• AS POLITICAL & SOCIAL ISSUES INCREASINGLY DOMINATE THE NEWS, remember that surveys and opinion polls are seldom accurate and often misleading, particularly as to Trends. The principal reasons are: (1) Bias in phrasing of questions by pollsters always impacts response; (2) Surveys by phone vs email vs in-person get different responses, a result of Social Desirability Bias and comfort of the responder; (3) ‘Random’ selection is inconsistent and can be biased; (4) Consistently declining response rates over the years mean a higher chance of distortion if non-responders are different from those who do; (5) Response rates are lower in cities and hubs for manufacturing So, the Trends hitting daily media headlines may be very misleading, more often than not, and jumping to conclusions of ‘crisis’ is generally unwarranted.
  •  POPPING STIMULANTS HAS BECOME FASHIONABLE IN TECHNOLOGY & FINANCE SECTORS, with one survey of 6,500 U.S. college students reporting that 14% had used drugs like Adderall & Ritalin for non-medical reasons (usually treating ADHD), rather “expecting to boost brainpower by improving concentration and ability to get things done.” Latest University of Cambridge research, however, involving “healthy peoples’ ability to perform optimization problems, found the opposite – that users were up to 50% slower at tasks, about 9% less productive, and that although the drugs made them more motivated, they became less competent and worse at problem solving.” [ECONOMIST – 6/20/23]
  •  “OUR GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS ARE IN CRISIS, which is why the Supreme Court is so important. As Congress buckles under the pressure of endless fundraising and cable news navel-gazing, as the presidency stagnates with its shambling commander in chief and massive bureaucracy, at least the Court still seems to work in a political scene gone mad. All of this makes the recent attacks on the Court’s legitimacy that much more troubling… It’s important to remember that there’s a difference between critiquing the Court and delegitimizing it, since even as the Court has grown more political, it remains our most consensual branch of government. The 2021-22 term, which included the Dobbs abortion decision, saw the justices decide almost thirty percent of their cases unanimously, about the same number as those that broke down 6-3 along “partisan” lines… The real problem with our federal government isn’t that the Supreme Court is too strong; it’s that the presidency is much too strong and Congress much too weak. Maybe instead of undermining our system of government, radical legislators should get off Twitter and do their job.” [SPECTATOR – June 2023]
  •  ON A GLOBAL BASIS, EIGHT MILLION PEOPLE SPEND THEIR AVERAGE DAILY TIME QUITE DIFFERENT THAN AMERICANS. Analysis just published by Nat’l Academy of Sciences, based on research of ten years data from 145 countries, approximated the ‘Global Human Day’ around the globe to suggest: (1) Creatively, only 3% of collective time, less than an hour daily, is spent crafting goods, building homes & infrastructure; (2) passive/ interactive/ social activities like reading, watching TV, playing games, making art, hanging with friends or family consume about 4.6 hours; (3) Sleeping takes up 9.1 hours (including babies); (4) employment only 2.6 hours; (5) slightly over 1 hour goes to education; (6) Residents of highest-income countries spend about 1.5 more hours daily on experiences – such as meals, physical recreation and general leisure activities; (7) But globally, people tend to spend about the same amount of time preparing food, eating, grooming & washing. [REAL CLEAR SCIENCE – 6/28/23]   https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2219564120
  •  THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:

Workplace bacteria contaminates 92% of Office phones and 400 times more on a typical desk than on an average toilet seat, contributing to as many as six days yearly missed due to illness. Infected co-workers spread viruses to 50% of workplace surfaces within four hours of arriving at work by touching doorknobs/ elevator & vending machine buttons/ breakroom coffee pots, microwaves, refrigerators. Research finds that handwashing with disinfectant soap can reduce infection risk up to 77%.  [WEB MD]

 Animation from NASA now depicts the impact of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions around the globe, and which areas house the biggest offenders. A rather ugly and frightening 90-second picture: https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-video-carbon-emissions-visible

What is unfolding today in America is literally a Cultural Revolution where youth and young adults are leading a battle to dismantle and replace the ideas/ customs/ habits of mind/ and culture of older unfairly ‘privileged’ generations. “Social Justice” is an overt attempt at destroying Western civilization and it is being disseminated primarily through education programs, but the marching call for anti-white racism is creating a backlash that could literally result in civil war. For a very smart and sensible analysis from a millennial:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcxkPPhbNdw