Poll: Aging US in denial about long-term care need

WASHINGTON (AP) ? We're in denial: Americans underestimate their chances of needing long-term care as they get older ? and are taking few steps to get ready.

A new poll examined how people 40 and over are preparing for this difficult and often pricey reality of aging, and found two-thirds say they've done little to no planning.

In fact, 3 in 10 would rather not think about getting older at all. Only a quarter predict it's very likely that they'll need help getting around or caring for themselves during their senior years, according to the poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

That's a surprise considering the poll found more than half of the 40-plus crowd already have been caregivers for an impaired relative or friend ? seeing from the other side the kind of assistance they, too, may need later on.

"I didn't think I was old. I still don't think I'm old," explained retired schoolteacher Malinda Bowman, 60, of Laura, Ohio.

Bowman has been a caregiver twice, first for her grandmother. Then after her father died in 2006, Bowman moved in with her mother, caring for her until her death in January. Yet Bowman has made few plans for herself.

"I guess I was focused on caring for my grandmother and mom and dad, so I didn't really think about myself," she said. "Everything we had was devoted to taking care of them."

The poll found most people expect family to step up if they need long-term care ? even though 6 in 10 haven't talked with loved ones about the possibility and how they'd like it to work.

Bowman said she's healthy now but expects to need help someday from her two grown sons. Last month, prompted by a brother's fall and blood clot, she began the conversation by telling her youngest son about her living will and life insurance policy.

"I need to plan eventually," she acknowledged.

Those family conversations are crucial: Even if they want to help, do your relatives have the time, money and knowhow? What starts as driving Dad to the doctor or picking up his groceries gradually can turn into feeding and bathing him, maybe even doing tasks once left to nurses such as giving injections or cleaning open wounds. If loved ones can't do all that, can they afford to hire help? What if you no longer can live alone?

"The expectation that your family is going to be there when you need them often doesn't mean they understand the full extent of what the job of caregiving will be," Susan Reinhard, a nurse who directs AARP's Public Policy Institute, said. "Your survey is pointing out a problem for not just people approaching the need for long-term care, but for family members who will be expected to take on the huge responsibility of providing care."

Those who have been through the experience of receiving care are less apt to say they can rely on their families in times of need, the poll found.

With a rapidly aging population, more families will be facing those responsibilities. Government figures show nearly 7 in 10 Americans will need long-term care at some point after they reach age 65, whether it's from a relative, a home health aide, assisted living or a nursing home. On average, they'll need that care for three years.

Despite the "it won't happen to me" reaction, the AP-NORC Center poll found half of those surveyed think just about everyone will need some assistance at some point. There are widespread misperceptions about how much care costs and who will pay for it. Nearly 60 percent of those surveyed underestimated the cost of a nursing home, which averages more than $6,700 a month.

Medicare doesn't pay for the most common types of long-term care. Yet 37 percent of those surveyed mistakenly think it will pay for a nursing home and even more expect it to cover a home health aide when that's only approved under certain conditions.

The harsh reality: Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor, is the main payer of long-term care in the U.S., and to qualify seniors must have spent most of their savings and assets. But fewer than half of those polled think they'll ever need Medicaid ? even though only a third are setting aside money for later care, and just 27 percent are confident they'll have the financial resources they'll need.

In Cottage Grove, Ore., Police Chief Mike Grover, 64, says his retirement plan means he could afford a nursing home. And like 47 percent of those polled, he's created an advance directive, a legal document outlining what medical care he'd want if he couldn't communicate.

Otherwise, Grover said he hasn't thought much about his future care needs. He knows caregiving is difficult, as he and his brother are caring for their 85-year-old mother.

Still, "until I cross that bridge, I don't know what I would do. I hope that my kids and wife will pick the right thing," he said. "It depends on my physical condition, because I do not want to be a burden to my children."

The AP-NORC Center poll found widespread support for tax breaks to encourage saving for long-term care, and about half favor the government establishing a voluntary long-term care insurance program. An Obama administration attempt to create such a program ended in 2011 because it was too costly.

The older they get, the more preparations people take. Just 8 percent of 40- to 54-year-olds have done much planning for long-term care, compared with 30 percent of those 65 or older, the poll found.

Mary Pastrano, 74, of Port Orchard, Wash., has planned extensively for her future health care. She has lupus, heart problems and other conditions, and now uses a wheelchair. She also remembers her family's financial struggles after her own father died when she was a child.

"I don't want people to stand around and wring their hands and wonder, 'What would Mom think was the best?'" said Pastrano, who has discussed her insurance policies, living will and care preferences with her husband and children.

Still, Pastrano wishes she and her husband had started saving earlier, during their working years.

"You never know how soon you're going to be down," she said. "That's what older people have a problem understanding: You can be in your 60s and then next flat on your back. You think you're invincible, until you can't walk."

The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey was conducted Feb. 21 through March 27, with funding from the SCAN Foundation. The SCAN Foundation is an independent, nonprofit organization that supports research and other initiatives on aging and health care. The nationally representative poll involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,019 Americans age 40 or older. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

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Associated Press writer Stacy A. Anderson and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

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Online:

Government long-term care primer: http://longtermcare.gov

AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research: http://www.apnorc.org

Aging America is a joint AP-APME project examining the aging of the baby boomers and the effect that this so-called silver tsunami is having on the communities in which they live.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/poll-aging-us-denial-long-term-care-072819461--politics.html

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Disorder rule linked to intelligence

23 April 2013 Last updated at 06:08 ET By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News

A modification to one of the most fundamental laws of physics may provide a link to the rise of intelligence, cooperation - even upright walking.

The idea of entropy describes the way in which the Universe heads inexorably toward a higher state of disorder.

A mathematical model in Physical Review Letters proposes that systems maximise entropy in the present and the future.

Simple simulations based on the idea reproduce a variety of real-world cases that reflect intelligent behaviour.

The idea of entropy is fundamentally an intuitive one - that the Universe tends in general to a more disordered state.

The classic example is a dropped cup: it will smash into pieces, but those pieces will never spontaneously recombine back into a cup. Analogously, a hot cup of coffee will always cool down if left - it will never draw warmth from a room to heat back up.

But the idea of "causal entropy" goes further, suggesting that a given physical system not only maximises the entropy within its current conditions, but that it reaches a state that will allow it more entropy - in a real sense, more options - in the future.

Alex Wissner-Gross of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US and Cameron Freer from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, have now put together a mathematical model that ties this causal entropy idea - evident in a range of recent studies - into a single framework.

"In the past 10 to 15 years, there have been many hints from a variety of different disciplines that there was a deep link between entropy production and intelligence," Dr Wissner-Gross told BBC News.

Continue reading the main story

The laws of thermodynamics

• First law: Energy can be neither created nor destroyed (although, thanks to Einstein's most famous equation E=mc2, energy can come from or be turned into mass)
• Second law: The entropy of an isolated system always rises. But put some energy in and order can be achieved - in a crystal of salt, in humans, even in galaxies
• Third Law: As the temperature of an ordered system - like that salt crystal - approaches "absolute zero", entropy approaches its lowest level. But never zero, because everything, everywhere is at least a little bit disordered

"This paper is really the first result that clarifies what that link precisely is... to the point that it's prescriptive - it actually allows you to calculate in a sensible way answers to questions that couldn't reasonably be answered before."

The simplistic model considers a number of examples, such as a pendulum hanging from a moving cart. Simulations of the causal entropy idea show that the pendulum ends up pointing upward - an unstable situation, but one from which the pendulum can explore a wider variety of positions.

The researchers liken this to the development of upright walking.

Further simulations showed how the same idea could drive the development of tool use, social network formation and cooperation, and even the maximisation of profit in a simple financial market.

"While there were hints from a variety of other fields such as cosmology, it was so enormously surprising to see that one could take these principles, apply them to simple systems, and effectively for free have such behaviours pop out," Dr Wissner-Gross said.

'Beyond luck'

Raphael Bousso of the University of California Berkeley said: "It has always mystified me how well this principle models intelligent observers, and it would be wonderful if Alex's work could shed some light on this."

Prof Bousso showed in a 2007 paper in Physical Review D that models of the Universe that incorporated causal entropy were more likely to come up with a Universe that contains intelligent observers - that is, us.

However, he cautions that although the new paper bolsters the case for causal entropy, the idea still lacks explanatory power.

"The paper argues that intelligent behaviour, which is hard to quantify, can be reduced to maximising one's options, which is relatively easy to quantify. But it cannot explain intelligent behaviour from first principles," he told BBC News.

"It cannot explain how that 'intelligent agent' evolved in the first place, and why it seeks to maximise future options."

Axel Kleidon of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Germany, who authored a 2010 paper in Physics of Life Reviews using maximised entropy to consider the machinery of life on Earth, said that the work "shows some very intriguing examples" but that only time would tell if causal entropy was as fundamental as it may seem.

"It seems that it is beyond just luck and coincidence," he told BBC News.

"On the other hand, I know from my own research that applying thermodynamics to real-world systems is anything but simple and straightforward... I think it is through more examples that (we will see) how practical their approach will be, compared to other thermodynamic approaches."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22261742#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Air pollution and hardening of arteries

Apr. 23, 2013 ? Long term exposure to air pollution may be linked to heart attacks and strokes by speeding up atherosclerosis, or "hardening of the arteries," according to a study by U.S. researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine.

The researchers, led by Sara Adar, John Searle Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, and Joel Kaufman, Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and Medicine, University of Washington, found that higher concentrations of fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) were linked to a faster thickening of the inner two layers of the common carotid artery, an important blood vessel that provides blood to the head, neck, and brain. They also found that reductions of fine particulate air pollution over time were linked to slower progression of the blood vessel thickness. The thickness of this blood vessel is an indicator of how much atherosclerosis is present in the arteries throughout the body, even among people with no obvious symptoms of heart disease.

"Our findings help us to understand how it is that exposures to air pollution may cause the increases in heart attacks and strokes observed by other studies," Adar said.

The authors reached these conclusions by following 5362 people aged between 45 to 84 years old from six U.S. metropolitan areas as part of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution (MESA Air). The researchers were able to link air pollution levels estimated at each person's house with two ultrasound measurements of the blood vessels, separated by about three years. All participants in their study were without known heart disease.

After adjusting for other factors such as smoking, the authors found that on average, the thickness of the carotid vessel increased by 14 ?m each year. The vessels of people exposed to higher levels of residential fine particulate air pollution, however, thickened faster than others living in the same metropolitan area.

"Linking these findings with other results from the same population suggests that persons living in a more polluted part of town may have a 2 percent higher risk of stroke as compared to people in a less polluted part of the same metropolitan area," Adar said.

"If confirmed by future analyses of the full 10 years of follow-up in this cohort, these findings will help to explain associations between long-term PM2.5 concentrations and clinical cardiovascular events," the authors wrote.

In an accompanying Perspective, Nino Kuenzli from the University of Basel in Switzerland says: "the [Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution study] further supports an old request to policy makers, namely that clean air standards ought to comply at least with the science-based levels proposed by the World Health Organization."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Adar SD, Sheppard L, Vedal S, Polak JF, Sampson PD, et al. Fine Particulate Air Pollution and the Progression of Carotid Intima-Medial Thickness: A Prospective Cohort Study from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution. PLoS Med, 2013 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001430

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/fNMbl5NT8J4/130423172706.htm

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How to Obtain Degree in Internet Marketing - Learn Blogging Tips

Internet marketing is the new trend inside the marketing arena. Almost all business entities are getting on board the bandwagon of internet marketing. It?s not until 2010 or 2011 that the educational system has taken notice of the growing need for internet marketing professionals.

Currently, what we have right now are salespeople who are just trying to find ways to be successful at selling their products and services online. A small percent of them hits the bull?s eye but most of them miss their targets by a hundred miles.

It?s about time that the educational system steps-in and sorts this out for the next generation who would also like to get into internet marketing business. A lot of people are saying that this should have been offered sooner. And still a lot of them aren?t even aware that it already exists, well, it?s about time.

If you?re interested to get your degree on internet marketing then the first order of business is to take a look at the campuses in your area that?s offering this degree. If there?s currently none, then you have the option to take the course online or to go to the university or college that offers this degree.

Here are some of the noted campuses that offer a degree in Internet Marketing:

Provides practical education to internet marketing in their following campuses; Orlando, Detroit and San Antonio. They also offer it online. ?It?s a 3-year program whether you take it online or on campus.

?

With campuses on Minnesota, Wisconsin, and South Dakota. They offers an associate degree on internet marketing and also an internet marketing certificate.

• Associate in Applied Science in Internet Marketing ? is available on campus and online. It?s a 2-year degree, meaning you can get your diploma in just 18 months.
• Internet Marketing Certificate ? is recommended for professionals who want to increase their abilities and skills in internet marketing. This is also available online and on campus. Most professionals though choose online education, that way they are able to study in their most comfortable time.

?

Offering Bachelor of Arts in eMarketing online. It?s not a BS degree like what the other universities are offering, they use a different approach in educating their students on this field. The total length of the program, if taken full time, is 48 months.

Other universities that are offering a degree in internet marketing that you may want to look into are University of San Francisco, Kaplan University, Full Sail University, Strayer University, North Central University, Southern New Hampshire University, and other campuses that may be closer to your location. Most of these universities also offer a program online that may be of interest to you too.

If you want to pursue this, then you have to do your research on these universities. You?ll have to consider the program?s reputation, duration, location, your current financial situation, and if you?re a professional, your time availability. There are two options to get your degree on internet marketing, on campus and online. This is an investment to your future so be sure to look at all the options before jumping in. Good luck.

Source: http://www.learnbloggingtips.com/how-to-obtain-degree-in-internet-marketing/

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Italy president names center-left's Letta as new premier

By Barry Moody and James Mackenzie

ROME (Reuters) - Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Wednesday asked center-left deputy leader Enrico Letta to form a new government, signaling the end of a damaging two-month vacuum since elections in the euro zone's third largest economy in February.

Letta, a youthful former Christian Democrat from the right wing of his Democratic Party, said he would start talks to form a broad-based coalition on Thursday. It will likely go to parliament for a vote of confidence by early next week.

The prime minister designate is expected to select a group of ministers, mixed between politicians and technocrats, under the guidance of Napolitano, whose own unprecedented re-election last weekend opened the way for an end to the crisis.

The new government will be backed primarily by Letta's center-left and the center-right of Silvio Berlusconi, which had hitherto repeatedly failed to cut a deal following inconclusive elections two months ago.

Formation of a government after a lengthy and turbulent political impasse will send a signal that Italy might at last be ready to make a start on much-needed reforms.

Accepting his mandate, Letta said he was surprised by the nomination and felt a profound responsibility on his shoulders. But he said he would not form a government "at all costs", warning that the warring parties must make compromises.

Italy faced an untenable "difficult and fragile" situation and the government must provide answers on jobs, poverty and the crisis facing small businesses in a deep recession, he said.

He added that European Union economic policies had been too focused on austerity instead of growth and that Italy's electoral and parliamentary system must be reformed.

Napolitano's choice of Letta instead of veteran former Prime Minister Giuliano Amato, who was said to have been his original favorite, indicated he had plumped for a more political figure who reflects a generational change in Italian politics.

The bespectacled and balding Letta, an urbane moderate who speaks fluent English, is 46 against Amato's 74 and is an elected member of parliament unlike the older, more experienced man.

He will be the second youngest prime minister in Italian postwar history and as a staunch pro-European is likely to be welcomed by foreign governments and markets.

MARKET RELIEF

Investors had already reacted with relief to the prospect of an end to the intractable crisis, with Italy's two-year borrowing costs on Wednesday tumbling to their lowest level since the start of European monetary union in 1999.

However, the country's problems are not over, with significant differences remaining between left and right over economic policy.

These were put sharply into focus even before Letta was chosen when Renato Brunetta, house leader for Berlusconi's PDL party, said they would only support a government committed to repealing a hated housing tax introduced by outgoing technocrat premier Mario Monti and paying it back.

The center-left agrees only to a partial reduction of the tax and many economists say such a move would leave a gaping hole in Italy's public accounts.

But Napolitano, who reluctantly agreed to serve another term as president, has made clear that he will brook no more endless squabbling between the parties and has threatened to resign if they do not unite behind economic policies and important constitutional reforms.

Chief among these is the repeal of a dysfunctional electoral law which was largely responsible for the post election impasse.

Letta, the nephew of Berlusconi's long-time chief of staff Gianni Letta, is close to former party leader Pier Luigi Bersani, who resigned at the weekend after rebels sabotaged him in the voting for a new president in a debacle that threatens to tear the PD apart.

Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party, Letta's PD and Monti's centrist Civic Choice movement had all said they would cooperate with whomever Napolitano chooses.

"Given the crisis the country finds itself in, the country needs a strong, a durable government that can make important decisions," Berlusconi said after meeting Napolitano on Tuesday.

The billionaire media magnate has exploited the center-left's divisions, with one poll this week giving the center-right an eight-point lead. This could be a worry for Letta if he forms a government, with Berlusconi tempted to pull the plug if he does not get his own way.

In February's general election, the center-left narrowly won a majority in the lower house but failed to win control of the Senate and was not able to form a government.

Italy's economy has been the most sluggish in Europe for more than a decade and mired in a deep recession since the middle of 2011, with no recovery in sight.

(Additional reporting by Paolo Biondi and Steve Scherer; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italy-president-set-announce-choice-prime-minister-054722232.html

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Do You Talk About Your Salary with Your Coworkers?

It's generally considered bad form to talk about your salary with coworkers, but it's becoming more common recently. So, we want to know, do you ever talk about salary with coworkers?

According to the Wall Street Journal, people are talking about their salary a lot more these days, and it's not necessarily a bad thing if you follow a few ground rules. With the taboo lifted, we want to hear it: do you talk about salary with your coworkers? How do you go about it?

Workers Share Their Salary Secrets | Wall Street Journal

Photo by John Lambert Pearson.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/puno9BNEBuM/do-you-talk-about-your-salary-with-your-coworkers-477837578

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Mac sales down slightly, but PC sales down much more

There wasn't great news for Mac enthusiasts in Apple's latest quarterly earnings report - Mac sales are actually down year over year. Apple sold 3.952 million Macs this past quarter, compared to 4.017 million for the same quarter a year ago.

Putting a positive spin on the news, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer noted during the conference call with analysts that while Mac sales are down 2 percent year over year, the rest of the PC industry is faring worse - sales are down 14 percent year over year, according to a report from IDC.

Even though unit sales are down, revenue is up - Apple raked in $5.447 billion in Mac sales for the quarter, compared to $5.073 for the same quarter a year ago. So while Apple may not have sold as many Macs, it made more money on them. Tim Cook attributes the difference to strong demand in iMac sales; no surprise, given that the supply of new, thin iMac models was constrained until the beginning of the year.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/FhnBH10QUG4/story01.htm

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