Health and safety come first before everything else. With the world’s current status, the Olympics may be inevitably postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has acknowledged that the 2020 games might not continue as scheduled due to the spread of the pandemic. Some athletes and committees will not send their representatives if the event will be held this summer, as The Korea Herald detailed:

Canada's Olympic and Paralympic committees meanwhile announced they will not send teams to the Games if they are held this summer, citing the health of their athletes and the general public.

And Australia's Olympic committee told athletes to prepare for a Tokyo Olympics in the northern-hemisphere summer of 2021.

"It's clear the Games can't be held in July," Australian chef de mission Ian Chesterman said.

For weeks, Japan and Olympic officials have held the line that preparations are moving ahead to hold the Games as scheduled, but there has been increasing pressure from sports federations and athletes whose training has been thrown into turmoil.

On Monday, Abe told parliament that Japan was still committed to hosting a "complete" Games, but added: "If that becomes difficult, in light of considering athletes first, it may become inevitable that we make a decision to postpone."

image via wikimedia commons

Do you want to gaze at animals even if you’re forced to stay at home? Though many zoos, aquariums, and parks are temporarily closed, there are other ways to check in on animals! There are livestreams online that show different groups of animals in their habitats. Atlas Obscura listed some livestreams that you can check out: 

Baby Osprey Cam

Maybe much like you, this osprey family is hunkering down—but they’re focused on nesting and breeding. The Virginia Institute of Marine Science trained a camera on the birds’ platform in the York River in Gloucester Point, Virginia. Click for rippling waves, ruffling feathers, and many, many twigs.

Penguin Cams

The Aquarium of the Pacific, in Long Beach, California, streams two views of its Magellanic penguins. One shows them wandering their rocky habitat—waddling, nuzzling, hanging around. Another showcases the underwater action—exciting dives, but also casually dangling flippers (or wings), adorable half-submerged bellies, and the calming gurgling of the tank. Each penguin sports an ID tag. Take note of the color pattern, and then get to know Shim, Skipper, Admiral Fancy Pants, and the rest of the gang online.

image via Atlas Obscura

Besides anime and cherry blossoms, Japan is also known for having a lot of mascots. From a human jacuzzi faucet, to a boxing rabbit, to a fruit-bear hybrid, Japan knows no bounds when it comes to creating mascots from promoting companies or products. Every brand, prefecture, and local government has a mascot to represent them. Japanese mascots are made to blend in as a part of everyday life, as sbnation details: 

There’s Melon Kuma, a terrifying, tourism-promoting fruit-bear hybrid, and Colon-chan, a character with hot pink, intestine-shaped hair, who encourages colonoscopies.

This is the heart of “yuru-chara,” the championing of mascots as part of everyday life. Japanese artist Jun Miura is widely credited with coining the term in 2009, outlining three fundamental components of a yuru-chara mascot:

It must convey a strong message of love for one’s hometown.

Its movements should be unique and unstable or awkward.

It should be unsophisticated or laid-back and lovable.

It’s a recipe that works for a Japanese audience, a mixture of regional loyalty and self-deprecation in a place where celebration of the absurd flourishes. Though reverence for non-human characters can be traced back to the cultural impact of Kami, the spirits which form the foundation of the polytheistic Shinto religion, the recent proliferation of yuru-chara began in 2007 with Hikonyan, a samurai cat created by the Hikone city government to mark the 400th anniversary of Hikone Castle. The mascot wasn’t just popular — it was a phenomenon. People flocked to see Hikonyan, generating more than $200 million in tourism spending. Other cities took note, hoping to replicate Hikone’s success with mascots of their own. Brands and businesses followed suit.

image via sbnation

When life gives you lemons, make it into lemonade! This is what Twitter user Andrea Long Chu (@theorygurl) did as she made a brilliant tune from the annoying noise outside her apartment. Thanks to the car alarm outside, she was inspired to improvise a musical piece out of it. Check out her work at Twitter. 

(via Digg)

A lot of shops are ordered to close down due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In California, to everyone’s surprise, cannabis shops are still open. California governor Gavin Newsom deemed these marijuana dispensaries are “essential services” that should remain open, along with pharmacies and food stores. The Huffington Post has more details: 

Popular dispensary MedMen, which operates 33 stores in nine states including 12 in California, says it is operating with modified hours, but all stores remain open (except for one in Monterey Bay, Calif. which is closed due to local jurisdiction).

“As of now, we have been deemed an essential business in the markets that have established protocol,” Christian Langbein, the company’s spokesperson says. “We are closely following recent guidelines released by each state and local jurisdiction, plus that of the CDC and the WHO in the best interest of our customers and employees and have adopted the recommended safety protocol.”

image via wikimedia commons

Fine dining restaurants, such as Merienda, a restaurant in Edinburgh, are now accepting “social distancing deliveries”, where they bring award-winning cuisines to the customer’s doorstep. However, orders had to be made a day in advance, unlike fastfood. Home deliveries are unusual to Merienda, but they have to come up with ways to survive, as Yahoo details: 

"Delivering a meal in a foil container is not something I would normally consider but these are unusual times," Mickel says of the slump in business caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

"Business has been wiped out. We don't get bookings, we only get cancellations. So we have had to come up with a way of surviving and do things that we weren't prepared to do before," he told AFP.

Later in the day, the First Minister of the devolved government in Edinburgh, Nicola Sturgeon, announced there were 227 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Scotland, with three deaths.

Shortly before lunchtime, orders for roast salmon with lobster sauce, beef bourguignon and chicken chasseur with bottles wine to accompany have already come in.

Unlike fast-food, orders need to be made a day in advance and the service is for people who want to stock up with "a few meals at one time".

Assistant chef Robbie Probert says the challenge is making sure meals prepared by the restaurant, arrive looking as mouth-watering as they would in the restaurant.

"It is about making things simple for people," Probert says.

image via Yahoo

A customer gave birth inside a Missouri Walmart store. The woman’s water broke in the toilet paper aisle and had to undergo 30 minutes of labour with the help of another customer (who was a labor nurse), and Springfield firefighters. The mother and child were taken to a local hospital after the delivery, as UPI detailed: 

Jessica Hinkle, store manager at the Walmart store on Sunshine Street in Spingfield, said the woman's water broke in the toilet paper aisle of the store Wednesday and the expectant mother warned employees her last child had been born after only 30 minutes of labor.

Hinkle said customers clapped and cheered for the woman as she was being taken out of the store on a gurney.

The manager said she spoke to the woman Thursday and both mother and baby are doing well.

The Springfield Walmart is currently operating on reduced hours to allow customers to clean the store and restock shelves amid the coronavirus pandemic.

image via wikimedia commons

Ren Nakamura asked Dos Toros, a taco chain, on how many likes he needed to get free burritos for a year. The taco chain said 10,000 likes was all he needed. Nakamura achieved what they asked for and more, with the help of @newyorknico, who asked his followers to help the 17 year old out. Dos Toros gave Nakamura a black card that lets him order the most expensive item in the menu once a week for 52 weeks, as Oddee detailed: 

The next afternoon he posted a picture of himself standing outside of Dos Toros saying: “@dostoros promised me free burritos for a year if this post gets 10,000 likes. U KNO THE F***ING DRILL (2 handshaking emoji’s) Like and share! (2 burritos emoji)

Half an hour later @newyorknico shared it via Instagram Stories, with his 305,000 followers. He said ‘help him out. I don’t know why but I wanna see this kid win real bad. Maybe I identify because I was once a high schooler who loved burritos. Please like his post so he can get free burritos for a year. I figured Dos Toros was betting against him hitting 10k likes, so I felt obligated to help him out. I also love the idea of a community coming together to help a kid beat the odds and win a free year of burritos. If that’s not what social media is for, I don’t know what is,” Nicolas Heller, who runs the @newyorknico Instagram account, said. 

image via Oddee

Twitter user wastelandwolf’s pet bird, Toto, is perched on Nintendo Switch, singing along to the music of Animal Crossing as wastelandwolf plays Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Make sure to tell Toto that he did a good job after you watched the video! The pet bird fell asleep on the gaming console after singing along, so he really did his best! 

Toto has been trying to sing along to the animal crossing music all afternoon pls tell him he’s doing a good job pic.twitter.com/VWP2Yfbz5z

— 𝐣𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐧𝐲 ☆ (@wastelandwolff) March 21, 2020

image via Twitter

Spoiler alert, it’s a cake. Ivenoven has revealed her latest creations, lifelike plant cakes that will make you take a second look. The Jakarta-based baker is known for her popular buttercream blooming flower cakes, and is now selling her creations on Zoezobake. You can be the judge of whether her creations are lifelike or not by browsing through her Facebook and Instagram page, where she has posted her entire collection of succulent cakes.

(via Awesome Inventions)

image via Awesome Inventions

In a new issue of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the five-issue comic from Ryan Parrott, Simone di Meo, Alessio Zono, Walter Baiamonte, Igor Monti and Ed Dukeshire, the medieval turtles have been transformed into the Turtle Rangers to aid the Power Rangers in fighting against Rita and Shredder. As Power Rangers, the turtles donned masks and medieval weapons to aid them in the war to come. CBR.com has more details: 

Effectively, both teams swap places with Leonardo as the Blue Ranger instead of Billy, Raphael taking on Jason's Red Ranger duties, Michelangelo replacing Trini as the Yellow Ranger, Donatello becoming the Black Ranger instead of Zack and April taking Kimberly's place as the Pink Ranger.

When they face off against Wyldfyre (a giant pyro-kitten sent by Rita to New York), the Turtle Rangers level up their weaponry as well with April wielding a Power Bow and Raph rocking Power Sais. Leo has got Power Blades instead of swords, Donnie has a Power Staff, and Mikey has Power Nunchucks. They combine them to form the iconic Power Blaster that saves the day, with the public adoring them for their bravery.

Luckily, the Ninja Rangers help Tommy and Tyler break free from Karai at the same time. When they all meet up again, they get ready for their final battle against an army of combined Putties and Foot soldiers and a giant-size Bepop and Rocksteady as the crossover marches to its conclusion.

image via CBR.com

If you have kids at home, try offering them entertainment outside of cartoons! A lot of online ride-throughs are available on YouTube. Some offer 360-degree viewing or support for VR. Let your kids experience theme park rides such as Space Mountain, Frozen Ever After, and Splash Mountain from your couch! 

(via Diply)

If you’re curious about Dungeons & Dragons, but don’t have the nerve to actually sit on a table and play, technology is here to help! You can now play the game online, thanks to the rise of streaming technology, and more people to reach out on the Internet! Nerdist shares some tips and tricks on how one can play Dungeons & Dragons online: 

While most Dungeon Masters have a preference of where they like to run their games, at the least you should be ready to have a good set of headphones with a microphone, along with accounts set up on Discord or Skype. Many games can run with just headphones and a Discord server with audio and/or video. (You simply have to have your dice and filled-in character sheet at the ready.)

Games are also run online through Roll20, a browser-based virtual tabletop that does everything from roll the dice and track whose turn it is in combat.

image via Nerdist

Ursula Goff is a hair colorist who does incredible dye jobs. Goff’s main muses are nature and famous art works, and they are clearly seen through her beautiful creations. She transforms her clients’ hair into rainbows, minerals, and flowers. She also posts her work on Instagram, as Ranker details: 

With bleach and dye as her paints and hair as her canvas, Goff is a modern artist unlike any other. She transforms her clients’ hair into rainbows, constellations, feathers, fire, and florals - and thankfully, her clients are pretty much up for anything. "My clients give me a lot of creative control," she says. "I see things all the time that I'd love to do, so I set [inspiration pictures] aside until I have a good opportunity to utilize them."

For fans that don’t live near her Kansas salon, Goff posts tutorials, videos, and educational content to her personal website, ursulagoff.com. We recommend scrolling through this list of her 20 best dye jobs here, then heading straight to Goff's site for some hair color tutorials - but, honestly, no judgement if you book a a flight to Kansas right now to experience her hair magic for yourself.

image via Instagram

Let’s be real, it’s not a great time for the world right now. With our current situation, Twitter users have come up with a wonderful idea to alleviate worry and nervousness around the world by suggesting that people should bring their Christmas decor back. The decorations could give some positive vibes, and so much more. Twitter user @LisaStregis shared that the Christmas lights serve as a sign of hope, as Cosmopolitan detailed: 

Lisa recounts how an elderly neighbor asked a friend’s husband to turn on their Christmas lights because of the darkness in the world right now. They obliged and “there are bright dancing Christmas lights now on in their neighborhood.” She ends her post with the hashtag #CoronaKindness, a reminder for all of us to show a little extra love in these trying times.

Other Twitter users are making a similar call, asking everyone to make their own light in a time of darkness.

image via wikimedia commons