My Word with Douglas E. Welch

New York is the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, so Headspace is bringing a little bit of relief to the Empire State. 

Headspace announced a partnership with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office to offer free guided meditations, sleep sounds, exercises, and mindfulness content for kids on a New York-specific webpage. In case you’re not aware, Headspace is a popular mindfulness mobile app that offers all of those things under normal circumstances, but usually charges a subscription fee to access everything.

“Now more than ever it’s critical that New Yorkers stay healthy both physically and mentally, and these resources will help people cope with rising levels of stress and anxiety during this unprecedented public health crisis,” Cuomo said in a statement.

This party game sets you the task of talking to your Smart Speaker in just the right way to win this new quarantine game.
Hey Robot is a game that’s been building support on Kickstarter and is yet to launch in full. However it’s lovely creators saw everyone getting bored whilst stuck at home self-isolating and have launched a rough version early that is free to play.

You need either an Amazon Alexa or Google Home speaker, they say it doesn’t work so well with phones. You place that near to your computer and call your friends to bring them in and you’re off in one of the two game modes.

To play Hey Robot, you have to make your Smart Speaker say a word or certain phrase without saying it yourself. It’s like taboo with a robotic and sometimes nonsensical player who also happens to have a hell of a lot at their disposal.

If your recent transition to working from home every day was made all the more challenging with a house full of kids not able to go to school, Big Bird and his Sesame Street gang are offering a little relief by making 110 ebooks for kids absolutely free on all the major online book platforms.

Accessing the free titles, which include everything from books teaching kids timely lessons like sitting still to sparking an interest in becoming the President one day, does require access to a mobile device like a smartphone, tablet, or ereader. But the Sesame Workshop has extended this offer to platforms including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, Google Play, Barnes & Noble Nook, and even Kobo, with no specified expiration date just yet.

Attention parents with school-aged kids who have way too much time on their hands: Amazon has opened up 40 of its most popular family shows to stream for free to all, meaning you don’t need to be a Prime member to enjoy them.

Among the titles available are full seasons of Amazon animated originals such as Bug Diaries and Pete the Cat, as well as older fare including Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street and Just Add Magic. Additionally, PBS Kids has taken down the Prime paywall for much of its content, so shows such as Arthur and Caillou are now free. You can browse the full selection of titles on a dedicated page, but it’s unclear how long the offer will last or whether new shows will be added over time.

The scientists running Seattle-based Oceans Initiative more typically apply their marine mammal expertise to research on endangered orcas or conservation of white-sided dolphins in Washington’s Puget Sound.

But the upside-down world of the new coronavirus and the closure of their nearly 6-year-old daughter’s school inspired them this week to launch what they’ve dubbed their Virtual Marine Biology Camp.