Friday Reads

Good Morning!

I think most of us that have lived awhile can attest to the fall in lifestyle and standards of living in the country.  I think it’s been rather obvious that it’s much more difficult to “get ahead” more than at any other time in recent U.S. history.  I ran across some interesting articles that sort’ve validated my gut feeling so I thought I’d share them with you.  I hope you don’t find them too depressing.  The first one indicates that the longevity of U.S. women just isn’t what it used to be. Why are U.S. women dying younger than their mothers?

Whether you think the Affordable Care Act is the right solution or a dangerous step toward tyranny, it’s hard to dispute that the U.S. health-care system is broken. More than 48 million people lack health insurance, and despite having the world’s highest levels of health-care spending per capita, the U.S. has some of the worst health outcomes among developed nations, lagging behind in key metrics like life expectancy, premature death rates, and death by treatable diseases, according to a July study in theJournal of the American Medicine Association.

For some Americans, the reality is far worse than the national statistics suggest. In particular, growing health disadvantages have disproportionately impacted women over the past three decades, especially those without a high-school diploma or who live in the South or West. In March, a study published by the University of Wisconsin researchers David Kindig and Erika Cheng found that in nearly half of U.S. counties, female mortality rates actually increased between 1992 and 2006, compared to just 3 percent of counties that saw male mortality increase over the same period.

“I was shocked, actually,” Kindig said. “So we went back and did the numbers again, and it came back the same. It’s overwhelming.”

Kindig’s findings were echoed in a July report from University of Washington researcher Chris Murray, which found that inequality in women’s health outcomes steadily increased between 1985 and 2010, with female life expectancy stagnating or declining in 45 percent of U.S. counties. Taken together, the two studies underscore a disturbing trend: While advancements in medicine and technology have prolonged U.S. life expectancy and decreased premature deaths overall, women in parts of the country have been left behind, and in some cases, they are dying younger than they were a generation before. The worst part is no one knows why.

I’ve always thought that the American Lifestyle that you find touted on TV and at most restaurants and stores is really at odds with living well.   Here’s an interesting list of items that also reminds me why I always wanted to just stay in Europe whenever I visited there. Are Europeans better at just living life?  Here’s one of the statistics that makes me realize how overworked the U.S. worker is and why we all just sort’ve wear out at some point in time.

Europeans:

The top seven nations in the world, in terms of time off? All European. Austrians get 35 (35!) paid days off per year. Nobody criticizes them for being lazy.

Americans:

Meanwhile, the U.S. is the sole developed nation that requires no paid vacation time or holidays by law.

There’s a lot of fun comparisons there including cars, cheese, and sports.  The link is good for a few smiles.

So, I lot of people subscribe to the idea of peak oil.  I’ve always thought I’d really rather go solar or some alternative for energy in the future since fossil fuels have such incredible problems.  I’m not all that concerned about an oil shortage, but a cocoa bean shortage?  That’s a completely different matter!!!

The world will officially run out on October 2, 2020.

Industry experts met in London last week to discuss the impending meltdown.

Confectionery giants revealed there are just not enough cocoa plantations across the globe to feed the demand.

They warned we would need the ­equivalent of another planet Earth to fill the gap needed to keep the chocolate ­industry going.

Prices are set to soar over the next few years as chocolate becomes harder to get hold of.

As a result many big-name ­companies are ­expected to fill bars that are smaller in size with more nuts and fruit because they are cheaper to produce.

Chocolate taster and expert Angus Kennedy said: “There will be a chocolate shortage and there isn’t a solution to the problem. Seven years is what we think we have left.

“Experts have worked out we need 2.3 globes to accommodate man’s needs for chocolate in terms of forestry and space.

“We need another Earth basically if we carry on at this rate. We are ­destroying the whole thing.

“The problem we’ve got is that much of the space that was used for cocoa ­plantations is no longer there.

“The Chinese love their cars and they have found that rubber makes more money than cocoa and at a much quicker pace.

“Cocoa farms are being chopped down and turned into rubber ­plantations because they get a ­better yield.

“If you plant a cocoa plant you get cocoa beans in four years, which means the farmers are ­waiting four years for a profit so ­obviously they think ‘What is the point?’”

Manufacturers from all over the world including Iran, Belgium, Lebanon, Germany and Switzerland met at the British Library last week for the annual Chocolate Industry Network Conference where they heard the worrying news.

At all curious about real US CIA agents in clandestine service?  Try reading this article at Newsweek.

After a stint in the Marines, Archibald began his CIA career as a weapons man in the agency’s special activities division – the “knuckle-draggers,” as they’re known around headquarters – during the Bosnian civil war. From there, he made it into the agency’s elite spy corps, rising to the rank equivalent of general in Pakistan.

How Archibald got his new job remains a mystery to everyone Newsweektalked to. One source thought he’d caught the eye of David Petraeus, whose brief tenure as CIA chief was short-circuited in 2012 by an extramarital affair. Other agency veterans think current CIA director John Brennan liked the former Marine’s non-confrontational style. Bonus points: There was not a whiff of scandal in his background, unlike that of the acting chief, who was closely identified with harsh interrogations and passed over in favor of Archibald. She stayed on as his deputy.

One agency veteran has a more nuanced take on the appointment: “Brennan is his own clandestine ops chief.” Another added, “[Brennan] doesn’t like anyone to argue with him much.”

But there are plenty of things to argue over, insiders say, starting with the layers upon layers of assistants to deputy assistants that clog the agency’s chains of command. Many agency old-timers are also dismayed that the CIA’s core mission of spying on major adversaries seems to have been eclipsed by constant commando raids and drone strikes against terrorist targets. All that, they contend, diverts the agency’s finite resources, time and attention from finding out what’s really going on inside Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin, China’s weapons labs or Iran’s nuclear program.

What does Frank Archibald think? Sorry. We can’t ask him.

Today is payday for hundreds of thousands of federal workers.  What will they get?

The paycheck federal workers have been dreading hit bank accounts across the region Friday, representing salaries cut in half for most idled employees. The next payday will be all zeros, and with furloughs dragging on, civil servants are settling into a financial crouch, slashing expenses, canceling vacations, tapping retirement savings and taking second jobs.

“We have no income coming into the house right now, but the bills haven’t stopped,” said John Ferris of Falls Church. He is in a two-furlough marriage; both he and his wife, Lena, are locked out of jobs at the Environmental Protection Agency. With both of their paychecks dwindling, the family of six has put a scalpel to the household budget.

They’ve cut out restaurants and expensive groceries. Gone are the motel stays at their kids travel softball tournaments; instead, they drive all night. But the most painful cut has been a furlough of their own, laying off their autistic son’s longtime reading specialist.

“He’s been with our family for years, and I love him to death, but I thought, ‘Wow, how am I going to pay him if we don’t have paychecks coming,’ ” Lena Ferris said. She worries that one of the shutdown’s lasting aftershocks could be her son’s having to adjust to a new tutor. “He needs money, too,” she said of the tutor. “I’m worried he’s going to start working for another family.”

Federal workers say they were hugely relieved by last week’s House vote toguarantee the missed pay after the furlough’s over. But that hasn’t eased their anxiety over the bills stacking up in the meantime. Some parents are stretching to pay for day care they don’t need just so they don’t lose their slots while waiting to go back to work. All around the region, the furloughed are looking for money to satisfy their creditors or begging them for more time to pay their bills.

“A lot of our members have been asking to skip a payment,” said Pamela Hout, chief executive of the Census Federal  a Credit Union. Her staff has been working a few hours a week at the nearly deserted Census Bureau headquarters in Prince George’s County to meet the demand. “We’ve been accommodating them; all they have to do is show us their [furlough] letter.”

I need to add one more thing before I sign off this morning.  This is the month that we need to renew our domain and our ability to customize things here.  The bill is about $100  per year so just a bit of a donation to the blog would be much appreciated.  The specialized font comes due in about a month after that so any thing above that will be held until that comes due!!!  Thanks so much!!!

So, that’s my little bit of this and that on a Friday.  What’s on your reading and blogging list today?