Fears

My biggest health fears are stroke and dementia. They're related, of course, in that they both spell disaster to the brain. I don't want to become stupid, or helpless, or unable to communicate. I don't want to be a burden on friends or family. I don't want to become trapped in an empty head. I don't want to be alone.

This piece in the New York Times discusses the current state of Alzheimer's research. Every time I forget a name, or substitute one perfectly spelled word in a post for the one I meant to use, I feal the flash of fear. I figure I've got about ten years before the prospect of Alzheimer's becomes real. (Both of my grandmothers suffered from dementia ~ but there were no autopsies, so we don't know for sure if it was Alzheimer's.)

According to a devasting article in the Washington Post Sunday Magazine, 47 percent of people have Alzheimer's by age 85. As the population ages, this is going to be an increasingly serious problem for our society.

The numbers of Alzheimer's victims will soon after explode, exceeding 14 million Americans before mid-century, according to Alzheimer's Association projections. The costs of Alzheimer's -- everything from savings lost to business productivity slashed -- are forecast to rise more than threefold to $375 billion a year, threatening to put a chokehold on Medicare and Medicaid.

I think I'll go donate some money to Alzheimer's research now.

Value Proposition

You might find some interesting stuff to read at Corante. What you won't find is an RSS feed. At least, I couldn't find one, even for their "weblog columns." What you can do is dump some Javascript into your page that will display their headlines. Which is swell, as long as you don't mind giving up control over what appears on your weblog.

Ahem. As if.

Does this seem self-defeating for a site that's trying to place itself at the crossroads of tech news and the blogosphere?

What do you see?

Could someone please tell me whether or not you see a favicon for this site now? And if you do, whether it has a line around it (box) or not?

Safari has made up its mind which it's going to be, and is stubbornly refusing to show any updates.

Thanks.