• LATEST IDENTIFIED WORKPLACE TREND WHICH IMPACTS PRODUCTIVITY & PROFITABILITY IS ‘BOREOUT” – not burnout or occasional boredom, but a chronic condition that can zap motivation, concentration, and leave the worker mentally & emotionally tired out. It’s usually triggered from doing lots of repetitive & menial tasks, or time-filling busywork. A study from American Journal of Preventive Medicine estimates average annual equivalent from missed work and disengaged workers missing key details (which later cost money to fix) at over $4K for hourly or non-managerial workers, nearly $11K for managers, and $20,600 for executives. Boreout plagues workers who’ve ‘tuned out’ from their jobs, expressed by seeming apathetic and disengaged, so AI tools may be a way to help remove potential sources of boreout, while also freeing up workers to tackle more meaningful work. [INC.COM]

 

  • THE NEGATIVE IMPACT ON KIDS LEARNING from smartphones, laptops and tablets has now prompted many school districts across the country to institute a ban on cell phones and other varying technologies in K-12 classrooms. With standardized test scores of American students having dropped to their lowest point in two decades, some studies have found up to 40% of class periods were spent watching TV shows and playing games on school-issued laptops. College students have also been negatively impacted by technology. Across twenty-four studies, over six-in-ten students who typed notes on laptops versus taking handwritten notes were less likely to get A’s in their courses, and 25% more likely to fail the course. “Asking students to drill down on schoolwork amid an array of digital distractions isn’t just bad for test scores, it is inimical to learning.” [NEW YORK TIMES]

 

  • MEANWHILE, COLLEGE GRADS ARE INCREASINGLY TURNING SOCIALIST, consistent with an ‘Elite Overproduction Theory,’ where the time and costs of higher education being a guaranteed ticket to the middle class are over. With around 38% of Americans now having a degree, nearly a third of undergrads and nearly half with Masters actually lose money after graduation, finding government grants and cubicle jobs disappearing – especially for majors of questionable value in liberal & fine arts, education, psychology, gender studies, etc., along with artificial intelligence rapidly absorbing new jobs from economic growth resulting from reshored manufacturing. College enrollment is down some 2.5 million since Covid, while jobs in trades have grown around 20% with plumbers & electricians making double that of a liberal arts major who spent $150K for that degree. As blue-collar pay continues to rise, white-collar skills other than engineering/ computers/ medicine/ nursing (which comprise around one-in-four bachelors’ degrees) are disappearing, and increasing numbers of angry college grads having lost their elite status are turning to socialist perspective. [PETER ST. ONGE]
  • NEWEST STUDIES CONFIRM THAT TATTOO INK ACCUMULATES IN LYMPH NODES, diminishing the effects of immune cells. With a third of American adults now sporting tattoos – some 80 million people – and considering the evidently unstoppable trend of tattooing in our population, the potential risk associated with altered immune response is increasingly of concern. Additionally, many tattoo inks contain chemicals that have been classified as carcinogenic cancer-causing, using carbon black and/or pigments designed for less regulated industrial applications. Also, latest studies have found up to 23% higher rates of skin cancer, along with infections and allergic reactions, especially in people with larger or multiple tattoos. Warning signs when monitoring skin health are persistent redness, itching, bumps, new pigment lesions, color change, ulceration and/or bleeding. [ZEROHEDGE]

THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK  

  • Palisades fire recovery is still at zero homes rebuilt. When wildfires in Los Angeles consumed much of the upscale neighborhood known as the Pacific Palisades, Gov. Gavin Newsom promised he’d ensure that red tape — the state’s onerous building regulations — would be cut in order to ensure a quick and not-too-costly rebuild of the area. However, 10 months have passed since the fires, and just one house has been rebuilt — and that house had been scheduled for demolition prior to the wildfires. Thus, to date, none of the hundreds of homes destroyed by the wildfires has been rebuilt. While 371 houses are currently undergoing reconstruction, some 1,100 are still awaiting building permits from Los Angeles County. So much for Newsom’s promises.
  • Why Senior Moments? A study of over four thousand brain MRIs by neuroscientists at Cambridge and Univ of Pittsburgh has found five “major epochs in a lifetime, involving moments when the structure and function of the brain change significantly” – initially at age 9, when nerve signals begin to transmit and increase overall cognitive activity; then around 32, as maturation of ‘white matter’ slows, the network stabilizes, and our brains start becoming less efficient; by around 66, as brain architecture is aging and memory retention begins to diminish; on past age 83 allowing for Senior Moments which generally lead to some degree of dementia. Fun info.  [EPOCH TIMES] 
  • The NORMAL DISTRIBUTION BELL-SHAPED CURVE isn’t normal at all. The POWER LAW is reality. https://www.realclearscience.com/video/2025/11/28/one_graph_will_change_how_you_see_the_world_1150054.html?utm_source=rcp-today&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mailchimp-newsletter&mc_cid=8edc5be930&mc_eid=afc66dfbec