5 Weird Problems Popping Up Because Of All This

4Companies Are Hawking More (Basically Racist) Facial Recognition Systems

These days, companies are selling facial recognition systems with the same enthusiasm and ethical standards as a guy selling weed to junior high kids. For example, state agencies and the federal government are considering buying software from Clearview AI (which sells facial recognition tech to police forces) to trace patients and their contacts. And Californian lawmakers considered a bill that would let authorities feed anyone's facial data without that person's consent, as long as there was probable cause to think they committed "criminal activity"-- and, yes, that definition is disconcertingly broad. Assemblyman Ed Chau tried to sell it as a tool that would help fight COVID. Thankfully, concerns about it possibly being used to identify protesters got the bill scrapped.

In Florida, Tampa General Hospital installed thermal-scanning face cameras that can detect fevers, sweating, and discoloration -- and a Texas company wants to put the same cameras not just in hospitals, but in voting locations and grocery stores too. In other words, COVID is being used as an excuse to bring us that much closer to a sci-fi reality.

3The Rise In Ordering Takeout Led To A Rise In Drug Dealing

During lockdown, people have been ordering way more takeout than usual which has been a boon for sleazy delivery companies. It turns out it boosted the fortunes of your neighborhood drug dealer, too. Why? Delivering food is the perfect cover for smuggling drugs -- you can stash lots of drugs into food packages, cut into that munchies market, and it doesn't look suspicious unless you truly have no restraint (we'll get back to that point a little later). And with a lot more cars, bicycles, and motorcycles delivering food than usual, dealers just started moving drugs like crazy.

2Endangered Species Are In A Lot More Trouble

Regardless of what Twitter posts saying, "nature is healing" would make you think, this whole thing has been grim for endangered species all over the world. In Africa, Asia, and South America, nearly extinct species have been getting cut down at much higher rates than before. Nine rhinos were poached in South Africa and six in Botswana, while five jaguars, a puma, and an ocelot got killed in Colombia. These numbers might seem tiny, but for endangered species, they're huge -- for example, three giant ibises were killed in Colombia, and they were about two percent of the entire global population.

1No One Knows What The Weather Forecast Actually Is

Probably the least well-known function of regular air traffic is that it collects weather data for the forecasts you see on your phone every day. See, to gather data the pilot constantly needs, the instruments of an aircraft in flight are always measuring things like air pressure, temperature, wind direction and speed. In the U.S. and Europe, meteorologists' computer models collect that data and take it into account for their forecasts. The world-leading European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF ) says it's the second most crucial input after satellite data, so losing it is a pretty big deal.

The thing with airplane data is that it fills in areas that other sources don't cover and, right now, we ... basically have almost no idea what's going on there. Airplane data is down 75-80% worldwide, but there's big regional variation. For example, it's only down 25% in the U.S. (mainly because the U.S. kept a lot of cargo planes flying, unlike Europe), but more than 90% in the Southern Hemisphere. Still, there's a big loss everywhere -- the only difference is whether it's simply big or near-total. So how is that affecting our ability to forecast the weather?

Scientists can't agree on exactly how much it's doing, but it seems to be doing something. The ECMWF says there might be a "noticeable" drop in forecast accuracy, although the NOAA says they haven't seen a clear drop (but that may be because U.S. air traffic hasn't fallen as much as European traffic). Still, the NOAA, ECMWF, and other agencies are busy trying to fill in the gaps -- they're ordering more weather balloon launches than usual and gathering data from an airborne observing network maintained by a private company. So, basically, you should take weather forecasts with a super big pinch of salt these days ... you know, if you actually manage to go outside right now.

Top image: Wesley Gibbs/Unsplash, Derek Malou/Unsplash