Champaign, III. – Quarantine has given rise to several new online sensations, from rapidly changing TikTok challenges to Joe Exotic and the wild documentary starring him, Tiger King.

One such sensation, Tory Lanez’s Quarantine Radio has gained notoriety of its own, so much so that Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri had to suspend the viral radio show last week. The content itself was deemed inappropriate, which, given some of the content (which shall not be mentioned here, but can be found all over Twitter and YouTube) is totally fair.

“Quarantine Radio is great, so shout out to Tory Lanez for that,” Mosseri said in an Instagram Live interview with The Shade Room. “The lives have been great, the lives with the fans have been great. But you can’t have nudity on Instagram.”

Under normal circumstances, perhaps the social media site would be more lenient on its content restrictions. But the sometimes raunchy entertainment that made Quarantine Radio so viral was becoming impossible to address, especially when an influx of people are on their phones and using the app. At the peak of it’s popularity (which is still arguably now), Quarantine Radio was bringing in views at record numbers.

Of course this didn’t stop Lanez at all. Like every social media user, the instant his account got suspended he just made a new one, and pulled in over 27,000 new followers in just one minute. As of today, the account @thequarantineradio has over 164,000 followers.

Lanez’s Quarantine Radio has included guest appearances from a number of celebrities and artists such as Timbaland, Chris Brown, Drake, DMX and more. After his lengthy calls he engages the fans (sort of) and allows them to join his call for the “twerking segment”.

Mosseri said that while he was a fan of Lanez and didn’t particularly have any problem with the “radio show” and its content, there were two separate occasions where the app’s developers had to shut the stream down.

Rapper Royce Da 5’9″ and host of The Breakfast Club Charlamagne Tha God spoke out against the ban, and not long after new fans of the show went ballistic with the hashtag #FreeTory going viral on Twitter.

“There’s a short period of time where you can’t go live again. We have to stick to the rules otherwise why do we have them? But generally, big fan of Tory Lanez, big fan of Quarantine Radio, but no nudity! We can’t have that.”

The ban would not last long however, as the account has been reactivated since last Friday. When he returned, Lanez said that executives lifted his ban early because new mixtape New Toronto 3 was “so good”.

Nevertheless, the goal of Quarantine Radio, which was to promote the mixtape in the first place, has definitely been achieved. On Sunday the rapper took to his Instagram to thank his fans for 60,000 unit sales and counting, and has put out Quarantine Radio merchandise on his personal website.

Champaign, Ill. – The Beyonce Horsefly, the John Lennon Airport and now the Lady Gaga Treehopper. The act of naming things after celebrities is far from a new phenomenon, so when the University of Illinois graduate student Brendan Morris discovered a new species of treehopper, he knew just the way to get the new into headlines.

The reasoning behind the name was more than just for the headline though, as he told the U of I News Bureau, “If there is going to be a Lady Gaga bug, it’s going to be a treehopper, because they’ve hot these crazy horns, they have this wacky crazy horns, they have this wacky fashion sense about them,” Morris said. The species even communicate via “singing” to each other by vibrating plant stems, adding more credence to the naming. 

Treehoppers come in all shapes and sizes and are some of the most diverse-looking bugs in the animal kingdom. A type of thorn bug, many might be more familiar with its relatives the cicadas and leafhoppers. 

Kaikaia gaga was announced to the scientific world by Morris and his co-author Christopher Dietrich in the journal Zootaxa. It distinguished itself not only as a new species but a new genus. The species different leg hairs, “face”, and genitalia set it apart from any other treehopper currently known Morris explained. 

These unique features allude to more questions than answers and open the door to more research. Specifically, the genitalia appeared more in line with treehoppers from other regions such as the Caribbean, and more genetic research is necessary to determine what if any connections K. Gaga might have to other species. 

Such questions may take some time to answer though as the current specimen of K. Gaga revealed no DNA and to find living specimens would likely require a trip to Nicaragua, where the original specimen was found. 

The paper, “An unusual new genus and species of centrotine treehopper (Hemiptera: Membracidae: Centrotinae) from Nicaragua” can be found online at the University of Illinois’s News Bureau. We will continue to provide updates as they become available. 

Urbana, Ill. – Over the last few weeks, fears of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak have grown both internationally and on campus.  While no cases are being reported in the Champaign-Urbana community, the University is still taking precautions to preemptively prevent the spread and impact of the virus.

A number of previously-planned international and domestic spring break immersion trips have been cancelled.  According to the University of Illinois News Bureau, all international spring break programs have been cancelled, such as the College of Businesses trip to South America, and certain domestic programs, such as the Advertising Department’s trip to Seattle, have also been cancelled.

The University is advising that all students studying in a country with a Level 3 advisory—meaning that all nonessential travel should be avoided—should return home of leave to accommodations in another region, and the offer to end their international program is being extended to all students abroad as well regardless of their country of stay.  Protocol states that students returning from these regions are required to self-quarantine for 14 days before returning to campus.

Both at home and abroad, some schools are cancelling instruction all together.  The University of Washington in Seattle and Stanford University have cancelled all in-person classes on campus as it moves its instruction online for the duration of their quarter.  Both schools have reported staff members have tested positive with the disease.

Ohio has declared a state of emergency after three people in the state tested positive for the disease, and six others have been quarantined due to contact with the patients.  In Illinois, the number of confirmed cases is still at seven and no deaths have occurred.

In a report from CNN on Monday, the number of reported cases in China seems to be dropping as compared with the previous weeks.  Businesses and schools are beginning to reopen, including more than 100 Chinese high schools.

More information from the University can be found at covid19.illinois.edu.  We will continue to provide updates as they become available.