BS: the end of 'clever' ?

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 29 May 07 - 07:49 AM

G'day again,

Just against the thought that the "Zipcode" might affect the lifestyle / pressures / &c, I used a Washington DC Zip.

No other problems, beside converting back to nasty Imperial measurements ... and the prognosis offered is for me hanging around for another third of a century! I hope that is comforting to Patricia... whose maternal Grandmother actually lived to be Australia's oldest person, in the latter part of 1984 - at 107 years!

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: JennyO
Date: 29 May 07 - 06:43 AM

I put in a totally bogus email address and a password and handle I thought up on the spot, and 90210 for the zipcode, as heric suggested, and it was enough to not only get me in, but also to log out and log in again later.

That one must be one of the best known postcodes in the US, so I bet they get a lot of them. I really doubt whether the zipcode is counted as part of their calculations. I suppose if I was sufficiently curious, I could log in as a new identity with a different zipcode but with the same answers, just as an experiment. Probably won't bother though.

I rather like the handle and password I came up with - maybe I'll even use them somewhere else in the future!

Now I feel a little bit mean, because I think there is actually some quite good information there - some food for thought in fact. I could easily get into the 90's with a few changes - close to 100 if I do things properly. This only confirms what a naturopath / iridologist told me years ago when I first went to her. She said my eyes showed a very strong constitution - from good family stock, and that if I looked after myself properly, I could reach 100. So it's really up to me, if I want to take it seriously. I really would like to live to a ripe old age!

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 29 May 07 - 04:41 AM

I just put in the first 3 digits of my postcode, a letter and 2 numbers. Worked fine.

As for reaching 78 - that's pretty good considering my grandparents never made it past 75.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: heric
Date: 28 May 07 - 10:39 PM

Bob: In fact my comment was borne from thinking about Tasmania and (mis)reading that book Death of a River Guide that I mentioned recently. Got my left coast confused with the right. Dan

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: Joe_F
Date: 28 May 07 - 09:55 PM

Whom the gods wish to destroy they first call promising. -- Cyril Connoly

As for me, I went straight from promising to never-was.

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 28 May 07 - 07:47 PM

G'day heric,

"If your on the East Coast, don't you need to be on the West Coast here?"

No - east coast climate is east coast climate - weather moves the same direct all round the globe. Differences between hemispheres are only a mirror image 'North - South'... not 'East - West'. West coasts receive rain clouds most of the time ... but mountains in between them and the East Coast tend to strip them of rain. East Coasts do get rain, when local systems swing it back in ... or when there is so much rain it falls right across the country ... and that's a long way in Australia (about the same distance as it is across the contiguous states of USA).

An interesting comparison of West to East climates is found in islands with mountains in the centre. Tasmania, where I have lived in past decades, has 10 times the rainfall on the mid-West Coast compared to its mid-East Coast. (Similar observation of parts of New Zealand - 5 metres West and 500 mm directly East.)

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 May 07 - 07:36 PM

Look at it this way. Clever may be over, but stupid will never end!

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: Ebbie
Date: 28 May 07 - 01:28 PM

heric, no problem. If you can dance, you can stay out of their reach. :)

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 May 07 - 12:43 PM

www.usps will get you any zip code you want in the US, Bob.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: heric
Date: 28 May 07 - 12:16 PM

You're vice your    sheesh

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: heric
Date: 28 May 07 - 12:15 PM

Plus, the wealth and income data by zip code is easy to come by (all on one simple chart somewhere), and simple to apply. (Even proximity of quality health care institutions would follow from it). I doubt the makers of the quiz have anything as sophisticated as your approach in mind.

And your confusing me. If your on the East Coast, don't you need to be on the West Coast here? ;)

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: heric
Date: 28 May 07 - 12:06 PM

Bob: I assumed with not much thought that the zip code was used as a measurement of wealth, which has a correlation with longevity due to many indirect factors.

Ebbie, the thought of all those glaciers coming at me, every day and all night long, inch by gargantuan inch . . . Gives me the shivers.

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: Ebbie
Date: 28 May 07 - 11:39 AM

The Australians I have met seem to handle their stresses quite well. In Juneau, we don't have many stressors. See?

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 28 May 07 - 05:00 AM

G'day again Kat, Ebbie, JennieG,

I don't know how much profile they draw from the Zip Code. If they factor in climatic / population / urban stresses &c ... I think Juneau, Alaska has more than superficial differences!

A rough climatic match for Sydney's 33º55" south (allowing ~ 5º for the colder Southern Hemisphere, with an ice cap some 5º larger) would be (~) Norfolk, in SE Virginia - an east coast area, like Sydney ... but with a decidedly smaller population (about one twelfth of Sydney's). If I need to match 'urban pressures', I guess the better match might be a suburb of Washington, D.C. (nominally only one fifth of Sydney's population ... but that may be a artifact of different ways of splitting [or lumpimg] urban populations ... and somewhat further from 'seacoast' influences!).

If anybody can give me appropriate zip codes for an "inner suburb" of either place (I live in Leichhardt, an inner western suburb - about 6 kilometres from the Central Business District - and catch a bus into town to work ... then walk home at night) I can try them in the program, with a reasonable belief that I am not skewing the result inordinately!

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: Ebbie
Date: 28 May 07 - 03:14 AM

JennieG, use 99801. Australia and Juneau, Alaska are a lot alike, once one gets past the superficial differences. :)

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: JennieG
Date: 28 May 07 - 01:35 AM

It wouldn't accept my 4-digit postcode either - so if they don't want to know about me, I don't want to know about them! If I make up a zip code from goodness-knows-where in the US of A then the calculation wouldn't be genuine, so I won't bother.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: JennyO
Date: 28 May 07 - 12:10 AM

Okay, it said 86 for me - not bad considering I'm pretty overweight and don't exercise much. On the other hand, I seem to come from good stock - a lot of my rels lived into their 80s and beyond. My dad died at 87 and my grandmother at 85, and they were overweight too. Scarcely a thin person in my family, actually.

I'm sure I could improve my odds with a better diet and more exercise - up to 6 years if I lose a lot of weight - but getting started is always the problem.

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: JennyO
Date: 27 May 07 - 11:22 PM

I stopped short of putting in an email address too. I suppose I could just make up anything, couldn't I.

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 May 07 - 11:19 PM

Oops, sorry about that Bob. Heric's got the right of it, though. I have a made-up email addy just for those types of things.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: heric
Date: 27 May 07 - 10:59 PM

Tell'm you're 90210 Bob.

Annoying to find that out at the end I know. I just closed it when it said give us your e-mail address. Should've made that up myself.

Tough to know whether to enter the healthy things I haven't been doing or the healthy things I will certainly start doing. . .

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 27 May 07 - 10:55 PM

I tried the calculator but got all the way to the end and it 'rejected'....well, as I fully intend to live forever, I will just arbitrarily state that I shall be here til I am at least 100 -- and along with Jacqiec, my kids WILL be pleased!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 27 May 07 - 10:44 PM

G'day Kat,

"...see what your chances are to live to be 100 check out the living to 100 calculator..."

It looked interesting ... but apparently the testers' philosophy is: "If you ain't a Merikun - just die whenever!" ... no test without a valid (presumably American = U.S. of A.) 'zipcode'.

(Perhaps LtS's UK numbers looked more convincing, but my 4-digit Australian postcode doesn't compute.)

Regard(les)s,

Bob

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 May 07 - 04:28 PM

If I don't do anything differently, I will make it to 82, BUT I can add 13 years to that with a few changes...some of which I definitely will be doing this summer!

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 27 May 07 - 12:26 PM

I'm going to live to 93! My kids WILL be pleased!

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 May 07 - 12:05 PM

Everyone is 100% successful at their one unique job in all of creation: being themselves. Other people don't generally see what's special about that, and there's not much you can do about it.

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 27 May 07 - 10:56 AM

You have your priorities reversed. First, you become a folk singer. Then you become a failure.

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: Mickey191
Date: 27 May 07 - 09:38 AM

LTS Take Heart-they may be wrong. (probably are) I missed my own funeral somehow. I've been here an extra 8 years....so far. Fooled 'em!

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 27 May 07 - 03:43 AM

Huh.... I'm going to make it to 78 apparently.... one year short of my father.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 May 07 - 01:46 AM

What a bunch of wussies!**bg** I've read so many inspiring stories about folks in their 80s, 90's and 100's who have done or are doing all kinds of inventive and marvellous things. For a good read on how to be more like them check out this article by Desmond Morris. He gives some specific examples in some of the paragraphs further down.

My heavens! Night Owl's mum, who is 97, just attended her 70th college graduation reunion. There were four of them there!

If you want to see what your chances are to live to be 100 check out the living to 100 calculator.

Also, check out NPR's 100 Years of Stories.

There IS life after 50 or whatever!

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: Ebbie
Date: 27 May 07 - 01:29 AM

You're noticing the inevitable progression from 'promising' to 'has-been', eh?

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 May 07 - 01:24 AM

Become a believer in reincarnation: the handiest way to get another chance to make the same mistakes all over again! ;-) Or maybe not...

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: Peace
Date: 27 May 07 - 01:01 AM

"You should hunt down and kill those guys who promised you that world of golden fortune."

If he's George Bush he's doing just that.

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: michaelr
Date: 27 May 07 - 12:56 AM

You should hunt down and kill those guys who promised you that world of golden fortune.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: Peace
Date: 27 May 07 - 12:47 AM

Are you George Bush?

Subject: BS: the end of 'clever' ?
From: GUEST,Mr Washedup
Date: 27 May 07 - 12:45 AM

25 years ago I was a bright young student with a promised world of golden fortune just waiting seductively for my taking ..



now I'm just broke & tired and dim and inarticulate.......


what happens ?????



should I become a folk singer ??????????????