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This story is in the entertainment function because it talks about celebrity drama.

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Euphoria star Jacob Elordi opted not to be part of the virtual Emmys this weekend or post anything on Instagram about him viewing it in real time. But he did post an Instagram Story congratulating his co-star and ex-girlfriend Zendaya on her historic Emmy win last night, nearly 24 hours after the news was announced. A little late, but still sweet!

It's his first public message to her since he was seen out with his new romantic partner Kaia Gerber last month on Zendaya's birthday, sparking speculation that Zendaya and Elordi privately ended their relationship during the coronavirus pandemic. Gerber and Elordi were photographed on Friday in Los Cabos, Mexico, showing some PDA while on vacation with Gerber's parents Rande Gerber and Cindy Crawford.

"Congratulations caption 🖤 @zendaya Bravo 💜" Elordi captioned his IG Story, which features an image of Zendaya from the show as her character Rue. Zendaya won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She is the youngest woman to do so at age 24.

Elordi and Zendaya were photographed kissing in New York City in February 2020. A source told E! then that "Jacob and Zendaya have been seeing each other for months now. They started as close friends but it became romantic after their show ended."

The source continued, "They have been inseparable since last summer and have been making time for each other in between projects," adding, "Jacob has met Zendaya's family, and everyone adores him. They have a lot of fun together and have a lot in common."

Elordi and Zendaya never confirmed their romantic relationship, but they publicly spoke about how close they are in late 2019 and early 2020.

In January, Zendaya called Elordi her "best friend" when presenting an award to him at the American Australian Association Arts Awards.

Elordi said Zendaya was like family in an interview published in GQ Australia in December 2019. "She's like my sister," he said. "Zendaya is an amazing creative, you know? She's super dope to work with. She's an incredible artist and a very caring person to all of us. But we're all really close. There is not one weak link in that show. We've spent so much time together and everyone is just so cool to work with. Sam Levinson is just a genius and working with him, it was just like electricity all the time. I was in awe. Like a kid in a candy shop."

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Zendaya's Ex Jacob Elordi Posts Belated Message to Her on Emmys Win

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Euphoria star Jacob Elordi opted not to be part of the virtual Emmys this weekend or post anything on Instagram about him viewing it in real time. But he did post an Instagram Story congratulating his co-star and ex-girlfriend Zendaya on her historic Emmy win last night, nearly 24 hours after the news was announced.

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This story is in the entertainment function because the tv star Penn Badgley of "You" is having a baby.

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Penn Badgley and his wife Domino Kirke have welcomed their first child together. Kirke announced the news of their son's birth on her Instagram last night, sharing a painting of a womb from her placenta blood. "His heart shaped home ❣️#40dayspostpartum #placentaart," she captioned the shot.

On her Instagram Story, she shared a photo of her and her son napping together.

Badgley has not posted about his son's arrival on his Instagram yet, and the couple hasn't announced his name.

Kirke announced her pregnancy in February 2020, revealing she suffered two miscarriages previously. "On the road again... pregnancy after loss is a whole other thing," she wrote. "After two miscarriages in a row we were ready to call it. I stopped trusting my body and started to accept the fact that I was done. As a birth attendant, I've seen and heard it all. It takes everything I've got to detach lovingly from the losses I've been present for and be in my own experience."

"When I was pregnant at 25, I knew nothing," she continued. "I had no community. I dove in blissfully unaware about birth and its mysteries. Now, with 10 years worth of experience to pull from, I treasure my birth community and the knowledge I have. You're already teaching us how to stay in the day in a way we've never had to, little one. Thank you."

This content is imported from Instagram. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

This is Badgley's first child. It's Kirke's second; she has an 11-year-old son Cassius Riley with musician Morgan O'Kane. Kirke and Badgley wed in February 2017.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

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Penn Badgley Is Officially a Father: Domino Kirke Announces the Birth of Their Baby Boy

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Penn Badgley and his wife Domino Kirke have welcomed their first child together. Kirke announced the news of their son's birth on her Instagram last night, sharing a painting of a womb from her placenta blood. "His heart shaped home ❣️#40dayspostpartum #placentaart," she captioned the shot.

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Republican senators line up to back Trump up on a court fight

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Republican senators line up to back Trump up on a court fight

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This is political function because it talks about the president and what is going on with him.

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Senators Charles Grassley and Cory Gardner gave the president the votes he needs, but for the Senate to vote on his choice before the election will still be a challenge.

A memorial for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Monday outside the Supreme Court. Senate Republicans have said they will move forward with a nomination. Credit... Michael A. McCoy for The New York Times

WASHINGTON - President Trump appeared to secure enough support on Monday to fill the Supreme Court seat left open by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, although Senate Republicans remained publicly undecided if they would try to force through his nominee before the election or wait until after voters have decided whether to grant him a second term.

With key Republican senators agreeing to install a new justice at least by the end of this year, Mr. Trump said he would announce his choice for the seat by Friday or "probably Saturday," after memorial services for Justice Ginsburg, and pressed his allies to vote before the election in what would be the fastest contested Supreme Court confirmation in modern history.

Such a timetable, however, would leave only 38 days for the Senate to act and, as a practical matter, even less time because it is highly unlikely that Republicans would want to vote in the last few days before an election in which several of them face serious threats. Some senior Republican senators were still expressing caution about such an accelerated timetable even with the votes in hand.

The president was buoyed after Senators Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Cory Gardner of Colorado, two of three remaining Republican who might have opposed filling the seat, announced that they would support moving ahead with a nomination even though they refused to consider President Barack Obama's nomination in an election year in 2016. That left only Senator Mitt Romney of Utah as undecided, but even without him, it appeared to guarantee at least 50 Republican votes to move ahead, with Vice President Mike Pence available to break a tie.

With polls showing him trailing former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic presidential nominee, the president insisted on pressing ahead without waiting for the election. "I'd much rather have a vote before the election because there's a lot of work to be done, and I'd much rather have it," Mr. Trump told reporters. "We have plenty of time to do it. I mean, there's really a lot of time."

Mr. Trump privately met at the White House on Monday with Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, his front-runner and a favorite of anti-abortion conservatives.

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Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, reiterated that he intended to fill the seat before 2021. Credit... Michael A. McCoy for The New York Times

Justice Ginsburg, who died on Friday at 87, will be honored at a private ceremony in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning, then will lie in repose outside the building for the rest of the day and on Thursday, the court announced, an unusual arrangement intended to accommodate the tens of thousands of admirers expected to pay their respects in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

The justice will also lie in state in the United States Capitol, the first woman in American history to be so honored, and her coffin will be placed on the same catafalque that bore the body of President Abraham Lincoln, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Monday. The only other member of the Supreme Court ever to lie in state at the Capitol was William Howard Taft, who had served as president before becoming chief justice.

The politics of Justice Ginsburg's replacement roiled Washington as senators returned to town for the first time since her death.

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, reiterated that he intended to fill the seat before year's end, but he did not explicitly commit to a vote before the election. Two members of his conference, Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have already said they oppose filling the seat until voters decide the presidency, and Mr. McConnell can afford to lose only one more Republican.

"The Senate has more than sufficient time to process a nomination," Mr. McConnell said on the Senate floor. "History and precedent make that perfectly clear."

"This Senate will vote on this nomination this year," he added in a speech that was intended to begin justifying the decision to proceed after Republicans refused to even consider President Barack Obama's nomination of Judge Merrick B. Garland for almost nine months in 2016 partly on the grounds that voters should have a say in who filled the lifetime appointment.

Mr. McConnell and other Republicans sought to rationalize taking the opposite position this year by pointing out that unlike four years ago, their party controls both the White House and the Senate.

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee that will consider the president's nomination, had vowed repeatedly not to support confirming any selection by Mr. Trump in an election year in keeping with the 2016 decision, only to flip-flop this weekend.

In a letter to Democrats on his committee on Monday, Mr. Graham made no attempt to argue that he was being consistent or following a nonpartisan principle, but instead said he reversed himself in retaliation for the Democrats' treatment of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh when he was confirmed in 2018 and because Republicans have the power to proceed. "I am certain if the shoe were on the other foot, you would do the same," Mr. Graham wrote.

Protesters outside Senator Lindsey Graham's home in Washington early Monday morning. Credit... Alex Edelman/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

Mr. Grassley, his predecessor as committee chairman and a key figure in helping Mr. McConnell block consideration of Judge Garland, likewise reversed himself on Monday. As recently as this summer, Mr. Grassley told reporters that out of fairness and consistency, he would not support advancing a Trump nominee before the election if he were still chairman.

But in a statement on Monday, he noted that the chairmanship was now Mr. Graham's, and he would support his decision.

"Once the hearings are underway, it's my responsibility to evaluate the nominee on the merits, just as I always have," Mr. Grassley said. "The Constitution gives the Senate that authority, and the American people's voices in the most recent election couldn't be clearer."

His fellow Iowa Republican, Senator Joni Ernst, who has a tough race this fall, said on Monday that once Mr. Trump announced his choice, she would "will carry out my duty" as a member of the Judiciary Committee to evaluate the nomination.

Mr. Gardner who is up for re-election and badly trailing his Democratic rival in a blue state where Mr. Trump is deeply unpopular, likewise threw his support to the president. "I have and will continue to support judicial nominees who will protect our Constitution, not legislate from the bench, and uphold the law," he said. "Should a qualified nominee who meets this criteria be put forward, I will vote to confirm."

Mr. Romney, who has been a frequent critic of Mr. Trump, was the last Republican who might balk. He is concerned about preserving the court's reputation among the public, aides said, but he is also a deeply committed conservative reluctant to let an opportunity to shape the court pass by. He said he planned to announce his views after a senators' lunch on Tuesday.

Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, said he planned to announce his intentions on Tuesday. Credit... Michael A. McCoy for The New York Times

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, excoriated Republicans for what he called a brazen power play. "To try and decide this at this late moment is despicable and wrong and against democracy," Mr. Schumer told reporters.

Privately, Mr. McConnell was polling advisers and deputies about a complex set of political considerations with control of the Senate and presidency at stake. Some Republicans argued for announcing a nominee right away and beginning hearings but waiting to vote in a lame-duck session after the election.

Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, a member of Mr. McConnell's leadership team, said confirming a new justice by Nov. 3 would set "the new recent world record." He added, "We'd have to do more than we've done in a long time to get one done that quickly, but it's possible."

Since 1975, the average Supreme Court confirmation has taken about 70 days, and only two confirmations were quicker than currently contemplated - Justices John Paul Stevens in 1975 and Sandra Day O'Connor in 1981, both of whom were approved unanimously. Since Justice Ginsburg was confirmed, but with little opposition in 1993, no confirmation has taken less than 62 days.

The Senate is out of session for Yom Kippur next Monday and Tuesday, leaving fewer than 25 business days before Election Day to vet any nominee, conduct multiple days of hearings and hold committee and floor votes. If they moved at breakneck speed with no surprises, Republicans could, in theory, hold a vote by late the week of Oct. 19 or early the next.

But Democrats have a few tools to slow down the process - most notably the ability to postpone approval by the committee for a week - but they most likely have no means to stop Republicans because filibusters were eliminated in Supreme Court confirmations.

To White House officials, the short time frame argued for Judge Barrett because she was a finalist two years ago and therefore already largely vetted. As she met with the president on Monday, people close to the process said she remained the likeliest choice, but there was still attention on Judge Barbara Lagoa of the 11th Circuit because she is a Cuban-American from Florida, a critical state for the president's re-election chances.

Mr. Trump told reporters that he had narrowed the list to five women, but the other three identified by the people informed about the process were seen as long shots: Kate Todd, a deputy White House counsel, and Judges Allison Jones Rushing of the Fourth Circuit and Joan L. Larsen of the Sixth Circuit.

President Trump on Monday in Ohio. He privately met at the White House with Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times

The brewing confirmation fight quickly became a campaign issue. Committing an initial $2.2 million in spending, Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative advocacy group, fired the first shots in what is expected to be a costly advertising war to try to sway public sentiment and influence key Republican senators. The group said it would run ads in Colorado and Utah, as well as Iowa, Maine and North Carolina, where Republican incumbents are in competitive races.

"Follow precedent," the narrator urges in the ad. "Confirm the judge."

Republicans hope the issue will energize conservative voters who might otherwise not turn out, but a new poll released on Monday suggested that Democrats might be more energized by the fight. Sixty percent of Democrats called the Supreme Court "very important" in deciding their vote in November, up 12 percentage points, while 54 percent of Republicans agreed, according to the survey by Politico and Morning Consult.

While aides wanted him to announce his pick as early as Tuesday, Mr. Trump said he opted to wait out of deference to Justice Ginsburg. But even as he talked about showing respect for her, he asserted with absolutely zero evidence that her dying wish that she not be replaced until the next president is chosen, as conveyed by her granddaughter to NPR, was actually scripted by Democrats like Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Schumer or Representative Adam B. Schiff of California.

"I don't know that she said that, or was that written out by Adam Schiff and Schumer and Pelosi?" he told "Fox & Friends." "I would be more inclined to the second, OK, you know? That came out of the wind. It sounds so beautiful, but that sounds like a Schumer deal, or maybe a Pelosi or Shifty Schiff."

Reporting was contributed by Maggie Haberman and Michael Gold from New York, and Michael Crowley and Emily Cochrane from Washington.

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Republican Senators Line Up to Back Trump on Court Fight

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Senator Lindsey Graham, the Judiciary Committee chairman, says Republicans have the votes to confirm the president's choice before the Nov. 3 election, though it will still be a challenge.

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This is a political function because it talks about how the school boards are not better informed than they should be.

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There were some provocative findings, particularly about whether school board members with professional background in public education are better informed about the finances and other particulars of their district than their "civilian" colleagues: The report concludes they are not. That finding goes against conventional wisdom in many communities, where former teachers and administrators often have a leg up on their competition in school board races simply by virtue of their firsthand experience as an "insider."

And then there's the question of political ideology. From the Fordham report:

"...Political moderates appear to have more accurate knowledge than their liberal or conservative counterparts. This is troubling not because ideology or experience shapes board member opinions-that is unavoidable-but because voters in today's polarized climate might favor strong conservatives or liberals over moderates ('at least they have an opinion!') and former educators over system outsiders ('they know what it's really like'). Voters need to be more aware of these tendencies and respond accordingly. (So far-in what we take to be a good sign-school board members as a group are more 'moderate' than the U.S. population as a whole.)"

The National School Boards Association, the source of the survey data, praised the report overall as a valuable contribution to the conversation on district achievement efforts, but also pointed to its limitations.

"For example, in determining the accuracy of school board members' knowledge of district funding, the authors conflate relative per pupil dollars with school board members' perceptions about how sufficient those dollars are-two entirely different things," NSBA said in a statement.

The researchers also examined the impact of the election process itself. Districts were more likely to have "beaten the odds," i.e. had stronger student outcomes than might have been predicted based on the demographics and funding levels of the district, when the school board elections were held "on cycle" with general elections, and members were elected "at large" rather than within a smaller ward.

The first piece of that finding-the potential benefit of an on-cycle election-is an easy fix policymakers could make right away, said Michael Hartney, one of the authors of the report.

"It's a revenue neutral reform," Hartney told me. "If anything it's going to save school districts money because they can piggyback on existing elections. How can you really justify holding elections at an odd time of the year when your voter turnout will lower, and it will cost the district more?"

He acknowledged that the issue of "at-large" candidates vs. dividing the district up into geographic wards will be more difficult for policymakers to act on.

"We know with ward elections that minorities are more likely to be elected, and the board's makeup is likely to be more representative of the community," Hartney said. "We need to tread a little more lightly there. But an open election is going to get more people concerned about high achievement across the board."

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There were some provocative findings, particularly about whether school board members with professional background in public education are better informed about the finances and other particulars of their district than their "civilian" colleagues: The report concludes they are not.

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This would be social function because its has a lot of strangers on there you can connect with

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WASHINGTON-President Trump said he has agreed in concept to a deal under which Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok will partner with Oracle Corp. and Walmart Inc. to become a U.S.-based company, capping negotiations that have stirred debate over national security and the future of the internet.

"I have given the deal my blessing, if they get it done that's OK too, if they don't that's fine too," Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House on Saturday.

...

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Trump Signs Off on TikTok Deal With Oracle, Walmart

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WASHINGTON-President Trump said he has agreed in concept to a deal under which Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok will partner with Oracle Corp. and Walmart Inc. to become a U.S.-based company, capping negotiations that have stirred debate over national security and the future of the internet.

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This is social function because it talks about face book, and face book is a big platform were you can share photos and videos.

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Image credit: Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images via PCMag

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2 min read

This story originally appeared on PC Mag

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook has been auditing and suspending tens of thousands of apps on its platform. Now, the company is taking legal action against two separate developers for failing to comply with an audit and selling services that inflate Instagram users' engagement stats, respectively.

In the US, Facebook sued Nikolay Holper, creator of a service called Nakrutka, for using "a network of bots and automation software to distribute fake likes, comments, views and followers on Instagram [and selling] fake engagement services," Facebook says. Holper was previously warned by Facebook that he was in violation of its terms.

In the UK, meanwhile, Facebook Ireland sued MobiBurn, OakSmart Technologies, and its founder Fatih Haltas. MobiBurn paid app developers to install a malicious software development kit (SDK) in their apps.

"When people installed those apps on their devices, MobiBurn collected information from the devices and requested data from Facebook, including the person's name, time zone, email address and gender," Facebook says.

Security analysts alerted Facebook to the company's actions, and Facebook asked MobiBurn to participate in an audit, but it "failed to fully cooperate," the social network says.

The MobiBurn case is the first time Facebook has sued an app developer in the UK, it says.

In statement posted on its website, MobiBurn said it first received a cease-and-desist notice from Facebook in November 2019. "Since then MobiBurn has tried to cooperate with Facebook to show that no Facebook user data was subject to unauthorized access or misuse or otherwise improperly handled. In particular, MobiBurn has sought to explain that none of the apps...in the case incorporated the Facebook Login Feature and therefore were technically unable to collect Facebook user data."

Reports that MobiBurn refused to comply with a Facebook audit "are not accurate," it says. MobiBurn has instructed its legal team "to prepare a response to Facebook's claim [and is] committed to seeking to resolve this unnecessary dispute amicably."

"Today's actions are the latest in our efforts to protect people who use our services, hold those who abuse our platform accountable, and advance the state of the law around data misuse and privacy," Facebook says.

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Facebook Sues Two Companies Over Fake Instagram Likes, Data Collection

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Stay informed and join our daily newsletter now! 2 min read This story originally appeared on PC Mag In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook has been auditing and suspending tens of thousands of apps on its platform.

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This is marketplace function because this was a suggested letter from a person to an editor of the NY times.

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Readers offer ideas such as voting early or in person, and suggest what should be done if the president refuses to step down if he loses.

Credit... Photo illustration by Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times

To the Editor:
Re " What Will You Do if Trump Doesn't Leave?," by David Brooks (column, Sept. 4):

Mr. Brooks asks important questions, which can be distilled as "Do we still have a functioning constitutional democracy in this country?" If Donald Trump loses but refuses to leave, he can remain only with the connivance of his enablers in the White House, Congress and the courts.

But patriots remain within our institutions. If they stand up and say "No," Mr. Trump may find himself very alone. Hopefully we will not have to see how that plays out, but if it comes to that, my money is on the people who staff the institutions of our government - and, yes, the military - to stand up (at last) for what they know to be right and stand in the way of a would-be dictator.

I don't think we will have to take it to the streets as Mr. Brooks suggests, but if that's what it takes, count me in, too. I think I'll be in good company.

Richard W. Poeton
Lenox, Mass.
To the Editor:
David Brooks suggests that civic action may be necessary in the days after the election if the mail-in vote turns against President Trump. Much preferable and more effective would be civic action on the day of the election - voting in person.

I would rather spend an hour or two in line at my polling place - with a mask and socially distanced - than days or weeks in the streets standing up for democracy. In 2020 patriotism isn't just about voting; it is about actually pulling the lever or filling in the circle, and helping others to do so.

With a concerted effort the election actually can be decided that Tuesday night, avoiding the nightmare scenario that we sadly have to worry about.

David Eisen
Cambridge, Mass.
To the Editor:
David Brooks's headline asks, "What Will You Do if Trump Doesn't Leave?" There are two obvious answers: initiate legal action or demonstrate in mass street protests. The first is hopeless - Donald Trump is a lifelong master of parrying legal attacks. The second is soul-satisfying but is at best ineffective and at worst counterproductive.

So what can work? I'd suggest a one-word answer: strikes.

Labor strikes are a traditional form of citizen protest. A second form of strike - less traditional, more long-term and harder to organize - would be a tax payment stoppage.

To be effective a strike must have mass participation. Admittedly, engaging in any kind of strike means taking on real costs and risks.

Actively resisting an anti-democratic takeover of the U.S. government is not for the faint of heart. Remember, Mr. Trump has shown no qualms about inviting heavily armed street thugs to support his cause.

Stuart Esten
Burlington, Mass.
To the Editor:
I would march to preserve the Republic with enthusiasm. At 93 I may need some help, but I will be there! Please God it does not come to that!

Anne Hart
Stratford, Conn.
To the Editor:
David Brooks sets out a scenario in which perhaps 40 percent of the ballots could be mail-in, creating confusion on election night. That's a fine argument for voting early, in person, if you can. That's what I will be doing. You won't have to worry about your ballot getting lost or delayed in the mail, or about Election Day chaos at the polls. The lines for early voting are always much shorter, as voting is spaced out over time. And early votes are reported on election night.

Baxter Jones
Atlanta
To the Editor:
OK, what would I do? This is a difficult question. But even before I can begin to digest it, David Brooks refers to the "fringe of the left" as "those who want to overthrow the racist, cisgendered, patriarchal neoliberal oligarchy."

Really? This is the fringe left? I hardly consider myself, a 63-year-old woman, the fringe left. Yet I do want to live in a civil society. I want racial equity, social justice and the end of white supremacy. I want an America that believes in human dignity and decency, and one where women's lives and brains have the same value as men's. And, from my own family experience, I want a nation that accepts that not all children's gender identity coincides with their physical anatomy.

The fringe left? I don't think so. I haven't been to a protest, unless you count the Women's March. I do my job, love my husband and grown-up children, maintain my garden and believe in God and science.

When did I become the "fringe left"?

Corynn Buckholdt
Portland, Ore.
To the Editor:
Mr. Brooks, the answer is simple. Just lock him in the White House. And let everyone else out, so the business of government can go on without him.

Jim Nestor
Saratoga, Calif.
To the Editor:
Re " 'It's 8 P.M. on Election Day.' Experts Share Nightmare Scenarios " (Sunday Review, Sept. 13):

The six "nightmare" election night scenarios presented by your experts have two things in common: In every scenario, not coincidentally, the breakdown of normal process works to the benefit of President Trump, and virtually none of the "solutions" proposed for any of the scenarios have much realistic chance of being put in place. To take one example, $3.6 billion for election administration in a federal coronavirus relief bill is simply wishful thinking, as I'm sure the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, will be happy to confirm.

The reality is we have permitted the degradation and corruption of our voting and vote-counting processes to go too far and too long, beginning with our placid acceptance of the full computerization of those processes nearly two decades ago.

Cassandran warnings that counting votes in the partisan, proprietary, pitch dark of cyberspace would lead inexorably to a breakdown of trust in our electoral process were met with collective shrugs and yawns. Now, like the Trojans on that terrible night, we are about to pay the price.

Jonathan D. Simon
Felton, Calif.
The writer is former executive director of the Election Defense Alliance and the author of "Code Red: Computerized Elections and the War on American Democracy."
To the Editor:
Re " The Election Day Nightmare Democrats Dread " (front page, Sept. 3):

Yes, it is obvious that Donald Trump plans to undermine confidence in the election count, by demanding instantaneous results, even if all the votes haven't been counted. However, a lot of this has been tacitly encouraged by the news media, who spend election nights breathlessly racing to be the first to "call" states for one candidate or another. They then act as though their projections are official results.

Nowhere in the Constitution is a same-day result mandated. It's tough, but media will have to enter this election soberly, and report official results only when they are complete. It will be difficult to change the "instant election" mind-set, but democracy works for the citizens, not the networks.

Remember Florida in 2000? The braying G.O.P. operatives pounding on doors, trying to intimidate vote counters? Mr. Trump is trying to instigate that scenario on a national scale. Everyone will have to steel themselves to stand for the rule of law, or this could be the end of legitimate elections.

Howard Schmitt
Green Tree, Pa.
To the Editor:
On the evening of Nov. 3, Donald Trump is going to declare that he won an overwhelming victory in spite of "massive voter fraud." The tragedy is that while we know this is coming, there is virtually nothing that can be done about it ahead of time.

It gets even worse: Bill Barr and battleground state Republican Party officials will confirm that there were indeed widespread voting irregularities and that no further counting of mailed-in ballots should be allowed as this would only amplify the "fraud." Mr. Trump will surely second that sentiment and demand that his "victory" be acknowledged and considered legitimate.

The tragic reality is that the fate of democracy in the United States is dependent on the Democrats being able to reverse this de facto coup d'état. The means for this may well depend once again on the Supreme Court.

Like tens of millions of my fellow citizens, I tremble at what has happened to our country and fear for how much worse things will get if Donald Trump is allowed another term as president.

Ric Steinberger
Incline Village, Nev.
To the Editor:
Please, stop with the election forecasting, such as in " The 2020 Battleground States: Updates on the Swing Voters " (nytimes.com, Sept. 13):

As 2016 demonstrated, no one knows the outcome until the votes are counted. The Times's and other outlets' insistence on speculating about election results has the potential to persuade some people not to vote who otherwise might. Among them: people who think their candidate is a shoo-in, those who think their candidate is a lost cause or those who think their vote does not matter because they don't live in a battleground state.

Tell us what candidates do, what they say, when they lie, but chuck the crystal ball.

Janet Majure
Lawrence, Kan.

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Readers offer ideas such as voting early or in person, and suggest what should be done if the president refuses to step down if he loses. To the Editor: Re " What Will You Do if Trump Doesn't Leave?," by David Brooks (column, Sept.

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This is marketplace function because it talks about a community getting fake news.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: The Aiken Standard is observing National Newspaper Week with a series of guest columns.

It is easy in these times of "fake news" and denigration of the media to forget the importance of your local newspaper. It is National Newspaper Week, so take time to consider what value your local newspaper brings to your community and your life.

Newspaper staffers work hard to cover what you need to know and what you want to know. Local journalists write stories about the people who live and work in this community.

A study just released shows local newspapers significantly outperform local TV, radio and online-only outlets in news production, both in overall story output and in terms of stories that are original, local and address a critical information need.

The study, sponsored by Duke University's DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy and the News Measures Research Project, found that local newspapers produced 60% of all local news - more than all of the other outlet types combined - while accounting for only 25% of the outlets measured.

Despite smaller staffs at many newspapers, reporters are still out there covering what your local government and school board are doing, informing you about how your tax dollars are being spent and updating you on crime and law enforcement activities.

Reporters are also on the sidelines of your local high school football games, covering community festivals and writing about what local churches, clubs and groups are doing.

Newspapers are the public record on life events such as births, weddings and deaths.

They also provide important public notices so you'll know if a bar or hog farm is opening in your neighborhood.

Through advertising, newspapers help local merchants sell their wares and services.

Some say they don't need a newspaper because they can get news online.

But much online news originates with newspaper stories, especially on the local level. Plus, many newspapers themselves offer robust online coverage.

The Duke-sponsored study also found "the relative paucity of online-only local media outlets, and the relatively limited (compared with newspapers) journalistic output of these outlets suggest that online-only outlets have yet to come close to matching local newspapers as significant sources of reporting that is original, local, and addresses critical information needs."

Please don't let the current politicized attacks on the mainstream media impact your support of main street media in South Carolina. Communities with a local newspaper are stronger, more informed and less corrupt, so subscribe to your local paper - either in print or online - and support their important work.

Bill Rogers is executive director of the S.C. Press Association, the trade group for South Carolina's 98 newspapers.

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Column: Local newspapers enhance communities

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EDITOR'S NOTE: The Aiken Standard is observing National Newspaper Week with a series of guest columns. It is easy in these times of "fake news" and denigration of the media to forget the importance of your local newspaper. It is National Newspaper Week, so take time to consider what value your local newspaper brings to your community and your life.

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Every once in a while, a product comes along that is so amazing, so revolutionary, so beyond the wildest fathomings of the human imagination, that we dedicate our spare time, creativity, and meme-making skills to making fun of it. For the last couple years, the winner of the "most fun to make fun of" product has been Flex Tape.

Yes, this amazing tape has, at least according to the world's foremost meme designers, the power to mend a black hole, repair relationships between North and South Korea, and also stop the fall of Rome because it is not bound by the base constructs of space or time or being an inanimate object.

If you have ever wanted to know the real story behind Flex Tape, the struggles and triumphs of its two genius creators, the ways in which this product will solve climate change and end world hunger, well ... stick around.

From humble beginnings

This will be very hard to digest, so prepare yourself for some hard truth. The marketing genius and super human we all know as Phil Swift was not always the boat-sawing, universe-saving man he is today. According to Flex Seal Spray Can (a Flex Seal affiliate site that sorta seems like it might be run by Phil?), Phil Swift has been in the marketing and direct sales industry since the '80s. His brother Alan, who gets a lot less air time but is also one of the geniuses behind the Flex Seal and Flex Tape family of products, is a University of Houston graduate with 26 years in business administration. Together, the pair founded Swift Response LLC, which specializes in "high performance products that are easy to use and solve every day common issues in the workplace and home."

So if Phil and Alan Swift have been around for more than a quarter of a century, why, oh why, did they not grace the world with their revolutionary products earlier? Perhaps the world just wasn't ready.

Phil Swift's family doesn't seem to relish fame the way Phil does

We already know that Phil Swift launched the Flex Seal company with his brother Alan, but intel on Alan is notoriously difficult to find. Who is this Alan? Is he as stunningly beautiful as his brother? Does superhuman charisma and marketing genius run in the family? To find out, you could join the 1,800-plus fans who follow Alan on Instagram, but you might be waiting a while because as Alan has posted exactly zero times to his Instagram account as of this writing. He didn't even post a "hello, just testing out my cool new Instagram page" when he set the dang thing up.

There's evidently a third brother, too: Rick Swift, who has way less hair than either of his brothers and an Instagram page that is, sadly, private. So you're probably not going to get any secret insight into the family life of Phil Swift from either of those sources.

Phil did post about his son on Instagram - Nic Swift is a music producer living in Los Angeles, and he even has some Flex Seal cred. The younger Swift evidently worked as a production assistant on the first Flex Seal commercial, so clearly, Flex Seal is coursing through the veins of pretty much everyone in that family tree. Except maybe Rick. We have no idea what that dude is up to.

How did Flex Tape become so famous?

Flex Tape may be endowed with supernatural powers that even Thanos himself would envy, but it's still just a stupid roll of tape. How exactly does a stupid roll of tape gain international fame, its own library of ridiculous memes, and the love and adoration of men and women everywhere?

YouTuber JonTron. Yes, he who hath obtained fame by sitting on his couch and talking about stuff on YouTube decided to sit on his couch and talk about Flex Tape, and the video he made has 35 million views so far. There are literally millions of people in this world who think watching some guy make fun of a roll of tape is a good use of 10 minutes. Then Phil Swift became like a god and Flex Tape became famous and JonTron clearly deserved some kind of kickback for that. Seriously, Phil, you were just a loud guy with a roll of tape pretending to be Billy Mays on late-night television before JonTron came along, you can't at least give him a lifetime supply of Flex Tape or something? Maybe a zombie-proof wall for his front yard or a couple boats you cut up and taped together? Talk about ungrateful.

Is Flex Tape truly as awesome as the commercials say?

How dare you question Phil Swift! You've seen the man saw a boat in half, for goodness sake! And then tape it back together! If it didn't work, wouldn't we have heard about that by now? Well, lots of people have fact-checked Flex Tape, and (gasp) not all of them have come to the conclusion that Flex Tape is as awesome as Phil Swift makes it out to be.

A local Fox station in Texas tried Flex Tape on a leaky pipe and attempted to seal a leak underwater, and achieved the exact same success you see in the commercials. So that's great. But Inside Edition tried duplicating the sawed-in-half boat trick with only limited success. The boat leaked, but "remained seaworthy," which is not how most people want their boats to be.

A pair of YouTubers had even worse luck with their sawed-in-half-boat test. Their boat floated for all of an hour. Flex Seal's response? They told Inside Edition that "when the product doesn't perform as expected, it's typically because the product was not applied correctly." So, you know, it's safe to use in shark-infested waters, but remember that if it doesn't work it's totally not Flex Seal's fault.

Flex Tape's many bizarre uses

It will not surprise you to hear that Flex Tape is good for so many other things besides just taping boats back together and fixing leaks. Flex Tape can also be used to subdue a body builder and rip the psoriasis flakes off your body, and seriously, if you don't want to barf then don't go looking for that video.

Other people have used Flex Tape to build unbreakable walls, which seems like it would be a really handy thing to do in the zombie apocalypse when you're really going to need a way to keep flesh-eating corpses out of your yard. So far no one seems to have tried doing anything insanely dangerous with it, which is probably a good thing for Phil Swift and Flex Seal, since no one needs that kind of bad publicity.

Based on what we've seen so far of people's actual experiences with Flex Taped boats, you should probably not try Phil Swift's glass-bottomed-boat-in-shark-infested-waters thing. Or the psoriasis thing because that's just gross (and expensive).

Is Flex Tape bullet-proof?

If Flex Tape can stand up to a high-pressure water leak and make a rowboat seaworthy, can it also stop a bullet? No. Nope. Once more, for emphasis, totally, utterly, and completely no, so don't go making yourself body armor out of the stuff, okay?

Stopping a bullet is one thing Phil Swift has never said his product can do, but the idea is a natural progression for some viewers from all the crazy hyped-up claims made by the commercials. So it's not that surprising that there have been a number of YouTubers who set out to discover if the near-supernatural product could actually offer any protection.

To test the idea, Matt Carriker of Demolition Ranch outfitted a test dummy with armor made from cardboard and Flex Tape. A single layer of Flex Tape failed to stop a bullet from a .22 pistol. So Carriker went thicker ... and thicker ... and thicker. After 60 layers also failed to stop a bullet, he tried 80 layers, and at that point the bullet was finally thwarted. Flex Tape is not the answer.

What do the reviews say?

No famous person is safe from the ultimate hazard of success in America: litigation. And also people complaining loudly, publicly, and in Amazon product reviews. "Does not actually work underwater" seems to be the most common complaint. One user also said "the only thing it sticks to is skin."

Still, a few bad reviews on Amazon (36 percent are one-star rating, which is more than "a few,") isn't really the worst part of it. Twenty-six complaints have been filed with the Better Business Bureau, which granted is a pretty small number compared to what the company has probably sold overall, but some of the complaints accuse the company not of false advertising but of overcharging. Some customers say they were sent more product than they ordered, were charged full price for it, and were given no easy way to change the order after placing it.

Finally, there are the class-action lawsuits. Or really, just one dude on YouTube who says he wants to put together a class-action lawsuit because Flex Seal destroyed his pond. Poor consumers. If only they knew, "When the product doesn't perform as expected, it's typically because the product was not applied correctly." Flex Seal wins.

Celebrities don't actually love Flex Seal products that much

Flex Seal has a whole video about all the celebrities who love their products, which as it turns out is Jerry Seinfeld for like 16 seconds on Jimmy Kimmel, Daniel Tosh, David Letterman, musician Josh Homme (who made a single joke about it on The Talking Dead), and a couple of B-list celebrities no one has ever heard of.

We can't really fault Flex Seal for wanting to capitalize on the handful of celebrities who have mentioned them in passing, but it does seem like kind of a stretch to say celebrities love Flex Seal. Even Jerry Seinfeld's gush "there is nothing that the product cannot do!" kind of seemed a little not-very-serious. Maybe the company should be sending free samples out to everyone in Hollywood so they can build a longer list of celebrities who mention the stuff on television. We'd like to suggest Lucas Till, for a start. Who is more qualified than MacGyver to show the world just how awesome Flex Tape can be, especially when combined with a wad of chewing gum and the pop top from a can of Coke? What world problems could not be solved?

Flex Seal loves NASCAR

Long, long ago, people figured out they could raise brand awareness with T-shirts and hoodies, which was probably around the same time people realized they could also turn entire cars into high-speed billboards. Flex Seal jumped on the NASCAR bandwagon in 2013 with JD Motorsports, and as of 2018 has been in the sponsorship game for six consecutive years. Now, everyone who watches NASCAR racing gets to have Phil Swift catchphrases on repeat in their brains everytime they see a Flex Seal/Flex Tape car round a corner, so yay.

JD Motorsports is just as gushy about their sponsor as every other normal human with an occasional need to coat, seal, and protect. "I can't thank Phil Swift enough for all of the support over the years," said Johnny Davis, who owns the JD Motorsports team. "They have been a very valuable part in the building of our race team, and their products are used almost daily at our shop." Wait, what? So besides taping a car back together after a crash, Flex Seal and Flex tape get used for regular, everyday car maintenance? Has JD Motorsports actually read the Amazon reviews? Just wondering.

Flex Tape saves the day

In February 2017, in a moment that must surely have given Phil Swift heart palpitations of joy, the NASCAR car that Flex Tape sponsors - driven by Garrett Smithley - crashed at Daytona and was in bad need of a 5-minutes-or-less repair. Fortunately, and this doesn't seem staged or just waaaay too convenient at all, there was plenty of Flex Tape on hand because duh, it would have been really embarrassing if the pit crew for a NASCAR car with the words "Flex Tape" written all over it had nothing but a roll of Gorilla Tape stashed in its toolbox.

Anyway, according to JD Motorsports, Smithley's car was repaired using Flex Tape, and then he went on to finish eighth in the race. Maybe some rules need to be changed at NASCAR - surely it's unfair for a driver to use such a supernatural performance enhancer in the middle of a race?

What to do with all this Flex Tape?

So now you have 17 rolls of Flex Tape, but you just can't bring yourself to saw your boat in half. What else can you do with all that Flex Tape? Fortunately, the Flex Seal blog has some ideas.

Since we know Flex Tape is awesome at sticking to living things, the first obvious choice is to use it as a bug trap. "Hang long strips of Flex Tape in areas you want to minimize bugs," the site suggests. Now, a roll of Flex Tape costs $13 and is only 5 feet long, and you can get 36 feet of actual fly tape for the same amount, but whatever. If you don't like that idea, you can use Flex Tape on your furniture feet to prevent scuffing because cutting circles of super-sticky Flex Tape with your household scissors is way more practical than buying a pack of 181 felt furniture pads that are the same price as a roll of Flex Tape and, you know, actually designed for the purpose.

Okay, so those aren't great ideas - happily, Flex Seal has some car repair tips, too. You can use Flex Tape to tape your license plate to your car because everyone knows license plate holders and screws are for suckers. You can also use it to tape on your rearview mirror, tape your hood closed, and fix your cracked bumper. Yes, it truly is nature's most divine substance. Truly.

Flex Tape is great for pranking basketball stars

Flex Tape is good for so much more than just taping boats together. It's also a great way to prank someone. You could, you know, cut up your neighbor's boat and tape it back together or something, although come to think of it, that would probably not make you very popular with your neighbor, so maybe don't do that. Or, you could just do what the NBA on TNT crew did to Charles Barkley, which is way less expensive. The crew cut up a bucket ("That's a lotta damage!"), repaired it with Flex Tape, and then demoed the repair by pouring water into the bucket while holding it over Charles Barkley's head. Except it wasn't the Flex Taped bucket, it was another bucket, which means Barkley actually ended up soaked.

After the crew revealed the switch, they offered to demo the real Flex Taped bucket but oops, they ran out of time. So Flex Tape got some brand recognition, while no one actually got to see whether the stuff works. So ... that worked out fine for Flex Tape then.

Flex Tape swag for one lucky winner!

If you don't think you can justify spending $59.99 on a cardboard cutout of Phil Swift or $329.99 on a Razor-style Flex Seal scooter (which is fairly similar to the one on Amazon that you can pick up for $29.99 that you could just cover with Flex Tape if you really wanted a Flex Seal scooter that badly), wait around because Flex Seal has some pretty weird contests and giveaways. For Halloween 2018, the company announced a Phil Swift pumpkin carving competition, and just in case you aren't creative enough to figure out how to make your pumpkin look like Phil Swift, they even provided the stencil. (No purchase necessary!)

For fans who may not relish the thought of pulling the guts out of their Phil Swift pumpkin, Flex Seal also sponsored a "big head" giveaway on Instagram - winners received autographed copies of Phil Swift's giant head. "You know it's hard to get ahead in life," (har, har) Phil Swift wrote. "Tell me why you think you deserve my big head. Why should I give my big head to you?" We're sure the competition was totally just about creating brand recognition for Flex Seal and Flex Tape, and that it had nothing to do with Phil Swift's giant, inflated ego ... err ... head.

You, too, can be Phil Swift

Perhaps declaring your everlasting devotion is not enough. Perhaps you want to do more than just spend hours online, obsessively googling "Flex Tape" and "Phil Swift." Perhaps you actually want to be Phil Swift. Great news! You can! For just a small investment of way more money than you'd probably have to spend on the average Thanos costume, you can buy a Phil Swift Halloween costume direct from the source. Or at least you could, but they're all sold out right now.

The costume, if it ever becomes available again, includes a Flex Seal polo, a Flex Tape baseball cap, and several cans of Flex Seal products, so when you're finished being Phil Swift at the company Halloween party, you can coat, seal, and protect. Once upon a time, you could also buy a life-sized Phil Swift cardboard cutout for $59.99, which means that Phil Swift is officially more expensive than Star-Lord, Chewbacca, or Daryl from The Walking Dead. But alas, like the Phil Swift Halloween costume, the Phil Swift cardboard cutout is officially no longer available. If you're really enterprising, though, you might be able to sculpt your own Phil Swift out of a few gallons of Flex Seal.

Phil Swift has rabid fans. No, really.

If you've ever dreamed of becoming internet famous, of earning the everlasting adoration of millions, of becoming the star of terribly written yet somehow hilarious fan-fiction, then you need to invent some tape and star in your own infomercial. Or maybe you have to be Phil Swift to make that work.

Somehow, Phil's winning personality and magical ability to destroy things and then put them back together have made him such a star that people actually write stories about him and post them online for the world to make fun of. "It was time to bond, seal and repair his soul," wrote one fan. In another story, Phil Swift, "The lord of darkness," plots multiverse domination and can only be subdued with "the blessed flex tape."

But wait, there's more ... Phil Swift has also inspired a slough of fan art, most of which feature the words "That's a lot of damage!" or the classic, "I sawed this boat in half!" Fans who just can't see themselves spending hours painstakingly recreating Phil Swift's face or writing bad prose about him can also fill that vacant space in their hearts by joining the Phil Swift Fan Club on Steam, but vows are required: "Pray to Phil Swift daily," "Purchase Flex Tape/Flex Seal until you die," and "Saw any boat you see in half." As a last resort, Phil Swift admirers who don't want to make that kind of commitment can just follow Fans of Phil on Twitter.

Phil Swift is a guitar god

Because you didn't already have enough reasons to love and respect him, it has come to our attention that not only is Phil Swift the king of all things made out of liquid rubber, he is also a guitar god. Or at least, he is as far as we can tell based on one weird 19-second green screen video in which he plays guitar and sings about how much he loves Flex Seal.

This is a tantalizing peek into the personal life of Phil Swift, who up until now has been known only for his skill with a chainsaw and love of boating. And because we know no rational person has time to page through Phil Swift's entire Twitter feed, we've done it for you! As it turns out, Phil Swift also has his own cool home music studio, complete with a whole drum kit, some electric guitars, and a wall covered with classic rock photos. Phil says he loves to go to his studio with friends and "jam on," probably using these Flex Seal guitar picks that cost $2 apiece, but what he doesn't say is how much Flex Tape went into the design and construction of the music studio. At least we can probably assume that the room will survive the next hurricane.

Don't eat Flex Tape

Because evidently there are people who have joked that Flex Tape and/or Flex Seal's other line of amazing products might actually be delicious, Phil Swift felt it was necessary to post a video on Instagram warning fans to keep the stuff out of their mouths. Now, it's not super-clear why this was something that needed saying out loud, but we are living in the Tide Pod era, after all.

Was Phil's video a thinly veiled, "Don't do this, but if you do, make sure you do it on YouTube where it will go viral" sort of attempt at some free publicity? Probably not, but if there's one product that could capitalize on the Tide Pod hullaballoo other than Tide Pods, it's Flex Tape. But whatever - it's stupid to eat things that aren't food. Please don't do it.

At least it didn't go to his head

Sometimes, fame and fortune turns you into a megalomaniac who's too good for anyone and everything, including adoring fans. Not Phil Swift, though. Say what you will about the guy's products and weird marketing strategy, at least he doesn't take himself too seriously.

For proof, there's a second JonTron video (above), which actually features the man himself, ruling Flex World, a land of Flex Seal waterfalls and Flex Tape birds and butterflies, from some high-backed wooden and vinyl throne thingy that looks like it might have come from JonTron's grandma's house. In the video, Phil calls JonTron "my child" and shows him something in a metal toolbox that emits golden light and opera music, which let's face it, is not something you do unless you either don't take yourself too seriously or are an actual supernatural being.

So which one is it? According to the Phil Swift Wiki, Phil "was born in the heart of a dying star in the Andromeda galaxy during the creation of the Milky Way." In short, you'll have to judge for yourself.

Phil Swift really, really doesn't take himself too seriously

It's great to be a meme lord and also the owner of a wildly successful line of products that may or may not work as advertised. But so many normal humans would let that go to their heads! Not Phil Swift, though, who clearly has the vision to see ridicule as an opportunity to sell more Flex Tape and Flex Seal.

On the Flex Seal website, you can buy merchandise ranging from a 10"x12" decal of Phil Swift's head to T-shirts and hats bearing Phil Swift's most-ridiculed catchphrases, like "I sawed this boat in half!" and "That's a lotta damage!" But true fans aren't satisfied with just the company-approved merch, so there are also non-company-approved designs, like T-shirts featuring cans of Flex Seal, Phil Swift's giant head, and Phil Swift with his weapons of boat and bucket destruction. Now, any other self-respecting pitchman might try shutting down those unauthorized mech-sellers, but not Phil, who has the foresight to know that anyone wearing a Phil Swift or Flex Seal T-shirt of any kind is basically a free, walking billboard. So that probably means we'll continue to see unauthorized merchandise for as long as Flex Tape and Flex Seal continue to be A Thing. If the Flex Seal gods provide.

How did Flex Tape become so famous?

Flex Tape may be endowed with supernatural powers that even Thanos himself would envy, but it's still just a stupid roll of tape. How exactly does a stupid roll of tape gain international fame, its own library of ridiculous memes, and the love and adoration of men and women everywhere?

YouTuber JonTron. Yes, he who hath obtained fame by sitting on his couch and talking about stuff on YouTube decided to sit on his couch and talk about Flex Tape, and the video he made has 35 million views so far. There are literally millions of people in this world who think watching some guy make fun of a roll of tape is a good use of 10 minutes. Then Phil Swift became like a god and Flex Tape became famous and JonTron clearly deserved some kind of kickback for that. Seriously, Phil, you were just a loud guy with a roll of tape pretending to be Billy Mays on late-night television before JonTron came along, you can't at least give him a lifetime supply of Flex Tape or something? Maybe a zombie-proof wall for his front yard or a couple boats you cut up and taped together? Talk about ungrateful.

Is Flex Tape truly as awesome as the commercials say?

How dare you question Phil Swift! You've seen the man saw a boat in half, for goodness sake! And then tape it back together! If it didn't work, wouldn't we have heard about that by now? Well, lots of people have fact-checked Flex Tape, and (gasp) not all of them have come to the conclusion that Flex Tape is as awesome as Phil Swift makes it out to be.

A local Fox station in Texas tried Flex Tape on a leaky pipe and attempted to seal a leak underwater, and achieved the exact same success you see in the commercials. So that's great. But Inside Edition tried duplicating the sawed-in-half boat trick with only limited success. The boat leaked, but "remained seaworthy," which is not how most people want their boats to be.

A pair of YouTubers had even worse luck with their sawed-in-half-boat test. Their boat floated for all of an hour. Flex Seal's response? They told Inside Edition that "when the product doesn't perform as expected, it's typically because the product was not applied correctly." So, you know, it's safe to use in shark-infested waters, but remember that if it doesn't work it's totally not Flex Seal's fault.

Flex Tape's many bizarre uses

It will not surprise you to hear that Flex Tape is good for so many other things besides just taping boats back together and fixing leaks. Flex Tape can also be used to subdue a body builder and rip the psoriasis flakes off your body, and seriously, if you don't want to barf then don't go looking for that video.

Other people have used Flex Tape to build unbreakable walls, which seems like it would be a really handy thing to do in the zombie apocalypse when you're really going to need a way to keep flesh-eating corpses out of your yard. So far no one seems to have tried doing anything insanely dangerous with it, which is probably a good thing for Phil Swift and Flex Seal, since no one needs that kind of bad publicity.

Based on what we've seen so far of people's actual experiences with Flex Taped boats, you should probably not try Phil Swift's glass-bottomed-boat-in-shark-infested-waters thing. Or the psoriasis thing because that's just gross (and expensive).

Is Flex Tape bullet-proof?

If Flex Tape can stand up to a high-pressure water leak and make a rowboat seaworthy, can it also stop a bullet? No. Nope. Once more, for emphasis, totally, utterly, and completely no, so don't go making yourself body armor out of the stuff, okay?

Stopping a bullet is one thing Phil Swift has never said his product can do, but the idea is a natural progression for some viewers from all the crazy hyped-up claims made by the commercials. So it's not that surprising that there have been a number of YouTubers who set out to discover if the near-supernatural product could actually offer any protection.

To test the idea, Matt Carriker of Demolition Ranch outfitted a test dummy with armor made from cardboard and Flex Tape. A single layer of Flex Tape failed to stop a bullet from a .22 pistol. So Carriker went thicker ... and thicker ... and thicker. After 60 layers also failed to stop a bullet, he tried 80 layers, and at that point the bullet was finally thwarted. Flex Tape is not the answer.

What do the reviews say?

No famous person is safe from the ultimate hazard of success in America: litigation. And also people complaining loudly, publicly, and in Amazon product reviews. "Does not actually work underwater" seems to be the most common complaint. One user also said "the only thing it sticks to is skin."

Still, a few bad reviews on Amazon (36 percent are one-star rating, which is more than "a few,") isn't really the worst part of it. Twenty-six complaints have been filed with the Better Business Bureau, which granted is a pretty small number compared to what the company has probably sold overall, but some of the complaints accuse the company not of false advertising but of overcharging. Some customers say they were sent more product than they ordered, were charged full price for it, and were given no easy way to change the order after placing it.

Finally, there are the class-action lawsuits. Or really, just one dude on YouTube who says he wants to put together a class-action lawsuit because Flex Seal destroyed his pond. Poor consumers. If only they knew, "When the product doesn't perform as expected, it's typically because the product was not applied correctly." Flex Seal wins.

Celebrities don't actually love Flex Seal products that much

Flex Seal has a whole video about all the celebrities who love their products, which as it turns out is Jerry Seinfeld for like 16 seconds on Jimmy Kimmel, Daniel Tosh, David Letterman, musician Josh Homme (who made a single joke about it on The Talking Dead), and a couple of B-list celebrities no one has ever heard of.

We can't really fault Flex Seal for wanting to capitalize on the handful of celebrities who have mentioned them in passing, but it does seem like kind of a stretch to say celebrities love Flex Seal. Even Jerry Seinfeld's gush "there is nothing that the product cannot do!" kind of seemed a little not-very-serious. Maybe the company should be sending free samples out to everyone in Hollywood so they can build a longer list of celebrities who mention the stuff on television. We'd like to suggest Lucas Till, for a start. Who is more qualified than MacGyver to show the world just how awesome Flex Tape can be, especially when combined with a wad of chewing gum and the pop top from a can of Coke? What world problems could not be solved?

Flex Seal loves NASCAR

Long, long ago, people figured out they could raise brand awareness with T-shirts and hoodies, which was probably around the same time people realized they could also turn entire cars into high-speed billboards. Flex Seal jumped on the NASCAR bandwagon in 2013 with JD Motorsports, and as of 2018 has been in the sponsorship game for six consecutive years. Now, everyone who watches NASCAR racing gets to have Phil Swift catchphrases on repeat in their brains everytime they see a Flex Seal/Flex Tape car round a corner, so yay.

JD Motorsports is just as gushy about their sponsor as every other normal human with an occasional need to coat, seal, and protect. "I can't thank Phil Swift enough for all of the support over the years," said Johnny Davis, who owns the JD Motorsports team. "They have been a very valuable part in the building of our race team, and their products are used almost daily at our shop." Wait, what? So besides taping a car back together after a crash, Flex Seal and Flex tape get used for regular, everyday car maintenance? Has JD Motorsports actually read the Amazon reviews? Just wondering.

Flex Tape saves the day

In February 2017, in a moment that must surely have given Phil Swift heart palpitations of joy, the NASCAR car that Flex Tape sponsors - driven by Garrett Smithley - crashed at Daytona and was in bad need of a 5-minutes-or-less repair. Fortunately, and this doesn't seem staged or just waaaay too convenient at all, there was plenty of Flex Tape on hand because duh, it would have been really embarrassing if the pit crew for a NASCAR car with the words "Flex Tape" written all over it had nothing but a roll of Gorilla Tape stashed in its toolbox.

Anyway, according to JD Motorsports, Smithley's car was repaired using Flex Tape, and then he went on to finish eighth in the race. Maybe some rules need to be changed at NASCAR - surely it's unfair for a driver to use such a supernatural performance enhancer in the middle of a race?

What to do with all this Flex Tape?

So now you have 17 rolls of Flex Tape, but you just can't bring yourself to saw your boat in half. What else can you do with all that Flex Tape? Fortunately, the Flex Seal blog has some ideas.

Since we know Flex Tape is awesome at sticking to living things, the first obvious choice is to use it as a bug trap. "Hang long strips of Flex Tape in areas you want to minimize bugs," the site suggests. Now, a roll of Flex Tape costs $13 and is only 5 feet long, and you can get 36 feet of actual fly tape for the same amount, but whatever. If you don't like that idea, you can use Flex Tape on your furniture feet to prevent scuffing because cutting circles of super-sticky Flex Tape with your household scissors is way more practical than buying a pack of 181 felt furniture pads that are the same price as a roll of Flex Tape and, you know, actually designed for the purpose.

Okay, so those aren't great ideas - happily, Flex Seal has some car repair tips, too. You can use Flex Tape to tape your license plate to your car because everyone knows license plate holders and screws are for suckers. You can also use it to tape on your rearview mirror, tape your hood closed, and fix your cracked bumper. Yes, it truly is nature's most divine substance. Truly.

Flex Tape is great for pranking basketball stars

Flex Tape is good for so much more than just taping boats together. It's also a great way to prank someone. You could, you know, cut up your neighbor's boat and tape it back together or something, although come to think of it, that would probably not make you very popular with your neighbor, so maybe don't do that. Or, you could just do what the NBA on TNT crew did to Charles Barkley, which is way less expensive. The crew cut up a bucket ("That's a lotta damage!"), repaired it with Flex Tape, and then demoed the repair by pouring water into the bucket while holding it over Charles Barkley's head. Except it wasn't the Flex Taped bucket, it was another bucket, which means Barkley actually ended up soaked.

After the crew revealed the switch, they offered to demo the real Flex Taped bucket but oops, they ran out of time. So Flex Tape got some brand recognition, while no one actually got to see whether the stuff works. So ... that worked out fine for Flex Tape then.

Flex Tape swag for one lucky winner!

If you don't think you can justify spending $59.99 on a cardboard cutout of Phil Swift or $329.99 on a Razor-style Flex Seal scooter (which is fairly similar to the one on Amazon that you can pick up for $29.99 that you could just cover with Flex Tape if you really wanted a Flex Seal scooter that badly), wait around because Flex Seal has some pretty weird contests and giveaways. For Halloween 2018, the company announced a Phil Swift pumpkin carving competition, and just in case you aren't creative enough to figure out how to make your pumpkin look like Phil Swift, they even provided the stencil. (No purchase necessary!)

For fans who may not relish the thought of pulling the guts out of their Phil Swift pumpkin, Flex Seal also sponsored a "big head" giveaway on Instagram - winners received autographed copies of Phil Swift's giant head. "You know it's hard to get ahead in life," (har, har) Phil Swift wrote. "Tell me why you think you deserve my big head. Why should I give my big head to you?" We're sure the competition was totally just about creating brand recognition for Flex Seal and Flex Tape, and that it had nothing to do with Phil Swift's giant, inflated ego ... err ... head.

You, too, can be Phil Swift

Perhaps declaring your everlasting devotion is not enough. Perhaps you want to do more than just spend hours online, obsessively googling "Flex Tape" and "Phil Swift." Perhaps you actually want to be Phil Swift. Great news! You can! For just a small investment of way more money than you'd probably have to spend on the average Thanos costume, you can buy a Phil Swift Halloween costume direct from the source. Or at least you could, but they're all sold out right now.

The costume, if it ever becomes available again, includes a Flex Seal polo, a Flex Tape baseball cap, and several cans of Flex Seal products, so when you're finished being Phil Swift at the company Halloween party, you can coat, seal, and protect. Once upon a time, you could also buy a life-sized Phil Swift cardboard cutout for $59.99, which means that Phil Swift is officially more expensive than Star-Lord, Chewbacca, or Daryl from The Walking Dead. But alas, like the Phil Swift Halloween costume, the Phil Swift cardboard cutout is officially no longer available. If you're really enterprising, though, you might be able to sculpt your own Phil Swift out of a few gallons of Flex Seal.

Phil Swift has rabid fans. No, really.

If you've ever dreamed of becoming internet famous, of earning the everlasting adoration of millions, of becoming the star of terribly written yet somehow hilarious fan-fiction, then you need to invent some tape and star in your own infomercial. Or maybe you have to be Phil Swift to make that work.

Somehow, Phil's winning personality and magical ability to destroy things and then put them back together have made him such a star that people actually write stories about him and post them online for the world to make fun of. "It was time to bond, seal and repair his soul," wrote one fan. In another story, Phil Swift, "The lord of darkness," plots multiverse domination and can only be subdued with "the blessed flex tape."

But wait, there's more ... Phil Swift has also inspired a slough of fan art, most of which feature the words "That's a lot of damage!" or the classic, "I sawed this boat in half!" Fans who just can't see themselves spending hours painstakingly recreating Phil Swift's face or writing bad prose about him can also fill that vacant space in their hearts by joining the Phil Swift Fan Club on Steam, but vows are required: "Pray to Phil Swift daily," "Purchase Flex Tape/Flex Seal until you die," and "Saw any boat you see in half." As a last resort, Phil Swift admirers who don't want to make that kind of commitment can just follow Fans of Phil on Twitter.

Phil Swift is a guitar god

Because you didn't already have enough reasons to love and respect him, it has come to our attention that not only is Phil Swift the king of all things made out of liquid rubber, he is also a guitar god. Or at least, he is as far as we can tell based on one weird 19-second green screen video in which he plays guitar and sings about how much he loves Flex Seal.

This is a tantalizing peek into the personal life of Phil Swift, who up until now has been known only for his skill with a chainsaw and love of boating. And because we know no rational person has time to page through Phil Swift's entire Twitter feed, we've done it for you! As it turns out, Phil Swift also has his own cool home music studio, complete with a whole drum kit, some electric guitars, and a wall covered with classic rock photos. Phil says he loves to go to his studio with friends and "jam on," probably using these Flex Seal guitar picks that cost $2 apiece, but what he doesn't say is how much Flex Tape went into the design and construction of the music studio. At least we can probably assume that the room will survive the next hurricane.

Don't eat Flex Tape

Because evidently there are people who have joked that Flex Tape and/or Flex Seal's other line of amazing products might actually be delicious, Phil Swift felt it was necessary to post a video on Instagram warning fans to keep the stuff out of their mouths. Now, it's not super-clear why this was something that needed saying out loud, but we are living in the Tide Pod era, after all.

Was Phil's video a thinly veiled, "Don't do this, but if you do, make sure you do it on YouTube where it will go viral" sort of attempt at some free publicity? Probably not, but if there's one product that could capitalize on the Tide Pod hullaballoo other than Tide Pods, it's Flex Tape. But whatever - it's stupid to eat things that aren't food. Please don't do it.

At least it didn't go to his head

Sometimes, fame and fortune turns you into a megalomaniac who's too good for anyone and everything, including adoring fans. Not Phil Swift, though. Say what you will about the guy's products and weird marketing strategy, at least he doesn't take himself too seriously.

For proof, there's a second JonTron video (above), which actually features the man himself, ruling Flex World, a land of Flex Seal waterfalls and Flex Tape birds and butterflies, from some high-backed wooden and vinyl throne thingy that looks like it might have come from JonTron's grandma's house. In the video, Phil calls JonTron "my child" and shows him something in a metal toolbox that emits golden light and opera music, which let's face it, is not something you do unless you either don't take yourself too seriously or are an actual supernatural being.

So which one is it? According to the Phil Swift Wiki, Phil "was born in the heart of a dying star in the Andromeda galaxy during the creation of the Milky Way." In short, you'll have to judge for yourself.

Phil Swift really, really doesn't take himself too seriously

It's great to be a meme lord and also the owner of a wildly successful line of products that may or may not work as advertised. But so many normal humans would let that go to their heads! Not Phil Swift, though, who clearly has the vision to see ridicule as an opportunity to sell more Flex Tape and Flex Seal.

On the Flex Seal website, you can buy merchandise ranging from a 10"x12" decal of Phil Swift's head to T-shirts and hats bearing Phil Swift's most-ridiculed catchphrases, like "I sawed this boat in half!" and "That's a lotta damage!" But true fans aren't satisfied with just the company-approved merch, so there are also non-company-approved designs, like T-shirts featuring cans of Flex Seal, Phil Swift's giant head, and Phil Swift with his weapons of boat and bucket destruction. Now, any other self-respecting pitchman might try shutting down those unauthorized mech-sellers, but not Phil, who has the foresight to know that anyone wearing a Phil Swift or Flex Seal T-shirt of any kind is basically a free, walking billboard. So that probably means we'll continue to see unauthorized merchandise for as long as Flex Tape and Flex Seal continue to be A Thing. If the Flex Seal gods provide.

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Every so often a product comes along that is so amazing it can't help but change the world. We're not saying that Flex Tape is one of those products, and neither is anyone else. (Not seriously, at least.) Here's the untold truth of Flex Tape, the tape that can supposedly fix almost anything.

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This is economic function because it talks about the red bull ad and how it uses humor to hide its health conditions.

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Two TV animations, aired in October, were challenged on the basis of whether they implied that drinking Red Bull had a beneficial effect on health - in particular brain function - which is a health claim that must be authorized on the EU register.

However, the ASA ruled that the tone of the advert, along with ambiguity of the effect of the drink, meant consumers were 'unlikely to understand that the ad implied a relationship between food, or ingredient, and health' and thus did not breach the advertising code.

Robot vs man ​

The first advert featured an animation of a man playing chess with a robot. The robot said, "You don't have a chance against me. I can calculate 90 trillion moves in advance." The man opened a can of Red Bull and drank from it. The robot said, "Not fair! Not fair!" and knocked its chess pieces off the board. The advert ended with the 'Red Bull gives you wiiings' tagline.

The complainant challenged whether the advert implied that drinking Red Bull had a beneficial effect on health - in particular brain function - which is a health claim that must be authorized on the EU Register.

Red Bull said it was clear from the beginning of the advert that the theme was far-fetched: with exaggerated robotic noises and the notion of '90 trillion moves'. It also pointed to the brand's consistent use of cartoon style over the last 20 years, featuring the incredible or impossible, along with humor.

The ASA also noted that the effect of drinking Red Bull was ambiguous, and said on balance the humorous, fantastical tone of the ad meant consumers were unlikely to make a link between the drink and health.

'Red Bull gives you wiiings' is not a health claim ​

A second ad featured an animation of two smartphones sitting on a bench in a park, commiserating over their absent owners who were now with friends instead of their phones.

One of the phones said: 'We should have stopped this Red Bull; everyone knows it vitalises body and mind', and the advert ended with the 'Red Bull gives you wiiings' tagline.

The complainant challenged whether the statement 'vitalises body and mind' implied a general health claim, which must be accompanied by a specific authorized health claim on the EU register.

The ASA acknowledged that 'vitalising body and mind' would generally be taken as a reference to overall good health or health-related well-being.

However, it noted that both 'Red Bull gives you wiings' and 'it vitalises body and mind' are trademarks that were registered before January 1, 2005: which means they are exempt from complying with Regulation 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods until January 2022.

Therefore the ASA ruled that Red Bull did not breach the Code in either advert and no further action is required.

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Humor helps keeps Red Bull on the right side of advertising regulations

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Two TV animations, aired in October, were challenged on the basis of whether they implied that drinking Red Bull had a beneficial effect on health - in particular brain function - which is a health claim that must be authorized on the EU register.

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This is sentry function because it talks about what might happen in 2021 with the pandemic.

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June 2021. The world has been in pandemic mode for a year and a half. The virus continues to spread at a slow burn; intermittent lockdowns are the new normal. An approved vaccine offers six months of protection, but international deal-making has slowed its distribution. An estimated 250 million people have been infected worldwide, and 1.75 million are dead.

Scenarios such as this one imagine how the COVID-19 pandemic might play out. Around the world, epidemiologists are constructing short- and long-term projections as a way to prepare for, and potentially mitigate, the spread and impact of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Although their forecasts and timelines vary, modellers agree on two things: COVID-19 is here to stay, and the future depends on a lot of unknowns, including whether people develop lasting immunity to the virus, whether seasonality affects its spread, and - perhaps most importantly - the choices made by governments and individuals. "A lot of places are unlocking, and a lot of places aren't. We don't really yet know what's going to happen," says Rosalind Eggo, an infectious-disease modeller at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).

"The future will very much depend on how much social mixing resumes, and what kind of prevention we do," says Joseph Wu, a disease modeller at the University of Hong Kong. Recent models and evidence from successful lockdowns suggest that behavioural changes can reduce the spread of COVID-19 if most, but not necessarily all, people comply.

Last week, the number of confirmed COVID-19 infections passed 15 million globally, with around 650,000 deaths. Lockdowns are easing in many countries, leading some people to assume that the pandemic is ending, says Yonatan Grad, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts. "But that's not the case. We're in for a long haul."

If immunity to the virus lasts less than a year, for example, similar to other human coronaviruses in circulation, there could be annual surges in COVID-19 infections through to 2025 and beyond. Here, Nature explores what the science says about the months and years to come.

What happens in the near future?

The pandemic is not playing out in the same way from place to place. Countries such as China, New Zealand and Rwanda have reached a low level of cases - after lockdowns of varying lengths - and are easing restrictions while watching for flare-ups. Elsewhere, such as in the United States and Brazil, cases are rising fast after governments lifted lockdowns quickly or never activated them nationwide.

The latter group has modellers very worried. In South Africa, which now ranks fifth in the world for total COVID-19 cases, a consortium of modellers estimates that the country can expect a peak in August or September, with around one million active cases, and cumulatively as many as 13 million symptomatic cases by early November. In terms of hospital resources, "we're already breaching capacity in some areas, so I think our best-case scenario is not a good one", says Juliet Pulliam, director of the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis at Stellenbosch University.

But there is hopeful news as lockdowns ease. Early evidence suggests that personal behavioural changes, such as hand-washing and wearing masks, are persisting beyond strict lockdown, helping to stem the tide of infections. In a June report, a team at the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London found that among 53 countries beginning to open up, there hasn't been as large a surge in infections as predicted on the basis of earlier data. "It's undervalued how much people's behaviour has changed in terms of masks, hand washing and social distancing. It's nothing like it used to be," says Samir Bhatt, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at Imperial College London and a co-author of the study.

Researchers in virus hotspots have been studying just how helpful these behaviours are. At Anhembi Morumbi University in São Paulo, Brazil, computational biologist Osmar Pinto Neto and colleagues ran more than 250,000 mathematical models of social-distancing strategies described as constant, intermittent or 'stepping-down' - with restrictions reduced in stages - alongside behavioural interventions such as mask-wearing and hand washing.

The team concluded that if 50-65% of people are cautious in public, then stepping down social-distancing measures every 80 days could help to prevent further infection peaks over the next two years. "We're going to need to change the culture of how we interact with other people," says Neto. Overall, it's good news that even without testing or a vaccine, behaviours can make a significant difference in disease transmission, he adds.

Infectious-disease modeller Jorge Velasco-Hernández at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Juriquilla and colleagues also examined the trade-off between lockdowns and personal protection. They found that if 70% of Mexico's population committed to personal measures such as hand washing and mask-wearing following voluntary lockdowns that began in late March, then the country's outbreak would decline after peaking in late May or early June. However, the government lifted lockdown measures on 1 June and, rather than falling, the high number of weekly COVID-19 deaths plateaued. Velasco-Hernández's team thinks that two public holidays acted as superspreading events, causing high infection rates right before the government lifted restrictions.

In regions where COVID-19 seems to be on the decline, researchers say that the best approach is careful surveillance by testing and isolating new cases and tracing their contacts. This is the situation in Hong Kong, for instance. "We are experimenting, making observations and adjusting slowly," says Wu. He expects that the strategy will prevent a huge resurgence of infections - unless increased air traffic brings a substantial number of imported cases.

But exactly how much contact tracing and isolation is required to contain an outbreak effectively? An analysis by the Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Working Group at the LSHTM simulated fresh outbreaks of varying contagiousness, starting from 5, 20 or 40 introduced cases. The team concluded that contact tracing must be rapid and extensive - tracing 80% of contacts within a few days - to control an outbreak. The group is now assessing the effectiveness of digital contact tracing and how long it's feasible to keep exposed individuals in quarantine, says co-author Eggo. "Finding the balance between what actually is a strategy that people will tolerate, and what strategy will contain an outbreak, is really important."

Tracing 80% of contacts could be near-impossible to achieve in regions still grappling with thousands of new infections a week - and worse, even the highest case counts are likely to be an underestimate. A June preprint from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) team in Cambridge analysing COVID-19 testing data from 84 countries suggests that global infections were 12 times higher and deaths 50% higher than officially reported (see 'Predicting cases and deaths'). "There are many more cases out there than the data indicate. As a consequence, there's higher risk of infection than people may believe there to be," says John Sterman, co-author of the study and director of the MIT System Dynamics Group.

For now, mitigation efforts, such as social distancing, need to continue for as long as possible to avert a second major outbreak, says Bhatt. "That is, until the winter months, where things get a bit more dangerous again."

What will happen when it gets cold?

It is clear now that summer does not uniformly stop the virus, but warm weather might make it easier to contain in temperate regions. In areas that will get colder in the second half of 2020, experts think there is likely to be an increase in transmission.

Many human respiratory viruses - influenza, other human coronaviruses and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) - follow seasonal oscillations that lead to winter outbreaks, so it is likely that SARS-CoV-2 will follow suit. "I expect SARS-CoV-2 infection rate, and also potentially disease outcome, to be worse in the winter," says Akiko Iwasaki, an immunobiologist at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. Evidence suggests that dry winter air improves the stability and transmission of respiratory viruses, and respiratory-tract immune defence might be impaired by inhaling dry air, she adds.

In addition, in colder weather people are more likely to stay indoors, where virus transmission through droplets is a bigger risk, says Richard Neher, a computational biologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland. Simulations by Neher's group show that seasonal variation is likely to affect the virus's spread and might make containment in the Northern Hemisphere this winter more difficult.

In future, SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks could arrive in waves every winter. The risk to adults who have already had COVID-19 could be reduced, as with flu, but it would depend on how rapidly immunity to this coronavirus wears off, says Neher. What's more, the combination of COVID-19, flu and RSV in autumn and winter could be challenging, says Velasco-Hernández, who is setting up a model of how such viruses might interact.

It remains unknown whether infection with other human coronaviruses can offer any protection against SARS-CoV-2. In a cell-culture experiment involving SARS-CoV-2 and the closely related SARS-CoV, antibodies from one coronavirus could bind to the other coronavirus, but did not disable or neutralize it.

To end the pandemic, the virus must either be eliminated worldwide - which most scientists agree is near-impossible because of how widespread it has become - or people must build up sufficient immunity through infections or a vaccine. It is estimated that 55-80% of a population must be immune for this to happen, depending on the country.

Unfortunately, early surveys suggest there is a long way to go. Estimates from antibody testing - which reveals whether someone has been exposed to the virus and made antibodies against it - indicate that only a small proportion of people have been infected, and disease modelling backs this up. A study of 11 European countries calculated an infection rate of 3-4% up to 4 May, inferred from data on the ratio of infections to deaths, and how many deaths there had been. In the United States, where there have been more than 150,000 COVID-19 deaths, a survey of thousands of serum samples, coordinated by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that antibody prevalence ranged from 1% to 6.9%, depending on the location.

What happens in 2021 and beyond?

The pandemic's course next year will depend greatly on the arrival of a vaccine, and on how long the immune system stays protective after vaccination or recovery from infection. Many vaccines provide protection for decades - such as those against measles or polio - whereas others, including whooping cough and influenza, wear off over time. Likewise, some viral infections prompt lasting immunity, others a more transient response. "The total incidence of SARS-CoV-2 through 2025 will depend crucially on this duration of immunity," wrote Grad, Harvard epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch and colleagues in a May paper exploring possible scenarios (see 'What happens next?').

Researchers know little so far about how long SARS-CoV-2 immunity lasts. One study of recovering patients found that neutralizing antibodies persisted for up to 40 days after the start of infection; several other studies suggest that antibody levels dwindle after weeks or months. If COVID-19 follows a similar pattern to SARS, antibodies could persist at a high level for 5 months, with a slow decline over 2-3 years. Still, antibody production is not the only form of immune protection; memory B and T cells also defend against future encounters with the virus, and little is known so far about their role in SARS-CoV-2 infection. For a clear answer on immunity, researchers will need to follow a large number of people over a long time, says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. "We're just going to have to wait."

If infections continue to rise rapidly without a vaccine or lasting immunity, "we will see regular, extensive circulation of the virus", says Grad. In that case, the virus would become endemic, says Pulliam. "That would be really painful." And it is not unimaginable: malaria, a preventable and treatable disease, kills more than 400,000 people each year. "These worst-case scenarios are happening in many countries with preventable diseases, causing huge losses of life already," says Bhatt.

If the virus induces short-term immunity - similar to two other human coronaviruses, OC43 and HKU1, for which immunity lasts about 40 weeks - then people can become reinfected and there could be annual outbreaks, the Harvard team suggests. A complementary CIDRAP report, based on trends from eight global influenza pandemics, points to significant COVID-19 activity for at least the next 18-24 months, either in a series of gradually diminishing peaks and valleys, or as a "slow burn" of continuing transmission without a clear wave pattern. Yet these scenarios remain only guesses, because this pandemic has so far not followed the pattern of pandemic flu, says Osterholm. "We're in a coronavirus pandemic for which we have no precedents."

Another possibility is that immunity to SARS-CoV-2 is permanent. In that case, even without a vaccine, it is possible that after a world-sweeping outbreak, the virus could burn itself out and disappear by 2021. However, if immunity is moderate, lasting about two years, then it might seem as if the virus has disappeared, but it could surge back as late as 2024, the Harvard team found.

That forecast, however, does not take the development of effective vaccines into account. It's unlikely that there will never be a vaccine, given the sheer amount of effort and money pouring into the field and the fact that some candidates are already being tested in humans, says Velasco-Hernández. The World Health Organization lists 26 COVID-19 vaccines currently in human trials, with 12 of them in phase II trials and six in phase III. Even a vaccine providing incomplete protection would help by reducing the severity of the disease and preventing hospitalization, says Wu. Still, it will take months to make and distribute a successful vaccine.

The world will not be affected equally by COVID-19. Regions with older populations could see disproportionally more cases in later stages of the epidemic, says Eggo; a mathematical model from her team, published in June and based on data from six countries, suggests that the susceptibility to infection in children and people under 20 years old is approximately half that of older adults.

There is one thing that every country, city and community touched by the pandemic has in common. "There is so much we still don't know about this virus," says Pulliam. "Until we have better data, we're just going to have a lot of uncertainty."

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How the pandemic might play out in 2021 and beyond

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June 2021. The world has been in pandemic mode for a year and a half. The virus continues to spread at a slow burn; intermittent lockdowns are the new normal. An approved vaccine offers six months of protection, but international deal-making has slowed its distribution.

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This would be sentry function because it explains what cars will come out in the future.

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Geneva Motor Show

GENEVA

INTENT on turning green into gold, automakers staking claims on "sustainable mobility solutions" have turned the 80th International Motor Show into a high-tech gold rush.

Several large exhibit halls at the auto show here, the grandest in Europe, offer tantalizing glimpses into what could be a radically different future for the automobile. This year, alternative energy sources and new fuel-saving technologies moved from the fringe into the spotlights - and even into the displays of companies specializing in exotic sports cars.

On Tuesday alone - the first of two days of press previews last week - more than 100 new models were introduced at over 60 press conferences. The robust turnout of exhibitors - some 75 automakers, design boutiques and niche marketers - was something of a surprise after a two-year slide in the fortunes of the global auto industry.

As recently as last fall, the Geneva show's organizers felt compelled to issue a statement assuring that the annual event would take place as scheduled. Other major auto shows last year suffered from low participation - and even outright cancellation.

The Geneva show, at the Palexpo convention center, runs through March 14 (salon-auto.ch/en).

For entrepreneurial vehicle engineers and designers, the wave of interest in green technologies provides new opportunities after a period of relative hibernation during the global economic crisis that forced General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy. Many of the vehicles introduced here weren't even a twinkle in product developers' eyes as recently as two to three years ago.

"It is not every day you see a green Ferrari," said Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, the chairman of Fiat and Ferrari, as he introduced a 599 GTB Fiorano outfitted with a regenerative braking system, hybrid battery pack and electric motors. The system, which Ferrari says could raise city mileage by almost 50 percent, could be an option on every model in the line within three years.

Porsche sought to position itself as "a genuine pioneer" in hybrid drive technologies. It surprised journalists by showing a voluptuous 918 Spyder hybrid concept car as well as a ready-for-market Cayenne hybrid S.U.V. and a 911 GT3 R Hybrid with an electrical flywheel-generator that, the company says, has the potential to revolutionize racing.

The Mercedes-Benz F 800 Style, a seductive-looking design study, could accommodate hydrogen fuel cells or hybrid power systems featuring a variety of internal combustion engines mated to electric motors and battery packs.

The fanciful Quant electric car concept, from NLV Solar of Switzerland, is said to be equipped with two battery systems, one of which is charged by solar cells and pyrite - fool's gold - photovoltaic exterior coatings.

Among the many hybrids, perhaps the most attractive was the 414E from Lotus, which worked with Tesla in the development of its electric Roadster. The 414E combines a 3-cylinder gasoline engine with twin electric motors.

Some of the concept cars seemed nearly production-ready. Audi unveiled a hybrid version of its A8 flagship sedan that it said was capable of 38 m.p.g. Audi also took the wraps off the A1 E-tron electric car concept, said to be capable of a 124 m.p.g. equivalent. Audi said it could be in limited production by 2012.

Tata Motors displayed an electric version version of its price-busting $2,500 minicar, which it said was being developed for "all relevant world markets."

In addition to cars from emerging markets like India and China, concepts and production models were shown by automakers from across Europe as well as Australia, South Africa, Japan, South Korea and the United States.

But the American presence was relatively meager. Chrysler's display was tied in with Fiat's and included no new models. Ford introduced just one new model, a Focus station wagon for Europe.

General Motors announced that it would triple its previously announced investment in its ailing Opel operation, and that its Chevrolet and Cadillac divisions aspired to sell a few thousand vehicles in Europe each year. And though G.M.'s new product introductions were limited, the sleek Opel Flextreme G/T-E hybrid concept was a highlight.

Toyota interrupted its brief press conference, which introduced new euro-market hybrids for its Toyota and Lexus divisions, to apologize to its European customers for quality and safety problems.

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Geneva Motor Show GENEVA INTENT on turning green into gold, automakers staking claims on "sustainable mobility solutions" have turned the 80th International Motor Show into a high-tech gold rush. Several large exhibit halls at the auto show here, the grandest in Europe, offer tantalizing glimpses into what could be a radically different future for the automobile.

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Why the cowboys go down 2-9 points against falcons.

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Why the cowboys go down 2-9 points against falcons.

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This would be considered record keeping because that play off goes into each players future.

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11:30 AM ET

Brian BurkeESPN Analytics

Close

Senior Analytics Specialist at ESPN

Former consultant to NFL teams

Pioneer of football analytics

We can marvel at how unlikely the Dallas Cowboys' 40-39 comeback win over the Atlanta Falcons was in Week 2, but what's really fascinating is how it was even possible. I'm not talking about just the onside-kick recovery. I'm talking about how that sequence of events ever came about.

Down by 15 points with just under five minutes to play, Dak Prescott hit Dalton Schultz for a 10-yard touchdown pass. The Cowboys now trailed by nine points, pending either the extra point or a 2-point attempt. Convention says to stay in the game as long as possible -- kick the extra point to make it a one-possession game. But the smart thing to do is to go for two. It's like peering into the future.

Think of it this way: If a team is down by 15 with time dwindling, the most plausible path to victory -- by far -- is to tie the score with one 7-point score and one 8-point score, while holding the opponent scoreless. Convention says to take the 7-point score early, then hope to convert a 2-point play on the second score. Kicking the extra point first keeps the team's hopes alive and delays virtual elimination from contention for as long as possible.

But wouldn't it be a shame if a team came back from down 15 points and scored two touchdowns to get within a final two-point conversion -- only to fail? What if that team could look into the future and know whether the conversion attempt succeeds, and then play the rest of the game with that knowledge in hand? That's exactly what the Cowboys did on Sunday.

And yes, they failed. Here's what coach Mike McCarthy said about the play. Either way, though, McCarthy & Co. made the decision based on knowledge. The Cowboys knew, at the very least, that they needed to score two touchdowns and convert a 2-point conversion to tie. So instead of delaying the decision on the inevitable 2-point attempt, it was better to know what they needed to try to win the game.

Because the 2-point attempt's result was already known, Dallas had the knowledge that it would need more than another touchdown. It pulled within 2 points of Atlanta with a touchdown drive just inside the two-minute warning. Prescott and the offense scored fast, taking only 1:08 to reach the end zone -- and this is key -- leaving enough time for an onside kick and subsequent field goal drive to win the game, none of which would have occurred if the Cowboys were not aware they needed two scores rather than just one.

In short, they were no worse off going for two on the first touchdown rather than a second. And the knowledge of how that try would turn out was like looking into a crystal ball, giving them the opportunity to react by playing for two scores rather than one.

Since 2001 there have been 12 2-point attempts from teams down nine points in the fourth quarter. (It's amazing there were any at all given the criticism and misunderstanding directed at McCarthy.) Two of those were with far too little time to matter. Of the remaining 10, three succeeded in scoring the 2-point conversion.

Nine of the 10 teams lost their game. The only winner was Dallas on Sunday. It's rare that a coach knows to do this. It's even rarer that it all came together for a win.

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Why did the Cowboys go for 2 down 9 points? It's all about knowing the future

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11:30 AM ET Brian BurkeESPN Analytics Close Senior Analytics Specialist at ESPN Former consultant to NFL teams Pioneer of football analytics We can marvel at how unlikely the Dallas Cowboys' 40-39 comeback win over the Atlanta Falcons was in Week 2, but what's really fascinating is how it was even possible.

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This is considered record keeping because everything they did in their relationship is history, for example their kid.

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1999-2000: The pair met

Jay and Bey historians remain torn on the exact date they met, but Beyoncé told Seventeen Magazine that they were introduced when she was 18, so that would have been somewhere between September of 1999 and August of 2000.

2001: They began dating

Though they did not confirm it at the time, Jay-Z later admitted that the pair began dating sometime in 2001, the same time they both appeared on a Vanity Fair shoot. Beyoncé said they began their romance by spending "a year and a half" on the phone.

"We were friends first for a year and a half before we went on any dates," she told Oprah Winfrey in an OWN interview later. "We were on the phone for a year and a half, and that foundation is so important for a relationship. Just to have someone who you just like is so important."

2002: They began collaborating

Though they were still trying to convince the world that they were not dating, they released their track "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" and filmed a music video together in their first collaboration of many to come.

2003: "Crazy in Love" dropped

The pair collaborated again on the iconic song "Crazy in Love," which won the Grammy for best R&B song. They also dropped several hints to dating each other on that track as well as another one called "That's How You Like It," where Jay raps "Young Hovah and the Letter B. How you like that, huh?"

This sparks a trend of the two referencing each other in song lyrics, but keeping their personal life private otherwise - advice we would later learn came from Oprah!

"I remember the first time you were on 'The Oprah Show,' I told you, 'Don't go around telling people who you're dating,'" Oprah said in a 2013 interview with Knowles.

2004: They were seen everywhere

Though they still wouldn't admit that they were dating, Beyoncé and Jay-Z were spotted kissing and cuddling everywhere.

2004: They made their red carpet debut

The pair made their red carpet debut together in these very-early-2000s outfits at the 2004 MTV VMAs in Miami. At this point, people pretty much assumed they were together.

2007: Engagement rumors took the place of breakup rumors

Suddenly, the tabloids began reporting that Jay and Bey were engaged, according to Vulture. He was rumored to have popped the question on her birthday.

2008: The pair got hitched

The famous couple tied the knot in a super-secret ceremony on April 4, 2008 (aka 4/4 - the duo loves the number 4, so remember that for later).

Not much was known about the ceremony at the time, but as the years have gone by, Beyoncé has spilled little details of the big day. She told Seventeen later that year that there was "no rush" to get married, but that she was proud of her decision.

"There was no rush - no one expected me to run off and get married," she said. " I really don't believe that you will love the same thing when you're 20 as you do at 30. So that was my rule: Before the age of 25, I would never get married. I feel like you have to get to know yourself, know what you want, spend some time by yourself, and be proud of who you are before you can share that with someone else."

2013: "Life is But A Dream" aired, and we got more insight

Beyoncé's documentary " Life Is But a Dream" aired on HBO where she revealed her pregnancy difficulties, showed clips of her wedding, revealed a sweet clip of herself and Jay-Z singing Coldplay's "Yellow" to each other, and much more.

2015: Jay-Z posted a wedding video

We got a better glimpse at their nuptials after Jay posted an Instagram video of their wedding for the couple's anniversary, according to People. Jay-Z has since deleted his Instagram account.

2016: Beyoncé performed at the Super Bowl

Beyoncé performed with Bruno Mars and Coldplay during 2016's Super Bowl 50. Jay-Z alongside Coldplay frontman Chris Martin's ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow watch from a box with their respective children.

2016: Beyoncé attended the Met Gala alone

Just days after releasing "Lemonade," Beyoncé attended the 2016 Met Gala alone, causing many to think she was going to get a divorce.

2016: Jay-Z referenced "Lemonade"

Jay seemed to reference his wife's album in his verse on the "All the Way Up" remix.

"You know you made it when the fact your marriage made it is worth millions / Lemonade is ... a popular drink and it still is."

2017: They announced they were expecting twins

Beyoncé once again shocked us all when she dropped a gorgeous announcement on Instagram that she and Jay were expecting twins.

"We would like to share our love and happiness. We have been blessed two times over," she captioned the post. "We are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two, and we thank you for your well wishes. - The Carters."

2017: They celebrated 9 years of marriage

Bey shared an adorable montage video on Instagram with scenes from their wedding as well as the duo showing off their matching "4" tattoos in honor of their anniversary.

2017: The babies were born!

It's unclear exactly when Bey gave birth, but the Beehive was not pleased when Beyoncé's father broke the news himself that the singer had her babies (a boy and a girl).

It was later confirmed by sources that Bey gave birth in mid-June, and trademark applications at the end of June showed that the twins' names might be Sir and Rumi.

2017: Jay-Z released "4:44"

In their signature style of seeming to address relationship issues through verse, Jay released his comeback album "4:44" with lyrics that reference an affair and miscarriages.

Hopefully with three kids and almost 10 years of marriage under their belts, everyone's favorite couple will ultimately come out on top.

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Everything you need to know about Jay-Z and Beyoncé's real-life love story

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1999-2000: The pair met Jay and Bey historians remain torn on the exact date they met, but Beyoncé told Seventeen Magazine that they were introduced when she was 18, so that would have been somewhere between September of 1999 and August of 2000.

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This would be agenda setting function because its telling what people think about the news and how they are going to make it better.

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A healthy democracy relies on information. It requires engaged citizens to arm themselves with facts and hold their government to account.

But today, the United States is embroiled in an era of what experts at the RAND Corporation call "Truth Decay."

More and more, Americans are disagreeing about objective facts. The line between fact and opinion is blurring before their eyes. And crucially, their trust in sources that they used to turn to for objective information, including the news media, is in decline.

Jennifer Kavanagh, who leads RAND's research initiative on Truth Decay, knows that the stakes are high. "If people no longer care about the news, or they don't trust it, or if they are getting poor-quality information, it poses a fundamental threat to the health of our democracy and its ability to function," she said.

That's why Kavanagh and her colleagues are studying the rapidly shifting media landscape. Most recently, they asked a nationally representative sample of more than 2,500 adults about their media-consumption habits. By learning more about how Americans consume the news, the researchers are beginning to identify what it might take to ensure that facts and data remain at the center of U.S. public life.

Americans' Go-To News Sources

The researchers first asked survey participants where they get their news. Americans' most common response was broadcast television, followed closely by online sources, then cable television, and social media.

Which News Source Do Americans Use the Most?

Although social media is a relatively popular news platform-especially among younger people-it doesn't appear to be replacing traditional media. Respondents who said that they relied heavily on social media likely use other news sources, too. They may also use social media as a portal to access content that appeared elsewhere, such as a video clip from a longer cable news segment, or an article from a newspaper website that made the front page of the print edition.

Overall, the responses supported the idea that people use many different news sources, and they use them in different ways. If you work 9 to 5 and have a long commute, then you might rely on radio or podcasts, because you can tune in during your drive or train ride. If you're married with children, then your schedule may mean you're less likely to read a newspaper in the morning or turn on the 6 o'clock news.

The data also show that people tend to use certain news sources together. For example, it's common for people who use print media to also watch TV news broadcasts. And people who rely on social media also tend to lean on other people, such as friends and family, as a news source.

Many Americans Are Skeptical About News Reliability

The researchers also asked Americans whether they thought the news was reliable.

Forty-four percent said they believed that the news is as reliable now as it was in the past. Nearly the same amount (41 percent) said that the news has become less reliable. Only 15 percent said that the news is more reliable now than it was in the past.

Notably, those who thought that the news is becoming more reliable were more likely to be women and people of color. The researchers think this could be partly due to increased representation in the media. It's possible that people's perceptions of news reliability are influenced by whether they see themselves reflected on the news platforms they use.

When the researchers broke down perceived reliability by platform, television sources-broadcast and cable news-came out on top.

Which News Source Do Americans Think Is the Most Reliable?

Unsurprisingly, the sources that most Americans turn to most often are also the sources they think are the most reliable. But there were exceptions. In fact, one-third of survey respondents said that they used news sources they believed were less reliable. These respondents were most likely to rely on social media and peers for news.

"We didn't expect to see this," said RAND sociologist Michael Pollard, lead author of the study. "If people are knowingly choosing news platforms they don't think are particularly reliable, then it compounds the challenge of addressing Truth Decay."

One-third of survey respondents said that they used news sources they believed to be less reliable.
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This could mean that some tried-and-true methods for helping ensure that people are getting the facts won't be effective. In other words, it may not be enough to just improve the quality of news content or teach people to be better judges of that content.

Competing demands and a general lack of time could explain why some Americans turn to news sources that they view as less reliable. This appears to be especially true among married people.

"Intense couple relationships come at the expense of other connections and activities, and they are especially demanding of women's time," Pollard said. "It may not be realistic to take an hour to sit down and read the paper, but it's much easier to check your Twitter feed or talk to a friend on the phone."

There may be another reason why people are using news sources that they don't think are reliable: "We have to consider that some people are looking to news platforms as a means of entertainment, such as satirical news, or celebrity gossip," added Pollard. "If this is the case, then finding a trustworthy or reliable source doesn't necessarily matter."

What Factors Might Affect People's News Choices and Views?

Marital status isn't the only factor that seems to affect how Americans consume the news. In fact, the survey data suggest that a variety of characteristics-age, gender, education, political beliefs-play a role in explaining people's habits.

The interactive chart below shows whether different groups of people are more or less likely to get their news from four kinds of sources-online, social media/in-person, print/broadcast, or radio-relative to people who belong to other groups. For example, people with liberal political views are more likely than conservatives to use online news sources. And a younger person is more likely than an older individual to get their news from social media or from in-person sources. (Use the dropdown to view the results for different types of new sources.)

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What Americans Think of the News-and What That Means for Democracy

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A healthy democracy relies on information. It requires engaged citizens to arm themselves with facts and hold their government to account. But today, the United States is embroiled in an era of what experts at the RAND Corporation call "Truth Decay." More and more, Americans are disagreeing about objective facts.

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This is agenda setting function because it tells what people think about wearing mask and why they are mad about it.

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Coronavirus: Why are Americans so angry about masks?

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How face coverings meant to curb virus spread became grounds for political battle.