How do they *do* that?
I loved this quote from this news story:
In addition, Japan's population is aging at a faster pace than any other country in the world.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Recent Comments
About Me
Links
Other blogs I help host
Tags
My stories
Economist Jeffrey Sachs estimates that malaria, which kills 2 million children annualy, could be contained for a mere US$3 Billion per year. Think about it. $100 Billion to kill 200,000 people in Iraq each year, or $3 Billion to save 2 million children in Africa each year. Hmmmm.
Areas of Moral Clarity
- Abolish Caste!
- Abolish cluster munitions!
- Abolish the death penalty!
- AVAAZ.org
- Free Rice
- Free the Slaves
- Gold Star Families for Peace
- Help free those wrongfully imprisoned
- Help Refugees and Stateless People
- Iraq Veterans Against the War
- Join Microfinance!
- Justice and Compassion Organizations
- Partners in Health
- Patch Adam's Gesundhiet Institute
- refugee council of australia
- Seattle's Union Gospel Mission
- State of the Future Report, Executive Summary 2007
- Stop Childhood Sexual Abuse
- U.S. State Department Report on Human Trafficking
Favorite Blogs
- A Lovely Megan's Bag End
- Anita, Tom, Eddie, & Seb
- Banzai Chronicles
- Ben and Sue's road trip
- Brooke's River Vision
- Byron's Nothing New under the Sun
- Carmen's In the Open Space
- D's Unorthodoxology
- Deanne's Eclectic Waters
- El Nellis
- Fishpimp's Dead Fish in a Box
- Hemant's Friendly Atheist
- Jessica's Indexed
- Joe's A Life Reviewed
- Jonathon's Nautical File
- Justice and Compassion
- Justin's Ramblin' Again
- Leslie's Random Thoughts
- Martin's Persistent Vegetative State
- Phil Wyman's Square No More
- Postsecret
- Rachel Stanton
- Rachelle's Magpie Girl
- SamBecca's Wood between the Worlds
- Sharon's A Cup of Coffee
- Tim's Relatively Faithful
- Tom, Anita, Eddie, and Seb
9 comments:
By not having babies and living a long time.
Byron--yes of course--but you see the funny, don't you?
The writer is using the word "aging" to indicate a particular thing. But the more *general* use of the word makes the sentence sound it means that Japan is ...caught in some zone where time itself passes more quickly. So that between 1/1/08 and 1/1/09, for instance, other populations aged one year, while Japan's population ages ... 2 years? 5 years? This made me grin.
Yep.
But I like explaining the mechanics of jokes until they are no longer funny. It makes the world less threatening.
;-)
Byron,
God--one loses a lot without facial expression and voice tone.
I feel like an idiot now. I'm gently grinning when I say that.
My fault. I should have put a smiley on the first post. :-)
I wonder if it is actually true that some people 'age' more quickly than others. It is a common phrase that stress has made individuals 'old before their time', but I wonder if objectively it is possible to measure whether certain populations age 'better' than others.
Without wanting to sound like a racist, to me certain nationalities seem to age very quickly. I wonder if that is just my western eyes or whether there is any medical evidence. Or maybe it is just a symptom of poor health and diet.
Benjamin, can you please explain your joke again, please?
I love Byron's humor. I would have tormented you the same way had I gotten to it first ;-)
Drives Russell completely nuts.
Would like to hear some more specifics from Joe though... Are you talking about scientifically observed agents of aging (such as, sun exposure, smoking...) or?
Nath,
What's fascinating is that theoretically, if you could take the entire population of the planet and set them to moving at nearly the speed of light in relation to Japan, then the Japanese *would* be aging faster--a *lot* faster.
"but I wonder if objectively it is possible to measure whether certain populations age 'better' than others."
Joe--you're going to have to operationalize "age" and "better", and then we *can* measure it. (I know--doh--that's like saying "develop a measuring tape, and then we *can* measure it". ah well.)
I'm definitely aging faster right now than any of you and most people in Japan as well. So there. =)
Well I was thinking of things normally associated with age - the vigilance of arthritis, sagging skin, back problems etc. As I said, this is not a totally worked out theory, just thinking aloud..
Post a Comment