Liz Flaherty writes: “Somebody needs to do something about — ” It’s you and me and the guy down the road whose dog barks half the night and drives you crazy. It’s the family with an annual income in seven figures and the other family whose yearly earnings barely make it into five. If we want things to be different, it has to start with us.”
Author: SeniorWomenWeb
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Shop at the Glass Market, Revel in the Corning Exhibits
The Corning Museum of Glass not only has a marvelous exhibits like that of Richard Craig Meitner, it has a glass market online. Its glass jewelry section is not to be missed.
The gift selection includes flowers that look amazingly ‘live:’Tiger lilies, irises, daffodils. Pages of glass fruits, lamps, artists and designer collections are on the site as well as glassmakng tools, ornaments, Serengetti sunglasses, Pyrex kitchenware, a Portland Vase watch and paperweights. Some of the designers are William Gudenrath, Hudson Beach, Vera Sattler, Stuart Abelman and Juliska, Daum and Iittala.
And its specials category has at the moment an igloo, raspberry and icy votives, most of them from Sweden’s Orrefors.
Don’t overlook the virtual books about glassmaking itself on the Glass Market site. And had you heard about the glass harmonica?
“Music from instruments made out of glass were known to exist in 14th-century China and in Europe as early as 1492. Performers throughout the 1700’s produced sounds by gently rubbing the rims of finely tuned wineglasses with moistened fingertips. Wineglasses were tuned by adjusting the amount of water in their bowls.”
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The Decision to Remove an Obese Child From His Mother: A Lawyer Differs
Sherry Kolb, a lawyer, Cornell professor and law clerk to former Justice Harry Blackmun, voices her views on the recent decision by a South Carolina court to remove a child from his mother’s custody. Here are a few paragraphs from her FindLaw column:
This past May, the South Carolina Department of Social Services accused Jerri Althea Gray of unlawful neglect of a child, because her 14-year-old son, Alexander Draper, weighed 555 pounds. After a hearing was scheduled to determine whether Gray was in fact medically negligent in caring for her son, Gray and Draper fled the state. They were found a few days later in Baltimore. The police arrested Gray and placed Draper in protective custody in South Carolina. Though Draper’s weight is extreme (and may well reflect a metabolic disorder), the arrest of his mother and his removal from her custody raise an important question about parental obligations and nutrition: Might it be child neglect simply to feed our children the Standard American Diet?
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Is a Beatles Song Dated? Or Could It Be Us?
The Pew Research Center has asked and issued a daily number apt for our demographic:
Will You Still Need Me When I’m 64?
“When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now…” doesn’t give many Americans, contrary to the popular Beatles song, the image of someone age 64. In fact, only 32% of Americans believe that turning age 65 (the actual age in the survey question) is a marker of being old. Only retiring from work, grandchildren and gray hair were given less weight as measures of old age on a list of 13 possible markers. So when is someone old? The average answer is 68, but that answer is relative to how old you are. While those under age 30 say the average person becomes old at 60, just 6% of adults 65 or older agree. Respondents older than age 30 lean more toward the age of 70 and above as when someone becomes old. Moreover, the older Americans get, the younger they feel. Americans under 30 say they feel their age, but nearly half of all respondents ages 50 and older say they feel at least 10 years younger than their chronological age. So as the first wave of baby-boomer Beatles fans actually reach 64, few are worrying: Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?
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Council of Economic Advisors: Future Employment Trends
The President’s Council of Economic Advisors have issued a report, Preparing The Workers of Today for the Jobs of Tomorrow, that previews future employment developments:
“In this report, the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) presents a projection of potential developments in the US labor market over the next five to ten years and discusses the preparations necessary to develop the 21st century workforce. We discuss the skills that will likely be most relevant in growing occupations, the value and limitations of our current post-high school education and training systems, and the characteristics of a more effective education and training structure.”
“At an aggregate level, the data indicate that the economy of 2016 will resemble the economy of 2008, with several important shifts that have implications for employment.”
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Best Books About Science
The University of California, Berkeley, has published yet another annual list of best books, the 2009 list being designated as the best books about science. We’ve selected a few here from the University’s list and reviews:
Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time by Michael Shermer; New York: H. Holt, 2002
This well-written and entertaining book is sure to stir up discussion and debate. Shermer gives an excellent description of what science actually is, a topic that is sorely lacking in most science classes and textbooks. He also delves into how and why science comes up short at times. The bulk of the book is about human tendencies to explain phenomena they don’t understand with belief in things such as extraterrestrials, ghosts, superstitions, and prejudices. Shermer is respectful of those who subscribe to these beliefs, but presents the reader with alternatives grounded in scientific thinking.
The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine; New York: Morgan Road Books, 2006
Written by a UCSF neuropsychiatrist, this book is a fascinating and well-written description of the effect of hormones on the development of women from the time they are babies to post-menopause. If you’re a woman, plan to have a relationship with a woman, or plan to have a daughter someday, this book is both eye-opening and validating. (The author admits to favoring science over political correctness.) Eminently readable, but carefully referenced like a research report, it explains so much about the difference between men and women!
The Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage by Cliff Stoll; New York: Doubleday, 1989
This true story is a blend of science, documentary, spy thriller, personal narrative, and introduction to Berkeley. Even though you know the outcome before you begin the book, it remains a page-turner. A Berkeley astronomy graduate student becomes fascinated with a tiny discrepancy in a computer account and educates himself about how to catch computer trespassers. His search leads him all over Berkeley and eventually around the world. I lent a copy to a British astronomer and he did not put it down for his entire flight from SFO to London. The author, who also wrote Silicon Snake Oil, is a Berkeley resident.
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A New Minimum Wage Fact Sheet
The Economic Policy Institute released an Economic Snapshot regarding the new minimum wage:
On July 24, 2009, the federal minimum wage will increase to $7.25 per hour. This is the final step of a three-step increase passed in 2007 when the minimum wage was only $5.15. In this last step, about 4.5 million workers will receive a raise, providing an
additional $1.6 billion annually in increased wages. However, when adjusted for inflation, the new federal minimum is still less than the minimum wage through most of the period from 1961 to 1981.What states will be affected:
• There are 31 states that will be affected by the minimum wage increase to $7.25 on July 24, 2009: -
Withholding Data: Cellphones Deadly Distraction
Our recent post about Driving to Distraction … and Worse became even more interesting following the disclosure by Public Citizen and the Center for Auto Safety that the government during the last six years had blocked attempts to publish information revealing “that drivers talking on their cell phones experience the same potentially deadly distraction whether they are using a handheld device or hands-free technology.”
Public Citizen states that “By keeping this information secret from the public for the past six years, the government has endangered even more lives, the groups said today. Cities and states across the country have passed laws and ordinances requiring drivers to use hands-free phones, mistakenly believing those devices to be safe and encouraging drivers to use them.”