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For decades without the leadership needed and the collaboration of the entire tech sector and health systems the goal of getting a patients record on the computer or on a phone app anywhere in the US across all health systems was out of America's grasp. This was happening even in countries such as Indonesia and India which were vastly improving health outcomes through their apps of patient health records available across the entire country. The US finally is making that effort which should help not only treat patients but give patients better control of their food, alternative ideas on what to eat and for exercise, other ways to improve their health. CMS Medical Records Interoperability Framework brings together 21 networks to align to it, 60 companies to work collaboratively, and 30 companies to try and improve patient health outcomes and their health in general. Australia, Indonesia and countries in Europe have done this, says Health Secretary Robert Kennedy. It is time the US did so also. ...

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Target date funds for young people put money in stocks at 92% in 2024 instead of 85% in 2014,  for people in their late 30's 88% instead of 82%, for people over 60 allocation in stocks is up to 60% in 2024 from 57% in 2014. Investment allocations are higher today as the S&P 500 is up 10% so far in Jan-July 7 month period in 2025.

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15th Civil Servants Day in a country of 1.2 billion people where the role of civil servants is critical for development. This is what the prime minister Mr. Modi had to say to civil servants-"Taking the dreams of the common man to level of resolve is the responsibility of the system. The Sankalp or resolve should be taken to siddhi or completion and that should be the goal for all of us. We should be there to handhold at every stage in this journey of sapna or dream to sankalp to siddhi." In addition it is imperative "that the schemes and governance models be developed in the global context and be updated regularly," says prime minister Modi. He also emphasized the importance of sharing the experiences of the award winners with others on weekly basis. Also important experimentation where one scheme is chosen for implementation in a few districts and the experience discussed in next year's Civil Service Day. In this way enlarging on successful experiments that has proved invaluable for electricity supplies and renewable energy. This kind of culture being important to make progress. The Hindu provides this list for winners of the PM's Awards for Excellence in Public Administration in categories below Innovation- Gujarat Education Department, Agriculture Department Ladakh, Department of Land Resources West Champaran Bihar, Bongaigon Assam Seamless end to end service delivery without human intervention- Karnataka, New Delhi Municipal Council PM Svanidhi Yojana- Varanasi UP, Anantnag Jammu and Kashmir One district-One product -Darbhanga Bihar, Siddharthnagar UP Poshan Abhiyaan -  Kumuram Bheem Asifabad Telngana, Datia Madhya Pradesh Khelo India-  Churu Rajashthan, Bishnupur Manipur   ...

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The Russian economy will suffer a loss of about 7% of GDP in 2022. After 2023 over the next five year period Russia will feel the effects of a drop in energy demand as it tries to find markets to replace European demand. The shift to renewables will accelerate in future years and will affect the demand for Russian fossil fuel supplies.

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Protests in Berlin against coronavirus restrictions  with some demonstrators rushing to parliament in an attempt to storm it. Police cleared the area. A separate peaceful demonstration in Berlin had about 38,000 people.

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A federal jury finds the NAR National Association of Realtors and residential brokerages liable for $1.8 billion in damages for keeping commission rates on home sales artificially high. The case was brought forward by sellers in midwestern states and the decision was announced by the jury at a Kansas City courtroom. Under antitrust rules the verdict could be tripled to $5 billion. At present the sellers pay their own agents commission about 5-6% of the home's selling price, which is shared with the buyers agent. As the WSJ report shows mostly all countries in the world charge lower commissions in the range of 2% and the US has the most realtors, many working parttime-1.6 million of them.

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Here are some ways to make for a better day at work.  1. Have what is called a "monk-mode" morning when you just keep out all phone calls and focus on "deep work," without distractions. Every little distraction in the form of a call or some other interruption has its costs in terms of having to refocus and not being able to concentrate on the task at hand as it deserves. 2. Have "meeting-free" days. These are days that you can focus, concentrate on tasks without distraction of meetings. Have walking meetings and meetings where you can walk out in the open for fresh air and some exercize. And no phones at meetings. 3. Replace reading with presenting powerpoint presentations. Have people write out their ideas for others to read so that discussion can be engaged and effective. Amazon CEO Bezos never believed in powerpoint presentations and required staff to write so that they could in the process improve on the clarity of their thinking. 4.  Have weekends free of email. This reduces the stress of workers under a manager who spend time writing and answering emails over weekends when they could replenish their energies and come back charged up on Monday morning for a fresh start on a new week. 55. Grab a coffee with a colleague and do some one on ones talking as one walks around the offices. This was done by Intel's Andy Grove as an effective way to get things done eliminating some of the need for formal meetings. This also provides an opportunity for casual conversation Also laugh and socialize in different ways.       ...

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Forsythe describes the process by which the Chief Executive is elected in Hong Kong from a group of 1200 individuals mostly pro-business and loyal to Beijing. This was done under the Basic Law drafted in 1990, a mini-constitution that was the basis of transfer from Britain to China in 1997. In 2007 China's People's Congress promised Hong Kong a "one man, one vote" election for 2017. On August 31, 2014 changes were made to this planned election process to limit candidates to persons approved by Beijing, that was considered unacceptable by the protestors from civil society and the universities.

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This report shows how technology to apply makeup virtually is helping give a digital makeover to cosmetics makers such as L'Oreal. This imitates the instore experience at the time of coronavirus.

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The top five foods for children and good for packing lunches, or at home, are egg yolk, oily fish, oats cereal and whole grain breads, beans, yogurt cheese and milk. This article by dietitian Emer Delaney, who has worked at many teaching hospitals in Britain, also provides the family-friendly recipes you need.

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The redevelopment of the classic Egmore railway station in Chennai at a cost of 734 crores is set to take off. It is a much needed renovation for Chennai and will take 36 months and bring it to international standards under PM Gati Shakti Master Plan for Inter Modal Connectivity. Egmore station handles 1.2 million people daily and is one of the oldest rail stations in India, and one that connects the south with Sri Lanka. Hyderabad based DEC is beginning the initial survey and plans to make this a showcase for other rail stations in India in the drive to modernization.

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The hundreds of labs in the U.S., France and other countries that are working to develop new drugs or adapt drugs used in other treatments to treat the coronavirus.

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Research In Motion's new CEO, Thorsten Heins, worked at Siemens for 23 years. He joined RIM in 2007. During the Siemens years Heins was head of the communications business and cheif of technology. At RIM he was the chief operating officer. He was brought into the company to bring new perspectives and fresh thinking into RIM. As COO he was in charge of hardware, software and more recently of sales. He said he plans on continuing the current strategy with better execution in product development and introduction and in marketing. RIM will continue focus on its next generation operating system, which it hopes to license to other companies.

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Climate change risk is being balanced with cost of living and other risks. David Bailey of the Bank of England says climate change risk is alive and well at the Bank even though the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) has seen withdrawal of banks such as Chase and Barclays to avoid criticism during DJT's second term. 

“We do, of course, have to put climate risk into proportion alongside all the other risks. We can’t focus just on one risk … But we’ve got to focus on climate risk. It’s important. And we continue to maintain the momentum of our work in that space.”

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The failure of Conservatives and Boris Johnson to put up a plan to tackle high obesity in Britain is shown in this report. It shows that Japan successfully tackled obesity in the nineties and how it did so starting with school lunches, and new habits to reduce portions in restaurants, eat only until 80% full, and cultural changes on how a person should look with a term for nearly obese.

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This report in WSJ cites the PM's office saying a tax cut just when tourism revenue slowed with the start of the pandemic reduced Sri Lankan government annual revenues by 800 billion rupees. The combined impact of the tax cut with the pandemic relief measures and drop in tourism revenues widened the budget deficit from 9.6% of GDP to 12.2% of GDP in 2020. PM Wickremasinghe has increased VAT from 8% to 12% to generate 65 billion rupees. And an additional 52 billion rupees from increasing corporate tax from 24% to 30%. The ill timed tax cuts and mismanagement of finances are at the roots of the economic crisis.

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Issues raised by the huge mismatch between revenues and investment for AI. $400 billion estimated investment by 5 Tech firms in 2025 alone with revenue of about $40 billion and huge uncertainty about when AI will produce returns. Articles seen this week of November 17 in the WSJ and NYT on this issue, podcasts, discussions in other media outlets. Could this lead to a dot com bubble type economic crisis? Could that lead to a recession? Alongside these articles another article in the WSJ on Nov 17 shows the benefits small firms get by using AI, benefits which are on the fringes of their business, not essential but with some experimenting firm owners/managers able to tweak AI information for use in business. Nothing significant which firms will pay much money for. The uncertainty is a major factor. Should geopolitics trump all these concerns? Is the competition with China require this scale of investment, and is China following a more utilitarian approach as reported in a WSJ article this month, of investing in AI in a utilitarian way targeting its use in improving manufacturing, improving infrastructure, and not wildly throwing money at experimental uses that are unlikely to yield much result. In geopolitical sense would the country that not only promoted AI but used it efficiently and cost effectively, used it in ways that promote the overall public good, get the WIN. In short it behooves everyone of us to ask hard questions of AI, to dehype the hype, to look for the public good that comes out of this from it's efficient use. To ask the tough questions when $400 billion generates only $40 billion in 2025 and the $3 trillion planned investment over 5 years is half unfunded, is it going to crowd out energy needs for homes and business, push renewable energy targets back, crowd out essential investments in the crumbling aging infrastructure of the US and Europe, crowd out essential investments in education, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing, that hold better promise for our People. Will it also put retirees at risk when corporate bonds from retirees money fund the unfunded portion of AI? This means making the political dimension not about migration, settling the illegal migration issue that was meant to be settled a long time back, or about cultural issues that have little day to day impact on our lives which are about groceries, childcare, housing that are non ideological. Making the political dimension not about remote countries that one knows little about except when it affects public safety and health as with fentanyl. Capital allocation decisions to the vital needs of America can then be free of politically induced error, so that it can be subjected to the test of how best it serves the public interest and the people of the Nation. ...

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Hillary Clinton reminds voters that DOanld Trump lies repeatedly when he says he never supported the war in Iraq. She tells voters to look at "Donald Trump Iraq" in Google, and this report in the NYT says Google Trends show a spike in Google searces for this term significantly more than other searches. 

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An initial deposit to rebuild the broken American water, transportation and other infrastructure, including building broadband, is agreed to by a group of Republican senators with president Biden. Democrats including president Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders see this as part of a bigger effort to rebuild the nation's infrastructure after decades of neglect. Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, says three essentials were covered- the cost, the scope and how to pay for it. 

Simultaneously the Senate will move forward with a larger bill. Not in this $1 trillion package are Mr. Biden's original $2.3 billion infrastructure package with hundreds of billions in funding for home care, housing and workforce development, and a separate $1.8 trillion plan for childcare and education. A process called reconciliation will be adopted in the Senate for these broader parts of the Biden plan to be passed.

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The Manhattan business district of New York City has office occupancy rate of only 50%, leaving half the office space unused and vacant. Only 9% of Manhattan office employees are in the office 5 days a week, 37% 3 days a week, says this report in WSJ. The business district is far from recovery. New York Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul have convened a group of civic leaders to draft a158 page report called- New New York Panel. The New York Panel suggests turning some of the business space into parks and promenades for pedestrians to make the city attractive and the space livable with green areas. A new director of public realm would report to the mayor. New York City has suffered much from the pandemic. The old midtown and the old city is no longer the kind of attractive livable green space that people want to live in or get to.