[link:https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/31/824611607/turkmenistan-has-banned-use-of-the-word-coronavirus|

The Central Asian country of Turkmenistan claims it has no coronavirus cases. But if you happen to utter the word "coronavirus" while waiting, say, for the bus in the white-marbled capital Ashgabat, there's a good chance you'll be arrested.

That's because the Turkmen government, run since 2006 by the flamboyant dentist-rapper strongman Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has reportedly banned the word, according to Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

More at link.

[link:https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/prepared-worst-electrical-grid-workers-isolate-coronavirus-spreads-n1173171|

“We’ve had it in our plans as a hypothetical drill that we walk through every year to practice,” said Rich Dewey, the president of the New York Independent Systems Operator, which oversees the state’s energy grid and deployed those sequestered workers. “But we’ve never actually had to put it into practice.”

While Americans' daily lives have been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, those who maintain the U.S. electrical grid are enacting emergency measures to minimize the chance that Americans’ electrical service will be interrupted.

The grid is distributed across the country, with 16 “reliability coordinators,” like New York’s systems operator, who are the main oversight organizations with the ultimate authority to make sure the lights stay on. (The organizations don’t generate the power, but they coordinate its distribution.)

Jim Robb, president of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a nonprofit regulator that oversees the risks and reliability of the grid, said the coronavirus pandemic has pushed them into action.

Much more at link.

[link:https://wreg.com/news/mid-south-grief-counselors-provide-help-virtually-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/|

“We really wanted to help avoid the isolation of grief,” said Angela Hamblen Kelly with Baptist Centers for Good Grief. “Grief is already extremely isolating, so we wanted to give families the opportunities to keep sharing and working on their grief but then also connecting with other families and seeing they’re not alone.”

As we all practice social distancing the center is turning to social media, holding virtual grief sessions on Facebook Live.

A counselor hosts the free interactive sessions focusing on topics about grief and ways to cope. It’s face-to-face help available to all ages.

More at link.

I have about 50 games of Scrabble going. 🤣👍

[link:https://myutk.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/a4614b1566f44f559d9c5995ebe9c49d|

xposted to TN Forum

Stay safe!

[link:https://myutk.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/a4614b1566f44f559d9c5995ebe9c49d|

Stay safe!

[link:https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/03/30/coronavirus-social-distancing-mit-researcher-lydia-bourouiba-27-feet/5091526002/|


Lydia Bourouiba, an associate professor at MIT, has researched the dynamics of exhalations (coughs and sneezes, for instance) for years at The Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory and found exhalations cause gaseous clouds that can travel up to 27 feet.

Her research could have implications for the global COVID-19 pandemic, though measures called for by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization call for six and three feet of space, respectively.

Much more at link!

[link:https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/30/opinion/president-unfit-pandemic/|

Catastrophic decisions in the White House have doomed the world’s richest country to a season of untold suffering.

The United States, long a beacon of scientific progress and medical innovation with its world-class research institutions and hospitals, is now the hub of a global pandemic that has infected at least 745,000 people and already claimed more than 35,000 lives worldwide. Now that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States — more than 140,000 — has surpassed that of any other nation, Americans are consigned for the coming weeks to watching the illness fell family members and friends, and to fearing for their own fate as they watch death tolls rise.

Much, much more link! Scathing indictment of murderous "pResident!"

[link:https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52106321|

Sorry I can't copy text.

[link:https://www.cbs8.com/mobile/article/news/health/coronavirus/pandemic-scientist-says-his-team-has-discovered-a-potential-cure-for-covid-19-coronavirus-california/509-4a895be1-80f6-46b0-8812-e2d49d20bebf|

CALIFORNIA, USA — A California scientist and his team say they have found a potential cure for COVID-19.

News 8 introduced you to Dr. Jacob Glanville of Distributed Bio a couple of weeks ago. He's one of the doctors featured in the Netflix show "Pandemic." His team in the Bay Area has been working around the clock trying to come up with a drug to treat COVID-19. Monday he announced he believes they've found one.

"We are happy to announce we have completed the engineering and we have some very potent antibodies that can be effective against the virus," said Dr. Glanville.

Below is News 8 reporter Kelly Hessedal's extended interview with Dr. Glanville and the answers he gave on the potential cure:

FDA approval, if viable? NAH - That would spoil Putin's party... 🤬

Let's keep 🤞🤞🤞🤞!