The Propeller – Keep Calm and Carry On and my Super Bowl Review – 2-16-2025

I have become quite interested in History over the last few years and recently reading and learning about “The Blitz” on England as Nazi Germany launched nightly aerial assaults on England for 57 consecutive nights showed how a country and it’s people can endure so much, yet still carry on with life with resolve is amazing.  Imagine living in a city where, every night, you knew destruction was coming. No warnings on social media. No live news updates. Just the wail of sirens, the hum of bombers overhead, and the explosion of destruction that followed. That was life in London between September 1940 and May 1941 during The Blitz – the largest, longest, most concentrated bombing campaign the world had ever seen.

For 57 nights straight, the people of London braced themselves as wave after wave of German bombers filled the sky, dropping hundreds of bombs designed to turn their city into fire and rubble. On just one night, December 29, 1940, 100,000 incendiary bombs rained down, igniting what became known as The Second Great Fire of London. Entire neighborhoods burned. Landmarks crumbled. Families huddled in underground shelters, listening to the world above them being torn apart.

But here’s the part that truly matters: Every single morning, as the sun rose over a scarred and smoldering London, its people got up and carried on. They didn’t have the luxury of stopping to process their grief, scrolling through headlines, or venting online. There was no social media to spread encouragement or debate what should be done. There were no status updates – only action.

Shopkeepers unlocked their doors. Firefighters battled the still-burning remains of the night before. Workers picked through the rubble to see what could be rebuilt. Parents sent their children off to school, determined to give them some sense of normalcy. They chose to keep going, even when every reason to give up lay in front of them.

Londoners didn’t choose The Blitz. It was forced upon them by forces beyond their control. But how they responded? That was a choice. The bombings were meant to break their spirit, but instead, they steeled it. “London can take it. We can take it.” became their rallying cry. “Keep Calm and Carry On.” was more than a slogan, it was a mindset. They chose courage over fear, resolve over complaint, and resourcefulness over retreat.

Why? Because their survival – their future – depended on it.

The lesson still applies today. No, we’re not dodging bombs every night, but life throws challenges at us in different forms – financial struggles, personal setbacks, unexpected losses. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, to freeze, to retreat into frustration or fear. But when the world presses down on us, we can take a page from Londoners in 1940: Face forward. Keep going. Do what must be done.

Because in the end, it’s not the hardship that defines us. It’s how we respond.
 

I stumbled across an interesting study the other day:  Researchers at Yale looked at the relationship between reading and longevity…

And found that book readers enjoyed a 20% reduction in all-cause mortality versus those that didn’t read books.  Furthermore, reading books conferred a greater longevity benefit even compared to reading magazines, journals, or newspapers.

Pretty neat, right?

Now it’s above my pay grade to speculate on exactly why this is, but if you’re a health junkie who’s willing to guzzle all manner of evidence-free pills and potions just to try and live longer – It can be easy to overlook a simple longevity hack like this.

And, as it happens: I have a book you can read to serve just this purpose.

It’s called: Winning Habitudes: 99 Habits and Attitudes of Leaders, Visionaries and Achievers

And you can grab yourself a copy on Amazon using the link below.

Now the study above didn’t compare eBooks versus audiobooks versus paperbacks – Yet I have to imagine reading a physical book confers some added juice.

However, I’ll leave the choice up to you.  You’ll find all three options available here:  https://amzn.to/4hAW7gI
 

Anatomy of a scareware scam

Users can always close a full screen scareware page by PRESSING AND HOLDING the ESC key. I’m hopeful that raising awareness to that alone will help users protect themselves, even if they are not using scareware blocker.

While users have become more cautious with passwords and the files they download, scareware isn’t on most people’s radar. Even the most cautious can fall victim to scareware, as scam websites prey on their caution to create anxiety.

Scams move fast to evade detection

Scams have become more sophisticated, often moving after a few hours to evade detection. This makes early detection crucial for protecting users. Scareware can appear unexpectedly, especially in rogue online advertisements. For example, you might accidentally click on a misleading banner ad while searching for a product manual, leading you to a scareware site instead of the PDF file you were trying to download.

Scareware uses full screen mode just like video sites

Scareware sites often use full screen mode, just like popular video sites. Users know they can press ESC to exit full-screen mode, but scareware sites try to camouflage the ESC option, leaving users unsure of what to do next.

Scareware uses audio and keyboard mouse tricks to incite panic

Scareware sites also use audio and keyboard/mouse tricks to incite panic. They might play a warning from a computer-generated voice, leading victims to believe their computer has an identity theft virus and urging them to call support immediately. Savvy users might suspect a full-screen web page and press ESC, but scareware sites may try to hijack the keyboard and mouse to prevent escape.

How scareware blocker will help

As mentioned above, most people who land on a scam in Edge will be protected by Defender SmartScreen, which provides real-time checks on new and unfamiliar sites where abuse is more likely to hide. Once an abusive site is detected, SmartScreen can protect users worldwide within minutes.

Scareware blocker adds a new, first line of defense to help protect the users exposed to a new scam if it attempts to open a full screen page. Scareware blocker uses a machine learning model that runs on the local computer. The model uses computer vision to compare full screen pages to thousands of sample scams that the scam-fighting community shared with us. The model runs locally, without saving or sending images to the cloud.

When scareware blocker suspects a page is a scam, Edge will put users back in control by exiting full screen mode, stopping aggressive audio playback, warning the user, and showing a thumbnail of the page they were just viewing:

Send feedback to protect others & avoid false alarms

Once the user is back in control of their browser, scareware blocker will let them report the malicious site to protect others. Users can share a screenshot of the scam and other diagnostics with Microsoft, helping the Defender SmartScreen service detect scareware outbreaks across multiple machines. If they don’t choose to report, the scareware blocker model will discard the page.

To reduce false alarms, users can also report when scareware blocker makes a mistake and blocks a legitimate page.

Sending this feedback makes a difference. By reporting false alarms, you help us make the feature more reliable to catch the real scams. Beyond just blocking individual scam outbreaks, our Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit goes even further to target the cybercrime supply chain directly.

Help us stand up to scams by enabling scareware blocker

While I recognize that the scareware blocker may not catch every scam – especially as tactics evolve – Microsoft is committed to empowering users with solutions while they improve our defenses.

Scareware blocker is rolling out now as a preview for all Edge users on Windows PCs. To enable in Edge, first make sure that Edge is fully up to date. You may want to restart the browser once more to make sure your Edge client has the preview.

After making sure you have the latest updates, you should see the scareware blocker preview listed under “Privacy Search and Services” as shown below. 
 

“I have learned that in order to bring about change, you must not be afraid to take the first step.” – Rosa Parks
 

During Black History Month, we honor the courage and determination of leaders like Rosa Parks, whose actions sparked lasting change. This quote reflects her pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement. By refusing to give up her bus seat in 1955, she took a bold stand against racial injustice, proving that even a single act of defiance can inspire a movement. Her words remind us that progress begins with courage and a willingness to take action.