Frank: “Man’s search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life and not a ‘secondary rationalisation’ of instinctual drives.”
With our collapsing democracies and imploding biosphere, it’s no wonder that people despair. The Austrian psychoanalyst and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl presciently described such sentiments in his book Man’s Search for Meaning (1946). He wrote of something that ‘so many patients complain [about] today, namely, the feeling of the total and ultimate meaninglessness of their lives’. A nihilistic wisdom emerges when staring down the apocalypse. There’s something predictable in our current pandemics, from addiction to belief in pseudoscientific theories, for in Frankl’s analysis, ‘An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behaviour.’ When scientists worry that humanity might have just one generation left, we can agree that ours is an abnormal situation. Which is why Man’s Search for Meaning is the work to return to in these humid days of the Anthropocene.
By Aeon. Cross-posted from Alternet - What Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy Can Offer in the Anthropocene
Coronavirus raises fears of US drug supply disruptions
First Australian baby diagnosed with coronavirus after returning from Iran
The baby boy in South Australia is the first infant in the country to be diagnosed with coronavirusTHE 21ST CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED. How to Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer And Cleaning Wipes
Gateway Motorway: truck carrying toilet paper bursts into flames, traffic delayed | The Courier-Mail
A TRUCK carrying toilet paper erupted into flames on the Gateway Motorway overnight, forcing the closure of all northbound lanes on the Gateway Bridge. The incident happened on the bridge at Murrarie about 10pm when the semi-trailer burst into flames, in an incident believed to ...
An ambulance crew arrived at the University of Wollongong campus about 10am. Picture: Robert Peet
The “Seinfeld” fanatics might recall the history of toilet paper was the subject of the very first joke in the very first episode of the series.
ARTHUR CHRENKOFF: THE GREAT TOILET PAPER PANIC OF 2020. “And so, for the second time in my lifetime, communists have f***ed up and as a result we don’t have toilet paper.”
We are writing to share two pieces of news related to COVID-19.
It's pretty well documented that memes have become a new way for people to cope with an increasingly depressing news cycle, so it's perhaps unsurprising that a national shortage of toilet paper due to panic over coronovirus has been met with a wave of altered popular culture references - with a particular shout-out to The Simpsons and Seinfeld.
"I can't wait to tell my grandchildren about the time the nation ran out of toilet paper," one Twitter user wrote.
ARTHUR CHRENKOFF: THE GREAT TOILET PAPER PANIC OF 2020. “And so, for the second time in my lifetime, communists have f***ed up and as a result we don’t have toilet paper.”
Toilet paper and disinfectant makers boost production amid coronavirus panic buying concerns
Social media is currently awash with photos of empty supermarket shelves and packed trolleys, and manufacturers of essential items including toilet paper and disinfectant are in overdrive to keep up with demand.
WHO warns coronavirus more dangerous than flu with mortality rate of 3.4% - LA Times: “As three more deaths in the United States were linked to the coronavirus Tuesday World Health Organization officials warned the virus could be far more dangerous than the flu, with a mortality rate of 3.4%. The global mortality rate — which includes more than 3,000 deaths — is many times higher than the mortality rate of the flu, which is less than 1%. WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that is at least partly because COVID-19 is a new disease, and no one has built up an immunity to it.
Washington Post – How bad will the coronavirus outbreak get in the U.S.? – “The spreading coronavirus is shaping up as a pandemic of potentially historic proportions, possibly on the scale of the global outbreak of influenza in 1957 but unlikely to be as catastrophic as the Spanish flu of 1918, according to projections by infectious disease experts who are still struggling to understand this novel pathogen…Most new coronavirus cases are now outside of China, with 64 countries reporting cases as of Tuesday…”
See also Science – China’s aggressive measures have slowed the coronavirus. They may not work in other countries
CDC drops coronavirus testing numbers from their website - The Verge: “A tally of the number of people tested for the novel coronavirus disappeared from theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention website on Monday. The change was first reported by journalist Judd Legum on Twitter. The disappearance of the numbers comes less than a week after the first cases of the virus with unknown originswere reported in the US. In the past few days, six deaths due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, have been confirmed in Washington state…”
Cardozo Law School Press Release, A Message about COVID-19:
We have learned that one of the children of the Westchester attorney identified as New York’s second case of COVID-19 is an undergraduate male student at Yeshiva University. We are working closely with, and following the recommendations of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) and the Office of Emergency Preparedness and Response and other government agencies to take every necessary precaution to ensure the safety of our community. The student has not been on campus since Thursday, February 27th and is in quarantine with his family. The DOHMH is testing the family.
CORONAVIRUS UPDATE: South Korea Reports 516 New Cases of Coronavirus, Brings Total to 5,328.
AT&T COO: Coronavirus has brought ‘some impacts that are starting to emerge’ on supply chain.
How Coronavirus is rattling travel insurance
How Coronavirus is rattling travel insurance
What role did rumour play in Australia's toilet paper frenzy?
Is
it stockpiling hysteria or prudent preparation? Whatever the cause, our
interest in the humble loo roll has skyrocketed since coronavirus
reached our shores.