Wings and a prayer

“Use it or lose it” may be a worn-out cliché, but according to researchers at NASA’s Ames Research Center, that may be exactly what is happening to pilots subjected to prolonged use of cockpit automation.

“There is widespread concern among pilots and air carriers that, as the presence of automation increases in the airline cockpit, pilots are losing the skills they still need to fly the airplane the ‘old-fashioned way’ when the computers crash,” said Steve Casner, co-author of the study.

The researchers studied 16 experienced pilots as they flew routine and nonroutine flight scenarios in a Boeing 747-100 simulator. Results indicated that instrument scanning and skills for manual tasks remained intact, but pilots struggled with maintaining awareness of the plane’s position when the GPS and map display were disabled or with troubleshooting difficulties when the automated systems were not available.

“Our results suggest that we might be a bit less concerned about things that pilots do ‘by hand’ in the cockpit and a bit more concerned about those things that they do ‘by mind,’” said Casner. “Pilots’ ability to remain mindful and engaged as they now watch computers do most of the flying may be a key challenge to keeping their cognitive skills fresh.”

Longer lives

People are living longer and death rates from infectious and cardiovascular diseases are falling globally, according to data from 188 countries collected by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. In the past 23 years worldwide life expectancy has jumped from 65.3 to 71.5 years.

Females tend to be living slightly longer than their male counterparts. Life expectancy at birth has increased 6.6 years for females and 5.8 years for males. If these trends continue, global life expectancy will be 85.3 years for females and 78.1 years for males by 2030.

Mortality rates for measles have dropped 83 percent since 1990, and death due to diarrhea has dropped by 51 percent. Death rates for stomach cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, rheumatic heart disease, peptic ulcer disease, appendicitis, and schizophrenia have fallen by more than one-third since 1990.

Ischemic heart disease, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease accounted for over one-third of all deaths in 2013. —J.B.

Off the market

The number of prime-age men, ages 25 to 54 years, who do not have jobs has more than tripled in the past 45 years. In the late 1960s only 5 per 100 men were unemployed; by 2000 that number rose to 11 and today it is 16.

Of course, the economy is not as strong today as it was 15 years ago, but the official unemployment rate accounts for only one-third of the increase of men without jobs. The remaining two-thirds comprise men who are neither employed nor seeking jobs.

So what are these men doing?

Disability (at 20 percent) accounts for the largest share of prime-age men who are not looking for work, according to statistics reported by The New York Times. Thirteen percent are not looking for work because they are in school.

The number of stay-at-home dads and male homemakers remains rare but has doubled since 2000. Sixteen percent of parents who stay home are men, according to Pew Research Center statistics. —J.B.