Seniors and computers - did you know we're delayed?

Morning coffee and newspaper
–digital delay?

Digital delay for the elderly

Digital delay for the elderly - National Post 

Ottawa Citizen - Mon., Feb. 5, 2013 Like many young Canadians, Denis O'Keefe is rarely more than an arm's length away from an Internet-connected. 

The difference is that O’Keefe is 96 years old.

Josie and I play some iMovies!

Basically, the article bemoans the Statcan data that says we oldsters are out of touch with the times, don't download music, TV shows and movies. Why would we?! A lot of it is crap!

Yes, so they say. I sit down to read my morning paper, yes, I know, but it is tradition. But I can fondly recall sitting with my paper and my coffee as I changed hats from single mom to teacher and working mom.

More evidence of ageism in the young person's world. Anyone who knows me, though, knows I am pretty active on the Internet. I don't have an iPhone, I'm not needed that much, nor do I need to contact friends or family that quickly!

Computer presentation to staff 2004

Like the rest of the folks in their 50s and 60s, and even their 70s and 80s, we learned to use computers and integrate them into our jobs. My late mother learned how to use a computer when she was 50 years old, in order to process their weekly Rotary Club newsletter. Yet, I have to read again how backward we oldsters are. They lovingly cite a man, Denis O'Keefe, who is his 90s and manages the struggle to use a computer! As if he is the only one!

When I went on-line to read the article, and cite it, I found that it has disappeared from the Citizen. Good thing.
A further search found that Misty Harris, self-proclaimed pop-culture queen (Twitter.com/popcultini) who wrote the article, claims that:

"The bad news is that seniors’ online cultural consumption – think digital downloads of music, TV and movies – is dismally lagging. And as more and more services go digital, the risk of alienation is significant."

It's young people who need to be taught manners!

How frightening, 'dismally lagging',
we are 'risking alienation' if we don't download music! "Digital media expert Alfred Hermida says people simply prefer to use the media they grew up with." Seriously? My mom grew up with radio. She used an electric typewriter and a computer when she retired at age 66 in 1991. Alfred, of uBC, knows not whereof he speaks!

What this is proof of, is that another journalist didn't do who homework.

What these staisticians do not realize is that we don't want to download music, never mind do we need to. We like popping our CDs into the car when we drive. Most movies are NOT geared to our demographic. Who want to watch sissy young people in love (teenagers + 20-somethings), scantily clad women, or blood and guts warriors (18 - 20-somethings)?

Wii user in long-term care

We like drama and a plot, as well as character development. While we're the ones with the larger disposable income, we choose not to spend it on this less than artful medium. We are choosy with our music. We support artists by buying their CDs.

We cannot stand being in a theatre, either, with people talking, flashing their iPhones, and behaving as if they are in their living rooms. Culture, indeed!

Consumption of culture by older Canadians on the Internet

by Mary K. Allen (STATCAN)

[Release from The Daily] [Full article in PDF]

A new report by the agency notes that in 2000, less than 10 per cent of seniors had been online in the month prior to being surveyed, whereas by 2010, fully 60 per cent of Canadians 65 to 74, and 29 per cent of those 75 and older, had done so.

Superbowl ads 2013

They don't play all of them in Canada. Some are pre-empted with Canadian ads. They are the talk of the town, though. You have to be careful and find the real thing, as some steal them, post them, and then get taken down when they are caught violating copyright laws!
This one was the best: God Made a Farmer!
Farmers feed cities!

We had so much fun!

My girls were here this weekend. Did we ever have fun!
We decorated for Valentine's Day, did some crafts, and I built a schoolhouse with them. Hubby went to school in a one-room schoolhouse in Chesterville. Those were the days! The schoolhouse, from Log Cabin Toys, I bought a couple of years ago, and it had to be glued piece by piece. It was a great activity, with Josephine carefully counting out 6 small pieces for each layer for me.
The kittens were exhausted, and had a good time being picked up, moved, played with, petted.
We watched The Lorax whilst mummy had a sleep in.
I love Isabelle's red hair!     
It is a little crooked, but I won't give up my day job!

Baking a carrot cake for the grandkids I had helpers

I had helpers. One got up on the counter as I was grating the carrots. Dorah was curious about the noise. I shook the water bottle, which keeps them off of the counters, and put the stool out thinking they could watch from there. Watch they did!

From Kittens Help With Carrot Cake

It's groundhog day!

  

 It's a fun tradition, Feb. 2nd. I thought I'd show some summer photos of Fred, our groundhog. The little twerp growled at me when I was out taking photos.

Buster and the late Felix,
thought Fred was good sport last July!

Can't see me!

CC# 252

Groundhog from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.
Silly critter lives on the edge of our yard.
He ran at me, too!

Ice Fishing Huts on Big Rideau Lake

A terrible time, this year, for those who like to ice fish. In fact, what with the last melt, the snowmobiles have been shelved, as well.

I went out to take photos of the sunset, and ended up watching some men trying to rescue one another's fishing huts!
I was curious about the lake conditions. We know that the ice moves up and down with the wind. It is a constant temperature of 4 C. at the bottom.

    Ice Fishing Huts from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Down the hill to the boat launch.
A slippery slope!

Lake ice pushed up on the shoreline

I went down to the RVCA park. Some of the men were there, concerned about their ice fishing huts. With the recent freeze, thaw, freeze, they were worried about their trailers and huts. Many were sitting crookedly in the ice. What I thought was cool, was that they were helping one another get their trailers back onto firm ice. The barrier was that some people had dug out test holes, which are important to avoid as you drive over. None wanted to take their 3-ton trucks across the ice. This man took his ATV, and was pulling another man's hut free. It was bitterly cold, with the Lake Effect winds.

Muskoka ice fishing huts

What do we know about the temperature of lake water?

See the ice pushing up on the shoreline!

I became curious, watching the men try to rescue their fishing huts on Big Rideau.

Due to the density-temperature relationships lake water temperatures tend to stratify and separate into distinct layers.

Understanding Lake Ecology
Density Stratification

In the spring, immediately after ice-out in temperate climates, the water column is cold and nearly isothermal with depth. The intense sunlight of spring is absorbed in the water column, which also heats up as the average  daily temperature of the air increases.

Living beside a small lake, as we did from 2006 - 2010, and cottaging there for 50 years, I began to get curious about lakes. We had much Lake Effect Snow, and rain.

The Great Lakes don't freeze over as do smaller bodies of water. Lakes stay at a pretty constant at 4˚ C. on the bottom during winter.

Here you can see the meltwater on the top.
Once the ice warms up, it will sink, melt, and disappear.

It settles in layers by temperature.

Summer lake water varies in temperature
as the wind mixes it up.

The wind mixes the layers, whether there is ice there or not. I once heard a truck cross the ice, they were racing up and down. You could hear the lake water underneath sloshing on the shorelines. It made me curious!

You can see the ice on the top of the lakes. Underneath a demon lurks in the constant temperatures deep below the surface (4 C.).

Lake Effect Snow
The prevailing winds pick up the moisture from the open Great Lakes water, and dump it all over those of us to the east of Georgian Bay. The same is true of those parts south and east of the Great Lakes. You can check out the surface temperatures there.

The Great Lakes

Our Great Lakes have a monomictic mixing regime.  That is they mix fully once per year and are mixed winter and spring.

Lake Maximum Depth and Area 

Lake Huron

228m

14.8 x 106 acres (6.0 x 106 ha)

Lake Ontario

244m

4.9 x 106 acres (2.0 x 106 ha)

Lake Michigan

281m

14.4 x 106 acres (5.8 x 106 ha)

Lake Erie

70m

6.4 x 106 acres (2.6 x 106 ha)

Lake Superior

300m

20.3 x 106 acres (8.2 x106 ha)

Water differs from most other compounds because it is less dense as a solid than as a liquid. Consequently, ice floats, while water at temperatures just above freezing sinks. As most compounds change from a liquid to a solid, the molecules become more tightly packed and is more denser as a solid than as a liquid. Water, in contrast, is most dense at 4°C and becomes less dense at both higher and lower temperatures. 

Puddles in the ditch from Jennifer Jilks .
Puddles in the ditch from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Doing some research on lake water, I noticed that our ditch puddle was simulating the lakes. The wind blows on the ice surface, which succumbs to the pressure, and ebbs and flows like a tidewater.

Spring

In lakes of the upper Midwest and at higher elevations, the water near a lake’s bottom will usually be at 4°C just before the lake´s ice cover melts in the spring. Water above that layer will be cooler, approaching 0°C just under the ice.

Sunset over Lanark County

It was a good night for skies, after clouds and winds from the Lake Effect snow squalls of the daytime.

Lake Muskoka from Segwun Steamship

SWF