Halloween humbug

From a weather standpoint, October is my favorite month of the year.
The fall weather, with crisp nights and warm days after the summer heat, is a wonderful change of the seasons. Throw in the non-native trees that turn vibrant colors and it’s a great month.
Of course, it’s also the prime fire season month—danger that last Sunday’s atmospheric river storm ended.
It’s not the same when I watch broadcast television and see endless commercials for Halloween horror shows. I don’t hate much and I’m sparing in my use of that word, but all about Halloween gets pretty close for me. The thought that it’s now second only to Christmas on retail spending says something sad about our culture.
I never have gone to horror films—they disgust me and I don’t get the attraction—maybe my blind spot but there’s nothing entertaining about being frightened.
Because we grew up in the country—there were only two neighbors—trick or treating is something that I have little or no recollection of and I cannot recall any parties as kid around Halloween.
It’s one thing to carve a pumpkin—it’s entirely another to go blithely about “celebrating” Halloween without realizing there is an unseen spiritual world and there’s a battle between good and evil that is ongoing. God and Jesus eventually triumph, but the devil likes nothing more than to play with unsuspecting people.
So be careful with what you do and with your words this weekend lest you unintentionally invite an unwelcome spirit to come your way.
It’s been a good month for 10x Genomics of Pleasanton. The company received an East Bay Innovation Award from the East Bay EDA in life sciences that celebrated its robust growth and the important equipment its team makes.
The company also announced the opening of a new hub in Singapore that marks a major Asia Pacific expansion. It is the first manufacturing facility outside of the United States and will provide consumable products for single-cell and spatial analysis on 10x machines.
The hub covers more than 53,000-square-feet in the Solaris@Kallang 164 complex and includes automated production areas for the consumables as well as a Biosafety Level 2 lab to train customers and partners on the technology. The site started operating in 2020 and currently employs more than 80 workers, according to the press release.
The Asia Pacific region represented one-quarter of 10x Genomics’ sales in the first half of 2021. The release noted that Singapore has a thriving life science ecosystem and that the Singapore Economic Development Board welcomed the firm and was a helpful partner.