senior citizens

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Can a Robot Seal Really Take Care of Grandma?

Paro raises ethical concerns

(Newser) - Is Paro—the adorable robotic seal designed to comfort the elderly—the best thing to happen to solitary seniors since the Clapper, or a tasteless substitute for human attention? Manufactured in Japan and recently cleared in the US as a Class 2 medical device, the $6,000 robot is intended...

Doomsayers Wrong About Our Aging Population
Doomsayers Wrong About Our Aging Population
OPINION
Apr 15, 2010 12:15 PM CDT

Doomsayers Wrong About Our Aging Population

Need proof? Take a look at Japan

(Newser) - Pessimists look at America's aging population and see nothing but doom ahead because of the strains it will put on Social Security, Medicare, and the like. They might cheer up by taking a look at Japan, where "America's future has already arrived," writes Dante Ramos. Nearly 1 in...

Queens Granny Opens Fire on Jazzman's Wife

81-year-old snaps over noise coming from Palmieri apartment

(Newser) - Maria Cartagena proved you don’t have to be young to be armed and dangerous Tuesday when, according to police, the 81-year-old tried to shoot the elderly woman living upstairs. Seventy-three year old Iraida Palmieri, wife of Grammy-winning jazz pianist Eddie Palmieri, says Cartagena confronted her in the elevator saying,...

Pot-Puffing Seniors Are the New Stoners

Use among 55- to 59-year-olds jumps to 5.1%

(Newser) - Pot smoking is on the rise among seniors—and not the high-school variety. Marijuana use among those over 50 jumped from 1.9% to 2.9% between 2002 and 2008; among those 55 to 59, reported use tripled to 5.1%, and some experts expect that number to get, ahem,...

Ad Men Use Beatles to Sell Senior Care
 Ad Men Use Beatles 
 to Sell Senior Care 
WHEN YOU'RE OVER 64
Jan 20, 2010 8:49 AM CST

Ad Men Use Beatles to Sell Senior Care

Fab Four feature in nostalgia campaign, along with Elvis, Gene Kelly

(Newser) - The songs you loved when you were 23 may someday be used to sell you retirement care. Researchers have homed in on that age as the likeliest time when music that triggers life-long nostalgia is heard. People who watched the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show at 23 are now...

80-Year-Old Granny Twitters by Fax

 80-Year-Old Granny 
 Twitters by Fax 
who needs a computer?
Dec 18, 2009 11:10 AM CST

80-Year-Old Granny Twitters by Fax

Dorothy Miller says the Celery system is 'so much fun'

(Newser) - To anyone who wrote off fax machines as so 1994: Turns out they're a pretty decent stand-in for a computer, at least for an 80-year-old grandmother who uses a new system developed specifically for seniors to post on Twitter—by fax. Dorothy Miller tells The Frisky the Celery system is...

Forget the $250 Checks, Obama: Say No to Grandma
Forget the $250 Checks, Obama: Say No to Grandma
David Leonhardt
Oct 28, 2009 8:35 AM CDT

Forget the $250 Checks, Obama: Say No to Grandma

To cut deficit, we have to cut benefits to seniors

(Newser) - Economists are none too impressed with Barack Obama's proposal to send each senior a cool $250, and David Leonhardt can see why. The over-65 set has weathered the recession better than anyone—many of them purchased real estate well before the housing bubble burst, and few work in the most-battered...

America's Most Powerful Octogenarians

Slate ranks the country's top old people

(Newser) - Retirement? Bah! Slate’s annual 80 for 80 list ranks America’s mightiest octogenarians, giving extra credit for post-80 achievements, and “being really, really old.” The top:
  1. Thomas Monson (82): As the head of the Mormon church, 13 million people think he’s a prophet “in the
...

Obama's Stealth Stimulus: $250 Checks to Seniors

With social security stagnant, Obama proposes payment to elderly

(Newser) - Seniors won’t be getting a boost in their Social Security benefits this January, but President Obama tried to head off that announcement yesterday by encouraging Congress to give them all a one-time $250 check. The administration sees these payments, which would cost the government about $13 billion, as another...

Autopsy Shows 100-Year-Old Was Murdered

Nursing home resident Elizabeth Barrow found strangled

(Newser) - A Massachusetts medical examiner has ruled the death of a 100-year-old nursing home patient a homicide by strangulation. Elizabeth Barrow was found dead in her room Sept. 24, with a plastic bag over her head and no obvious signs of struggle, a law enforcement source tells the Standard-Times of New...

Under New Math, 1 in 5 Seniors Is Poor

Outmoded federal statistics don't reflect reality, group says

(Newser) - Based on official statistics, only 10% of Americans aged 65 and older are poor, the lowest rate of any age group. But the actual number should be nearly twice that, finds the National Academy of Sciences, which has developed a new, modern way of calculating poverty that is quickly gaining...

Health Reform's Enemy No. 1? Seniors

(Newser) - Scan the ranks of health care reform malcontents at your local town hall, and you’ll notice a lot of older faces. With Democrats aiming their sales pitch mostly at middle-class Americans and the uninsured, seniors have come to fear that Medicare, their own beloved government-run health care, will face...

In LA, You're Never Too Old to Rap

Seniors learn to love the music in unusual class

(Newser) - A new crop of rappers is emerging in Los Angeles, and they have one thing in common: They’re senior citizens. Hip-hop artist Keith Cross started his unorthodox rap class in 2004 to show seniors “there is positive rap out there; we just have to look for it,”...

Indian Woman, 70, Is Oldest First-Time Mom

She and husband say they'd wanted a child together for 50 years.

(Newser) - A 70-year-old woman in India says she gave birth to her first child in late November, making her the world’s oldest new mother, the BBC reports. Rajo Devi underwent fertility treatment so she and her husband, Bala Ram, could realize their 50-year dream of having a child. Ram is...

Don't Take the 'Gold' Out of Americans' Golden Years

And why is retirement reform taboo?

(Newser) - Snow White’s dwarf pals are so happy to go to work that they sing about it, “and they’re 71 years old,” writes Irwin Stelzer of the Weekly Standard. “So why do so many of us less vertically disadvantaged worry about” extending the retirement age? Average...

Young Jews Lobby Vital Fla. Voters: Nana and Bubbeh

Silverman urges 'Great Schlep' for Obama

(Newser) - The 2008 election is so important that some Jewish kids may actually visit their grandparents voluntarily. That's the theory behind “The Great Schlep,” an initiative urging young Jews to fly to Florida over Columbus Day weekend and lobby their relatives for Barack Obama. The sponsor is a pro-Obama...

McCain in the Minority: Peers Are on the Web

73% of white college grads over 65 are plugged in

(Newser) - John McCain may be a Luddite when it comes to the internet—the 71-year-old candidate confesses that he relies on his wife and aides to do his browsing for him—but most of his peers are computer savvy, AP reports. While only 35% of Americans over age 65 are online,...

Millions Skip Filing for Stimulus

IRS struggling to keep up

(Newser) - Roughly 5 million people who qualify for a stimulus check could be out of luck because they haven't filed a tax return, CNN reports, and the IRS is scrambling to let them know. These un-stimulated masses consist mostly of seniors and veterans who don’t normally file returns. “I...

Parking Space Spat Leads to Elder Abuse Charges

Younger woman assaults 71-year-old

(Newser) - A woman in Stockton, Calif., is facing elder-abuse charges after she allegedly attacked a 71-year-old woman who caught her parking in a handicap spot without a permit, CBS reports. The victim says her 26-year-old assailant “put her baby down and came at me with both hands” when she saw...

Gender and Race Aside, Age Pushes to Fore

Boomers, seniors split on whether to support fellow oldster

(Newser) - Now that a primary season fraught with racism and sexism has ended, the nation now gears up to face its general-election gremlin: ageism. While John McCain, 71, may joke that the primary qualification to be president is "to be very, very, very, very old," the New York Times...

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