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As we move into our later years, along with all the other concerns for our health and welfare, Alzheimer's disease is a horrifying specter we're all aware of. This report takes a look at the illness itself, while this one suggests loneliness may be a factor.

Elderly people with few or no friends were more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease as people who reported that they were not lonely, a study shows.

The finding suggests a new risk factor for doctors and caregivers to monitor and underscores the fact that loneliness and isolation can have tangible effects on the aging brain. A number of previous studies have suggested that a rich social and intellectual life has a protective effect against Alzheimer's -- besides the immediate benefit of simply making people happier.

Here's a feature on tax benefits for new parents. It doesn't address the adoption credit, but it does have other info.

If you're in Iowa, you may be interested in this about a proposal to strengthen regulation of adoption facilitators.

"What we hope to accomplish is to eliminate facilitators who are in there just for the money, who take advantage of young girls and take advantage of couples who are wanting to adopt," Mulder said.

And here's a look at reunion from the British press.

Growing up as an adopted child, I found that "home-grown" children took idioms about kinship for granted. Expressions such as "blood is thicker than water" and "own flesh and blood" meant little to me. Nature versus nurture was the only saying that bore any currency in our house, prompting heated dinner-table discussions but no satisfying conclusion. It was only when I met the woman whom I had not seen for the 26 years since she gave birth to me that any of it made sense.

Interesting and informative, it's well worth a read.

If you'd like to hear about how younger men in Cyprus find older women wonderful ... don't they all? ... click here.

I especially like the sentiment at the end where the writer says, " ... when a newly divorced friend from the UK lamented last week that she would be 45 next month, I wrote in her card, 'Cheer up, the older you get the more the world is full of younger men, Happy Birthday!'"

That's the attitude!

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