In an interview on Harvard Business Review, Scott Berinato talks with David Kessler, the "world's foremost authority on grief," and author of Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief. Kessler has also worked in a three-hospital system in LA for three years and served on their biohazards team.

You said we’re feeling more than one kind of grief?

Yes, we’re also feeling anticipatory grief. Anticipatory grief is that feeling we get about what the future holds when we’re uncertain. Usually it centers on death. We feel it when someone gets a dire diagnosis or when we have the normal thought that we’ll lose a parent someday. Anticipatory grief is also more broadly imagined futures. There is a storm coming. There’s something bad out there. With a virus, this kind of grief is so confusing for people. Our primitive mind knows something bad is happening, but you can’t see it. This breaks our sense of safety. We’re feeling that loss of safety. I don’t think we’ve collectively lost our sense of general safety like this. Individually or as smaller groups, people have felt this. But all together, this is new. We are grieving on a micro and a macro level.

What can individuals do to manage all this grief?

Understanding the stages of grief is a start. But whenever I talk about the stages of grief, I have to remind people that the stages aren’t linear and may not happen in this order. It’s not a map but it provides some scaffolding for this unknown world.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/26/harvard-business-review-talks.html

White House plans to label counties across America as "high-risk, medium-risk, or low-risk"

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/26/trump-to-rank-the-coronavirus.html

Cirque du Soleil just launched 'CirqueConnect,' where you can view shows -- it's especially great for kids stuck indoors during the pandemic shutdown.

All of the company's live shows are canceled due to the coronavirus crisis, and they are exploring financial options that include bankruptcy, reports Reuters.

Las Vegas casinos and resorts, including the one that hosts Cirque's shows, are all shut down.

So many people are out of work in America. It's so awful.

From Reuters:

The famed Montreal-based circus company, largely known for its regular shows in Las Vegas venues, had to temporarily lay off most of its staff after social distancing measures put in place to prevent the spread of the virus nixed its performances.

Cirque du Soleil is working with restructuring advisers to address a cash crunch and its roughly $900 million in debt, the sources said on Thursday.

Creditors are also in talks with advisers as they prepare for possible negotiations with the company, the sources said.

But IN RELATED GOOD NEWS:

Cirque just launched a new digital content hub called CirqueConnect that lets you watch a stream of past performances.

The first stream will premier on Friday, March 27, at noon PST, featuring a 60-minute special of the shows "KURIOS - Cabinet of Curiosities," "O" and "LUZIA."

Our Cirque du Soleil shows offer an escape from everyday life through delight and whimsy. Announcing #CirqueConnect, your home for Cirque du Soleil content: exercise the #CirqueWay, learn new makeup techniques, dive into VR, or entertain your kids.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/26/cirque-du-soleil-launches-onli.html

Elon Musk previously mocked 'coronavirus panic' as 'dumb.'

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/26/at-tesla-2-employees-test-pos.html

One of the contamination vectors that I think many people may be overlooking is shopping and safely dealing with groceries after bringing them home. In this video, the best I've seen to date, a Michigan doctor, Jeffrey VanWingen, goes through, step-by-step, how to process your groceries when you get them home to give you your best chance of not bringing COVID-19 into your house.

I like his analogy using glitter. Imagine that your groceries are covered in glitter. You need to get your groceries into the house and processed so that you end up with no glitter on your groceries, your kitchen, or on you. Disinfectant dissolves glitter (in this analogy).

[H/t Laurie Fox]

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/26/informative-and-thorough-video.html

Don't be boring! If you still have to go to work meetings via Zoom's video calls, switch up the background to something interesting. Using the "virtual background" feature (once you're logged into the meeting), you can insert ANY image you want behind you. Share your flair with the people you work with!

May I suggest a few to get started?

Dune, complete with sandworm:

One of the many Scooby Doo backdrops:

Spooky...

or not:

Pee-wee suggests taking that meeting in his Playhouse:

(Pee-wee Herman)

Also:

-- the bridge of the Star Trek Enterprise

-- Planet Tatooine from Star Wars

What you got?

Zoom image/YouTube, Dune image via Google Search, Scooby Doo image via Dread Central, Playhouse image via Pee-wee Herman Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/26/you-can-use-any-image-for-your.html

Brian May, "your friendly neighbourhood rock star" (as he described himself in a post) is doing a series of "MicroConcertos" on his Instagram account. On them, he shows fans and fellow guitarists how he achieves some of his famous Queen licks.

Brian is also using his account to try and keep fans' spirits up and to encourage them to take self-isolation very seriously, observe sterile technique, and to make the most out of the time. "Keep calm and create" he summarizes.

View this post on Instagram

This spontaneously turned into a ‘Star Licks’ type tutorial ... as an experiment, really. I don’t think I’ll Ever try to do it this way again, though - because it was ridiculously time-consuming trying to put it all up on IG ‘Stories’. Here’s a very rough potted version for posterity. Tell me how useful (or not!) it was. OK ? Bri

A post shared by Brian Harold May (@brianmayforreal) on Mar 21, 2020 at 5:10am PDT

Image: Screengrab Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/26/queens-brian-may-teaches-his.html

Diamond Comics is the exclusive shipping and distribution source for all weekly comic books. Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, Boom! — they all send their single-issues to comic book stores through Diamond.

Due to coronavirus concerns, however, the company has halted all shipments for the foreseeable future.

Comic book stores can still sell other merchandise, as well as some graphic novels, trade paperbacks, collected editions, and other bound book-style publications. Single-issues will also continue to be available digitally through Comixology, as most publishers have already announced their solicitations for new comics through at least June.

But what this means for the future of the comic book industry remains to be seen. While graphic novels and trade paperbacks of single issues have continued to increase in popularity, those single weekly issues remain the backbone of the industry, just as they've been for the last 50+ years. The entire serialized structure of the medium depends on it. Even if you prefer to pick up the collected editions of SAGA (also known as "waiting for the trade"), the comic still benefits from the 6 months of promotion that it gets every time a new single issue is released. Each single issue sells around 40,000 copies, compared to 1-2,000 copies per graphic novel (although the first trade paperback continues to sell more than 1,000 copies per month on average, based on a quick glance through Diamond's sales charts). Self-contained graphic novels — those that are created and released as a single, cohesive entity, instead of as a collection of single issues — rarely sell as well as collected trade paperbacks. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/26/there-will-be-no-new-comic-boo.html

Whether you’re a worried preparer for the worst or just a little concerned about what’s ahead, you may have...overdone it during your last trip to the store. Maybe you picked up some extra frozen goods or a larger stockpile of cheeses or dairy products than usual. And your fridge or freezer is now likely packed to the gills as a result.

And Lord, if you made a Costco or Sam’s Club run, then all bets are really off.

Under the circumstances, it may be time to consider some extra refrigerator and freezer space to handle all that overflow. Right now, German manufacturer ICECO, who has made a name for themselves for decades as makers of quality portable refrigerator and freezer units, have three of their best models on sale.

To top it off, each model is also a Red Dot Design award winner, an international honor given to items that truly changed the game for product design. So you know these units are cool in more ways than one.

ICECO Go12: 12.8L Mini Portable Freezer ($319.99; originally $399.99)

If you’ve got some extra perishables you don’t want to go to waste, this ice chest-sized cooler-freezer might do the trick. Engineered for vehicle travel, this 12.8L capacity unit sports a robust SECOP compressor and a pair of cooling settings, so your food can quickly reach freezing temperatures and maintain that temperature even while the freezer saves energy. The Go12 can also be controlled via the Car Fridge app, so you can always check the state of your food and adjust accordingly, no matter where you are. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/did-you-go-crazy-at-the-grocer.html

The Cheesecake Factory, with more than 200 restaurants across the U.S. and more than $2bn in annual revenues, today warned its landlords they will not be getting rent in April.

The Calabasas Hills-based company informed all of its landlords in a letter dated March 18 (reproduced below) that a severe decline in restaurant traffic has decreased its cash flow and “inflicted a tremendous financial blow” to business. Cheesecake Factory’s affiliated restaurants, such as Rock Sugar and North Italia, will also not make April 1 rent payments.

Company chairman and CEO David Overton writes, “Due to these extraordinary events, I am asking for your patience, and frankly, your help.” He continues, “we appreciate our landlords’ understanding given the exigency of the current situation.” The letter says that the company hopes to resume paying rent as soon as possible.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/cheesecake-factory-tells-landl.html

In this thoughtful and heartwarming little video message, astronaut Chris Hadfield (the man who brought you Bowie from space), shares some tips on coming to grips with isolation and ends with the wonderful, "Take care of yourself, take care of your family, take care of your friends, and take care of your spaceship." Simple words to live by.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/astronaut-chris-hadfield-share-2.html

The Mars InSight Lander has a ton of tools for exploring the Red Planet next door, including a 15-inch digging probe (also known as "the mole") meant to burrow into the Martian soil and take measurements.

Unfortunately, the mole got stuck. From Popular Science:

A rock could be in the way, but the more likely culprit appears to be the Martian soil. Previous observations had led the German Aerospace Center engineers who designed the probe to expect that it would be digging through loose sand. They built the mole to bounce up and down like a jackhammer, sinking with each stroke and threading its way around any modestly sized rocks it encountered. But the probe has found soil that seems more dirt-like than sand-like; It sticks together and doesn’t collapse around the mole to give it enough friction to dig. What the mole needs is a little nudge.

So what did they do to get the mole unstuck? They used the shovel-like scoop at the end of one of the InSight Lander's robot arms to pin down the mole. "The move is risky," Popular Science explained, "because a delicate tether that provides power and communications from the lander attaches to the back part of the mole, and a hard whack could damage it."

Fortunately, it worked.

Who knew that the "Why are you hitting yourself?" game would be such a useful tool for space exploration?

At long last, NASA’s probe finally digs in on Mars [Charlie Wood / Popular Science]

NASA fixes Mars lander by telling it to hit itself with a shovel [Dan Robitzski / Futurism]

Mars InSight Lander to push on top of mole [NASA]

Image: Public Domain via NASA/JPL-Caltech Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/nasa-fixed-a-mars-probe-by-hit.html

Every new year, people vow to read more. Of course, it seldom actually happens, but we all wish we had more time to slow down, pick up one of the books off the bedside table we’ve been meaning to get through, and dive in.

If we can find any silver lining to all the COVID-19 craziness and self-isolation, it might be that your wish for more reading time may finally be here. But since you’ve only got so many options at home and a trip to the library isn’t really practical these days, how about a library’s worth of great books all available on your smartphone or tablet -- and all digestible in just a few short minutes?

You can not only satisfy that reading jones right now with all of these services but also explore loads of interest areas in a fraction of the time. You’ve got time on your hands...so you may as well make sure it’s time well spent.

BookNotes Book Summaries ($29 for a lifetime subscription; originally $299.99)

From finance and love to career and happiness to fiction and even documentaries, BookNotes boils them all down.  Spin through hundreds of available titles, then let Booknotes’ concise 15-minute summaries extract all the key insights of the book and serve them up. And if you’d rather just listen, BookNotes summaries come in audio versions as well, so even if you venture outside your home, you can always be learning.

SumizeIt Book Summaries ($19 for a lifetime subscription; originally $99.99) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/youre-stuck-at-home-so-yo.html

Chef Floyd Cardoz, age 59, known for his NYC restaurants Tabla, Bombay Bread Bar, and Pao Walla (and former winner of Bravo's Top Chef Masters) died today of COVID-19.

According to CNN:

"It is with deep sorrow that we inform you of the passing away of Chef Floyd Cardoz," according to a statement from Hunger Inc. Hospitality, where Cardoz was the culinary director.

Cardoz tested positive for Covid-19 on March 18 and was being treated for it at Mountainside Medical Center in New Jersey, the statement said...

Cardoz admitted himself to the hospital on March 17 after feeling feverish. He had recently returned from India, where he was filming the Netflix series, "Ugly Delicious" with actor Aziz Ansari. He posted a selfie on Instagram that day.

Cardoz posted this on March 17 from a hospital in New York on Instagram after panicked fans had heard that he was hospitalized for the coronavirus:

View this post on Instagram

Sincere apologies everyone. I am sorry for causing undue panic around my earlier post. I was feeling feverish and hence as a precautionary measure, admitted myself into hospital in New York. I was hugely anxious about my state of health and my post was highly irresponsible causing panic in several quarters. I returned to New York on March 8th via Frankfurt

A post shared by Floyd Cardoz (@floydcardoz) on Mar 17, 2020 at 1:34pm PDT

Unfortunately the world has lost a pioneering chef who had many decades ahead of him. RIP Chef Cardoz. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/pioneering-top-chef-masters.html

The sounds of 93 KHJ "Boss" radio coming from car speakers in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was a great highlight from the movie. If you want to hear more KHJ from its heyday, here are two segments from The Real Don Steele's show on KHJ Los Angeles, from June 15 and July 4, 1968.

And here's a YouTube video the sights and sounds of KHJ:

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/if-you-enjoyed-the-radio-shows.html

“You can’t just come in and say let’s close up the USA,” Trump said, again falsely stating coronavirus is no worse than flu.

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/if-coronavirus-restrictions-en.html

A good toilet paper is hard to find these days, thanks to everyone's totally irrational coronavirus panic buying. But that's not the biggest problem for our butts.

No, worse is that alt-TPs are messing with our septic systems, which makes an even bigger mess for everyone.

My colleague Doug Mahoney has a great new blog post over at Wirecutter that explains why you shouldn't flush anything but toilet paper down your porcelain throne, and also recommends some handy alternatives (and disposal methods) in case you do have a problem finding those cherished rolls of soft white butt scoopers.

 Toilet paper is very fragile and is designed to self-destruct in water with very little agitation. Tissues, on the other hand, are made to stand firm against a 100 mph sneeze discharging from your nose. Although the two products might have the same general look and feel, this video shows the difference in their durability. It takes less than 30 seconds of agitation for the toilet paper to be almost completely broken down. The tissue, however, remains fully intact. In plumbing, the bits of toilet paper can speed down the waste lines, but tissues remain big enough to catch on something, contributing to a clog.

Out of Toilet Paper? You Have Other Options. Just Don’t Flush Them! [Doug Mahoney / Wirecutter]

Image: Public Domain via PxHere Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/stop-flushing-shit-besides-tp.html

Spoiler: Yes, he is responsible. No, he won't begin to act responsibly any time soon.

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/detrimental-to-my-election.html

KUOW, a public radio station in Washington state announced on Twitter that it will no longer air live Trump briefings because the gentleman in the oval office is a prevaricator:

"KUOW is monitoring White House briefings for the latest news on the coronavirus — and we will continue to share all news relevant to Washington State with our listeners. However, we will not be airing the briefings live due to a pattern of false or misleading information provided that cannot be fact checked in real time."

A member of Trump's loyalty cult demonstrated his blind fealty to the liar-in-chief by telling The Hill:

“It’s not surprising, but also a failure of their duty to the American people, that some media outlets would choose to block their audiences from receiving accurate, up-to-date information on President Trump’s whole-of-government approach to slowing the spread of COVID-19,” Judd Deere, a White House spokesperson, told The Hill.

He added that “no other Administration has been as transparent and as accessible as this one, and we will continue to make sure this Nation hears from its leaders and top health experts during this global pandemic.”

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/public-radio-station-in-washin.html

Watch Quick test! from atinyworld on www.twitch.tv

What the world needs now are tardigrades, sweet tardigrades.

'A tiny world' is a fun little internet window into the microscope with Julie Laurin, who lives in Ottowa, Ontario.

They recently set up a Twitch feed with some adorable little tardigrades that Julie collected during a recent rainstorm. Check 'em out!

Good morning! Here's a little Tardigrade that I collected in a sample of balcony water yesterday. :)@tardigradopedia pic.twitter.com/hwcC0cOMxv

 A tiny world (Julie Laurin) (@atinyworldorg) March 25, 2020

Another lockdown science challenge: if you live in an apartment, go out to your balcony and collect some of the water that gathers in the concrete grooves. This is where my tardigrades live. Can you find some on your balcony, too?#balconychallenge #science https://t.co/iCwDkGnR0h

 A tiny world (Julie Laurin) (@atinyworldorg) March 23, 2020

A Tardigrade!

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/03/25/its-fun-to-watch-tardigrades.html