The header for this blog says one of its objectives is promoting and advocating a positive attitude at all times. This is still the intent. However, everything is so bad, so threatening, and so terrifying throughout the world, but particularly here in the United States, I feel it necessary to expand my definition of a positive attitude to include recognizing dangerous situations, taking positive steps to protect ourselves, and then moving on, realizing we can only do so much with what is available to us. In my case, what is available is an ability to write with the objective of influencing readers to take whatever action they deem appropriate to the situation.

 I have not written for this blog in quite a while. It was because I was wrestling with myself over what to do. I decided to come out fighting, with no political correctness idiocy. If I think someone is lying, I will so state; and I trust no one about anything.

 I invite your  comments. I’m not always right, but I always think I am.

Tags: action, dangerous situation, political correctness, Positive Attitude

People born between 1946 and 1964 are the group known as Baby Boomers. The MIT AgeLab says the 50+ population is the fastest growing segment worldwide, and life expectancies are at a historical high. An American turns 50 once every seven seconds. Within the next few years, 50% of the European Union’s population will be 65+. By 2030, in Italy, retirees will outnumber active workers. By 2050, the median age in Thailand will rise to 50, also according to the MIT data. Baby Boomers are turning 50 at the rate of 1 every 10 seconds. That’s more than 12,000 each day, and over 4 million a year for the next decade! This group is tremendous and will require a lot of attention to fill all the niches of desire within this great population.

 The MIT report estimates there are 450 million baby boomers worldwide; Coming of Age, Incorporated, says there are over 100 million boomers and senior citizens in the US alone. This group is very wealthy, well educated, and all are sophisticated potential buyers. In addition, they have more disposable income than any other buying group in America which makes them the new greater part of customers. Regardless of these powerful findings, not all of them have a lot of money; a Focalyst Study indicates only about 9% of boomers are truly affluent. However, what is significant is this group will account for 17% of all US consumer spending. Makes marketers everywhere drool. Don’t overlook the rest of this market because they spend money, too, but maybe not as much as their wealthy peers.

 Such an enormous and diverse market can’t be considered as only one market; there are countless segments in this group. Bear in mind, too, the current economic depression has reduced funds available to boomers, but it still is estimated between one and two TRILLION USD. That’s a lot of money, and they will use it to demand exactly the best products and services available. The problem is to find exactly what every segment of this group wants.

 The first thing to do is try to understand how boomers think. There are so many of them, from all sorts of backgrounds, that determining their thinking is no small job. Coming of Age, Incorporated, referenced earlier, says, “How baby boomers think is just as important as what they think.” They go on to say the older we get, the more emotional we are. Our emotions begin to control what we think, and eventually, cause us to persuade our minds to take some action. Those who succeed in serving these people must build a relationship of trust, based on honesty and openness, in order to influence the Boomer group. This requires the creation of motivational communications, better ways of presenting this communication, and improvements in quality and service in order to induce an action. Those wanting to serve Boomers most realize the median age of the market is constantly changing; the median age is mid forties and constantly moving upward every year. Ideas that appeal to younger groups will turn off the older and much larger body of Boomers. The minds of olders work in much different ways from youngers.

A new company, Heartspoken, is trying to find out how boomers think in order to serve their needs and build meaningful relationships. This company, owned and founded by freelance writer Elizabeth Cottrell, has a survey online  right now with questions that will determine the things of most interest to Baby Boomers today. The ultimate result will be to provide goods, services, and information you want. All information you may give is entirely anonymous.

 Please visit the survey and help yourself, along with the other Boomers.

Tags: affluent, baby boomers, disposable income, economic depression, educated, emotions, honesty, life expectancies, median age, sophisticated, survey, trust, wealthy

President Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown just concluded a day or two of meetings in Washington, DC. Did they discuss the merits of sleep vs. sex? If so, will we see some government program come into play to regulate the amount of sex people can have as it relates to having sex with a partner?

I pray Mr. Obama proposes nothing of the sort, but, if it happens, please do not follow the lead of the British on anything. They have the most invasive and controlling government you can imagine. Not only do they send people to your home to see how you are using leftover food, they have a national health system which suggests people treat themselves rather than use inadequate government facilities, there is a huge database that tracks behavior of children with their families being held responsible for everything the children may do, and the list goes on and on. Now there is a study by the Edinburgh Sleep Centre that says 79% of Brits prefer extra sleep over sex. The head of the Sleep Centre says this is good because more sleep begets better health.

May be, but not so enjoyable. Seems to me this reflects an attitude of mistrust throughout much of the world. People don’t trust others enough to form any sort of intimate relationship. Apparently we allow every bad thing in our past to influence our future. Women don’t trust men and men don’t trust women. There is an element of revenge in most divorces—one spouse or the other attempts to destroy their former partner financially (preferred way) or personally before the public. But when it’s over it should be over so you can continue the rest of your life.

I sincerely hope Mr. Obama does not intrude the government into our sex life. Forget what the Brits do. He should encourage everyone to come together, as he said he would during his pre-election speeches. Only by getting ourselves into the constant struggle to maintain optimism and positive ideas will we be able to succeed in our personal lives, and then use these powerful positive ideas to push our country out of all the current problems into a brighter future.

Get over yourself—have sex. Sleep is better after.

Tags: divorce, gordon brown, government, mistrust, obama, optimism, Positive Attitude, relationship, sex, sleep

 Rather than What Eats a Sea Spider?, you may ask “What in the world IS a sea spider.”

Sea spiders have been around for millions of years; they just run in an environment not often in contact with humans. Volcanic ash near Herefordshire, UK, reveals spider fossils from 425 million years ago. They’ve been here a long time. More recently, scientific expeditions to the Antarctic area have discovered some amazing current examples.

The area just off the Ross Sea Shelf in  Southern Antarctica has yielded gigantic specimens of many forms of sea life. In addition to giant worms and crustaceans these expeditions brought back sea spiders larger than a dinner plate. Many had the normal eight legs, but some have more, even up to twelve legs. Very large size sea life is nothing unusual in the Antarctic area. Scientists speculate this is because of  cold temperatures, high oxygen levels, adequate food, and a general lack of predators in the area.

Sea spiders exist in total darkness about 6,000 to 7,000 meters down (this is about four miles deep). They crawl around feeding on soft bodied creatures like sponges and sea slugs. Using their proboscis they suck the life out of their prey. In fact, they are VAMPIRES! So, such creatures exist in the deepest Antarctic Sea just as they did in Romania in the days of Count Dracula.

About the time the giant sea spiders appeared so did an ancient toad named Beelzebufo, the Devil Toad. BeBo surfaced among crocodile and dinosaur fossils dating to the late Cretaceous period, roughly 70 million years ago, on the island of Madagascar. He is a monstrous creature that weighs about ten pounds with an armored skin. He probably needed this to deal with dinosaurs and crocodiles every day. Scientists think BeBo may even have eaten a few baby dinosaurs; he’ had to be very tough customer.

BeBo is not related to any African frogs or toads. Rather, his closest relatives are in South America where they are kept as pets and known as “pacman” frogs because of their very large mouths. Now, why does this matter? Consider this. Madagascar is a very long way across the Atlantic Ocean from South America; how is BeBo in Madagascar and all his relatives are far away in South America? This leads to speculation among scientists that some kind of land link between Africa and South America may have remained after the continents separated eons ago. Perhaps it was through Antarctica, a place very much warmer in the past than it is now.

All these related discoveries have led to a speculative debate: What eats a sea spider? Could it be BeBo the armoured Devil Toad? While the spider takes up about as much space as BeBo, there are overwhelming differences in favor of BeBo. He weighs about 10 pounds, has a very large mouth, his skin is armored, and he has millions of years experience fighting dinosaurs. This is no contest. The sea spider weighs almost nothing and his proboscis would immediately crumple upon encountering BeBo’s armor plate.

So, why do we even want to know about any of this?

First, the sea spider and all his giant friends may reveal important information about temperature changes and their effect on food supplies for all the Antarctic animals. Such information may also indicate what new predators may come on the scene.

And the Devil Toad could be a link to what really happened when Africa and South America drifted apart. Who knows? Somebody may find the spider can really eat the Devil Toad!

Find more about fossils, continental drift, toads, sea spiders, and the Antarctic here.