“If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.” ― Mark Twain

Welcome once again to the place where we make it up as we go. It's Tuesday, July 14, 2015 and I want to start off with a follow-up from several weeks ago. See there. You didn't know that I actually keep up with my own stories, did you? You might remember that I thought it interesting when I shared how a respected BBC reporter tweeted out the news that Queen Elizabeth had passed away. The BBC was actually doing a practice run for when that sad occasion does take place. When stuff like that happens there always has to be an investigation. Well, they did one, and the results are in. Here's the headline: "BBC Report Concludes ‘Grave Error in Judgment’ Led to False Report of Queen’s Death". You think? I'm not a registered investigator or anything like that but I do believe I could have written that conclusion within minutes of that errant tweet. I wanted to keep you up to date on this unfolding situation. You know. They are our cousins over there even though they do talk funny and all of that. Yeah. And, they also drive on the wrong side of the street. That always gives them the opportunity to make the big joke when the unknowing American bloke walks to the wrong side of the cab to get in. I should know. It happened to me once. Maybe I should have reminded the cabby which side of the family won the war.

Most of you know that I have my daily struggle in doing what I can to manage my diabetes. Nearly everyday there's a new study or new drug or new wrinkle regarding this plague that grips so many of us in today's world. I read one from a respected source concerning new findings about the impact diabetes has on brain function. Please! Since it does greatly influence blood flow and since blood flow is essential to healthy brain function, well, it seems that folks who deal with Type 2, (that would be me), over a long period of time can expect to experience bad stuff as it relates to gray matter shrinkage and connectivity issues as well. I always like it when the folks they study are about my same age. That makes it all the more applicable. Thank you very much. In the meantime I will try to keep at it. I started to say I will continue to do the best I can but most of us know we could do better. Right? I will tell you this. It's not something to take lightly.

Then and now!

The recent computer glitches that shut down United Airlines and the New York Stock Market are troubling indeed. Untold numbers of folks were inconvenienced by these issues. Having spent time in the computer services business for many years and being responsible for a 24x7 worldwide network, I can understand how something like this could happen. Could. It shouldn't but as we witness on an all too frequent basis, it does. In both of these huge infrastructures you have to know they have backups to the backups of the backups. Single points of failure are not acceptable. Yet, it did occur and it has once again led to much speculation and head scratching. The feds are happy happy that, according to them, it didn't involve any cyber attacks. Too happy if you ask me. We will likely only ever know what it is they decide they want us to know about exactly what happened. I hate it when we have to be so skeptical of everything coming out of just about everywhere. Bottom line, it does tell us how exposed we are. Vulnerable. And, according to all we know right now, we did this to ourselves. Just think what our enemies might do when they break into our systems. With that thought I will say so long for now. Take care and may God bless each one. Amen. ....More later.