• NEXT WEEK’S ELECTION HAS VERY RISKY IMPACTS!  The outcome is a focal point for ‘Democratic Socialists of America’ (DSA) who have already captured the Democratic Party in several cities by “disguising hardline socialist candidates as mainstream, and slipping into power through low-turnout primaries in deep blue districts – effectively using the Democratic Party as a trojan horse.”  New York City is the most immediate & severe example, where a Communist who has never had a job may now become Mayor of the country’s largest city, after having openly pushed for an agenda including abolishing police, prisons & border enforcement; prioritizing extremist foreign causes over public safety; promoting violence as ‘resistance’; sympathizing with Hamas, architects of 9/11, and other terrorist organizations, while calling for global Intifada to tear down the ‘empire’ of ‘imperialist’ America, effectively destroying our capitalist society from the inside out. California’s Proposition 50 involves a process to further support much of DSA strategy.  Don’t forget to vote by next Tuesday.  [TOWNHALL]

 

  • WHEN IT COMES TO DECISION-MAKING, a mathematically provable process relates to maximizing probabilities, called the 37% rule. In psychology and economics, it’s known as the ‘explore/exploit tradeoff’ – involving how long should be spent on sampling options to give optimum chances of a successful decision, and whether one should exploit a guaranteed ‘win’ versus risk of exploring another choice for an unknown outcome. The process is to identify X number of options, sample the first 37% and choose the best, then if any subsequent option beats that benchmark, it becomes the optimal solution. “When the issue involves the world of interpersonal relations, however, probabilities and game theory do funny things when you input the wobbly, fuzzy variables at play in human behavior, so the degree to which one is willing to explore or exploit will depend on a host of factors, tying in with how curious or risk-seeking one is. But when it comes to buying things or making life decisions, the 37% rule is a mathematically safe starting point to research and calibrate expectations.” https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/the-37-percent-rule/

 

  • WHY DOES TIME SEEM TO ‘FLY’ AS WE AGE?  Latest study at Cambridge Centre for Aging & Neuroscience used functional MRI scans to measure brain activity changes for participants aged 18 to 88, to find that those older “shifted to new activity states less frequently, with brain states lasting longer.” Basically, this means that fewer ‘events’ were logged in a given time frame (known as ‘age-related neural dedifferentiation) where our brains become less specific with age, making it harder to recognize where one activity ends and another begins. A second factor is that our perception of time is shaped along two separate time scales – one being hours/days/years, and the other being our internal scale of age-count. So, for example, one year represents 20% of a 5-year-old kid’s life and 4% once they reach age 25, but only 2% at age 50 and 1.4% by age 70, making it seem that time flies quicker as we age.  [LIVE SCIENCE]

 

  • YOUR TOOTHBRUSH IS RIGHT NOW CARRYING up to 12 million bacteria & fungi belonging to hundreds of different species, alongside multiple viruses & micro-organisms that come through every bathroom window and attach with every toilet flush (which shoots droplets of feces up to five feet when the seat is up). One university study found that 60% of student brushes in communal bathrooms were contaminated with poop bacteria; Another study of 40 new toothbrushes from different manufacturers found half already contaminated with a variety of activity; And some research has found that flu & coronavirus can survive on brushes for up to 48 hours. The American Dental Ass’n recommends not covering brush heads or storing in closed containers which can encourage microbial growth, and changing brushes every three months.  [BBC.COM]

 

THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK 

 

  • U.S. Treasury reported last week that Americans have been scammed for more than $16.6 BILLION in online cyber-scams being run out of Southeast Asia. The scam centers rely on forced labor which was enabled during the pandemic, targeting victims around the world for at least $64 billion yearly.  [NEW YORK TIMES}

 

  • ‘Super-Agers,’ seniors 80 and above with memories comparable to those 30 years younger, who donated their post-death brains to Northwestern University for study, enabled researchers to measure greater thickness in their brains’ outer layer – the Cortex region involved in thinking/ decision-making/ emotion/ motivation. This correlated with those participants’ level of intellectual engagement in later years. So, the answer for staving off dementia may well be as simple as “a combination of genetic predisposition, along with continuing to exercise the brain like a muscle, both socially and intellectually.”  [FOX NEWS]

 

  • A brewed cup of coffee contains about 15 milligrams of caffeine per ounce – over 4 times the amount in coke & other sodas, but only a third of what’s in espresso and three-quarters of dark chocolate drinks. While overconsumption impacts sleep, caffeine is actually beneficial for health, even helping prevent some serious conditions like heart attacks and liver cancer. It enters the brain through bloodstream, where it blocks receptors that cause feeling tired and enables stimulants like dopamine to increase alertness & focus. However, over time the brain expects this stimulation, so withdrawal can then cause headaches, irritability and fatigue. Caution! Increasingly available ‘cat poo coffee’ is made from beans that have been consumed & excreted by an Asian small animal related to the mongoose, said to be “smooth and complex, with notes of chocolate.”  [1440.COM]