What to read about dementia | Ivy League Presidents Respond to Backlash to Testimony on Antisemitism | 5 Strategies for Getting More Work Done in Less Time | Two film awards reveal the battle for the future of Chinese cinema

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� � � � � � What to read about dementia - The Economist    DEMENTIA IS A global emergency. More than 55m people are estimated to live with it. That is more than can be looked after humanely. Most new cases are in the developing world, where populations are growing and ageing and resources are stretched. Yet health authorities do not regard it as among the world’s most pressing medical issues. One reason may be that the biggest reason for its rise is something to be cheered: in most countries, people are living longer. And dementia does not arrive at the viral speed of a pandemic but at the plodding, relentless pace of demographic change. Its full effects will not be felt until far into the future. The number of people with dementia is expected to rise to 82m by 2030 and to more than 150m by 2050. Despite recent advances in treatment that may delay the progress of Alzheimer’s—the most common of the dozens of causes of dementia—no cure for the condition is in the offing. And no society has devised a sustainable way to provide and pay for the care that dementia patients will need. Yet it is a condition almost everyone in the world has some contact with. Here is a selection of reading about dementia that provides an overview of the many different aspects of the subject. Many people have written poignant memoirs of caring for loved ones who have lost to dementia much of their memory and their ability to lead independent lives. Sally Magnusson’s account of her mother’s last years, lived with Alzheimer’s disease, stands out for its effort to explain the broader picture. It is a desperately sad and occasionally funny story of watching a loved one drift away. And it is one that will seem familiar to many readers. By one estimate, 1.7% of 65- to 69-year-olds live with dementia, and its incidence doubles every five years to the age of 90. By another count, at the age of 85 between a third and half of people have dementia. Ms Magnusson, a journalist, turns her own family’s story into a very helpful primer—on the history of Alois Alzheimer, the German pathologist for whom the disease is named; on its neuropathology; on the difficulties of caring for someone with the condition; and on the threat dementia poses to health- and social-care systems. In a succinct and readable way she fulfils the promise of her subtitle, explaining why dementia changes everything. The best way to reduce the risk of developing dementia is not to be recommended: die young. A second tip is equally useless: don’t inherit a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer’s or another degenerative brain disease. A third is sexist as well as unhelpful: don’t be a woman! Women are at greater risk of dementia, and not just because they live longer. As Lisa Mosconi, a neuroscientist who runs an Alzheimer’s-prevention programme in New York, notes in this informative book, “Women in their sixties are about twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s over the rest of their lives as they are to develop breast cancer…A 45-year-old woman has a one-in-five chance of developing Alzheimer’s during her remaining life, while a man of the same age has only a one-in-ten chance.” The reasons for this difference are many and not fully understood, in part because it has been little studied. Women tend to be poorer and less well-educated, and are at greater risk of brain injury from domestic violence. Dr Mosconi’s research has focused on the role of hormones and the female reproductive cycle. Her book is about what women can do to reduce their risk. Continued here � � � � � � Don't like ads? Go ad-free with TradeBriefs Premium Ivy League Presidents Respond to Backlash to Testimony on Antisemitism - TIME    The presidents of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania were forced to issue statements clarifying their responses to a U.S. congressional hearing on antisemitism after a barrage of criticism from business leaders and politicians that shows few signs of abating. Harvard’s Claudine Gay and Penn’s Liz Magill were lambasted for refusing to say at the Dec. 5 event that calling for the genocide of Jews is against school policy, instead offering narrow legal responses.  The presidents backtracked in the face of widespread denunciations of their performances at the hearing, which also included Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth. Continued here � � � � � � 5 Strategies for Getting More Work Done in Less Time - Harvard Business Review    You’ve got more to do than could possibly get done with your current work style. You’ve prioritized. You’ve planned. You’ve delegated. You’ve tried to focus. The next frontier is increasing your efficiency so that you can spend less time and still do a good job. Here are five strategies to help. Start by clarifying what’s actually needed and to what level. Then, ask yourself if there’s any work that you could reuse, and — where you can — copy, paste, and edit. To speed up your process on routine items, create a template or checklist. Having a conversation instead of writing something down can also save time. And finally, decide in advance how much time you will spend on a particular task, and stick to it. You’ve got more to do than could possibly get done with your current work style. You’ve prioritized. You’ve planned. You’ve delegated. You’ve tried to focus. The next frontier is increasing your efficiency so that you can spend less time and still do a good job. Continued here � � � � � � Two film awards reveal the battle for the future of Chinese cinema - The Economist    ON THE FACE of it, the Golden Horse and the Golden Rooster awards ceremonies are remarkably similar events. Both are glitzy and take place in November. Both celebrate the year’s best Chinese-language films. Both give out golden animal figurines to the winners. But a closer look exposes a chasm between them. The Golden Rooster awards, hosted in Xiamen, a port city in south-east China, on November 4th, featured mainland Chinese films approved by Communist Party censors. Most were big-budget blockbusters and heavy on special effects, handsome heroes and nationalism. The Golden Horse awards, meanwhile, took place in Taipei on November 25th. Nominated films came from mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. Many were thoughtful art-house films, suffused with social criticism. None of the nominated films applied for the “dragon seal” of Chinese state approval, meaning they will never be released in cinemas on the mainland. Continued here

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