My mother may see the start of the next millennium!

Scientific American has an article online with the title Walking Speed Predicts Life Expectancy of Older Adults. I seem to be unable to post a link – here it is to be copied and pasted: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=walking-speed-survival

From the Article:

A new analysis of walking speed studies shows that—down to the tenth of a meter per second—an older person’s pace, along with their age and gender, can predict their life expectancy just as well as the complex battery of other health indicators.

So instead of a doctor assessing a patient’s blood pressure, body mass index, chronic conditions, hospitalization and smokinghistory and use of mobility aids to estimate survival, a lab assistant could simply time the patient walking a few meters and predict just as accurately the person’s likelihood of living five or 10 more years—as well as a median life expectancy.

My mother has always been a fast walker and this is heartening news for a son who lives too far away.

wearing my Cecils.

Years ago, my family visited our grandparents and grandpa met us at the door wearing two different plaids.  I was oblivious to the contrast until my  sister exclaimed something like, “He looks like a table cloth!”

Its just as well I hadn’t noticed.  I would probably have made the same comment but in front of him.

Suddenly, there I was today, in my Cecils (that was grandpa’s name, if I hadn’t been clear on that).

The pajama bottoms are a gift from my mother as is my little guy’s vest.

Here he is checking out the Dinosaurs Adventure Board Game, which I am now translating into enough English that we can play it.  The name is in English, as are the names of the game pieces and the dinosaur names but it seems to not be a simple case of taking an English game and translating it into Korean.

We spent Christmas working at ‘kimjang’ – making kimchi.

In this photo is a maternal aunt of my wife.

Here are a few more photos of the week:

My view of the recent lunar eclipse – obscured by clouds.

The little guy impersonating a mannequin.  It looks a little better when he does it in a store next to the real thing.  Two years ago, we would look at the mannequins with the support rod piercing one leg and exclaim, “ouch” in sympathy.

Today he is performing Arirang, a lullaby and possibly more on the xylophone at a concert with his kindergarten classmates.  Check out his carefully prepared hair!

Quebec v Korea: encouraging parents to have (more) children

It is well known in the K-blogosphere that Korea has a low birthrate and that could spell trouble for seniors in a few years if there aren’t enough productive Koreans paying taxes.

to increase the birthrate, Korea has, among other things, outlawed abortions.  I guess this will work but Quebec seems to have some more positive ideas.

Quebec is offering cheap day care, paternity leave and financial assistance for in-vitro fertilization.  Whether the province can afford these benefits remains to be seen. CBC link, MP3s can be downloaded: part 1, part 2.

Do the Italians compare to Ajummas?

In a study comparing (French) Canadian, Italian and French parents, the Italians were found to be the most strict (Medical New Today, via Yahoo News):

Of all three countries, Italian mothers and fathers are perceived as using the most constraining practices,” says first author Michel Claes, a University of Montreal psychology professor. “Italian parents are seen as more demanding in rules and authorizations. They take more punitive actions when rules are broken and are less tolerant of peer socialization. They uphold family regulations and require their adolescents to ask for authorizations until a much later age.”

However, the Italian and the French parents grouped quite closely with Canadian parents being unusually lenient.

I have to say I am the soft touch in our family.  Don’t break one of my wife’s rules!

Some people don’t like swimming within the buoy-line

Let me redact the location reference in this quote from The Economist:

You have to stay inside the dinky little waist-deep swimming areas, with their bobbing lines of white buoys. There you are, under a deep blue …. summer sky, the lake laid out like a mirror in front of you and the rocks on the far shore gleaming under a bristling comb of red pine; you plunge in, strike out across the water, and tweet! A parks official blows his whistle and shouts after you. “Sir! Sir! Get back inside the swimming area!” What is this, summer camp? Henry David Thoreau never had to put up with this. It offends the dignity of man and nature. You want to shout, with Andy Samberg: ”I’m an adult!”

I feel the same way. Well, I don’t really know if I’m a Thoreau fan, but the rest; yes.  I just want some open water to actually swim in.

Oh, the location is any Massachusetts state park.

The reason for the restriction appears well-intentioned, I must admit. And it might be.  Reducing drowning deaths is hard to argue against.  However, at least part of the reason is financial- to reduce liability costs.  This is also good, but bean-counting our way to a nanny state doesn’t appeal to me.

The park officials in Massachusetts aren’t really trying to minimise the risk that you might drown. They’re trying to minimise the risk that you might sue. The problem here, as Mr Howard says, isn’t simply over-regulation as such. It’s a culture of litigiousness and a refusal to accept personal responsibility. When some of the public behave like children, we all get a nanny state.

Yeah, nobody wanted the Aqua Assault RoboFighters to be recalled.

The Economist article contains many links, including one to a TED Talk on fixing the legal system.

Before looking -very superficially- at Korea, let me check out drowning deaths in Canada.

At least 237 people have drowned this year in Canada. That’s an increase of nine per cent from the same time last year, according to the Lifesaving Society, a group committed to water safety.

Many of the deaths have occurred in Ontario….

She [Lifesaving Society spokesperson Barbara Byers] said parents need to keep a close watch on their young children around pools.

“If you’re not within arms reach, you have gone too far,” said Byers. “And you have to have your eyes absolutely locked on the child. I think some people think they will have lots of time (to react).”

Rivers and beaches have also been the sites of several deaths this year….

The Ontario Coroner’s Office says it will look at all the drowning deaths between May and the end of August, to see if any recommendations can be made to make the province’s pools, rivers and lakes safer for swimming.

Quick public service announcement:  Drowning doesn’t look like drowning!

Briefly, drowning people don’t and can’t  call for help, nor can they wave for help.  They are too focused on getting their mouth high enough to breathe.  They can’t get their arms out of the water to wave them.

The warning comes from Dr. Frank Pia, who has been in the biz for a long time.  I learned how to do the Pia carry twenty-five years ago.

Next Public Service Announcement: Be leery of the advice coming from Busan eFM!

I like eFM.  I want Busan’s English radio station to do well.  However, a month ago, I listened in horror to one of their PSAs.  One bit of advice for beachgoers was, “If you go into deep water, bring a tube or inflatable to protect yourself.”

No, no, no!  If you can’t swim, don’t go into deep water! Fer Cryin’ Out Loud!  If your child can’t swim, don’t let him/her go into the water at all unless you are nearby!

Okay, back to Canada:

…a study released Thursday suggests immigrants are four times more likely to be unable to swim than native-born Canadians.

The study, conducted by the Lifesaving Society, found that about one in five newcomers don’t know how to swim, compared to one in 20 people born in Canada. The research is being billed as the first in Canada to examine the links between ethnicity and the ability to swim. …

Drowning is the second leading cause of preventable death in Canada for children under the age of 10. …

The report’s release comes amid a spate of drowning deaths across the country, including 10 in a recent 10-day period in Ontario from the end of June to the beginning of July. …

Byers said that during heat waves, people are often more inclined to go to swimming pools to cool off. In a normal year, about one of every 10 drowning deaths happens in a pool. This year, 28 per cent of deaths have occurred at pools, including five of the 10 in Ontario.

It is hard to discuss Korean drowning rates.  I can only imagine they must be high because of the great restrictions imposed on those who want to swim here.  I do recall in Sokcho a few years ago, a school group on a class trip went to Sokcho beach and returned to their dorm rooms, there to discover they were one short.  Again, better observation of the young should be common sense.

Pools in Korea typically have a ‘rest period’ of ten minutes per hour.  This allows the guards to be sure the pool is clear and the patrons to regain their strength so they are safer.  And too bad to the patron who is on a tight schedule and ends up losing ten minutes of their swimming time.

The water level at the beautiful pool at Sajik Sports Complex is deliberately  kept at 60%.*  The depth should be around two metres, but instead is 1.3 metres.  This is a great depth for standing but it feels weird to be in a pit, with walls rising high above you.  It would be hard to drown, though.

Okay, it is difficult to search for Korean drowning deaths but I did learn that North Korea is not waving, it is drowning.

In 2006, seventy-six teenagers drowned.

______

*I don’t know what that means for the filter system.  The water looks clear and clean, but normally most contaminants are on the water surface and the skimmers, in this case, are a metre above the surface.

Boating on Buddha’s Birthday

This year, we didn’t visit temples or eat the free temple lunch.  I don’t know much about the western and lunar calendars or if Buddha’s Birthday is determined by a yet a third calendar, but at least this time, my wife’s eldest uncle’s birthday was on the same day and, having moved to Busan, we were now close enough to visit him on his birthday.  Unlike the Buddha,he is actually able to appreciate our visit.

It could have been a boring time at the farm for the kids, but my brother-in-law told us an activity he used to do with his brother: Boating down the irrigation ditch.

Carrying the boat to the ditch – I wish I could convince my son to stop making this pose for photos.  Still, it’s probably better than my strained, unnatural smile in photos.

Time to climb in.

My nephew was the first crewman.

Soon, both boys were ready, sorta.  The boat wobbled a lot and the trip was very short.  I had to rush to take these pictures.

My brother-in-law aground.  I was similarly unable to cruise down the ‘canal’.

The boys didn’t like actually drifting and wobbling so the boating part was a bust.  Still, the preparation and setup were a bit of an adventure for them.

Parents, teachers and students.

We all want to help the students learn and grow as human beings.

How are teachers doing?  How do college students describe great teachers?

However much one may abhor the idea of teaching being a popularity contest, in some facets, popularity should be sought not for popularity itself, but as a medium to inspire and encourage students. Indeed, students themselves assert they prefer a teacher who cares that they learn, gets to know students, and is personable; such teachers help students achieve their goals of focusing in class, understanding the material, and developing a personal relationship with the teacher. These are but intermediary goals which help students enhance their grades, improve their careers, and increase their salary — ultimately achieving happiness, financial success, and a sense of accomplishment. Though it may not be surprising that students also prefer teachers who communicate well and provide dynamic lectures, the strong evidence supporting this notion may help instructors commit to clarity and variety in the classroom.

…

For teachers who are struggling to acquire the approval of their students, this study points to a few suggestions which are, fortunately, relatively easy to execute. Getting to know students personally, demonstrating a concern for student learning, and exhibiting personable character traits are simple notions that do not require an overhaul of a course structure, nor do they require a change in teaching style. Yet, these simple notions are among the most important characteristics when students describe great teachers.

Instructors of large classes should not bemoan the importance students place on getting to know the students. Discovering creative ways of connecting to students in a large class demonstrate more powerfully the instructor’s desire for personal connections. One of the authors teaches a large class and begins each lecture with a Know Your Classmates activity, where one student is singled out (based on a student information sheet completed by the student) for discussion. The student’s career interest is discussed and used to show how the impending lecture can be used in their desired occupation. This activity demonstrates a desire to know the students, and by demonstrating the usefulness of the course content it relays a sincere concern for student learning and gives them the

motivation to commit to the class—recall that committing to the class is a consequence of getting to 20know students, which helps compensate for the inability to personally know each student in a large class. Know Your Classmates is a wildly popular activity, one that students promptly note if the instructor fails to do at the start of class.

Meanwhile, this really isn’t the way for a parent to help any child.  It seems a mother checked out all the ‘Gossip Girl’ books from a local library and has kept them for two years so youth couldn’t read them.  Oh, ‘checked out’ doesn’t mean ‘looked at’ in this case- you got that, right?

From the article:

A Longwood mom who refused to return four Gossip Girl-inspired library books because she objected to their content took them back to the public library Thursday. …

After an article about Harden appeared in Thursday’s Orlando Sentinel, a man donated replacement books to the library and several others told the library they planned to send checks or books to replace the ones Harden was keeping. …

Harden owes $85 in fines but hasn’t paid them. She said she is hoping the library will waive the fines.

“It’s not that I lost the books or I didn’t feel like turning them in,” she said. “I want us to work together. Hopefully they have the same goals as I do.”

I have misplaced library books and eventually returned them.  I wouldn’t want to be charged with theft.  Still, her intent was quite different from mine – are such charges impossible? Yes, she has finally returned them, so perhaps she doesn’t need jail time or even a fine, but she would still get that criminal record.  That would be worth the $85, I think.

Both links courtesy of Marginal Revolution.