Sydney's wettest August in 9 years to get even wetter this weekend
THAT SEEMS GOOD: The Mere Sight of a Sick Person Can Trigger Our Immune System
HMM: Study finds vitamin B3 and green tea compound help aging brain cells clean up
Healthy Living Helps the Aging Brain
There’s no magic cure for dementia yet, but we have plenty of data to show that lifestyle changes can lower the risk.
RICHER PEOPLE LIVE LONGER, AND TEND TO LIVE ON THE BEACH: New Research Reveals Living by the Ocean Could Add a Year to Your Life
BETTER THAT THAN SOME OTHER PARTS, I SUPPOSE: Your heart could be aging faster than you are
How Emmys Voters Award, And Ignore, Writers And Directors
OUT: SHARKS WITH FRICKIN’ LASER BEAMS IN THEIR HEADS. IN: Mind-Blowing Discovery: Peacocks Have Lasers In Their Tails
TECHNOLOGY: Bacterial cellulose-based dressing offers rapid bleeding control for burn wound care
This year's Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced 9 October -- and while there's not much betting on it (yet ?), there are odds up at Betus: twenty-four possibilities, including ... Taylor Swift.
More interesting, however, is that Kalshi, one of the (relatively) new prediction markets, also offers ... position-taking opportunities on the prize. Not so much interesting for only having ten possible choices but because, unlike the betting shops, this market allows you to take a position on an author not winning the prize -- and there's money here for the taking, since one of the options they offer (as I write this, and surely not for much longer ...) is Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, who -- being deceased -- can't win the prize. But a 'No' option on him only costs $0.93 -- a $100 stake paying out $108 (before fees). Not a great return, but, hey, it's free money -- there's no way Ngũgĩ can be awarded the prize.
(I hope whoever takes advantage of this opportunity -- and someone surely will -- takes them for as much as possible.)
Meanwhile, Kalshi admirably also reveals how much money has been bet -- staked -- so far on the potential winner (and non-winners) of the prize, and it's .... $5116.00.
Post-Dylan, I've had trouble working up much interest in the run-up to the prize, but if you want to follow or engage in discussion, the Nobel Prize in Literature 2025 Speculationthread at the World Literature Forum is presumably the place you want to go; they're up to 957 engagements, last I checked.
When I was working with Liverpool Manager Jürgen Klopp last year, he articulated his Inspirational Dream as being “To make the second half of my life as fulfilling and exciting as the first”.
A great Dream – and very prescient.
Robin told me about a new book by Kerry Burnight – a UCAL Professor – called “Joyspan: The Art and Science of Thriving in Life’s Second Half”.
Her core premise is that a lengthy life span does not equal a life well lived. You have to like your life too.
This is what I’ve believed for many years now. Expressed in my personal maxims;
- Make Happy Choices
- Live Life, Love Life
- Live Life to the Max
- Live Life Slow
- Survive, Revive, Thrive
- Take responsibility for your own Happiness
Kerry maintains that aging need not be “the downhill slide that people believe it is” (Uncle Bob Seelert to note!).
You can thrive, even when faced with health problems and challenges.
How we step up to those challenges defines us.
She talks about four non-negotiables to help:
- Grow. Stay curious. Keep learning.
- Adapt. Life changes are a normal part of the human experience. And a lot of things have gotten better as you’ve grown older. Eg, do you care much less about what others think of you? Are you wiser and can solve problems quicker?
- Give. Change your mindset from seeking to be understood, to seeking to understand. You have time, attention, patience and wisdom – share it!
- Connect. Social connections are vital. Remember Covid. As John Prine said “Hello in there”.
Kerry has reframed Lifespan to Joyspan.
Let Happiness Ring.