From Our Weekly Note and More
On Subway "Bread", Sugar and Our Health
Last week, Ireland’s Supreme Court ruled that the "bread" in Subway sandwiches had a sugar level about 5 times too high. Also, a Scientific Advisory Report on US Dietary Guidelines 2020-2025 recommends lowering the level of sugar consumption.
On Electric Vehicles - in California and Globally
Last week, as California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on electric vehicles (EV), the state joined over 18 countries focusing on EVs.
On Extraordinary Clouds, Wild Fires and Global Threats
Last week, a Pew Research Center report said "climate change and infectious disease top list of global threats" as large fires burned over 4.7 million acres across the western United States
On Elon Musk's Brain-Computer Interface and More
Comments by Elon Musk on Neuralink - and from the RAND Corp. report “Brain-Computer Interfaces Are Coming. Will We Be Ready?”
On Apple, Google vs. Epic Games/Fortnite
Last week, Apple and Google removed Fortnite (an online game with over 350 million users) from their respective online stores, and Epic Games (the game's developer) responded by filing lawsuits in U.S. District Court - San Francisco
On Understanding Our Immune System
Excerpts from Ed Yong’s article in The Atlantic “because we really need to understand how the immune system reacts to the coronavirus.”
On Reopening US Schools
Selected views from California, Florida, Nevada, New York City, Texas and Virginia are shared - as the 2020-2021 school year approaches.
On Vaccines, Treatment and Public Trust
Recent comments by Merck CEO Ken Frazier, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and a Johns Hopkins lead research team focusing on COVID-19 vaccines are presented.
Four Books for Summer 2020 - and Other Ideas
As summer 2020 arrives, we present four books to consider, comments from Ray Dalio and a Bell Telephone ad from the early 1900s.
On Obesity and COVID-19
This week's comments address obesity: its relationship to COVID-19, its global prevalence and the need for better prevention.
On Fitness Trackers, COVID-19 and more
On research projects using fitness trackers such as Apple Watch, Fitbit, Oura Ring and WHOOP to provide early alerts about diseases such as COVID-19. (Stanford, UCSF, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, Scripps Research)
For the Class of 2020: Guidance from the Past & Present
As 2020 graduation celebrations continue (often virtually), consider views shared last week (Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey) as well as several from the past (Steve Jobs, JK Rowlings and US Navy Admiral William H. McRaven.
On Treating COVID-19: Gilead Sciences' Remdesivir and more
Remdesivir is a treatment, not a vaccine, but there are over 100 vaccine candidates in development worldwide (eight are in early clinical trials.)
Was CES in Las Vegas (Jan 2020) a "Super-Spreader" Event?
Comments from American Public Media’s report “A Covid-infected attendee emerges from CES, a massive tech conference in January” January 7-10, over 170,000 attendees from 160 countries including business representatives from Wuhan, China