Do you know the difference between a trademark, copyright, and patent? Did you know that it is possible to get a trademark for a color? Check out this fascinating article from The Hustle here.

Wealth Building Advice for Copywriters (or Anyone Else) 

Here’s a short interview I did recently with Jade Trueblood, the Director of Training at American Writers & Artists Institute. In introducing it, she said that though my advice was geared towards copywriters, it was SO GOOD that she thought it was applicable to anyone. Click here.

Eating for Longevity 

My friend BS came by the other night to see how I was doing. The conversation turned to our mutual health scares and what he has been doing since he had his own near-death event. One thing he’s doing is paying attention to what he eats.

BS is a big reader, and he’s read many of the best-known writers on longevity. He recommended Peter Attia to me – someone I’d never heard of – so, I took a look.

This is the first Peter Attia video I watched. I like his tone of voice and the way he explains his ideas. I also like the way he thinks about the effect of food on the health of the body – with what I’d call zero-based thinking.

Check it out here.

How the World Will Look to Your Kids and Grandkids 

I’ve always thought that the answer to racism would be miscegenation on a universal scale. Likewise with religious intolerance: Make it a universal law that you can get married only to someone of a different race and religion. (No need to deal with sex and gender. That area is already an open border.)

If we could just get on with it! Start marrying across racial and religious boundaries until we are one homogeneous globe of mutts!

And that day may one day come. But it won’t be in the next 28 years.

According to a report TS sent me from Gatestone Institute, baby-making trends around the world are widely different and will change world demographics greatly by 2050. The long view is this: In wealthy countries, we have negative birthrates, while birthrates in the poorest countries are growing rapidly.

The facts, as reported, are surprising. Here a few of the findings:

By 2050…

* More than half the increase of the global population will be concentrated in just eight countries: Nigeria, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Tanzania in Africa. Plus India, Pakistan, and the Philippines. Nigeria will have more inhabitants than Europe and the United States.

* Islam will have overtaken Christianity as the predominant religion in the world.

* Taiwan’s population will have shrunk to 20 million people, their average age rising from 39 (today) to 57. At that point, from China’s point of view, Taiwan will be almost irrelevant.

Now, the Gatestone Institute is clearly a conservative organization. And it’s obvious from how they present these facts that they don’t like what the future will bring. But facts are facts. If you have always assumed that the world you grew up in (and live in now) would look largely the same in the not-too-distant future, you might want to read the entire Gatestone report here.

And click here for a link to the same data, presented differently.

From Bonner Private Wine Partnership: Julien talks about the best Spanish reds…

Click here for a short explanation of how WWII changed everything, including the way movies were made in France.

I actually did this… I asked two of my progressively minded friends why they believed voter ID requirements discriminated against African Americans. They both gave me the same answer – the one you see in this video. I then asked two of my African American friends what they thought of what my woke friends had said. They, too, had the same reaction as the African Americans in the video.

Click here.

This Week’s Must-Be-Fake News 

New York is going to place convicted pot dealers at the front of the legal pot business line. According to the NYT, the state has set up a $200 million fund from which licensees will take out loans to start their cannabis stores. And the first 150 licenses will go to the enterprising criminals.

Chris Alexander, Executive Director of the New York State Office of Cannabis Management, did not explain how getting arrested for selling pot qualifies someone to run a pot-selling business. So, it will be interesting to see if this works. California instituted a similar program in 2019. It failed because the new entrepreneurs were unable to keep their businesses profitable. They ended up selling out to the big companies that run California’s legal pot businesses now.

* This week’s head scratcher: Bank of America is testing a program to help Black and Latino buyers get mortgages. If you qualify (if you have Black or Brown skin), you can get a zero-down, low-interest-rate loan, with no closing costs. Even if you have bad credit. Libby, my neighbor, likes it. She calls it social justice – “reparations for a history of mortgage discrimination.” Limo Lou doesn’t see it that way. “How is this different from what the banks were doing in the 2000s that caused the 2008 Great Recession?” he asks. I don’t know. What do you think?

* Freakonomics was a great book. And the podcast by that name that Stephen Dubner, its coauthor, produced was great, too. In one of the earliest episodes, Dubner focused on how economists raised their young children. Today, 10 years later, the children are old enough to talk. And they have a lot to say. Listen in here.

* Even if you disagree with their political/social views… you will find some of the marital advice given by this panel of super-smart conservatives edifying and/or amusing.