• “USING TABLETS AS ‘e-BABYSITTERS FOR TODDLERS BRINGS MORE TANTRUMS, which in turn can have harried parents trying to calm a child by handing them a tablet.” Canadian researchers report that screen time in early childhood can disrupt their ability to manage anger & frustration leading to increased outburst. With most 4-year-olds now owning their own mobile devices and spending well over an hour daily, the study found that relatively high level of emotional upset at age 4-1/2 correlated with increase in usage when they reached age 5-1/2 – suggesting “a cycle that is deleterious for emotional regulation and impacting kids’ ability to refrain from outbursts & tantrums which play an important role in their in their ability to delay gratification and successfully meet the demands of early schooling and future health.” [MEDICALXPRESS.COM -8/12/24]
  • “UP TO 45% OF WHAT CAUSES DEMENTIA ARE PREVENTABLE, or at least their onset can be delayed.” According to latest research & Report of the Lancet Commission (experts from around the world), 14 Risk Factors are modifiable. “Biggest is untreated hearing loss which doubles the risk of dementia, along with untreated vision loss, high levels of LDL cholesterol, smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, lack of exercise, high blood pressure, diabetes, tobacco, excessive alcohol, diet lacking fruit/vegetables/fish, eating prepared meat (like sausages), and sugar-sweetened drinks. Still under study, but other potential factors include social isolation, depression, and lower levels of educational attainment.” [ECONOMIST – 8/10/24]
  • D.E.I. PHILOSOPHY WHICH HAS BEEN EMBRACED AS PRIORITY for American companies, schools, organizations and government at all levels since the 2020 racial riots has essentially “bent the knee to demands of communist-leaning, outcome-obsessed policies – all in contrast to America’s founding idea that background doesn’t matter and that, by working hard, anyone can succeed. But Diversity/Equity/Inclusion came to mean hiring into key positions with ‘approved’ race, gender or sexual orientation regardless of abilities – i.e. ‘equity’ resulting in equal outcomes. The private sector corporate and academic world are now slowly but increasingly coming to recognize that ‘woke’ policies and hiring/promoting based on people’s differences don’t actually produce better outcomes, and are slashing DEI staff.”  But public schools are still infiltrated by DEI nonsense indoctrinating youth and young adults, while government agencies led by radical Leftist Democrats, continue preaching this at full throttle. “In a fair world, the November election would be about who has done the best job, and if a candidate has been terrible at their job and for the country, they deserve to lose. The state of the nation depends upon that choice.”  [PATRIOT POST – 8/7/24]  
  • ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CAN NOW PROVI DE FINANCIAL GUIDANCE AND CREDIT to people with limited or zero credit history. With credit card APRs reaching record levels — and some payday lenders charging 800% effective interest – a fintech company now utilizes gamification, A.I. and behavioral science to enable financial literacy and fair-rate credit cards to millions who never before qualified. Check out: https://soundcloud.com/bankadelic/episode-161-using-gamification-to-beat-payday-lenders-and-massive-prs — an exceptional podcast.

 THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:

  •  How Artificial Intelligence might soon affect any job:    https://futuristspeaker.com/future-of-work/25-questions-to-help-you-understand-how-ai-will-affect-your-job-in-the-future/ 
  • A particularly risky impact of generative A.I. is in the creation of music, where even young children can be enabled to craft commercial music, an evolution which both undermines the livelihoods of human musicians, as well as “devalues the artistry – reducing music to a commodity produced at scale with little regard for creativity, cultural significance, or authentic ‘connection’ in the stories and emotions that only humans can create.” [IMPACT LAB]
  • META, formerly FACEBOOK, has just taken down some 63,000 thousand Instagram accounts running sextortion scams from Nigeria, and has removed thousands of Facebook groups and pages that were trying to organize, recruit and train new scammers.