ShAARP Session: Observations from AARP

Results tagged “birthdays” from ShAARP Session

Jul '09 10

David Goldstein | 11:25 AM | 1 Comments

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As I discussed here earlier, I don't have a great track record when it comes to wishing living people happy birthdays. So today I'm going to try something a little different and go with celebrating the birth of Nikola Tesla who has safely been dead for over 60 years. He was born on July 10th, 1856.


Tesla was an absolute genius who eventually held over 700 patents. You might recognize one of his inventions, a little thing called electricity. He didn't invent electricity itself, but rather the idea of using alternating current which is what lets all of us use electricity without needing to live 2 miles from a power plant (take that Edison). Pretty nice contribution there.


He did have some ideas which were pretty far out there but they can't all be winners.


All of this and his name is barely recognized these days. Check out this clip for a little more info on Tesla:

Mar '09 24

David Goldstein | 10:10 AM | 0 Comments

So you may have heard that an American icon recently turned 50. That's right, Barbie has hit the half-century mark and looks as good as she has since her introduction in 1959. While the doll has been subject to its share of controversy over the years, no one can deny the massive impact Barbie has had on pop culture in this country. AARP has decided to present Barbie with an honorary membership to commemorate her 50th birthday.

Check out the love we got on CBS's Early Show:
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Sep '08 18

Alejandra Owens | 3:02 PM | 0 Comments

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An article titled, "Why Presents Become Less Exciting As You Get Older" talks about how as we age, our brain's "reward system" doesn't function as strongly as it once did, making older folks less inclined to be excited about gifts than younger people are.

The new study says this is why kids are so excited to get presents, because a chemical in the brain which controls the feeling of reward is abundant when young, but decreases significantly as a person grows older.

I'm always interested to know more the science behind how our body ages, but a part of me has a hard time believing that there's biological certainty we'll all like gifts less as we get older. I don't know about you, but I've definitely seen 60+ year old men gleefully jump up and down for joy when they get a present!