• THE MOST POPULAR APPS SHARE PERSONAL INFO AND SEARCH TERMS WITH 3^RD A Study by researchers from Harvard, MIT, and Carnegie-Mellon universities found that, without requiring user notification, nearly three-quarters of Android apps leaked user email info and nearly half the Apple iOs apps shared location data. In the category ‘Medical/Health/Fitness, 10% of search terms (like search for ‘herpes’) and other info were passed to 3^rd-party domains. [MANATT ADVERTISING LAW – Nov 25, 15]

• PROCRASTINATORS’ HEALTH CAUTION: “The tendency to delay or postpone may be one of our most basic, universal behaviors and oldest human traits… but procrastinators have consistently higher stress levels… leading to sleepless nights and self-flagellation.” Numerous studies link chronic postponement with “higher susceptibility to headaches, gastric problems, migraines, colds, flu and 60% higher chance for hypertension & heart disease… The stress dynamic begins the moment the procrastinator decides to put something off. From there, a subconscious but corrosive stress goes to work… As time passes and the deadline looms ever larger, fissures open in the walls of denial, requiring more and more time & energy, compounding the stress… leading to even more fluctuations and wear & tear on the cardiovascular system.” [MENS HEALTH – Dec 15] 

• “EXTROVERTS AND INTROVERTS TAKE DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO WORK & SOCIAL PROCESSES.” Extroverts are generally quick (sometimes rash) decision-makers, who multi-task, tackle work promptly, and are energized by shared ideas (‘collaborating’) in modern open-floor workspaces. Introverts tend to work more slowly & deliberately, prefer quieter settings to concentrate on one-task-at-a-time. Managing a team with diverse employees poses serious challenges, but which can be mitigated by focused strategies including: (1) Respect for personalities & predilections: Structuring the workday with flexibility, to give those “who prefer head-down time the freedom to have it” while extroverts know they’ll have “time to talk things out” later; (2) Promoting privacy – Provide some tucked-away workstations or ‘quiet zones’ which allow necessary space for introverts, along with spaces for “group gatherings and random encounters, like coffee areas/ communal lunch tables/ lounge rooms”; (3) Encourage participation: “In a typical 6-person meeting, two people do more than 60% of the talking so introverts need to feel comfortable enough to contribute.” Consider advance e-mail responses to agenda issues, or asking for “written-down thoughts which then get put on front board to avoid people having to jockey for airtime.” [HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW – Nov 16, 15]

• MEDICAL ‘IMAGING’ HAS BECOME STANDARD PRACTICE by many doctors seeking “hard evidence showing a patient was aggressively diagnosed, as well as treated.” Ultra-sound devices and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) can often provide a clear enough picture, but some 72 million CT Scans (Computed Tomography) are performed annually in America which, according to Nat’l Cancer Institute, contribute to 30,000 new cancer cases and 15,000 deaths yearly – resulting from exposure to “ionizing radiation that damage DNA and create mutations… A recent ten-year study that looked a people who had CT Scans as children found 24% increased cancer risk from just one CT Scan, with 16% boosted risk from each additional scan.” Studies reported in New England Journal of Medicine and Consumer Reports suggest that “as many as one-third of CT Scans and other diagnostics that expose patients to high levels of radiation are being done too frequently… often ordered unnecessarily by physicians in the practice of defensive medicine (born out of fear of litigation)… and/or by physicians having a financial investment in the imaging center.” [LIFE EXTENSION – Dec 15]
• VIDEOS FOR THE WEEK: How human beings relate to the absurdity of random terrorism: Care about how and why our children & culture are corrupted from grade school?  The last 20-minutes are mortifying:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFO1AtjoUoo

• THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK: “Industries with the highest rate of employed lobbyists are Technology, Drug Manufacturing and Colleges/Universities (located in every congressional district and employing one of every forty U.S. workers).
• Federal Budget-be-damned! The American Presidential entourage arrived in London for the recent G-20 Summit with some 500 staff – including 200 secret-service agents, six doctors, personal chef & kitchen staff; and 35 vehicles including the Presidential Helicopter plus decoy copters, and Limo (reinforced with ceramic & titanium armor, resistance to chemical or radiation attack, tear gas cannon, night-vision devices and oxygen supply).