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  Contents Aging: realism and resignation expressed in proverbs Distrust of old people in folklore Widowhood Caring for old people Euthanasia and geronticide Sacrificing one's grandmother The old woman in the chest Disposing of the corpse: a legend that is still alive Why old people are no longer put to death Gaining care by trickery Grandchildren come to their grandparents' aid When enlightened self interest fails Inevitability of senility and death Stages of life No one wants to die Death's approach should surprise no one Attempts to trick Death Death trivialized Death as punishment Excessive grief Death as a divine release Related Links Aging: realism and resignation expressed in proverbs For most pre-industrial cultures, life's last chapter has been a bitter one. Surviving folklore reflects widespread resignation as to the inevitability of impoverishment, sexual impotence, failing health and vitality, and the loss of family and commun

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 New 9/11 photos released Newly released aerial photos of the World Trade Center terror attack capture the towers' dramatic collapse, from just after the first fiery plane strike to the apocalyptic dust clouds that spread over lower Manhattan. But the photos suggest something else was going on. This does not look like a "collapse". The images were taken from a police helicopter--the only photographs allowed in the air space near the towers on September 11, 2001. Underwriters Laboratory had certified the steel up to 2,000°F for three to four hours. When NIST sampled 236 pieces of steel, it found 233 had not even been exposed to temperatures above 500°F--and the other three not above 1,200°F. ABC News obtained them among 2,779 pictures released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA). In the air for three hours, Det. Greg Semendinger took three rolls of 36 stills with his personal Minolta Maxxum 7000 camera and another