The pandemic came over us like a dark cloud on a sunny day. Many of us now faced a scenario we weren’t prepared for and had to bear the hardships of lockdowns. We were all faced with numerous challenges and the hard times seemed to never come to an end. Lighter Side of Covid-19.
However, as the famous saying goes, “There’s a silver lining in every dark cloud,” we will share with you a few positive and exciting things that happened during these dark times.
SpaceX launches astronauts
While some were trying to escape the pandemic through escape rooms, others were running by leaving earth. The Internet’s favourite entrepreneur, Elon Musk, made it to the headlines again – this time through his company SpaceX.
Though it is a popular notion that SpaceX aims to land people on Mars, the company goes further than that. For many years now, the company has been researching making reusable rockets that can launch to space and return to earth safely without destroying the rocket in the process.
In May 2020, SpaceX successfully launched two astronauts – Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley – into orbit aboard the spacecraft Crew Dragon. The spacecraft was powered by the reusable Falcon 9 rocket and launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX built both the spacecraft and the rocket. This feat made the company the first to send passengers into space on a private vehicle. The event also gained attention as it was the first time since 2011 that astronauts were launched to space from US soil.
The astronauts successfully returned from their mission in August 2020 in a historical event. Both astronauts became the first American astronauts to splash down in 45 years. The success of this mission marked a new era for both SpaceX and space exploration.
Solar energy from invisible light
With global warming and climate change on our throats, renewable energy is one of the critical solutions to combat this vice. Solar energy has always been one of the most affordable and readily available forms of renewable energy for consumers.
The sun provides a nearly infinite source of energy that can be harnessed and converted to electricity by solar panels. The limitations of this form of electricity generation come from the availability of sunlight. The conversion of solar energy is only possible in the presence of the sun, and therefore, the solar panels are ineffective at night or during bad weather.
In July 2020, a team of Australian and American scientists published a research article that explored a new technology that could harness solar energy. The shortcoming of conventional solar panels was that they were limited to working on the visible light spectrum, ignoring the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums. In their research findings, the scientists found a means of harnessing energy from these other spectrums. Lighter Side of Covid-19.
The result of their research was a technology that makes use of oxygen and the invisible light spectrum to generate electricity. Although the efficiency of this technology is less than that of conventional solar panels, it paves the way for further research and development that could overcome the shortcomings of renewable solar energy.
GameStop drama
Who says individuals can’t fight mega-corporations? Reddit is not new to groups of like-minded people who achieve a common goal. This story features a historic battle between Reddit users and Wall Street hedge funds.
In January 2021, a group of Reddit users on WallStreetBets launched a campaign against hedge funds over GameStop stock prices. This initiative was led by Keith Gill, a stock trader and YouTube streamer who shared details about his GameStop stocks on the Reddit forum.
The action garnered the attention of several users on the forum who revolted against the hedge funds’ loathed practice of shorting stocks. The users believed that the prices of stocks should not be dictated by these hedge funds but rather by the company’s performance. Many of these users rushed to buy the company’s stocks, driving up its price and forcing the hedge fund managers to exit at a loss.
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What seemed to be just another Internet drama was bigger than expected. A stock trading company, Robinhood, who feared incurring damaging losses, prevented its users from trading in GameStop stocks. This action was shunned by several people, including politicians, who accused the company of market manipulation, and lawsuits followed.
This entire scene is an example of what people on the Internet can achieve when they get together. What started with an individual soon garnered support from many like-minded people and formed a movement that shook the stock market. This incident is one of the several occasions when Internet groups have worked together to do something beneficial. Lighter Side of Covid-19
Argentine buys Google domain for $4
And for a more humorous headline – a man in Argentina recently bought Google Argentina’s domain.
On April 21, 2021, Nicolas Kurona noticed that Google Argentina was down, and he decided to investigate the matter. The argentine web developer searched Google on the Network Information Center Argentina and found out that the domain was available for purchase. He did what any web developer would do for such a popular domain – purchase it.
Nicolas followed the steps on the website required to purchase the domain, and to his surprise, the transaction was successful. He had just purchased Google Argentina for just 270 pesos, an equivalent of $2.90.
His ownership of the domain was brief as Google reclaimed the site, and Nicolas got refunded. For the few hours of this incident, anyone visiting the site got a website with an emoji and a text saying the domain was available. When Google reclaimed the site, visitors could once again access the search engine. The company claimed their license for the site hadn’t expired and was set to do so in July 2021. Lighter Side of Covid-19.
Nicola’s short-lived control of the Google domain earned him a brief moment of fame. His tweet announcing his purchase of the site gained more than 80,000 likes.
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Conclusion
The technology industry continues to evolve and never stops, just like a ticking clock. Technology has played an immense role in bringing us a silver lining in these dark days of the pandemic. It brought us numerous forms of entertainment. It also gave us the means to continue learning and brought about several changes to major industries.
I hope these few mentions of positive incidents that occurred during the pandemic will be sufficient to make you see the lighter side of the pandemic.
