I took a quiz

Can We Identify Your Age Based On Your Political Opinions?

You must be around 26 years old! You have a young, optimistic and hopeful attitude about the world. You are very liberal when it comes to most issues, especially social and economic ones. Things like social justice, human rights and the environment are very important to you. You consider yourself a pacifist and activist. It's a good thing you're so passionate because your generation is the next one to take over the world!

Not bad for someone in her late 40s.

Have you tried the #HowOldRobot by Microsoft?

One of my Facebook friends from high school posted a link to Microsoft's age-guessing website, How Old Do I Look?, and I put a picture of myself through it, and it guessed 36, which was 12 years younger, but hey, I'll take it. :)

Musing over this

In Hard Economy for All Ages, Older Isn’t Better ... It’s Brutal

The share of older people applying for Social Security early spiked during the recession as people sought whatever income they could find. The penalty they will pay is permanent, as retirees who take benefits at age 62 — as Ms. Zimmerman did, to help make her mortgage payments — will receive 30 percent less in each month’s check for the rest of their lives than they would if they had waited until full retirement age (66 for those born after 1942).

This is the situation my mother is in. She lost her job and was drawing unemployment as well as social security at the same time for awhile. She's just going to turn 66 this year, so her early draw has penalised her income, but was sorely needed when the bottom of the oeconomy fell out from under her.

I worry about age discrimination even at my age (I'm going to turn 46 soon), but for people my mother's age, it's pretty much a given, and so hard to prove. I worry about the same thing happening to me. Even if I am able to work until the age necessary, and even if social security is still around (big ifs), I have to work till 70 to receive my full benefits. I'm doing what I supposed to be doing--paying into retirement, paying into social security and Medicare, but you know, so did they. So it's a little scary, especially as I have two years left to find a job (with benefits--I have to health insurance due to my diabetes) before my job ends.

I'd heard about this being used before, but the demonstration was interesting

The authorities in Britain and now New York City have installed sound makers that produce an annoying tone that can generally be heard only by young people as a means to keep away young loiters. On the other hand, some young people use sound at a similar range as ringtones so teachers and other adults can't hear their phone ring.

But this video demonstrates the ranges. Can you hear all of these sounds? I can hear all but the last (the one for under 24s). (But then, I'm 43.)



(I will say that in most of the YouTube videos purporting to have this stealth sound on it, I can hear it. Of course, I can hear whines from televisions and monitors when they're on, if there's no other noise. But this one I couldn't, and one other that claimed to be at the same level.)

Via Joe.My.God.

Diagnosed because you're not quite ready for primetime

ADHD Could Be Misdiagnosed In Nearly 1 Million US Kids Say Researchers

Two studies published recently suggest there could be something wrong with the way ADHD is diagnosed in young children in the US, one found that nearly 1 million kids are potentially misdiagnosed just because they are the youngest in their kindergarten year, with the youngest in class twice as likely to be on stimulant medication, while the other study confirmed that whether children were born just before or just after the kindergarten cutoff date significantly affected their chances of being diagnosed with ADHD.

Anyone surprised? And that's coming from an adult with ADD. I have an aunt who kept her son, born in September, back from joining kindergarten until the next year, and that may have been a sound decision. I don't think you can go on cut-off dates to know when children are intellectually and socially ready for a grade. There are times I wish that I had not skipped first grade, because as the youngest and yet one of the smartest, I was picked on throughout my school career. Fortunately I don't have hyperactive-type attention issues. I'd have probably done better with medication. But a lot of kids are way overmedicated. The trick is figuring out which ones benefit themselves, and which ones are being medicated because teachers or parents simply don't want to put in the effort or make decisions like waiting to send them to school. Of course, I don't know if that's still an option these days.

I think it enriched her life

UK's oldest Tweeter Ivy Bean dies at 104

Most residents of care homes, especially those who have reached the ripe old age of 104, are lucky if their family or friends visit. For someone who is a very social person, the Bingo games and other activities to help while away the hours just don't cut it. But for the enterprising resident...

there's Facebook and Twitter.

Ivy Bean joined Facebook in 2007, and then Twitter a year later. She soon became a celebrity as UK's oldest tweeter and had over 56,000 followers, who received the sad news, through the feed, that Ms. Bean had died. Her posts primarily talked about her daily life and her friends. It sounds like she was a very engaging lady who had friends and admirers both in the real world and the virtual one, and she enjoyed the attention of the media. This comes just two weeks after an Australian woman, 108, dubbed the 'world's oldest blogger', died.

In both cases, the women were in nursing homes. In Ms. Bean's, the computer was originally meant for staff development but was opened up for residents' use. I think that's wonderful. As we age we become less physically active and it's easy to become socially isolated, which can affect the mind and increase the chance of senility, in my opinion. Engaging in interactive computer services may keep the mind sharp and foster a greater connexion to the outer world. All care homes should consider making computers available. I think many assume older people would not adapt well. I think there are people of every generation who are willing to try new things, especially when its uses are demonstrated. Although according to one study only 3% of social media users are 65+ I suspect that will change quickly as the Boomers reach that age (my mom, born in 1947, turns 63 this year, and she's on Facebook). 10% were 55-64. The largest group is my own, the 35-44 one, which has 25% of all users on social media sites studied. Indeed, 64% of Twitter’s users are aged 35 or older, 61% of Facebooks’s users are aged 35 or older, and the service with the greatest number of older uses is Classmates.com, indicating that re-connecting with old friends is a major thing for older users. 8% of its users are 65 and older; 78% are 35 or older. [Which makes sense, since the younger ones are still interacting with a lot of their high school friends in real life. :)]

Think how much your life revolves around the use of a computer now, either on the Internet or off. How would you feel if you were in a nursing home without access to one? No wi-fi, not even a desktop station somewhere? I hope adminstrators are considering this for the near future....