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Howdy !
It's me Scarlett !
This week we have 3 topics.
◈ Life
- Answered! Life’s 25 Toughest Questions
◈ Healthcare
- The number of people aged over 60 is set to double by 2050. Are we prepared?
- An ageing population is about to have a big impact on Europe's economy
◈ Women empowerment
- Teach girls bravery, not perfection
Hope you enjoy the topics.
With luv
Scarlett
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< Keywords > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answered! Life’s 25 Toughest Questions
1. Can love really last a lifetime?
Absolutely — but only if you chuck the fairy tale of living happily ever after. A team of scientists recently found that romantic love involves chemical changes in the brain that last 12 to 18 months. After that, you and your partner are on your own. Relationships require maintenance. Pay a visit to a nursing home if you want to see proof of lasting love. Recently I spoke to a man whose wife of 60 years was suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s disease. He came to sit with her every day and hold her hand. “She’s been my best friend since high school,” he told me. “We made a promise to stick together.” Now, that’s a love story.
2. Why do married folks begin to look like one another?
Watch any two people who like each other talking, and you’ll see a lot of mirroring. One smiles, and so does the other. One nods or raises her eyebrows, and so does the other. Faces are like melodies with a natural urge to stay in sync. Multiply those movements by several decades of marriage, all those years of simultaneous sagging and drooping, and it’s no wonder!
3. Can a marriage survive betrayal?
Yes. It takes time and work, but experts are pretty unanimous on this one. In her book The Monogamy Myth, Peggy Vaughan estimates that 60 percent of husbands and 40 percent of wives will have an affair at some point in their marriages. That’s no advertisement for straying — but the news is good for couples hoping to recover from devastating breaches of trust. The offended partner needs to make the choice to forgive — and learn to live with a memory that can’t simply be erased. Infidelity is never forgotten, but it can gradually fade into the murky background of a strong, mature marriage.
4. Why does summer zoom by and winter drag on forever?
Because context defines experience. As Albert Einstein once said: “When you are courting a nice girl, an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder, a second seems like an hour.”
5. Do animals really have a sixth sense?
Or seventh or eighth! A box jellyfish has 24 eyes, an earthworm’s entire body is covered with taste receptors, a cockroach can detect movement 2,000 times the diameter of a hydrogen atom — and your dog’s sense of smell is up to 100,000 times greater than yours (some dogs have been known to smell human cancers). It’s safe to say that animals experience a much different world than we do.
6. Why does the line you’re in always move the slowest?
Because you’re late for your kid’s band practice, and you curse your luck and envy those speeding by. Conversely, when you’re in the fast line, unfettered by stress, you don’t even notice the poor schlubs in the slow lane. Good luck rarely commands one’s attention like bad luck. (See answer on buttered toast, “The Ultimate Test,” below.)
7. By what age should you know what you want to do with your life?
Any moment now. This used to be a question the young asked. Now it’s a quandary for baby boomers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that younger boomers have abandoned the American ideal of picking a job and sticking with it. Between the ages of 18 and 36, these boomers held an average of 9.6 jobs. That’s a lot of exploration. The wisdom of elders in all cultures seems to be this: There’s nothing to do with a life but live it. As Gandhi pointed out, “Almost anything you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.”
8. Where do traffic jams come from?
Scientists are hard at work on this one, studying computer models of the physics of gridlock and inventing all new traffic-light algorithms. Some of them postulate that the rhythms of automobile traffic are influenced by the same cyclical forces that cause waves in the ocean. For the average commuter, though, it may be helpful to think of it this way: congestion. There are just too many darn people trying to do the same thing at once. (Flush every toilet in a single office building simultaneously, and see what happens.) All of this by way of saying: Buy a newspaper, load up some favorite tunes on your MP3 player, and take the bus.
9. When is your future behind you?
When you stop chasing dreams. So don’t stop!
10. Do you have to love your job?
No. Love your children, your spouse and your country. Love your parents, your neighbor and your dog. Loving is too important an emotion to attach to the way you make a living. But it’s OK to strive for satisfaction. According to a recent Harris Poll, across America 59% of workers say they are extremely, somewhat or slightly satisfied with their jobs, but a depressing 33% feel as if they’ve reached a career dead end. If you’re among the latter and thinking about a new job, consider the fact that employees in small firms said they felt more engaged in their work than did their corporate counterparts.
11. Can a man and a woman ever just be friends?
For a short time perhaps. Making the friendship last requires that you find each other at least vaguely repulsive. Good luck!
12. When do you take away Grandpa’s car keys?
Twenty-two states currently require frequent testing for senior drivers. The American Medical Association and the AARP, however, say safe driving has more to do with functional ability than age. True, seniors are more at risk for reduced vision, hearing loss and impairments associated with arthritis — but all of these conditions depend on the individual. So when it seems to you that Pop is becoming a danger to himself and a danger to others, tell him straight. Point out that his reactions have slowed or his judgment is losing its edge. Suggest he not drive anymore. Be firm, but at the same time, don’t treat him like a child. Allow him his dignity. Offer him
a ride.
13. Do siblings who fight really end up liking each other?
I surveyed my older sisters, both of whom have vivid memories of how I tripped, pummeled, and whacked them with various large plastic dolls (hey, they started it — they teased me!), and both confirmed my suspicion that nowadays they like me just fine. I sure like them. All the experts will tell you that fighting among siblings is normal. The key is how parents handle it. Rule No 1: Don’t take sides. Never get into a discussion of who started what or what is more fair. Stop fights with a time-out for all offenders. My mother would send us to separate rooms. So we invented string phones and a pulley system to transport necessary treats and toys. And whatever we were fighting about was forgotten.
14. How do you know when to end a friendship?
As soon as you get that sneaking suspicion that it never really began.
15. Why do we turn into our parents when we swore we wouldn’t?
Because really, when all is said and done, we admire them.
16. Can a half-empty person become a half-full person?
A current theory is that people have an “emotional set point.” Some folks are just made happier than others. Pessimists will see this as bad news, believing it really doesn’t matter what you do — they are never going to be any happier. But there is hope — as any optimist will see! Happiness has more to do with how you construe the events in your life than the actual events themselves.
17. When do kids become adults?
Biologically, it’s happening earlier; emotionally, it seems to be happening later. Nowadays puberty occurs in females between ages 8 and 14, between 9 and 15 in males. A generation ago, when you turned 18, you were out the door and on your own. Now we see kids in the Boomerang Generation coming home to Mom and Dad after college, hoping for a hand with bills, laundry, meals and other responsibilities of adulthood. It’s cute for a while, less adorable the older the kid gets.
18. Can a mother be friends with her teenage daughter?
No. Most teens aren’t ready for anything close to a mature friendship. According to current research, the brain continues to develop into a person’s 20s. Mothers often want to befriend their daughters; fathers, their sons. But this is not in anyone’s best interest. Teenagers need to form identities distinct from their parents. That means: lots of privacy, even some secrets. It’s usually easier for a teenage girl to befriend the friend of her mother, and it’s usually best for the mother to leave it at that.
19. Does money really buy happiness?
No. Because happiness isn’t for sale. Many people get tripped up by this one, amassing wealth only to find themselves cycling into a bottomless pit of unsatisfiable yearning. Turns out, joy and misery are not that far apart when it comes to very big wads of cash. Consider the case of a Kentucky couple who won $34 million in 2000. Thrilled to be released from the demands of their boring old jobs, they frittered their fortune away on fancy cars, mansions, all the usual stuff — losing everything that mattered in the process. They divorced, he died of an alcohol-related illness, and she died alone in her new house just five years after cashing the winning ticket. When it comes to happiness, only people you love, and who love you, can bring it. If you have enough dough to buy yourself a luxurious yacht, but no real friends to sail with, you’re sunk.
20. Can spenders and savers stay married?
Sure — and they won’t run out of things to talk about either. Disagreements over money are a leading cause of divorce, so experts advise lots of work around this issue if, financially speaking, you’ve found yourself married to your opposite. Tip: Always talk in terms of “ours” instead of “mine” or “yours,” and work your strengths. The saver should be allowed to draft the budget; the spender gets to be
in charge of vacations, celebrations and ordering extra toppings on the pizza.
21. Is money the root of all evil?
No. Greed is. Elvis nailed this one when he said, “Sharing money is what gives it its value.”
22. What do you do if you see a parent berating a child?
Cringe. Take a deep breath. If you truly believe you can help the situation, approach as someone showing sympathy — not as an accuser or member of the parent police. Empathize with the overstressed parent. Suggest that he take a deep breath. Tell him it worked for you.
23. Why is it so hard to say you’re wrong?
Because it often involves saying, “I’m sorry,” which is even harder. Throughout history people have found it easier to stop speaking to one another, punch, slander, shoot and bomb rather than apologize. Tip: Next time just say, “Whoops,” and see what happens.
24. When should you reveal a secret you said you wouldn’t?
It’s a matter of damage control. Is the person who asked you to keep the secret in danger of hurting himself or others? If so, intervene. Otherwise, mum’s the word.
25. Does the toast really always fall buttered-side down?
Scientists in the Ask Laskas Kitchen conducted a study for which they first toasted an entire loaf of bread, one slice at a time. They buttered each slice, and dropped it from a variety of heights ranging from tabletop to ceiling. Among their findings: A dropped piece of toast never lands on its edge; stomping your foot and yelling “Darn!” does not change a thing; and the floor in the Ask Laskas Kitchen is not nearly as clean as we’d like. Well, life’s like that. Never as neat as you’d like it to be. But keep buttering your toast. And savor every slice you’ve been given.
Article source : http://www.rd.com/advice/relationships/answers-to-lifes-toughest-25-questions/2/
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The number of people aged over 60 is set to
double by 2050. Are we prepared?
Written by Derek Yach/ Chief Health Officer, Vitality Group
Published Friday 9 September 2016
By 2020, individuals aged 60 and older will be greater in number than children younger than five. By 2050, the world’s older adult population will have doubled to 2 billion. These numbers are striking. Cognitive decline, strained pension schemes, and burgeoning healthcare costs: are we prepared for tomorrow’s complex longevity challenges?
These challenges provide unique opportunities and considerable threats if we fail to act soon. Governments and insurers monetize health and have a direct interest in actively promoting longevity. But they are not alone. All sectors and stakeholders have a role to play in enabling progress toward the creation of healthy and vibrant older societies.
Financial services organizations – particularly banks and insurers – have a fiduciary duty to uphold for their customers. Financial protection is needed for preventing financial abuse of the elderly. Technologies predicted by the Fourth Industrial Revolution – ranging from wearables and in-home sensors to artificial intelligence and advanced algorithms – can support the health and wealth of older adults. Regulations and policies must accompany these technological advancements.
As global citizens advocating for and leading positive change, how can we spur action to proactively address the impacts of ageing on human and financial wellbeing? Here are five recommendations:
Create “whealthcare”
A growing number of academics and businesses are examining the impacts of health and wealth together. Skills in financial reasoning are among the first to erode with cognitive changes to the brain. Training professionals in cognitive impairment and ageing are needed to support better communication across a majority of institutions. Physicians should be trained and encouraged to discuss financial and personal affairs with their patients.
Life-course approach
The value of activities undertaken to promote health and wealth in early life become increasingly apparent in later life. Financial planners must work with their clients to develop financial plans that address the effects of cognitive decline across the life course. Urban planners must build housing, transport, and entire cities for an ageing global population.
Collaborative research
Research is needed to better bridge the divide between health and wealth. For healthy ageing, additional research is needed on the determinants of longevity and its most effective interventions. For wealth, predictors and patterns of financial abuse and fraud is required. Academic researchers and financial institutions must collaborate to generate cross-cutting research on healthy ageing and financial wellbeing.
Develop innovative technologies
Personalized technologies with the potential to facilitate healthy ageing and the prevention of financial fraud among older adults are gradually emerging. These technologies must be developed for ease-of-use and functionality, while maintaining appropriate safeguards on data protection and privacy. Artificial intelligence and robotics will be enablers of enhanced function and protection, though they will require collective action to ensure their widespread benefits.
Age-friendly policies
The regulatory and policy environment needs to be adapted for ageing populations. This may include modifications to caregiver oversight and power of attorney statutes that serve to prevent financial fraud and abuse. Granting access to third-parties, including caregivers, must become the new norm in a world of ageing populations.
These recommendations are inspirational and ambitious. They cannot be fulfilled by one individual or organization acting alone. It will demand the deliberate foresight and collaboration among diverse stakeholders to facilitate the creation of sustained health and wealth for older adults. They will take cooperation and dedication, though the results are worth the investment.
Article source : https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/09/5-ways-to-prepare-for-tomorrows-ageing-population/
An ageing population is about to
have a big impact on Europe's economy
Written by Will Martin/ Markets Reporter, Business Insider UK
Published Thursday 25 August 2016
Europe's ageing population is going to cause a sharp productivity slowdown and cause serious economic problems, according to new research from staff at the International Monetary Fund.
Europe's already ageing population is about to swell as workers reach retirement age, which in turn will cause a substantial drop in productivity, IMF staff members Shekhar Aiyar, Christian Ebeke, and Xiaobo Shao, wrote.
European productivity is already poor by historical standards, particularly in states like Italy and Greece, where rock-bottom productivity has previously caused significant economic issues. In fact in Italy, weak productivity growth is one of the biggest factors in the country's stagnant economy.
Within the next two decades, the IMF argues, the number of people in the European workforce aged between 55-64 will increase by one third, growing from 15% to 20%. This in turn could cause big issues.
Here's the an extract from Aiyae, Ebeke, and Shao's blog (emphasis ours):
"There are several different theories regarding age-related effects on productivity. On the one hand, accumulated years of work experience could make older workers more productive. On the other hand, frailer health and obsolete skills could reduce their productivity, at least beyond a certain threshold. While it is difficult to generalize across occupations, the consensus in the literature is that productivity increases with age at first, peaking sometime in the 40s or 50s. Then it diminishes."
The IMF staff continue by explaining the big issues that the ageing workforce could cause, adding (emphasis ours):
"First, ageing will take a considerable toll on productivity growth over the medium- to long-term. As shown in Chart 2, average total factor productivity growth in the euro area is forecast to be around 0.8 percent per year. This could be higher by a quarter—that is to say, total factor productivity could increase to about one percent per year—if we shut down the effect of workforce ageing. This result stands in stark contrast to the United States, where the workforce is not projected to age at all (in fact, it is projected to become slightly younger), and hence the impact on total factor productivity is negligible."
And here is Chart 2:
As previously noted, the IMF argues that these productivity slumps could be unevenly distributed, with already weak nations facing the biggest burden. Here's the fund one final time (emphasis ours):
"Second, the burden of workforce ageing will fall unequally across euro area member states.Worryingly, some of the largest adverse effects on productivity will fall on countries that can least afford it, such as Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Italy.These countries already have elevated debt levels and meager fiscal space, and need rapid productivity growth to build competitiveness and bring down unemployment."
Europe's economy isn't exactly in a brilliant state as it stands. Years of negative interest rates and super-accommodative monetary policy have as yet at least, failed to stimulate the growth and inflation so desperately needs coming out of the eurozone crisis. Add into the mix the economic uncertainty caused by the UK's Brexit vote, and the last thing the continent needs is for productivity to fall even lower.
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<Questions>
Q1. Do you prepare for a life after 60 or after your retirement?
Q2. As time goes by you are getting aged. How do you feel about that?
Q3. What are the merits and demerits of aging?
Q4. Do you have a second life plan?
Q5. Do you feel any changes in your industry due to the aging population increase?
Q6. What do you do usually when you are alone?
Q7. Nowadays we talk a lot about an automation industry. How could we take advantage of this tech. to tackle troubles of aging society?
Q8. Do we have enough welfare system for aged group?
Q9. What is the proper welfare system for aged group? (Maybe not just money.) In other words, why old generation is not happy? How can we make our old generation happy?
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Teach girls bravery, not perfection
Posted Mar 2016/ Reshma Saujani
We're raising our girls to be perfect, and we're raising our boys to be brave, says Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code. Saujani has taken up the charge to socialize young girls to take risks and learn to program — two skills they need to move society forward. To truly innovate, we cannot leave behind half of our population, she says. "I need each of you to tell every young woman you know to be comfortable with imperfection."
<Teach girls bravery, not perfection Script>
So a few years ago, I did something really brave, or some would say really stupid. I ran for Congress.
For years, I had existed safely behind the scenes in politics as a fundraiser, as an organizer, but in my heart, I always wanted to run. The sitting congresswoman had been in my district since 1992. She had never lost a race, and no one had really even run against her in a Democratic primary. But in my mind, this was my way to make a difference, to disrupt the status quo. The polls, however, told a very different story. My pollsters told me that I was crazy to run, that there was no way that I could win.
But I ran anyway, and in 2012, I became an upstart in a New York City congressional race. I swore I was going to win. I had the endorsement from the New York Daily News, the Wall Street Journal snapped pictures of me on election day, and CNBC called it one of the hottest races in the country. I raised money from everyone I knew, including Indian aunties that were just so happy an Indian girl was running. But on election day, the polls were right, and I only got 19 percent of the vote, and the same papers that said I was a rising political star now said I wasted 1.3 million dollars on 6,321 votes. Don't do the math. It was humiliating.
Now, before you get the wrong idea, this is not a talk about the importance of failure. Nor is it about leaning in. I tell you the story of how I ran for Congress because I was 33 years old and it was the first time in my entire life that I had done something that was truly brave, where I didn't worry about being perfect.
And I'm not alone: so many women I talk to tell me that they gravitate towards careers and professions that they know they're going to be great in, that they know they're going to be perfect in, and it's no wonder why. Most girls are taught to avoid risk and failure. We're taught to smile pretty, play it safe, get all A's. Boys, on the other hand, are taught to play rough, swing high, crawl to the top of the monkey bars and then just jump off headfirst. And by the time they're adults, whether they're negotiating a raise or even asking someone out on a date, they're habituated to take risk after risk. They're rewarded for it. It's often said in Silicon Valley, no one even takes you seriously unless you've had two failed start-ups. In other words, we're raising our girls to be perfect, and we're raising our boys to be brave.
Some people worry about our federal deficit, but I, I worry about our bravery deficit. Our economy, our society, we're just losing out because we're not raising our girls to be brave. The bravery deficit is why women are underrepresented in STEM, in C-suites, in boardrooms, in Congress, and pretty much everywhere you look.
In the 1980s, psychologist Carol Dweck looked at how bright fifth graders handled an assignment that was too difficult for them. She found that bright girls were quick to give up. The higher the IQ, the more likely they were to give up. Bright boys, on the other hand, found the difficult material to be a challenge. They found it energizing. They were more likely to redouble their efforts.
What's going on? Well, at the fifth grade level, girls routinely outperform boys in every subject, including math and science, so it's not a question of ability. The difference is in how boys and girls approach a challenge. And it doesn't just end in fifth grade. An HP report found that men will apply for a job if they meet only 60 percent of the qualifications, but women, women will apply only if they meet 100 percent of the qualifications. 100 percent. This study is usually invoked as evidence that, well, women need a little more confidence. But I think it's evidence that women have been socialized to aspire to perfection, and they're overly cautious.
And even when we're ambitious, even when we're leaning in, that socialization of perfection has caused us to take less risks in our careers. And so those 600,000 jobs that are open right now in computing and tech, women are being left behind, and it means our economy is being left behind on all the innovation and problems women would solve if they were socialized to be brave instead of socialized to be perfect.
So in 2012, I started a company to teach girls to code, and what I found is that by teaching them to code I had socialized them to be brave. Coding, it's an endless process of trial and error, of trying to get the right command in the right place, with sometimes just a semicolon making the difference between success and failure. Code breaks and then it falls apart, and it often takes many, many tries until that magical moment when what you're trying to build comes to life. It requires perseverance. It requires imperfection.
We immediately see in our program our girls' fear of not getting it right, of not being perfect. Every Girls Who Code teacher tells me the same story. During the first week, when the girls are learning how to code, a student will call her over and she'll say, "I don't know what code to write." The teacher will look at her screen, and she'll see a blank text editor. If she didn't know any better, she'd think that her student spent the past 20 minutes just staring at the screen. But if she presses undo a few times, she'll see that her student wrote code and then deleted it. She tried, she came close, but she didn't get it exactly right. Instead of showing the progress that she made, she'd rather show nothing at all. Perfection or bust.
It turns out that our girls are really good at coding, but it's not enough just to teach them to code.
My friend Lev Brie, who is a professor at the University of Columbia and teaches intro to Java tells me about his office hours with computer science students. When the guys are struggling with an assignment, they'll come in and they'll say, "Professor, there's something wrong with my code." The girls will come in and say, "Professor, there's something wrong with me."
We have to begin to undo the socialization of perfection, but we've got to combine it with building a sisterhood that lets girls know that they are not alone. Because trying harder is not going to fix a broken system. I can't tell you how many women tell me,
"I'm afraid to raise my hand, I'm afraid to ask a question, because I don't want to be the only one who doesn't understand, the only one who is struggling. When we teach girls to be brave and we have a supportive network cheering them on, they will build incredible things, and I see this every day. Take, for instance, two of our high school students who built a game called Tampon Run -- yes, Tampon Run -- to fight against the menstruation taboo and sexism in gaming. Or the Syrian refugee who dared show her love for her new country by building an app to help Americans get to the polls. Or a 16-year-old girl who built an algorithm to help detect whether a cancer is benign or malignant in the off chance that she can save her daddy's life because he has cancer. These are just three examples of thousands, thousands of girls who have been socialized to be imperfect, who have learned to keep trying, who have learned perseverance. And whether they become coders or the next Hillary Clinton or Beyoncé, they will not defer their dreams.
And those dreams have never been more important for our country. For the American economy, for any economy to grow, to truly innovate, we cannot leave behind half our population. We have to socialize our girls to be comfortable with imperfection, and we've got to do it now. We cannot wait for them to learn how to be brave like I did when I was 33 years old. We have to teach them to be brave in schools and early in their careers, when it has the most potential to impact their lives and the lives of others, and we have to show them that they will be loved and accepted not for being perfect but for being courageous. And so I need each of you to tell every young woman you know -- your sister, your niece, your employee, your colleague -- to be comfortable with imperfection, because when we teach girls to be imperfect, and we help them leverage it, we will build a movement of young women who are brave and who will build a better world for themselves and for each and every one of us.
Thank you.
Chris Anderson: Reshma, thank you. It's such a powerful vision you have. You have a vision. Tell me how it's going. How many girls are involved now in your program?
Reshma Saujani: Yeah. So in 2012, we taught 20 girls. This year we'll teach 40,000 in all 50 states.
And that number is really powerful, because last year we only graduated 7,500 women in computer science. Like, the problem is so bad that we can make that type of change quickly.
CA: And you're working with some of the companies in this room even, who are welcoming graduates from your program?
RS: Yeah, we have about 80 partners, from Twitter to Facebook to Adobe to IBM to Microsoft to Pixar to Disney, I mean, every single company out there. And if you're not signed up, I'm going to find you, because we need every single tech company to embed a Girls Who Code classroom in their office.
CA: And you have some stories back from some of those companies that when you mix in more gender balance in the engineering teams, good things happen.
RS: Great things happen. I mean, I think that it's crazy to me to think about the fact that right now 85 percent of all consumer purchases are made by women. Women use social media at a rate of 600 percent more than men. We own the Internet, and we should be building the companies of tomorrow. And I think when companies have diverse teams, and they have incredible women that are part of their engineering teams, they build awesome things, and we see it every day.
CA: Reshma, you saw the reaction there. You're doing incredibly important work. This whole community is cheering you on. More power to you. Thank you.
RS: Thank you.
Article source : https://www.ted.com/talks/reshma_saujani_teach_girls_bravery_not_perfection?language=en
<Questions>
Q1. Are you a bravery-oriented person or a perfection-oriented person?
Q2. If you have a daughter, would you raise your kid as above article suggested?
Q3. What is the most important factor to be a competitive person in this world?
Q4. Are you involved in any community to share experience or wisdom with same gender?
Q5. Do you find any difficulties or discrimination while you are working as a worker in your field? How do you tackle those troubles?
Q6. What is the limitations of Confucianism-based society?
Q7. What cause the discrimination in our society? Gender? Monetary condition? Social status? Religion? Race? Do you think what is the most critical factor?
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