Health, Fitness and Style

Jo Freeman writes: While some races are still too close to call, 2018 also saw a great leap upward in the number of women running and winning. More than a quarter of all candidates running for Congress or Governor this year were women (272 of 964). What 1992 has in common with 2018 is that these candidates were overwhelmingly Democrats. For the Democratic Party, this was another year of the woman; not so much for the Republicans. In November, Democratic women ran for 93 seats and won nearly half. Republican women ran for 13 and won less than a quarter. Several issues were prominent which attracted women voters. Exit polls said that the chief issue in 2018 was healthcare. Family separation of would-be immigrants was another. more »

Editor's Note: fin·tech, noun. Computer programs and other technology used to support or enable banking and financial services. "fintech is one of the fastest-growing areas for venture capitalists". "By accessing data sets with consumers' personally identifiable information and applying open-source AI tools, a phisher may be able to churn out highly targeted emails to millions of consumers at relatively low cost, containing personalized information such as their bank account number and logo, along with past transactions. In cases such as this, where large data sets and AI tools may be used for malevolent purposes, it may be that AI is the best tool to fight AI." more »

“The three defendants sentenced today ran a pill mill masquerading as a cash-only ‘pain clinic’ that issued medically unnecessary prescriptions for thousands of tablets of oxycodone,” said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski. “The Department of Justice will use every tool at its disposal to aggressively pursue the pill mills—and their owners and operators—flooding our communities with illicit opioids that kill tens of thousands of Americans every year.” more »

People with cancer were 2.6 percentage points more likely to vote in the 2008 election than people with any of the four other conditions. People with heart disease were 2.4 percentage points less likely to vote. Socioeconomic status and race played into these “chronic condition effects.” The authors found that among respondents who had cancer, African Americans and people without a college education were more likely to vote than their white and well-educated peers. People with poor self-rated health, no insurance, disabilities, and less emotional support were also less likely to vote than the general population. more »