Life Expectancy

From a recent JAMA study: 

Between 1959 and 2016, US life expectancy increased from 69.9 years to 78.9 years but declined for 3 consecutive years after 2014. 

The recent decrease in US life expectancy culminated a period of increasing cause-specific mortality among adults aged 25 to 64 years that began in the 1990s, ultimately producing an increase in all-cause mortality that began in 2010. 

During 2010-2017, midlife all-cause mortality rates increased from 328.5 deaths/100 000 to 348.2 deaths/100 000. 

By 2014, midlife mortality was increasing across all racial groups, caused by drug overdoses, alcohol abuse, suicides, and a diverse list of organ system diseases. 

The largest relative increases in midlife mortality rates occurred in New England (New Hampshire, 23.3%; Maine, 20.7%; Vermont, 19.9%) and the Ohio Valley (West Virginia, 23.0%; Ohio, 21.6%; Indiana, 14.8%; Kentucky, 14.7%). The increase in midlife mortality during 2010-2017 was associated with an estimated 33 307 excess US deaths, 32.8% of which occurred in 4 Ohio Valley states.

Things are not getting better

Making cows more productive. True or False?

Cows and Jazz

Contract for the Web

Tim Berners-Lee is still active for the web. Over the past year he has worked with activists, academics, companies, governments and citizens from across the world to make sure our online world is safe, empowering and genuinely for everyone.

They have developed the Contract for the Web, which is based on nine principles:

Government
Ensure everyone can connect to the internet

Keep all of the internet available, all of the time

Respect and protect people’s fundamental online privacy and data rights

Companies
Make the internet affordable and accessible to everyone

Respect and protect people’s privacy and personal data to build online trust

Develop technologies that support the best in humanity and challenge the worst

Citizens
Be creators and collaborators on the Web

Build strong communities that respect civil discourse and human dignity

Fight for the Web

Do you want to be a judge?

Move to South Carolina and become friendly with a politician. You don't have to be a lawyer or even have a law degree to preside at a magistrate court. Magistrates include construction workers, insurance agents, pharmacists — even an underwear distributor. You will have to take a training course, but the course is shorter than those for barbers, masseuses and nail salon technicians. You'll rule on cases involving petty thefts, drunken driving, domestic violence, assaults and disorderly conduct. You'll issue arrest warrants, set bail, preside over trials and conduct preliminary hearings to assess if there is sufficient probable cause to support felony charges such as murder, rape and robbery.

Here's what ProPublica discovered about these courts: 

Nearly three-quarters of the state’s magistrates lack a legal degree and couldn’t represent someone in a court of law. 

A loophole in state law has allowed a quarter of South Carolina’s magistrates to remain on the bench after their terms expired, letting them escape the scrutiny of a reappointment process. One controversial magistrate continues to hold court two decades after her four-year term ended. 

In 12 of the state’s 46 counties, magistrate appointments are decided by a single senator who can stock the courts with hand-picked candidates. 

More than a dozen sitting magistrates have been disciplined for misconduct by the state’s judicial watchdog, but they aren’t required to disclose their offenses when seeking a new term. Even the governor, who is supposed to act as a check on nominees, is kept in the dark before signing off on their reappointments.

We have to really move now

Let's talk less about Trump and act re climate change.

A quote from the annual Emissions Gap report from the U.N. Environmental Program (UNEP):

“It is evident that incremental changes will not be enough and there is a need for rapid and transformational action. By necessity, this will see profound change in how energy, food, and other material-intensive services are demanded and provided by governments, businesses, and markets.”

We have to act now as the report states that greenhouse gas emissions must begin falling 7.6 percent annually by 2020 to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5°C by 2030. This report backs up a recent report from the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a record high in 2018.

The Wealthy's Donations

What Susan Rice Has Learned From The Hearings

Her conclusions as reported in the NY Times: 

1. Trump withheld an important Oval Office meeting and nearly $400 million in urgently needed military assistance from Ukraine to compel Mr. Zelensky to open, or at least announce, two investigations.

2. The hearings have amply demonstrated the extraordinary caliber and character of our nonpartisan career Foreign Service officers, civil servants and uniformed military personnel.

3. It is now abundantly apparent that most Republicans in Congress have abandoned all semblance of serving the national interest.

4. The primary beneficiary of our domestic dysfunction and divisions is President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

What kind of plant is this?

 It's not a plant. It's a thin sheet of ice crystals on the windshield of a car in Maine.

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

Prison College

See this on PBS on November 25 and 26

Grannies demonstrating

Will our empire fail?

The mall is dying

Another leader indicted

This time it's Israel. They've had a tough year politically - two elections and three attempts at forming a government since April. Now Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in a set of long-running corruption cases. Supposedly, he gave or offered lucrative official favors to several media tycoons in exchange for favorable news coverage or gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Do you work for the state?

The Enormous Companies

Mosquitos and history

I had never given any thought to the mosquito in a historical sense. But that was before I read a review of "The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator" by Timothy Winegard. 

Malaria may have changed history in many ways: 

Alexander the Great died from it as he was on his way to conquer Arabia and North Africa.
Alaric conquered Rome and then died before moving on Italy.
Otto II, a Holy Roman Emperor, died before consolidating Germanic tribes
Oliver Cromwell, Dante, Lord Byron died from it.

The book also argues that mosquitos affected the Hellenistic world, the Roman Empire’s rise and fall, the Crusades, the Mongol conquests of Genghis Khan, the European colonization of the Americas, the enslavement of Africans, the coalescence of Great Britain, the American Revolution, the formative collision between the United States and Mexico in the 1840s, the American Civil War.

Trump likes capital letters

A few days, a few murders

Last week, a shooter at a high school in California killed two people and injured three others. Over the weekend, a shooter at a party in Fresno, California, killed four and wounded six more. Today, a shooting outside a Walmart in Duncan, Oklahoma, reportedly killed three people.

There have been more than 370 mass shootings in the US so far in 2019. What are we doing about it?

Some comparisons:

Reelection is most important...

.. to most holders of political office, some of whom, including our president, would do almost anything to be reelected. Vaping by teenagers has become a major health problem in this country. The CDC has said that nearly 2,000 people have been affected by the epidemic and 40 people have died. A federal survey showed that nearly 1 in 4 high school student had vaped within the past 30 days.

Because of the rising teen vaping rates and a nationwide epidemic of vaping-related lung injuries, in September, President Trump announced that he planned to roll out a federal ban of most flavored e-cigarette products. But the vaping industry got busy and have convinced him to do nothing as a ban would effect his reelection.

I really don't like writing about Trump, but this is outrageous and will result in unnecessary deaths.

Trying to help coal miners

Would you take this flight?

Freight is declining

Freight shipment volume in the US by truck, rail, air, and barge fell 5.9% in October 2019, compared to October last year, according to the Cass Freight Index for Shipments. It was the 11th month in a row of year-over-year declines, and the third month out of those 11 when year-over-year declines were around 6%.

Do you notice anything different?

An engineer at age 9

He really is a kid - a very nasty kid

I'm talking about our president. Here is his Twitter comment made while Yovanovitch was testifying re impeachment: 

Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian President spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him. It is a U.S. President’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors.

Therapy Llamas

The title of this post is not a typo. Llamas are being used for therapy for old people and young people. The llamas are in assisted living facilities, nursing and veterans’ homes, rehabilitation centers and walk-a-thons. There is even a reasonably large company, Pet Partners, in Texas that provides llamas for therapy after they have passed a qualifying exam necessary to become registered therapy llamas. The test involves being touched by strangers and remaining impassive when people nearby start arguing.

The llamas are supplied by people who keep llamas on their property. When they register their animals with Pet Partners, they are covered by insurance for the duration of their therapy visits. They must abide by strict rules about health, grooming and working conditions. No animal may work more than two hours a day, and handlers must be aware of any signs of fatigue or annoyance.

Courtesy of our Florida correspondent.

All empires fail...

...despite what James Fallows says.

One in a million

Delinquent auto loans are mushrooming

Is California falling apart?

Tons of fires. Major drought. Homeless population the highest in the country. High air pollution. Expensive homes. Highest rent.

Details at Business Insider.

The Cost of the Wars on Terror since 9/11

This is a summary of the costs of post 9/11 wars as compiled at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs:

Over 480,000 have died due to direct war violence, and several times as many indirectly.

Over 244,000 civilians have been killed as a result of the fighting. 

21 million — the number of war refugees and displaced persons.

The US federal price tag for the post-9/11 wars is over $5.9 trillion dollars.

The US government is conducting counterterror activities in 80 countries The wars have been accompanied by violations of human rights and civil liberties, in the US and abroad.

Smelling Parkinson's?

Joy Milne from Scotland has a very unusual sense of smell. She has had it since she was a child. When Milne closes her eyes, she smells in color. If she puts a flower up to her nose, a "kaleidoscope," as she puts it, begins spinning in her head. The medical term for this overlapping of sensory perception is synesthesia, and the color of the scent rarely has anything to do with the color of the object in question. Coffee smells "swirly gray" to her, while the smell of the North Sea is emerald green.

For several years, she, a former nurse, has worked with a number of scientists because she is also able to smell diseases. People with Alzheimer's smell to her like rye bread, diabetes like nail polish, cancer like mushrooms and tuberculosis like damp cardboard. She has worked most closely with those studying Parkinson's disease, the cause of her husband's death. These scientists are looking for a way to detect the disease before its clear symptoms becomes noticeable. She felt that when her husband was close he smelled differently from most people; he smelled like musk.

The Rich get richer

Robots exercising

Don't wear eyeglasses to work in Japan

Apparently women are forbidden to wear eyeglasses to work in many companies. The reason? Glasses can give a “cold impression,” or cover up one’s makeup, or just aren’t liked by the boss, said many women. But men can.

Japanese women also face the 'rule' that they wear high heels to work.

My feelings re Veterans Day

This is the third year I have posted this.

When I was a kid in the 1940s, it was pretty obvious that this nation was at war. Everyone was involved in some activity to help the war effort. I and my friends collected aluminum foil. My sisters knitted. We went to the market with ration book in hand. Every so often we prepared for an air raid. My brothers served in the Battle of the Bulge and other combat. All of my male cousins and most of the men I knew were drafted. I learned to read via the headlines and the lead stories of the war that the newspapers carried every day. I practiced my writing by writing letters to my brothers. All of the men in East Cambridge were drafted. It was pretty obvious why we should celebrate their efforts. Hardly anyone was against the GI Bill. I can fully understand why in the '50s and '60s Armistice Day was a big deal. And, I can readily understand why Eisenhower renamed Armistice Day to Veterans Day in 1954. 

However, I find it very hard to understand the brouhaha that is now made of Veterans Day. When Nixon abolished the draft in 1973, people now had a choice as to whether they wanted to join the military or not, as they always had a choice whether they should join the police, become a teacher, practice medicine, fight fires, etc. There are many professions where the goal is not making a dollar. Soldiers are not the only ones risking their lives. Police and firefighters also risk their lives. The military is not the only important profession that keeps this country whole. Where would we be without teachers or policemen? Why don't we have a teacher's day or a policemen's day?  

The fact of a volunteer army makes us more susceptible to go to war, especially because we know so few of the volunteers. As I said above, many of the people I knew in the '40s were drafted and risked their lives defending this country. Some of my relatives served in Korea. Friends served in Vietnam or moved to Canada. Coffins landed in the military base in Bedford, MA almost every night. We were all involved in these wars and realized their cost. The President didn't tell us to avoid the fact that we were at war, we were all helping the war effort. That was our duty as citizens, no matter our age or circumstances. 

It is interesting that most of the politicians that will be speaking on Veterans Day have not served in any capacity in the military. I'll end with a comment from Aaron O'Connell, a professor at Annapolis, "Uncritical support of all things martial is quickly becoming the new normal for our youth. Hardly any of my students at the Naval Academy remember a time when their nation wasn’t at war."

Replacing the stethoscope

Courtesy of our Glastonbury correspondent

Should we move?

Can 11,258 scientists be wrong?

It is possible, but I don't think likely in that they are talking about climate change. A new report by the American Institute of Biological Sciences has the signatures of 11,258 scientists in 153 countries from a broad range of disciplines who warn that the planet “clearly and unequivocally faces a climate emergency,” and provides six broad policy goals that must be met to address it.

What do you think? Fact or fiction?

Why high heels?

A deer in the ocean

In Maine yesterday some lobstermen saw a deer in the ocean about 5 miles off the coast. They were able to haul the deer onto the lobster boat after a few tries. Once the deer was on board, they weren’t sure how he would like being on the boat and wondered if he would get spooked or try to run away. But the deer remained remarkably calm during the boat ride.

a 5 year drought

Driving in China

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

McDonald's vs. JPMorgan

They treat their CEOs differently. Steve Easterbrook, the CEO of McDonald’s, was fired by his Board for engaging in a consensual relationship with an employee, in violation of company policy. Whereas it seems that no matter what Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, does, he can't lose his job or be punished. 

Here's some of what JP has done under Dimon's leadership:

$6.2 billion in losses from derivatives in London in 2012.

The Bernie Madoff deal resulted in two criminal felony counts from the U.S. Department of Justice, to which JP pleaded guilty. 

In 2015, JP pleaded guilty to one more criminal felony charge for its role in rigging foreign currency trading. 

In September of this year, the U.S. Department of Justice, for the first time that anyone can remember, named the precious metals trading desk of the bank a criminal enterprise and charged three of its traders, including the head of the desk, with racketeering under the RICO statute.

Women racing cars

Use of debt in corporate America

Interest rates have been low for a while. That's one reason why American companies are currently sitting on a record US$15.5 trillion in debt. However, this debt was not primarily used to finance expansion and growth but more commonly to jack up stock prices through dividends, stock buybacks and acquisitions.

And then we have what sounds like a repeat of the Great Recession. $660 billion of companies’ so-called leveraged debt is held in collateralized loan obligations that have been sold to a variety of investors and financial institutions. The IMF estimates that half of corporate debt – excluding small businesses – is high risk, or junk rated, which has a much higher chance of default than investment grade debt.

Who petitions the UN?

I thought it was only other countries residents that did so. Well, in October, human rights activists in New York City; Washington, D.C.; London; and Kingston, Jamaica presented the UN with a petition from incarcerated organizers requesting humanitarian intervention. These activists were referring to the South Carolina prison system. The petition called for adequate food and water, time outdoors, access to vocational training and the removal of steel plates blocking sunlight inside Level 3 prisons.

It seems that prisoners held in the state’s high-security prisons spend 20 to 24 hours a day in 9 by 11 cells with small windows that have been covered with steel plates. They have no access to rehabilitative services or educational programs and are not allowed any freedom of movement outside their cells.

The prisoners, themselves, say guards have committed serious abuses, such as withholding water from prisoners and arbitrarily subjecting prisoners to solitary confinement. Plus, they also list mold problems, rotting food, contaminated drinking water and a lack of access to showers.

College is a business

One more example is the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. It has had its logo on hamburger buns, coffee and wine for a few years. Now, it has moved on to beer; it offers Ragin’ Cajuns Genuine Louisiana Ale and Ragin’ Cajuns Genuine Louisiana Lager. Lafayette is not the only college with their own beer label, more than 20 universities marketing their own brand of beer. For example, Boiler Black (Purdue), Old Tuffy (North Carolina State), El Lobo Rojo (New Mexico) and Stampede (Colorado).

There's danger in your smartphone

Just about every kid has a smartphone?

She liked snakes

And some of her Indiana neighbors did also. They housed 140 snakes in a house reserved for the snakes. Unfortunately, Laura Hurst, one of the snake keepers (she had 20), got too close to an 8 feet reticulated python on one of her semi-weekly visits to the house. The snake wrapped around her neck. This happens to be the longest snake in the world, capable of reaching over 32 feet in length.