New Orleans...

Dust...

Run...*

Anthony Stokes, 17, was driving a car that matched the description of a car used to flee a home burglary, in which a masked person allegedly shot a gun at an 81-year-old woman who was home, Roswell Police spokeswoman Officer Lisa Holland told ABC News.

The driver allegedly refused to stop, and the police chased him. "The car lost control at an intersection, ran over a curb, hit a pedestrian and ran into big, metal pole," Holland said.

Stokes had an enlarged heart in 2013 and was given six months to live without a heart transplant. At the time, doctors said they wouldn't give him a transplant because of "noncompliance," which means they didn't think he could be trusted to follow medical directions.

His mother told ABC News, at the time, that she thought doctors made their decision to deny Anthony because he had low grades and trouble with the law.   Stokes died from injuries sustained in the crash.                   Why running from the police? It always end badly.

Just a thought.  

Now or Never...

Expectency...

While life expectancy in the United States has grown overall in the last few decades, not all Americans are benefitting equally. New research finds significant disparities, with people in certain parts of the country living more than 20 years longer than those in less fortunate communities.

The reasons for the geographic disparities are complex, but the authors say a number of issues are at play. Risk factors including obesity, lack of exercise, smoking, hypertension (high blood pressure), and diabetes explained 74 percent of the variation in longevity, the researchers found. Socioeconomic factors, such as poverty, income, education, unemployment, and race, as well as access to quality health care also played a role.  Choose wisely.

Drama...

Here's the simple love story of 15 year-old boy meets much older drama teacher in high school and eventually falls in love. His parents can't keep them apart, so years later the mother of three eventually divorces her husband and marries her former student. They flourish and then he runs for president when he's 39 and she's 64. And he wins.

It's much sweeter as a love story as presidential campaign than say, it could be the stuff of a criminal case in the US.

Can you imagine a politician with a personal life like Macron succeeding in the US?  In France, it's met with a shrug.

First is that the husband is much younger than the wife, reversing the stereotype about older men and younger women. What's more -- they've been committed many years.

Plenty of people have pointed out that the difference in age between Macron and his wife, Brigitte, is about the same as it is for US President Donald Trump and his third wife, Melania.

Although Donald Trump was never Melania's drama teacher.

Centrism...

Minutes into his acceptance speech, Emmanuel Macron acknowledged the "anger, anxiety and doubt" among people who voted for his rival Marine Le Pen. By addressing her supporters so directly and taking their concerns so seriously, the new French president demonstrated that he knows his historic triumph has not crushed populism -- it has merely kept it at bay.

Macron's margin of victory, 66% to 34%, was decisive. His achievement, from the creation of a new party to the Elysee within a year, is extraordinary. Centrism, in all its forms  internationalism, liberalism, Europeanism, Blairism, social democracy -- is back, it seems. In fact, it never really went away -- it's just that Brexit in the UK and Donald Trump in the US were such unexpected, disruptive and spectacular victories for populist causes that their noise drowned out the centrist background music.

Macron's victory has not eliminated at a stroke all the issues that Le Pen was able to convert into votes: immigration, terrorism, unemployment and identity.

Macron never held a political office before.  Now he is ... Well, the saga continues.

Pres....

Antibiotic...*

Research released by the British Medical Journal implicated trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole as a cause for increased risk of sudden death in older populations.

Data gathered for more than 17 years and included patients aged 66 years or older who were on an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) and then suddenly died within 7 or 14 days of starting treatment as an outpatient with an oral antibiotic.

Of the more than 1.5 million patients included in the study, nearly 40,000 died suddenly after beginning oral antibiotic.

Previous research theorized the quick and clinically significant rise in potassium, which then caused an unrecognized arrhythmic death.  The authors also implied that sudden death is attributed to underlying cardiovascular disease. [or both together]

With more than 250 million prescriptions for ACE inhibitors and ARBs annually, and more than 20 million prescriptions for trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole dispensed each year in the United States, chances are that the 2 will be prescribed together. When appropriate, it is prudent for clinicians to evaluate. The duration and impact of antibiotics are scary.    Just a thought.

Lotto...*

An illustration posted by artist La Sauvage Jaune (@LaSauvageJaune) commenting on the controversial burkini ban is going viral because of its loaded message on women's fashion.

"The Lottery of Indecency" shows the figure of a woman, half mostly covered and the other half mostly bare. Comments surrounding the woman pick apart what is perceived as wrong with each look.

Comments like "undress yourself" pointed at a burkini next to a topless figure and "cover that up" show how cultures around the world differ on the meaning of modesty.

The illustration points out other conflicting messages women often hear, such as "you look like a whore with makeup" but "you’re neglecting yourself" if you don’t wear makeup.

So the key here is the occasion, where and when.    On the beach with bikini and in the worship place with a burka.     Just a thought.