Latest Updates
Weekly Digest – 23 September 2020
Sleep is as close to a panacea as we are likely to get in our lifetimes: it helps us recover from injuries and illness, plays a vital role in memory formation, and helps keep us healthy. Disrupting our sleep has an adverse impact on nearly every system in our bodies. So it’s perhaps not surprising […]
Weekly Digest – 16 September 2020
As the world becomes more tech-centric, our behaviors have changed in ways that Emily Post could not have envisioned when she first compiled her guidance on etiquette. Fortunately for us, Alex Schmidt at the Wall Street Journal put together a witty list of 21 tech-related rules for this era. For example, number five states “We’re […]
Weekly Digest – 9 September 2020
After a solid week of number-crunching, a supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee analyzed the genetics of the COVID-19 virus to understand why it impacts so many different systems of the body. Analysis of the data resulted in a new theory about how the virus operates and why it causes so much havoc. […]
Weekly Digest – 2 September 2020
Shutting down economies around the world to fight the coronavirus has been a blunt and costly instrument, as this piece in the Wall Street Journal describes. Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong demonstrated that it was possible to reduce infection rates by widespread testing, contact tracing, cutting off travel with China and adopting masks. Such […]
Weekly Digest – 26 August 2020
In the past, automation and technological advances created more jobs than it disrupted, and innovation has greatly improved our lives. However, as this article in the Wall Street Journal reports, economists caution that the COVID-19 pandemic may have accelerated the changes that have already been happening for the last several decades which may be creating […]
Weekly Digest – 19 August 2020
Until scientists develop an effective and safe vaccine, and that vaccine is administered to millions of people, our best means of protection from COVID-19 is herd immunity. Recent models hint that the protective effects of a population that has already been infected by the COVID-19 virus may exist at much lower percentages than previously thought. […]
Weekly Digest – 12 August 2020
Even though unemployment still remains high, and the US economy took a nosedive during the second quarter of 2020, US households managed to decrease their overall debt for the first time in six years. Even in the face of unemployment, credit card debt dropped by $76 billion during the second quarter as households cut back […]
Weekly Digest – 5 August 2020
It’s no surprise to most Americans that the U.S. economy has suffered greatly from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. But what may surprise you is the extent of the decline: a record 32.9% contraction during the second quarter of 2020, the biggest drop since 1947. The virus is still spreading across much of the […]
Weekly Digest – 29 July 2020
Perhaps the most challenging part of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic is that many infected people never show symptoms or have such mild symptoms it’s easy to chalk that out-of-sorts feeling to a poor night of sleeping. Some estimate that as many as 40% of those infected never exhibit symptoms, and these people could be […]
Weekly Digest – 22 July 2020
Are you feeling out of balance from the changes brought on by the pandemic? You’re not alone, according to economist Jeffrey Tucker. Thanks to the media, many of us have been overtaken by fear, which may cause us to act irrationally. Tucker recalled a book from 1841, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, […]
Weekly Digest – 15 July 2020
First it was toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Now, we have a nationwide shortage of coins. Though some have blamed the coin shortage on conspiracy, the shortage is due to the pandemic. Because of the shutdown, people have been spending less overall, which has reduced the circulation of currency and coins through the economy. In […]
Weekly Digest – 8 July 2020
One of the baffling aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic is the fact that we don’t yet know precisely how deadly this virus is. Estimates of the fatality rate range from a low of 0.64%, estimated by analysis of data by Australian researchers, to a high of 16% in Belgium. Many infections are asymptomatic or mild, […]
Weekly Digest – 1 July 2020
In the six months since the coronavirus began spreading around the world, doctors have learned many lessons. For example, placing patients on their stomachs seems to alleviate pressure on the lungs, and prevention is crucial. However, some unknowns remain, such as long-term effects of COVID-19 infections and how long it will take patients to recover. […]
Weekly Digest – 24 June 2020
As businesses across the country slowly reopen, the IRS is also beginning to send employees back. So far, employees in seven states (Kentucky, Texas, Utah, Georgia, Minnesota, Tennessee and Missouri) are back at work, and by June 29, employees in Indiana, Ohio, California, Oregon and Puerto Rico will be also. That’s a good thing, because […]
Weekly Digest – 17 June 2020
Resources to Help You Survive – and Thrive – During the COVID-19 Pandemic When the COVID-19 pandemic was just beginning to spread, many of us were hopeful that by mid-summer, things would return to normal. However, most people are realizing that the coronavirus will be with us for some time to come. That’s one of […]
Weekly Digest – 10 June 2020
Resources to Help You Survive – and Thrive – During the COVID-19 Pandemic As painful as the shutdown has been, a recent study indicates that it may have prevented as many as 60 million COVID-19 infections in the U.S. and 285 million in China. Banning large gatherings had the most impact in France and South […]
Weekly Digest – 3 June 2020
Resources to Help You Survive – and Thrive – During the COVID-19 Pandemic Now that some states are lifting lockdown restrictions, retailers whose offerings differ by the season are having an especially challenging time with reopening. Many were not able to fully restock their stores with spring items before they had to shut down, and […]
Weekly Digest – 27 May 2020
Resources to Help You Survive – and Thrive – During the COVID-19 Pandemic COVID-19 is just the latest in pandemics that has transformed our world. Pulitzer-winning author Jared Diamond takes a look back at how pandemics of the past impacted politics, trade, migration, colonization and conquest. For example, it’s possible that the reason languages from […]
Weekly Digest – 20 May 2020
Resources to Help You Survive – and Thrive – During the COVID-19 Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted nearly every part of the economy. According to a survey by the Census Bureau, 75% of all small businesses in the U.S. have applied for a loan through the Paycheck Protection Program, but as of May 2, […]
Weekly Digest – 12 May 2020
With unemployment at 14.7%, the April jobs report is literally off the charts, as an article in the New York Times shows. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has not yet vanished as quickly as everyone hoped. According to this brief history of other plagues, pandemics tend to end either when the spread of the disease has […]