How architecture can create dignity for all | Ted.com
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If architect and writer John Cary has his way, women will never need to stand in pointlessly long bathroom lines again. Lines like these are representative of a more serious issue, Cary says: the lack of diversity in design that leads to thoughtless, compassionless spaces. Design has a unique ability to dignify and make people feel valued, respected, honored and seen — but the flip side is also true. Cary calls for architects and designers to expand their ranks and commit to serving the public good, not just the privileged few. “Well-designed spaces are not just a matter of taste or a questions of aesthetics,” he says. “They literally shape our ideas about who we are in the world and what we deserve.” And we all deserve better.
Falls Among Elderly Cost $50 Billion Annually | U.S. News and World Report
Falls by older Americans have devastating medical and economic consequences, reaching $50 billion a year, a new study finds. “Falls among men and women 65 and older are a common, costly and growing public health problem,” said lead researcher Curtis Florence, a health economist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And as American “baby boomers” continue to age, strategies for keeping them fracture-free will become increasingly important, he said.
22-year-old’s 3-D scanner can diagnose heart diseases in 90 seconds | CNN
At 22, many of us are finishing up college and hoping we might get be lucky enough to land a stable job. Peeyush Shrivastava is a little different. He started a biotech company and collected millions of dollars in capital, including from famed businessman Mark Cuban, and he hopes to start bringing 3-D heart-scanning technology to hospitals and emergency rooms across the country as early as this year.
How the Elderly Lose Their Rights | The New Yorker
For years, Rudy North woke up at 9 a.m. and read the Las Vegas Review-Journal while eating a piece of toast. Then he read a novel—he liked James Patterson and Clive Cussler—or, if he was feeling more ambitious, Freud. On scraps of paper and legal notepads, he jotted down thoughts sparked by his reading. “Deep below the rational part of our brain is an underground ocean where strange things swim,” he wrote on one notepad. On another, “Life: the longer it cooks, the better it tastes.”
Sorry, Adults, No New Neurons For Your Aging Brains | NPR
A major study is challenging the widely held view that adult human brains make new neurons.
The study of brain samples from 59 people of various ages found no immature neurons in anyone older than 13, scientists report online Wednesday in the journal Nature. “In all of the adult samples we looked at, we couldn’t find any evidence of a young neuron,” says Shawn Sorrells, the study’s lead author and a senior researcher in the lab of Arturo Alvarez-Buylla at the University of California, San Francisco.
‘Wheelchair is my throne, I’m the queen’: Virali Modi on disability, activism and more | The News Minute (India)
A petition to make the Indian Railways disabled friendly has gained a lot of traction, and has even caught the attention of Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu. Virali Modi, the woman who started the petition, is a disability rights activist, campaigner and public speaker. She sits in her wheelchair without awkwardness, exudes confidence and smiles easily. However, this wasn’t always her temperament.
Why do Americans ignore the Paralympics? | The Boston Globe
GRIT AND GLORY don’t guarantee an audience — at least not an American one. The Paralympics, which begin this week in South Korea, make for the world’s third-largest sporting event, just after the Olympics and the World Cup. And the elite gathering of athletes with disabilities has enjoyed surging support across much of the planet. The London games of 2012 drew more than 2.7 million spectators and closed with rollicking performances from Rihanna, Coldplay, and Jay-Z at a packed, 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium. Hundreds of journalists from the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan flocked to the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, where they watched visually impaired Algerian runner Abdellatif Baka win 1,500-meter gold in faster time than the Olympic champion a month before. And broadcasters all over the globe will deliver exhaustive coverage of the PyeongChang edition over the next couple of weeks.
How Medicaid Became A Go-To Funder For Schools | California Healthline
Gerardo Alejandrez used to punch classmates, throw chairs and curse at his teachers, conduct that forced him to switch from school to school. “I had a lot of anger issues,” the 16-year-old said recently. Then Gerardo entered a class at Oakland Technical High School for students who have mental health or behavior issues. In that classroom, the teacher gets support from Erich Roberts, a psychiatric social worker assigned to the group. Oakland Unified School District bills Medicaid, the nation’s insurance program for low-income residents, for Roberts’ services.
Many Americans Think Docs Order Too Many Tests, Meds | U.S. News & World Report
Few older Americans believe ordering more tests and drugs is the way to better health care, a new survey finds. Of the more than 2,000 respondents aged 50 to 80, just 14 percent thought that “more is better,” according to the National Poll on Healthy Aging. In fact, 54 percent said they believe that health care providers often recommend tests, medications or procedures that patients don’t really need.
The Retirement Crisis Facing African Americans | Forbes
There’s a saying: When white America catches a cold, black America catches pneumonia. So, if there is an impending retirement crisis in America, what does that mean for African Americans? The answer to that question is discouraging.
The Bill That Would Legalize Discrimination Against My Daughter | Talk Poverty
My daughter was born 26 weeks into my pregnancy. When Charlie arrived she weighed one pound and 12 ounces, and she was just as long as my finger. During the first few weeks of her life, I watched her overcome what felt like insurmountable obstacles. She struggled to breathe, her stomach wasn’t mature enough to digest food, and her skin was so thin it was agony for her to be held. I worried that we were asking too much of her, but she fought to survive. Today, she is a joyous 5-year-old, though she has residual effects of her significantly premature birth. Charlie was incredibly susceptible to infections, and she has delays in speech and fine motor development. She will go through life with a disability: she needs help tying her shoes, using scissors, and opening her lunch.
Too Old to Be Executed? Supreme Court Considers an Aging Death Row | New York Times
The nation’s death rows are starting to look like geriatric wards. Condemned inmates in many states are more likely to die of natural causes than to be executed. The rare ones who are put to death often first spend decades behind bars, waiting. It turns out that executing old men is not easy. In November, Ohio called off an attempt to execute Alva Campbell, 69, after the execution team could not find a suitable vein into which to pump lethal chemicals. The state announced that it would try again in June 2019, by which time he would have been 71.
UK Oscar winner’s sign-language speech raises profile of ‘silent disability’ | the Guardian UK
Much of the talk before Sunday’s Oscars ceremony was about Hollywood’s moral compass.
After 2016’s Oscars So White debacle and the Time’s Up movement, attention was particularly drawn towards how the awards show would approach diversity and, in particular, the equitable treatment of areas such as race and sex. One of the issues that was in rather less sharp focus was disability in Hollywood films. That was until Sunday’s show was stolen by the stars of the Silent Child, a British production about a profoundly deaf child, which won best live-action short film.
Getting Past The Shock: Your Aging Parent Has Dementia | Forbes
For a while, you probably noticed the warning signs. You may not have recognized that your loved one forgetting the story she just told you and telling it again and then again was an ominous red flag. Your older parent might have forgotten to pay a bill or to do the usual housekeeping chores. When you finally got your somewhat confused mom, for example, to a doctor and she underwent a full exam, some objective conclusions were reached. The doctor kindly told you the bad news: it’s dementia. Her short term memory is poor and she did not do well on the measures of normal cognitive function. What are you supposed to do now?
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