Washington Post: "Are you ready to buy a house? Take our quiz and find out"

"Homeownership is how many Americans accumulate wealth, and it’s an important life goal for millions. But affording a home is a growing challenge — if not out of reach entirely — for many people.

In the past three years, mortgage rates have more than doubled and are now at nearly 7 percent on a typical 30-year loan. And they are unlikely to drop significantly this year. Even those who can swing an all-cash purchase, experts say, still have plenty of other expenses to consider, including maintenance and insurance.

So, should you buy a home right now? To help you decide, take this quiz."

Continue to read the article and take the quiz (gift article link)

https://wapo.st/4aAes9W

Washington Post: "Are you ready to buy a house? Take our quiz and find out"

Washington Post: "Ultra-processed foods linked to 32 health problems"

"A review of research involving almost 10 million people has found a direct association between eating too many ultra-processed foods — those breads, cereals, snacks and frozen meals that have been industrially manufactured with flavors and additives to make them more palatable — and more than 30 health conditions, including heart disease, anxiety and early death.

The facts

• In recent years, dozens of studies have found that people who consume a lot of ultra-processed foods have higher rates of weight gain, obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and other chronic diseases.
• Now, a team of international researchers has undertaken a comprehensive review of the evidence on adverse health outcomes to date — examining 45 “pooled meta-analyses” from 14 review articles involving nearly 10 million people. All were published in the past three years, and none was funded by companies making ultra-processed food.
• The researchers’ findings, published in the British medical journal BMJ, “show that diets high in ultra-processed food may be harmful to many body systems.”

Shared from (subscription maybe required) ->   https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/02/29/ultraprocessed-foods-health-risk/

Direct link to research study -> https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj-2023-077310

Washington Post: "Ultra-processed foods linked to 32 health problems"

When the subject is tough how do you handle it? Poynter Institute Shares insights on what the Washington Post did

"Today (11/16/23), The Washington Post went further than any mainstream news organization has ever gone before in showing the brutality and devastation of something that plagues this nation: mass shootings.

This morning, The Washington Post published “Terror on Repeat.”

It’s at this point, you should be warned: The Post piece is extremely graphic and some may find it disturbing. The Post looks back at 11 mass shootings in which the weapon used was an AR-15. Just the names of the places bring back horrific memories: Parkland, Florida, and Uvalde, Texas, and Newtown, Connecticut. The Post’s project includes the shootings at a concert in Las Vegas, a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, and a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

To have the most impact, the Post told the story through photos, videos and the words of those who have survived these horrific shootings. The photos are jarring. For example, there are images of schoolrooms at Robb Elementary in Uvalde moments after dead children were removed. Videos are hard to watch, such as one that includes the cries of students inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, as gunshots are heard.

On Wednesday, I spoke with Washington Post executive editor Sally Buzbee. Buzbee told me, “We know it’s very sensitive material and very disturbing and we know it will be disturbing to people.”

Continue reading the article online -> 
https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2023/washington-post-terror-on-repeat-mass-shootings-images/?s=03

Vaccines and what they do "reduce your risk of hospitalization and death"

"Rick from Maryland is among the many readers who expressed bewilderment about becoming infected despite vaccination. “My wife and I are both in our 80s with diabetes," he wrote. "We got the new vaccine as soon as it became available. Not even two weeks later, we both tested positive. We are fine other than for a stuffy nose, but we are wondering what happened. Some of our family members are against vaccines, and they are using our experience to explain why they are not getting vaccinated.”

Rick brings up an important point: We need to be clear about what the coronavirus vaccines do and what they don’t. As with every medical intervention, health-care providers must set expectations so that people don’t view anticipated outcomes — in this case, testing positive — as failures.

The most important reason to stay up-to-date on coronavirus vaccines (and the flu vaccine and RSV vaccine, for that matter) is to reduce your risk of hospitalization and death. On this front, the coronavirus vaccine has delivered consistently strong results. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the bivalent vaccine reduced the chance of critical illness by 69 percent in the week to 59 days following the shot. The protection remained three to four months later, though it diminished to 46 percent."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/10/12/covid-vaccine-booster-benefits-limitations-protection/

Vaccines and what they do "reduce your risk of hospitalization and death"

Investigation on school shooting hoax calls continues

Over the past year, more than 500 schools in the United States have been subjected to a coordinated campaign of fear that exploits the all-too-real American danger of school shootings, according to a review of media reports and dozens of public records requests. The Washington Post examined police reports, emergency call recordings, body-camera footage or call logs in connection with incidents in 24 states.

The calls are being investigated by the FBI and have generated an aggressive response by local law enforcement — particularly after officers in Uvalde, Tex., came under criticism for waiting more than an hour to confront the gunman during the May 2022 elementary school massacre.

In state after state, heavily armed officers have entered schools prepared for the worst. Students have hidden in toilets, closets, nurse’s offices. They’ve barricaded doors with desks and refrigerators. Medical helicopters have been placed on standby while trauma centers have paused surgeries, anticipating possible victims. Terrified parents have converged on schools, not knowing if their children are safe.

Continue reading the article (subscription may be required)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/10/04/school-swatting-hoax-active-shooter/

Note: The data includes incidents where multiple schools were targeted and situations where  calls were linked to a broader pattern of hoaxes.  HANNA ZAKHARENKO/THE WASHINGTON POST

Disability: visible, or invisible, or in-between

"Disabilities are usually categorized as visible or invisible — but what about the in-between? I was born with a congenital foot deformity that affects the muscles, bones, and tendons. But thanks to early surgeries and years of casting, I look pretty normal to the average person. The only catch? Chronic pain, limited mobility and a “special occasions” wheelchair that my friends and family have never seen."

Continue reading the visual article online (a gift article from my subscription)

https://wapo.st/3YG47V0 

"I’ve been disabled my entire life. But only strangers can tell."

Tick borne disease creates meat allergy; raises need for reminders on tick bite prevention steps

"Up to 450,000 Americans may have been affected by a potentially life-threatening red meat allergy caused by ticks as many doctors remain unaware of what it is or how to treat it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In new reports released on Thursday, the CDC found that between 96,000 and 450,000 Americans since 2010 may have been affected by alpha-gal syndrome. The syndrome, also known as a red meat allergy or tick-bite meat allergy, stems from alpha-gal, a sugar molecule not naturally present in humans. Instead, it is found in meat including pork, beef, rabbit, lamb and venison, as well as products made from mammals including gelatin and milk products.

“Because the diagnosis of alpha-gal syndrome requires a positive diagnostic test and a clinical exam, and some individuals with alpha-gal syndrome may not get tested, it is estimated that as many as 450,000 people might have been affected by AGS in the United States,” the CDC said, adding. “Of those aware of AGS, knowledge about diagnosis and management is low.”

Continue reading at The Guardian (subscription maybe required) ->

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/27/tick-bite-red-meat-allergy-ags-cdc

Other news outlet's provide coverage as well

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/07/27/tick-red-meat-allergy/

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/27/metro/lone-star-tick-meat-allergy/

Original report from CDC ->

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7230a2.htm

Franklin's Health Director Cathleen Liberty talks about ticks and insect borne diseases in this podcast ->  https://www.franklinmatters.org/2020/05/fm-271-franklin-health-director.html

From 2017 to 2021, there was an annual increase in positive AGS test results across the country, the CDC report said. Photograph: Jason Ondreicka/Alamy

Yes, there is such a thing as "Walking Soccer"

"The physical demands of soccer — a fast-paced, high-intensity sport known for lots of running — prevent people such as Clark from participating after a certain age or an injury.

The game requires rapid accelerations, decelerations, turns and stops, which take a toll on players’ knees and ankles. A standard soccer pitch, at 115 yards long and 74 yards wide, is larger than an American football field. Players cover, on average, nearly seven miles, in a single match.

So when a variant of the sport with no running allowed emerged in 2011, some laughed it off as a joke.

Walking soccer, however, has become a global phenomenon."

Continue reading the article online (subscription maybe required) -> 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/07/18/walking-soccer-rules-health-benefits/

The Barnet WFT (Walking Football Team) in England boasts 140 players between ages 50 and 87. (Shaun Sherrick)

New AI development "still makes many of the errors of previous versions"

"The artificial intelligence research lab OpenAI on Tuesday launched the newest version of its language software, GPT-4, an advanced tool for analyzing images and mimicking human speech, pushing the technical and ethical boundaries of a rapidly proliferating wave of AI.

OpenAI’s earlier product, ChatGPT, captivated and unsettled the public with its uncanny ability to generate elegant writing, unleashing a viral wave of college essays, screenplays and conversations — though it relied on an older generation of technology that hasn’t been cutting-edge for more than a year.

...

In its blog post, OpenAI said GPT-4 still makes many of the errors of previous versions, including “hallucinating” nonsense, perpetuating social biases and offering bad advice. It also lacks knowledge of events that happened after about September 2021, when its training data was finalized, and “does not learn from its experience,” limiting people’s ability to teach it new things.'

Continue reading the article online (subscription maybe required)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/14/gpt-4-has-arrived-it-will-blow-chatgpt-out-water/

New AI development "still makes many of the errors of previous versions"

challenges to democracy round up

Former Proud Boy Says Group Prepared for ‘All-Out Revolution’ on Jan. 6 - The New York Times   (subscription maybe required)

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/22/us/politics/proud-boys-jan-6-trial.html

‘Incredibly damning:’ Fox News documents stun some legal experts

The disclosure of behind-the-scenes emails and texts greatly increased the chances that Dominion will win its $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox, experts say.  (subscription maybe required) 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/02/23/fox-news-dominion-lawsuit-legal-analysis/

Opinion  Kevin McCarthy’s Jan. 6 footage stunt demands a real response   (subscription maybe required)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/23/mccarthy-jan-6-footage-tucker-carlson-propaganda/

A grave mistake’: Schumer slams McCarthy for giving Tucker Carlson Jan. 6 surveillance footage   (subscription maybe required)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/02/23/nation/schumer-slams-mccarthy-for-giving-jan-6-footage-to-tucker-carlson/

   

Elderly are targets of scammers, be aware!

"My 78-year-old mother-in-law handed an envelope containing $25,000 cash to a Florida Lyft driver who showed up one morning on her doorstep during the early days of the pandemic.

The cash was intended to bail out her beloved nephew from jail, where he sat after crashing into a pregnant woman and killing her. Or so my mother-in-law was told by the man on the phone who pretended to be her nephew’s lawyer. The man instructed her to tell no one or he would rot in jail. On two consecutive days, she made large cash withdrawals at her bank and the “lawyer” sent the Lyft driver to collect the loot.

But there was no accident and no jail stint. My mother-in-law, reacting with her heart and not her head, was too scared to call her nephew or other family members to verify the tale. Days later, she mentioned to my husband that she had bailed the nephew out of jail — with no idea that she had been scammed.

That was my family’s introduction to the pernicious crimes that strip senior citizens of their money and dignity. It also served as a wake-up call for my husband. He drafted a strategy to better protect her, which included overseeing her finances."

Continue reading the article online (subscription maybe required) ->

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/08/elderly-scams-protections-targets-finances/

For additional info on how to avoid scams, visit the FTC page ->    https://consumer.ftc.gov/scams

(Tara Anand for The Washington Post)

Washington Post: On TikTok "is no more risky than Facebook. That’s not entirely a compliment"

"As calls to ban TikTok grow, should you quit the app?

For the average user, TikTok is no more risky than Facebook. That’s not entirely a compliment.

I’ve been hearing from Washington Post readers concerned that the Chinese-owned app is handing our data to the Communist Party. So I looked under the hood at what TikTok knows about us, and quizzed both the company and the senators calling on us to stop using it.

So far, the arguments to ban TikTok are more rooted in fears than actual evidence. The best thing that could ​​come of this scare is that Congress finally realizes we need privacy rules and guardrails for kids across all apps — not just the ones with Chinese owners."

Continue reading the article online (subscription maybe required) ->

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/03/tiktok-delete-advice/

 

To TikTok, or not to TikTok, that is the question. (Video: Illustration by Elena Lacey/The Washington Post; iStock)

Debunking some appliance use myths, some practical info on energy savings

"When I was a kid, my dad followed behind me, shutting off the incandescent lights I left burning around the house. “You’re wasting energy,” he’d scold as I tried to slip out of the room. He was right, of course. In the 1980s, 5 to 10 percent of an average household’s electricity bill went to keeping the lights on. So when my own son was born last June, my dad joked he was waiting for the day when his grandson would exact his revenge on my utility bill.

Luckily for me, this day will never come. I’ve been rescued by LED lights, now the primary lighting source for about half of U.S. homes. LEDs are wafers of semiconducting material that emit as much light as incandescent bulbs while using about 10 percent of the electricity. Later this year, incandescent bulbs will disappear from store shelves for good as new federal efficiency standards take effect. If it isn’t already, your home lighting will soon be a rounding error on your energy budget.

Yet many people still sound like my dad. When you ask Americans how they save energy at home, “turn off the lights” has been at the top of the list since the 1980s. But when it comes to actual savings, it doesn’t even crack the top 10. Like most conventional wisdom about how to reduce household energy and emissions, much of what we believe about our homes and appliances is wrong."

Continue reading about some home appliance myths that linger (subscription maybe required) ->  https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/01/24/home-appliance-myths-energy-saving-tips/ 

Don’t pre-rinse. Run your dishwasher.

"the combined pressure of drought and overconsumption is proving to be more than it can bear"

"Without dramatic cuts to water consumption, Utah’s Great Salt Lake is on track to disappear within five years, a dire new report warns, imperiling ecosystems and exposing millions of people to toxic dust from the drying lake bed.

The report, led by researchers at Brigham Young University and published this week, found that unsustainable water use has shrunk the lake to just 37 percent of its former volume. The West’s ongoing megadrought — a crisis made worse by climate change — has accelerated its decline to rates far faster than scientists had predicted.

But current conservation measures are critically insufficient to replace the roughly 40 billion gallons of water the lake has lost annually since 2020, the scientists said."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/01/06/great-salt-lake-utah-drying-up/

Access the report directly at -> https://pws.byu.edu/great-salt-lake   

or this PDF ->  https://pws.byu.edu/GSL%20report%202023

Figure 5. Great Salt Lake water budget, including a breakdown of consumptive water use. The reported numbers represent estimates from 2020-2022, the period of accelerated decline1,3,25,60,62,66,67. Because of inadequate monitoring and data availability, many of these estimates are uncertain.

"It would require people to behave a bit more like creatures of the forest"

"Suzanne Simard walks into the forest with a churchgoer’s reverence. The soaring canopies of Douglas firs are her cathedral’s ceiling. Shifting branches of cedars, maples and hemlocks filter the sunlight like stained-glass windows. A songbird chorus echoes from the treetops, accompanied by the wind whistling through pine boughs and a woodpecker’s steady drumming.

But beauty alone is not what makes this place sacred to Simard. In each colossal tree, the University of British Columbia forest ecologist sees a source of oxygen, a filter for water and a home for hundreds of different creatures. To her, the lush, multilayered understory is proof of a thriving community, where a variety of species ensures that every wavelength of light is put to good use.

And although Simard cannot hear their conversation, she knows the trees are in communion with the fungi beneath her feet — bartering carbon for water and nutrients in a raucous exchange older than the forests themselves."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2022/suzanne-simard-mother-trees-climate/

I did read Suzanne's book - "Finding the Mother Tree" ->   https://suzannesimard.com/   The process she worked through to devise her studies to capture the information is well worth the read. 

Studies have shown that when trees are removed from a landscape, it unleashes the carbon buried below.

Chief Justice's Year-End Reports on the Federal Judiciary

"It was one of the most controversial terms in Supreme Court history, with the shocking leak of a draft opinion that eventually overturned a half century of abortion rights, public polls that showed record disapproval of the court’s work and biting dissension among the justices themselves about the court’s legitimacy.

But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. chose not to address those or any other controversies in his annual “Year-end Report on the Federal Judiciary,” issued Saturday. Instead, he focused on a high mark of the judiciary’s past — a federal district judge’s efforts to implement school desegregation at Little Rock’s Central High School after the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

“The law requires every judge to swear an oath to perform his or her work without fear or favor, but we must support judges by ensuring their safety,” Roberts wrote in his nine-page report. “A judicial system cannot and should not live in fear. The events of Little Rock teach about the importance of rule by law instead of by mob.”

Continue reading the article online at the Washington Post ->

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/31/supreme-court-roberts-leak-report/

The year end report for 2022 -> https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/year-end/2022year-endreport.pdf

Prior year end reports can be found online ->    https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/year-end/year-endreports.aspx

 

https://www.supremecourt.gov/

What did you consent to do? Use of social media tools getting riskier - links to 3 articles

Lensa is not a good thing, but if you submitted photos, it's too late now

"This week, millions came face to face with AI-generated versions of themselves thanks to the app Lensa, which uses machine learning to spit out illustrations based on photos you provide. People took to social media to reflect on how the portraits made them feel — and who stands to lose when AI art goes mainstream.

“I think I have a fairly decent self-image, but I looked at the images and I was like, ‘Why do I look so good?’” said James, a Twitch streamer who declined to give his last name to keep his social media presence separate from his day job. “I think it shaved off a lot of my rough edges.”

Continue reading the article (subscription maybe required)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/08/lensa-ai-portraits/

Lensa - article 2

"Sure, that drunk selfie you posted on Instagram might be personally embarrassing. Now imagine that selfie is also training fuel for an artificial intelligence system that helps put an innocent person in jail.

Welcome to the age of artificial intelligence. What you do with your face, your home security videos, your words and the photos from your friend’s art show are not just about you. Almost entirely without your true consent, information that you post online or that is posted about you is being used to coach AI software. These technologies could let a stranger identify you on sight or generate custom art at your command."

Continue reading the article (subscription maybe required)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/09/chatgpt-lensa-ai-ethics/

If you didn't know how you were being tracked, this lends some insight to the systems involved:

"Tens of thousands of websites belonging to government agencies, Fortune 500 companies and other organizations host Twitter computer code that sends visitor information to the social media giant, according to research first reported by The Cybersecurity 202. 

And virtually none of them have used a Twitter feature to put restrictions on what the company can do with that data, said digital ad analysis firm Adalytics, which conducted the study.

The presence of Twitter’s code — known as the Twitter advertising pixel — has grown more troublesome since Elon Musk purchased the platform."

Continue reading the article (subscription maybe required)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/08/twitter-data-tracker-inhabits-tens-thousands-websites/

So how can you protect your privacy in this new social media world? Two quick easy steps:

• Don't fall to any one of the meme's (What Game of Thrones character are you?) or tools like Lensa
• Install DuckDuckGo (https://duckduckgo.com) on your browser to prevent the tracking cookies from doing their thing

Lensa interpretations of reporter Tatum Hunter. These images were
created by AI. They were not taken by a camera.

   

A climate change report card for the world - not good

"Last year’s United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, had the same optimistic energy as the first day of a new school year. The United States — a truant since the nation withdrew from the Paris agreement under President Donald Trump — was back at the table. The cool kids (Leonardo DiCaprio, Prince William, Greta Thunberg) brushed shoulders with the nerds (everyone else). A parade of presidents and prime ministers pledged renewed climate efforts with all the fervor of students promising their parents that this semester would be different.

But that back-to-school energy never lasts. Some of the splashiest COP26 pledges have been derailed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and upheavals in the global economy. Catastrophic climate disasters hampered countries’ abilities to invest in renewable energy and resilient infrastructure, even as they exposed the urgency of preparing for a warmer world.

There are also some glimmers of hope on the horizon: The United States finally passed significant climate legislation to speed the transition away from fossil fuels. Global renewable energy investments are starting to outpace fossil fuel spending."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/11/07/cop27-climate-pledges-methane-deforestation/

A climate change report card for the world - not good

Washington Post: "See if you qualify for discounted internet service"

"If you or someone you know has been struggling financially or if someone in your household receive certain kinds of government benefits, you might be owed a discount on your internet bill.

Help Desk: Technology coverage that makes tech work for you

For many families, that means savings of $30/month. And for those living on tribal lands, that discount is as high as $75/month.

These price breaks come courtesy of the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program, which launched earlier this year to try to narrow the country’s digital divide. And even if you don’t benefit from the program directly, you could be doing someone in your life a real favor by letting them know the ACP exists, so take minute with us to learn how it works."

Continue reading the Washington Post article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/14/how-to-sign-up-acp-internet-discount/

Washington Post: "See if you qualify for discounted internet service"

The Washington Post: "Where Republican election deniers are on the ballot near you"

The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) tweeted on Fri, Oct 07, 2022:

"Election deniers will be on the ballot in 48 of 50 states in the midterm elections this November.

Nearly 300 Republicans seeking those offices have denied the outcome of the last presidential election, according to a Washington Post analysis."  https://t.co/wfflvbjOeZ

 

Where Republican election deniers are on the ballot near you

election deniers in MA

Shared from Twitter -> https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1578504474909212672