Newport --

Location: Route 141 southbound to Commons Boulevard, Newport.

Dates and Times: 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 until 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 25, 2020.

Traffic Information: DelDOT's contractor will be closing the right-turn lane on Route 141 southbound for gas line relocation. [More]

Newark --

Location: Bridge over Middle Run Tributary on Paper Mill Road from Possum Park Road to Fox Den Road, Newark.

Dates and Times: 9:00 a.m. on April 9, 2020 until 5:00 p.m. on June 22, 2020, pending weather.

In order to place the box culvert across the roadway, Paper Mill Road will be closed to motorists. [More]

Wilmington --

Location: North Harrison Street from Delaware Avenue to Pennsylvania Avenue, Wilmington.

Times and Dates: 7:00 a.m. on Monday, May 4, 2020 until 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 7, 2020, pending weather.

Traffic Information: DelDOT announces to motorists that North Harrison Street will be closed for the roadway surface to be replaced with concrete to eliminate the deterioration of the roadway. [More]

Due to bridge construction, effective immediately the bus stops on Greenbank Rd. will be temporarily closed until further notice.

Greenbank Rd at railroad tracks east #4022 - board at the bus stop located on Greenbank Rd. at Albertson Blvd., #2489 OR at the temporary stop located on Route 41 northbound, approximately 120 feet north of the parking lot entrance to the Wilmington & Western Railroad.

Greenbank Rd at railroad tracks west #4023 & Greenbank Rd. opposite Greenbank Apts. #2628 – board at the stop located on Greenbank Rd. at Albertson Blvd., #1124.

Greenbank Rd. at Greenbank Apts. #2490 - board at the stop located on Greenbank Rd. at Albertson Blvd., #2489.

Notices will be posted at the affected stops directing riders to the alternate boarding locations.

Thanks for riding! For your traveling convenience download the free DART Transit app.

Due to construction, the bus stop on Basin Rd. at the News Journal, # 239, will be temporarily closed starting today, Friday, February 21 until approximately Monday, September 21. Riders should board at the temporary bus stop located on Basin Rd. about 230 feet north of the current stop.

Thanks for riding! For your traveling convenience download the free DART Transit app.

Due to road construction on Delaware Ave., the following Route 10 bus stops will be temporarily closed starting Monday, May 11 through Friday, May 15 from 8 AM to 5 PM each day.

Temporarily closed stops:

Going to Rising Sun Lane

Delaware Ave. at Lincoln St. #3814

Delaware Ave. at DuPont St. #1396

Board at the stops located on Delaware Ave. at Clayton St., #131 or Union St. at 17^th St., #1399

Going to Routes 273 & 7 Park & Ride

Delaware Ave. at Union St. #1468

Delaware Ave. at Lincoln St. #1469

Delaware Ave. at DuPont St. #1471

Delaware Ave. at Clayton St. #138

Board at the bus stops on Delaware Ave. at Bancroft Parkway #1466 OR Delaware Ave. at Broom St. #1473.

Thanks for riding! For your traveling convenience download the free DART Transit app.

Due to construction at the Newark Transit Hub, the bus stop on Farmer Lane at Delaware Ave., #3678, will be temporarily closed on Monday, May 11 from 7 AM to 5 PM.

Please board at the bus stop located at the Newark Transit Hub on Pomeroy Lane at Main St., #3679. A notice will be posted at affected bus stop directing riders to the alternate boarding location.

Thanks for riding! For your traveling convenience download the free DART Transit app.

To limit the potential spread of the Coronavirus, the Delaware Forest Service is announcing the following actions, effective immediately: The Lodge at Redden State Forest will be closed to the public until further notice. All campsites at Redden and Blackbird State Forests will be closed to the public until further notice. All large gatherings (>25 people) scheduled for any of the State Forests will be cancelled. State Forests will remain open to the general public for the time being for outdoor activities such as hiking, bird watching, horseback riding, etc.

Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs museums will be closed beginning on March 24, 2020 and their programs postponed until further notice.

DNREC announced the following changes to Ommelanden shooting range, the Brandywine Zoo, and Go Ape course as a result of COVID-19 issues.

The trail at the St. Jones Reserve (DNERR) near Dover is temporarily closed past the first marsh boardwalk as a result of damage caused by storms.

DOVER, Del. – The Polly Drummond Hill yard waste drop-off site near Newark, which opened for the season on Saturday, April 18, was closed to further drop-offs about noon on Sunday because of material capacity and traffic issues. DNREC will work this week to have its contractor shred and remove all the material that was dropped off until the closure, and create a traffic plan with the goal of reopening the site on Saturday, April 25. The site operates Saturdays and Sundays.

A statement from Governor Carney on Delaware Schools: “We made the difficult decision today – in consultation with superintendents across our state – to close schools through the rest of the academic year. I know this will be difficult for a lot of Delawareans, and Delaware students. Nothing replaces in-person instruction, and the services that […]

Effective Immediately – March 25, 2020 (Dover, Del.) – Governor John Carney ordered all non-essential businesses to close by Tuesday morning, March 24, 2020, at 8 a.m. and for all Delawareans to stay at home whenever possible to help fight the spread of COVID-19. As a safety precaution for customers and staff, the Delaware Office of […]

Notably, there are questions that he has raised which are not different from what Indians are already asking and discussing about between themselves.

The European Union will likely keep its external borders shut until June 15, after a recommendation from the European Commission to extend the current Covid-19 travel ban by another 30 days.
Read Full Article at RT.com

Coronavirus Update: Monuments are under Coronavirus radar too! Two months after an Indian was tested positive for the novel Coronavirus, the central government is taking big steps in order to curb the impact of widespread infection in India.

In accordance with the state government guidelines, the Mehrangarh Museum Trust, that runs the world famous site, also decided to shut Umaid Bhawan Palace Museum, Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park, Jaswant Thada and Ahhichatragarh Fort of Nagaur till March 31.

"Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Yatra has been closed from today. Operations of all interstate buses -- incoming and outgoing from Jammu and Kashmir, banned from today," the Jammu and Kashmir Director of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) said in a tweet.

As part of the precautionary measures, the district administration has advised tourists to vacate hotels IN two days and refrain from visiting Puri for now.

Major temples and places of worship across the country have announced various restrictions to curb the rush of pilgrims.

Major temples in Mathura have been closed for three to 10 days in view of the coronavirus pandemic, temple authorities said.

New York needs Broadway to be alive and well, so that tourism, hotels and restaurants do well, observed the spokesperson of a Broadway performers' association, citing a study showing that Broadway contributes nearly $15 billion to the local economy

Microsoft announced it has acquired Semantic Machines, a conversational AI startup providing chatbots and AI chat apps founded in 2014 having $20.9 million in funding from investors. The acquisition will help Microsoft catch up with Amazon Alexa, though the latter is more focused on enabling consumer applications of conversational AI.

Microsoft will use Semantic Machine’s acquisition to establish a conversational AI center of excellence in Berkeley to help it innovate in natural language interfaces.

Microsoft has been stepping up its products in conversational AI. It launched the digital assistant Cortana in 2015, as well as social chatbots like XiaoIce. The latest acquisition can help Microsoft beef up its ‘enterprise AI’ offerings.

As the use of NLP (natural language processing) increases in IoT products and services, more startups are getting traction from investors and established players. In June last year, Josh.ai, avoice-controlled home automation software has raised $8M.

Followed by it was SparkCognition that raised $32.5M Series B for its NLP-based threat intelligence platform.

It appears Microsoft’s acquisition of Semantic Machines was motivated by the latter’s strong AI team. The team includes technology entrepreneur Daniel Roth who sold his previous startups Voice Signal Technologies and Shaser BioScience for $300M and $100M respectively. Other team members include Stanford AI Professor Percy Liang, developer of Google Assistant Core AI technology and former Apple chief speech scientist Larry Gillick.

Siemens Building Technologies division announced it will acquire Enlighted Inc., a smart IoT building technology provider. The transaction is expected to close in Q3’18.

Enlighted Inc.’s core element is an advanced lighting control application. It is based on a patented, software-defined smart sensor that collects and monitors real-time occupancy, light levels, temperatures and energy usage.

The sensor can gauge temperature, light level, motion, energy, and has Bluetooth connectivity.

The Enlighted system works by collecting temperature, light and motion data via its smart sensors. A gateway device carries the information to Energy Manager, a secure browser-based interface to create profiles and adjust settings of the entire Enlighted Advanced Lighting Control System. The Energy manager operates as an analytics device.

The whole system consists of multi-function sensors, distributed computing, a network, and software applications run by Enlighted Inc.

Enlighted Inc.’s main target market is commercial real estate. Key use cases of its intelligent Lighting Control System are energy efficiency, controlling heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and building utilization reports.

Use the Postscapes 'Connected Products Framework' to understand the smart home and buildings eco-system.

All you need to know about F1's plans to start the season with behind-closed-doors races in Europe this July, including numbers required and what another positive Covid-19 test would do to the hopes of completing a full championship year.

Japan is a nation of bibliophiles and while bookstores saw a spike in sales as schools closed due to the outbreak of COVID-19, publishers now ...

Prague Daily Monitor

Some people are panicking, some people are fighting at the bulk retailers across the pond, some are getting haircuts in China with a meter distance between themselves and the barber. But what is actually going on here?

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LAHORE: Pakistan head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq says being confined to home due to the coronavirus-forced lockdown can become depressing and wants some cricket activities to resume soon even if the matches have to take place behind closed doors with proper safety barriers.

There are reports that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) was contemplating rescheduling and organising the three Test matches against Pakistan in August behind closed doors at Old Trafford, Manchester and Southampton.

Misbah said he would love to see some cricket activities resume at the international level, and has no problems in playing in empty stadiums.

“It is not an ideal situation for anyone because of this coronavirus pandemic and obviously the health and well being of everyone should be our top priority. But if matches can be held even in empty stadiums with the right safety barriers...I would have no problems,” Misbah was quoted as saying in a Press Trust of India report that appeared on The New Indian Express website on Friday.

The former Pakistan skipper said that the players have had nothing much to do except stay indoors for the last two months since the Pakistan Super League (PSL) was called off due to the global health crisis in March.

“Everyone is confined and I just think that if even if it can be made possible to bring some live cricket action to people sitting at home it would do them a lot of good,” Misbah said.

“It becomes depressing when you have nothing to do and hear about mostly Covid-19 news all the time. In this situation if sports can be resumed and if cricket can be started at least it will allow the people to watch cricket at home.”

Misbah, who took charge last year in September, said if the right safety barriers and precautions are put in place for players, match officials and other stake holders, cricket boards can move forward.

He, however, reminded that boards will have to follow their government instructions on the coronavirus.

German football league Bundesliga is set to resume on May 16 and Misbah said it was a positive development.

“But even they first got clearance from their government. Cricket boards also will have to do that,” he insisted.

The 45-year-old said the players were responsible for maintaining fitness standards during these testing times and he expects them to be in top condition whenever cricket resumes.

“I told them as cricket professionals it is their individual responsibility to take care of themselves and their fitness. Because they can be called on duty anytime,” he said.

Misbah said he had told the players fitness standards are essential nowadays because if they are fit they can also get back to form and match fitness quickly.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2020