Senior Women Web

Author: SeniorWomenWeb

  • Social Isolation and New Technology

    Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project has issued a new report by Keith Hampton, Lauren Sessions, Eun Ja Her, and Lee Rainie.

    People who use modern information and communication technologies have larger and more diverse social networks, according to new national survey findings that for the first time explore how people use the internet and mobile phones to interact with key family and friends.

    These new finding challenge fears that use of new technologies has contributed to a long-term increase in social isolation in the United States.

    The new findings show that, on average, the size of people’s discussion networks — those with whom people discuss important matters — is 12% larger amongst mobile phone users, 9% larger for those who share photos online, and 9% bigger for those who use instant messaging. The diversity of people’s core networks — their closest and most significant confidants — tends to be 25% larger for mobile phone users, 15% larger for basic internet users, and even larger for frequent internet users, those who use instant messaging, and those who share digital photos online.

    “All the evidence points in one direction,” said Prof. Keith Hampton, lead author of the report. “People’s social worlds are enhanced by new communication technologies. It is a mistake to believe that internet use and mobile phones plunge people into a spiral of isolation.”

    Here are some paragraphs we’re including from the report:

    (more…)

  • The H1N1 Flu Epidemic Surveilled and Film Noir Referenced: Panic in the Streets

    National Public Radio ran two stories on the H1N1 (swine) flu vaccine, its reception by some who are skeptical, (Marketing Flu Vaccine: A Tough Sell for Many) and Boost Your Flu IQ: Your Questions Answered. In this case, NPR solicited the input of experts, researchers, and doctors to answer questions .

    “Dr. Howard Markel at the University of Michigan says vaccine opposition comes in many flavors. Markel, who has studied flu pandemics, says this one comes at a time when trust of authority has been eroding for decades. It is also a time when anybody with an ax to grind can get an instant Internet audience.”

    By the way, Dr. Markel, who has an impressive résumé, wrote an article with Alexandra Stern on The Public Health Service and film noir: A look back at Elia Kazan’s Panic in the Streets (1950) for the Public Health Journal, a film we remember vividly and rented recently:

    “It is a sultry summer evening in New Orleans, Louisiana. An unknown foreigner of Latin or Middle Eastern descent named Kochak is murdered in a scuffle over gambling proceeds by Blackie, one of the port city’s most notorious and brutish gangsters. By the next morning, the body of the unidentified man ends up in the county morgue, where the attending coroner becomes alarmed, not at the bullet wound, but rather at the evidence of a deadly infection that ravaged the man’s body before he was shot. Within minutes, Dr. Clinton Reed, a United States Public Health Service (PHS) officer, is called to the scene. Reed examines a sputum specimen from the deceased under the microscope and identifies the bacterial culprit as the highly contagious and airborne pneumonic plague. He orders the cremation of the man’s remains, the sterilization of all objects with which he came in contact, and doses of serum to vaccinate and streptomycin to treat those exposed to this virulent germ. Convening an emergency meeting with the local authorities, Reed warns that they have only 48 hours to track down the killers and probable plague carriers who threaten to spark an epidemic that could reach far beyond the city of New Orleans. Thus unfolds the drama of Panic in the Streets (1950), a film noir that relies on the familiar Hollywood staples of the gangster, gumshoe detective, and policeman to produce a tale that is as much about the hysteria that gripped the United States during McCarthyism as humans’ instinctive fear of devastating diseases. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and based on a story written by Edward and Edna Anhalt that was turned into a screenplay by Richard Murphy. It was favorably reviewed in prominent newspapers and magazines, such as Time and Variety. But unlike other films of the era, Panic in the Streets captures the repressive political currents of the 1950s and expresses an optimistic faith in medical progress and the ability to control disease. The film’s hero, Reed, played by Richard Widmark, is a public health servant whose determination to steer the correct course, against the objections and skepticism of many, saves New Orleans, and possibly the world, from a pandemic.”

    (more…)

  • Why Do Married Men Claim Social Security Benefits So Early? Ignorance or Caddishness?

    Even though this Center for Retirement Research at Boston College paper was prepared in October 2007 and reissued in 2009, it still has relevance, and not only that, it’s the most requested of all the working papers:

    by Steven A. Sass, Wei Sun, and Anthony Webb

    Abstract

    Most married men claim Social Security benefits at age 62 or 63, well short of both Social Security’s Full Retirement Age and the age that maximizes the household’s expected present value of benefits (EPVB). This results in a loss of less than 4 percent in household EPBV. But essentially the entire loss is borne by the survivor benefit, falls nearly 20 percent. As many elderly widows have very low incomes, early claiming by married men is a major social problem.

    Regression results found no association between early claiming and caddishness or the ability of husbands to make claiming decisions independently. The one statistically significant finding is the association of college education and later claiming, which cautiously take to indicate greater financial awareness. This suggests that an effective educational campaign might be able to raise the claiming ages of married men and improve widows’ retirement income security. But financial education has not been especially effective in changing behavior. Policymakers should thus consider other initiatives to assure a survivor benefit greater than that produced by an age 62 or 63 husbands’ claiming age. Such initiatives include raising the Earliest Eligibility Age, requiring spousal consent for claiming prior to the Full Retirement Age, and preserving the survivor benefit at its Full Retirement Age value and allowing the higher-earning spouse to access only a portion of his (or her) Primary Insured Amount prior to the Full Retirement Age.

    Steven Sass is the Associate Director for Research at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (CRR). Wei Sun is a graduate research assistant at the CRR. Anthony Webb is a research economist at the CRR.

  • The Famed and Controversial Sargent Murals at the Boston Public Library

    “This web site focuses on the history, interpretation, and restoration of John Singer Sargent’s monumental mural cycle, Triumph of Religion, in the McKim building of the Boston Public Library. The murals, which Sargent executed over the course of nearly thirty years (1890-1919), have deteriorated considerably, and their restoration is part of a larger renovation of the McKim building. Partially funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the restoration is being carried out by conservators from the Straus Center for Conservation, Harvard University Art Museums.”

    So reads the introduction to this website from the Trustees of the Public Library and Harvard College Fellows. And the view of the Sargent Hall should not be missed on the site.

    Restoration challenges

    Sargent combined traditional and new materials and techniques in creating his Triumph of Religion murals. He attached elaborate relief elements to painted canvas, a highly innovative process at the time. The materials he used have since deteriorated and now require different types of conservation and restoration treatment. Conservators face considerable challenges when dealing with the composite nature of his work. The unfortunate effects of previous restorations and years of neglect further complicate conservation efforts.

    To view the murals, click on the mural titles at the left of the screen.

    The Boston Globe published a 2006 article headlined: Borrowed Images: John Singer Sargent’s murals for the Boston Public Library were to be his ‘American Sistine Chapel.’ Instead the paintings touched off a nationwide controversy over their depiction of religious figures.

    “The painting that sparked the outrage was Sargent’s 1919 work ‘Synagogue,’ in which the subject is depicted as a blindfolded old woman fallen to the floor, her crown toppled, the structure around her in ruins.”

  • Closely Examined in Current Reading, The First Couple’s Marriage

    As we watched Michelle Obama in her kitten/leopard top handing out goodie bags at the White House with her husband (he who will be unnamed), we marveled at the breadth of the ability of this marriage to take on more than we ever thought a first couple was capable of. Obviously, two publications thought the same, too:

    “This is the first time in a long time in our marriage that we’ve lived seven days a week in the same household with the same schedule, with the same set of rituals. That’s been more of a relief for me than I would have ever imagined.” Michelle Obama pointed out. The New York Times

    The Obama Marriage: This is the first installment in Slate’s First Mates series, which will examine the marriages of the presidential candidates. Read Melinda Henneberger’s introduction to the series here. In today’s piece, Henneberger looks at Michelle Obama’s role in the marriage. Next time, she considers Barack Obama’s role, and what their partnership tells us about what kind of president he might be. Slate Magazine

  • Investor Alert: Just What Are Dark Pools?

    Occasionally, we are taken with exploring the meaning of financial terms. We have to admit that this term intrigued us on Halloween weekend as no other term has for quite a while. Just savor the fragment, “investors operating with the dark pool.” Perhaps now we should investigate IOIs.

    Fact Sheet

    Strengthening the Regulation of Dark Pools

    SEC Open Meeting

    Overview:

    The Securities and Exchange Commission voted to issue proposals designed to shed greater light on “dark pools” of liquidity. Dark pools of liquidity are a type of alternative trading system (ATS) that does not display quotations to the public.

    The number of active dark pools transacting in stocks that trade on major U.S. stock markets has increased from approximately 10 in 2002 to approximately 29 in 2009. For the second quarter of 2009, the combined trading volume of dark pools was approximately 7.2% of the total share volume in these stocks, with no individual dark pool executing more than 1.3%.

    Given the growth of dark pools, this lack of transparency could create a two-tiered market that deprives the public of information about stock prices and liquidity.

    (more…)

  • Woman of Note: Sheila Bair, head of the FDIC

    Acceptance Speech for the 2009 Profile in Courage Award by Sheila Bair at the Kennedy Library and YouTube video of her most recent statements:

    Text Block and caption for picture of Ms. Bair

    “Caroline Kennedy presents the Profile in Courage Award to Shelia Bair. Bair has been called a ‘lone voice in the wilderness’ for her early warnings about the sub-prime lending crisis and for her dogged criticism of both Wall Street’s and the government’s management of the subsequent financial meltdown. As early as 2001, Bair was urging sub-prime lenders to agree on a set of best practices to prevent abuses. Since the onset of the current crisis, she, more than any other government official, has pushed for direct assistance to distressed homeowners as part of the overall effort to stabilize the financial system, a move fiercely resisted by many leaders in both the public and the private sectors.”

    There are a lot of great and courageous people who have won the JFK “lantern.” I’m proud to be among them. I’m particularly pleased to be joining two other female awardees who stood up when some of their male counterparts stayed on the sidelines.

    Not many people are aware that early in my career, I ran for Congress. I had been working in Washington just out of law school, first as a civil rights lawyer at the Health, Education, and Welfare Department, and later for Kansas Senator Bob Dole. Senator Dole gave me and the many other women on his staff, a chance to participate in national policy debates and politics, which at that time were still largely a man’s world. I was really pumped. And I wanted to do more. So I ran for Congress.

    I was up against a front runner who was a prominent and well-financed banker (some irony perhaps in that). I campaigned hard against him. And it turned out to be a very close race. The margin was a narrow 760 votes. But it didn’t turn out how I’d planned. I lost. I couldn’t believe it. Senator Dole told me the reason I lost was because I was a woman, and I was unmarried. And that made me all the more determined to take on new challenges. This country has come a long way since then, hasn’t it?!

    When it comes to courage, I don’t think it’s something you choose. It chooses you. One thing that happens when you get caught up in an economic crisis of this magnitude is that the press starts doing profiles on you. The lead-in to a profile that National Public Radio did on me last fall went like this: “It’s only in times of crisis that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation sees the spotlight. And right now, the agency’s Chairwoman Sheila Bair is practically famous.”

    That’s what I mean that courage chooses you. It’s all about the cards you’re dealt, and where you’re sitting at the time. And the question is whether you stand up or not, whether you try to do the right thing, to right a wrong or to a fix problem when you see one.

    (more…)

  • Book Review: When Everything Changed; The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present

    Nichola Gutgold reviews: It is these stories that serve not only to entertain but to caution the next generation of women to keep pressing on, and to be appreciative of the hard won progress of women who have gone before.

  • CultureWatch

    A Gate at the Top of the Stairs is about loss, cruelty of others and prejudice, dishonesty, and betrayals that combines humor with heartbreak. The Locust and the Bird will send those who aren’t familiar with Hanan Al-Shaykh’s earlier books rushing to the library. Nine Lives, Death and Life in New Orleans may be nonfiction, but the author makes it as affecting as any novelist could.

  • Madeleine Vionnet, Fashion Purist

    The Museum of Arts Decoratifs in Paris has published a Visitor’s Guide for the exhibit. The Museum possesses one hundred and twenty-two Vionnet dresses, copyright albums, hundreds of patterns made out of cloth, and all the documentation relative to
    her fashion house. The following are paragraphs from the Guide:

    “Madeleine Vionnet drew inspiration from certain dancers favouring the use of flowing fabrics, such as Loïe Fuller who inspired many objects belonging to the Art Nouveau Department of the Musée des Arts décoratifs, or Isadora Duncan who accustomed her public to a free and supple figure. No more vehemently than her colleague Paul Poiret, known for having altogether discarded corsets, Vionnet criticised these undergarments dismissing them as orthopaedic devices.”

    “Even though Paul Poiret espoused many avant-garde ideas often derived from Oriental dreamlike imagery, his designs were ill-suited to the lifestyle of modern women. Nevertheless, the new lines developed within all the decorative art domains of the 1910s, echoed Madeleine Vionnet’s artistic vision. A less rigid, less ornate, and gradually less constricted figure emerged.”

    “Dress architecture was at the core of Vionnet’s experimentation. A famous photo shows Madeleine Vionnet striving to create a certain shape for a smallscale wooden mannequin with articulated joints. Given its scale, the fabric was less cumbersome allowing for easier manipulation. In the blink of an eye, the designer achieved an overall vision.”

    “Dispensing with preliminary sketches, she envisioned a three-dimensional malleable sculpture shaped out of fabric.”

    “Madeleine Vionnet pursued draping variations, yet abandoned the use offlowing fabric panels in favour of a pared-down approach. Two-meter wide textiles enabled her to eliminate side seams. The fabric was twisted, coiled up, and draped), while cowl collars softly emphasized the chest or the shoulder blades. By the mid 1930s, despite retaining a penchant for graphic interplay), fashion took on a romantic look distancing itself from the rectangular dress shape of the Roaring Twenties, and adopting rounder contours in keeping with contemporary jewellery designs. Skirts cut in the round, puff or balloon sleeves, and wide capelike collars bordering low necklines – known as berthes in French – challenged the antiquity vogue, while stiff fabrics conveyed a historicizing effect.”

    The 6th and 7th pages within the guide contain photographs from the exhibit to enjoy. English Vogue has 13 articles on the House of Vionnet.