March Networks' New AI-Enabled X-Series Hybrid Recorders Leverage NVIDIA SoC for Accelerated Application Development

March Networks®, a global video surveillance and video-based business intelligence leader, is pleased to introduce its X-Series Hybrid Recorders, a new high-performance platform that’s optimized to support Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications with NVIDIA system-on-chip (SoC) technology.

The X-Series is March Networks’ most powerful recording platform to date, delivering a 400% increase in throughput over its previous generation recorders. It is a true hybrid platform supporting a mix of analog, HD analog and IP channels, but with all the power and storage capacity needed for demanding all-IP installations. Available in 16, 24, 32, 48 and 64-channel configurations, the embedded, Linux-based appliances also feature a dedicated AI engine and SoC technology from American GPU and AI computing leader NVIDIA.

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US: Over 29.5M Cases - 533K Dead - 20M Recovered
Worldwide: Over 116M Cases - 2.5M Dead - 92M Recovered

Former Senior Loss Prevention Executive
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Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 279  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 266
*Red indicates change in total deaths

Two-Week Trend - COVID Cases Down 17%
COVID Cases Appear to be Plateauing Nationwide While Decreasing Slightly
While most states continue to see declines, some states are seeing an uptick. The Journal’s analysis showed that in more than 15 states as of Wednesday, the average number of new cases over the past seven days was greater than the average number of cases over the past 14 days, a sign cases are on the rise. Those states include Texas, Arkansas, New Jersey and Mississippi.

In all, the U.S. has reported 28.8 million cases, and more than 520,000 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins data. World-wide, more than 115.6 million cases have been reported and over 2.56 million people have died. wsj.com

As Texas Drops Mask Mandate, Covid-19 Cases Bear Watching
As states continue to ease restrictions, the business world’s reaction remains mixed. Hyatt Hotels Corp , Target Corp. , Starbucks Corp. and CVS Health Corp. , are among the major corporations saying they have no plans to drop mask requirements. Gym operator Life Time Inc., Albertsons Cos. and a number of local restaurants plan to stop mandating masks or return to normal capacity, or both.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, as of Wednesday, 21 states were considered to be reopened, up from eight in early January. An additional 22 states have eased restrictions. wsj.com

Dr. Fauci slams Texas, Mississippi for ‘inexplicable’ decision to lift mask mandate
Dr. Anthony Fauci is urging Texas and Mississippi residents to keep wearing face coverings after their Republican governors lifted COVID-19 mask mandates in the states — slamming the decision as “inexplicable.”

But Fauci, the president’s science adviser, said Thursday that “now is not the time to pull back” on the public health measures. “The good news is we have vaccines coming online. You see the curve of infections coming down,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“But we have reached a bit of plateau where the deflection isn’t going straight down the way it was,” he said, adding, “I would advise the people of Texas and Mississippi to just abide by the public health measures we talk about all the time.”

“I understand the need to want to get back to normality, but you’re only going to set yourself back if you just completely push aside the public health guidelines — particularly when we’re dealing with anywhere from 55 to 70,000 infections per day in the United States,” Fauci told CNN’s Erin Burnett. nypost.com

Here We Go Again? New Strain "Evades" the Vaccine?
Happy Anniversary NYC - On COVID's 1st Birthday

New COVID Strain "Proliferating Vigorously Across NYC
A new strain of the coronavirus, known as B.1.526, is proliferating vigorously across New York City, after having originated in February in a part of upper Manhattan known as Washington Heights.

“I am concerned about its immune escape,” Dr. Eric Topol told Yahoo News, a reference to the strain’s heightened ability to evade the body’s antiviral armaments, including a vaccine. Vaccines remain broadly effective against the coronavirus, including B.1.526, but the emergence of new varieties will require constant vigilance from virologists.

The eventual goal is a universal coronavirus vaccine that could defang any and all versions of the spiky pathogen.

The new variant’s arrival comes along exactly a year after New York City began reporting coronavirus cases. “The variants are the X factor here,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.

As the arrival of the new variant shows, the pandemic is far from over. Some half-dozen strains of the coronavirus are now spreading across the United States.

As the CDC has warned, opening up while new strains of the coronavirus are gaining force may ultimately prolong the pandemic. “Fatigue is winning,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky cautioned on Wednesday

26 percent of the coronavirus cases identified last week were of the B.1.526 variant. “It’s really all over the city.” yahoo.com

Europe Experiencing an Unwelcomed Resurgence of COVID After six weeks of declining numbers
Rising 9% in the past week. World Health Organization officials attributed some of the increase to a more contagious variant, first detected in the United Kingdom, that is driving an outbreak in the Czech Republic and Hungary. washingtonpost.com
 

OSHA Failed Essential Workers Across the Nation

Was it a Structural/Organizational problem or internal Leadership issue?
Or Was it the Previous Administration? Or a mixture of all of the above?

OSHA’s Job Is Workplace Safety. In the Covid-19 Pandemic, It Often Struggled.
Federal and state agencies conducted fewer inspections than in the past and often handled coronavirus complaints through no more than an exchange of letters, a Wall Street Journal investigation shows.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration faced one of the biggest workplace-safety challenges in its 50-year history when the coronavirus struck.

It didn’t meet the moment.

Instead of thoroughly investigating complaints of unsafe practices at workplaces, the federal agency and state OSHA agencies it oversees often took limited steps, OSHA records and state health data show, leaving workers more vulnerable to workplace outbreaks.

Structural/Organizational Problem?: OSHA’s mandate, spelled out in a 1970 law, is to help ensure safe and healthy working conditions, by setting workplace standards and enforcing them.

The agency’s rules are largely designed to minimize chemical-exposure risks and injuries such as falls and electric shock—for the most part, problems that are readily identifiable and correctable. It has struggled to address the altogether different hazard of the coronavirus: invisible, lacking a sure corrective and permeating blurred lines between workplace and the world outside.

Leadership Problems?: Federal OSHA, which regulates workplaces in 29 states, sets standards for state agencies elsewhere. Federal OSHA said when the virus struck that it had rules in place to protect workers. Yet some state agencies took an opposite position—that there were no rules to enforce to address many Covid-19 concerns. Other state agencies created rules of their own.

Understaffed & Not Supported By Previous Administration?: Workers flooded state and federal OSHA agencies with complaints alleging their workplaces weren’t safe. On the federal level, OSHA’s compliance-officer staff had declined in recent years. Managers needed to limit the officers’ exposure to Covid-19. Compounding the challenge early on were shortages of masks and shifting guidance from authorities about who needed to wear them, in the face of a poorly understood threat. Continue reading

Wall Street Journal Investigation:
How OSHA Struggled to Address Workplace Safety During
the Pandemic
A Wall Street Journal investigation found that OSHA, the agency whose job it is to ensure worker safety, conducted fewer inspections and often took limited steps to address complaints of unsafe work practices during the pandemic. Investigative reporter Alexandra Berzon joins host Annmarie Fertoli with the details.  wsj.com
 

Gap Inc Q4 comp's flat (when open), store sales down 28%, digital sales up 49%, total net sales down 5%
Gap Inc FY 2020 comp's flat, digital sales up 54%, total net sales down 15.7%
   Old Navy Q4 comp's comp's up 7%, net sales up 5%, FY 2020 net sales down 5.6%
   Gap Global Q4 comp's down 6%, net sales down 19%, FY 2020 net sales down 26.8%
   Banana Republic Q4 comp's down 22%, net sales down 27%, FY 2020 net sales down 42.4%
   Athleta Q4 comp's up 26%, net sales up 29%, FY 2020 net sales up 15.2%

Ruth's Hospitality Group Q4 comp. owned comp's down 39.7%, sales down 43%, FY 2020 comp's down 40.2%, sales down 40.9%