Audible Just Made Hundreds of Titles Completely Free to Help During Coronavirus Crisis

The audiobook platform has said that, for as long as schools are closed, anyone can listen to a vast selection of its titles.

Simply visit stories.audible.com from any web browser to get started. No log-ins, credit card or passwords needed.

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/radio/2020-03-20/audible-just-made-hundreds-of-titles-completely-free-to-help-during-coronavirus-crisis/

✅ @COVID19Resources

Yale's Most Popular Class Ever Is Available Free Online—and the Topic is How to Be Happier in Your Daily Life

All the information you need to know is summarized within the lecture. If you do want deeper context, the course provides links to complementary readings. And there's also no grade penalty for a missed assignment deadline, so you can work at your own pace if you can't or don't want to meet the suggested deadlines.

https://www.businessinsider.com/coursera-yale-science-of-wellbeing-free-course-review-overview

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Empty NYC Homes Are Being Matched to Healthcare Workers Who Need to Isolate Away From Family Using This Form

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeadVGur8mm-F9ozQmXGuGceSAn8sbN6u-bPHTipt_3aiOjMg/viewform

✅ @COVID19resources

Free Online Guitar Lessons From Fender While You Shelter in Place

Fender is offering three months of free online guitar lessons to the first 100,000 people who sign up, to help us all get through the coronavirus crisis.

https://www.pennlive.com/coronavirus/2020/03/free-online-guitar-lessons-from-fender-while-you-shelter-in-place-for-the-coronavirus.html

✅ @COVID19resources

Elton John to Host COVID-19 Benefit Concert With Mariah Carey, Billie Eilish, Alicia Keys, Tim McGraw

The first major benefit concert to provide relief and support for Americans impacted by COVID-19 is happening.

Elton John will host an all-star benefit concert airing Sunday night titled Fox Presents the iHeart Living Room Concert for America.

The event will feature performances by Alicia Keys, Backstreet Boys, Billie Eilish, Billie Joe Armstrong, Mariah Carey, Tim McGraw and others yet to be announced.

Each singer will perform from their own homes and will be filmed with their personal video and audio equipment, to ensure the health and safety of others.

The hour-long concert will "pay tribute to the front line health professionals, first responders and local heroes who are putting their lives in harm’s way to help their neighbors and fight the spread of the virus."

https://ew.com/tv/elton-john-coronavirus-concert-fox/

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Neighbors meet for nightly calisthenics - 10 feet apart

Neighbors on a block in St. Paul, MN are responsibly exercising their right to remain connected.

Standing in chalked circles, 10 feet apart, residents of the Mac Groveland neighborhood have been gathering for nightly calisthenics.

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/st-paul-neighbors-meet-for-nightly-calisthenics-10-feet-apart/89-e12bcdb4-bb6c-41b9-808d-8bb25c64df30

✅ @COVID19resources

If you or someone you know works in a nursing facility or you have a family member at one, reach out and suggest they start a program like this:

Nursing Home Lets You 'Adopt' A Lonely Grandparent In Isolation

CHD Living, which owns 13 nursing homes around London, are inviting English-speaking people from around the world to apply online and become a virtual volunteer who will engage with their assigned "grandparents" through video calls. The company hopes to keep their residents mentally stimulated during this hard time.

https://www.iheart.com/content/2020-03-26-nursing-home-lets-you-adopt-a-lonely-grandparent-in-isolation/

🦠@COVID19report

Restaurant Employee Relief Fund

Through the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund, we will provide grants to restaurant industry employees who have been adversely impacted by COVID-19, financially, whether through a decrease in wages or loss of employment.

https://rerf.us/apply-for-aid/

✅ @COVID19resources

MIT to Post Free Plans Online for an Emergency Ventilator That Can Be Built for $100

Clinical and design considerations will be published online; goal is to support rapid scale-up of device production to alleviate hospital shortages.

One of the most pressing shortages facing hospitals during the Covid-19 emergency is a lack of ventilators. These machines can keep patients breathing when they no longer can on their own, and they can cost around $30,000 each. Now, a rapidly assembled volunteer team of engineers, physicians, computer scientists, and others, centered at MIT, is working to implement a safe, inexpensive alternative for emergency use, which could be built quickly around the world.

The team, called MIT E-Vent (for emergency ventilator), was formed on March 12, 2020, in response to the rapid spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Its members were brought together by the exhortations of doctors, friends, and a sudden flood of mail referencing a project done a decade ago in the MIT class 2.75 (Medical Device Design).

Students working in consultation with local physicians designed a simple ventilator device that could be built with about $100 worth of parts. They published a paper detailing their design and testing, but the work ended at that point. Now, with a significant global need looming, a new team, linked to that course, has resumed the project at a highly accelerated pace.

https://scitechdaily.com/mit-posts-free-plans-online-for-an-emergency-ventilator-that-can-be-built-for-100/amp/

✅ @COVID19resources

You Can Now Play Cards Against Humanity Online With Your Mates

The popular game, which really brings out the worst in people, can be played on Playingcards.ioio and is fairly simple to set up; create your own virtual room via a link you can pass to your pals, where everyone can see the game in real time and join in.

https://www.ladbible.com/technology/technology-you-can-now-play-cards-against-humanity-online-with-your-mates-20200328

✅ @COVID19resources

Sundance Has Made All of Its Masterclasses Online Free

Our monthly online Master Classes will let you delve into craft-based topics with top-level practitioners from the Sundance Co//ab network who are currently working in the field. These are open to everyone and don’t require an application. New classes will be announced regularly. See what is coming up below and reserve your spot. All Master Classes are currently a free feature to help offset the impact of COVID 19.

https://collab.sundance.org/master-classes

✅ @COVID19resources

Caring for Relatives With COVID-19 at Home

Summarizing the first few weeks of Health Assessment in 20 minutes.

This is what everyone needs to see!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAjLdCPIgY0

✅ @COVID19resources

Using Blue Shop Towels in Homemade Face Masks Can Filter Particles 2x-3x Better Than Cotton, 3 Clothing Designers Discover After Testing Dozens of Fabrics

"We spent a few days researching and brainstorming any material that could filter: coffee filters, batting, window shades, Swiffer, interfacing, etc., all the way to more technical materials that are available to specialized industrial sectors like aviation, oil refinery, medical fields.”

The ideal material turned out to be stretchy blue shop towels made from a polyester hydro knit.

Inserting two of these towels into an ordinary cotton mask brought filtration up to 93% of particles as small as 0.3 microns, the smallest their machine could test. Meanwhile, the cotton masks filtered 60% of particles at best in their tests.

https://www.businessinsider.com/homemade-mask-using-hydro-knit-shop-towel-filters-better-2020-4

✅ @COVID19resources

Willie Nelson to Host ‘At Home With Farm Aid’ With Neil Young, Dave Matthews and John Mellencamp

Willie Nelson has announced plans to host the digital event At Home with Farm Aid on Saturday, April 11th at 8:00 p.m. ET. The streaming concert — which will available on AXS TV and the Farm Aid website — will feature performances by Farm Aid board members Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Nelson himself, along with his sons Lukas and Micah. They will all be performing from their homes.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/willie-nelson-at-home-with-farm-aid-980604/

✅ @COVID19resources

This is Why Your Child is Acting Like a Baby Right Now

Stress and anxiety can show up in all kinds of ways in children: irritability, defiance, clinginess. But one of the most common responses is regression. Sleep regression and toddler potty training regressions are common, but psychologists say all children (and adults) may regress in times of stress.

https://www.today.com/parents/child-regression-signs-regression-kids-what-do-about-it-t177861

✅ @COVID19resources

Forget Old Screen ‘Time’ Rules During Coronavirus Lockdown. Here’s What You Should Focus on Instead

COVID-19 has left parents grappling with the challenges of online learning, entertainment and work. It’s natural the amount of time children spend using screens will now increase.

But that’s OK. Screen time recommendations we’ve enforced for so long no longer apply to our situation. There are ways to make the best of kids’ increased use of screens.

Too much screen time is not the end of the world.

https://theconversation.com/forget-old-screen-time-rules-during-coronavirus-heres-what-you-should-focus-on-instead-135053

✅ @COVID19resources

Coronavirus stimulus checks: IRS releases new 'simple tax return' to help Americans get theirs

People who don't normally file tax returns but want to receive a coronavirus stimulus payment finally have a clear way to get their information to the federal government.

The IRS released a new "simple tax return" tool Friday that can be filled out online, geared toward low-income people and others who aren't required to file tax returns.

✅ @COVID19resources

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/coronavirus-stimulus-checks-irs-releases-new-simple-tax-return-help-n1181241

"Dear Stranger": Connecting People One Letter at a Time

"My dear stranger," begins the anonymous letter. "I am grateful for the opportunity to make a connection with you."

"Dear Stranger:" begins another. "It is weird to address a letter to Dear Stranger during these strange times we are sharing. It was already an unsettling time with the 2020 Presidential election and its angst upon us and now we are attacked and battling the Covid-19 virus."

Welcome to Dear Stranger, an annual letter writing project, sponsored by Oregon Humanities to bring people together through old-fashioned letter writing.

With Oregon state residents under stay-at-home orders since March 23, there's been a surge of interest in the program. People are looking for ways to reach out and share their thoughts about an experience that has upended their lives.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/04/11/npr-dear-stranger-connecting-people-one-letter-at-a-time

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