Elections,
Security
“In the last few months, we have
learned extraordinary details about a Russian assault on our election
infrastructure. While there is no evidence that this assault altered the vote
count, that fact should be cold comfort as we look to protect ourselves against
future attacks.
One doesn’t have to be an expert on
cybersecurity or election technology to understand how dangerous this is. Based
on my experience, as a former Director of Central Intelligence, and in service
to this country under both Democratic and Republican Presidents, I am confident
the Russians will be back, and that they will take what they have learned last
year to attempt to inflict even more damage in future elections. In particular,
their history of interfering in other nations’ politics, their antipathy to the
United States and Western democracies generally, and their proven ability to
multiply the impact of their actions through cyberattacks should put us on the
highest alert, and spur us to take all necessary actions to protect ourselves
from further attack.
Of course, Moscow is not the only
adversary that we have to worry about. North Korea has been implicated in the
ransomware attack that locked up the computers of government agencies and
businesses worldwide this May, while Al Qaeda and ISIS have a history of
executing cyberattacks on foreign government websites. They too might be
emboldened by Russia’s actions against us last year.
This report offers important
guidance on how to protect ourselves. In particular, it looks at the two most
critical parts of America’s election infrastructure: voting machines, which
could be hacked to cast doubt on the integrity of vote tallies, or change them;
and voter registration databases, which could be manipulated to block voters
and cause disorder when citizens attempt to vote.”
Medical
Research, Science
“One of its most exciting, taboo,
and controversial applications is tweaking the genes of eggs, sperm, or early
embryos to alter a human life. This could one day mean the ability to create
smarter or more athletic humans (yes, “designer babies”), but also the chance
to knock out disease-causing genetic mutations that parents pass on to their
children. We’re talking about eliminating mutations linked to diseases like
breast and ovarian cancers or cystic fibrosis.
On Wednesday, a team of scientists
reported that they have made major progress toward proving the latter is
possible.
In a paper published in the
prestigious journal Nature, a team led by Shoukhrat Mitalipovof Oregon Health and
Science University described how it used CRISPR/Cas9 to correct a genetic
mutation that’s linked to a heart disorder called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in
human embryos. And they did it without the errors that have plagued previous
attempts to edit human embryos with CRISPR.
To be clear, the new work from OHSU
was an experiment — the point was to test a concept, and the embryos used were
never implanted into a woman’s uterus.
But the researchers were ultimately
able to show that CRISPR/Cas9 can do what they hoped it would do. It cut the
mutant gene sequence, prompted the embryos to repair the DNA with healthy
copies of the gene, and eliminated the disease-causing mutation altogether from
many of the embryos.”
Personal
Finance
“At my last job as a recruiter, I would often
interview people who lost their jobs from one week to the next.
It
was during this time that I realized I had to always make sure I had money
coming from different places, so I freelanced on the side of my day job and worked on a blog in the hopes of making some money
from it someday.
While
I didn't know it at the time, I'd figured out something most millionaires
already know: you always need to have multiple sources of income.
As
it turns out, having your money coming from multiple sources isn't just a
survival technique, it's also a way to build wealth.”
Travel
“Visit any airport and you'll no doubt see
people sleeping: on chairs, floors, and in small spaces you may never have
thought of. And while trying to curl up under fluorescent lights to the tune of
luggage being rolled along doesn't exactly sound conducive to a
restful night's sleep, sleeping in an airport doesn't have to be all bad.
Sleep expert Dr. Rebecca Robbins of
the NYU School of Medicine’s Center for Health Behavior Change tells Condé
Nast Traveler that things like packing an eye mask and a set of earplugs
and turning your phone to airplane mode to block incoming calls
(yes, even though you’re not yet in the air) can help get you in the sleep zone
and maximize your airport shut-eye experience. And if you can’t nod off,
Robbins says, try meditating.
“Meditation can assist with the
stress that ensues from travel," she says. "Download an application
on your smartphone or computer to learn meditation and relaxation strategies.
Or, simply close your eyes, and start to clench muscle groups as you breathe
in, and exhale as you release. Move from your toes, to your calves/quads, and
up to your shoulders.”
Here's what else you can do to
ensure a safe and blissful shut-eye.”
Racial
Equity
“Because color-blindness is so
entrenched as a value in our society, it’s tempting when you are a policymaker
or a philanthropic leader to say you are doing what you are doing – supporting
this policy or that one – to help “all kids.” After all, what kid doesn’t
deserve a shot? But what I’ve learned is that if we do not look at the ways in
which our systems like schools, justice, and democracy have discriminated
against people of color and handicapped their shots at success, we aren’t going
to make these systems work better for anyone. Black students graduate high
school at a rate 13 percent lower than
white students. Thirty-two percent of homeless youth are
black, more than double the proportion of black youth in the population. This
is not a coincidence.
Failing to address race head-on is
counterproductive to making meaningful progress to correct these startling
inequities. While it may be easier to avoid discussing race, it’s impossible to
improve the systems that create these disparate outcomes if we don’t first
recognize how they disproportionately impact people of color.”
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