The Berlin Files #69: puzzler superheroes
The future of remote work, the return of sports, along with much more on hopeful signals, quarantine life, and radical transformations. And puzzles!
Hi all. Eric here.
Another really rough week for the United States and for the world. I'm hoping this newsletter, with its continued focus on hopeful signals and news related to the pandemic and radical transformations to all things coming next, will provide a little distraction and uplifting engagement. I've also included some fun stuff — note the puzzling theme, for instance, plus some musical pop culture goodness — that I hope you'll enjoy as well.
Hopeful Signals, Quarantine Life, & Radical Transformations
The Future of... Remote Work & Communications
Photo by Gabriel Crismariu on Unsplash
Pre-pandemic, the notion of remote work was already becoming less uncommon in some industries, but certainly not a norm. A major question about the future of work will be how entrenched remote work will become and, indeed, how supportive (or even dependent) companies will be of employees who rarely if ever physically show up to the office. This Axios piece pulls some interesting stats around that idea, such as that more than one-third of "digital services job growth" over the last decade came from just five tech-centric cities (NYC, Seattle, Boston, SF, San Jose).
As more companies formalize remote work positions, it opens up all kinds of new possibilities and challenges. While many employees like the convenience and lack of commuting time that remote work affords, there are challenges to consider in terms of finding better ways to collaborate remotely, not to mention clearing out the appropriate mental and physical space in homes where there are young children and other domestic activities going on.
And further, while working remotely is clearly an advantage for employees in many ways, some companies are already considering "adjusting" salaries for employees living in areas with lower costs of living. And that's to say nothing of what the impact might be as employers gain the ability to hire remote workers both across the United States and internationally as well.
I know I'm not the only one who spends a not insignificant amount of time staring at the background of people's homes whenever a celebrity, politician, or talking head is broadcasting something from a quarantined location or home office. Axios also helpfully pointed out that there's now a Twitter account called Room Rater that rates some of these rooms for us. For example, having some kind of power bookshelf situation going on seems to help rate highly.
And here's Mayor Pete rocking a 10 out of 10.
The guy does read a ton of books apparently, to be fair.
Finally, will a post-pandemic working world help usher in a new four-day workweek era?
Helping Out
There are pledges of money to help out by very rich people, and then there's people on the Gates' level.
The Return Of...
While sports is very far down the list of truly important things in this, or really any, era, the return of major team sports in the U.S. — even with empty stadiums and other protocols in place — will represent a welcome distraction and hint that something close to normalcy might be on the horizon for many.
The NBA formalized plans this week to resume live play on July 31st, with 22 of its 30 teams set to return to play eight games each to complete its regular season, and then there by a full slate of playoff matches (including a slight wrinkle and potential play-in for final slots) that will culminate in the finals taking place in October.
Part of the plan to keep players, staffs, and support personnel safe:
The league has researched various ways to bring basketball back safely, sources say, including the use of a sampling procedure called “group testing,” which aims to examine a large number of people with just a few tests.
A major and obvious open question is: what happens if a player or staff member inside "the bubble" tests positive for coronavirus? Japanese baseball is confronting that question right now, with two players on the Yomiururi Giants having tested positive this week, just before preseason games were to have begun. The opening of the season is now in "jeopardy" as of this writing.
Meanwhile, there's been lots of discussion around how to handle the empty seats (a purposeful move for fan safety) from a televised sporting event standpoint (again, this pales in comparison to more serious things going on, but it's an interesting aspect to consider with the return of live team sporting events). Canned audience noise has been considered, as has "virtual" cheering fans -- "real" people who would watch the games safely and remotely -- which worked rather well during the recent NFL draft broadcast.
That being said, I really like what South Korea is doing.
Quarantining
This leans into the political a bit (well, okay, maybe more than a little) but I'm compelled to share the genius of Sarah Cooper for anyone who hasn't seen.
The clip above is just her latest feat. I've thought for some time that Sarah Cooper is the Tina Fey of the 2016 political cycle. But also, Cooper proves to be a great example of producing compelling content with zero budget while stuck inside.
I know I'm not the only one running out of distracting activities while being stuck in the house. My wife and I may have taken to slapping a tennis ball back and forth on our dining room table with our hands one night; I can neither confirm nor deny.
When hunting around online for some old school low tech games, I couldn't help but delve into some of Amazon's weirder crevices. For example, there's a 42,000 piece puzzle (yes, that's right, forty two with a "k" after it) for sale for the low low price of $1,100.00 as of this writing (marked down from a clearly more ridiculous $1,191.92).
The completed size is "749*157CM," which is about 24.5 x 5 feet. A perfect activity for a rainy afternoon in your backyard's crafts and activity warehouse.
In a complete stroke of luck, I managed to find this. Enjoy!
Pandemic Progress
For one day, at least, a hopeful sign that recoveries are starting to catch up to new coronavirus cases being filed.
While it's not out of the woods as yet, I'd say it's enormously hopeful that "New York just reached a coronavirus milestone worth celebrating: Zero new deaths":
On Wednesday, for the first time since early March, New York City logged its first day with zero confirmed deaths from COVID-19. For a city that became the nation's biggest coronavirus hotspot by far, with a daily peak of 590 deaths on April 7, that's wonderful news.
And meanwhile, "New Zealand is now free of coronavirus."
Testing & Vaccine Progress
Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the most prominent and credible U.S. figures leading the effort to combat the coronavirus outbreak, said, "he hopes the U.S. will have 'a couple hundred million doses' of a coronavirus vaccine by the beginning of 2021."
Here's Fauci getting interviewed by Dr. Howard Bauchner, the editor of JAMA, this week.
Something new I learned this week: there's a "high likelihood" that an eventual coronavirus vaccine will require two separate shots, administered about a month apart.
The Music Club
In the halcyon days of the 1990s, I regularly watched MTV's Sunday night alternative music-fest, 120 Minutes, which turned me onto so many great bands of the era. YouTube is an incredible repository for all kinds of things, and I stumbled across a best of 1993 edition of 120 Minutes that showcases the best live performances on the show from that year.
There's a tonnage of great stuff in here from the likes of Smashing Pumpkins, Bad Religion, X (an acoustic song which might be my favorite of the entire show), They Might Be Giants, Buffalo Tom, Matthew Sweet, PJ Harvey, and lots more. It's fun to spend some time with this too simply to check out what some of these bands look like from the period.
For example, the Violent Femmes looked nothing like I could have imagined, but front man Gordon Gano's frantic, quirky energy gives the live performance of "Add It Up" all of the magical qualities that fans of the band would expect.
Bonus this week from the same era: music producer Butch Vig breaks down producing Nirvana's "Drain You."
I love the creative process, and it's wonderful to see how Vig thinks through (even using a bit of subterfuge) the production of one of Nevermind's and the band's very best songs.
The Comedy Club
I'm not sure why they used a marionette of a mouse (rat?) to exult the benefits of a new curbside book pickup system at the Nashville Public Library, but other than that I offer nothing but love and respect to "Curb. Side. Baby."
Dems(+) 2020
Some links for you this week:
Climate Watch
Tweets of the Week
It's a Wrap!
You made it. Now get back to asking yourself if you’re a puzzler.
Also:
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And one last time…