Longer life expectancy.
A recent report finds that life expectancy is on the rise in the U.S., but only among those with more than 12 years of education. For more, read on.
During Pittcon last week, one of the ladies working in the Aramark food service concession at the sprawling Morial Convention Center (who could forget the scene there after Hurricane Katrina, with people huddled together waiting for help), asked me while she was dishing out the jambalaya, "What is this conference all about?" I explained that most people attending were analytical chemists, and she said, "I'm 45 years old. It makes me wish that I'd stayed in school and finished my degree and studied something like chemistry. My back is breaking."
Trying to lighten things up, I feebly replied that she might think about going to night school part time, that anything was possible at any point in life, and that the exhibitors were likely experiencing the same exact back pain standing at their booths, schmoozing and keeping their smiles in place, but her words haunted me.
So did other aspects of seeing New Orleans slowly regroup after Katrina. Contributing editor and NIR expert Emil Ciurczak wrote about some of this recently in his blog. For more, read on. Whatever your political point of view, he raises an excellent point. There are people in that beautiful city who have been displaced, not only from their homes but from their formaldehyde-laden government issued trailers, who are forced to sleep under bridges right now, and they're likely in need of medicine. Could the drug industry, which donated in the immediate aftermath of the storm, be convinced to send more medications there?
AMS
