From Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA: Black Friday is one of the most lucrative shopping days of the year for retailers in brick-and-mortar shops and online, but shoppers aren't the only ones looking for deals. Malicious people may be able to obtain personal information (such as credit card numbers, phone numbers, account numbers, and addresses) by stealing your wallet, overhearing a phone conversation, rummaging through your trash (a practice known as dumpster diving), or picking up a receipt at a restaurant that has your account number on it. If a thief has enough information, he or she may be able to impersonate you to purchase items, open new accounts, or apply for loans.

A few years ago as I was strolling through the china department of a local department store, I came across a dining table display that set me to giggling. The linens, china, crystal and silver were all quite elegant and carefully coordinated. The flower arrangement was a stunner. What set me off was the sight of twelve perfectly matched napkin rings, each correctly placed on the napkin to the left of the forks. The fad for matched napkin rings has grown since then, and nowadays even the catalogues feature such sets. Excuse me, but doesn't anybody in this modern generation realize why we had napkin rings in the old days?  

Alisse Waterston is a cultural anthropologist; the inspiration for the book was her own emotional and intellectual development as an anthropologist and an activist, but her search for meaning goes far beyond cultural anthropology, which she describes only briefly in terms of its relevance as a source of light in dark times. The book is a work of art as well as a narrative, enlivened by the charming sketches of the co-author, Charlotte Corden, and is rooted in an interdisciplinary intellectual immersion in historical and modern literature, philosophy, poetry, and social science. Waterston’s fictional and nonfictional encounters are focused on the widespread current political, economic and humanitarian crises.

In an effort to share library holdings with people who cannot come to Winterthur in northern New Castle County, Delaware as well as to respond to onsite users, library staff has selected a number of collections to digitize. Choosing to represent library strengths and materials frequently requested by researchers, we have scanned dozens of collections and thousands of images and offer them online.

A perfect read for trying times! Cultural anthropologist and photographer Barry Kass begins his memoir by quoting Richard Burton, the British explorer, who wrote that "one of the gladdest moments in human life … is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands." This is especially true given the travel restrictions in the coronavirus pandemic and thus all the more of a pleasure to read. Kass’s memoir is not your ordinary travelogue. It is filled with descriptions of exotic locations and adventures but also with honest musings, like the deep appreciation of the comforts – hot water showers – that we in the United States take for granted.  

Q: And will the decisions that are being made in this transition period — like the vaccine distribution plan — in any way limit the options of a new administration? Fauci: No, I don’t think so. I think a new administration will have the choice of doing what they feel. But I can tell you what’s going to happen, regardless of the transition or not, is that we have people totally committed to doing it right that are going to be involved in this. So I have confidence in that. Q: When do you think we’ll all be able to throw our masks away? Fauci: I think that we’re going to have some degree of public health measures together with the vaccine for a considerable period of time. But we’ll start approaching normal — if the overwhelming majority of people take the vaccine — as we get into the third or fourth quarter [of 2021].

"I will begin today by describing the evolving role of mortgage companies in mortgage markets and the risks to financial stability that activity entails. I will then focus on developments in mortgage markets during the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss how actions by the Federal Reserve and the other parts of the government helped stabilize financial markets and prevent more severe damage to the economy. Finally, I will explain how vulnerabilities associated with mortgage companies could pose risks in the future, and I will review ongoing work across the regulatory agencies to monitor and address these vulnerabilities. I will end by enlisting your help. Figuring out how to achieve a balanced mortgage system — one that delivers the best outcomes for consumers while being sufficiently resilient — is a highly complex task that could benefit from the insights of those of you here today."

The gap in life expectancy between disadvantaged and privileged Americans has widened over the past half-decade, but so has the gap between the most affluent Americans and their peers in other prosperous nations, according to a new UC Berkeley study. In 2018, men in the most affluent US category could expect to live at least seven years longer than those in the most disadvantaged US group (80.5 vs. 73.2 years). For women, that gap was six years (84.9 vs. 79.9 years).