Memories Slip, but Golf Is Forever (Alzheimer's Patients Perk Up On Outings to the Greens)

WSJ.com ^ | April 8, 2009 | MATTHEW FUTTERMAN

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

ping

[BigLittle]

ping

Callaway

[earlJam]

My friend recently died of Alzheimer’s.

He was VERY into horses. And he was very rich, and transported his horses back and forth each year between his homes in Michigan and Florida.

In Florida, he played polo with the rich and famous, even playing against Prince Charles once.

He still had horses at his property in his waning years of Alzheimer’s. Of course horses are too dangerous for someone like that to ride. So he could only look.

And although he loved horses, he would never go near them. They would make him angry when he got close to them... so angry he would push and pinch the person next to him.

I think the memory of riding horses was too much for him to handle.

.......................
Lord, don’t let me die like that. Take me quick when it’s that time. (And it won’t be time for a LONG LONG while)

[SuziQ]

Now that’s just brilliant! Most Alzheimer’s patients DO remember things from many years ago, so it’s no wonder that if they were golfers before, it could come back to them quickly, even in the later stages of the disease.

[higgmeister]

Some day they’ll plant all of us old FReepers in front of a keyboard with “Ash Alerts” on the screen. That’ll get us all energized and focused again.

[SuziQ]

Of course horses are too dangerous for someone like that to ride. So he could only look.

So sad. But with someone at his side, walking the horse, like they do with disabled children, he could have at least sat in the saddle and walked around the corral. Maybe that would have made him less bitter and combative.

[martin_fierro]

I'm only mildly forgetful, so Mini Golf helps.

[JRandomFreeper]

Nothing personal MSgt.... just saying....

/johnny

[higgmeister]

Now that's funny!

[Tarheel]

Oh do I remember that dude. There was one time when JimR was in DC (?)on a weekend, Ash about shut the site down with his nonsense.

[higgmeister]

Mr. Carolina, you caused me to notice that Iron Martin is about to pass his Ten Year mark here. Congrats Martin!

[higgmeister]

and to your eleven of course!

[neverdem]

thanks, bfl

[tillacum]

HHHMMMMM....

[neverdem]

Ping

[bert]

The father of a friend had Alzheimer. He could play golf and did. He would also get in his car and end up away from home and go the the insurance company where he was known and they would see he got home.

He seemed well at the golf level but not at the getting around level.

[texas booster]

Many have seen our postings on the FReeper Folding@home team, but for newcomers and those with new systems, please consider helping out.

Stanford University is running a distributed computing effort called Folding@home, which allows users to run a simulation of protein folding on our computers. Currently well over 420,000 computers are crunching the simulation trying to find a cure for Alzheimer's Disease, along with other diseases that are related to misfolded proteins (prions).

Please consider joining the effort as part of team 36120 - Free Republic Folders - A Tribute to Ronald Reagan. We keep about 200 active FReeprs and friends running the simulation on around 1,000 computers and Playstation 3.

Look here for more info:

http://folding.stanford.edu/

[texas booster]

Folding@Home FAQ for new users:

What is Folding@Home? A Stanford University project to find out how proteins fold.

Why it's important: Proteins folding wrong causes all kinds of diseases, like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and forms of cancer. Folding@Home uses novel computational methods and large scale distributed computing, to simulate timescales thousands to millions of times longer than previously achieved. Through Folding@home, scientists now have the horsepower to study the mechanics of protein folding. With its ability to share the workload among hundred of thousands of computers economically, Folding@home can help scientists understand how proteins snap, or don't, into their predestined shapes - and may help to explain the origins of diseases such as Alzheimer's and apparently unrelated diseases. We're fueling research that could end all that.

How does it work?: You download a safe, tested program (see link below) that is certified by Stanford University. It gets work from Stanford, runs calculations using your spare computer power, and sends the results back to the University.

Is it safe? Yes! Folding@Home rarely effects computer performance in any way and won't compromise your privacy in any way. It only uses the computing power you aren't using so it doesn't slow down other programs.

How do I get started folding for Team FreeRepublic?:
1.) Download the folding program from Stanford University's folding download page (Folding@home Client Download). Type in your desired user-name.
2.) Type in 36120 for the team number. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - if you get the number wrong, you won't be folding for team FreeRepublic!
3.) The third question asks, "Launch automatically at machine startup, installing this as a service?" - We recommend you answer YES. Otherwise you will have to manually start the program after every reboot.

How can my computer help? Even if they were given exclusive access to all of the world's supercomputers, Stanford still wouldn't have as much processing power as they get from the supercluster of people's desktop systems Folding@home relies on. Modern supercomputers are essentially a cluster of hundreds of processors linked by fast networking. But Stanford needed the power of hundreds of thousands of processors, not just hundreds.

There's no reason to not get involved! It's free, easy, and you can know you're helping every minute without lifting a finger.

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List of Relevant Folding Links
Why Fold - Watch This !!

Another Folding Clip

The Inner Life of a Cell

Folding@home Client Download

FreeRepublic.com Folder Stats

Extreme Overclockers Stats for FreeRepublic

Another Stats Page

Folding@home New Forum

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Competition (Not!!) Dummies ..Daily Kos

Dummie Folding Threads #7 #8 #9#10#11 #12
Hey DUmmies, can't ya'll post a new thread at least once a year?

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Other Useful Stuff - Links

How much are those work units worth? And what are they?
All Projects Listed

Point Summary for Workunits

Stat Image Generator

Fahmon Third Party Monitoring Software

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Past FreeRepublic Folding threads

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 #31 #32 #33 #34 #35 #36 #37 #38 #39 #40 #41 #42 #43 #44 #45 #46 #47 #48 #49 #50 #51

[David Park]

I just reached 2 million points today. The team has been doing a good job of maintaining our overall rank, but we’re going to need some extra help in the next few months.