Whatever interpretations we apply to the full moon, it is good to just allow its glow to wash over us, to be awed by its beautiful presence. Our November 2016 may be a special one but it doesn’t negate all the others. Let’s allow ourselves to take a moment to feel the wholeness of the universe and the oneness of humanity.I guess we all need the comfort of connection when we want it and the space to be on our own when we need it.

The 20 million Americans who have gained health coverage under the Affordable Care Act don't yet know exactly how the presidency of Donald Trump will change their lives. Right now, one older couple who just retired pays $57 per month for their insurance plan; without the subsidy they receive through the health law, the cost will shoot up to $2,000 a month. "They called me in tears afraid. They would not be hired back at their old jobs and are in poor health."

Many states and regions are looking for foreign investors as a way to boost economic growth. At the same time, there is increasing interest among overseas firms in investing in the relatively stable US economy, said Brad McDearman, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has extensively studied states and cities that have attracted investment by foreign companies.

Editor's Note: In 1991, Zandra Rhodes was commissioned to create the Chicago Marshall Field's flagship store holiday extravaganza display. The year's theme was Cinderella, so the London-based designer crafted 12 larger-than-life sparkling ball gowns that were then mounted on custom-made gold mannequins to tell the famous rags-to-riches story. After the holidays, the dresses eventually made their way to the Goldstein Museum of Design.

Jo Freeman writes: I vote in Brooklyn. When I heard that Hillary's election night watch party would be in the Javits Center on the Hudson River, I thought that someplace in that 1.8 million square feet of space there might be room for me. In all the Presidential elections I've worked in, I've never been in the right city for a candidate's own election night party, whether it be a wake or a celebration. 

A highly contentious presidential campaign, coupled with questions about the control of Congress, made the 2016 election cycle one of the most closely followed in recent history. In addition to incumbent Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Patty Murray (D-WA), who won their reelection bids, three newly elected Senators will serve in the next Congress: Sens.-elect Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Kamala Harris (D-CA), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV).

The exit poll is a major operation. Edison Research expects to survey about 16,000 early and absentee voters by phone, Joe Lenski said, and another 85,000 or so voters in person. "Between exit-poll interviewers, vote-count reporters, supervisors driving around checking on sites, and the two very large phone rooms we'll be operating on Election Day to take in those results, we have close to 3,000 people working for us on Election Day," he said. It also is conducting a phone survey of early and absentee/mail voters, a process that began earlier this week.

Voter Fraud: "Rigged" is the buzzword if this election, with Donald Trump saying there is "large scale voter fraud." Every major study, investigation, and court decision has found voter fraud is vanishingly rare. See the Brennan Center’s briefing memo debunking the myth of fraud. Cuts to polling locations, confusion over new voting requirements, faulty machines, and other factors have led to long lines in North Carolina and Texas during early voting this year, and in Arizona during the primaries. In 2012, between 500,000 and 700,000 eligible voters did not cast a ballot due to excessive wait times.  

Sometimes credited with inventing Daylight Saving Time, Benjamin Franklin — the man who is known for the saying "Early to bed and early to rise …" — did not actually suggest a change in time. Benjamin Franklin's connection to Daylight Saving Time comes from his 1784 satirical letter to the editor in the Journal de Paris in which he proposed that Parisians could save money on candles by waking up before their normal time of noon.

The idea is to begin training potential adopters to think in terms of behavior and expectations of their pets, rather than a specific look. For example, an adopter might come in hoping to find a so-called Poodle or Doberman — and leave the building with an American Sofa Dog or a Sierra Stair Stepper. Whimsical, yes, but these new names will be rooted in observation, designed to conjure a distinct personality trait or two.

The Morse is not simply a Tiffany museum; it is a community museum with an underlying educational mission. This was the core of the McKeans' vision for the Morse. Objects in the Museum's new exhibition — from paintings to prints, art glass to art pottery — are being selected to show not only the varied nature of the collection but its philosophical underpinnings.

Using a nationally representative sample of pediatric hospital discharge records, we found that the incidence of hospitalizations for prescription opioid poisonings among children and adolescents 1 to 19 years of age increased nearly 2-fold from 1997 to 2012. Although rates increased across all age groups, the largest percentage increase occurred among the youngest children aged 1 to 4 years. The second largest increase occurred among adolescents 15 to 19 years of age, among whom hospitalizations for prescription opioid and heroin poisoning increased. Adolescents in this age group had the highest incidence overall for each of the 6 years examined.

Rose Madeline Mula writes: I have the greatest collection of cute clutch bags — sparkly ones festooned with sequins or rhinestones for festive evenings; leather ones in rainbow hues to match various outfits for outings to the movies, the grocery store, or a restaurant; and even a couple of little canvas ones for the beach. I just used to throw in a lipstick, a credit card, some tissues, and a couple of bucks, and I was set to go anywhere. I now need a roomy tote bag, preferably one with wheels, to carry all my essentials.

Five states will vote on legalizing recreational marijuana use this year: Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada. And, Arkansas, Florida, Montana, and North Dakota, could be the latest states to legalize medical marijuana use — it's already legal in 25 states and the District of Columbia. As Silvia Martins, associate professor of Epidemiology, notes: "There are several potential pros and cons of legalized recreational marijuana. More years of data are needed for researchers to truly be able to estimate the public health impact of these policies."

In 2012, more than 46 million voters — almost 36% of the total — cast ballots in some manner other than at a traditional polling place on Election Day, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of state and federal election data. That figure includes 23.3 million people who cast civilian or military absentee ballots, 16.9 million who voted early and 6.3 million who mailed in their ballots. The share of the total electorate that such nontraditional voting represents has grown rapidly over the past few election cycles. In 2004, according to our analysis, about 22% of the total vote was nontraditional; by 2008, nearly a third was.

Stanford cybersecurity expert Herb Lin says the Oct. 21 cyberattack that snarled traffic on major websites reveals weaknesses in the Internet of Things that need to be addressed. But stricter security requirements could slow innovation, cost more and be difficult to enforce. "It was a distributed denial-of-service attack on a major internet services provider. The company [Dyn] operates much of the internet's infrastructure. It's not a consumer-facing company, but is in between the user and a company like, say, Amazon."

Doris O'Brien writes: Casting a ballot is usually a biannual event. But the obligatory trek to pick up our paper-based stash has for many of us become an urgent daily ritual. For some, the habit may have even morphed into an obsession. At the appropriate time of year, for example, we may happily discover a birthday card or two, sent to us by those who still buy and lick stamps. And if we're lucky, the holiday season may bring a comparative bonanza of greetings — though, again, there's always the chance of ending up as disappointed as Charlie Brown.               

Last month, the Food and Drug Administration issued a 'safety communication' statement recommending against a screening test, and a week later, Abcodia voluntarily pulled their product, the $295 ROCA (Risk of Ovarian Cancer Algorithm) test, from the market. While MultiModal Screening did correctly identify substantially more cancers among those testing positive than did ultrasound alone, still, more than half of the positives were false positives. Says Levin, "That's why we need to be cautious."

"In 2014, SSH commissioned a 2,000-person national survey in the USA. The survey found that 65% of all women had experienced street harassment. Among all women, 23% had been sexually touched, 20% had been followed, and 9% had been forced to do something sexual. Among men, 25% had been street harassed (a higher percentage of LGBT-identified men than heterosexual men reported this) and their most common form of harassment was homophobic or transphobic slurs (9%)."

The renovated homes are helping to bring downtrodden neighborhoods back to life, while making homeownership possible for some first-time and low-income buyers. "This flipping activity could be seen as a social good if it's bringing houses up to standards and putting them back on the market," said Steven Swidler, an Auburn University professor who has studied flipping. "In other areas it could be putting it beyond the price points for affordable housing for some people. It’s all about location, location, location."

Note that all of these models forecast the presidential election based on the winner of the national two-party vote, and do not factor in third-party candidates. And they assume that a majority or plurality of the popular vote will produce the 270 electoral votes needed for victory. Those are reasonable assumptions based on the historical record but, as William Howard Taft and Al Gore would testify, not foolproof... One final point on polling-based forecasts. As rigorous and sophisticated as these models may be, they all have to work with imperfect materials.

Roberta McReynolds writes: At one point Mike tripped over the hose I was using to siphon water. It jerked out of my hands and sprayed water on the carpet and ... (you guessed it) ... the end of the new sofa. My recliner, to be exact. Fortunately the fabric had been treated to repel spills, but it didn't repel the psychological trauma in my mind. Ick! Jerry, our neighbor, grabbed one of the many towels I had spread out and wiped the sofa as I grabbed the hose and speculated about how high my blood pressure had just spiked.  

Canada, like many industrialized countries, has an aging population. The continued growth in the number of women and men aged 65 years and over, with women representing the majority of older people, will have implications for many areas such as health services, caregiving, housing and pensions. This chapter provides an overview of senior women in the population, analysed in a historical context where appropriate. It examines their socio-demographic characteristics, including life expectancy, diversity, family and living arrangements, health and well-being, labour force participation and income.