• MANAGING CYBERSECURITY AT HOME FOR YOUR KIDS IS A DAUNTING TASK, but certainly should be consistently taught. At least two-thirds of children aged 3 -18 have access to the internet at home, many with multiple social media accounts, along with access for searches and/or in-home classwork as pandemic lockdowns continue. Reducing risk of data breach begins with teaching kids: (1) Warning signs of email phishing scams – frequent grammatical errors, links to a wrong site, request for personal information or money; (2) Importance of password protection and keeping personal info confidential; (3) Asking for permission before downloading any app; (4) Importance of only using your home’s password-protected WiFi; (5) Updating for latest software; (6) If old enough, use of Encryption policy.   [BD TECHTALKS – 9/30/20]
  • THE ‘DEBATE’ PERFORMANCE was viewed globally by many as “an America no one wants to emulate.” Global media comments included: “The U.S. embarrassed itself before the world – more suited to a wrestling ring than a debate stage” (India); “The performance sand-blasted away some cherished illusions about America” (New Zealand); “What should have been a sober policy discussion degenerated into a squabble between two angry septuagenarians” (UK); “America resembles a pastor, once neat and sober, who has begun showing up to church drunk, with his fly unbuttoned, leering and pinching his parishioners” (Russia); and “What we saw left us deeply troubled; if confusion over the vote count is prolonged and a power vacuum is created, it will affect the entire world” (Japan). “We are heading into a dangerous time.”  [THE WEEK – 10/16/20]
  • COVID SCIENCE UPDATE: (1) A survey conducted by over a dozen medical institutions for CDC’s July Morbidity/Mortality Report found 70% of outpatients who tested covid-positive reported “always wearing masks” and another 15% saying “often.” (2) The pores in even surgical masks are about 30 times larger than virus particles, and the cheaper cotton mask pores are hundreds of times larger. (3) Health experts from all over the world, led by experts from Oxford, Stanford & Harvard universities, now contend that lockdowns are doing “irreparable damage, producing devastating effects with damaging physical & mental health impacts on short & long-term public health.” (4) World Health Organization issued a statement last week, saying “the only thing lockdowns achieve is poverty; the only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy time to reorganize, regroup, rebalance resources, and/or protect health workers.”   [NEWS.COM.AU and THE BLAZE – 10/11-12/20]
  • PANDEMIC ‘RECOVERY’ IMPACTS ARE A LONG WAY FROM CERTAIN BUT WIDESPREAD ISSUES HAVE BECOME CLEAR: “Older voters are nostalgic for an economy that, whatever governments do, is never coming back. Young people are frustrated by declining social mobility, high asset prices, and fear of climate change effects. Almost everyone laments inequalities of income, wealth or opportunity. And there is rising concern for the precarious position of service-sector workers in rich-world labor markets… If inequality rises, asset prices boom, urban service-sector jobs shrink, technology firms grow more dominant, and governments turn to austerity too fast, politics will become more toxic, further polarizing between the Right’s unhinged economic nationalism and the Left’s naive millennial socialism… Voters will not support more disruption without more risk-sharing, but emergency support for households has borne out the libertarian mantra that governments are better at moving money around than at running things… There is no ‘right’ kind of recovery, and the final aim of spreading benefits of growth is the hardest to achieve, but there is no escaping that, in the long term, income distribution is shaped more by structural factors than by the economic cycle…and rather than trying to restore yesterday’s economy, governments must adapt to change.”   [ECONOMIST – 10/10/20]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:   “Life is fraught with opportunities to keep your mouth shut.”  – Winston Churchill

      A recent FDA study found that Sunscreen ingredients applied over a four-day period left concentration of chemicals and excessive ‘plasma concentration’ in the bloodstream for over 21 days.