Over 45’s Risking Sexual Infections
This is from BBC News but similar news is coming out of the USA – one of the fastest rising rates of STD’s is in the nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities, among the elderly.
Many over-45s ‘ignore STI risks’
STI rates have been increasing among people over 45
Many middle-aged people are continuing to take an irresponsible attitude to their sexual health, say experts.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain polled over 2,000 adults.
Nearly a fifth of those polled aged 45 to 54 said they had had unprotected sex with someone other than a long-term partner in the past five years.
There is a misconception that their risk of catching a sexually transmitted infection (STI) is “next to nothing”, says the RPSGB.
Sexually transmitted infections have doubled in under a decade in people over 45 and have been rising at a faster rate than in the young, recent figures from the Health Protection Agency show.
Older people are increasingly likely to be single or undergoing relationship changes and are less likely to consistently use condoms, perhaps because the risk of pregnancy no longer exists, experts have observed.
The RPSGB’s survey of 2,258 UK adults – half who were aged 45 plus – found older generations were flippant about the risks of catching an STI.
56,660 Kuwait Car Accidents: 2008
This is a totally breathtaking statistic. Kuwait just isn’t that big. That is more than one thousand car accidents, every week, in Kuwait.
We had three accidents in front of my house this morning. One included a school bus. Thank God, there were no children on board.
I would love to see a statistical breakdown on age groups, nationality, whether speed was involved, and whether the person was using a mobilephone while driving when the accident occurred.
One of my readers reported she had been in a car accident shortly after her arrival in country. A car going too fast rear-ended them. In almost every country in the world, if someone hits you from behind, they are charged, immediately, with following too closely and inattentive driving. You are supposed to be driving carefully enough to anticipate the car in front of you slowing down. Here, after six months, and several trips to the police station, it was determined that her husband was at fault. Unbelievable.
She adds that thanks be to God, no harm came to the infant traveling in the front seat of the car that hit them, on his mother’s lap, or they would have been liable for that, too. Unbelievable.
56,660 car accidents in 2008 alone
Staff Writer Al Watan
KUWAIT: Head of the Traffic Safety Department Bader AlـMatar has warned that the number of annual traffic accidents is on the rise. An estimated 56,660 car accidents and 410 cases of accident related fatalities occurred in 2008. AlـMatar added that the United Nations reports that car accidents claim more than 1,300,000 fatalities around the world each year, most of whom are young men.
The Next Five Years in American House Trends
Consumers stay at home more, and housewares industry takes note
By Amy Hoak, MarketWatch
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — As the recession takes a toll on most businesses, the housewares industry is actually expecting to see some benefit as more consumers eat, entertain and generally spend more time at home in order to save money.
In a presentation earlier this week, Mirabile pointed out several home trends he’s expecting for 2010. Below are five trends he predicts for the kitchen and beyond:
The live-in kitchen. Consumers spend three to four hours in the kitchen every day, not only cooking there but using it as a place to entertain, work, craft and spend leisure time, Mirabile said. The kitchen is being reinvented as a second living room, he said, as appliances are camouflaged and functional objects are hidden or minimized, allowing people to create ambiance in the room.
Living within our means. The recession is changing long-held opinions on how we spend our money. Consumers are looking for quality and durability in products — a shift away from disposable consumption, he said. They’re canning food more and growing their own herbs, they’re brown bagging lunches and they’re shopping in bulk at warehouse clubs or stocking up during grocery store sales to save money.
The green kitchen. Americans continue to make their lives more environmentally friendly, but they’re increasingly confused and frustrated about what is really “green,” Mirabile said. While they want products to be eco-friendly, they’re not going to pay much of a premium for it either — they expect retailers and manufacturers to deliver green products at competitive prices.
The wellness kitchen. Buying local food and/or growing your own often means it will be fresher and free from pesticides and preservatives — in short, more nutritious, he said. Today’s consumers are also interested in purifying their water and air.
Cooking for fun. We’re a nation of foodies, Mirabile said, quoting a Nielsen survey that found one in every five households has a “budding gourmet chef.” It’s not just women spending more time in the kitchen, either; “gastrosexuals” are men who consider cooking more of a hobby than a household chore, and use kitchen skills to impress friends and prospective partners. The popularity of the Food Network has helped to inspire a new love with food and cooking, and he expects consumers to continue to search for new recipes, techniques and cooking tools.
Amy Hoak is a MarketWatch reporter based in Chicago.
Geraldine Brooks: People of the Book
I love the way Geraldine Brooks writes. I got hooked when I read Nine Parts of Desire and then again when I read Year of Wonders. You can read my review on her award winning March here. So I could hardly wait for People of the Book to come out in paperback, so I could read it. (Those hard cover books hurt too much when they fall over if I fall asleep, and are too heavy and bulky to carry on airplanes.)
Here is what I like about Geraldine Brooks. Her books are not easy to read. They make you uncomfortable. They make you think. They give you another perspective, and that perspective challenges your assumptions.
The heroine, Hannah, is not very likable. She is cold, she makes poor decisions, and she has a very uneasy relationship with her mother. She is, on the other hand, a master of her craft, which is stabilizing and restoration of old books. She is the specialist called in by museums to help preserve masterful works, and to identify forces at work which can cause grave damage to these books.
While this is a work of fiction, it is based on an actual book and some of the history surrounding it. The Sarajevo Haggadah, a Jewish holy book, is a real book. Some of its history is known – including the fact that it was twice saved from destruction by Moslems, one a very brave librarian in Sarajevo who rescued and preserved it risking his own life, the fact that it was saved from destruction during the Italian inquisition by a Catholic priest. From tiny bits of physical evidence, Geraldine Brooks weaves an entire book creating a story how all the individuals and forces that might have been involved in the creation and preservation of this one special book.
People of the Book is a mystery – Hanna goes in and in the process of evaluating and analyzing the book, gathers tiny bits of “evidence” – a tiny grain of salt, a hair, wine stains. As she investigates, lab results come back, filling in missing pieces of how this book might have travelled from Spain of the convivencia (Medieval Spain) to modern day Sarajevo. Slowly, slowly, Brooks reveals to the readers the real (fictional!) people behind the tiny pieces of evidence.
The plot is interesting. What grabbed me from the beginning, however, is that this is a real book-lovers book, written by a woman who loves books. We learn about how books are created, how book conservators know, from looking at the origin of a sheet of paper, where a book was created and about what time period it was created. We learn about different treatments of paper, we learn about inks, we learn how pigments are created, and we learn about illustrations.
I was captivated by all the love of book-creation present in this book. Most of all, I love it that she dedicated this book to the librarians of the world, those unsung heros who devote their lives to the preservation of information. It was definitely worth a read – and, as an exception to most of my rules, it will probably be worth a re-read.
A friend recommended a video of Geraldine Brooks discussing this book at a book-talk at Northeastern University. It is a little long – you will need about 38 minutes of your time if you want to listen to this amazing woman:
Driver – and His Father – Obstruct Police
Don’t you wonder what happens next? Do they ever find out who the people are who are blocking them? I can see the whole thing happening in my mind – blocking the police!!
Driver arrested after obstructing onـduty police
Staff Writer Al Watan
KUWAIT: While police were organizing traffic at the second crossـsection in Jahra, they spotted two juveniles joyـriding nearby. They reported the incident to another police patrol which went to investigate the case. The two cars, upon being flagged down by the police patrol, immediately drove off and a police chase ensued.
The police patrol initially found it difficult to corner them due to wedding party, but as they were closing in a car of a German make impeded them.
Police repeatedly instructed him to clear from the route but the driver persistently blocked them. The officers approached the man to investigate the matter, but he refused to cooperate. Police asked for his identification, but the driver and the passenger, who was the driver”s father, refused to present identification. The two were arrested in place of the joyـriders and taken into police custody.
Closed Circuit TV in all Kuwait Schools
From today’s Al Watan:
CCTV cameras to be in place next school year
Staff Writer
KUWAIT: Former Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Dr. Nouriya AlـSubaih has confirmed that the ministry is finalizing the installation of CCTV cameras on school campuses and is expected to be fully and completely implemented by the beginning of the next school year.
AlـSubaih”s statement came during a press conference organized by the Teachers Society for its 38th Educational Conference, which was held under the title ”Excellent Training, Future in the Making”.
The minister stressed that all steps are being taken to provide students with a proper and adequate education and that their safety and security are equally prioritized.
She made reference to the recent abuse incidents in local schools and pointed out that contrary to popular belief, school incidents have taken place in the past with the only difference being that they were never reported to police and the press “because they were dealt with and tackled by the school management then.”
She recalled how when she was herself a teacher school problems were dealt with privately and discretely due to the sensitive nature of the problems.
AlـSubaih further pointed out that acquiring the correct specifications and right CCTV cameras to do the job adequately and comprehensively “requires careful consideration to check the right models types, otherwise we would have gone to the local market,” adding that there were some models which the ministry had acquired but due to poor quality was later decided to be dropped.
For his part, Teachers Union Director Ayed AlـSahli said that teachers play an essential role in education and upbringing and that “the idea of training fits perfectly with the requirements of this noble profession to ensure that teachers make the children they teach more useful and productive.
“There is a need for training while teaching and great consideration is being put into the latest training programs with an eye to the future, so that teachers” skills and abilities are enhanced adequately,” he remarked.
Last updated on Tuesday 24/3/2009
Furminator and the Qatteri Cat
The poor Qatteri Cat with his luxurious thick furry coat starts getting a little uncomfortable around this time of the year, when the temperatures rise, and by May or June, he starts getting lumps in his fur – no matter how often I comb him. Sometimes he even gets nasty and takes a nip at me while I am trying to comb.
Friends with long haired cats have the same complaints. Some recommend the lion cut, which makes the cats look like furry poodles, all shaved on their main bodies, with furry heads and feet and tails. I was even thinking that might be the solution for QC. I’ve been chasing him around with little manicure scissors and carefully cutting off knobs of fur when they appear – and then I saw the Furminator.
Someone had mentioned it once, or mentioned finding a tool that somehow cut out part of the cats fur and the cats loved the feeling. Maybe Vixen? But she couldn’t remember the name.
The Furminator has metal teeth in two sizes, and the smaller ones, I think, are razor sharp. The longer teeth are not, so you brush, nothing gets snagged, but as you brush, rolls and rolls of excess fur come rolling out. It’s kind of a miracle and it’s kind of gross, but if you keep a garbage can nearby while you brush, you can just put it directly in the trash. I Find QC napping, I talk softly and brush softly. He doesn’t mind a bit. You wouldn’t believe how much hair you can brush out of a cat with this tool.
They have their own website The Furminator and they have different sizes, from cat to dog to horse.
You can order them, I discovered, through amazon.com.
Qatteri Cat is happy not to have the lion cut. 🙂
Barbara Nadel: The Ottoman Cage
I got the recommendation for this book from Little Diamond; we have a long family tradition of trading books back and forth, my sisters, our children, even my mother; we are all sending books and exchanging suggestions all the time. I know I can count on Little Diamond and Sparkle for particularly good recommendations, and they never disappoint me.
When The Ottoman Cage arrived, I was put off by the cover. “Who’s Likely to Like This?” the cover asked – it seemed like screaming to me – “Fans of Donna Leon and exotic, atmospheric locales”
Remember, I am in a dark time, taxes, turbulence, destabilization. . . I am easily disgruntled when I am vulnerable like this. I don’t want to think I am so predictable. I love reading Donna Leon! So I am predisposed (grumble grumble grumble) NOT to like Barbara Nadel.
I fail miserably. The first five pages I am resisting. By the sixth page, I am ready to stay up all night to read this book (I don’t really, but I did finding myself making more time to read so I could find out what happens next.)
It is like the Donna Leon series in that while the plot is original and interesting, the real focus is on the police inspector, his crew, the relationships with friends and characters, the bureaucracy, and the way systems and institutions function in modern day Turkey.
One particular relationship was of great interest to me, that of Suleyman, who dutifully married his first cousin. They both tried very hard to make it work, but when we meet him, we discover that the marriage has become a painfully dry and desolate place, where each lead their individual lives, with very little of the relationship together.
Another character is detective Cohen, a rare Jew in the police force described as follows:
When one has been known and admired as a prolific womanizer for most of one’s adult life, any change in that situation can come rather hard. Although Cohen had been married since the age of nineteen, he had never let that fact or indeed his rather short stature and dishevelled apearance hold him back from the most ardent pursuit of other women. Jokey charm, of which he possessed copious amounts, had always seen him through. The knowledge that women love a man who can make them laugh had successfully taken him to many bedrooms and had, quite frequently, resulted in his being asked back again. Until this year.
Whether it was because now he was on the ‘wrong’ sied of forty five or just a patch of ill fortune, Cohen didn’t know but the fact was beyond dispute. Women, it seemed, didn’t want him any more. The rbuffs and even in one notable case the cruel sound of mocking laughter were hideously painful for him to bear. Even his long-suffering wife, who had for so many years pleaded with him to leave other women alone and attend to her, had lost interest. He’d tried to find a little comfort in her arms the previous night when he found that he couldn’t sleep, but she, like all the lithe little girls that he still so desired, had just sent him on his way, back to his customary couch, flinging her curses in his unfaithful wake.
It was, Cohen would have been the first to admit, his own fault. Had he bothered to try and be faithful to Estelle he would now, in his middle years, have both a friend and a over with whom he could take comfort as the lines overwhelmed his face and the loose skin around his middle began to sag. His wife was, after all, ageing like himself and, unlike the pretty little tarts he hankered after, unable to point mocking fingers at his inadequacies.
The plot hinges on a dead boy, a beautiful boy, found dead, alone, on a bed in an empty, tasteful but unlived in home. Who is he? Why is he here? Why is he dead?
We meet the gossipy neighbors, we meet the Armenian community, we meet some of the lowest characters you would ever hope to meet, the kind the police deal with every single day. Nothing is simple, one single clue leads slowly, painfully to another. I give credit to Nadel; she relies on good honest police work, chasing down the clues, going through the stacks of old files, interviewing unsavory lowlifes; the things good police really do to solve their cases.
More than the plot, I loved the rich and intricate textures of this mystery novel, I loved the descriptions of the interiors and the interior lives of the characters. Nadel has that in common with the other writers I read serially – Leon, Pattison, Qiu Xiaolon, James Burke and Peter Bowen. It is another rich entry into the genre of the “mystery novel set in exotic, atmospheric locations.”
Definitely worth a read!
Bad News: Brain Decline Begins at 27
Bad news today as BBC reports our brains begin their functional decline as early as age 27:
‘Brain decline’ begins at age 27
Professor Timothy Salthouse of the University of Virginia found reasoning, spatial visualisation and speed of thought all decline in our late 20s.
Therapies designed to stall or reverse the ageing process may need to start much earlier, he said.
His seven-year study of 2,000 healthy people aged 18-60 is published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.
To test mental agility, the study participants had to solve puzzles, recall words and story details and spot patterns in letters and symbols.
The natural decline of some of our mental abilities as we age starts much earlier than some of us might expect
The same tests are already used by doctors to spot signs of dementia.
In nine out of 12 tests the average age at which the top performance was achieved was 22.
The first age at which there was any marked decline was at 27 in tests of brain speed, reasoning and visual puzzle-solving ability.
Things like memory stayed intact until the age of 37, on average, while abilities based on accumulated knowledge, such as performance on tests of vocabulary or general information, increased until the age of 60.
You can read the rest of the article at BBC Health News
Taxing Times
No cheery posts today, I am busy gathering the paperwork for our US taxes.
Imagine a game where the rules change every year, a combination scavenger hunt (this year you have to have complete documentation for every charitable deduction, every moving expense, every repair for rental properties, insurance receipts, property tax receipts, etc) and oh! some new deductions if you have kept records of travel and expenses (go dig out those credit card receipts) and accuracy (filling in the correct information in the correct obscure box) and drawing the right conclusions (check this box? that box?) etc.
I am pretty good at keeping the right paperwork, but I am not always good at keeping it in order. Before I can even start, I have to get it in piles sorted by types, then sort the piles chronologically.
AdventureMan is no help. He means well. He doesn’t handle frustration well. He has people who do things for him. At home, I am it. I am the people who get it done.
Then the worksheet, which has colors and prints so small that I can’t even read it once the sun goes down, so I have to get it all done while the sun is high. AArrgh.
So pardon me if I am not a barrel of laughs today. Bah! Humbug! Taxes!
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