Snooty, a manatee raised in captivity since 1948, currently resident at South Florida Museum’s Parker Manatee Aquarium, turned 66 this week. In the wild, manatees rarely live past 30 and many don’t make it to 10, regularly dying from injuries inflicted by boat propellors.
Snooty eats 70-80lbs of lettuce, carrots, kale, cabbage, bok choy, broccoli and other assorted vegetables every day, which his keepers suggest has contributed to his remarkable flatulence longevity.
Some 20,000 people over the age of 70 will lose their medical card under legislation changing the criteria for the card.
Minister of State for Health Alex White said the 20,000 would instead be eligible for a GP-visit card. The changes are part of the Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill which reduces the income threshold for a person to still retain the medical card from €700 a week to €600 or €1,400 to €1,200 for couples.
Independent TD Tom Fleming said the overall budget for the medical card system was €750 million. “The €24 million being saved is nitpicking in the overall context.” He said 94 per cent of people over 70 visited their GP on a regular basis. “It follows then that they have a high intake of drugs to them cope with illness and disability.”
The Kerry South TD said savings could be trebled or quadrupled if the whole cost of drugs issue was dealt with.
Related: That Would Be A Generical Matter
(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)
Damn thrill-seeking, hands-free vintage bus surfers.
(Thanks Wtfdublin)
Low on mmf?
We got your mmf right here.
The nice people at Collective Cadenza (CDZA) invited four elderly couples at a Senior Living Centre to reminisce about the songs they danced to on their wedding day, then played for them while they danced.
Via Joanne Nolan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re_IiPmGjWg
The elderly and Photobooth.
Adorably alarming. Alarmingly adorable.
THE INCREASED use by older men of drugs to reverse erectile dysfunction may be producing an unexpected side effect. The incidence of sexually transmitted diseases for men and women in the 50-90 age group has doubled over the past decade.
Cases of syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhoea rose sharply during the 2000s, according to a study published this morning in the British Medical Journal . While doctors have their suspicions, there is little concrete data to explain why this mini-epidemic is taking place.
More surprisingly, the study shows that there has also been a sharp rise in cases of HIV infection in older men.
Males over 50 now account for 20 per cent of adults accessing HIV care, an 82 per cent increase on figures from 2001, said the report’s authors, Rachel von Simson from King’s College London and Dr Ranjababu Kulasegaram from St Thomas’s Hospital in London.
Blighty, hah? You’d never catch our oldsters disporting themselves like that.
Nice cup of tea and a bun. Bit of light spanking. Mogadon. Bed.
Sexual Diseases Rise Among Elderly (Irish Times)
