Amid coronavirus fears, the number of people working from home this week multiplied, compounded, quadrupled — depending on where you read the news.

If nothing else comes of the world’s response to the handling of the pandemic, one thing is all but certain: there will likely be an increase in the number of people working from home, even after life returns to relative normal.

Workers from most industries can expect to spend the coming weeks working from the comfort of their homes, waiting out toilet paper shortages, school sanitation efforts and something called social distancing, which, as it turns out, I have been preparing for my entire life.

We are, folks, living in strange times, which makes me more than appreciative that I work for a company that ensures its employees have the ability to work from home — where for the next two plus weeks I can expect to experience cabin fever while arguing with my significant other and re-learning second grade math as our daughter weathers an unplanned and prolonged spring break.

And I welcome all of it, because I know this luxury is not afforded to everyone, particularly those in the service industry.

Stay healthy out there and let CR4 know how remote working, self-quarantining, social distancing or working on site amid the pandemic is going for you.

PS: Social distancing wise, I haven’t had to engage in the prolonged physical greetings family members and friends seem to typically enjoy. Instead I can awkwardly wave at them from no less than 6 feet away — just as I like it.

For a brief shining moment in a little town in northern Italy, a sparkling red wine flowed freely from an aqueduct and into the pipes of some lucky residents' homes before a local waste disposal company put an end to the merriment.

Settecani, a town in northern Italy’s wine region and home to the Settecani Castelvetro Winery, experienced a plumbing incident of (going for the low-hanging fruit here) biblical proportions — where water, albeit briefly, turned into wine.

Following a fault in a silo on the production line at the Settecani Castelvetro Winery, Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro, a sparkling red wine, passed through Settecani’s municipal water system, into a local aqueduct and, eventually, through the pipes of some of the townspeople’s homes.

Feeling compelled to issue an apology for the alleged mishap, the winery stated: Due to a fault in the bottling line, Lambrusco Grasparossa came out of some taps in Settecani," the winery said in an (unnecessary) apology posted to Facebook. "Hera (a waste disposal company) intervened following our report and the problem was solved. The incident did not involve hygiene or health risks. We apologise for the inconvenience caused."

Most of those affected by the event were too preoccupied to lodge complaints as they busily scrambled to bottle up the wine flowing from their taps, blissfully unaware that a killjoy neighbor (I’m assuming) would eventually blab about the snafu — all because dishes and a shower just couldn’t wait.

As the hysteria surrounding the spread of the coronavirus intensifies — hastened along by blogs and articles like this one — several products, legitimate and otherwise, are cropping up to ease the concerns of a manic public.

Among the bevy of apps, AI systems, and customized masks innovators have created to track and fight the virus, a developer from Penda China has created a wearable shield of sorts to quite literally battle the quick-spreading virus.

Dubbed “Be a Batman” in a nod to the possibility that bats are the source of the virus, the shield is a lightweight structure of PVC film that shrouds the wearer in a protective layer, a so-called third skin or bubble. The structure is worn on the body like a backpack secured by a carbon fiber skeleton frame and the PVC film wraps around the wearer, enveloping the wearer’s face and most of his or her body, shielding against the virus.

In addition to the protective gear, ultraviolet light acts as another layer of protection, sterilizing the surface of the shield, reportedly slowing the person-to-person spread of the virus.

Unfortunately, the suit is only in the design phase and won’t be available until its developer finds a company interested in bringing the suit to market.

In the meantime, we can all commission creepy customized masks designed to conceal the fact that we are wearing masks by superimposing an image of our mouths on the standard protective mask. Somehow, this seems more upsetting than people moving around concealed by nothing more than a structured, life-sized Tide pod.

Source: Penda China

At first, I was intrigued by the headline: China Launches “Close Contact Detector” App. A promise, perhaps, to keep those who get too close from breaking some imaginary, yet very discernible personal space boundary during day-to-day interactions. If you’ve ever felt the hot breath of a stranger reach the back of your neck while innocently standing in line at Target, you'll understand why an app like this would be appealing.

Alas, this is not what the app is for.

Instead, researchers from China are enabling its citizens to track their movements in relation to others infected, or suspected of being infected, with the coronavirus.

Using the wealth of data China already collects about its citizens who are tracked via a national identification number and other methods, the app draws from data about a user’s movements, for instance from records about public transportation usage, to determine if a user has either traveled with, worked alongside, or even lived with someone demonstrating symptoms of the coronavirus.

To access this information, users are required to register their phones and input their names and national IDs to reveal their historical movements and measure those movements against the movements of those infected with the virus.

While the app will likely have significant implications for reducing coronavirus exposure, I’ll be waiting patiently right here for someone to develop the app that triggers an alarm whenever someone gets too close.

Psychos.

Sure, they can be entertaining, but do you want them sleeping in your bed, using your shower or having unfettered access to your closets and cabinets?

Airbnb, the online marketplace for short-term rentals, doesn’t think so if their recent acquisition is any indicator.

To weed out undesirables hoping to stay at your Airbnb, the company is now ensuring through its recent acquisition of Trooly, a startup with its own background tech technology, that psychopaths don’t slip through the cracks so they can rent and then subsequently destroy your home without a second thought.

To determine if a customer is a psychopath, Trooly uses its artificial intelligence to scan a person’s online presence, looking for signs to hint at their trustworthiness as a potential renter in terms of their online behavior. They examine everything from posts, to hateful comments and even whether the user has been banned from any sites due to bad behavior. Additionally, the technology also scans for signs of neuroticism, narcissism and Machiavellianism.

While Airbnb has not officially commented on using the technology yet, reports are that the technology has been used to weed out these folks for some time now.

Been wondering why your recent Airbnb request was rejected? Now you know….