Random walks down Manhattan streets

Is 100 the New 80?: Centenarians Are Becoming More Common by Katharina Buchholz, Feb 5, 2021

 https://www.statista.com/chart/18826/number-of-hundred-year-olds-centenarians-worldwide/

Living a long life is a common wish of many – and some might just get what they wish for. Life expectancies in developed and developing countries alike have been rising continuously, causing the number of people who live to 100 years to rise also.

This year, the United Nations expect the number of centenarians to rise to approximately 573,000 worldwide.

The U.S. has the highest absolute number of centenarians in the world with [about] 97,000 living in the country. Japan comes second with [about] 79,000 Japanese who are 100 years or older, according to World Atlas. Japan is also where the world’s oldest person lives. Kane Tanaka from the Fukuoka prefecture is 117 years old, making her a so-called supercentenarian, which is a person living to or beyond the age of 110.

The world's oldest man, Saturnino de la Fuente of Spain, is turning 112 years old on Monday. He also hails from a country with a higher-than-average population of centenarian[s]. In France, Spain, and Italy, the share of the population who is over the age of 100 stands at around 0.03 percent - the highest in Europe.

Japan is the country with the highest rate of centenarians, at 6 for every 10,000 people or approximately 0.06 percent. Uruguay, Hong Kong, and Puerto Rico are also home to some of the highest levels of centenarians compared to [the] population with rates between 0.06 and 0.045 percent.

To navigate a Ph.D., recent graduates offer these five key pieces of advice - Abigail M. Brown

https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2020/09/navigate-phd-recent-graduates-offer-these-five-key-pieces-advice

“Do you have any advice for future graduate students?” I asked. The student had recently defended his Ph.D., and I was conducting an exit interview—something I do with every graduating biomedical Ph.D. student at my university, where I am in charge of evaluating our medical school’s Ph.D. training programs. He sat back in his chair and thought for a minute before responding: He wished he had started to plan for his post-Ph.D. career earlier. My shoulders dropped and I let out a sigh. “Program directors recommend this to incoming students every year, but some don’t seem to hear it,” I said. “How do you think we can get them to listen?” This time, he didn’t hesitate. “They are graduate students in science,” he exclaimed. “Show them the data!”

That was my aha moment. I immediately began to document the responses to this question in subsequent interviews. It has been 3 years now, and the data I’ve collected confirm my suspicions—the same answers come up again and again. As a new cohort of Ph.D. students starts grad school this fall, here are the five pieces of advice graduates offer most frequently.

My midcareer change was scary, but I took a leap of faith - Rachel Mason

https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2020/10/my-midcareer-change-was-scary-i-took-leap-faith

I spent a lot of Free Solo peeking through my fingers, waiting for disaster to strike. I was on a flight to visit family and had decided to watch the documentary about climber Alex Honnold’s extraordinary, rope-free ascent of the 900-meter sheer cliff face of El Capitan. I have no head for heights, and maneuvering up a rock face is the last thing you’d find me doing. Yet one moment gave me an odd jolt of recognition. In it, Honnold has to let go of one set of handholds, step out over the void, and land on the next hold—just knowing that it will work out. It’s a true leap of faith that made me think of the step into the unknown I had just made in my own career.

Overworking tanked my health—until I began to prioritize work-life balance - Ryoichi Fujiwara

https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2021/02/overworking-tanked-my-health-until-i-began-prioritize-work-life-balance

“Enjoy your life,” the doctor told me. “Don’t worry about work.” I had recently moved to Germany for a visiting scholar position and was hoping to get a refill of my prescription sleep aids, which I had been taking for more than a year. The doctor spent nearly an hour with me, listening to my story. Then, to my surprise, he said he wasn’t going to refill my prescription. Instead of relying on pills, he said, I needed to rethink my approach to life and work. I felt I was losing my life support—but I would soon learn that he was right.

Favourite Quotes

• "If it doesn't make you healthier, better looking, smarter, or richer, don't do it."
• “The purpose of life is to experience things for which you will later experience nostalgia.” – FedSpeak
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• "It's gonna get worse before it gets better"
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• If you never try, you will never know.
• "I would much rather fail gloriously than not venture, not try" - Anthony Bourdain
• We don't know how to do it does not necessarily mean it's difficult.
• "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known" ― Sharon Begley
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• It is not the strong one that wins, the one that wins is strong- Franz Beckenbauer
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• “Money makes money. And the money that money makes, makes money” ― Benjamin Franklin
• “If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need.” ― Warren Buffett
• “We spend money that we do not have, on things we do not need, to impress people who do not care.” ― Will Smith
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• “Don’t try to fix people. Just set boundaries.” – Shibetoshi Nakamoto (pseudonymous)
• “It’s good to have people in your life who you don’t want to disappoint.” – Warren Buffett
• “The thing that is least perceived about wealth is that all pleasure in money ends at the point where economy becomes unnecessary. The man who can buy anything he covets, without any consultation with his banker, values nothing that he buys.” – William Dawson
• "Sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect."  ― R.J. Teller