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Hey all just wanted to start a thread to get some perspective on the ages of us here. I know we are a diverse group, but just wonder if the majority is 40 and up and wondering if there is a growing younger crowd signing up here. If it's ok to post this here maybe we can start a FReeper log of:Name - Age - Sex I'd understand if people might not want to post this info so if it is a good idea feel free to post.

AppTech was the buzz of the mobile tech world Thursday as the company rolled out “ReconAge,” a mobile age recognition app for Android-powered devices. The application, which is free and available now for download from the Android Market, recognizes the approximate age of a person by making use of real time face recognition biometric systems online.Pretty nifty, indeed – especially with regard to the mobile marketing implications the app and its underlying technology deliver.“We’re changing the face of mobile marketing. AppTech is uniting brilliant minds around this idea. With the launch of ReconAge, we intend to introduce the usefulness of...

23 years of age, the Show Me state has had the highest age requirement for concealed carry in the nation. Legally an adult? Yep. Exercise the franchise? Check. Join the Army? Yes sir. Carry a heater? Uh, no…we really think you should really wait another five years. Until now, that is. Governor Jay Nixon, a Democrat, signed a new gun rights bill into law Friday that lowers the CCW age to 21. Other significant improvements enacted by the new law include prohibiting punitive sales taxes on firearms, enabling easier long gun purchases from contiguous states and allowing Missourians to own...

It’s official: a new Ice Age is on its way. In what has been described as “the science story of the century”, heavyweight US solar physicists have announced that the sun is heading for a prolonged period of low activity. This makes global cooling a much more plausible prospect in the next few decades than global warming. Indeed, it might even usher in a lengthy period of climate grimness such as we saw during the Maunder Minimum (when Ice Fairs were held on the Thames) or the Dalton Minimum (which brought us such delights as the 1816 Year Without A...

Very quietly, in late March, CBS gave away the greatest secret in television. As AdWeek reported, CBS Corp. Chief Research Officer David Poltrack announced that “age and sex don’t matter when it comes to TV ad effectiveness.” Alone, this doesn’t sound like anything groundbreaking. After all, most of us figure that ads generally appeal to all of us on an equal basis. But in truth, the admission is absolutely stunning. As I explain in my upcoming book, Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV (Broadside Books, May 31), for over forty years, the...

It seems not a day goes by without Florida Senator Marco Rubio being mentioned as the favorite choice for vice president among Republicans in Washington. Even talk radio’s Rush Limbaugh weighed in when he said Senator Rubio should run for president in 2012. It is true that Senator Rubio has certain political assets, including his ability to “attract” Latino voters due to his Cuban heritage. He also is conservative, smart, and a good speaker. And he hails from a state that is considered the mother of all battleground states for 2012. What’s not to like if you are a Republican...

Debate on a bill that would lower the age to apply for a conceal and carry permit diverted into a discussion of how urban Missouri views firearms differently than rural Missouri. The floor debate in the House on HCS/HB 294, 123, 125, 113, 271 & 215 began simple enough, dividing between those asserting their Second Amendment right to bear arms and those more cautious about guns. The combined bills would make a number of changes to state law, the primary one being to lower the minimum age to apply for a conceal and carry weapons permit from 23 to 21....

SHINGLE SPRINGS, Calif. (CBS13) – It sounds like a science fiction story, but a Shingle Springs family says their dog Barley was beamed back to life by a laser. The Shipmans say when their Golden Retriever Barley collapsed in the backyard last fall, they thought they would lose him. “He was obviously in a lot of pain and we thought it was the end,” said Evan Shipman. “And so we spent the morning saying our goodbyes.” After two days of not eating or moving, they called the vet to put him down. That’s when the doctor suggested laser therapy. Needless...

Companies are quietly redesigning their products to accommodate the needs of (shh, don’t say it aloud) aging baby boomers. So reports the Wall Street Journal. “The generation that sent diaper sales soaring in the 1960s, bought power suits in the 1980s and indulged in luxury cars in the 2000s is getting ready to retire: The oldest boomers turn 65 this year. . . . But there’s a catch: Baby boomers, famously demanding and rebellious, don’t want anyone suggesting they’re old.” Marketers, always alert to the sensitivities of this most self-absorbed of cohorts, are developing products and shopping environments that will...

The German government on Friday said it was working on a bill aimed at battling a growing tide of complaints against noisy children in what is a rapidly ageing society. Regulations on noise fall under Germany's emissions laws, and a bill tweaking these is due to go before Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet in February, a spokesman for the environment ministry said. "Noise made by childcare centres, playgrounds and places where ball games are played do not generally constitute a harmful environmental effect," the Passauer Neue Presse daily cited the bill as saying. The government is also working on an amendment...

Town halls are plunging our streets into darkness as they try to cut energy bills, damning research reveals. Up to three-quarters of councils are planning to turn off street lamps or dim the lights in an attempt to save money and meet climate change targets, a poll has found. But police fear that darkened streets will act as a haven for burglars, muggers and vandals – and motoring experts warn that there may be more accidents on the roads. Evoking memories of 1970s-style blackouts, the poll found that 43 per cent of town hall bosses are already committed to switching...

CHAMPAIGN, lll. — A diet rich in the plant compound luteolin reduces age-related inflammation in the brain and related memory deficits by directly inhibiting the release of inflammatory molecules in the brain, researchers report. Luteolin (LOOT-ee-oh-lin) is found in many plants, including carrots, peppers, celery, olive oil, peppermint, rosemary and chamomile. The new study, which examined the effects of dietary luteolin in a mouse model of aging, appears in the Journal of Nutrition. The researchers focused on microglial cells, specialized immune cells that reside in the brain and spinal cord. Infections stimulate microglia to produce signaling molecules, called cytokines, which...

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A Montana resident believed to be the world's oldest man celebrated his 114th birthday Tuesday at a retirement home in Great Falls. Walter Breuning was born on Sept. 21, 1896, in Melrose, Minn., and moved to Montana in 1918, where he worked as a clerk for the Great Northern Railway for 50 years. His wife, Agnes, a railroad telegraph operator from Butte, died in 1957. The couple had no children. More U.S. news Recession drags on in politically key states Updated 28 minutes ago The weak economy could be bad news for sitting politicians in states...

Get off the broadcast lawn! According to the latest Nielsen data, the average audience of the four major broadcasters is older than ever. In a study released by analyst Steve Sternberg, ABC's median viewership aged one year last season -- to 51. CBS also grew a year, to 55. NBC gained two years, to 49. And Fox stayed the same, a relatively nubile 44. Compare this to a decade ago. ABC was 43, CBS was 52, NBC was 45 and Fox was only 35. Only young-female targeted relative newcomer The CW has as median age under 40 -- 33 --...

The co-chairmen of President Obama's debt and deficit commission, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, recently warned that our country's current fiscal path - primarily the cost of entitlements - unless reversed, "will destroy the country from within." Given such an ominous prophecy, it is almost certain that Social Security, the country's largest entitlement, will go under the government's budget knife. One fiscal fix gaining support is increasing the retirement age. If this is the only change, grave harm will be done in the name of putting Social Security on a secure financial footing. More important, we again will have lost...

The battle of the copyright is a long and sordid tale on the internet. Most folks are familiar with the old days of Napster, and the record companies suing the pants off of soccer-Moms because their kids had downloaded songs to the family computer. More recently as technology has continued to advance, we have seen movie companies also come into the fold along with the music companies, often suing to shut down websites that host torrent files of copyrighted material, as well as still going after the individual on occasion. At the end of the day though, most folks aren't...

In the summer of 2002, record rainfall in the Texas Hill Country overfilled Canyon Lake. Water coursed over the top of its dam and carved huge, steep-walled canyons through the limestone bedrock downstream. The scoured riverbed, now called Canyon Lake Gorge, is over a mile long and has been cordoned off for scientific study. After studying the area for the last eight years, scientists are now making the same kinds of conclusions about rapid, catastrophic processes having sculpted the earth that creation geologists have been teaching for decades. In a paper published in Nature Geoscience, geologists Michael Lamb and Mark...

I suspect that even after McDonald, most gun controls will be upheld, either on the theory that certain kinds of gun possession are outside the scope of the Second Amendment as interpreted in Heller (e.g., bans on gun possession by felons), or on the theory that the gun control imposes only a slight burden on the right to keep and bear arms for self-defense and thus doesn’t “infringe[]” that right. (See here for more on that.) But what about limits on gun possession by 18-to-20-year-olds? New York City totally bars gun possession by 18-to-20-year-olds. Illinois bars gun possession by 18-to-20-year-olds,...

Just out of curiosity, I looked up the ages of our current Senators. Forty-four are over the age of 65, which is considered retirement age in the private sector. With Byrd's death, the top four now are in their 80s, all Democrats. Top 10: 1. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) - 86 2. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) - 85 3. Daniel Akaka (D-HI) - 85 4. Arlen Specter (D-PA) - 80 5. Jim Bunning (R-KY) - 78 6. Richard Lugar (R-IN) - 78 7. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)- 77 8. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) - 76 9. Bob Bennett (R-UT) - 76 10. Orrin Hatch...

China gymnast guilty of age fraud, medals could be lost BEIJING, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The six Chinese women gymnasts who won a team bronze at the 2000 Sydney Olympics are likely to be forced to return their medals after one of them was found to have falsified her age. An International Gymastics Federation (FIG) probe has found Dong Fangxiao was younger than the minimum age requirement of 16 during the 2000 Games after she registered different ages at Sydney and the Beijing Games eight years later. “Consequently, the results obtained by Dong Fangxiao at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games...

Just to let you know, this man was 81 years old when performed this concert! Note: he was in the Blues Brothers movie!

Unveiling proposals to restore trust in the political system following the expenses scandal, the Prime Minister said that he was in favour of votes for 16 and 17-year-olds following an extensive consultation and as part of wider reforms. One of these could see 16-year-olds given a formal coming of age ceremony, as is done for foreigners who become British citizens.

I am asking a question that may interest anyone who is a relative of any military officer from WWII all up to the present day. My question: What was the typical age of an officer, from second lieutenant to colonel, during WWII? Compare that to the officers in the present day. Richard Bong was a major at age 24. Brig. Gen Harrison Thyng was a colonel at age 26. During the Battle of the Bulge, 2nd Lt. Lyle Balk, a platoon leader was a youthful 20 years old. In the Vietnam War, Brig. Gen. Robin Olds was a colonel at...

While it might have been dismissed as underwater junk by the untrained eye, the archaeologists soon realised they had discovered a vital clue to a lost civilisation. The timber was not isolated. In fact they found another 23 pieces of all shapes and sizes intersecting throughout the underwater cliff off Bouldnor, on the north coast of the Isle of Wight. They are now convinced the timber is evidence of a huge wooden structure built about 8,000 years ago by our Mesolithic ancestors. Garry Momber has been excavating the 1km-long site for more than a decade and believes it is the...

50 Most Beautiful 2009 - Top 40 (HTML) By The Hill Staff (some samples) Debbee Keller- Team spirit Hometown: Georgetown, Texas Political party: Republican Relationship status: Single Adrienne Watson Age: 21 Hometown: Carmel, Ind. Political party: Democratic Relationship status: Single Bronwyn Lance Chester Age: 40 Hometown: Leicester, N.C. Political party: Republican Relationship status: Married Courtney Carrow Hometown: “Navy brat” Political party: Republican Dating status: “In a great relationship” Maria Espinoza Age: 28 Hometown: Arlington, Va. Political party: Democratic Relationship status: Married Sally Stone Age: 22 Hometown: San Diego Political party: Republican Relationship status: Boyfriend

Last year it was Greg Norman, at 53, with his chance on the final day to win the British Open, to become the oldest winner of a major golf championship. This is much better now with Tom Watson, much bigger, what would be the biggest golf story of all time if he can win at Turnberry today, 32 years after he won a British Open there the first time. This is a story now that comes out of Scotland and out of golf and reaches out to everybody who cares about sports, who will watch this morning and into the...

OK FReeperettes, I need some help. It’s finally happened, just as I knew it would… my face is starting to show my age. Quickly. I knew it would happen just like this. Every woman ages the same in my mother’s family and apparently, I’m no exception. They get seriously carded, their husbands get flack for being with a teenager, nobody believes their teenagers belong to the - until about 40. Then BOOM! Their faces crater. They go from easily passing for 21 to looking 45 within a few months and it all happens around 40. Doesn’t matter if they smoke...

Years Pass, but Brooke Greenberg Remains a Toddler. No One Can Explain How or Why.Brooke Greenberg is the size of an infant, with the mental capacity of a toddler. She turned 16 in January. "Why doesn't she age?" Howard Greenberg, 52, asked of his daughter. "Is she the fountain of youth?" Such questions are why scientists are fascinated by Brooke. Among the many documented instances of children who fail to grow or develop in some way, Brooke's case may be unique, according to her doctor, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine pediatrician Lawrence Pakula, in Baltimore.

Sunspots could be seen by the Soho telescope in 2001 (l), but not this year (r) There are no sunspots, very few solar flares - and our nearest star is the quietest it has been for a very long time. The observations are baffling astronomers, who are due to study new pictures of the Sun, taken from space, at the UK National Astronomy Meeting. The Sun normally undergoes an 11-year cycle of activity. At its peak, it has a tumultuous boiling atmosphere that spits out flares and planet-sized chunks of super-hot gas. This is followed by a calmer period. Last...

Tests show Chinese athletes 'faking their age' 9 hours ago BEIJING (AFP) — A government investigation in southern China has shown that thousands of athletes there are likely to have faked their ages in an effort to gain an advantage over their rivals. Bone tests of nearly 13,000 athletes found that over 2,000 were likely older than their registered age, according to the Sports Bureau of Guangdong Province, which carried out the probe. The tests were carried out on athletes registered at provincial sports academies with most youths in their teens, it said in a report posted on its website...

The broadcaster, who has herself written a "living will" stating under what circumstances she would want her life support to be switched off, said dementia sufferers must be allowed to die once their identity has faded away. She added that she supports renewed public debate over whether the terminally ill should be given help to end their lives. The 75-year-old also told The Daily Telegraph that employers must make it easier for older people to stay in work beyond the normal retirement age, in order to relieve the pressure on pensions provision and public services that will be caused by...

News - September 5, 2008 A Deep Thaw: How Much Will Vanishing Glaciers Raise Sea Levels? Some say high, some say low, some say fast, some say slow By David Biello GLACIAL SPEED: Greenland may get much of the scientific attention but it is smaller glaciers such as the Columbia Glacier in Alaska pictured here that are already contributing to sea level rise--and will continue to do so in future. Greenland, the world's largest island, holds enough ice to raise global sea levels by 23 feet (seven meters). Add the ice sheets of Antarctica and the oceans would deepen more...

The SC DEM Chairman just referred to John McCain as a "72 year old man" in his criticism of him while trying to defend the abortion comment by a prominent Democrat chairwoman in South Carolina.

Extreme Experience: Septuagenarian CEOs Senator John McCain, who will be 72 when he formally accepts the nod, has sought to turn his advanced years into an attribute (he is wise) and a counterpoint to the message being championed by his 47-year-old rival, Senator Barack Obama (he is for a fresh start). A similar dynamic is at work in business. You might be surprised at how many senior citizens—media moguls, casino kings, Chinese tycoons—are cutting deals, starting new businesses, and generally kicking boomer and Gen Y butt. If 60 is the new 40, then 80 is the new 60. Mellowing with...

It will come as a shock to many, but it turns out that those 13-year-old looking Chinese gymnasts, were, well 13-year-old Chinese gymnasts. But you don't have to take my word for it. The morons at the state run propaganda machine known as Xinhua, told everyone it was so back in November. For reference, I think He Kexin is the third from the right in the photo.

BEIJING - Just nine months before the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government's news agency, Xinhua, reported that gymnast He Kexin was 13, which would have made her ineligible to be on the team that won a gold medal this week.

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Obama charged that his Republican rival, Senator McCain, “is engaged in a ‘time-worn’ and insidiously subtle racist campaign against me.” Obama said he bases his accusation on logic and observation. “The Republicans have no winning issues,” Obama claimed. “Polls consistently show the voters disapprove of the same old Republican economic and foreign policies. If they have no winning issues, logically, all that’s left is a smear campaign focused on race.” “Evidence of this ancient strategy is already there for those who look for it,” Obama contended. “Senator McCain has yet to congratulate me for becoming the...

With Age Comes A Sense Of Peace And Calm, Study Shows ScienceDaily (May 19, 2008) — Aging brings a sense of peace and calm, according to a new study from the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin. Starting at about age 60, participants reported more feelings of ease and contentment than their younger counterparts. Catherine Ross and John Mirowsky, professors of sociology, have published the findings in "Age and the Balance of Emotions" in the May 19 issue of Social Science and Medicine. The findings reveal aging is associated with more positive than negative emotions, and...

Watching McCain on Bill O'Reilly this evening it looks to me like his hamster jowls have receded. They haven't completely disappeared, but the look substantially less than before. Of course it could be good make-up work or good lighting by Fox, but I wonder if he is going through some "makeovers" to make him look more youthful?

Bronze Age axe 'factory' survey Part of a Bronze Age axe made from picrite rock Archaeologists are hoping to unearth evidence of what they believe to have been one of Bronze Age Britain's largest axe-making "factories". Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust (CPAT) said the axes, made from a distinctive type rock - known as picrite - had been found throughout the country. A three-week survey at the 4,000-year-old site will start soon in Hyssington, near Welshpool, Powys. The trust's Chris Martin said it may have been a large industrial centre. The trust carried out a preliminary survey last year, but it did...

" Despite a recent promise from Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean not to make Sen. John McCain's age -- he turns 72 in August -- an issue in the presidential campaign, a senior Democratic operative has started a new website designed to draw attention to just that fact. Called "Younger than McCain", the website is being run by Steve Rosenthal, a former political director at the AFL-CIO and executive director of America Coming Together, a massive soft money effort organized around the 2004 presidential race. Rosenthal is now a partner in The Organizing Group."

Wealthy Democrats have donated $40 million to conduct a media campaign against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Senator John McCain (Ariz.). The campaign will be led by David Brock, chairman of Progressive Media USA. Brock said “the effort is necessary because the major media have fallen down on the job. A person who relies on TV and newspapers will have the impression that Senator McCain is some sort of war hero. But as Senator Rockefeller (D-W.V.) has pointed out, McCain fought on the wrong side in Vietnam. Thankfully, it turned out to be the losing side.” “There are some key...

Dig uncovers Iron Age waterhole Archaeologists have found what they describe as a remarkable Iron Age waterhole on the site of an extension to York University. The waterhole complete with a preserved wickerwork lining was revealed during excavations in Heslington village. The structure also contains fragments of wood giving clues to the landscape of the time, about 2,500 years ago. The university's archaeology department plans more digs at the site, which also contains an important Roman building. The university plans to open the site to local archaeological community groups as well as allowing students access to a live dig. 'Fantastic...

Royal Goddesses of a Bronze Age State Volume 61 Number 1, January/February 2008 by Marco Merola Its arms arranged in a gesture of prayer, the figurine at right probably depicts a living queen worshipping the statuette of a dead royal, left. (Courtesy Maura Sala) It's been more than 30 years since Italian archaeologists found a vast archive of 17,000 cuneiform tablets at the Bronze Age site of Ebla in northern Syria. But the ancient city is still surprising those who work there. Last year archaeologist Paolo Matthiae's team discovered two almost perfectly preserved figurines that confirm textual evidence for a...

Ice age Australians sheltered in caves Anna Salleh ABC Science Online Monday, 24 September 2007 Why would Aboriginal Tasmanians flock to one of the coldest parts of the island during an ice age? One researcher says it was to shelter from the wind in caves and steep valleys (Image: Ian Gilligan) Ice age Aboriginal Australians protected themselves from bitterly cold winds by flocking to caves in one of the most inhospitable parts of the continent, says an archaeologist. Ian Gilligan, a postgraduate researcher from the Australian National University, lays out his argument in the current issue of the journal Antiquity....

Source: Geological Survey of Norway Date: September 11, 2007 Studying Evidence From Ice Age Lakes Science Daily — During the last Ice Age, the ice dammed enormous lakes in Russia. The drainage system was reversed several times and the rivers flowed southwards. A group of geologists is now investigating what took place when the ice melted and the lakes released huge volumes of fresh water into the Arctic Ocean. ”The ice-dammed lakes in Russia were larger than the largest lakes we know today,” Eiliv Larsen, a geologist at the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU), tells me. He is in charge...

Source: University Of South Hampton Date: August 30, 2007 Next Ice Age Delayed By Rising Carbon Dioxide Levels Science Daily — Future ice ages may be delayed by up to half a million years by our burning of fossil fuels. That is the implication of recent work by Dr Toby Tyrrell of the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. Future ice ages may be delayed by up to half a million years by our burning of fossil fuels. (Credit: Canadian Ice Service) Arguably, this work demonstrates the most far-reaching disruption of...

Ice Age cave art site preserved The art was probably made by Ice Age hunter-gatherers Work to protect and preserve an Ice Age site in Derbyshire has been completed. The project at the Ice Age cave art centre at Creswell Crags was funded by the East Midlands Development Agency and the county council. It included building new scree banks to show how the gorge would have looked about 10 to 50,000 years ago. A county council spokesperson said archaeologists were consulted during the preservation project to ensure the site's natural beauty was not spoiled. 'Unique site' A £200,000 bridleway, which...

Source: University of Chicago Date: July 20, 2007 Ice Age Survivors Found In Iceland Science Daily — Many scientists believe that the ice ages exterminated all life on land and in freshwater in large parts of the Northern Hemisphere, especially on ocean islands such as Iceland. Crymostygius thingvallensis, the only species in a recently described family of groundwater amphipods Crymostygidae. (Credit: photograph by Thorkell Heidarsson) Scientists at Holar University College and the University of Iceland have challenged that belief, at least when looking at groundwater animals. They have discovered two species of groundwater amphipods in Iceland that are the only...

People with moles age more slowly than others Last Updated: 1:43am BST 11/07/2007 People who seem to stay younger for longer are also likely to have more moles, research released yesterday suggests. A study of twins found a striking correlation between high numbers of moles and a biological marker for slow ageing. As a result, people with a lot of moles might be expected to live longer than those who have very few, despite facing a greater risk of skin cancer. Dr Veronique Bataille, from the Twin Research Unit at King's College London, who led the study said: "The results...