• GENERATION ‘Z’ COLLEGE GRADS ARE NOW ENTERING THE WORKFORCE with business focus quite different from the millennials in many critical areas, including particularly: (1) surveys show over 80% prefer communicating with bosses face-to-face (albeit in quick sound bites) versus email or text; (2) over half want to develop their own job descriptions, with over 60% expecting to ‘customize’ their own career path; and (3) having been raised during a global recession with painfully slow recovery, salary is now their most important factor in choosing an employer versus work/life balance. [JRNL OF ACCOUNTANCY – Aug 17]
  •  A FEDERAL ‘DOOMSDAY’ PROGRAM to “ready the nation to rebuild after a nuclear attack” has been in place for six decades and is staffed 24/7, 365 days a year, to preserve “continuity of government – activities, processes and even what totems of American culture should be saved.” Mega-billions have been expended from ‘classified’ funds for facilities built “in hallowed out mountains, with freestanding cities capable of providing thousands of pre-selected personnel with workspace and living activities in 3-story office buildings built inside the caverns – everything you might need to lead a nuclear war while living underground for a month at a time, including billions in cash… Mini-cities, like a space station… Pre-written Presidential executive orders specify how the U.S. would continue forward, with private citizens who would effectively be Czars stepping in during an emergency to remake the private sector, seize assets coast-to-coast, and create new bureaucracies that would control nearly every aspect of American life until peace could be restored.” A just-released book details the program: Raven Rock – The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself – While the Rest of us Die. [THE WEEK – Aug 4, 17]
  • WONDER WHY PLANNED PARENTHOOD IS IN CONSERVATIVE CROSSHAIRS? According to their Guidelines for Parents and website, “preschoolers should be introduced to the concept of transgender identity… that boy/girl/man/woman are just words that describe gender identity, while some people with identities boy/man have vulvas, and some with identity girl/woman have penises/testicles. But genitals do not definitively establish gender and children can make that decision based on their parents’ values, and how parents plan to talk with them as they grow up.” Unsurprisingly, conservative critics say that discussion with kids “who can barely string a sentence together and haven’t yet learned the alphabet is preposterous… and that what Planned Parenthood is promoting is just stupidity masked as sensitivity…at risk of harming children psychologically.” That rather, if a child inquires why boys & girls have different bodies, the simplest intelligent response should be with “real science as a guideline, and not garbage propaganda… That ‘conversations parents more likely need to have with kids will center on technology – the dangers lurking on the internet, sexting, revenge porn – and not anatomy.”  [REUTERS & FOX NEWS – Aug 4, 17]
  • ‘SMISHING’ IS THE LATEST TEXT MESSAGE SCAM – a simple, unassuming text which gets your attention (like ‘$125 has just been withdrawn from your account,’ or ‘Did you approve your child’s absence from school today?’), followed by “If not, please contact us immediately” at the provided link or phone number. Doing so, of course, allows malware to infect your smartphone and steal personal info. Common sense dictates validating any such text independently before responding. [NBC NEWS.COM – Jul 20, 17]
  • AMERICA HAS MORE THAN SEVEN MILLION ‘MILLIONAIRE HOUSEHOLDS’ according to U.S. Census data – most in New York City, followed by Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Dallas, Boston, Houston and Atlanta. Unsurprisingly, three of these cities (New York, San Francisco and Boston) also show up in the top ten “worst cities to live based on cost of living,” for which Washington DC leads the pack. [FORTUNE – Aug 1, 17]
  • WHILE THE WORLD IMPLODES, it is bizarre how people choose to focus their concern. According to Dating app ‘Hater’ – known for matching people based on mutual dislikes: Californians hate Fidget Spinners; New Yorkers hate Times Square; Texans hate “sleeping with the window open”; Virginians hate “dabbing pizza grease with a napkin”; in Missouri it’s “people who believe in aliens”; Hawaiians hate “videos taken at concerts”; and Pennsylvanians hate “people who use money clips.” Who knew or cared?

       Since the 2008 financial crisis, banks have closed over 10,000 branches, now resulting in over 1,100 ‘banking deserts’ – census  at least ten miles from a bank, leaving poorer neighborhoods cut off from current accounts, loans and other basic services.

       Change of pace: just a really well done, quick and fun music/video featuring Anna Kendrick:  https://biggeekdad.com/2015/08/when-im-gone/