Aging gracefully

Today, one of my colleagues mentioned that many students who attempted an essay question on “aging gracefully” did not actually know what it meant. A quick poll of several students, including some who actually read, confirmed this.

“We’re not about growing old gracefully. We’re about never growing old.”

- American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M)

What aging gracefully is not:

• Obsession with removing wrinkles with Botox
• Lip plumping and face lifts to fight the signs of aging
• Dying one’s hair to hide the grey
• Marrying a 20-year-old if you’re 60 for the sake of feeling young
• Behaving in a manner that typifies youthfulness, even if your aging body cannot handle it

Generally, someone who does not age gracefully rejects and goes against the natural aging process.

What ageing gracefully is:

• Accepting those wrinkles
• Not covering up the outward signs of aging
• Behaving in a way that accepts that one’s aging body may not be able to engage in certain activities anymore

How to age gracefully:

• How to age gracefully (TIME)
• Aging gracefully, the French way (NYT)
• Aging gracefully (Psychology Today)

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For a Science & Technology angle on this, check this out.

Should the US federal government be allowed to impose these advertisements on tobacco companies?

This video was shamelessly stolen off Mr Lim’s blog. What is your opinion?

 

Here‘s the response by the tobacco companies, courtesy of Mr Foo.

 

I need help with general knowledge!

While there’s no substitute for regularly reading good newspapers and periodicals, there are several websites that provide particularly overviews of main issues, such as OneWorld.net:

OneWorld Guides
  learn about developing countries

 

    in our range of educational Guides

Aid	Environmental Activism
Capacity Building	Ocean Acidification
Child Labour	Population
Climate Change	Poverty
Food Security	Refugees
Gender	Terrorism
Globalisation	Trade and Poverty
HIV and AIDS	Tropical Forests
Human Rights	Volunteering
Migration	Water and Sanitation

 Thanks to Helen, for the link!

Task:
READ the guides, paying attention to the introductions used, for ideas on possible ways to start an essay.

50 Things that are being killed by the internet

Could the internet be the natural selection equivalent of societal evolution? This list highlights a whole range of practices that has evolved (thereby driving previous practices to extinction), with a call for readers to contribute suggestions of their own, to be published in a more complete list.

Here are some snippets from the list:

5) Punctuality
Before mobile phones, people actually had to keep their appointments and turn up to the pub on time. Texting friends to warn them of your tardiness five minutes before you are due to meet has become one of throwaway rudenesses of the connected age

9) The myth of cat intelligence
The proudest household pets are now the illiterate butts of caption-based jokes. Icanhasreputashunback?

13) Memory
When almost any fact, no matter how obscure, can be dug up within seconds through Google and Wikipedia, there is less value attached to the “mere” storage and retrieval of knowledge. What becomes important is how you use it – the internet age rewards creativity

16) Hoaxes and conspiracy theories
The internet is often dismissed as awash with cranks, but it has proved far more potent at debunking conspiracy theories than perpetuating them. The excellentSnopes.com continues to deliver the final, sober, word on urban legends.

22) Enforceable copyright
The record companies, film studios and news agencies are fighting back, but can the floodgates ever be closed?

28) Respect for doctors and other professionals
The proliferation of health websites has undermined the status of GPs, whose diagnoses are now challenged by patients armed with printouts

35) Concentration
What with tabbing between Gmail, Twitter, Facebook and Google News, it’s a wonder anyone gets their work done. A disturbing trend captured by the wonderful XKCD webcomic.

37) Personal reinvention
How can you forge a new identity at university when your Facebook is plastered with photos of the “old” you?

50) Your lunchbreak
Did you leave your desk today? Or snaffle a sandwich while sending a few personal emails and checking the price of a week in Istanbul?

Question:

In your opinion, how true are the claims made in the list? Are these things really being driven to extinction by the internet?

Japan’s fashion rebellion goes West

Manba involves devotees wearing dark tans, white make-up around their eyes and hair that is often a combination of neon colours.

It has been around for nearly a decade and is an eye-catching statement against conformity.

When the practitioners began darkening their skin, widening their eyes and wearing blue contact lenses, they were making a rebellious statement against the traditions of fair-skinned beauty.

- BBC News

[full article here]

Lost Generation