Episodes
Aug. 22, 2020
Kamala Harris and Conspiracy Theories
Kamala Harris and Facebook. 4 conspiracy theories quickly emerged after her selection. In today’s episode we will look at each one, and while trying not to give them oxygen, debunk them --- Send in a voice message: https://a…
Aug. 20, 2020
If we knew then what we know now about Covid 19.
6 months into the pandemic,transmission rates are dropping and our changed behaviors wearing masks and socially distancing are making a difference. But the Fog of War on Covid 19 at least initially meant that many mistakes w…
Aug. 16, 2020
Edwin Ramos: Kamala Harris’ Willie Horton ?
An illegal alien felon shot and killed a father and his two sons in a working class residential neighborhood of San Francisco in June 2008. District Attorney charged Edwin Ramos with three counts of murder but declined to se…
Aug. 14, 2020
Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Cognition Testing and the Presidential Election Campaign.
Dementia and Alzheimer’s are brain diseases of older age. The former can be treated to an extent with lifestyle changes, but the latter is far from finding a cure. Cognition Testing became a presidential campaign issue when …
Aug. 10, 2020
Implicit Bias and Principled Policing: Does it work ?
Science tells us that 95% of the population has implicit biases yet there is only a 16% correlation between the bias and behavior. So is racist, homophobic and misogynistic behavior not principally triggered by implicit bias…
Aug. 3, 2020
2084: Was George Orwell's novel 1984, one hundred years ahead of itself ?
Mass surveillance and totalitarianism are two prominent themes in Orwell's dystopian novel published in 1949. But there are two major mass surveillance systems at play in the world today. In the West, the data mining strateg…
July 31, 2020
A Tale of Two States: California and New York amidst Covid 19
California's Summer surge in C-19 cases has put the Golden State in the dubious first place position of 452,000 cases versus 412,000 for New York. What went wrong ? Back in March and April, California had an enviably low num…
July 26, 2020
Science deniers keep schools closed.
California’s powerful teachers’ union the CTA and Governor Gavin Newsom seem to be taking a very slow and hesitant approach to reopening the state’s schools. He has announced that online learning rather than in person classr…
July 21, 2020
Tik Tok, a threat to US security. Really ?
Tik Tok the popular lip syncing video app has exploded in popularity globally during the Covid 19 lockdowns. But Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has threatened to ban it in the US. India and Australia have already done so. Is…
July 20, 2020
Let our kids go back to school !
Over 20 European countries have re-opened their schools but the US lags far behind. Our decentralized and locally controlled as well as politicized schools - school boards are elected and funded with local property taxes - a…
July 16, 2020
The Coming Population Bust
The world's population stands at 7.8 billion today and has increased by 5.8 billion since 1950. But the British medical journal The Lancet and the University of Washington in Seattle have authored a study which posits that t…
July 15, 2020
Urban Hiking: Your Gym Replacement.
With San Francisco"s gyms closed for four months, hiking the urban environment of one of America's most beautiful cities affords lots of opportunities for vigorous exercise. But how is urban hiking different from walking ? W…
July 12, 2020
Facebook: a free speech forum or an advertising surveillance app ?
The Social Media giant is weathering a month long boycott by some of its advertisers, a critical civil rights audit and controversy about political speech. Yet Mark Zuckerberg’s founding principles for Facebook remain: voice…
July 9, 2020
Disinformation and Fake News: How to spot it and How to avoid it.
With the 2020 Presidential election less than 4 months away, Social Media and with it Fake News stories will loom large no doubt, much as they did in 2016. The BBC has a dedicated weekly program called BBC Trending which fo…
July 6, 2020
Spanish Missions: The Spine of Modern California
35 million Californians live within 50 miles of one of the 21 historic Franciscan Missions: They are a key part of the California identity. But the recent destruction of statues of Father Junipero Serra, have challenged the …
July 2, 2020
Homelessness in the Tenderloin: San Francisco's Shame.
The mushrooming of 443 homeless tents on the sidewalks of the Tenderloin, one of San Francisco's poorest and most disadvantaged neighborhoods, caused a group of neighbors, including the well-connected UC Hastings Law School …
June 30, 2020
Junipero Serra: the Missions and Presidios of California
The destruction of statues of Junipero Serra in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park and in front of Los Angeles' founding church, Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles, was a wanton act of vandalism. Serra, a Franciscan Friar was canon…
June 28, 2020
Two steps forward and one back: San Francisco and Covid-19.
Cutting edge research coming out of University of California San Francisco (UCSF) in the antiviral field. Are Kinase Inhibitors the magic bullet to kill the Coronavirus ? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/james-…
June 25, 2020
The Boogaloo Bois : Extremists or Fantasists ?
When Steven Carrillo scrawled BOOG in his own blood across the hood of his white van, the US Air Force Sergeant cast his fate with the extremist anti government movement, the Boogaloo Bois. Facing two death penalty charges f…
June 23, 2020
The Rainbow Honor Walk: San Francisco pays homage to the LGBTQ Community
San Francisco's Rainbow Honor Walk serves to acknowledge and memorialize Great men and women of the LGBTQ Community. 44 large bronze plaques have been laid along Castro Street and Market Street sidewalks to memorialize peo…
June 21, 2020
San Francisco celebrates 75 years of birthing the UN in 1945.
In the closing days of World War II, San Francisco hosted the organizing conference which created the UN. The conference took place at the War Memorial Opera House from April 25 to June 26, 1945. Why did San Francisco get th…
June 20, 2020
Post Covid 19 trends for Work, Health, Retail, Dating and Gyms. Don’t be Dense !
Many of our changed behaviors during the Covid 19 confinement are being translated into new policies and procedures by Employers, Healthcare Providers, Retailers and even Significant Others. The overriding theme of the chang…
June 17, 2020
Tearing down San Francisco's Asian Art Museum for being too white.
As the statue removal movement sweeps across America and England, it has hit the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Artists, academics and art historians are demanding that a bust of its' founder, Avery Brundage be removed f…
June 15, 2020
Police unions root out racism from the ranks: a few bad apples or systemic racism ?
The SFPD, LAPD and SJPD police unions announced a reform agenda to combat racist police officers. The plan lays the groundwork for new policies and procedures to be crafted for their departments and beyond. But is the proble…