I couldn't be more excited to be in London covering the Olympics. Still, attending my first Opening Ceremony in London as a non-athlete is bittersweet. Here's what happens when you retire from Olympic competition.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46952788/vp/48332893#48332893
4 20 george zimmerman sheree whitfield weather dallas pat summitt real housewives of atlanta colton
A handful of Americans have made what at first glance seems a radical decision. They have opted to put themselves or their loved ones into an assisted living or nursing home in Mexico. If that sounds extreme, consider their reasons; costs at a fraction of those in the US, high quality medical and personal care, and the reason many foreigners go to Mexico, the weather.
Before you dismiss this unconventional choice, think about the demographic crisis that is just around the corner. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 70% of Americans have less than $25,000 saved for retirement and 25% don?t? contribute anything at all. At fifty, if one doesn?t already have a significant retirement fund, its highly unlikely one can be created that will be adequate when its needed. Coupled with the estimate that 40% of the huge baby boom generation, just beginning to hit retirement age, will need assisted living or nursing home care costing a minimum of $3000 and $7000 per month respectively, and the magnitude of the problem becomes clear. The majority of Americans will not be able to afford long term care when they need it.
Of course we do have a social safety net, but state Medicaid budgets are already at the breaking point and many states have begun to reduce funding. (Even if the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act gets widely implemented, this is money to cover more people, not more money for any individual.) In any case, if you think that this is an acceptable option for yourself or a loved one, I urge you to visit Medicaid only facilities in your community. Many of these are run and staffed by caring people,? but for most residents, these are places of last resort and they feel like it.
By contrast, quality assisted and nursing care can be had in Mexico for $1000-$1700 per month. For many working and middle class Americans, their Social Security income would be sufficient to cover care.
But there is a cultural argument for superior care in Mexico as well as an economic one. Clich? as it sounds, elders are valued and treated with respect in Mexican culture and this attitude carries over to seniors in long term care. Americans who have loved ones in Mexican homes say that the warmth is palpable and that they are often treated like family.? (See links below)
In addition, the direct care workers in Mexican facilities are paid an adequate living wage and are considered members of a valued profession. Contrast that to American CNAs (Certified Nursing Assistants) who are paid less than $10/hour, just enough to insure that they and their families will remain in poverty. In fact, over 40% of CNAs in the states are on some type of government assistance. Couple that with the low respect this profession commands and one can understand why turnover rates for these jobs remains at an astounding 70% per year even after the recession.
Are there barriers to this kind of solution to elder care? Of course there are. The main one is distance and the frequency one would be able to visit loved ones. But many Americans already live at great distances from their elderly parents. In any case, ask yourself,? Would I rather visit my parents weekly in a facility that feels depressing, the care is only minimally acceptable, and no one seems to know my parent well, or twice a year for a longer period where my parent is happy and I am confident he or she is receiving excellent treatment from caring people.?
Another current impediment is that fact that the Mexican assisted living and nursing home industries are underdeveloped. Placement of elders in these kinds of facilities?is uncommon in Mexican life. As a consequence, most long term care homes that cater to Americans are located in areas where expatriates have congregated for a long time such as Lake Chapala, San Miguel de Allende, or the Baja coast. Even there the number of facilities is low.? The industry is gearing up however in anticipation of the expected need. AMAR, the Mexican Association for Retirement Communities, predicts that there will be robust growth from Mexican providers as well as American long term care housing corporations expanding across the border.
Critics often disparage the phenomenon of the aged moving to Mexico for care as ?elder outsourcing?. This is a matter of perspective however. Tens of thousands of US citizens already get their medical care abroad (medical tourism) and are very happy about the results. In any case, one could counter that what we often do here is not much more than??elder warehousing?.
Unfortunately, the phenomenon of explosive costs for elder care in the United States will not go away anytime soon. I consider the option of receiving care in Mexico a positive and rational response. Like anywhere, research and visits to the facilities are extremely important when choosing a place to receive long term care. This may be more expensive and time consuming in the short run but future low cost and high quality of care may make it very worthwhile.
Here are links to five assisted living homes in Mexico:
Cielito Lindo
Serena Senior Care
Alicia Convalescent Care
Lourdes Pacifica
Residencia Lourdes
This is a link to AMAR, the Mexican Association for Retirement Communities
Here are some links to stories about Americans in Mexican Assisted Living Homes:
The value of Mexican Assisted Living ?
Future Expats ? Assisted Living
Affordable Assisted Living in Mexico
?
?
?
?
Source: http://changingaging.org/jwgoll/2012/07/25/long-term-care-in-mexico/
jodie fisher zooey deschanel yvette prieto hypertrophic cardiomyopathy kaye stevens michael jordan engaged kid cudi
ABC News:
Thirty-seven health care workers signed and submitted a petition to the Food and Drug Administration Wednesday, urging officials to change labels on prescription opioids, such as OxyContin, morphine or Vicodin, all part of an effort to curb prescription drug abuse.
Read the whole story at ABC News
Contribute to this Story:
"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/26/opioid-labeling-health-care-fda_n_1705833.html
j lo j lo sacha baron cohen ryan seacrest octavia spencer meryl streep oscars school shooting ohio billy crystal
These Are Some Of The Tools You Need For Doing Home Improvements
Before you start any home improvement project, you also have to choose the appropriate tools for the project. Sometimes our old tools will do the trick, but more times than not, new tools must be purchased for specific projects. Tools and equipment are necessary to do any type of home improvement project, especially on your own. Here are some proven tips on choosing the right tools for home-improvement undertaking.
Anyone that starts a home improvement project must consider all of the essentials before they begin. Screwdrivers are an essential part of any project like this, especially kits that come with different sizes and styles. Phillips and flat screwdrivers are standard with any kit that you purchase. Anyone that does a project like this should also have a claw hammer at their disposal. Another very useful tool to have is a pair of pliers. These can be used for a variety of reasons and come in different shapes and sizes. Slip joint pliers are probably the most useful all around variety you can get, as these can open to several different widths. If you have siding that you need to take off of the wall, or flooring that needs to be removed, a pry-bar is also a great tool to have.
Lighting is very important when doing jobs around the home. To need to make sure you have some kind of lighting when you are working in a dark space without power, but this shouldn't be an issue when you are working in a home with electricity. A reliable flashlight is a useful tool to have in many situations.
They come in various sizes, and it would be a good idea to have several different ones. For most jobs, you will need the use of your hands, so you will need a light, like the ones miners wear when they work, which is called a hands free headlamp. Anytime there isn't the proper lighting, such as dark stairways, the situation can become dangerous.
For more info construction leads
For many of the home repairs you will be doing, without a ladder you will never reach them. Pretty much any job done on the outside of your house will need a quality ladder, because you will be climbing up on a roof to repair shingles, or do exterior painting. For indoor tasks, you won't need to climb very high, so a stepladder will be all you need. An extension ladder that can be adjusted to different heights will be needed for many jobs. Ladders come with duty ratings, which tell you how much weight they can safely hold. Your needs in this area depend on how much you weigh, and what you may be carrying. Usually when you are climbing up a ladder, you will be carrying something, so figure that weight in also, when you are trying to determine what ladder you need. It is dangerous to have to stretch out to reach something, so make sure you have a ladder that is long enough.
As you can see, different tools and strategies must be used to properly complete your home improvement plan efficiently. Before your project begins, the research should be complete along with gathering the tools you will utilize. Catering to your own personal preferences, and to what you need to complete the job, get power tools (and manually operated ones) before you start. Having the most efficient tools can reduce the amount of time it takes and give you more impressive results.
Source: http://bplsilva.com/wiki/index.php/User%3ACodieBrogdon339
brandi glanville convulsions john tyler chuck elisabeth hasselbeck fran drescher scarlett o hara
LONDON (Reuters) - British airport operator BAA on Thursday lost its appeal against a Competition Commission (CC) ruling forcing it to sell London Stansted airport.
The CC has welcomed today's Court of Appeal decision to uphold its decision requiring BAA to sell Stansted airport," the CC said in response to the ruling.
BAA, owned by Ferrovial, last year chose to sell Edinburgh airport after Britain's Competition Commission ordered it to dispose of one of its Scottish airports along with Stansted as part of a drive to loosen the firm's grip on the British airport market.
Stansted, which is a predominantly low-cost leisure and holiday airport, is based some 50 kilometres northeast of central London.
(Reporting by Rhys Jones; editing by Neil Maidment)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/baa-loses-appeal-over-enforced-stansted-airport-sale-122900648--sector.html
mega ball lottery winner lottery numbers mega millions lottery jackpot winning numbers mega millions megamillions drawing
POLAR bears have patrolled the planet's icy regions for millions of years longer than previously thought - riding out several episodes of global warming in that time. While this suggests their future might not be so bleak, it is no guarantee they will survive the melting occurring in the polar regions today.
Charlotte Lindqvist of the University at Buffalo, New York, and an international team of researchers have just completed the most comprehensive analysis yet of the polar bear genome. The team looked at DNA from 23 living polar bears and a 110,000-year-old polar bear jawbone. Aided by comparisons with the genomes of brown and black bears, they found that polar bears first emerged as a separate species between 4 and 5 million years ago. Previous studies had suggested the species didn't diverge from brown bears until much later - perhaps just 600,000 years ago.
The analysis also showed that polar and brown bears have intermittently interbred since their initial divergence, and that populations of polar bears have see-sawed over the past million years in tandem with the climate. Polar bear numbers dropped during warm periods but bounced back with prolonged ice ages - most noticeably during a period of cooling between 800,000 and 600,000 years ago (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1210506109).
The population looks set to fall again as melting pack ice forces polar bears back to the land-based habitats of brown bears, where interbreeding has recently been observed. Should extensive interbreeding occur, both polar and brown bear populations could decline with the emergence of a new hybrid species.
"Even if polar bears have experienced warming periods in the past, it is no guarantee that they'll survive this time," says Lindqvist. "It seems likely there were still pockets of suitable polar bear habitat available during past warm periods, but the question is whether that will hold for the future."
Lindqvist says that the analysis reveals that polar bear DNA has lost diversity as populations have dwindled, drifted apart and become genetically isolated, suggesting today's bears have less resilience to the environmental change, habitat loss, pollution and diseases they now face.
Earlier this year, Frank Hailer of the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre in Frankfurt, Germany, and colleagues estimated that polar bears diverged from brown bears 600,000 years ago - a result that itself pushed back the evolutionary record of polar bears by about 450,000 years (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1216424).
However, Hailer says that the new results broadly tally with his team's findings, which also suggested that polar bears may have evolved much earlier than the 600,000 year mark.
"It's a good new, educated guess based on a lot of exciting data, but the actual numbers and assumptions on which the earlier split rely remain open to debate," Hailer says.
If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.
Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.
Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article
Subscribe now to comment.
All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.
If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.
pentatonix nicki minaj barbie doll nicki minaj barbie doll black dahlia drew drew lady gaga marry the night video
Married 'Snow White and the Huntsman' director issues an apology in the wake of paparazzi shots of him and the actress.
By Jocelyn Vena
Rupert Sanders and Kristen Stewart
Photo: Marianna Massey/Getty Images
mario manningham mario manningham williams syndrome hoya casa de mi padre corned beef and cabbage diners drive ins and dives
