staff said that the man was questioned by the staff at the hospital before entering and he assured them that he was in good health and had not been exposed to the coronavirus. However, shortly after giving birth, the woman began to show symptoms.

    “That’s when the significant other admitted his potential exposure and that he was feeling symptomatic,” said a hospital official, adding that they cannot share whether the mother, father or newborn child were infected with the coronavirus because of privacy laws. The mother has since returned home.

    Meanwhile, a nurse who assisted the family was also tested for the virus and the results came back negative.

    Many hospitals in New York are banning most visitors to help control the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

    A hospital official said that before they would only ask visitors before allowing them inside, “but now we’re adding the temperature check.”

    “Those with symptoms will be asked to leave the hospital. These screening measures will be completed twice daily throughout the hospitalization,” the hospital said, adding that the guest will not be allowed to leave the patient’s room without the patient.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B-cDZFIH0_x/
  • US imposes strict visa rules for pregnant women to control ‘birth tourism’

    US imposes strict visa rules for pregnant women to control ‘birth tourism’

    The Trump administration on Thursday announced new visa rules to restrict birth tourism, in which women travel to the United States to give birth so their children can get US citizenship.

    According to the rules in the Federal Register, applicants will not be given tourist visas if they are determined by consular officers to be coming to the US only to give birth.

    It is a bigger hurdle to overcome, proving they are travelling to the US because they have a medical need and not just because they want to give birth here. Those with medical needs will be treated like other foreigners coming to the US for medical treatment and must prove they have the money to pay for it including transportation and living expenses.

    “Closing this glaring immigration loophole will combat these endemic abuses and ultimately protect the United States from the national security risks created by this practice,” White House press secretary Step­hanie Grisham said in a statement.

    While the new rules deal specifically with birth tourism, the Trump administration also has turned away pregnant women coming over the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a broader immigration crackdown. Those women were initially part of a vulnerable group that included others like small children who were allowed in, while tens of thousands of other asylum seekers have been returned to Mexico to wait out their cases.

    While President Trump’s administration has been confining all forms of immigration, Trump has been particularly worried by the issue of birthright citizenship anyone born in the US is considered a citizen, under the Constitution.

    The Republican president has criticized the practice and threatened to end it, but scholars and members of his administration have said it’s not so easy to do.

    Regulating tourist visas for pregnant women is one way to get at the issue, but it raises questions about how officers would determine whether a woman is pregnant, to begin with and whether a woman could get turned away by border officers who suspect she maybe just by looking at her. Critics of the new policy say it could put pregnant women at risk.