Venezuela's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" (audio)

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Morgan Stanley to offer paid sabbaticals

Morgan Stanley is wooing its investment bankers by introducing paid sabbaticals for newly-promoted vice-presidents and making earlier job offers to those at the start of their careers.

The Wall Street bank’s initiatives come as lenders on both sides of the Atlantic explore more creative ways to discourage talented staff from defecting to more fashionable industries such as technology and hedge funds.

It typically takes about five years of long hours to reach VP level, where bankers usually earn more than $150,000 a year.

In another strategy to keep staff, the bank will talk to analysts about their job prospects in November this year — three months earlier than the usual performance review. “We will communicate to people earlier in their careers that they have significant runway at Morgan Stanley, that we want them to stay,” the bank said.

Other innovative schemes to improve banker retention rates include global mobility programs, such as that offered by Deutsche Bank, and volunteer opportunities, in evidence at Citigroup.

Most banks have also brought in measures to improve work-life balance for junior bankers, including news this week that UBS has asked junior bankers to take two hours off a week to attend to “personal matters” and Credit Suisse has banned staff from working Friday nights, other than in highly exceptional circumstances.

edited from The Financial Times

After Brexit: the future of EU residents in UK (audio)

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Skydiver's Highest Jump Without Parachute

On Saturday Luke Aikins, 42 years old, became the first skydiver to jump 7620 meters from a plane without a parachute or wingsuit and live to tell the story.

Aikins directed his body in free fall using only the air currents around him to land safely on the high-tech net about a third the size of a football field laid out to catch him.

The jump was aired live on television via the Fox network during an hour-long special. Aikins fell for about two minutes above the California desert, arms extended, face downward. And as he neared the ground, with a mere second to go, he expertly flipped onto his back and landed without incident.

He then climbed out of the net and embraced his wife, Monica, who was among a cheering group of family and friends, including their 4-year-old son, Aikins' dad, two brothers and a sister, who had all anxiously watched the breathtaking spectacle.

" I've been skydiving since the age of 16. I’ve been preparing for this jump for two years and I’ve done 18,000 parachute jumps ," Aikins said in a press release prior to the jump.

In fact, Aikins, whose grandfather co-founded a skydiving school after serving in World War II, is a third-generation skydiver. The family owns Skydive Kapowsin near Tacoma, Wash.

Further to his credit, Aiken is a safety and training advisor for the United States Parachute Association (USPA) where he provides advanced skydiving training to elite military Special Forces.

After a two-minute free fall, Luke Aikins successfully lands at the Big Sky Ranch in Simi Valley, Calif

From AP and NPR

Photo Credit: Mondelez International via AP

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Responding to catastrophe with music

Russian director Vladimir Jurowski leading the London Philharmonic Orchestra 

POLITICS intruding on culture can be unnerving. Stalin restricted Shostakovich’s work in the name of state order. The Third Reich’s appropriation of Wagner prompted Israel to adopt an unofficial ban on his music. But music often leaves a greater legacy than diktats and propaganda. Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture”, composed after Stalin’s death, is remembered today as a towering symbol of freedom from musical dictatorship, and Israel’s unofficial ban on Wagner was cast aside by Daniel Barenboim and the Berlin Staatskapelle orchestra in 2001. Two years earlier Mr Barenboim had set up the West-Eastern Divan orchestra—comprised principally of Israelis and Palestinians—in order to show that differences may be settled through understanding and co-operation, ideas best expressed through the collected study and performance of great music.

Music has an unusual ability to promote rapport and pleasure in the wake of catastrophe. After the lorry attack in Nice, Sakari Oramo, the conductor at the first night of the BBC Proms, a series of classical concerts, preceded his scheduled programme with a rendition of “La Marseillaise”. The scene was a moving one: the entire Albert Hall rose to its feet and met the piece’s conclusion with rapturous applause. There was something life-affirming about an orchestra comprised of multiple nationalities playing French music under a Finnish conductor in one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world.

This was not the first time the Proms had altered the programme in the wake of catastrophe. Along with “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Adagio for Strings”, the BBC added the finale of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony—“Ode to Joy”—to their final-night celebrations after the attacks on September 11th 2001. This showed Western unity and defiance through Western high culture, a perfect piece for such a task. Nicholas Kenyon, then the director of the Proms, said that the finale was “a true mirror of the ability of music to uplift and unify”. Beethoven’s final symphony demonstrates togetherness and power through its sheer scale, combining choral with symphonic and requiring a large number of musicians. The piece is aimed at all who will hear it, as opposed to one nationality alone. The music therefore rallies together people of an identity (Western) instead of a country.

On Sunday 24th July the acclaimed Russian director Vladimir Jurowski led the London Philharmonic orchestra and choir in a Proms performance (pictured) of Beethoven’s masterpiece. Finding space for the “Ode to Joy” again at this year’s final night was an example of culture embracing politics.

Life-affirming music has no nationality. Yet it defines an identity of values undeterred by terror, bringing comfort to those who hear it. If it reaches out to the threatened in politics, it may give the comfort they need. Just as Shostakovich lived to celebrate the demise of Stalin, through Beethoven we may persevere until the demise of terror. 

edited from The Economist

Would You Spend $800 for a Haircut?

The tennis player Roger Federer gets his hair cut by a number of stylists, including one who charges a minimum of $400, and as much as $800. CreditValerio Pennicino/Getty ImagesAdd caption

When Parisians learned last week that President Francois Hollande paid his hairdresser more than $10,000 a month to cut his hair, a howl was heard from Montmartre to the Marais.

Isn’t $10,000 a month for a hairdresser, to put it bluntly, a little ridiculous? Not so, some people think. “France is the capital of fashion, and he is the president of the country. The hairdresser is on call, like a doctor”.

Robin Capili said he’d never spend $10,000 a month. “I’d invest in property,” he said. “A condo maybe.”

Tim Rogers, a stylist at Sally Hershberger’s downtown New York studio, who charges a minimum of $400, and as much as $800, for a men’s haircut these days, regularly flies to the Hamptons by helicopter to attend to hedge fund managers and investment bankers. He has visited a celebrity’s home at 10 p.m. He, too, has an array of clients who go to the salon, among them the tennis champion Roger Federer  and John Kennedy Schlossberg, the grandson of the president.

“I maintain that men’s prices should be the same as women’s,” Mr. Rogers said last week in an interview from his home in Connecticut. Men, he said, are often more demanding than women. “The requirement is consistency,” he said. “You have to be available anytime, anywhere.” Even if that means being on call 24 hours a day. “There is never a bad time for them,” he said of his clients. “And everything has a price.”

If you are looking to save money on your monthly hair maintenance, steer clear of Switzerland. on average, Geneva and Zurich are the most expensive places in the world to have your hair cut.

And, as may be expected, it generally costs more to get your hair cut if you are a woman, no matter where in the world you live. Globally, women pay about 40 percent more than men.

In Jakarta and Hong Kong, women pay on average almost the same as men, whereas in Dublin and Cairo, the price for women is almost three times higher than for men.

For the price of one women’s haircut in Oslo, men could afford to get their hair cut 18 times in Nairobi.

The fashion capital of Paris is, somewhat surprisingly, only the world’s 19th most expensive city for a man to get a cut, suggesting that there may be some reasonably priced local options for President François Hollande, who may be looking for ways to cut his monthly bill of more than $10,000.

Those willing to pay the price of a small car for hair maintenance, however, should visit Stuart Phillips, a high-end stylist in London, who made his name attending to British reality-television stars and the wives of Russian oligarchs. The Diamond V.I.P. package offered by his salon costs almost $26,000 and includes limo service, live music, products and a scalp massage by Mr. Phillips before he cuts your hair.

edited from The New York Times

Meet Pepper the Health Robot (video)

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What's the Right Age for a Child to Get a Smartphone?

NOT long ago, many parents wondered at what age they should give their child full access to the car keys. Nowadays, parents face a trickier question: At what age should a child own a smartphone?

The smartphone, after all, is the key to unfettered access to the internet and the many benefits and dangers that come with it. But unlike driving a car, which is legal in some states starting at the age of 16, there is no legal guideline for a parent to determine when a child may be ready for a smartphone.

The topic is being increasingly debated as children get smartphones at an ever younger age. On average, children are getting their first smartphones around age 10, according to the research firm Influence Central, down from age 12 in 2012. For some children, smartphone ownership starts even sooner — including second graders as young as 7, according to internet safety experts.

“I think that age is going to trend even younger, because parents are getting tired of handing their smartphones to their kids,” said Stacy DeBroff, chief executive of Influence Central.

How do you determine the right time? To come up with some guidelines, I interviewed internet safety experts and combed through studies on smartphone use among children. I also asked for parents’ advice on regulating smartphone use and keeping children safe.

The takeaway will not please smartphone makers: The longer you wait to give your children a smartphone, the better. Some experts said 12 was the ideal age, while others said 14. All agreed later was safer because smartphones can be addictive distractions that detract from schoolwork while exposing children to issues like online bullies, child predators or sexting.

“The longer you keep Pandora’s box shut, the better off you are,” said Jesse Weinberger, an internet safety speaker based in Ohio who gives presentations to parents, schools and law enforcement officials. “There’s no connection to the dark side without the device.”

Let’s start with some of the data. Ms. Weinberger, who wrote the smartphone and internet safety book “The Boogeyman Exists: And He’s in Your Child’s Back Pocket,” said she had surveyed 70,000 children in the last 18 months and found that, on average, sexting began in the fifth grade, pornography consumption began when children turned 8, and pornography addiction began around age 11.

In a separate study published this year, Common Sense Media polled 1,240 parents and children and found  50 percent of the children admitted that they were addicted to their smartphones. It also found that 66 percent of parents felt their children used mobile devices too much, and 52 percent of children agreed. About 36 percent of parents said they argued with their children daily about device use.

There is also biology to consider. The prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that controls impulse, finishes developing in the mid-20s. In other words, parents should not be surprised if younger children with smartphones lack impulse control.

When you decide that it’s time to bestow a smartphone on your child, there are ways to set limits. To help parents enforce rules consistently, Ms. Weinberger has published a family contract listing the rules of smartphone use, which includes promises never to take nude selfies and never to try to meet strangers from the internet in real life. Parents state what the consequences are for breaking the rules, and the child must sign the contract before receiving a smartphone.

Click on the photograph below if you want to read the Family Contract

edited from The New York Times

Mystery philanthropist hides $100 bills

SALEM, Ore. — A mystery philanthropist has been spreading one $100 bill at a time for more than three years in and around Salem, Oregon.

He randomly hides the bills to be found at stores, markets, fairs and festivals, surprising and delighting unsuspecting shoppers and patrons.

When the first reports surfaced in May 2013, I christened him with the nickname Benny because Benjamin Franklin is on the $100 bill. Not long after, he began signing his bills.

Benny is brazen. He often frequents stores during peak shopping times and high-profile events that draw thousands of people. Apparently, that’s part of the fun for him.

To date, he has hidden more than $51,500 worth of $100 bills in the Salem area, and that’s only what has been reported. I keep track of when and where the bills are found, and if possible how they are used. He has left them in 26 different stores, at eight different events, and in a handful of neighborhoods.

Those who find one all have a similar tale, about being shocked when a $100 bill falls out of the packaging of something they just purchased. Bills have been found in everything from breakfast cereals to frozen entrees, and from mouse traps to feminine hygiene products. Sometimes they are not discovered until days or weeks later when retrieving something out of the pantry or cabinet.

Benny bills, usually neatly folded in fourths and signed on the right edge front or back, have come to symbolize generosity and good will. From them a new Salem slang has evolved.

• To get Benny-ed is to find one of these $100 bills and be given hope or inspiration.
• The finders are Benny-ficiaries.
• Non-profits and causes are Benny-fitting.

It is remarkable how these bills always seem to wind up in the right hands, of those who really need the money and those who know just the right cause to give it to.

They have helped people pay their electric bill, make their rent, buy their prescription medication, and even provide them shelter for a couple of nights. But the real magic of Benny has been the pay-it-forward spirit he has inspired in the community.

Slightly more than half of those who find a $100 bill report paying it forward, whether it be to their favorite non-profit or a stranger in need. Some of the most heartwarming stories involve children. Instead of going on a toy shopping spree, they decide to buy school supplies for their classmates or groceries for the local food bank.

The bills are so cherished by some finders that they are keeping them as mementos. They’re still paying it forward, but with their own cash or check. People are posting them on refrigerators, displaying them on bedside tables, carrying them in their purses and putting them in protective sleeves.

It's a reminder, they say, to give and be like Benny.

Article and Video from USA Today

You have 60 minutes to escape (video)

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The Spanish Town That Runs on Twitter

JUN, Spain — When José Antonio Rodríguez Salas’s daughter, Martina, was born in April, he — like many proud new parents — turned to social media to share the news.

But Mr. Rodríguez Salas, the mayor of Jun, a small town outside Granada in southern Spain, did not post a message through his own Twitter account. Instead, he wrote a short message from a Twitter account he had created for his newborn, saying,  “Acabo de nacer”— Martina RM (@martinajun)  “ I’ve just been born”

To Mr. Rodríguez Salas’s more than 400,000 followers on the social network, his actions came as no surprise. That is because the Spanish politician has spent much of the last five years turning Jun, whose population barely tops 3,500, into one of the most active users of Twitter anywhere in the world.

For the town’s residents, more than half of whom have Twitter accounts, their main way to communicate with local government officials is now the social network. Need to see the local doctor? Send a quick Twitter message to book an appointment. See something suspicious? Let Jun’s policeman know with a tweet.

People in Jun can still use traditional methods, like completing forms at the town hall, to obtain public services. But Mr. Rodríguez Salas said that by running most of Jun’s communications through Twitter, he not only has shaved on average 13 percent, or around $380,000, from the local budget each year since 2011, but he also has created a digital democracy where residents interact online almost daily with town officials.

“Everyone can speak to everyone else, whenever they want,” said Mr. Rodríguez Salas in his office .“We are on Twitter because that’s where the people are.”

While politicians regularly send messages on Twitter to their millions of followers, Jun’s use of the social network is something different.

By incorporating Twitter into every aspect of daily life — even the local school’s lunch menu is sent out through social media — this Spanish town has become a test bed for how cities may eventually use social networks to offer public services.

“Jun is one of a group of islands of innovation in the public sector,” said Arthur Mickoleit, a researcher who until recently was a digital government adviser at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. “They’re tapping into social media to improve public services.”

Jun’s embrace of Twitter did not happen overnight.

Mr. Rodríguez Salas, a career politician, was elected Jun’s mayor in 2005 — the year before Twitter was founded — after serving as deputy mayor. In 2011, he asked all town officials — from his deputy to the street wçsweeper  — to open accounts on Twitter and send messages about their daily activities. The goal, he said, was to create greater accountability and transparency over how Jun was run. Mr. Rodríguez Salas added that he chose Twitter over Facebook because Twitter allowed quicker interactions.

Officials began with basic services like public maintenance, letting people tweet when they saw a broken streetlight or a road that needed cleaning.

Mr. Rodríguez Salas said such activities built good will with residents, who at first opened Twitter accounts sporadically. But since 2013, the online activity has become almost universal as people saw how their neighbors used the service.

María José Martínez, Jun’s information technology chief, also ran courses at the community center to teach Twitter 101, such as sending direct messages and using the right hashtag during local campaigns.

One recent hashtag that residents have used is #EndesaMeEstresa, or “Endesa You’re Stressing Me Out,” to highlight problems with Endesa, a local utility. After the company was confronted with Jun’s angry tweets, it quickly fixed the blackouts, Mr. Rodríguez Salas said. An Endesa spokeswoman declined to comment.

Jun has not gone unnoticed by Twitter. Dick Costolo, the company’s chief executive until 2015, visited last summer, leaving his handprints in cement below an obelisk topped with Twitter’s logo of a blue bird. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with funding from Twitter, has analyzed how the town’s residents have benefited from using the social network. Jun does not receive money from Twitter for using the service.

It’s unclear whether lessons from Jun can be replicated on a larger scale, several analysts said, while some question whether a publicly listed company like Twitter should be permitted to help provide government services.

edited from The New York Times

The ‘Pokemon Go’ Tales

The “Pokemon Go” craze across the U.S. has people wandering into yards, driveways, cemeteries and even an off-limits police parking lot in search of cartoon monsters, prompting warnings that trespassers could get arrested or worse, especially if they cross paths with an armed property owner.

Since the release of the smartphone game last week, police have gotten a flurry of calls from residents about possible burglars or other strangers prowling the neighborhood.

So far there have been no reports of arrests or assaults on trespassers playing the game, whose object is use the phone’s GPS technology to find and capture animated creatures in real-world places.

“Be careful where you chase these Pokemon — or whatever it is you chase — because we have seen issues in other places with people going onto private property where a property owner didn’t want them on there,” said Assistant Police Chief Jim McLean in Pflugerville, Texas.

Some players have expressed worries on social media that the game could result in a fearful property owner pulling a gun — a scenario that could fall into a legal gray area in the nearly two dozen states with “stand your ground” laws that allow people wide latitude to use deadly force when they believe they are in danger.

McLean’s department posted a Facebook warning Monday after officers spotted a man playing the game in a section of a police parking lot where the public isn’t allowed. The player had to pass keep-out signs and go over a fence or under a gate to reach the area.

“I’m not sure how he got back there, but it was clear what he was doing,” McLean said. “He was playing a Pokemon game with his phone up in the air.”

Every time the app is opened, a warning from game maker Niantic pops up, telling players to be aware of their surroundings. Players must also agree to fine print saying they cannot enter private property without permission.

There’s also a disclaimer that says Niantic is not liable for any property damage, injuries or deaths that result while playing.

But those warnings don’t seem to be getting through.

In Phoenix, police have started posting humorous and colorful warnings on social media, saying chasing the orange dragon Charizard is not a valid reason to set foot on someone else’s property.

Gamers are also being warned to watch for traffic while playing and not to drive while on the app.

One woman told WPXI-TV in western Pennsylvania that her 15-year-old daughter was hit by a car while playing the game and crossing a busy highway. The girl was hospitalized with an injured collarbone and foot, as well as cuts and bruises, said her mother, Tracy Nolan.

Several cemeteries, including Arlington National outside Washington, have expressed worries about players on their grounds.

At Mobile Memorial Gardens in Alabama, president Timothy Claiborne has seen visitors walking or driving around with phones in their hands, playing the game. He asked people in about three dozen vehicles to leave over the past couple of days.

Three “Pokemon Go” players got locked inside a cemetery in Pennsylvania while hunting virtual monsters and needed police to let them out. The trio didn’t realize the cemetery closed at dusk. They called police just after 9:30 p.m. Tuesday when they discovered the cemetery gates were locked. 

      A sign at the National Weather Service in Anchorage, Alaska, informs Pokemon

      players that it’s illegal to trespass on federal property.  (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

Edited from Insurance Journal

Nintendo released 'Pokemon Go' (audio)

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'Pokemon Go' Invades Earth (video)

If you’ve been on social media in the past few days, you’ve no doubt seen pictures of little animated monsters in real life situations like on a subway or in a restaurant.

That’s thanks to the new Pokémon Go smartphone game from Nintendo.

Pokemon Go  places your avatar on a map based on your location. It shows virtual features called Pokéstops, where you can find Pokéballs, virtual “gyms,” where you can train and join teams, and creatures called Pokémon, which you capture by swiping Pokéballs at them. You start off on your own, but can join a team once you reach Level 5.

The game has been so popular the company had to limit new users while it upgraded its servers.

The game is already impacting Nintendo’s bottom line as the stock jumped by 25 percent Monday, adding $7 billion to the company’s value.

Millions have already downloaded the augmented reality game in which users try to catch Pokémon characters on-screen in real-world situations. That means to play, a user must go out and about in search of Pikachu and other characters.

This has already led to some problems as people congregate at locations marked as important in the game.

For example, in Australia a police station was marked as a place to find creatures or collect other items for use in the games. So many players showed up, the police had to tell people not to go into the station while playing.

In the U.S state of Wyoming, Shayla Wiggins, 19, came across a dead body while playing Friday.

"I was trying to get a water Pokémon," said Wiggins in an interview with CNN. "I probably would have never gone down there if it weren't for this game."

In Missouri, armed robbers lured players to isolated places hoping to rob them.

"Using the geolocation feature of the 'Pokémon GO' app the robbers were able to anticipate the location and level of seclusion of unwitting victims. The way we believe it was used is you can add a beacon to a pokestop to lure more players. Apparently they were using the app to locate people standing around in the middle of a parking lot or whatever other location they were in," O'Fallon police stated. 

The Pokémon Company International and Niantic, the co-developer, warned players in a joint statement.

"We encourage all people playing Pokémon GO to be aware of their surroundings and to play with friends when going to new or unfamiliar places. Please remember to be safe and alert at all times."

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Britain's first operational fracking site (video)

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The Ocean's deadliest killer (captions)

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The fantastic voyage of tiny robots

ROBOTIC surgery is one thing, but sending a robot inside the body to carry out an operation quite another. It has long been a goal of some researchers to produce tiny robotic devices which are capable of travelling through the body to deliver drugs or to make repairs without the need for a single incision. That possibility has just got a bit closer.

In a presentation this week to the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Stockholm, Daniela Rus and Shuhei Miyashita of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology described a robot they have developed that can be swallowed and used to collect dangerous objects ingested accidentally. The device is based on foldable robot technology that their team of researchers have been working on for years. The basic idea is to make robots that fold up, a bit like origami, into small structures less than a few millimeters in diameter so that they can be swallowed like tablets. Then, once inside the body, the capsules enclosing the robots dissolve, allowing the devices to unfold, reconfigure themselves and get to work.

To test their latest version, Dr Rus and Dr Miyashita designed a robot as a battery retriever. This might seem to be an odd task, but more than 3,500 people in America alone, most of them children, accidentally swallow the tiny button cells used in small electronic devices every year. Because these batteries contain a charge, they have an unpleasant tendency to burn holes in the stomach. They can be removed surgically, but it is a tricky and unpleasant procedure.

To start with, the researchers created an artificial oesophagus and stomach made out of silicone. It was closely modelled on that found in a pig and filled with simulated gastric fluid. The robot itself is made from several layers of different materials, including pig intestine, and contains a little magnet. This is folded up and encased in a 10mm x 27mm capsule of ice. Once this reaches the stomach the ice melts and the robot unfolds. It is moved and steered with the use of a magnetic field outside the body.

In their tests, the robot was able to latch onto a button battery with its own magnet. Dragging it along, the robot could then be guided towards the intestines where it would eventually be excreted. After the robot had done its work, the researchers sent in another robot loaded with medication to deliver it to the site of the battery burn to speed up healing.

The team sent their robots on dozens of missions, each time successfully extracting the offending object. They got pretty good at it too, averaging five minutes to conduct the entire process.

Since the artificial stomach was transparent on one side, the researchers were able to see the batteries and visually guide the robots. The next step will be to try this procedure in pigs. That will require help with guidance from imaging systems such as ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging. It will be a bit more of a challenge, but Dr Rus and Dr Miyashita are determined to succeed.

From The Economist

Wars Cost World $13 Trillion Last Year

Wars and other conflicts cost the global economy more than $13.6 trillion, some 13 percent of global GDP, in 2015, according to an annual study on the cost of violence.

The Global Peace Index for 2016, which was compiled by the Institute of Economics and Peace in Australia, ranks 163 countries by the level of peace they are experiencing.

According to the study "The last decade has seen a historic decline in world peace, interrupting the long term improvements since WWII."

The world is seeing an increasing gap between peaceful countries and less peaceful countries. The report said many countries are experiencing “record high” levels of peace, but the bottom 20 countries are “much less peaceful.”

"The world has become slightly less peaceful compared to the prior year, and the gap between the most and least peaceful nations continued to widen. More countries improved than deteriorated, but the size of the deterioration outweighed the improvement."

Syria, which has been wracked by a bloody civil war that has taken a quarter million lives and displaced many more, was not among the five countries with the steepest declines in peacefulness.

“The historic 10-year deterioration in peace has largely been driven by the intensifying conflicts in the [Middle East and North Africa],” says the report. “Terrorism is also at an all-time high, battle deaths from conflict are at a 25-year high, and the number of refugees and displaced people is at a level not seen in 60 years."

The cost of war and other violence was calculated based on military spending, damage to property and infrastructure, as well as the costs of crime associated with violence.

A 100-year old runner (video)

On a cloudless Sunday afternoon in April, a 100-year-old woman named Ida Keeling laced up her mustard yellow sneakers and took to the track at the Fieldston School in the Bronx. Her arrival was met without fanfare. In fact, no one in the stands seemed to notice her at all.

It is possible the spectators were distracted by the girls’ soccer game taking place on the field. Or perhaps they were simply unaware that Ms. Keeling is a reigning national champion.

When she runs, Ms. Keeling occupies a lane all her own. She has held several track-and-field records since she began racing in her late 60s, and she still has the fastest time for American women ages 95 to 99 in the 60-meter dash: 29.86 seconds.  In the week to come, she plans to compete in a 100-meter event where she hopes to establish a new standard for women over 100 years old.

“You see so many older people just sitting around — well, that’s not me,” said Ms. Keeling, who is barely 1.44 m and weighs 38 kg. “Time marches on, but I keep going.”

Ms. Keeling was not always such an accomplished runner. As a child growing up in Harlem, she preferred riding bikes or jumping rope. “I was pretty fast as a girl,” she said. “What makes me faster now is that everyone else slowed down.”

When the Depression hit, Ms. Keeling started a series of jobs washing windows and babysitting for neighbors. Her family, who for years lived in the back of her father’s grocery, was forced into even more humbling circumstances when the store went out of business.

“I learned to stand on my own two feet during the Depression,” she said. “It taught you to do what you had to do without anyone doing it for you.”

Ms. Keeling’s resilience only deepened with time. After her husband died of a heart attack at 42, she was left to raise their four children on her own. She moved the family into a one-bedroom apartment in a Harlem housing project and took up work sewing in a factory, all the while contending with the abuses and indignities endured by black women in mid-20th-century America. As the civil rights movement took shape, Ms. Keeling became an active demonstrator.

“I always understood from mother that you die on your feet rather than live on your knees,” said her daughter Shelley Keeling.

Over time, that resolve was gravely tested. While serving overseas in the Navy and in the Army, Ms. Keeling’s older sons, Donald and Charles, developed a crippling drug. Ms. Keeling watched in horror as both boys withdrew into the world of drugs.

In 1978, Ms. Keeling received a call from the police informing her that Donald had been hanged. Around two years later, the phone rang again: Charles was dead — beaten in the street with a baseball bat. Both killings were suspected to be drug-related; neither was ever solved.

“I’ve never felt a pain so deep,” Ms. Keeling recalled, her voice lowering to a whisper. “I couldn’t make sense of any of it and things began to fall apart.”

As Ms. Keeling fell into a deep depression, her health began to weaken. Her blood pressure shot up, along with her heart rate. The image of her once-vital mother in such despair shook the younger Ms. Keeling. A lifelong track-and-field athlete whose trophies fill an entire room of her apartment, she intervened with the means of healing most familiar to her: running.

“It was trial by fire,” recalled Shelley Keeling, 64, who has coached track and field at Fieldston School in the Bronx for 21 years. “Based on where she was emotionally, it just had to be.”

Ms. Keeling, then 67, registered for a five-kilometer race through Brooklyn. It had been decades since she had last gone running.

“Good Lord, I thought that race was never going to end, but afterwards I felt free,” Ms. Keeling recalled. “I just threw off all of the bad memories, the stress.”

The sunset career of Ida Keeling began at a time when most of her peers were settling in for a future of seated yoga or abandoning athletics altogether. In the decades since, she has traveled across the world for competitions. She often races alone, the only contestant in her age group.

To maintain her health, Ms. Keeling adheres to a strict diet (“I eat for nutrition, not for taste”) and exercise (“I’ve got to get my hour in every day”). Every afternoon Shelley Keeling leads her mother through a routine that includes push-ups, wall sits, shoulder presses and sprints back and forth on the balcony of her apartment in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. Ms. Keeling lives alone and says that self-sufficiency is a key to her longevity.

“I don’t beg anybody for nothing,” she said. “I wash, cook, iron, clean and shop.”

Ms. Keeling avoids food products with preservatives, favoring fresh grains and produce, along with limited portions of meat. Desserts are rarities, and a tablespoon of cod-liver oil supplements breakfast most mornings. Despite her exceptional discipline, Ms. Keeling allows herself one indulgence. “This is putting gas in the car,” she said before downing a tall shot of Hennessy cocktail.

There are days when Ms. Keeling battles a surge of arthritis or a hint of melancholy. “I never want to go backwards,” she said. “I’m a forward type of person.”

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Photo Credit: Elias Jerel Williams for The New York Times
Article  The New York Times (abridged)

Argentina’s economy: The cost of truth

DURING her eight years as Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner had a way of dealing with nasty facts: denying them. When annual inflation reached 27%, she said the number was wrong. “If it were as high as they say it is,” she scoffed in September 2012, “the country would explode.” But truth will out: by the time she left office last year, a 100-peso note—the most valuable—fetched just $10, less than a third of its level when she took office. Unwilling to admit this plunge, Ms Fernández (whose assets have been frozen by a judge probing currency transactions) refused to issue bigger bills. Queues formed at ATMs; with a capacity of just 8,000 notes, some machines had to be refilled twice daily and repaired monthly.

Mauricio Macri, the country’s president since December, prefers to cast a colder eye on reality. On June 30th a 500-peso note appeared at his government’s directive. The central bank won praise for producing it, with a nice image of a jaguar, so fast. It will be a blow to armored-truck operators, who did well by moving cash around the country. This helped Brink’s, an American firm in that business, to boost its Argentine revenues by 60% last year. But on the streets of Buenos Aires, the note is welcome. It will soon be possible to withdraw up to 2,400 pesos ($160) per transaction.

Not all Mr Macri’s clear-sighted moves are so popular. Some of his efforts to normalize the economy—such as easing currency controls and removing subsidies on electricity, water, gas and transport—have exacerbated the inflation he inherited. On June 15th INDEC, the national statistics institute, revealed that prices went up by 4.2% during May alone. These were the first figures published by INDEC since Mr Macri took office; he has been working to make the agency more reliable. Annual inflation figures will not be out until next June. Worryingly, the picture emerging in the freshly polished mirror is of an economy going the wrong way. New numbers show that growth, private employment, manufacturing and investment have all fallen since Mr Macri came to office. His country is officially in recession.

All this clashes with Mr Macri’s pledge that in the first half of the year that Argentines would reap the rewards of his economic policies in the second. Some economists, including Ramiro Castiñeira of Econométrica, a consultancy, say the president was too quick to promise progress. Mr Macri replies that he was misinterpreted. “Things don’t happen from one day to the next,” he said on July 2nd. “I didn’t say that all of Argentina’s problems will be resolved in the second half of the year.”

Ordinary Argentines seem equally cautious. According to a poll by Management & Fit, a consultancy, 37% believe the economy will recover in the coming months; only 28% think their own situation will get better. Mr Macri, whose approval ratings have fallen to 44%, is hoping that the statistics improve by the year’s end. If not, Argentines may end up trusting him no more than his predecessor.

edited from The Economist