Yes, you didnt read the post wrong. These all day lectures that we have recently been having are actually good for us. According to the BBC, coffee has been linked to reducing the risk of getting Dementia and Alzheimers. Fantastic. I’d personally like to say a big Thank you to those 8 hour lectures for getting me addicted to coffee!
An article in the BBC today ‘children flock to social networks’ outlines just how many children within the UK have a profile on social networking sites such as Bebo, Myspace and Facebook. The survey carried out by OFCOM, reveals some staggering figures on the takeup of these social networking sites.
OFCOM’s survey then says “ Of 5,000 adults and 3,000 children found 49% of those aged between eight and 17 have a profile”.
The most worrying point that I did notice was that some parents do not seem to realise that children this young require supervison of these sites, without adequate supervison they are effectively putting their children as risk. The article also points out that children should set their profile to private. Interestingly parents do not know how to set their profiles to private in the first instance.
Watch the video report - ’social networking child risk’
Though im loathe to repeat a story from our sensational newspapers today, I will anyway (and from that paragon of responsible journalistic integrity the Daily Mail too!).
20 hours a week at the computer? I think thats probably better than 20 hours a week in front of the television. At least with social networking sites there is a degree of social interaction occurring rather than zombiefication in front of the latest “dancing celebrities making over an airport departure gate” bbc show.
As much as I hate pushing my last post down the page a bit, I’ve been searching for news to do with social networking which hasn’t been reported by BBC.
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/2008/03/facebook_gets_private_and_laun.html
The Guardian reports that Facebook will soon be launching its own Instant Messaging service which will be available to users quite soon. Given the current news stories circulating about the privacy of information people post on their profile pages, which have resulted in them losing their jobs and more, an IM service does appear beneficial. However, it is still difficult to say this is anymore secure as the friends you have via social networking may not be the people you believe.
Social networking site Bebo has today been acquired by Time Warner’s AOL division. The price paid is in stark contrast to that paid by Microsoft for 1.6 % ownership of Facebook last year at a cost of $240m.
According to the BBC News “Bebo is the biggest social networking website in Britain, the Irish Republic and New Zeland”.
For the full article go to BBC online
I found this list on the AT Dementia webpage. May be useful to see what research is taking place right now.
Not necessarily related to any material posted so far on this blog but I’ve found it slightly interested none the less. I watched an interview yesterday on ‘Working Lunch’ on BBC with one of the people from the company behind ‘Phorm’. For anyone clueless about what it involves, take a look at this article on the BBC website.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7291637.stm
Personally I don’t have to worry about choosing to opt out of this given I’m with The Hoff over at Pipex.
As a consumer it needs to be clear about how people can opt out of this as not everyone is comfortable with their browsing habits being closely watched so it contributes to targeted advertising for them. So what do yous think about this for those of you using BT, Virgin or Talk Talk for your broadband connection?
In Northern Ireland, 16,000 people have a diagnosis of dementia. (Dementia UK Report. 2007).
The Eastern Health and Social Services Board (EHSSB) is Northern Ireland’s largest Board - including Ards, Belfast, Castlereagh, Down, Lisburn andNorth Down District councils, and has responsibility for the care of approximately 665,000 people who live within its area.
The population in the EHSSB is ageing. Almost 20% of the population is over 60. This pattern is similar to what is happening elsewhere in the Western world. The ageing population is a direct result of improved social, economic and living conditions as well as improvements in health and social care. The population in the EHSSB is expected to grow rapidly by the year 2010, particularly in the age groups 80 - and over.
The graph above illustrates the age structure of the population over 60 in the EHSSB area and the six District Councils. In total, the proportion of the population in the EHSSB area is 19 %, in Ards 18.7 %, in Belfast 19.7 %, in Castlereagh 21.2 %, in Down 17.0 %, in Lisburn 16.0 % and in North Down 21.0 %.
The older population in Northern Ireland, as well as the EHSSB area, is expected to grow rapidly over the next few years. The graph below illustrates the year 2010, which is the year preceding the next Census, and show that the population over 60 in the EHSSB area will grow somewhat, particularly in the age groups 80 and over.
Currently, the Eastern Health and Social Services Board spends 24% of its budget on older people’s services, however, if the usage of acute services were to be taken into account this percentage would more than double.
According to official figures, the amount of residents in Northern Ireland in 2005 that were aged over 65 was 236,300.
When we adapt the Australian study from below, we can see that 0.8% of these pensioners would have suffered from dementia, that would have given a potential market of 1890 customers.
The following article has shown that being bilingual can delay the onset of dementia by four years.
