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Simple things I learned in 2020. Why you should Zoom Christmas. The best Rupert Murdoch story ever

What I learned in 2020. I wrote a list. But it read trite:

+ Work for yourself.

+ Don’t give your money to anyone else to mismanage.

+ Learn success skills. They are your life.

+ Your health comes first. Then your family.

2020 was great in one important way: The acceleration of technology and its compression into one incredible year.

I was just reading:

A Lazard fund manager overseeing $2 billion lays out the 6 world-changing trends shaping his latest fund – and explains how he plans to capitalize on each

He’s got some neat ideas. I loved this one:

Wolters Kluwer owns a legal database which can use AI to help lawyers find case studies most valuable to their research, he said. “Every law firm is going to want that. It’s providing real benefits to the firm, to the rest of society as well, and you’re not crossing any sort of regulatory difficulties and threats that B2C companies might come across,” he concluded.

Read the whole Business Insider article here.  I bought two of his recommended stocks, including TEL, and JCI. I’ll check others out shortly.

Most firms could do with an independent audit of their IT

The  audit should cover security, storage and backup strategy – along with a guess of the most possible damaging, most expensive hacks that could happen.

The worst thing that could happen to any firm is a total lockup of all your files – along with an expensive ransomware demand.

I know some CEOs take all their backup files home very evening in a fireproof metal case.

If the Feds, SolarWinds, Microsoft and FireEye can get hacked, you can too.

Zoom is best for Christmas with the family

Zoom is free as long as you keep calls to under 40 minutes and fewer than 100 participants. You can always start another free 40 minute Zoom call. Or, you can upgrade to an entry-level $150 a year  plan which lets you host up to 100 people for up to 30 hours. 

Think of Zoom as an insurance policy against contracting Covid-19.

Zoom’s best feature is that you can mute your most irksome relatives. You can’t do that around a Christmas dinner table.

Help is on the way

The New York Times did an entire section last Sunday on “Hang In There. Help is on the Way.”

It’s really good. Full of useful tips that might save your life.

Click here.

The best two comments on 2020

Have Barack read you his magnificent book

For $45 you can download the audiobook. Click here. My daughter loves listening to Obama read his own book. I’ve been reading the book on paper. It’s great.

Stasher bags are great

They have two benefits. You can’t lose the top, since they don’t have one. They take up very little room in your refrigerator.

Click here.

Stuck at home? Going nowhere?

Watch these stunning photos from the air of beautiful places.

Here are two of the pictures:

Now click here. Be patient. The software will change photos all by itself. Share these photos with your kids.

The best newspaper in New York City

It’s the New York Post. It’s owned by Rupert Murdoch’s firm. Rupert was originally Australian. As a young journalist in Australia I competed against Murdoch. He loves puns in headlines, as all Australian and English journalists do. His key editorial policy in Australia was to feature a scantily-clad lady on page 3 on every newspaper. He’s toned that down for more prudish American audiences, but he’s still out there. Here are a few of his most recent covers:

The best Murdoch story happened just after he’d bought the New York Post. He went with his advertising salesmen to meet with Bloomingdales executives.

Murdoch was pitching the Post against the New York Times where Bloomingdales was placing much of its advertising.

Bloomingdales rejected the Post, explaining: The New York Times readers are our customers. The New York Post readers are our shoplifters.

Played tennis today, again. 

Somewhere around 300 consecutive days.

The Bottom Line? Keep Moving

That’s the headline on a piece in today’s New York Times, which contains:

In a useful study I wrote about in August, for instance, young, college athletes — all supremely fit — produced more antibodies to a flu vaccine than other healthy but untrained young people, a result that will keep me working out in anticipation of the Covid vaccine.

More poetically, in a mouse study I covered in September, animals that ran became much better able to cope later with unfamiliar trouble and stress than animals that had sat quietly in their cages.

And in perhaps my favorite study of the year, people who undertook “awe walks,” during which they deliberately sought out and focused on the small beauties and unexpected wonders along their way, felt more rejuvenated and happier afterward than walkers who did not cultivate awe.

You can  read the entire article here.

I played from 7 to 8:30 this morning. Tomorrow we start at 6:30 AM because it’s hard to get court time. Tennis is booming.

I updated my list of recommended stocks and stocks I own. It’s on the web site. Right hand column.

See you tomorrow. Harry Newton