The fireworks at midnight bringing in the new year is now a shadow of what it once was when the local government clamped down because of noise, air pollution and injuries.  However, below you can see some photos I took of that moment last night, and there were some major fireworks out there, much of it probably illegally brought into the state.  One of these accidents at one home  killed at least two, with 20 more seriously injured .  It happened in the Salt Lake area of Honolulu, where I took most of the shots.  But this photo to the left was sent to me.  That must have been the incident. In New Orleans, a 42-year old Texas man, rammed a pickup truck New Year's revelers on Bourbon Street,  killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more .  Apparently, the driver was flying an ISIS flag, so authorities are calling an act of terrorism.  It's possible he had partners.  A lot more will be coming on this tragedy.  The Sugar Bowl gam...

When I was born in 1940, my life expectancy was supposed to be 60.8 .  Thus, I should have died in 2001.  I just celebrated my 84th birthday.   There are several organizations that provide an annual announcement of life expectancy for countries of the world.  Here is one from the  United Nations .  Only includes countries with populations over 50,000.  Thus, Monaco at 86.37 years and San Marino at 85.71 years did not qualify. Depending on the country, women generally live around 5 to 6 years longer than men.  Ukraine is an outlier, as because of the war, women have a life expectancy of 80.20, while men are at 66.9. For the World, the life expectancy at birth is 73.17, 70.55 for men and 75.89 for women. Note that these numbers refer to how long a newborn baby will live. Life expectancy  ( m for men and w for women ).  The fourth number surprises me.  This is the life expectancy of person at the age of 80.  Thus, looks ...