Sunday, April 30, 2017

Google is super secretive about its anti-aging research. No one knows why. - Vox

​Here is a rather lengthy peeve ​about Google's Calico doing research on Ageing shrouded in utter secrecy. If you know how to throw everything open, you also know  how to keep things secret.  Only extract given here; please read the original at the url given at the end.

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Google is super secretive about its anti-aging research. No one knows why.
Researchers are puzzled by Calico's stealthiness and say it's not good for science.

Updated by Julia Belluz@juliaoftorontojulia.belluz@voxmedia.com  Apr 28, 2017, 2:35pm EDT

 
Calico's logo is a labyrinth — fitting for the ultra-secretive company. Javier Zarracina/Vox
In 2013, Time magazine ran a cover story titled Google vs. Death about Calico, a then-new Google-run health venture foc
used on understanding aging — and how to beat it. "We should shoot for the things that are really, really important, so 10 or 20 years from now we have those things done," Google CEO Larry Page told Time.

But how exactly would Calico help humans live longer, healthier lives? How would it invest its vast $1.5 billion pool of money? Beyond sharing the company's ambitious mission — to better understand the biology of aging and treat aging as a disease — Page was vague.

I recently started poking around in Silicon Valley and talking to researchers who study aging and mortality, and discovered that four years after its launch, we still don't know what Calico is doing.


Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Elders Helpline in Bengaluru goes 24/7

Elders Helpline in Bengaluru goes 24/7
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Elders Helpline 1090, a joint project of Bengaluru City Police and Nightingales Medical Trust has completed 15 years of dedicated service to the elderly in Bangalore city.
From 26th April 2017, Elders Helpline service becomes operational on 24 hours basis   

Bangalore has a current estimate of over 10 Lakh senior citizens. Of these, about 3 lakh elders face some form of physical, emotional and/or financial abuse; elders are also becoming easy targets for crimes. Getting reliable help in such instances, especially in the night, is a challenge to most elders. Elders Helpline working 24/7 will give vulnerable elders added assurance and benefit a larger number.

Being the first project of this kind in the country, the Elders Helpline 1090, has so far received over 1.6 lakh calls in the past 15 years.  8662 complaints of serious nature were registered with over 52% of the complaints being successfully resolved by counselors and social workers with the support of police and lawyers. The nature of the complaints is mainly ill treatment by family members, financial exploitation, property disputes and cheating by service providers. All the services of the Helpline are free.

The 24/7 service of Elders Helpline was launched on 26th April by the Sri. Praveen Sood, IPS at the auditorium in Police Commissioner’s  office, Infantry Road, Bangalore-560001- on the occasion of the 15th Anniversary of Elders Helpline