• “THOUGH WE COUNT ON TECHNOLOGIES AND CONTROLS TO MINIMIZE PHISHING THREATS, users are exploited through social engineering… to fall for fraudulent emails, texts, or copycat websites and end up sharing valuable personal information.” Recommendations from the FTC: (1) If it seems too good to be true, it probably is; (2) Hover your cursor over links in messages to find where the link is actually going; (3) Look for misspellings and/or poor grammar which can be good signs it’s a fraud (like Amozan instead of Amazon); (4) Never respond to an email requesting personal info (birthday, social security #, username or password); (5) Beware if it establishes a sense of urgency – like threatening deactivation of your account – that the malicious sender hopes will cloud your judgement.”  [CENTER FOR INTERNET SECURITY – Jun 18]
  •  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE HAS PROVEN 27% SUPERIOR TO HUMANS IN DETECTING CARDIAC ARREST by analyzing the words & voice tone which an emergency incident caller uses.  After researching over 150,000 recorded calls to test the algorithm, software correctly detected 93% of cases and made its determination a half-minute faster on average.  The Univ. of Copenhagen study (on audio archives “considered the best in medicine”) also concluded that “a patient’s 30-day survival rate triples when a dispatcher recognizes cardiac arrest during an emergency call.”  [BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK – Jun 25, 18]
  •  ONLINE GIVING PORTALS – RETAILERS, SOCIAL MEDIA HUBS, CROWD-FUNDING SITES & OTHER PLATFORMS – imply that donations are going directly to a particular or group of charities. Ultimately some does, but donations typically “first go to the organization that accepts the donation and issues the tax receipt, then keeps a ‘service’ fee” which is arbitrary and often quite high.  New FTC guidelines now require clear disclosure of these fee amounts or percentages which do not go to intended recipients, and also whether donor info is shared with other organizations.  [MANATT ADVERTISING LAW – Jun 21, 18]
  •  EYEGLASSES MAY SOON BE REDUNDANT. Israeli researchers have developed a process which, so far in animal testing, can repair corneas and other refractory problems to improve both short-sightedness and long-sightedness. Now in clinical tests, patients can use a smartphone app to “measure eye refraction and create a laser pattern which ‘stamps’ onto the corneal surface. A synthetic nanoparticle solution (Nanodrops) can then correct the vison problem.”  [JERUSALEM POST – Feb 22, 18]
  •  UP TOO OFTEN AT NIGHT TO PEE?  Here’s why: Urine is the byproduct of your digestion system (for protein and other body acids & materials) where kidneys produce 1.5 to 2 quarts daily by filtering some 48 gallons of blood, about one pint of which then gets held by the bladder before it lets you know it needs relief.  Urine output increases  when kidneys work harder in certain circumstances – like when you overeat, are cold, are overly anxious or afraid, or when they’ve been stimulated by alcohol, caffeine or diuretics. Unfortunately, aging is another factor.  For some, “melatonin can enhance sleep duration and/or at least help getting back to sleep after awakening in the night.”   [LIFE EXTENSION – July 18]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK: What men & women don’t grasp about each other:   https://biggeekdad.com/2012/12/women-and-men/

       Google’s latest investment of over a half-billion is a Chinese e-commerce company which runs substantially on automation. Its Shanghai fulfillment center can pack & ship 200,000 orders per day with just four employees – all of whom service the robots!

      Netflix is reportedly issuing new sexual harassment guidelines that include: not looking at one another for more than five consecutive seconds, bars employees from flirting or ‘lingering‘ hugs, or asking for personal phone numbers.

We see implosion everywhere at an ever-increasing pace, on a path where civilization could find itself erased./

One by one, structures crumble: authority, politics, religion, respect for others’ cultures, perspectives and tradition,/

with priorities mostly focused on personal ‘rights’ and ‘need’ – not country or community, but what’s firstly ‘best for me.’/

All opposing perspective gets perceived as ‘anti-me,’ with unwillingness to listen or hear positions contradictory/

to beliefs mostly developed from fake or biased news, and Confirmation Bias negating all opposing views./

Anger and antagonism are increasing at a pace which tears apart connection among the human race./

From all appearance, at this point, from all we’ve failed to learn, we’re likely heading rapidly towards massive crash & burn,/

with our structure of society past the point of no return.   – Dennis Gray