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  • Updated – Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics: Donna Strickland, First Woman in 55 Years to Receive a Physics Prize: A Laser Jock

    —Institute for Quantum Computing

    Update:  Dr. Frances ArnoldToday the Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded to  National Institutes of Health grantee Frances H. Arnold, Ph.D., of the California Institute of Technology, for the directed evolution of enzymes The Nobel Prize and Prize in Economic Sciences have been awarded to women 49 times between 1901 and 2017. Only one woman, Marie Curie, has been honoured twice, with the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics and the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. 
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    Donna Strickland: The ‘laser jock’ Nobel prize winner, right

    By Jessica Murphy, BBC, Toronto
     
    Canadian scientist Donna Strickland calls herself a “laser jock”. The physics professor used the description in an interview with a Canadian newspaper, where she discussed efforts to get young people interested in the realm of physics.

    Dr. Strickland has spent much of her life studying and teaching physics, and describes her research as “fun”.

    Now she shares the distinction of being one of three women to ever win the Nobel Prize for physics.

    Dr. Strickland, along with Arthur Ashkin, from the US and Gérard Mourou, from France, were awarded the prize on Tuesday “for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics”.

    The scientist was born in 1959 in Guelph, Ontario. She went on to receive her first degree in the field of physics in 1981, graduating from McMaster University. She studied optics at the University of Rochester, in New York state, working towards her Ph.D. under Dr. Mourou.

    It was at the University of Rochester that the pair co-invented Chirped Pulse Amplification, a “method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses” for which they were awarded this year’s prize. That invention has a variety of applications, including corrective laser eye surgery.

    Dr. Strickland said they were aware at the time they were working on something cutting-edge. “Yes, we knew it would be a game-changer,” she told the BBC. She paused and laughed: “Gérard [Mourou] knew – and told me, and I believed him.”

    Dr. Strickland, who was drawn to the field by a “gut reaction”, says the work felt exciting despite the long hours. She has been teaching at the University of Waterloo, in Ontario, Canada, since 1997, where she oversees an ultrafast laser lab and works with a team of undergraduate and graduate students.

    “The most fun part of my day is when I get to play with my lasers,” she told The Record in 2010. “I’ve been doing this a long time, and I still think it’s fun.”

    She also said she wanted to attract young people to the field by fighting the perception that science was nerdy — hence her use of the term as a “laser jock” rather than a “laser geek”. The Canadian scientist says the term comes from her time in grad school and the difficulties of getting short pulse lasers to work. Those who had an aptitude for it thought they were “pretty good with their hands” and began using the moniker.

    Dr. Strickland says she is surprised at how long it has been since a woman was honoured with the Nobel Prize in Physics. She noted Maria Goeppert-Mayer, who was awarded the prize in 1963, went unpaid for much of the time she was working on her award-winning research. “I’ve always been treated as an equal,” Dr. Strickland said. “I got paid the same as my male counterpart grad students and onward. So things have changed and hopefully keep changing for the better.”

    The Nobel Prize will be just the latest accolade the scientist has received for her work. In 1999, she received the Ontario Premier’s Research Excellence Award, and in 2000 she was the recipient of the Cottrell Scholars’ Award, which recognises scholars for their research and academic leadership. In 2008, she was named a fellow of the Optical Society of America for her pioneering work in the field of ultrafast laser and optical science.

    Dr. Strickland has said she enjoys the competitive rush of pushing the boundaries of what lasers can do.

    Her field of research is all about “who has the shortest pulse, the most energy, the highest average power”, she told the University of Waterloo in 2011.

  • What the 9th Justice (Unconfirmed as yet) Is Missing: Argument preview: Justices to Consider Critical-habitat Designation for Endangered Frog

    The Dusky Goipher Frog

    Lisa Heinzerling Guest, Scotusblog (Supreme Court of the United States Blog)

    A tiny amphibian takes center stage in the first case of October 2018 term. The dusky gopher frog is native to the forested wetlands of the southern coastal United States, with a historical range from the Mississippi River in Louisiana to the Mobile River delta in Alabama. The frog breeds in ephemeral ponds – ponds that are wet for brief periods and then dry out completely – and spends the rest of its life in upland, open-canopy forests, living in burrows created by other animals. Today, the only known remaining population of the dusky gopher frog lives on a single pond in Mississippi.

    In 2001, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared the dusky gopher frog endangered under the Endangered Species Act. In 2012, the service designated the dusky gopher frog’s “critical habitat.” One of the areas the service designated is a parcel of 1,544 acres in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, which the service calls “Unit 1.” Weyerhaeuser Company owns a small portion of Unit 1 and leases the rest of the property from the other corporate owners, who are participating in this case as respondents. After Weyerhaeuser’s challenge to the critical-habitat designation of Unit 1 was rejected by the lower federal courts, the Supreme Court agreed to weigh in.

    The Endangered Species Act requires the service to list endangered species and designate their critical habitat. Section 3(5)(A) defines two types of critical habitat: areas occupied by the species at the time of listing and areas not occupied by the species at that time. Areas in the second category may be deemed critical habitat only “upon a determination by the [service] that such areas are essential for the conservation of the species.” The act defines “conservation” to include not only bare survival of the species, but recovery as well.

    Section 4(b)(2) requires the service to base designation decisions on the “best scientific data available” and to consider economic impacts in coming to these decisions. The service “may” exclude an area from critical habitat if it “determines that the benefits of such exclusion outweigh the benefits of specifying such area as part of the critical habitat,” unless it determines that the exclusion “will result in the extinction of the species.”

    A designation of critical habitat on private property has no direct regulatory consequence for the landowner. For the substantive restrictions of the ESA to take effect, there must be a separate federal action, such as a wetlands permitting process under the Clean Water Act. That federal action may neither jeopardize the continued existence of the endangered species nor destroy or adversely modify its critical habitat.

  • Kavanaugh Confirmation: Led by the Center for Popular Democracy and Mobilized by Different Groups, Protesters were Overwhelmingly Female and Mostly Middle-aged

    By Jo Freeman 

    Photograph: Planned Parenthood Action 

    women protestingThe confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court stretched out for the month of September as the Hart Senate Office Building was repeatedly occupied by protesters. Led by the Center for Popular Democracy but mobilized by several different groups, the protestors were overwhelmingly female, mostly middle-aged. Black women outnumbered white men. At times they seemed to be a wing to the #MeToo movement. WomensMarch was the co-sponsor that brought out most of the women, though Planned Parenthood and NOW also contributed a number, too.

    The first protest took place on September 4, the first day of the confirmation hearings before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.  The hearing was held in the largest available room, which connected Hart SOB with Dirksen. It was packed with press. Roughly a hundred seats were set aside for members of the public. These were not always occupied, even though hundreds of people waited outside for several hours of DC heat and humidity to get into the hearing room. Members of the public were brought in by Senate staff, a couple dozen at a time, and allowed to stay for 15-20 minutes. Several women in the initial groups stood up with cloth signs that they had hidden in their clothing and shouted their opposition to Kavanaugh. They were quickly removed by the U. S. Capitol Police. Seventy were arrested.

    Later groups found themselves sitting in front of a line of uniformed officers, as well as watched closely by one facing them whose back was turned to the hearing itself. If any had stood up to protest, they would have been quickly grabbed and removed. Over four days of hearings, 227 were arrested. They posted and forfeited bail of $35 to $50 each and were released. A few were told to return the next day to pay. If they failed to do so – usually because their bus returned to their home city that evening – a warrant was issued for their arrest. This made it difficult to return later for another disruption and arrest.

    Access to the 2nd-floor hallway with the hearing room door was regulated by the police. Only those with proper badges, or the groups led by Committee staffers, were let it. Many protesters wearing identifying t-shirts watched the entry door from neighboring balconies. Women dressed in red robes like those in The Handmaid’s Tale gathered in the atrium of the Hart Building.

    Further protests were planned for September 20, the day the Committee was scheduled to vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation. However, the release of a letter that had been sent by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) alleging a sexual assault by Kavanaugh at a party in 1982, led to a postponement of the vote. The issue of sexual assault and what Kavanaugh had done to Ford when both were teenagers went viral. This was due in part to the #MeToo movement having raised the issue of sexual harassment and assault in the public consciousness during the previous year. Yale Law School

    CommonDreams.org; Photo: Yale Law Students Demanding Better

    By then, buses were scheduled to go to DC on Sept. 19 and people were flying in from all over the country in order to be present for the vote that wasn’t going to happen. Cancellation compelled improvisation. Instead of going into an empty hearing room, about a hundred protesters occupied the offices of four Republicans on the Committee. Many wore t-shirts aimed at those Republicans. “BE A HERO,” they said. Those inside the offices told personal stories to explain why they objected to Kavanagh’s going on the Court. Most of these had something to do with sex – assault and abortion – though some concerned disability and health care. They were afraid that a conservative Court will undermine the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, which many of them rely on, as well as decimate Roe v. Wade.

    In the morning 23 were arrested outside the office of Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) when they blocked the doorway. Another group went to the office Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) where they spoke to her staff. A third group did the same at the office of Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ). Protest headquarters was the office of Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, (R-IA), conveniently located on the first floor near the back entrance to Hart. There, one female staffer listened patiently as woman after woman, plus a couple men, described their sexual assaults, abortions, and health care travesties. One man described his rape by a priest during confession. He said it was the first time he had talked about it. The women comforted him when he cried.

    In the afternoon, everyone relocated to a balcony on the 7th floor for a press conference. Then they walked downstairs, holding up one fisted arm and chanting “We believe Anita Hill. We believe Christine Ford.” The police told them that if they chanted, it would be deemed a protest and they would all be arrested. After a few objections, they walked without chanting, their fists held high.

    On the first floor, they entered Grassley’s office again. Most didn’t stay. Instead, they went into the hallway and began chanting again, only louder. As they did so, a hundred Capital police appeared, blocked the hallway and the entrance to the building, and began arrests. Each officer handcuffed his or her prisoner and led her (or occasionally him) to the exit door. Personal possessions were put into a plastic bag. Cop/prisoner pairs exited the Hart building to line up outside and wait for transport. The 33 arrestees were loaded into a bus and one paddy wagon and taken to a police facility over two miles away. By 4:00 most had walked out of a back door into a police parking lot on K St. SW. They were greeted by a small welcoming committee of fellow protesters, given water, and taken to a nearby hotel where a room had been reserved for their use. From there they returned to their busses to go home, or someplace else.

  • Scientific American: How Reliable Are the Memories of Sexual Assault Victims? The Expert Testimony Excluded from the Kavanaugh Hearing

    Editorial note: If Jim Hopper had been permitted to provide his expert testimony at the September 27, 2018 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation, these would have been his remarks.

    Incomplete memories of sexual assault, including those with huge gaps, are understandable – if we learn the basics of how memory works and we genuinely listen to survivors.

    Brett Kavanaugh, Yale Yearbook photo, right

    Yale yearbook pix of Kavanaugh

    Such memories should be expected. They are similar to the memories of soldiers and police officers for things they’ve experienced in the line of fire. And a great deal of scientific research on memory explains why.

    I’m an expert on psychological trauma, including sexual assault and traumatic memories. I’ve spent more than 25 years studying this. I’ve trained military and civilian police officers, prosecutors and other professionals, including commanders at Fort Leavenworth and the Pentagon. I teach this to psychiatrists in training at Harvard Medical School.

    As an expert witness, I review videos and transcripts of investigative interviews. It’s like using a microscope to examine how people recall – and don’t recall – parts of their assault experiences. I’ve seen poorly trained police officers not only fail to collect vital details, but actually worsen memory gaps and create inconsistences.

    Ignorance of how memory works is a major reason why sexual assault is the easiest violent crime to get away with, across our country and around the world.

    Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the Scientific American article: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/how-reliable-are-the-memories-of-sexual-assault-victims/

  • The Durrells in Corfu Return With Season Three Based on Gerald Durrell’s Trilogy with a Keeley Hawes Interview

    The Durrells in Corfu, Season 3

    Loosely based on conservationist Gerald Durrell’s best-selling trio of memoirs, The Durrells in Corfu follows the family’s chaotic adventures after a move to the Greek island in the 1930s. Keeley Hawes returns as Durrell family matriarch Louisa, alongside her fictional brood played by Josh O’Connor (Larry), Callum Woodhouse (Leslie), Daisy Waterstone (Margo) and Milo Parker (Gerry).    Editor’s Note:  The show returns on September 30. It’ll once again be paired with the return of popular period drama Poldark, making for a full night of great television all around.       

    Foreword By Writer, Simon Nye

    Each episode features at least something from Gerald Durrell’s fabulous trilogy. The charismatic Indian guest Prince Jeejeebuoy, Gerry’s beloved wall of insects, Margo’s hobby sculpting soap, Leslie’s burglar-shooting system, Larry’s artist visitors including a frequently naked Henry Miller, and so on. I’ve taken other new elements from historical truth, which Gerald left out of his already highly fictionalised reminiscences. Theo Stephanides, when not being a naturalist-poet-raconteur-polymath, was a radiographer, bringing much needed medical help to the island. Margo agrees to work with him, largely because she likes to see men with their shirts off. Leslie was, in reality, a part-time member of the Corfu police force, despite or perhaps because of his fondness for shooting anything that moves, so in this series he is seen on the beat.

    The political situation in Greece, though too chaotic to be as oppressive as in Germany or Italy, was deeply reactionary. As the only gay goat herder on the island, arguably, Sven falls foul of the new moral conservatism, and needs the politically engaged Larry to campaign passionately but ineptly to get him out of prison. One of the main spines of the third series is another element I’ve explored from real life —Leslie’s painful passage to maturity as he falls in love, several times concurrently in episode one. He goes on to discover that sex can have serious consequences, even if, as he protests, “We only did it one and a half times …”

    Louisa’s relationship with Spiros forms the other spine. The attraction is potent but inconvenient — Louisa is in no mood for love after the trouble it’s caused her since being on the island, and Spiros is married with children. But this series sees him and Louisa drift closer and closer together…

    But the show remains light on its feet, I hope. Louisa is happy, or would be if she could just tweak her children to be how she wants them. An episode involving a “perfect” Italian family makes her realise she could do a lot worse. And we have thrown ourselves into the glorious Mediterranean countryside again. Gerry’s perpetual hunt for new and more exotic animals takes him out and about — experimenting humanely with flamingos, tracking down baby vultures, and finding a girlfriend who’s as passionate about animals as he is.

    The wildlife remains a joy — to look at if not to film. It turns out that flamingos are rather highly strung, and make the pelicans look positively professional. We all fell in love with the sloth, and unlike with the other creatures there was no danger that he would make a dash for it — fortunately as we filmed him in England and he would quickly have found himself on notoriously ungulate-averse Ealing Broadway.

    We hope The Durrells will continue to find a large audience, despite its blatant lack of heavy duty crime and procedural bleakness. It is family viewing but hopefully with a bit of surprise and nuance. Come for the sunshine and the animals, stay for the brilliant acting, the reminder that we are all Europeans, and a closing episode featuring a contortionist, magic, and the climax of at least two heartrending love stories. 

    An Interview With Keeley Hawes who plays Louisa Durrell

    How do you reflect back on making this third series?

    “There’s always a sense of achievement. This time we’ve filmed eight episodes for the first time, instead of six. So along with the tiredness is a great sense of satisfaction that you have made eight hours of television. It’s a lot. And when it’s as good as The Durrells is – which I believe it is – that’s really nice.

    “Particularly when you’re back for a third series. You know people like it and everyone has worked out what works and what doesn’t work. I feel we’re all in very capable hands with everyone who makes The Durrells. So, hopefully, it’s just got bigger and better and people will like it.”

    Where do we find Louisa when we meet The Durrells again?

    “Louisa has decided to give up her search for love and concentrate on herself and the children. Which is not a bad idea judging by her previous involvement with men. The family is still in financial dire straits, but Larry is earning a little bit of money with his writing and some money is trickling in from the market. Even so, they all need to get jobs. Then Aunt Hermione, played by the brilliant Barbara Flynn, comes to visit.”

    What is it like returning to Corfu to film another series?

    “It’s a second home for us now. When we return to Corfu we don’t need any time at all to get back into the swing of things. Everyone is so brilliant there that we are immediately back to being The Durrells and it all just starts rolling again.

    “We filmed earlier in the year this time and so we didn’t really have any rain at all. It was springtime and beautiful. I would advise anybody thinking of going to Corfu to go at that time of the year because it’s just gorgeous.”

    How do people on the island react to the production?

    “People are always very pleased to see us. And now the series has been going for a few years, when people see the production trucks, they know exactly what it is. There’s lots of shouts of, ‘Oh Mrs. Durrell, Mrs. Durrell!’ It’s just very nice. Always a really positive thing.

    “Sometimes people have been looking for us. I went to Corfu Airport to go home for the weekend and was queueing to get on the plane when a lady came up to me with her little girl and said, ‘We’ve been searching for you for 10 days and now we’ve found you!’

    “I was still fully done up as Louisa Durrell with my hair and make-up because it had been a mad rush to the airport, so that was good for them. People look for our locations, the house and so on, which is very flattering.”

    Louisa returns to England for a visit. Tell us about that?

    “Louisa ends up having an adventure in London, which was great fun to film. We filmed in Richmond, Surrey, and it rained non-stop for 12 hours. They had booked rain machines but we didn’t really need them. “It was a little odd to be back in England filming as this character, but good to take us back to the roots of this family and it was a lovely contrast to the sunshine of Corfu. As much as we love being in Greece, it was good to have that time at home as well.”

    We meet the American writer Henry Miller. Is that inspired by real life?

    “Larry Durrell knew Henry Miller and invited him to Greece. In the new series we end up with a naked Henry Miller in Corfu. Trevor White, who plays Henry, took off all of his clothes and just went for it. There was nothing shy about it, which is great. It makes it less awkward for everyone and we were all very grown up about it. It’s very funny.” 

    How do Louisa and Spiros get on in this series?

    “We go a bit deeper into their relationship in this series, which is very exciting and easy to play because Alexis Georgoulis, who plays Spiros, is brilliant. We get on so well and really enjoy those scenes.

    “It’s a bittersweet thing. Louisa and Spiros would be so good together. They’re both wonderful people but Louisa would never go there because he’s married with a couple of children. It’s 1937 and a very different time. But wait and see what happens.

    “We also visit Spiros’ house for the first time in this series. That’s when we get to see a completely different side of him. Louisa has never been to his house and I think people will be very interested in that. It expands the world of The Durrells beyond our house. We’ve been to Sven’s house, to town, the doctor’s and other various locations, but it’s great to go into other characters’ houses.”

    How does Louisa react to another foreign family arriving in Corfu? “Louisa’s nose is put totally out of joint by that. In every way. Spiros helps this new family as he did when the Durrells first arrived. She questions whether Spiros is really her best friend, or if he’s just being polite, as he is to the new family. It really throws her. She becomes very jealous and competitive with them.”

    Is Louisa’s Greek improving?

    “Louisa hardly speaks any Greek. And she didn’t in real life. Her Greek was famously bad. Callum, who plays Leslie, is very good at it. I’d say he has the most Greek lines to say in this series, but Louisa, thankfully, is supposed to be rubbish at it. As I am. Although I did learn to say, ‘Thank you, my star,’ in Greek. Which people seem to like. If you’re going to say anything, say that.” 10

    Are the animals still stealing scenes?

    “We have flamingos this time. They are beautiful. And the pelicans were babies when we started and now they are fully grown birds. We know no-one is going to be listening to anything you say when there is an animal in the scene. We’re used to that now.

    “And in this series, we also have Frank the sloth. That was quite extraordinary because it’s not an animal you get to see very often. In fact, I don’t think I’d ever seen one before. It’s so unusual – just gorgeous and so cute. However, he was very heavy!

    “We had scenes written for Gerry (Milo Parker) sitting with the sloth and moving around with it, but it turned out the sloth was too heavy for Milo. His hands were too small. As were Daisy’s (Margo), so they roped me in – which is why I have a scene holding the sloth.

    “It really is an extraordinary animal which, of course, decides to become most animated in the back of someone’s close-ups. Then when you want it to do something, it just won’t move. It was amazing to have that on set.”

  • Sexual Harassment, Senate Judiciary Committee History, Links to Member’s Biographies and Transcripts From Previous Hearings

    Editor’s Note: We decided to add some information from a non-political source, Stanford University’s Sexual Harassment Policy Office website:

    Contact an office of the  U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

    Call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline: Call 800.656.HOPE (4673) to be connected with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area. When you call, you’ll be routed to a local RAINN affiliate organization based on the first six digits of your phone number. Cell phone callers have the option to enter the ZIP code of their current location to more accurately locate the nearest sexual assault service provider.

    Nomination of the Honorable Brett M. Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (Day 5); 09/27/18 10:00 AM EST; Dirksen Senate Office Building 226

    Supreme Court Nomination Hearings

    How to Find Committee Hearing Transcripts
    Titanic Hearings Report

    Published hearing transcripts contain all witness testimony, the question-and-answer portion of the hearing, and any other material requested of the witness by the committee. It may take several months, or even years, for a hearing to be published. Unlike most other congressional documents, hearings are not available from the Senate or House Document Rooms. You may be able to locate a hearing from the Government Publishing Office’s govinfo website, from a committee website, or from a federal depository library. For more tips, read the guide How to find committee hearings. (Editor’s Note: https://www.govinfo.gov/ is a legitimate site) 

      
    photo of Chuck Grassley

     

    Chairman

    Senator Chuck Grassley R-IA
    BIOGRAPHY »

    Majority

    photo of Dianne Feinstein

    Ranking Member

    Senator Dianne Feinstein D-CA
    BIOGRAPHY »

    Minority

  • Ah, Well, Another Good Health Dream Shattered: Daily Low-dose Aspirin in Healthy Older Adults Didn’t Prolong Life or Help Prevent Heart Disease, Physical Disability, Dementia, or Stroke

    At a Glancelow dose aspirin

    • A large clinical trial found that a daily low-dose aspirin in healthy older adults didn’t prolong life or help prevent heart disease, physical disability, dementia, or stroke.
    • The results reveal that aspirin doesn’t have the same benefits for healthy older adults as it does for those who’ve had a heart attack or stroke.
    Heart diseases and stroke are the leading causes of death and disability in older adults in the United States. These are often caused by blood clots forming in the blood vessels that supply oxygen to the heart or the brain. Studies have found that aspirin can help some people prevent a second heart attack or stroke. It helps thin the blood to avoid further blood clots. There is also evidence that aspirin may help prevent a first heart attack or stroke in people who are at high risk for these conditions.

    To investigate whether aspirin can benefit healthy older adults as well, a team of scientists led by Dr. John J. McNeil at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia and Dr. Anne M. Murray at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, Minnesota enrolled more than 19,000 older people in the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) trial starting in 2010. The research was supported in part by NIH’s National Institute on Aging (NIA) and National Cancer Institute (NCI).

    Most participants were aged 70 and older (65 and older for African-American and Hispanic individuals). None had dementia, a physical disability, or a previous heart attack or stroke at the start of the study. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either 100mg of aspirin per day or an inactive placebo pill that looked similar. Health outcomes were followed for an average of about 4.7 years. Initial findings were published online on September 16, 2018 in three papers in the New England Journal of Medicine.

    The group taking aspirin had an increased risk of death; 5.9% of participants taking aspirin and 5.2% taking placebo died during the study. This was due primarily to a higher rate of cancer deaths. A small increase in new cancer cases was also seen in the group taking aspirin, but the difference may have been due to chance. Previous studies of aspirin haven’t seen these effects, so these results need to be explored further. Analysis of the cancer-related data from the trial is continuing.

    The rates of major cardiovascular events—including coronary heart disease, nonfatal heart attacks, and fatal and nonfatal ischemic stroke—were similar in the aspirin and the placebo groups. So were the rates of physical disability and dementia.

    Aspirin was associated with an increased risk of bleeding—a known risk of regular aspirin use. Clinically significant bleeding (hemorrhagic stroke, bleeding in the brain, gastrointestinal hemorrhages, or hemorrhages at other sites that required transfusion or hospitalization) occurred more in those taking aspirin (3.8%) than placebo (2.8%).

    “Clinical guidelines note the benefits of aspirin for preventing heart attacks and strokes in persons with vascular conditions such as coronary artery disease,” says NIA Director Dr. Richard J. Hodes. “The concern has been uncertainty about whether aspirin is beneficial for otherwise healthy older people without those conditions. This study shows why it is so important to conduct this type of research, so that we can gain a fuller picture of aspirin’s benefits and risks among healthy older persons.”

    “These initial findings will help to clarify the role of aspirin in disease prevention for older adults, but much more needs to be learned,” says NIA’s Dr. Evan Hadley. “The ASPREE team is continuing to analyze the results of this study and has implemented plans for monitoring participants.”

    In the meantime, older adults should continue to follow the advice from their health care professionals about daily aspirin use.

    Related Links

    References: 
    Effect of Aspirin on Disability-free Survival in the Healthy Elderly. McNeil JJ, Woods RL, Nelson MR, Reid CM, Kirpach B, Wolfe R, Storey E, Shah RC, Lockery JE, Tonkin AM, Newman AB, Williamson JD, Margolis KL, Ernst ME, Abhayaratna WP, Stocks N, Fitzgerald SM, Orchard SG, Trevaks RE, Beilin LJ, Donnan GA, Gibbs P, Johnston CI, Ryan J, Radziszewska B, Grimm R, Murray AM; ASPREE Investigator Group. N Engl J Med. 2018 Sep 16. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1800722. [Epub ahead of print]. PMID: 30221596.

    Effect of Aspirin on Cardiovascular Events and Bleeding in the Healthy Elderly. McNeil JJ, Wolfe R, Woods RL, Tonkin AM, Donnan GA, Nelson MR, Reid CM, Lockery JE, Kirpach B, Storey E, Shah RC, Williamson JD, Margolis KL, Ernst ME, Abhayaratna WP, Stocks N, Fitzgerald SM, Orchard SG, Trevaks RE, Beilin LJ, Johnston CI, Ryan J, Radziszewska B, Jelinek M, Malik M, Eaton CB, Brauer D, Cloud G, Wood EM, Mahady SE, Satterfield S, Grimm R, Murray AM; ASPREE Investigator Group. N Engl J Med. 2018 Sep 16. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1805819. [Epub ahead of print]. PMID: 30221597.

    Effect of Aspirin on All-Cause Mortality in the Healthy Elderly. McNeil JJ, Nelson MR, Woods RL, Lockery JE, Wolfe R, Reid CM, Kirpach B, Shah RC, Ives DG, Storey E, Ryan J, Tonkin AM, Newman AB, Williamson JD, Margolis KL, Ernst ME, Abhayaratna WP, Stocks N, Fitzgerald SM, Orchard SG, Trevaks RE, Beilin LJ, Donnan GA, Gibbs P, Johnston CI, Radziszewska B, Grimm R, Murray AM; ASPREE Investigator Group. N Engl J Med. 2018 Sep 16. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1803955. [Epub ahead of print]. PMID: 30221595.

  • FactCheck.org Highlights Trump’s Fuzzy Medicare Math, “Medicare will be $700 billion stronger over the next decade thanks to our growth.” South Dakota, September 7, 2018

    Influenza Epidemic, Camp Funston, Kansas

    Remembering the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, Camp Funston, Kansas; National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM)  

    https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4749757/trump-economic-growth&start=0

    User-Created clip on C-Span, September 17, 2018; The president talks about the impact of economic growth on Medicare. Trump also said in this speech: “I’m leaving your social — it’s going to be left alone, your Social Security will be left alone. We’re not touching your Social [Security], we’re just going to make it stronger.”

    Trump’s Fuzzy Medicare Math, FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania

    By 

    Posted on September 20, 2018

    President Donald Trump on several occasions has taken credit for making Medicare “stronger.” In one instance, he said, “Medicare will be $700 billion stronger over the next decade thanks to our growth.”

    In fact, Medicare’s finances have worsened since he took office, and economic growth is not expected to help the program as much as he claims:

    • The latest Medicare trustees report says the Medicare Part A trust fund, which covers payments to hospitals, will run out of money by 2026, three years earlier than projected just last year. That’s partly because the tax cut law that Trump signed last year will reduce Medicare revenues and increase expenses.
    • Medicare remains on an unsustainable path. The annual cost for all four parts of Medicare — including physician payments and prescription drugs — is expected to more than double from $710 billion in 2017 to $1.44 trillion in 2027, and general revenues will increase as a share of Medicare financing from 41 percent in 2017 to 49 percent in 2032.
    • The Congressional Budget Office in April estimated that economic growth could increase allpayroll tax revenues, including Social Security, by $92 billion over the next 10 years. That’s far short of Trump’s $700 billion figure, which he said was just for Medicare.
    Financial Outlook Worsens

    Trump made claims about strengthening Medicare — the health insurance program for senior citizens and the disabled — several times over the course of three days in early September.

    In remarks at the White House on Sept. 5, Trump boasted that “we have done more as an administration than any other administration in already less than two years,” including on health care. “We’re saving Medicare,” he said.

    A day later, while campaigning in Montana for Republican Senate candidate Matt Rosendale, Trump said, “Matt Rosendale is going to make sure we’re not touching your Social Security and your Medicare is only going one way. That’s stronger.”

    On Sept. 7, the president made the specific claim about the impact of economic growth on Medicare. His remarks came at a fundraiser for GOP Rep. Kristi Noem, who is running for governor of South Dakota against Democrat Billie Sutton. The winner will replace outgoing Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard.

    Trump, Sept. 7: Medicare will be $700 billion stronger over the next decade thanks to our growth. And I will tell you that Billie Sutton, and people like Billie Sutton, Democrats with a very strong liberal leaning, they’re going to destroy your Medicare and they’re going to destroy your Social Security. I’m leaving your social — it’s going to be left alone, your Social Security will be left alone. We’re not touching your Social [Security], we’re just going to make it stronger. We’re going to make the country stronger. We pay for things through growth. The way we’re growing right now will be able to pay for things that nobody thought possible. Remember during debates they’d say, “How are you going to do it?” I said, “We’re going to do it through growth.”

    Medicare and budget experts we contacted said Medicare’s financial outlook has worsened and economic growth is not expected to provide much help.

  • Don’t Overlook Pharmacy, Software Developing, Civil Engineering; Jobs With the Largest Gender Pay Gaps are in Finance, Sales

     Woman pharmacist

    By Amy Newcomb

    Women continue to earn less than men in nearly all occupations, but this is more pronounced in fields that predominantly employ men and in professions with a comparable mix of men and women. The largest pay gap is within the finance and sales professions.

    “Pharmacists boast one of the lowest pay gaps between men and women.” 

    Overall, women are also more likely to be employed in lower-paying jobs.

    “The pay gap has narrowed over the last 50 years,” said Lynda Laughlin, chief of the Industry and Occupation Statistics Branch at the U.S. Census Bureau. “However, the gender pay gap continues across the board in almost all occupations. In 2016, median earnings for women was $40,675, compared with $50,741 for men.”

    Women's Earnings by Occupation

     

    The data highlighted above comes from a recently released detailed table from the American Community Survey. It looks at the gender pay gap for more than 300 occupations.

    Several health professions, such as physicians and surgeons, nurse anesthetists, and dentists, are among the highest-paying occupations for women. Pharmacists boast one of the lowest pay gaps between men and women. Full-time, year-round female pharmacists earned 97 cents for every dollar male pharmacists earned. Other professions, including finance and sales, show the largest wage gap between men and women.

    “With an increased presence in the workforce and higher levels of education being attained, women have been employed in a broader range of occupations,” Laughlin said. “This has contributed to a decrease in the wage gap over time and to the economic well-being of women and their families.”

    Amy Newcomb is a public affairs specialist at the Census Bureau.

  • Economic Research from the St. Louis Fed Reserve Bank: What Are Teachers Really Paid? Adjusting Wages for Regional Differences in Cost of Living

     Richard Feynman





















    Richard Feynman, one of the most famous theorists caught on camera in front of a blackboard. (CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research)

    by Charles S. Gascon and Qiuhan Sun, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

    Strikes by teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona, and Colorado have highlighted differences in teachers’ wages across the country.1 Teachers in these states have lower-than-average annual wages but also lower-than-average cost of living (COL). Adjusting for differences in COL narrows the differences in teachers’ wages across the country, but substantial differences remain. Wages that are adjusted for price-level differences are called “real wages” because they measure the real purchasing power of wages. 

     

     

    Figure 1 shows the relationship between average teachers’ wages in 2017 and COL in 2016 measured by regional price parities (RPPs). An RPP of 100 indicates a COL equal to the national average, while an RPP of 110 indicates a COL 10 percent above the national average. States where teachers earn higher wages also happen to be the states with higher COL. Teachers in New York earn the highest nominal wage at $80,625 per year, almost twice as much as teachers in Oklahoma, who make the lowest nominal wage at $41,145 per year.2 However, COL in New York is 15 percent above the national average, while COL in Oklahoma is 10 percent below the national average.

     

     

    Figure 2 adjusts wages for regional differences in COL. As expected, interstate wage gaps shrink after adjusting for COL, but the differences in wages fail to completely capture the differences in COL. The gap between New York and Oklahoma still exists but significantly shrinks from $40,000 to $28,000 in real (COL-adjusted) dollars.