Category: Uncategorized Page 46 of 76

I don’t think you have to be an Apple fanboy to appreciate the new Iphone that Steve Jobs announced Tuesday at MacWorld. But it doesn’t hurt, does it? Just look at the thing…

Heck, even Matthew Ingram (not the biggest Apple fan in the world) wants one.

I’m in the market for a new phone and I’ve been thinking about getting a smart phone, like my wife’s Treo. But I decided to hold off, just in case all the hype about the new Apple phone turned out to be true.

Now it looks like waiting was a good idea. If you haven’t seen this new wonder, or want to know a bit more about it, check out the details on the Apple site.

Or you can follow some of the action in the blogosphere, using Technorati. Here’s the results of a search for the Iphone tag in blog posts. But be prepared…the count right now is 2788 posts in English (and rising every minute, it seems.)

The world seems impressed, so far. The stock market gave Apple’s shares a big boost, while punishing other cell phone makers, who are expected to be forced to redesign their current offerings just to catch up.

Apple has a history (as Steve Jobs told us in his keynote on Tuesday) of coming up with products that redefine an entire sector, like the original Mac and the Ipod. Looks like they might have done it again with this gadget.

One downer note about all this. It’ll probably be months – or years – before we are able to get one in Canada. But hey, I’m not that far from Washington State…maybe I can just catch a ferry…

We’ve now entered 2007, which means that at some point not that far away, I’ll be crossing over the dividing line of my expected life span (since I plan to live to be 100!)

Perhaps that’s why I’m noticing things these days, like how my clothes seem to have shrunk over the holidays, and how I seem to make this “grunting” sound when I stand up, and if I kneel down to tie up my shoe, I need both hands just to get back up again.

Yeah, I think I’m getting older. Of course, the white hair gave it away a long time ago anyway — but at least there’s a lot of it.

Apparently, I’m not the only one picking up on this ageing thing. Since we boomers (I’m at the lower end of that cycle) are now approaching our “sunset” years, we’re going to have a significant effect on everything around us, just as happened during every other significant stage in our lives. The magic of demographics say it must be so.

But as getting older becomes a focus for me, I find myself wondering why we age so differently? Why do some of us go gracefully into our later years, while others begin to have all kinds of trouble? Why do some people seem to lose more of their mental abilities than others? And what makes some folks live so long, compared to their peers?

Today, I came across an interesting article in the New York Times that picks up on a few of these questions. It’s called A Surprising Secret to a Long Life: Stay in School.

It’s thesis is simple. The more education people have, the longer their expected life span. It’s a controversial theory, but this lengthy article gives a fascinating look into a lot of the factors that affect old age and there appears to be a real link to the education factor.

The one social factor that researchers agree is consistently linked to longer lives in every country where it has been studied is education. It is more important than race; it obliterates any effects of income.

Year after year, in study after study, says Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, education “keeps coming up.”

And, health economists say, those factors that are popularly believed to be crucial — money and health insurance, for example, pale in comparison.

I don’t know whether that’s a comfort for me or not. I did get a lot of education – or at least, I spent a lot of time at school. I sure hope that counts for something.

I’m not much for making predictions, but I’m pretty confident that we’re going to be reading a lot more stories in this topic area in the months and years ahead.

My brother-in-law in Vancouver (thanks Darryl!) just sent me this link to a Flickr site with a series of pictures from the December 15th windstorm that hammered Vancouver last month. It was just one of a series of storms that blew through in a week and caused extensive damage across southern BC.

This photoset was posted by .lux (don’t know his real name) and he wrote this as a preface:

(The) Most dramatic photos are of Prospect Point (pictured above).
Photos taken 17 Dec – 2 days after storm, and as bad as the mess looks in some of the photos, much of the debris had already been chainsawed and removed. Must have looked considerably worse earlier.

I know a lot of you reading this don’t live near the coast and you may have wondered what all the fuss was about a few trees getting blown down in a park. But as the pictures make clear, the damage was extensive, and given Stanley Park’s intimate relationship with Vancouver, the city and its residents will be a long time getting over what’s happened.

On a more personal note, I hope all of you had a good holiday season and that you’re ready for whatever comes your way this year. I’m looking forward to it.

Happy New Year!

Rick Mercer has a blog. And while he doesn’t post that often, it’s usually worth reading.

During the Christmas season, he’s been in Afghanistan and his most recent post has quite a bit of detail about his visit.

If you’re not signed up to get his blog feed, consider doing so. I recommend it.

Mercer has been one of my favourite comics for years, thanks to such great stunts as his on-line petition to have Stockwell Day change his name to Doris and his hilarious “Talking to Americans” segments for the This Hour has 22 Minutes comedy show on CBC TV.

OK. This isn’t exactly an end-of-year list. But I couldn’t resist letting you know about this article in Wired Magazine.

I first read about Dean Karnazes a while ago, when he was in the middle of running 50 marathons in 50 days!

He’s got quite a story to tell, as you might expect.

In this Wired Magazine profile, they outline 12 tips on what you need to do to become an ultramarathon junkie as well. (OK, they’re not really practical, but they’re interesting.)

Interesting reading the day after that giant Christmas dinner and just before the New Year’s resolutions to lose weight!

Enjoy.