Category Archives: General

In Praise of “A Long Bright Future”, by Dr. Laura Carstensen

Posted on by
Reply

stanfordlongevity1-550x233

Our highest praise for a book is to say, “I wish I had written a book that good.” This is such a book. You get a lot for your money, because it is so densely filled with both verifiable scientific facts and advice to increase the quantity and quality of one’s own life. An optimistic tone pervades the whole book, though Dr. Carstensen—Founding Director of the Stanford Center on Longevity—spends a whole chapter on “What Might Go Wrong?” She includes an extensive bibliography (called Notes) with numerous ideas—both from her and from others—skillfully woven into the basic fabric. Here are a few. Having more education is the most important factor in ensuring longer lives, and it likely delays the onset of dementia. Bilingual people may have a lower incidence of dementia. Financial problems (which can lower quality of life) in later life can result from the mistaken belief that one needs less money as one ages. Among the most significant health problems as one ages are arthritis, hearing, and obesity, with future obesity levels’ threatening to undo most of the recent advances in health.

Of greatest interest to our TechnologyBloopers persona is our observation that in the few short years between the book’s first copyright in 2009 and today (2016), many technologies have emerged or changed dramatically. Unfortunately, some of them may have progressed so far that older people can be disenfranchised if they don’t know about them, if they don’t know how to use them (even if they ARE user-friendly), or if they don’t have children or grandchildren to show them how. Of course, some of the new Apps (“Applications”, i.e., software programs that run on mobile devices to accomplish certain functions) are far more used by teens than retirees, and may not have value to older people except for the most extreme of passive watchers or gossipers. But developments such as self-driving cars, which are only vaguely hinted about in the book, will allow older folks to avoid being isolated, so will be hugely important in the very near future.

How to be a Good Grandfather

Posted on by
Reply

grandfather3-550x390

Lots of men DON’T die young, and many of them become grandfathers. There’s considerable advice on the Internet about being a good grandPARENT, and some of it is even useful. But, counterintuitively, the male-oriented Art of Manliness website doesn’t focus on grandFATHERS, though it does include some very wise advice for grandparents that applies to grandfathers.

But there seems to be an important difference between grandmothers and grandfathers. In all except a few cases grandmothers instinctively know how to be good grandmothers. One such grandmother opined that there must be a grandmotherly hormone. That makes a lot of sense, because a woman’s maternal qualities, which lets her endure the discomforts and pain of pregnancy and childbirth, assures the perpetuity of the human race. And those same qualities seem to persist, so that being a grandmother is instinctive.

Men don’t have the same path to becoming a grandfather, so a lot of them don’t really know how to behave. Lucky men can remember what their own grandfathers did, or how they behaved, that was enjoyable, and if the circumstances are similar, they can apply that knowledge. But when grandchildren are very young, the grandfathers likely don’t remember much from their first few years, so they may need to use mostly grandmother-like tactics. One thing they can do better than grandmothers is use their upper body strength to pick up and/or carry their grandchildren. Another thing that they can do, when the situation is appropriate, is to act silly (e.g., wear a funny hat or sing a silly song). And reading to a grandchild, or for older grandchildren having them read to you, is good for both grandparents. Plus, grandparents’ reading aloud helps them maintain youthful (and healthy) voices.

Two Tips for Motorists to Prevent Deaths or Injuries to Cyclists

Posted on by
2

threefeetlawdutchreach-550x400

On September 20, the San Francisco-based radio station KCBS repeatedly broadcast a news item reminding listeners about the October 2014 law that motorists must allow at least three feet of space when passing bicyclists. The reporter mentioned that he had surveyed 10 motorists, and none of them had heard of this law. We cycle for exercise, luckily in Menlo Park and Atherton, which have relatively wide streets and little traffic. Many of the streets in Menlo Park have generous bike lanes, and although Atherton does not have bike lanes it has numerous signs indicating bike routes and has recently been painting signs on the pavement reminding motorists about bicycles. Many other cities in California are not so well-equipped, and in less-populated (especially hilly) areas with narrower roads there are no signs.

But even in populous areas with bike lanes or signs, cyclists are in danger from the right from parked motorists who open their doors suddenly. Fortunately for listeners to KQED (the local public radio station), on September 27 there was a mention of something called “Dutch Reach”, a simple movement in which a driver twists to the left (counterclockwise viewed from above) and opens his door with his right hand. This makes him/her able to easily see if a cyclist is nearby and likely to be hit by the door. In Holland, this maneuver is actually part of the test for new drivers, and most Dutch already have it in “muscle memory” so they do it automatically.

Drinking Too Much Water Can Kill Soldiers … or You

Posted on by
Reply

DrinkingTooMuchWater1 550x309

“Death in combat is understandable. Death during training should not be occurring.” The problem is drinking too much water in combination with having too little electrolytes. It is not clear how effective Gatorade and its ilk are. One alternative from the past is switchel, an old-fashioned drink used (mostly during haying season, the hottest time of summer) to prevent farmhands from over-hydrating. There are different recipes, but the one my grandmother recalled was a combination of water, vinegar, ginger, and honey (of course, coming from a family of beekeepers, the sweetener was honey) Its main purpose was to prevent illness from drinking too much water (called “water intoxication”); horses have to be prevented from the same thing. Part of the death/illness prevention came from the taste of the stuff; you had to be pretty thirsty to drink anything approaching too much.

Gluten-Free: The Latest Dopey Food Fad

Posted on by
Reply

GlutenFree4 550x633

America is blessed with amazing amounts and varieties of foodstuffs. Unfortunately, it is also cursed with the amazing amounts and varieties of both charlatans and well-meaning-but-naïve citizens who preach wide-of-the-mark eating habits and diets. And a lot of those charlatans are large food companies with whopping ad budgets.

We have had low-fat diets, low-carbohydrate diets (e.g., the Atkins Diet), a flock of diet systems (Weight Watchers et al), the Mediterranean Diet, and lots of others. The latest is the gluten-free diet, which has nicely been debunked by Sophie Egan. Ms. Egan makes the interesting point that Americans are judging their food based on what the foods lack rather than what they contain, which probably is a consequence of people’s being more concerned about dieting to lose weight than about eating sane amounts of nutritious food to stay healthy.

The Dangers of Overweight and Obesity

Posted on by
Reply

obesityepidemic1 500x361

Fifty years ago a lot of Americans suffered (and some died from) hunger … and in a few countries some still do die . But today, they are much more likely to die from causes related to obesity, e.g., obesity-caused ailments such as as diabetes. Just how many deaths can be attributed to obesity or overweight depends on whose statistics you believe, but obesity is almost certainly an important cause of death. Today in most countries, expecially the U.S., eating too much is a bigger health problem than eating too little. Even people below the poverty level are eating too much, according to an “op-ed” (did you know that this stands for “opposite the editorial page”, and means it is an opinion rather than (presumably) factual news?) article by Harvard adjunct professor Robert Paarlberg, based on his book “The United States of Excess: Gluttony and the Dark Side of American Exceptionalism”. This example of people NOT below the poverty line shows the dangers of obesity: the recent death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was “probably linked to obesity, diabetes, and coronary artery disease” according to his physician (and diabetes is often caused by overweight or obesity).

“Sports Fan” : More “Fan” Than “Sport”

Posted on by
Reply

SportsFan4 550x366

Most sports involve motion, strength, endurance, and other features that help keep us fit and healthy. And they take some level of commitment to initiate and continue. Most everyone would agree that this leads to a longer and healthier life. But you have to actually participate to get these benefits. Just watching doesn’t do it. In fact, the food and drink you consume while sitting and watching—either in front of your TV set or in a stadium or other venue–may actually shorten your life and make you less fit. (Another life-shortening activity is to waste time commenting on your favorite or least-favorite sports team after articles such as this. Better to turn off your PC or tablet or smartphone and do something active.) True, if you make the trek to watch in person, you may get some benefit from walking and climbing stairs, being jostled by other fans, etc. But you would be far better off by forgetting the watching and actually engaging in some sport. And never, never hire someone whose resume mainly features a hobby of sports fan.

Movember is Here!

Posted on by
Reply

Movember 4 600x449

The month of November, with the “N” changed to “M”, now is synonomous with MEN (who are proud to be able to grow a mustache because women can’t, or if they can they don’t want to) doing something to improve men’s health (e.g., preventing or treating prostate cancer), so they won’t die so young in the future. So now when you see giant mustaches sprout on the front of cars you know what it means. Of course the really ornate facial foilage that adorns a few mustache afficionados, and of course mostly earns the owner a lot of ridicule, takes a lot more than a month to grow. Have a look at the Movember website or Wikipedia.

We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us*

Posted on by
Reply

PC and Pixel 7-21-14 All The Unhealthy Habits

Do differences in smoking, drinking, snacking, and TV watching habits make women outlive men? Pretty likely, yes.

* From a Pogo comic by Walt Kelly, paraphrasing the famous dispatch “We have met the enemy and they are ours” from Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry regarding the victory over the British during the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813.