The cost of dementia, and more

The cost of dementia

As the population ages and lives longer, dementia has become one of the country’s most expensive medical conditions, with $109 billion in direct medical costs in 2010, a new RAND study found. The medical cost of dementia exceeds that of both heart disease, at $102 billion, and cancer, at $72 billion.

The Wall Street Journal

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New names for pork cuts

The pork industry is renaming various cuts of meat to give them “consumer-friendly” names. The National Pork Board has been given approval from the USDA to rename pork chops “porterhouse chops,” “ribeye chops,” and “New York chops,” depending on the cut, while pork butt—which is from the shoulder—will be labeled “Boston roast.”

Chicago Tribune

Choosing cremation

For every deceased person who is buried, four are now cremated.

The Wall Street Journal

FAA seeks help with drone testing

More than 50 groups in 37 states have applied to help the FAA test drones in domestic airspace and develop rules for avoiding collisions with commercial aircraft. Thousands of drones are expected to be deployed in the U.S. over the next five years, for duties including searching for lost hikers, inspecting pipelines, and hunting criminal suspects.

Los Angeles Times

Waiting to vote

In the 2012 elections, African-Americans waited an average of 23 minutes to vote, Hispanics waited 19 minutes, and whites waited 12 minutes, according to an MIT study. Vermonters waited only 2 minutes, while Floridians on average had to wait 40.

PoliticalWire.com