Har!
Category: Personal
Feet still growing at 85?!
Must be. Sizes that worked 5 years ago [at 80 – 12/12+] don’t work anymore. A year ago [at 84 – 13]? Nada! So, I’m going to upsize again and hope I get something that fits. The question will be 14W or 14WW [if available].
Here we go looking @ Amazon…
Note: ordered a pair 14W. Maybe here in another few days. And nothing else matters. Eh?
14Ws got here a day early…from Amazon. Fit and feel great.
Previously noted…I’m a gearhead!
I sort of murmur my way around hill and dale, leaving the 6,000+ foot altitude of our La Cieneguilla neighborhood, going into town in Santa Fe or…more likely…off into “hills” or mountains in beautiful northern New Mexico.
My usual ride is my beloved Hemi-powered Ram Pickmeup. Speedo stopped working several years ago at around 225,000 miles. Mostly garaged, now.
The all-purpose family ride nowadays is Helen’s Ford Maverick. Also an eye-stopper…and nigh unto impossible to buy. Not certain if they’re even running a waiting list, anymore. Prolly ran out of ink and paper roll.
So, why the photo of that coupe up top? End of an era, folks. The sort of toy I enjoyed for decades. Not that I resent the quiet riots starting to leave electro-fabs in Detroit and elsewhere. I’m too old, now, to start learning new tricks. Though, I relish the additions that computer geeks will be able to slip past spies who used to rely on removing gas caps to sniff for secret sauce.
Anonymity
American Knowledge of Everyday Uses of Artificial Intelligence
A new Pew Research Center survey finds that many Americans are aware of common ways they might encounter artificial intelligence (AI) in daily life, such as customer service chatbots and product recommendations based on previous purchases. At the same time, only three-in-ten U.S. adults are able to correctly identify all six uses of AI asked about in the survey, underscoring the developing nature of public understanding…
Awareness of common uses of artificial intelligence is a first step toward broader public engagement with debates about the appropriate role – and boundaries – for AI. Experts have raised a host of moral, ethical and legal questions about the expanding capabilities of AI. And the ethical and responsible use of AI is a growing focus of research within the field.
The Pew Research Center survey…finds that 27% of Americans say they interact with AI at least several times a day, while another 28% think they interact with it about once a day or several times a week. On this self-reported measure, 44% think they do not regularly interact with AI…
Partisan affiliation is not a major factor when it comes to awareness of AI: There are no meaningful differences between Republicans and Democrats on the AI awareness scale.
Everything else in the article points out differences between one or another citizenship quality! 🙂
Japan confronts a new reality…becoming a nation of the elderly
Average age of workers in this mountain village restaurant is 70
…This dynamic is happening all over Japan as the birth rate continues its decades-long decline. The country’s population peaked in 2010, at 128 million. Now it’s less than 125 million and projected to keep shrinking over the next four decades. At the same time, Japanese people are living longer—87.6 years for women and 81.5 years for men, on average. Except for the tiny principality of Monaco, Japan’s population is now the oldest in the world.
The numbers, though stark, don’t convey how profoundly this demographic shift is playing out day to day. The increasingly disproportionate mix of more and more seniors and fewer and fewer young people is already altering every aspect of life in Japan, from its physical appearance to its social policies, from business strategy to the labour market, from public spaces to private homes. Japan is becoming a country designed for and dominated by the old…
Japan’s path foreshadows what’s coming in many areas of the world. China, South Korea, Italy, and Germany are on a similar trajectory; so too is the United States, although at a slower pace. Five years ago, the world reached an ominous milestone: For the first time in history, adults 65 and older outnumbered children under five years old.
If Japan is any guide, ageing will change the fabric of society in ways both obvious and subtle. It will run up a huge bill that governments will struggle to pay. Meeting the challenge won’t be easy, but the future isn’t necessarily all downhill. Japan’s experience, with its characteristic attention to detail and design, suggests extreme ageing—a world in which an increasing share of the population is old—may inspire an era of innovation.
I don’t doubt the Japanese will get it right. Workable, functional, eventually meeting all critical standards global society is capable of. I’m not so confident about the GOUSA. Not with our out-of-date politicians in place…beholden to 19th Century standards. Which start off…your most important task is to get re-elected. Then (maybe), you start to consider the needs of the folks who elected you.
Farewell, Sheila…
Here’s Chevrolet building the C8 Corvette
A special post for those readers who are gearheads through and through. Others certainly may find the professional building of a high performance automobile interesting, as well. But, this has a lot to do with how geeks like me really got started.
Why the French Want to Stop Working
If you want to understand why the French overwhelmingly oppose raising their official retirement age from 62 to 64, you could start by looking at last week’s enormous street protest in Paris.
Retirement before arthritis read one handwritten sign. Leave us time to live before we die said another. One elderly protester was dressed ironically as “a banker” with a black top hat, bow tie, and cigar—like the Mr. Monopoly mascot of the board game. “It’s the end of the beans!” he exclaimed to the crowd, using a popular expression to mean that pension reform is the last straw…
France is not alone with this problem. Rich countries everywhere are facing similar demographic challenges, and pushing up their retirement ages to cope. The advocates of reform in France should have more room to maneuver than most, because retirements here last an average of about 25 years, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That’s among the longest in Europe, where retirements even out at about 22 years, and well above the average retirement duration in the United States, where people now live for about 16 years after they stop working…
Well-written with reasonable explanation(s). Europeans will – I think – get it before many Americans. But, that ain’t the point either. Reflect upon the article’s conclusions – especially the direction presumed of a changing and growing economy.
Wooden Ships
My favorite version. David Crosby, Graham Nash, Grace Slick. Doing nothing but making beautiful music together.
Yes, I remember moments like this in my life back in the day. Never wanted to work hard enough at it to find the big time. Singing with folks who wanted to hear the music, the words, feel the sound and emotion…was always enough. Even after I stopped.
We’re going to miss you, David.
Eideard 