Why Older Workers are Better Workers

Why Older Workers are Better Workers - At a time when high unemployment numbers constantly make the headlines, companies can be selective about whom they want to hire. Older workers generally don't make the top of lists of potential job candidates for a variety of reasons, some real and some imagined. But with 10,000 baby boomers reaching the age of 65 each day for the next twenty years, hiring companies would do well to re-evaluate this untapped pool of labor, especially once our economy finally gets back on track.

According to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, people over the age of 40 are protected against being treated less favorably because of age. As these older workers become a bigger part of the workforce, hiring companies will need to objectively consider the positive and negative aspects of each candidate regardless of age. The good news is that, in many ways, older workers are better workers. Here's why older workers make excellent employees:

More direction.

Many young people are still struggling to figure out what they want to do for their career and are getting their first exposure to the corporate world. Older workers generally possess a wealth of knowledge and experience gleaned over years of employment, and have a good idea of how to get the job done.

Less turnover.

Older workers are less likely to job hop than younger employees. They typically have lower turnover and are absent less.

Experience pays off.

Many older workers are experienced at the requirements of the job, and know what works and what does not work. This could allow them to get the job done more efficiently or to produce higher quality results. Contrary to popular belief, older employees do not cost employers more than younger workers, according to Peter Cappelli, coauthor of Managing the Older Worker: How to Prepare for the New Organizational Order. Higher wages are not based on age, but on experience, which often benefits the employer to the point that it is worth paying them at a higher level.

Understand the culture.

Older employees know and live the corporate culture because they have been immersed in it for years. You won't find very many of them ignoring the dress code or posting inappropriate messages on Facebook.

Fewer dependents.

When it comes to health care coverage, older employees do cost more because they are more likely to have health conditions and seek care. But older employees often no longer have as many dependents to include in the health plan as people with young families, which can actually save the company money.

Of course, older workers may need to be accommodated in some ways, especially if the job is physically strenuous. Older employees will be increasingly reporting to younger supervisors, which could cause friction that will need to be addressed. Flexible schedules may also be important to some seniors who want to pursue other interests outside a full-time job. ( usnews.com )

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Eight Types Of Non-Taxable Income

Eight Types Of Non-Taxable Income - It’s almost time for tax season. Everyone knows that your earned wages will be taxed by the IRS. What many people do not realize is that there are numerous sources of income that are not taxed by the federal government. If you can increase your income from these sources, then you will reduce your overall tax burden. But what are these sources and how can you take advantage of them.

Here are eight sources of income that are not taxable under the federal tax code.

Interest Earned From Tax Exempt Municipal Bonds

As the name suggests, interest earned from tax exempt municipal bonds is not subject to federal taxes. In fact, many states also give state tax exemption if the bonds were issued in the state in which you file your taxes. This tax exemption applies to both individual tax exempt municipal bonds and to shares in tax exempt municipal bond funds.

Be aware that there are taxable municipal bonds that do not benefit from federal or state tax exemption. Make sure that you pay close attention to the tax status of any municipal bond or municipal bond fund that you purchase.

Income From The Sale Of Your Primary Residence

If you sell your primary residence for a profit and pass the IRS tests for home use and ownership, then a portion of your income for the sale will be tax exempt. To pass the tests, you need to prove that you have owned your home for at least two of the past five years. You also need to prove that it is your primacy place of residence.

If you can do this, then you can exclude up to $250,000 of capital gains from you taxable income. If you file jointly with your spouse, you can exclude up to $500,000. If you don’t meet the two year test, you may be able to get a partial tax exemption for the income earned from the sale.

Life Insurance Money

It is not pleasant to think about, but if a loved one dies and you are the beneficiary of their life insurance policy, you will generally not have to pay any taxes on the life insurance money that you receive. You should note that there are some exceptions to this rule. You should consult with the IRS or a tax specialist for further information about when life insurance disbarments can be taxed.

Non-Taxable Gifts

A gift is exactly what it sounds like. According to the IRS, a gift is any transfer to an individual that the individual does not fully pay for. Some gifts are taxable. However, a good many are not. For example, in 2011, you can give a person up to $13,000 without any party being taxed. Other types of gifts that can qualify for tax exempt status include tuition or medical expenses that you pay on behalf of someone else, gifts to your spouse, and gifts to a political organization. You should speak with a tax expert before giving a gift to make sure that you take full advantage of the potential tax benefit.

Employer Fringe Benefits

There are numerous fringe benefits that employers give to their employees. Some companies offer their employees subsidies for public transportation. This can include subway cards, bus passes or cab fares. Additionally, some companies also offer parking subsidies to their employees that drive to work. As long as these subsides are not valued more than $230, you can receive these subsidies tax free. Other tax free fringe benefits include free gym membership, use of a company car and employee discounts.

Child Support

If you are the parent with custody of the child, you do not have to report child support payments to the IRS. You should note that spousal support is not necessarily tax exempt.

Foster Care Payments

If you take care of foster children, you will receive payments from the state to help with expenses. Since these payments are made by a state agency or tax-exempt organization, you do not have to report them to the IRS.

Personal Injury Awards

If you have been issued financial awards because of a personal injury suit, you might not have to pay taxes on the money awarded. You should speak with a tax professional to determine whether you need to report the funds you received from a personal injury suit.

When tax season rolls around, many people focus on the financial items that they are required to report. However, we could all benefit from taking a closer look at the income that we don’t need to report. If you can take advantage of these sources of tax free income, you will be able to save money during tax time. ( candofinance.com )

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NASA Debunks Mysterious Triangular 'UFO'

NASA Debunks Mysterious Triangular 'UFO' - Once again, alien conspiracy theorists have attempted to use publicly available NASA images to prove that the space agency must be engaging in an elaborate UFO cover-up. And, once again, they've been foiled by the laws of physics.

This time, they called attention to peculiar new footage captured by a telescope onboard NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft — one of a pair of probes parked on either side of the sun which, together, provide a 360-degree view of the inner solar system. The footage shows Venus, Earth and, on the opposite side of the field-of-view, a mysterious triangular object headed our way.

"Comparing it for size to the planetary objects that are seen in this telescope, if my calculations are correct, that thing is enormous," said YouTube user "BeePeeOilDisaster" in his video commentary on the footage, which was captured Dec. 27 -29. Talk of a cover-up quickly followed when, a few days later, NASA scientists updated the STEREO website to display newer images.

This is not the first time alien hunters have found what they believe to be enormous UFOs in images captured by the STEREO probes.

But this time, the team of scientists who work with data from the probes decided to address the claim directly. In a post on the STEREO website, the researchers offered up an explanation of the triangular feature in the December footage. The researchers say it's no more than a trick of the light.

"The answer lies on the exact opposite side of the image," the scientists wrote. "At the same time as this strange-looking feature starts being visible, the very bright planet Venus enters the [telescopic camera's] field-of-view from the lower left."

The scientists note that Venus and the triangle, opposite each other across the middle of the camera plane, stay in step as they move. "This is not a coincidence. The strange-looking geometrical 'object' is actually an internal reflection of the planet Venus within the telescope optics. This effect has been seen many times before."

In this optical effect, incoming light reflects back and forth off lenses and mirrors inside the telescope; the shape of artifacts produced by this scattered light — usually triangles and circles of various sizes — depends on the relative orientations of those lenses and mirrors.

Another example of internal reflection, this time of light from planet Earth, can be seen in a STEREO-B image from May 2007. More examples of internal reflection and other optical and data-processing artifacts are displayed on the scientists' "Image Artifacts" Web page, along with explanations of the various effects. ( SPACE.com )

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U.S. probe to take closer look at Google's Plus after accusations searches have been 'warped' to favour the new social network

U.S. probe to take closer look at Google's Plus after accusations searches have been 'warped' to favour the new social network - New opt-in 'Search Plus Your World' offers social results mixed in with search - Only has results from Plus - not Facebook or Twitter - FTC to investigate Plus, say sources - Wider probe into whether Google searches favour Google products

The American Federal Trade Commission has expanded its probe into Google to look at Google's Plus network, in an investigation into whether Google 'cooks' search results to favour its own products, a source said on Friday.

Google+, which was launched in June, is similar to Facebook and Twitter.

A new version of Google search - called Plus Your World - caused protests last week after it mixed photos and posts from Plus into Google searches.

Under fire: Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt faces closer scrutiny from anti-trust politicians considering whether the company has a monopoly

It means, for instance, that if your search term included the name of your dog, then images of your dog from your social network sites would appear in your search results.

However, the social networking aspect only applies to users of Google Plus, the company's own social networking site, leaving the likes of Twitter and Facebook out in the cold.

Twitter described the move as 'warped'.

Bloomberg earlier on Friday reported the expansion of the Google probe, citing two people familiar with the situation.

A Google spokesman, however, said that the Federal Trade Commission had not asked about Google+ or indicated it was looking into the new social network as of this week.

The Federal Trade Commission declined comment.

'Google is effectively using its popularity as a search engine provider to promote its social network by prioritizing Google+ data,' said PC World magazine last week. 'Bundling one smaller service on the back of another much bigger one is what sparked Microsoft's trouble with antitrust regulators through the late 1990s and early 2000s when it included Internet Explorer with Windows.'

Google claims the lack of results from companies such as Twitter is due to their withdrawing from agreements about how Google indexes their results.

'We are a bit surprised by Twitter's comments about Search plus Your World, because they chose not to renew their agreement with us last summer,' says a company spokesperson.

'The laws are designed to help consumers benefit from innovation, not to help competitors. We believe that our improvements to search will benefit consumers by better surfacing social content, and the great thing about the openness of the Internet is that if users don’t like our service they can easily switch to another site,' said a spokesperson.

Google new 'Search plus your world' feature has come under fire from Twitter's general counsel for prioritising results from Google's Plus social network

The Federal Trade Commission, attorneys general in six states, and the European Commission are looking into complaints alleging Google has been unfairly exploiting its dominance in Internet search to promote its other services while ignoring or downplaying pertinent information about its rivals.

Senators are trying to get an accurate reading of the power the Californian company wields over the search industry.

And by promoting its own social networking site, Google has pushed itself further into controversial territory.

The new changes are 'exactly the kind of thing that the antitrust people are screaming about,' said Danny Sullivan, an industry expert who has been following Google since the 1990s.

'This is very un-Google like. It's unfair to other services and it's unfair to people.'

The move has been compared by industry commentators Microsoft's 1998 decision to bundle its own Internet Explorer with Windows, defeating Netscape as the market leader of the day.

Google has used personal data in its search results to varying degrees since since 2005.

Monopoly moment: Bill Gates decided in 1998 to bundle its own Internet Explorer with Windows, defeating Netscape as the market leader of the day

But the 'next level' changes, which were officially launched on Tuesday, may already have had a sizeable effect on the number of people using Google Plus, which has lagged behind Facebook and Twitter since its inception.

The internet analysis company Hitwise has reported that traffic to Google's social networking site was up by 55 per cent in December, month-to-month.

It is possible that the surge was simply caused by lots of gift-wrapped tablet computers running Google applications, but Google is clearly set on boosting its social network.

Company spokesman Amit Singhal said: 'Search is simply better with your world in it, and we’re just getting started.

'You can connect with them on Google+, strike up meaningful conversations and discover entire communities in a way that simply wasn’t possible before'.

Behind the scenes Google argues that its terms of service prevent it from trawling other social networks - such as Facebook and Twitter - for information, which means that if the 'big two' want to be included, they have to volunteer their content to Google.

Users can opt out out of the new personal services by changing their settings but the move has been slammed by Twitter's general counsel for 'warping' search results.

Twitter's Alex Macgillivray - an ex-employee of Google - tweeted from his personal account: 'Bad day for the Internet. Having been there, I can imagine the dissension at Google to search being warped this way.'

But the company issued a statement declaring the move will make it more difficult to find breaking news and other compelling information shared within the 250 million messages, or tweets, posted on its service each day.

Google Plus your world: The move has been slammed by Twitter, which claims it will be harder to find breaking news on the web

It said: 'We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users.'

In an interview with Marketing Land, Google's Eric Schmidt denied that the company's results were made to prioritise Plus over other social services.

If the new formula works as Google expects, the search results will include pertinent information culled from the requestor's Plus account.

For instance, a query about a football team might include links and comments made about the team by other people in one of the social circles on the user's Plus account.

The feature has been automatically turned on for all English-language searches made by users logged into Google. Turning off the personal results permanently will require changing a setting in Google's personal preferences.

The personal results can also be excluded on a search-by-search basis by clicking on an icon of the globe on the results page (the personal results will be denoted by a button featuring a human's silhouette).

As part of Tuesday's expansion, the profile pictures of Plus account holders will appear in the drop-down suggestions on Google's search box. So when typing in 'Mary,' you may see those named Mary in your circle along with those Google believes you'd find interesting.

Searches on general topics such as 'music' and 'sports,' will generate suggestions on people and companies that have Plus accounts. ( dailymail.co.uk )

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Why You Won't Read This Earth Day Article

Why You Won't Read This Earth Day Article (And Why That Doesn't Matter) - Earth Day turns 41 this year, but in some ways, environmentalism seems to be stumbling. According to recent Gallup polls, 48 percent of Americans now believe that the dangers of climate change are exaggerated, up from 41 percent in 2009 and 31 percent in 1997. Meanwhile, environmental concerns rank eighth on Americans' worry list, behind terrorism, illegal immigration and the size and power of the federal government.

Getting people to care about environmental threats -- especially distant ones such as climate change -- can be tough, environmental advocates say. But whether or not people care about the environment may not matter much at all.

"Many people do things that would be considered environmentally sound, even if they aren't doing it for environmental reasons," said Edward Maibach, a professor of communication at George Mason University in Virginia who has studied Americans' opinions about climate change. "Several groups are concerned, one is not. But all of them place a high value on conserving energy."

"It's tapping into a broadly held value," Maibach told LiveScience. "People just think it's a good idea to save energy and to save money as a result of saving energy."

Who cares about climate?

Maibach and his colleagues conducted a nationally representative survey of American adults in 2008 to understand how the public thinks about climate change.

They found that 18 percent of people are alarmed, convinced of the seriousness of global warming and taking steps to alter their behavior. Another 33 percent are concerned, but not taking action. Another 19 percent of people are cautious, meaning they believe climate change is a problem but don't feel a sense of urgency about it. The disengaged (12 percent) and doubtful (11 percent), on the other hand, either don't know much about climate change or don't think it's a big problem. And 7 percent of people are dismissive, actively campaigning against a national response to climate change.

But surprisingly, all of the groups conserved energy at the same rates, said Anthony Leiserowitz, the director of the Yale University Project on Climate Change, who was involved in the study with Maibach.

"The dismissive are conserving energy and saving energy as much as anyone else," Leiserowitz told LiveScience.

Part of the reason is that alarmed people are only beginning to translate their concern into action, Leiserowitz said. Another reason is that for too many people, conservation is a means to another end beside environmentalism. Some want to save money. Others see kicking foreign oil as a national security issue. Some Christian evangelicals believe protecting the Earth is a biblical mandate, Leiserowitz said.

"It's about thrift, conservation," Leiserowitz said. "These are core American values."

Can green be easy?

For that reason, convincing more people that climate change is happening may not be as productive as making it easier for people to be environmentalists -- even if they don't call themselves that.

"The real opportunity for us isn't to further bolster public opinion," Maibach said. "The real opportunity is for us as a society to figure out how to make it easier to perform these behaviors."

Maibach, Leiserowitz and their colleagues asked Americans about what sort of actions they thought were important for conservation and what actions they were actually taking. They found that almost everyone thinks that carpooling, biking instead of driving, reducing trash and other behaviors are important. But there were many gaps between what people believed and what they actually did. About 72 percent of people said carpooling or taking public transportation were important activities, but only 12 percent said they did either (another 2 percent said it wasn't important, but they did it anyway).

In contrast, people tended to engage in easier activities. Ninety-five percent of people said turning off unneeded lights is important, and 90 percent reported doing so.

It all comes down to barriers that prevent people from taking environmental action, Leiserowitz said.

"I would love to be able to take a bullet train from Connecticut to California, but I can't because my society hasn't provided me with one, whereas Japan and China and Europe have," he said.

Making Earth Day count

So does Earth Day matter? It can be helpful, Maibach said, at least if it causes people to think about year-round environmental strategies.

"Earth Day is important in the sense that different cancer awareness days are important," said Mia Yamaguchi, the CoolClimate Network outreach coordinator at UC Berkeley's Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory. "Maybe the average American isn't involved in or organizing an event, but they may be more likely to read an article or donate."

Yamaguchi said she doesn't want to see more people worried about the environment -- she wants to see action.

"There are many, many things that any one person can do to manage their own environmental impacts, which I think makes it really different from worries like the national debt or U.S. foreign policy," Yamaguchi said. In those cases, "I can probably write a letter to a politician, maybe donate to a cause," she said. "But if I actually start looking at what it would take to improve my vehicle's fuel efficiency by 5 miles per gallon, that makes a big difference."

The CoolClimate Network has a variety of online widgets for people interested in calculating their own energy footprint. In the meantime, April 22 is a good day to step back and remember the planet we live on, Leisowitz said. ( LiveScience )

"It's Earth Day," he said. "Go out and celebrate."

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Brain link to anti-social and yobbish behaviour in teenagers

Brain link to anti-social and yobbish behaviour in teenagers - Bad behaviour in teenagers could be explained by stunted growth of the "caring-sharing" areas of their brains, study suggests.

Scientists have found that yobs and hoodies have smaller regions of the brain that deal with emotions especially fear and the ability to feel the pain of others.

This suggests that their anti-social behaviour could have a biological basis and could lead to possible new treatments.

Brain link to anti-social and yobbish behaviour in teenagers

The study led by Cambridge University attempted to explain why five per cent of school age children suffer from Conduct Disorder (CD), a recognised psychiatric condition characterised by aggressive and anti-social traits.

They looked at 63 boys with an average age of 18 with CD, some of whom developed problems at an early age and some who began to display anti-social behaviour in adolescence.

They were compared with a group of 27 "normal" teenagers from similar backgrounds.

Brain scans showed that two regions were significantly smaller in affected teenagers, including those who only became badly behaved when they reached adolescence.

The two areas were the amygdala and insula, which contribute to emotional perception, empathy, and the ability to recognise when others are in distress.

Rates of CD have increased sharply around the world since the 1950s.

The condition can develop in young children, or not show itself until the teenage years.

Those affected are at greater risk of mental problems, substance abuse and criminality in later life.

It has long been thought that adolescent-onset CD is merely the result of susceptible teenagers imitating badly-behaved peers.

But the new research challenges this view, pointing to brain changes that affect all youngsters with the condition.

The scientists are cautious about how to interpret the findings, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Professor Ian Goodyer, one of the researchers, said: "We hope that our results will contribute to existing psychosocial strategies for detecting children at high risk of developing anti-social behaviour."

He stressed their study had not demonstrated a foolproof "test" and only provided a springboard for further, more extensive, research.

He said environmental and family factors also played a part.

Dr Graeme Fairchild, co-author from the University of Southampton, said: Changes in grey matter volume in these areas of the brain could explain why teenagers with conduct disorder have difficulties in recognising emotions in others.

"Further studies are now needed to investigate whether these changes in brain structure are a cause or a consequence of the disorder."

Dr Andy Calder, from the Medical Research Council's Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, another author, said: "Only when we are confident that we understand why the disorder develops can we apply this knowledge to the further development and evaluation of treatments.

"The disorder has a devastating impact on families and communities and at the moment we have few effective treatments." ( telegraph.co.uk )

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Women Regret Love Failures More than Men

Women Regret Love Failures More than Men - While the common adage may encourage you not to dwell on the past, a new study finds that many harbor regrets, with romantic ones being particularly common.

But women outdid men in that category, with guys ranking work regrets above relationship ones, the researchers say.

The study involved 370 Americans who were asked to discuss a significant regret from their lives. The most common regrets had to do with romance, family, education, career and finance.

"Regret is a common part of our lives, and it's something that we see ... in people of all walks of life," said study researcher Neal Roese, a professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

But he said that regret could also be beneficial.

"The bad is obvious, but the good is it helps us put our lives together, helping us to put things into perspective," said Roese. With romantic regrets, he said, "It helps to recognize ideals and goals. ...You can channel it into a current relationship. You may see some kernel of insight you can implement in your current life."

Studying regret

Much of the research on regret is based on tests of college students, who are relatively inexpensive to compensate, simple to recruit and live on or near the campuses where the studies are done. In an attempt to get a better handle on regrets among the general public, this survey was done via phone to reach more diverse subjects.

Roese said that one finding in the current study that differed from past research was that romance, rather than education, was a primary source of regret.
However, he noted that there was a split. Nearly 45 percent of women expressed regret in the area of love, while less than 20 percent of men did. Meanwhile, nearly 35 percent of men expressed work regrets, compared with less than 30 percent of women.

"It does conform to a certain stereotype that we have, but it has been thought of for a long time that women are the keepers of relationships," said Roese. "That is an important element of their lives, and it makes sense that their regret would focus on failures to meet those ideals."

But the choice in what to discuss may have been impacted by the study method.

"There's a general idea in research that women are more concerned with social relationships than men are. Men are more concerned with career and self-advancement," said Joachim Krueger, a professor of psychology at Brown University who has researched gender stereotypes, and was not involved in the current study.

Since the survey was done by phone and not in-person where participants might have opened up more, women may have felt a greater need to conform to societal expectations.

"There's nothing in this study that would allow us to unpack that, and that's a pity," said Krueger. "There's nothing to say if this is how people feel ... or an opportunity to present themselves as reasonable and dutifully moral."

Missed opportunities

Overall, there was little difference in whether people regretted inaction versus action. The major distinction had to do with time.

"Missed opportunities stick in our brains longer, and they bug us for a longer period of time," Roese said. "Whereas something you did do, you are bugged by that immediately, and then it dissipates, or goes away. You're more able to make peace with it than a missed opportunity."

Krueger said that may involve the fact that the time to make up for a missed opportunity diminishes as a person ages (and thus gets closer to death).

"As people grow older, there's just a greater accumulation of opportunities that are gone," he said. "Younger people still have the illusion there's time left and they can fix things."

The study, co-authored by Roese and Mike Morrison, a doctoral candidate in psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. ( LiveScience.com )

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